This Sean Penn love-fest must stop now.

Speaking of the Oscars, was there any doubt Heath Ledger would win? That's all fine, though. It was a good performance and how exactly does one quantify who acts "best" anyway? It's purely subjective and without quantifiable metrics, just like beauty pageants or dog shows.

On a somewhat dually-related note, look no further than Brokeback Mountain for some socially and politically charged subjectivism. If that film had not been "like" it was, nobody would have really cared about it. Toss in a little controversy and all of a sudden, people care and the film is a masterpiece. Well, not everyone thinks so. Some people think it's almost terrible and that has nothing to do with political statements or so-called alternative lifestyles. The natural scenery is nice to look at in the surprisingly sparse scenes where they're out in the wild doing their thing. It definitely seems like 95% of the press clips of the movie came from about 5% of the film. The "sensitive" aspects of the lead performances come off as very forced and the story doesn't even really flow or intrigue the viewer. Then again, all that stuff that is secondary when you're dealing with something "impactful".

(Note: this spontaneous review of Brokeback Mountain can be solely attributed to one thing. If it were not for Comcast OnDemand Free Movies, this entry would have likely never happened. Well, boredom also played a big role.)

One month and one day from now (March 19), Holler Wild Rose will be playing at The Basement, right here in Nashvegasvilleboro. It's $5. If you're worried you won't know anyone there, don't worry, you will...unless you're a stranger reading this blog, in which case you should immediately identify yourself with a comment.

Listen to them here and see if you think they're sorta like Ryan Adams and Sigur Ros having a baby. Everyone is having babies these days, you know? Ok, that's probably a far-too-lofty description, but whatever.

Just for further effect, here's a music video of a song of theirs, although it's not their best song:


Holler, Wild Rose! - Marylawn Hair (Official Video) from Backlight Records on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: This post in no way is connected to you, Omar. The vehicle of the bad person is purely coincidental.

Dear lady in the maroon Ford Escape in tonight's northbound commute from the Moores Lane exit of Interstate 65,

You really suck. You are a terrible driver. Having a National Guard license plate is no consolation for your complete disdain for all things reasonable when operating a vehicle. Changing lanes in an intersection is illegal. Doing so without a signal is also illegal and unfortunately, these don't cancel each other out in some kind of weird two-illegals-make-a-legal parallel universe. Also, cutting as many people as possible in a dangerous manner isn't the kind of thing that will get you into a sweet 3 Doors Down commercial for the National Guard. Really, it just makes civilians wonder if they should be surprised there are so many tragic deaths resulting from friendly fire in warzones, not to mention that whole Abu Gharib issue.

To do so many irresponsible and dangerous things in literally about 30 seconds may seem impressive, but it's not. In the future, if you could try to not challenge yourself to see how many people you can piss off, we'd all appreciate it. So would our nerves, well-being and insurance premiums.

In closing, you're ugly, but you can't help that part.

Sincerely,

The rest of humanity

Ok, time for some srs biz...

There is no such word as rediculous. No word is spelled like that, just like no word is pronounced "REE-dik-you-luss". However, there is a very handsome word ridiculous, which appropriately, is pronounced "ri-DIK-you-luss". Do people go around mistakingly spelling "ridicule" as "redicule"? Let's hope not.

Now a quick quiz. No cheating. Did William Shakespeare write A Midsummer's Night Dream or A Midsummer Night's Dream? Even if you know the answer, which do you say/hear more often?

Finally, this is not a picture of Samuel Adams at all. It's Paul Revere. Here's Sam.

There's nothing wrong with a Valentine's night spent on the couch watching the NBA Slam Dump Contest and eating Chick-fil-A. Nothing at all.

Ok, so this Friday the 13th business is lame. It's an interesting thing to note, but carries about as much significance as tomorrow's "big major important holiday". If you're looking for a reason why Friday the 13th lore is hogwash, look no further than lunch today. Genghis Grill. Full lunch. Completely free. No strings attached. To quote Minus the Bear, boo-yah achieved.

It's been a fairly significant week as a result of having so many significant days. Yesterday would have been Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Yep, they were born on the same day. 200 years, plus one day, ago. Clearly Darwin was more highly-evolved, as he managed to struggle on this mortal coil for 17 years and 4 days longer than Lincoln. This week also has the previously-mentioned, but always ubiquitous Friday the 13th, complete with release of the remake of the movie Friday the 13th. Then tomorrow is Valentine's Day, the one day where people are expected to truly care about each other. That's another entry for another day (not tomorrow, obviously), but it is a bit strange to set aside one day to reallyreallyreally act the way you're supposed to normally. Oh yes, there has to be the opportunity to spend all that money of course!

