Best of the Week - Third Week of May

Best Movie I saw: Saturday night I was over my friend's house and we were thinking about watching a movie. Him and his wife had never seen Wet Hot American Summer. Even though I have probably seen that movie 50 times, I made them put it on. We started the movie around 11:30, and they were asleep around 12:15. But I was laughing away as if it was the first time I had seen that movie. Funny enough, I never realized Bradley Cooper was in it, and it reaffirmed my decision to include that movie on my list of favorites. This is also the movie (along with Anchor Man) which introduced me to the comic genius that is Paul Rudd. If you haven't seen it, please throw it on your Netflix queue. It's available if you want to "Watch it now".

Best TV show I saw: I barely had any time to watch any TV this week, but I can tell you the worst I'd seen. The Office finale was boring, and simply not good. I don't think I even chuckled once. The show will be done next year without Steve Carrell and he will make some bad movies. Really everyone will come out behind with this decision.

Best thing I read: I read two books last week that were both good, but not great. In order I first read The Day I Turned Uncool by Dan Zevin. This is a book of a series of five pages anecdotes writing about how he used to go out drinking every night, and now he gets excited about his lawn and about home maintenance. It is written very tongue in cheek and I mostly enjoyed it because I can 100% relate. I happened to stumble upon this book at the right time while I'm going through all my renovation. I laughed out loud a few times, but the book did lost its luster after the first 50 pages or so and got to be quite repetitive.

Later in the week I read the old satire Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. I was surprised at the comedy behind this book an thought it was a very smart way of explaining the idea of how perception is everything. I cannot do this book justice, but the story is about a square that lives in a two dimensional world and he becomes enlightened that there exists a three dimensional world out there. The satire about class, and late 1800s English Society (many of the "in-jokes" were explained in footnotes) were all very clever. This was a smart book very ahead of its times, even though I'm sure I didn't "get all of it".

I Also Read: A bunch of Captain America trades up to but not including when Steve Rodgers comes back from the dead. Ed Brubaker's run with Steve Epting's art are some of the best Super Hero books I've ever read. I was never a Captain America fan, but they have made me care about all the characters and they tell the story in such a great pace where everything seems so important. I can only dream whoever is writing the movie is using this series as a template (but I know that's not possible).

Best Thing I Heard: On a whim, I decided to listen to The Crow Soundtrack last week. It brought me back in time to the summer of 1994 and although the soundtrack wasn't quite as good as I remember with some stinkers on there, some of that music was great. I may have to rewatch that movie now. But give it a listen if it's been a while, I think you may enjoy it.