Reading is easy when you have 4 eyes!!

January 1, 2009 came along and I still haven't secured a New Years resolution.  For as long as I can remember, my resolutions have been like my birthday wishes, you do it because everyone else is but you don't expect anything to come of it.  That is of course till I came up with a fairly easy resolution to keep up with in 2009, reading.  I hated reading from elementary school through to college (as well as most other kids).  But to my surprise, it comes a lot easier when your not forced to read something you don't want to.  

So far I have completed 3 books in 2009 which doesn't seem like a lot to the average Joe, but is a lot for someone who hasn't completed a book in the last 2 years.  The books I have completed are:

• Little Teal Book of Trust: How to Earn it, Grow it, and Keep it to Become a Trusted Advisor in Sales, Business & Life     By Jeffrey Gitomer
• I Hate Your Guts     By Jim Norton
• Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid     By Denis Leary 
  

It comes to no surprise to me that 2 of the 3 books I've read are books authored by comedians.  Jim Norton happens to be one of my favorite comedians.  When I started listening to Opie & Anthony in the mornings going to school (at the time) and work, Jim Norton was the third leg in the show.  O&A made it their jobs to have on comedians all the time to help promote their gigs, and Norton ended up staying on full-time.  This gave him the platform he needed to promote his book.  

In I Hate Your Guts, he touches upon a lot of the issues that effect people from all walks of life.  The one chapter I couldn't wait to read was titled, Yankee Announcer John Sterling Should Be Arrested for Auditory Rape.  I've been telling the story for years about Sterling and every time I think about it, it makes me sick.  I was driving home from night class when I was listening to a Yankee playoff game.  Its bad enough I had to listen to Sterling, but Suzyn Waldman was blabbering her big mouth along with him.  Anyway, I was down the road from my house when Sterling starts his pre home-run rant.  "...and that's a well hit ball, to DEEEEEEEP left center, it is high, looks like it's got the legs, and its caught in the beginning of the warning track... that makes 2 outs here...(initiate Sterling and Suzyn sigh sequence)".  When I entered my house, it was just in time for the end of the inning where they show a highlight that had previously happened.  That ball looked like it was hit off a tee by Hillary Clinton.  Im surprised it even went that far and to think that Sterling had a feeling it was going to be a home-run?  You can say I was a little more then just happy to see Norton bash this guy for a few pages.  

Sorry for the story there, let me get back to the book.  He talks about idiots with media platforms like Al Roker, Dr. Phil, Jesse Jackson and Steve Martin to name a few.  If you don't mind some vulgar language and enjoy laughing as your reading, then I highly suggest this book.  It was my first book of the new year, and I'm glad I started with it.

The second book I read was the Little Teal Book of Trust.  This is the second book I've read by Jeffrey Gitomer, even though I own 4.  His books are so easy to read and are jam-packed with so much information.  I really think self-help or self-guided (don't know if there is a difference) books get a bad rap sometimes.  This book really just challenges you to step back and evaluate your life.  Are you Trusting?  Do others Trust you?  Do you work for a company who trust you or visa versa?  There are some parts of this book that didn't apply to me as it might not apply to you.  But like all other works of art, you can naturally substitute your life situation and see if it works.  

The last book I've read is Why We Suck.  I like Denis Leary and I think he is a great actor even though he was in some really big bombshells for movies.  I'm just not ready to jump on his book-bandwagon.  I don't doubt his writing skills by any means.  A lot of the content in this book is funny.  He has great stories about his family, run-ins with bullies, and my favorite, hatred towards cats.  The thing he lacks in his book is structure.  I feel like he goes off on tangents about miscellaneous subjects in the middle of talking about something totally different.  It makes for interesting work because it seems as though he is writing as if he was speaking off the top of his head, but very hard for the reader to pick up on and stay with.  However, if you are of Irish decent, I recommend this book to you.  There is a lot of Irish family stories you might relate to, or even understand more then I did for the most part.  

