Synthetic

I'm on Season 2. Started the series last week. 

If you are watching the old ones, you're going to love this season reboot. They kept the same formula and the actors have aged into their roles without missing a beat. I loved the show back in the 90's when I was growing up 

I haven't had any problems with hay fever here in Indiana. I've had sinus problems in the past, but nothing this year. Maybe some people are more sensitive to that, or it could also depend on location. 

Record season in AL this year. It's been kicking my butt now for 3 months...I've had these awful migraines the past two weeks, almost went to the hospital last week due to it. Will be so happy when fall and winter come over. 

I never saw this movie or read the book. It looks interesting. John Steinbeck wrote some powerful stuff. I liked "Grapes of Wrath", both the book (which I read a long time ago) and the movie.

Grapes of Wrath may be the better film IMO. I agree with you, Steinbeck is great. I haven't read the novel of East of Eden but I might since I did enjoy the film. 

East of Eden is a take on the old bible story Cain and Abel with a heavy focus on a father-son relationship. It's a decent film. I thought the emotional connections in the film really drove it since it focuses so heavily on the father and sons and their struggles with one another. 

This old lady though, Jo Van Fleet definitely steals the show when she's on camera. I love it when she tells James Dean "it makes me mad thinking about a rrrrrranch." She was arguably even better in Cool Hand Luke. 

My top 3 films of his are as follows: 1. HEAT, 2. The Insider, & 3. Insomnia. "Carlito's Way" co-starring Sean Penn gets an honorable mention too with it's retro 70's vibe. 

"Scent Of A Woman'...I liked the blind colonel driving the red Ferrari & the young college kid on scholarship talking the Col. down from suicide with his piece. A very powerful scene: 

"What life? I ain't got no life!" Al was a Kennedy Center honoree this past February too. 

Interesting picks...

I tend to divide Pacino's career into 3 categories - 

#1 The prime era (1973 to 1983); great movies include The Godfather, Godfather Part II, Scarecrow, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, ...And Justice For All, and Scarface. All of those movies you could argue he should've won an Oscar for (my money will forever be on 'Justice For All' being the one he got biggest snub for. Pacino carried that movie on his back and covered up the few issues the movie has, all with his acting skills). 

#2 The fading career era (1983-1990); he didn't make any great movies in this period, but Sea of Love was entertaining, and it was cool he got to make a movie with Ellen Barkin back when she was considered an upcoming sex bomb in Hollywood.

#3. Career resurgence (1991-2002); Al Pacino was on fire in the 90's. Not as great as his prime era where he got snubbed multiple Oscars, but still a damn good actor resurrected; GlennGary Glenn Rose, Carlito's Way, Heat, Devil's Advocate, and Insomnia are my picks of this era. 

I don't count anything from the past 10+ years cause Al Pacino these days is a laughing stock who just sleepwalks through movies for a paycheck while putting little effort into anything in his old age. The only credit I can give him is that he's not the only one doing this (cough, cough...Robert De Niro) 

IMO Scent of a Woman is like the diet coke 'Justice For All'. The fact he won his Oscar for that, to me, means that someone knew they screwed it up back in 1979 when he lost. 

The big famous court room speech is a chilled version of this scene. 

Carlito's Way is probably my favorite movie of his. Carlito is what I consider the unofficial sequel to Scarface. Carlito recycles a lot of the smaller actors from Scarface, giving them guest roles here and there. The entire movie is like a "what if" version of Scarface where the question of the mater is, "what if Tony had went to prison and/or changed as a person?". Carlito was a monster drug lord, who comes out of prison and wants to change that about himself, while also being stuck in the same lifestyle with the same scum bags. He's just like Tony Montana, except older, wiser, but naive. It's a redemption tale, and unlike Scarface, his character is very likable in that. You want to root for Carlito, where as with Tony Montana, he pretty much got what was coming to him at the end of the movie. 

With Carlito though, you really knew beforehand it wasn't going to end well....The writing was on the wall already enough for his girlfriend to tell him. But he was too naive to listen. 

