African-American Splendor

-On Friday, my dad and I went looking (again) for a new TV. I may have mentioned this before, but the TV we had in the living room was very crappy. It may have been a 25-inch TV, but it was old and the color was horrible. We looked around various places for a 32-inch TV we could afford (places such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Sears). We determined Best Buy actually had the best deal. They had a sale where you got a free TV stand if you bought a 30-36 inch TV.

The next day, we went back and got the TV. The three TVs we initially looked at and liked turned out to be sold out. We saw two others that were still in stock. After checking out the pictures, we ultimately went with a nice RCA TV. It’s 32-inches, stereo, with multiple video inputs (including component video), and even a VCR+ Guide. I put $150 of the cost on my credit card (which my dad is currently making payments on anyway) and also got some component video cables to hook our DVD player up with.

Now came the fun part...getting the TV back home. As you could guess, if the TV stayed in the box, it wouldn’t have fit in the car. So, we had to take it out of the box. The Best Buy person let us know that they couldn’t help us put the TV in the car once we took it out of the box (probably for liability reasons), but they did cut the box up in such a way as to make it easier for us. We tried putting the TV in the backseat (to no avail) and decided to put it in the trunk. We had to drive across the street to Sears to get some rope to tie the trunk with (which meant I had to stay in the car and watch the TV while my dad got it). We got everything home in one piece.

That night, I put together the TV stand with help from my mom. In counting the pieces, I found we were missing exactly one piece. Fortunately, I realized that the piece wasn’t really all that important and continued to put together the stand without it. I finished it just before 10 pm (after starting in the 7 pm or so range). My mom and I put the TV onto the stand and I hooked everything up. Now, we have a very nice large TV on a very nice stand.

The picture is nice and bright in terms of the cable, but what really blew me away was the DVD picture. I knew component video was nice, but it looked amazing. I put in Finding Nemo to test it out, and the picture looked almost three-dimensional it was so nice. Watching DVDs on it is going to be a joy.

-I watched American Splendor on Saturday night...on the new TV. It’s a very good movie and pretty creative. It’s about the life of Harvey Pekar who created a comic book about his everyday life (which is what the movie is based on). Paul Giamatti (of movies that range from the recent Planet of The Apes remake to Big Mama’s House) plays Harvey, and the film switches between him as Harvey and the real-life Harvey himself. The real Harvey narrates the movie. The comic itself is featured prominently in the film and in one interesting sequence, an animated version of Harvey expresses his true thoughts about a situation. The movie combines real-life with dramatizations in a way that is not confusing at all. Harvey’s ordinary life made for an interesting comic book, and it also makes for an interesting movie. This is a movie that is immensely creative but probably won’t alienate people who don’t like weird movies. Highly recommended.

-Sunday, we had a belated celebration of my Aunt Barbara’s birthday. Her and my uncle came by, along with Rhonda, our family friend. My mom cooked (in fact, she started cooking on Saturday night while I watching the movie) and the food was great as always. Our spread included ribs, chicken, bratwursts, steaks, greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread, a birthday cake, and macaroni that Rhonda prepared (her macaroni is goood). We watched some TV and the Oscars together and it was a fun little experience.

-Remember when I mentioned the Grey Album, a remix of Jay-Z’s Black Album with beats culled from the Beatles’ so-called White Album? Well, I finally finished downloading it and I’ve had a chance to listen to it. It’s very good. DJ Danger Mouse, the person who created it, engages in some creative sampling the likes of which is rarely seen. He chopped the hell out of the Beatles and creates some good beats. My faves are “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “Change Clothes” (which gets a carnival-esque psychedelic beat), “What More Can I Say” (which has a funky beat and even some of the Beatles’ vocals) and “99 Problems” (a song that gets an even more rocklike beat than the original). Not all of the remixes are great...”My 1st Song” doesn’t quite work. The beat doesn’t fit the unusual flow Jay-Z uses on it. All in all, this is definitely worth looking for a download of if you like Jay-Z, creative hip-hop, or even if you’re a big Beatles fan.

-I watched two different but similar movies on Monday: Out of Time with Denzel Washington and Matchstick Men with Nicolas Cage. Both movies had to deal with a con or setup of some kind. Out of Time was pretty good, but it took a little while to really get started. Matchstick Men was a better movie, and one with a twist that is both surprising yet not totally unexpected.

-Why is it that whenever you haven’t watched a show in a while, the episode you see when you do watch it is one you’ve already seen?