The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter had it's grand opening in Universal Orlando studio last week. I wish I was there :( but there has been a lot of great coverage from  MuggleNet (my fave Harry Potter website)and The Leaky Cauldron.  Check it out when you can :)

Update: Happy I didn't go...an 8 hour wait would be too much for me and I LOVE Harry Potter.

Futurama Premeires Tonight!

If you're a huge Futurama/Matt Groening/Simpsons style drawing fan tonight is the night you've been waiting for.  Futurama premieres on Comedy Central tonight at 10pm. I guess I'm a little late, but just in case you didn't know you can tune in now or scan for the repeats.  I'm personally not a fan of the series, but I just want to support Matt Groening and any fans out there with this post.  Enjoy having you're fave show back.

2010 Summer Movies

I don't think there has been a year that I've been less excited about Summer movies.  This is probably because the few movies that I have seen have been pretty underwhelming.

The first movie I saw was Iron Man 2. I guess it was more like a Spring movie, but I consider it Summer anyway.  It had it's funny moments (Tony Starks competitor) and exciting moments (Whiplash at the race track), but it still didn't make it to that epic level of the first Iron Man.  The final fight was really short and the overall movie was kind of long. I'm not saying it wasn't good, but it didn't live up to my expectations.  It was a typical sequel...not as good as the original. 

The next movie I saw was Sex & the City 2. Once again another sequel and an unneccessary one at that.  I saw the scathing reviews, but I thought I loved the show and the first movie.  So, I figured it would be one of those times that being a fan would make it better, but I was wrong.  I tried to like it, but the storyline didn't move me and didn't even really entertain me.  It was trying to hard and was a little too much.  I felt that stories like Miranda quitting her job could've been explored a little further versus Carrie and Big's boring relationship (I think I like it better when they're fighting or struggling with their relationship).  The part in Abu Dhabi made them seem like ignorant Americans versus worldly women of New York City.  I expected more from my NYC girls.  So yeah this movie got a thumbs down from me, I'm not getting that DVD.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any other big movies, but I do have a new obsession that I might be blogging about in the future. It is called Avatar: The Last Airbender.  The movie The Last Airbender is coming out on July 1st or 2nd (I've seen 2 different dates). I just started watching the show about 3 weeks ago on Nicktoons and I have to say it is a really interesting show.  It is so well thought out that it reminds me of the Harry Potter books and as a AVID Harry Potter fan that is saying a great deal.  I love Aang, Sokka, Katara, Zuko, Iroh...everybody.  This is the one movie that I'm hoping won't disappoint me this summer. Hopefully, I'll catch some news to keep everyone informed :-) In the mean time check out the trailer below.

Homer Best in 20 Years

Homer is officially considered one of greatest characters of the last 20 years. I have to say I'm not surprised. Almost any character on the show could've easily made it on the list in my opinion. Check out an EW interview with Matt Groening and Dan Castellaneta at the link below. Congrats to Homer :-)
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/09/simpsons-matt-groening-dan-castellaneta-greatest-character-homer-simpson/

FIFA World Cup

While the Simpsons are in repeat and the summer shows have yet to begin, the perfect distraction is Football! By football I mean soccer of course.  The World Cup started this past Friday and so far the games (especially the USA vs. England game) have been pretty good. I watched my first World Cup in 2006 and it's great for it to return with the players I still remember. The games are daily and air on ABC and ESPN. I encourage you to check at least one USA game before the cup ends on july 11th.

Also check out the Nike Football ad below.  At around 2:22 you see Ronaldo kicking the ball past Homer. Who says Ronal-doh! Gotta luv it. The Simpsons are everywhere.

Recap: "Judge Me Tender"

I'm super late on this recap, so I'll keep it brief, but as informative as I can based on my notes.

Well, the chalkboard was really interesting because Bart wrote "End of Lost: It was all the dog's dream."  This was particularly striking because Lost had just come to a beautiful, but disappointing end.

The episode starts with Bart and Homer giving Santa's Little Helper a makeover, so he can win the ugliest dog contest at their local dog expo. When they arrive at the expo Lisa and Marge begin to explore.  The get to a booth where Flanders has Jesus fish that bred himself. Lisa asks him "So that natural selction was the origin of the species?" (Some good old Darwin evolution talk) Initially Flander agrees, but when the fish attempts to evolve and walk out the fish tank, Flanders stops it and says not on my watch.  Meanwhile at the ugliest dog contest Moe, who can't find a seat at the contest,  argues with Krusty over the quality of his judging.  Moe then shows that he has good judging skills, one of his judgements include saying "PETA called saying you could kill this one" to describe one really ugly dog. When Bart presents Santa's Little Helper's backside as his dog he wins the ugliest dog contest.

