Entertainment Ave! What's New and our Not Usually Daily Blog.

The Kevin Smith Collection: Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:10:58 PST

"Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" have now made it to Blu-ray, but during his review of "The Kevin Smith Collection: Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back," The Dude on the Right is still wondering why there is a documentary about the making of "Jay and Silent Bob" on the "Clerks" disc. Yes, he listened to Kevin Smith explain why, but The Dude has his own thoughts on the box set, and thinks maybe it is time for a full-blown Kevin Smith set. In the end The Dude thought the "Chasing Amy" disc is the best value for your money, but hey, you have a Blu-ray player so you might as well watch something in black and white on it and "Clerks" is hilarious no matter on what screen.

Black Friday is Coming, Do You Know Where Your Pumpkin Pie Is?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:24:28 PST

By: The Dude on the Right
With Thanksgiving about a week away, what better way to start to think about the things to be thankful for than pondering what you are going to buy on the Friday after Thanksgiving, that is if you are early enough to be first in line at your favorite store. Yup, the Black Friday 2009 ads are starting to leak, you can find the Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, and heck, even Office Depot ads online if you so desire (good luck finding Office Max, though, because it seems they are being diligent in requesting it be removed from sites trying to show them), but I'm starting to wonder why we even celebrate Thanksgiving Day anymore, other than the fact the turkey farmers would probably throw a fit, that and it is the day before Black Friday. Really, does anyone care that much about it? Sure, it's a reason for families to get together, and sure, it's non-denominational so you're not going to piss off various religious groups by having the day off, but doesn't it seem like the holiday is just getting pushed to the side? The stories are hitting that at Best Buy you can get this TV for this much, at Wal-Mart a slightly different model is the same price, at Target they may not have a good computer, but who cares, join the crowds and just be careful not to get trampled. Yup, we can expect that on Thanksgiving night there will be the proverbial news story showing the imbecile who is first-in-line to get that flat screen TV that will eventually be on sale for a better price if they could just hold out until right before the Super Bowl, and by the time the Friday morning news hits, the lead story will then be about the people who caused a stampede and killed someone to get the same TV. Some people will skip some quality family arguments so that they can camp out in the cold and snow to get a laptop for under $500, while others will be doing recon on Wednesday to plot the most efficient route to get as many bargains before 5:30 AM on Friday.

Okay, I'm done being grumpy, because the more I think about it, I am actually looking forward to this Thanksgiving, even if most of the stories will be about anything but why we are celebrating Thanksgiving. As long as the weather holds out I'll get to see some family members I haven't seen in a while, it will be the second Thanksgiving I'm spending with my BFF which means more to me than I can ever explain to her, and if all goes well I might end the day a few bucks ahead if the dice roll my way during a probable game of Left-Right-Center. I will give thanks for what I have, I'll say a quiet prayer for people no longer with me, and will even have a good wish in my heart for those who have hurt me. I'll eat too much, hope Milo lets me sleep a little later, but come to think of it, I was thinking of getting another Blu-ray player and Wal-Mart supposedly will have one for under $100. So, you know what, I'm starting to think that maybe I'll skip Thanksgiving dinner, dig out my winter coat and some blankets, pull the feet warmers out of the drawer, and camp out with the rest of the nutballs. Nah. That would just be nuts, and I won’t get any pumpkin pie. Mmm, pumpkin pie.

Ah, Thanksgiving!

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

Bruno

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:08:09 PST

"Bruno" is out on DVD (and Blu-ray), and The Dude on the Right decides to give his review. Hell, he liked the movie when it was in the theaters, sort of, but the DVD version puts him over the top in terms of funny. Actually, The Dude doesn't really like the "movie" part of the story at all, thinks it is a waste of times, but for another great look at buffoonery, scary parents, homophobic ultimate fighting fans, and LaToya Jackosn being even more out there than Paula Abdul, he suggests you get the DVD if only for the extras and to be able to fast-forward throught the plot.

