RSS 2.0
Front Page PDF
Long absences from all the editors, but this was too exciting not to blog about. Here’s hoping a few readers are still interested after all this down time; you’re missing out if you aren’t.
“The Dark Knight” came out today, and it’s sure to be the biggest box office success of the summer. But, more importantly, it’s the best movie I’ve seen yet this year. Everything you expected from this film is there and then some. I know this movie has a lot of hype surrounding it, but for once it’s all true.
Let’s begin with the most anticipated part of this movie: Heath Ledger’s unforgettable performance as The Joker. This was truly the greatest role of his life. This Joker is the darkest, most insane version ever in any incarnation of the Batman legend. It’s sad to say, but it’s easy to see why this role had such a negative impact on Ledger’s life and ultimately contributed to his untimely death. There is no character scarier or more evil than this one. His quest to show that even the best people can ultimately become the villain gets the best of everyone, and his schemes are so complex that it’s no wonder he’s able to outsmart the police, the mob, and even the Batman.
Christian Bale doesn’t fail in his second outing as the Caped Crusader. He’s still a deeply conflicted character, watching the love of his life in the arms of a man that he truly admires, Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent. He also has to struggle with Batman impersonators and the fact that his crime fighting tactics might be causing the city more harm than good in the long run. Here’s a character on a mission who has endless amounts of doubt about it’s validity. Gotham City needs a hero, but more and more he’s seeing that Dent might be better suited for the role than Batman. And he stubbornly must uphold his code of justice and avoid becoming a vigilante, even as he is tempted by a seemingly unstoppable, remorseless killer.
Eckhart’s Dent is also a deeply conflicted character. He wants all the same things as Bruce Wayne, including justice for Gotham and Rachel Dawes, so he ends up struggling with many of the same issues. A true hero, Dent will risk even his own life to clean up the streets of his city. Eckhart is strong and emotional in this role, and his humanity almost makes you want to side with him over rival Wayne.
Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman once again deliver as Batman allies Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox, respectively. Caine is still the avuncular voice of reason and Fox the trusted head of Wayne Industries and high-tech gadget provider. Maggie Gyllenhaal is at least a slight improvement over Katie Holmes in the role of Ms. Dawes, with numerous chances for strong emotive scenes in this film. And Gary Oldman’s James Gordon takes on a much more central role here, giving Oldman the chance to once again show off his broad range as an actor.
This movie will keeping you begging for more even after its two-and-a-half hour running time.
This film does what few sequels can, both in preserving the integrity of the original and surpassing it on every front. This film is deeper, more complicated, and, yes, darker. And with an entire cache of Batman baddies not yet tapped, let’s hope there are more sequels to come.
Forbes.com recently reported that YouTube is growing faster than Google, and it’s apparent why.
YouTube has changed our generation. While it wasn’t single-handedly, the public’s response to the popular video-sharing site has turned the 30 and below crowd into a generation of individuals who communicate through video.
With cheaper and more available video technology, it seems pop culture has been put in the hands of the people. No longer are MTV and FOX the only places around deciding what’s cool. Instead, viral videos – short movies that gains mass popularity through the Internet — are turning ordinary people into online sensations and causing mainstream media to pay attention.
South Park had an episode featuring infamous YouTube characters like Kelly from “Shoes” and Tay Zonday from “Chocolate Rain.”
Rock band Weezer has taken that a step further in their new mashup music video for the song “Pork and Beans.”
From “Shoes” and “Chocolate Rain” to “Numa Numa” and “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time,” the video has ‘em all.
Whether you like or not, if you don’t know what’s going on on YouTube, you’re out of touch. You better catch on quick, or you’ll be missing out on what everyone’s making fun of.
But how do you do create the next big (Internet) thing?
Simple.
Record something. Anything. Record you and your homies getting high in the basement. Capture your kid in a irresistibly cute moment. Or maybe even tape your friend burping the ABCs.
