Yes, those are all my Apple devices, in one big family

It’s not often that a huge news story affects so many people. And it’s not often when that news story is about one person’s passing. AND it’s definitely not often when that person is a CEO of one of the most successful companies of the past 25 years. Today, a very rare occurrence happened, when we all learned that Steve Jobs had passed away at the age of 56.

A friend asked earlier, “when was the last time such a phenomenal CEO passed away?” I took it further – when was the last time such an influential CEO passed away? When was the last time ANY CEO’s passing made front page headlines? When was the last time a CEO’s passing deeply affected this many people, this quickly?

Regardless of your stance on the company itself, everyone I know has been affected by Steve Jobs’ vision in some way. Be it as little as using iTunes to listen to your music, or as big as standing in line outside an Apple Retail Store a week before the new iPhone comes out. Whether or not you were actively thinking about Mr. Jobs when doing these tasks, his influence was there.

I personally have been using Apple products my whole life – my dad has a Macintosh Classic that I used to play an early disk-based RPG program called “Spelunx” on. It was on this computer where I first was exposed to the Mac OS, back in version 6 or 7. We then upgraded to a bigger desktop, the Performa. Being part of the generation that essentially grew up with the first “modern” desktops, this computer took a huge part in my formative years. I learned how to type on it, wrote early school papers on it, and it provided me with my first glimpse of this new-spangled thing called the “INTERNET.” In fact, we were one of the few families that tried out Apple’s failed online service, “E-World.” Some of these names and programs may be foreign to you reading this, and I totally understand. This was all pre-iMac, when Apple first began its ascent into uber-success.

We had a Bondi Green iMac, and it was amazing. I remember being wowed by the concept of getting to see INSIDE the computer. Not to mention the first “why?” moment in realizing this computer did away with the floppy drives. Apple has always been a company who SETS the trends, rather then waiting for them to pop up. Floppy disks are a memory now, a punchline. Back in 1998, people were outraged by this “oversight” on Apple’s part. All programs were installed via floppy. People’s backups and storage were on floppys. How dare a computer company that was near-floundering in the industry make such a bold move? Obviously this was the first of many similar decisions that at first were umpopular, but in retrospect turned out to be genius moves, headed by the genius at the head of the company.

The iMac was a success for Apple fans and helped put the company back on the map, but the upward spike in popularity really came with the introduction of the first real consumer MP3 player, the iPod. This started Apple’s trend of creating a new device or technology that everyone would want. With the easy of use of iTunes already becoming a success on the Mac OS, the iPod followed suit with a portable version of your entire music library. I remember the day when I first got my iPod – I sat eagerly waiting for it to charge so I could sync it up to my ever-growing library of songs. No longer would i have to choose what CD I wanted to bring to school to listen to in study hall on a particular day. I could have ALL my CDs with me in one, card-deck-shaped device. It was brilliant. Steve’s vision was brilliant.

During these days, when Apple was finally gaining some ground in the Mac vs. PC wars, Apple pride was rampant with Mac users. In fact, if you scoured the internet during those days, you might commonly find an image saying “Made on a Mac,” kind of a “See what I can do?” fist in the face to PC users who commonly shrugged off Macs as viable computing machines. I certainly represented my Apple Pride on my old personal website. Apple users would defend their hearts out on their beloved machines, I remember trying to convince my PC-using cousin of the merits of the iMac.  Apple later mirrored this sentiment when they came out with the “Switch to Mac” ads. In fact, all of their modern ads to date, especially the Justin Long vs. John Hodgman “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads, showcased Apple’s intent on appearing “cooler,” and easier to use when compared to their rival PCs. With their new slew of sleek-looking, high-functioning computers and iPods, the success started coming.

I went to a communications school in college, meaning there were a lot of what we like to call “creative types.” Typically, at least for the bulk of my generation, that meant Macs had an extremely strong presence in the hallways and classrooms of Boston University’s School of Communications building. Walk through a dorm hallway and count how many iBooks/ Powerbooks  and later MacBooks you see in each room. Even if someone didn’t have a Mac laptop, I BET you they had some form of iPod. I know freshman year we all took advantage of the dorm-network sharing options provided by BU in being able to view and listen to our floormates’ iTunes libraries. This was around the time when social networks like Facebook were really starting to blossom into the lives of students my age.

