I first read about this story on ESPN (you should read it.) Zac Sunderland at the time was attempting to circumnavigate the globe in a 36-foot sailboat. By himself. And he’s 17 years old. I can safely say when I was 17, I was just learning to read and contemplating the wonders of my navel. I think it’s great that this long haired kid from California decided when he was 16 that he wanted to be the first to do it alone before he turned 18. So he saved up money, bought a used sailboat and with the help of his dad, retrofit it for his journey. Awesome.
Before. And After.
Along the way, he had to do battle with rough seas, losing his radar for a time, having his main mast crack in half, being pursued by pirates, all sorts of stuff that you typically see in a Lifetime made-for-TV movie. Well except menopause. About two weeks ago, he completed his journey, and sailed back into San Diego after about thirteen months of solitude.
This is a great story, and Zac’s motto has been to “Do Hard Things.” A good reminder that real growth in life comes from attempting and doing difficult things instead of just punting instead. Sometimes this is easy to forget because I personally like easy. Easy and Fat. That’s my motto. Thanks for the reminder, Zac. And your parents rule.
It’s a well known fact that Chris Daughtry can sing his face off, no matter what you put in front of him. He was one of the first on American Idol to “switch things up” and “make them his own” when he would take a pansy showtune or country song and rock the crap out of it instead. Here he takes the ubiquitous Lady Gaga song and dominates it. My esophageal wall is all trembly.
Filed under: Song of the Week
Here is a song that is worth highlighting for a number of reasons:
- It’s inherently catchy. Just try to get this tune out of your head. Seriously. Try.
- It features one of my favorite things in the world, the fat white rapper. Ah yes, anytime I can hear my rappers straining to breathe as they spit their lines, while chicken grease shoots through their veins always makes for a very enjoyable listening experience. One of the main reasons I never liked the Notorious B.I.G. was because his neck and voicebox were covered in so many layers of B.I.G., that it totally made his flow sound like a hood Snuffleupagus. I think I am the only one this bothers.
- His name is Big B! Really? That’s the best you could do? His name is probably Brandon or Brett and when he enters the game of rap decides he needs a catchy name. Well, uh…I’m large, and my name is Brett. Big B? Perfect! I have high hopes for your lyrics if this is the best you can do with your name.
- This video tells a nice story: Fat rapper gets arrested, (because he’s so CRaaaZy!) calls his totally busted, butter face girlfriend to bail him out, but she’s busy being stolen by the guy from Unwritten Law wearing a jaunty hat while singing a nice melody. I haven’t seen this much action since that one time Jack Tripper pretended to be two people at once at the Regal Beagle.
- It has a nice cameo of Carey Hart playing a prison guard. If the whole Moto X thing doesn’t work out, he seems to be doing a nice job of showing up in music videos.
- With all that, it’s just fun.
So there you go.
Filed under: Books
Last time I checked, there are more books to read then days that I will be alive. In fact there are so many books and so little time to read them that my reading policy usually entails giving a book 100 pages, and then if it hasn’t caught my interest or no one has died significantly, then I chuck it and move on. Kind of like how George Clooney dates. The only difference being that I can read books that are older than 24.
To help out those old-fashioned people that read books, I thought I would feature the next book you should be reading. To save you some time selecting that next book to read and so that you can get back to Jon & Kate and your US magazines when you’re done.
The Terror, by Dan Simmons
As this book is a work of historical fiction, you get some fact and then you also get some made up stuff. Kind of like the resume of every person on “The View”. To recap, this is the story of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition of the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus in 1845 as they make their way to the Arctic and attempt to find the Northwest Passage. As the expedition was lost, this is Dan Simmons’s imagining of what happened to the men on each ship. And oh yeah, there’s also a monster out on the ice that is stalking and killing them. This pretty much always equals awesome.
This book is great because:
- Even amongst all the made up stuff, you’re still learning actual stuff. I felt instantly smarter
- It made me appreciate modern conveniences like my furnace and stocking caps
- A monster! Remember?
