Genius

Now that I’ve spent all last week basically doing nothing but watching shows I think its time to throw out some grades. These are all based on my opinion and you have to know that I am a TV and Movie snob. I have to say that I was very excited about a few of the shows that ended up being very disappointing, while others turned out as interesting surprises. Best thing about this “mission” is that with the new TV I was downloading everything in HD. It was glorious! Let’s break it down shall we.

The Must See:

In this past week I watched 15 new show pilots and there were only two that deserve being in this category. By far the best new show this year is the excellent Boardwalk Empire directed by Martin Scorsese. You could tell he directed it from the set detail, to the camera shots. The music was just right, and the blood was flowing. The cast in this show is top-notch and the first episode introduced them well enough to get me completely hooked. Plus showing how the New York/Chicago conflict starts from the first episodes sets up the rest of the season perfectly. Basically if you had to pick one new show to follow don’t hesitate to pick this one.

The only other show that was worth following is the new show by Greg Garcia, Raising Hope. Garcia is the creator of My Name is Earl and you could tell that by watching this show. It’s really funny from the get go and it keeps you laughing through out. Cast is mostly no name, but they put in a great first episode. Looking forward to the rest of the season.

One More Episode Just to Make Sure:

These next four shows need another episode or two to properly judge if they have potential. They aren’t wow, but they aren’t stinkers either. I will definitely give Running Wilde a shot just because it’s a descendant of Arrested Development and the characters are insane. Will Arnet and his Arab neighbor are hilarious together, however Keri Russel isn’t funny. She doesn’t fit in my opinion.

My Generation was a good experience in that it really brought back the year 2000 vividly. A show about a group of friends 10 years after high school graduation and how their life is shaping up. I liked the cast and the documentary style directing. Recommended.

Another documentary style show that surprised me is Detroit 1-8-7. It was the lowest on the radar when it came to all the new Cop/Detective shows I had listed to watch. Micheal Imperioli carries the show, and the rest of the cast plays well of off him. They give you just enough of his background to let you know why he is the way he is to keep you interested.

Finally in this section Terriers is maybe worth giving a shot. The problem with this show is that it doesn’t know if it’s a comedy or not. It stars Donal Logue so it should capitalize on his sense of humor, but it kept trying being serious at the same time. I want this show to be good for some reason and so I will give it another few episodes, if it lasts that long.

Don’t Bother:

Here I will go quick fire review for the remaining shows:

• The Event: Cast terrible. Acting Horrible. Surprise at end intriguing but not enough to keep watching. Disappointing!
• Undercovers: Cheesy! Painful.
• Hawaii Five-0: I really wanted this to at least be fun.No chemistry between the leading men. Main character (Alex O’Loughlin) is stiff as a rock and has zero charisma.
• Chase: Couldn’t get past 10 minutes. We actually were laughing when we weren’t supposed to.
• Hellcats: Oh so bad. Alyson Michalka is taking herself way too seriously in this role. It really was awful.
• No ordinary Family: The got the formula so wrong. It should have been a comedy, but they went serious and ended up being lame.
• Blue Bloods: It could be good, but at its best it’s another CSI/Law and Order in terms of quality. Not better.

Well I hope this saves you all a lot of time and effort. Enjoy!

I will be updating this list next week to see which ones will stick and what shows will not be touched again. Oh and if you haven’t been watching Mad Men this year you have seriously been missing out!  The writing on it is outstanding and it has seriously set the bar really high for everything else I watch nowadays.

The show I’m most anticipating is Martin Scorsese’ Boardwalk Empire. It’s a show about prohibition-era Atlantic City and has one of the main writers and director of The Sporanos, Terrance Winter, is heavily involved. Its starts Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson who was Atlantic City’s main gangster of the time trying to navigate the waters of an America that had tried to go dry. Lots of the era’s bad boys will be represented in this series from Lucky Luciano, to an up and coming Al Capone. But I have to say a big reason I’m intrigued is because one of my favorite characters (Omar) from The Wire will be in the series. This looks like the pick of the lot for sure.

