The God Awful Shepherd

Last night, Kristine and I tried to watch The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert Deniro and starring Matt Damon. What seemed like a film with plenty of potential turned into a couple of hours of my time that I can't get back. The film is painful and I strongly suggest you skip over this title at your local video store.

When we were watching Shepherd last night, it felt like the film had lasted forever but possibly as if it were coming to an end. When I went to check on how much time was left and Kriste saw that there was well over a half an hour to go, I swear to you her exact words were, "NO FUCKING WAY!"

Since we didn't finish the film, I talked to a friend at work today who had gotten in a little trouble over the movie (more on that in a minute). Since he had seen the film, I asked him how it was all wrapped up at then end. The funny thing is that their is a main recurring plot line that has to do with a mysterious photo and a recording that sort of holds the film together and I almost forgot to ask him about it. That's how exhausting the movie was.

As for my friend, he had seen the movie a month or so ago because he had downloaded the film "illegally" using bit torrent. Knowing only my friend's ip address, Universal Studios had the nerve to send a letter to his cable company who in turn sent my friend a warning letter, telling him he had better cut it out with the bit torrenting. The fact that Universal chose The Good Shepherd to make an example of my friend is ridiculous. They should thank their lucky stars someone took the time to waste valuable bandwith on such a lost cause of a movie.

I've Discovered YouTube

This past Sunday, Kristine and I joined some friends and did some tailgating at the Greenwich St. Patrick's Day Parade. We had a blast and after the parade was over, we joined Elysa and Brian over at Chris and Tanya's for some more drinking and eating and Karaoke. Now if I did this right, you'll be able to watch Kristine and I doing a round of Karaoke below this type and you can check out the rest of my clips here.

Talk 2 u soon.
Dave

Voting For Sanjaya

I've never been one to watch American Idol with any consistency. There have been times in the past when I have tuned into Idol at the beginning of a season to chuckle at some of the awful applicants. Then there are other times where I have caught some of the last few episodes of a season to see who would win the whole thing. I am proud to say that the one year I had any sort of interest in the show as a whole, I was pretty sure Carrie Underwood should've won and she did just that.

If you had told me before yesterday that I would one day be voting for the Idol of my choice, I would have thought you to be silly. No Idol has ever motivated me to figure out how to place a vote, either by calling or by texting. However, thanx to votefortheworst.com and Howard Stern, I am not officially an Idol voter.

A week or so ago, Howard Stern began talking about votefortheworst on his Sirius satellite radio program. Stern is an avid watcher of American Idol but is very unhappy with the show this season so he has decided to get behind the movement that is votefortheworst. The idea is simple. As a group, we vote for the worst singer on Idol and see how many weeks we can keep him or her on for. This week is very important because whoever remains on Idol after tonight gets to be part of the tour that happens when the season is over. This all sounded like a lot of fun to me so I decided to join in.

Currently, the worst contestant on American Idol is an Indian named Sanjaya Malakar. Last night, the first time I've tuned into Idol this season, they even showed Sanjaya saying he didn't think he was the best singer in the contest. After making that comment on a prerecorded segment, Sanjaya performed "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks. When I heard he was going to do that, I cringed a little as I too had attempted that song at a bar on karaoke night. When all was said and done, Sanjaya's performance of "Got Me", while significantly better than mine, was not what you would call Idol worthy.

Now I admit, voting for the sake of screwing with a contest is not something to be proud of. Still, I do have a reason for doing so. The reason is that I hate how American Idol screws up my television viewing habits. When Idol's season starts up, it pushes every other show out of it's way. For one, American Idol is broadcast on the Fox network. This means that if you're a regular viewer of a Fox show like House, plan on taking a few weeks off from that show because Idol will be on in it's place.

Second, if you're a fan of a show on another network show that airs at the same time as a regularly scheduled episode of Idol, then expect your show to move. The problem is that it's been proven time and time again that nothing beats Idol. For that reason, I no longer get to watch Lost when it first airs because ABC moved Lost to 10pm on Wednesday nights to get out of Idol's way.

I also justify my ridiculous anti Idol vote because of the extra little bump Idol will get in the ratings(as if they needed it). Because of my single vote, I am now committed to watching tonight's Idol results show to see if Sanjaya gets to stay another week. Here hoping. Woo-hoo.

One last thing about American Idol. If you're looking to show off the amazing quality of your High Definition television, have your friends over for an episode of Idol. The way Fox lights their colorful sets combined with some really cool camera moves make for the most stunning visuals I've ever seen on my HDTV.

Until Next Time.
Dave

UPDATE: Sanjaya stays!!! WOO-HOO!!!

It's Getting Harder To Watch Galactica

I went out to Ohio in December and my father lent me the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica, a show that I didn't think I would get around to watching. I had tried watching Battlestar when it first came back a few years ago, but I couldn't get into it at that time. On a whim, I started watching the first dvd back in February and I immediately became addicted. The first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica were amazing. I quickly become a fan of the writing and the story lines.

Then came the final episode of Season 2. In the old days, I could speak freely of television shows that had aired because there were no such things as DVRs, iTunes and television shows on DVDs and if someone was ever going to watch a show, they had seen it when it had aired. That of course is not that case anymore so I don't feel like I can go into show descriptions as Battlestar is like many shows today that are built on their twists as well as their cliffhangers.

What I can say is that I'm not very fond of the direction Battlestar Galactica has taken in season 3. The story has taken a drastic turn that I had hoped was a little more temporary than it has turned out to be.

Funny thing is that I'm reading now what I just wrote and I don't know why I've told you this. It's been forever since we last talked and here I am reopening this dialog by telling you that there's a show I really love but I'm starting not to like it but I can't tell you why. It's not like there's anything you can do to help me through this trying time. I guess maybe I'm putting this out there so that future Galactica viewers won't be as blindsided as I was when the change comes at the end of Season 2 (and by that I mean the entire season 2 as the dvds are broken up into season 2.0 and season 2.5).

Before I go, I should mention at the end of episode 2 of season 3, the Sci-Fi network showed a preview of the upcoming season and it appears the storyline will be getting back on track. I can't wait.

Missing You

Greetings all.

Ever have one of those nights where a bunch of coworkers and you go out to a bar to celebrate and it goes longer than you thought and you drink more than you thought and well...everything is just so dandy?...

Yup...It's been one of those nights. I just wanted you to know that I think about this blog often and I miss writing in it very much and that all is well. The lovely and beautiful Misses Kristine Novak and I are driving up to Lake George, NY tomorrow for a belated Valentines Day weekend getaway and I expect we will have a grande ol' time.

Here's wishing all of you well and hopefully, I'll get a chance to talk 2 all of u soon.

Dave