By: The Dude on the Right

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(Dude note: Computer woes can’t stop a podcast, but they can delay it getting posted for a day or so. All seems well again on the Entertainment Ave! front, but a belated Happy Birthday to Mama Gotz is in order!)

Orff’s “Carmina Burana” came through Chicago again, and again I missed it, but that doesn’t dampen the mood of this “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast episode.  Nope, it’s a podcast of a Happy Birthday for Mama Gotz complete with good food and good friends; It’s a podcast of Mexican street fare compliments, well not really compliments of because we had to pay for it, but damn, XOCO was a good little restaurant place; And it’s a podcast of liking how the TV show “Chuck” wrapped up.

Google is changing their privacy policy, Stu watched some of “Little Fockers,” I watched some of “2012,” Stu doesn’t know who is playing in the Super Bowl, and I don’t think either of us will be seeing a movie about whales.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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What better way to start a podcast after surviving a winter storm than with some old Neil Diamond, and at the start of this week’s episode of the “Weekend Wrap-Up!”, there is confusion as to whether or not I hit the post. Whether I did or not, that’s okay, because in addition to our confusion and recollection of some Neil concert memories, of a more confusing nature, it turns out, is what date is the actual anniversary of Stu and Mama Gotz, and on this we don’t come to a resolution.

We did, though, as I mentioned, survive a winter storm, and Stu luckily didn’t have to worry about sleeping with the fishes, instead there was a problem with Frosty in this video shot by Little Gotz. We also discovered that Blockbuster is moving, and that I still suck at the new words in church.

Stu saw “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and liked it, I let you know if “Moneyball” is any good, Stu can’t recommend “The Darkest Hour” even though I thought he meant “The Devil Inside,” and yes, it’s true, a 2mm screw will not fit inside a 1mm nut.

Lastly, it’s Pine Wood Derby time and Stu has his method for his kids achieving greatness, though I feel a wind tunnel might be more appropriate.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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With the weather so fabulous in Chicago right now you would think Stu Gotz or I would have gone crazy and gotten stuff done, but, instead, as you’ll find out during this episode of our “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast, it was really a weekend to relax, rest, and finally get ready for 2012.

Stu, at least, did get out with Mama Gotz, and rather than see “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” they opted for “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”he lets us know if we should go and see it as well. Me, I was going to see “War Horse,” but it was decided a nap was more important and upon further review, even if “War Horse” ends up winning an Academy Award, the nap was the right choice.

Stu didn’t go SCUBA diving, we both liked Charles Barkley on “Saturday Night Live,” I think there should be a Charles Barkley translator app to explain what the Republican candidates are really saying during the debates, Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop was arrested, Stu thinks he might want to see “Beauty and The Beast” in 3-D, while I might be seeing “The Iron Lady” if it opens anywhere near me, and I think Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern should interview each other. Hopefully we will be more exciting next weekend!

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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It’s a New Year, Stu Gotz is back, and the crazy women on The Bachelor have returned – So far 2012 is proving to be a fabulous year, and during this podcast episode of our “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast we wrap up our 2011′s and look forward to the 12′s.

Yup, as 2011 wrapped up, Stu and I saw a bunch of movies, so Stu summarizes “Hugo” and “The Adventures of Tintin,” both in 3-D, while I let Stu know if he should see “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” or “The Descendants.” Stu doesn’t really tell me if I should seek out a movie called “Rubber,” explains he didn’t like “The Adjustment Bureau” nor “The Green Lantern,” and I couldn’t tell if he was really looking forward to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” but it really is a movie supposedly coming out in 2012. As for me, I give Stu the skinny on “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” try to egg him on to watch “The Bachelor,” but tell him that in a worst case, if it’s back on next New Year’s Eve at the end of 2012, some of the best television watching is the ABC 7 Chicago, New Year’s Eve Countdown with Janet Davies and Mark Giangreco for reasons I still can’t totally put into words.

We both got things we wanted for Christmas (Who knew they make a Dr. Who Tardis Mug that’s square?), neither of us seem to have any resolutions for the new year, and it will be nice to get back to normal after the Holiday season.  We start with a podcast.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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I hope Stu Gotz is okay because he couldn’t make the podcast, and the last thing he requested was that I have police car and jail door slamming sound effects for the podcast. I’m a little worried, but I soldier on with this “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast episode without him, because I’m sure that is what he would have wanted me to do, especially if he were tied up!

