I might try to revive the old "Sunday Tryout" tradition that never really became a tradition but always sounded like a good idea. Anyway, today I went with the mighty infamous Reader #3 to check out Melgard Public House. Situated in the old Louise's Trattoria building, it's a decent space with good prices and solid food. The flank steak and fries were good and I was a big fan of their calamari. Also, there's a rumor that the Happy Hour deal is free pizza with the order of a beer. Even without that deal, Melgard makes "The List"

Now, my List is a pretty particular one since I have an absolutely horrific diet (I'm basically a pasta lovin' carnivore) and like most of my food plain so fine dining is lost on me. However, I do know how to find good grub in the Hollyhood. I'm sure I'm forgetting some places but, for now, here's "The List" (in no particular).

Posted by SoulHonky at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my favorite shows was AMC's "Shootout" with Peter Bart and Peter Guber. The two long-time influential Hollywood players would have a little discussion to start the show and then launch into some interesting interviews with actors and directors. They would discuss the movie business and often touch on topics that most lightweight interview shows would steer away from; the interview with George Lopez was especially interesting as Lopez was able to weight in on the difficulties of being Mexican in Hollywood and how few roles there are. Even when the Peters tried to get soft with their interviewers, they'd get called out. When Guber remarked that James Caan had a career "lull", Caan immediately cut him off and said, "Lull?! It was drugs!" This isn't to say that these were hard hitting interviews but they were interesting insights into the minds of filmmakers and interviews that you wouldn't see anywhere else.

The show has since moved to Starz and renamed the wildly out of date "In the House". The show's improvements have pretty much all made the show worse. The show still starts with the opening "debate" which is obviously scripted beforehand. It's basically like watching two people give lectures to one another; they don't really seem to even listen to one another; they're just waiting for their time to speak. The old show was like this but there was an occasional lively debate in those whereas these seem to have had all of the life rehearsed out of them.

What might be the biggest change, and worst move, is that Guber and Bart don't interview people together anymore. One of the highlights of the show was having the two of them in the discussion; often times, a guest's answer would incite a disagreement between the two. Also, the two had a nice one-upsmanship going on. Now we're just stuck with rather flacid interviews.

The only time the two are together are for a viewer mail segment which, like the opening discussion, seems to prepared and isn't all that intriguing. They've also added a host of sorts, a young woman who intros the show and runs an interview segment with beat writers and journalists. To me, this makes zero sense. If I am tuning into a show with two guys who have run studio in this town, I don't want to see a random hostess interviewing a journalist about what might be going on. On top of that, the discussions are pretty bland and haven't yet proven to be worth the screen time that they are getting.

Basically the show went from being hosted by two guys who were once in the middle of the fracas to a show with two guys who seem to be over it (and their sidekick was never even in it to begin with.) It's too bad because there are so few shows on TV with interesting interviews anymore. I'm going to keep it on the DVR for now but it seems like one of those shows that will have episodes pile up before I decide to just delete it completely from the To Do list.

Anyway, most of the good interviews aren't even on the AMC site anymore but here are some clips that I liked. Cuba Gooding Jr. explaining how he screwed up his career.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, after getting off to an absolutely abysmal start to 2010, I'm hitting the reset button and pretending January never happened. The resolutions will be getting done, starting on Monday.

And since I haven't started my "Watch better movies" resolution, I watched the new "Taking of Pelham 123" last night. Save yourself the time and just watch the original. This one is fairly lifeless with John Travolta overacting and seeming to think that saying "mother fucker" a lot would make him seem cool. The original also had a nice sense of humor to it, something that this one is laughing. Also, it seems like Tony Scott really phoned this one in and spent half of his time just moving the camera from left to right. There are a couple of Deja Vu moments in which you see almost the exact same shot and camera move as you did two minutes earlier.

I should have known after the final credits, that were ridiculously cheap looking and ended with a laughable simple effect on Tony Scott's name that this was a paycheck movie. There was one nice acting moment for Denzel in it but all in all, the film is a waste of time and a shoddy remake.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

President Obama gave a speech today and, for some reason, people seem to be all thrilled that he did what he always has been able to do and say the right things. Whether or not he actually does them is a completely different story. Hell, in some cases, like Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it doesn't seem like he's really going to do all that much more; he basically just kind of lumped it in Congress' lap and said they need to handle it.

I also can't feel that upbeat when the key headline is "I don't quit." Maybe it's me but the only time that you really hear that is from die-hard (and soon dead) smokers and people who are on the brink of quitting. It's nice to see the fire is back but I'm afraid that it's going to just turn out to be a bunch of smoke again.

In SoulStocks news, I bought some new stocks and am hoping the market rebounds from last week's fall. I really need my TMO option to rebound but I doubt it's going to happen now; Cramer just said that he liked the stock and thought it should do well and that's been a kiss of death for pretty much any stock I've owned. I just bought options on AKAM and NVS but am not feeling too good about either. Some buyer's remorse but I'll see how they shake out although I am thinking about going with Bank of America and Citigroup, even though those are bigger risks.

And finally, how soon until Apple's key competition responds to the Ipad with Microsoft Windouche?

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Disappointed with the politics as usual in Washington and bored out of my skull at home, I decided to throw together a little sketch about my take on what's going on in Washington. It's nothing revelatory but I think it's pretty good. Granted, not good enough for me to actually put in the effort to shoot so this will become one of my many Shorts I'll Never Shoot (S.I.N.S. for short). So here it is, warts and all (like my thinking that nonplussed was a hyphenated word.)

I was thinking about making this a internet series called "The Hopeless Romantics" which would follow the shallow love lives of these characters or maybe try to work this story into my reality TV sit-com but that seems to be dead in the water right now. In fact, the opening to that spec pilot may soon become a S.I.N.S. entry.

Posted by SoulHonky at 02:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my favorite new bands of last year (or, at least, new to me last year) was Port O'Brien and they posted a note on their Facebook page that they didn't think there would be a better album this year than Beach House's "Teen Dream". I wouldn't go that far (actually I would go very far at all) but it's a decent enough listen. None of the songs really grabbed me.