I like Penelope Ann Miller in this movie too. She was greatly cast in this. The arguing she has with him felt real, IMO greatly underrated actress. 

Carlito's Way may not have the cultural impact that Scarface had, but it's a great character driven story and I feel it's a criminally underrated film. That film actually has a bit of a cult following today. It don't have the fan base that Scarface has, but there is a pretty good sized cult following of people I've seen that hold that film up on the pedestal. 

I'll save it, no idea what this is........lol

They're making fun of nerdy "geek culture" and all the stuff on Youtube of people over-analyzing move trailers and how VERY COOL everything is. 

My 2 favorite films that Bill stared in were "A Simple Plan" & "Trespass." In both films I mentioned Bill plays an ordinary guy [A feed mill supervisor & a firefighter] who is driven by volatile situations to cross lines he wouldn't otherwise cross. 

I know most people will remember him from the blockbuster hit "Titanic." I detested that overhyped cinematic piece of romantic crap. Plus, it went on too darn long in duration. Does it really take over 2 hours to discuss a poor kid & a girl about to marry a rich dude she doesn't love? The boat collides with an iceberg, cracks in half, & passengers drown or die a slow death from hypothermia. There you have it. All the essential plot points in less than 2 minutes folks. 

Man, I was stunned & bewildered over how many movie patrons loved the "Titanic" from the yr 1912. Whatever. The whole picture is sentimental bull...you know what in my estimation.  

Thanks for the clip on Mr. Paxton Bogie. You're cool. I've got no qualms with you at all my friend. I just roll my eyes at theatre buffs who were moved by James Cameron "Titanic" feature presentation I guess. End Rant. 

Bill did seem like a down to earth guy though & I'm sorry he died so suddenly so unexpectedly in the end. 

Happy Hanukkah! 

I never studied the movies he was in, but I always respected him a lot. Amazing that someone yeah, from that era is 100 since some of the big names died way too young and often tragically. I mean for real imagine living to be 100.  

Kirk Douglass is a century old now. Well, what do you know. Cool dude. Good actor. Bummed that a stroke messed up his ability to speak clearly. 

My favorite film of his is probably Spartacus. He was good at playing smart caboose characters on screen too. Takes one to know one right? 

Hey! I deserved that & I did swing the door wide open. LOL! So yeah, you're right. 

Payton's protests?

I know how well respected Sean Payton is but is he too arrogant at this point in his career?

The Saints have truly been a massive letdown. No excuse IMO for a team to collapse at times around Brees when he is still playing at a monster level. No excuse. 

You guys will shock people and beat a team like Seattle at times, but then you go and blow a bunch of games and often in close losses in the last few years.

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I know how well respected Sean Payton is but is he too arrogant at this point in his career?

In that same article, it mentions "the virus" which is a term that Bill Parcells used to refer to Sean Payton getting too cute and going pass happy and completely screwing the team with bad game plans. The author makes a joke of it being "Payton is bored". This was certainly the case with the Lions. Our game plan was absolutely terrible...

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The Saints have truly been a massive letdown. No excuse IMO for a team to collapse at times around Brees when he is still playing at a monster level. No excuse. 

We are a 3-13 team without Drew Brees. That is a fact. If any fans out there want to pin blame on Brees, I am willing to grab the shield and go to defending him, cause he is the only reason we can even achieve 7-9 every year. Take him away, we go 3-13 or 2-14. 

Take our 7 losses this year and I can easily pinpoint a handful of them that were close games, where we easily get blown out bad if it weren't for Brees. The Chiefs game being Exhibit A - they were up 14-0 and statistically dominated us on every chart, but Brees made the game closer than it should've been. 

The Broncos game is another example, where Brees played absolutely lights out in the second half to come back and we probably even win that game if our special teams don't screw it up and have a blocked extra point. 

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You guys will shock people and beat a team like Seattle at times, but then you go and blow a bunch of games and often in close losses in the last few years.

They do this every year that they start poorly and finish 7-9

2012 - Started 0-4, demolished an undefeated Falcons who went 13-3 team at home

2014 - started 1-4, beat the living hell out of Green Bay at home

2015 - Started 0-3, destroyed an undefeated 5-0 Falcons team at home

2016 - Started 0-3, destroyed the Seahawks at home. 

