Avatar: a Beautiful high-grossing corn ball film

If you are a colossal nerd such as my self, then as soon you heard that James Cameron was launching the most expensive movie ever made you began to salivate. Quickly you were in the first line to witness this spectacle. James Cameron has had an amazing track record. He reinvented science fiction more times then we can count, and created the highest grossing film of all time that also launch the brilliant careers of Leonardo Dicaprio, and Kate Winslet.

So is Avatar, the movie hailing the return of Cameron to big budget movies, worth every cent of the hefty 14 dollar price tag that you have to pay in order to sit with huge ugly 3-D glasses and look like a complete fool? A resonding "yes".

If you can get past how kind of corny it is.

Avatar tells a very old story. A story that western literature has been making since they discovered America. The idea of the noble indigenous, who is interconnected with the world around him, and the west who relays on technology coming to destroy everything the indigenous holds dear. Any one who has seen Fern Gully has seen the major plot points to this film.

Not one for subtlety, Cameron beams you in the head with his themes and allusions. The invaders are clearly Western expansionists and capitalist. The Navi (the blue aliens in this film) run the gambit between Native Americans, and Africans (I don't think one white actor was used for the motion capture for the Navi tribes). There are meta-physical undertones: we are all connected, nature is a separate entity that is able to reason and feel pain, etc. Even inter-species/racial love that is becoming more and more prevalent in this post-Obama world.

So we seen this fable. Yet unlike most big budget films, Cameron has been able to recreate this story that keeps us both grip and engaged. Avatar is a gorgeous film. The CGI created for that film is damn near scary sometimes how realistic it actual looks. You are stunned from the moment the protagonist lands on the world, and remains that way until the ending credits (which are shot in a breath taking arial shots of Pandora). Cameron has been able not only to redefine what it means to work with CGI, but what it means to create a film, and has set the bar for every film to follow.

It is also a shame that the CGI characters have a deeper emotional arch then some of the "acting" that has been seen recently in American media. Its hard not to feel a pinch at some of the expressions, the subtlety of pain and loss, and the exhilaration they feel. Yes there are moments when you are clearly watching a computer generated image, and there are moments when you are taken aback by how human these creatures actually look.

Avatar is a gorgeous film that has reinvented the spectacle of how movies are made. Though it is not as deep as it will make you believe it is, it is thoroughly enjoyable and will capture the imagination of theater goers everywhere. Just don't be disappointed when there isn't a gigantic pollution monster who sings a funk tune.

I hate my job...

So people have been telling me to blog about my job. Why? Because it sucks. I work at a Virginia ABC Store, aka a liquor store. A lot of people think working at a liquor store would be fun because you are surrounded by booze all day. They think you get a discount on liquid gold. Both of these statements are FALSE. The job sucks, and the characters you interact get on my damn nerves. I took the liberty tonight at work to compile all the shit (mostly the people) that piss me off and get on my nerves. The job sucks…

Read my venting... NOW.

~Impatient people.

~White boys who act as though they have something to prove to the black guy.

~People who take their job too seriously.

~People without power who act like they do.

~People who think they are better than others.

~Co-workers who make horrible music and ask me to listen to it. I’m too nice to tell you it sucks.

~Cindy. I hate that bitch.

~People who don’t take their damn receipts and leave them on the counter. I’m not the garbage man.

~People who already smell like alcohol and are looking to purchase more.

~Asians. They NEVER know what they want.

~Customers with “the shakes” that are buying alcohol for me.

~Older ladies who sing “I love it when you call me big poppa” to me in attempts to get my attention.

~Old Italians who refer to black people as “mooks” to me, also a black person.

~Co-workers who suggest I use Viagra on my girlfriend.

~People who come in and pretend to be drunk already. If I told your ass you can’t buy shit, you’d be mad at me right?

~People of the orient. They never know what they want.

~People who ask me if I believe the governor of Virginia is really going to privatize the liquor industry. I really don’t care.

~People who come in “just to look” and don’t buy shit. I think they’re stealing, but I don’t care enough to investigate.

~People who come in the store and interrupt me when I’m on the phone w/ Jonny Casanova. I know I’m at work but I wanna talk shit about you to my friend so leave.

~Former employees of the Virginia ABC and wanna talk all damn day as if they already know everything. Get out.

~Customers to talk to me about fucking. WE ARE NOT FRIENDS.

~Customers who don’t like the way I bag their shit. Does it matter? The shit inside will STILL get you drunk.

~Regulars.

~Customers who beat me to work even when I open the store. They just wait outside in the cold. Alcoholics.

~Fred Smoot.

~People who ask for beer.