Even now, as a working 20-something in the entertainment industry, Apple provides a huge influence over my day-to-day life. Not only do I work on a MacPro using Final Cut Pro and Apple’s XSAN Servers, but half of the company I work at has iPhones. Occasionally we’ll get requests to compress a video so it can be watched on an iPad. Sometimes, more often recently, we have some fun complaining about and making fun of the shortcomings of Final Cut X. I come home from work and jump on my MacBook Pro, as I am doing right now, sitting in bed. I might also have Final Cut open on my own MacPro, with an Apple Magic Mouse wirelessly linked to either computer. I’m sitting here preparing to pre-order the new iPhone on Friday. I may not think about Steve Jobs every time I open up Final Cut or turn on my computer, but I certainly know I’ve been on board with his vision for 15 years.

In thinking about Steve Jobs’ death today, and in collecting my thoughts for this post, I couldn’t help but be surprised at my own emotional reaction to the news. I was legitimately sad about this. I almost teared up when I saw the CNN headlines when I was at the gym earlier – just seeing the words on television was still unbelievable. It’s such a strange thing, trying to justify why I’m so upset about someone I’ve never met passing. I think the best explanation is that Steve Jobs is one of those rare examples of a CEO truly putting his heart and soul into his company. Steve Jobs IS synonymous with Apple. That’s why you don’t have to consciously think of him when you use an Apple product. That Apple product IS him. Everything the company does IS his vision, like it or not.

The questions arose a couple months ago when he stepped down as CEO – will Apple be the same without him at the top? CAN Apple be the same without Steve Jobs? I personally feel that if anyone could impose his vision on an entire company, it would be Steve Jobs. That’s why I am not worried as an Apple user, stock-holder and straight-out fan, about the company’s future. Steve’s vision will still be seen in future products, the people he left in charge have been a part of the “Think Different” machine for a long time. But despite this, losing someone at this level, there has to be some drop off. Something will always feel different about Apple without Steve and his black turtleneck explaining how simple their new product is – “it just works,” sounds different coming out of Tim Cook’s mouth, despite seeing how something “just works” still looks the same.

I’ll sign off with a popular quote from Steve, from his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech, that many are quoting today, explaining Steve’s thoughts and advice on facing death:

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?”

For a man who’s life was his company and his company was his life, I think he could look at himself in the mirror every day and answer “Yes.”

Image via CrunchBase

The number-crunchers over at WordPress compiled some interesting stats for the year on my site. Check it out (and thanks to everyone for visiting) *all that follows is from WordPress*

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,200 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 38 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 53 posts. There were 16 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 11mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was January 6th with 96 views. The most popular post that day was 30 Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens Video “The Ride”.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, linkedin.com, largeheartedboy.com, and iconfactory.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for josh glass, “personal writing” and glass and the new republic, hoover dam, “josh glass”, and hoover dam bridge.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

30 Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens Video “The Ride” November 2009
2 comments

Bio August 2009

Resume August 2009

Reel/Videos August 2009

Anniversary Season: Road Trip Day Four – Lubbock, Texas January 2010
8 comments

Mad Men “The Suitcase”

In an ensemble show, it’s tough to take a full episode to just focus on two characters. Mad Men nailed it with “The Suitcase,” written by the show’s creator and runner, Matthew Weiner, the majority of the action takes place on a late night in Don Draper’s office, as he and Peggy Olsen work all night on a campaign for suitcase-maker Samsonite (get the title now?) What I loved so much about this episode, was that it played like a two-character play. Don and Peggy are the real leads of the show, as they both showcase strong desires to do succeed without worrying about how it affects their personal lives. Peggy, being the protegé, looks up to Don, and takes pride in the fact that she quickly became a copy-writer as a woman, under Don’s guidance, and strives to be seen as one of the guys, or at least wants her work to speak for herself and not her gender. Don understands this and appreciates Peggy’s determination, and the two garner an unspoken respect for one another. In season 4, not much had been touched on with this relationship until this episode, and that’s why the episode was so great – both characters had kind of coasted on their own without much personal interaction throughout the season, and it was about time they put the two together again. Through their night-long work session, they get into each other’s personal lives, something that neither character really allows any other character in the office to do. Peggy, in a relationship for the first time in a while, manages to still put her work before her personal life, even on her birthday. Don on the other hand, is dealing with the impending news of his friend Anna’s death from cancer. He is too scared to call her niece and hear the news out loud, so he’s surrounding himself in work to get his mind off it. After the episode’s events take place, Don finally makes the call, and the two characters fall asleep on his couch after emotionally draining nights. Not only was this a great episode for these two characters, and of course extremely well-written in that sense, but the performances by Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss was also incredible, and perhaps Hamm may find himself with an Emmy for it at the end of the year. For a show that continually puts out incredible episodes, this one in particular really shows how great the Mad Men crew is.

