Posts from — April 2005

I saw Sin City a few weeks ago, and I really liked it. It’s a great movie and I recommend it for everyone, even non-comic book fans. I think there is some hesitation for some people to see a ‘comic book’ flick, but ignore the press/reviews that keep bringing it up and just see it and go in just expecting to see a movie. And a quite entertaining one at that.

The brief rundown on the movie is that it’s three(?) overlapping stories that take place in the morally bankrupt town of Basin City.

There’s the story of Bruce Willis’ cop who’s nearing retirement but has one last case to work out with a child-molesting kidnapper. Mickey Rourke steals the movie with his performance of Marv. And Clive, Benicio and the lovely Rosario have to protect Old Town due to some schenanigans and mob-machinations.

Speaking of Bruce, damn, I’m jealous. He’s in the best two “comic book movies” now (this one and Unbreakable) AND he gets to make out with girls like Jessica Alba in the flicks. What kind of cool job is that?

Speaking of girls, let’s just have a brief moment of silence for the magnificence that is Carla Gugino. Hubba hubba.

I don’t really have a coherent review put together (obviously), but in my typical Kenny Style ™ I’ll just ramble for a bit and say go see the movie damnit.

Also, check out Filmrot’s Sin City Comic to Screen Comparison.

Well, once again, Patrick sums up some thoughts on financial software that hit home. Check out his latest update here.

I was having the same problems GnuCash and moved away from it partly due to downloading bank info and partly due to my laziness. And I wish I had known about GBonds before now. Had I had an app for my bonds in Gnome, I wouldn’t have had to reboot my old 98 box every month or so. Sometimes I wonder if I just spent a bit more time googling I’d find out some of this info that Patrick seems to know about. Probably not, I get distracted and wind up looking for pics of the SportByBrooks.com girls again.

Links: Patrick | GnuCash | MoneyDance | Gbonds | SbB

By the way, I still wonder why savings bonds aren’t as popular amongst my peers. Check out the rates.

via Yahoo

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Major League Soccer team could come to San Antonio as early as 2006 if several conditions are met under an agreement reached this week between the league and city.


The MLS has agreed to grant San Antonio a team if an ownership group is secured, 5,000 season tickets are sold by Aug. 17 and plans are completed for construction of a training complex that includes youth soccer fields.


“As one of the country’s fastest-growing and most diverse cities, MLS is convinced that San Antonio is an ideal home for a Major League Soccer club,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said.


Garber said the 12-team league is in discussions with several possible ownership groups. As part of the agreement, the city has agreed to provide a stadium. The deal grants the team rights to all ticket sales and certain sponsorship and stadium signage sales.

–What stadium are they talking about? Alamo Stadium would be cool, if they could convert it to grass, let them sell beer and not ass-rape people when they pay for parking. If not Alamo Stadium, are there plans for something out by Retama? Will one of my Texans email me please?

Don’t forget to express your concerns about the broadcast flag to your congressman. The FCC needs to overturn their deciscion. Get to it.

Takeshi Kitano never fails to entertain. Whether it’s some part as a heavy, or his old comedic stuff, or as a scenery chewer, he’s usually got your attention. He directed and stars in this re-re-make of Zatoichi. It’s a bit modernized (it’s in color) and the swordplay is much faster than in previous incarnations, but it holds true to the old Japanese “entertaining films” (Kitano refers to them in the dvd extras). What do I mean by that? Well, it is roughened up a bit, but it’s not a hard-core gangster Kitano version of Zatoichi, there are definite nods to the older style of flicks. Some are more subtle, like the story, story telling, and the flashbacks. Some are more obvious nods/headshakes – eg the “festival” ending. All in all a very entertaining re-telling. Go rent it. But if you’re interested at all, rent some of the original ones too.

What the hell?! Mean Girls?! Are you @$%!$ kidding me? Yeah, I rented it, I heard it was good. And you know what? It was pretty damn entertaining. Granted, parts of it are formulaic and you *know* how the story’s going to proceed, but hell, just along for the ride.

I was shocked that this movie made me giggle out loud more than once. Did I giggle like a school girl? Yup, but don’t I always?

I hope Tim Meadows gets more work (and out of the SNL orbit) too. He was funny in this little flick. And I hope we see more (snicker snicker) of Lacey Chabert in the future.

Oh and before you ask, Lindsay Lohan does not get naked.

Quick review. Stream of consciousness. . . Jazz baby, improvize. . . Heat starts on a train, ends at the airport. Collateral starts at the airport, ends on a train. . . yeah yeah . . . snap snap . . . Heat has a guy who wears a gray suit and a starched white shirt. Collateral has a guy who wears a gray suit and a starched white shirt. HEY NOW!

Okay, enough of that crap. Collateral’s good, but not that great. Man, was it overhyped or what? And Jamie Foxx cheated at the Oscars, he wasn’t the supporting actor in Collateral, but he still won that award.

In my usual rambling style I’d recommend Collateral- it looks great, it has a decent story and it kept me interested. Tom Cruise is a bit distracting but otherwise it’s great. I thought the best scene was with Javier Bardem talking about Pedro el Negro. But I think it’s odd that Javier, a kick ass Spanish actor, is hired to play a guy from Mexico. It’s not the first time.

So anyway, go rent it, have fun with it, but don’t drool on the dvd cover and think about how what a great heavy prescence Cruise brings to the flick.

Hrm, you know what? Javier got to Penelope Cruz before Tom did. Go rent Jamon Jamon and drool.

edit: on imdb they mention that the jazz number that the trumpet player is “improvizing” is actually Miles Davis’ Spanish Key, and isn’t improvized blah blah I’m a dork. . .

Not too much of an update, but I remembered to get the last two wine parties’ wine lists online.

-The list for the Zinfandel party is here

-Here’s the list for the Rhone and Rhone-style party that was the most recent.

I don’t have notes for all of the wines from the Rhonefest as I didn’t try them all. But here’s a quick rundown:

-The Jade Mountain Mourvedre was a crowd favorite

-My Chateau Pesquie Quintessence still needs more cellaring

-The Salentein Syrah was a crowd pleaser (and it’s only $10-13!)

-The Innocent Bystander Shiraz (w/ 3% Viognier) was pretty nice

-The 1995 Ridge seemed like it was made of rasberry jam, but it was good

-The Borsao (Tres Picos) was a pleaser and would be great for everyday drinking

-Copain keeps rockin’ the mic and

-Cline keeps up their consistency with the Mourvedre

-Not on the list was a muscat that Sean brought- RL Buller & Son Muscat, it went *really fast* because it was quite tasty.

Both were great parties by the way, I’m glad I got to go and hang out with some cool people. People forget that’s the more important thing, not the vino.

I finally got around to trying the 2003 Marques de Daroca Grenache Syrah. If you’re out shopping using the list from my other post, add this one to your list. It was $5.99 at The Wine Club on Harrison, but I think they’re out now. I have another bottle of theirs, Marques de Daroca Old Vines Grenache, which I look forward to opening soon.

Just a random link today. Vicentico was the co-founder/co-lead-singer of Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. That band broke up a while back and Vicentico went off on a solo career. His second album is online at his site. Here’s the link to go straight to the radio blog.

The first song off “Los Rayos” was the main single for that second album. There’s a video for it too on the site. At first I thought it was a funny video, it’s him and his buddies playing soccer. But after a while they start playing dirty and diving. I hate that style of soccer almost more than I hate volvo station wagon drivers.

Just in case you’re wondering about the other (main) dude from LFC, his name is Flavio, and he has a new band- Flavio y La Mandiga. I like his cover art. Site has sound, so be careful if you’re at work.