Life

Movies I've seen this week:

Milk
Slumdog Millionaire
Cadillac Records
Black Balloon
Soul Men
Nobel Son

Somewhat amusingly, I think I even left one out, but can't remember what it is (must not have been memorable).

I liked them all, loved most. The biggest surprise was Soul Men. It's not a great movie, but it is a good one. The music is nostalgic and soul-injected. Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson even did their own singing (which does somewhat explain why their characters' careers didn't sustain through the years, but they're not terrible by a long shot). And I knew about Bernie Mac, of course, but how the heck did I miss that Isaac Hayes died??

Anyway, the rest on the list were really, really good. See them. They're a bit like apples and oranges, so can't even really say I liked any over the others. Milk may be a contender come Oscar time, but we'll see. Despite the fact he finally took one home, I know Penn isn't exactly the friend of the Academy Awards (one of the many reasons I usually think the Oscars are lame).

Oh, yeah, and in all of that, I saw a show this week, as well-- Rock of Ages. The show itself is incredibly cheesy, but the cast and music are fun. Basically, it's a bunch of 80s-era hair band songs loosely threaded through a forced plot (and with the female lead "Sherry", who doesn't see the obvious song coming from 100 miles). The audience was obnoxious, deciding they could sing along in some parts. I'm thinking people didn't pay $70 for a ticket to hear you sing! What we could hear was good, especially from Will Swenson (Berger in Hair last summer at Shakespeare in the Park and soon to reprise the roll as the cast heads to Broadway next year). Constantine Maroulis was good, too. His acting is a little so-so at times, but he's vocally pretty solid, which is more than I can say for some of the American Idol-ites to hit the NY boards.

Life is good. We got a few flurries of snow today, but the big storm pretty much bypassed us, unlike what was predicted. It was kind of nice-- a lot of people stayed home today, so the streets were a little clearer. It was cold as hell, though. I was very happy to have my winter coat and boots on, that's for sure!