Fool's Gold's self-titled album is a fairly interesting listen. I agree with NME's review, "Fool’s Gold might mine a rich vein, but they rarely forge anything more than mere tourist trinkets." Robert Henke & Monolake might never hit the pop charts but I wouldn't be surprised if they were scoring some indie horror films or thrillers soon. Put those two groups together and you might end up with something like Owen Pallet's Heartland. This album might take some listens to get through. I like most of the songs when they start out but they never take flight. But again, that might be because it's a very different sound and I might just be listening for the wrong things.

The Cold War Kids have a new EP but it's not on Lala so I haven't listen to it yet. I didn't really give Grooms a good listen; might be an acquired taste. If you're looking for something folksier, Langhorne Slim's album is pretty solid.

Since I need to actually start trying to meet some of the New Year's Resolutions, I was going to go with Four Tet's new album as this week's tryout. It's nice ambient music. I tend to like guitar-driven stuff like Mono or Explosions in the Sky more but this seems like it would be a great album for background music.

In the end, I had to go with Surfer Blood's debut which seems like it has the best chance to break out. If Vampire Weekend's Contra can go to #1 and sell a ton of albums, there's no reason that this album couldn't follow suit. BOAT might actually be a little poppier but that album came out a while ago and it didn't really catch on. Granted, neither album is as good as Vampire Weekend's debut album but they are albums that I think fans of Vampire Weekend would appreciate. (And to be fair, the best band in this vein might be Japandroids.) I wouldn't call myself a fan of this brand of indie rock but it's good enough and probably the best thing that I encountered this week.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Danny Ainge might not want to deal Ray Allen. After all, Ainge himself was jettisoned from the Celtics when he was a player (although he landed in Phoenix which isn't so bad. Still, Allen's play has definitely dipped and the team obviously needs a boost. They're struggling to beat below-average teams right now and even the return of KG couldn't break them out of their doldrums. So what's out there? Honestly, not a lot. But here are four deals that could actually happen as the players involved have been rumors to be on the move elsewhere.

Ray Allen and Glen Davis for Andre Iguodala and Sam Dalembert
If the Sixers are really thinking about dumping AI Jr. and the Sam for T-Mac, why not make our own offer for the duo? Sam and 'Sheed would be one hell of a defensive second unit and Iggy could start at SF and perhaps be a part of the future alongside Rondo. Would the Sixers deal their star within the division? Probably not but it's worth a shot.

Ray Allen, JR Giddens for Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, Andrei Kirilenko
The Jazz finally add a legit shooting guard to team with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. They also manage to dump the extra year of Andrei Kirlenko's contract as well as excise 4.5 million dollars off of this years cap, making them a mere 300K over the luxury tax line. If Wyc and Co. are willing to take the extra money, this is the kind of deal that could help boost the Celtics back to the top of the league. I'd think that AK-47 would come off of the bench but he'd be an almost ideal 6th man who could help limit KG's minutes for the rest of this year and next season. It seems like a lot for the Jazz to give up but rumors are that they may be willing to outright dump Brewer and they won't need Korver if they have Ray. The C's might have to toss in a first round pick but with the money we're saving the Jazz, I'm not sure it would be a deal breaker.

Ray Allen for Antawn Jamison and Mike Miller
If the Wizards are really looking to dump Jamison, we might want to snag him if only to keep him away from Cleveland. Still, I'm not sure if another three point shooting PF is what the C's need and he'd probably be a guy we'd get for this year and then hope to move in the offseason. If we can get Miller (and Miller is healthy), it's probably better than just holding onto Ray.

Ray Allen and Tony Allen for Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr.
I might actually prefer this one to the Wizards trade but I'm still not sure if the money spent on these two makes sense, especially since Mike D's contract is longer than Mike M's. Still, it's better than just holding onto Ray and trying to find cheap free agents next offseason.

The Suns probably wouldn't give up Jason Richardson and Leandro Barbosa and I'm not sure if we have enough to make up the difference. Corey Maggette is boosting his value but the whole reason he's playing well is because he's allowed to run around, toss up shots, and not worry too much about playing defense. The Warriors are the perfect team for him and if they are willing to dump him than I'm not sure why we would want his contract. The C's could make a run at the Knicks contracts and get some of their young talent but it would probably take both Danilo and Chandler for me to even consider doing that. I'm really not sure if getting those two is worth making it possible for the Knicks to get Bosh and LeBron. Detroit could offer Rip Hamilton, Austin Daye, and Kwame Brown but I'm not sold on Daye enough to want to take on Rip's contract.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The remote control in the break room of my office doesn't work. Or rather, the up and down channel buttons don't work so you have to type in the numbers by hand. Now that doesn't seem like a lot of work but when your job is essentially pushing buttons all day, the last thing you want to have to do in the break room is push buttons. Because of this problem (with the remote, not our laziness), we tend to settle on a lot of bad shows. The worst so far was "Brooke Knows Best".

In the episode that we were watching, young Brooke Hogan was apparently on a party boat with some guys she and her friend had just met. They thought that they were just cruising around but they soon discovered that they were actually in the Bahamas. Even worse, they wanted nothing to do with the guys so they ditched them and wandered around the island looking for a ride back to the US. Thankfully, the stumbled upon someone with a boat who agreed to smuggle them back to American soil.

Now, I hope that I'm not ruining the illusion for anyone but that obviously never REALLY happened. It was all set up by a producer and faked. In essence, it's just bad improv. In my years of working on reality TV, I've thankfully avoided this type of show (although I did work on one that was so staged that it was actually shot out of order - we'd shoot someone finding something on Monday, and losing it on Thursday) but there are more and more of these types of shows out there. Most MTV shows are now "soft-scripted". So this made me wonder: Is Curb Your Enthusiasm the best reality show ever?