- Even though it was 700+ pages, I couldn’t wait to read and finish this book. Either it was really good, or I am easily entertained. Yeah, that’s probably it
- I would hang out with Captain Crozier
- The ending was actually satisfying. Unlike the movie version of “No Country for Old Men” or Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” when he gets all preachy about the benefits of Communism, this one ended in a very satisfying, dare I even say uplifting way
So there. If you’re into reading books, feel free to give this one a try. Or yeah, I guess you could read that new one from Grisham. Sure.
To begin: I am not old and crusty. I think Shia Labeouf is as funny onscreen as his name is to say. I know that Megan Fox, even though she has some oddly mishapen Hobbit thumbs, is hot like a radiation burn and looks much like a unicorn would on screen as she is so unnaturally attractive. Also, I could watch transforming robots pound each other into sweet oblivion all day long. But after viewing Transformers 2: Electric Boogaloo, I was left oddly cold and dead inside. Kind of similar to Ms. Fox’s gaze, acting style and affinity for Brian Austin Green. Yes, as of today, T2: ROTF has grossed more than $600 billion worldwide, but come on people, this movie blows more than a football stadium full of cocaine in a swirling wind storm!
I know that every American has already seen it, sometimes twice, and that is why I’m not worried about spoiling anything, but here is why it should disappear faster than the crap fiesta that was “AI: Artificial Intelligence” otherwise known as, the real reason Stanley Kubrick died.
Splosions! Running! This is the movie!
Um…Story?
I realize that a story in a movie like this is just a speedbump on the way to action sequences and eye candy, but come on! At least get something a little less convoluted and dumb.
Here is my attempt at a synopsis. Please buckle in: a fragment of the AllSpark remains (‘member that?) and it causes Sam Witwikie to see symbols and visions that will lead him to a new source of energy that the Decepticons can use to resurrect Megatron at the bottom of the ocean. Don’t worry, we never learn what happens to his visions or symbols later on. They just kind of go away. The bad robots steal the fragment, reanimate Megatron and he then gets all revengeful and takes on Optimus Prime, effectively, like killing him and stuff. We have no time to mourn, as Sam is also beginning college and leaving his girlfriend so she can work in her motorcycle shop where her job consists of laying on motorcycles and talking to Sam on the computer and phone.
Meanwhile, at his college which has more hot girls per capita than any university known to man, even UCLA, Sam is finally convinced to join the battle against the Decepticons, because shockingly enough, he is more important than even he knows. Dude, this is heavy. Stuff blows up, really big Transformers Transform, the SR-71 Blackbird is proven to be a really old Transformer who transports everyone to Egypt auto-magically where the ancient pyramids hide a weapon that will steal the energy of the sun to power the Decepticon family. Wait a minute…could that same power be somehow harnessed to bring Optimus back to life? Yes! Let’s try it! Also, Optimus has some Prime brothers, and they’re all dead, expecpt for one, The Fallen, (do you see the connection in the title now??) and he’s super pissed and trying to kill everyone on Earth. You know, by stealing the sun.
To lighten things up, we have scenes of dog-on-dog action and references to robot undercarriages. Both about as hilarious as eczema. Sam’s Mom and Dad show up literally EVERYWHERE, and poor Tyrese is left to hang around and wait for his chance to say “Make it rain.” Again. Adam “Pacman” Jones is pleased.
After all this, I still have no idea what really happened in this movie. But an army of fifth graders equipped only with their favorite Bionicle and a thousand tiny typewriters could have come up with a less crappy, convoluted script.
This weird looking thing is all part of the story. Don’t worry.
Changing the Rules, All of a Sudden.
I’m referring to two parts here. The first, where Sam is seduced by weird looking random college hottie, who we learn is a robot (what???) with a killer tail tucked under her micro-mini. Where does she put it all? This goes against all the previous Transformers mythology as instead of this particular Decepticon transforming into a helicopter or a submarine or something equally useful and evil, instead she transforms into a hot human? This makes no sense. If Transformers was going to become Terminator, why don’t they just have ALL of the robots become large humans and they can bench press the human race out of existence? Why even switch to cars and planes and junk? Oh right, because again, that would be the Terminator. Way to switch things up on us halfway through.
