http://fuzzyco.com/ All Fuzzy Gerdes, all the time. Chicago, improv, photos, my life, my work, and so on and so forth. en Copyright 2010 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:24:33 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Hotel for Dogs. Like Snakes on a Plane, the movie's right there in the title. Completely light-hearted, sweet, and predicable. Thank goodness it doesn't have any deceased parents, families being torn apart, or issues of saving animals from shelters. Aw, crum. I really can't tell you what people not in our particular circumstances might think about this movie. A cute, dumb movie with dogs? Something like that.]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/hotel_for_dogs.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/hotel_for_dogs.html Movies Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:24:33 -0600 Fuerza Bruta is a crazy dance/music/performance piece. It's an amazing spectacle and Erica and I loved seeing it in New York. The show is coming to Chicago starting May 21 and I heartily recommend seeing it if you have the spare $50.]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/fuzzyco_recommended/fuerza_bruta_is_coming_to_chicago.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/fuzzyco_recommended/fuerza_bruta_is_coming_to_chicago.html Chicago FuzzyCo Recommended Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:08:33 -0600 mediocre thriller in an exotic location just means you can add implausible environmental complications to your implausible characters. FuzzyCo grade: C-]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/whiteout.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/whiteout.html Movies Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:33:33 -0600 say: ran 3.05 mi on 3/14/2010 at 9:43 AM with a pace of 10'06"/mi I forgot the daylight-savings time chance this morning, so I was still in bed when Shaun buzzed the door to meet me for a run, but other than that a fine run.]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/running/run.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/running/run.html Running Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:22:11 -0600 Daybreakers starts with an incredible premise—if vampirism starts spreading in a population, before long everyone will be vampires and who will they feed on then? And for kicks, it layers on a noir feel, which is like the bacon of movie motifs—it goes with everything! And from that great start, the movie manages to squander every good idea and meanders around from pointless action sequence to makes-no-sense confrontations, until the final dramatic but-why-did-he? ending. FuzzyCo grade: C-]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/daybreakers.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/daybreakers.html Movies Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:31:58 -0600 Bottoms Up's claim to fame, if you can call it that, is that its two stars, if you can call them that, are Paris Hilton and Jason Mewes (Jay of Jay & Silent Bob). I had picked up a copy of the movie for $2 at a Big Lots because hey, Paris & Jay! And then someone gave us a copy with a post-it that said, "Not that you asked, but I was uncomfortably surprised w/ how much I liked Paris Hilton's performance in this otherwise crap movie." I don't know who that was, and I almost don't want to know because I don't want to know which of my friends is insane. Otherwise crap? It's entirely crap. This is a terrible, terrible movie. And not even so-bad-or-weird it's good like Plan 9 or The Room or something. Just teeth-gratingly bad. It's boring and offensive and badly acted and makes no sense and poorly edited and just really, really bad. FuzzyCo grade: F]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/bottoms_up.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/bottoms_up.html Movies Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:20:05 -0600 Next Day Air did it a disservice. I went in expecting a certain kind of low-brow stoner comedy and instead found a dark, gritty comedy about drug dealers and thieves—sort of Elmore Leonard meets The Wire. FuzzyCo grade: A]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/next_day_air.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/next_day_air.html Movies Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:56:14 -0600 this movie—I would happily watch a two-hour movie with Meryl Streep as Julia Child; as charming as Amy Adams normally is, I'd like the forty-five minutes I spent watching her as Julie Powell back. I especially think the contrast is not flattering to Powell, because it seems that Child met every challenge with a cheerful attitude and a sense of self, where Powell whines and mopes and seems to be focussed on external validation. And it's not the movie's fault, but the thing was really tainted for me by knowing that the real-life Powell's next memoir was about her adultery. It adds such a sad subtext to all of her interaction's with her husband Eric in the film. FuzzyCo grade: B- (A+ for just the Julia Child parts)]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/julie_julia.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/julie_julia.html Movies Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:38:04 -0600 Nike+ sez: ran 4.01 mi on 3/11/2010 at 6:33 PM with a pace of 10'42"/mi. This is the farthest I've run since the 18 miles I did of the 2007 Chicago Marathon. Erica points out that I did 6 miles in the 2009 Triathlon, but I didn't run the whole distance—I ran about 2 1/2 miles and then walked/hobbled the rest of the way. So I'm pretty chuffed that I'm back up to 4 pain-free miles. The goal for 2010 is a pain-free triathlon. So here we go…]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/running/4_miles.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/running/4_miles.html Running Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:38:36 -0600 You're supposed to keep your résumé up to date every year or so, even if you're happy at your job. I was just reminded of that because I'm going for an acting audition tomorrow that wants me to bring my IT résumé (it's a longish story). So I was trying to get my résumé up to date tonight and realized that I haven't touched it in 5 years, and even that wasn't a very good update. So step one was just chopping out huge swathes of obsolete technologies that I had proudly listed I was fluent in. WebStar, anyone? 4D First? Yeesh. http://fuzzyco.com/news/personal/resumes.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/personal/resumes.html Personal Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:57:14 -0600 The Princess and the Frog with very low expectations and gosh-darn it, it was good. It was funny and suspenseful and romantic, and really captured a lot of the flavors that go into making New Orleans the city that I love so much. FuzzyCo grade: A]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/the_princess_and_the_frog.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/the_princess_and_the_frog.html Movies Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:44:37 -0600 District 9 that I feel almost bad that it bugged me that it wasn't consistent about the documentary-style camera work. Is that picky of me? FuzzyCo grade: A]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/district_9.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/district_9.html Movies Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:35:56 -0600 plausibility and contrivance being qualities of a movie that can satisfy or turn me off, respectively, very quickly. Moon is a great example of a movie with the potential to be very contrived, but I thought it led us into Sam Rockwall's character and his situation with enough plausibility that by the time we get to the really out-there stuff, we're pretty much along for the ride. I've really only got one big quibble with the movie… and this is really a movie that's hard to talk about with spoilers. So I'm give my grade and then we can talk about the movie in more detail after the jump. FuzzyCo grade: A * Maybe more in person than here.]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/moon.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/moon.html Movies Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:23:51 -0600 movies I know I'm not going to like? FuzzyCo grade: C-]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/law-abiding_citizen.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/law-abiding_citizen.html Movies Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:47:48 -0600 The Colour of Magic. Now, admittedly, the book is a mess, an episodic parody of a variety of fantasy genres. But this movie is even more of a mess. It's… boring. I think it really highlights that Pratchett is a very literary writer. I mean, he's got wonderful footnotes and those just don't translate to the screen very well. FuzzyCo grade: C]]> http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/the_colour_of_magic.html http://fuzzyco.com/news/movies/the_colour_of_magic.html Movies Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:07:42 -0600