Minor League Manager Tirade

This video of Asheville Tourists manager Joe Mikulik doing his best Lou Pinella impression is most excellent. There are several versions up on YouTube, but I like the goofy annoucer's play-by-play on this version.

What Is The What

Eek, I'm behind on my book blogging. Book #5 on my list this year was Dave Eggers' new novel What is the What.

Although billed as a novel Eggers' work centers around Valentino Achak Deng, a real-life Sudanese "Lost Boy" who recounted his story to Eggers over the course of three years. Eggers has taken the poetic license to fictionalize some of the details, but has attempted to tell a story in Valentino's voice using real life events as the foundation for the events in the novel. Using Valentino as his muse, Eggers crafts a heart-wrinching (notice I avoid the temptation to say heart-breaking) story describing Valentino's seperation from his family in Marial Bai and the subsequent thirteen years he spent in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Valentino's story is one that screams to be told and Eggers does an excellent job of delivering it. It's Eggers best work to date and a book that I'd highly recommend. Oh and Manute Bol makes a couple of appearances in the story so it's got that going for it too!

Collection of reviews and interview with Eggers and Valentino
New York Magazine review
Excerpt on Salon.com
Wikipedia page
Lost Boys of Sudan documentary

All You Need Is Love

Just got back from a weekend trip to Vegas to see Cirque du Soleil's Love. The show is a fantastic visualization of the Beatles' music, bringing to life a number of the Fab Four's best tunes including my personal faves: "Eleanor Rigby", "A Day In the Life" and "Hey Jude".

If you're a fan of Cirque you'll notice the show is pretty different from their other productions. There are still a few high-flying stunts and acrobatics, but the focus is definitely centered more around the music. For a Beatles fan the show is pure bliss, coming about as most of us will ever get to seeing them live.

Although you can't take pictures during the show I did get a few good shots of the theatre entrance and some of the hoopla around the hotel. I'll try to get those posted to Flickr in the next day or two.

Official Site (w/ preview)
NPR article
Daily Mail article

Beerfest

"Film" #9 of '07 was...wait for it....Broken Lizard's Beerfest.

My NetFlix rating: 2 stars
Jamie says: Hoo boy. In my defense you gotta admit that Super Troopers was pretty funny.
RIYL: Mediocre comedies about beer festivals

Official Site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia page

Da Ali G Movie: Indahouse

One nice thing about being sick is having an excuse to sit on the couch and watch movies. Film #8 of '07 was Da Ali G Movie: Indahouse. Respect.

My NetFlix rating: 3 stars
Jamie says: Like a good SNL film adaptation (think Wayne's World not A Night at the Roxbury) it doesn't necessarily hold together well as a movie, but it has enough funny bits to keep you entertained. And don't miss Borat in his big screen debut.
RIYL: Ali G...duh.

Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia page

Scoop

Geez, been about a week since I posted and unfortunately this post isn't going to be the most exciting one ever. I'd like to thank the flu, my broken hard drive, and too much work for the slower than normal service. Anyways, on with the show.

Film #7 of '07 was the newish Woody Allen film Scoop, not to be confused with NSync's Lance Bass (nicknamed Scoop because "when (the guys) ask me about our itinerary, I always know."). Lance Bass also nicknamed Princess Frostylocks. Sweet.

My NetFlix rating: 2 stars
Jamie says: Yawn. I loves me some Woody Allen, but this one was just a little too Legally Blonde 3 for me.
RIYL: Hugh Jackman, bad magic tricks, Murder She Wrote style mysteries

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia page

Profiles In Courage

Book #4 of my '07 challenge was John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning poly-sci classic Profiles in Courage.

The thing I found most interesting about this book was how well researched and articulate it is. Although it's a bit of a hodge podge of stories it shows a clear passion for politics and for the nation. It's exactly the type of work that you'd want all of our Presidents to be capable of writing (cough cough). Sadly as I've been reading up on the book I found that there's some controversy as to how much of it JFK actually wrote. Everyone seems to agree that Kennedy played a large role in creating the book though, so it's a pretty impressive achievement any way you slice it.

If you're just looking for a general history book to read for fun I'd probably skip this one. If you're looking to learn more about the Senate, get a shot of National pride, or just to feel better about the state of the political world today (trust me it actually used to be worse!) then you may enjoy it.

Senate page for the book
Wikipedia page
Read it online
Annual Profile In Courage essay contest

Viva Pinata

Picked up Viva Pinata today and am finding it strangely addictive. Very strangely.

If you haven't seen the ad for the game it's worth a looksee...I promise it is way funnier than any of the ads ran during the Super Bowl...almost Geico Caveman funny.

Super Bowl Weekend

Super Bowl? More like Super Dull. Ha, just made that up. Except for Prince rockin' the half-time show the game was lackluster with commercials that were even lamer than last year (ouch). And Rex, oh Rex...

In fact the only thing about this weekend that was really super was the fact that I got Vista installed on my home machine. It's pretty sweet so far, and should be even better when I get a my new video card so I can enable Aero. Great success.

Townes Get Fat

Er...make that Fat Gets Townes. Just heard that Fat Possum is going to re-release a bunch o' old Townes Van Zandt records. Great news as it should get a lot easier to track down his early releases.

Is Fat Possum the new Rhino?

Trekkies

Film #6 of '07 was Trekkies, a funny (though perhaps not intentionally so?) documentary about over zealous Star Trek fans.

My NetFlix rating: 3 stars
Jamie says: Best Christopher Guest movie that Christopher Guest never made
RIYL: Best in Show, Napolean Dynamite, Star Trek conventions

Official site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews
Wikipedia page