The Post with my weekend story--only way late
Busy busy weekend, and I’m behind on updating it again

Friday after work I went to the movies (after stopping at Rita’s for the first time this year) and had one of the better double-shots in recent memory. Maybe the best ever. Both movies were really excellent. I Love You, Man was hilarious and is one of the better comedies in recent history. Tons of great lines, and just tons of funny scenes scattered throughout. Jason Segel is funny (and thankfully keeps his dick covered throughout) and Paul Rudd is his usual dependable self. The supporting players all do great jobs and really add to the film rather than distract from it

After that I jumped into Knowing and was pleasantly surprised by the film. The trailers didn’t make it look all that good and it appeared that Nicolas Cage was doing his normal bullshit acting stuff that has become the norm for him anymore. The movie is really good though and I enjoyed every single minute of it. The film has some really cool special effects in it, and resembles a summer blockbuster in that regard. However, this film is also designed to make you think and open discussion about issues. The main crux of the film is the battle of randomness vs determinism. Cage’s character is a scientist who believes that, “Shit happens.” Then his son gets a paper written by a little girl 50 years ago when his school opens their time capsule. The numbers written on the page indicate the date and fatalities of every major catastrophe in that time frame. This blows his mind and he tries to figure out what the numbers mean and has to question what he believes in the process. Cage’s acting works in this case because the material requires him to be slightly detached from what is going on. There is some really cool stuff in this film and the way it makes you think is more than you can ask from this type of film.....

Saturday morning I went to the gym and got in my workout, and then headed home to watch some March Madness action. Good slate of games all afternoon although the outcomes weren’t totally unexpected for the most part.....

Ate dinner and then headed back to the State Theater to see Louis C.K. live. His opening act was Ted Alejandro who was much better than any comedic opening act I’ve ever seen in my life. The guy had some really good jokes, and some really nasty ones. They all delivered though and it was a great little 15-20 minute set. The best joke was about the girl that gave him the blowjob while wearing a “WWJD” bracelet. He said thankfully she was good at it so he didn’t have to critique her. “Jesus would use less teeth,” “Jesus would work the balls.”....

Louis came out within 2 minutes of Ted’s set ending and after a slow start he really found his groove. I had read that the tour was going to be all new material but my buddy thought he remembered one of the jokes (or at least part of it) as being on his Shameless special. Either way at least most of it was new I guess. I think I kind of liked his material from Shameless better as it was more consistent across the board, but there was some really excellent stuff in this material. Him possibly fucking a dead kid (which I totally just mentioned without context making it sound creepier than it did) was outstanding. He probably did 90 minutes worth of material and then did a little coda after the set before closing the night. Good show and well worth the cash if he comes within an hour driving distance of you.....

Sunday morning I had to teach Sunday School which was far crazier than it is most weeks. Junior high kids just get it in their heads sometimes that they are going to be goofy, and this was one of those weeks. ....

Afterwards I went home and popped on March Madness again to watch what I could. Also I hooked up the external burner my buddy let me borrow so I could start preparing files for the big move when I get my new computer. I had to cart my old computer downstairs to run it off things so right now our computer stand looks like a disaster zone. I have almost everything dumped over though so I’m ready for when the computer comes rolling in to me. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid of the current system I have. ....

After dinner I headed to Crocodile Rock with friends to see Eric Church perform. Another really good concert at the Croc. Ashlie Ray opened and she was ok but a little bland. Some said they thought she was just doing Miranada Lambert’s act and that is fairly apt, although I think she had a better voice, but Miranda’s hotter. After she went they brought out Jonathan Singleton & the Grove who I had never heard of in my life. They wrote some pretty popular songs though in recent years which they sang in concert. Their set was good and high energy but it didn’t really sound a whole lot like country music. At times it did, but they sounded like they are trying to blend a little too much of the 90’s alternative sound into country. Maybe that’s just the era they are closer to. Their lead single I did hear on radio last night and it’s fine but it’s sort of a similar theme to a million other country songs. Nothing that will really stand out.....

Eric Church then came out and he really brought it hard. I enjoy Church and he had a really passionate crowd with him for the whole set. Early in the set he did a great back to back of “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” and “How Bout You” which riled up the crowd and they stuck with it the whole way. He played a lot of his first album and hit a bunch of stuff off the new album. Early prediction- his somber sounding ballad, “Where She Told Me to Go,” will be a top 10 hit for him. I’d say his first, but I don’t know how his new single will fare. The song I mentioned though is a great little tale (and I won’t ruin the lyrics, but you can probably tell where it’s going).....

