Old Tradition

Dear 2007,

I've been going through my day planner of you for a few days now trying to figure out just exactly what you've been to me. Looking back on some of these past entries, you're not really a bad year, not really a great year. More good than bad though. I'm pretty sure I've figured out the analogy though. Since sports are prevalent in this blog, football is a good one.

2007, you're like the new young quarterback drafted in the 1st round right after the veteran quarterback just retired. Like a John Elway or eventually Brett Favre. So you could be compared to a Jay Cutler or an Aaron Rodgers or even a Luke McCowan, the eventual starter for the Bucs. There are times that you've been great and times that you've shown your rookie status. You took a team from a 3-13 record (2006 was more of a 1-15 status) and you've gotten the team to 9-7. But the playoff picture is still unclear as of now. All that we know is that you helped the team out, got the trust instilled in the fans, but now you have to step up and prove yourself to the rest of the team and the opponents.

In 2007 I did some amazing things. If you would have told me that in the same year I will have premiered a feature movie, rode a camel, shot a short film in a bug infested pool hall, worked in a candy packing factory, lived homeless in NY for 5 weeks, started bar tending and learned enough economics to make conversation, I would have called you crazy. There were some great times, there were some hectic times, there were some times I didn't think I'd make it through. I've made some amazing friends that I know I'll never lose, and at the same time lost some friends I never thought I would lose. But since the gain outweighs the loss, we're not in a deficit (see what I've learned Danny) and in a slight surplus. In football terms it means we're at 9-7 and possibly in the playoffs. Even so, you needed to gain some experience 2007, and you've helped me do that.

2008 will be another interested graduating year that I have no idea where it will go. Hopefully the QB can stay healthy and we can make some good off season acquisitions. I'm hopeful.

Sincerely,

Asher


Past logs :

2004
2005
2006

Something I've Learned

I should never live by myself. I've realized the only reason I've cleaned up at all the past day was because I know my room mates are coming home soon. If not for that, it may never have gotten done. So room mates, thank you for your unknowing motivation.

I Haven't Much to Do

I've been alone in my apartment since last Monday and I'm having a hard time finding things to do. Walking around naked only is so entertaining. I bought myself some new video games, got some new movies from Netflix, my parents came to visit, got to spend some good time with my brother, and now that everyone sans Alex and Kamron have gone home for break, it's back to looking for things to do.

For example --

Two nights ago I watched Jurassic Park 1 and 2. I forgot how great 2 really is. Toby from the West Wing is there, Vince Vaughn is there, Kobayashi from Usual Suspects is there and Jeff Goldblum is quirky as ever even if he does have an unexplained Black daughter.

Then last night I actually met up with Alex and Kamron, but once they went home, I had nothing to do. Queue Alien and Aliens. I skipped a fair amount of the exposition, cause come on, why else do you watch them over and over again. It was also to gear up for today --

Today was a day I have been anticipating for over a year. Alien v Predator Requiem. To say the first movie was a debacle would be an under statement. I've discussed why this movie would be great. And it didn't disappoint. I don't think. It was good. I just think I prepped it too much in my head. I'm going to see it again some time this week to see how good it really was. It might have been trying to set up too many characters, I'm not sure yet.

Either way, before that I watched Gravedancers, and when I got home I popped in some Phantasm. Phantasm is an interesting movie phenomenon. The first one was made in 1979 by a young film maker who was really into the indie scene. Then he didn't do anything for a couple years, tried a German horror movie then did nothing until 1988 with Phantasm 2. Then a few years later with 3. And 4. 5 is coming out next year, production is on hold because of the strike.

But he doesn't branch out. Neither do his actors, of which he uses the same ones in each movie. Yeah, over 30 years and still using the same guys. Sort of a horror anomoly. He's obviously talented, Phantasm is a great horror movie and still stands the test of time, for the most part, but he just never expanded out. Oh well. Phantasm 5 should be good, look for it sometime in the summer/late 2008.

So now I'm just waiting until I'm tired to fall asleep and see what I'm going to watch tomorrow.

I wonder when my room mates are coming home...

Another one bites the dust

http://joblo.com/alba-is-pregnant

So that eliminates her from my potential future wife list. Next up on the list : Newly added Ellen Page.

Sometimes the 10th passes by and I don't notice. And sometimes I do notice.


Happy 21st Alex

To Do Lists

Dear Danny,

It's that time of year. It's crunch time. I have the following to finish in the next 2 weeks :

- Revise feature screenplay
- Revise Earl spec script
- 2 Africa Papers (this involves reading about 2 months worth of readings)
- Pass Economy test. Key word : Pass
- Finish Knock Twice web site, complete with Flash animation
- Figure out life
- Outline other specs
- Outline next feature
- Obtain internship

Right now, here's the progress :

- Finished 1st draft of screenplay. Not complete until Christophe reads it, as it follows the Travis character.
- Finished draft of Earl spec, need some work.
- I think I understand economic theories. Weird huh.
- Try this : For a temp site I think it'll be done in a few weeks, but that's a template for now

Hannukah started the other night, it's not a real holiday, but it's a nice one. All the symbolism of something like Passover, but none of the food restrictions. I like it alright.

That's all for now. Bucs are almost playoff bound, go John Gruden. Let's hoping I make it through the next 2 weeks.

- Asher

Dear Ellen,

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) issued this statement on Friday, November 9:

Ellen DeGeneres went back on the air this week after honoring only one day of the writers strike. In anticipation of her plans to tape shows in New York City on November 19th and 20th, the Writers Guild of America, East is extremely disappointed to see that Ellen has chosen not to stand with writers during the strike. Ellen's peers who host comedy/variety shows have chosen to support the writers and help them get a fair contract, Ellen has not. On her first show back, Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise.

Ellen has also been performing comedy on her show. Even if Ellen is writing those segments herself, since those segments would normally be written by the writers on strike, she's performing "struck work". Ellen is violating the strike rules that were clearly explained to all of the comedy/variety shows.

We certainly intend to let Ellen know our dissatisfaction in person if she decides to proceed with the shows she has scheduled in New York on November 19th and 20th. We will also make our voices heard the preceding week if she tries to pre-tape comedy segments on location.

We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn't even stand by writers for more than one day - writers who have helped make her extremely successful.

Every show and film set has a production staff and crew that is beloved by their writers. Ellen's staff is no more important than the rest of the industry. When shows refuse to stand with us they create huge revenue streams for the companies and that prolongs the strike for the thousands of staff and crew members who are noble enough to honor our picket lines. We find this situation hurtful to those people and extremely unfortunate.

The writers did not cause this strike. The companies' greed caused this strike and it could end tomorrow if they were finally willing to negotiate a fair deal. We ask Ellen to cease doing shows immediately. She should stand by all writers and help us bring this strike to a quick conclusion. We owe that to the thousands of people who are caught in the middle.

If you agree that Ellen should stand with the writers on strike, please contact her and tell her so at: http://ellen.warnerbros.com/show/dearellen/. Or, contact the show's production office at (818) 260-5600.

Leave Nothing/ I Will Find You!

Maybe it's because I just watched the Last of the Mohicans. Maybe it's because my boss Gordie sings this theme every now and then when I have to deliver a package. Maybe it's because I love football. Maybe it's because I love great cross dissolves...well ok maybe not that because I hate cross-dissolves as Christophe can attest to, nevertheless.

This really has become one of my favorite commercials of all time. Every time I watch it it gets me pumped up in ways it's hard to describe.

Enjoy.

Coming Soon!

The Contingency 4 DVD!

Larke's a Terrorist and other updates

Dear Danny,

Sorry for the lag in posting, but between the 5 classes and 2 jobs I've had a hard time finding free time.

Here's a snippet from a class discussion that was held in my Warfare in Africa class the other day. We were having a discussion as to what a terrorist is, what is terrorism, etc.

Pretentious Film Kid : I don't think that everyone has the ability to become a terrorist. There are groups of people and cultures where that just wouldn't happen. Just like everyone in this class, we go to NYU, no one in this class would become a terrorist.
Rightly Offended Girl : I don't think that's very fair to say...
PFK : No, I just mean that like, we're a pocket of a society, and like, our portion of society isn't really one that supports war or anything...
ROG : That doesn't mean...
PFK : But like, we're a certain part of our culture and there are other parts that are more prone to like, joining the army and becoming terrorists.

