thank you for saving my life

I had this really sad thought last night that I might be the only person in the world who liked the movie Lady in the Water.





I saw it in the movie theater the summer of 2006 when it came out - I don't see a lot of movies in theaters these days, but I've been an M. Night Shyamalan fan since I went with Missy and Abby to see The Sixth Sense on opening night, before anyone knew ANYTHING about what it was about or the twist or any of that good stuff. I saw all of his movies from that point on except for Unbreakable in theaters, and while I wasn't a huge fan of Signs or The Village, I enjoyed them enough for me to want to see Lady in the Water, which, after a second viewing last night, I'd say is my favorite of the set. And considering neither Bruce Willis nor Joaquin Phoenix was in it, that's saying a damn lot!

The thing is, I don't remember a whole lot about most of his other movies other than The Sixth Sense, each of which I only saw the one time. So maybe what struck me so much about this one, that I think made everyone that I re-watched it with last night HATE it, is that the whole premise is pretty ridiculous. Paul Giamatti is an apartment building superintendent who finds Bryce Dallas Howard swimming in the complex's pool after hours, and then comes to realize that she's actually a character in a bedtime story who is trying to get back home, but there are evil dog/wolf-like creatures lurking around trying to make sure that she doesn't get home. It sounds ridiculous.

And it is . . . but I feel like it knows it. As Paul Giamatti tries to help "Story" get home, he starts looking to the other tenants for help. One of the new tenants is a film critic, an "unlikeable side character", who provides commentary on the movie itself from inside it, which I found hilarious. The characters in this movie were necessarily more developed than the others - each had a role to serve and nobody was introduced just for the hell of it. It was funnier than I remembered Shyamalan's other movies being - I'm serious, this movie had a little bit of everything. It was funny, it was touching, it was suspenseful, it was RIDICULOUS . . . it was fantastic. I can't really further justify why I found it so awesome without giving stuff away, but I am fully prepared to defend this movie til my dying day.

I have yet to find anyone who likes this movie even half as much as I did, which kills me because I seriously loved everything about it, enough to go out and buy it. Did anyone who reads this like it? Have any of you even seen it? If you didn't like it, why didn't you like it? Enlighten me.

may peeps be with you

I figure it's been nine days and everyone who wanted to guess has by now. If you're still desperate for more trivia, go check out Briton's blog to see if you know any of his movie quotes! Unless you are Briton, in which case, you're out of luck. Movie quiz answers:

1 - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (I'm actually really disappointed that nobody got this one - it was literally in my AIM profile from December 2002 until probably sometime in 2005)
2 - Clue
3 - Love Actually
4 - Wet Hot American Summer
5 - Playing by Heart
6 - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
7 - Mafia
8 - Swingers
9 - Bridget Jones's Diary
10 - The Emperor's New Groove

~*~

As my title alluded to, with Easter just around the corner, I couldn't resist sharing one of my all time favorite links: Peep Research. The whole website is pretty much amazing, but just to give you a little preview, it involves both



peep separation surgery


and



risk analysis

Truly funny stuff.

~*~

Finally, in honor of Spring Break, which started at 10 tonight, and as promised a couple of weeks ago, I have a top ten [thirteen] list that dates back to 2003 from another college friend way more creative than me, this time, Melanie. Most of them are inside jokes, so don't be too disturbed ;)

Melanie's Top Thirteen Things For Me To Do To Keep Myself Entertained Over Spring Break

1. Throw bricks through Starbucks windows.
2. Go on a silly string rampage in Times Square.
3. Eat Marshmallow Fluff and pretend it's the real thing.
4. DANCE PARTY (with one fist in the air)!
5. Read stories to your mice. Animals like literature too.
6. Ignore the elephant that's hanging around. (So this one was just an inside joke in reference to the Miracle of 86 song, 'G Song', but believe it or not, it was actually feasible! Check it out):
   his name was Okonkwo . . . and you bet we ignored him
   
7. Throw things out your window and see if you can't hit someone on the crew team...1000 points a head, 10 million points for the captain.
8. Make squeakies and laughies!
9. Kick someone's pug as hard as you can while you're on a walk.
10. Try EVERY inedible thing on the Bubble Tea menu and see how sick you can get!
11. Introduce yourself to Officer O'Callaghan.
12. Peeps in the microwave...trust me, it's fun. (I took her up on this one too . . . this picture looks REALLY mean after that Peeps site above, but I figured why not share)
    
    
13. Take a fast-moving object to the face, and by the time you get out of the emergency room, break will already be over!

