First of all - I've been slow to recommend Better Off Ted because in some surface way it seems like it's not a great show. Maybe one of the ads just hit me wrong. Although I think there's more - one example is there are times when characters are supposed to be really mad, but they still seem like they are smiling. But the show is awesome! I'm laughing the whole time and they do a great job ripping into the questionable morals of corporations. And it has a bit of an Arrested Development feel (more than just because Portia is in the show).
Bruno SPOILERS coming up.
I saw Bruno recently. I was laughing the whole time. I can't recommend it since there may be stuff you just don't want to see. I've only heard/read a few reviews, but I really think they are missing something. Obviously a big part of it is that Bruno is an outdated gay stereotype and a certain portion of the movie is about how people react to him. That seems to grab most of the attention. Although I think the movie dedicates just as much if not more time to making fun of the search for celebrity.
What reviewers seem to miss is how self-referential the movie is. Fairly early on Bruno shows a TV pilot he made to a test audience. The test audience absolutely hates the pilot and can't imagine anyone watching it. First of all - when you watch the movie you see the pilot. Second it is a rough approximation of the rest of the movie (think Terrance and Philip in South Park). So right up front you're watching people tell you how bad the movie you are watching is. Later on one of the strongest comments on society is when Bruno asks parents what they would be willing to let their kids do in order to be included in a photo shoot. He then proceeds to do similar things with a baby. So now he's also making fun of the parents that let him use their baby in the movie. Now given those two scenes think about the fact that to make a movie that makes fun of what people will do to be famous Cohen goes off and does very crazy, dangerous, and disgusting stuff.
I'll admit I have a tendency to reach too far on these things, but I really think that buried in there is Cohen making fun of himself.
Ok, even if you don't buy all that, you have to admit that the wrestling scene and the scene with Paula Abdul were hilarious.
Hm - seems I posted a bit too soon. Dana Stevens's review makes a similar point.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tahoe
The week leading up to the 4th of July my parents, brother and I headed out to Tahoe. My family was nice enough to work around the shutdown week at the company I work for and to head somewhere in driving distance for me. We stayed at a huge house with a great view of the lake in south lake Tahoe just on the Nevada side.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
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