First of all, it took me a lot of restraint from not proving him wrong just by throwing him out the window. These kinds of people are all around, especially at NYU where, as liberal as we are here, it's incredibly sheltered. I don't come from a particularly sheltered background, so it's hard for me to realize this a lot of times, but there are still lots and lots of people who have never come in real life contact with real life violence and hate, and the fact that these people can make these broad generalizations scares me. The idea that "educated" people are still so ignorant. Now, I'm not saying I've been the subject of the kinds of violence people face all over the world, far from it. I understand and appreciate the luxuries in life I have every day, but I know that there are places where the things I live in don't exist. I understand that there are places in the world where hate exists and probably won't go away for a while. But because I don't live there, I don't make broad generalizations. I'm a huge fan of believing that you shouldn't judge people until you're in their positions. Larke made the comment in class that all people have breaking points and all people have points to which they will resort to violence. Professor Hull asked her if she could then theoretically see herself being a terrorist, and she said yes. I will now lock my door at night.

Hull brought up the Patty Hearst scandal, and it's the perfect example. Rich white girl becomes an African guerilla warrior? Who saw that coming? Who believes it? Was she brainwashed? Did she actually believe in what she was preeching? Was she just used? If you don't know about Patty Hearst, I highly recommend reading about her, she's one of the most untalked about stories of our generation.

In class, Rachel brought up the good point that our discussion was pretty much moot. We were going in circles trying to find a definiton of terrorism, when there is no real modern definition. It's really how you look at it. Trying to put a label on it only goes in circles because it all boils down to your morals and your upbringing, something that everyone has differently. The long and short of it is that there are a lot of ignorant people in this world, and in our class, but Larke is right in the end. We can't really say something for certain until we're put to the test and asked questions we're not prepared to even think about.

Just some food for thought.

Anyway.

Rachel and I saw the Farnsworth Invention last week. I don't get to the theater that much, so when I do I want to make it count. Please, go see this play. Right now, just go. Written by Aaron Sorkin, who I have a huge affection for, and starring Hank Azaria and Jimmi Simpson, it's possibly the best play I've seen since the Pillowman. Structurally the most intricate piece of writing I've ever seen, and to say it was inspiring would be like saying New York has pretty good pizza.

After the show I got to talk with Jimmi Simpson about his acting in things such as 24, My Name is Earl and most importantly Stay Alive. I think I'm the only person who's ever seen that movie, and he appreciated that, I think. Either way, if I could be friends with him in the future, I would be a happy man.

Anyway.

I'm starting to put together a list of potential life options for post graduation. I think I'll call the list my PFO/PG. If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know so I can put them into consideration.

That's all for now.

I'm beginning to pick up more bartending shifts at Benny's if you're ever in the Lower East Side and looking for a good Mohito or Margarita.

- Asher

My Kind of Town part III

I have been awake for 21 hours straight. Not editing or filming or writing or working, just up.

I woke up at 9 AM for work, then came home for lunch, put on a Halloween costume, went to work part 2, then went out and went out and went out once more and now am home greeted yet again by a box of bread in the foyer.

Proof the night went well : Matt's parting words - "I'm really disappointed we didn't end up in a holding cell"

Only in a town like this

Sleep time

Whoever my Valentine this upcoming year will have to see this with me

Happy Valentine's Day

My Kind of Town part 2

Last night started off with something Matt and Christophe introduced me to : walking into a bar, ordering a shot and leaving. I have to say, felt really cool after the first one. Felt sick after the second, but that's only because Matt misunderstood and we did a shot of Bacardi. Bad idea.

Once we got to the bar meeting with Andi, Carrie, Sarah and Dana my night took the following route --

Started off getting hit on by a very attractive female, 20s, from Florida. Ended with her 60 year old aunt buying me a drink.

Only in New York

My Kind of Town

At ITP, one of my 2 1/2 jobs, the computer here has a relatively weak iTunes selection. But one thing it does have is a large Frank Sinatra selection, which usually gets me through the day. Even though he's talking about Chicago for some odd reason, his song kicks off with the lyrics "Now this could only happen to a guy like me/ And only happen in a town like this/ So may I say to each of you most gratefully / As I throw each one of you a kiss..." And it always picks me up and gets me jiving. Even on days like this where the sky seems to be falling.

Here are a few snippets of conversation I've had recently since posting an update that summize most of my life here.

Me : I'd like to buy a Dash (kind of phone)
T-Mobile rep : Ok, so the new plan is going to be...(new internet plan, I currently have no internet plan)
Me : No, I don't need the new plan.
Rep : You have to get the plan.
Me : But I don't want the plan.
Rep : But you have to sign up for it for the phone.
Me : I've come in before and asked and everyone's told me I never had to.
Rep : I guess they told you inaccurate information.
Me : Well, can I sign up for it and then cancel it?
Rep : No.
(I leave, call customer service and find out I actually can cancel the service and only be charged 1 dollar. I return 15 minutes later.)
Rep : So you want the plan?
Me : I'll get it and just cancel it once I get home.
Rep : So you still want the phone?
Me : Yes.
Rep : Why?
Me : Why do I want the phone?
Rep : Without the service.
Me : To be a phone.
Rep : Just a phone?
Me : Yeah.
Rep : Just to like make and recieve calls?
Me : Yeah.
Rep : Ok, if you say so...

I'm very happy with my new phone that's just a phone thank you very much.

This is one of my favorites from Benny's from a few weeks ago :

Customer : Hello.
Me : Hello
Customer : I'd like a taco platter thing that you have like the West Village one.
Me : Well, we're actually not the same store as the West village Benny's, but if --
Customer : What do you mean?
Me : We're different stores.
Customer : How so?
Me : We're under different ownerships...
Customer : So what's that mean?
Me : It means we have different things...
Customer : Why?
Me : We just have different menus. What exactly do you want?
Customer : Some tacos...
Me : Ok, we have that...

He eventually got the tacos he wanted, I think.

My screenplay class is one for the ages. It's a 1 on 1 class, so I just bring pages to my teacher every 2 weeks. Here's a basic rundown of our meeting yesterday :

Me : Hello
Linda : Hello. The pages (the first Act) are good.
Me : Thank you.
Linda : I have one suggestion (she makes her suggestion). The rest looks good.
Me : Ok.
Linda : That's about it. Keep going.
Me : That's it?
Linda : I hope all my meetings are this easy.

Guess I'm doing something right watching football while I write my screenplay. Once football season is over though, I think I'm screwed.

In other big news, I decided that since I spend so much time on my laptop writing and the such, I should buy video games for it. So NHL 2008 has been purchased. On my way to lead the Rangers to the Cup. I also bought Diablo but am weary to start playing as I think I'll never get any work done with it.

Keep on rockin.

- Asher

Proof that someone up there likes me

Seriously

It's...Hockey time?

The NHL kicked off yesterday. Now, in between the MLB playoffs, the NFL picking up and the NBA starting training camp in the coming weeks, we begin a sports overload and of course hockey gets pushed to the back. But I love hockey, always have. To me, hockey actually takes the most physical achievement.

Baseball is the most graceful of sports, the most poetic, the one you can use for the most metaphors about life. Football is the most entertaining by far. Basketball is the most accessible to anyone (it's a ball and a hoop for goodness sake). But hockey. Hockey requires balance, hand eye coordination, strength, speed, endurance and the ability to do more things with your body at once than anything else.

I mean come on, we all had those birthday parties when we were 12 at the ice rink. I don't know about you, but I was always the kid that clinged on to the rail way or that embarrassing bucket they gave to the kids that could never skate. I always fell. I actually really glad I still have all my fingers. Maybe it's just that my high school never had a hockey team so I never saw how humanized it can be, but to me skating on ice, moving a stick and still shooting a little puck while avoiding other players and not falling down always seemed like the hardest thing in the world. I was used to baseball where they throw the ball to you, or basketball where I had solid ground to move on.

Hockey season started the other day and I have never chosen a clear team to side with. I have a Capitals jersey I got at a thrift store, but I always played as the Red Wings as a kid on hockey video games because I thought their mascot was the coolest...but in one game I was the Sabres for some reason. So any thoughts as to who I should cheer for would be appreciated by anyone that reads this. I'll give myself a week before I default to either the Capitals or the Rangers. Or Islanders. I already have one Washington DC team, the Wizards, and no New York team yet. Might be the deciding factor

Smokin' Aces

I just watched one of last summer's action movies, Smokin' Aces and I just wanted to publicly commend this movie for a few things.

