Damn

The Minnesota Timberwolves traded Kevin Garnett today. There were so many rumors swirling around the NBA draft, and I was glad they all fell through. I was excited for the Wolves to make another run at it with KG, and promising young players like Foye, Craig Smith and Corey Brewer. KG has always been loyal to the Wolves and I was hoping he'd resign after next season after some promise was shown with the new guys.

It was all shattered today when the Wolves traded The Big Ticket, one of the greatest players to play in the NBA ever. The key to the deal was getting Al Jefferson in return, who will go on to average a double double. Al Jefferson will be a good player, but he's no KG. But KG was special, a class act, in contrast to me-first guys like Kobe Bryant and most of the other "stars" of the NBA.

KG will be missed. The "brain trust" of the Wolves are idiots. The run the Wolves made with Cassell and Sprewell a couple years ago showed what could happen if savvy veterans were teamed up with KG. Why couldn't the Wolves land a veteran to go with KG? AI would have been a great fit, but the damn Nuggets stole him. Why couldn't the Wolves land Ray Allen?

Man, is this depressing...

Trailer for awesome new JAWS Documentary - I am one of the producers.

The documentary has all-new on-camera interviews with JAWS cast/crew such as Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and John Williams, plus other famous JAWS fans such as Kevin Smith, Bryan Singer, Eli Roth and Robert Rodriguez, and others.

read more | digg story

Oscar Predictions

Best Actor:

Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Didn't see it, and some are saying it's more of a supporting performance, but I've always liked Whitaker. He should have won an Emmy for his turn on The Shield last year.

Best Supporting Actor:

Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine

Frontrunner Eddie Murphy has pissed off a lot of people in Hollywood, so Arkin might get the lifetime achievement Oscar.

Best Actress:

Helen Mirren - The Queen

No idea - she is the frontrunner.

Best Supporting Actress:

Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

Same here -- another frontrunner, I have no desire to ever see a musical. My wife and I tried to watch Moulin Rouge a few years ago and had to turn it off. While I can suspend disbelief for any sci-fi movie, musicals just don't work for me.

Best Animated Feature:

Cars

Not a NASCAR fan, and plus the running time for this one was too long to take my kids to see. They have very short attention spans. I did take one of my kids to see Happy Feet and I was bored to tears and so was my son. It wasn't even visually interesting, with a lot of white-on-white scenes.

Best Director:

Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Finally, Scorsese gets his Oscar, plus The Departed was probably the best movie I saw last year in the theater.

Best Documentary:

An Inconvenient Truth

I saw it on a plane, over two flights, but it was intriguing. We saw the also nominated Jesus Camp a few days ago. I was impressed by the objectivity of the filmmakers on that one, but it was actually a little boring.

Film Editing:

United 93

Didn't see it, don't think I could take it, but it should win something.

Original Score:

Babel

I guess.

Original Song:

"I Need to Wake Up" - An Inconvenient Truth

AIT is on a roll.

Best Picture:

The Departed

Of the nominated pictures, I only saw this and Little Miss Sunshine. I hope The Departed wins, but Babel seems to be the type of movie the Academy likes. While LMS was pretty funny, it was predictible, and a central scene was copped from National Lampoon's Vacation. LMS shouldn't even be nominated here, but it seems as though every year some oddball picture has to be nomintated to shake things up. Only once in recent memory has one of "doesn't fit" movies won, and that was Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan, which is one of the biggest blunders in Oscar history in my opinion.

Best Visual Effects:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Not as good as the first Pirates movie (which I believe was overrated anyway), and Bill Nighy's makeup as the squid head Davy Jones was pretty distracting, but Pirates will be rewarded since it was the biggest grosser of the year.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Departed

Wishful thinking here again. I haven't seen Infernal Affairs on which The Departed is based, but I hear it's good. I haven't seen Little Children, but I did read the book, which was an excellent satire on American suburban life. Author Tom Perotta's books are hugely entertaining -- he also wrote Election (on which the movie was based).

Best Original Screenplay:

Little Miss Sunshine

The oddball might pull off an Oscar in this category. I'm not sure who the frontrunner is, maybe Babel?


Of the nominated films and performances, I've only seen:

The Pursuit of Happyness - B+ Will Smith was pretty effective, but the movie featured a lot of embellishments on what really happened.

Little Miss Sunshine - B It had me until the (completely unnecessary) Vacation ripoff

The Departed - A- The best movie I saw last year in the theater.

Happy Feet - C- Boring boring boring.

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest - C All effects, and Johnny Depp as Sparrow was a little too much this time.

The Devil Wears Prada - B I went with my wife on "date night" and it was better than I expected. Meryl Streep is pretty great in this flick.

An Inconvenient Truth - B+ See above

Jesus Camp - B See above

Click - B- Normally I like the stupid Adam Sandler flicks, they are pretty brainless yet entertaining. Anything with Walken in it is usually watchable.

Poseidon - C- Saw it because of Richard Dreyfuss, we interviewed him while he was filming this one. Josh Lucas is a very bland leading man.