As weekends go, mine was pretty uneventful as I’m kind of hung up with a walking boot, per doctor’s orders, following my MRI last week. During this podcast I detail my injuries, but not so much how I think I ended up with them, I think that might be a tale for another podcast. Having the walking boot isn’t that much of a pain, but mostly bugs me because I can’t help my BFF clean in preparation for our in-laws first visit this Christmastime. I did get to watch “Rise of The Planet of the Apes” and really liked it, so I deconstruct the movie for you, and I also deconstruct “Survivor,” and how Sophie won mostly because she was the person everyone hated the least. It was one of the most interesting tribal councils ever, and I’m always along for the “Survivor” ride.

The Chicago Bears still suck, there are a ton of movies coming out in the next week, “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Chipmunks” didn’t do that well at the box office even if their numbers were in the multi-millions, the days start getting longer in a few days, I still need to do Christmas shopping, and oh yea, the Bears still suck.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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I survived a weekend with Theta Xi Fraternity brothers, and Stu Gotz survived a Cub Scout Christmas Party, and during this podcast episode of our “Weekend Wrap-Up!” we explain how both events weren’t nearly as crazy as you might think.

Yup, being early December, it was time for a reunion of sorts for me, with lifelong friends from college, and as times have changed, Hooters has been replaced by The Cheesecake Factory and an afternoon in a dimly-lit bar has been replaced by The Lego Store. Stu, meanwhile, kept getting conflicting instructions as to the location of a Cub Scout Christmas Party, but luckily he found it behind door number 41, and as weekends go, Stu is liking “Pillars” on the Reelz Channel, and still is liking “Cowboys & Aliens” now out on Blu-ray and me, well, a busy weekend leads to needing to catch up on my TV viewing, although I am caught up through Day 7 of Ellen’s 12 Days of Giveaways, thinking so far Day 1 was the best day to have been in the audience.

Stu still likes Austin Powers, I’m trying to schedule an “American Pie” marathon with my BFF, Stu tries to offend a lot of various folks, and this is probably the only podcast that will have the sound effect of an MRI as a part of it.

And, oh yea, the Chicago Bears suck.

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 2:18 Long
A Review by:
- The Dude on the Right

Okay, I admit it, as I guy I had absolutely no desire to see “The Help” when it was in the theater, and even probably made fun of it during a podcast or two.  At the time I figured I was lucky to get out of seeing it as my schedule just didn’t fit going to see it with my wife, but then I saw the notice that it was coming out on Blu-ray, and knowing my wife would probably like to see it, I sucked up my man-card and got a copy to review.  Wouldn’t you know it, I really liked the movie, and as “womanly” as the movie might seem, it tells a fabulous story of a time when things were truly changing.

Enough reflecting.  “The Help” is a movie about the maids in Jackson, Mississippi, at a time in the 1960’s when racial issues were very much at the forefront of life, and the transition from treating these strong women like property to treating them like people finally started to occur.  The movie is based on the novel by Kathryn Socket, about a writer, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone), who was perturbed by how the white women of the south were treating the help, especially Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), who was fully of the sort that blacks should be separated from whites, so much so that she wanted a law that households have a separate bathroom for the blacks, or something crazy like that.  Skeeter decides that the stories of the maids needed to be told, only it was illegal to publically write the story, so she devises a plan to write a novel based on anonymous accounts of the maids she would interview.  In the meantime, throughout the movie, we are immersed into the lives of the various women, from the racist white women who seem to have blinders on as to the child raising ability of their maids, to the maids themselves, as they have to deal with the uppity employers, abusive husbands, and false arrests based on only a complaint by a white woman to the police.

But at the core of the movie is really how strong all of the maids tended to be, and how, even though they shouldn’t be treated differently, understood it happens, and work through it.  Nowhere does this story come more to light than with the life of Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who originally worked for Hilly, but when fired devised a plan to get back at Hilly, in a way that turns out to help maintain keep Hilly at bay when the book is released, and after being fired by Hilly, finds herself working for the societal outcast, Celia (Jessica Chastain), where they both end up understanding each other even though from different sides of the social spectrum.

There are parts of the movie that just seem downright a bummer, as it recalls how blacks were treated at the time, and how far we still, as a society have yet to go, but the bestness of the movie is how it shows that sometimes it isn’t a smart thing to mess with a smart woman, even if that woman is supposed to be “less” than you.