1. Sticking with the ending it did. The alternate ending, rightly named "Cowboy Ending" has a shoot out with guns blazing, while the ending they ultimately stuck with is really compelling.

2. This movie should get applause for being roughly 4 movies rolled into one. Well, I don't know if applause is really the right way to phrase it, because a big time Hollywood movie should be focused...or it can be a ton of movies in one. An action movie, a police drama, a comedy, a couple scenes of noir, a couple scenes of Die Hard and Alicia Keys being the voice of reason. Kinda like eating pizza with chinese food with some burgers.

3. Two words. Ryan Reynolds. Jesse told me before I saw this that he gives his best performance. And while I love Ryan being hilarious in everything, he's got some real soul in him that just pops on screen. His best performance I've seen yet, and I loved Just Friends.

That's all for now. Phillies/Rockies start tomorrow at 3, you best be watching and cheering on big red.

- Asher

Poker again

So I started playing poker again. Nothing huge, just a couple tables every now and then on Full Tilt. And Rachel wanted to know before if my poker posts had some deeper meaning that you could tap into my life.

Well, here's how my poker night went.

1 table - about average stack, this maniac is pushing pushing so I push with AQ, he calls with QJ off. Flop an ace. Runner runner his 4 card flush. Loser.

2nd table - chip leader. Short stack limps, in BB I check with J8, flop J25, he checks I bet out he under-min raises his all in, I call he has AA. Very next hand I'm SB with TT, same guy is in he raises PF I call, flop is 258, he bets I push again he has QQ, eventually I whither away.

Great night at poker. This more equates to the week, this weekend has been great.

Tomorrow - Phillies/Nationals and Mets/Marlins. Biggest day in baseball..

Go Phillies

Best weekend in sports?

As most of you know, I write a Giants blog. Here is the latest entry. I usually won't do this, but this is so important, it needs to be said everywhere.

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret. I'm a huge baseball fan. Don't get me wrong, football is probably the most entertaining sport out there, but baseball will always have a place in my heart. It's probably because as a little scrawny Jewish boy, I never played football, I played baseball. As most of you out there reading this know, the baseball season is winding down and if you're not a Yankee fan, then you're still a little concerned right now. At least, if you're a Mets fan, or from Colorado or Arizona or San Diego or Philadelphia.

Here's the basic run down of the baseball world - the NL East is now tied (as of Friday morning) with the Mets and the Phillies, and the NL Wild Card is led by San Diego by 1 game over the Phillies and the Rockies, and Arizona leads the NL West over San Diego by 1 game (and thus the Rockies by 2). There is only this weekend left to play. 3 games left, 5 teams within 1 game of each other, it's all very exciting.

But this is a Giants blog, right? And baseball doesn't have anything to do with football, right? Wrong. This weekend is a very special weekend. Let's forget the NL West teams right now and just focus on the Mets and Phillies for the NL East. If the Mets lose the division to the Phillies, it will be the 2nd greatest collapse by a baseball team in history. So every Mets fan is pacing and wondering what can happen. But, this weekend they have more to worry about. Sunday night we get to see the Philadelphia Eagles face the NY Giants. A battle of Phillie vs. New York. Oh man. Let's look at this some more shall we.

Sunday will be the first game the Giants play the Eagles this season, and while the game doesn't hold as dier playoff implications as the baseball games do, both teams are 1-2 and whoever is 1-3 has a very long shot of winning the division. The Cowboys are 3-0, Redskins are 2-1, and with a team 2-2 there's hope. There's little hope for a 1-3 team in the NFC East. So to say this football game is a big deal isn't even coming close to it.

Let's look a little further. I think that we can see who will win these games in a baseball/football comparison. The key underlier here is Washington. Both the Mets/Giants and Phillies/Eagles recently played a Washington team. The Mets just got swept in 3 games by the Nationals, and this weekend the Phillies play the Nationals at home for their final 3 games. The Eagles lost to the Redskins on an arrant throw by McNabb to miss a wide open receiver in the end zone on the final drive and the Giants beat the Redskins holding them on a goal line 3rd and short and 4th and short as time expired. The Mets lost to the Nationals and on the last game of the series gave up a 5-0 lead in the 6th inning. So football wise, Giants over Eagles, but baseball has Phillies over Mets in the Washington realm. But what of this weekend for the Mets? The Mets finish their season against the Marlins of Florida, who play in the same stadium as the Dolphins. The Redskins beat the Dolphins in OT in week 1, and as just stated the Giants beat the Redskins, so we can assume the Giants would beat the Dolphins, so we can go assume that the Mets will beat the Marlins.

Since the Mets and the Phillies are tied right now and won't play each other (obviously since there are 3 games left) there is also the possibility of a tie. If this happens, we would have a 1 game playoff. Playoff? Like last year? When the Eagles knocked out the Giants out on a last second field goal. So advantage Phillie if that occurs. But wait, let's look even deeper. The Giants started off last season 6-2 and finished 2-6, the Mets had a 7 game lead only 2 weeks ago that they have lost. If a one game playoff is how it's all decided, you better believe the spirits are pulling for the Phillies.

All I know is this. The final games of the seasons for baseball are played at 1:35 EST. Since the Giants play at night, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be watching these baseball games.

Oh, and another secret loyal readers...I'm a Phillies fan, but not an Eagles fan. Go Phillies.

Yom Kippur sermon

"We are not God's chickens"

- Rabbi Korn

This Week in Sports

Dear Danny,

As some of you know, and all of you should know, this past week kicked off the 2007-2008 NFL season. It didn't disapoint. I mean, I was disappointed with a Bucs loss AND a heartbreaking Giants loss, but the 10 hours I got to watch were great. 3 last second wins, and a pretty good ending to the Monday night Bengals/Ravens game.

Now we're on to week 2, with a Bucs win, the Saints 0-2, the Giants 0-2 and the Texans 2-0...should be a good year in the NFL.

But I'm not here to talk about this past week in football I wanna talk about the offseason. We all know and will remember the whole Michael Vick saga but will we really remember Michael in 2 months, 2 years? I don't think that he'll be more than a glitch on the pop culture radar. What we should be looking at here is the man at the top. Roger Goodell starts his 2nd season as the commishioner of the league and has already had to deal with more shenanigans than anyone should.

What I want to bring up about Goodell is his nature towards sports. He brings in a new era of crack down no excuses football on and more importantly off the field. On the field he's bringing in more rules to get rid of player's hot tempers. We saw it today come into play when Jeremy Shockey spiked a ball and the Giants got a costly penalty. These new rules are trying to put a stricter sense of sportsmanship, which on one hand will just annoy a lot of hot tempered players but I also move to say it will bring out a lot more in terms of creativity, see Chad Johnson. Also look at a guy like Randy Moss. Hot tempered, showy, career going no where because of it. Now, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that he's under Billicheck, but he's more subdued and just about playing football, working out for him so far. The point is, the players are more about the game now.

Look further though to his offseason crack downs. It all started with Adam Jones, who I'm a huge fan of via Madden, and for the longest time I was a Jones supporter. He never did anything wrong was his case, and he shouldn't be harmed for doing so. But time and time again just showed how little Jones was taking this seriously. Now he's suspended, and we'll see if he'll play again. Then Tank Johnson was suspended and cut from the Bears, and still has yet to sign with any team. Then of course Vick, who hopefully will never play in the NFL again.

The point, at least in my eyes, is this - just because you're a sports star doesn't mean you're still not a person. Our culture now has risen sports stars to the level of pop stars (see A-Rod) and celebrities. Tom Brady was in People magazine, A-Rod the butt of many a Jay Leno joke, it's getting to the point of absurdity. Yes, I will admit that sports are just another form of entertainment, but that's not what they used to be. In the days of Ruth and Mays and Montana and Bird, sports icons were someone you could look up to as leaders. A sports star used to mean that you could lead your team through hardship and never give up. As a kid, I used to watch baseball games all the time and my favorite stat as a kid was the CG, the complete game. To me, pitching 9 innings, telling your coach that you didn't need the bulpen help, that you wanted to finish what you started, that was heroic. That's why Curt Schilling was my favorite player growing up, always wanted to go 9.

But now we don't look up to sports stars for inspiration, we look up to them to see records broken and slam dunks and hard tackles. Kids don't say, "I want to grow up to be a winner like Jordan" they say "I want to grow up and sign a huge contract like Jamarcus Russel." Hold outs and rookies getting 10 million a year without having thrown an NFL pass and kids coming out of high school has altered the goal of sports to peaked physical prowess to the top buck.

