Anton Yelchin. Ever heard of the kid? Hell yah you have!

So I'm in my room, wasting away this useless Wednesday when my Mom calls me and tells me that ABC 7 just said it would be showing an interview of Anton Yelchin. I turn to 7 and turns out to be true, George Pennacchio chatted with Anton and their going to air it. They say they will air it right after the commercial break, but like almost everything else they say is 'coming up next' on the news, the timing is lied about and it shows up about ten minutes after the commercial break. I joked that it was late because almost everything Anton is in is late: there's my "Pit Stop" film that we were supposed to shoot that never got shot, Alpha Dog that got pushed back, Charlie Bartlett that got pushed back, Star Trek that just got pushed back, and now this interview! But of course, the interview wasn't Anton's fault (nor is any of the other delays, haha).

So finally, it airs. Anton looks like James Franco in James Dean - perhaps he is playing James Franco in a film about the making of the film James Dean, who knows - and George has him talking about how he has always known what he has wanted to do. I gotta say, Anton sounds really good in this interview. Sounds like a very intellectual kid. That sounds wrong, like I'm saying Anton's an idiot, haha. I'm not. I'm saying that in a field that is full of young actors getting into a whole mess of trouble, Anton sounds like he's doing the complete opposite. He's talking about how he knows exactly what he wants to do, he talks about how society takes prescription drugs too lightly, and he talks about how he feels working as an actor will benefit him more than going to film school. He sounds like he's got it all planned out. The one problem I had with the interview is that they didn't mention even once how Anton grew up locally in LA and that he went to a local high school. Ah well.

click here to continue reading and watching Anton's interview....

Although it opened on Oscar weekend, it is in no way an Oscar film. It was not made to win awards or gain nationwide recognition for its look and feel or anything like that, it was simply made to celebrate all the good things about cinema. After watching it, I felt moved... very moved – perhaps they should create an Oscar category for Best Movie That Moved You, which this would win hands down, but that isn't going to happen, haha.

No, it's not an Oscar film. In fact, it's very far from an Oscar film. It is the Juno of Oscar films (but in no way am I comparing this to Juno because Juno just straight sucked). It's about two long-time friends who remake famous movies because all the movies at their video store get erased. Sounds like fun, right? Especially when you make Jack Black and Mos Def the two childhood friends. But it's a very strange film premise. Usually when a movie alludes to other movies, it is most often parodying them like the ones in the Scary Movie franchise and and such. But not this one. This one celebrates those movies. And the whole storyline is really strange – Jack Black erasing all the tapes because he gets magnetized from the power plant he works at? Strange! But what else would you expect from Michel Gondry, right?

As I just said, Jack Black and Mos Def are good friends. Mos Def, Mike in the film, works at a run-down video store that only rents out VHS tapes for a dollar a day. Jack Black, Jerry in the film, works at some power plant down the street, which is also where he lives inside of a trailer. The town they live in is rich in history but has been growing old for quite some time; it's is being re-built, everything but their Be Kind Rewind video store. The city tells the video store's owner, Mr. Fletcher, played by Danny Glover; that because the store is making no money and it is in a very dangerous building, it must be shut down. Mr. Fletcher asks for an extension and he tells Mike he's going out of town, but instead he spies on a nearby successful video store to do a little research and find out how to make his store profitable. While Mike's boss is out of town, Jerry thinks of a scheme to sabotage the power plant, but the plan backfires and... it sabotages him. Not knowing that he is now magnetized, he destroys every tape in Mike's video store. After customers start to complain that their videos are blank, the two, with the help from the lovely Melonie Diaz, Alma in the film; recreate all the movies that are requested, which stem from the ones requested by their most loyal customer, played by Mia Farrow. They soon become an almost overnight success, but the government finds out and tries to shut them down because they are sweding films illegally. The film plays out from there and it ends very nicely. Though it feels a bit short, it is a great film.

click here to continue reading about Be Kind Rewind and watch some Oscar spoofs....

What's gonna be a doozy...? Life after Blu-ray winning the war? Nah. Zunes with games? Nah. President Obama in the White House? Nah. Tonight's lunar eclipse? Close, but Nah. Tonight's Laker game – that's the doozy I'm talking about!

Some say Kobe was the one who drove Shaq out of LA. Now, after four years, it's Kobe who has brought him back. While Shaq won't be in LA in the same way he was as we all remember him, he will play with the Lakers a lot more than he has in past years, and it's all because of Kobe. Why? Kobe's trade demands before the season were what made the Lakers staff decide to trade up for star Pau Gasol, a trade that was considered a huge steal by many. Yet the addition of Pau Gasol had impacts to the Lakers larger than the obvious ones, it ended up bringing Shaq back to the West... as a Sun. Now in case you didn't know, the Suns are a fast, fast team. They average a little under 110 points per game, that's second in the NBA behind the Warriors and just ahead of the Lakers (107 points per game). Shaq, in case you didn't know, is big. Big and old. Big, old, and fat (maybe not so much fat anymore because of the Suns practices!). He's been injured for way too long with the Heat and now he's coming to the Suns, a team that should have gone to the Finals last year if it wasn't for Robert Horry (all the great guys were once on the Lakers, haha). Was the trade a good idea? Will Shaq be able to play well in Phoenix? That's the question everyone is asking, yet still no one knows – Shaq's first game as a Sun is tonight.

click here to continue reading about Leno, Conan, and Kobe....