~*~

And on that note . . . have a happy Easter, everyone!

don't quote me, boy, i ain't said . . .

So nearly everyone I know who keeps a blog on a site OTHER than blogger has done this little "name-that-movie" quiz thingy - I felt like maybe I should hop on the bandwagon.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie. (or just remember them.)
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

---

1. "There is always hope."

2. "Well, you tell him it's not true!"
"It's not true."
"Is that true?"
"No, it's not true."
"Ha-hah! So it is true!"
"A double negative!"
"Double "negative"? You mean you have-- Photographs?"
"That sounds like a confession to me. In fact, the double negative has led to proof positive. I'm afraid you gave yourself away."
"Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests?"
"You don't need any help from me, sir." Clue (Christy)


3. "Well I just thought maybe the time had come to do something about it."
"Like what?"
"Invite him out for a drink and then after about twenty minutes casually drop into the conversation the fact that you'd like to marry him and have lots of sex and babies." Love Actually (Brandi)

4. "You taste like a burger. I don't like you anymore." Wet Hot American Summer (Melissa got it first, but Briton knew it too!)

5. "You can't treat people the way you treat them and then say something adorable like that."

6. "Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You'd have a chance, at least. You could lie there thinking, "Well. At least I'm not dead.'"

7. "I'm always going to be That Protestant Chick Who Never Killed Anybody!"

8. "I don't want you to be the guy in the PG-13 movie everyone's *really* hoping makes it happen. I want you to be like the guy in the rated R movie, you know, the guy you're not sure whether or not you like yet." Swingers (Briton)

9. "I mean there's been all these bloody hints and stuff, but has he ever actually stuck his fucking tongue down your fucking throat?" Bridget Jones's Diary (Rachel)

10. "Excellent. A few drops in his drink, and then I'll propose a toast, and he will be dead before dessert."
"Which is a real shame, because it's gonna be delicious."

stay loose, live the dream, and other lies nemmy told me

As an NYU hockey "fanager" during the 2003-04 season, there were five phrases that were so commonly heard that four years later, I can still spew them out without any hesitation:

1. Stay Loose
2. Live The Dream
3. Explore an Angle
   
4. Explode a Moment
5. Get That Glow

For four years I have lived my life under the assumption that these phrases were Nemchek originals. This weekend, my faith was shaken when The 2 Man Advantage revealed that "explode a moment" was actually the title of a poem written by some 10-year-old kid that they read in USA Hockey magazine. Unbelievable. (Almost as unbelievable as the fact that Dan told me this weekend that t2MA has been in touch with this kid's mother and that they're going to actually fly somewhere to meet this kid and interview him for their show.) I didn't dare ask about the other four mantras. It will destroy me if I find out that "stay loose and live the dream" was actually something that Scott said or that Mason overheard a homeless guy mumbling. Unbelievable.

Dan was just the bearer of bad news all around this weekend - clearly the past eight and a half years have been nothing but lies! Back in 2002, Mary and I thought we had found the next Justin Timberlake (although I guess at that point, Justin Timberlake hadn't launched his solo career yet, so maybe that's a bad analogy). His name was Jerry Valentine and he was the best fake pop/R&B star "with an edge" you could imagine.

He wrote two songs - never recorded, but frequently sung - "Dreams Are Good" and "Hot Mamma." (Sample lyrics: "Your so hot you hot mamma *sings*(its that fire, its that FIYYAAAA!) Girl you give me heart burn *sings*(I need a Tums or a Roalaiiiiyiads!) HOT MAMMA") His career never took off, but he remained my favorite non-existent musician up until Saturday night, when Dan confessed that he actually stole the name Jerry Valentine from some firefighter in Stamford, CT.

What else was a lie, I wonder? I don't even want to think about it!