Michael Vick. Star quarterback. Flashy, showy, ran a lot, terrible, TERRIBLE quarterback. I could rattle off stats but that's not the point. The point is everyone wanted a Vick jersey. Martin Lawrence even wore one in Bad Boys 2. Kids idolized Vick. But then we see what he's like as a person. Cruel, destructive, a liar and a dishonorable person. I don't care if Whoopi Goldberg supports him, drowning dogs is cruel. So we have this should be convict in a time where heat sells, and as much as Goodell could have very easily not come down hard on Vick, he stands by his morals and sends him away. It sends out a message that this is not the kind of thing the NFL, or any sport, should support. Maybe Bud Selig can catch wind of this and maybe he'll do something about the steroid problem. Probably not, at least for another few years, but the example is out there now. Roger Goodell says that there's still hope for sports in this country, I think there is too. Look at some young guys like Vince Young, LeBron James, Greg Oden, Tomlinson, Jose Reyes or most of the Indian or Red Sox. Guys that like playing the game and like challenges and like meeting those challenges.

I don't think hope is lost for sports, but it will take a lot of time and effort to get things back even one tenth like the way they were

VLog 2

Shana Tova everyone

Revival of the Horror genre?

Dear Danny,

This past summer was horrific, no pun intended, for horror movies. There was some torture crap and then the unnecessary prequel to the Halloween series. BUT, maybe there is some hope for this fall and winter.

First, Halloween weekend we get Saw IV. The director of the 2nd and 3rd comes back for the 4th installment. I personally liked the 3rd one a lot, it was more simple than the 2nd and left it open for a good 4th. The trailer makes me pretty excited, as it seems Lionsgate has finally realized they hit a franchise. "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw". That means there's a 5th and 6th on the way, which really just means I have the chance to make one in my life time and that makes me happy.

Also, the writers wrote "Feast", a winner of the Project Greenlight show a few years back. If you haven't seen Feast and you like good horror monster movies, please go see Feast. Extremely well written.

Saw 4 Summary

Saw 4 Trailer

Then at Christmas time, we get Alien Vs. Predator : Requium. Now, normally you might say : Oh geez, another sequel to a monster movie Asher's excited about. But let me tell you why this movie will be amazing.

1. The directors are brothers, and first time directors. Normally, this would be cause for concern. But let's look at their resume. They started as animators and worked up the ladder as visual effects artists. Recently, they were the visual effects coordinators for movies such as the 300, Constantine. They also worked on Titanic, Nutty Professor, Mission Impossible 3.

After they did a lot of visual work, they also did a lot of music videos. Stuff for the Red Hot Chili Peppers is the most noteworthy.

2. The trailer looks amazing. 10+ people die, including a child and a sexy girl. That is what the first movie lacked. Dying people and blood shed. The Alien movies and the Predator movies NEED violence and scary spooky music and lots and lots of dead humans. This movie looks to promise that. The first movie wasn't directed for horror or blood or anything fun. This looks like fun.

3. Slated for Christmas, gives me something to do Christmas day other than buy discounted candy.

Maybe there is hope for the horror genre. Except that it may lie in a 4th in a series and a sequel in a combination of series'. Maybe there isn't hope, but there sure is a lot of fun on the way. And lots and lots and lots of dead people

Summer 07

Dear Danny,

As I come in from my roof from some star gazing, as Queen starts singing Under Pressure on my iTunes random, I want to reflect on this past summer, which ends with my 9:30 AM class tomorrow.

I think this is the first time in my life I can say that summer didn't fly by. It actually seemed like years. I think back to the person I was May 5th and to who I am now and I can even scratch my head a little bit. Partly because my hair is so damn long now, and partly because I've upgraded so much. I've thought about the wording there. I haven't changed. I haven't morphed. I haven't evolved or devolved. I almost feel like I crossgraded, but that's not it. I've opened up a lot of things about myself, opened up to new people, new things, new views on the world and it's expanded my life to a new place that I feel very happy in.

In the past 3 months I have :
- traveled outside the country
- climbed a mountain
- been to borders of countries
- premiered a feature movie
- turned 21
- won a lot at poker
- lost a lot at poker
- lived as a homeless kid in NYC for 5 weeks
- dealt with brokers and landlords and construction crews
- became a blog writer for the NY Giants
- worked in a factory as a part of an assembly line
- worked at a burrito place
- worked with a reputable editor and hopefully set up a potential job
- shot and premiered a commercial for a nationally selling book
- met an award winning artist who now won't stop calling me
- moved into my new apartment complete with my own patio/roof
- made some new friends I will never lose
- tightened up some friendships for the long haul
- not shaved with no intention of doing so in the near future

If you want a short summation of the summer, Dustin said the other night, when explaining his Israel experience, "Can you believe all the stuff we did? In one night we smoked hookah with Bedouins, slept for 2 hours, woke up, rode a camel, climbed Mesada, swam in the Dead Sea then spent the night in Jerusalem"

I want to leave you all with this quote. It's from my new magazine craze "Discovery". The article is about the new known universe as we now have a picture of a lot more than we thought before. It talks about this galaxy, Andromeda that is apparently on a crash course with the Milky Way, in about 2 billion years that is. Avi Loeb, Harvard astrophysicist said, "Now when we look up, we see many galaxies. In the distant future, this will become a lonely place, with nothing to look at. If we want to learn about the universe at large, we'd better do it while we still can."

A new era in comedy?

Dear Danny,

"The funny thing about my back is, it's on my cock"

This line comes from the summer's last big hit, Super Bad, from the crew of comedy minds that made 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and if you really know your stuff, you know them from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

The minds are, in no particular order, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen among others. Judd started off writing television comedy, like The Critic (he actually wrote my favorite episode of The Critic of all time), and then the Larry Sanders show. Then 2 failed series later, it was 3 years and the summer of Wedding Crashers that the 40 year old Virgin was coming out. The movie was marketed as Steve Carrell's big first movie, as before this he was only known for cameo roles and the Daily Show. 40 was supposed to be Carrell Carrell Carrell, but what it actually did was rejustify Apatow's comedy. People started thinking, hey, maybe this guy is pretty funny.

Seth Rogen started off at Undeclared with his acting and writing career. Everyone loved him as the zany pervert against Paul Rudd in 40, so much that he got the lead in Knocked Up. And again, much like 40, this was a movie that was supposed to be Seth's big break. Judd wrote and directed the early summer hit, and maybe now people will finally see that Apatow has some talent. He took Carrell and made him a star, and did the same with Seth. Now Seth's writing his own stuff (Superbad and the upcoming Owen Wilson Drillbit Taylor) and still acting as hilarious as ever.

But enough about their history. What I wanted to talk about was how they're bringing comedy back to movies.

Recently, and this is not a shock to anyone, every movie is a sequel or a remake. I'll even take it a step beyond that and talk about every big movie out now isn't original anymore. Everything is based on a comic or a book or a TV show (Aquateen and Sex in the City). We've had years of superhero movies being topped off by Spidey series and Transformers. There's nothing original coming out of movies anymore. Cue Judd Apatow and crew.

40 wasn't based on anything except Judd. Neither was Knocked Up or Super Bad. And they're funny. It's fresh comedy. Super Bad is a high school comedy. Yes, I know. How many times has that been done before? So many that the genre of "High School Comedy" and movies like it have already had a spoof movie (Not Another Teen Movie). The comedy genre has been in a 5-7 year lull and been awakened. Knocked Up was a hit because it was fresh good character based comedy, something we so rarely see in the big theaters. Just look at Steve Carrell's Evan Almighty. It's a sequel, sort of, and it cost 130M. It lost so much money because people are tired of seeing the same jokes over and over again. Super Bad has been big so far because it's just flat out funny.

We'll see how long it can all be kept up, but if you want to look at crew's and how people are doing, just look at Will Farrell. Took a similar path as Steve, started in TV did some movies and then hit it big with Old School, Anchorman, but fell quickly into the Talladega Nights and that new skating movie. Steve is doing so well at the Office it's hard to think he'll ever be not funny. So what's up next for this new crew without a name?

Well Seth has a couple things. First there's Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson, which really can't go wrong. And then there's the more interesting Pineapple Express. It's about stoners running from the law, but Seth's writing it with the same guy he wrote SuperBad with, and it's being Directed by David Gordon Green, someone who only Sushi knows and people that Sushi has made watch his movies know. It has all the right pieces to be a hit, we'll see.

