Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Random Notes: The Holiday Special

First, I would like to say that I hope that everyone had a great Christmas day and that you all got what you wanted for the holidays. I know I did, but more on what I got later. We're a few days away from the end of another crazy and unpredictable year, and there's so much I wanted to comment on about what's been happening, so without further ado, here's Random Notes: The Holiday Special (listed in order of importance).

1.) Chargers wrap up AFC West for 2nd straight year: After beginning the season 1-3, the inconsistency of Philip Rivers as quarterback and defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, the boos and calls for Norv Turner's head from the fans, and the lack of stellar performances from the team in general, San Diego got their act together and clinched the AFC West title for a second straight year. My boys have won five straight ballgames, including the Monday Night Football game against the Denver Broncos, 23-3, and with a win over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, the Chargers will have clinched the no.3 seed in the playoffs. With Rivers playing well, LT having another record-breaking season, a wide receiver that can actually catch the ball (think Chris Chambers), and a defense that's allowed fewer than seventeen points during their streak, the Chargers could make some serious noise heading into the post-season. Well done Chargers, keep it up! GO BOLTS!!!

2.) Sweeney Todd: Raising the Bar on Bloody Hell: For the holiday season, if you're looking for a film that is safe, enjoyable and fun for the whole family, read this review of Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street no further, and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks or some other crap. For those who want to watch Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton raise their game to the next level, make their best movie since Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Ed Wood, and have a bloody good time witnessing it, then step right up and watch one of the year's very best movies and a sure-fire contender come Oscar time. Depp, who has never sung a note before (the movie is 90% sung), plays Benjamin Barker, a barber who's freedom, his wife and his baby daughter were stolen from him by Judge Turpin (a creepy Alan Rickman). The bastard makes some trumped-up charges to send Barker away for 15 years in prison and send himself into rape mode on his wife. Barker returns to London to learn through the landlady, Ms. Lovett (the wonderful Helen Bonham Carter) that his wife killed herself and Turpin plans on marrying Johanna (Jayne Wisener), Sweeeney's daughter. And off to the bloody races we go from there. Todd vows vengeance on Turpin and his protector, Beadle Bamford (Timothy Spall), and on mankind (as he sings in his solo Epiphany), while Ms. Lovette makes meat pies downstairs of the men that Sweeney murders. Sweeney Todd is not only the best bloody time you'll have at the movies all year, but it's a movie that will stay with you, long after the credits roll. Depp's fusion of acting and singing to tell the tragic tale of Sweeney Todd might finally win him the Oscar for Best Actor (that is, if the voters don't faun over Daniel Day-Lewis's turn as an oil tycoon mad with money, greed, and oil in P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood). And Burton's magnificent direction, along with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, and production designer Dante Ferretti, make this tale of love, loss, and revenge the stuff of nightmares for some, but a wet dream for goths and emo kids.
***1/2 stars out of ****

3.) Benazir Bhutto Assassinated; World Leaders Mourn, Condemn killing: Terrible, terrible news to speak of.
From Moscow to Washington to New Delhi and points in between, dismay and condemnation poured forth Thursday over the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, along with concern for the stability of the volatile region. World leaders lauded her bravery and commitment to democratic reform. In India, which has fought three wars against Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Bhutto is irreplaceable, and noted she had striven to improve relations between the two nuclear-armed countries.

"I was deeply shocked and horrified to hear of the heinous assassination," Singh said. "In her death, the subcontinent has lost an outstanding leader who worked for democracy and reconciliation in her country."

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, who met Bhutto earlier on Thursday in Islamabad, said he was "deeply pained" by the assassination of "this brave sister of ours, a brave daughter of the Muslim world"

"She sacrificed her life, for the sake of Pakistan and for the sake of this region," he said. "I found in her this morning a lot of love and desire for peace in Afghanistan, for prosperity in Afghanistan and ... Pakistan."


That's all we know at the moment. I'll try and add as many updates as I can.

4.) Another Spears is pregnant: No, its not the once pop-princess, now has-been, trailer trash , wannabe Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan party girl Brittney. It's her sister, Jamie Lynn of Nickeloden's hit tweener show, Zoey 101.

Another Spears baby is reportedly on the way and it's not Britney's.

Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star and sister of Britney, told OK! magazine that she's pregnant and that the father is her boyfriend, Casey Aldridge.

"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," she said. "I was in complete and total shock and so was he."

Spears is 12 weeks along and initially kept the news to herself when she learned of the pregnancy from an at-home test and subsequent doctor visit, she told the celebrity magazine, which hits stands in New York on Wednesday and the rest of the country by Friday.

What message does she want to send to other teens about premarital sex? "I definitely don't think it's something you should do; it's better to wait," she told the magazine. "But I can't be judgmental because it's a position I put myself in."

After she found out from a doctor that she was pregnant, she said, "I took two weeks to myself where I didn't tell anybody."


The only thing I can say about this story is this: Congratulations to the Hilton family: they're no longer the most dysfunctional family with a vapid, media seeking whore for a daughter.

5.) Christmas Gifts: My Christmas seriously kicked every manner of ass. For X-mas this year, I received the following items:
From my mom - jeans from Quicksilver and LRG, a new sweater, a wine-colored jacket, two new shirts, a $25.00 gift cars from Starbucks.
From my dad - A Chargers jacket with removable hood, an iPod Nano 8G, and the first season of the HBO original series, Entourage.

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