How different is Curb from Brooke Knows Best? The situations are set-up and some people aren't really playing themselves. There aren't scripts, just outlines to guide the improvisation of the players. Honestly, it's not that far off. And you can see why soap operas are failing. Why hire a staff of actors, writers, etc. when you can just throw some untalented kids in front of the camera with a little direction ala The Hills.

The WGA often makes overtures to reality TV story producers but usually its just so they can use us as a negotiating tool against the networks (and we're usually the first chip off the table when it comes time to compromise). They also seem to say they'll fight for our rights but they won't actually let us into the Guild (or even a Guild offshoot) so it seems like a weak support (if not a outright false promise). There's a get-together tonight at which new Guild honcho John Wells is going to speak on this but in the Era of Obama, I'm all speeched out.

That last paragraph of rambling aside, it seems like networks are really starting to toe the line in terms of what is real and what is scripted. It should be interesting to see if anyone really crosses it or if the WGA finally redraws the line in the sand and makes someone, at least the segment producers who make a lot of the stuff up, get some writing recognition. As for me, my job would probably just be reclassified as an first draft editor or something. At least that's what I hope because a few shows have tried moving on without story departments so I'd be SOL.

Which brings up a different angle on this topic: what about all of the good things that reality TV has done? Let's be honest, if not for reality TV, I'd probably be back home in Mass. or working somewhere else in a different field. Either that or I'd be the worst 1st AD in the business (since I was doing assistant director work when I first moved out here. Silly me, I thought it was a way to move up to being a director; I soon realized it was a nice name for middle management on a film set). The amount of jobs that reality has opened up for the dreamers is pretty stunning and I couldn't imagine being out here before it really existed.

So what does it all mean? I don't know. I just had to get it off my chest and, well, that's the main reason you have a blog.

For all of the people who read all of that, here's pearl jam and Neil Young doing "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World". (Granted, the people who just scrolled to the bottom can watch it as well but you'll have the extra warm feeling of knowing that it's here for you. Good god I'm rambling this morning. Gonna be a long day for my co-workers.)

This was 17 years ago? I guess the rambling makes sense; I'm getting old.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So you'll see that to the right there is a new feature, The Cinemenu. Those are the classics or recent critically acclaimed films that I haven't seen. They are either on my Netflix queue or my DVR and, in my resolution to watch better movies, I'm going to focus on seeing those films in the first half of this year. At the very least, I'm going to watch one of those any time I watch a bad movie (like Wolverine). We'll see how it goes. Most of those films have been on my DVR for months but I end up rewatching a bad movie on HBO instead. Usually when I sit down after work or on the weekends, I just don't want to engage with a film (and I especially don't want to have to read). I know I'm doing myself a disservice but it's how I feel. Anyway, I'm trying to break that laziness. We'll see how it goes.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spoon is a confounding band. Their last album was a bit poppier but before that, the bands seemed as if they were almost trying to avoid complete songs. The songs were a bit repetitious and were often without a chorus or bridge. Still, they were good songs.

With their new album Transference, they seem to have gone back to their old ways. The songs are solid but they are just missing something and seems a bit repetitious. Maybe some of the songs will grow on me but right now I'm not into it. In some cases, I think the mix doesn't help. In "Mystery Zone", the bass line is almost annoying repetitive and is loud enough that it was the only thing I could really focus on. Have you ever had a dream with an annoying background noise and then you come to realize that it is your alarm clock? That's this song in a nutshell.

I haven't listen to the full album but after the first half dozen tracks, I feel like I'm happy that Spoon tried to spread their wings but I feel like they are floating in the wrong direction.

As for other albums, there's a new EP from Real Estate while RJD2 came out with a new record. Laura Veirs has a nice new record. For the first time in eight years, Freedy Johnston dropped some new songs. Finally, the Eels have a new album.

The Cold War Kids have a new EP slated to come out as well but it's not on Lala. I got the first song from Blalock's Indie Rock Playlist and it's pretty great.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I stumbled upon Pepsi Throwback yesterday. It's Pepsi made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. I thought it was great and I'm a little nervous to try Mountain Dew Throwback because I'm just getting over my Dew addiction (adDewction?).

I highly recommend the Uniball Jetstream pen. Maybe the best pen I've ever used.

Has any piece of advice ever been so misused as "be true to yourself"? People seem to use it to justify their ignorance or idiotic behavior. "Keep it real" falls under this one as well. It's like people don't realize that part of growing is changing. Be true to yourself doesn't mean be the same person today that you were ten years ago.

Pat Robertson is a special kind of evil. Making wild claims about deals with the devil while working with the tyrant Charles Taylor in Liberia.

And finally, here's a little bit from Paul Greengrass's new "The Green Zone". Hopefully this won't be taken down mere hours after I post it.

Read more: http://www.firstshowing.net/2010/01/14/paul-greengrass-takes-us-behind-the-scenes-of-green-zone/#ixzz0chUEOWb4

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Supposedly "The Lovely Bones" is a lousy film that starts off well and then devolves into nonsense. In a smart marketing move, the powers-that-be decided to try to use the opening of the film to their advantage so they've released the first five minutes of the film to hopefully lure viewers to the critically pooped upon film. Personally, it didn't do much for me but I decided to share it since I have nothing better to post this morning.

On a semi-related note, I tried to watch Wolverine a couple of nights ago and only made it through about forty minutes before I lost interest and decided to just fast forward through it to see what happens. The film seemed like a bad Kill Bill rip-off. What was really upsetting is how they wasted so many characters. Sure, the Blob isn't someone you can base a movie around but Gambit and Deadpool can be used for more than they got here (and they could be used better. I especially didn't like the casting of Gambit but I guess casting directors hadn't noticed Alexander Skarsgard yet). Anyway, the film didn't seem like it would have cracked the worst films of the year list but it was fairly lame and there's definitely no reason for anyone to see it. Even the effects and action scenes were disappointing. Yes, I didn't see the whole film but, then again, what I did see made me think, "Man, I'm glad I didn't wait around for this shit." Gavin Hood seems like a good guy but after Rendition and Wolverine, I think he might be best served by leaving Hollywood and going back to his roots (he broke through with "Tsotsi")

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the trade winds are blowing in the NBA with some teams looking to improve their teams and others looking to save money. Chris Bosh is the biggest name out there but there have been other rumblings about Caron Butler and how the Wizards desperately need to dump 8.7 million dollars of payroll so that they can get under the luxury tax. There's also a rumor out there that Vince Carter might be demoted to sixth man since he's not exactly fitting seamlessly into the Magic offense. So I thought, why not combine all of the rumors?

