Day 54 - 101 Days of Awesome

Today I'm going to mention the three-in-one awesome punch in the face of AMC. A movie only station just a few years ago now has three shows on the air that are three of the best on TV, two of them probably among the best shows of all time.

The first is the Walking Dead. I would not include it as a potential best of all time, but it's entertaining as hell.  I'm not a huge zombie movie guy. My favorite is probably Shawn of the Dead, but that has little to do with the zombies. In this format, however, it allows characters to shine brighter than the zombies (or walkers, skin eaters, or biters - never zombies). You get time to get to know the people. And then they die. With some characters, they become the bad guys. The zombies are really the MacGuffin.

The second is Mad Men. I didn't start watching it at first, and it took me some time to get into. Then once Netflix started streaming it, I watched the first four seasons back to back fairly quickly. There really aren't good guys and bad guys in this. There are even more shades of that than the people in the Walking Dead, and in this case it's more subtle and yet more real. I really enjoy watching the historical events of the 60s play out in the background. I almost with there were some way I could justify giving extra credit to students for watching this, as they would get a pretty good idea of one angle on the 60s.

The third is Breaking Bad. It's another one that I didn't watch at first, but I caught up very quickly. Ever season has gotten better and better than the last. Instead of subtle good guys and bad guys, you have one good guy. And over the course of the series, he becomes a bad guy. You watch that transformation happen. It's a much more graceful, natural swing than Anakin had in the Star Wars prequels. Bryan Cranston is absolutely brilliant. He not has earned each Emmy he has won. It's the best performance TV has ever seen.

Day 53 - 101 Days of Awesome

One of my favorite movies of all time is the Iron Giant. One of the biggest travesties of all time is the marketing for that movie. Not nearly enough people saw it in the theaters.

I have showed it in class several times. It does a great job of showing the Cold War paranoia from the 50s. One thing that has encouraged me is the number of students who had seen it before I show it. That means it got out there a bit. But I don't mean a large number have seen it. I would guess about five per class had seen it previously. Another great sign is that none who have seen it before complain when they find out which movie they will see.

It's a fantastic movie. I always get a tear in my eye when the Giant says "Superman" at the very end, as do many others. Of course, I have to acknowledge that the voice actor is Vin Diesel. It's one of the times in my class when the tears shed are intended and encouraged. No comment on the other times.

Day 52 - 101 Days of Awesome

Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest comedians working today. Unfortunately, most people know him for his character on the King of Queens. Luckily, many people also know his from Ratatouille.

Listen to his "Feelin Kinda Patton" album. The video version is replayed on Comedy Central every now and again, but the audio version is even better. There's some great bits about the Gay Pride Parade, Black Angus, TiVo, Dr. Pepper (not the drink), and Pissdrinkers.  Each one of those is brilliant.

My favorite bit of his reinforced a belief I have in my life. Birthdays. You won't find them on this list because no one cares when it's your birthday. They say they do. They post something on your Facebook wall. But they don't. And they shouldn't. So you didn't die for 365 days. Wow. Neither did almost all of the seven billion people in the world. As Patton put is,

 "I'm 26!"
"Great. Go to work. Who gives a shit?"

Listen to the routine here, and then go away on your 33rd birthday.

Day 51 - 101 Days of Awesome

As I looked over my list, I was surprised to see that I had skipped The Beatles. This was a horrible, horrible oversight. At first, one might say, "The fact that you skipped them means they aren't awesome." Some might also say, "The Beatles are overrated." They would be wrong about the first, right about the second, but right for the wrong reason.

I tend to listen to The Beatles in streaks. When I hear a The Beatles tune, it sticks in my ear. I go home and play that album. And them I play another. And another. Keep repeating. And then I hit the point where I overplay them and relax for awhile. But a few months later, the whole process starts itself over again. That's why I initially skipped them.

The Beatles are the biggest band ever. They are the most influential ever. Those are easy statements to make, and they're probably accurate. So yeah, they are overrated. But compared to what? Their music is amazing. It's fun. It holds up.

So what's my favorite The Beatles song? Today maybe it's And Your Bird Can Sing. No, wait. I'm rather enjoying Things We Said Today. While My Guitar Gently Sleeps is great, too. But how can I like those more than You Won't See Me? And then I might hear A Day in the Life. That will be my favorite. Until I hear another song that I like better that day.

And the main reason why The Beatles are awesome is that you can put The in front of their name to make the sentence sound awkward.  Awesome.

