Mercwear.com – Curtis Morris

I just finished the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. This was the first Gladwell book that I have read and it has reminded me to always look past the surface on not only people but places and events. All too often I will look at someone and assume that their social status, success or even failure must be related to the decisions they have made in life. I still believe that making sound decisions is critical in all walks of life however, Outliers showed me that something as simple as the day you were born can have a real impact on your life and who you become.

I will not go into a full review here, there are plenty available around the internet but I will say that if you are the type of person who really enjoys the “Ah HA!” moment reading this book will make you happy =)

When I bought tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra (I will call them TSO from this point on) back in early November I really had no idea what to expect, my future mother-in-law is a big fan so Andrea and I thought it would be fun to go with her to the show. Our tickets were for the 3pm show on December 23rd, we arrived at around 2pm and found a huge line of fans lined up outside the AT&T center waiting for the doors to open! Mind you that the seats are reserved so at this point I was not sure whey people were lined up but I can only guess they just like TSO THAT much.

We took our seats at around 2:45 (Andrea and I waited in the Jeep for the line to die down) and the show started at 3:00 – and what a show it was. To my surprise, TSO actually performs a rock and roll show complete with lasers, smoke and pyrotechnics. The show started out with a man reading a Christmas story – in between chapters TSO would play a song, sometimes it was Christmas related other times it was not – but they were all very good.

The highlight of the show was Anna Phoebe – the String Master for the band. Phoebe is a world renowned violinist from London that plays a custom made 6-string electric violin called a Violectra. She plays a violin as if it was an extension of her own body, running around the stage (and stadium), playing while on her knees and even holding the instrument above her head while playing. All of the crazy stuff you see rockers doing with a guitar in their hands she can do with her Violectra, best of all – it was pink.

If you have a chance to see TSO in concert, stop reading and go buy tickets, I for one will be waiting in line to see them next year!

Links:
Official Trans Siberian Orchestra website:
http://www.trans-siberian.com

Official Anna Phoebe website:
http://www.annaphoebe.com/

Video of TSO playing Carmina Burana/O Fortuna Live:

You Tube video of a house wired to display a light show to the TSO song “Wizards of Winter�:

I came across this clip today – it’s basically Mario and Luigi in the GTA world.. Good for a laugh.

Click here to view

I have been thinking about getting a hand held gaming system for a while now (ever since the PSP came out) however I could never justify buying one, after all I do most of my gaming on the PC. I have a feeling that is about to change with the Wii only hours away from my living room so I decided to pickup a Nintendo DS lite last weekend along with the game “Club House Games�. The Wii is going to have games that tie in with the DS so this helped me make a decision between the DS and PSP.

Club House Games consists of 42 traditional board and card games that you can play online or with a friend using the WI-FI built into the DS.. Thus far I am seriously addicted to the darts game – fun stuff.

Some of Chappell’s better work in my opinion..

Ok.. Probably not THE BEST but damn funny to say the least.
What the hell is he saying? Chacarron?

It’s been a while.. I have been busy working on a few projects, not an excuse for not posting but that is what I am going to go with =)

I came across a pretty cool video I wanted to share, i’m not so sure about the message but the music is good.

Click here to watch it (Google Video) – Let me know what you think.

Having never read the book I really did not know what to expect from this film but after watching it I can honestly say I enjoyed it. It’s not the type of move that I will be adding to my DVD library however it was a great “go out and see a movie because there is nothing else to do� film.

If you are looking for a longer movie with a good plot and decent acting then go check this one out.

I am sure that most people that visit this site have heard about the new movie “V is for Vendetta� the funny thing is I knew next to nothing about this film until I went to go see it yesterday.

On the way to the theatre Andrea filled me in on the basic plot which gave me good idea of what to expect, knowing that our taste in movies is similar I figured I was going to enjoy this one. Based in the not so distant future, the film focuses on 2 primary characters played by Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving who are set on changing their totalitarian government using many different forms of violence. I don’t want to give too much of the film away however I will tell you that it does take a very different approach to terrorism, it portrays it as the key tool that our freedom fighters use to combat the evil government.

If you are looking for a matrix like movie with political overtones I highly suggest that you check this one out, I know I will be adding it to my collection once it’s out on DVD.

Official V is for Vendetta site

IMDB link for the film

Let me start this post off with a statement: Flash programming is hard and so is creating good flash animations.

With that said I would like to share something with you all: The Ultimate Showdown

This is the best flash animation that I have seen in a long time, mainly because it presents figures from both my childhood and present day killing each other but the animation and song are good too!