Community “Modern Warfare“

Stepping into comedy, Community hit one out of the park with this episode, affectionately known as the “Paintball Episode.” Greendale is overtaken by a school-wide paintball fight, as students pine for first dibs on creating their schedule for the next semester. In the madness that ensues, we see our main characters turning on each other, even in the form of Jeff and Britta having sex finally, after a season’s worth of sexual tension between the two. The episode was my favorite from season 1, and was as action-packed as the movies they were paying homage to (with enough laughs to match it).

Community (again) “Epidemiology”

From Season 2, another homage to a film-genre, this time in the form of a zombie-apocalypse (not unlike The Walking Dead, see my notes on one of my favorite new shows of 2010 here). Using an actually well-believable premise that the punch at the school’s Halloween party is spiked, but not with alcohol. The semi-poisonous concoction turns students into feverish, zombie-like beings, who infect those that they bite (you know the deal with zombies). Our main characters are quarantined into the study room to survive the apocalypse until help can arrive. As they figure out the problem, they determine that if they lower the temperature in the building, maybe the fevers will be broken. After the study room is compromised and some characters attacked, the remaining survivors attempt to get to the thermostat and lower the temperature. The entire episode was great, and like “Modern Warfare,” took a genre and paid homage to it without making fun of it, in the vain of Sean of the Dead. Despite this, the best moment was when Troy, Abed and Jeff find themselves in the basement, and a flying, attack cat screeches across the screen. Not having to do with anything zombie-related, Jeff aims to find out what is making that cat fly the way it is “Is someone throwing it?” Moments like that show how well the show can achieve comedic moments even outside of their episodic homages.

Community (one more) “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”

The Christmas episode, shot in stop-motion, a-la Frosty the Snowman, the episode follows Abed’s imaginary journey to find the meaning of Christmas. The other characters, sympathetic to his emotional duress, play along, some more enthusiastic about it than others. What we find out is that Abed is upset about not being able to spend Christmas with his mother, a tradition that has never been broken. Stop-motion animation aside, the episode was great because it told an emotional story without sacrificing any comedy, which is something the show is good at when it wants to be. Bonus points for the “Lost” season one lack of payoff joke, and the remote-controlled Christmas pterodactyl. Not one who has any strong emotional ties to Christmas, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and understood Abed’s emotional journey. I also commonly wish my life were animated in some sort of cartoon-ish state, instead of this boring live action world.

Terriers “Hail Mary” (Watch)

The season/series finale, I talked a bit about it in my Best New TV Shows of 2010 post, the show came to an end in a way that both concluded up the story arc that had continued to reveal more twists and turns, including one big one in the finale, and left the viewers satisfied with how the main characters play out their role as detectives, and remain optimistic about their rough personal lives. Brit, as I noted in the other post, was on his way to prison after being arrested for assaulting Katie’s classmate, whom he mistakenly thought was her lover. Hank on the other hand, had just dealt with the death of Gretchen’s new husband Jason, a situation in which Hank was indirectly responsible for, as Jason was brought in on the detectives’ theories on the land-grab conspiracy. Brit has prison to look forward to in the immediate future, but the promise of a new start with Katie after he gets out. That is, if he doesn’t decide to flee to Mexico with Hank. The season’s mystery arc was finished satisfyingly, although with a surprising new character thrown into the mix as the brains behind the land-grab. A little sudden, but not entirely unbelievable. Bad Guy Lawyer Zeitland proved not to be the main man behind the conspiracy, and of course, if you think about it, a corrupt lawyer would be likely to take orders from a more corrupt business man, and not be the brains behind the outfit himself. It was sad to see the show go, but a well-done finale that can strongly serve as a series finale.

