The Last Five Years

A moment of silence in remembrance of what happened five years ago right at the moment this is posted. I remember walking into my Physics class and the projector was on, and I had no idea what was being shown on the screen. Naturally, nobody could imagine how much it would change our world. The Internets will be full of rhetoric today about heroism, war, tragedy, and so on. I’m opting to take the blogging day off. I recommend you look around my blogroll and see what some of the finer sites around have to say, if they choose to write something.

Cross Your Fingers

Though I am a huge fan of Garden State – it opened my eyes to indie music and reaffirmed my love of Natalie Portman – I can’t really say that I’m excited about Zach Braff’s newest project, The Last Kiss. I’m going to see it, of course…that’s what I do after all…but it’s not necessarily on my list of must-see films.

One Braff project that I’m excited about after catching up on the entire series over the summer is the sixth season of Scrubs. During a Q&A for The Last Kiss, Braff confirmed that David Cross would be appearing as a guest star on Scrubs and, if all legalities are worked out, he’d be doing so as Dr. Tobias Fünke, the character he played on Arrested Development.

Two of my (newest) favorite shows, rolled into one. Of course, if this happens, you know that J.D. will have read The Man Inside Me.

On Notice: Non-Blinkers

Every morning, as I approach a certain intersection on my way to work, I face a dead end and try to turn left. Unfortunately, there’s always a steady stream of cars coming from the left, most of which end up turning right, leaving me room to turn. But how am I to know this if they don’t use their nice, convenient turn signals? Without them activated, I wind up sitting in non-existent traffic, angering the motorists behind me.

This is not a problem localized to that confusing corner. Everywhere you look, people are making turns without signaling. How hard can it be? Your car is built with more signal lights than ever, the act of signaling is as simple as reaching your hand from its rested position on the window’s ledge to the lever something like 7 inches away. You’re not supposed to be holding your cell phone in your hand, your coffee is nestled in a cup holder near the other hand…how difficult is it? A non-blinker is as annoying as the over-blinking grandma who turned on her signal three miles back for a lane change and hasn’t turned it off yet.

Motorists of the world, please use your turn signal. It’s there for a reason. Until you agree to make use of the shiny, attractive lights on the sides of your car, I’m afraid I’m forced to put you on notice.

Spreading My Wings

A bit of exciting news on the Movie Hawk front: I’ve been brought on as a contributing member of the very large, very diverse staff over at Blogcritics.org. Blogcritics is a destination site for commentary on music, movies, sports, television, politics…you name it, they write about it. And with more than 1,500 writers in the “sinister cabal,” you’re likely to see dozens of new articles each day.

Of course, everything I wind up publishing over at Blogcritics will be seen here as well, but I still encourage you to go visit the site and see some of the other interesting writing going on.

Van Milder

There are no great surprises in the execution of Accepted, the slacker underdog comedy about the education system. The plot is so paint-by-numbers, in fact, that you can telegraph Bartleby Gaines’ (Justin Long) rallying speech in the third act from a mile away. But somewhere along the line, somebody put enough fresh ingredients into the same old formula to make the movie memorable.

Inundated by queries about what he’s doing with his life after high school graduation and bereft of an acceptance letter from any of the half dozen colleges he applied to, Bartleby decides to make up his own school, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, just to get his parents off his back for a while. He has best friend Sherman (Jonah Hill) create a website for the fake alma mater, just to make it all seem legitimate, and leases and reoutfits an abandoned mental hospital to get away from the pressure of home life. The plan hits a bump in the road, though, when hundreds of kids from around the country, also rejected from all their collegiate options, find the website and are accepted to the phony school. Along the way dealing with these unwanted freshmen, Bartleby and his friends learn what they really want out of a college education.

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