Click here to visit the site

This clip has been radiating throughout the internet since last Sunday, it aired on Saturday Night Live on 12/17/2005. I really can’t decide on a favorite part, but if I had to pick one it would probably be when they use Yahoo maps to find the “dopest route”.

This film has Starwars Kid potential in my opinion, the masterminds behind the short are The Lonely Island group (http://www.thelonelyisland.com/) who joined SNL this year.

Lazy Sunday (Requires Flash to watch)

For the really big fans of the skit (like me!) here is a link to the MP3 (not sure on the quality as I have not tested it yet):

Download “Lazy Sunday Mp3�

Thanks to Andrea for showing it to me, it’s definitely one of the best SNL skits in a long time.

Forbes has an interesting write up on what they are calling the “Fictional 15�. They have taken 15 fictional characters that have been elevated to the status of real people in terms of popularity and wealth.

Some of the names include Santa Clause, C. Montgomery Burns and Cruella De Vil, good stuff.

Link to the full story:
The Forbes Fictional 15

Pat Morita, the actor that played Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid died of natural causes today.
When I was kid, The Karate Kid was one of my favorite movies, I did not keep up with the sequels however I will always remember the original movie.

I was able to go see the Walk the line last night and it was, without a doubt one of the best films I have seen this year. For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, it is basically a chronicle about the late musician Johnny Cash. The story starts at his childhood and progresses up to his historical performance at Fulsom prison.

Joaquin Phoenix played a great Cash – from what I understand about the making of the movie he was actually hand picked by the man in black for this part before Cash passed away in 2003. The movie was able to hold my attention for the full 2 hours and 15 minutes, I realize my opinion may be a bit bias due to the fact that I am a huge fan however Andrea and her 14 year old sister Elena also enjoyed the film (neither are big fans) – so I think that speaks for it’s self.

One thing that did surprise me was the average age of the crowd seeing the movie – I generally associate his music with an older audience however my best guess at the average age of the theatre we were is would be about 28. I guess more people than I assumed know what good music is.

I recommend that you go see this movie even if you are not a die hard Cash fan – odds are you will like it.

Official site

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter:

Yep, you read that correctly – I am engaged, I asked Andrea to marry me on September 16, 2005. We have been together for over 7 years now and for the last 2 or 3 months I have really been thinking of how to ask her etc, what I came up with is below.

I took her to a brand new PF Chang’s (opening night) at a new open air shopping mall near our apartment for dinner. I knew she had a big test coming up so I made up a story about winning a free meal in order to make sure she would go. Our reservations were at 9:30 and I had gone to the restaurant earlier in the afternoon to plan things with the staff and pickup a few fortune cookies.

The way I planned to ask her was to create my own message and stuff it inside a fortune cookie, this worked out quite well (I did it without breaking a single cookie!). After picking Andrea up from school at around 7:00pm we headed to our apartment (I had the ring and cookie in my pocket), we took about 45 minutes to get ready and headed out.

Andrea had received a few discount offers in the mail from a store she likes so the first thing we did upon arrival was visit Express. Andrea was totally unaware of my plans so she was as cool as can be, I on the other had was worried that someone was going to bump into me and crush my cookie.

After leaving Express we checked out the rest of the shopping center (The shops at La Cantera) which was very nice (I am sure we will be spending a lot of time there with Andreas shopping habits). Of course all this time I am still trying not to bump into anyone or anything for fear of damaging my cookie.

At last 9:15 rolls around and we head to PF Chang’s, after being seated I headed to the restroom to make sure the cookie survived (it did!). When I got back to the table we both ordered our drinks and food, then Andrea headed to the restroom – now was my chance to hand the cookie to our waitress. I asked her to place it on a plate and bring it to Andrea telling her that in celebration of opening the new restaurant they were giving away prizes and that the cookie was the game piece. Andrea took the cookie, opened it and read my message. I put the ring in front of her while she was reading the note and the rest is history.

We won’t even begin to plan our wedding until after she is done with law school, but rest assured that the engagement party is right around the corner!

I will post pictures of the ring here soon.

Morgan Spurlock

For those of you that have seen “Super size meâ€? you know that Morgan Spurlock has a way of making the average person look at subjects such as obesity and fast food consumption in a whole new light. In the movie he ate nothing but McDonald’s food for a full 30 days, during this time he was plagued by various problems and was even told to stop what he was doing by his doctor. If you have not seen this movie I urge you to please go rent / buy it right away, odds are you will enjoy it (and learn something too!).

Morgan is back with a new original series that is airing on The FX, in it he and other people will be doing various things for 30 days at a time. In the first episode both he and his fiancé attempted to live on minimum wage for 30 days. Without giving too much of the story away I would like to say that this is much harder than it sounds (and is all but impossible).