Without further ado, here's the 18 team trade that reshapes the outlook for four NBA franchises and gives them what they want most.

The Washington Wizards get Vince Carter and Jose Calderon and Reggie Evans.
Why they do it: First and foremost, this trade would dump 9 million dollars and save them from having to pay the luxury tax. Even better, they don't just have to give away Caron Butler and their expiring deals; they can get quality players back for them. If Agent Zero comes back, he moves to the 2 spot with Vince at the three. Not a terrible squad with Calderon, Arenas, Carter, and Jamison. The team saves money and adds more talent - a win-win in my books.

The Toronto Raptors get Trevor Ariza, Aaron Brooks, Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Tracy McGrady, Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, and a protected #1 from Washington. The Raptors give up Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu in the trade but they too get better. They get a large chunk of the Rockets roster and the Rockets are faring better than the Raptors this year so it's not bad. Even better, this trade dumps almost every contract that the Raptors have on the books. After the deal, the only contracts that will extend past this season are: Ariza, Andrea Bargnani, Demar DeRozan, Marco Belinelli and Sonny Weems who make a grand total of 23 million. I'm not sure if they get the #1 from Washington, it might have to go to Orlando or Houston who are taking on payroll in the deal. Still, they add a bunch of talent and get to press the restart button with two reasonably paid players (Ariza and Bargnani) and some solid young players.

The Houston Rockets get Chris Bosh, Caron Butler, Marcus Banks, Aundray Blatche, and Jarrett Jack.
The Rockets give up a lot but they get a legit superstar in Bosh along with Butler to handle the SF position and a solid PG in Jarrett Jack. The trade adds four million to their cap but, again, I think it's worth it since they bring in a legit superstar in Bosh. They might get the Wizards pick for taking on the shit contracts of Banks and Blatche.

Orlando gets Hedo Turkoglu, Randy Foye and Mike James and four million in cash. Vince isn't exactly fitting in and he's getting dinged up a bit so the Magic decide to stop trying to fit his oval peg in a round hole and just go back to what got them to the Finals last year. They bring Hedo back and add Foye. They get four million dollars for their trouble that would come from the Wizards' NBA refund for being under the tax (the Wiz still save about 18 million in this deal so they can pony up the 4 million).

While I'm not sure I would do this deal if I was Houston (I'm not really sold on Bosh heading there), it seems like they are interested in CB4 so I'd imagine they be down with it. The trade helps every team reach their goal and they all improve their rosters. Obviously this deal will never happen but I think it works.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know that I just wrote that I was going to move the Tryout to Thursday but I couldn't wait to post Vampire Weekend's new album. When their debut album dropped, it was on heavy rotation on my ITunes/IPod. Unfortunately, as time wore on, the novelty of the new sound wore off. I still like the album but now I often skip the songs when they pop up. Their new album doesn't do much do improve upon the debut IMO. The first songs all lacked any real emotion and by the time the first single "Cousins" came up, I was pretty much tired of listening to the album. It's not an outright miss ala Bloc Party's sophomore release but there's just not much here for me.

I felt somewhat the same about the new album from Imaad Wasif. The album sounds like if Radiohead had been on Prozac when they recorded "The Bends". It's a solid album but has no real drive to it. The songs float along and after a few tracks, I found myself looking for something else to listen to.

The next thing I listened to was Young Money's release and all that did was further cement me in my old man status. "In my day, hip hop was good!" Yes, the new rap has some strengths and there are a lot of talented guys out there but I'm just not feeling it. One of the main reasons is maybe because I don't feel like any of the MC's are feeling it. At this point, I'd rather listen to DMX's elementary rhymes than something clever but delivered in a monotone style.

There were some electonic albums that came out but those just sounded like noise. I've never really been into OK GO but I might give their album a listen. At first listen, noting about the new record really won me over. I still kind of like all of their tunes but there's just something that doesn't connect with me. I feel like I'd like them in concert but something doesn't translate when they record it. I might have to give it another listen but I feel like it's still going to be quality music that lands with a thud.

Oh well. Guess it's another week of being addicted to The XX.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I made my first stock purchase of the year, picking up 88 shares of YM Biosciences Inc. There was another stock that I wanted to buy but it wasn't available on Sharebuilder so I went with plan B. I'll keep tabs on this stock in the future. My other stocks are so-so. A few of them are going up but Thermo Fisher Scientic option tanked so it basically wiped out any of my gains. On the bright side, that's a June option and it went up 50 cents today and the option is almost in the money so it might not be a bad thing in the long term.

And since I know that my stock strategies (or lack thereof) interest so many of my readers (or not), I'd also like to take a second to suggest downloading the latest Blalock Indie Rock Playlist. I think this month has a lot of interesting songs, although once you start to listen to these playlists, you really learn just how much indie rock is like pop music. Talk about following trends, half of these bands sound like one another and there are very few groups that you can't listen to and almost immediately point out who they're aping. Still, some good music on there. Currently I'm addicted to the new Cold War Kids track "Audience". Like all Cold War Kids songs, I wasn't blown away at first and I feel like the song is just missing something but it's got something about it that makes me listen to it over and over.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Youth in Revolt" is, fittingly, a nice enough movie with some off-the-wall funny parts. The film has an awkward, stilted tone but that works in its favor because it basically tells you to sit back and enjoy the fun and realize that this film isn't realistic at all. IIt's definitely the kind of film that people who stumble upon will really like but if you go in with high expectations, you'll likely be let down. So there's no need to rush out and see in the theaters but I would definitely recommend adding it to the Netflix queue right now.

