NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Its pretty widely known that I am a huge That 70s Show fan. Over the past two years or so I've been collecting the DVDs of each season, only recently completing the list with the purchases of season 1 and 8 at the Circuit City clearance sale. It may be sad and I may be a loser but I know every joke every line of every episode of every season. I even know how the characters are framed without looking. Delivery, posture, I can even tell you about funny faces that are made. Episode titles and what happens to each character. And I've seen each season over 10 times (maybe over 20), and I see no end in sight.
So you must understand the heartbreak I experienced when I came home after school and checked Gizmodo's Deals of the Day. On it I saw the COMPLETE 32 disk SERIES of That 70s Show (what I paid $340 for) on regular price for $200 and on a special sale of $82 with free shipping today only. So all I can do is recommend this great series to any of you who read this post today March 26 and tell you its the greatest buy you will ever make.

Shameless Plug

Readers: If you find yourself on the internet screaming to yourself "why is there nothing to do on the internet after facebook!!!" (which actually happens quite often).... then let me redirect you to a fellow blog of a very close friend of mine Kevin Gannon who has been mentioned on The Basement. Its really funny and has a segment called the Kevin Gannon Radio Show that recently added two brand new episodes featuring yours truely. They're really funny and enjoyable... and that was my "shameless plug". 

Can't Sleep Because I'm Too Energized... How Ironic

So most people know about the REM cycle. When you sleep 8 hours you disrupt your REM cycle which starts and ends at multiples of 3. Anywhere in between you wake up slow and unrested. So sleeping only in multiples of 3 hours is the right and difficult way to do it. You wake up beautifully energized. But nobody fucking ever talks about the time you happen to wake up after 3 hours in the middle of the night instead of 6 or 9 hours when the day begins. Well we should raise awareness damn it. 

PS: Whats with Jimmy Fallon in these 60s/70s period movies. Almost Famous and now its 6 in the morning and I'm watching Factory Girl and look whose there... Boston native Sully. 

New Traffic Sign: Grown Men Pretending

So I joined a fantasy baseball league this year. I love baseball and always wanted to be part of this pretend managing. Playing PSP baseball was not loser enough for me. So when I got an offer from the friend I met at the AMC Best Picture Showcase I took it. With little to no knowledge on how to play this rediculously complex and involved game I can use as much advice as possible. 

PS: I thought we had a deal Mother Nature. I feed you all the pollution your little heart desires and you make my winters more comfortable. Whats with this snow on the first day of spring? Twisted little sence of humor huh. That went out the window when George Carlin died. 

Announcements

In an effort to make this blog a little more interesting I will be making the "experience posts" a once  a week affair while having a normal semi-daily blog. That being said I just got accepted in SUNY Purchase, a college I've wanted to go to for a very long time, to finish my education and begin my adult life. Now I can fulfill my dream of attending this every year. My hippie annoyance meter was becoming dangerously low. Thank you Purchase.

And The Oscar Goes To...

Recently I attended the 3rd Annual AMC Best Picture Showcase. During this marathon event, the day before the Oscars, you pay half the price and watch all five movies nominated for best picture in a row. As in about 11 hours of watching the years best movies. This year it went Milk, The Reader, Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, and Frost/Nixon. 

I found out about the event the night before. I tried so hard to find people to go with me, but all my friends were away either at school or vacation. Down on my luck I called one of my best friends for some advice, and he told me the answer I already knew. It was way to good of a deal to give up, especially since oddly enough I hadn't seen any of the nominees. 

So I embarked on what truely was an adventure stag and without breakfast. The first thing I noticed was how popular this was. It was even more packed then the Watchmen screening I described in my last post and was held in the same exact theater. The second thing I realized was how many people were alone (throughout the day I found out they were all in the same situation I was). And the third thing I realized was from what I could see I was the youngest person there in a sea of middle aged film buffs. 

And so the movies began and during intermissions everyone around me started talking. In paticular I met a psych grad student at NYU who seemed like his job was to go to shows and meet famous musicians and comedians. We had lunch together during the main intermission and facebooked each other. And then from the way were able to become pretty chill I realized the atmosphere I had entered. 

There is no way you would put yourself through the amount of hours or pay 25 dollars if you didn't have movies high up on your list of interest. Suddenly I felt warm and at home with my people. Everyone talking to each other regardless of age or nationality or simply being strangers. Halfway through I got a text from my mother saying "I didn't think this was a big deal but now I'm kind of rooting for you. think your going to make it?" And I answered her as simply as I could: "Mom this is getting easier and easier." 

From 10 in the morning to 11 at night I was watching the years best and boy did they deliver. Overall Frost/Nixon was the best movie made in the past few years. Then I personally like a movie thats more fiction then reality so Benjamin Button came in second and thirdly Slumdog Millionaire (who deserved to win because of its amazing story). I came out energized and ready to talk for hours. Simply it was the greatest film experience I had the pleasure of  being apart of and I will do this every year its worth it and recommend it to anyone and everyone. 

Fanboys and Tardy Friends

This experience starts about two weeks in advance of the actual movie screening. Every day I checked Fandango for tickets to go online. Even to this day I'm not exactly sure if they were officially on sale, but opening day was so I went into panic mode and bought a pair for me and my girlfriend (who first introduced me to Watctmen the year before). With all the excitement during our two week wait we began bragging and ultimatly inviting people. And then those people began inviting people. By the day of the opening we had a group of 7, fully aware that there would be no way to get such a large group together in such an anticipated opening. 

Friday night rolls along and my girlfriend and I arrive at the theater an hour and twenty minutes before only to find a line that is not only long but thick. Groups of fanboy nerds huddled together in circles dissolving the shape of a strait line. We got on line and not a word was spoken, as the two of us were too busy listening to the corny jokes from the 30 year old comic book reading live at home losers who I happen to call my own. It was the first time God explained to me that comic book geeks weren't cool. They're comidic genius was proven through jokes like "Soon there will be Pokemon: Penis and Pokemon: Vagina" and that my friends is an actual quote. Whats worse was the deafening laughter that came right after from the rest of the group. 

Times ticking and none of the 5 other people have showed up, regardless of our endless phone calls. The line starts moving, the tension rises as the quest for perfect seats begin, and my girlfriend and I are left to fend for an entire group of people. I look at her and say "Either your friends are getting screwed or my friends are." To our surprise we find quite an empty row smack in the middle; the perfect seats. At this point we're basically running, holding hands to not lose each other in the current of fanboys. We get to the half empty row and manage to save four seats as another group of four men sit down before we have a chance to claim them. So it looks like my friends of 3 got screwed over her friends of 2, which really didn't work because the three musketeers got there first. To this day I haven't spoken to any one of them and I think they're angry at me (for those of you who care they got good seats. Its a happy ending America.) 

The previews begin and while Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, and Up appear the crowed begins to clap. I'm cracking up at the extremes that these people can get, but thats what I get for going opening day to the movie adaptation to the greatest graphic novel of all time, and thats usually not an opinion. The remaining two arrive seconds before the production company introductions. The movie itself was perfectly described by the Facebook status of a friend of mine: "Saw Watchmen. Met my expectations. Satisfied." The action was cool, the soundtrack was great, they saved as much as they could from the storyline. The usual, you can't expect it to be an exact science. I suggest watching it to watch it and be mildly entertained. But for those of you scared of bones breaking DO NOT see this movie.