~People who act like it’s my fault we don’t have what they want.

~Why do the Mexicans always ONLY have $100 bills?

~People who only buy the mini bottles of alcohol. Restocking those tiny ass bottles with my big meaty hands is a BITCH.

~Gay niggas who try to buy $1700 in alcohol, including Nuvo, with stolen credit cards.

~The co-worker who always calls outta work.

~The fact that the managers are ok w/ aforementioned co-worker nigga never showing up and making me work harder for the same amount of money.

~THE BITCH WHO KEEPS TRYING TO SELL ME COLOGNE (bootleg Polo Black) OUT HER DAMN PURSE! Waddle ur ass back to ur car and go home.

~Truck day. Unloading that thing is a bitch.

~Asians.

I’m done venting… I hate my job. Think urs is worse? Try me.

L’Chaim…. P!ed P!per

What's Right With: Law and Order: SVU

A few weeks ago I wrote a little write up on a favorite show of mine: The Golden Girls. This week I want to talk about another show that I greatly enjoy. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit is my favorite mystery and crime show on television and it should be yours too. Now I realize that you have probably watched the show and probably like it as well but that has never stopped me from telling you why you should like something you already like.

What’s Right

Shits Fucked Up: I do hope you can excuse my language but I wanted to be frank with this one as it is a phrase I utter or think during every episode. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) deals with cases in New York City involving crimes of a sexual nature. These are the types of crimes that will having you shaking your head in disbelief and increase your sense of disappointment in the human race. Each and every week I find myself amazed at how disturbing the episodes can be. Whether it’s a story about a kiddie toucher turned murderer or a sexual offender back to his old tricks, the level of depravity on SVU is of the charts.

It’s a proper mystery: Although this may also be a flaw of the show it always keeps me in front of the television. Every episode begins with a shocking display of the crime or the discovery of the crime scene itself. What follows is a series of twists and turns as the detectives work through their list of leads and suspects. The entire time the viewer is invited to make their own assumptions about who is guilty. Is it the man in the dark trench coat? Is it the lady at the fish market? Or perhaps the family dog? Simply put the show keeps you consistently guessing who has committed the crime. Unfortunately however the show does pull a cheap trick of making the actual guilty party hidden until the last moments of the show. This means that no matter how clever the audience has been they will rarely be correct in their prediction of who committed the crime. Cheap trick? Yes. But does it keep you watching? Hell yes.

It has Ice T: I am not as crazy about hip hop as Bob George or the rest of my peers on this blog but I do enjoy it. I have always respected and enjoyed Ice-T as an entertainer much more so than as rapper. In SVU he plays the role of Fin Tutuola, who is the wise talking and street smart minority cop. Although the role Ice-T plays is fairly generic as a minority he is still very fun to watch and he does add an additional amount of coolness to the show. Also worth noting is the fact that Ice-T wrote a song about killing cops, the song was called Cop Killer, and now he is on TV playing as a cop. IRONY.

The cast is attractive: There is nothing better than watching attractive people doing interesting things, which is something SVU has. The female characters have a sense of understated beauty which I absolutely love in a woman. Sure there is something great about a lady whose looks simply knock you on your ass but I really like the tough beauty that is the cast of SVU. The lead character Olivia Benson walks the line well of being a tough cop yet sensitive and feminine and her looks play in that role nicely. My personal favorite is the Assistant District Attorney, Casey Novak (shown in picture above). Once again she is not the type of pretty that would not stop traffic per say, but she is still absolutely beautiful, plus I love a smart woman in a smart suit. I would totally let her sentence me, to a hot date! Am I right guys? I am so right.

It looks great in HD: Let it be known that I am AV nerd of sorts. Although I don’t delve too deep into the confusing world of HDTV specs and numbers I still want all of my programming to be in glorious, mind melting, earth shattering high definition. From the get go SVU has always looked spectacular on any nice HDTV. Law and Order: SVU was actually the first program I saw in HD and it still stands out to me as the gold standard of high definition. Trust me when I say that the moment I plug up my new TV, I will be running it through its paces with an episode of SVU.

What’s Wrong

It’s Cheap: As I alluded to earlier in the article the show seems to invite the viewer to guess and watch closely to find out who is guilty of the crime. The entire episode I sit there taking notes on who has done what, who seems guilty and who seems innocent, but just when I think I have it all figured the out the show says “Ha Ha, I fooled you! The real criminal is the random person I just introduced! Drama!!” Although having a twist ending is interesting and always makes me slap my hands together and say “well damn, I didn’t see that coming.” I can’t help but feel tricked. When the show constantly makes me watch the first 50 minutes of the show only to completely negate that time by introducing a major twist in the last 10 minutes I can’t help but to feel that I have wasted my time. The feeling is never enough to put me off the show, but it simply feels like a lazy attempt to keep me watching for the show’s entirety. But hell, it does work, so good on ‘em.