Day 50 - 101 Days of Awesome

Every time I sit down to do some work, I like some background noise. Sometimes its music, but I'll often see if there's anything worth checking out on TV. If Seinfeld is on, it will be on my TV. The only problem is that I end up paying more attention to the TV than I do to my work. There are episodes I've seen over and over again, but I don't tire of them. Episodes that I haven't seen in a while bring even more joy.

Perhaps the one thing that really hasn't held up over time is the laugh track. The best shows these days do without. Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is in a way a next generation of Seinfeld, is better for not haven't it. Since a lot of Seinfeld humor is cringe humor, it tends to take away from some scenes. These guys are assholes, as the final episode proved in court. That means it isn't always something a group should laugh at. I'm an asshole, so I should. But groups shouldn't.

Beyond that, the humor holds up quite nicely.  I find there's always a few really good laughs still in each episode, as well as many quotable lines.  It's always fun now when you hear Larry David's voice pop out of nowhere. It's fun to see Bryan Cranston show up in a few episodes pre-Malcolm in the Middle. Seinfeld makes a quite worthy fiftieth day of awesome.

Day 49 - 101 Days of Awesome

When I bust out my guitar to sing a few tunes, this is the version I prefer to sing.

Day 48 - 101 Days of Awesome

Roger Ebert passed away on April 4. He was criticized a lot by people who didn't really like movies. "He doesn't like any good movies," they would say. "He only likes artsy movies."  No. The truth is, he loved movies. He just loved good movies.

It didn't totally sink in with me until I started watching 30-50 movies a year how jaded you can really get by a boring, lousy, seen-it-all-before movie. And some interested special effects just aren't enough to justify it. Most people go to just a few movies a year. They're going less to see that movie than to escape. I get it. Just don't read what the critics have to say, because they're writing for people who want to see good movies.

Roger Ebert wrote for me. And not just movies - his blogs were also great. I posted in this very blog about something he wrote about evolution that made someone like me, a science novice, understand it even better. But when I saw a movie I didn't especially like but he did, he made me see the merit of the movie. I didn't always agree, but I got it.

People seem to enjoy my year end top ten list. Roger Ebert is gone. I don't have that go to critic anymore I can rely on. My list will certainly suffer for it. Rogert Ebert is awesome.

Day 47 - 101 Days of Awesome

I grew up as a comic book nerd. While I only read stuff occasionally these days, I still hold a vast and useless abundance of knowledge of the comic book world, especially the Marvel world. My favorite comic book was always The Fantastic Four.

If one were to attempt to gain the information that I have of the Marvel Universe, such a holy grail that it is, there's one place to start. You have to go to Fantastic Four #1. After all, it is the beginning of Marvel Comics. All of the cornerstones of what makes that universe start there, and the legend builds as the series continues. You learn the origin of my favorite hero, The Thing, as well as that of the greatest villain, Dr. Doom.

Here's the problem I see. Outsiders to the comic book world would be quick to throw out all of my statements. Comic book insiders might agree or disagree, but I woudn't be tossed to the side so quickly. That's because of the recent movies. While the Spider-Man and X-Men movies had a lot of successes (many being very good) and the Avengers movies were all very good, the two FF movies all out sucked.

Having been to the comic cons before it came out, I knew it. The guy who played Dr. Doom, the horribly cast Julian McMahon, gave all the wrong answers. He talked about liking Herbie the Robot from the old cartoon. No. Wrong. Bad. It was all, pun intended, doomed to fail.

I'm hoping that talks of the reboot go in the right direction. Much like Spider-Man and Batman, the FF has a great rogues gallery, which could create some great movie moments. In the meantime, grab some reprints of those early issues. You're gonna have a good time.

Day 46 - 101 Days of Awesome

Bonus - watch them sing this for Graham Chapman's service. Actually, the whole thing is amazing, if not for the fact that Chapman was dead. Watch John Cleese's eulogy.

Day 45 - 101 Days of Awesome

As I sit here writing (on which is totally day 45 and not some day in the future, because that would mean I didn't finish on time and then went back and did it later), I'm enjoying some delicious chocolate truffles. For breakfast. Yesterday, I enjoyed a chocolate bar donut from Safeway. Again, for breakfast.

Aero = Awesome

The breakfast connection is purely coincidental. It's chocolate that is so damn important. Sure, it's keeping my belly a significant size. But it's so delicious. Some of my best memories of trips to Europe involve stopping in to chocolate shops, grabbing a chocolate ice cream (or gelato) cone, or rest stops on bus tours in which we all load up on junk food, mostly chocolate.

If you really want to condemn Columbus for the diseases he brought to America, that's fine. But you must also acknowledge the fact that he also opened the door for later Spaniards to bring chocolate to Europe and mix it with sugar to make its awesomely goodness.