ModestGeniusXL

One to Add to Your Collection - "The Temptations"

I had first heard of the The Temptations thanks to a hit they had with Rick James in the 80s called "Standing on the Top".  I went thru some of the folks old albums and got hooked on the Tempts older stuff after that.  When I heard that there was a miniseries coming out on them back in 1998, I was all over it.

I ended up videotaping the series and kept that in my personal collection.  When it eventually came out on video, I got that too.  Naturally, when I made the transition to dvd, "The Temptations" was a no-brainer. 

What I liked most about this movie is even with all the hits from them that I knew, it turned me on to even more songs I had never even heard of.  "I Want a Love I Can See" and "I'm Losing You" are now two of my all-time Tempt classics that I never would have known about were it not for this movie.

I also had no idea of everything that group had been thru until watching this.  I remember D watching it being surprised that so many of them had already died.  If it didn't actually happen, it would seem almost too incredulous to believe.  And it's even sadder that the two remaining members, Otis Williams and Dennis Edwards (even if Dennis wasn't actually an original member), don't get along now to the point where they tour as two separate Temptations groups.

In addition, I had a greater appreciation for seeing their 80s video "Standing on the Top".  You could look at that just that three minute video and correlate it with the movie to tell all they had been thru and what they still had ahead.

Since it first aired, it continues to come on television non-stop.  Most of the time it will be on VH1's Movies That Rock or sometimes even BET.  No matter when it's on, I still watch it as if it's the first time I have seen it.  I still wonder how come the cat who played Paul   Williams, Christian Payton, hasn't gotten more work. 

Lastly, the thing that really did it for me was for a lot of these songs, these cats were singing their own parts and sounded just as good.  I would have never known it until I heard the studio version and the movie version of certain songs and they sounded different yet just as tight.  I could go on and on about "The Temptations" but you get the idea.  Get the movie.

Satan's Day

As I promised, I waited until this day to actually speak my piece on the day known as Halloween.  I've always thought this time of year was possessed with much evil and thanks to recent events, that is more true than ever.

First and foremost, I really don't consider this a holiday at all.  It always amazes me how several people are quick to say Halloween is their favorite holiday.  By definition, a holiday is "a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor or some person".  I guess if you consider Satan a person, it could be a holiday.

I'll try to give you the Cliff Notes version of its origin.  Way back in the day, the Celtic people called October 31st their festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead.  In order to please him, they would make human and animal sacrifices.  The Druids would dress up in costumes to frighten spirits and also so the spirits wouldn't recognize them.  How about you just worship God and He would take care of the so-called spirits for you?

Nowadays, even people that consider themselves to be devout Christians will dress their children up in costumes to go trick-or-treating.  They probably do know that the traditions are steeped in the occult but want to look the other way because their shorties look so cute all dressed up.

I know, I myself can be a bit of a hypocrite.  Even with as much as I hate this "holiday", this time of the year does produce some very good movies.  Movies that I probably shouldn't even be watching.  But I look at it as though that's purely for entertainment value.  That's not actually participating in the Satanic historic traditions of the day.  To each his own though.  We all have our belief systems and we all interpret "special" days different ways. 

4-3

We almost didn't get to see this week's Kansas City/Seattle game here televised thanks to some network politic mumbo jumbo.  The schedule originally called for them to carry the Chicago/San Francisco game.  Fortunately, KDSM had enough people calling in and complaining about that they changed their minds and carried the game.  It makes more sense since KC is the closest pro team to us so there's more fans and we get to see Senecca in action with his first start.

Speaking of KDSM, we also found out that Mediacom's contract them terminates December 1, 2006 and they won't be carrying the station anymore.  I guess if we want it, we have to switch to Direct TV.  I'm personally not crazy about that idea so I guess we'll just be FOX-less.

We were blessed enough to have one last beautiful day of weather.  It topped 70 degrees so I was able to grill out for at least one last time.  The cold fronts start moving in this week.  All you warm weather folks can make fun all you want, I'll take our low gas prices over the weather anytime.  

   I was a little concerned going into this game about Huard not being able to play because of groin injury.  Now they'd be down to the THIRD string back-up?!  Apparently not.  Huard started afterall and played his butt off as usual.

Looks like they're talking about Tony Gonzalez may not be a Chief next year.  He's voided his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent.  He seems to think the Chiefs won't pay him enough.  That would be JUST great if they let him do.  You could create an entire All-Pro team with the talent they've let go over the years.  But that's my Chiefs for you.

I'll give Senecca his props as he repped ISU pretty good.  However, too much Larry Johnson was far too much for Seattle to overcome.  They escape again 35-28.  Next up is St. Louis.  Let's keep the magic rollin', fellas...

