The Day...The Fountain Died...

Heya ;)

So if you don't know already, the fountain that graces Downtown Orlando's Lake Eola was struck by lightening the other day and is broken. It's so sad looking...just a rusty dome sitting in the middle of our beautiful city. I can see this fountain practically from my front yard and have been a neighbor of it for almost the entire 3 years of me living in Orlando. I love this fountain.

With that being said....I realize that there is no easy way to repair it. It's going to cost a lot of money, a lot of money that the City of Orlando just doesn't have. We are in the hole just like every other city and it feels wrong to put something like this on the front burner of a whole slew of other problems we are having.

Now, I also realize that it is not our (loyal citizens of Orlando) fault that we have no money. It is not our fault that we are in the hole. It is the fault of our elected officials who have done absolutely nothing to try to climb ourselves out of said hole. They have done nothing for us and will continue to do nothing for us. During this "Fountain Crisis" Mayor Buddy Dyer has done nothing but set up a donation fund for the great people of Orlando to donate to help repair this fountain. I believe that Mayor Buddy Dyer and the District Commissioners should be knocking on the doors of every single business in Downtown Orlando asking for a handout, but they won't. It is those businesses that rely on us to keep their businesses open and it is my love for the fountain that keeps my business in Downtown Orlando.

I love the spirit of Orlando, I love that we can ban together to help a cause and put aside our own issues to help others in need. This was apparent during last weekends Cure for the Run (www.curefortherun.com) put on by SomaCow (www.somacow.com) and Rock for Hunger (www.rockforhunger.com). People do stand up when times are rough.

If you have the money, donate, if you don't then don't. (www.orlandotrust.org). I personally wouldn't give the city a dime until they showed me the proposal for repairs and show me exactly how much money has and is being donated on a daily basis so that we know when we reach our goal. I know that there are wealthy businesses and businessmen and women in and around Orlando who could step up and save our iconic fountain. But will they? I doubt it.

So it is with a heavy heart, that I made this video.....an ode if you will. An ode to our beloved fountain that has been a part of this city for 50+ years. A fountain that was the focal point of "The City Beautiful". A fountain that might leave this beautiful city and leave an empty hole in the hearts of its citizens....

Love,

Jamie

twitter.com/JamieExp

jamie32182@gmail.com

Movie Review: Inglourious Basterds

So I want to start this review out by commenting on some of the reviews I have read about this movie.

#1 being by Roger Moore, the Orlando Sentinels "Movie Reviewer". Read the article here if you'd like (I wouldn't give him the hits if I were you, but if you do, please write a comment on the bottom telling him he is worthless): http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-movie-review-inglourious-basterds,0,4336375.story

So, Roger Moore. I don't know who this guy is and I don't really care. The only reason I read the review was because Jim Phillips (local Orlando talk radio guy) said that he read a bunch of bad reviews about the movie and mentioned Roger. I had not heard a single bad word about this movie from people on twitter and elsewhere.

Roger starts out his "review" by saying "Hollywood's two most indulged enfant terrible filmmakers have now made the worst two World War II movies of this millennium. With Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino has topped Spike Lee ( Miracle at St. Anna) in awfulness".

Alright, so Roger just doesn't like Quentin Tarantino. Once I read that, I realized this guy was worthless and hated the movie before he even saw it. He obviously just doesn't like Quentin's work and that is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion (including me). But to start a review by letting everyone know that you think the filmmaker is terrible, is just stupid. He also went ahead and gave the movie 1 out of 5 stars which is so ridiculous it made me laugh. There are very few movies that deserve 1 out of 5 stars. Romy and Michelles High School Reunion and Step Brothers to name a few off the top of my head.

Bottom line, Roger Moore is one of those guys who hates movies that everyone else loves and loves movies that everyone else hates. Maybe that is his schtick. All I know is that I will never read another review by him personally, ever and either should you.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it great reviews. If you look at Yahoo Movies which throws together all of the professional Movie Reviews, its lowest score was a C+ by the New York Times. Everyone else gave it an A or A-. Regular movie watchers gave the movie a B+ overall.

So Roger Moore....you are an idiot.

Anyway, here's what I thought:

Quentin Tarantino has written a slew of fucking amazing movies. Starting with Reservoir Dogs (AMAZEBALLS) then Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill 1 and 2. I have seen all of these movies and thought they were excellent. I never saw Grindhouse, but will watch it soon. Quentin Tarantino is known for pushing the limits creatively and has a signature style when it comes to blood and gore. Some people think he's too violent and a little off kilter, but what great filmmaker isn't? I like a movie that I remember and I remember Quentins films.

Quickly, here is a summary of what the movie is about: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.

I will say that about 85% of this movie is in subtitles. It didn't take anything away from the movie however so don't skip it because you think it will be hard to keep up with. I also had no idea that this was a remake of a 1978 movie..nor do I care. It's obvious that Quentin made it his own. It has the same style that you expect from his films and doesn't disappoint. The story isn't meant to be seen as a historically accurate portrayal of France during WWII, but it does follow the notion that everything that happened during that time was bullshit insane. It is gory in some parts but nowhere near his previous films.

From the get go, the actor that plays Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) blew me away. In short, this is the guy that hunts jews and has a reputation of being a smarmy prick. He plays it to a TEE. Every single word out of his mouth is gold. He stole the show in my eyes, even against Brad Pitt.

So Brad Pitt, he is delicious in this as he is in all of his movies. He plays Aldo Raine who is the leader of the "basterds". Although I don't really think Brad Pitt has much range as an actor, I enjoy all of his movies. He did a great job in this. I also enjoyed Eli Roth as the "Bear Jew" who would beat Nazi's to death with a baseball bat. BJ Novak who you might know from The Office is also a "Basterd". Mike Myers has a cameo that I didn't really get the point of but whatever. OVERALL, the acting was excellent by everyone involved.

