The KFC Double Down

I wasn't going to blog about my experience eating the Double Down but I wrote a friend who is out of the States about it, and I liked what I wrote so much that I'm going to share. So here it is:

So I ate the Double Down on Wednesday. It was an experience, I got my friend Jeffrey to drive just in case I couldn't do anything after eating it. I got the meal and it came with fries and a Baja Blast. At first I just looked at it, it sitting there defiantly on my tray daring me to eat it. I couldn't believe it was really there and poked it a few times to be sure it was real, when I poked it juice leaked from the chicken. I pulled it out of its wrapper and held it in my hands, It's so intense you can't put it down after picking it up. The first bite was unbelievable, all you taste is chicken. Like an intense flavor of chicken, like if you were going to die and the last thing you wanted to taste was chicken this would be the thing you ate. but then you taste the bacon, then the cheeses of which there are three. Each bite after that slowly devolves from ecstasy into this overwhelming amalgamation of flavor which one can derive no pleasure from.  Once you reach the half way point each bite is it's own momentous chore, and the last bite is the hardest. I had the last bite in my hand and was ashamed that I had reached that point, but I was also taking some pride in my own fat-assness that I could finish the whole thing. Physically speaking I felt fine after eating the DD, I got really tired but it didn't make me sick...immediately anyway. The most surprising thing for me is how full I was from such a small sandwich, I'd eaten a full meal of Chinese food on monday (General Tso's, Fried Rice, 6 Crab Ragoon, and an egg roll), and the DD was more filling. I don't know that I would ever want to eat it again, but a challenge was made that I couldn't eat the Regular recipe DD and then a Grilled DD in one sitting and I might have to show that person who they're talking to. If anything eating it only removed the mystique and left me disappointed that I didn't actually die from eating the Double Down.

MakerFaireNC

IMG_2246, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

The first MakerFaireNC was on April 25, and it was pretty sweet. A lot of local DIY vendors were on display and I snagged some pics of the more interesting displays which you can find on my flickr page.

In this photo DIY electronic musician Tom Karches is taking apart a theremin he built for $6 to show off how simple it is to make. He was really cool and gave me some links to other theremin how-to's.

DIY culture is something I've always wanted to take part in, and maybe now that there is a bigger community to get help from maybe I finally will. I took the first step and joined the local Arduino club.

Anyway, I've got some projects in mind that I'll hopefully be building later. I'll document those and post them here.

KICK-ASS

I've been reading the KICK-ASS series since mid-2009, and I loved it. I started reading comics again sometime in '08 but KICK-ASS is the first series I read book by book. I found myself walking in to Chapel Hill Comics on Wednesdays looking for the latest issue (unfortunately they were often pushed back). The comics start off slow enough, a boy wonders why no one has ever been a superhero and tries his hand at it. It's a believable enough scenario and the world is real enough that its fun to watch what happens to KICK-ASS  as he makes his first attempts at being a hero. Then Hit-Girl shows up and any realism the comic had is lost, Hit-Girl is a character that is too awesome to exist in the real word. Things escalate quickly after Hit-Girl shows up and the story of a goofy boy becomes this hyper violent swear fest that is incredibly fun. The comics stay somewhat grounded in reality as things play out (possibly not as expected) and are a great experience overall. They've got me back in the shops looking for more series to read; I've since picked up Scott Pilgrim, Y-The Last Man, Fables, The Losers, and a few others. Anyone I've talked in to reading it has loved it and I definitely recommend that anyone interested in comics (or violence) read this series; which was recently released in book form for around $20.

So here's the thing, I first heard about KICK-ASS on some film blogs I read; they were talking about how no company would touch a film that had a 10 year old girl swearing and slaughtering older men. Makes sense, but the comic creators found funding and made the movie anyway; a passion project it was called...so it had to be good. It was a big deal when they got Lionsgate as a distributor because many writers didn't think the movie would get anyone to pick it up. I remember thinking that was great news, but then photos leaked, then trailers, building to the inevitable thought "God, this is going to suck." But its a passion project I tell myself, they wouldn't ruin something they love....then I remembered Watchmen...*sigh* And that's the best comparison for KICK-ASS, like Watchmen it is a film made by people who care about the source material and did their best to honor it. I don't know why they made the changes they made, but like Watchmen some of the alterations to the end of the film greatly alter what made KICK-ASS the comic so great.