Just remember, if you fail to do something truly significant with your Thursday the 12th, Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th, just wait 'til next month. Of course everybody knows that in non-leap years, February and March have the same day of the week arrangement. Something about February having 28 days and 28 being divisible by 7...

Speaking of which, a "month", by most definitions, is only about 28 "days" long. Maybe every month should be 28 days, not just February. Then the days of the week would always relate to what day of the month it is. Picture if every "1st of the month" were a Sunday...or a Tuesday...or whatever. You'd always know what day of the week something happens on, just by knowing the date. Then again, the people fortunate to be born on whatever days are Friday and Saturday would have much more fun celebrating their birthdays than everyone else every year.

This business of embedding videos into posts is turning a bit addictive. Oh well, it's probaby more enjoyable that way. Maybe not this time, though. Although the following video of Joaquin Phoenix is quite amusing in parts, the underlying truth that the humor is directly linked to this guy's life being a complete trainwreck is not funny. He has lots of talent and lots of money, but clearly doesn't know how to make proper use of either. The story is still sadder when you consider his brother's fall from a potentially great career and life resulting from drug problems. Oh well, this will probably be making the rounds in the internet in the coming days, but just remember where you saw it first (or second or whatever):



So yeah, there's the good life personified by a guy making a complete fool of himself on national television. Thankfully Letterman doesn't really let him get away with it. At least that way the only person not in on the joke is Joaquin himself. 'Tis a shame.

12 Hours Later Update: Maybe it's a hoax?

Toby Keith recently went into the audience of one of his concerts and offered to fight a fan right then and there. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that since the "fan" in question threw a beer at Toby and throwing a beer at someone seems to be a proposition to fight if there ever was one. Fighting isn't inherently cool, but neither is throwing beers at people, even if they wear sleeveless flannel, endorse pickup trucks and sing about placing boots in various body orifices. It seems like people are doing more and more things that are dangerous, offensive or simply annoying because fewer and fewer actions are being reciprocated with appropriate responses. In the grand scheme of things, the world would probably be better off with one less stupid Toby Keith fan than one less Toby Keith. At least Toby Keith's music doesn't manifest itself in the forms of bad drivers, loud neighbors and obnoxious coworkers, among manymanymanymany other things. So yeah, Toby Keith should be welcome to offer to fight any of his fans, only hopefully next time he'll be able to follow through.

Maybe Christopher Walken would offer to fight someone if they told him he looked like a girl when he was a little younger. However, in the case of his appearance in The Deer Hunter, they'd be right.

Maybe the greatest song ever? Don't argue, just listen. There's animation.

This is the Super Bowl live blog. No promises that it'll last the entire game or give particularly interesting insight (be it of the game, the commercials, halftime, etc.). Try to endure.

-Ok, the game is already going. The NFC team (Arizona) won the coin toss. This is only significant because it is the 12th straight year that the NFC team has done so. There is some kind of statistical probability of that happening that you could calculate if you'd like to do so. Pittsburgh kicked a field goal. This guy kicked it (seriously):



-Speaking of Jeff Reed, a quick Google search of his name will give you much, much more to see. Ironically enough, Jeff Reed was also the name a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates who had a great beard. Now it's the name of a dyed-hair freak that kicks footballs for Pittsburgh and has trouble keeping his clothes on in public.

-Troy Polamalu looks even more like a psycho when he's having a contact lens put in his eye by a trainer.

-The commercials so far have not been particularly great. That'll happen, especially when Doritos is involved. Ok, Conan O'Brien just showed up in a Bud Light commercial, so life is much better. Too bad it's Bud Light. Not even Conan can make that stuff seem tasty.

-Conan O'Brien was also on the NBC Pregame show. It was entertaining, but that is probably the least-surprising thing that will happen today. The pregame coverage was extensive and interesting at times. Of course, NBC managed to incorporate Al Roker into the fun as he conducted the most pointless/awkward interviews ever with big huge starts like Vin Diesel and The Rock (back to back, no less). Those two guys might be the same person, except The Rock actually answers questions. Vin Diesel moves his lips and noise comes out of his mouth, but doesn't really say anything, be it the answer to a question or otherwise. Ah, there's a Fast and Furious 4 commercial just to reinforce.

