FYI...

Just a reminder my show airs tonight. It's on Discovery Health. Check it out. I don't get that channel so tell me if I look fat..
Here's a link

Fit to Live
Friday, January 11 at 8pm e/p

News events put harsh realities of life in front of us every day. At any time, we could face a crisis, and accident, a natural disaster. We may not think of fitness as a survival factor in these situations. But ask yourself: do you have the basic endurance, strength, and agility to escape a disaster zone? If you had to climb 12 flights of stairs to be rescued from the roof of a burning building … could you do it? Hoist yourself out of a broken elevator … could you do it? Carry an injured co-worker to safety … could you do it?

In a radical new television program, five people will take the test that could save their lives… and take on a whole new approach to fitness. Are you Fit to Live?



-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - I don't have cable so if someone out there gets discovery health and feels a burning desire to tape it for me, I won't stop you...

What Makes Me Tick...

So aside from cutting down my chicken intake this year and getting into better shape, I also am going to try and be more open. I have been accused, and rightfully so, of being a very guarded person. I don't really share my feelings with people, mostly because people like to tell you what those feelings mean and there's nothing worse than someone telling you what you are thinking. But in an effort to be more open I am going to start letting people in on the little things in my life that make me unique, or at the very least make me who I am. It should be pretty easy. It's just basically a list of things I like and dislike and also things about me that you may not know.

The thing that got me thinking about this was my partial OCD. Though self-diagnosed, I am pretty sure I (along with many other people) have a slight case of OCD. In my case it presents itself in quirky forms that I think are necessary but others find pretty annoying. For example I have to arrange the dishwasher in an exact way every single time. Cups go in the upper left, mugs in the upper middle, bowls in the upper right, Plates go in the lower left facing right in order from largest to smallest. Pots go in the lower right and pans go on the lower right edge. Silverware is to be divided evenly between all six compartments. There cannot be more than one type of utensil in each compartment. For example if there are 6 spoons 5 knives and 4 forks, the different utensils would be divided evenly between the compartments with none containing more than one of each type of silverware.

That has become part of my routine and I don't mind doing it. It happens subconsciously as most of my habits do. I don't mind doing the dishes (which I scrub and wash completely before putting them in) but for some reason people get mad when I rearrange the dishes they claim to have done; but in my mind they aren't done right unless it's my way. Anyways, the reason I bring this up is that sometimes, like today, my mind blanks. I forget my routine and am left dumbfounded. I have a routine of how I dry off with my towel after the shower. I'll spare you the boring details but basically there is a set number of rubs per each section of my body and a specific order in which I do them. But today, as sometimes is the case, I forget what I am doing. So I end up standing there unable to dry myself because I don't know how. I try and remember my routine but my mind draws a blank and I sit there getting cold with no idea how to properly dry myself. It sucks. It is pretty much the worst actually. The only thing worse than not drying off after a shower is getting out of a warm toasty bed in the morning when it's freezing out.

Anyways, that's part of me in a nutshell. Crazy like a fox. As always, get your feet off the ground and reach for the stars. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory lasts forever. Go big or go home. Carpe diem. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it. Life's short, live large.

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - To keep you updated on my fitness, I started at 174 towards the middle of last month, lost 8 lbs by christmas, gained 2 back over New Years (mostly Sparks and Tilt weight) and then lost 2 after I got back. Back at 166. My goal is 160. I think that should be pretty good. It's a fine line for me from being too skinny and being too fat but I think 160-162 is a good weight for me to hover around.

Best of 2007: Music...

Even though it says best of 07 it's really the best of 07 plus the last couple months of 06. Mostly because some albums came out that I didn't get around to buying until the end of 06 and by then I had already made my best of 06 list. Anyways it's a pretty good list that seems to be dominated by chicks. Again. Not sure if this is just a period for me where I really like chick music or if this is the in between stage from listening to cool hip young music to listening to adult contemporary (which I already listen to anyways). The thing about me and music is that I really have no discernible taste. I love everything. Including country. Especially country. That's why I think this list is always a pretty good one to go by. There's something for everyone on here no matter what your taste in music is. Unless it's jazz, which sadly I don't know enough about. I love jazz and have many jazz albums but I could go out and buy a jazz record that came out 40 years ago and it would be new to me. I'm not up on my contemporary jazz. So if you only like jazz, this is not the list for you.