Judd Apatow has a little more unique series of stuff coming up. He's not set to direct anything for a while, but he's written the new Dewey Cox movie, a Walk the Line parody. I'm a little worried about it, but as I discussed with Larke, I have faith in Judd. His next project he's co-writing with Adam Sandler. Adam will star along side rumored Mariah Carey. Can't really be bad, right? Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen and then Adam Sandler? Why not.

So the next time you're going out to rent or Netflix something, I want you to keep this in mind -- Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are on DVD. They're only 1 season each because no one watched them while they were on TV. Give them a swing. I promise you a good time. And I also promise that you'll watch it and go, hey it's that guy. Hey it's that girl. They were in 40 Year Old Virgin. That guy was in Knocked Up. But they were in these sweet hearted tv shows first.

Farewell for now,

Asher

Summer movies : A look back

Dear Danny,

Summer is winding down and it's a good time to look back at some of the hits and misses of the summer. I will admit, I didn't see as much as I wanted to/could afford to, but I heard enough from around the water cooler.

Action movies : Bourne Ultimatum, Die Hard 4, Transformers, Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Fantastic 4 2, War opens next week. It was an up and down summer, I think, for fun action movies. There were no original action/adventure movies that came out. Unless you count War, which I really feel will be a Crank+Jet Li. I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out that there's nothing new going on in the world of action movies. Out of that list, I saw DH4, Transformers and FF4:2. I won't get around to see Bourne, even though I heard great things and really just don't care for the other big trilogies. You might ask why I saw FF4, and aside from my Jessica Alba infatuation, I snuck into it, so I didn't have to pay for it. Out of the 3, Transformers I found to be the best in terms of what I want a summer action movie to be. There's a huge post about a month ago explaining how it's a fantastic movie.

Die Hard I feel was a little under appreciated for how great it really was. It got some good reviews but fell off the box office rather quickly, at around 130M now and hasn't been in the top 10 since July. Transformers is over a cool 300M now, and I don't even want to talk about how much money Harry Potter has been making.

Comedies : Evan Almighty, Knocked Up, Oceans 13, Chuck and Larry, Super Bad, Simpsons Movie, Rush Hour 3, Shrek 3, Ratatouille.

It was a really really weak but inspiring summer for comedies. You had some of the same old stuff (Rush Hour 3, Shrek 3), you had the long awaited Simpsons movie, which I still haven't seen but heard good things about, you had the biggest bust in movie history with Evan Almighty, budgeted at 130M and making 30 it's opening weekend, and then you had the Judd Apatow bunch blow everyone away.

I'm going to write a long post purely about Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen, as I have been huge fans of theirs since Freaks and Geeks so long ago and just love to see them prospering. But in terms of the summer comedy, they had the two biggest hits. Knocked Up and Super Bad both hit 30+M their opening weekends, were both fresh and reminded people that a movie didn't have to be a sequel to be funny. I was also very impressed with Oceans' last installment, even though it was flawed it was still fun and just what a summer movie should be. I didn't see the Shreks or the Ratatouilles, but I heard it was a decent time for animation but not the best. I mean honestly, everything Pixar does is great but nothing can really live up to the Incredibles or Toy Story for that matter. Both Chuck and Larry and Hairspray both topped the 100M mark both with average reviews, and I gotta say that for every step forward Adam Sandler seems to take (Reign Over Me) he just immediately takes one back in terms of being taken seriously.

Horror movies : Hostel 2, Captivity, Halloween. That's about it.

A really slow summer for horror movies as people have seemed to forget about this genre. It's gotten swept under the rug after years of the same crap coming in and out. I could probably write a long post about how I think people like Eli Roth are good for the genre, and will one day. Once I see Hostel 2. As some of you know, I was a huge fan of the first one and a really big fan of the Saw series, not just for it's gore effect, but for what some of these film makers are trying to do for a genre that's the most played out and the most mocked. In any event, there was nothing going on this summer except for this Halloween movie which I will not go see out of sheer principle. Michael Meyers was once a symbol for horror. You wore that mask and you were once feared. Now, 10 or so sequels later, he's died at least 5 times, been resurrected once and now we get a prequel. It's on the same level as having that Hannibal prequel. It destroys the mystery and thus the horror.

That's our summer. All in all a decent summer for the movies. Nothing spectacular, nothing revolutionary, but a solid summer.

Peace,

Asher

Video Entry attempt #1

please enjoy this video. it is, in theory, a nice substitute for writing a long entry since i have become no longer homeless.

perhaps there will be more video entries, only time will tell.

- asher

Not Homeless; Still without internet

The cable guy said something about a wire being cut and he has to run something through our neighbors yards...so here's to meeting my new Polish neighbors!

I'm at NYU now using the school for all it's good for : a free computer and toilet. I'm never throwing away my NYU ID.

I'm not homeless anymore, but a real big post will be coming next week, hopefully on Tuesday.

Any and everyone is welcome to come by and check out the new place though, the roof deck is quite amazing.

Peace

Oh, these curls!

So another difference between here and Christophe's, aside from Sarah's computer which doesn't have an E key, so it's hard to type, is the shower.

A) Christophe has to pay for his hot water, so I took faster showers. UHall is an NYU dorm, so I try and use up as much hot water as possible to make them pay for it.

B) UHall shower curtain has funny remarks on it like, "I'm Naked". Christophe's had...dirt.

C) The big one. Christophe's shower had a 1.99 bottle of shampoo called, I think, shampoo. There are at least 15 bottles of stuff here. It took me 10 minutes to figure out what kind of hair I have and how I want to wash it. I used some sort of body wash today with shea butter. I have no idea what that is. I used a blue shampoo of some sort, I think to rehydrate my hair. Needless to say, if you see me one day and my hair looks particularly good, let me know and I'll know what shampoo to use.

Peace

3rd move

From Christophe's to the nice NYU dorm UHall hosted by Dana, Andi, Sarah and Melissa. Moved in last night, it was a nice move.

The main differences between Christophe's and the girl's are the following :

Christophe - No AC. Annoying cat. No Cable. Full series of Friends. Wireless internet access.
Girls - AC. Bathroom full of girl's things. ESPN. ESPN. No internet.

So in short, I traded the internet for AC and ESPN. A fair trade I think. I'm using a computer at NYU now, which I plan to use all week. I feel like I should be able to just steal one but that happened already and no one was happy with 2 computers in the main lobby area.

Watching baseball tonight last night was amazing. It was almost 3 weeks since I heard Peter Gammons talk, or Stewart Scott on Sportscenter. Mmm good.

Benny's is going great, a lot of fun, not too hard, first paycheck on Friday. If you call tomorrow night or Thursday night I can take your delivery or pick up order.

Well, I'm off.

Thanks for reading

G-Men

My Giants Blog

Still working on the formatting, and it's not launched yet, but here's where I will be doing my Giant's blogging

Update, why not

I haven't actually updated in a few days, so for the loyal readers, you're probably wondering how I am. Well, I'm great.

I took on a job today...at Benny's. Yes, it's where Alex (Hampt) and Christophe work. Yes it's where I've eaten Mexican food for the past month. Yes, it's kinda cute and creepy that we all live together and now work together. At least, for a few days. And it was really weird when I said, "Hey, we have a staff meeting Thursday" in front of Christophe and Matt.

So yeah, at least now I'm not unemployed. As long as I can work enough to get me out of debt before the school year, I'll be fine. Then I can work on saving up money during the year for things like, food, and Madden.

In other news, it's now under 2 weeks (13 more nights) until my apartment will be ready . I swung by the empty place before with Matt and Christophe and scoped out the rooms. We debated for a long time what room I should take, since I get first dibs mainly because I'm moving my stuff in first, and I found the place. The debate is between a room with a little more room, just the way the shape of the room is, versus the roof access room. It's tough because the roof room is smaller, it seems. So it's a matter of trying to make what I have fit into the roof room, and then still debate if I want the responsibility of having the room people go through to get to the patio. But that room also has it's own little hallway, which I would deck out. It's a tough call either way.

The decision will be made on August 1st, and I'm sure I'll post pictures with the whole adventures of moving.

It'll be a few more days here at Christophe's. By the way, eventually, somewhere on the internet will be a picture that I took of him this morning, which, and I don't mean to gloat, is the best picture ever taken by man. When it pops up, I'll be sure to post it, because oh man am I a genius.

