This is great. It’s a clip from the Tonight Show where William Shatner reads Sarah Palin’s tweets as they were intended to be read.

I just finished watching Marshall Curry’s 2005 Oscar-nominated documentary, Street Fight. It documents the 2002 Newark, NJ mayoral election between incumbent Sharpe James and challenger Cory Booker.

You are immediately taken in by the video footage of the police force escorting Mr. Booker out of an apartment building because he had the chutzpah to campaign there. Mr. James and his people violate numerous civil rights, including that of the documentarian. Most troubling was the support James received from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

You will not regret watching this gripping documentary.

In the last post, I showed an email from a scammer that had hijacked a friends Yahoo! account. Apparently, they also were able to get her Facebook account as well. Here is the Facebook messaging conversation we had.

Scammer (posing as my friend): It’s me jonathan, please let me know if you can be of help

Me: Where were you this weekend?

Scammer (posing as my friend): i was in Knoxville. i need a loan jonathan.

Scammer (posing as my friend): send me an email ok have to leave facebook now

Me: I know this isn’t Kari. Piss off. I am on the phone with her right now. We are notifying Facebook.

Scammer (posing as my friend): what it’s me

I should have asked the moron what part of Nigeria they were from. Notice the poor grammar on the part of the scammer. That is a hallmark of scammers, as English is usually their second (or third…or fourth) language. Be on the look out for crap like this. Don’t rush to help a friend until you confirm it’s actually your friend.

I’ve come across an interesting scam. An email purporting to be from a friend of mine claims that she’s in Essex, UK. She’s lost her money, and desperately needs my help because the hotel is holding her passport hostage. Here is the email in question:

Hope you get this on time ? Sorry I didn’t inform you about my trip in the UK for a program, I’m presently in ESSEX and am having some difficulties here because i misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. presently my passport and my things are been held down by the hotel management pending when i make payment. I will like you to assist me with a loan of ($ 1,826) to sort-out my hotel bills and to get myself back home. I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist me with, I’ll Refund the money back to you as soon as i return,let me know if you can be of any help? ASAP. I dont have a phone where i can be reached. pls let me know immediately. Thanks

Perhaps the author should have studied their English more while attending Scammer University. Be on the lookout for similar emails from your friends.

My wife will certainly differ from me on some of these. She has a much larger vacationing resume. I tend to be a homebody, but these places would get me to leave the comfort and familiarity of home.

1. Maui – The wife and I went to Maui on our honeymoon. This has to be the most beautiful place on earth. Even the touristy stuff is fun. If you drive the Road to Hana, you’ll see some terrific scenery. The weather is wonderful, and the locals are even better.
2. London – I tend to be a big anglophile. From the pubs to the comedy, I love British culture. I spent a week in London, and had a great time. I even tolerated the incessant rain. One highlight from the trip was seeing Agatha Christie’s Mouse Trap. I highly recommend you see it.
3. Montauk, NY (Gurney’s Inn) – We celebrated our recent fourth anniversary here. Montauk is on northern Long Island. We stayed at Gurney’s Inn. The people were very friendly. My wife even wrote an article about our trip to get there from Nashville, TN. It seems they don’t get many southerners up there. You can read it here.
4. Chicago – I was only there for a day, but I had a blast. We flew up, caught a Cubs game and had some deep dish pizza. I look forward to going back as there is much more to do there.
5. Jane Munsell’s House (Millington, TN) – As I stated before, I am a big homebody, and I get homesick a lot. Ms. Munsell is the mother of one our closest friends, Scott Munsell. She is an awesome host, and I didn’t want to leave. I’m sure you have someone in your life like that.

I found this great story about United Airlines breaking Sons of Maxwell singer Dave Carroll’s guitar. It was worth $3,500, and United refused to fix or replace the guitar. When his calls went nowhere, he wrote a song and shot a video. When will big companies realize they can no longer hide their crappy service? It is so easy now to raise a stink online. The company ends up looking stupid, when all they had to do in the first place was fix their mistake. Here’s the video he made for the song, “United Breaks Guitars”. It’s quite amusing.

I’m going to write a periodic series about my top 5′s. Since my wife doesn’t always love being my captive audience, I’ll let you all be. I’ll start off with my top 5 favorite movies. Clearly, you’ll have differing view points. That’s the fun of this. Give me your top 5′s. Remember, I’m not claiming these are THE top 5 ever. They are just my favorite 5.

1. Rear Window (1954) – I love Hitchcock, and this is my absolute favorite. Jimmy Stewart is brilliant, as is Grace Kelly. In fact, it is extremely rare to find someone who’s beauty is matched by their acting talent. The exchanges between Stewart and Kelly offer much humor. I marvel at how well this movie holds up over time. It still keeps you on the edge of your seat.
2. Dark City (1998) – This mind-bending film from Alex Proyas came out around the same time as The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor. All deal with our sense of reality, and whether anything is “real”. Each took separate paths to explore this concept. Dark City starts out as a film noir, but evolves into much more. Proyas cleverly takes the story from crime film noir to sci-fi to fascinating character study. Jennifer Connelly, Rufus Sewell and William Hurt are terrific.
3. Spaceballs (1987) – Mel Brooks has made several great movies, but I really love this one. I can probably quote most of the script from memory. Brooks successfully lampoon’s the two most popular sci-fi franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars. However, he lampoons other movies and genres as well. There is an especially funny dig at Alien.
4. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) – This is my favorite Christmas movie. In fact, I can watch it year ’round. Chevy Chase is at the top of his game. Randy Quaid is terrific. I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, and I still crack up at the sight of Randy Quaid wearing a white sweater with a black dickie. This is another movie I can nearly quote from memory.
5. Serenity (2005) – Even with all the press the Star Wars prequels received, I would have to say Serentiy is the best sci-fi movie of the decade. Joss Whedon made a magnificent movie. For those that don’t know, Serenity is a continuation of the short lived Firefly series. Fox grossly underestimated its popularity, and the groundswell of support got this movie made.

You may notice the lack of a Kevin Smith movie, but if I were doing a top 10, he’d be there. There are so many movies I could have put here. Rocky, Chasing Amy, To Kill A Mockingbird, High Fidelity and Swingers come to mind. Feel free to comment. I would like to see your favorites.

I just finished watching the Entourage, Season 5 DVD. I would say it’s my favorite season since season 2. As usual, the DVD didn’t offer much in the way of extras. HBO has never been great about offering quality DVD extras.

Here is HBO’s Season 5 synopsis: For Vince, Eric, Drama, and Turtle, life in Hollywood’s fast lane can be an intoxicating ride. In Season Five, can the guys put the Medellin fiasco behind them and orchestrate a career comeback for Vince?

The show creators have always been good about getting celebrity cameos. Season 5 was no different. Among the great cameos were Stellan Skarsgard, Gus Van Sant, Martin Scorsese, Jason Patric and Eric Roberts.

I would highly recommend this DVD for fans of the show.