The Verdict

Law and Order SVU is a big hit in my family and a favorite of my mother. My mother has very good taste, so logic tells us that Law and Order SVU is good. Watch it.

Law and Order SVU airs on NBC on Wednesday’s at 9pm eastern. The show also airs damn near constantly on USA on weeknights.

music

today's topic: music

tv on the radio - dear science: my favorite album of all-time. if you don't like this album, i don't like you

the roots - game theory: this is what classic hip-hop should sound like. this sound is timeless. favorite rap album of all-time

the black keys - attack & release: dangermouse has good ears

d'angelo - voodoo: sonically, there has never been a better r&b album.

little brother - the minstrel show: soph. year of college....good times.


j dilla - donuts: dilla's magnum opus....RIP.

little brother - the listening: NC represent!!!! buy this album.

tv on the radio - return to cookie mountain: my favorite song in LIFE is wolf like me....i get extremely energized listening to that record.

q-tip - the renaissance: i've never been more excited for an album coming out. it came out election day of 2008. i listened to this album as i voted for pres. obama

Tiger Tiger Woods Ya’ll

So Tiger is up to 9 broads he’s cheated with… These are three reasons why I think this is true. These are also reasons why guys cheat. Ladies, please pay attention…

1) We get bored- Keep it spicy ladies. Do some internet research, find out how to do somethings you don’t know how to do already. Surprise a dude. We get tired of banging the same chick all the time. Doesn’t mean we need a brand new chick, we just need for you to come at us with different approaches. Just be butt naked when I come in from work one day. Just pull out my jones while were watching TV and do something unexpected. No prompting. Keep us guessing and we’ll do the same.

2) We love the chase more than the prize- The chase makes the first hook-up feel like a prize. Guys think, “This is it. I been trying so hard for this moment. NOW I get to capitalize” After the capitalization, some dudes just wanna move on and find a new prize. Don’t get attached and you’re not getting cheated on.

3) CUZ HE CAN- Tiger Woods is the number one athlete in the world. He can do as many blonde bimbos as he wishes. I mean he apparently sucks as a family man cuz he cheated on his wife and his kids in my opinion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the number didn’t reach 15 or 20. I’m sure he’s cheated with at least that many.

And now a sentence about each one of the women he has cheated with THUS far…




This one is SMART.  She shut the hell up til she got a lawyer.  She bout to get paid.  She dope wit two ugly dogs. A rich white woman.





They say she's one of the least cutest of the bunch, if she's the worst, Tiger got game.











She's ok.  Niggas like chicks with power.  He can beat it up and feel like he accomplished something.  Smash with the power of the cash.








She's soooo cute and adorable.  Also looks like his wife.  Tiger likes the baby face too.










This bitch is using the receipts from wire transfers from Tiger to gain custody of her son.  She know how to use a nigga with money.

EVERY nigga wanna have sex with a white porn star.  Don't let a single one lie to you.  I just wish Tiger woulda looked a bit harder...








 Tiger. WTF. She is BUSTED.  Tiger is slackin in his pimpin'.  You should never cheat with a chick uglier than the chick you already got.  Rule #1.








This porn star is a step up, or maybe im just partial to blondes.  How do YOU feel about fake titties Tiger?






~There's another chick trying to stay hidden, she gonna be put on blast eventually...

~The ninth one is the funniest one to me.  She hasn't completely come out yet, but she was having an affair with Tiger BEFORE he got married... How does that shit work?


Keep fucking Mr. Woods...


L'Chaim.... P!ed P!per
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Prog Hop Or Art Hop

Being swamp this week at work, I can't really go in depth as I want to on this subject. Prog Rock is a genre of Rock where artist attempt to create high art for Rock, putting it into the realm of opera and classical music. Bands like Pink Floyd, Metalica, Zeppelin, etc. have all experimented with attempting to create high art with Rock music. So I decided to search for a couple of artist who if not trying to forum some sort of "high" art, but walking the thin line between American Musical genres. Enjoy.

Lupe and Matthew Santos Accoustic "Superstar"


Paul Dateh



Mos Def use of classical drums for "Quiet Dog"


The Rolling Stones remix with the Neptunes



Run DMC and Aerosmith

Tiger Woods

Get off the nigga's dick America.


Just for you Leslie

Funny Video

Black man lost his cool BIG TIME!! HAHA