Review Day
There are no spoilers in these reviews.
Couples Retreat:
This movie was probably just an excuse for Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn to run around together some more -- it's hit-or-miss with not quite enough ensuing hilarity. The movie also can't decide whether it's a comedy or a drama, and doesn't do a good job of switching between the two tracks. Overall, it's uneven but passable enough entertainment for a hurricane evening. The main downside to this movie was learning that Blockbuster has reimplemented real late fees for their movies ($1 a day after the five-day rental period) in addition to the fake "you bought it" late fee they already had.
Final Grade: C-
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest:
The finale of the Girl trilogy would have benefited greatly from additional editing, as the author seemed to be developing a Victor Hugo complex where he'd shoot off on a tangent about sewers for ten pages before returning to the story at hand. The feel of the book is also different -- there isn't really a central mystery that requires the reader to tie pieces together anymore. In spite of these issues, this book does provide a great sense of closure to the story, and the last couple hundred pages ARE polished and tightly paced.
Final Grade: B-
Namesake:
This movie stars Kal Penn as a young guy who smokes weed, but Neil Patrick Harris is nowhere in sight. It's based on a book that Rebecca liked a lot that tells the story of an Indian family in the US over two generations. It wasn't a bad movie, but I don't think it was as deep an experience as it thought it was.
Final Grade: C+
Older people enjoy reading negative stories about young Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers? Butts arrested in Boob casetagged as reviews | permalink | 2 comments
Weird Search Day
or "how I stumbled upon the URI! Zone"
Is this a riddle? He probably stole your sense of entitlement and high HOA fees (in bulk).
Everyone knows that boobies are indigenous to the Pacific Ocean, so any you find in Africa must be on holiday.
This sounds like one of those "careers that don't actually exist" which I probably would have wanted to be involved in for three weeks as a kid. Triton not get your hopes up -- A'Zeus suspect, you Midas well be a Pan handler because the wages of a Greek mythologist are Apollo'ing unless you Titan up your belt and forgo some luxuries. Most mythologists rack up a sizeable Daedalus they go on a quiz show and make Achilles.
Jack Wilmer's contribution to the March 16, 2007 game of Balderdash, a zopilot is a "three-legged mammal that can both swim and fly". HOW DID THIS WIN?
In spite of the distinct lack of sentence structure in this stream of consciousness fragment, I am strangely interested to know how it ends.
The URI! Zone has been scientifically proven to reduce the gestation period of babies by up to 4.7 days. Side effects include the mistaken belief that 2 + 2 = COW, and an uncontrollable urge to watch Boublil and Schonberg musicals more often than required.
If it is, then you've left your penis in the dryer again.
Pole suffers longest hangover Golfer's swing snags rock, sparks fire in S. Calif Brits bombarded by bossy ballardstagged as website, searches | permalink | 3 comments
Museday Tuesday
As part of this feature, which I started in 2007, I compose a very brief work (under 30 seconds) inspired by a randomly generated title from an online word generator. The composition can be for any instrumentation, and could even be a purely synthesized realization that might not be possible to perform in the real world.
I work on the excerpt continuously for an hour and then post whatever I've managed to complete, even if it's a poorly constructed slum of a song supported by a foundation of droning double stops and abused tubas.
Lissome: (adj.) Agile, nimble, or active
My Composition (0:30 MP3)This excerpt is written for selected percussion instruments wrapped around a creamy brass quintet center, and articulated with a banjo patch.
Man torches home after mum bins robots The twilight years of Cap'n Crunch Mesa family grows food in swimming pooltagged as museday | permalink | 0 comments
Booty Day
If you were to embark on a round of self-esteem lowering word association with my cats, some of the words that might come to mind as you think of Booty might be "EAT", "FAT", and "SPANX" (only the last of which would get you a high score in Scrabble).
Much of our daily routine is devoted to preventing a continuous 24-hour intake of food -- had the Macondo rig been spewing kibble instead of oil, Booty would have been a fast, cost-effective solution to the problem. We've moved her mealtimes from 6 AM and 2 PM to 2 PM and 10 PM so she doesn't wake us up in the morning (as much). When mealtime rolls around, she'll knock small trinkets and remotes off of tables, or shred paper products (like bills or paperback books) until we acknowledge her starvation.
To handle the off hours when we're out of the house or trying to sleep, we relied on a child-proofed cabinet -- a plastic latch that allows the cabinet to be opened about two inches, after which you must push down on the plastic tab to open the door the rest of the way. (It should be noted that this wasn't originally for Booty or even a child in search of Mr. Yuck stickers -- it was installed for a previous food-addicted cat, Sydney, who once ate a jar of vitamins).
Sometime during our Puerto Rico trip in March, Booty finally learned how to beat the plastic latch, and a few times since then, we've come home to empty food containers and telltale signs of binging, like atomic fatcats or honking. Last week, she decided that she would make music all night long by clicking the door open an inch and then letting it slam shut. This reminded me of any given jazz concert where the conga drummer finally gets to solo, but isn't quite sure what else he can do after he puts his elbow on the drum for a few minutes.
Since then, I've replaced the dinky plastic lock with two industrial magnets, which are so strong that they can pull the door closed from about a 40 degree angle. So far, Booty has been unsuccessful in thwarting this new deterrent (although I have caught her studying the principles of Mag-Lev trains in the basement). We shall see how long the current peace lasts.
Ghost train hunter killed by real train Prison dorms for welfare recipients L.A. jail tests 'intolerable heat' beam on brawling inmatesYou are currently viewing the front page, so the newest post is at the top of the page. Archived news is in chronological order. You can always contact me at The entire URI! Zone is © 1996 - 2010 by Brian Uri!. Please see the About page for further information.