Also keep in mind that, much like my movie list, there are many albums I haven't heard. These are only albums that I bought. Also, like my movie list, this is ranked in order of how much I enjoy them, not necessarily how good the album was. For example, Die Hard was my number one movie of last year but I don't think it was the best acted or the best directed, just the best to me. So I am sure there are many other worthy albums out there that are better than some of these but I haven't heard them yet. Remind me in 2010 to do a recap of all the albums I missed. Also I included a song that I think you will like and should download to see if you do.

Just barely missing the cut were Alicia Keys As I Am and Tegan and Sara The Con.

Anyways, the top 10:

10 - Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight
Very solid album, not quite as good as More Adventurous but I still loved it.
Download: "15"

9 - Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Awesome album. Almost as good as Everything All The Time, which is saying something.
Download: "The General Specific"

8 - Kanye West - Graduation
Might be my favorite Kanye album to date. He was up against some tough competition but I think it might be one of the few albums that fits any mood your in. A lot of these require a certain mind set but this is just perfect for chillin to dancing.
Download: "Everything I Am"

7 - Feist - The Reminder
Just as good if not better than last year's Open Season. She's kind of killin it right now. A lot of times I fall in love with albums and then forget them but this definitely won't be one of them.
Download: "I Feel It All"

6 - Elliott Smith - New Moon
It's the light at the end of the tunnel after From a Basement On the Hill. 2 discs of Smith at his best: depressing lyrics over less depressing rhythms.
Download: "First Timer"

5 - Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
It's almost impossible to out perform Set Yourself On Fire, but this follow up album is the next best thing
Download: "The Beginning After the End"

4 - Katie Herzig - Weightless
I hadn't heard of her until this year so I can't compare it to her last album. But suffice to say that I will buy her first album, Watch Them Fall.
Download: "Sweeter Than This"















3 - Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP
Not sure this qualifies exactly but I love him so I can do whatever I want. This LP is a collection of 3 previously recorded EPs that were released on the internet. So it counts because it's the first time it was in cd form. It's an amazing album but how could you expect less from Mr. Folds. Ben had this to say about how good his EPs made him feel, "often i would even glance at my watch as people talked to me, to show them i had more important things to do."
Download: "There's Always Someone Cooler Than You"



















2 - Mando Diao - Ode to Ochrasy
This is one of the albums that I didn't get until late last year but I had to put it on the list because it still blows me away a year later. Awesome follow up to Hurricane Bar and even better than this year's Never Seen the Light of Day.
Download: "The New Boy"




















1 - Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift
When I got this album last summer I thought it would just be a good, fun, poppy, country summer album. But then it turned into a good fall album. And it's turning into a good winter album. Short gray days are actually made sunny by this 16 year old chick. It's pretty surprising that this album is still relevant. I thought it might have been just a short lived Memorial day weekend cd which I bought specifically for our drive up to Montauk in the Hamptons (my life is cooler than yours). I knew we'd have to sit in traffic so I thought it would be nice to listen to, but it actually took me to Cali and back and it's still rocking out in my car.
Download: "Picture To Burn"

So there it is, this took me a very long time actually so that's all I'm gonna say.

Go big and stuff...

-M, p , z & shredder


oh ps - Hop on limewire or i-tunes or whatever and download the song I recommended and if you like it go support the artist and pick up the cd. Unless of course the artist is already uber rich and famous in which case ask me to burn it for you and I'll give it to you when I see you.ka

Best of 2007: Movies...

So at first I thought this was going to be a pretty easy list to do. I usually do a top 5 and that's that but when i went back to go over all the movies that came out last year I realized that I had gone and seen close to 40 movies in theaters. That's kind of a lot. Then I realized that I would have to do a top ten otherwise people would think I suck based on my top 5. I also realized that there was a multitude of bad movies that came out as well, so I am adding a worst of 07 as well. Keep in mind that these are only based on movies that I've seen. For example, I did not get a chance to see The Hoax, or Darfur Now or Lars and the Real Girl etc. So perhaps this isn't the most accurate list but it's pretty close anyways. It was actually really tough to get it down to just 10 so the couple extremely close calls were, I Am Legend, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster, Transformers and Hot Fuzz.