What the film did make me think about is restarting my rom-com script or starting a new one in which the hero isn't some quirky hipster. I've always wanted to write a film that either focuses on the stereotypical stud after he loses the girl (or maybe at a high school reunion in which he tries to win the girl back) or a film about an perfectly average kid who tries to win the girl. My original idea was a film that was kind of the Scream of rom-coms (and no, that isn't Date Movie, which is the Scary Movie of date movies). The film would center around a jerk who uses what he learned in romantic comedies to win over the girl of his dreams. I'm struggling the most with, well, my laziness, but moreso it's a problem of when to set the film - in high school or a few years after high school. My first outline had a bet involved if he doesn't get the girl (the rom-com standard) but I'm not sure if that's the best approach.

Anyway, the rom-com might be back in the second position on my writing queue; my superhero TV show being the #1 priority right now.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wizards are a team going nowhere. They need to use that to their advantage. While most teams are gearing up for 2010, the Wizards would be wise to give up on this offseason and look towards 2011. Not only will two of Baltimore's Finest be free agents that year (Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, who'd be a restricted free agent) but suddenly their expiring contracts would have more value. The Wizards could find themselves able to get some decent talent back if they are willing to eat a team's unwanted 2010 contract.

Of course, there's one thing holding these types of deals back; the Wizards want to cut payroll. ESPN's John Hollinger has some interesting deals but I'm really not sure why the Magic would be that fired up about them. Mike Miller's an improvement over JJ Redick and I guess DeShawn Stevenson could take some of Mickeal Pietrus's minutes but would the Magic really want to pay even more luxury tax money for them?

Rather than make that deal, I would rehaul the franchise, cut costs, and bring in some young talent. Here are the deals that I think are realistic and could help reboot the Wizards while helping them avoid the luxury tax.

Trade 1: Caron Butler (and Hamed Haddadi and Marcus Williams) to Portland, Andre Miller (and Steven Hunter) to Washington, Randy Foye, Travis Outlaw, Patty Mills, and Fabricio Oberto to the Grizzlies.
The Blazers add a small forward to team with Brandon Roy and get a warm body in Oberto to help fill out their frontcourt. The Grizzlies agree to take back Outlaw's expiring deal (he's out for the season) for two solid backup guards in Foye and Mills and a big man in Oberto. As for the Wizards, the deal saves them 4.7 million and brings them a true point guard to run the show. Washington is a perfect situation for Miller since Flip runs an up-tempo offense and 'Dre would be the focal point. Also, he's played with 'Melo before so he could entice Carmelo to come over.

Trade 2: Mike Miller and DeShawn Stevenson for Eddy Curry and Wilson Chandler
If the Wizards can get Danilo Gallinari, all the better. I just don't think the Knicks are going to give him up. Wilson Chandler, on the other hand, could be available for any team willing to take Curry's contract. Even better, this deal saves close to another 2 million for the Wizards.

Next up would be trying to find someone to take back Antawn Jamison and his contract. I think there are some salary dumps available, like Jamison for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but the deal I'd try to make before giving up home and just giving away Jamison would be a two part deal with the Warriors.

Trade 3a: Antawn Jamison and Dominic McGuire for Brandan Wright, Kelenna Azubuike, Speedy Claxton, and Devean George.
The Warriors get a PF who should be perfect for Nellieball and adds a legit scorer to their frontcourt. The Wizards get a couple of young prospects. Kelenna Azubuike is a solid swingman while Brandan Wright has never been able to live up to his potential because of injuries. I just can't see the Warriors holding on to either of these guys since they have a lot of players at their positions already.

Trade 3b: Mike James for Vlad Radmanovic
Vlad Rad can't be traded alone with other players so this deal has to be separate. To entice the Warriors to take on Jamison's long term deal, the Wizards give them some savings in 2010 by taking back Radmanovic's 6 million bucks.

That would cut about 6.6 million off of the 8.7 million dollars luxury tax payment and would still have expiring deals of Brendan Haywood and Javarris Crittenton kicking around. Maybe the Pacers would swap Jeff Foster for those two, knocking another 1.4 million off of the ledger.

I'm sure there is some tweaking and rejiggering that could get this to get the Wizards under the luxury tax but I think it's a decent way to make some trades, add some young talent along, and start to put together a team that could be good enough to entice some free agents to come in 2011.

Posted by SoulHonky at 01:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, it looks like Chris Bosh is back in the news and that Bryan Colangelo might have finally awoken from his dream of CB4 staying in Toronto. ESPN is reporting that Bosh could be headed to Houston or Chicago. But are those the best deals? Probably not but they are the most likely since the team acquiring Bosh faces a major risk of giving up talent for a guy who could leave this off-season.

I've thrown out trade options a few times before already but why not do it one more time. Here are the top 10 trade "options" that the Raptors have. In most cases, the trades are 99.9% unlikely but I think both teams should consider them.

1. LA Lakers: Gasol and Bosh together in the frontcourt with Kobe? It's possible. The Lakers can deal Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, and DJ Mbenga for Bosh and Sonny Weems. The Raptors aren't going to get a better offer than very talented young center to team with Bargnani along with a versatile forward in Odom who should fit Colangelo's gameplan. (Some teams like the Warriors could match that offer talent-wise but I doubt they would since the odds of Bosh re-signing with them are slim-to-none.) The question is: would the front runners for this year's NBA title want to mess with what they've got going? I'd say yes because Gasol, Bosh, Artest, and Kobe is a dynasty in the making.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder: Bosh re-signing in OK City is a major question mark so this deal is very unlikely, however Jeff Green. James Harden, Etan Thomas, and Matt Harpring for Bosh and Marcus Banks is a damn good offer and not the biggest of risks for the Thunder. I think the sticking point would be that the Thunder might want to offer Thabo Sefalosha instead of Harden. Maybe Thabo and a pick makes it work. Still, it's a solid risk because the reward of Bosh, Durant, and Westbrook is too enticing. As for the Raptors, they get two young prospects who fit their gameplan and expiring contracts. Not too shabby.