After Christophe's the real adventures begin. I think I'll first stop in at UHall with the ladies there, and as I'm pretty sure they don't read the blog, hope to remind them that I'm doing that. Then maybe some time with Steph and Margot, maybe some Dan and Sam time, we'll go from there.

Just a couple more weeks.

Exciting.

I'm off to bed to see Ed tomorrow and start my new job. Huzzah.

- Asher

attention

movieman2g: see
movieman2g: first we get the jobs
movieman2g: then we get the khakis
DeJesus: THEN we get the chicks
movieman2g: i finally get it
DeJesus: except fuck the job part
DeJesus: ill do the khakis and chicks
DeJesus: i aint gettin no job
movieman2g: i dont like khakis
movieman2g: i wear the same jeans
movieman2g: can that work
DeJesus: yea that should work
DeJesus: if i do the khakis and you do the job
DeJesus: we can both do the chicks
DeJesus: right?
movieman2g: high fiv
movieman2g: i see no flaws inthis system
DeJesus: me either
DeJesus: sweet
movieman2g: done and done

Day 2 at Christophe's

There are some subtle differences between living with Matt and living with Christophe. Like the heat, even though Matt doesn't have AC his apartment is somehow cooler. The futon I sleep on here is, uh, sort of dirty...it's hard to tell. I don't think I'll contract any more diseases than I already have from sleeping here before. The food/dishes are also more fun here. Last night for dinner I ate some microwaveable macaroni...mainly because there are no dishes here. And I ate with a spoon. But, Christophe does have a bigger spice selection, so it tasted pretty good. Now I'm heating up some fake chicken patties and washed a plate so I could eat them.

I like it here, I'm growing as a person and as a human being.

thanks danny

danny6486: assuming i work 5 days a week and dont usually wear tee shirts how many 3 button shirts do i need
movieman2g: id say like 10 or so, that gives you some time to do laundry if you need
danny6486: lol
danny6486: ok
danny6486: i work in a suit
danny6486: so i'd be wearing the 3 button shirts not in the office
danny6486: only when i go out casually after or on the weekends
danny6486: and only on the weekends when i'm not going out out
movieman2g: whats a 3 button shirt
movieman2g: a polo?
danny6486: yea
movieman2g: oh
movieman2g: maybe like 2?
movieman2g: i never wear a polo
danny6486: yd i ask the guy who wears 1 pair of pants all the time
movieman2g: yeah that probably wasnt the best move

Yesterday I was stuck in an elevator

That title is not a metaphor or untrue at all. I was at work at Clik Clak, working under the capitalist regime, and I wanted to go to the bathroom. So I took the key and walked down the hall only to see that it was being cleaned. The nice cleaning lady told me to just go downstairs. I went to the elevator and couldn't find the stairs, so I just took it down a flight. I did my business, and on the way back to the elevator, I started thinking to myself, "This is one of those things that could be linked to fate, like I had to go to the bathroom the exact moment that it was being cleaned. So if like, something blows up or falls from the ceiling where I would have been standing, I wasn't there because I just had to go to the bathroom." I thought this until I got into the elevator, pushed the button, felt a little shake and then it stopped. And then I thought, "Huh. Shit."

I don't know if any of you have ever been stuck in an elevator, but it's really not that bad. I stood around for a while and pushed a lot of buttons. Eventually I pushed the phone button and talked to a nice man that said this wasn't the first time this building has had this happen. That made me comforted, then a little frightened. About 15 minutes later, after going through cool day dreams of being rescued by a fire brigade, the elevator just went up and opened. I got up and went back to packing candy into little tin containers for capitalists.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Minds Eye to watch Ed transfer over a feature film and talk about how we hate bureaucracy and capitalists. It's gonna be fun. I call him a renegade editor.

Tomorrow I also make the transition from Matt's to Christophe's. He just got some fish, so it's probably good that I'm moving in with him, because otherwise all he would do is talk to the fish.

That's pretty much all for now.

Thanks for reading,

Peace,

Asher

Now I believe in destiny

Along with a few other by chance events this past week, tonight sealed the idea of fate and destiny to me. Because I believe with my whole heart that Michale Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) was put on this Earth for one reason, and that reason is Transformers.

To say that Transformers was a good movie would be inaccurate. It's not really a movie, per se. It's simply an experience. As Matt put it, it's an experience like Independence Day is an experience. Actually, the only flaw (well, not ONLY) I found with Transformers was that it was structured pretty much exactly like ID4. But we all know my feelings on ID4, so that's good.

Let me try and explain why it was so good. As many of you know, I don't hide it that well, that I am in fact, a nerd. Or geek, dweeb, whatever. I'm a fan boy. And I don't hide how I absolutely abhor pretty much every comic movie that's come out. X-Men, Spiderman (still hate it more than any other movie), Hulk, Fantastic 4, Superman Returns (oh man did I hate that). I'll give it to Nolan's Batman because it's taking it in a new direction and I dig that, and Keaton made a badass Batman. Then there's stuff like the Punisher, Daredevil, Hellboy etc.

What these movies failed to do was be what they should have been - comic book movies. Stay true to the original, explore a new story but stay true to their roots. What we get instead is just a glorified "super hero" image jumping around screen for 2 hours, each with their catch phrases and signature moves. If you're going to make a movie and have it based on a character but not keep them true, then just steal it and make a new movie. That's my opinion. It's like adapting a book and changing it so it's just more mainstream. But people will dismiss that analogy because they're just "comic books."

Well Transformers wasn't a comic. The ending credits actually don't credit it as based on the TV series. It was based on the toys that came out. That's where the cartoon series came from. Toys that turned into cars and robots. That's Transformers, and that's the movie at it's core. It's a movie that is based on these characters and it creates a story about Shai with his auto-bot friends. It is the truest fan boy movie.

And yes, there were awesome explosions. And cheesy lines. And random meaningless scenes and characters for that matter. But that goes with Michael Bay who I do respect. He's one of the few people in Hollywood that knows exactly what he wants to make and he makes it and doesn't care what people think. I hope to one day be like Michael Bay.

So for those out there that are fans, see it now. There are so SO many little quirks that only a fan will catch, it's absolute fun.

------------------------------

In other news I started a new "job" earlier today. It's sort of like On the Waterfront. I show up and if there's work, I work. "Today, everyone works" sort of thing. I packaged candy into little containers. I'll never look at a little mint box of candy in a little tin again.

But 8 dollars an hour will eventually pay the bills to my apartment which is now being built and on schedule to be done for August 1st. Hooray.

I'm still seeking other employment, but for now, I'll let Alex (Hampt) and Christophe glorify the fact that they have more money than Matt and I. It's fine. I'm not starving...yet...no, I'll be fine.

Night all,

Asher

Meadowlands

The Meadowlands (Giants Stadium) has come into my life the past week for two very different reasons.

The first was a new job I have started. I will now be a blogger for the NY Giants for NFL Spot.com. Check out NFLSpot.com and giants.nflspot.com for my future articles. I think this will be a great opportunity that sort of fell into my lap, almost literally, with a lot of great options for the future. Right now it's in a near done development sort of stage with a launch date roughly of July 29th (around when mini-camp starts)

So look for my regular updates on the current state of the G-men.

Then yesterday, I went with my brother to the Meadowlands for some good ole Live Earth. It was one of the most amazing live music experiences I've ever had, for a variety of reasons. Not only did I get to see Roger Waters play, complete with a giant floating pig while he sang The Wall, and I fulfilled a childhood dream of seeing the Smashing Pumpkins play, even if it's the incomplete Pumpkins, saw Sting with the Police and Kanye came out at the end of Message in a Bottle, saw a lot of other decent bands as well, including Dave Matthews, Akon and Luda.

The point of Live Earth was to spread awareness about global warming, so in each continent, including Antarctica, there was a Live Earth concert. The idea of a world wide event to spread the awareness of one thing, one cause, I found rather moving. Between sets there were speakers, scientists, activists etc telling us things we can do, what little things can do, it was very proactive. The range of people at the concert I also found unique. On one end of the spectrum, there were old hippies that probably were at Woodstock, only there to support environmentalism, and on the other end you had 16 year old punk rockers only there to see Fall Out Boy (eech). And everyone in between, like my brother and I.

I don't think I'm totally green now, I'm still not going back to vegetarianism, mainly at this point because when I do eat I try to eat as much protein as possible which in turn means a lot of Chickpea, but I will go out and buy CFL light bulbs for my new apartment, I will turn off all unnecessary lights, power down my computer at night, and generally not try to destroy nature on a regular basis.

