Probably the last person in the world I'd ever think of as a good singer, but now I can't get some of his songs out of my head. I was been sick from school today so I've had the entire day to do nothing but go through boxes of tissues. Anyways, I decided to listen to Like a Rolling Stone since I think it's Rolling Stone that calls it the greatest song of all time. They're mucho loco, but it is a pretty good song. When I listened to it a year earlier, I stopped ten seconds into the song because I just hated the beat. I also saw Dylan's voice as the audio equivalent of nails on a chalk board but now can't stop listening to him. I've went through like twenty of his songs and liked about half of them.

I'm going to finish up on my homework now, but when I finish I'll listen to a few more of his. Hurricane is my personal favorite so far.

-Mike

I'd really love to have good days. I've had a recent continum of mediocre days. Sometimes they can even be worse than bad days, because at least you get SOMETHING out of a bad day. Anger, annoyance, or at least something to laugh at yourself about a year or so later. Not mediocre days though, because on these days it just so happens that the norm seems to be all that occurs. I'm sick of these days and I figured I might actually have a good day today (or at least a bad day to affect me in some way). No. Unfortunately not.

Have you ever had one of those days where you have a lot planned out perfectly and then it all just blows up like Kilimanjaro? Somehow, after careful planning and thought processing, it all just falls apart. I was supposed to go with some friends to lunch, then have some fun somewhere else, go see a movie, and then maybe at a party we heard about. If not the party, then a couple of us decided to play Halo 2 for hte rest of the a.m. About five things there--yeah, five--and somehow all of them peice by peice stopped happening. People couldn't make it. Didn't have a ride. Things came up. Superman reversed the rotation of Earth which screwed up the time continuum somehow thrusting people into another dimension in which they go from having the entire day ready to do whatever to saving the world. It just shocks me, really. I have my own little entourage of friends, something like, um... six or seven of us. All apparently could do whatever they want. I take a shower, do the hokey pokey, and then all of the sudden no body can do anything.

This SUCKS! My one good day in a couple weeks and it's gone. Bulls***! Now I have to waste away in my house the rest of the night. How the hell does this crap happen? That's what I thought about thirty seconds after hanging up the phone. I thought I would be mad to, but I wasn't. I just kindof sat in my computer chair, stared at the fan, put my feet up on the bed and zoned out for a good fifteen minutes really pondering on how this could happen.

Unlucky is the conclusion I come to. And the more I kept thinking about it, the more I realize how much of our lives are dependent on chance. The luck of the draw. And if you get unlucky, there's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes things just fall into place for a chaotic string of events.

Hopefully, luck will be on my side for once. Certainly hasn't been helping me in poker lately either.

-Mike

My first week of school has ended, and while I have harder classes than last year, all of my teachers with the exception of one are good. I also have friends in almost every class. However, the down side is that I couldn't get out of Art History. Shocker ¬_¬.... it doesn't really have anything to do with the teacher, but apparently a lot of people in my position also wanted to change classes and Student Affairs couldn't take it anymore. So it pretty much gave an ultimatum saying that they can no longer change classes unless you are actually misplaced by the school. How much does that suck?

On another note about school, I'm curious about something, are all of your English classes completely pointless and useless or is that just my school's fault? Every single year I've had in English during high school has taught me nothing except some vocab words. Whoopity-doo. The whole concept of the class is a misfire. It tries to teach you how to properly use the English language, right? What if you already understand the English language? Afterall, if you live in America or Britain, you already know how to speak it well. And everyone knows how to write it well, even if not perfectly. So what's the reason for the class? All that's left then is literature and vocab words. Suddenly, calling it English class makes little sense. Last year especially, we didn't even do any grammar or writing skills and basically focused on novels. So why is it supposed to be such an important class?

Could sombody please fill me in on if it's the same where you live?

-Mike

Eastwood has never, at least of what I've seen, directed a less than good movie. Million Dollar Baby, Bird, and his most impressive, Unforgiven. Now he's taken on the task of an epic. It's not an ordinary epic though, as it will take two movies to tell the tale.

Based on the battle on the island of Iwo Jima and the soldiers that raised the flag and produced one of America's most famous images. It will be called Flags of Our Fathers, due in theaters by October 20th.



However, he's also doing this same battle from the Japanese's perspective. Specifically looking over General Tadamichi Kuribayashi's actions (Ken Watanabe). It will be called Red Sun, Black Sand. Due in theaters by December 15th.

I'm hoping that these will be the best movies of the year, hopefully topping Uunited 93 and maybe even being the some of the best of the decade. Judging from the trailer (which is partly in Japanese), the cinematography is beautiful, the music is emotional, and the battle scenes look fantastic. Definitely my most awaited movies. Here's the trailer:

Traile

EDIT: Oh also, I just want to add that they're written by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash) and William Broyles (Apollo 13, Jarhead).

-Mike

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is my first cell phone finally came in.



It's got the works.

Now the bad news. School is starting Monday. That's bad news by itself, but one of the classes I'm taking I'm VERY VERY VERY unhappy with. Art History. I think I was under the influence of something when I signed up for that class. It's a terrible class, and I hope to hell I can get out of it. I need to actually get the teacher of said class to sign me out though. There in lies the problem. She's a b!tch. I cannot be kind about her, because she was never kind to me. Something tells me she won't let me leave the class just because she's such a mean person. Aside from the fact that it's an AP class (Advance Placement), which are the toughest classes, and I already have two others, I did all of the summer work I had to do for it as well. So it's not just like I didn't try to like it, I just plain hate the class.

The textbook is big enough to be parrodied by the Python troupe, and I have to visit a different art museum twice a semester. If I don't get out of this class, it's going to ruin my entire year of school. And if she does force me in that class, I will do everything in my power to make her year as bad for her as it would be for me.