2012

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:06:07 PST

The Dude on the Right really wanted to like the movie "2012," but during his review he mentions that his biggest problem with the movie was that he really didn't care if anyone lived or died, especially the major characters. Sure, Woody Harrelson was great, and John Cusack was his likable self, but The Dude actually would have preferred the movie more if Cusack's character bit the dust. The movie also made him miss Zay "tap-dancing militant Islamic fundamentalists" Smith, who used to write for the Chicago Sun Times and kept the Chicago area informed of the Yellowstone Caldera, so, with no characters to root for, and making him miss a newspaper man, the only thing the movie did inspire The Dude about was buying a limo because it sure seemed to do pretty well as the Earth was caving in around it.

TWILFS, Smurfs, Destruction, Life, Pinewood Races, and More.

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:53:28 PST

This episode of “Stu & The Dude’s Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast finds Stu Gotz learning what the term TWILF might mean, and by the end of the 20 minutes has Stu giving people a challenge to wipe their ass. In between and along the way the boys discuss the brief return of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson to the Chicago airwaves and a missed opportunity for hilarity born by Bob Sirott, they talk about “2012,” “Precious,” “Up,” “Bruno,” Kevin Smith movies, the New England Patriots, and somehow they even discuss a Pinewood Derby. And if that weren’t enough, the boys also talk some “South Park” and “Heroes.” The weekend is only a weekend long, yet the boys seem to pack in a whole bunch of stuff for your listening pleasure. Happy Wiping Your Ass!

Monsters, Inc.

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:36:22 PST

As The Dude on the Right was watching "Monsters, Inc." for his Blu-ray review, he wondered if the movie would still be as enjoyable as when he saw it in the theater. Well, The Dude loved the movie all over again, and for his perusing of the 4-Disc Combo Pack, he found it well worth the money, even if you already bought the movie when it came out on DVD before. Sure, there are a few extras, and a game for your "Monsters" fan, but for the picture quality alone it is a great combo for your Blu-ray/big-screen combination, and if you ever wanted to learn how movies like this go from a brief idea to the final product, there are tons of extras that give some explanations. Needless to say, The Dude on the Right loved it all.

Up

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:32:16 PST

The Dude on the Right admits that seeing "Up" on the theater big-screen, in 3D, is cooler than on the big-screen in his living room, but for his review of the movie "Up," and the 4-disc Blu-ray combo pack, you sure get a whole lot of stuff for your Blu-ray dollar. Sure you will get a movie that he loved, in all its Blu-ray splendor, but the extras included are too numerous to mention in this synopsis so you should read the revie, but here is a sample: There are explanations of character development, artistic development, how the story changed, an extra copy of the movie on standard DVD, a Digital Copy for your portable player, and if that weren't enough there are a couple of "Movie Shorts" in Pixar story-telling glory. All The Dude really knows is that the movie was great, and the extras make this one Blu-ray purchase that is definitely worth it. And hey, you might actually learn some geography if you play the included game called "Global Guardian Badge Game."

Michael Jackson's This Is It, Halloween, A Red Light, and A Facebook Intervention.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:02:17 PST

The Dude on the Right apologizes for any swearing that occurs during this podcast episode of "Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up!", but he and Stu Gotz are blaming Mama Gotz and her potty mouth, for her influence on one of the Little Gotz's. But the dudes don't swear during all of the episode, in fact, most of the conversations about a joke from Playboy, a naked Marge Simpson, Halloween outfits, and "Michael Jackson's This Is It" are vulgar-free, with recommendations on some of them, including Stu's love for "Army of Darkness." Stu didn't have internet access yet still buried his gold, The Dude on the Right did have internet access and needs a Facebook intervention, and neither of them are caring that much about the Chicago Bears right now. And since it's still new TV season, they dudes talk about some TV, too.

Where Did My Morning Go?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:01:48 PDT

By: The Dude on the Right
For the life of me I was having a hard time figuring out why I didn't have time to exercise in the morning. There I was, waking up around 4:30 (and sure, hitting the snooze pushed things closer to 5AM), but by the time I was trying to get out the door at 7:00 to head to morning meetings, well, I was rushing. What in the hell was I doing for nearly 2 1/2 hours, and why in the hell wasn't part of it being spent on my exercise bike? Something was going on, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, and then it occurred to me, even as I thought I was trimming things down:

Facebook, and more specifically Facebook applications, have destroyed my morning productivity.

