So Sorry

Wow, it's been over a year since I have updated my blog. And that year has had some serious ups and serious downs. I think it's about time I put some work into this again. Stay tuned...?

April Update

(actual photo of Easy Company)

Band of Brothers (2001) -

words cannot describe how amazing this HBO mini-series was… i have needed to watch this show for the longest time. everyone that’s seen it loved it , and highly recommended it. so, i borrowed a bootleg copy of the series and devoured it within a few busy days. on my day off on friday for easter (and lack of work), i watched for six straight hours, or half the entire series. was too busy on saturday. spent about 3 hours watching on easter sunday. and then the final episode last nite, almost immediately after i got home from work.

i have a special place in my heart for westerns and war films. they definitely belong in a category of their own, even if they are dramas, comedies or action movies. there’s something about recreating the past and eras of conflict, from scenery to accents and dialogue, that i really appreciate. band of brothers does not disappoint here.

the show is based on the true story of Easy Company of the 506^th regiment of the 101^st airborne division. basically, these guys were paratroopers and were some of the best trained men in the military. they had to fly over and parachute down into the midst of d-day, where they were surrounded by enemies. the stories are amazing. the series begins with basic training, but very soon after, they’re fighting during d-day, involved in some of the more important skirmishes in europe, some of the first soldiers to discover the nazi concentration camps, and were the first to reach Hitler’s fabled Eagle’s Nest. the episode with the camp was probably one of the toughest things i have ever had to watch.

the acting is also superb. ive seen some of the actors before, although if i had seen this in 2001, theyd be pretty new to me. damian lewis from Life (2009, tv show) plays captain winters, who is sort of the overall leader of the company. he’s great in his role as a soldier who leads but seldom actually fights. ron livingston from Office Space is pretty great too. and even david schwimmer puts in a pretty good performance as a douchebag officer that the soldiers despise.

all in all, this show is a “must watch”. get a hold of it however you can. even though ive seen this, i’m going to buy this on blu-ray the next time there’s a deal.

great: everything about band of brothers

bad: only 10 episodes

excited for: The Pacific, same producers, about marines on the pacific front

MTG: Worldwake -

if you don’t care for magic:the gathering, SKIP THIS SECTION. i’ll try to keep it short.

worldwake(wwk) is pretty good. i really enjoyed zendikar which brought me back into the game. its landfall mechanics really made what used to be sort of a boring part of the game (playing and tapping lands for mana) pretty exciting, even in games that take a really long time. even if you drew a land but didn’t really need any extra resources, you could still trigger landfall abilities on your other cards; preserving the value of lands which could be just as valuable as drawing a spell.

wwk continues in the same vein with more advanced applications to landfall. zendikar introduced the mechanic as a booster for the power/toughness of creatures when lands came into play. whereas wwk allows for other types of cards to be affected by landfall. all in all, those new landfall cards are not as good as before. however, wwk does continue to pump out a few more creatures with landfall abilities that can be pretty useful, especially in a limited format.

the new jace (pictured above) is pretty awesome. for one extra colorless mana, his abilities are far better than old jace. he can even protect himself with an unsummon ability. this jace is far more useful in a variety of ways. deck manipulation, card drawing, unsummoning threats, unsummoning own utility creatures, and an ultimate ability that is pretty much GAME OVER for your opponent. unfortunately, jund is still a powerhouse so jace wont see too much play until the Alara block falls out of standard. i predict many more copies of jace at tournaments after the release of Scars of Mirrordin around autumn.

dual colored manlands are pretty sweet. they can color fix and they give an extra option for land use in the late game. those pesky extra resources…

overall, wwk is pretty good. it slows down a limited environment that was dominated by one and two-drops from zendikar and control is a viable strategy if drafted properly. its not always a race to kill the other player anymore, and that can only be a good thing.

good: jace, manlands, control is inching back

bad: jund and cascade mechanic still too powerful

Borderlands (PC, PS3, 360) –

to quote rac… “Borderlands makes you feel like a badass.” i completely agree with that statement.

borderlands is a first-person shooter with RPG elements (sort of like… counterstrike meets diablo) from 2K games, developed by gearbox. you take on quests, kill shit, gain experience and skills, get money, and get awesome gear and loot (lewt). that’s it. it sounds like its pretty simple and probably not fun. but damn, if you’ve ever played diablo2 or even pokemon, then you know how addictive it is to collect things you don’t need until you find something so awesome that it comes with a new pair of pants.

there’s four different character classes: soldier (support + healer), hunter (distance damage), siren (elemental + short-range), and beserker (tank, huge weapon specialist). pick the type of class you like and go crazy.

the story in borderlands kind of sucks. there’s a mysterious vault that everyone is looking for… that’s about it. story aside… the game is fuckin great. the graphics look amazing, cel-shading makes everything look like something out of a sweet comic book. the character designs are great. and the game generally runs pretty well even on my crappy machine, although with the settings pretty low.

and the best part? you run around and just kill EVERYONE. you get to kill kamikaze psychotics. armored knight lookin dudes with machine guns. and midgets!!! there’s nothing that feels better than lighting a crazy squealing midget aflame with a fire elemental pistol. or shooting a huge brute in the head with a sniper rifle and seeing their body exploding into a hundred bloody pieces. i didn’t need a story anyways…

good: over the top badass-ery, beautiful looking game, addictive loot drops

bad: difficult to solo sometimes, story sucks so much

still no work

they don't really have any real work for me yet at my new temp job, so i think i'll post a review of some thing(s) while im incredibly bored because i finished reading everything on my Google Reader. stay tuned, my 2 followers.

