A Time for Giving Thanks

At this time, many of you are on your way to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Since I am not traveling home to Connecticut until tomorrow morning and am trying to avoid packing as long as possible, I wanted to take this opportunity to run down a few of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Some of these will be serious items and some not so much, pretty much a reflection of this blog in general. In honor of the current Writer's Guild strike, consider this to be a "G's Spot Clipshow" where I pull together some old material, slap it together and call it a new post. Hope that all my readers have a safe and happy holiday!

Without further adieu, I am thankful that:

5) The Boston Red Sox won the World Series, the New England Patriots are 10-0 and the Boston Celtics are relevant once again.

As a sports fan, I have been around enough to know that things go in cycles. Your teams can't be on top forever nor will they usually be down forever, and you have to enjoy the good times when you have them. With the Patriots being absolutely dreadful until I was out of college (the 1986 Super Bowl run notwithstanding), the Celtics on a steady decline since their last title in 1986 and the Red Sox finding new and excruciating ways to lose in the playoffs until finally breaking through in 2004 and again this year, it was a pretty dry patch there for a while. However, it is all good in 2007 as I can now say that the Sox have won two championships in my lifetime (heck, they have won two titles in my 5 year-old niece's lifetime), the Pats have won three this decade and the Celtics look to be a contender once again with 31 year-old Kevin Garnett in the fold.

4) I returned to Chicago in 2006.

When I moved away to North Carolina in the fall of 2001, I did so with a heavy heart knowing that I was leaving a great city, fantastic friends and a lot of memories behind. It was the right decision as I needed a change of scenery at that time for a variety of reasons. So, I went down south and connected with my childhood buddy Mike, eventually went back to school for elementary education and was able to watch my home state Connecticut Huskies men's basketball team defeat Duke in the 2004 Final Four on the way to the NCAA title while living in Durham, the home of Duke University.

Good times, but I digress. My transition back here has been a bit bumpy at times and I have not yet been able to find the teaching job I want, but there is no doubt that I am back where I belong in the city. There is nothing like this place, with the diversity of people, the interesting neighborhoods and their many bars/restaurants, great theater/museums and a small town, friendly vibe that no major city can duplicate. I immediately felt at home when I first came here for college in 1990 and I still do. It's nice to be back.

3) My battles with Comcast and AT&T customer service are finally over.

As has been well documented on this blog, I have been in an almost constant state of war with first Comcast and then AT&T customer service in regards to phone and Internet service at my apartment. Whether it was the lady at Comcast concluding that my Windows XP operating system was faulty or the genius at AT&T who said that my network card needed to be replaced (both of which ended up not being true), it has been a slow descent into customer service hell the last few months.

It is nice to come home from work and not be on hold with tech support for the remainder of the night, maxing out my cell phone minutes and watching albeit hilarious reruns of "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" while hold music blares from the speakerphone on my coffee table. There is more to life than learning anecdotally that Comcast has call centers in suburban Illinois, Charlotte, NC and India, isn't there?

2) The Police finally got back together.

During their heyday in the early to mid 80's, I always felt like I'd come to regret not seeing Sting and the boys perform live. I was a little young at that point and didn't go to my first concert until after the band basically broke up in 1984, though they played a series of shows for the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986. As the years passed and Sting churned out one solo album after another and you really didn't hear much about what Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers were doing, it seemed as if the occasionally rumored reunion would never happen. It would be the one band I had most wanted to see live but never got the chance.

That all changed last year when the trio set aside (or maybe didn't) their animosity for each other and decided to cash in (and I mean cash in) on a 30th anniversary tour. I saw them in Chicago at Wrigley Field with my buddies Rob, Chris and Greg and again in Hartford, CT with my childhood buddy Mike, a huge Sting/Police fan who saw many Sting shows with me back in the day. The concerts themselves were good, not great, and it seemed like Sting and Andy Summers were going through the motions at times while Stewart Copeland made up for it with his energy behind the drum kit. That said, I sang along to every song and had an absolute blast at the shows. And I can now say this: I saw The Police perform live in my lifetime.

1) My family and friends were able to share in some of the experiences listed above and/or read about them on this blog.

You're the best. Enough said.

G's Movie Spot
"No Country for Old Men"

Every so often a film comes along that so completely pulls you into its world, with fascinating characters, a well-executed plot and real dramatic tension, that you are honestly hoping the movie never ends. You know the feeling when you're watching it, the experience that transcends mere movie going. You consider yourself lucky to be a part of it. "The Godfather" is one of those movies. "Goodfellas" is one of those movies. "Pulp Fiction" is one of those movies. "No Country for Old Men" is one of those movies.