I thought I had it licked when I was going to switch from Mafia Wars to Café World but it was yesterday, when I started trying to analyze my morning schedule, and as I sat there "training" my virtual fish in my Happy Aquarium, checking on my café, and still trying to take over the Moscow Mafia, that a bell went off over my head, sort of, and it simply rang out "What are you doing?" So this morning, being the dorky engineer I can be, I started my morning as I normally have been, up and at 'em at 4:45, into the kitchen to empty the dishwasher, making my Count Chocula with chocolate milk, and heading to my computer bunker that isn't really a bunker anymore, to see what was happening in the world. I fired up Firefox on the main monitor, opening a list of tabs to places like the Chicago Sun Times, The Drudge Report, The Weather Channel, Google Reader, and The Lorain Journal, just getting myself ready to rediscover the world after a night of broken sleep (broken sleep and the urge to drop-kick a dog out the window will be a topic for another blog), and on my secondary monitor, another Firefox window was opened, this time to my Facebook page. I scanned the world, not really paying as much attention to things as I used to (something my fiance made me realize the other day), and quickly shifted my focus to my Facebook world, or should I say worlds, because after not coming up with anything witty for my status and seeing that my friends haven't done much in the past six hours, I pulled out the stopwatch on my iPhone to do a statistical analysis of part of my morning.

And so, I headed to...

"Café World" - I didn't do anything crazy, and by crazy I mean I didn't send any of my neighbors any gifts, visit any of their cafés, nor do any redecorating (which I could, because I have 200,000 café coins to spend), instead I'm concentrating on serving my pot roast and then cooking up some voodoo chicken salad.
CAFE TIME ELAPSED: 4-ISH MINUTES

That wasn't so bad, but other work needed to be done so I'm off to my:

"Happy Aquarium" - Here I start by sending the gift of fish food to my aquarium neighbors. Damn, I'm a good neighbor! Of course my fish tank has gotten dirty overnight so I scrub it clean, and then my fish are hungry so it's time for their morning feeding, but as I'm also trying to make my fish smarter, what the heck, let's train a couple of them! Sadly I can't get one fish (I'm not sure which one it was, mostly because I have eleven different fish, all with different names) through the training program, but another made it safely through, so he, or maybe she, can now do some kind of special trick. Not done yet, I'm feeling helpful and greedy so I visit my seven neighbors' tanks, do some cleaning at each of them, and click on the various treasure chests to get myself some more coin!
AQUARIUM TIME ELAPSED: 8-ISH MINUTES

But my coup de gras awaits, the game that has taken what must amount to months in lost productivity - I'm off to Moscow in:

"Mafia Wars" - Yup, I head to New York City to bank some money from my properties, and I now have over $110,000,000,000 in fake, United States currency. But I've built my mafia over the months, and Cuba needs me, or at least my businesses in Cuba need me, so it's time to sell off a bunch of product and bank my money there as I eclipse the C$11,000,000 Cuban peso mark! But as my Mafia domination is growing, well, I'm off to Moscow. I easily level up to 351 with the energy I've acquired while I slept, so I'm eager to spend my new, 2,190 units of energy doing something, although I'm not really sure what, even though there is some sort of story going on, but there I am, clicking my mouse insistently to earn more cash, finish the job, and move on, but my energy level is now too low to continue! Oh no! Ahh, but no, I'm not done! Thankfully my sister sent me an energy pack so I recharge, it's time for another energy drain, I'm up another level, and I quickly scan that I'm going to need about R$40,000,000 rubles to get the items necessary so I can work on the next job in Episode 4. Not being able to continue with any jobs for now, and since I got an energy pack from my sister, I decided I should return the favor so I click on my giant mafia of 34 members and send energy packs to those people that I know are still playing the game.
MAFIA TIME ELAPSED: 12 MINUTES

With the breakfast hours slipping away I'm done with my café, my fish tank is clean, I've blackmailed a secretary in Moscow, but I notice, in the upper right corner of my Facebook main page, that I've got gifts to receive. I click and there they are, lots of little goodies from my friends, so what the hell, it's a click here and new screen there, an "Accept more gifts" click here, another screen there, and REQUEST/GIFT TIME ELAPSED: 4 MINUTES.