But it has to be funny - whether it be on accident or on purpose – it has to be so shocking its funny or just regular old good humor.
Once you have the footage and upload it to YouTube, send it to everyone you know. If its quirky enough to catch, it should start to gain attraction. Tell you friends to tell their friends and somewhere along the way, you’ll know you have a hit when fellower YouTubers start copycatting your vid.
After that, your cultural phenomenon is complete. Videos are the wave of the future so best to get on board before its too late.
Why? Because its become clear that we are, amongst other things, the YouTube generation.
We communicate and send messages through the latest technological mediums, and while e-mail and other online messaging is far from passé, moving pictures show a whole lot more and satisfy our unquenchable thirst for entertainment.
Apple Inc. now has a built in camera/video camera into practically every computer they sell. Billboards, once reserved for stationary and replaceable giant posters, have become electronic. It won’t be long until we’re really in the future, where life is like “Minority Report” and we walk into malls where virtual personalities greet us by name.
We can videochat, videoblog, and videorecord, and send what we have to nearly everyone in our networks.
While The Poly Post continues to develop its upcoming web reality show, bookmark YouTube if you haven’t already. You’ll most definitely enjoy it, and you might even learn something.
Hello loyal reader(s). Sorry to disappoint with yet another late post, but at least it got done this week.
Late night television generally blows. Having a satellite means a lot of shows are broadcast earlier than usual, meaning that by this time most channels are showing infomercials. Leno, Craig Ferguson and Conan aren’t all that funny, so Adult Swim is the last refuge of the insomniac channel surfer. It’s kind of hit and miss, what with the Anime and the ridiculous live action shows, but reruns of discontinued shows like “The Oblongs” make it worth while. It’s on right now and, with voice actors like Will Ferrel, it’s hard to determine exactly why the show was ever canceled.
“Family Guy,” “The Boondocks” and “Futurama” are all great shows as well, although the latter moved to Comedy Central not too long ago. “The Boondocks” is the only Adult Swim original, and its pointed satire is better than almost any show on a network. It’s surprising, nay sickening, that an intelligent show like that is deemed too “controversial” to air at a reasonable hour during prime time. I’ll never understand why parents think that swearing and sex on a comedic show like “The Boondocks” is more harmful to children than the vapid nature of shows like “Gossip Girl” and “The OC.” If more people watched intelligent shows like “The Boondocks,” maybe issues like class and race could be discussed properly and incidents like the Reverend Wright speech would be the non-issues they should be, instead of potential campaign killers.
But it seems that these days most people would rather strive for the economic and social status of a “Gossip Girl” than be a well-informed citizen with broader social goals. Egocentric materialism wins again. At least “The Boondocks” hasn’t been canceled … yet.
So sorry to have neglected the blog for the past week or so, but it’s been kind of nice not having to do anything in particular and I wasn’t going to screw that up with a bunch of work, even if it is sort of fun.
It’s early enough in the day that I haven’t been to a movie yet, but I’m planning on seeing “The Incredible Hulk” later. This movie should, by all expectations, totally rule. Ed Norton not only stars as everyone’s favorite two ton green beast; he also helped write the script. As one of the best actors of his generation, Norton seems more than able to take on the role.
The story this time is less introspective psycho-drama (like Ang Lee’s 2003 film) and more fast-paced comic adventure. The film finds Bruce Banner, the Hulk’s ultra-brainy alter ego, on the run from the U.S. Army in Brazil. He has been in hiding for five years trying to rid himself of the Hulk persona permanently. From what I can tell, he eventually has to use his Hulk capabilities to fight another monster, the Abomination, that the Army created to fight him but somehow lost control of.
This film will succeed for many reasons. The first is the stellar cast, which also includes Liv Tyler, William Hurt and Tim Roth. Tyler’s capacity for “empathy,” as Norton put it in one interview, makes her a perfect candidate for Betty Ross, the woman torn between her love for Banner and her father’s hatred for the Hulk. And Roth is a fantastic actor who should be able to make the Abomination not only very powerful, but also very cerebral.