10 - The Last Mimzy
9 - Factory Girl
8 - 300
7 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6 - TMNT

5 - Superbad. Definitely worth the wait for Seth and Evan as their 7 year old script finally made it to the big screen. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are two of my favorite actors (as far as comedies go) and this movie did not disappoint. If you haven't seen it, you really need to. Not quite as good of a movie as Knocked Up but definitely hilarious.

4 - Juno. Another little indie movie that's getting amazing reviews, though not quite as popular as last year's Little Miss Sunshine. Michael Cera lands another movie in my top 5 along with the kick ass Ellen Page. Jennifer Garner is actually pretty good in this movie and Jason Bateman (even when reunited with fellow Arrested Development alum Cera) actually plays a semi-serious role.




















3 - Talk to Me. Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor were perfect in this movie based on the true story of famed radio dj, Petey Greene. It was probably the best acted movie of the year but for some reason didn't generate a lot of buzz. Cheadle once again blows me away. He's climbing the charts of best actors out there (please excuse his role in the Ocean's series).

2 - Knocked Up. As if The 40 Year Old Virgin wasn't good enough, Judd Apatow killed me again with what might be the best young adult comedy since the original American Pie. I'm sure you've all seen it and know all about it. But Apatow is now officially kicking ass. He has never put out anything that I haven't been in love with since I first fell in love with him back in 1999 with Freaks and Geeks. Seth Rogen also makes his 2nd appearance on my top 5. I am sure next year will be similar what with his movies, Pineapple Express and Drillbit Taylor coming out. He wrote both of them and stars in the former along with another Freaks and Geeks alum James Franco, while my boy Owen Wilson takes the helm of the latter. There is no one that I would rather work with than this group of guys.




















1 - Live Free or Die Hard. How could this not be the best movie of the year. I saw it 3 times in the theater. Mostly because it is the first movie to actually live up to the hype of being called an action movie in a long time. It was hands down the best american action movie made this century (not counting action/adventure movies which is a different category). Bruce Willis might be one of the biggest bad asses of all time. Granted I also loved it because my boy Justin Long was in it. I feel like we're friends now ever since I ate dinner at the table next to him in Soho a few months ago. But I have been a fan of his since 2000 when he was on Ed and I'm glad to see he's doing awesome things with his career.

So there it is. The best movies of 2007. The following are the worst with number 1 being the absolute worst. Some close calls were Hitman, and Rush Hour 3.
5 - Blades of Glory - snooze fest with only one funny line the whole movie
4 - Dragon Wars - what dragons? it was about a huge evil snake. the only dragon was in the last 3 minutes.
3 - Ocean's 13 - WTF? Boring. The worst part is that no one besides Damon even tried to act. Craptacular.
2 - War - Seriously? Jason Statham and Jet Li and that's the best you can do? It should have killed.

And the worst movie of the year is....

1 - The Bourne Ultimatum - The second was good but this third one sucked balls. I can't believe they call it an action movie. It was by far the worst action movie I have ever seen in my life including those heinous Van Damme movies of the mid 90's. I'd rather watch Steven Segal do 'karate'. It's the exact same as the first two only if you took out all the cool scenes and aspects and put in a bunch of shit. I'd say it's a polished turd but that's an insult to feces.

Anyways, that's it for the moment. Best music to come soon. I'm out. Go big....

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - just saw National Treasure II last night. I love those movies. I was thinking it was a fun enjoyable popcorn flick until they set it up for a third installment. It wasn't even a question either, it was like "hey, are you ready to begin making the next sequel?" and Nick Cage was like, "Yeah. I can't wait." And then that 'funny' kid feigned sarcasm, "Oh joy. I can't wait." Even though he obviously truly can't wait since it's his only source of income. My point is that I'm jealous I can't direct it.