The series will cover such things as:

* Anti-Aging (An ex-athlete goes on anti-aging drugs)

* Muslims and America (A Christian will live as a Muslim for 30 days)

* Straight / Gay (A homophobe will live the life of a gay man)

* Off-the-grind (2 typical Americans will have to live in an eco village)

* Binge Drinking Mom (A mother who is worried about her daughters alcohol goes binge drinking to show her daughters what she looks like in the state she is in)

For an episode guide and show times please visit the official 30 days website:
30 days website

Morgan’s Blog

I never really noticed that Samuel L Jackson dies is just about all of the movies he is in. Entertainment Weekly has posted an article showing his top 10 deaths, if you are a Jackson fan like me you will like it.

Story

Today I was Biking with a few friends after work and noticed how much junk is laying on the ground in the areas we ride in. I’m sure that anyone who bikes often notices all of the trash and debris that are laying on the sides of the road during their rides however if you look close enough you will find some interesting things. With that thought in mind I am going to “open� a new section of Mercwear.com called Things found while biking or TFB for short.

This new category will simply hold the posts about certain items of interest that I have found while riding my bike, each time I ride I hope to find something to talk about here. The first entry for this category can be found below.

Item Found: DVD of the Princess Diaries 2

I coasted by this while riding down a busy street with 2 friends from work, at first I just kept going (I see a lot of CD’s on the street while riding) however one of the people I was riding with needed to stop for a moment so I went back to take a look at the disc. When I saw that it was a DVD and that it was in remarkably good condition for having been laying in on the side of the road I threw it into my Camel Back and took off. You can see from the pictures below that the DVD is perfect on the front and has only minor damage on the back. I tested it by watching the last few moments of the final chapter of the movie (there is no way I am going to watch the whole thing I just don’t have the stomach for it) and it plays fine.

My guess on how the DVD made it to the side of the road is that some parent got sick of their child watching it on the in car DVD player every time they went somewhere and just tossed it out the window. If I were a parent and my daughter (there is no way any son of mine would watch that crap!!) was watching this over and over again I would definitely take measures to dispose of the disc, however I would probably sell it on E-bay instead of throwing it out of the car after all I probably paid for it in the first place.

Stats and Pictures:
Estimated Cost: $19.99 (From BestBuy.com)
Condition: 6/10

Front:

Back:

Only damage on the disc:

Starring:

* John Travolta * Paul Adelstein
* Uma Thurman * Debi Mazar
* Vince Vaughn * Gregory Alan Williams
* Cedric the Entertainer * Harvey Keitel
* Steven Tyler * The Rock
* Robert Pastorelli * Danny DeVito
* Christina Milian * James Woods

User Ranking from www.rottentomatoes.com:
4.6 / 10

My Ranking:
4.5 / 10

Summary of the film from MGM:
John Travolta is back as Chili Palmer in Be Cool, a sequel to the comedy smash Get Shorty. This time, Chili becomes a different kind of “hit” man – he abandons the movie industry to bring his wiseguy skills and negotiation tactics to the music business.

When a friend is offed while they’re at lunch, Chili takes the opportunity to visit the guy’s wife, Edie (Thurman), and pitch himself as her new business partner at an independent record label. With a promising young pop-star-in-training as his protégé (Milian), Chili has to juggle her faux-urban manager (Vaughn), his gay, wannabe-actor bodyguard (The Rock), Russian mobsters, and an eloquent gangsta music producer (Cedric) to save the label and land a hit – and keep from getting popped himself.

My Review:
The people that really “made� this movie for me were Cedric the Entertainer, Vince Vaughn and The Rock. Everyone else in the file was simply a filler between the jokes and funny situations that these three actors would get themselves into. Travolta tried too hard and it seems like the only reason that Uma Thurman was in this film was to play on the heat that they (Travolta & Thurman) had together in Pulp Ficion years ago, anyone could have played her part. Overall I did not like this move simply because it failed to live up to the hype that was created for it in the trailers, I never saw Get Shorty and after watching this I probably never will.

I have yet to write a review on this movie however I would like to say that this is by far one of the best movies I have seen this year. I can guarantee that it will have a cult following for years to come similar to that of Pulp Fiction and Boondock Saints. If you have yet to see Napoleon Dynamite please close this page and go rent it at Blockbuster Video right now, better yet save yourself the $5.00 it cost to rent it and just go buy it.

Anyway let me get to the whole purpouse of this post – I recently came across a soundboard for the film over at Collegehumor.com, check it out at the link below:

Napoleon Dynamite Sound Board