Liberals treat dogs like people, Conservatives treat people like dogs

Saturday, December 17

Friday Fives

Know what? Those questions were terrible, so I am going to skip them. Plus, I am a day late on the questions. That is because I am on the greatest vacation ever. That being said, you probably wouldn't guess it means being in Buffalo, NY. See, I was born in Buffalo so this weekend I have about 5 vacations jammed into one. I get to:

1. see my beloved Broncos play 2. see my childhood heroes the Buffalo Bills play 3. spend a weekend with the Buffalo side of my family, who I only see once every five yeras or so 4. I get to spend a snowy weekend partying in Buffalo (a very cool place in small doses) 5. Spend the weekend with my brothers who live in Arizona.

That is one amazing weekend. Look up, those are your Friday Fives. Right now I am writing from a laptop on the kitchen counter of Uncle Eddie' place. We are all getting dressed to head out to a very cold and very snowy Buffalo Bills game in Orchard Park.

Sounds perfect, right? It is, except one small catch. I busted my ankle the other day and am in a cast and crutches. So, last night we went barhopping in a Buffalo snow storm in the middle of the night. Drunk, on pain pills, on crutches, in 6 inches of snow. Frankly, it went well... never even slipped once. Tonight, I have to manage a snowed in football stadium on crutches... but we'll be soundly liquored by then. These folks in Buffalo take tailgating seriously. We will have BBQs, ovens, and a deep fryer. Seriously, they bring a deep fryer. That is hardcore! I thought I was tough with my little weber.

ok, stay warm and enjoy the holidays. Don't drink and drive. Most importantly, don't get caught drinking and driving. We'll talk again before christmas, I promise. I may even have some pics of us tailgating and freezing our asses off. I'm sure everyone will have a dij camera... and apparently our group will be 20 to 30 folks strong.

Go Broncos!

Wednesday, December 14

Vince Vaughn

I am a self proclaimed acting snob. I don't do it myself, but I appreciate great acting. To me, great acting is when an actor so becomes the role... you forget the person playing. A perfect example is Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. A perfect example of what great acting is not would be David Caruso of CSI: Miami.

There are two types of acting that anger me the most. The first is overacting. For this, reference every single 80's movie... or any episode of CSI: Miami. I demand subtlety in a great actor; think John C Reilly, William H Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman... you get the idea.

The second kind of acting I dislike most is actors who play the same character every single role. Think Dennis Farina, Al Pachino, Gene Hackman. All fine actors, I guess... but they play the same guy every time. Who is out there taking chances with roles besides Kevin Bacon, Diedrich Bader, or Sean Penn? Too few.

I say that to say this, I love Vince Vaughn. I can't figure out why because he fits into the latter category. Dude plays the exact same guy in every movie. He character doesn't differ from being a professional hit man (Mr & Mrs Smith) to a lawyer, or whoever he was in Dodgeball. Note that this approach damn near killed Adam Sandler. We all love Happy Gillmore, but 5 movies later we started catching on. You can also reference Ben Stiller here.

Somehow Vaughn is impervious to this. His self absorbed narcissistic middle age asshole never gets old for me. When I am see a commercial for a movie on TV that features Vince Vaughn in any role... it immediately gets added to the Netflix list. Consider yourself lucky for this, because I don't really ever write about film. Why not? $10 a person? f that. I'll wait three months and get it at Best Buy for cheaper than it costs to take my wife. Of course, she doesn't quite see it that way. Maybe next week I will write about my life affirming experience at Cinema Grill.

until then, my cinematic undying wish remains a solitary one: Fast Times at Ridgemont High 2