Best and Worsts of 2009 and other short reviews

hi all, havent posted in half a year. i didnt make any new years resolutions, but im going to try and post more often on here, especially because i dont have a job and this might keep me sane. 2009 was really an up and down year, most of the quickie reviews here are ups, but there definitely were major downs as well.

1) best meal i had all year: TENZAN (285 Columbus Avenue)

i really like this place. my dad's friend is the manager and he treated us to a feast the first time we went. im not sure, but we might have had everything on their menu, the manager ordered for us and there were copious amounts of sake. subsequent visits were not as amazing but still very good. anytime my dad asks where id like to get dinner, Tenzan is somewhere on top of my list. not every single item on the menu is great, but nothing was bad. if you stick to what you know about good japanese food (which is the raw stuff), prepare for some wonderfully prepared fish. screw the teriyakis and negimakis. just give me sushi and sushimi. the fish is fresh and usually pretty large bites, especially when it comes to their sashimi. some highlights include sweet shrimp which melt in your mouth and taste like they just came out of the sea. their king salmon is amazing, but get it only in sashimi form to fully savor its flavor, compared to regular salmon. my first night there, there was a salmon that supposedly was from new zealand. im not sure ive ever had better salmon. the majority of the time, fatty tuna is the king of sushi, this new zealand salmon was amazing. not sure if its teh king salmon on their menu, but i expect that it is. the special rolls were pretty great, especially the oyster roll. this was probably their best cooked item and one of the cheaper special rolls.

pricewise, its nyc japanese. it costs as much as you'd expect it to, but its not ridiculous. regular rolls range from 4.50 (salmon skin roll) to 7.50 (the chilean sea bass roll). and special rolls go from 6.75 (shrimp tempura roll) to 13.50. the restaurant is aesthetically pleasing and has a great bar with an excellent selection of vodka (EVERYTHING I LIKE). one word of advice, try to get a table where you're usually in the line of sight of the waiters. if you get stuck around a corner, the service isn't bad, but it might a little effort to grab someone's attention, not to mention be seated and wait for friends to come in to wave them over. oh, attractive and mad chill female bartender. Tenzan, you win. like i said, this bar had everything i like.


honorable mentions: General Greene (pre-dinner menu: salt & pepper pork ribs with a white ale), BarTabac (dinner: mussels, mushroom risotto)

2) worst movie of the year that i wasted $11 on: Terminator 4

this movie sucked so much. not really much character development. people died all the time. shooting and robots. sam worthington was alright. thats it.

i wanted to put a picture up here. thats christian bale, shooting me in the face after landing a helicopter on me and stealing $11 from my wallet. to make things even worse, apparently, there was another ending (the original ending) which was leaked before the movie came out, so they changed the ending to what we all saw in the theaters ($11!!!!! ARGH!!!!!) and that original ending SUCKED MORE!!! WTF!!! the original ending is (SPOILER ALERT) here (END SPOILER ALERT). the ending i liked most was the one that was very much like the original ending but without the stupidness. also in that link. $11!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!

honorable mentions: GI Joe (really? you ruined my childhood fondness for crappy cartoons, i did like the ninjas tho)


3) best movie of 2009: Hurt Locker

this was a tight race. i absolutely loved Pixar's Up. my favorite movies are usually animated movies that appeal to both children and adults, they appeal to all parts of my brain. funny in stupid kid ways, jokes for adults that i get that stupid kids wont, and visually stunning for geek in me, it even made me cry with a great love story. nothing better. however, hurt locker won this one, maybe not in the long run, but for 2009. maybe i should change my mind about this decision... too late, ok...

"War is a drug." DAMN, this movie was awesome, it even opens like the Fallout videogames. its about bomb defusal specialists in the war and sort of a character study on the main character who has to be a little nuts to do what he does. he gets right in there with the bomb, it could go off right in his fuckin face! it takes a certain kind of person to do that job and Jeremy Renner puts in one of the best performances of the year as the protagonist. the direction by Kathryn Bigelow is equally as good, from the desolation that soldiers encounter in the middle of the iraqi streets (usually busy with foot traffic) to the sense of distrust and panic between the soldiers and iraqi citizens. this movie was just so incredibly good, and i was more than happy to spend $11 (damn you terminator!!!!!) on this, when i should have been in the library studying for the bar exam.

