Thursday, December 31, 2009

5 reasons 2009 can suck it

Today’s the last day of 2009 and I, for one, can’t wait until it’s over. Aside from the bad economy, 2009 also brought us such unwelcome gifts as Balloon Boy, H1N1, Kanye’s VMA outburst, and celebrity deaths by the truckload. While some people are writing lists about their favorite moments of the year, I’ve compiled a list of reasons why I’m looking forward to saying sayonara to 2009. So, without further delay, I bring you… 5 reasons 2009 can suck it.

5. Lamar Odom marries Khloe Kardashian:
After becoming a stand out on a championship team, Odom made headlines of another variety when he met and quickly married a Kardashian. The scandalous union seemed like one of the biggest publicity stunts of the year, but it worked, making both household names and propelling the duo to a whole new level of fame. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians wedding special sealed the deal for unadulterated overexposure.

4. The rise of the non-celebrity
Whether it’s Balloon Boy, Octomom or the Gosselins, 2009 marked the year the meek inherited the world of entertainment. Every tabloid magazine or entertainment news show seemed to be filled with random people who had managed to squeeze every last drop out of their 15 minutes of fame. If you’re like me, you were left wondering where all the actors, singers, and actual talented people were.

3. The never-ending healthcare quagmire
Death panels? Public options? Pre-existing conditions? This year healthcare was all the rage as the government sought to make sense of the ridiculous predicament insurance companies and the American people had gotten themselves into. Each day, things got more confusing as compromises were made and the whole thing started to spin out of control. Some have argued that it’s all been a way to take our minds off the war, and that might be true, but the real question is, how can I get a job on one of those death panels?

2. Sarah Palin writes a best-seller
It’s questionable that Palin has ever read a book, but this year she published Going Rogue: An American Life, which became hugely popular with people who liked her kooky antics. Sadly, the book wasn’t just pictures of her holding shotguns standing over dead moose carcasses. As if we needed to hear any more nonsense from this vacuous media whore!

1. The death of the King of Pop
Michael Jackson’s death was a true tragedy that devastated his fans all over the world. After the initial sadness, there was the media storm and subsequent exploitation (I’m looking at you Jermaine!) of everything MJ from This Is It to the countless products baring an image of the late great superstar. The worst part of it all is that the death of such a significant and talented person left a void that the media filled with hordes of non-celebrities from Speidi to the kids from Jersey Shore.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Avatar raises the bar for visual effects

I remember seeing Jurassic Park as a kid and feeling absolutely sure that it was the biggest movie ever. There was no way any computer would ever be able to build something more realistic than the stunning dinosaurs in that film. Of course, then came Titanic and Lord of the Rings and with each film, it seems the standard for visual excellence becomes higher. Now there’s James Cameron’s Avatar, which will certainly go down in history as one of the greatest cinematic accomplishments of the decade if not the century.

Read the rest at http://trashwire.com/2009/12/29/avatar-raises-the-bar-for-visual-effects/

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

It's A Very Sunny Christmas

It’s a Very Sunny Christmas

If one of your favorite holiday traditions involves throwing rocks at trains then It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas might be just the Christmas special for you. The special, exclusively on DVD and Blu-ray, brings the same TV-MA humor that Sunny fans love to the holiday season as Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Sweet Dee and Frank relive their favorite Christmas traditions and try to understand the Christmas spirit.

Read the rest at http://trashwire.com/2009/12/21/its-a-very-sunny-christmas/

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

New Moon is no Romeo + Juliet but it's still teenage fun

You might find this hard to believe because I’m such a classy, dignified lady, but I was once a giggling teen with a major crush on a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Like so many girls (and some guys) of my generation, I was convinced that there was no greater heartthrob than Leo. Today, it seems the hottie du jour is everyone’s favorite sparkly vampire, Robert Pattinson.

Before Twilight, and its sequel New Moon, there was William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann. That film began the Reign of Leo as the be-all end-all sexy icon of young Hollywood. Like Twilight, it wove age-old themes of first love, societal restrictions and sorrow caused by violence with good-looking actors and cool contemporary music.

It’s only fitting that New Moon constantly references Shakespeare’s timeless tale of star-crossed lovers when continuing the story of plain-jane Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her immortal love Edward Cullen (Pattinson). This film sees the couple put to the test when their two worlds seem at odds. Bella is a human who dreads turning 18 because it symbolizes that pesky mortality that will surely keep her from spending an eternity with her immortal vampire boyfriend. Edward fears for Bella’s safety, knowing how irresistible fresh human blood is to his kind and, in usual cruel-to-be-kind fashion, tries to drive her away in an effort to protect her. After he splits, she starts spending time with another supernatural hottie, the werewolf Jacob Black, played by an insanely ripped Taylor Lautner. Bella is at a crossroads. Should she date the teen wolf with the rock hard abs or the pale, brooding, vampire whose hotness seems to increase as he gets more morose?

Read the rest at http://trashwire.com/2009/12/09/new-moon/

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Whatever, Martha! sharp, funny and incredibly amusing

Whatever, Martha! sharp, funny and incredibly amusing

Whatever, Martha! sharp, funny and amusingWhen someone asks me what my favorite show is, I usually say South Park, 30 Rock or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. While I do love those shows, there are a whole slew of other great shows, buried in the nether regions of deep cable, that I TiVo religiously but typically forget about when compiling a list of faves. FLN’s Whatever, Martha! definitely falls into that category.

Read the rest on trashwire.com
http://trashwire.com/2009/12/02/whatever-martha-sharp-funny-and-incredibly-amusing

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