Two things I love about seeing concerts in a small setting like that: 1.) While I love big stadium and arena shows, there is nothing like seeing a small intimate setting of a show like that. It is music at it’s purest with smaller sound systems, and loud acoustics. 2.) After years of Kenny concerts, it’s nice to go see a concert that is filled with more of my type of country music fans. The rowdy ones who think songs about drinking, and broken hearts are rites of passage and not some requirement a pop star needs to fill to get their country cred. Just a great show, and it was over by 10:30 so I got home at a decent time.....

At the concert the couple in front of us had a major problem. The husband lost his wedding band and they were unable to find it in the dark. He was really broken up by it, which was really touching to see in a way. She was way calmer about it than I think most women would be which was also nice to see. I hope they found the band.....

Got home and went to bed. A few days have come and gone and we are now on Thursday already.
- posted by Brian @ 3/26/2009 08:01:00 PM

 
The Post with my weekend
I’m a little behind on this but I
know you care deeply about what I did this past weekend. (sarcasm in full effect).....

Friday night I hit the gym after work and
got in a nice workout. After that I went home and showered before heading to 80’s
night. Had a much better time this month than last. Mainly because I didn’t
have a pounding headache for most of the night. I did a good amount of dancing,
and had a few drinks without going nuts. In fact, I think I only drank two
beers which is sort of low for me. We have a pretty good group of people that
hang out and it’s fun. ....

Well there was one instance where I was
sort of molested, but it was just a crazy person being drunk so I let it slide.....

After the night was over I headed to
Wal-Mart and picked up my groceries for the week and then hustled home so I
could get some sleep. I got to sleep around 2:45.....

Saturday I was up at 6:30 so we could go
to Shady Maple. It was not real easy getting moving that early in the morning
with so little sleep, but it worked out in the end. We got up there and met our
whole group. By about 8:45 we were sat and eating. I made sure I ate my moneys
worth- although I did a better job of keeping it in check than I normally do. ....

We got home around 11:00. I lifted weights
for a little in the garage and then worked on putting my steering wheel cover
on the car. Got that on after letting it sit in the sun for a little to make it
easier to stretch.....

In the afternoon I headed over to Carmike
to catch Last House on the Left. I had seen the original and thought it was due
to be re-made. I know being a horror movie junkie I should be totally against
the concept of remaking horror films but in this instance I was all for it. The
original film is really awkward. It’s pretty graphic at spots, and then
at others it tries way to hard to lighten the mood. John Kreese (from Karate
Kid) and another guy play two bumbling cops who miss an obvious clue as to
where the criminals are and then suffer misadventures going back to the house.
This movie has them riding in a chicken coop truck. It’s dumb.....

The scenes are there to lighten the mood
about what is going on but all it does is really distract from the film as a
whole. Also, Wes Craven let the one actor create the music for the film and it
is such a laughable bad job you can’t focus on the movie at times.
Imagine- you just saw a girl get stabbed for no good reason, both girls get
hoods put on their head and thrown into the trunk of a car- and then the music
is the same thing you would hear on a merry-go-round at the local county fair.
Does that make you feel any dread or concern for the protagonists?....

So anyway, this movie looked to clear up
those missteps- and I think it did it extremely well. This is a really good
film, but it is rough to sit through at times. In fact, about halfway through a
couple left with the wife crying hysterically. I can’t say I blame her.
About halfway into the film there is a scene that will be tough to watch for
some, and I understand that. I knew it was coming and it was still uncomfortable.
On top of that- being as they removed all the other surrounding stuff it made
it stand out that much more. Plus the scene bordered on going on way to long.
It was to the point where in my head I thought, “Ok just end this scene.”
So if you see this film- prepare yourself for a scene that is somewhere between
the 45 minute and hour mark.....

Now what works about that scene is it does
get you riled up for the ending. There were some people in the theater cheering
for the protagonists as the film reached its conclusion. That was a weird
feeling for a small Saturday afternoon crowd.....

Anyway, the film is worth seeing if you
have a strong stomach. If not then you probably shouldn’t bother watching
it. I’ll say this though- Garrett Dillahunt rules all in this film as the
main bad guy Krug. He is much more sinister than the original version and far
more calculating in his moves. Sara Paxton is really good in her role as well.
The parents are good towards the end where they need to be, and that’s
what makes it work.....

I then went home and tried to watch the
Will Ferrell special on HBO. I enjoyed parts of what I saw, but I was so tired
that I started to fall asleep around 9:30. So I just gave in and went to bed so
I could try and catch up on some sleep.....