Superman Returns - B- I had such high hopes for this one, but I actually fell asleep during it.

Borat - B+ Very, very funny, but the hype kind of ruined it for me.

Don't brush your teeth with tap water in Mexico

The aftermath of me going to Cabo San Lucas is that I have been saddled with Reiter's Syndrome for the past three months. Another name for Reiter's Syndrome is Reactive Arthritis.

We had a large group of people that went to Cabo and we stayed in a very nice all inclusive resort called the Riu Palace (http://www.riu.com/palacecabosanlucas/). Evidently, the water in the very nice guestroom sinks is not potable, which they declined to tell us when we checked in. As a result, although we never drank the water, we did use it to brush our teeth. Out of our group of 18 people, everyone who did the same ended up with Montezuma's Revenge and the 3 people who brushed with bottled water did not get sick.

A few days after returning home, the symptoms of Montezuma's hit, and both my wife and I were prescribed antibiotics. A week and half later, we were in Las Vegas to see an Aerosmith/Motley Crue concert, and my wife and her friend got to meet Vince Neil of Motley Crue at the opening of his new tattoo parlor. The next morning after the concert, I woke up with low back pain and pinkeye in both eyes and some urinary tract pain. I had fun at the concert, had a few beers, but what the hell was up this? I limped around Vegas that day and did a bit of gambling (check out Slots of Fun), but generally felt horrible. By the end of the night, my wife and our friends wanted to stay out, but I was in so much agony I called it a night.

The next day the pain was slightly better but the other symptoms the same. We got home that night and I went to urgent care. They gave me drops for the pinkeye and a pill for the urinary thing, but said the back pain was unrelated. Throughout the next few days the back pain got worse and started to radiate down my right leg. I went to my doctor - and was referred to either a chiropractor or physical therapy. I think chiropractic is mostly a sham, but the doctor assured my that this one was not. So I went to the chiropractor and did a bunch of "treatments". At this point I could barely walk and had taken to using a cane. The chiropractor did nothing to help me. I got a couple back x-rays and an MRI (a nightmare). My left ankle swelled up like a balloon, I went to a podiatrist and they thought I had gout. My left leg swelled up once the ankle swelling went down and they thought I had a blood clot so I ended up in the E/R. I had a Baker's Cyst behind my left knee that was causing the swelling. I was put on a drug called Indocin (anti-inflammatory), which seemed to help a bit.

After a couple weeks I went back to my doctor again, and reiterated how this all started. Blood work and urine tests ensued. After a few appointments, my doctor said there is something called Reiter's Syndrome that has all of the seemingly unrelated symptoms I started out with (arthritic things like pain, gout-like symptoms, baker's cyst and pinkeye, urinary tract pain). I was referred to a rheumotologist. This was in late November. I could not get in with the rheumotologist until after Christmas, so I stuggled through the first weeks in December. I tried physical therapy which did not help.

When I finally got in, the rheumotologist assured me that I was young and the steroid prednisone would be a "miracle" for me and I would feel a lot better. I started on the prednisone and after four days of increasing agony gave up on it and returned to the Indocin. The rheumotologist was no help, just telling me to increase the prednisone dosage (which didn't help) and was generally dismissive.

Reiter's Syndrome has no cure, it is very rare (1 in 1000 people get it), and was a result of me getting a dysentary-like infection from the non-potable tap water in Mexico. You have to be of northern European descent to have the gene that would make you susceptible to Reiter's. No one else that I went on the trip with has had any lasting effects but me. My immune system freaked out and now I have arthritis like an 80 year old man would have in my ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders. I wobble around. The most demoralizing thing is that I will feel a little bit better for a couple days and then I am in agony again. Before all this happened I was running several miles a week, in the best shape of my life. I haven't been able to run in over three months. Supposedly the symptoms go away anywhere from 2-6 months from the time of infection. All I can do is keep trying medications to control the inflammation and pain until it goes away. I got a second referral to a new rheumotologist and saw him yesterday. He gave me prescriptions for an antibiotic and a new drug called Sulfasalazine, which I will start taking today. This condition has affected my quality of life and my relationship with my wife and kids. I am constantly pissed off because I am in pain. My job has suffered as well. Hopefully Sulfasalazine will work...

Don't brush your teeth with tap water in Mexico.

Annoyances

Just going to list out a few things in popular culture that annoy me.

1. Justin Timberlake. He was in a boy band for God's sake, quit buying his records and let him return to obscurity like the rest of the boy band alumni. Every day his songs are number one on iTunes. WHY? The whole state of current "urban" and "r&b" music is tired. Every song pretty much sounds the same, either a slow jam or a repetitive looped sound effect with hollerin' for the chorus.

2. American Idol and its bastard children Dancing with the Stars, America's Got Talent, Project Runway, etc. The popularity of these shows is puzzling to me. It's all Star Search from the 80s. Star Search was popular, but not like this.

3. CSI and its copycats. I don't find death entertaining. These shows exploit death as entertainment, making crime scenes as grisly as can be. It's sick.

