Tue, 19 Apr 2005

Sin City - ****

I saw Sin City a few weeks ago, and I really liked it. It's a great movie and I recommend it for everyone, even non-comic book fans. I think there is some hesitation for some people to see a 'comic book' flick, but ignore the press/reviews that keep bringing it up and just see it and go in just expecting to see a movie. And a quite entertaining one at that.filmrot's sin city comparison

The brief rundown on the movie is that it's three(?) overlapping stories that take place in the morally bankrupt town of Basin City.

There's the story of Bruce Willis' cop who's nearing retirement but has one last case to work out with a child-molesting kidnapper. Mickey Rourke steals the movie with his performance of Marv. And Clive, Benicio and the lovely Rosario have to protect Old Town due to some schenanigans and mob-machinations.

Speaking of Bruce, damn, I'm jealous. He's in the best two "comic book movies" now (this one and Unbreakable) AND he gets to make out with girls like Jessica Alba in the flicks. What kind of cool job is that?

Speaking of girls, let's just have a brief moment of silence for the magnificence that is Carla Gugino. Hubba hubba.

I don't really have a coherent review put together (obviously), but in my typical Kenny Style (tm) I'll just ramble for a bit and say go see the movie damnit.

Also, check out Filmrot's Sin City .

19 Apr 11:38 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Linux Financial Software

Well, once again, Patrick sums up some thoughts on financial software that hit home. Check out his latest update here.

I was having the same problems GnuCash and moved away from it partly due to downloading bank info and partly due to my laziness. And I wish I had known about GBonds before now. Had I had an app for my bonds in Gnome, I wouldn't have had to reboot my old 98 box every month or so. Sometimes I wonder if I just spent a bit more time googling I'd find out some of this info that Patrick seems to know about. Probably not, I get distracted and wind up looking for pics of the SportByBrooks.com girls again.

Links: | | | |

By the way, I still wonder why savings bonds aren't as popular amongst my peers. Check out the .

19 Apr 09:21 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Mon, 18 Apr 2005

San Antonio poised to bring MLS team to town

via Yahoo

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A Major League Soccer team could come to San Antonio as early as 2006 if several conditions are met under an agreement reached this week between the league and city.

The MLS has agreed to grant San Antonio a team if an ownership group is secured, 5,000 season tickets are sold by Aug. 17 and plans are completed for construction of a training complex that includes youth soccer fields.

``As one of the country's fastest-growing and most diverse cities, MLS is convinced that San Antonio is an ideal home for a Major League Soccer club,'' MLS commissioner Don Garber said.

Garber said the 12-team league is in discussions with several possible ownership groups. As part of the agreement, the city has agreed to provide a stadium. The deal grants the team rights to all ticket sales and certain sponsorship and stadium signage sales.

--What stadium are they talking about? Alamo Stadium would be cool, if they could convert it to grass, let them sell beer and not ass-rape people when they pay for parking. If not Alamo Stadium, are there plans for something out by Retama? Will one of my Texans email me please?

18 Apr 14:58 | /futbol | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 14 Apr 2005

Email your Congressman

Don't forget to express your concerns about the broadcast flag to your congressman. The FCC needs to overturn their deciscion. Get to it.

14 Apr 10:11 | /tech | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 13 Apr 2005

Zatoichi - ***

Takeshi Kitano never fails to entertain. Whether it's some part as a heavy, or his old comedic stuff, or as a scenery chewer, he's usually got your attention. He directed and stars in this re-re-make of Zatoichi. It's a bit modernized (it's in color) and the swordplay is much faster than in previous incarnations, but it holds true to the old Japanese "entertaining films" (Kitano refers to them in the dvd extras). What do I mean by that? Well, it is roughened up a bit, but it's not a hard-core gangster Kitano version of Zatoichi, there are definite nods to the older style of flicks. Some are more subtle, like the story, story telling, and the flashbacks. Some are more obvious nods/headshakes - eg the "festival" ending. All in all a very entertaining re-telling. Go rent it. But if you're interested at all, rent some of the original ones too.

13 Apr 09:07 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Tue, 12 Apr 2005

Mean Girls - **

What the hell?! Mean Girls?! Are you @$%!$ kidding me? Yeah, I rented it, I heard it was good. And you know what? It was pretty damn entertaining. Granted, parts of it are formulaic and you *know* how the story's going to proceed, but hell, just along for the ride.

I was shocked that this movie made me giggle out loud more than once. Did I giggle like a school girl? Yup, but don't I always?

I hope Tim Meadows gets more work (and out of the SNL orbit) too. He was funny in this little flick. And I hope we see more (snicker snicker) of Lacey Chabert in the future.

Oh and before you ask, Lindsay Lohan does not get naked.

12 Apr 23:45 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Collateral - ***

Quick review. Stream of consciousness. . . Jazz baby, improvize. . . Heat starts on a train, ends at the airport. Collateral starts at the airport, ends on a train. . . yeah yeah . . . snap snap . . . Heat has a guy who wears a gray suit and a starched white shirt. Collateral has a guy who wears a gray suit and a starched white shirt. HEY NOW!

Okay, enough of that crap. Collateral's good, but not that great. Man, was it overhyped or what? And Jamie Foxx cheated at the Oscars, he wasn't the supporting actor in Collateral, but he still won that award.

In my usual rambling style I'd recommend Collateral- it looks great, it has a decent story and it kept me interested. Tom Cruise is a bit distracting but otherwise it's great. I thought the best scene was with Javier Bardem talking about Pedro el Negro. But I think it's odd that Javier, a kick ass Spanish actor, is hired to play a guy from Mexico. It's not the first time.