Honorable Mentions: Pixar's Up (see above), Funny People (well, half of it, take out the love parts between sandler and apatow's wife and you have one AMAZING and funny movie)

Where's my movie that I liked???: The Hangover (eh, galifinakis was awesome, rest of the movie was... not amazing, throw in some ridiculous stuff, call it a movie, heather graham was hot as usual), District 9 (still have not seen it, really want to tho), Avatar (looked amazing, plot is substandard)


4) best off-broadway show that i saw: State of Undress

yea, its sorta cheap that i'm friends with half of this production, but damn, this show had all sorts of stuff i like. naked girls? check. good music played by a house band? check. naked girls with pretty voices singing? check.

great show. i brought my friends with me and everyone enjoyed the show. this was just a whole lot of fun to watch, unlike a previous show ive seen by (ahem) M and E which was really artsy and not for me. SWEATER SONG!!!


5) best album i revisited this year: Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles (2004)

i re-listened to this album on my dad's super awesome and expensive sound system. ray charles' duets are so very enjoyable to listen to. i could listen to his rendition of "Over the Rainbow", with Johnny Mathis, all day. if you've never heard this album before, find it, put on a great pair of headphones or go to my dad's house, and savor one of the great music experiences of your life.


6) best tv show of 2009 (that will never be on tv again): Pushing Daisies

keeping it short. great character development. great visuals and visual jokes/easter eggs. amazing concept and story by Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls). there really hasn't been a show thats been such a joy to watch in a long time. i love the office, and top chef, but those shows don't make me feel happiness the way this show does.

unfortunately, not enough people watched Pushing Daisies and it was cancelled before the end of its second season. the final ending was sort of abrupt and unsatisfying, but i'll chalk that one up to a lack of time to flesh out the ending they wanted.


7) the rest

top chef this season was probably the best season ever. the chefs were ultra talented, especially the final 6 or so. it was a lot of fun to watch them compete for surprise cash prizes based on the vegas theme.

went to eat at Ippudo (65 4th Avenue). eh. ramen noodles were alright. im a cheapskate, it was not really worth the cost for a single bowl of really oily soup and not enough ramen. sure, there's a ramen refill for $X, but i want my expensive bowl of ramen to sate my appetite in the first place. the taste was good, but the oiliness ("richness") was a big turn-off for me. so was waiting around for a table, only to find a few other open tables around me when seated. i think our wait wasn't as bad as others because my dad also did the dumbwaiters or wahtever ippudo contracted him for, but it was still annoying. the appetizers were too small in size, but definitely tasted better than their famous ramen bowls. id rather go to chinatown, 10 minutes away. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Borderlands (videogame) is so addictively awesome. i'm on my second playthrough. i literally had dreams of shooting and blowing people up and shiny prizes in all sorts of colors exploded out of their carcasses. addictively awesome.

Magic the Gathering. its official. im addicted to this game again. so many cards and combinations and just thinking about all the possibilities and making decks!!! appeals to my obsessive tendencies. and my inner geek. i used to play this in junior high school. and ive recently rediscovered it and the new expansion, Zendikar, has rekindled my love for this game. they even have stores that have events every week! and tournaments all over the world with huge cash prizes. pro tour events have around $250,000 in cash prizes. im not sure they had that when i was younger.

passed the NY bar exam. worst experience ever. won't ever have to do it again, unless i want to practice in another state. UGH.

2009 was overall a pretty crappy year. the economy still sucks. i have no job. winter is cold. war overseas are not over yet. universal healthcare took a beating from Congress. good tv shows are cancelled while they still show Heroes (?!?). 2 out of 5 stars. cmon 2010, expectations are low.

Cram-Downs and Stomachaches

good thing the "cram-down" bill got reJECTED by the Senate. allowing judges who clearly don't understand the implications of changing people's borrowing terms in order for them to prevent being foreclosed upon is the same as telling someone they don't have to suffer from a stomachache from their own stupid gluttony. sorry... there's so much crap that went into this whole housing fiasco, it gets me heated to hear bankers as the only people being blamed, when there's clearly a lack of understanding in the U.S. about personal finances and credit.

servicers (the people who call you to tell you that you're late on your mortgage payments) who have the power to create loan modifications would increase the interest rates on variable interest rate loans in order to recover costs incurred in a cram-down issued by a judge. fo' sho.

good job, Senate, you keep doin' your job... this constipation fest isn't over yet...

speaking of stomachaches, what's the best all-you-can-eat buffet?

Meat-centric: Brazillian BBQ, Korean BBQ, or Minado? man... what a tough call. The self-serve style of Picnic Garden is amazing, and is one of the best values around (Northern Blvd)... Minado's got some of the freshest buffet style sushi I've had (out in Glen Cove, NY), but Brazillian is the most fun... come on, flipping a card/wood block with a Green side that screams "keep feeding me" and a Red side that screams "stop i'm going to hurl" is the best!

Too bad Brazillian is also the most expensive.

Who wants to go?