The NYU hockey alumni game was this weekend, and we had a really decent turnout - enough alumni to play an actual game, enough alumni managers to make sure they didn't run out of water (haha, just kidding! I don't do that stuff anymore - I actually didn't even step foot into the rink, let alone on the ice!). Nobody ended up in the Emergency Room (players or managers)

(alumni game '03 flashback)

Boom-Boom reffed, and somebody was wearing a "special shirt" that we were all able to get a good laugh at. I think my favorite moment of the night was when I pointed somebody out to Melanie who she hadn't seen in about four years but never really knew and she got all disgusted and wanted to know "What happened to his face? Can that actually happen to people?" and then about five minutes later, the actual person we were talking about walked in and I realized that I'd made a mistake and we both just looked at each other and said "oooh." Ha. Even Mr. and Mrs. Hughes showed up for the game, which shouldn't have been a surprise, but it kind of was - a nice one though. Todd brought his wife. That's so weird to me. Todd has a wife. Mike left his wife at home. That's so weird to me. Mike has a wife. I got excited when I remembered that her name was Heather (she was his college girlfriend too, who I'd met several times) and he laughed and thought I was excited because I'd been rooting for her to marry him.

Afterwards, the whole crew went to the Village Tavern on Leroy Street, a street that none of us had ever even heard of before but that reminded me of a joke that I won't repeat here (mainly because I know the punchline but always mess up the delivery - just ask Mary, who had to hear it twice this weekend). Mary and I played 7 songs on the juke box, I got to hear TWO Mika songs (only one at my request), and Gilmore and I rocked out to Spoon's "The Underdog". I apparently have to have a graduation party, and Dan apparently will be there or will pay me $100 (he put the bill "in escrow" in his pocket), but as we've established already, Dan lies, so he probably will not come to the hypothetical graduation party AND I won't get the $100. What a disgrace.

Anyway. What can I say? I love this team.

"I liked the picture section on top of the rinks. NYU had the weirdest team by far.(what were they looking at ???)"

AND - check out what I found on YouTube! So random - it wasn't from my glory days, but it features the last ever Matty double dutch so I had to share it.



Until next time, stay loose and live the dream.

Person of the Month: February 2008

PERSON OF THE MONTH:
FEBRUARY 2008



BECKY K.*

Considering that it was only twenty-nine days, February felt like the longest month EVER - I think it was just that eventful. I spent the first week of February harassing Becky about the amazingness that is laser tag. I don't know if I convinced her that it was awesome, but at least I convinced her to go! So our team kind of sucked, but that night was a lot of fun anyway (it involved nearly sleeping in the law review office and forcing Micah and Willie, under duress, to befriend us each on Facebook). She even came and picked me up the next day so that I wouldn't have to walk to her house to get my car :) The rest of the month included some more drunk nights, including her text message proclaiming "I want to be together forever with you!" (that I made her resend when I accidentally deleted it!), an attempt to see Ashlee Simpson (see below - oh man, I almost just typed supra), a LOT of games of Scrabulous, a nearly impossible Lost trivia contest that I will admit was not entirely fair, but since I won I can't complain too much, a movie night to watch 13 Going on 30, adventures buying baby shower supplies in Party City (only $35 worth, not $90!) and then decorating the restaurant -- and Jennifer's Wills seat -- . . . have I mentioned a lot of Scrabble games? Anyway, long story longer, it's been a fun month, and Becky's been a good friend, and I'm sure that more fun times are to come. Thanks, Becky!

Person of the Month: January 2008

In January 2002, I began the tradition of naming a "Person of the Month" on my website each month - somebody who stood out in my mind as one of the bright spots in the month, whether through a single act or consistent awesomeness. In January 2004, the award was renamed to the "D. Nemchek Person of the Month Award" in honor of its most frequent winner, who was thereby retired. The award continued as the D.N.P.O.M. for two more years until last awarded in April 2006. Now, nearly two years later, the new and improved Person of the Month award is back, with its original name (as it has been more than four years since his retirement, I feel that it is only fair to allow Dan the opportunity to win the award again should he be so deserving). With that said, I present to you:

PERSON OF THE MONTH
JANUARY 2008


(picture stolen off of facebook courtesy of b.s.)

