All Snowed Up!

onLike most of you reading this, I was snowed in for the majority of the weekend. Since I was all by lonesome and without da foosball, I had the opportunity to dig into my bookshelf and DVD case. Here’s what I rocked:

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – This western starred Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, AND Lee Marvin. Talk about a murder’s row. Stewart plays a lawyer who moves out west to an unnamed state. He’s a principled lawyer, fresh out of school, who took Horace Greely’s advice “literally”. Of course, he gets attacked almost immediately by Lee Marvin. John Wayne plays the hard-ass rancher who is the only man that Marvin’s Valance is afraid of. Death ensues.

Looking back, this is probably the best western that was ever made. It has a subtlety that The Searchers lacked and miles more heart than any of Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns. What gets lost in the shuffle about John Wayne is that, in addition to his being the greatest ass-kicker that ever walked this earth, he could add the subtlest nuance to the most, seemingly flat character. An absolute, must-see. I give this one: Five Snowflakes (out of a possible five).

Wimbledon – After catching the end of Spiderman 2, I was craving some Kirsten Dunst action. This one isn’t great, but it’s funny enough to keep you interested; Dunst is hot; Paul Bettany is believable enough as washed-up, near-retirement tennis pro. In short, it’s enough. Let’s give it: Three Snowflakes.

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix – Excellent book. This is my second favorite Potter book (Azkaban is tops).

I spent the weekend alone. I read a Harry Potter book. I’m a loser. Let’s give the Boy Who Lived 4 Snowflakes. Moving onward.

The Office (First Season) – Funniest show on TV by a lot. This one was probably my favorite Christmas gift this year. One of the benefits of this show is that you can watch the episodes in just about any order and still enjoy it (which is a beef I have with most shows on DVDs). It also has the “I could really watch [insert description of an episode]," mojo that most shows lack. This puppy gets: 4 Snowflakes.

The Olympics – Watched some lady hockey and dudes practice skiing. Commentary was ridiculous as always. This was more background noise while I was reading than anything else. At least the Special Olympics is funny. On the other hand, America rules. This gets a resounding....1.097 Lonely Little Snowflakes.

Truth & Beauthy: A Friendship by Ann Patchett – Not quite finished with the book yet, but close. This is a quasi-autobiography about Patchett’s friendship with the late Lucy Grealy, a fellow artist. Grealy was the author of An Autobiography of a Face, which chronicled her bout with childhood cancer and the havoc that it reaped on her face (and personal life). Both are good reads that I had for my Law & Lit class. I’m giving these ladies: 3.789 Snowflakes.

School Work – Toiled for a few hours Saturday night with Federal Income Tax. Bleh bleh bleh. Zero Snowflakes.

Heat v. Pistons – Great game. I caught the last half. Up to this game, the Heat were something like 0-7 against the top teams in the NBA. Make it 1-7. It was Dwayne Wade-tacular. 3.5 Snowflakes.

Lazy Sunday (The Chronic of Narnia) – I wanted to end on a positive note and this bad boy is the way to do it. I watched this video about 47 times over the last 72 hours. The set-up of this SNL video is simple: Chris Parnell and Adam (Andy?) Sandberg hardcore rapping about their afternoon. Hilarity ensues. It gets: 4.8287 Snowflakes.