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December 30, 2006

What's New? A Movie Review of "Dreamgirls."

For this movie review of "Dreamgirls," The Dude on the Right liked most of the movie, but thought the musical part got in the way at times. Jennifer Hudson was great as Effie, especially her rendition of "And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going," and Eddie Murphy finally got back to a great role. Just remember while you're watching it that "Dreamgirls" is a musical.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:26 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2006

Merry New Year! And I Must Be Suffering from Reality Show Withdrawal.

By: The Dude on the Right
In the immortal words of Nanga Eboko, exchange student from Cameroon, "Merry New Year!!!!!!"  Sure, it's a few days early, but I doubt I'll be doing a blog on New Year's Eve night, even though I really don't have anything planned except, thanks to the NFL, watching the Chicago Bears play the Green Bay Packers in what a lot of people say might be Brett Favre's last game.  Thankfully our local radio station pops a little delay on the broadcast and it synchs with the cable TV broadcast so rather than hear John Madden wax poetic during the entire broadcast that this might be Brett Favre's last game, I'll get to yell "Ball" with Tom Thayer of the WBBM broadcast team (along with Jeff Joniak) every time there is a fumble.

But yelling "Ball" at the TV screen is the least of my worries, right now, because I think I am suffering from reality TV withdrawal.  My main symptom of my malady - multiple dreams in one night of me in reality TV shows.  The scarier part?  They weren't even real TV shows.

In my first dream last night I found myself in a sort of "military boot camp" reality TV show.  I was in a big room, with a lot of people I didn't know, and all of us were dreading the "training" we were going to have to endure.  I wanted to quit before the filming even got started, but as dreams sometimes take a life of their own, all of a sudden this one turned into something about one of the dudes swinging the driver from his golf bag around, as we all started ducking for cover, and me wishing I had brought my golf clubs so I would have a weapon, only I kept knocking over other golf bags before realizing I did bring my clubs, but I woke up before I could pull out my driver and join in the fight.

So I woke up, drained the main vein, and headed back to sleep wondering "What the hell was that?"  And no sooner do I remember that than I kicked into a dream even more all over the place.

It started at a basketball court, where the players seemed to be committing a lot of hard fouls (this might have been spurred by the news coverage of the Chicago Bulls' player that got hurt the night before), one that even took Joakim Noah (although he wasn't in a Florida Gator's uniform) to the floor where he broke his arm and dislocated his shoulder and kept rolling around and screaming while his arm flopped around like a fish out of water and it took most of his teammates to get him to stay still so as not to hurt himself any more than he already was.  At this time me and my buddy (even though I didn't know who he was) were on the court watching this happen when a security guard escorted us outside, where we kept insisting to let us watch the rest of the game and that we wouldn't go on the court, but he kept saying we were needed for something outside.

So there we were, and then a big group began to congregate, complete with buddies I knew, namely The Dude on the Left, Aquaman, and Big Cooter, and they wouldn't stop talking amongst themselves.  We found ourselves being separated into two football teams, only I didn't hear my name called the first time and had to run through the crowd when our jerseys were being handed out, in total fear I was going to be yelled at by our coach for not hearing my name the first time.  But joining with my team proved just as daunting as my friends wouldn't shut up and I feared us getting yelled at (I suppose that sort of reminds me of a night class I had in college when T.P.'s friend decided to join us for class), and with their talking I couldn't hear what our "coach" was saying.

But that didn't fluster me as much as trying to put on my jersey.  For whatever reason there were pads on the inside of the jersey, and it was a couple of sizes too small, so I kept trying to stretch one arm open a little more to get one arm in...

And then, wouldn't you know, my phone rings, waking me up as I struggled to get my jersey on, AND IT WAS THE WRONG FREAKIN' NUMBER!

So now I won't really know why I was supposed to be in a "military boot camp" nor a "weird football game" reality show.  But what really bummed me out the most, after I woke up, was that I wasn't able to flip the switch while I was dreaming, to realize I was dreaming, and take control of the dream.  That is the coolest thing about my dreaming when I can make it happen.