The second reason the film will succeed is the Abomination as a character. The last “Hulk” had Nick Nolte as a villain with lame powers that only fights the Hulk at the end. The rest of the time he’s fighting the Army, an easy task for the Hulk. This time, he’ll have to face an enemy that can match him physically. “Iron Man” used the same approach when it posited the Iron Monger as the villain, a giant robot with the same capabilities as Iron Man. Had he been fighting militants with AK-47s the whole time, there would have been no suspense.
The final reason also relates to “Iron Man,” as the studios have finally decided to connect the Marvel world they’ve created by having Robert Downey Jr. cameo as Tony Stark. It’s not clear how extensive his role will be, but it will clearly help set up the Avengers missions mentioned by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury at the end of “Iron Man.”
What an exciting time to be a film and comic fan.
Here I’m at Janice’s apartment after the Poly Post banquet. Hanging out with beautiful Janice, Mike Zavala, Casey, Dan, Twin II(Chris), Hannah (passed out on Janice’s bed), Shlee, Diana (the cute asian girl), and big Joe. It has been a fun night, and it’s so fun that I have to blog about it. Tonight is actually the first night I hung out with Mike Zavala, aka Rockzala, the MVP of the Poly Post. It has been a fun night (I know I have mentioned that earlier), we drank and had fun. This is one of the best banquet I’ve been to so far in my life and I don’t think I can write any more, so peace out!
This week, the music blog will be more philosophical than specific. Instead of espousing the wonders of a particular artist or artists, I want to write about the nature of music and, more specifically, the nature of being totally obsessed with it.
So, a typical relationship for yours truly, after it’s been established that a mutual attraction exists, usually starts with the giving of burned CDs and/or listening to music together. The way I figure it, if a girl is into the same type of music as me, then we must have something in common. Because giving someone a sampling of your musical tastes is more than just a, “Here, you might like this.” It’s saying, “This is what I listen to, this is how I feel and this is who I am.”
Obviously, I’m not much of a metal head, and I haven’t really listened to punk rock since my younger, angrier days. If a potential mate favors this kind of music, chances are she’s a little more hardcore than I’m looking for. But, if most of the time her tastes lean toward acoustic folk rock, heartfelt indie rock or satirically irreverent troubadours, we’ll probably have a lot to talk about.
Burning a CD is like creating a personal definitive list of musical taste. If “High Fidelity” taught us anything, it’s that such listing can be an intense form of personal expression. So, before giving a lover that mix, make sure the proper time and care have been put in; it’s a big reflection of your personal thoughts and feelings. And besides, Ben Gibbard’s always been able to explain my feelings far better than I ever could.
So my computer is broken.
You may be wondering, “How the heck is he blogging if his computer is broken?!”
Well, the answer is I’m at The Poly Post. It’s two o’clock in the morning and I’m using the computers in the Post Office (that’s the office of The Poly Post, not the mail place) because I can’t really accomplish anything without one.
But not just any computer, a Mac. I can’t really use PCs anymore, or I start to melt.
Anyone who knows me who has heard my predicament has gone “Wow, isn’t your computer…like, your life?”
Yes, it kind of is. My Macbook represents me in a lot of ways – its sleek and stylish white outside is just the beginning of what’s inside once you open up and turn on. I’m a writer, and I’m much better and faster at typing than handwriting so I need it for that. I’m also an amateur designer, so I crave Photoshop when I don’t have it. And I’m a musician and listen to a lot a lot of music, so my iTunes library is definitely a good representation of who I am.
Sure, I could borrow a roommate’s laptop for a bit but I need the device for more than a bit. And I like to do things my way when I’m computering: music, eight web pages open, three iChats, and multiple writing projects to distract me from my actual goal of completing a horribly unintelligible paper for a horribly unintelligible class.