Directed by the Coen brothers, "No Country" is an adaptation of the 2005 novel by Cormac McCarthy. The story revolves around a drug deal gone bad in a Texas border town, its rugged and desolate yet also gorgeous terrain shot beautifully by cinematographer Roger Deakins. We are introduced to Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who, while out hunting, comes upon the aftermath of some drug dealer mayhem in the desert, finds $2 million in a suitcase and makes the fateful decision to take the money. There is also the cold-blooded hit man Anton Chigurh, played with chilling menace by Javier Bardem, who is trying to retrieve said money. Finally, there is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, desperately trying to prevent Chigurh from causing further carnage. Though the setup may sound conventional on paper, it would be the understatement of the year to say it is much more than this in the execution. The movie is a character study in evil, fully embodied in the Chigurh character. This intention and the overall tone of the film is established in the opening sequence, as Bell recalls the words of a young man he put away for murdering his 14 year-old girlfriend: "The papers described it as a crime of passion, Bell says, "but he tolt me there weren't nothin' passionate about it. Said he'd been fixin' to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he'd kill somebody again. Said he was goin' to hell. Reckoned he'd be there in about 15 minutes."

Chigurh travels the highways and small towns of Texas with a sense of dread hanging over him at all times and a smile on his face that scares the crap out of you. His weapons of choice include a tank of compressed air with a cattle stungun attached to it as well as a shotgun with a silencer, and he is not hesitant to use them. He is merciless and brutal in his efficiency as he wipes out everyone that comes between him and the money, sometimes cruely leaving a potential victim's fate to the mere toss of a coin. In one brilliant scene in a road side gas station, Chigurh engages in some word play with the owner of the station before taking out a coin and telling the owner to "Call it." There is so much tension here that you can hardly breathe, and as Chigurh doggedly pursues Moss from hotel to hotel the Coen's brilliant use of silence and hushed tones only increases the tension level. Coming into this movie I would say that I was cautiously optimistic, as I had heard good things about it and read great reviews. However, this was tempered by the fact that I have been kind of hit or miss when it comes to the Coen brothers' body of work. There have been movies I have really liked, such as "Raising Arizona" and "Fargo" and ones that I have not cared for as much such as "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" and everything in between. My biggest criticism of the Coens is their tendency to be a bit too clever at times and overly obsessed with little details and obscure references, as if the film is meant to be on display in a museum. To, as "Entertainment Weekly" critic Lisa Schwarzbaum put it in her A-review of the film, "rely on snark as a backup source of energy."

"No Country" definitely falls into the "hit" category of the Coen brothers films that I have seen, and is certainly their best work since "Fargo." This is virtuoso stuff, great writing and storytelling that is wonderfully shot and acted. It is one of those movies that stays with you long after you leave the theater, as much for the effect it has on you and the moral questions it raises as for the intricacies of the plot (and there are many). In short, it is the best movie I have seen this year.

Back in the Saddle Again

It only took 35 days, but I am once again up and running with Internet at Casa G Spot. To celebrate I surfed the 'net nonstop Saturday for approximately 6 hours after the technician left my place, visiting every site on my bookmarks and saying "yes" to every person from Nigeria who wanted money and all solicitations for Viagra. I haven't been this giddy on my computer since upgrading from Windows Millennium Edition to XP in the spring of 2006.

After once again implying that it was a problem with my computer (the network card in this case), the so-called Internet service provider (AT&T in this case) was again proven wrong when it was once again determined that THEIR equipment (modem) was defective. In your face Comcast, um, I mean AT&T. Unfortunately, being proven correct did not change the fact that I was without Internet for over a month. A pyrrhic victory indeed.

It has been a while since I have posted regularly, so for this entry I am going to eshew (that's right, I used "pyrrhic" and "eschew" in the last two sentences of this post) my "long form on one topic" blogging style in favor of some thoughts on people and news items that have gotten my attention during the last month. Note: As fantastic as it was for myself and fellow members of Red Sox Nation and as much as I'd like to gush about it some more, I am not going to include the recent Red Sox World Series victory on this list. Without further adieu, let's get things started.

1) Stephen Colbert Enters and Withdraws from 2008 Presidential Race.