So on this eve of the eve of New Year's Eve, for Joakim Noah's sake, I hope my dreams aren't premonitions.

And if my dreams are premonitions, all I ask if for one of them to give me the winning numbers for the lottery.  Is that too much to ask for the New Year?

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

Posted by Rightdude at 7:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2006

What's New? A Podcast of: "James Brown Memories, I'll Never Buy a Kia, and the Best Version Ever of "O Holy Night.""

For this podcast The Dude on the Right reflects on the passing of James Brown, hates the NFL Network, won't buy a Kia, and wonders about inviting people over to see his Christmas display. At least he found the best version, ever, of "O Holy Night."

Posted by Rightdude at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2006

What's New? A Movie Review of "Rocky Balboa."

The Dude on the Right finally got to see "Rocky Balboa," but his trailers didn't include the new "Transformers" trailer. The Dude, though, loved the movie, thought Stallone got the finale right, but missed a little bit of the grittiness of the first "Rocky" some 30 years ago. The Dude on the Right suggests, though, that you see this one if you are a fan.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:50 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2006

Christmas Weekend Plans Shot Down the Drain.

By: The Dude on the Right
You know how the holidays are supposed to be about getting together with loved ones, or at least your family?  Well, I think I'm done with that.  It's not that I don't love my family, in fact my favorite nephew is, or should I say was, so high up on the list that I offered to pick him up at the airport (and on a quick side note, the airport in question was Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, which I must say is a whole hell of a lot smaller than Chicago's O'Hare Airport).  And sure, I complained a bit about the fact that his flight was getting in at 6:40 AM Cleveland time, which is 5:40 AM Dude time, which means waking up at about 4:30 AM Dude time to pick him up, yet there I was, at baggage claim #9.  There he was, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as he was getting in from a red-eye from Las Vegas, so I let him nod off a bit on the ride back to my folk's house, and tried to keep quiet at home so he could take a nap.

Now, in my preparation for coming home for the holidays, one of our traditions is to see a movie on Christmas Day, but since I might be traveling back to the dude-pad that day, I figured wouldn't it be great to head to the movies with my nephew on Friday evening, and maybe hit the bars after,where he could give me the hip ways to pick up college dudettes these days, and I could show him that his uncle has no right trying to pick up college dudettes.  Oh, wait, he's not 21 yet, but I did hold off on my seeing "Rocky Balboa" before he showed up, thinking that would be our movie to catch this weekend in pseudo-tradition for Christmas.

But alas, this afternoon, in telling some of his exploits in Sin City, it came out that he had already seen an aged Rocky try to re-claim his glory.

And so, figuring that, for a change, I wouldn't have to go to the movies alone, and remembering what our staff member, Whammy, once said, "Only losers go and see movies alone," well it looks like tomorrow I'll be a loser.  At least my favorite niece might have been fast thinking enough to lie about what movies she has seen so as not to ruin Christmas Weekend.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 6:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast: SNL Suggests a Gift For Your Girl, Stu's Looking for an Angel, and The Dude is Looking for Puzzles.

For this podcast Stu Gotz and The Dude on the Right are working to get their Christmas season done. Thanks to Saturday Night Live, The Dude has a suggestion on what Stu should give Mama Gotz. Meanwhile, Stu is looking for an Angel with a big dress, The Dude is looking for jigsaw puzzles, and there is also talk about murder, Happyness, and TiVo.

Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2006

Screwed Up Animation, Too Much "Star Wars," and the NFL Network Should Get a Clue. Merry Christmas!

By: The Dude on the Right
As I'm at home this Saturday night, becoming pissed at myself for my, hmm, improper animation techniques (which actually means I screwed up a good chunk of our animated review for "Apocalypto" that I wanted to get posted this weekend), I also have the Dallas Cowboys vs. Atlanta Falcons game on my NFL Network Channel in between my watching, again, thanks to the Cinemax folks, my various "Star Wars" fixes.