It's become a trend; the Saints will play horrendous the first month of the season, then in October, they'll game plan for that one big game at home and treat it like it's the Super Bowl. The Seahawks game was a 'Bring the Wood' game this year..We haven't had a baseball bat game since 2011, so there you go. Just an example of how they treat that one game...and that will be our highlight of the season. We finish 7-9 but I'll spend the entire summer saying "at least we destroyed the stupid Seahawks!" 

And watch Sunday, we will probably beat Tampa Bay cause we usually do win on the road against them, but in 2 weeks, they will stomp us in the ground in the dome. I actually hope Tampa does beat us, cause they're 7-5, and I'd rather them win the NFC South than the stupid damn Falcons. 

I will listen to those tomorrow during the games.

Kansas City Chiefs song today.

Not sure but those look like fun.

Just great, sitting here following the Saints in a tied game and the Chiefs in a tied game.

Nervous........

And the Raiders just took the one point lead. Sigh. So sad.

CHIEFS!!!!!!!! What a monster comeback win.

Maybe we got something here.

What or who is Thrawn? A Grand Admiral you said?

I hate to sound stupid.

This guy 

In the book series Heir to the Empire, Thrawn took over the remains of the empire after Vader, Palpy, and the second Death Star were destroyed. He was an interesting character, the main reason those books were worth reading. 

Almost seems hard for me to believe with Liam but yeah it's true. I looked it up.

It's always interesting to see famous actors before they hit it big. You know, before Liam did "Schlinder's List" with Steven Spielberg. 

whooo hooo Zelda! I still love the music lol.

The music in this one kicks total butt

First Kurt, then Layne Staley, and now Scott; all gone, and I'm only 33 years old. Shocking to see. 

I respectfully disagree but it's a toss up.  Wicked Garden, Big Empty, Interstate Love Song and Plush were great as well

Very vintage Spinal Tap esque in terms of marking/promo stuff. I actually like lead vocalists in metal that actually try to harmonize vs shout lyrics & choruses. Thanks for letting me know this album is actually out Bogie. Major props for keeping me in the loop. You rock!

The singer is good. I like his style as a screamer ala Rob Halford. Very classic 80's style retro metal. It sounds so much like a modernized version of Mercyful Fate in their prime. Here's the full song

Well said Bogie. There's still a long way to go though before the world completely opens up its eyes. That I don't know if we'll get to see.

I'm happy to live to see my LGBT comrades finally have some success in their struggle. To see their happiness this past weekend was truly wonderful.

He is our friend.

Yes he is. Only what happened last night was a false start. He's not back, someone else.

It's not the same thing. Depending on how technical you want to get we could take this back to the first electric instrument, but the big thing/difference is aesthetics. Auto tune is annoying as get out, back up singers are at least performing a natural part.

The studio has always used a number of effects that people forget about. Overproduction does exist today, but I get tired of hearing about how super perfect everything was orthodox and absent of effects back in the "good old days". It's much easier to record digitally today than it was 30 years ago with analog.

Wish I could help and understood this stuff lol

2 people sent me private messages, I appreciate them. It's still working, just the external is busted lol. I've been fighting these things for 10 years.

"Is it nice in your snow storm, freezing your brain?"

The cryonics people should know about freezing the brain ;)

Happy Birthday one more time.

Oh man, I am lame lol

All I can think of right now is Toxic LOL

I have not heard the name Kylie Minogue in a while. I remember a few of her songs.

Well Britney is Britney lol. I may check it out then since I still buy everything she is on even if I end up giving it to my sister.

I'm thrilled at the fact it's Giorgio. He's a legendary producer, arguably the godfather of Disco. If he produced an entire Britney album, it would end up being the best album of the decade.

that's not funny....

It is cause I knew it was going to happen and didn't pick up that wood glue over the weekend LOL.

What??? Isn't that the guy from Static X? I never really got into them but sad news.

Yeah he had a drug overdose last night.