12/18/04---as I was saying

I had mentioned the week that was.  Some rather interesting things going on along the home front.  First of all, I'd been trying to decide what to get Kim for a Christmas present.  Finally she got a brochure for a conference that's being held in Philadelphia in March and told me,
"If you wanna know what to get me for Christmas....here it is."

Zero shopping.  A trip to Philadelphia with her.  I can deal with that.

Of course...there's always a catch.  So last weekend she tells me that she wants to "go out and look at some carpet for the bedrooms".  Yeah, right.  Next thing I know we're setting up appointments for the good folks at Home Depot to come measure our rooms and give us an estimate.  Thats after, naturally, we visit Pino Tile to figure out what we want to do with the living room.  I think it would've been easier to get her jewelry like the women at work suggested because now I've got guys coming to my house to rip up my living room--during my vacation of course.  We went to the judge's holiday soiree and the big surprise was that no one got shitfaced this year.
The usual tasteful affair.
Some of the people at work decided that for Christmas it would be a nice idea to help one of our own, a woman who's in a lot of financial difficulty because of a sick mother and paying for her kids education.  The woman has to take the bus to work because her car is in such rough shape.  Well, all tolled they collected $560 for the woman, who was absolutely overwhelmed--and that was before another employee GAVE her one of their spare cars.  Christmas spirit coming through.
I mentioned that I have quite a bit of credit card debt if anyone wanted to donate.

On the courtroom front...there was a trial going on this week that was so sick and twisted that...sit down on this one....even Channel 7 didn't want to cover it!  It involved this guy who was a crackhead who committed a sexual battery--on his mom.  And I don't know quite how to say this, but it wasn't just a rape.  He decided to really put on a show apparently.  It was one of those things where when you tell people about it, they say...."uh, I don't wanna hear no more".  Seriously twisted.
The guy gets convicted and then he starts crying.  I hope he's not expecting to be consoled by his mother. 

Haven't done any DVD reviews in a week or so, so let's do that.  Once again, I'm doing an alphabetical review of my personal collection of DVD's and we're up to the "B's".  Today we look at:
1) The Blues Brothers--I may have seen this movie more than any other movie in my life.  Its one of those movies where you memorize all the lines, all the subtle gestures and when you say one in the company of a group of guys, everyone knows what movie your referring too.  You probably know the plot.  John Belushi & Dan Ackroyd were at their zenith as a couple of nair-do-well brothers who are attempting to raise money to pay the taxes for the church that they were raised in.
They attempt to do this by getting their old band back together and playing a concert.  Their adventures in this attempt, both in resurrecting the band and trying to find a venue, is the basis of the story.  Great music, more cameos than you can shake a stick at...including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown,  John Lee Hooker, Steven Spielberg, Cab Calloway and many others.  Its loud, slightly obnoxious...and hilarious.  In other words, its a lot like Belushi.  The soundtrack is awesome.  ****1/4
2) Bound--unquestionably the greatest lesbo-mob ripoff movie ever made.  Jennifer Tilly & Gina Gershon come close to melting the lens on the filmmakers cameras in a few scenes.  The film is about two women, who are quite a bit smarter than the men in the movie give them credit for, who decide that their life would be a whole lot easier if they an unlimited supply of money (a philosphy I happen to agree with).
They set out to rob Tilly's boyfriend, played by the always terrific Joe "Joey Pants"
Pantaliano.  Its a great caper flick, made even better by the presence of the never better performances by Tilly & Gershon.  Smoking hot.  ****1/4

Later,
Jeff