Again, perhaps if they raised their children a little bit better, they wouldn't be such LOSERS!

My beloved Yankees have made it past the Twins to face the Angels in the ALCS. I love October for a number of reasons...the leaves change colors, Halloween, the temperature cools down, and postseason baseball. This is the time of year where I almost lose my voice screaming at the television. I was hoping for a Yankees/Cardinals world series but it was not to be. The Cards got run over by the Dodgers. I was thinking the other night how interesting it would be for the Yanks and Dodgers to square off in the WS since Joe Torre is their ex-manager. It would be an awkward match up but definitely one for the ages. Nobody knows what the Yankees are going to do or can do like Joe Torre. It reminds of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where Captain Picard is captured by the Borg and his 2nd in command is forced to square off against him. Whereas Picard had written the proverbial "book" on the Enterprise, the second in command was not successful until he threw that book away and wrote a new one. I hope you're reading this Joe Girardi.

As for the Yankees' arch nemesis, the Boston Red Sox, they're out of contention. Perhaps if they raised their children a little bit better they would have lasted longer in the post season. The picture below is disgraceful.

This is the first movie I’ve seen this year in the theaters that has lived up to the hype. You must understand though, I don’t waste my time or money watching the “summer blockbusters”. I don’t call a never-ending stream of special effects loosely held together by a thin plot with minimal character development and even worse acting, worthy cinema. I call it obnoxious. So I didn’t waste time with “Transformers 2”, “Terminator Salvation”, or “GI Joe”. I did see “Star Trek” only to be kicked in the gut when I realized that JJ Abrams has singlehandedly wrecked the Star Trek Universe by significantly altering time lines. My continuing disappointment with the blockbuster, with the exception of Pixar’s “Up”, led me back to my beloved art film. I saw “Tyson” (OK), “Away We Go” (OK), “Departures” (Great) and now “The Hurt Locker”.

The Hurt Locker is a triumph in independent cinema. Director Kathryn Bigelow manages to combine key aspects of an art film with those of an action flick and strike the perfect balance between the two. This is not an easy task but Bigelow makes it look easy. In summary, the film is about an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team disarming bombs on the streets of Baghdad in 2004. You also get to see the intense personal interaction amongst the team members which is just as gripping as the bombs themselves. The performances by Jeremy Renner (SSgt. William James) and Anthony Mackie (Sgt. JT Sanborn) are exceptionally good. Never did I see two actors reciting lines off of a page. Everything felt real. Brian Geraghty (Specialist Owen Eldridge) rounds out the trio playing basically the same un-sure of himself, not as tough as the others character he’s played in movies like “The Guardian” and “We Are Marshall”.

Now I’ve been known to bash the Army in the past being ex-Air Force and all but I gained a newfound respect for the Army guys that work EOD in this film. The focus and concentration required for hours on end in the blazing heat is unbelievable. Not to mention the simple fact that they walk towards a bomb when everyone else is walking or running away. Every encounter with an IED is life or death; no in-between. Yeah, it’s brave and patriotic but it’s also a solid mix of crazy and cowboy that makes it oh, so American.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and give it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. I found myself putting my hands over my mouth several times because of how tense some of the scenes got. For anyone else that has ever worn the uniform of our nation’s military, this is a must see. For those of you that haven’t been affiliated with the military, see it – it’s so easy to forget what your neighbor’s son, your cousin, or some other relation might be doing “over there” on a day to day basis.



I had some teenagers sitting behind me that obviously didn’t appreciate the film and found it boring. They came in 20 minutes late with the goal of just killing time. I gave them the once over while the credits rolled. Of the four of them not a single one would last 4 minutes doing what those guys in the film had to contend with. In the St. Louis area, “The Hurt Locker” is playing at The Tivoli and The Plaza Frontenac. I saw it at a Wehrenberg chain but they are no longer carrying the film.

Finally, if Kathryn Bigelow is not nominated for a Best Director Oscar this year, it will be a travesty of justice.

• Scoring an Empire Strikes Back T-Shirt from Old Navy
• Paying for 3 bras when I really had 4 ~ Gotta love those check out girls that don’t pay attention
• The secret spot where I found Lands’ End merchandise drastically marked down ~ I could tell you where it is but then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. Needless to say I loaded up on stuff for winter for both me and my dad. Reference my earlier blog here.
• The bath I took at the end of the day to soak my aching muscles ~ Those shopping bags were heavy and I was moving fast. Plus I did a tough weight workout the day before.