-------------------

Still at Matt's, but sleeping at Christophe's tonight, then back here for a last week or so. Tomorrow I begin random job for money #1. Packaging or something for some random guy on Craigslist. Possibly/hopefully for Underarmor.

We will see.

Meanwhile, it's nice out, good shorts weather and my jeans are back to being dry.

Peace,

Asher

With a little help from Alan

We're gonna die, die, die, die hard

This is a must see, right now.

At Matt's still, Eric's here.

Yippiekayai

- Ash

day 1 : matt's place

hello everybody. here is the beginning of my homeless section of my blog. day 1 is at matt's place. ive moved in my 2 suitcases, my living out of suitcase and my day/night suitcase. i have a small tote bag ready in case i need to live in any other place (christophes or sara/andi/dana's or dan/sam's). my central base of operation for the next week or so will be out of matt's place, as i now have a set of keys. that was the highlight of today. i can now come and go as i please to and from matt's place. it's nice here, there's a fridge and a jug of wine, and really, what else can a boy ask for. now its time to go out and revisit with birthright people.

cheers

asher

Well That's Baseball

On Baseball Tonight, Pete Gammons once said, "What makes baseball so great is that every night of baseball you'll see something you've never seen before"

Tonight - Aubrey Huff of the O's hit for the cycle. Since 1940 only Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr. have hit for the cycle for the O's. 2 days ago Huff hit a 3 run home run to boost the O's to a 4-0 win over Roger Clemens. I was at that game and got to see the Rocket pitch in what might be his last season...or if YouTube is right, in the middle of his career. Despite hitting for the cycle tonight, Huff and the O's still lost to a Howie Kendrick 2 run homer in the 9th.

A rookie hit a walk off home run in Cleveland tonight, his first major league home run.

Aramis Ramirez hit a walk off 2 run home run in Wrigley today, giving the Cubbies 7 straight wins and now only 6.5 back of the Brewers for first place. If I told you 3 months ago that the Cubs would be 6 behind the Brewers, the Cardinals were stagnant in 3rd, the Stro's had just won back to back walk off home run games and the Reds had the worst record in baseball you'd think I'm crazy.

But this is baseball.

Yesterday - Frank Thomas hit #500 home run of his career. It came in Minnesota, and they also lost the game. Thomas was also tossed out of the game in the 9th for arguing a strike.

Craig Biggio hit his 3000th career hit. His hit came as he blooped it into center and he was thrown out trying to get a double. They won, as I said, on a walk off Grand Slam by catcher El Cabayo (not his real name)

And of course, Bonds continues on his road trip, hitting 750* tonight. I'm not even going to get into why I put the asterix there, but I do.

Why am I going into all of this? Because it's baseball. And it's the sport that I love and will always love. Because even if you hit your 500th homerun, or hit for the cycle, or hit your 750th home run or make the greatest catch ever, you can still lose. Because if you hit 3 out of 10 times, you're considered a great hitter. In what other sport are you celebrated for being 33%? Because they play 162 games in a season. that's more than 10 times the games in football, twice as many as basketball. They play in the hottest time of the year, and they always play outside (unless they're in a dome and then, on astroturf). Because you don't just jump into baseball like in football or basketball right out of college. You go through 3-6 years of farm system work before you can maybe see some action.

That's all.

Like the 300 but more gay

As I just told Larke, I'm watching Alexander now for the first time. It's pretty gay. I don't mean that in a derogetory way, I just mean it in the way that all the men are hugging each other and saying they love each other and slapping each other and no one is wearing more than a napkin over his crotch area.

There's also an Anthony Hopkins voiceover, BUT, they found this like 10 year old kid to play the young Alexander. Looked JUST like Colin Farrell looked like at 10, I'm sure of it. Good job to the casting director on that one.

Since last night, I've seen way too many movies for my own good. Me You and Dupree was solid, had some good simple comedy. Very standard, but it put me in a good mood when I was pissed off after that poker game.

Then Serenity where I wasn't really paying attention, but I caught all the fast Joss Wedon quibs. Witty. But I think there were zombies? I dunno, it was 6 am.

Tonight I saw Waiting, which I was really really suprised about. A very solid script. Good structure, good characters, nothing too unnecessary. And there was even some humor that was original and not just poop jokes. But the penis jokes were still funny. In the credits they had this great list of thank you's. My favorite was "To God...for not existing."

So I'll be in NY on Saturday, still not sure where I'll be living. I might start off with the girls from UHall and see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm expecting to get my jersey, or at the very least my t-shirt. My Bonds t-shirt came the other day, it's glorious. Man do I hate that man.

Till a later time,

- A

No more poker for a while

This blog will soon be dedicated just to my homeless adventures.

The bad run continued tonight. I don't wanna talk about it cause it's only gonna make me mad. I'm taking a few weeks off. Going to read some books I just got. Reload. Refresh. And see what happens.

For now, I can't sleep, so let's see what's on TV. Hey, Seth Rogen is in You, Me and Dupree. Nice

Thanks Larke for making me feel old

My New York age is 38

This New York age puts you into a middle category between young and old (but not "middle age" per se). Be proud. You've got a nice balance between going out hard-core and staying in. You care about culture but also like some quiet nights. Keep it up, but think about expanding your horizons in the other directions. Head to Studio B or Anthology Film Archives for the first time, or finally check out the Village Vanguard or Elaine's for a dose of old-school NYC.

Does your age reflect how you're living? Let us know.

What's your New York age? Take the Time Out New York quiz and find out!

Sleeper Cell

Just finished watching the series Sleeper Cell from Showtime.

Found it extremely interesting and somewhat moving. Aside from being a decently well written show, well shot, decent acting, it did a lot that not many movies or media do these days, and that's present the Islamic side of terrorism from all sides.

Our hero of the series is Darwyn, an African-American Muslim who is an undercover agent working inside a terrorist cell. He helps try to stop terrorist attacks in LA, much like Jack Bauer, but more like season 1-2 Jack and unlike present Jack, he has a soul and a personality other than kill.

The show doesn't just go the route of "Arabs = Terrorists", it goes to great lengths to go into the religous battle vs. the territory battles vs. the battles within everyone for peace. As the first season goes on, and into the 2nd season (of only 2) we get to see a lot of interesting personalities go up against each other. It's not really biased against any one color or religion. The show simply is anti-terrorist. It's not anti Muslim, it's not anti-Saudi Arabian or Middle East, it's only anti-terrorist.

Really interesting show. In a world of Jack Bauers and Losts and Sopranos, spend a weekend and watch the show. Only a total of I think 16 episodes.

Bad Run Continues

Why should my terrible run only be online? Why shouldn't it carry over into my live game play? Poker gods aren't restricted to the internet as I found out.

It actually wasn't so bad, it was pretty standard.

I sit down at my table, 3 table, and it's all noobs. Every one an 18 year old who's playing his first real big tournement. So I sit down and then James sits down, and I'm like, cool I can do this. Then Jack sits down, and Jack is always my downfall in these things. He's knocked my out twice before I think on bad beats. I love him, but he always does it to me.

So we sit, and James and I start our table talk. Next to us is Feuer and Neil, so when we're talking about our 20/40 stud game that we play at, we get some support. Late nights in AC, 5/10 NL, 30/60 Razz, oh yeah, we do it all. So EVERYONE there has me pegged for a loose brash player who doesn't care about this tourny. Early I show an out of position 2 5 PF raise to 3 bet someone off a hand and then I know, KNOW that I'm good at this table, as long as I don't get bad beat.

Few hands go by, lost a chunk on a draw but had the odds cause the noob was min betting the whole way with 2 pair, like a noob and I just couldn't cash on it. Lost a couple coin flips, ran into some hands like 10 10 to JJ and AQ to AK but minimized the damage. I'm at around 900 chips, blinds at 20/40 early position and I see AA, obviously I raise, but only to 150. Folds around to Jack who thinks and thinks and thinks and calls, and someone calls behind him. Flop Q 9 10. I open push and Jack thinks and thinks and thinks and calls, other guy folds. Jack shows QJ off and hits his Q on the turn. That's just how these things go I guess.

