Reviews

It was an entertainment filled weekend, and a good one.

Friday I saw Watchmen, of course. I'm really sick of hearing negative reviews that are just plain silly. It's a movie based on a comic book (ok, sorry, graphic novel but still the same genre) so it's going to be cartoony and cheesy and have awkward sex scenes and have unrealistic elements. The fact that all of those things were done WELL is what makes the movie good. Hmm...let's go back to other comic book movies. Oh, how about Spiderman. Worst. Acting. Ever. But you all drooled all over it, because, ya know, it's supposed to be that way. No, it's not. Watchmen has genre specific acting, but it's not bad. As for the unrealisticness, such as Nixon being elected to 4 terms...SHUT UP! IT'S FUNNY! It's alreay an unrealistic premise. You have a giant blue man that can see the future and build giant machines with his endless intelligence. Yes, it's long, but it never drags. Go see it on the big screen.

Saturday Dan and I got comp tickets to Humor Abuse playing at the Manhattan Theatre Club. It's the story of Lorenzo Pisoni who was born into the Pickle Family Circus, starts perfoming at 2, signs a contract at 6, and leaves the circus at 13. The show was fantastic. Lorenzo tells his personal stories about growing up with a clown for a father and does bits that he and his father performed throughout their careers. Go see it.

I would give my opinion on the long awaited season premiere of Breaking Bad but I haven't watched it yet. It will probably wait until I watch I'm Not There.

Can I pick your brains?

So in discussions about how to successfully run a scheme I'm taking a poll. What is something that you would pay $5 for? It wouldn't be an actual thing that you would receive in exchange, but maybe investment in something.

Related: would you pay $5 if there was a video blog from my house titled 'Ways to Annoy Your Roommate"??

Since I'm asking questions.....I need a business name, and am open to any suggestions.

Signs of Spring

Let's go with another list, shall we?

I signed up for the Five Boro Bike Tour (65 days and counting)
Spring Training has started (and the Cubs are 3-0)
March Madness is a couple of weeks away
It's Lent
My plants no longer look sad
Ringling will be in the NY area next week
I rode my bike today (20 miles over 4 bridges in 3 boros)
I got my tax refunds

I should have made a haiku. Oh well.

Catching up...

So, I was recently reminded that I have a blog, then I realized I haven't updated it since September. So here's what's happened since September

The Cubs didn't go to the world series
I got an apartment with Dan in Long Island City
I moved to Long Island City
I voted in a presidential election
I went to DC for the first time
I bought a MacBookPro, and still have mixed feelings about that
I did a Halloween show about living mannequins and a screwed up party
I hosted Thanksgiving
I hosted a Thanksgiving leftovers party
I won a week of my football pool
I did a gig in Florida for 3 weeks
I had a sleepover circus reunion in my apartment, and it was awesome
I went to Brussels
I went to Florida for another gig
Went through some really shitty family situations
I stayed in a hotel room in Union Square that came with a vibrator
I went skiing for the first time in over 10 years
I learned to pass clubs
I got my car washed and put it in a garage in NJ
I went to my first roller derby bout
I bought things to make meatballs, and I will make them tomorrow

I guess I'll try to be better at this. I am running out of things to do with all of my time spent sitting in airports....

Eamus Catuli

Yeah, it's been a while again. But 2 things have happened since I last wrote about something.

1. The summer work slump ended, and I'm not spending day after day doing things purely for enjoyment. It was a great summer with things like a week on the beach in Florida and lots and lots of biking, but now I've gone back to making money.

2. Baseball has gotten extremely exciting. I don't care who your team is, this has been an amazing fall so far. It's only getting better, and because of how we Cub fans cling to superstition I will not talk about it anymore for fear of jinxing something.

So with that said, see you in October.

Oh, and I have a new love for Eddie Vedder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqHTScDBsDU

Summer Streets!

Have you heard of it? Well if you live in NYC and haven't, you should take part. It's organized by Transportation Alternatives, with support of the city of course. For 3 Saturdays this month the city has shut down Park Ave from 72nd all the way down to Astor Place where Lafayette is closed all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, closed to traffic, but if you want to walk, run, bike, roller blade, skateboard, or whatever else, it's wide open. Even better, traffic is only able to cross at certain streets, so you don't have to stop at every red light.

I was excited to check it out, but never thought it would be as cool as it really was. I got in a 30 mile ride with mostly open streets. Came in over the 59th Street bridge, went across 61st St to Park, then rode down to the Brooklyn Bridge, tooled around Brooklyn for a while, came back taking Park Ave back up to 72nd St, which is also closed allowing you to get to Central Park with no traffic, so I did some laps of the park before heading back to Astoria. Along the route there are 3 big rest stops with food, water, hip hop dance classes, yoga, helmet fittings, bike repair, and a bunch of other fun free stuff.

It's something that hopefully will happen again next summer, and a lot more often. You can go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets/html/home/home.shtml to get more info and the schedule for next Saturday. Get out there and sign at least one of the dozen petitions for more bike lanes, more bike parking, and other things that would make cyclists and pedestrians a lot happier.

Oh, and the image above is on the part of Park that goes around Grand Central. Pretty cool.

"SAVE DAY BASEBALL!"

Yeah, it's been a while, but today is a special day. 20 years ago, 08.08.88 the first night game was played at Wrigley Field, making it the last existing MLB park to add lights. The game against Philly was rained out in the 3rd inning. The image above is of the first pitch of that game. The Cubs went on to beat the Mets on August 9th in the first complete night game at Wrigley.

A little history on the lights at Wrigley...they were scheduled to be installed in 1942 (Fenway got them in '47), but after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Phillip Wrigley (original owner William's son) donated the materials to the war effort. It wasn't until the Tribune Company took over in 1981 when talks of lights started again. I mean c'mon, what good has the Tribune Company done for the team? They wanted the revenue from night games but there was resistance from, well, everyone. During the '84 playoffs it was decided that if the Cubs were to advance to the World Series they would lose their home field advantage so that there would be more games at night, and on prime time TV. They didn't make it to the WS (duh) and it was then decided by the new commissioner that if they did not add lights, ALL future post season games would have to be away games.

I know, I know, it had to happen...but nothing beats a 1:20 PM start in the Friendly Confines.