Don’t worry everyone. She’s really a robot. Paging John Connor
Also, when the most useless character ever, the SR-71 BlackBird JetFire, is reanimated by Energon or the fragment or by an old peanut butter sandwich, I can’t remember which, he then decides to take everyone with him to Egypt. By teleporting them there. Sure, let’s introduce this concept now, because I’m sure a Blackbird couldn’t fly there in about three hours from wherever this movie is supposed to take place. Instead we learn that Transformers can teleport not only themselves but others with them. Sure, let’s go ahead and change the rules now. If this was the case, why don’t the Transformers simply teleport out of danger? Why didn’t Optimus teleport himself and Sammy out of the forest right before he got shanked? Can only really old Transformers with the optional cane attachment do such tricks with time and space?
Stupid.
Also, when the big bad robot at the end went all Voltron and started assembling huge body parts from other vehicles and attaching them onto one enormogous robot that for some reason only really was sucking sand, he STILL had trouble scaling the pyramid. I’m thinking if you’re Voltron, can’t you just leap to the top of the pyramid with ease? Why do you have to use your cable attachment to climb up there? You are weak.
This dumb robot is weak.
Random, Stupid Robots
I’m referring again to Jetfire who decides to sacrifice himself at the end and give his cool spy plane parts to Optimus Prime for the climactic battle. Which was kind of cool, until Optimus decided to shed those extra parts after winning. (Well of course, we gots to have a sequel.) Thanks for giving your life, Blackbird, it was totally worth it.
I’m also referring to the worst characters ever, Mudflap and Skidplate or whatever their names are. Forget the blatant racism or stereotypicality in their depiction, I’m more offended that two of the ugliest cars in the world were featured so prominently. You’ve got a brand new Camaro and some other sweet cars and trucks, and all we get to see are these small Euro-trash piles of dung supplied by Chevy?
P.S. the AutoBots that are just motorcycles? Dumb idea. They look about as scary as a sleeping poodle.
Totally not scary.
Jon Turtorro. Again.
Why does this man still have a SAG card?
Yes. He’s in it again.
Bumblebee STILL Can’t Talk?
With all the advancements in technology, you know, giant robots becoming other things like cars or airplanes, you’d think they’d have a spare moment to tinker with his freaking voice processor! Even Jar Jar Binks had more lines than this dude!
Still not talking.
Robot Undercarriages
I suppose this was funny? But if I wanted to see robot dong, I’m sure there’s an Internet site for that.
Humans That Just Won’t Die
I imagine that if I were to do battle with a large robot bent on my destruction, I probably wouldnt’ stand much of a chance. Especially if I had long flowing hair. I would have liked to see a few more soldiers and maybe the Witwickie parents get wacked, just to resonate emotionally and to remind me that hey, these robots are pretty dangerous, instead of seeing them almost kill people and think they’re just horribly inaccurate. I mean, Josh Duhamel really didn’t have that much to do, couldn’t we see him go down in a hail of bullets to some soaring music? Fergie would be proud.
Showing some range. And her large thumbs. And no. No one died in this scene. I wish.
Dorm Rooms the Size of Palaces
I love how there’s enough room in their two man dorm room, for an entire IT operations center, four website admins and more plasma screens than O’Hare. As I recall, dorm rooms have about enough room to shave and put your socks on, and certainly not at the same time.
Essentially, this all fit in their dorm room.
Movie Length
There was absolutely no reason for this movie to be any longer than 72 minutes. The fact that it’s over two and a half hours long is proof that Michael Bay has an ego the size of China or that we really did need to see 23 minutes of the Witwickie parents spanning the globe, and 7 minutes of dog humping.
Admittedly, there were about five places where I laughed out loud and some of the effects were legit. The rest of the time I was bored or confused or incredulous. Kind of like when I try to comprehend how Joan Rivers is still alive. Why hasn’t one of her lips exploded and killed her yet?
