The other day a buddy of mine mentioned (in an email chain) that the new Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway movie Love and Other Drugs is "the best chick flick of all time," which of course got me thinking about what the best chick flicks of all time actually are. Now I have yet to see this film, although I will say that it is 1 of 4 movies that either have been recently released or will soon be released that I want to see (the others being How Do You Know (another chick flick), The Black Swan, and The King's Speech), so I can't include it on these rankings just yet, but I have a feeling it will compare very favorably to a few of the following.
As far as chick flicks go, the criteria to be considered one is pretty ambigious. I'll let Wikipedia explain, "Generally, a chick flick is a film designed to have an innate appeal to women, typically young women. Defining a film a chick flick is, as the New York Times has stated, more of a parlor game than a science. These films are generally held in popular culture as having formulaic, paint-by-numbers plot lines and characters. Some frequent elements of chick flicks include having a female protagonist, thematic use of the color pink (along with metaphorical allusions of the color), and romance and/or dating based storylines. Longtime producer Jerry Bruckheimer has remarked about the plots as "How do you cope with money and love?"
For our purposes I've decided to not include any movies that have garnered attention from the Academy Awards. Those movies (I'm looking at you Titanic) are dramas.
And now, without further ado, the top 10 chick flicks of all time that guys could easily put up with/might secretly enjoy.
1.) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)- An intriguing plot where a magazine columnist (Kate Hudson) dates a guy and does everything imaginable to get dumped in 10 days, but little does she know that the guy (Matthew McConaughey) made a bet that he could get her to fall in love with him in 10 days.
Also, not for nothing, Kate Hudson looks phenomenal in that yellow dress. As I've previously written, normally guys aren't overly impressed with a dress because if a girl is good looking she's going to look good in just about any dress, but this yellow dress was perfect for Kate Hudson.
2.) Definitely, Maybe (2008)- A soon to be divorced father (Ryan Reynolds) tells his daughter about three of his past relationships, including the one with her mother, and soon after the story is over the plot shifts to the present (a la Forrest Gump) as his unresolved feelings for a woman from his past come to the forefront.
I think what makes this chick flick so entertaining is that the protaganist is a male. The plot involves plenty of female emotions, but you see them from a male perspective.
3.) (500) Days of Summer (2009)- To be honest, I'm not even sure if this one counts. I've seen it referred to as a "male chick flick", so we'll go with that. Either way the plot centers around a male 20 something (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who tries to figure out where things went wrong with a girl (Zooey Deschanel) that he dated.
As I've repeatedly stated over the past few months, Zooey Deschanel is my current #1 celebrity crush and I can almost guarantee that she will be yours as well once you're done watching this movie (and Yes, Man).
4.) Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)- This is a bit of a throwback and it did garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, so I'm breaking my own rules, but I feel like it's a movie that not too many people have heard of. Maybe because it's British. Anyway, as the title indicates this movie tells the story of two people (Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell- a something about her/sneaky hot type of girl) that fall in love over the course of four weddings and a funeral.
5.) Love Actually (2003)- This is almost like the British version of Crash (2004), but it's set around Christmas time. There are 5 or 6 storylines that seem to weave together. It's basically like a bazooka to the face of Christmas spirit. Incredibly heartfelt and hard not to like. I know at least 3 girls who say that this is their favorite movie of all time.
6.) When Harry Met Sally (1989)- It's been called the ultimate date movie and I threw it on here mainly because of that. Not to mention that there aren't too many chick flicks that I've seen and enjoyed (surprising, I know). The movie is about a guy and a girl (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) who drive to New York together from Chicago and seemingly can't stand each other, but they become friends as they keep running into each other over the years in NYC and eventually fall in love.
7.) Raising Helen (2004)- A young, career-first socialite (Kate Hudson) is tasked with raising her sister's 3 kids (the oldest played by a young Hayden Panittiere) after she and her husband die in a car accident. As the title infers, Kate Hudson's character Helen matures through this experience of raising her sister's children.