I looked at my stopwatch realizing that this morning, in just "maintaining" and "advancing" in three Facebook games, I wasted nearly 30 minutes.

Now, mind you, I didn't do any bowling with my buddies, happily I stopped playing Pirates of the Caribbean although I haven't deleted the app yet, in Farm Town I have set up my farm with a lovely message for my BFF, a message that as long as my farming neighbors "water" it looks great so I don't have to do anything, my Roller Coaster Kingdom is stalled, and I haven't tried to increase my word vocabulary, but just heading to one of those would have meant being late for my first appointment this morning.

I wondered where my time went in the morning, and now I found out. The question now is what to do about it because people are hungry and my Voodoo Chicken Salad is almost ready to be served, my "fish" are hungry and I really would feel bad if I "flushed" them down the toilet, and after investing so much time, "money," and building a reputation as a mafia kingpin, well, I really hate to rat people out and go into witness protection. Then there is the feeling that I'm going to let all of my "neighbors" down if I can't be, well, their neighbor. In the end, I guess my exercising might just have to wait, although if someone were to make an "Exercise World" for Facebook, maybe I wouldn't feel so bad.

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

Paranormal Activity, Hair Cuts, To H1N1 or Not to H1N1, and The Bears Still Suck.

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:30:47 PDT

The Dude on the Right wasn’t cold nor frightened, and tells Stu Gotz why not during their “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast. In other news Stu has troubles securing a cheap haircut for the Gotz clan thanks to being a little late for Pat the barber. Both boys see lots of movies with “Paranormal Activity,” “Milk,” “I Love You, Man,” “Imagine That,” and “Caroline” being topics of discussion, Stu thinks the H1N1 vaccine manufacturers should watch “Star Trek,” The Dude unpacks, and leave it to Mama Gotz to ruin “Toy Story,” or maybe it was “Toy Story 2.” – Stu can’t remember.

Paranormal Activity

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:17:37 PDT

The Dude on the Right wasn't freaked out by the movie, but during his review of "Paranormal Activity," we find that the dude-pad and the movie set have something in common. As far as the movie goes, though, The Dude gets how the movie folks were going, even liked some of the "creepy" factor, but he doesn't scare easily and thought the movie was too predictable. He also thought the ending ruined it by putting the movie over the top instead of leaving you with a "that could be my wife/girlfriend" the next time she sleepwalks. At least there wasn't any gore.

I deleted "Mom and Dad" from my iPhone Favorites. I suppose it was just time.

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:45:27 PDT

By: The Dude on the Right
I didn't know when to do it but in the end it turned into a simple thing, just three presses on my iPhone screen, but I guess for a year I wrestled in my head if it meant I was forgetting, or moving on, or just because it made sense because still there, on the "Favorites" of my iPhone contacts, was "Mom and Dad." At times it seemed weird being there when I would see it, what with both of them dying last year, but until this morning I just wasn't able to delete them from that screen. I guess this morning I just decided that one year after Mom died (although I will always consider her death anniversary as October 18th) it was time to well, just decided it was time.

The thing is, after my dad died back in January of 2008, I wrestled with changing the "Mom and Dad" to just read "Mom," even changed it for a few days, but when I went to make my Saturday morning call to Mom back then, and I went to press the "button," it just didn't seem right so I changed it back. I mean, it was always "Mom and Dad," hell, they ended up married for over 40 years, and I would love to say they were always the best of years, but I'm going to bet that 99 times out of 100, if you ask anyone married for over 40 years, they will tell you there were some "not so best of" years. And as I was moving on, dealing with Dad's passing as you have to do, Mom was there in her way to keep things in perspective.