For the animation, as I got through most of the subtitling that would be necessary, I realized most of none of it was going to work because I forgot about the camera angles I would use (I should have fully outlined the animation schedule on paper, instead of doing it in my head).  In trying to rush the animated review, I pretty much set it back a week due to heading home for Christmas and my lack of computing power in Ohio.  My fault, but it was a stupid mistake, which wouldn't have happened if I had just done some proper planning.

I'm also wishing, hoping, praying, that Cinemax is almost done with their various showing of the "Star Wars" films.  For "Episode I" I'm a sucker for the hope that Anakin is the one to save the galaxy, "Episode II" gives me Senator Amidala to be happy she is of age, and she looks great as monsters rip off her clothes.  "Episode III" has great fight scenes and sadly, the end of Mace Windu.  "Episode IV" is always great but sort of creepy.  Great because it was the first "Star Wars" movie, that I saw at the Avon Lake Theater in Ohio before they remodeled from one screen to four, and creepy, because now we now Princess Leia is Luke's sister.  "Episode V" was the dark episode, but I was now at the age when "A New Hope" started to make sense.  And then came "Episode VI," "The Return of the Jedi," where everything worked, except the Ewoks still suck, even watching it today.

But enough about "Star Wars," what is really pissing me off tonight is the NFL Network and their bizarre insistence of showing games on their cable channel.  All I can ask is "Umm, Dudes at the NFL Network, have you, or your producers, even watched the games that CBS, FOX, and NBC, have perfected.?"  Your announcers don't work together, your camera shifts blow, and no dude wants to see a "long shot" of the cheerleaders - Give us the close-up, with the cutest of them juggling their jugs and pom-poms for the camera.  And don't get me started on your trying to expand the season to a Thursday night and Saturday night.  I totally forgot the Cleveland Browns/Pittsburgh Steelers' game was on a couple of Thursdays ago.  Sorry, NFL Network dudes, you're just not on my weekday radar.  And the only reason I tuned in to this Saturday's game with Dallas and Atlanta was because I heard someone else talk about how bad the production (including the announcer talk) was.  And they were right.  Dear NFL, leave the football to when we want it:  Sunday - All day, and Monday night.  And never, ever, take away our Thanksgiving Day games.  These extra Thursday night and Saturday games are crap, especially with your presentation, so just cut it out and get back to what we want to see, and not your convoluted way to make more money.  The only reason reason I was able to watch your game tonight, which sucked, was because A: I was home on a Saturday night.  And B: I pay for everything on my cable channel.

Well, I've got to get back to my animating that I screwed up, but that's okay.  It's that weird time of year when sometimes when things go wrong, you get a little bummed, but then remember that it's the Christmas Season, so sometimes work can be put on a burner a little further back.  Our animated review of "Apocalypto" will be posted, eventually, just not as soon as I planned.  Merry Christmas.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2006

What's New? A Podcast of: The Biggest Loser, The Plight of the Nauga, and The Golden Globe Nominated Movies I Didn't See.

For this podcast The Dude on the Right agrees with Howard Stern that Caroline Rhea, the host of "The Biggest Loser," ruined the emotional moment when Erik won, he also tries to remind people about the plight of the Nauga, and wonders why he doesn't see movies in the drama category of the Golden Globes.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2006

My Christmas Display is Done... For No One to See.

By: The Dude on the Right
My 2006 Christmas display is done.

Thank God.

And I may never do it again.

I finally got all of the fake snow I needed, but I think I overdid it.  I broke the head off of my new horse riding dude, but luckily it was a clean break since I don't have any glue - His head rests gently on his body.  The train doesn't work like it should (damn cow-catcher keeps catching on the track joints and derailing it, and the tracks need a good cleaning so even when the train did run it didn't have a lot of umph).  The windmill bent so it doesn't rotate.  I think I had some soap residue in the cup I used to fill the wood mill scene because it bubbles a bit.  And I couldn't find a sniper dude to man the new mountain post (and it just occurred to me that I should have gone to the toy store and picked up some green toy soldiers - that would have worked perfectly).