I know it sounds like a brutally painful movie to watch, but it's actually heartwarming and borderline enjoyable.
8.) The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)- I thought this movie was semi-worthwhile mainly because I didn't fully grasp the rules to this time travel. Basically Eric Bana jumps through time and pops up at different stages of his life. Whenever he goes to another point in time he always shows up without any clothes. If you think that's bizarre, it's get crazier. He starts showing up at different points of this girl's childhood (Rachel McAdams) and eventually they "fall in love" and get married (as if she had a choice- this guy kept showing up and practically told her that they were destined to get married), but he keeps disappearing for stretches and she is forced to deal with the reality that her husband will never fully be there for her.
Maybe I enjoyed this film (sort of) because I'm a big Rachel McAdams guy, but I will say that girls ate this movie/book up big time.
9.) Serendipity (2001)- Hopefully you know what you're getting into when you see Cusack and Kate Beckinsale on the cover. This film reinforces the largely female notions of "everything happens for a reason" and "if it's meant to be, it's meant to be."
10.) The Proposal (2009)- The plot is a bit ridiculous, but the movie isn't horrible. A female CEO type (Sandra Bullock) is getting deported (she's Canadian), so she forces her male assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so that she can stay in the country. They go away to his hometown for a long weekend and, you guessed it, fall in love.
Showing posts with label Hugh Grant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hugh Grant. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Year in Review
2008, like every other year in recent memory, isn't going quietly. Everywhere I look I see lists, countdowns, top 10s, montages, etc. This makes sense because what better time than the end of the year to construct such a compilation? Despite their pervasiveness, I don't mind them at all. I'm under the impression that the majority of Americans thoroughly enjoys these kind of things. You'd be lying if you said you haven't been sucked into watching VH1's Top Songs of the '90s (60-41). I'm not above this phenomenon; however I naturally have to add my own little flair to it. Therefore, I present to you, the best things that happened to me in 2008, by month.
January
The New York Football Giants Superbowl run
First and foremost, I'm well aware that the Giants won the Superbowl in February. As emotionally satisfying as beating the undefeated Patriots was in the Superbowl, would it have been as great without the three road wins in the NFC playoffs that got them there? Well, yeah probably, but for the sake of argument, it would be like fast forwarding right to the 3:19 mark of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. The Giants went to Tampa and won on January 6th, then went to Dallas and won on January 14, and then went to Green Bay and won on January 21st. The unimaginable ride then continued into February where the Giants took down the PATS in Arizona.
In the week leading up the big game, Giants wide reciever Plaxico Burress predicted that the Giants would win the game 23-17. Upon hearing this, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scoffed at the notion of his team scoring only 17 points. Well, they only scored 14 (Final score was 17-14). To make things even better, the unsung hero of the game was none other than Syracuse University grad David Tyree. Tyree, who most people forget caught the first touchdown pass, was on the tail end of what is, without question (at least there shouldn't be any), the greatest play in Superbowl history.
February
Watching the Knicks blow a game in the world's most famous arena
In early February of 2008, I went to a Knicks game with my unnamed cousin, his girlfriend, and her roommate. The roommate of my unnamed cousin's girlfriend got us the tickets through her dad. On the way down to the city for the game she called and asked if she could use his credit card for food, drinks, etc and he gave her the go ahead. If that wasn't enough, we walked into Madison Square Garden and they handed us free Knicks t-shirts. Yahtzee.
Now as you should know, the Knicks were having another terrible season under Isiah Thomas and we did not expect them to even hang around with the much more talented Spurs. Much to our surprise, the Knickerbockers played pretty well and were leading by 9 late in the 4th quarter. At this point, it was suggested that we leave in order to make a train back to school, otherwise we'd have to wait an additional hour. Now being a Knick fan, I knew that no lead was safe, but agreed to start heading towards the exits because I did not pay for a thing all night. By the time we got to the walkway (a span of no more than 30 seconds) the Spurs had made two 3-pointers and had cut the lead to only three. With the game tightening, we decided to hang on a little while longer. With 8 seconds to play the Knicks still led by three, but sure enough Michael Finley made a 3-pointer as time expired to send the game into overtime. The Spurs then scored the first seven points of overtime and won the game easily.
