Well, That Certainly Made Me Feel Old

One of the problems with working in retail is the amount of young 'uns you find yourself surrounded by every day. One of my best friends at the store (who actually transferred to a new store this week) is all of 18 years old. The Missus mocks me because I've always seemed to find a way to end up being friends with the youngest people at every place I've ever worked.

I thought it was bad enough at my last job when I was the one over 25 who could get the under 25 year olds into Dave and Busters but had to "be responsible for them." Talk about an impossible situation.

But today - today topped it all.

Fans of this space know that I'm a pro wrestling fan and have been so for 23 years or so. Earlier today, myself and another guy were giving one of our co-workers a hard time jokingly. In response, he said, "Did you guys watch wrestling when you were little kids?" Usually that comment precedes something about Hulk Hogan or Andre The Giant or the like.

And therein lies the problem.

His next sentence, "Remember that old tag team Degeneration X who used to run around and yell "Suck it!"?"

Right.

I didn't really think about it until I was sitting in the drive-thru tonight but then it really sunk in as to what he had said. I had to ponder it a bit but... well, DX started in late '07 - eleven years ago. That means that for some of these guys I work with, they WERE little kids! They were all of seven or eight or nine years old.

I was already legally able to drink and they were little kids sitting on the living room floor watching HHH and HBK crotch chop.

I think that made me feel older than anything ever has before.

Beat The Clock

What do you write about when you were about to fall asleep and the
Missus says, "What did you blog about today?"

Damn.

I had this idea the other day for a "where are they now?" post about
bands I listened to 10-15 years ago. There were so many fly by night
punk and ska bands that I used to dig that there's bound to be some
interesting stories there.

I can do one off something I stumbled upon a week or two back. I used
to listen to a ska band called Save Ferris - clever, huh? They had a
female lead singer that seemed to put them in line for superstardom
after No Doubt exploded but aside from an alt rock radio single or
two, they simply faded away. A few years later, I recall reading that
the band had split and Momique, the lead singer, was suing to prevent
the band from performing shows without her under the Save Ferris name.

Fast forward to now and I was looking at a bill for an upcoming local
show that had a band listed as "featuring Monique from Save Ferris.".
Turns out it's a soul/R&B act she fronts with a great sound.

It's a bit of a sad story because truth be told, she had/has a better
voice than Gwen but just never matched the charisma or songwriting.

Ah well. One mystery solved in the ongoing chase to discover "where
are they now?"

Sent from my iPhone

It's All About The Benjamins

I am Blue and I endorse this message:

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

MyPhonies?! Brilliant!

Man, I haven't watched an episode of the Simpsons in years but judging from this amusing clip, they haven't lost much.

Mapple - The Simpsons
by aarplane

I Feel So Dirty

I mentioned it in my QoS review but... well, I kinda dug the Star Trek trailer. It's awkward for me because I grew up with the mindset that you only get to be a fan of either Star Wars or Star Trek - not both. So, you can imagine my discomfort at enjoying Deep Space Nine.

But... well... you be the judge.

Blue's Review: Quantum Of Solace

I was listening to the aforementioned /filmcast this morning for their review of Quantum Of Solace - a review that reminded me that I never actually did my review of the movie.

So, here goes.

It sucks.

Honestly, I could probably pretty much leave it at that and be happy with my analysis. But for your benefit, I'll say some more.

It really sucks.

Better?

The plot? Sucks. The acting? Sucks. The editing? Sucks. The action? Well, okay, the action's alright. So, if you're the kind of person who goes to a movie just for the action and effects, you should go see it.

But everything else blew and was majorly disappointing after the awesomeness that was Casino Royale.

I'm not going to give the "Oh, it doesn't feel like a Bond movie" argument because as a non-Bond fan, I really don't give a shit if he says, "Bond, James Bond" or order a martini "shaken not stirred" or if there's crazy gadgets that he uses. That's not what I care about as a non-Bond fan. It's much like I don't give a fuck if the bridge of the Enterprise in the new Star Trek movie looks like an Apple Store like so many people are bitching about. I'm not a Trekkie so I don't care.

What I do care about in Quantum of Solace is a plot that is at least mildly interesting and easy to follow. QoS fails on both accounts. It's complicated and has all the depth of Ridley Scott's Monopoly Thimble. There's no emotional investment in the plot and somehow they manage to piss away the emotional investment in the characters as well. The acting is... well, shoddy at best. Daniel Craig does an adequate job as Bond. Judi Dench is cool as M again - probably the only one I don't have a complaint with. But all the other characters are forgettable at best.

My biggest complaint though is the editing. I hate jumpcut editing. I hate the desire to make the action "feel fast." I blame the Bourne movies - which I really didn't like either. But it's one of the things that I really disliked about the Transformers movie too. There's just too many action sequences where you feel like you can't figure out what the fuck is going on and who is who and who is driving what vehicle and what have you. QoS just had too many action sequences where I had to struggle to understand who was doing what for me to enjoy it.

In the end, the worst thing about QoS is that it's completely forgettable. The day after we saw it, I could barely remember a thing about it. And even now, I can basically remember the big action sequence at the end and that's about it. There were a few moments they discussed in the /filmcast review that I had no recollection of at all honestly.

And if you can't remember a film a day [or week] after seeing it, you really can't say anything worse about it, can you?

It's a pass, guys. Catch it on DVD, maybe... HBO someday, sure... but don't waste your ten bucks to see it on the big screen.

Blade Runner. Gladiator. Monopoly?

Much thanks to a colleague at work who got me turned on to the /filmcast recently. I've only been able to listen to a couple of them so far but it's exactly what I look for in a film review - non-pretentious "normal" guys shooting the shit about a movie or TV show.

And yes, I do think I could probably do such a podcast as well. If only I had the cast to make it a group effort. A relaunch of the "You're My Boy, Blue!" podcast? Perhaps.

While listening to said podcast at lunch today, I heard something that managed to disturb and fascinate me - all at the same time.

A while back, I had heard that some board games had been optioned by a movie studio. The story made me roll my eyes and utter some diatribes about the pathetic state of Hollywood and their dependency on existing properties to save their collective financial asses.

But the plot thickened today when I heard that Ridley Scott had been inked to direct a Monopoly movie.

I'll let that sink in for a second.

Still with me?

Okay, so apparently Mr. Scott thinks there's something to be said for a story of someone going from nothing to riches and changing because of it. Some kind of humorous quality apparently.

Me? I'm just curious how many fucking dump trucks filled with cash it took to get him to sign on for this garbage.

I can see no value in a Monopoly movie. None. Zero. Zilch.

In fact, if this atrocity ever gets made (and that's a big if), I'd be willing to suggest that it probably should go straight to DVD. It should not pass go. It should not collect two hundred dollars.

But I am curious as to who they'll cast as the thimble.