Seeing Red

This one would fall in the category of "wasn't he already dead?" as far as I'm concerned.  NBA legend Red Auerbach died at the age of 89 from an apparent heart attack.  I had thought he passed away a while ago simply because I hadn't heard anything about him in recent years.

Personally, I couldn't stand the Celtics back in the day.  I couldn't stand Larry Bird.  Definitely couldn't stand Danny Ainge.  But I always respected their winning ways.  More than that, I respected the history that they brought to the court everytime they took the floor.  That storied past was formulated in great part due to Red's contributions over the years.

There was no questioning his impeccable resume:  16 NBA championships with the Celtics, 8 straight titles from 1959 thru 1966, seven more in the 70s and 80s, 938 victories as the second-winningest coach in NBA history.  The most impressive thing he was responsible for was bringing Bill Russell to Boston in a time when brothas were not looked upon favorably in Beantown. 

I don't know if it would be fair to call Red a genius for some of the general manager moves he made back in the day.  Let's face it, the talent to pick from then wasn't near as thick as it is now.  Who wouldn't know after seeing Russell and Bird play that they were heads and shoulders above the rest?  However, he was a pretty shrewd businessman to land the deals that secured legends like those and many others.  Happy trails, Mr. Cigar.

The Sixth Sense

As Fright Week winds down, we take a look at one of the most powerful modern scary pictures ever made.  Being that it is Sunday, I didn't want go too overwrought with a pick that was known for gore and violence.  "The Sixth Sense" provides that perfect release.

There are only a select films that provide timeless quotes that become pop culture staples.  "I see dead people" has become so synonymous with "The Sixth Sense" and such a fixture in our regular vocabulary that it might as well have it's own entry in Wikipedia.  But even that wasn't what made the movie a classic.

It was already gripping with Bruce Willis giving one of the best performances of his career as a child psychologist trying to get his   "life" back on track after a violent encounter with a patient.  Then add to that the phenomenal role of then child actor Haley Joel Osment delivering one of the most mature performances ever seen on the big screen and you think that would be enough.  Nope.  The surprise ending is the icing on the cake.  I don't care what ANYBODY says who's supposedly is good at figuring out twists, there's no way anyone could have seen it coming that Bruce's character was dead the whole time.

There are several movies that are a must that you see at least a few times because of how amazing they are.  "The Sixth Sense" was one that was a necessity to see at least a second time because of how it ended.  You had to go back and watch it again to see if there really ever was a moment that Bruce's character physically interacted with the characters as if he was alive.  Then you realize there wasn't a wonder how you could have missed that the first time.

M. Night Shymalan created his own monster with this flick.  He became a victim of his own success.  He desperately tried to have the same success with other movies after this one but failed to realize that he captured lightning in a bottle with "Sense".  Nothing he did before or after even came close to its beauty.

Loser of the Week

By now, I'm sure everyone has seen that Michael J. Fox commercial that has created so much controversy.  He is endorsing a Missouri candidate who supports embryonic stem cell research and being one of the most prominent people suffering from Parkinson's, he's seen very visibly dealing with the effects of the disease.

The controversy pot got stirred when nobody's favorite pompous talk show host Rush Limbaugh accused Fox of hamming it up for the camera.  At first he said he either purposely didn't take his medicine or was acting because he is an actor.  He later backpedaled a bit to change his accusation to Fox was just playing victim for the Democrats to help their candidate.

Now I am in NO way a Rush supporter.  To quote one of my favorite  guilty pleasure movies "9 to 5", I think he's a sexist, egotistical, lying  hypocritical bigot.  However, even before I heard his idiotic comments, I had some doubts myself.  the only reason being that I had JUST seen Fox on an episode of "Boston Legal" and he looked just fine.  No shaking or anything.  I had no doubt he wasn't acting in the ad; I just thought maybe he wasn't taking his medication.

The more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to be wrong.  We all know those shows are taped weeks and sometimes months in advance.  Who's to say his condition hadn't deteriorated to the point of where it is now?  Then I came across the video for Fox's response on CBS where he responds to the criticisms and he makes perfectly good sense.

The most telling point of Fox's retort which I enjoyed watching was how he blew away Rush's last weak argument about being a patsy.  He indicated Parkinson's is a bipartisan issue and he'll support any candidate who supports stem cell research.  Personally, I'll believe MJF over Rush any day of the week.  Sue had it right on the money with her assessment of that druggie.  Leave Mike alone and worry about your own glass house, Rush.  You loser.

Click

There was a point in time when Adam Sandler was the crown prince of comedies.  He seemed to fill that void of the overgrown frat boy buffoon that never wanted to grow up.  The only problem was that eventually he did have to grow up.  When that happened, his movies became hit and miss.

