Crazy Carly's Weekly Rant...

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a better day than we are here in Upstate New York! I spent the first 20 minutes of my day trying to pry The Editors car door open with no success. After the warm, but rainy day yesterday, of course Mother Nature feels the need to squash any feelings about nice weather we might have but dumping like, an inch of ice and 3 inches of snow on us. YUCK. I've decided that once The Editor and I need to upgrade house size, we are sooooo moving this show to California. Sure, they may have a crap economy just like New York, but at least they have nice weather there, so it doesn't make you feel quite as bad about it. And I know, you're like "But Caaaaarly, they have EARTHQUAKES in California!". To that I say, at least I don't have to own a snow brush.

As you can see, I'm on quite the ranting roll already this morning. The past two days I've just woken up crabby as all heck, and it hasn't gotten better. I blame it on cabin fever and progesterone. Today, we're going to talk about the movies, and why I prefer staying at home to going out to a movie 100 to 1.

Saturday night The Editor, Cara M., Evan T. and myself went to see a movie. We're kind-of nerds, so we thought we'd start watching all of the Oscar nominated films of the past year, starting with the winner: The Kings Speech. My review of the movie is as such: It was wonderful. I love British things, I LOVE Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth, and they has Corgis in it. Corgis are the best dog ever, so I was happy. The movie centers around King George IV and overcoming his speech impediment before he becomes king. It's a fantastic movie, that in my opinion deserved the Oscars it won. If you're a history geek like me, you'll like it even more.

There were a few things I didn't like. Not about the movie, but about the movie going experience. There are reasons that the "old way" of Hollywood trying to make money is failing, and I would like to touch on those reasons just a little.

1) Limited Seating- Okay, so , we show up at the movie about 20 minutes in advance for the 6:10 show. I think that is a perfectly reasonable time to show up for a movie that has been out for give-or-take 2 months now. Anyhoo, we show up, and of course, there is like, no seating. We quietly take our seats in the lower section closer to the screen, and get ready to be King's-speeched. Well, riiiiiight about the time the movie starts, an usher announces that they've sold out the show, so we're all going to have to squish together. Yeah, $12.50 for a ticket where I have to sit right next to a dude who not only picks his face, and bites his nails through the movie, but also feels a need to crack his knuckles and take up all of the arm room too. I. Hate. Awful. People.

2) Commercials- Ugh. I don't have to deal with these at home, why the 'ef do I have to deal with them at the movies? I don't even pay for cable, yet, I pay to watch commercials before a movie. Remember the good ol' days when they just ran trailers for like, 45 minutes before the show started? That was awesome.

3) Movie Placement- Please, for the love of God, don't ever put an action movie next to a drama. The Adjustment Bureau was playing in the theatre next to us, and it was suuuuper hard to concentrate on a dialogue based movie when you could hear the explosions happening in the theater next to you.

4) Children in Inappropriate Aged Group Movies- You run into this ALL the time. The worst offender I can remember is when a man trotted his toddlers into The Dark Knight and they proceeded to scream and cry the whole time. For real? You couldn't get a babysitter? You couldn't just wait the two months for the Bluray? As cute as you think your kids are, there is a time and a place for kids. If they're under 10, that place is at a PG movie. No exceptions. I don't care if you think your kids can be "intellectually challenged" by this movie, the rest of us just put up half a tanks worth of gas to see this movie, and your child should not have to be tolerated. Furthermore, The Kings Speech received an R rating?! WTF?! There was no nudity, no violence, and the only cussing was done in a way that was part of his therapy. I love our puritanical society...

Don't get me wrong, I love going to the movies for the most part. To me, it's less about the commercials, and the ticket prices, and more about the people around me that can totally ruin the experience. I love being able to get out of the house with my friends, and seeing something on the big screen and all of that. However, with ticket prices through the roof, and the fact that I have an 55 inch LCD TV in my living room, I've decided that my house is a much more desirable location to watch a movie. No screaming kids, no commercials, and no gross strangers sitting next to me. Just me, some reasonably priced snacks and the people I love. Oh, and I can pause the movie if I need to pee.

Slacker Sunday: Charlie Sheen Edition!

In honor of Charlie Sheen's decline in sanity, I thought I would give the train wreck his own post this week! This song will get in your head and stay there longer than Antione Dodson's "Bed Intruder Song" so consider yourself warned... Evan T., this one's for you!



Can't get enough Sheen? Well, HERE are a few fantastic quotes presented by super heroes.

What's that? You want MORE you say?! Live the Sheen Dream Here

Mustache Party!

Hello out there in internet land! Once again, it's that time! What time? Roller derby time! Tonight my lovely Hellions of Troy take on the Providence Killah Bees! Miss Ida will be announcing and fun will be had by all! If you're in the Capital District this evening and looking for something to do, you will not be disappointed! Tonight's theme is mustaches, so make sure you have one when you get there!

Video Games!

I was thinking about today's "What You Should be... Friday", and since I've been sick all week, I haven't really done a whole lot of research. Instead, I've decided to give you a couple of video game recommendations, since I've been playing a lot of those lately. Enjoy!