One thing I wanted to mention was the soundtrack. It is slick and insane and right on point. Also, there are excellent montages done about some of the characters (Hugo Stiglitz being my favorite). I laughed at a few points and cringed at a few of the more gory scenes but the dialogue was impeccable and kept your attention (even though a majority of it is spoken in German and French).

In conclusion, I'd pretty much recommend this movie to anyone. It's worth the $9. It's 2 in a half hours long, but didn't feel like it at all. I would see this again and if I purchased DVD's (which I do not) I would add it to my collection.

Suck it Roger Moore.

I give it 4 out of 5 bloody baseball bats.

Xbox360: What HAS changed

Alright, so I was eagerly anticipating the newest large scale upgrade to the Xbox 360 LIVE system. The last upgrade was intense, as it pretty much changed the entire online platform. This upgrade was minimal at best (as was expected, it wasn't supposed to be anything super great). I wrote a blog a few months back after the E3 convention, listing the ways I would improve the Xbox 360 (I also sent it to Xbox). A majority of improvements were made, however not the way they should have been. Here are my thoughts on the latest "improvements".

I'm going to start with the RATINGS SYSTEM. I have been asking for this for about a year. I wanted a legit ratings system, where players can rate a game using a simple 5 star system, quickly from the Xbox Live platform. Xbox FINALLY decided to include this, so now I can see what others rate games. The thing about gaming is, if it has a good rating, chances are its a pretty fucking good game. It might not be your style of game, but it's probably still well worth the rental or purchase. Kudos for Microsoft integrating this extremely simple but helpful tool into the LIVE platform. It looks great and works great.

Next, they have added a feature that allows you to WATCH MOVIES ONLINE WITH YOUR XBOX LIVE FRIENDS. If you don't have an Xbox, let me explain. Xbox allows you to purchase and download pretty much any movie you can get from Blockbuster. It also is integrated with Netflix and allows you to stream movies instantly (like 6 bajillion movies) if you have a monthly membership. This concept allows you to get on your headset with a friend who could live in China and watch a movie together, being able to speak/laugh through the headset to one another. I think this is a cool concept, however, I haven't tested it and probably never will. Does the other friend have to purchase the movie? I have no idea. It's an extra feature that has no point, but i'm sure it will be used by a few people.

Next up is GAMES ON DEMAND. Now, let me throw this at you.....you go out and purchase a $400 gaming system. A gaming system that has the most insanely practical online platform ever seen before anywhere in anything. Now, doesn't it seem obvious that with all the other downloadable content (movies, music, add-ons, xbox original games) that you would be able to PURCHASE and DOWNLOAD a NEW game for the Xbox 360 console???? Yes, it is obvious, but it was not available. For some reason, Microsoft and Xbox didn't think this was a good idea. They are stupid. They lost out on a whole fuck ton of revenue from people (me) who would have purchased the full games online (Halo 3, Saints Row 2, GTA, COD WOW, Fable II, etc.). Instead, these people either 1) Did in fact go out and buy the game at the store. 2) Rented the game 3) Borrowed it from a friend. Either way, they lost money. There are only 24 "newer" games available on the new OnDemand Games section, and the only two that are worth anything are Assasins Creed and BioShock. The rest are old. I am sure this will eventually be larger, so i'm not going to trash it. I'm thrilled that you can purchase the full game, however its not exactly a steal of a deal. For example, Assasins Creed is available on OnDemand for $29.99. You can drive to your local Gamestop right now and purchase a used version of the game for $19.99. I'm curious to see how this pans out....not exactly the "Online Game Rentals" system that im STILL hoping for...but it's a step in the right direction.

Now to the important stuff, CHANGING WHAT YOUR AVATAR LOOKS LIKE! Now unlike the Wii, the avatars on the Xbox are pretty awesome. You can change a lot of stuff on them to reflect your style or inner rockstar or whatever you want. It's the most ridiculous and pointless gaming concept ever created, but people love it, I LOVE IT. In my previous blog, I asked for more options. There was already a wide range of clothes, accessories, shoes, hair styles, etc. All I wanted was to be able to customize the colors, etc. So, Xbox decides to go fucking nuts and create a AVATAR MARKETPLACE. I thought "Sweet! More Clothes!".....then I quickly changed my tune after clicking on the Marketplace and realizing that all of the items cost REAL MONEY. REAL MONEY. ACTUAL FUCKING MONEY THAT YOU WORK FOR. Before putting my fist through my Xbox, I decided to browse the collection to further piss myself off and boy did it.

Here's a few screenshots:

Rad Halo shirt I found in the Xbox Avatar Marketplace. Only 160 fucking Xbox points, which equals....about $2.00.

Woo Hoo Sweet Guitar! I can add this for my Xbox Live friends to see, for another 160 points! Con.

Any Die Hard Splinter Cell fans out there? 400 points (or $5.00) can get you this sweet outfit! Fuck off....

Overall the upgrade was pretty lame and didn't actually change anything that I use. I will NEVER pay for Avatar clothes and accessories, nor will I purchase a full 360 game for $10 more than I can get it at Gamestop. I also will never watch a movie with a friend online because well....when you watch movies you aren't suppose to talk, so what the fuck is the point? I will however use the rating system. Better luck next time Xbox.

~Jamie~

GamerTag: slightlystpd420

jamie@theexperience.fm

www.theexperience.fm

twitter: @jamieexp