I had an interesting blog post in mind for today, but then we decided to go see Burn After Reading this evening and now it’s too late for me to post anything but stupidity. Stupidity inspired by a commercial I saw the other day for a drug called “Abilify,” a treatment for schizophrenia or something of the sort. Noble goal, dumb moniker. The girlfriend’s dismissive comment: “What kind of stupid name is that? Clearly, they’re running out of names for drugs.”
My own revelation: “Clearly, they’re letting the president name drugs now.”
Also, I spent a portion of the day working on the bonus mini-magazine, which is now about halfway done. I’ve enjoyed writing the Young Person’s Guide to Mega Man in my 1UP blog so much that I decided to do one for Mario, too. Here is a truncated sample of the entry for “A”:
The second half will be a short story called “ToastyFrog: The Early Years.” I really have no idea what it’s going to be about! I’m going to start writing and see where it goes. Wish me luck.
Oh, also, the movie was pretty good. I think the Coen brothers may have just invented the screwball political thriller. Or at least revived the legacy of Dr. Strangelove, anyway.
Why not just bring back the Lucky Dan fan club? You know the passion still burns within you.
Good luck!
You picked the absolute best Lou Albano picture for the article.
I love the Italian stereotype of having dog-ears.
I liked Burn After Reading, as well. Starts of pretty scattered (as it has to) with just a stand-out scene here and there, and then it really flies off the rails into crazy Coen Bros. territory and then endsreallyfast.
I also saw Vicki Cristina Barcelona last night, which was terrific. I haven’t hated Allen’s recent movies at all, and I loved “Match Point,” but this is definitely Allen basically at the top of his game again. It doesn’t hurt that it contains three of the most beautiful women on the Earth. Strange narration, though. Great movie.
Whoa! Capt. Lou looks a lot like Murderface from Metalocalypse.
Burn After Reading was a little disappointing, in my opinion. I won’t go so far as to say it was a bad movie, because there were definitely some brilliant parts here and there, but it was mostly sort of bland.
Really, really basic looking shots comprised a good chunk of the film, and the movie just took too long to get anywhere interesting. The parts that were funny were really funny, and I always approve of taking a limited cast of characters and really digging into their heads and relationships, but for me the movie just fell short of the mark.
So now we’re making up things to bash the President with? Jeez…if you want to bash the man, at least use something he actually said or did.
Can’t you California Liberals criticize a Republican based on real issues instead of just using juvenile grade-school name-calling? It makes you seem pretty intellectually shallow to hurl insults like this.
Oh, stop your crying. You sound ridiculous.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I’d expect you to say, California Liberal!
I can’t even tell if Biff was being sarcastic or not.
Also, I don’t understand why some people keep calling Burn After Reading political. It had nothing to do with politics, and the closest thing to a main character it had was a washed-up and narcissistic gym employee.
By “political thriller” I meant it used government intrigue and internal politics as an excuse for ridiculousness, not that it had a message. Which I’m pretty sure it didn’t.
@ [Sean]
I wasn’t being sarcastic.
Well, you know, that was just intended to be a dumb, off-the-cuff joke image rather than any sort of actual political commentary. But what issues would you like to discuss? We could start with the shambles that is our economy! I thought it was funny to read your comment this morning just a few minutes after walking past the Merrill-Lynch stock ticker and seeing the Dow starting the day down 900-something points since Friday’s close! Then again, the GOP’s idea of “issues” this year appears to be lapel pins and pigs wearing lipstick, so you know? Let’s not discuss any issues and just leave that as a dumb, off-the-cuff joke image posted with no intent of serving as any sort of political commentary and call it a day.
Hey…I’m not saying that your arguments didn’t have any merit.
My point is that when you make comments like the one in the post you do a disservice to those who are actually trying to discuss the issues as opposed to just hurling insults which is what much of politics has sadly degenerated into these days.
I’ve read your blog and 1Up writings for a long time now and it’s quite obvious that you’re a pretty intellectual person. No need to sink to the level of the bomb-throwers out there that have nothing intelligent to add to the discussion so they just throw out insults instead.
I’m done.
BUT IT WASN’T POLITICAL COMMENTARY. It was a joke about someone who happens to be a politician. There’s a difference. I’ve made Clinton jokes about what the definition of “is” is, too. That wasn’t an attack on left-wing values any more than this post was intended as a dig at the right. For crying out loud.
I have taken Abilify for almost a year now. The name is appropriate. Many antipsychotic drugs indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia have a very serious numbing, stultifying effect. I will not pretend to understand why, but Abilify is a different type of antipsychotic which does not have many of the drawbacks commonly associated with drug treatment for schizophrenia. In passing, it may sound like a stupid name. But in as much as it applies a derivational suffix “fy” to a noun “ability” to suggest that the drug grants ability to the user, it is not inappropriate.