"Click" is his latest effort to make a foray into the world of family comedy.  At least I think it was supposed to be family comedy.  It still had many crude moments in there that were geared strictly to his old audience, but the underlying message seemed to be family-oriented.

When this hit theaters, I really had no desire at all to see it.  It looked like every other movie that shared the same premise.  The first thing that came to mind when I saw the trailer was the teen hit "Clockstoppers" from a few years back.  This one wasn't as one-dimensional as that film but that's only because the remote allowed him to do more than just pause.  He could also go back in time (although he couldn't alter it) and go forward.

This one was predictable from the jump.  You know as soon as he goes into the Bed Bath and Beyond store and lays down on a bed that the whole thing was just going to be a dream.  Almost.  They did twist it up a bit at the end. 

I will give them props for the message they were trying to convey.  It's your typical be careful what you wish for theory.  Adam's character wanted to skip the things in life he thought wasn't important and found out he missed out on the things that were.  I'll tell you right now that you're not missing a lot if you decide to take a page from his book and skip this flick.

My rating:  C-

Final Destination

The Grim Reaper has always been a prevalent part of every horror picture ever made.  Characters meet their demise thanks to his unannounced arrival.  But what happens when they spit in his face and decide it's not their time to go?  Well then you get "Final Destination".

There were a few movies prior to this where we saw the Grim Reaper manifest itself.  The most popular one that comes to mind is "Meet Joe Black" where Death takes on the form of Brad Pitt.  In that one, Death tries to rationalize in his own special way why he does what he does.  In "Final Destination", it comes at it's victims rather ticked off that they won't accept his role.

Horror movies have always been known for their death scenes.  The more money that is spent on the budget of one, the more they try to out-do their predecessors to set them apart.  "Destination" went out of its way to make its death scenes very elaborate.  Do you remember the old Tom & Jerry cartoons (or any cartoons from that era for that matter) where there would be an elaborate trap set up that would take a LONG time to develop because it was a chain reaction that lead to the eventual spring of the trap?  That's what the FD death scenes reminded me of.  I hate to say it, but they were sometimes pretty artistic.

The series has so far gone to three sequels with more sure to come.  They're cash cows so of course the studios will keep churning them out.  The thing about the "Final Destination" flicks is even though the acting hasn't been top notch as the numbers have increased, their staple of death sequences have continued to be classic.  They would do best to quit while they're ahead.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I may be stretching the bounds of the requirements for "scary movies" just a bit for this one.  True, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" is a far cry away form a horror picture.  For all intensive purposes, it's really a family film.  However, for this time of year, it should be required viewing so it makes my list as a Fright Week classic.

This originally aired way back in 1966 as a special on ABC.  Ever since then, I don't know a single person who doesn't remember watching this as a shortie.  Today's generation may have been a little spoiled with cable and having so many other options.  When we were coming up and there were just four stations, having a cartoon come on at night was a pleasant surprise.

I didn't realize it back then, but as I look back now, I wonder if Schultz knew how far ahead of his time he was with that special?  You've got Linus worshiping a pagan idol in the Great Pumpkin which is already ironic in the fact that the whole holiday is centered in paganism.  More than that though, it's lampooning the fact that as a society, we create pagan idols to associate with holidays that have nothing to do with them at all.  Namely the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

One thing I remember thinking even as watching it as a shortie was how jacked up they treated Charlie Brown.  Not his peers but the adults.  Remember how they went trick-or-treating and he always got rocks?  What adult would give a child a rock and everyone else candy?!  That was SO messed up.  An interesting bit of trivia regarding that is after special originally aired, children from all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.

It airs tonight on television again on its 40th anniversary being just as fresh now as it was back when it first premiered.  Watching specials like this one is a stark reminder that no matter how hard different illustrators may try, we will probably never see great animated entertainment equivalent to the Peanuts ever again.

Things to Be Grateful For

1.  It's a Celebration

With this post, I've just hit the magical mid-century mark.  500 entries strong and going.  I thank everyone that's been with me from the beginning and even everyone else who jumped on board later.  I was going to hold a "Happy 500" party to celebrate the event but couldn't justify the cost for just seven readers.

2.  Quizno's

A while back, I slammed them because they made the stupid decision to get rid of the Cabo Chicken sammich.  Low and behold, I decided to go there for lunch the other day (actually, I was coerced into it by D who wanted it for lunch) and they brought it back!  Then as an added bonus, they've also got shakes now there too.  I think they did it as a means to make up for the fact they took away the Cabo Chicken for a while.  Well all is forgiven now.

3.  Lint Rollers

I didn't have a need for these so much in the past.  Ever since D's cats have grown and gotten more hair, they are now a necessity.  We go thru so many lint rollers now that that has to be taken into consideration in our budget.  Stupid cats.