Caption Contest

Clay Marzo

Saw this story last night on the news, one of the best surfers in the world has Asperger sydrome. Just an unbelievable story. Click on the link for full version of his story.



Surfing is Life

Book Review: The Stranger

In the past year I have probably started 5 different books. For whatever reason I lost interest, couldn't find the time, or just didn't enjoy what i was reading so I didn't finish. However I finally started reading something that I couldn't stop. The Stranger written by Albert Camus, is a literary classic, that I did not know anything about until last week (Thanks Irv!) Camus is a philosopher and he believed in what is known absurdist theory of philosophy. Basically life has no rational or redeeming meaning. His first book the Stranger is an excellent story about an amoral and emotionally detached young man, who at the beginning of the story is dealing with the death of his mother. During the 2nd part of the story, the lead character plays a part in a crime, and the rest of the story the character is stuck contemplating the meaning of life, or in his eyes the lack of any purpose to life. I know that story sounds kind of bleak and at times it is kind of a bleak look at humanity, however it has some very powerful themes. If you don't enjoy philosophy, then you probably wont enjoy this book, if you do however like to open your mind to some different schools of thought, this is a great one to read. It is short, under a 100 pages, yet I went back to read many sections just because they interested me. One of the strongest themes to this book in my eyes is the idea that moral order really has no natural or rational basis. How do we decide what is morally acceptable? Camus I think believed in humanity and their ability to decide right from wrong even though he believed in a universe where your actions have real no meaning. The only certainties in this life is that we all die and everything else in this life lacks meaning or doesn't really matter. Anyways it is an interesting look at life, death, love, justice, religion, and society through the eyes of a man that believes in nothing. I know it doesn't sound interesting but I assure you it is.

Congratulations C$$$$$$!

Over the weekend I attended the wedding of one of the authors of this blog. My cousin Craig got married on Saturday to Callie Calnin. First of all I want to send him a congrats, I truly think he found someone special, and of all the years I have known Craig, I don't think I have ever seen him happier. The wedding was wonderful. I tend to be a cynic when it comes to weddings because I swear I have been to 15 of them in the last 3 years. They tend to be very repetitive and for the most part very boring. I am not sure if it was because I had so much family there or the fact that Craig has really fun friends, but from the moment I got to Ripon on Friday to the time I was limped out of the hotel on Sunday I had an absolute blast. The weather could have been nicer for some pictures, but that was really the only hiccup. Well besides the fact that I forgot to have the rings blessed before eagerly trying to hand them off to the bride and groom. Luckily Father Mike was on top of his game and stopped me before the church came tumbling down. As part of my duties as best man I had to give a little speech. Something I was pretty nervous about all day on Saturday. However I did drive up by myself on Friday and that gave me ample time to practice. The speech went well, and then I got to partying. I remember looking at the clock thinking I had missed the grand march, and it was only 830. At that point I was already a mess. After 4 more hours of shots, whiskey, and a few glasses of wine, I was completely out of my element. After the wedding was over, we headed to a bowling alley across the street where we pretty much filled the place. The highlight had to be when we Rick Rolled the joint. Around 2 AM we stumbled home and I proceeded to pass out. It was a very long day, and i woke up in some serious pain. Luckily for me my lovely girl friend, drove home so I could keep my eyes away from any light. Sunday was a completely wasted day, but it was well worth the pain. I honestly think it moves into the top 3 weddings that I have ever attended. Craig nice work on everything, it was a great time, you guys were such wonderful hosts. Hope you have a great time, on the beach. I can only hope you hit up every banana boat stand in the Caribbean.

I Feel Your Pain

So I just recently lost one of my closest friends. My Xbox 360 died the other day. As many of you know Xbox are made very cheaply and are pretty much junk except for the fact that they have the best games available for any console. I had mine for about 3 years and this was my first problem, but I know many that have had them for only weeks before the red ring of death showed up. Either way Microsoft suck a fat dick. If the new Halo didnt look so fucking amazing I would probably jump ship. Below is a video of fellow gamer who had his one true love ripped from his grasps...

Movie Review: Bronson

I know I haven't done a movie review in months, and I give you two in one week. I got caught up on a few movies in my instant queue, and they happened to be pretty damn good. Bronson is a story of a British criminal who at the age 22 was imprisoned for robbing a post office. He was sentenced for 7 years. However he has served over 30 years in prison, for violent crimes and over that 30 years in prison the majority of it was spent in solitary confinement. The story is told by the criminal, Michael Peterson (he later changes his name to Charles Bronson)through a couple different mediums. The first being in real time in which sometimes he reads a narrative however it is also narrated from him, in front of an audience, as if he is some sort of entertainer. I think this is an effective way of kind of showing the motivations of Bronson. Bronson who was also a bare knuckle boxer for some time, seemed at his happiest while he was shaking up the system. Whether that meant fighting the guards, taking hostages, or starting riots. Think of a radical for extreme chaos. He didn't want to be figured or changed, because he was happy being who he was, a raving psychotic. He even felt he should be applaudedfor being so. My friend compared this movie to A Clockwork Orange, and he hit it right on the head. This is definitely a film about bucking the trends of society. Here is a man that refused to be apart of the system. He did whatever he could to make sure that he lived a life completely to himself and that meant doing whatever he had to do to stay in prison. Not only in prison, but isolated from everyone else. Throughout the movie, you find that he is at home while he is locked away in isolation. It is when he is forced to interact with society in which he becomes a truly troubled soul.