NBA Jam- We bought the updated version of the 1993 game about a month ago, and it's sooooo much fun to play. We're not huge sports fans, and we're certainly not NBA fans at all, but this game is a blast to play. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to get through a season, and like the original, you can play with any team you want. After you play "X" amount of of games, you start unlocking "Legends" like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. There are also a variety of other games you can play within the game such as dunking competitions and "HORSE". It's a pretty fun game and the nostalgia factor is through the roof.

 You Don't Know Jack- After Microsoft decided to discontinue "1 vs. 100" from Xbox live, we needed a new trivia game to play. It's super fun to play, however, unlike 1 vs 100, instead of playing against a bunch of people in the online world, you're playing against a few of your friends. The reason I prefer the 1 vs 100  model is because it gives the whole room an opportunity to shout out an answer. However, from what I understand, you can play "Jack" online, and get the same type of deal. You Don't Know Jack, is superfun if you are like me and enjoy fast paced trivia.

 Dance Central- Let me just tell you... I friggen' LOVE my Kinect. Dance Central is one of the most fun games out there. You can play it alone, or with a group, and the results are always hilarious. I like this game because it's a good workout, the music is great, and they have a "training" program to help you learn the moves, so you aren't doing it completely on the fly if you don't want to. They also have dance battles, if you're someone who thinks they can do well with that. Basically, you select a song, an avatar appears on screen, and you do what the avatar tells you to. It's kind of like Rock Band or Guitar Hero in that, it will let you know when you make a wrong move. In every song there is a 10 second or so pause where you just get to make up dance moves, and it replays the ridiculousness when you're done preforming. So. Much. Fun!

Sacchariferous Thursday: My Little Pony Edition

Yeah, yeah, shut up... I know, it's not really "comics" so much as it is "nostalgia", but you know what? I've got the full on flu, with a sore throat and fever and everything, and I can't take any medicine to make it better, so nostalgia is going to have to do the trick today. So there :-P

Hope y'all have a great day and feel better than I do! Enjoy the post, I gotta run and call myself an whaaaaambulance....

Wacky Wednesday: The Fantastic Four

Hello! Welcome back kids! Today we will be looking at The Fantastic Four. Admittedly, I have not read the current series, so I had to do a little bit of research on this one before posting. Last month Marvel decided to kill off The Human Torch, thus making them The Fantastic Three. Well, apparently, a superhero team cannot function on just three people, so they've already replaced the Human Torch... With Spiderman.

Yup, your friendly, neighborhood Spiderman, as of March 1st, is now part of two different teams. Fantastic Four and The Avengers. I don't really get it. I understand the wanting to kill off a character. It generated buzz and revenue for your company. Remember when they killed off Captain America a few years ago? Yeah. How long did that guy stay dead? I'm not saying that killing off a key character is unworkable, I'm simply saying, "Spiderman? Really?".

I guess I don't get why ol' Peter Parker is the chosen one. I mean, the guy has three of his own titles at the moment, why does he have to hone in on FF territory too? More than anything I feel like Marvel is whoring Spiderman out. Big time. There is a reboot movie on the way (after NO ONE could get their shit together to pull together a fourth in the original series), and a failing Broadway show. I suppose it's name recognition or something.

It's just that I find Spiderman soooo lame. I mean, I get the bubblegum factor. He's the sweet orphan boy next door who got chewed on by a radioactive spider. How cute is that? You've heard his story told and retold so many times, it's starting to border on Super Man territory where you just get to the point where you're like "Enough already! Can't SOMEONE just kill this guy?".

If killing off Johnny Storm wasn't enough, the FF no longer stands for "Fantastic Four", it now stands for "Future Foundation". Supposedly an homage to the late Human Torch. At the end of the day though, Marvel found a way to increase sales, so good for them . If it's anything we've learned from killing off iconic characters from years past, it's that Human Torch won't be dead very long.

Hot Nerd of the Week: Joel McHale!

Okay, so let me tell you, I've liked Joel McHale since before it was cool to like Joel McHale. I started my love affair with him back in 2004 when they rebooted "Talk Soup" as "The Soup", and have followed him ever since. The Editor and I even went to see him do stand up a year or two ago, and despite misgivings that The Editor had about how good he thought Joel would be live, he was AMAZING.

Joel was born in Italy, but raised in Seattle. He attended the University of Washington for college, and played tight end of their football team for two years. Joel is kind-of a sports nerd because of this, and it's just another reason why I like him so much. He eventually graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.

After college Joel moved to LA, and began getting small roles in movies such as The Informant!, Spider Man 2 and Lords of Dogtown. He also scored some TV roles guest starring in Bill Nye the Science Guy, Robot Chicken and Pushing Daisies. In 2009 he scored the lead role of Jeff Winger in the NBC comedy Community, a role he does while still hosting The Soup.

 Joel has contributed to a number of charities, including "Clothes off Our Back", which uses it's proceeds to help people suffering from malaria in third world countries.  He is also a regular at San Diego Comic Con, and is also a fan favorite while he's there.

His charismatic personality paired with his self deprecating sense of humor (as well as a great sense of fashion) is the reason Joel McHale is this week's Hot Nerd!