So anyway, go rent it, have fun with it, but don't drool on the dvd cover and think about how what a great heavy prescence Cruise brings to the flick.

Hrm, you know what? Javier got to Penelope Cruz before Tom did. Go rent Jamon Jamon and drool.

edit: on imdb they mention that the jazz number that the trumpet player is "improvizing" is actually Miles Davis' Spanish Key, and isn't improvized blah blah I'm a dork. . .

12 Apr 22:30 | /movies | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 10 Apr 2005

Last Wine Fest Lists

Not too much of an update, but I remembered to get the last two wine parties' wine lists online.

-The list for the Zinfandel party is here

-Here's the list for the Rhone and Rhone-style party that was the most recent.

I don't have notes for all of the wines from the Rhonefest as I didn't try them all. But here's a quick rundown:

Both were great parties by the way, I'm glad I got to go and hang out with some cool people. People forget that's the more important thing, not the vino.

10 Apr 13:00 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Thu, 07 Apr 2005

Quick Cheap Spanish Wine Roundup II

I finally got around to trying the 2003 Marques de Daroca Grenache Syrah. If you're out shopping using the list from my other post, add this one to your list. It was $5.99 at The Wine Club on Harrison, but I think they're out now. I have another bottle of theirs, Marques de Daroca Old Vines Grenache, which I look forward to opening soon.

07 Apr 12:51 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Wed, 06 Apr 2005

Vicentico

Just a random link today. Vicentico was the co-founder/co-lead-singer of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. That band broke up a while back and Vicentico went off on a solo career. His second album is online at his site. Here's the link to go straight to the radio blog.

The first song off "Los Rayos" was the main single for that second album. There's a video for it too on the site. At first I thought it was a funny video, it's him and his buddies playing soccer. But after a while they start playing dirty and diving. I hate that style of soccer almost more than I hate volvo station wagon drivers.

Just in case you're wondering about the other (main) dude from LFC, his name is Flavio, and he has a new band- Flavio y La Mandiga. I like his cover art. Site has sound, so be careful if you're at work.

06 Apr 14:00 | /links | 0 comment(s)


Sun, 03 Apr 2005

Quick Cheap Spanish Wine Roundup

I thought I'd drop a quick entry about some cheap Spanish wines I've had recently.

On a recent trip to The Wine Club, I wound up getting a few bottles of (cheap) Spanish wines. I'd spent a bit too much on the vino lately and wanted to try some newer things and refresh my cellar a bit with some everyday drinks.

I've only had two of the four I bought on that trip, but I compared them to the Borsao I usually have around. The Borsao was on my mind recently because it was served at Paul&Stef's Rhone Fest the other week, they served a different Borsao than I normally buy. They had the Borsao Tres Picos.

[Speaking of the Rhone Fest-- Yes, I know I still owe full lists for what I had at the last two wine parties at Paul's. I'll post those this week.]

So what did I have then just recently? Okay, here's the quick and dirty roundup

So the Borsao I had at the Rhone Fest, and yes I know it's not from Rhone, but the Rhone Fest was Rhone and "rhone style" wines, so stfu. Anyway, it was the first one on the bar for people to try and yet, was surprisingly popular.

At the Wine Club (which is a store, not a club) I picked up a bottle of Carro. I liked the descriptive info from the back of the bottle. I liked the price, and I liked the blend. I thought I'd give it a try.

But when I had it, there was a weird, almost medicinal, taste. I thought it may have been my glasses, so I re-washed it, tried other glasses, etc. I couldn't shake the weirdness. It distracted from what should have been a good wine on paper. I dunno, I wanted to like it, but it's thin-ness and weird follow-through left me wanting.

But the same Wine Club trip was also when I picked up the Carro's cousin, Cortijo III. According to the distributor's site the III stands for the three tenets behind the wine: 1. Good quality, 2. Good price, 3. Good packaging. I'm glad they got it in order.

I was pretty surprised because this was a 100% varietal- in this case a tempranillo. I was ready for more disappointment after the Carro, but actually thought it was more complex than the blend. It seems more ready for prime time compared to the Carro.

But you know what? If you can't find the above wines, I'll bet you *can* find the Borsao blend. You can't go wrong with it for everyday drinking. And it's usually less than $7.

03 Apr 21:28 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)


Fri, 01 Apr 2005

Donovan's back in the US and I don't care

Actually I do care that Landon's back in the MLS, but I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's great for domestic fans. The MLS needs fans and support. But on the other hand, what kind of pro player doesn't want to play in Europe? Even players in England, one of the top club leagues, dream of moving to European clubs. Michael Owen comes off the bench fro Real Madrid, and sure he wants to start, but he's reportedly happy with the situation. What a crazy dream team that place must be. But Donovan, he's unhappy with his bench role in Bayern. So what?

There's a column on soccernet.com that sums up some great points about Donovan. It's Jen Chang's column here.

The SJ Mercury News has a good column by Ann Killion (here) about the blame/shame of Donovan's move to the rival Galaxy.

Those two columns sum up why I'll be booing Donovan the next time he rolls into Spartan Stadium. But I hope he helps sell more tickets, I need someone to boo. And that's the twist- I want soccer to succeed here, but I still get pissed at some of the limitations of the single-entity bullshit.

--by the way, to clear room for Donovan, LA had to give up Ruiz to Dallas. In interviews Ruiz keeps calling Dallas' team "The Burn". MLS changed Dallas' team name in the off-season to FC Dallas. I like that. . .

01 Apr 11:48 | /futbol | 0 comment(s)


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