So is this worth seeing? YES, resoundingly yes in my mind. If only to see Hit-Girl moving on screen. Go in expecting a movie that is a loose adaptation of the comic and you'll be surprised how many in jokes and nods to the comic there are, you'll enjoy the film as its own experience and have fun. Do not go in expecting a 1-to-1 adaptation of the comic because you will be extremely disappointed almost immediately, even if you can let got of some of the minor alterations the ending will have you furious.

Here's what you do.
1. Buy and read the book.
2. Go see the movie.
3. Read the spoiler section below and let me know if you agree with comments.

Read more »

FH000006

FH000006, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

I shot these a while back while hanging out with Michelle and Katie at the State Fair. I love not knowing what I'm going to get when I get film made and this one had been sitting in my room for so long I'd forgotten what it was.

IMG_2012

IMG_2012, originally uploaded by MondoUNC.

Just shot an odd assortment of portraits for David and Tripp. Some good stuff taken, not to mention its always nice to get paid.

TV is warning me of the perils of being a parent

A bit preemptively too I might add. NBC's Parenthood has recently joined the ranks of dramedys Modern Family and Cougar Town, or as I like to call them "birth control."  As if reality wasn't enough of a humbling experience as far as my inability to be an adult, these shows illustrate scenarios that I could never imagine tackling as a parent. The important thing is that along with all the drama and touching family moments, they can bring the laughs.

Cougar Town began airing in the fall of 2009 and stars Courtney Cox as a single mother and realty agent, and the show really plays on the idea of needing a village to raise a child, the child is 18 but the point still stands.This show has the most laughs for me because Courtney Cox gets away with being "Jules," the slightly-crazy single mother who is trying to relive the 20's she never had. The supporting characters are pretty well written and believable (if just a bit shallow, though that seems to be filling in with time) and the actors have great chemistry together. The interesting thing is that while the families in Modern Family and Parenthood are huge and have each other to fall back on, you really get the sense that Jules and her son have an intimate relationship and are emblematic of the single-parent families that are becoming more and more prevalent.

Modern Family began airing alongside Cougar Town and features a generic sitcom family, two married gay men and their adopted daughter, and an older man who married younger. Oh and I did I forget to mention that they're all one big family? Cause there's that too. The show gets to feature a few different styles of comedy thanks to the huge cast so there seems to be something for everyone, my favorite is the gay couple. It's not as funny as Cougar Town, but excels in its on way, and unlike CT its multiple perspectives allow it to provide insight and perspective on larger philosophies that parents might deal with. "Fears" was the most recent episode and did this best, If you're questioning this show I definitely recommend this episode and have embedded it at the bottom of this post.

Parenthood just started airing recently and so far has proven itself to be the most like a traditional drama. Like Modern Family, Parenthood is a large ensemble drama that follows one large family with each smaller nuclear family providing a different example of stereotypical families. But while Modern Family focuses on types of family by varying the age and gender of the parents, Parenthood focuses more on the different stages of parenthood. The main story seems to follow Lauren Graham as a single mother who has just moved back home with her adolescent son and daughter. Craig T. Nelson plays her father, who with his wife is seeing his children go through their own parenting experiences, the "end" of being a parent (if it ever really ends). The rest of the families present different times in parenthood but each with their own unique plots, which may be a little melodramatic but allows for some great acting in the more emotional scenes.While it's easy to compare Modern Family and Parenthood, the latter seems to be very different once you get past the size of the cast and similar premise and definitely has been added to my queue of shows to watch. (Also, crazily enough Dax Shepard is kind of good.)

Like I said, my favorite episode of Modern Family so far:


And here's the pilot to Parenthood, or as I like to call it "my new favorite thing with Lauren Graham."

DVD: 2012

Watching 2012 reminded me a lot of when I first saw "The Final Destination," it was a fun experience but little more than elaborate misfortunes. To be honest I didn't really watch 2012 while it was on, I was at my computer reading the news and browsing Google Reader and looking up every 15 minutes or so to watch the huge disaster sequences. After a certain point with the "Final Destination" series they just became vehicles for delivering elaborate and gruesome deaths and they were good and fun for that, the "Saw" series took it to the next level being referred to as torture-porn, which leads to 2012 where the destructive sections are the best part and the rest of the story just moves us between them. I'm totally okay with that too, there are so many good movies that deal with the evolution of humanity pre/post armageddon, so there is nothing wrong with just having fun watching the world get destroyed.