But after that, enough people got out so Corber Jordan and I, mainly them, started a PLO game. We started 5 handed, eventually got to 6 at one point had 7. I sat with 40 that I borrowed from James and really had little idea what I was doing. I've played a fair amount of omaha, but only online, and not in at least 6 months. So I was pretty newbing it myself. Played pretty well though, folded a lot of good folds, 1 bad fold that would've paid me off big, but what can you do. 1 hand in particular I'd like to show:

Blinds were .25/.50. I have KS JH 10S 8H. PF I raise pot, this kid Brian, been solid all around calls, Jordan calls. That puts like 6 bucks in there. Flop KH JC 9H. So I flop 2 pair, a flush draw and a straight draw. Nice. I bet pot, Brian calls, Jordan folds. Turn something like the 5H. So I hit my flush, but only Jack high. I bet out like 10, he raises pot, so pretty much an all in at this point. I think for a while, and I fold. He shows me the Ace high flush and I didn't hit my boat on the river, so good fold Asher.

I ended up with 41, so I paid James his 40 back and took my dollar home. Feuer ended up placing 3rd in the tourny, and got Naqed by Martin for most of his chips 3 handed. 10 10 losing to 8 2. Yup. Sam won the tourny, playing good short stack poker and making right moves at the right times. Learned from the best. At one point, Martin compared me to the Phil Ivey of our games. I wouldn't go that far, but a compliment is a compliment.

When I got back home I thought I'd cool off a bit with a couple MTs. Wrong. Just the worst run I've seen in a long time, since my Party days in fact, so you know it's going bad. But, just gotta keep going and not going broke is all I gotta do.

Word

Poker Update

Since Danny Feuer is a little bitch, I'm going to update. And also since I've had one of the most frustrating hour of online poker in my life, I'm going to rant here for a while.

First of all, there was a hand I wanted to post entitled, "Hey my luck is turning around." This was a long time ago. The hand in essence was this :

I'm on the button with about 800 in chips, blinds 50/100 and I get a black 88. UTG pushes all in for around 260, next to act calls, then a fold then a call then a fold to me. I push HOPING to isolate to just a coin flip, but get called by both other players. Flop comes Kxx and I'm getting ready to leave, then a 9 then an A. I'm just about to leave when everyone mucks to me. I check the hand history and I see I was up against Q10 (SB), 66 and 33.

So that hand was coming off of 3 losing tournements and 1 bubble, all to terrible beats and terrible runs (like flopping top pair of J on a dry board with KJ and facing AJ, that sort of shit).

So then I'm in these 2 tournements, and I'm chip leader in both. I got a little lucky hitting a set in each and battled to just take the chip lead. And then...DISCONNECTED. Hmm. I run upstairs, reboot. Still nothing. Then I call comcast. 20 minutes later I get running...sort of. It connects, and then disconnects, so I try and process again. For those of you who have never been disconnected while in a tournement, imagine the Incredible Hulk beating up a...something. I almost beat up my kitten who I'm pretty sure disconnected me one time.

So I finally get back to my tournements to find I obviously lost my chip lead and am obviously in last place in both. In one, first hand I see reconnected is KJ, I have to push cause I have like 2 BBs, and I get called by QQ of course. Then in the other, I steal some blinds and 2 hands later I push with A8, get called with T7, flop by A and then turn T river 7. And here I am. One of my worst online sessions in weeks.

BUT -- As I said to Feuer before playing, I was trying to get all my bad beats out of the way tonight before tomorrow's big tourny in CP. so hopefully I did that. Got all my Naq's in.

Let me explain what a Naq is now.

The other night, I guess Sunday night, I make some calls and get a game. James, Hamburger, Feuer, Neil and Country, and country says he's bringing a couple guys. So he shows up with 2 guys, stoned off their asses, Losh and Naq. We sit down, ready for a normal night of poker. I even made the stakes more reasonable to .25/.25 as opposed to the .25/.50 with our buy ins of 20 dollars. It just makes more sense until we up the stakes.

First big hand, Neil and Martin are all in on the flop, flop of 3H 8D 10D, Neil shows A3 of diamonds and Martin shows QJ of diamonds. So Neil was winning to a QJ or 9...or the river 9 of diamonds, giving Martin the straight flush. That was to set the mood.

Next nice hand, which will go down in history. Naq, new guy who no one really knows is the dealer. Puts me in straddle position, so I straddle to 1 dollar. Martin RE-straddles to 2.50. Neil OPENS to 6. James calls on the cut off and Naq calls on the button. Flop K 4 5. Neil checks, James bets around 10 and Naq pushes all in, for about another 8 or so. Neil folds what I think was like AQ or weaker, James shows 55 (a set of 5's) and Naq turns over 3 4. That's right, he CALLS an all in with bottom pair. So turn an A. River, of course, the 2. So Naq pulls out what I believe to be a .03% win.

VERY next hand : After we all sort of mutter to ourselves about Naq maybe cheating, I mean, come on that's a whacky hand, James pushes his like 9 dollars remaining with TT and Naq calls with 56. Eventually Naq hits his inside straight, again. And we realize Naq isn't cheating, he just was the luckiest man alive.

The rest of the night was more of the same. Money flying around the table, 60 dollar pots being won with middle pots, raises on outside straight draws and bottom pairs. Eventually, I ran out of chips. We had to play with cash on the table. So at one point, I had 40 dollars in cash and 50 dollars in chips in front of me. It was a great feeling. Martin scored big cashing out around 170, James had a respectable 60 eventually I had around 100 and Naq had 0 in chips by the end of it.

It was a night to remember. And now we have a new term. A Naq is pulling a 1 outer. Or making the wrong move and somehow getting lucky enough to seem like you know what you're doing.

Well, I'm going to go fall asleep while the USPC is on in the background.

I better have some better luck tomorrow. For realz.

Oh, and in 10 or so business days, my jerseys will be here and I will be officially, Good Bet Ash.

Word

Now with new updates!

Ok everyone, people will now hopefully be reading this a little more, I'm gonna be updating a little more.

Updates will include :

- poker winnings and losing, with some good stories, including taking huge pots off possible drug lords of Silver Spring and hopefully taking down big tournements in CP.
- movie updates, including C4 updates (yeah it will never leave our lives) and everything else going on for KT films
- ** My living situation** Yay being homeless. I'm going to start a list, it's called the hooray list. It's a list of the fine ladies and gentleman who are so kind to let me and Jesse possibly stay a night or two or 10. The list is as follows as of now :

Matt and Christophe (each respective home)
Margot and Stephie (but I have to buy toilet paper because I don't think they ever do. I think they just use a single leaf)
Sam the man and Dan the...man. Fine pair of upstanding Jews. Well, Dan's close.
The lovely ladies of UHall : Sarah, Andi, Dana and Melissa, with hopefully a smattering of some Carrie in there for kicks. A little spice never hurts.

That's all as of now.

Ok, time for some late night poker. Big tourny tomorrow. I should update in actuality sometime soon.

Peace yall

- Ash

Dear Asher,
Here is your horoscope
for Tuesday, April 24:

Something that's right up your alley could be disguised as an activity you vehemently refused to do. Has it ever occurred to you that you're having a strong reaction because you know this could change your life?

here are some pictures. evil dead fun. and one of me taking a picture of a video chat with linda...im not sure why thats there, but what can you do

another update for Larke

Hey everyone who reads my blog (i think that's larke)

here's an update of my life, through poker terms

i moved up to .10/.25 because the .05/.10 was getting to me, so i decided to make a run for it. sat with 20 and was playing a long session. near the end of my session i get 88 in middle position, a small raise to .75 in front of my, i call. flop is KQ8. feeling good. the guy ahead of me bets out, i call. have to put him on AK or maybe even KQ. turn is a 9. he bets strong. maybe he had J10? or maybe he has like K10 or KJ, so i raise and he pushes all in. i think for a little bit, but at this point have invested enough, so i call. he shows KK, i don't hit my case 8 and go to sleep just a little perterbed. its one thing when someone outplays you, or when you make a really dumb move, but its just annoying when someone has just a little better hand than you, and you can't get away from it. like getting KK and seeing AA, or getting AQ and seeing AK on an Axx board. that kind of stuff gets under your skin

farewell,

a

cause larke said so

she wants me to update more

so heres an update, but of course, in poker form

i was in a cash game before, and i wasnt doing so well so i said, im playing 2 more hands. i had 4 dollars in a 10 cent game. i get 33 with a raise in front of me by a lose player. i push all in, he calls with AK. flop nothing, turn an ace, and river a 3. so i double up. next hand i get is KQ. i raise preflop, get a call. flop comes xxK, i check, check behind me. turn is a blank, i bet small i get called. river is a J i check and get bet hard, and I call. the other guy has JJ.

what goes around comes around, huh