There are a lot of other shows that I’ll be checking out so I’m going to list them in no particular order and give a one sentence description of each.

• Undercovers – JJ Abrams gives us Losties something new
• The Event – Aliens kept secret from the president till a bunch of crazy shit happens
• Chase – Bruckheimer production about US Marshals. Expect explosions!!
• Hawaii Five-0 – I mean it’s Hawaii Five-0, how can I not?
• No Ordinary Family – Think Incredibles live action
• Raising Hope – From the guy who brought you My Name is Earl
• Running Wilde – From the guy who brought you Arrested development, and Staring Will Arnett
• Hellcats – Think Glee
• The Whole Truth – More Bruckheimer, so explosive court cases?
• Terriers – ex-cop who partners with his best friend to launch a P.I. business
• Detroit 1-8-7 – Michael Imperioli stars in a detective show shot like a documentary
• Blue Bloods – It stars Tom Selleck, that’s all we need to know really, but also has a Sopranos writer too
• Nikita – Maggie Q might be the only reason I watch
• My Generation – Show that flashes between a group of late 20 year olds and their senior year of high school

I think that’s a good start for the fall, no counting the existing shows we are watching. Gonna be busy.

Thanks Sis

As a movie Nazi buying a TV is one of the most important decisions I had to make while remodeling the apartment. After all the work done to the place and the dust has settled it was finally time for the fun to begin. So being the geek that I am I went crazy with the research that finally led me to my TV. I went and looked at the all the big boys. Read all the reviews, features etc, etc, etc. Now I am the proud owner of one of the best TV‘s available.

Movie nights here I come!

Cant wait!

Now obviously a person who likes his gadgets as myself this process has made me look into all the essentials.

McIntosh

Obviously the center console will be the most important purchase for the newly designed apartment. The above McIntosh MX150 is one sexy beast, however it costs $12000. Gift ideas anyone . Obviously this is way out of budget and so I’m looking into alternatives that can be bought locally and are much cheaper. Hence my checking out Marantz, Denon, Bose, and Rotel. If anyone can recommend a speaker brand also it would help out a lot.

I’m also looking into replacing my Terastation with something smarter that can directly download my torrents and NZB files. Found some interesting  products out there but haven’t been able to settle on one.

Fun times!

So after a long hiatus I’ve come back. In this period a lot of things have happened that will be talked about here. I intend to be a lot more disciplined with the blog from now on.

The most important of these is that I got married. I am so happy that I cannot give this joy justice with my writing skills but I will say that I truly got lucky.

This being Kuwait there is a insane amount of paper work to be done, and the video above is a exact representation of what I’ve been going through since that happiest of days.

Is that a smart ass look or what

Now that we are half way through the season I thought it’ll be a good time to reflect on what we’ve seen so far. The pre-season brought us a lot of change. Ibrahimovic, Maxwell, Cruz, and Crespo were the main people to leave.  In came Eto’o, Milito, Motta, Arnautovic, and Sneijder. Recently we welcomed in Goran Pendev, and bid farewell to Viera. We gave up a few too many youngsters in the Milito and Motta trade for my liking (Bonucci!!!!). However this might go down as one of our best transfer seasons in history, at least in the Massimo Moratti era.

Many people thought we would be doomed once we lost Zlatan and our domination would be over. Yet people forgot that we have the deepest squad in Seria A and have one of the best coaches in world football.

The team as a whole leads the league in goals (41) that’s nine more than the nearest rival. Inter is tied for the best defense (17). We lead our league by eight points and we’ve qualified for the knock out rounds of the Champions league.

