Jersey story

Things were a little brighter today. Sun was out, work was interesting, got to listen to some good Jayhawks songs in the car. I’m beginning to feel that the world is slowly coming back to its senses…

(Reads a Yahoo news story on how Fox had to blur a naked rear end in an old Family Guy cartoon last night….)

(Sigh…)

(Anyone know the exchange rate for the Australian dollar offhand? I might be looking at real estate pretty soon.)

I have a feeling that this is going to be a rather brief posting. Other than work (which trust me, wouldn’t interest anyone unless they really want to hear discussions about spreadsheets. And let’s be honest, even I don’t want to hear discussions about spreadsheets) my other highlight of the day was finishing my laundry. But I’m guessing that the intricacies of the spin cycle just aren’t really fitting right now.

I did finally watch the movie Garden State, which had been sitting on top of the DVD player for the last week. A really good movie, definitely worth renting. It’s got that odd Wes Anderson vibe at times but it’s more centered. Sometimes you get a sense of Linklatter’s slacker genre but there is more plot and less discussions on metaphysical topics. It’s a romance for disillusioned twentysomethings. And it has Natalie Portman in it, clearly earning her number two ranking in my book. Some more intelligent comments

1) Props to any movie that can find a way to bring a Nick Drake song into the mix. We’re all bummed that his estate sold him out for a car commercial but this helps to make up for it.
2) Is it me or can you make this movie the sequel to Beautiful Girls? Just consider the Natalie Portman character to be the same in each film. I think that it would make sense that way. I’ll probably end up watching both back to back this weekend and seeing if it works.
3) Zach Braff does pull off an excellent job of writing, directing and starring in the film. From the writing and directing side he does a great job in keeping things minimal. You don’t ever see him trying too hard. He’s not pushing the romance story, he’s not making it sweet, but he’s not making it dark either. There’s no dialogue for the sake of dialogue as in a Kevin Smith movie. Everything serves its purpose. There are a lot of odd moments but they are all real.
4) Plus, he did an unbelievable job of portraying someone who has been numb to the world and is just coming out of it. Really, really memorable performance.
5) I liked the ending. I’m not going to give it away but I liked the way that it makes you think about what will happen next.

I’ll try to write something a little more meaningful tomorrow. Later y’all.