Now With Kung-Jew Grip!

What's up, my Peepulation? Hope you all had a good weekend. I had a relaxing if slightly mellow few days - did a little shopping, caught up on some TV, etc - the fact that it rained on and off throughout the weekend made it ideal for chilling out rather than running around too much. Saturday I tried out a cool restaurant in West Hollywood, humorously called "Genghis Cohen's." It's kosher (I think ...?) Chinese food, and yet, oddly, there is also a stage / bar area that is apprently something of an after-hours hotspot where up and coming local bands are known to play. Definitely one of those "only in LA" type scenes, and I think it's the only Jewish / Chinese food hybrid restaurant I've seen outside of Boston, where there are somehow TWO kosher-Chinese establisments on Harvard Street in Coolidge Corner. In any case ... good times, and thank you to Jules for exposing me to such an interesting place to eat.

- Speaking of Kung-Jew grips, Chanukah is quickly approaching - anyone know of any good events or celebrations in LA?

- So many movies coming out that I want to see before the end of the year ... This weekend I didn't really have a chance to catch anything, but I still want to see Stranger Than Fiction, Deja Vu (well, kinda ...), Blood Diamond, Apocalypto (curious, but hesitant to pay for it). In the next few weeks some of my must-sees are: Eragon, The Good German, Rocky Balboa (I'm very encouraged by the positive reviews of late), Children of Men (really looking forward to this one), and, yeah, I'm also kind of curious to see The Pursuit of Happyness, despite the really annoying trailers and commercials. Oh yeah, I'm annoyed that I never managed to see The Last King of Scotland, as it looked really interesting and Forest Whitaker seems to have delivered a knockout performance (plus, it has Gillian Anderson!). I still haven't seen Babel, but I don't have that much interest in it to be honest, though I wouldn't mind checking out The Queen, if anyone wants to go. I may also hit up a free screening of The Good Shephard next week, but some lackluster reviews have dimmed my enthusiasm a bit.

Aside from that ... there's a lot of early '07 movies I'm really excited for. Chief among them is, of course, 300, which looks to kick seven kinds of ass. On the comedy side, I can't wait for Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, which finally gives Freaks and Geeks' Seth Rogan a starring role. Fanboys has been one I've been looking forward to for a while now, and then there's Black Snake Moan, from the director of Hustle and Flow, which looks like it may be a pulp classic in the making. I mean, Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci (chained to a radiator, no less)? Sign me up.

TV STUFF:

- THE SIMPSONS last night had it's heart in the right place, but just wasn't all that funny. A good premise with Bart befriending Nelson (even donnign a matching cut-off bully-vest), and the subplot with Homer becoming engrossed in a Harry Potter-like book series was so rife with funny potential that just that potential alone almost made it funny ... you know what I mean? This ep was on the mark in terms of having a good premise and funny subplots ... it's just that the jokes never really popped.

My Grade: B -

- Last Thursday's SMALLVILLE was a pretty poor effort, to be honest. The by-the-numbers kryptonite-infused freak of the week subplot was pretty laughable, and the illegal immigration angle was too heavy-handed and all over the place to ring true. Lana was at an all-time high in terms of being unbearably annoying, and Martha Kent is still completely unbelievable as a Senator. The fact that the show continues to insist on having scenes where Clark barges into Lex's mansion despite being told repeatedly that he isn't welcome is becoming increasingly hard to swallow, and Chloe just seems to be getting in the way of what could be a really fun Clark-Jimmy comraderie. Despite all that complaining though, I will say this: the last scene of this ep, showing Lex coldly walking through his prison of experiemnted-upon freaks as they reached out at him through their cell walls, set to a throbbing tune by AFI, was completely BADASS, and almost redeemed the entire ep for me with its sheer awesomeness. That, combined with the pretty impressive previews for the remainder of the season, give me reason to be optimistic about what's to come, in what has been a pretty up and down (par for the course with this show, though) season of the show thus far.

My Grade: B -

- Apparently THE OC is now a straight-up sitcom, since the last two weeks of the show have seen the show's typically outrageous plotlines played almost entirely for laughs. This might normally be a problem, as I think that, overall, the show is much stronger when it sticks to drama with a hint of self-aware humor. But, I'll take the comedy, because Thursday's ep was laugh out loud funny. I mean, I seriously was cracking up at Seth's hunt for Che - that DVD that Che left saying how he had "gone underground" was hilarious. Every scene with the Texas oilman-type guy was retarded, yet also oddly hilarious. And Ryan's fantasizing about Taylor Townshend was pretty amusing as well. This show is pretty far from being "good" right now, but it keeps getting nuttier and nuttier, and I have to admit that I'm guiltily enjoying it.

My Grade: B

- Well, I have more to write about but I am feeling like I'm about to hit a creative wall so I'll get out while the getting's good. Now that I have my trusty MacBook though I may try to do some blogs from home that cover more specific topics. For now though, just humor me as I write to give myself something to waste a little time while I'm on the clock.

Until next time ...