This is definitely one of the most emotionally powerful films to come out in a very long time. Though I see United 93 as a better movie, this one brings out all the sadness of that fateful day and the story of the two Port Authority members trapped underneath the WTC casts a great ray of hope over that sadness when it finally concludes. Oliver Stone has succeeded in making so many great historical movies, Platoon and JFK come to mind, that it's hard to imagine him ever making a bad one. Alexander was a misfire for Stone, but after all the good movies he's made, and now after World Trade Center, I can certainly forgive him. It is about two Port Authority policemen who enter the concourse between the North and South Tower and, as the South Tower falls, they get trapped underneath the wreckage.



Hope brings the characters through the tragedy, and it's what will bring tears to the eyes of many audience members. It is an uplifting tail that you should certainly see, however if you couldn't handle United 93, than you might want to wait until WTC comes to DVD. Though at times you can tell the script by Andrea Berloff tries to bring a tear to your eye deliberately, it is mostly natural, and it brings a very human approach to the story. There will be more films about 9/11 to be sure, just like there have been with every other tragedy, and I hope that they're all as well done as World Trade Center.

It's also very long. 126 questions if you want it to be most accurate. Here are my results:

Extraversion |||||||||||||| 60% Stability |||||||||||||||||| 73% Orderliness |||||| 30% Accommodation |||||||||||||| 56% Interdependence |||||||||||| 43% Intellectual |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Mystical |||||||||| 36% Artistic |||| 16% Religious || 10% Hedonism |||| 16% Materialism |||||||||||| 50% Narcissism |||||||||| 36% Adventurousness |||||| 23% Work ethic |||| 16% Self absorbed |||||||||||| 50% Conflict seeking |||||||||||| 50% Need to dominate |||| 16% Romantic || 10% Avoidant |||||||||||||| 56% Anti-authority |||||| 30% Wealth |||||| 30% Dependency |||||||||||| 43% Change averse |||||||||||| 43% Cautiousness |||||||||||||||| 70% Individuality |||||||||| 36% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 43% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Physical fitness |||||||||||||||| 64% Histrionic |||||| 23% Paranoia |||||| 23% Vanity |||| 16% Hypersensitivity |||| 16% Female cliche |||| 16%
Traits: messy, disorganized, social, tough, outgoing, rarely worries, self revealing, open, risk taker, likes the unknown, likes large parties, makes friends easily, likes to stand out, likes to make fun of people, reckless, optimistic, positive, strong, does not like to be alone, ambivalent about chaos, abstract, impractical, not good at saving money, fearless, trusting, thrill seeker, not rule conscious, enjoys leadership, strange, loves food, abstract, rarely irritated, anti-authority, attracted to the counter culture

Take the test here.

This is the dumbest of any of Will Ferrel's movies. There are some brief moments of comedy that are actually funny, but for the most part it is incredibly idiotic. Things are happening that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Cars will spin out and miraculously get back on the track and come in first. At one point, Will Ferrel actually wins a race in reverse if that's bad enough. Sometimes the comedy is funny, but for the most part you're just looking at a bunch of unrealistic characters doing stupid things that don't make any sense. It's Anchorman with none of the interesting characters or laughs.



Satire is strong in this movie, and Ferrel tries to make fun of NASCAR and some of its fans by acting like the most idiotic of them and them exaggerating every single peice of dialouge. Sometime's it's funny like when they're saying grace, but mostly it's completely unfunny. Plot is light, about a man named Ricky Bobby who ever since childhood has been obsessed with speed. Eventually, and completely unrealistic and sloppily done, he gets on the race track and shows he has a natural talent for NASCAR. But a new racer emerges in the form of a gay Frenchmen (Sacha Cohen) and proves to be better than Ferrell. Ferrell's character basically dances around with his usual tomfoolery doing stupid things no normal person would do. Commercialism is insane. Even off the track, there are logos and even talks about products consistently. There is even a point where they take up the entire movie screen to show you a commercial for Applebees. By the end of the movie, you become so uninterested in the characters or anything else that's going on in the movie that you don't really care about the ending which is the only rousing part of the entire movie. The best way to describe all of his movies is that they're unevenly funny. They are either good or they aren't. Anchorman was his good side, here's his bad.

If, for some reason, you don't know who that is, than I will elaborate. It's Larry David. If you still don't know, you should turn on a TV every once in awhile. He's the mind behind the two funniest sitcoms ever made: Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

-Mike

There are two good things about this movie and two bad things. The good is that it's stylish and packed with adrenaline. The bad is that the plot is convoluted and the overlong run time causes you to lose interest in the characters. The name "Miami Vice" is pointless as well. It has no other use than to market itself since there is almost nothing from this movie related to the TV show except for the character's names. If you called it something different you would never know it had any relation to the show. It keeps the same tone throughout the entire movie with the exception of when it cuts into action or into romance. The former works well, which is where you can see Mann's at his best, however the latter is just so-so. The relationship between Colin Farrell and Gong Li does not seem very natural or real but perhaps that's because it would have only been longer and thus less interesting to develop it. Comedy will mostly miss and everything that sticks out from the initial tone of the movie seems out of place. The plot stars Colin Farrel and Jamie Foxx as two cops trying to uncover the group behind a recent string of drug related murders. So, they go undercover with a Miami drug dealer however things get complicated when Farrell and the drug smuggler's associate Isabella (Gong Li) get involved with eachother. Strange thing is why this movie has such a loud soundtrack with a fast beat when it moves at a slow pace. It's not a good contrast. The cinematography is unique with a strange absence of the color red. It gives the movie a unique look, but it just makes it more dull with further contributes to it feeling longer than it should be. Michael Mann has drifted from his formula that seems to work great in almost every story and setting into a world that looks dull and needs some good editing for time.