Great, just great. We've been gone from SOCES for not even a year and those kids are already getting on TV!

Before you start thinking that I'm a fan of Jay Leno, and that is why I was watching his show, let me make it clear that I do not like Jay Leno. In fact, I cannot wait until Conan takes over as the Tonight Show host next year (assuming of course that his band comes to Burbank too!). So, it wasn't my original idea to watch this episode, I just luckily found out about it. You see, Wednesday night (when this aired, the day before Valentine's Day, oh Happy Valentine's Day by the way) after we destroyed the Timberwolves 117 - 92 in our last game of that epic 9-game road trip, Ima tells me that his buddy from that horrible team's state, Minnesota, said that Leno interviewed kids from SOCES (he of course was able to watch it before we were). We at once were in shock because, first of all, our school was never recognized for anything while we were there. The most we ever got recognized for was probably that we were the only school in the country whose name had nothing to do with its location. That was probably it. Second of all, we were in shock because our school got onto Leno of all places, which alongside Letterman has to be one of the most famous talk shows today. So Jay even mentioning the school's name is quite impressive. But, I at once called Ima's friend a liar. I saw no reason why Jay would talk to kids from our school. Besides the reasons I have already mentioned, Leno wouldn't need to waste time talking to little kids to fill up airtime, the Strike had ended that day! So why would he be looking to waste time? His writers were already back! It didn't make any sense to me. So I went on IMDb and put up a post asking someone who had already seen it whether what Ima's friend said is what actually happened. I expected to be yelled at, but sure enough I wasn't. Ima's friend was right. Well partly. He said they were interviewed, but they weren't. Close enough though.

click here to continue reading about Leno, Conan, and Kobe....

Giants won! I was right! Conan was too! I'm so glad that they told it to the Pats, now they have to shut up. Go sit in the corner and cry a bit you idiot Patriots. You went 18 - 1, which is good... unless of course when that 1 comes in the final game of the season. You idiots. Shut up.

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing super about yesterday was Pau Gasol's first appearance as a Laker! (He was a Pau-er in the center!) It has nothing to do with Clinton getting the majority of the votes in California (though I'm an Obama supporter myself); just yesterday's Gasol start seemed a bit more important to me after a few results from yesterdays elections came in. Anyway, Gasol wasn't the only extra famous person in the arena last night, newly championed defensive end Michael Strahan of the New York Giants was in attendance as well. Who knows how he did it. He was on Regis and Kelly in the morning, was in the parade in New York, went on Conan to do another interview, then made it to the Nets game all in the same day!? That guy is talented! Anyway, Pau's first appearance as a Laker, number 16 by the way, was quite spectacular. Although he didn't capture the Laker high in points for the game, Fisher did that by tying his season high of 28 points, he did have the most points for the first game of a Laker center since Magic Johnson (which means he surpassed Shaq's total), with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Kobe only had 6 points for the night, mostly because he dislocated his right pinky finger in the second quarter (it drastically affected him in tonight's game and is what in fact made us lose at the end). But the center spot is only Pau's position for the time being, until Bynum returns. When he does come back, Bynum will take over the center spot while Gasol and Odom will end up as the other two big men in the front court, with Fisher and Kobe in the back court. With those five guys as our starters, it looks like the Lakers will become unstoppable! I'm not the only one who thinks this, the Suns apparently do as well. Want to know why? Because they just traded Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for the old and fat Shaquille O'Neal. They thought, "hmm, look at those awesome Lakers, we need to do something about that Bynum kid. Let's get Shaq, maybe he'll help us defeat the all powerful Lakers", those were their exact words. That's how much of a threat we are now. Lovin' it? I am. But was this trade a smart idea? Or one of the dumbest trades ever? Shaq has been horrible this year, will his addition be effective at all? Or will he take up space like Kwame did for us? Who knows, but the deal is now complete and Shaq is heading over to the Suns, back to our division. Let's see how the fat side of him plays in that quick offense. The Lakers head over to Phoenix for their last game of the regular season in two weeks on February 20, the second game for us after the All-Star Weekend (that Shaq was not invited to, by the way). Oh, and also, now that Shaq is on the Suns, we'll be seeing him a lot more – and we'll probably hook up with him on Christmas again as it looks like that's the team we'll be playing every year on that date. Things are getting fun in the West.

click here to continue reading about tonight's game and Super Tuesday....

