movie remakes

i just watched a trailer for the departed... a new scorsese movie starring leo, matt damon and jack nicholson. it's a remake of the asian movie "infernal affairs" which i saw last year and absolutely loved. that movie was just very well made, with a great script and relatively good direction. i really like both the main actors in it - tony leung and andy chau - they've done solid work in the movies i've seen. i really like matt damon and can stand leo, so i'm hoping this movie does the original justice. i don't know about jack nicholson though, i hope he can avoid his same old shtick....

the war, or should i say, the fighting

as someone who writes the news, it continually surprises me how quickly i get bored with events which involve armed fighting. the hezbollah-israel "war" is no different. pretty much into the 3rd day of active bombing, i was over the story. not to be callous, but when you have producers freaking out over the latest bombing, when there's only more to come, it can get old, fast. the situation continues to boil, all three sides (lebanon) seem determined not to allow any sort of a cease-fire or compromise agreement. this worries me. civilians on both sides are dying, and as one u.n. official put it - "There is something fundamentally wrong with a war where there are more dead children than armed men." this sentiment exactly captures my frustration with the events/story. hezbollah is a terrorist organization, they will attack innocents who they see as their enemy to get their work done. israel wants to target hezbollah, but is also killing hundreds of uninvolved lebanese. lebanon doesn't seem to know whether it wants to try to maintain this farce that it doesn't support hezbollah activities. it's everyone being extremely stupid, but in the end, it's creating a human crisis. i'm not sure where i'm going with this post, it just bothers me that the whole thing is happening, with a slim chance of an end in sight...

betcha didn't know

that the average american uses 51 sheets of toilet paper daily. i was reading a mcdonald's kiddie magazine this weekend, and this was one fact i couldn't get over because i just thought it was a gross magnification. after discussing it with my fellow diners, we realized that two things come into play: 1. how many times during the day you visit the little men's/ladies' room, and 2. whether you're using 1 or 2-ply tissue.

so of course now, we've been counting the number of individual sheets we use, and i gotta say, it really does depend on the quality of the tp. bet you're wondering if you fall within the national average, aren't you? ;)

too sad to think about

the news a couple of weeks ago that jk rowling was going to kill 2 major characters in the final hp book was too much for me. of course, i immediately started debating who was susceptible and who wasn't. i refuse to think it's harry, i really hope she wouldn't do that, but who knows?

anyways, saw this article tonight about the bets people are laying down on who it could be and it made me sad to read the pros and cons of each character, because some of it is so true. hagrid's chances especially scare me.

that other borough

we took a trip to staten island a few weeks ago as part of our ongoing plan to expand our experience as manhattan girls. i've been remiss in posting about it, partially because i was traumatized after the outing. staten island is interesting. it has some nice things, mainly south beach, but overall it's just a very residential area. it's honestly one place i'll never feel the need to go to again. so much so, that i found an express way off the island that involved the wrong bus which took us to brooklyn, rather than the ferry terminal. regardless, here are some scenes from staten island:

characters welcome

p. and i ventured to the bronx yesterday, it was quite a commitment for her, since going past 86th st. is going into dangerous area... no, i've got to hand it to her, for a girl raised in a mets household, she put up with a yankees game for me. and i gotta say, what a game!


yanks won 14-3, it was almost sad. but, as much fun as the action on the field was, let's talk about the fun going on in the stands. we had some interesting people sit in front of us, and by interesting i mean annoying. these women were so not concerned with the game, they clearly were dragged here by their husbands/sons when they would have preferred to go shopping. then there was the case of the great peanut flood of 2006. someone accidentally dumped a brand new bag of peanuts that didn't even belong to her. evidence a:


now, the perpetrator (sp?) behind the flood shall remain nameless, as is the policy of absolute bakwas. there were other interesting people of the day as well - an italian patriarch who was a big spender and a roly-poly boy who was the best dancer to ymca that i've seen in years. we also went to little italy on arthur ave. which was very cool. we ate at dominick's, a real family-style restaurant with no menu, no prices, just good food. it was there that we met the most interesting father-son couple. the son had a one-side staring contest with the dad, kept kicking him under the table. mind you, this kid was a teenager, not some 2-year old. the dad kept yelling at him to stop, to grow up, how he was ruining his dining experience. i don't think either of us has ever been as uncomfortable as we were, unwillingly overhearing their entire aggravated conversation. but whatever, seems fitting - a visit to the bronx wouldn't be complete without some shadiness!

