Entertainment

Been a long time, I should have left you a dope beat to step to.

Entertainment, Movies

I’ve been busy, give me a break… Ok so not really. Well really, but I just haven’t thought of it in a while.

I just got back from the Toronto Film Festival last week. So I’ve been trying to unpack and get life back on shedule. This also now includes packing lunch in the morning and trying to save money because I spent it all trying to seem famous at the festival… Damn you $9 beer night. But it was a really cool experience, seeing how the other <s>half</s> 10% lives.

The best part, by far, was getting to see “Zack and Miri make a porno” with introduction and questions after by Kevin Smith. The movie was phenomonal, just really funny (and dirty) and a good story with characters that you really like. If audiences can get past the title then I think this will make Mr. Smith boatloads of money… well it’ll make the Weinstiens lots of money anyways and that’s always good for Kevin. Seth Rogen was born to deliver Smith’s writing and you can see just enough of his improvizations to add some personality to the movie. This is flat out the best cast ever in a View Askew production, it’s nice to see an entire cast of real actors. (yes I consider Mewes an actor… now)

Schu-Review: 4 out of 4 Schus

Switched to Netflix

Entertainment, Movies

I was with the Blockbuster online renting service from the begining, but I’ve officially switched to Netflix. It was awesome when they allowed you to get free rentals from the store by returning your envelopes to the store, (still their number one selling point). What was not cool is when they raised their rates and kept the services the same. But I still went with them because I liked to get the most from the plan for the money. I actually upgraded to their maximum plan (3 at a time, unlimited exchanges, $34.99) I could get around 30 movies a month if I kept up with returning them to the store asap.

Netflix users would say that they had a better selection and could get their movies faster, but I stuck with them. Netflix offered their instant download service and stream through Xbox live, I just kept going with them. So what is the final straw?

I’ve watched everything good that blockbuster has to offer.

They have “very long wait” on some items in my queue that I’ve had on there for over a year! Hell yeah that’s a very long wait. I did see that they offer streaming on their service now, but not for all movies, I haven’t paid extra to get a movie from them in 2 years, why would I now? So now I’m going to rent all the weird older movies that BB didn’t stock and get the new releases through Red Box.

So long Blockbuster!

The X-Games bring the pain.

Entertainment, Random

Maybe it’s because I fit perfectly into the demographic that they’re searching for, but I find the X-games enthralling. I remember when I first heard of them, I was 14 and into rollerblading every day. I was amazed that ESPN would be covering and promoting sports that I was interested in. Looking back on old clips it’s easy to see how far they’ve come. They did a little piece on the word “extreme” before the start of competition this year. It was a little bit BS because I’ve never actually heard anyone use that word, it’s kind of like hearing your parents talk about “gangsta” rap… in 2004.

But the opening event “Skateboard Big Air” has got to be one of the definitions of extreme. It’s so crazy it makes professional skateboarders scared. When I was watching last year and saw Jake Brown fall 40 feet out of the sky and land on the flatbottom I was sure I just saw somebody die on TV. I called Charlie into the room and told him he HAD to watch this, because “I’m sure this guy is dead”. He wasn’t… he WALKED AWAY.

If you haven’t seen it check this out.

I knew this year they would put the hype machine on overdrive because Jake was coming back to the competition (Jerome Bettis is from Detroit). But seeing the look on his face when he was about to take his first run on the ramp was insane. I thought for sure he was going to say… “OK, I can’t do this, later!” But not only did he do it, he landed almost the same run… on his first try. So after I thought that would be the highlight a few runs later Danny Way absolutely got destroyed on the coping of the quarter pipe then did a front flip 20 feet down and landed on his back and then slid lifelessly into the middle of the ramp. Again I was sure that he broke both his shins and developed “floppy leg syndrome” (Willis Mcgahee, horrible Youtube clips, etc). But after a few minutes with medical… HE WALKED AWAY. Not only that… HE CAME BACK to take his next runs. AND LANDED the same trick he just got KILLED on.

Really I can’t be clear enough, this was the best thing I’ve watched on TV since the NCAA title game. So intense, So huge, So scary. The tricks just kept getting better and bigger and you weren’t sure at any moment if someone was going to die. This event is like the MMA of the X-games… really it’s more than that, it’s like the RUNNING MAN of the X-Games. Eventually someone is going to die or be paralyzed in this event. But HOLY DAMN if it’s not exciting.

Announcer – “Danny are you going to take another run?”

Danny Way – “I’m going to take all the runs“

The Terminator has nothing on Danny Way. PROPS TO MR. WAY!

Later