November 2008
This is a list of posts published in November 2008.
My Top 10 Posts of All Time – #3. The Impossible Dream
3. The Impossible Dream (originally published August 24, 2006)
The relative anonymity of the Internet has had a strange effect on me. Those of you who know me, know that I can be a snarky bastard in real life. Not a lot of knugs or bromances heading your way. But the second I start hammering away on my keyboard, my brain seizes up and I act as if nobody I know is going to read this stuff. And then I let out all of that sickly sweet, sentimental goop that I have sloshing around inside. I don’t want to give too much away here other than to say that when you strip bare my defenses, The Impossible Dream is one I work at making reality each and every day. A fool’s errand for sure but one worth wishing on a star for. (There I go again).
Dead Space – Xbox 360
There are no new ideas, just new ways of freshening the old ones up. At least, that’s how the old cliché goes. While it’s a tenet derived from narrative fiction, the same notion can be applied to videogames – a medium that continues to push the idea of interactive storytelling further with new and exciting ways of involving the player in the narrative, even if the stories never really evolve beyond the same yarns that have been spun before. But, as with fiction, old tales can be rendered new when enough care and polish is applied. Sometimes, it’s not just the story that matters most, but the storyteller. And that’s exactly the position EA finds itself in with the launch of their new IP, Dead Space, a new take on a somewhat creaky survival horror genre in desperate need of a fresh voice.
Dead Space... Continue reading »
Netflix Notes – “Bring Out Your Dead” Edition
This was a weird crop of movies. When I made my initial queue way back, I just kept adding movies as I recalled I hadn’t seen them. Essentially, I would just wrack my brain, saying “OK – What else haven’t you seen?” and then just add them as they popped in my head. Since then, I’ve done my best to randomly shuffle the list so I never know what’s coming next. To date, I haven’t bumped one movie to the top. I just watch them in the order they show up and I try my best not to peek and see what’s coming next.
So, I was a bit surprised to see that 3 out of these 4 share one common theme. Specifically, they revolve around death. And while the odd man out doesn’t actually feature a death, it does feel like one could happen at any moment.
The final unifying factor. There isn’t a bad one in this... Continue reading »
My Top 10 Posts of All Time – #4. The Rise of Raisinhead
4. The Rise of Raisinhead (originally published August 28, 2006)
Once again, a true life tale that seems made up. Sometime, right around the midpoint of the 90’s, I was granted my Fifteen Minutes of Fame. What I did with it was a shame but my legend will forever be a footnote in New England Patriots lore. So, that’s something. Before Spygate. Before the Snow Bowl. Before Jambalaya. There was Raisinhead.
My Top 10 Posts of All Time – #5. The Streak
5. The Streak (originally published August 29, 2007)
I graduated from UMASS Amherst which means at some point I was naked – in public. This post goes into pain-staking detail to paint a picture of a campus on the edge of revolt – the start of the No Boxer Short Rebellion. Again, I pump up some of the details but as frequent readers to this site can attest (who were there as either eyewitnesses or participants), sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. My one regret is that we didn’t have camera phones back in my day. What I wouldn’t give to lead this post with a pixilated portfolio.
... Continue reading »Call of the Wild
Into the Wild is one of the best films I have seen in my entire life.
There you go – high praise with no hyperbole. I’m laying it all out there. The truth is, as a movie fan, I try to see a lot of flicks (more so of late now that I’ve reignited the passion though frequent flyer miles on my Netflix subscription). And, as I’m passionate about films, I do my homework ahead of time through the various entertainment sites and publications I’ll peruse on a weekly basis. Sure, I love me some sports but I’d rather sit down and watch a game versus read all about it. So, when I carve some time to catch up on periodicals, I’ve often got my nose in Entertainment Weekly or my eyes glued to Variety.com, Ain’t It Cool News, IGN Film Force, RogerEbert.com or half-a-dozen other sites devoted to spreading the word on up... Continue reading »
My Top 10 Posts of All Time – #6. My Top 5 Summer Movie Memories
6. My Top 5 Summer Movie Memories (originally published May 30, 2007)
If you check the archives, I have 11 entries in the My Favorite Things series covering such random topics as Top 5 Movie Endings, Flicks That Made This Guy Cry and Simpson’s episodes, among others. For this piece, I skewed it a bit. To kick off the 2007 Summer Movie Season, I thought I would focus on the memories that certain movies made and not necessarily the movies themselves. What this means is the movies that make the list may not be very good (I list The Last Starfighter for crissake) but those movies made a memory that will last a lifetime. My Top 5 run anywhere from the sentimental to the sublime to the silly. As the venerable Aunt Sharon put it – “You sure do run the gamut of emotions.” Out of... Continue reading »
Netflix Notes – “Directed By…” Edition
After the last installment, with all those “28” titles, I toyed with actually reviewing the original 28 Days flick, but then I thought better of it. Sandra Bullock has always bothered me. Not in the same way that one second of Dane Cook instantly injects me with the Rage Virus but there is something about Sandy that just rubs me the wrong way. Hey, we all have those actors that drive us nuts. Ask Joe about Forest Whitaker some time.
If there is a consistent theme to the films listed below, it has to be ‘Directors’. I chose each of these films primarily by their directors. I’ll explain further as I work through each one.
On with the show (and as always – Please comment below).
1. The Kingdom
Continue reading »
My Top 10 Posts of All Time – #7. Hard Times at Rockland High
7. Hard Times at Rockland High (originally published February 1, 2006)
This one seems like a tall tale but it’s all true. I’ve tried to inject some humor – to really play up the Circus of the Absurd that I found myself a captive of during the swan song of my Senior Year in High School – but I’m serious when I say this series of events scarred me. A sorry set of misunderstandings colored my life at that crucial moment where I was beginning to shed some nasty insecurities and mature a bit. I make light now but back then, the fear was palpable. That said, I’m older now and can look back in amusement. I’ve chased those ghosts long ago and to this day, they no longer haunt. But I do sometimes shed a tear for that confused 17 year old who found himself w... Continue reading »
Monster Garage
Who’s the jackass who gave us Circus Peanuts?
That’s the first phrase that came to mind following our return home from last Friday’s Trick r’ Treat excursion with the kids. Now, as most of you know, we live on a very rural street. 6 houses (give or take a ½ dozen) and one streetlight do not exactly add up to primo Halloween shenanigans, unless your idea of fun is hanging out waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise while all manner of malicious beasties prowl just beyond your sightline waiting to get the drop on you and chew through to your creamy middle. When your home is perched right on top of a Hellmouth you do what the neighboring towns that cancelled the door-to-door candy raid in their districts do and beat your feet towards whatever street will have you.
Fortunately for Colin and Aria, And... Continue reading »
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