3. Orlando Magic: This one is completely unrealistic because of the way it shakes up a team that is one of the favorites to get to the Finals out of the East but the possibility of Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh might be too good to pass up. The Magic would have to give up Rashard Lewis and Marcin Gortat for Chris Bosh, Marcus Banks, and Reggie Evans. The Raptors re-team Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu and also get a legit big man to back-up/play with Andrea Bargnani. The other scary possibility is that, if the Magic could re-sign Bosh, they might be able to work a sign-and-trade for Dwyane Wade as well (shipping Vince Carter to Miami). That's an even bigger longshot than the Bosh deal but the Magic should be asking themselves if they want to ride it out with their current team or risk it in order to go after a dynasty.

4.Detroit: The Pistons have an arsenal of players to offer and, honestly, they don't have to worry that much if they can't re-sign Bosh because they probably need to cut some weight anyway. The first deal that sprung to mind was Rip Hamilton, Charlie Villanueva, and Austin Daye for Bosh and Marcus Banks. Of course, Ben Gordon or Tayshaun Prince could be substituted in there as could Jonas Jerebko. Detroit should make a move for Bosh but I'm just not sure if they actually will.

5. Miami: The Heat could offer an interesting package, including Toronto's own #1 draft pick this year (which they gave up in the JO/Marion deal). O'Neal, Beasley, Chalmers, Toronto and Miami's #1 picks for Bosh, Jarrett Jack, and Marcus Banks. The Raptors clear out a couple of contracts, get a solid backup PG and young PF prospect as well as a couple of first round picks. The Heat would probably go for even less (if the Raptors aren't interested in trading Jack) because they could easily re-sign Bosh. And to be honest, I don't think Wade likes playing with Beasley that much so I don't think he'd miss him either way.

6.Knicks: Bosh and Rasho Nestrovic for David Lee, Danilo Gallinari, Jared Jeffiries, and Marcus Landry? Not too shabby. A Lee/Bargnani/Gallinari frontcourt would be pretty interesting. Of course, Hedo's still in Toronto but I think they could probably move him for a decent shooting guard. Of course, if Lee leaves via free agency then all they got for Bosh was Gallinari and Jeffiries, which doesn't make the deal all that much better. If this deal went down, it would have to open up a fire sale with Jose Calderon and Hedo going as well and I'm not sure if Colangelo is ready to admit that this team needs to be blown up.

7.Houston: I don't think that the Raptors faithful would take kindly to dealing Bosh for ex-Rap Tracy McGrady. My guess is that any deal would have to include Trevor Ariza. Ariza, Scola (or Carl Landry), Lowry, and Brian Cook could work and that, realistically, might be the best offer Toronto will see. With limited cap space, it's not like letting Bosh walk will allow the Raptors to go after another free agent. And who would sign there? If they can get that offer, or anything even close to it, they'd probably have to make it happen.

8.Charlotte: Boris Diaw and Raymond Felton. Bryan Colangelo brings in former Sun Boris Diaw up to Toronto as well as Felton. They might want to swap Felton somewhere else (or, better yet, try to find a taker for Jose Calderon) but the deal brings in a guy who can play uptempo and handle the center spot while Andrea Bargnani moves to PF. The Bobcats could also offer DJ Augustin, Derrick Brown, or swap out Diaw for Tyson Chandler. Maybe they even try to sell high on Gerald Wallace. There are a lot of options but the main question is: can the Bobcats get Bosh to re-sign? Then again, adding Bosh could guarantee their first ever playoff appearance so that could be worth it.

10.Chicago Bulls: Yes, they have the pieces but I just don't think Tyrus Thomas is that appealing, especially since he has contract negotiations coming this offseason. Kirk Hinrich is nice but not somebody that would entice me to make a deal. The Bulls would probably reject any offer including Joakim Noah so I'm just not seeing this trade working out unless the Raptors either really like Ty Thomas or have no other even halfway decent options on the table.

10.Nets: The Nets have a lot of young talent and a great pick in next year's draft (although, one would assume that it wouldn't be as good if Bosh arrived) but are they really willing to part with the pick or Brook Lopez in order to go after Bosh? My guess is no which is why the Nets aren't in the hunt.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think I'm going to move The Tryout to Thursdays. I tried to do it on Tuesday which is when albums come out but it's just too hard for me to sort through new music that quickly. Anyway, my excuses aside, I really decided to post this because Living Colour finally came out with a new album. Considered a one hit wonder by many (that one hit being "Cult of Personality"), I was a huge fan back in the day. I think that the whole Vivid album is amazing and their second record Time's Up is woefully underrated. They had some internal strife after that and delivered the harder Stain which was inconsistent. I didn't like what I've heard sine then.

Unfortunately, "The Chair in the Doorway" is a return to form but more towards Stain than their best work. The first track starts slowly but has a catchy chorus. I've listened to a few of the other tracks and it's not that great. Right now, I think Living Colour's best option for a next album would be a cover album, since they've always been amazing at that.

Anyway, for this week's Tryout, I decided to just turn back the clock to Living Colour's overlooked "Time's Up". The song gets off to a rough start but really comes together at the end. "Solace of You" is a hidden gem. Looking back at it, Vivid is by far their best album (I'll embed both; Continue Reading for them) but Time's Up still has some great tunes.

As for other albums, I haven't really found anything. I know that the coming weeks have some big releases (Vampire Weekend, Spoon, Cold War Kids EP) and hopefully I can stumble upon some other albums along the way.

Here's my favorite song off of Stain.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so here's the list of the movies that I saw this year (well, the ones that I watched all the way through. I'm not counting films that I didn't get through). It's in ranked order. Here are the top five and the bottom 1.