4. Grey's Anatomy. Enough with the too-pale unattractive intern trying to decide between Robin and the guy from Can't Buy Me Love. They are both geeks. I don't watch the show, but my wife subjects me to catching a few minutes of it every now and then. This is a #1 show? What is happening to TV? Quality programs like Lost and Battlestar Galactica should be the number one show, but maybe I am too much of the "male demographic".

5. The annointment of Tom Brady as "the best quarterback ever". This is ridiculous. The Patriots are a great team that wins due to Belichek and their defense. Brady is a good QB, but he is not Peyton Manning, he is not Dan Marino, he is not even Brett Favre (who I hate). Too much emphasis is put on Super Bowl wins, which is because of a team effort, not just one player. If Brady ends up breaking all the passing records (he won't, but Peyton will), then he can be called the best. For now he is just a really good quarterback.

Enough bitching by me. I had to get out some negativity...

Mas Tequila

It's been a long damn time since I've done a blog, but here goes. I just got back from Cabo San Lucas a couple days ago. I headed out there with my wife and sixteen other people -- some neighbors and friends of friends. It's amazing that after a two days of drinking all day, hanging at the pool bar, and drinking all night, a group of late-30-something people begin to act like they are 21 years old again.

We had beer bongs, women that have had multiple children flashing their boobs repeatedly (but not my wife, thankfully), body shots, upside down shots, vomiting in lawn chairs, skinny dipping in closed pools, trying to swim through 12 foot high waves with a nasty undertow, bonfires, mooning, booze cruising, the list goes on and on. The highlights of the trip were our appearances at Cabo Wabo Cantina and The Giggling Marlin. We flat out rocked Monday and Tuesday nights. Did I mention that we all had an amazing time?

The second to last day we were supposed to be hit by Hurricane Paul, which turned into Tropical Storm Paul, and just gave us some heavy rain. A few of us ran out during the storm down to the ocean. I was hoping the waves would get big enough to hit the pool and wash out the sand volleyball courts, but it didn't happen.

We are already talking about the next trip back to Mexico...

The Shining

Last week I attended the Netflix Rolling Roadshow screening of The Shining in Estes Park, Colorado. Since I missed out on JAWS on Martha's Vineyard on August 5th, and since there was a post about how cool Netflix's screening of Field of Dreams in Iowa was, I figured I had to go to one of these Rolling Roadshow screenings. I am a fan of The Shining, so this was a no-brainer. The event was held at the Stanley Hotel, a historic hotel that is supposedly haunted. Stephen King stayed at the Stanley and wrote most of the Shining there after being inspired by the hotel, and they filmed exteriors of the Stanley for use in The Shining TV Miniseries. The hotel in the Kubrick movie is called The Overlook and they actually filmed exteriors at The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon.

Anyway, Estes Park is about an hour and 45 minutes from my house, and I got a late start heading there since my wife was unable to go at the last minute due to babysitter issues. It was too late to get anyone else to go so I had to fly solo.

I really wanted to get one of these:

But of course, they were sold out, so I decided I also wanted this one:

And they were sold out of that one as well. They only had 40 or so Shining posters to begin with (nice planning!). Even though I arrived only 20 minutes late for the pre-movie stuff, there were already several hundred people filling up the empty field in front of the Stanley. One brave couple decided to dress up as the two girls that were murdered in the Overlook and that Danny keeps seeing in the film. "Come and play with us Danny, forever and ever and ever ..."

The pre-movie festivities included 13 people participating in a 10 minute horror story contest, where they had 10 minutes to write a story, and it had to include words specified by the Netflix people, including Stanley, plumber, green, finger, and a few others. The audio wasn't that great so it was difficult to hear a lot of the stories, and they tended to be more humorous than scary anyway.

I hadn't had time to eat in my rush to get to Estes Park so I hit the makeshift snackbar, and grabbed some popcorn and one of these:

Yes, it is Redrum Ale! Brewed in Estes Park in honor of The Shining. It was a pretty good brew that reminded me a lot of Killian's Irish Red, one of my favorite beers.

At this point it was starting to get dark and the head organizer came out on stage to introduce the movie. I was expecting Lisa Loeb, since she is the official host of the Rolling Roadshow, but for whatever reason, we got this guy instead. His words: "I came here to see The Shining. If you came here to have a conversation, get the hell out of here." This brought some cheers from the audience, and shortly thereafter they began rolling some trailers. First up was Creepshow, based on a Stephen King graphic novel or comic or something. I had read it when I was a kid and seen the movie, which was pretty cheesy. The fact that Leslie Nielson of Naked Gun fame was in the trailer brought a few chuckles from the crowd. Next up was the trailer for Motel Hell, and then came Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (which, I have amazingly not seen), and finally another Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange. And then... THE SHINING:

All in all I had a pretty good time and I highly recommend going to these Rolling Roadshow screenings, but there's only a few left, so you'll have to hurry.

More info here:

http://www.netflix.com/roadshow