Bronson is played by, Tom Hardy, and he is absolutely phenomenal. This is a film with nearly no likable characters, it can be very hard to watch at times. It is dark, and graphic, with no clear path to the story. However the performance of Hardy is what makes this film special. I actually wish the director would have done a little bit more with the character. As at times you have a hard time pulling any meaning except for what I mentioned above. I guess you could say it was a case study of anti- social behavior. Now I would not watch this movie if you are the type of person that needs to see your troubled characters come full circle. I assure you that this story doesn't have a happy ending. But it does tell the story of a truly troubled man, through his eyes in a pretty interesting way. It is also well shot, and like I said the performance from Hardy is downright scary at times. I would not pick this up for your next date film, but I would recommend checking it out.

Movie Review: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

I finally got some time to check out this movie, and it was well worth it. Despite the fact the film had me in tears, and visibly shaken up for the most film, I highly recommend this documentary. I don't want to reveal to much of this film, because I feel it will take away from its power, but I a little background information.

The documentary is shot and directed by Kurt Kuenne, a close friend of Andrew Bagby. Andrew used to play important roles in many of Kurt's films when he was an aspiring film maker. Andrew even helped produce one of his first full length films. Tragically Andrew, was murdered, and this film documents, his murder in a first rate real true crime story. In fact it plays out so well, it could be argued that this film is as much a thriller as it is documentary. I don't want anyone to be scared away because it is a documentary.

The first thing that stands out is how well this film is edited. The director cuts, from powerful imagery of Andrews youth, films they have done together, shots of Andrew and his parents, as well as horrific shots of the crime scene. For the most part the editing happens so quickly (they jump from shot to shot in seconds) that you are unsure exactly what you are seeing. The information comes at you at such a fast pace at the start of this film, but the imagery is so powerful, that you are able to take it all in. From all of that, I was taken on a roller coaster ride of emotion. At times I laughed, cried, was upset, and was relieved when it was over. Many people wonder why I would enjoy a movie that would do that, however that is exactly what I want to happen when I watch a good movie. I want to get so wrapped up in the movie that I cannot stop thinking about it hours after the end credits flash. This movie is the best in a long time in getting me wrapped up emotionally as well as having my mind spinning. I don't want to give away any twists from this film, but I assure you, that it will have an effect on you.

This film was meant to be shot for only family of the victims, but it becomes so powerful that I think everyone of the family members knew that this story needed to get out there. The director was not after any academy awards or critical acclaim so he could focus on just pushing his vision, and not getting caught up in a lot of the pretentious film making we see from so many directors today. He didn't use camera tricks, or visual effects, to get a false response from the audience. He just delivers the facts of this powerful story, and that is more than enough. To me he succeeded in a big way, and Dear Zachary is one of the best films I have seen in a long while.

Rick Roll'd

I really want to pull this stunt off. This is one of the worst songs in history and I have played it in a few bar juke boxes just to piss people off. It looks like this has a similar effect.

So Close

I am sure most of you were tuned in Monday night to see the Butler Bulldogs nearly pull of the most stunning upset in the history of college basketball. Well it didn't happen and Duke won its 4th National Championship under coach Mike Krzyzewski. It was a wonderful game and I have to give a lot of credit to Butler as they were about as well coached of a team as I have seen all tournament. But the timely shot making of Singler, Scheyer, and Smith proved to be too much.

As many of you know I am a Duke fan so it was good evening for me, but watching those two styles play out there it was hard for me not to think that the Badgers could someday get that level under Bo Ryan. Butler style of play nearly mimics that of the Badgers, as they both put a premium on defense and getting quality shots without turning the ball over. At one point in the 2nd half I believe Butler went over 7 minutes without a field goal, yet they were within inches of winning the game at the end. That style has been proven to keep teams in ball games and give them a chance to win. The one difference I saw in Butlers team compared to Bucky, was the fact that they had a bonafide star in Gordon Heyward, and although Leuer played really well in the tournament he wasn't able to carry the team. Throw in the fact that Wisconsin rather easily beat Duke (I know the final score was close but the Badgers dominated that game for about 38 minutes) although not likely that we Bo's teams will be talented enough to ever get there it remains in the realm of possibility.

Though that will not be happening next year. Duke should return 2/3 of the big three along with the Plumlee's inside. They also bring in the Nations top point guard recruit Kyrie Irving, and Steph Curry's little brother Seth also becomes eligible next year. Throw in a couple of other solid recruits and the return of Andre Dawkin's (the guy that kept them in the Badger game) and I see Duke as the team to beat again next year. I guess coach K still knows what he is doing. All right haters time to chime in, you know who you are.

Merton on Chat Roulette

Being too old and not lame enough, I had never heard of Chat Roulette, but apparently it's a video chat website where you get connected with random people to chit-chat and pass the time. Apparently, it's also popular with freaks who want to show their junk to random people. Merton has his own ideas. He doesn't chat. He improvises songs about and/or for his new friends on the piano. Top shelf, first rate, top notch quality.

This Made My Day