Then it was Mom's turn to pass a year ago, and luckily, by then, I had re-met the girl who would become my fiance, and they were able to meet before Mom died, which was nice because I know it made mom happy I had met someone so special, and she really liked my BFF. But it's been a weird year since then, in reflection, and sometimes you don't always look back, but over the last couple of days I've made some mental rememberings of things she, and dad (although I have to be honest that dad and I weren't always the best of conversationalists) would have had many thoughts about. Simple thoughts entered my head, like how I so wish I could have called mom the morning I proposed to my BFF because she would have been so ecstatic. She'd be concerned, yet so supportive of my BFF's change of careers; she would liked to have gotten the pictures of when I went on vacation; and she would be so proud of her granddaughter graduating from high school, yet wishing she could have been there. There would be some great disappointment in some family matters that are going on right now, I know because I can still see the hurt in her eyes when I unfortunately had to give her the news when it sort of all started, and although somewhat selfish, she would have loved the fact that I would have had to make decisions on which family to spend which holiday with. It would have been a winter, last year, of talking about how bad the Browns were and how she would know that the Cavs would blow it in the end. I would have kept telling her how promising the Indians seemed, but she would have told me that they will always suck until they fired Eric Wedge - she never liked him, and I can't even print some of the things she said about him - and I would have loved to have made that call to her the minute I found out he got canned. There would have been Saturday morning talks about work, wedding plans (damn you WGN!), our American Idol e-mails, that even she was finished watching "Dancing With the Stars," and maybe we both would have finished the project we started of labeling hundreds of old, old pictures.

I do know that it is okay to reflect on things sometimes, but I suppose it’s also time to move forward a bit, and I guess I realized, that in the end taking "Mom and Dad" off of my Favorites didn't mean they weren't my favs, it just meant that their phone number didn't work anymore. It's funny, because I think I "talk" to them more now than I ever did when they were alive, looking for advice or just knowing what they would be thinking, but I guess, sometimes, it would be nice to hear their voices on the other end of that call, although, for the most part, I know what they would say, especially mom watching the Browns this year: "They suck.”

I love you Mom and Dad! I hope you're not mad that I deleted you!

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

Staying in Bed, Management, Toy Stories, Not Being Prepared, and Balloon Boy!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:28:48 PDT

The Dude on the Right and Stu Gotz wanted to both be in bed, only not together, and for different reasons, and they explain why during their “Weekend Wrap-Up!” podcast. Neither reason had drinking to excess involved, just klutziness and flu-ness, but they both had some movieness with “Management” and the 3-D versions of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2.” The boys also discuss Balloon Boy and the hoax that is ensuing, a topic that somehow shifts into the musical styling’s of The 5th Dimension and Monty Python. All of that, plus some Chicago Bears’ talk, some Sweetest Day talk, and chocolaty goodness of Count Chocula.

The Proposal

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:29:45 PDT

The Dude on the Right liked "The Proposal" in the theater, so for this Blu-ray review of the movie it's no surprise that he still likes the movie. What he doesn't like is the lackluster effort at "extras" for the DVD. Pretty much he felt he wasted his time watched the deleted scenes, the outtakes, and all he got out of the "alternate" ending was the fact that he was happy with the original ending, although the alternate ending did reinforce that some filming did not take place in Alaska. He still thinks it's a good "snuggle on the couch with your honey" kind of movie, so dudes, suck it up because you do get Sandra Bullock almost naked.

A Peace Prize, Couples Retreat, Where's My Sidekick Stuff, and Stupid People!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:43:53 PDT

Stu Gotz doesn't really tell The Dude on the Right much about his weekend during their "Weekend Wrap-Up!" Podcast, but that's okay because there is enough stuff going on that even if Stu did have a boring weekend, the boys have lots to talk about. It seems The Dude did do something this weekend, namely seeing "Couples Retreat," so he tells Stu if it's a movie to take Mama Gotz to see, but Stu is more interested in what The Dude thinks about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, if he knows what is wrong with people's Sidekicks, and if he ever saw Alyssa Milano naked. The both have TV woes, the dude wonders about the flu shot, and Stu sees stupid people, but what else is new?