I should have picked up some more "flat" snow to cover my window blinds.  I broke the head off of Sally from Peanuts, one of my Christmas Tree decorations, when the tree was "side heavy" and fell over a bit when I was trying to plug it in.  The addition of the waterfall didn't come out nearly as cool as the waterfall I had when I was managing a Radio Shack.  And as I look at the waterfall backdrop now, it looks like a crazed animal, ready to eat my village.  The "mountains" I made aren't very sturdy, so I can't run the ski-lift.  And yet, another issue...

Some of my friends say they want to come and see my Christmas display.  Sure, the Christmas display looks cool, but now I have to clean the rest of the Dude-Pad before any invites are sent.

My Christmas decorating used to be very simple.  I bought a fake tree one year, decorated it, and carried it up the stairs, to my spare bedroom, still decorated.  The next couple of Christmas' my decorating took about 10 minutes - I would move an end table in front of the window, go upstairs and grab my "decorated tree," carry it down the stairs, put it on the end table, and my decorating was done.  Then, for whatever messed up reason (I'm blaming a friend from high school), I decided to start my own holiday village, and now, rather than taking 10 minutes to be festive, it takes me days.  And it never goes as smoothly as I think it will.

That's why I'm thinking of taking a wide-angle picture.

Yup, getting back to my "lazy days of Christmas decorating," I'm thinking of taking a nice wide-angle picture of my Christmas display, getting it enlarged to about 10 feet wide, and next year, instead of all of this "decorating" crap, just hanging the picture at the end of my living room, and suddenly the dude-pad will be festive.  No more broken heads, no more trains that derail, no more lame waterfalls looking to eat my village.  Nope, just a giant photograph to unroll at Thanksgiving, and roll back up again after Christmas.

Life seems to have been so much simpler when I was young.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 8:25 PM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2006

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast: "Apocalypto" and Childbirth, The Bears, and How to get a Cheap Christmas Tree.

For this podcast, Stu Gotz and The Dude on the Right are reunited, once again, to talk about their respective weekends. They both saw "Apocalypto," Stu wonders why Hollywood can't come up with anything new, and The Dude visited some staff members for some birthday celebrating. Stu also gives his secret to getting a free (or pretty cheap) Christmas Tree.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2006

What's New? Movie Reviews of "Apocalypto" and "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny."

The Dude on the Right saw Apocalypto and thought the brutality was realistic (and great), liked the love story, and his buddy, Stu Gotz, says that no woman should ever complain about childbirth unless she has to do it while drowning and trying to save her other son. Stu & The Dude's animated review of "Apocalypto" is coming soon. The Dude on the Right also saw "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny," and seeing it made him long for his college days.

The Dude on the Right also realized he can't really blame "The Holidays" for not getting things done, but you'll have to check out his "Myspace" blog for that.

Posted by Rightdude at 8:54 PM | Comments (0)

December 7, 2006

December is a Clusterf&%^. At Least I Posted Some Short CD Reviews of Springsteen and some Presidents.

By: The Dude on the Right
I won't come out and say that I'm totally disliking December, but I'm stuck in a quandary of getting things done, blowing things off, or just not giving a damn.  The holiday season just seems to keep getting in the way of getting things done, unless, of course, I would win the Lotto.

Case in point:  I wanted to do a podcast tonight, but it didn't come together.  I've been redesigning "The Movie Theater" archive area, to make it more functional, and thought I had it all together.  The redesign looked fine in Explorer, but for a reason I eventually figured out, the Firefox browser side looked crappy.  So tonight I think I got the basic redesign of "The Movie Theater" archive section looking okay, and that cut into the podcast.

Then there were all of the topics I would like to write about in my last blog, which, my sister is probably right, I won't ever get to.  And who wouldn't want to hear about Farmers vs. Dudettes in Short Skirts.

Stu Gotz and I started our work on our next "Stu & The Dude Reviewin' the Movies for You!" for the Mel Gibson flick, Apocolypto, but knowing me and my OCD, or ADD (I always get them messed up), it might take a little while to get it posted.  I figured for at least tonight, I would post a couple of more CD's I own reviews, "The River" from Bruce Springsteen, and the self-titled CD from "The Presidents of the United States of America."