Sunday I got up and went into church.
Sunday School was a good discussion this week as we talked about atheism vs
religion. I then went home and went out on my jog/walk and did 6 miles. I then
watched some of the Phillies game and did little things until dinner. After
dinner I watched another episode of Damages and it is just as silly as when I
last left it. I think they are in love with swerving the audience. Went to bed
after watching the Apprentice and then did all of nothing but ignore writing
this until now
- posted by Brian @ 3/18/2009 05:06:00 PM

 
The Post with my Weekend recap
Another weekend has come and gone and I've decided that the weekend stories for now will stay in here. The rest of the stuff goes to my regular blog. So bookmark http://hansley.blogspot.com to read everything. But moving on.

Friday night I went back to the movies so I could catch Watchmen. The theater was nowhere near as full as I thought it would be so that was a welcome relief as I wasn't battling for a seat. The movie is 2 hours and 45 minutes long and I thought it felt that long at times. Not that it was a bad film, but rather that it was entirely average in a lot of ways. It stays pretty tight with the source material which will probably affect your enjoyment of the film. I'm familiar with it, and just felt the movie suffered as a result because you know where it's going and feels like it take a while to get there.

Some of the performances are excellent and some are just not that good. I really like Malin Akerman but she was not good in this film and was mis-cast. James Earle Haley ruled this film. The actions equences are good but a little over the top at times.

I'd say a C+, maybe B- at best.

Came home then and went to bed as I had a late night planned for Saturday.

Got up Saturday and went to the gym to get in my time there. I hit the treadmill for an hour and got 5.2 miles in which was nice. After that I lifted for about 25 minutes until I felt like I was going to die. Hit the Wal-Mart and then went home. I worked at something in the garage and then came in to watch the movie Sex Drive which was really not all that good.

After that I headed to the St. Patrick's Day dance at the Hooks. Really good night. Could be the start of a new trend. What trend you ask?

Let's call it: The night Hansley Got His Groove back. I won't go into many more details than that, but let's just say I actually did something I would've done in the past without thinking about it- and it sort of worked. We might be through the looking glass people.

Otherwise a good night. For 10 bucks I got to drink all the beer I could possibly handle. Also, because I knew the lady walking around with the Jell-O Shots I ended up getting a ton of those at way below market value. I got to talk with a few people I graudated with and I cleared up an issue with someone. We call that a productive night.

The only thing we missed was Joel wearing the lime green shirt, but I'm thinking he does that for Friday.

Got home and barely remembered to set my clock ahead an hour.

Got up Sunday morning and struggled through the morning. My kids did great in their little part of the skit, and overall the service was really cool. I miss doing that when I was that age. You could basically be goofy in the church service and no one really seemed to care.

After church we went to breakfast at Hickory Park which was ok but they don't really give a lot of food for the amount you pay. But I was hungry and it went down real well. I wasn't sick from the night prior (I had the right mix of food anddrink to make it through the night), but my stomach was grumbling.

Came home and popped on Jury Duty and drifted off to sleep for about 90 minutes. Woke up around 4 and watched Footloose (yeah that's right). Showered, played with the dog and then headed into bed.

Work was hellish today but I'm home now and enjoying my night. Hooray
- posted by Brian @ 3/10/2009 06:33:00 PM

 
The Post with me reviewing The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler is a tale about people who are addicted to the lives they live. The film explores two different people through an interlocking story to examine how they try to move onto the next chapter of their lives.


If you started comparing strippers and professional wrestlers the similarities would be far greater than you imagine. Both are predicated on selling their body for the entertainment of paying customers. Also, the more enhanced the body looks the better your chances of succeeding at the chosen profession. But what happens when the reaction you are looking for doesn’t come anymore? And what happens when there is nothing to fill the void that leaves? These are the questions explored by the film .


Mickey Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a Hulk Hogan type, who had a huge success in the 80’s wrestling boom selling out major arenas all across the country. His biggest rivalry concluded with a huge match at Wrestle Jam III with The Ayatollah (played by Ernest Miller.) 20 years later though he is broken down working as a stocker at a local supermarket and wrestling in American Legion halls for fractions of his former big paydays. He has the respect of the younger wrestlers and goes through the motions of taping up and entertaining the fans interested in nostalgia.


That night Ram returns to his trailer to see it padlocked shut for lack of paying his rent. He ends up sleeping in his car before being woken up by the children in the park who play with him because he still carries a sort of hero status to them. You can tell he is miserable with his life and wrestling is one of the few things that gives him joy. The other is visiting the local strip club and getting to visit with Cassidy (Marisa Tomei).


