Baja Fresh Photon Cannons
Just got back from seeing American Wedding with Andrew and Eugene, and thought it would be a good time to dish out some summer recommendations, since this glorious summer of unemployment has been kind to my literary and opthalmic needs. The movie was a great ending to the series; Sean William Scott is still hilarious as Stifler. I never saw the second one but it didn't matter much - I knew what to expect, and the goods were delivered.
I'd say the same for The Lizzie McGuire Movie, if by delivered goods you mean a musical montage every five minutes. Actually, it wouldn't have been that bad if I was a teenage girl who thinks Paolo is dreamy, but Lizzie so belongs with Gordo! Now, The Fairly Odd Parents: Abra-Catastrophe - that's a great movie. I love this cartoon. Spongebob may be a better character, but this show is much funnier. The made-for-TV movie has an entire 15-minute segment where a monkey makes a wish with a magic cupcake and changes the world into a monkey world. That's funny stuff.
Bowling for Columbine is the best movie that I've seen in a while. It's not really about the Columbine shooting, but more about the fascination with gun violence and fear in America. The documentary is extremely well-edited and always interesting. Even if you don't agree with everything it says, it opens up a lot for discussion. Definitely check this one out.
Onto the world of books, proof that I haven't been playing video games all summer. Tom Hanks: An Unauthorized Biography isn't the best way to spend your hard-earned green. Hanks is one of my favorite actors, and it was interesting to read about his not-so-perfect upbringing and slow rise to stardom. The problem here is the author - he's a former London tabloid writer. So it's poorly written, but it's the only biography that I know of about Tom Hanks.
Several friends recommended Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead to me. Not exactly light summer reading, but a great book, especially for someone about to go to art school. The descriptions of the imaginative buildings that the main character creates are perfect. It's a good book to read before going out to the job world, bringing up issues of the ego and how society expects you to work. It's the kind of book that should not be made into a movie (but was) because there's too much to possibly cover.
But the movie rights have already been sold for Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, and the book reads like a movie. It's written in a cliffhanger style that's extremely difficult to put down. Using an strangely entertaining blend of art, religion and cryptography, a mystery unfolds that blends fact and fiction. This is a perfect summer/beach book, although I guess it's getting a little late for that.
And after seeing the movie, I read Catch Me If You Can. The events from the movie stayed fairly true to the real thing, but a few parts were changed chronologically and there are a few more outrageous stories. It makes you want to start up a life of crime...or at least create a few fake identities. And finally, Headstrong by Trapt is undoubtedly the worst song on the radio right now, especially now that they have an acoustic version in rotation too. Well, that's it for this installment of "Baja Fresh Photon Cannons". We went to the driving range last Sunday with Don and Jeff, and I exclusively used the driver that Eugene rocked into my deck in Baltimore a few weeks ago. But my putting game is pretty tight, I must say...thank you miniature golf. I'll post some August photos sometime next week.
Thursday, August 21 at 10:34 PM
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