In Festy We Trust

The 3 Stooges

As I usually do at night, I open up my macbook and take a ride on the World Wide Web.  First stop on Wednesday night was Yahoo.com.  On the home page in the featured section, to my very surprise, was a picture of Jim Carrey next to the picture of Curly (nyuk-nyuk-nyuk) from The 3 Stooges.  I instantly clicked on this story and began to read:

"MGM and the Farrelly brothers are finally slapping together their high-profile cast for "The Three Stooges," a comedy project the filmmakers have been developing for years. Sean Penn is set to play Larry, and Jim Carrey is in negotiations to play Curly. Benicio del Toro is a rumored possibility for the brothers' taciturn leader, Moe."

WHATTTTT!!!! Ok, so let me get this straight.  Jim Carrey, who happens to be the only comedic actor in the bunch, is still in negotiations but you have already locked in Sean Penn to play Larry?.  This is the same Sean Penn who played a gay elected official in the movie Milk, a gangster in Mystic River, and a man on death row in the movie Dead Man Walking.  The reason why I picked these three flicks is because he either won or was nominated for an oscar for his performances.  I happen to really like Mystic River and Dead Man Walking but that doesn't mean this guy can just turn on his comedic button and become funny.  This reminds me of a quote from The Office when Ryan told Michael that being a cook doesn't mean you can open up  your own restaurant.  In which Michael's response was that he's not a cook but he is opening up a restaurant called Michael's Cereal Shack.  Take a lesson from Michael Scott, just because your a good actor and you've made a mark in the history of film, doesn't mean you can take a part in a movie you obviously have no chance of entertaining people in.  My choice to play Larry is Paul Giamatti.

Now it brings me to my next cast member who thankfully is only "rumored".  Benico del Toro is rumored to play Moe and for those of you who are not familiar with The 3 Stooges, Moe is the leader of the bunch.  He is the one that comes up with the ultimate schemes to get into and out of trouble.  Moe being the more serious of the 3, you can probably get away with a little more serious of an actor, but del Toro?!?  This guy has a hard enough time speaking in plain english, imagine if he had to start wooble woobling and nyuk nyuk nyuking?  This poor guy would have more tongue ties then George W. Bush in ANY PUBLIC ADDRESS HE MADE IN HIS 8 YEARS IN OFFICE.  My choice to play Moe is Gary Sinise.

On the brighter side of things, I believe Jim Carrey is the perfect fit for this film.  This kind of over the top, slap schtick comedy is right for him.  And I think that surrounding him with the right cast will only make the movie better.  Jim Carrey, Paul Giamatti and Gary Sinise, in my eyes, will do this film justice.  That is until I think of another 2 actors I can slip in there instead of Giamatti and Sinise.  But for the time being, Carrey is a definite stay in my book.

Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro?!?!?!?

In Festy We Trust

Greatest Food Combos

PB&J - White bread, bagels or even ritz crackers, you throw peanut butter and jelly onto one of those and you will have the best breakfast, lunch or dinner one could ask for.  Don't be foolish either by putting substitutes for jelly like jam.  Jam is red headed step-child of jelly, no body likes it.  And another side note, only acceptable flavor jelly is grape, strawberry and any other flavor is a big no no.

Mac & Cheese - What is better then Mac & Cheese.  Macaroni is one of the best food on the face of the earth: penne, elbows, ziti, fettucini etc etc.  Made from the utters of a cow, cheese can top any sandwich, cracker or macaroni.  When you put these two together, Bon Appetite!!

Wings & Blue Cheese - I don't know why, but blue cheese on salad is not so good.  But if you dip a wing into it, it becomes gold.  The hotter the wing sauce, the better the dip will be.  If you ever find yourself with extra wings with no more blue cheese, the ultimate sacrifice might be in place.  No, giving up that last wing is not, its getting up to get more blue cheese.

Arnold Palmer - On a warm summer day, I always enjoyed  cold glass of iced tea.  Oh wait, maybe it was a glass of lemonade.  Luckily, the Arnold Palmer is a little bit of both.  With a combination of lemonade, iced tea and greatness, the Arnold Palmer tickles the fancy of anyone who has a monster thirst to be quenched.

Smores - Toasted marshmallows and milky chocolate Hershey bar squished in between two graham crackers. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?  Enough said!!!