SCOTT F.*

Scott was actually the last D.N.P.O.M. award winner back in April 2006, so it seems only fitting that he should be the first winner of the new revamped award. When Scott last won, I was just getting to know him and we were strictly AIM friends - in the two years since, he's become so much more than just an online buddy and a friend of Pat's. Scott was one of the first people that I saw in 2008, so I actually did see him in the month of January, even though it was just for a few hours! I've hung out with Scott less than five times in two years, but that said, one hang out with Scott is worth 100 with pretty much anybody else. New Year's Eve was one of the most fun nights ever - dare I say the most fun night of 2007? - as we drank and made fun of people and told stories and Scott played me voicemails that Pat and I had left him well over a year earlier and I don't think I can properly describe how much fun it is to hang out with Scott so I suggest you all try it yourselves. So starting January '08 with Scott was definitely awesome in itself. But the triggering P.O.M.-worthy event didn't occur until a couple weeks later when, after receiving a slightly incoherent IM from me that concerned him, Scott called me at 4am just to check in and then listened for the next hour (both on the phone and then on IM) as I babbled about everything that was on my mind. I've lost track of the number of times that Scott has been there for me since we met, and a silly little "person of the month" award on a website couldn't possibly begin to thank him for that. I am so grateful that he is part of my life - he is a true friend, and my favorite Friend. ;)

*Note: I'm trying this new thing where I don't list people's full names on here, seeing that it's easily google-able. Should any of my winners decide that they *do* want their winning to show up in google searches, by all means let me know and I'll make it happen.

sing me something soft, sad and delicate or loud and out of key, sing me anything

After not going to a single concert for the first eight weeks of 2008, I felt a need to step it up this past week (with a lot of help from Keely, who is awesome).

On Thursday night, Becky, Briton, David and I attempted to go see Ashlee Simpson at Mirage, which I shouldn't have even bothered to link to because I believe if I ever end up in Hell, it's going to be an awful lot like Mirage, or maybe the Crazy Donkey (see below!), and I'll never step foot in that place again (unlike the aforementioned Crazy Donkey, which I just threaten to never go to again, but actually can be persuaded when the right band is playing) and would encourage anyone reading this to avoid it at all costs . . . ANYWAY. After Happy Hour-ing it up at Chrebets for a few hours, we called our chauffeur for the night, Pat, who dropped us off at Houlihans where we drank some more, ate two orders of cheese fries, and almost gave up on attempting to see Ashlee before we'd even headed over. But for some reason I insisted, and we stood in the cold for what seemed like forever (it was probably about 3 minutes), there was a $10 cover for the guys, they forced us to check our coats AND pay for it, and the entire place just oozed of sketchiness. As someone who has lived on Long Island for all but five years of my life, I've definitely seen my share of Long Island sketchiness, but sometimes I forget exactly why I despised Nassau County for the first 25 years of my life until I moved here. Long story longer, we decided pretty quickly that we didn't want to stay, especially when the bartender told us that Ashlee wouldn't be making an appearance until 12:30 or 1, so Becky and I took a scandalous picture with an Egyptian statue that would have been way more scandalous if we were taller

and then we attempted to leave because Pat was on his way to pick us up, but once they gave me my jacket, they wouldn't let me back in to wait without checking my coat again, and David lost his coat check slip and they wouldn't look for it for him, and we got yelled at twice for standing in the wrong place - needless to say, this was as close as we got to seeing Ashlee Simpson:

Which worked out kinda well because shocker! None of us actually like Ashlee Simpson anyway! So she and Mirage can suck it.

Friday night! Thanks again to Keely (who was responsible for the Maroon 5 awesomeness last Sunday), Mary and I headed to the Beacon Theater to see James Blunt with Sara Bareilles. Sara Bareilles was pretty good (I'm admittedly pretty sexist with my music taste - I have been told on a number of occasions that I listen to too much "boy music") and I was pleasantly surprised by James Blunt. I played his first CD to death when I ripped it from Mary back in '05 and aside from a brief period when Mary first bought "All The Lost Souls" and was playing it around the clock, my James Blunt exposure for the past couple years has pretty much been reduced to Mary singing "You're beautiful!" (just that line, or maybe a couple, but never the entire chorus) in a high pitched voice to Sydney at least four or five times a week (that I hear). I recognized more songs than I thought I would, and fortunately, there was no mass suicide during the "Goodbye, My Lover" / "No Bravery" one-two punch. And even though he announced that "Goodbye, My Lover" had topped the list of 'most requested funeral songs' (what an honor), I couldn't help but smile remembering this clip from The Office.

