+ Yep, that is a pair of Nike Dunks with the new "lobster" color way. I'm a sneakerhead and am usually down with all flavors (especially gnarly-colored Nikes), but this might be going a shade too far. I can see you liking these if you're a chowd from New England with a penchant for fly kicks. Other than that, owning these might be a stretch. Despite all the neat little contextual design points - the blue "claw straps", the butter-colored laces, the tablecloth-esque interior fabric - these are just a little too out there for a night at the pub. A mac-n-cheese shoe, on the other hand...
+ Pretty big week on the entertainment front. The Incredible Hulk opens on Friday. That's pretty ironic because I was thinking to myself this weekend, "You know what kind of movie I want to see? I want to see a non-sequel remake movie - that no one asked for - to a movie that came out like 5 years ago and was so bad that the franchise itself became a lost cause. That's the kind of movie Hollywood should be throwing at me." Edward Norton might be enough to make this movie bearable, and I hear that Bobby Downey has a cameo as Tony Stark, but I still am leaning heavy on waiting for this gem on DVD. Aside from the continued Marvel Comics film bombardment, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is hitting stores Thursday. For past MGS fans like myself, this most recent (and sadly, final) installment has been eagerly anticipated for over a year. I'm expecting pretty big things. And I know everyone cares.
+ Also on the weekend movie docket, The Happening. M. Night Shyamalan's newest WTF-Fest of a movie looks like all of his other movies post-Sixth Sense. That is, pointless and overly "intelligent". Intelligent is in quotes because I think Shyamalan is under the impression he's making better movies than he really is. An M. Night Shyamalan movie is basically him acting as a magician. I think a lot of magicians get off on knowing the solution to something that the audience is unaware of. Jerry Seinfeld once wrote of magicians: "They're like, 'Here's a quarter. Now it's gone. You're a jerk.'" I think there's some truth to that. Magicians don't reveal their secrets. Why? It's not some sort of "honor code" as they would have you believe. They get their jollies from knowing something that the audience members don't. It's like subconsciously they're thinking, "Hahaha. These people are imbeciles." That's what Shyamalan thinks as he's making his movie. His obligatory twists at the end are just his ways of saying, "See? You don't even have the mental capacity to think of that. Ergo, I'm way smarter and more creative than you proles."
+ I finally got a chance to see Indy this weekend. My thoughts on the movie were similar to those I had regarding Die Hard 4. The similarities are frustratingly striking. In both, we had former action stars whose previous movies were done with excellent (read: real) special effects. The car chase scenes in DH: With a Vengeance, the mine cart scene in Indy & The Temple. These were done with actual, tangible humans and machines. The action was real and it was awesome. In the time elapsed between the franchises' third and fourth installments, we came up with much better CGI capability. But here's a memo to all of Hollywood (and especially George Lucas, who has now made more bad movies than good movies): JUST BECAUSE CGI EXISTS DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE TO USE IT EVERY TIME SOMEONE THROWS A PUNCH OR JUMPS IN THE AIR. That pretty much sums up my feeling on Indy, as it was a movie whose first act was great just because we got to see Dr. Jones again, but then it fell apart because George Lucas and Steven Spielberg think people want to watch video games when they go to a movie theatre. Unless you're utilizing technology that doesn't actually exists (spaceships, complex robots, 100 Agent Smiths, and yes Mr. Lucas, lightsabers) you don't need to use CGI. Figure out a way to make your script actually happen. You've done it before, remember? Back when you made good movies?
+ There are parallels that can be drawn from the Celtics' successes against the Lakers and the Pistons' victory back in 2004. The main reason LA finds themselves down 0-2: the Celts play better defense and are much better on the glass. Pau Gasol, for all his skills, isn't taking full advantage of when he's being guarded by Kendrick Perkins and that's putting more pressure on Kobe and Odom. Heading back to LA will provide the Lakers a much-needed shot in the arm, but I don't think they can get 4 of 5 from the Celts, not with two more games in Beantown. My prediction: this will go down the same way as the 2005 Finals (Pistons/Spurs). LA will take the first two back home, the Celts will steal Game 5, LA will play its best game in Game 6, but the home-court advantage is too much to overcome twice in a row and in a Game 7 for the books, your 2008 NBA Champs will be the Boston Celtics. I guess it'll be nice to finally see a team from Boston excel. They need more media coverage over there.
+ Lastly, this one comes from my (former & future, you read that right) roommate Ben. Don't expect to enjoy this if you're in serious mode. It's absurd - but absurdly excellent - comedy.
// MAINSTREAM
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