Super Bowl XLII's tomorrow! Fox, 3 PM! While all week, the media has been talking to every person in Glendale, Arizona about the Super Bowl, Conan O'Brien has been sitting in New York trying to predict its winner. Not by analyzing game footage or anything like that; no, Conan decided that the only sure fire way to decide the winner of the Super Bowl before Sunday is to race turtles. That's right. Turtles! A Patriot turtle and a Giant turtle, head-to-head. The winner of the race is going to be the winner of the Super Bowl. It's that simple. A proven fact, says Conan. And quite frankly, I'm with the guy. I mean think about it: turtles are supposed to be one of the oldest animals in the world, right? Those guys have experience! What other animal is wise enough to predict and decide the Super Bowl champion? Just because almost every animal besides the turtle is represented in the NFL: the horses, the bears, the fish of the sea; doesn't mean the reptile has bad judgment! Old people are smart! Right? Right!

But you know, the one bad thing about turtles is, they're too slow. One turtle somewhere supposedly might have beaten a rabbit once, but in general, they are slow creatures. Conan agrees. So what did those guys at Late Night do instead? Put 'em on electric race cars. Amazing idea. Not only does that make the race quicker, but it makes for great television. Who doesn't love cute little turtles on race cars going 95mph through the hallways of New York City? Stupid idiots, that's who. Patriot turtle with a Patriots helmet on its shell versus a Giant turtle with a Giants helmet on its shell. I'm not going to tell you who wins the first race (there are a total of three races), you'll have to watch to find out. So here's the first video, Day 1, of the Turtle Bowl:

click here to watch and read about the Turtle Bowl....

When I planned this post last night in my head, the first post of February, I saw it going totally differently. I wanted to focus on the Super Bowl and the silly antics Conan's been doing this week to promote/predict its winner, haha. But my plans quickly changed when I awoke this morning. Today's been a very crazy day, beyond ordinary crazy. And that only means you get to hear more from me, making up for my absence! But I'll hold off the Conan jazz 'til tomorrow morning, just in case he adds some more funny stuff to tonight's ep! (doubt it though)

It all started when I went into our living room this morning. My folks were watching CNN, watching a recap of the Obama/Clinton debates from last night in LA. We didn't watch it live: they weren't home and I was watching the Piston/Laker game. CNN cut to commercial and when it came back, the first crazy thing of the day was announced. The headline on TV read: "Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo! for $45 billion". I went freaking nuts! Let me tell you, I turned the audio up way too loud and let my mind start to buzz. I couldn't comprehend the statement. Maybe I was still dreaming. I made sure it wasn't Fox News (those guys over there will say anything!), and when I realized it wasn't, I started to think about what this could mean. First of all, that figure, $45 billion! The last time something like this happened was a little over a year ago when a Internet site, that was getting sued in every direction, was bought by a huge company for $1.65 billion. That of course was when Google bought YouTube in November of 2006. But this figure, damn, $45 billion! And the companies involved in the transaction! Microsoft and Yahoo!! (only one exclamation to show my excitement, the other is for Yahoo!'s name, haha) Two huge companies! It was obvious right away what Microsoft was attempting to do. Google is the big dog around the Internet and Microsoft just had enough. It probably feels that alone, Yahoo! and itself can do nothing but sit back and watch Google take control of the world. But if the two companies were to join forces, they would be able to take on Google directly as a team. Great thinking, I guess, but Google is too strong, even for you too combined. You need like Ask.com involved (haha, just kidding, Ask sucks major!). Only two things can come from this deal if it goes through: either Microsoft will ruin everything that has its and Yahoo!'s name on it, or the merger will prove to be amazing and Google will have to step up. Let's hope it's the latter because that way, the consumer wins. Google's been great, but it can do a lot better. Now we'll have some good old competition brewing. We sure are currently engaging in a lot of wars, aren't we?

So that was the first bit of crazy news. The second bit of news is not as crazy in the long scheme of things, but it definitely is excited without a doubt. You've probably already heard, because it's buzzing all over the place, but remember our favorite 54 on the Lakers team, Kwame Brown? Well, consider him your ex-favorite Laker 54 because he's gone. Yes. You heard me correctly. No wait, you didn't hear me correctly, because you can't hear me. You read me correctly. There, that's better. Can you believe it? Kwame is gone. And Pau Gasol is taking his spot! Someone we definitely needed, with our without Bynum being out due to injury. But Kwame was unfortunately not the only person we had to get rid of to get Pau from the Grizzlies, we also had to get rid of Javaris Crittenton, among others. Now, I liked Javaris, he was a cool dude. Showed a lot of promise, Javaris did. And he loved doing little wrap-arounds all the time. But I guess we already had a young point guard by the name of Jordan Farmar, who's looking damn good. Sad to see Javaris go though. We also got rid of Aaron McKie, by signing him again first though... I still don't understand that bit, haha. We also got rid of the rights to Pau's brother, Marc (we're breaking up a damn family!) and got rid of two first round draft picks for next year and 2010, but also got a second round draft pick for 2010 in return though. So that's the trade. Kidd needs to find a home next, so if he leaves in the next 3 weeks before the trade deadline, then maybe that might be the biggest trade of the year, but for right now, this one takes the cake.

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