During the last song before the encore, they shot confetti out all over the theater, which was fun - who doesn't love confetti? He took a picture of the crowd at the end of the show, as the big screen at the rear of the stage showed crowd pictures from a bunch of other shows he'd played with the city and date written on them, which was fun. So yay James Blunt! I've had "Give Me Some Love" stuck in my head for the past 24 hours.

Finally, tonight John and I headed to Suffolk County's own hell, The Crazy Donkey, to see Straylight Run. I've been to the Crazy Donkey twice before, to see Nine Days in 2004 (after which I swore I'd never go back) and then to see Dashboard Confessional's solo show in November (where it took them an hour in between each act, including an hour to "set up" for Chris Carabba to literally stand there with his guitar and Kristen and I ended up leaving after an hour because it had gotten so late). So I wasn't planning on even coming to this show, but I'd missed Straylight Run's NY show in December, and I got the tickets for John for his birthday. Needless to say, we didn't know until we got there that Straylight Run wasn't co-headlining - whoops. To the Crazy Donkey's credit, when we called they said that they'd be going on at 6:30, and John Nolan (with out of control hair!)


was on stage and playing "Your Name Here" at 6:26. John and I somehow ended up standing by the bathrooms (which, seriously, could not POSSIBLY be in a worse location - whichever architect thought it would be a good idea to put them immediately to the right of the stage, about ten feet away, should seriously rethink his profession - we had to push through a couple hundred people just to get to the bathrooms, and some woman grabbed onto me and asked me to help her get there because I guess she thought it would be easier than pushing her own way through, and then she told me she was there with her daughter), which was fun during the opener's set when Shaun Cooper, Will Noon and Michelle "will always be Michelle Nolan to me" DeRosa all came by to use the bathrooms before their set, but was not so much fun when we had to move every 30 seconds for bathroom users. I might as well have watched the last few minutes of the show from inside the bathrooms - a group of little kids (I hate all ages shows) pushed their way in front of me and some kid who seriously could not have been older than fourteen MAX was standing next to me and then had the nerve to grin and give me a thumbs up when I blocked some other kid from pushing in front of the two of us. I HATE THAT PLACE. And I also hate the fact that Straylight Run was done before 7:00.



Oddly enough, they didn't play the singles from TNTS, and they played mostly songs from their first cd. I've given up hope of ever hearing "The Tension and the Terror" live again, but I was disappointed that I didn't get to hear "A Slow Descent." Their way too short setlist was:

• Your Name Here (Sunrise Highway)
• The Miracle That Never Came
• Take It To Manhattan
• Existentialism on Prom Night
• It's For The Best
• Mistakes We Knew We Were Making
• Tool Sheds & Hot Tubs
• Hands In The Sky

So it was a good time - way too short (who goes to a concert on a Saturday night and is home by 8?) but I can't complain. It was the first time I'd seen them since Warped Tour and I've been cheating on them lately with Brand New.

Okay, this post took way too long to write and it kind of sucks, but I'll make up for it in the next couple of days when I implement the new and improved "Person of the Month" award with its first two winners. Boy do I know how to keep them coming back for more =P

the constant

Last night's Lost was the best of the season and it was all about Desmond, which makes it even better. But I think that because it was so good, I'm a little intimidated by the idea of coming up with a recap/summary/commentary/epic haiku about it, at least not before watching it again. So instead, I'm going to rip off my favorite music blog, The Late Greats, and do a "One Song Lost Recap."

Something Corporate - "Konstantine"

I pick this song not because it actually has the phrase "constant" (or "konstant', if you're going to be picky, although the live version of this song is called "Constantine") right in the title, and not because you could start listening to it in 1996 and probably just be finishing it by 2004 (I'm only half joking - it's my favorite song of all time, but at 9 1/2 minutes, it's friggin long), but because I think everyone has a Konstantine. I know I do. And I sure as hell hope that eight years from now that "Konstantine" is still my constant.

In other slightly related Lost / ripping things off The Late Greats news, check out ABC.com's Sawyer Nickname Generator. Mine is "Whitesnake". Let me know what yours are!