The Power of the Parm - You throw sauce and cheese on top of just about anything, and you have what I like to call, The Power of the Parm.  I might have exaggerated a little by saying just about anything, but the standard veal, chicken, meatball, or eggplant choice can just be "parmed" and instantly more enjoyable.  

This Is England

This Is England is an English film (obviously) that was released in 2007 about a young boy trying to deal with the death of his father during the Falklands War (1983).  While dealing with the death of his father, he befriends a group of teenage Skinheads.  Weak and bullied around school, this group of Skinheads took in little Shaun as one of there own.  But as he ran with the group, thinking he's fighting the same war as them, he became well aware of who they really are.

Thomas Turgoose is the very talented young man who played Shaun.  Barely a teenager, he was able to steal the screen away from the other actors in the movie.  Rightfully so, he won Most Promising Newcomer at The British Independent Film Awards for his debut performance in this movie.  My only fault with him would have to be his teeth.  This kid has got some really crazy chompers.  I don't think this is a good enough reason for not hiring this kid for upcoming movies, but I figured I'd point out the obvious.  

British Films intrigue me because as similar as the USA and England's beliefs are, we are still millions of miles apart (in theory).  The movie jumps around on the major plot line a little bit, but nothing to worry about.  I just think that the transition could have been a little more smoother.  On a good note, the background plot of this film about the Falklands War has so much relevance to the current status of the US.  Many people in America feel like the war in Iraq and Afghanistan should never of happened, that we shouldn't be there.  But America never turns on their troops and that is exactly what happened in this film.  Shaun got upset because he was told that his father, who died in the war, had died for nothing and that is not true.  The British people never wanted to go to war, much like most of the American people.  Other similarities between England then, and America today: high unemployment rate, illegal immigrants taking jobs (that the unemployed "don't want") and hatred toward Middle Easterners. 

All in all, I would definitely recommend this film to anyone.  As long as you don't mind paying extra attention to the dialog because sometimes it is extremely hard to understand those blokes.

In Festy We Trust

Top 5 ....

Top 5 Musicians/Bands

• Dave Matthews Band
• Mark Broussard
• Notorious BIG
• James Taylor
• The Beatles

Top 5 Books

• Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
• I Hate Your Guts - Jim Norton
• Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude - Jeffrey Gitomer
• Little Teal Book of Trust - Jeffrey Gitomer
• Recapturing the Trust - Dr. Robert Schachat

Top 5 Movies

• The Departed
• The Sea Inside
• Schindler's List
• The Usual Suspects
• Dr. Strangelove

Top 5 Actors

• Robert DeNiro
• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Matt Damon
• Brad Pitt
• Edward Norton

Top 5 Places To Visit

• Rome
• Alaska
• Dubai
• Egypt
• Australia
  

Top 5 Edgar Allan Poe Works

• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Raven
• Annabel Lee
• The Cask of Amontillado
• Eldorado

Top 5 Cereals

• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Frosted Flakes
• Apple Jacks
• Cocoa Pebbles
• Lucky Charms

Top 5 Video Games

• Super Mario Bros 3 - NES
• Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega Genesis
• Mario Kart - N64
• GTA Vice City - PS2
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Xbox 360

Top 5 Influential Speeches (Real & Fictional)

• I have a Dream - Martin Luther King Jr.
• Inch by Inch - Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday
• The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
• Freedom - Mel Gibson in Braveheart
• F*** You - Edward Norton in 25th Hour

Top 5 Quotes

• You have to live the life you choose
• The only way to finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible
• Your moral compass can only show you where to go, but does not take you there
• Constant dripping hollows out a stone
• The glory is not in never failing, but rising every time you fall

Top 5 Sport Moments

• 2001 World Series - Yankees vs Diamondbacks 
• Michael Phelps 8 Gold Medals - 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Derek Jeter Leaps into the Stands - 07/01/2004
• Don Mattingly Day - 08/31/1997
• Any Roger Federer vs Rafa Nadal Match

Top 5 Hero/Villain

• Batman
• The Joker
• Flash
• Wolverine
• Goro

IMDB - Friend or Foe?