Cassidy is a late 30’s/ early 40’s stripper who is still trying to make her wares by getting naked and dancing for horny men. Times are tough for her because most of the young clientele want nothing to do with her and they mock her age among other things. Ram though thinks she is a vision, and wants nothing more than to be with Cassidy- maybe forever. However, Ram still has that other side of his life pulling him. He wrestles in a hardcore match and allows himself to be cut by barbed wire, tacks, staples guns, etc to elicit the reaction he wants from the fans. As he is being tended too in the locker room he feels a sense of accomplishment. It is short lived though as he feels pain in his chest and collapses with a heart attack.


When he awakes in the hospital he is told he needs to stop wrestling and stop with the cocktail of drugs he is taking to keep himself big. Of course, that isn’t really an option for him. He talks it over with Cassidy though and she convinces him to discuss this with his daughter. This presents a problem because his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) hates him for basically being an absentee father for years. She tells him she doesn’t care about him or his heart attack and this cuts him like no weapon ever could. He again discusses this with Cassidy and he decides the best thing to do is buy his daughter a present.


Cassidy goes shopping with him for the gift which does win his daughter over some. With all this good in his life, he asks for more responsibility at work and they move him to the meat counter. He has a good time there and it seems like he is turning his life around. He even turns down a promoter looking to have a big rematch on the 20th anniversary of his match with The Ayatollah. But with like any addiction, he can’t resist the temptation to dip his foot back in. He attends a wrestling show and sits in the crowd hearing the reaction of the fans to what is going on in the ring. He goes into a bar and is recognized by a woman who says her brother had a poster of him on his wall. She invites him to do blow with her and he accepts and then has sex with her in the bathroom. He goes home and crashes into bed waking up much later than he wanted and missing the dinner date with his daughter. He tries to apologize again and she screams at him saying she never wants to see him again. Also around this time Cassidy shuts down on him because she doesn’t want to get involved with a client. With all this swirling he loses his mind at the supermarket and gets fired. He immediately calls the promoter and says he wants back in for that big rematch.


Cassidy is dancing a few nights later when she notices that the men at the main stage are more interested in the other, younger women. In this moment she realizes that she wants to be with Ram and she gets to his place just in time to see him leaving for his big match. I won’t anything past that point.


If you read or listen to any interview given by a professional wrestler they look at the fan reaction as a drug. They say there is nothing that can match the high of walking through the curtain and hearing hundreds or thousands of people chanting your name and treating you like a superstar. Back to the earlier analogy- strippers get that same reaction from people. The key is- how do you beat that addiction? Ram never finds a way to fill in that gap. He tries to. However he finds ways to screw up by thinking he can take a swig of that response without wanting it for himself. Cassidy goes through a similar arc. She is making money but it’s clearly not the amount of money she used to make. She is also clearly bummed out and hurt by the way the men in the place react to her. However, she has an out. Ram looks at her as if she was the same age as the younger girls. He sees a beautiful woman, and isn’t so much interested in the nakedness as much as the companionship of Cassidy. She finally realizes that.


Ram doesn’t have that same luxury. He tries to use the deli counter job to fill the wrestling void. There is a great scene where he is walking through the stockroom to his job and the soundtrack is playing his theme music. He gets his composure before throwing open the curtains to enter. But there’s no mass of cheers. There’s nobody holding signs. There’s nothing but silence. He has become what no wrestler ever wants to become- unable to create a reaction. He is just another person. And that’s not something he is willing to deal with. As the movie progresses we see the two similar storylines and we watch as these two people try to find some kind of lifeline to grab onto that drags them out of their past and into their future.


Rourke, and Tomei are both fantastic in this film. They both deserved their Oscar noms, and I think both probably deserved to win (FWIW- I’ve never seen Vicky Cristina Barcelona.) The film also does a great job of depicting the world of independent wrestling. We see guys working over matches, you see how they tuck razor blades away to cut themselves. It’s all there- warts and all.....

What overrides this film though is the sense of sadness. This is not really a happy film. If you’re looking for a happy ending- you’re probably not going to get it. You are watching people who stumble and fail trying to move on in the world. This is a movie that will bring tears. The scenes with Rourke and Wood are especially heartbreaking. The sweetness of their reconciliation is matched by the sadness of their final split.


There is also the meta storyline of Rourke playing this role. He is a guy who has always been a great actor but can’t seem to stay out of his own way. He lost good working years of his career to drugs, and other silliness that have nothing to do with acting. Hopefully he is turning himself around for good because this movie reminds the viewer just how good an actor he really is.