The sad part is that while the big destructive sequences in 2012 are fun, I felt like they paled in comparison to the CGI effects of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" which (spoiler alert) has a huge armageddon-esque sequence towards the end of it. I'm curious if I felt that way because 2012 is trying to blend these CGI effects into a real world, whereas Cloudy is a completely fictional and cartoon-ish world which lessens the burden of the designers. 2012 has to be intriguing without losing believability, a million little details go in to every explosion and earthquake, and while it tries to do so I don't thing the effects are all that believable.

The story is pretty much barely held together and you don't actually find yourself caring for any of the characters because they are so ineffectually written but no one is watching this movie for those things anyway. Watching the world get destroyed is fun but honestly I'd recommend you spend your time watching any one of the hundreds of good post-apocalyptic movies (*cough* Zombieland *cough*).

***SPOILER ALERT***
Humanity survives...crazy right? Never would've seen that coming. Actually, I just wanted to give two specific examples about how stupid these characters are.

When we first meet the kids John Cusack's character is informed that his 7 year old daughter still wets the bed, as if his ignorance proves he's a bad father. Not a big deal but towards the end of the movie the last thing this littler girl says about the whole experience is "No more pull-ups" or something to the affect that after having spent 2hours having the shit scared out of her as the world ended she has overcome her bed wetting problem. Wouldn't all that horrible stuff make it worse?

Also there is a point where John Cusack supposedly dies, or you're supposed to think he did, and I personally didn't care at all. Maybe it has little impact because it happens so early in the film you ask? Well simply put NO, because it happens again towards the end and I still don't care about him at all.

The 2012 Drinking Game
Wait your still trying to watch this movie? Well at least have some fun with it...

Imminent Danger-Take a sip of beer every time the characters are suddenly in peril.
          You should be buzzed by the end of the first disaster sequence.
Fuck Darwin - Take a shot each time a character dies who should have survived in any other scenario. Take another shot if their death is sacrificial. And yet another shot if that death is even somewhat ironic.
          Woody Harrelson sacrificing himself to the volcano. Ironic because he loved nature. 2 shots
          Sasha sacrificing himself to land the plane. Smart pilot who should have otherwise lived.
                    Ironic because he thought he was safe. 3 shots
          How does President Danny Glover not survive? Oh he sacrifices his safety for his people, and then is
                    ironically crushed by the JFK aircraft carrier. 3 shots
          The greedy Russian dad who sacrifices his life to save his sons. Ironic because he dies in a selfless act
                    after leading such a selfish life. 2 shots
This plot makes no sense - Take a drink of beer every time there is some detail that only barely makes any sense whatsoever in the context of anything.
         Going camping in a limousine?
         A 7 year old wetting the bed matters why?
         Any of the sub plot with physicist Adrian, which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie.
         Woody Harrelson happens to have a powerpoint queued up that explains everything that's going on?
         The doctor is also a pilot?
         An airplane full of cars?
         And so on and so forth, anything that if you think about for 5 seconds you easily realize is just bad writing meant only to move the story from one CGI scene to the next.

So, that's a pretty simple game. And it should get you sufficiently drunk The Darwin rule alone should have you blacking out before the credits roll, which would probably be for the best.

Editor's note: 2012 Drinking Game added on 3/13/10

DVD: A Serious Man

 

Excuse my language, but fucking shit this movie is good. Theatrically released in late 2009, I feel bad that I only recently saw this movie on DVD (the release date of which was Feb. 9th) because if I had seen it in '09 this would have easily been on my list of top 10 movies of the year. Anyway, the film follows Larry Gopnik and his family as they go through some transitions in life that have Larry looking for an answer that his religious leaders seem reluctant (or unable) to give. Though most of the story centers around Larry's family and work troubles, we also see some of the smaller issues of his son Danny. Larry's plight had me thinking that he is a somewhat pathetic man, that if he would just stop being so polite and demand what seemed to be rightfully his then his problems would dissipate. Unfortunately with religion, and maybe Judaism specifically (I don't really know), its not that simple and so Larry looks to his religious leaders for guidance and that's where I found some of the best laughs in the film. For a movie that starts so slow, it is important that a viewer be emotionally invested in a protagonist. I think the Coens were successful with Larry, his frustrations were mine; I laughed (maniacally) as misfortune fell on those behind some of his troubles. Danny's portions tend to be more lighthearted and trivial but have the tendency to be equally hilarious, for example Danny getting high at his bar mitzvah is another comedic high point of the film.  It's interesting how much the two characters situations complement each other, continuing with the bar mitzvah example the scene has added hilarity thanks to the way it was shot being borrowed from an earlier scene where Larry gets high. I'm trying to avoid using specific details in this review because I think it would make the film sound mundane and boring, but somehow its not despite being about things that many people deal with in their lifetime. This is definitely a must watch and if you don't find yourself instantly attached to Larry like I was, have some patience because once the film gets going you will become invested in this serious man.