And speaking of that horribly unintelligible class, allow me to refer to what fellow and soon-to-be former sports editor Michael Rockzala mentioned a few blogs back. We’re taking classes in the communication department, and somehow I can’t figure out why half the professors got their jobs. Don’t get me wrong, there are some truly amazing professors in our department but a few are just a bit questionable.
This is a direct quote taken from a prefessors’ PowerPoint slide.
“General value tendencies means the average tendencies of a culture and a wide variety of individual value tendencies may exist in individuals within that culture.”
Okay, is it just me or does that say ABSOUTELY NOTHING?
I’ll agree with Mike in calling it superficial babble and idiotic doubetalk. You can’t use the term you’re defining in its own definition! In this class specifically, it’s frustrating “learning” really logical concepts with excessively complex definitions. And there’s about 50 of those on the test, so I’ll guarantee no one walks out of that class remembering more than two or three basic terms.
…
There’s a lot of frustrating things in the world these days. And the weather trips me out—I think it’s a sure sign of the Apocalypse. Thunderstorms one day, sunny and 90 the next? You tell me…
It sounds cliché, but I cannot wait wait wait for the next few days to be over. Tackling finals, papers, the Post, and a lot of writing…while still trying to go to school and strike a smile here and there by going out a bit at night.
I’ll come up with a purpose for these blogs soon enough. Perhaps the inner workings of the Cal Poly party scene and the things wrong around campus.
Here’s to hoping for a reader or three.
*Currently playing: The Spill Canvas - The Truth
So, I have decided that I am going to be writing the off-the-wall blog.
It’s perfect for my quacky, quirky character that always seems to be, well frankly, doing something off-the-wall. (And this off-the-wall is way cooler than the Vans shoe brand).
This blog will discuss the weird, random topics you only feel comfortable talking about with your friends. You know the strange things you would never talk about with a complete stranger.
Well, I don’t believe in holding your tongue about matters that should be unspoken. In the world of Shlee the Strange, there is no such thing as strange.
So, here I am gonna lay it all out in the table - anything that comes to mind, I’m not holding back.
No topic will be too off-topic and no subject will be unfit to write about.
So, I’ll get the ball rollin’ …
I actually first want to start off by apologizing for my lack of commitment to blogging. I decided this would be niche earlier this week, but haven’t got my butt to actually write something of substance. I have had some wishy-washy ideas that I never really took the time to develop.
So, here’s to being a committed blogger, and making the most out of the short time I have to blog for The Poly Post.
I actually just wrapped the last issue where I would be able to write for The Post. And I think the overwhelming sadness I feel because of it, pushed my booty to get going on the blogging. I can’t imagine not writing for The Post in any form - and the time where I can’t at all is drawing near. But that is a different subject … read my column this week at www.thepolypost.com for my details about departure as editor-in-chief.
As editor-in-chief, I have not surprisingly been sleep deprived. And due to the lack of sleep, have come to not need it. Hence why I am currently skimping out on it to write.
Now that I have a taste of freedom, I don’t know what to do with myself. I have been so occupied with The Post, I haven’t had time for a life - even sleep.
Finally presented with a chance to snooze, I can’t.
Insomnia?
As of late, I have come to think you need to have a bit of the disorder to survive as an editor. Either that or it’s because your mind is constantly reeling, so you can’t sleep.
Sleep is a weird sensation. Don’t get me wrong I love sleeping in, naps and catching some Zzz’s in the sunshine, but I don’t think it is completely necessary.
Sometimes I wish we just didn’t need sleep, and could just keep going and going and going … like the Energizer bunny.
Most college students complain about being tired and this that, but I think it is a bunch of baloney. I must admit sometimes I fall into the trap, but I want out.
I feel blessed that I have many passions - so many so I don’t have time to sleep.
Sleep should be treated as a luxury, not a commodity.