The acting in the movie is great, even though the movie is over two hours it flows nicely, and even as a guy, I really liked “The Help.”  So go ahead and get the movie, cheer on woman who deserve their triumph when the book is released during the film, and grin when you discover how Minny gets back at Hilly.

It’s 4 ½ stars out of 5 for “The Help.”

And as far as the Blu-ray is concerned, they don’t go crazy with the extras, but they are a nice little addition to the movie.  For a change there is actually a “deleted scenes” feature that has scenes I thought would still fit nicely in the movie, the “In Their Own Words: A Tribute to the Maids of Mississippi” feature is a well-done, not overblown “interview” with real maids of Mississippi,  and the “Making of…” feature didn’t go crazy with making it stuff, just giving nice, little blurbs of how some of the locations came to be, and how the movie ended up in the hands of little known Director, Tate Taylor, who did a great job with the film.

Not too crazy on the extras, which is nice, and a great movie, makes “The Help” a high recommendation from me.

That’s it for this one!  I’m The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Below is a little excerpt from the full review of “The Help” by The Dude on the Right. He really liked the movie, and recommends it for the both of you…

…Okay, I admit it, as I guy I had absolutely no desire to see “The Help” when it was in the theater, and even probably made fun of it during a podcast or two. At the time I figured I was lucky to get out of seeing it as my schedule just didn’t fit going to see it with my wife, but then I saw the notice that it was coming out on Blu-ray, and knowing my wife would probably like to see it, I sucked up my man-card and got a copy to review. Wouldn’t you know it, I really liked the movie, and as “womanly” as the movie might seem, it tells a fabulous story of a time when things were truly changing. …

By: The Dude on the Right

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I will apologize at the onset, as well as warn you, that the first couple of minutes of this “Weekend Wrap-Up!” episode are filled with all sorts of vulgarities. Suprisingly it’s not Stu Gotz, nor myself, doing the swearing, but Ex-Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojovich, who will be sentenced this week for being a crappy Governor. Okay, maybe not because he was a crappy Governor, but along with being a crappy Governor, there was some trumped-up charge about bribing people to fill Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, among other things a person shouldn’t do, and even though he did leave us with a laughing stock of a state, he did give us some fine, quality audio!

Now this is supposed to be a “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast, and Blago is getting sentenced this week, so did Stu and I talk anything about our weekends? Of course we did! Yup, we have a nice discussion about my broken implant, how I have one, or should I say had one, because of a pogo stick, and my upcoming dentist visit and the proliferation of dentist offerings on Groupon. Stu did something he swore he wouldn’t do – he went to see “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1,” as well as enjoyed some time at “Enchanted Castle” in Lombard, IL. Me, I enjoyed a great dinner at “Macarena Tapas” in Naperville, IL, with my BFF, and had some wacky, tasty dessert that included cotton candy.

Stu likes “Pull My Finger,” we both thought the Chicago Bears sucked, I’m not liking the changes occurring during the Catholic mass, and Stu saw a version of the Nutcracker performed on horseback at the Noble Horse Theater.

That’s a lot to talk about, but I think somewhere in this podcast we fit a little more!

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

By: The Dude on the Right

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Turkey Day is done, and along with tales of eating said turkey, Stu Gotz and I also give some of our tales of Black Friday during this podcast episode of the “Weekend Wrap-Up!”, but not before reminiscing about some old days of Adam Sandler.

Low and behold, for reasons we weren’t even able to understand, both Stu and I went out to the stores on Black Friday, with Stu having to do some finagling at a Staples to get the bargain he was looking for, while I was amazed at the lack of crowds at Sam’s Club, Home Depot, and JCPenney, although shopping at one in the afternoon may have had something to do with that.

And with the holiday being a long weekend, it wouldn’t be a holiday weekend without some movie watching, so we also give our detailed analysis of “The Muppets,” letting you know if it’s good for the kids and if the nostalgia factor might make you cry (okay, I didn’t admit to Stu that I got weepy – I really didn’t want him to call my a puss). I give a quick preview of “The Help” which comes out on Blu-ray on December 6th, Stu watched “Super 8″ and isn’t really sure who will like it, we revisit “Captain America,” we don’t give the Chicago Bears much discussion as they sucked and lost, Stu found another Starbucks’ bathroom that had a toilet seat fully of pee (Now he’s trying to blame women for it thanks to our friend Trash), and I break the news to Stu that “Community” might be going off of the air soon.

A holiday weekend has come and gone and we both survived! Hooray!

Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!