1. Watchmen - I know that this is a love-hate movie but it touched upon a lot of things that I've always wanted to write about in terms of superhero mythology. I loved it but I will readily admit that it is flawed and I wouldn't be at all surprised if some people ranked it as one of the worst movies of the year.

2. Taken - Again, I wouldn't argue that this is a great movie but I was completely enthralled by it. Yes, "it" is basically little more than Liam Neeson running around karate chopping people in the throat but it worked for me. A throwback to the no nonsense action flicks of the 80's.

3. The Hangover - I checked it out on opening weekend, headed in with low expectations, and was very surprised at how funny it was. I'm not sure if I would have been as thrilled with it if I had seen it after the hype blew up but I still think it would rank as one of the better comedies of the decade.

4. Avatar - This is the first 3D movie I think I've ever seen so I was blown away by the technology. Some people have told me that the movie was five years too late and some of the 3D is movies like "My Bloody Valentine" actually trumped this film but I thought the story was cohesive enough to keep me interested. However, the characters are laughably thin, their relationships are afterthoughts, and I'm not buying Sam Worthington as the Next Big Thing (and no, it's not just because his accent went in and out throughout the movie). While it's #4 on my list, I would probably say that if you don't see Avatar in the theaters and in 3D then there's not a ton of reason to see it at all. The theme is nice but not enough IMO.

5. Thirst - I didn't love the pacing but it was surprisingly funny and was an interesting look at vampires.

As for the worst movie of the year, Bride Wars is such a miserable movie that I really have no idea how it was made. Even the premise doesn't sound appealing. It's two unlikable girls fighting over a wedding venue. (And I'm pretty sure that the film was shot in Boston and the venue in question isn't even that amazing.) I'm sure it got greenlit because of the bridezilla craze but those shows work because you can sit back at how ridiculous some of these people REALLY are. Once the situations are fake and the audience is supposed to somehow feel for these characters, everything falls apart. And in an ironic twist, the film itself, like the bridezillas it hopes to mock, fails to recognize the real meaning of marriage.

6. Up in the Air - Another movie that was surprisingly funny. I laughed out loud quite a bit at this movie. Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the more problems I have with it. Then again, maybe that's one of its strengths - you can sit back analyze and debate it for hours on end and still have new ideas about it in the morning.

7. Drag Me To Hell - Funny and scary with the right amount of camp. I don't think I'll ever look at a Hang In There kitty poster without laughing because of this film.

8. Sugar - I think I have to see this again because I was really thrown by one of the key twists early in the movie. This is NOT a sports movie. It's the story about an immigrant's journey and it involves sports but if you're looking for a movie about someone really committed to making it, you're going to be scratching your head.

9. (500) Days of Summer - I was a big fan of this movie but it was just missing something. Maybe it was the fact that the end didn't really live up to the brutal honesty of the rest of the film but there was just something that didn't click.

10. Sherlock Holmes - A late addition to the list (and I screwed up saving the Film Rank list to the left and didn't feel like retyping out the full 36 list) and it's this high based solely on the performances, dialogue, and my love of Sherlock Holmes. It could just as easily drop down to in between District 9 and Duplicity but for now I'll put it here.

11. Julie & Julia - If this was just about Julia Childs, it might have been my favorite movie of the year. Unfortunately, the Julie section took up half of the movie and that character just isn't that likable. The fact that Julia Childs didn't like the blog and considered it a "stunt" (which is what it was) kind of made the entire dual storylines a failed experiment.

12. Tyson - Mike Tyson in his own words. This film just lets Iron Mike present himself and lets the audience make up their own minds about him and his journey.

13. The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow should definitely win Best Director because she turned an unreal script that featured the same kind of simple set piece (defusing a bomb) over and over again into a nail biter. Unfortunately, the film was a lot of the same set piece over and over again and there were just too many unrealistic moments in the film. It featured one of my favorite shots of the year (Jeremy Renner's character staring at the cereal aisle at the supermarket) but I just wanted more from this.

14. The Brothers Bloom - A cute heist caper that I see is kind of a more light-hearted companion to last year's underrated "In Bruges".

15. State of Play - A competent political thriller that didn't live up to the standard set by the BBC mini-series on which it was based.

16. Zombieland - Just a fun movie. A great rainy day flick.

17. Extract - I really liked pieces of this movie but it didn't come together. Not quite sure why. Maybe I just wasn't able to connect with the main character enough. It's a fun movie but not one that I'd necessary recommend. It's a check-it-out-on-cable type flick.

18. District 9 - The hype overshadowed the movie and set up some really misplaced expectations. This is an action movie, plain and simple. Yes, the premise could be a parable but the final act is basically just an out-and-out actioner. I might like it better if I see it again but it was not what I was expecting and I was disappointed by what it was.

19. Duplicity - There was just nothing about this film to separate it from the countless other heist films we've seen in the past. I wouldn't say that there's anything wrong with the movie but there's also nothing really right about it either.

20. Star Trek - I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of JJ Abrams and a lot of his gimmicks annoy me. I felt like this film had a number of "Wait, what?!" moments and the villain was basically a big baby. I think Abrams does a lot of great things but I feel like he asks for a lot of small suspensions of disbelief and those usually add up to me being annoyed by a film.

21. Inglourious Basterds - The titular characters were the worst part of the movie. Take them out and build up the Shoshanna/Landa story and this could be my favorite film of the year. Waltz should win best supporting actor and the opening of the scene of this film is one of the best scenes of the year. But I felt like the film was bogged down by the Basterds and you could really feel Tarantino's b-movie fetish weighing down a grade A film.

22. Public Enemies - If Inglourious Basterds might be ranked too low, this movie might be ranked too high. This film lived and died by Johnny Depp's charisma. Sadly, even Depp wasn't able to make this movie all that interesting.

