The-Daily-Show

Brilliant game. (Photo by Eddie Shannon) Thanks to a snowstorm Katie, Min, Lee, and I got to play some Left 4 Dead. I’d forgotten how sharp that game’s design was! Movies Nein. TV The Amazing Race - I was spot on with my predictions last week. Super fun episode and, surprisingly, Tim and Marie ended up my favorite racers by the end. The Daily Show - Watched a few eps here and there, but the white/black Santa bit was…HILARIOUS. Definitely watch the opening 10 mins or so of the Evangeline Lilly episode. So hilarious. ...

Everyone loves to mock it, but it’s home. It’s that time of year again, everyone. Baseball season has begun anew! Movies Ruby Sparks - Way darker than I expected it to be, but, then again, I always expected it to be skewering the manic pixie dream girl trope. Well acted and quick. I dug it more than 500 Days TV 30 Clubs in 30 Days - Watched the Orioles breakdown with Katie. Pretty fun. I think the team will exceed expectations this year too. ...

Baseball’s finally back. Sure, it’s in spring training, but it’s BACK! Whoops! Sorry about the week off there! Back to the grind. It’s also baseball season (still spring training) again! YAY! Movies Skyfall - I didn’t have a seamless, uninterrupted viewing thanks to Chinese food and plumbers and plumbing catastrophes, but this was definitely a beautiful movie. I’d like to watch it again to let it all sink in. ...

Wreck it Ralph 2 Had me a long weekend and I managed to get back into the movie mood. Too bad none of them were quite as good as I was hoping. Movies Wreck-It Ralph - Not as good as I thought it would be. I mean, it’s still a decent caliber movie, but it doesn’t soar to the heights of, say, WALL-E. I felt like the video game worlds they invented ultimately weren’t that interesting, but it was otherwise pretty good. ...

Pitch Perfect -0 Thanks to the long weekend this is posting a little later than usual. I also jammed a ton of TV in this week thanks to all that extra time. Movies The Guard - Irish movie about an Irish policeman who is one of those curmudgeonly old man types. Funny, but ultimately not that substantive. Worth seeing if you’ve got a free afternoon. Pitch Perfect - I loved most of the music in this movie and I always enjoy Anna Kendrick on the silver screen. Mostly I found myself impressed by how well she inhabited her role. The other two movies I saw her in, Up in the Air and 50/50, had her in a much more professional, trying to be respected role. Here she’s aged back to 18 and everything about her performance reflects that. Good, fun stuff. Go see it. ...

Sunny Isles Beach, FL. Summer’s gone and the regular baseball season ends this week, but that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Movies Almost, but no. TV Sherlock - The Hounds episode was terrible. I like Sherlock when his mysteries are solved with thorough detective work and deduction, not the kind of gobbledegook that we had with the hallucinogens and the weird hound. Very disappointing episode, way more so than the Chinese smuggler episode from the first series. ...

Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation Lino Block Print Not everything’s back yet, but TV! It’s back! Movies Cabin in the Woods - Watched about 20 mins while Scarlett was napping. I wonder what Danielle’s gonna end up thinking of the movie. I’m a huge fan. Love Fran Kranz TV The Daily Show - The Romney gaffe-fest made for some interesting commentary this week. Love the bit about how being Latino would make everything easier. Yeah, try being a minority for real Romney… ...

2456259-psy-ladies-gangnam-style-617-409 This week was ridiculous, guys. I mean, so much K-Pop and so much Jazz! It’s like highs and lows here. Add in some fantastic TV shows and ninjas and you’ve got my media week. Movies Sleepwalk With Me - Mike Birbiglia and Ira Glass’ first joint movie project was a resounding success. It’s pretty much an adaptation of his stage show, but, as Min pointed out, we’ve seen this performed two or three times and it still feels really fresh. An excellent freshman effort. Catch it if it hasn’t left your city. ...

Home (For Now) I’ve been officially Min’s roommate for a week+ and it’s been awesome so far. So glad to not be in that basement… Movies Margaret - This was a really challenging movie. The plot centers around a 17-year-old girl who inadvertently causes a bus accident that kills a pedestrian, throwing her life into chaos as she struggles to deal with her guilt among friends and family that she feels don’t get her. It’s a real hurricane of emotions and it vividly reminded me of the idealism and stupidity of my teenage years. I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone looking for a light diversion, but it was still good. ...

I have a complicated relationship with The Daily Show. Well, it’s actually not that complicated: I fell out of caring about politics, mostly because of TDS’s incredible skill at lambasting the ridiculousness of it all. Watching Jon Stewart stopped being funny and started being really, really sad. Not long ago I started checking out the New Yorker website and listening to their politics, including The Political Scene. Listening to more serious political talk has enabled me to get back into it and to consider enjoying The Daily Show again. ...