Ever since he came on the air a couple of years ago, I have been a big fan of fellow Northwestern alum Stephen Colbert and his show "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central. A spinoff of "The Daily Show" where Colbert was initially a correspondent, the Report is similar to the Daily Show in terms of the heavy focus on satirical political humor. However, what makes it different is the fact that unlike the Daily Show, where host Jon Stewart is playing himself as host of the show, Colbert is essentially playing the character of a right wing pundit a la Bill O'Reilly while doing the show. The high wire act he has been pulling the last two years is quite brilliant, actually, and is so utterly convincing that you sometimes can forget the whole thing is a big put on.

Colbert took this character to a new level last month when he announced that he was entering the 2008 Presidential race. The caveats included that he: A) Was only doing so in his native South Carolina; and B) Would run as both a Democrat and a Republican. Upon announcing his candidacy, Colbert added Doritos as his official campaign sponsor and included nightly "The Hail to the Cheese Stephen Colbert Nacho Cheese Doritos 2008 Presidential Campaign Coverage" reports on his show. He also made the rounds on the political talk shows, including a grilling by moderator Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press" (see video below).



Unfortunately, things began to unravel early for Colbert in his bid to take the White House. After learning that the fee to file for the South Carolina Republican primary was $35,000, Colbert abandoned plans to run as a Republican. And although he paid the $2,500 fee to be included in the South Carolina Democratic ballot, on November 1st he was denied a place on the ballot by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council despite numerous campaign activities in the state. On November 5, Colbert officially dropped his Presidential bid. So yes, a Presidential campaign began and ended in the time it took me to get Internet service back at home.

2) Women's tennis player Martina Hingis retires from the tour for a second time amidst allegations of cocaine use.

This very well could have gone in one of my "What Famous Person is in Deep S%#t This Week?" posts except for the fact that Hingis isn't really that famous anymore, at least to people who don't follow tennis. As someone who played junior tournaments in New England and on the team in high school, I am still a casual fan of the sport and enjoy both playing and watching it. I maintain this interest despite the fact that I can't stand our country's best female players, the talented yet petulant Williams sisters, and that Swiss Roger Federer has pretty much been steamrolling the opposition, top American men Andy Roddick and James Blake included, for the last 4 years. Federer is to men's tennis what Tiger Woods is to men's golf, yet nobody cares about tennis so this guy's dominance flies under the radar relative to Woods. He will go down as perhaps the greatest men's player ever and few casual sports fans will ever fully appreciate his greatness.

Earlier this month, Hingis revealed a positive drug test for cocaine after her third round loss at the 2007 Wimbledon Championships last summer. She then threw the curveball of immediately retiring from the tour yet at the same time vehemently denying that she used the drug. Most people, myself included, would react to that contradiction by saying "If you're innocent, then why not fight to clear your name and maintain your livelihood?" In his article on ESPN.com, Mark Kreidler wrote "Martina says she'd be terrified of doing cocaine, and her lawyer suspects the doping procedure was botched. That's usually the last refuge of the accused sports figure, to question the system."

Hingis' announcement gets to the current climate regarding drug use in sports, where athletes from Barry Bonds to Marion Jones to every rider in the Tour de France have been tainted by either allegations or proof of drug use. Unlike the aforementioned athletes Hingis is not accused of nor did she admit to the use of performance enhancing drugs (her third round loss at Wimbledon indicating that she received no advantage from performance enhancers), so it is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. That said, the fact is that she was likely to face a skeptical public as well as a protracted legal process to clear her name, after which she would probably still have a negative stigma attached to her whether proven innocent or guilty. It's too bad it had to go down like that for Hingis, a multiple Grand Slam champion and former world number 1, but in a weird way (and given her injury history) I can kind of understand why she chose the path of least resistance.

3) Talk show host Conan O'Brien stalked by Boston priest.

This story is so bizarre it could have only been found in The Onion, except that it's actually true. According to an article in The Boston Globe, The Rev. David Ajemian, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, has been sending the "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" host harrassing letters (on parish letterhead, no less) and e-mails since September 2006. Ajemian, who was arrested earlier this month while trying to attend a taping of the show at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City, referred to himself as "your priest stalker" in the letters and after being snubbed from attending an earlier show taping wrote "Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans?" Yikes.

There really are no winners here. It has been a rough few weeks for O'Brien and his show, what with this strange incident and the current writers strike (which I will try to blog about at some point) that effectively shut down all late night talk shows and could threaten the jobs of members of the "Late Night" staff if it continues. And it is not like Catholic priests have been lacking for bad publicity either, though I'm thinking that the stalking of a late night talk show host by one priest does less damage to their collective reputation than the Church's ongoing child molestation lawsuits. As "Late Night" regular Triumph the Insult Comic Dog might say, "This is a good story...for me to poop on."