At least I got a couple of things accomplished today.  How about you?

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

Posted by Rightdude at 7:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 4, 2006

What's New? Stu & The Dude's Weekend Wrap-Up Podcast: Vin Diesil, X-Mas Cards, The Colonel's Great Grandson, Karen With Nice Boobs, and Six Degrees of Movie Quotes.

For this podcast, The Dude on the Right is back from a pseudo-reunion weekend with friends from his college days and fills Stu Gotz in about meeting someone who alleges to be related to Colonel Sanders, meeting someone named Karen with nice boobs, and just having a fun weekend. Stu is having Christmas card issues with Mama Gotz, and he also came up with a new game dealing with movie quotes.

Posted by Rightdude at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2006

A Relation of Colonel Sanders, Kevin Bacon has Nothing on Lonnie, and Short Skirts vs. the Farm.

By: The Dude on the Right
Yes, I admit, it's been a while since my last blog.  It is, for me, that time of year when the holidays seem to get in the way of consistency, but from tonight until the Christmas/New Year's time frame, I've got a couple of weeks of trying to get back to normalcy, only to have it thrown out the window for a couple of weeks at the end of December, and then comes January, the "New Year," when we are supposed to start again, come up with new goals, and screw them up within about a week.

Such is life, except my last week.

My last week of not getting things posted was about seeing friends, and isn't that what the Holiday Season is about?  Now, because it is a Sunday evening after a long, weekend reunionish thing, I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things, and I will list a bunch of topics that I may not revisit, which seems to bug the crap out of my sister, who still wants me to explain the resolution of my mom's issues in buying a new microwave.  So, here we go, with some topics from this past weekend which will probably fall by the wayside.  If you would really like an explanation, use the comment link at the end of this blog, and maybe those might get to a higher priority of explanation.  So here's some things from my last week:

-  I met someone who might be the great or just grandson of Colonel Sanders in an elevator.  He was wearing a nice skull-cap and had a very cute dudette with him (I hope this doesn't get him in trouble if it wasn't him, or if it was him, and his normal dudette wasn't with him in Chicago last weekend, well, hell, I don't know, like I said, it might be the great or just grandson of Colonel Sanders, or just some dude with a skull-cap with a very cute dudette).  She was skittish about being in an elevator, and he liked to joke around by faking jumping up and down in said elevator.  As do a lot of my other friends.  But not me.  We all survived the elevator ride.

-  The reason I might have met the great or just grandson of Colonel Sanders is because of dude named Lonnie, who seems to know about everyone, or has one of the smallest degrees of separation I have ever encountered.  Kevin Bacon might have six degrees of separation, but Lonnie seems to have about two or three.  And that now includes some rugby team members.

-  Tequilya:  Is that a good or bad way to start a weekend of being with friends?  And Karen, or maybe it was Caron, or maybe it was Carin.  All I know is she had a fantastic smile and nice boobs.

-  Farmers vs. Dudettes in Short Skirts:  Who is sticky-shocked?

-  A friend of ours got married, and no one seemed to know it.  It was a small ceremony, only family, so should your life-long friends, or just people you now just seem to know, feel slighted that they weren't invited to the ceremony?  I say, "No," but someone else I know says they should have been invited.  I just hope my pledge-bro is happy, and like the heathen I am, I wouldn't have made the ceremony anyways.

-  Should smoking be banned from bars and restaurants, or should you at least voice your objection to people you know whom you wish wouldn't smoke?

-  If you were in a bar, and really, really, really, really, wanted to hear a song, would you drop three bucks into a virtual jukebox to get it to the head of the line. (I have my answer.)

For those of you out there in internet land, if it were up to me I'd like to explain the entire Colonel Sanders story, but if you you really want to know about "Farmers vs. Dudettes in Short Skirts," that story is great, too.  At least if I ever get to it.

In the end, I had a great time this "Holiday Weekend" with friends.  I hope you do/did, too.

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

Posted by Rightdude at 8:23 PM | Comments (0)