off the wagon

i had made an unofficial oath with myself that i would not watch any reality shows on television. after several seasons of the real world and the bach, i just decided i needed to go cold turkey. all was well for almost three years, when one morning this week at work, i flip channels to a show on a&e, which follows customer service reps at southwest airlines. let me tell you, this show is addictive. i've only seen one episode so far, so it's not a full blown obsession yet, but it easily could be. drunk passengers, crying passengers, faking mental-illness passengers, meeting-their-internet-love passengers, it's all there in glorious shaky-camera footage.

rollin' with my homies

so jeremy sisto was shooting in our office yesterday. he's on some new show called kidnapped that just got picked up for the fall season. they converted our main office area into a fbi office for the day, it was interesting to see. i never realized how many people it takes to do a simple one day shoot. there must have been at least 50 people going back and forth all morning long. anyways, another pop-culturally aware coworker was like - omg, billy from six feet under just passed us. and my only reaction was - c'mon, he's elton from clueless. that will forever be jeremy sisto's place in my recognition dictionary.

bombay bombs

i was at work today when news of the explosions on commuter trains in bombay came in. my producer said, somewhat sarcastically, what enemies does india have besides pakistan? and my reaction was - there are outside enemies of india, but india has enough internal issues for these bombings not to be outside interests necessarily. so it got me to thinking... it's sad to say that, while there is a lot of national pride in india, there is also a tremendous amount of strife in the country. many of the differences center around religion, but of course, historical, geographical and political issues come into play. there are so many forces looking to subvert indian authority because of long-standing issues that have no resolution in sight. the communal differences that continue to fester are based on decades old british intereference that left the region with more problems than it could handle. this is rambling, but it just honestly makes me mad to think of this.

and now, when i look at iraq, and the american insistence to keep the country together, i just wonder if we're trying to impose fake borders on regions and communities that were never meant to be together. i don't know the history of iraq, whether it was consolidated sometime in the past, before saddam hussein started his regime, but what if these groups should be allowed to create their own autonomous states? yes, i take the stance that we shouldn't leave this country is turmoil, but maybe we should listen to these groups and see what the solution should be. maybe a central iraqi government isn't the best way to restore this country to peace.

a good day

allright, so italy won, and i can say, i'm happy about it. though yesterday after the game, i just didn't have the feeling of elation that i did with the win against germany. i think i was just extremely disappointed that zidane left the game as he did, with a head butt and a red card. i don't think it will hurt his legacy in the long term, but it will be an image that will not fade. and more importantly, italy just didn't play that well. they weren't cohesive, they weren't energetic, france completely outplayed them. still, i was impressed with the azzurri throughout, so i'm glad the title came their way.

also, federer finally found a way to beat nadal pretty well. it counts, but not as much as if he had figured it out for the french. let's see... the open is next, and you all know my thoughts about that.

lastly, johnny totally solidified his crown as the pirate prince of hollywood. pirates 2 took in 132M dollars in one weekend, the new record. i haven't yet seen it, which kills me, but it'll happen soon. i'm glad for him, but i hope he keeps his eccentric side firmly in check. with depp, i don't think it'll be a problem, because he's such a rebel, but you never know.

are they blind or just stupid?

so the emmy nominations came out yesterday, and i've got to say, i'm totally bewildered. some of the nods i don't disagree with, arrested development, jeremy piven, the office, grey's, kiefer, kyra... but the fact that they once again overlooked lauren graham of gilmore makes me see red. and kristen bell, jason bateman, hugh laurie, and maybe even the adorable patrick dempsey. i think the comedy actress and actor categories were just completely random, they just really found a way to screw up a bad process even more. oh well, a rant on this is ridiculous, but these shows and the characters remain the primary source of entertainment in my life. sad, i know.

heartbreak hotel

today was not a day for my sports favorites. brazil lost, england lost with becks in tears, and most crushingly, andre agassi fell to nadal in three straight. i didn't get to watch the match, though i'm taping a rerun right now. i heard he was crying as he addressed the crowd afterwards, and i know it'll be too much for me. my dad called afterward to console me, it was the nicest thing.

well, i'm now officially throwing my vote behind italy in the long run, france in the interim, and r fed at wimbledon. let's hope the next week brings better luck for these guys!