Things that suck: the Rodeo, The Departed, and the people that love them.

Warning, right off the bat: I will be discussing the movie "The Departed" and parts of it, so if you haven't seen it and do not want to know anything about it, read no further.

What was the deal with this movie? I know that Scorsese deserves awards for being a great director, so he should have gotten an Oscar by now, so I can see giving it to him as a "make-up" for this movie, but it should not have won best picture. It was a "everyone is a rat, and everyone is against everyone" remake that is so intertwined that it becomes down-right confusing and just ends in everyone killing everyone else without anything really being solved. WTF? I know it's remade from a Hong Kong movie (which are notorious for those kind of plots), but come on! Plus, personally, I think Jack Nicholson did a horrible job in this movie. It's getting to the point where no one can say anything bad about the guy and no one will ever say that they don't like him b/c he's so big and famous. Well, that stops here for me. I hated him in this and really hated him in Anger Management (which was an even worse plot but in the exact opposite way).
What irks me even more is people that see this (or other artsy movies), start liking a band that played a song in it and either represent that they "know indie music" or "have liked that band for a long time" when they haven't. This is the case with the Dropkick Murphys in this movie. If you don't know, they have been around a while and are the quintessential Boston band playing Boston music and have been doing so long before this movie. Well, I know people that after they saw the Departed really got into them and were pretending like they know "indie music" and this band in particular and have so for a while just because the average person doesn't know them. These people also try to drop the name of the band and work them into a conversation whenever possible to try and show you that they "know indie music" and "are cooler than you". This is absolutely idiotic b/c the day before the movie, they had no idea who this band was. If you know one of these people, call them out on it (i.e. ask them how long they have "been a fan" and how many of their "albums they have"); if you are one of these people, do us all a favor and stop pretending you are something you aren't, go back to listening to your pop radio station and old NKOTB albums, and admit you are jumping on any bandwagon that comes along.
I've told you about a movie that sucks, and people that suck--now is time for an event and the causes of it that suck: THE HOUSTON RODEO. For those Tennessee friends reading this, there is an annual Rodeo in Houston that occurs at this time every year and absolutely reeks havoc on every sane person's life that lives anywhere close to Astrodome, as yours truly. It consists of daily livestock shows, an all-day carnival everyday and nightly concerts. During the rodeo, all of the hick rednecks come out of the Texas woodwork to come to town with their huge trucks, horse carriages, tight jeans/cowboy hats, and bad driving. The street my apartment is on becomes hell to drive on b/c one of the lanes gets used just for buses and it cannot be turned through. That means everytime I got home, I have to drive 7/8ths of the way around my entire block so that I may be going the right direction to turn into my complex. It also means that I cannot use the main street next to it either b/c it is so packed with the extra-long 6-wheeled pickup trucks full of rednecks blaring their country music. All of these hicks are used to driving in BFE-Texas either, so they get all confused when they see "lines on the road", "turn lanes" and "turn signals" associated with city-driving. It also means that everywhere I go (i.e. grocery store, Target, and even Starbucks for examples), I see all of these plaid-shirt/tight-jean-and-boot/cowboy-hat-wearing rednecks and I'm not just talking about one or two. They are like Visa: everywhere I want to be. This will be the last time I have to deal with the Rodeo, so if I can stand 2 more weeks without going on a redneck-killing-spree I'll be good.
Aiight, peoples. I will wrap it up with a big ol' Happy Birthday to Jessica Biel, who just turned 25. Soooooo fine! If you happen to be reading this, Ms. Biel, hit me up sometime.
AMF