Justified

I don’t think it’s possible for you all to understand how pumped I am for baseball to come back this year. It’s been a long, hard offseason, but spring training is off the ground and I’m super pumped. Movies Higher Ground - Vera Farmiga (and her sister Taissa) stars in this intelligent movie about a woman constantly seeking religion, but unable to arrive at the faith and two-way relationship she so desperately craves. It’s beautiful and slow and it’s fantastic work by Farmiga. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Man, nothing else on television is close to as good as this show is right now. (Photo courtesy flipittyjupe2)”] [/caption] It was a hectic, busy weekend that resulted in me becoming an uncle. So glad that the delivery was ok, but now I’m crossing my fingers for everyone to get healthy soon. Movies Almost watched one this week! Didn’t though. TV Justified - The stuff with the organ thieves was awesome. Also the scenes with Limehouse have been stellar. Tensions are running super high in Harlan County and I can’t wait to see what happens. Definitely the best action drama on air right now. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“409” caption=“The journey is over. (Photo courtesy Sold Out Activist)”] [/caption] Big TV week for me. A lot of huge episodes and great acting made me a very happy viewer. Movies I was supposed to watch Hanna this weekend, but I never got around to it. TV Samurai Champloo - Turned out to be a show about transition and the end of things. About an age where Japan was forced to move forward and accept the great wave washing over it. Combining that with hip hop was a great idea. Mugen’s final battle was annoyingly unsatisfying. With Jin and Fuu at least the fight had something to do with the plot. The guys Mugen fought were not plot-relevant at all to anything that happened in the series. Also, everyone took ridiculous amounts of abuse and damage and then just lived to tell the tale? ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“26! (Photo courtesy DJOtaku)”] [/caption] Everything’s all creaky and sore and old, but just because I’m 26 and old doesn’t mean you guys don’t get to find out what I’ve been doing. Movies Drive - Finally got around to catching this movie. Min was accurate in calling it more of an art movie than an action movie. Ryan Gosling’s pure rage and “coolness” bordered on psychopathic and I actually sympathized with Albert Brooks’ villain character. This movie is not for the faint of stomach. Lots of brutal violence. Has an 80s ambiance too that’s reinforced by the synth-heavy (and awesome) chillwave soundtrack ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Here’s a suggestion: If you’re playing Cave Story for the first time, don’t pick hard mode (Photo courtesy escaped.monkey)”] [/caption] Busy weekend with lots of media consumed. That kind of thing happens when I hang out with Min. Movies The Descendants - Shailene Woodley was a revelation as Alex in this movie. Excellent acting. George Clooney was also quite good. Pretty chill movie and worth seeing, even if the land ownership subplot is kind of tacked on and not as interesting. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“This is a French video game for sure. (Picture courtesy Giant Bomb)”] [/caption] Movies Evangelion 1.11 - Min has never seen Evangelion all the way through, so I figured the movies would be the best/easiest way to watch them. Ip Man - I ran into this movie as a “Watch It Again” recommendation on Netflix, so I thought I’d show Min the aggressively pro-Chinese/anti-Japanese parts because I find it funny how blatantly nationalistic this movie is. Also the kung fu is pretty great to watch. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“333” caption=“Blast from the past week. (Photo courtesy robotspacer)”] [/caption] Movies Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - I didn’t technically watch Scott Pilgrim because I was listening to the director commentary with Bryan Lee O’Malley. Very informative to learn about how autobiographical the story is and about how integrated Edgar Wright’s movie was with the book. TV The Walking Dead - Not killing off Shane was the smartest thing this show did. He’s ice cold and his decision last week was awesome. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“375” caption=“San Diego Comic-Con is coming up this week, so I thought I’d make this week’s post some cosplay”] [/caption] San Diego Comic-Con is upon us and for once I actually read comics. I’m excited to learn about Marvel’s new December event, but, in the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to. Movies: Out of Sight - Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation was a pretty solid flick and about the only thing I’ve ever seen Jennifer Lopez do a fantastic job in. George Clooney turned in a great performance playing his usual role as well. Worth watching for their intriguing chemistry. Love noticing the similarities to other Leonard works like Justified (he loves him some US Marshals, huh?) ...

I’m gonna stick to tv here, but this is a general purpose post, really. Remember in the early aughts when the death of modern tv was imminent due to reality tv? Original programming was over! Reality tv was so cheap and got such high ratings that soon we’d all be watching The Bachelor, Survivor, and American Idol 24/7! What happened instead? Nothing, really. There’s a smaller field of original programming, I suppose, but I think that allows networks to focus on fewer, higher quality shows. I mean, think of all the great tv that has happened since the end was near: ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“354” caption=“Fan-Created Poster of Source Code by Matt Needle”] [/caption] Movies Source Code - Some defect in the genetic composition of my brothers has caused them to write off this movie as garbage. I assure everyone reading that the numbers obtained by Rotten Tomatoes assuring the public that 90% of movie reviewers liked this movie are worth listening to. The “thinking man’s action blockbuster” seems to have become a thing with Inception last year and Duncan Jones delivers. It’s not quite as deep as Nolan’s epic, but still the best option in theaters at the moment. ...