The film is an easy A, and will slide alongside Brian’s Song and Rocky as good guy cry movies. You’ll see.
- posted by Brian @ 3/08/2009 04:32:00 PM

 
The Post with my weekend
Another weekend that wasn’t terribly interesting but is nonetheless in the books. Didn’t really do a whole lot of anything with real consequence. Just kind of did some small things and turned that into a weekend.

Friday after work I went back to Quakertown via Route 222. That isn’t the normal way I go but I figured- let’s get crazy. No actually I wanted to stop at Shangy’s in Emmaus and that was the method that was the most direct. A few weeks ago my buddy Jarid and I were discussing our love of Honey Brown and said how we couldn’t really find it anywhere right now. I figured I’d give that place a look and sure enough they had it. 23 dollars for a case of bottles. Not bad. They have a ton of beer in there. Domestics, imports, micro brews. All at fairly decent prices.

After that I went down 309 and stopped in at Target. Picked up some little things and then headed to the movies. First up was Fired Up. It was the only comedy in theaters I had yet to see. I was expecting a stupid little film with maybe a few chuckles. The film is way better than I expected it to be. It was hilarious at times. The lead characters are pretty good (despite the fact that they are playing high school students at the age of 27). Plus the amount of women running around in skimpy outfits was a welcome site. It actually has some really good lines in it too.

After that I jumped into The Wrestler and that movie is absolutely fantastic. Mickey Rourke was robbed of the Oscar. So was Marisa Tomei for that matter.The one thing against this film is that it is sort of depressing. It’s just a sad 100 minute film. It was funny with the crowd in the theater as well. Now, I’ve made known I’m a bit of a wrestling fan. Yes it’s silly, and its’ fake- but I find it immensely entertaining in a weird sort of way. Basically also I like the ability to turn off my brain for the most part at the end of the day. Monday nights are far easier to go to sleep after watching wrestling, than a Wednesday night after I get done watching Lost and there are millions of questions running through my head. Anyway.

There is a scene in the film where Rourke’s character is wrestling in a hardcore match with an independent wrestler named, Necro Butcher (yes that’s the real name he uses.) Now I’ve seen these matches live and in person so my tolerance level is a little bit higher (probably unfortunately so). Others watching the movie on Friday have not seen this match in person, so their tolerance level is different. Therefore, when I see a dude get hit with a pane of glass, or get thrown 6 feet in the air only to land on a bunch of thumb tacks it doesn’t really affect me the same way it does others. Barbed wire- no matter how many times I see it- still makes me cringe. I’ve accidentally poked myself on the stuff and it hurts. Now imagine having it wrapped around a baseball bat and swung at your stomach. Not fun. The whole staple gun thing makes me cringe to. However, when these things were happening in the film people were covering eyes and audibly groaning. Not the same reaction with me.

Went home and got some sleep before being woken up at 7 by the dog wanting to go outside. So I took him out and then read the newspaper while watching MLB Network. After that I got dressed and headed out for my job because the weather was supposed to be sort of ugly yesterday morning. Took some time to do the 4.5 miles. About an hour I guess. I feel a little slower right now doing that than normal. I can’t get my second wind when I do that right now. However, the first wind is starting to take me longer.

Came home and showered and then went out to work on my car. Headlight was out so I needed to take it apart so I could grab the right bulb. Headed out to Advanced Auto Parts and picked up the light then went into Wal-Mart and got my groceries for the week. Then went and met Joel so we could get measured for tuxedos for Jarid’s wedding. Went smoothly and we were in and out from there in 15-20 minutes. Got home then and finished fixing up the headlights. I did some other things in the garage before heading in. I then baked my pie that I wanted to make and that turned out ok. Also, drank a few beers and watched the Phillies play. Opening day is 34 days away.
After that I started watching the LSU-Kentucky game. My brother came home during the game and we ended up grabbing a pizza and watching the rest of the game. My Kentucky Wildcats stink right now.

After the game I watched some stuff on On Demand. Watched The Gameplan and thought it was pretty good. Then I watched the rest of the 7th season of Scrubs. Such a great show- I’ll be disappointed when that show goes off the air. Fell asleep around 11:30.

The dog woke me up around 6:30 to go out so I was up and moving from that point. Had to restart the pellet stove that went out the night before, and work at the dishwasher to see why it wasn’t working right. Mostly got it figured out. Then went to church and did some final work on the skit for Youth Sunday.

Came home then and did a whole lot of nothing for the bulk of the afternoon. Watched Friday Night Lights from this past weekend and watched the Flyers game. Watched some stuff last night then including The Celebrity Apprentice and headed into bed. Now I’m here at work after braving a snow storm and waiting for the day to end.
- posted by Brian @ 3/02/2009 02:22:00 PM