The wheel, the yo-yo, alcohol, modern medicine and IMDB are just a few of the many great inventions ever to be used by The Festy.  One in particular has impacted my life the most.  Some of you might think its alcohol because I haven't drank in almost 2 years while others say modern medicine, because who doesn't pop some pills everyday (...take some Prevacid Christopher and keep your head down!!).  For those non-observant readers the answer is IMDB, The Internet Movie Database.

Some positives and negatives of using IMDB

IMDB is a website I use almost/if not everyday.  Any question I have about a film or tv show, actors or actresses, directors or producers, I can find the answer on IMDB.  For example, I obviously read the info for an upcoming episode of The Office (sorry Murph) and noticed that they will be introducing a new actor to the show.  His name is Idris Elba and I had no idea who he was. So like the smart little Festy I am, I IMDB'ed him and to my surprise, it's the same guy who is playing Stringer Bell in the HBO series Im currently watching, The Wire.  

IMDB is not always going to work in your favor though.  Case in point, 976-EVIL. 976-EVIL was one of those awesomely bad horror films of the 1980's that we had to watch one night.  After the film, we were so intrigued by the main character's acting skills, and by intrigued by his acting skills we meant were pretty bad, we proceeded to IMDB to search Stephen Geoffreys' filmography.  Prior to 976-EVIL, it looks like he did a few more low budget films, nothing to crazy.  Its post 976-EVIL that's the crazy part.  Mr. Geoffreys film credits after his remarkable work in 976-EVIL consist of the following: Latin Crotch Rockets, Just 18 and Gay, Transsexual Prostitutes I & II, and Gay Men in Uniform just to name a few.  After staring in the awful film 976-EVIL, Mr. Geoffrey must have felt that there was no way he was going to make it in Hollywood if he didn't start dabbling in the gay porn industry.  Poor guy :-( 

It is of no surprise that Nicolas Cage is one of the most overrated actors ever to grace the big screen.  A few movies have caught my eye that I've actually enjoyed.  A few.  But I'm not here to talk about what movies I liked him in.  Im going to make sure my faithful viewers don't get suckered into watching one of his bad films.  A short list of bad Nicolas Cage movies are:

• The Wicker Man - 2006 (one of the worst movies I have ever seen  **SEE BELOW**)
• National Treasure 1 & 2 - 2004 & 07 (never going to place the fate of the world in his hands)
• Windtalkers - 2002 (Nicolas Cage in a WWII film?  I can't see him in it either)
• Knowing - 2009 (only thing he knows is how to be a bad actor)
• Next - 2007 (his character spells his name Cris.  The correct spelling is CHRIS.  Enough to not like this movie)
  

I have to say that Nick Cage really drove into a storm because he was not making this blog entry.  Maybe down the road his failure of film appearances would have been talked about, but for the IMDB portion he would have remained out.  That is until we went to Dirks house to find that his mother was watching National Treasure 1 or 2, no way of knowing.  So if Mrs. Hartog were just sitting there with no tv on knitting away, poor Nick Cage would have never been brought up.  Poor guy :-(

I hope this has shed some light on what a website that has "database" including in its title can do for you.  I encourage all of you, if not familiar with the website already, to go and visit IMDB at www.imdb.com and tell them Festy sent you.

In Festy We Trust

Watchmen: The Journey

This is the weekend movie buffs have been waiting for all around the world.  With movies like Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail and Confessions of a Shopaholic still poisoning the film market with their venom, how could you go wrong with your movie choice?  The answer is by not going to see Watchmen.  

Here is my journey:

Saturday night we embarked on a fun fill journey to the Palisades Mall for a meal at an establishment that helped fund Chris Mayer's hair gel collection, Buffalo Wild Wings.  Wait time was approximately 25 minutes, which wasn't bad for a saturday night.  So instead of standing around like a bunch of hungry baboons, we took a stroll to the ice rink located in the shady section of the mall to watch men and women of all ages wipe out all over the ice while a ginger patrolled around like Kristy Yamaguchie.  Fun Fun Fun!

I think we under estimated the time it would take to wait to be seated and then actually complete the meal, because after BWW we had about an hour to spare.  What better place to kill time, then Dave & Busters.  Video games were played, and tickets were won, but the most entertaining part of the D&B experience had to be right before we left.  Dirk and I scouted out the arcade looking for an unsuspecting child to give our tickets too.  We saw one child with a broken arm but he or she, couldn't tell, didn't fit the profile we were looking for.  We had a few other prospects, but nothing compared to the master plan of entertainment we came up with.  