A few days later, my unnamed cousin sent an email to the father of his girlfriend's roommate to thank him for the Knicks tickets. He was very formal in his thank you thanks to some wonderful suggestions of rhetoric by yours truly. Hours later he got an email back that said, "STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER"
March
My 22nd birthday
this picture is not from my birthday, nor is it from March
I had a lot of options to choose from in March. Spring Break, St. Patrick's day, and March Madness all would have been worthy choices, but I chose my birthday because a lot of things that happened on Spring Break I am sworn to secrecy never to repeat, I'm only half Irish where as I am 100 percent me, and Syracuse was once again left out of the big dance.
My 22nd birthday was on a Friday and one of my closest friends from home was there to aid in the celebration so we started off at a local bar for happy hour. This was the beginning of a little tradition as we went to the same bar for happy hour most Fridays for the rest of the school year. After happy hour I went to a friend's house and did not get low. On our way back to my house for somewhat of a Spring Break reunion of sorts, we stopped at a liquor store to get a bottle of Level, which was our drink of choice on Spring Break. My buddy searched the store while I stood in the center like a stone(d) statue trying not to break anything. He couldn't find any Level so he asked the store's owner if he had any in stock. He had only one huge bottle that was in a box also containing 4 glasses and he had been trying to get rid of it for a while. It was originally $54 dollars, but he sold it to us for $46. Considering our state of minds and our insistence on getting Level, we probably would have bought it for $146. The only problem was that it was on top of a refrigerator in the corner of the store that I was closest to. Somehow, someway I was able to get the box off of the fridge and onto the counter without breaking anything. I then carried the box into my house like it was the Stanley Cup and we proceeded to polish it off before going out.
April
Winning the Men's A and Co-Ed A Intramural Softball Championships
Intramural softball was the most fun of all the intramurals offered in college. Our men's and co-ed teams ran through the regular seasons and earned the top seed in each of the tournaments. Now of course both teams were stacked with former college baseball and softball players. The men's team survived a first round scare before rolling to the finals. The co-ed team just rolled. On a Sunday late in April, both the co-ed championship and games 1 and 2 of the men's finals (best of three series) were held. The day before the games, Glancy had the presence of mind to suggest that we buy champagne to celebrate our impending victories. Liquor laws in the state of Connecticut prevented us from purchasing those 12 bottles before the games on Sunday.
Despite a desperate ploy by the opposing team to nullify our co-ed offense (they intentionally walked our two best hitters every time they came to the plate), our team, named The Shampoo Effect by the way, cruised to victory. We all shared a bottle of champagne (all of the guys still had to play in the men's games which followed right after) and were awarded with our championship t-shirts.
The men's team, clad in matching uniforms and personalized entrance music, also had no problems. Before each game I would make a CD that including each player's selection of an entrance song as well as songs to play during warmups and inbetween innings. Our female friends would then play the appropriate song for each batter as the game progressed. In case you were wondering, and I know you were, my entrance song was "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey (think from the 15 to the 25 sec mark). We swept the series and celebrated on the field, each with a bottle of champagne in our hands. In the parking lot afterwards, I took one last swig of my bottle and was promptly written up by a public safety officer (have no fear, I got off without having to pay a fine).
May
My college graduation
All throughout second semester, we were calling this day (May 18th) 'doomsday' because it meant the end of our run as college undergrads. Our lives, as we knew them, would never be the same. We were about to be ripped away from the place that we had called home for the past four years. It never really dawned on me how big of an occasion graduating from college is until I donned the cap and gown myself.
The day itself sucked. We all went out the night before (collllegge) and had to wake up at the crack of dawn to be on campus for 8 a.m. Then we were forced to sit and listen to people we hardly, if ever, came across during our time in college give us advice about 'the real world'. Our speaker was our own university president, who would have given a speech even if we shelled out the big bucks to get someone noteworthy.
