Blogs: Engrish

Our mom's friend, Uncle Eli, recommended that we check out the blog Engrish, which posts classic misspellings and mistranslations of the English language by Asian speakers.


Quick vote: This blog is awesome and hilarious! Enjoy.

Movie: Get Smart

When we first saw the preview for the movie, Get Smart, we groaned internally. Yet another stupid spy/not-a-spy movie where the characters bumble their way through to miraculously defeat the bad guy. Which is exactly what the movie is about, but somehow it's not as horrible as we had originally imagined it to be.

This movie is an adaptation of the 1960's television show of the same name. Steve Carrell plays Maxwell Smart, and Anne Hathaway plays Agent 99; two intrepid agents who must work together to take down the evil Russians and their undercover group, KAOS. The show is pretty dorky, but not-unlovable, and while we probably won't ever watch it again, we enjoyed it the first time around.


Quick vote: Yeah, watch it. You'll laugh a few times, roll your eyes a few times, and then move on.

TV: Big Love

Big Love has been on the air for a few years, but we haven't picked it up until recently when a few people happened to recommend it to us. The show follows a family of polygamists living in Salt Lake City, trying to live a normal life and yet still stay under the radar. The show is from HBO, so be warned there, but we really like it. It's smart, sassy, and does quite a good job of portraying the family, the LDS people, and the FLDS people.

Bill Hendrickson lives a quiet life in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City, owning and operating two hardware stores. He lives in a quiet block and owns three houses, each of which contain a wife and a few children. His middle wife, Nikki, is the daughter of an FLDS prophet, and tied to a community the rest of them want desperately to distance themselves from. This peek into the lives of a polygamous family, what they give up and what they gain by living 'the principle,' is fascinating and we're very much enjoying it. Not to mention all of the fun stars that crop up everywhere (including Deb from Napoleon Dynamite!)


Quick vote: We really like this show, and the way that it portrays LDS people (a little crazy, but nice people) in comparison with the FLDS people (gross and strange). This is a very well done show, and HBO has done an excellent job.

Music: 808s and Heartbreak by Kanye West

Our Aunt Heady gave us the album 808s and Heartbreak by Kanye West a few weeks ago after we mentioned that we enjoyed a few of his singles (like Gold Digger!) and we've been listening to it nearly non-stop ever since. Kanye is known for his rapping, but this album is something completely different, and though we've tried, we just can't explain what it is that is so attractive about the music. This album seems bold, raw, and personal; unexpected from a man who wrote tunes like Crack Music and Drunk & Hot Girls.

"I'm not lovin' you the way I wanted to.
I can't keep my cool, so I keep it true.
I got somethin' to lose, so I gotta move.
I can't keep myself and still keep you too."
--Love Lockdown

"If spring can take the snow away,
Can it melt away all of our mistakes?
Memories made in the coldest winter,
Goodbye my friend, I won't ever love again.

Never again."
--Coldest Winter

Quick vote: This album is incredible, and we're blown away by its depth. We recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid of a little R&B music and a lot of awesomeness! (Our father is not included in that group!)

Books: The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman

We picked up this play over the holiday break (While our parents were lounging by the beach...) on a recommendation from our Grandma Christa. We haven't read any plays (other than Shakespeare) for a while, and it was fun to pick up The Laramie Project, and we finished it in about an hour.

The members of the Tectonic Theater traveled to Laramie, Wyoming after the brutal beating of openly-gay college student, Matthew Shepard. They interviewed members of the community, both those that were intricately involved in Matthew's life and were around that fateful night, and those that had just heard about the incident secondhand. They then got together and compiled all of the interviews into a play, which they performed all over the country, including in Laramie itself. We found it quite interesting to read the responses of the community to the life and death of a remarkable young man.


Quick vote: This book is a quick and interesting read about a town not too far from us. We recommend it!

Top Three Blogs of 2008

2008 has been a great year for blogs, both nascent and blossoming, including our own which was born in Fall 2007, but didn't really take off until 2008. We found a lot of great blogs this year, and hopefully that trend will continue! Keep reading to find out...

3. The Plug. (Original Review) This is technically not a blog, rather it's a web-zine, but it's exceptional enough that we had to include it here. The Plug comes out with a new edition every month with hilarious interviews, fun activities, and a great read every time. We love the contests and events discussed, and we have even attempted to duplicate some of them! This is a great site, and you can visit it here!

2. Indexed. (Original Review) This blog explores the world graphically in a funny and savvy way. Each day, the blogger draws a graph of some sort on a note-card, and scans it in for everyone to enjoy. They poke fun at current events, enlighten as to political policy, and shed light on obscure topics. We recommend this blog for all those visual learners out there, and for anyone interested in a good laugh, check it out here! (Our daddy's pick!)

1. Seriously, So Blessed. (Original Review) This is our favorite new blog for the year, and we've been following it for months now. The "writer" is an excellent satirist who is poking fun of the traditional Mormon Mommy Blogger and the young-LDS family in general. We find this blog funny and look forward to reading it. If you are interested in this sort of thing and haven't checked SSB out yet, you can read it here!


Thanks for reading our blog, and any blogs that we may have suggested to you this year, your presence is much appreciated! Happy New Year!

Honorable Mentions: Oliver, Cake Wrecks, and The Sartorialist.

Top Three Movies of 2008

We watched a lot of great movies in 2008, and we watched a lot of really crappy movies as well, which seems to be the consensus across the nation. Here are our favorite flicks from the past year:

3. The Dark Knight. (Original Review) This sequel to Batman Begins was probably the most-discussed film of the year, and for good reason. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was stunning, and he will be genuinely missed. Furthermore, the acting was excellent by all the cast including: Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman. If you're one of the last people/animals that hasn't seen this remarkable film, we recommend you do so, and in fact you should make it your New Year's Resolution! (Our daddy's favorite!)

2. Juno. (Original Review) This quirky flick about a high-school girl who gets pregnant and then struggles with the consequences was awesome. We loved the unique cinematography, the LOL one-liners, (LOL = Laugh Out Loud for you old fogies.) and the touching message of this indy film. We whole-heartedly endorse this movie!

1. Air Guitar Nation. (Original Review) Air Guitar Nation is an incredible documentary following the Worldwide Air Guitar Competition, which is exactly what it sounds like. We thought that the competition would be a laughingstock, but the contestants are exceptionally talented, and it was fun to watch them play the air guitar... (That doesn't sound right. They have the same musical abilities as we do, a capacity to wag our tails to a musical beat, and they are quasi-renowned for their musical abilities?! How rude.) We love this obscure movie, and we think that you would too!


2008 was a great year for movies, and we're excited to see what 2009 has in store! Stay tuned to find out what we think...

Honorable Mentions: Enchanted, Stardust, and Waitress.