23. He Just Not That Into You - Kind of the schmaltzy, mainstream ensemble version of (500) Days of Summer in that it spent the first half of the film giving some nice insight into love in the 21st century but then everything just got tied up too neatly. It looked like the film was going to take the rom-com genre in a new direction but it ended up being just another generic romantic comedy.

24. Fired Up! - Honestly, this movie should probably be ranked higher but it's the kind of film that you watch, love, recommend to others, and then when you watch it with them, it's just not as funny as you remembered. It's a b-level comedy but it's very funny and it a throwback to the "Hinjinks Ensue" silly comedies of the 80's.

25. Whip It! - Like Duplicity, there's nothing really wrong with this film but there's nothing all that great about it either. I think my biggest issue was that the characters weren't that strong and we've seen this exact kind of film a million times before, but usually with a few more laugh out loud moments.

26. Fast and Furious - This film is all about the pacing. There's nothing really great about it but it understands what kind of movie it is, never bogs down or takes itself too seriously. It's entertaining but immediately forgettable.

27. Knowing - This film had two or three amazing scenes but I just never got into this film. I didn't care to know what was going on. A lot of it seemed to be about Nic Cage trying to figure out how the world is going to end even though he will be pretty helpless to stop it when and if he does figure it out.

28. The International - A fairly by the number conspiracy thriller.

29. GI Joe - The afterschool cartoon made more sense than this. Also, it rewrote the history of the Joes and made half of them related to one another. I also didn't think the action scenes looked very good and, in fact, they often looked like cartoons. No reason to see this film and I have zero intention of seeing any sequel.

30. The Ugly Truth - An unlikable rom-com with a couple of laughs but no heart.

31. Adventureland - I know people love this movie but I felt like it was a lot of pompous people whining about Woe is Me when they could have done a lot more to get themselves out of their situations. The main character especially just pissed me off to no end.

32. Gomorrah - I really don't get the hype around this one. I thought it was tedious, had too many stories with not enough characters, and it seemed like the moral of the story was The Mafia is bad. Hardly a revelation.

33. Terminator: Salvation - Bar none, the dumbest plan ever. The Machines master plan was one that Wily Coyote would have summarily dismissed as retarded. They pass up chances to kill their main targets multiple times so that they can get him into their lair and... send one Terminator after him? It didn't help that the rest of the movie was terrible as well. This film was a franchise killer.

34. I Love You, Man - I felt like this could have been a half hour long and it still might not have had enough jokes to really keep me entertained.

35. Push - Makes the lousy Pusher look like a competent superhero movie.

36. Spring Breakdown - Just annoying.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Year, Same Old Shit.

If last year was supposed to be the Year of LIving Actually, this year has been dialed down to just being the year of getting my shit together. I'm still feeling the effects of the New Year's Weekend and I spent way too much money and haven't worked out, read, written, or pretty much done anything helpful. Even worse, I didn't have my shit together to find a new Tryout for this morning.

Anyway, this evening I'll hopefully be back with some new music suggestions and I'll spend the rest of the year focusing less on fulfilling new resolutions and more on breaking old bad habits.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The main struggle when writing any mystery, especially one featuring the outstanding mind of Sherlock Holmes, is finding the perfect pace. The audience needs to be a step behind the hero but still in step enough to understand what is going on. Sadly, Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is overlong and the pacing undermines what could have been a wildly entertaining film.

The performance in Holmes are top notch. Robert Downey Jr. is stellar and Jude Law gives a performance that should remind people why he was such a hot property a few years back. Mark Strong also continues his streak of strong supporting roles that will likely be overlooked.

As for the pacing, Holmes has too many action scenes. While not all of them are gratuitous, the film would have been better off with less of a physical chase and more of a mental challenge. In fact, this film completely lacks any trace of a whodunnit and the howdunnit doesn't play a major role in the ending. It's all just a chase to catch Lord Blackwood with some interesting questions thrown in.

I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes so I liked this film, regardless of its structual flaws, but midway through the film I found myself wanting to go and watch the superior (and very similar) "Young Sherlock Holmes". (And it may be no small coincidence that the next role that I ever saw the kid who played Young Sherlock was as a bit player in Ritchie's "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels".

Continue reading for more specific and spoiler-filled reaction.

The biggest flaw with Sherlock Holmes is that at no point is solving the mystery the key to ending the conflict. Holmes basically just needed to apprehend Blackwood. In a better film, Holmes could have captured Blackwood but he was set free but fearful citizens who think that Blackwood does control the dark arts. THEN, Holmes would have to disprove the magic in order to put the case to bed.

Another example of the shortcomings of this film was the complete and utter lack of a red herring. I guess you could say that the Moriarty character was one but, as I mentioned earlier, the film's pacing was so slow that eventually I figured that out. Yet another example of the poorly plotted out story is the issue with the cross which pointed out the killings. This could have been an interesting piece of evidence, a sort of riddle that needed to be deciphered. Sadly, we weren't really even given any real piece of the riddle until Holmes was busy explaining how he solved it.

The initial action beat was interesting but it didn't really add much. In fact, I thought most of the action scenes were a bit tedious and really seemed to lack any stakes - it's not like they were going to kill off Holmes or Watson. While I do consider myself a fan of Guy Ritchie's work, I'd have to say that it would be better for the franchise if he was replaced. The whodunnit angle of Rock 'n' Rolla was fairly weak and as I've stated ad nauseum, it was completely lacking in this film.

Thankfully, Downey Jr. and Law carried the movie and made it very entertaining but they deserved a better mystery and a steadier pace. It's nice to have Sherlock Holmes back but I hope that they raise the bar the next time out.

Posted by SoulHonky at 02:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I initially made this mix for a friend who was giving me a ride on New Year's but I've decided to make it the first SoulMix of 2010. A lot of the songs on it have appeared on 2009 SoulMixes but it's a decent way to start off the year. I'm not sold on my Cowboy Junkies song (in hindsight, "Ring on a Sill" or "Southern Rain" might have been better options) but their cover of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" is probably their most popular song.

Anyway, here's the mix. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)