Then we all had parties with our friends and family before going out one last time as a class. Lots of people had to move out of their houses the next day so we partied hard. It was fun, but also sad because of everyone leaving the next day.
June
St. Vincent's Golf Tournament
This was the second year in a row that my brothers and I played in our church's golf tournament together. I use the word 'church' loosely because I can't tell you the last time that any of us went there without our parents (Christmas/Easter). Our dad has played in this tournament for years and took it upon himself to sign us up back in '07 because all of us were going to be home for the first time in a while. Like most golf tournaments, it's an excuse for us to knock the little white ball around and throw back some suds. Back in '07 my brothers almost didn't let me shoot anymore because I was so inebriated that my shots were seemingly going backwards. Somehow we still shot -7. We were also yelled at by the club pro because we brought our own beer, which was in violation of the first rule of the course. This year we figured we would do better because we had all gotten better over the year, but we were all miserable and shot only -1.
July
Sandy Island
Let me just first say that July 4th is a very close second. Nothing like drinking PBR's and playing horseshoes on my front lawn with my brothers. It literally looks like we are from Alabama. That being said, every year of my life I have gone to a place called Sandy Island on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for a week late in July. I wear a wristband on my left wrist as a constant reminder of this beautiful place. It allows me to think about vacation every day of the year. While on my vacation from nothing, I drank brew dads overlooking a lake, played a round of golf, played in a softball game, and spent some time with my extended family.
August
And the Oscar goes to...
August was somewhat of a slow month for me so I took it upon myself to start 'training' for the World Series of Pop Culture, which apparently doesn't take place anymore. At the time I was working for a minor league baseball team, which meant that I worked from about 5-10 every night the team was in town. This left my days open and I tried to make the most of them. I decided to watch every movie that has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in my lifetime. I had seen a bunch, had been meaning to see a lot, and had never heard of some of the others.
An excursion like this forced (not really) me to watch a lot of movies that I would otherwise never have thought to see. I can't call them bad movies because The Academy obviously thought they were one of the five best movies of the year in which they came out. I can't tell you how many Hugh Grant movies I ended up watching. Here are some titles of the kind of movies that I'm talking about. Sense and Sensibility, The Piano, Ghost, Out of Africa, Erin Brokovich, etc. There were movies on the list that I kept putting off because I didn't want to put myself through them. Brokeback Mountain, for example, and Titanic (which actually wasn't terrible).
With the bad also came the good. Of the movies on the list (yes I wrote them all down) that I hadn't seen, these were some of my favorites. Finding Neverland, As Good as It Gets, Four Wedding and a Funeral (a very good Hugh Grant film), Scent of a Woman, etc.
To date I have seen 95 of the 115 movies that have been nominated in my lifetime. Of the 20 that I have not seen, one is from the 00's, nine are from the 90's, and 10 are from the 80's.
September
These are my people
September was the first month of my life that I was working 9-5 in the "real world" and it gave me a better appreciation for the weekends. My memories are naturally a bit vague, but I remember a lot of tailgating, going out, and waking up only to start drinking again (the shampoo effect). September was also the beginning of the football season, which also meant the start of the fantasy football season. As we all know, football is now America's pastime. Baseball has passed the torch because, quite simply, it's past its time.
October
The Shampoo Effect
A few weeks after my friend Mike suggested it, I finally caved and started this blog. This blog has both been a blessing and a curse. For starters, it has given me an outlet to express my strong opinions. Also, I recognize that I am the type of person that needs occasional reassurement from my friends and this blog provides that from time to time. The downside is maintenance. Sometimes I just don't have the time or creative intuition to post anything new and I feel like I am, in some way, letting people down.
