Lunch with Laird...

I was going to start off by talking about everything happening in the sports world but my brother summed everything up in a comment on my last blog. To reiterate though... Tiger won. Again. 7 PGA events in a row. The reason I am not as stunned about it as everyone one else is because he doesn't consider it a legit streak since he lost a couple non PGA events on the way. It's still unbelieveable though. Federer is ridiculous. Between Tiger and Federrer, there is almost no doubt as to who is going to win on any given sunday. What I think the greatest current streak however, is the Phoenix Suns. 17 games in a row in the NBA is insane. Unimaginable. I don't believe it. Even when the Pistons won 13 in a row last year, it wasn't be margins like this. The suns are just blowing opponents away. Anyways, I'll get into it more on my Pistons blog.

So last week we were at this place we always go to (SoHo Park) for lunch when in walks Laird Hamilton. You may know him better as that surfer guy in the American Express commercials, or from Cribs, or as Gabrielle Reese's husband. So he and his daughter come in and the only open seats are at our table (it was a long picnic like table.) We didn't say anything to him but he seemed like a pretty nice guy and chatted up the people next to us. Anyways, he wasn't wearing a coat and I was very close to telling him that we weren't in Hawaii and he should put on some clothes.

I'm not sure if anyone watches The White Rapper Show on VH1 but it's pretty hilarious. It's a good reality show that combats lyrical abilities of white wannabe rappers. A couple of them are actually really good. There is this guy, John Brown, who I am pretty sure everyone in the world but me hates, but for me he makes the show. He is the self proclaimed King of the Burbs, and constantly rants about something called the Ghetto Revival. When asked by people like Grandmaster Flash and Brand Nubian, what exactly Ghetto Revival meant, all he managed to explain was that it was a revival of the ghetto. Watch the show and you'll understand.

I decided with all the excitement in the sports world that I would have a little tournament of my own. I decided to make a bracket of people representing the 4 cities I have lived in to compete in a head to head competition. I choose 3 people from the city, and then a local legend. There is no seeding and opponents will be randomly selected by dropping a golf tee. The competition will be based on things I make up and weighing people's strengths and weaknesses. ESPN's page 2 often does these things and they always end up being pretty funny. I may leave it up to you people to see who wins so we'll see how that goes. The brackets are as follows:

PoHo: Sameer P., Muki, Kiran V., Thomas Edison
Lansing: Bobby D., Bill E., Shawn M., Magic Johnson
Ann Arbor: Kris B., Dax P.D., Kelsey G., Lucy Liu
NYC: Brian M., Divya M., Phil A., Jerry Seinfeld

That's all for now but look for round 1 of the tournament later this week. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Go big or go home. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

Hallelujah Hollaback
-M, p & z

oh ps - If you're in lansing go see jordon's new play that opens tomorrow, break a leg. Go download the sing Grace Kelly by MIKA, it's pretty awesome. It reminds me of queen.
Happy birthday kelsey.

pps - katharine macphee got sexified.

TV is Pretty Cool...

First of all, I catch a lot of shit for caring about animals and such. Seriously though, you're making fun of me because I think animals have an equal right to life as everything else in the world. There are so many cool animals that people will never see, mainly because of urban sprawl and logging and Bush and terrible people who don't put the environment as one of their top priorities. Here is a species of lemur that is soon going to be on the endangered list. It is currently my favorite animal.















So I realized that there are a lot of good shows on TV. I know I recently did a top five but, there really are at least 10 shows on TV worth watching. Other than the usual, you need to check out a couple shows you may not watch. On USA, Psych and Monk may be the two funniest police detective shows ever. Definitely a reason to stay in on fridays. My guilty pleasure is Beauty and the Geek. It sounds terrible but is actually a pretty good reality show. Maybe I like it because I can relate to the nerds a lot.

If you haven't seen the Demetri Martin: Person special on comedy central you need to. He is hilarious. He does it all from flow charts, to regular stand-up to songs. An example, "I'm in a weird situation because I like rainbows. But I'm not gay. So I wear a rainbow on my shirt but under it I gotta put, 'not gay.' But I'm not against gay people, so then under that I gotta put, 'but supportive.' I just think it's weird that one group took refractive light. It's pretty greedy gays." You may have seen him on the daily show. He does some short pieces on occasion. He looks like he's 25 but he's actually 33. Check it out, I'm sure it is going to be rerun many times. I would like to cast him in a movie if i get a chance. I am going to see if he wants to be in my thesis but that is doubtful since I won't be paying him.

I was going to do a best dressed list of my own from the grammys. I'm not gay, but I'm also not against them. It's more of a hot chicks list actually. Here are my top three. Not just dress but general hotness and hair are also factors. Anyways, this just took a long time to find good pics so they may not be the best pics but just trust me on this one.
At 3 is Reese Witherspoon.

















At number 2 is Jessica Biel.

















