Slumdog MiLLionaire.


Wow, loved it. I won't spoil anything for anyone because I absolutely love to watch movies and that's just plain mean, but I will say that it a very complex movie with emotion, comedy, love, pain and wit. I definitely agree with the Academy and their choice for Best Picture of the Year.

There were two dramatic moments in the film for me and neither is a plot point:

1) the images of Mumbai, and they are REAL, is absolutely staggering. The slums juxtaposed with the high rise modern buildings is a sight that illicits pity, sorrow, amazement, shock and awe.

2) the dancing children, the main characters, offset with the older main characters is heart-tugging. A brilliant display of how to attach your audience to the lives of the characters. I could hear audible sighs indicating how 'cute' that scene was to more than half the viewers in the theater.

Bottom line, if you haven't seen it yet, go. Rent. Tivo. Netflix. Xbox download. Chinese bootleg. Whatever you do to see it, it's worth it.

Weekend Warriors

I think that pretty much everyone knows a weekend warrior. They work all week and so they pack everything they can into those cherished weekends: Biking, kayaking, marathon running, fishing, golfing and shuffle boarding... and that's just on Saturday!

I thought about the mental impact this lifestyle has on the warriors themselves, and how it could be avoided for all the 25-40 year olds our there that suffer from WWS ( Weekend Warrior Syndrome). Each warrior boosts themselves with that adrenaline rush they get, and perhaps sustain, throughout the entire weekend. From one hobby to the next they push harder and harder each time, trying to outdo the effort they put in last weekend.
Can you imagine the strain this puts on the mind? These must be like the postal workers that go..., well... postal. They seem to work hard for the sake of working hard, like it won't be there in the next 5 minutes if they don't make it happen!

How long can you maintain this lifestyle? How long is it safe to maintain it? I want a NIH study outlining the effects of WWS in males over time. What about women? Is the female weekend warrior like the mullet? It's just hard to look at them. I think there could be an All-Star team of movie Weekend Warriors, that could even be their NBA team name. We'll have their home be in Seattle (sorry Sonic fans). Starting 5:

Clark Griswald - Chevy Chase

Randy 'The Ram' Robinson - Mickey Rourke

Dale Webster - the guy that surfed the most days in a row

Andrew McCarthy / Jonathan Silverman (for staring in the cinematic tragedy - Weekend at Bernies)

Arnold Schwarzenegger - just always seemed like a solid weekend warrior.