November
Powder's Party
Well since I just ruled in favor of my blog over Alumni Weekend at the U, I think it's only fair that I choose a party filled with college friends that happened two weeks later. My buddy Pete had a party at his house in Larchmont, which is right outside NYC, for his 22nd birthday on a Friday. Now Larchmont is a good four hours from my house in Syracuse and as I said earlier, I was working from 9-5. I literally made the decision to go the night before, took off from work 15 minutes early, and I was on my way.
Now Pete is one of a handful of people in the world that I would drive four hours to see if they were hosting a party. I mean somebody's gotta kill the kegs, right? No in all seriousness, it was a good time partying with my college friends that I had seen two weeks prior. The next morning I got back in the car, drove four hours home and partied with my friends from home. All in all, it was a great weekend.
December
Starting my career
After waiting for months, I was finally brought on board by the worldwide leader. It was an awkward time to get officially hired with the holidays and all, but it has been good so far. I was able to go home for Christmas, which was good, but now I am slowly going through Syracuse withdrawl. What makes it tougher is that Syracuse University's men's basketball team is awesome and I wish I could watch them take on the brunt of the Big East live in the Loud House.
January
The New York Football Giants Superbowl run
First and foremost, I'm well aware that the Giants won the Superbowl in February. As emotionally satisfying as beating the undefeated Patriots was in the Superbowl, would it have been as great without the three road wins in the NFC playoffs that got them there? Well, yeah probably, but for the sake of argument, it would be like fast forwarding right to the 3:19 mark of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. The Giants went to Tampa and won on January 6th, then went to Dallas and won on January 14, and then went to Green Bay and won on January 21st. The unimaginable ride then continued into February where the Giants took down the PATS in Arizona.
In the week leading up the big game, Giants wide reciever Plaxico Burress predicted that the Giants would win the game 23-17. Upon hearing this, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scoffed at the notion of his team scoring only 17 points. Well, they only scored 14 (Final score was 17-14). To make things even better, the unsung hero of the game was none other than Syracuse University grad David Tyree. Tyree, who most people forget caught the first touchdown pass, was on the tail end of what is, without question (at least there shouldn't be any), the greatest play in Superbowl history.
February
Watching the Knicks blow a game in the world's most famous arena
In early February of 2008, I went to a Knicks game with my unnamed cousin, his girlfriend, and her roommate. The roommate of my unnamed cousin's girlfriend got us the tickets through her dad. On the way down to the city for the game she called and asked if she could use his credit card for food, drinks, etc and he gave her the go ahead. If that wasn't enough, we walked into Madison Square Garden and they handed us free Knicks t-shirts. Yahtzee.
Now as you should know, the Knicks were having another terrible season under Isiah Thomas and we did not expect them to even hang around with the much more talented Spurs. Much to our surprise, the Knickerbockers played pretty well and were leading by 9 late in the 4th quarter. At this point, it was suggested that we leave in order to make a train back to school, otherwise we'd have to wait an additional hour. Now being a Knick fan, I knew that no lead was safe, but agreed to start heading towards the exits because I did not pay for a thing all night. By the time we got to the walkway (a span of no more than 30 seconds) the Spurs had made two 3-pointers and had cut the lead to only three. With the game tightening, we decided to hang on a little while longer. With 8 seconds to play the Knicks still led by three, but sure enough Michael Finley made a 3-pointer as time expired to send the game into overtime. The Spurs then scored the first seven points of overtime and won the game easily.
A few days later, my unnamed cousin sent an email to the father of his girlfriend's roommate to thank him for the Knicks tickets. He was very formal in his thank you thanks to some wonderful suggestions of rhetoric by yours truly. Hours later he got an email back that said, "STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER"
March
My 22nd birthday
this picture is not from my birthday, nor is it from March
I had a lot of options to choose from in March. Spring Break, St. Patrick's day, and March Madness all would have been worthy choices, but I chose my birthday because a lot of things that happened on Spring Break I am sworn to secrecy never to repeat, I'm only half Irish where as I am 100 percent me, and Syracuse was once again left out of the big dance.