At number 1 is Eva Longoria. I'm not her biggest fan but damn if she didn't look good.


















Anyways, that's all for now. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Bo big or go home. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

I'm out like t.r. knight
-M, p & z

oh ps - some people don't think reese is hot but to you people i say HA. You're wrong.

"The Moral Leader of our Nation..."











Can't sleep so I thought I'd blog a little. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and this is one holiday that I don't take as just another day off from school or work. I assume that it's because I went to schools that didn't take the day off and instead had special days. In elementary school (MLK Jr. Elementary no less) we had to sign up for special classes where we would learn about things that we wouldn't normally learn about in class like natural history or something equally cool. At Greenhills we spent the first half of the day listening to speakers and the second half of the day doing community service. When I was younger, I'm sure I hated it but it was a lot of fun in highschool. In college I always treid to go see a guest speaker as there were many all over campus.

Anyways my point is that if you have the day off you should spend it learning or doing something to better yourself or your community. Unlike Flag Day or President's Day or Colombus Day, MLK Day is one that everyone should feel like it's their duty to do something. He was the antithesis of lazy and it is such an injustice when people spend the day sitting at home watching tv. He is iconic, representing everything good in people. Im not saying that you need to go out and save the world, you don't even need to leave your apartment if you don't want to. Take the time to surf the internet and learn about things you normally wouldn't. Learn about politics and who you want to vote for in the primaries, or about other countries, or go to the amnesty international website and send an email in support of something you believe in. DTN (my old employers) would lead you to believe that MLK day is a good opportunity to make all the leasing agents take property tours of every property they don't work at and take notes. So they make you spend the entire day driving around and wasting your day. I could never bring myself to go, I always made an excuse, but it's thinking like that from redneck self absorbed companies like DTN that is the opposite of what you should spend the day doing. It doesn't really matter what you are doing just don't waste your time, learn something and please don't be lazy.

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive."

to see the speech or read it go here
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

-M, p & z

ps - check out these sites
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://www.savedarfur.org/content
http://www.amref.org/
http://www.unicef.org/
http://www.directrelief.org/
http://www.youthnoise.com/
http://www.peta.org/

Just started a Pistons Blog. Check it out if you wanna hear me rant about my boys in blue.
http://www.gointowork.blogspot.com

The Art of Not Losing Customers...

So I go to sign up for a gym membership today. I know, I am officially a New Yorker now. I didn't really want to, but with no access to a basketball court I find myself getting fat. With Muki and Kris here last week, I got the inevitable, "man, you're getting fat." Not that I actually think I am fat but I can't deny the slight double chin and the ever-present rice tummy. I'm still 10 pounds lighter than when I was actually fat though. So I go to this gym to find out their rates because I heard they have a deal where you can go 3 days a week for 19 dollars and that sounded pretty good to me. Unfortunately that deal no longer exists. So they tell me the cheapest deal they have for a month to month (I'd do a contract for a year but not sure where I will be next year) is $50, plus a $150 initial payment. There is a "non-negotiable" $100 dollar initiation fee though I'm not sure what that meant. That was the best they could do.Finally I told them no and left (there was two of them trying to goad me into something like a car salesman selling you the undercarriage rust proofing). I get two blocks away when they call me (I made the mistake of giving them my phone number). The guy says that he went over it some more and found a deal for 35 dollars and month including any class I want to go to and I can do it month to month and the initiation fee was only 75. Anyways I go there and the guy was going to be shady about it and put me on someone's friends and family package only no one has my last name. So I had to go with Kumar, my middle name, to get someone with the same last name. So my name is Marty Kumar, which doesn't make any sense, but at least I didn't have to sign anything and I can quit whenever I want.

I realized I started 2007 without doing a best of 2006 list, and you all know how much I love lists. So here it is the best of 2006. First up, is top 5 movies. As I was making a list of all the movies that came out last year that I saw, I realized I saw a ridiculous amount of movies and also that there were a lot of good movies that came out. Now this list only consits of movies that I saw and may not be completely accurate because of that. There were also some honorable mentions, Talladega Nights, Superman Return, and Tokyo Drift.At number 5, is V for Vendetta. This movie was amazing and Natalie Portman was hot even with no hair. At number 4 is Little Miss Sunshine. Hilarious, though some may say it was a cliched indie flick, I say boo to you. At 3 is Scoop. Woody Allen followed up Match Point with the complete opposite movie, a comedy with an informative ghost. It was the funniest movie of the year. Coming in at number 2 is the surprisingly amazing Lucky Number Slevin. I loved this movie and it turned me on to Lucy Liu. And the number 1 movie of last year was...The Illusionist. This was by far the most original movie of the year and the cinematography was amazing. All in all, if you haven't seen it you need to.