• Large girls in way too small shorts ~ It was everywhere! Ladies, stop it. You know who you are...and no, you do not look good in them. Period.
• People walking too slow ~ It’s tax free weekend! Move your ass! There’s a lot of ground to cover.
• People walking too slow with strollers ~ The amount of strollers is out of control. In the mall it felt like an obstacle course just to get around all these things. And people always want to stop their stroller in the most inconvenient location it seems.
• Express and Gap Outlet ~ Both let me down. I didn’t get anything from either and normally those are my “go-to” stores.
• Lack of mall directories in the Chesterfield and St. Louis Mills Malls ~ Maybe I was moving too fast and didn’t see any of them but I doubt it. I guess the fat heffers in the daisy dukes don’t need the directories but I don’t come to these malls that often so I could have used some help.
• The Jimmy John’s sandwich shop in Bridgeton is apparently only open on weekdays ~ This caused me to go an additional hour or so without food until I happened upon a Quizno’s.
• Quizno’s has changed their damn menu ~ They took my favorite prime rib sandwich off the menu and it’s 9 PM and I’m starving. I get the cheesesteak sandwich instead but it is not nearly as good as the prime rib. The bread seemed harder too and it irritated the roof of my mouth. Just when I was starting to become a regular at Quizno’s...
• Dropping a snickerdoodle cookie between my car seats ~ Famished and trying to race into Best Buy, my last stop of the night, I dropped a cookie in between my passenger seat and the center console. Why is it every time I drop a food item in the car it has to fall into the most unreachable place imaginable?! I just vacummed the car a few weeks ago. I abandoned the cookie crumbs after spending ten minutes trying to get it out.

A world without Michael Jackson is an empty one. I’ve been walking around in a fog since I heard the surreal news of his death on June 25th. The air itself feels stale, food has lost its taste, colors appear dull and listless. In fact, I looked at the sky yesterday, the day of his memorial service, and it just didn’t seem as blue.

I found myself asking, “What’s the point of it all?” Why do anything anymore. Why try to be the best at something? Why work your hands to the bone if this is the end result? I lost motivation. I’ve had to drag myself through the motions: go to work, clean up the house, workout, edit my movie…but in the end it felt pointless. The void was too huge.

Being an 80’s kid, I remember seeing the moonwalk on the Motown 25th Anniversary special. I remember “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” getting regular air time on a fledgling network called MTV. I remember the day my father brought home a contraption called a VCR and we only had 2 VHS tapes to play in the thing. One was “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the other was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with the ‘making of’ documentary. My sister claims that I got too scared during the first 3 minutes of the “Thriller” video and we had to turn the TV off. I have no recollection of this. What I do remember is that in my eight year old mind, the “Thriller” video was the Star Wars of music videos. It was the best of its kind. On the school bus, me and my friends would bicker about who was going to marry Michael Jackson. The argument was never really settled.

I remember a day where every radio station in NY and possibly the country suspended their regular programming to play “We Are the World” simultaneously. Michael Jackson videos were appointment viewing long before there was such a thing as “Must See TV”. The major networks would stop their prime time lineup to premiere his latest video and everyone stopped what they doing to watch. There is not a single artist today that remotely has that sort of pull, that sort of magnetism. I remember eagerly waiting in line at Walt Disney World to see Captain Eo.


There was nobody bigger or better. Michael Jackson was larger than life. I was too young to be fully aware of all the problems of the world during the 1980’s but I do know that the Cold War lingered in the back of everyone’s minds. Come to find out, the music industry was hitting a rough spot as well in terms of sales. So Michael Jackson was as timely as he was timeless.

Now it’s 2009 and the cable news networks are all confirming that Michael Jackson is dead at age 50. It’s incomprehensible. For some reason I’d envisioned him moonwalking and spinning on a stage well into his 90’s. A depression set in. If this could happen to the biggest superstar that ever lived, what hope is there for me? Nothing mattered anymore.

But yesterday at the memorial service, my faith was restored in the most unlikeliest of places. I have never been a huge fan of Al Sharpton. I always thought he weaseled his way into situations in order to extend his relevance. I often believed he misrepresented the black community. But yesterday when he said, “Michael never stopped!” it helped pull me out of the funk I’d been in for the past 12 days. If Michael never stopped, then I can’t either. He had the world watching his every move. His life was dissected. If he never stopped then I have no excuses.

I’ve seen a lot of negative comments on the internet and the media about his private life. I’m surprised at how few people have the decency to not malign the dead. As much as the internet has expanded information flow, negativity spreads on it like a plague. Everyone is so much bolder in anonymity. Michael Jackson the man was as tormented as he was talented. No doubt Michael Jackson struggled with multiple demons. The depths of these demons we may never know but I choose for once, to dwell on the past instead of the present.

This is the Michael Jackson I will remember. The beauty, the genius, the gifts, the creativity, and the vision. A man who was known even in the forgotten corners of the world not just for his musical talents but also for his tremendous generosity. A talent the world had never seen before nor will again.

When they put together the time capsule to leave behind on Earth for the aliens to find and gain a better understanding of humanity, all sorts of masterpieces from literature, film, and music will be gathered. You put Elvis in there. You put the Beatles in there. Shakespeare. Sinatra. And, of course, you put Michael Jackson in there.