My 22nd birthday was on a Friday and one of my closest friends from home was there to aid in the celebration so we started off at a local bar for happy hour. This was the beginning of a little tradition as we went to the same bar for happy hour most Fridays for the rest of the school year. After happy hour I went to a friend's house and did not get low. On our way back to my house for somewhat of a Spring Break reunion of sorts, we stopped at a liquor store to get a bottle of Level, which was our drink of choice on Spring Break. My buddy searched the store while I stood in the center like a stone(d) statue trying not to break anything. He couldn't find any Level so he asked the store's owner if he had any in stock. He had only one huge bottle that was in a box also containing 4 glasses and he had been trying to get rid of it for a while. It was originally $54 dollars, but he sold it to us for $46. Considering our state of minds and our insistence on getting Level, we probably would have bought it for $146. The only problem was that it was on top of a refrigerator in the corner of the store that I was closest to. Somehow, someway I was able to get the box off of the fridge and onto the counter without breaking anything. I then carried the box into my house like it was the Stanley Cup and we proceeded to polish it off before going out.
April
Winning the Men's A and Co-Ed A Intramural Softball Championships
Intramural softball was the most fun of all the intramurals offered in college. Our men's and co-ed teams ran through the regular seasons and earned the top seed in each of the tournaments. Now of course both teams were stacked with former college baseball and softball players. The men's team survived a first round scare before rolling to the finals. The co-ed team just rolled. On a Sunday late in April, both the co-ed championship and games 1 and 2 of the men's finals (best of three series) were held. The day before the games, Glancy had the presence of mind to suggest that we buy champagne to celebrate our impending victories. Liquor laws in the state of Connecticut prevented us from purchasing those 12 bottles before the games on Sunday.
Despite a desperate ploy by the opposing team to nullify our co-ed offense (they intentionally walked our two best hitters every time they came to the plate), our team, named The Shampoo Effect by the way, cruised to victory. We all shared a bottle of champagne (all of the guys still had to play in the men's games which followed right after) and were awarded with our championship t-shirts.
The men's team, clad in matching uniforms and personalized entrance music, also had no problems. Before each game I would make a CD that including each player's selection of an entrance song as well as songs to play during warmups and inbetween innings. Our female friends would then play the appropriate song for each batter as the game progressed. In case you were wondering, and I know you were, my entrance song was "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey (think from the 15 to the 25 sec mark). We swept the series and celebrated on the field, each with a bottle of champagne in our hands. In the parking lot afterwards, I took one last swig of my bottle and was promptly written up by a public safety officer (have no fear, I got off without having to pay a fine).
May
My college graduation
All throughout second semester, we were calling this day (May 18th) 'doomsday' because it meant the end of our run as college undergrads. Our lives, as we knew them, would never be the same. We were about to be ripped away from the place that we had called home for the past four years. It never really dawned on me how big of an occasion graduating from college is until I donned the cap and gown myself.
The day itself sucked. We all went out the night before (collllegge) and had to wake up at the crack of dawn to be on campus for 8 a.m. Then we were forced to sit and listen to people we hardly, if ever, came across during our time in college give us advice about 'the real world'. Our speaker was our own university president, who would have given a speech even if we shelled out the big bucks to get someone noteworthy.
Then we all had parties with our friends and family before going out one last time as a class. Lots of people had to move out of their houses the next day so we partied hard. It was fun, but also sad because of everyone leaving the next day.
June
St. Vincent's Golf Tournament
This was the second year in a row that my brothers and I played in our church's golf tournament together. I use the word 'church' loosely because I can't tell you the last time that any of us went there without our parents (Christmas/Easter). Our dad has played in this tournament for years and took it upon himself to sign us up back in '07 because all of us were going to be home for the first time in a while. Like most golf tournaments, it's an excuse for us to knock the little white ball around and throw back some suds. Back in '07 my brothers almost didn't let me shoot anymore because I was so inebriated that my shots were seemingly going backwards. Somehow we still shot -7. We were also yelled at by the club pro because we brought our own beer, which was in violation of the first rule of the course. This year we figured we would do better because we had all gotten better over the year, but we were all miserable and shot only -1.
