Tis the Season

A Christmas Post for Your Reading Pleasure:

I went with my sisters (and our unofficial new sister) to see Dreamgirls today. Some reflections on my moviegoing experience:

1. Dreamgirls is a pretty cool movie. I wish I could've seen the play.
2. Jennifer Hudson sings her a** off. Her character was a pretty big personality, but still, I'm not exaggerating when I say her voice could've had its own spot in the credits.
3. Fandango is very cool.
4. I heard Beyonce say she wants to be the first black woman to win a Grammy, a Tony, and an Oscar. She's done the Grammy 9 times over. The Tony certainly seems like an attainable goal. But as I'm not sure about your girl's dramatic potential, I am happy to say she may very well pick up a little gold statue for Best Song for "Listen," which she kills (... kills) in the movie.
5. Eddie Murphy is a fool.

Moving on... I just watched an episode of Family Guy that was Laugh Out Loud funny. If you haven't seen Brian Goes to Hollywood, get at it.

And finally, I'm not sure what the blogging by-laws say about posting about previous posts, but if you haven't peeped the SNL joints below, make it your business. (Seriously, click the link.)

Merry Christmas, folks. God Bless.

Who knew?

So surprise, surprise... The folks at SNL can still bang out a pretty funny episode when they want to, which apparently is once every 7 years or so. Luckily for me, and subsequently for you, the funniest episode in years was hosted by one Mr. Timberlake this weekend. As I am an admirer, I made it a point to watch, at which time I had the good fortune to view the following (very funny) skits.

"Classic" R&B

There are 2 versions of this one. The broadcast version, which I prefer... and the uncensored version.

The second, not quite as funny, but still good for a chuckle...

Salvation Army vs. Homelessville

What's Really Good

Who needs an average - by any measure - Jay-Z album that allows for Weezy to think way too highly of himself - and at this point, I feel the younger Carter as much as anyone - when you can ride out to an incredibly musical, flexible, multifaceted experience that is Atlantis: Hymns For Disco by K-Os. This cat has yet to fail me.

(The Generalist may come over top of me and say I, myself, was sleeping on said album but really I have been in "save-mode" when it comes to Hip-Hop music. I've waited to delve into certain albums about which I've been hopeful just to have something to which to listen at a later time.)

Alright...

Since everybody is smashing the blog posts right now, I thought I would get re-involved.

A couple people have asekd me about the 52 Book Project, and I decided I'd hit folks with a brief update. Right now, I'm on book 46, and 52 looks just a bit out of reach (got damn grad school application)... but who knows, maybe a miracle will happen. Reading 700 pages of Stephen King probably wasn't the smartest decision in this process...

Contrarily, here are things I'm excited about:

1) Seeing Lupe Fiasco in B-more
2) Seeing my favorite harpsichordist on Monday
3) Going to Vegas next week
4) Shilling for my favorite website
5) This video & This game

and finally, last but not least....

*Committing to getting the hell out of mid-michigan

Hate List

Companies I Wish I Had the Power to Ruin (in the order in which I would ruin them):

1. Bally Total Fitness - Why is it that a company that's been in the gym business forever only this year decided to offer pay-as-you-go memberships? Could it be all the money they were making collecting fees from people they had trapped in insanely long contracts? Or the money they made when those people changed their minds and Bally's sold their contracts to collection agencies? Really, who can pick a company one day, and know they'll still be happy with that company 3 years later??? No one. And evil, evil, Bally's knows that.

2. AT&T - Now... in all fairness... part of this was a misunderstanding. Still, when you realize that it's a misunderstanding, you're telling me I still have to pay you the $120 that you mistakenly charged me and then wait 2-3 months for you to give it back? Cuz there's no way for you to just credit my account in the meantime right? And... AND... When I call and tell you that the repairmen who charged me the $120 never gave me the supposed receipt for services I was supposed to get, the best you can say is, "Well, they were supposed to leave you a receipt." Inefficiency like that should ruin a company.

3. Comcast Cable - Between the cable company and the NFL, somebody needs to figure out how to get me these Thursday games. This is ridiculous. And why does a package that costs $6.99 increase my bill by $16. It should be illegal to quote someone a price that doubles with taxes and "fees."

On the bright side, if you're ever going crazy for cookies and cream and your local grocer is out, Haagen Dazs Vanilla Swiss Almond just might get you through.

Even More Stupid...

Goldman Reports Record Earnings for 2006

$16.5 billion was set aside for salaries, bonuses and benefits, or an average of $622,000 for each employee.

Stupid

Brees, Drew

Hester, Devin

Tomlinson, LaDainian

(in no particular order, so I went alphabetical with it)

Signs Your Getting Older

1) You buy a humidifier, and are really excited about it.

2) You start to make financial decisions because of tax reasons (i.e. deferring payments until next year)

...To be continued

The Worst of Days

Well at least the worst start to a day has to be my morning where on the first day where it has been really cold, I had no hot water. Taking a cold shower in a cold apartment is not a good feeling. At least I was alert thereafter. And then in what I'm sure comes as no surprise to The Generalist, I'm still at work (check timestamp) - though the time in between has been painless. Not to mention that I'm currently eating three pieces of company-paid salmon sashimi...

You Couldn't Make This Stuff Up...

This headline is a little dated but thats because I had to let the past tri-con's post ride out for a bit. Anyway, if you read CNN.com, they started putting a "Story Highlights" box at the top of articles with 4 story bullets - just another sign that society just wants snippets, quick soundbites, or abstracts and doesn't want to take the time to digest stories in complete context. (I'm not pointing fingers though, because often times, this ubiquitous "society" to which I referred often includes yours truly.) I digress...in any case, I feel like the 4 highlights in this story can never be topped.

Florida man pulled from alligator's jaws