After the contest, everyone in town is impressed with Moe's judging skills.  Moe is then picked to judge the crazy beard contest. In order to close the bar early he has the flicker the lights to make Homer and the rest of the drunks to leave like pests or rodents.  This leaves Homer to spend more time with Marge which actually freaks her out.  After messes up the house she drives Homer to a sports bar, but he only feels out of place.  Back at home Homer does more dumb stuff like taking apart their washing machine. Abe encourages Marge to push Homer toward golf.

After the beard contest the Rich Texan encourages to judge/hate on a great deal of  other contests including the bonsai, bully, and car competitions.  Moe then goes to LA to judge on American Idol. Moe meets Simon Cowell and Simon reveals that he is impressed by Moe, but he also encourages Moe not to be the mean judge because it will make him lonely. Everyone is mean to Moe and even Ralph curses about him while Simon just blends into the shadows with his black shirt.  After the first performance of an American Idol contest Randy used all his usual comments ("dog" "pitchy" ....the usual), Kara said you rocked it, Ellen just rambled on, and Moe loves the performance due to Simon's encouragement. Finally, Simon gives very harsh feedback and even mocks Moe's comments. Moe realizes he has been doubel crossed and attempts to kill Simon with a broken coke bottle (classic Moe <3). During the struggle, Moe is encouraged by Ryan to keep the bottle's label toward the camera, but he quickly hauled away by security.

Meanwhile, back in springfield Marge has to stop Homer from getting addicted to golf.  Moe returns to Springfield and is back in the bar.  He laments that he didn't rip out Simon's voice box, but is comforted by the fact that he did stretch out his shirt. There was bit with Murdoch and Jay Leno at the end, but my notes aren't clear. Overall, the episode was an okay way to end the 21st season. I love Moe, so that helped. Having all the Idol judges (the old ones) was good, too.

My Goodbye to Lost :-)

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I started watching Lost right before the second season premeire.  They were airing reruns of the 1st season on ABC in anticipation of the second.  I remember wanting to watch the series premiere, but I was hooked on some other show, so I only saw bits and pieces during the commercial break. I was interested, but too committed to my other shows.  But once I caught the pilot I was hooked.  I had so many questions that I knew I had to watch the second season to get on with my life. Little did I know the questions would not be answered and each season I would be presented with more questions than answers.  Still I loved every moment of it (minus Strangers in a Strange Land...you know the infamous Bai Ling/Jack's tattoo episode). 

On Sunday night (in May) the series ended and I wasn't disappointed. I got the hint from the creators (Damon and Carlton aka Darlton or Cardam) that there would probably be little answers, so I let go of my expectations and took the episode for what it was. I can only describe the finale as beautiful.  It's difficult to remember moments where I wasn't trying my best to fight back tears. The tears started with the Jin and Sun reawakening, came back full force with the Claire and Charlie reawakening, and as the episode concluded in the church and Jack straggling back to the bamboo forest where he first met the island they wouldn't stop. The pictures from the credit were just as painful to watch. I couldn't believe that that's where it began and that the journey was over.  No more Tuesdays where I turn up the tv and prepare to get LOST.  It was like an escape to a world beyond comprehension and that forced me to go to message boards and led me to EW.com (my fave pop culture website).

Although the series is over and many questions were left unanswered (why were Walt and Aaron so special? What were the exact effects of the Incident?), but I felt that it was still a very satisfying finale.  I haven't been through many planned series finales, but if they were all as touching as these I would always be satisfied (I'm looking at you Simpsons).  Just wanted to say thank you to Darlton and J.J. Abrams for creating such a wonderful show that really changed what TV meant to me and thank EW's Doc Jensen for both illuminating and spoiling a lot of the show for me.

Can't wait to find my next TV addiction.  It's comforting to know that there are some decent summer shows coming up like my fave Big Brother and new additions like Bad Girls Club (yup there is a summer season in the works) and Jersey Shore (I'm sure nothing will top the original, but there is always hope).

Until next time.