Everyone needs to get over the eight hour ideal, and start living.
If you’re considering calling someone strictly for some booty action, put the phone down. You should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re too horny and don’t have enough self control, I guess you’ll have to learn the hard way. And if you’re the person who is being called for some sex and keep going back for more, you need to stop.
I totally understand everyone has sexual needs. Trust me, I understand.
And I totally understand that a “booty call” starts out fun and exciting, no strings attached, just sex. No dates, no other goals besides gettin’ down ‘n’ dirty to do the hanky panky, right?
It may start out fun and spontaneous, but the truth is that having sex with someone who is a booty call will only stir up more trouble for you in the end.
Why?
Because sex is more than pleasure.
Sex is an emotional bonding between two people that cannot be taken lightly. Maybe you don’t experience any feelings or emotional ties to your sex partner, but your partner probably feels different. (I know you probably think that this is my reasoning just because I’m a female, but the same goes for men)
Emotional feelings almost always arise with one person.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe some people can totally separate emotions and sex, but there are very few people who have the ability to do that. Don’t even try to be one.
You’ll fail. You’ll get your feelings deeply hurt.
Truth is, the other person’s only using you to satisfy their needs. It doesn’t matter if you’re the one calling, or the one receiving the calls.
Your sex partner doesn’t care about you. Your feelings are not valued and neither is your body. You might as well become a prostitute. Yup, you heard me.
When you find yourself tangled in this mess, you’ll understand.
Truth is, having sex with someone as a booty call will only stir up more trouble for you in the long run, so unless you like drama in your life, run far away from calling your sex object to come please your horny self tonight.
It’s Monday people, and that means television. Now, it might seem stupid to start a television blog at the beginning of summer when most shows are in their off season and immediately following the writers strike, but timing was never my strong suit (except when it comes to punch lines). And anyways, the LA Times seems to pull it off with Channel Island.
Regarding the writers strike, while I fully support the union and the meager concessions they were asking the studios to make, it totally crippled the industry and ruined part of this television season for me. The “season finale” for “Scrubs,” where they pulled episode nine of this season out of its normal spot and aired it after episode 11 was just stupid. No doubt, it was a great episode, with the framing device of Dr. Cox telling his son a fairytale being a great way to play with fun costumes and special effects. But the presence of Dr. Kelso as the chief of medicine was confusing after his retirement in episode 10. And the final chronological episode to be aired ended on a sweet but open-ended moment between JD and Elliot that makes it seem like they’re finally going to get together and stay that way. It would have been the perfect way to end this extremely abridged season and keep loyal fans guessing until next season, when the show will reportedly air on ABC.
Luckily, cable doesn’t stick to network rules about when seasons begin and end. And since I don’t have the premium cable package, when I say cable, I mostly mean FX. The network has really excellent shows, with Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days” set to begin airing tomorrow. To those who are unfamiliar, this is the same guy that tortured himself with too much Micky D’s in “Supersize Me.” In his show, he gets people to live really different lives than their normal ones for 30 days, this season beginning with the man himself working in West Virginia coal mine a la “October Sky.”
Also coming soon on this network will be the final season of “The Shield” (the best cop drama ever made) and a new season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Both shows push the boundaries of modern television. The former broke all preconceived notions of justice and the badge six seasons ago as the networks first original show. With more nudity and violence than your little bro’s favorite R-rated film, this show really takes television to a whole new level. “Sunny,” as the name implies, is a comedy. It focuses on a twin brother and sister, their father and two guys that co-own the brother’s bar. Danny Devito is ridiculous as the father, his every line utterly hilarious. And the show is so random and witty, it’s hard to believe anyone working in television gave it the green light. Just think “Seinfeld” on crack.
So, despite a weak season that’s already coming to an end, cable has a few tricks up its sleeve that should keep all couch potatoes, baked or otherwise, glued happily to their seats.
Just another WordPress weblog