The Grades:

A

Free Kick Hero

Wesley Sneijder: If ever anyone deserves to be the MVP of the half way point it has to be him. The guy gets told by Real Madrid to f*** off after their crazy summer campaign. Joins us with a major point to prove and has fit in perfectly. The guy does not know what it means to lose and the stats back him up. In all the games he’s played we haven’t lost; 12 wins, 4 draws. Without him five wins, two draws, and four defeats. Wesley has changed the way we play and his leadership is crucial.

Diego Milito: The anti-Ibra. He works hard and never complains. 23 appearances and 12 goals. He plays better with a second striker, but he hustles when asked to play alone.

Walter Samuel: The Wall is having one of his best seasons for sure. A big reason why we have the best defense in the league. Oh and he scores goals to boot.

Samuel Eto’o: I’ll give him an A minus for now just because we all know he can do better. I want to see more away goals to push him up to an A. Still not complaining though, he has scored 10 goals.

B

Mario Balotelli: It’s incredible that Mario is 19 years old with all he’s achieved so far. If it was anyone else he’d definitely be in the A group, but because I have visions of what he can become I will put him here for now. It’s a shame he gets a rough ride where ever he plays, and that the media puts too much pressure on him. This guy is a future Golden Ball winner without a doubt in my mind. He scores important goals and changes games. Six goals and five assists for a teenager are magnificent.

Lucio: I have mixed feelings about Lucio since his Bayer Leverkusen days. He gives me heart attacks every single week. He does have a major benefit that’s for sure; cutting out attacks before they start and his distribution is excellent. His mistakes are costly though and that’s what bothers me the most.

Esteban Cambiasso: He hasn’t been the same since picking up that injury in pre-season. He is very important to us though. His form was coming back before the break and I’m hoping he recovers quickly from this latest setback. His tactical intelligence is extremely high, and he is the coach on the pitch. One of my favorites of this team.

Dejan Stankovic: He is also another one who isn’t the same this year. He spoiled us last season with his excellent performance. He is still extremely important to us, and when he’s on we are so much better.

Javier Zanetti: Consistent!

Ivan Cordoba: Sits on the bench without a complaint. Samuel gets injured and slots in perfectly and we don’t skip a beat. Loves the club.

Douglas Maicon: It looks like a dip in form has hit him recently. He is a major cog in our team and bails us out plenty of times. Defense, offence, and tons of energy.

C

I’m not going to go into great detail for the C group. Motta is up and down. When he is up the football is beautiful. I just wish he could do it more often. I’m not a fan of Muntari as I think he gives the ball away way too much. I liked him in the left back role he played twice. Chivu in my opinion is a central defender. He works hard at left back but doesn’t attack as much. Ironically he had his best offensive game this season at Chievo, and then he unfortunately got injured. Julio Cesar by his own admission hasn’t been the same due to contract negotiations. Well Julio that contract has been signed for a while now. I expect the best goalkeeper in the world back!

D

Heres to you making it on that trip

Quaresma has played one decent game since we got him. I’m still waiting for something from this guy. Mancini? Remind me why we bought him? Santon needs to take this opportunity if he really wants to go to South Africa. He has a great chance to prove to Inter they don’t need Kolarov. The rest haven’t played enough to get a grade.

I’m really looking forward to the second half of the season and the Champions League matches. Let me know what you think about the grading system.

Forza Inter Siempre

Norway, since 1912, Single Payer
New Zealand, since 1938, Two Tier
Japan, since 1938, Single Payer
Germany, since 1941, Insurance Mandate
Belgium, since 1945, Insurance Mandate
United Kingdom, since 1948, Single Payer
Kuwait, since 1950, Single Payer
Sweden, since 1955, Single Payer
Bahrain, since 1957, Single Payer
Brunei, since 1958, Single Payer

Apparently the United States is the only country that does not provide its citizens what every other country does! And if Republicans have their way it wont. Shameful.

In other did you know news, below you will find the real reason Berlusconi was attacked. Enjoy

Real Reason Silvio Got Attacked

Enjoy. Make sure to click the HD button to get the full awesomeness.