2010! Just a Hop and a Skip Away from the Apocalypse!

I figured beginning this, the first blog post of a new year, with a direct reference to the End of Days was fitting. Because let's face it: I can get away with acting a lot less concerned about my future if I hold out in the belief that we're all going up in flames roughly 720 days from now... which isn't very many.

Except for first I have to make it through yet another term, packed with 20 credits and a whole shit-ton of thesis writing. Class starts tomorrow. I need to be in my desk chair at 8:30 am. Egads. Good news, though, is that the class in question is titled "Writing About the Arts," which should promise a few tips on how to make these newer posts I've got going on a little more glamorous. Or at least that's the idea. That and I want clips for a resume to land me an internship... at Entertainment Weekly... tell your friends...

Anyway, I just realized - while laying here in bed, in my underwear, trying to decide which movie to write a few feeble paragraphs about - that I watched entirely too much media this break, and for me to choose one (aside from the two I already featured... again, tell your friends!) would be much more agreeable all around. So, here goes a brief mention about all of them:

- Strangers With Candy: Season one of Jerri Blank's return to High School as a 44-year-old ex con is side-splitting at best, moderately chuckle-worthy at worst. A few of my friends refuse to watch because of Amy Sedaris' spot-on portrayal of this former user, loser, and abuser. I say: she makes the show, so deal with the obtuse facial expressions. Stephen Colbert is also stellar.


- Big Love: The Polygamists are coming! And they're totally fucked up! This show's writing may, at times, be a little forgetful of at least one or two of its many varied plotlines, but it's still indescribably intriguing. Fundamentalists may not like to drink or curse, but they do like to have sex... a lot. And keep secrets from the neighbors. And from each other. What's not to get excited about?

- In The Loop: Quick, bitingly satirical, and very British. Government will never look so disorganized again. Watch this one for the pitch-perfect, endlessly inventive dialogue it uses to bounce the story around behind closed doors.

- Fantastic Mr. Fox: Perfect. Love the color palette, the score, the soundrack, the humor, the story, the animation style, the talking animals. Not embarrassed to admit I've been three times, if only to make up for all those who, for some absurd reason, refuse to go watch this one.


- Coraline: Creepy? Check. Set in Oregon? Check. 3D? Check.

- Star Trek: First full-length Blu-Ray experience. I don't really appreciate the show, but this movie kicked some serious ass. I probably owe my good time to director JJ Abrams, whose brain seems to house the factory for all things I love these days. Keep it up, buddy.