-End of the 1st Quarter. Arizona's defense doesn't look very good, but they've managed to only allow 3 points. If they only allow 3 more on this possession, they should be happy.

-No such luck for the Cardinals' defense. 10-0, Steelers. That's roughly one point for each reference to Ben Roethlisburger being nervous during his previous Super Bowl appearance. Give it a rest.

-What better advertisement to show during tough economic times than MarquisJet, the leading provider of private jet services. Everyone needs one of those cards, just like on Entourage.

-This one-man Super Bowl party idea isn't so terrible. This arrangement allows for full extension on the couch, nobody hogging the Pringles, no idle chatter (not always a bad thing), no distractions, etc. Also, this live blog actually exists because nobody else is here. It's a weird way of socially interacting, even though nobody will be reading any of this until later, if at all.

-It'll also be nice at halftime to not worry about offending anyone with the decision to flip repeated between Bruce Springsteen performing at the game and Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.

-Lots of movie previews so far in the commercials. Maybe film companies are the only people that can afford the ads this time around. So far there's been G.I. Joe, Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Land of the Lost and the aforementioned Fast and the Furious 4.

-Barack Obama was interviewed by Matt Lauer on the pregame show. It was pretty good stuff, except he made it sound like this economic stimulus plan was just as American and timeless as the Super Bowl. With the stimulus plan, the US government could buy approximately 47 seconds of Super Bowl advertising time. Ok, that's no good math, but whatever.

-This Super Bowl is sorely missing Bud Bowl, just as the past twelve have been. It's almost as missed as MTV's "Rock N Jock" sports challenges. Those were great.

-Halftime. That interception return right before the half was quite impressive and might give an indication why James Harrison was this year's NFL Player of the Year. Love or hate the Steelers, that was a great effort. 17-7.

-So Springsteen is on. The Max Weinburg Seven are playing with the E Street Band, joining their leader, who of course is the original E Street Band drummer. That couldn't have anything to do with NBC being this year's broadcaster could it? Bruce is going completely insane during this performance. He's already dry-humped his mic stand for an extended period of time and slid crotch-first into a camera man. They're playing "Born To Run" right now, though, so all is forgiven.

-Commercial update: How does a local contractor specializing in foam insulation for houses get an ad on the Super Bowl? If anyone has an answer, please enlighten. Maybe the local NBC affiliates get a few slots to use for their sponsors? That's the only imaginable scenario, right?

-Way to go James Harrison! You have managed to follow up your amazing play at the end of the 1st half by looking like a complete goon here in the 4th quarter. As impressive as the other play was, his version of punt defense is far more disgusting. A complete lack of professionalism is hard to live to live down. Just look at Ray Lewis. As previously discussed in this blog, everyone knows he's an amazing player, but everyone also knows he might be a murderer, so it's hard to cheer for him. Not that James Harrison is a possible murderer, but he could be another Terrell Owens, who somehow manages to stay out of legal trouble despite showing terrible decision-making skills on a regular basis.

-Update: the punt where James Harrison attempted to set human civilization back several thousand years led to Pittsburgh getting the ball inside their own 1 yard line. That awful field position led to a safety. Karma perhaps?

-Karma prevails. James Harrison just got a wonderful view of Larry Fitzgerald outrunning him to score the go-ahead touchdown for the Cardinals. Too perfect. Now Arizona's defense needs to step up.

-Santonio Holmes catches everything. Do not ever Google "Santonio Holmes + shower". Ever. If you've already Google'd "Jeff Reed", just know there is so much more of Santonio to see. Thanks to the internet, even you can see multiple members of the Steelers in unique ways. Thanks to internet sports blogs, we all know this. Thanks Deadspin!

-Ok, he missed that one.

-Ok, on the very next play, he probably earned the right to say he's going to Disney World (a tradition reserved for the MVP of the Super Bowl).

-So, the game is over. So is that can of Spaghetti-O's. So is that stack of Pringles. The Steelers won. Somehow it surely had to be because of Jerome "The Bus" Bettis. Either way, for the game to end on a play where Kurt Warner failed is a huge disappointment. The Puppy Bowl will also be ending now. Thankfully, Animal Planet is replaying it until 4am tonight (no, really). The great experiment of watching the Super Bowl alone has ended. Conclusions? Eh, whatever. Let's watch The Office.