DVD: Black Dynamite

If that trailer doesn't sell you on Black Dynamite then I'm not sure what I can say to persuade you to watch this hilariously awesome kung fu blaxploitation satire.  Its really just a fun movie to watch with plenty of laugh out loud moments. Some of my favorite moments are the on purpose accident scattered throughout, but the absurdity of the plot is the films greatest ally and worst enemy. The whole story moves pretty fast and builds in size to the point where in the final scene I was tired of the shtick, but I still enjoyed the experience overall. Michael Jai White says in the extras that they made the original trailer and had random quotes written for it, so that when the movie got picked up they had to write the story around all these quotes that had no context. Knowing that, it makes sense that the story is so convoluted. If you're willing to be taken on a crazy ride with some good kung fu and better laughs Black Dynamite makes for a good night of movie watching. It would probably be an excellent movie for a drinking game, I'm thinking take a sip of beer every time a character uses 70's lingo and a shot whenever an on purpose mistake occurs.

In theaters: SHUTTER ISLAND

Shutter Island left me perturbed as I exited the theater earlier this week. It was a great movie and yet something didn't quite feel right. I went through a list of why I thought it was a good movie; Martin Scorsese's direction was excellent, the cinematography was beautiful, and nearly every actor was superb (I especially enjoyed Jackie Earle Haley's brief performance).  Shutter Island is a good movie and I'd easily recommend it, I'd probably even buy a copy (if it was on sale, but only because I'm cheap). Ultimately it was the story that bothered me, its well written but I'm just not sure how much I like it. Without spoiling the movie all I can say is its good, go see it and you decide how good it is.

**SPOILERS BELOW**
So here's the thing, I never knew what to expect from this movie story wise. Sure you know its going to be good, Scorsese and Dicaprio are a proven team thanks to Departed, but I kept hearing this movie described as a horror film or a psych thriller. It tries to be a scary movie for the first 2/3rd of the film, what with its overly dramatic score that builds suspense every 5 minutes like that's its sole purpose, but nothing scary ever really happens.At that point, with a 1/3 of the movie left, the plot twist occurs transforming the film into a psych thriller. For whatever reason that felt cheap to me, I liked the story we were being lead on for those first 2/3rds and wanted that to continue and while the story takes an interesting twist I don't know that it was for the better. The twist reminded me of Identity except there it occurred at the very end and provided answers to an otherwise puzzling experience, here it just creates more questions and for me that's why it doesn't work. After the twist I wasn't sure about what I had just spend 2/3rds of the movie watching, I guess that's also why it works; now given what I know I want to see Shutter Island again.

2010 Updates

It's a new year, and part of my resolution is to update more frequently. Its not really a secret that I want to write, either reviewing food/movies/television or some form of comedy; so I'm going to focus on that more while continuing to post any cool photos I take, or whatever I'm working on.

That being said, some ideas are:

Videogame demo reviews - I don't really have the money to buy new games all the time so I'll write about the demos of games that interest me. "Given the demo experience, should you/would I buy this game?"

On DVD - I have a blockbuster movie pass, so I'll write some movie reviews on whatever I'm watching, no matter how old. (Again, cheapness being a motivator here. I'll try and write about anything I see in theaters, though it might not be much).

Comedy - I've been writing jokes and sketches that I might share. I've also got some great party stories that people like. Not to mention anything else i can think of (like my internet dating article, which went over pretty well I guess).

Topical - I've got some cool ideas for magazine style topic pieces, a few working titles: Why do I still have a myspace page? Yes, I am narcissistic enough to be on twitter. Why I want a monome. Zombies, Wizards, Vampires, Werewolves, What's next?

So that's what I've got so far, come to think of it I'll probably try and do some music reviews too. If anyone thinks of a title for the recurring demo segment please post it in the comments. If you have any ideas for me please let me know in the comments or on twitter.