Hmm that took a while so I will only do one more list for now. The top 5 albums of last year. Again this is only music that I listen to and while my taste is probably better than yours, it doesn't mean I'm better than you. Honestly though, these are albums that I think are amazing and if you haven't heard it you at least need to listen to the free samples on i-tunes to see if you might like it. So here it is, artist firt followed by the album name. At number 5 is The Hold Steady with their album, Boys and Girls in America. The album was everything I hoped for after the first 2. I feel more connected with them somehow after moving to ny. At number 4 is Regina Spektor with her sophmore album Begin to Hope. This album may have been better than her first which is almost impossible. Her voice is amazing and so is the album, At number 3 is TV on the Radio with their album Return to Cookie Mountain. It is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time, it was very very close to being either number 2 or 1. However, at number 2, is Ghostface Killah with Fishscale. Easily the best hip-hop album I have heard in years. Every single song is ridiculously hype, the beats are ridiculous and I love how chrismatic he is. At number 1 is the Shout Out Louds with Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. This album is prefect start to finish. Any time a band uses the intro to the old atari game Pole Position in one of their songs, they are bound to be awesome. Buy these albums, they are all amazing.



















Anyways, that's all for now. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Go big or go home. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

I'm out like like rudolphs nose

-M, p & z

oh ps - if there are any albums or movies that I missed let me know and I will see if you have a valid point.
also here is my next car (can someone tell me how to hyperlink on a mac)
http://autos.aol.com/article/detroit-auto-show/_a/toyota-ft-hs/20070103101109990001

So Long, So Long...

Another year come and gone. I was going to say not much happened but 2006 was a pretty eventful year. I graduated, moved to nyc and have already made 5 films. Granted graduating was more of an inevitability than an accomplishment, and those first 4 films sucked, but I have learned a lot or at least I hope I have. Life is pretty strange I guess, I won't feel like I am doing anything with my life until I am out of school. Everyone I hang out with, from people that were younger to those that are older, it seems are at the same position in life. People have degrees and masters and doctorates and are still trying to figure out what to do in life and are just passing time for the moment. I am excited for the day that I won't be wondering what I'm doing next year and instead just start living. Hopefully with a dog.

2007 is shaping up to be pretty warm which probably means the world is going to end soon. New Years was a blast, good food and good friends is about all one could ask for. I realize I haven't blogged in a while so I will try and remember everything that I have been meaning to blog about. First of all, I have to tell this story about this kid on my plane when I flew home. While in line to board the plane I noticed this family with a young boy and younger girl who looked like trouble. They were yelling at each other a lot and didn't seem to have control over the kids which is never good when travelling by plane. So of course they end up sitting on the other side of the aisle from me. All is going well for the first half hour or so but as soon as I had drifted off I awoke to some heightened excitement next to me. I look over and see this little 7 year old boy leaning all the way forward in his seat, looking behind him with a look of absolute terror. I mean you would have thought this kid saw a demon coming out from his seat. So I follow his gaze to his seat and see that he has had an ass explosion in his pants that went through his underwear and jeans and left brown ooze in his chair. Amazed at what happened I looked back at the kid who clearly wasn't done and mid-poop said, "I can't hold it!" I started cracking up and had to turn away so his parents didn't see me. Good times.

Christmas was low key, the highlight was the x-box 360 my brother and I got for ourselves. Gears of War really is one of the best first person shooter games I have ever played. The story is so lacking though that after we spent 3 days beating the game we realized we had no idea what it was about. Anyways, you shoot people and can saw them in half. Road trip with Muki Jordon Bill and Heidi back was fun. I will say this however, 5 people with small bladders makes a 9 hour trip almost 11 hours. Good times though, but damn Pennsylvania is a very looong state. New Years was good, a bunch of folks came up and we went to a bar and had copius amounts of alcohol. I don't understand a bar having a bathroon with only one stall though. I can't believe how much of my night was spent waiting in line. It got to a point where you went to get in line before you had to go because by the time you got to the front you really had to.

Having a lot of people hang out for four days straight is about the most fun you can have, the only problem is getting back to reality. I forgot how hard it was to sit and think about plot lines and ideas and characters and film, and now I am here procrastinating because I have a monstrous brain fart and can't think of some ideas for my final film which is shaping up to be pretty funny thus far. I abandoned all hope of making something serious, at least for now, I think I'll stick with comedy because that's about the only thing I can do well. Anyways, this was a pretty boring blog just catching you up on my life. So i'm gonna go now and try and get soe real work done. Hope everyone has a wonderful 2007.

As always, get your feet off the ground and keep reching for the stars. Go big or go home, Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

I'm out like 2006
-M, p & z

oh ps - I spend a lot of my time thinking and talking about poop and pooping so I thought I would reel off some names that I have come up with for the runs. There's the dirty water, the PBRuns, the butt faucet (my fave). Anyways there are a bunch more and much more poop things to talk about. but i'm done for now. ciao.

happy new year