July
Sandy Island
Let me just first say that July 4th is a very close second. Nothing like drinking PBR's and playing horseshoes on my front lawn with my brothers. It literally looks like we are from Alabama. That being said, every year of my life I have gone to a place called Sandy Island on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for a week late in July. I wear a wristband on my left wrist as a constant reminder of this beautiful place. It allows me to think about vacation every day of the year. While on my vacation from nothing, I drank brew dads overlooking a lake, played a round of golf, played in a softball game, and spent some time with my extended family.
August
And the Oscar goes to...
August was somewhat of a slow month for me so I took it upon myself to start 'training' for the World Series of Pop Culture, which apparently doesn't take place anymore. At the time I was working for a minor league baseball team, which meant that I worked from about 5-10 every night the team was in town. This left my days open and I tried to make the most of them. I decided to watch every movie that has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in my lifetime. I had seen a bunch, had been meaning to see a lot, and had never heard of some of the others.
An excursion like this forced (not really) me to watch a lot of movies that I would otherwise never have thought to see. I can't call them bad movies because The Academy obviously thought they were one of the five best movies of the year in which they came out. I can't tell you how many Hugh Grant movies I ended up watching. Here are some titles of the kind of movies that I'm talking about. Sense and Sensibility, The Piano, Ghost, Out of Africa, Erin Brokovich, etc. There were movies on the list that I kept putting off because I didn't want to put myself through them. Brokeback Mountain, for example, and Titanic (which actually wasn't terrible).
With the bad also came the good. Of the movies on the list (yes I wrote them all down) that I hadn't seen, these were some of my favorites. Finding Neverland, As Good as It Gets, Four Wedding and a Funeral (a very good Hugh Grant film), Scent of a Woman, etc.
To date I have seen 95 of the 115 movies that have been nominated in my lifetime. Of the 20 that I have not seen, one is from the 00's, nine are from the 90's, and 10 are from the 80's.
September
These are my people
September was the first month of my life that I was working 9-5 in the "real world" and it gave me a better appreciation for the weekends. My memories are naturally a bit vague, but I remember a lot of tailgating, going out, and waking up only to start drinking again (the shampoo effect). September was also the beginning of the football season, which also meant the start of the fantasy football season. As we all know, football is now America's pastime. Baseball has passed the torch because, quite simply, it's past its time.
October
The Shampoo Effect
A few weeks after my friend Mike suggested it, I finally caved and started this blog. This blog has both been a blessing and a curse. For starters, it has given me an outlet to express my strong opinions. Also, I recognize that I am the type of person that needs occasional reassurement from my friends and this blog provides that from time to time. The downside is maintenance. Sometimes I just don't have the time or creative intuition to post anything new and I feel like I am, in some way, letting people down.
November
Powder's Party
Well since I just ruled in favor of my blog over Alumni Weekend at the U, I think it's only fair that I choose a party filled with college friends that happened two weeks later. My buddy Pete had a party at his house in Larchmont, which is right outside NYC, for his 22nd birthday on a Friday. Now Larchmont is a good four hours from my house in Syracuse and as I said earlier, I was working from 9-5. I literally made the decision to go the night before, took off from work 15 minutes early, and I was on my way.
Now Pete is one of a handful of people in the world that I would drive four hours to see if they were hosting a party. I mean somebody's gotta kill the kegs, right? No in all seriousness, it was a good time partying with my college friends that I had seen two weeks prior. The next morning I got back in the car, drove four hours home and partied with my friends from home. All in all, it was a great weekend.
December
Starting my career
After waiting for months, I was finally brought on board by the worldwide leader. It was an awkward time to get officially hired with the holidays and all, but it has been good so far. I was able to go home for Christmas, which was good, but now I am slowly going through Syracuse withdrawl. What makes it tougher is that Syracuse University's men's basketball team is awesome and I wish I could watch them take on the brunt of the Big East live in the Loud House.
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