We decided to ditch the tickets on one of the high top tables near the exit and scout out who was going to snatch them up.  Was it going to be a little kid? or quite possibly a D&B employee?  My gut feeling was that the kid in the broken arm cast was going to wobble over to the table and take them, but to my surprise he didn't.  It was a lady who was trailing a group of kids and adults to the exit.  Why would someone leaving the arcade, scoop up the tickets?  Its not like she turned around and went to the store to pick up a D&B shoot glass.  I believe she could have left it there for someone who was like 200 tickets away from a blow-up lawn chair, but now has to settle for a pokemon hacky sack. 

Watchmen - 8.23

**DISCLAIMER**Watchmen is in fact my first movie review.  So before I continue, I would like to take this time to explain my rating system.  I look for 4 main areas of critic in a movie and they are as follows: characters, dialog, entertainment factor and overall plot.  Setting, cinematography, music/sound effects ect. all get judged within the 4 main categories.  By all means, I am no professional film critic, but I can tell you this, I do know movies.  

Characters - 8.9

Something that I really really like about this film was the morality of the characters.  Doing what was right or wrong, necessary or not, all while protecting the world from doom. Going into this film, I didn't know too much about the characters besides that fact that they were not your average superheroes.  Much of the struggles that characters like Batman have gone through is seen through the eyes of a different time.

Favorite character - Rorschach

Dialog - 8.5

I am putting the music heard in the film under the Dialog section because music sets the mood just as much as spoken words does.  This film consisted of multiple hits from artist like Bob Dylan (opening credits), Jimi Hendrix, and The Rolling Stones.  From a movie I just re-watched the other day, No Country for Old Men where the was no music, Watchmen had an amazing sense of song choice that fit perfectly.    

Favorite Song - Jimi Hendrix All Along the Watchtower

Entertainment Factor - 8.0

Watchmen had a bunch of good fight scenes.  Well choreographed and executed to perfection, fights were brutal and graceful all at the same time.  But fighting isn't what always entertains, a fair share of sex couldn't hurt the film and they didn't disappoint.  Silk Spectre or Laurie Jupiter, who ever she decided on being at the moment, had her hands full through out the movie with two men, one crazy blue guy (Dr. Manhattan), and the dorky Leave it to Beaver looking guy (Night Owl II).

Overall Plot - 7.5

The longer the movie, the better the plot should be.  If a movie is only 93 minutes like Taken was, Im not expecting a mind blowing plot, which it wasn't.  This movie was an astonishing 163 minutes long which could have been cut down or extended for a HBO mini series.  Halfway through the movie they were losing me as a viewer.  I just couldn't wait for the next fight scene just because I wasn't really too worried about what was going on or going to happen.  I was just patiently waiting for the "twist not seen coming", which came and went with no surprise.  I feel like I could have given this plot a lower score because some areas I would have liked to have seen them expand on they didn't.  So consider this a warning shot to all other movies I see.  I will not be as generous with my Plot review next time around.

In Festy We Trust

Intro

Dear Blog Readers,

I would like to welcome you to my blog, What Would Festy Do?  Blogging is something that I never really thought I would do until I started watching Lost.  Reading and debunking major theories that these fake-losties (Lost fans) come up with, was something I really enjoyed.  So, I guess in a weird back door kind of way, I have to thank JJ Abrams for making a awesome show, thus creating some stupid stupid fans.  

My main focus in this blog is to talk about movies, tv shows, books and anything else that comes to mind.  Some tv shows you might look forward to reading about might consist of Lost (obviously), 24, and The Office.  Movies will consist of new and old flicks.  I am no stranger to bad films, especially in the morning.  So if I blog about movies like Step Up 2: The Streets or Wild Wild West, please don't hold it against me. 

A quick side note, a terrorist group just took over the White House in 24.  In what lifetime do you think that something like this could ever take place.  I am 100% for separating my entertainment with real life, but this is just crazy!! 

I hope you enjoy what you read.

In Festy We Trust