The Walking Dead “Days Gone By” (Pilot)

The first episode of The Walking Dead was a great one, and it played out exactly like a full zombie film. Rick Grimes wakes up in the hospital to find the world is now surging with human-flesh-craving zombies. His first instinct is to go home and find his family, but instead he finds and empty house with signs of them leaving peacefully (the photo albums are missing). He runs into a father (Morgan) and son (Duane) who are hiding out in Rick’s neighbor’s house, waiting it out. Their hesitancy to move on is capped by their wife/mother’s zombie body walking the streets of the neighborhood. The emotion that is still ripe in both these characters is very prevalent when the zombie wife approaches the house’s doorsteps and attempts to open the door – Duane gets scared and hides under the covers. In another sequence, toward the end after Rick leaves the two with some well-need artillery from the police station, Morgan sets up a sniper spot upstairs to knock out the walkers outside, and when he gets his wife in his sights, he still can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. While Rick starts out on his journey toward Atlanta to find safe haven, we find out that his wife Lori and son Carl are with a group of survivors, lead by Rick’s old partner Shane, who is now sleeping with Lori. As Rick gets trapped in an abandoned tank in the streets of now zombie-infested Atlanta, the episode ends on him getting a call on the walkie inside the tank, asking if he needs help. The episode perfectly sets up the situation and characters we’ll spend the next 5 episodes observing, and turns out to be the most prominently zombie-filled episode of the season.

Lost “Ab Aeterno”

Decided not to use the finale, because while I enjoyed it when it aired, it still remains a slight disappointment as far as a culmination of the series, and while season 6 was also a disappointment and confusion-filled season, one remaining great episode that most fans can agree on is, “Ab Aeterno,” an entirely Richard Alpert-centric flashback episode, that finally explains why this mystery character has been around so long in the island, and how he got there in the first place. First off, kudos to Nestor Carbonell, who really got to show his range as an actor, as mid 19th-century Spanish man as opposed to his normal, mysterious, English-speaking island veteran. The episode gave detailed backstory on Richard and his plight that lead him to the island – a dying wife, a murderous mistake, a prison sentence and disastrous shipwreck that culminated in him being the only survivor, thanks to the smoke monster. Through a series of tricks from the Man in Black, Richard is thrown into the brotherly feud between “good” and “evil” forces on the Island, and eventually sides with Jacob, who gives him eternal life (and also kind of explains what the island is – a cork that aims to keep “evil” from getting out – still not sure about that one.) In a season where most were expecting answers to long-awaited questions, Ab Aeterno actually provided a big one – “who the hell is this Richard guy?”

24 Series Finale

Can’t believe I almost forgot to add this, it’s probably because I was mostly thinking of shows that aired during the summer and through this current season. Anyways, I covered it in a long 1,721-word review of the series and its final episode. While there were some great “oh shit!” moments on the show in the episodes leading up to the finale, which could very well had taken the cake had the finale not been the show’s last episode, (I’m thinking specifically of Body-Armored Jack single-handedly attacking Logan’s caravan, to Logan’s terrified “That’s Jack Bauer!” revelation. The episode served a season finale content-wise, because really how can a show like “24″ sum up a whole series worth of television in a real-time hour of a day? It’s not an emotional montage type show. “24″ was able to capture the emotion of a show ending simply within the last few minutes, as Jack and Chloe, the series’ two longest-running characters (who hadn’t ever got caught in cougar traps), speaking to each other on the phone for one last time. Jack reveals to her that at the beginning, he never thought she’d be the only one to have his back this entire time, a sentiment that echoed the audiences’ from Chloe’s early season on the show. In a sense, having Chloe be Jack’s most trusted ally throughout her seasons on the show was one of the show’s big twists, however slowly it developed. Jack’s heartfelt goodbye brought them both to tears, rare occurrences for both characters. Chloe closes out the show’s dialogue with three words “shut it down,” as she and Jack have a brief moment via video screen, Jack looking up at the drone in the sky and Chloe looking at the feed, right before he rushes off to uncertain destiny, and she walks out of CTU as the lights turn off. The countdown clock reaches 00:00:00, and 24 fans wait to see if we’ll get to witness our favorite bad-ass character in some sort of movie version.

Honorable mention – Conan’s last two weeks on “The Tonight Show” (NBC). After making what could only be one of the toughest decisions of his career, and more-than-likely life, and stepping away from a job he strove for for 15 years, Conan’s last two weeks on NBC brought back the carefree Conan we came to love after his 15 years at 12:35. He didn’t care about alienating viewers, or upsetting the network since he was in a bigger spotlight at 11:35. He openly made fun of his employers, and just let loose in general about the unfortunate situation he found himself in. Conan has always been great a self-deprecating humor, and coupled with seething nightly attacks at NBC, Jay Leno and the entire situation, he was on fire for those two weeks. Luckily, he was able to keep that momentum going through his stage tour and now his TBS show, “Conan.” Special note goes to his final episode, where he signed off with another heartfelt goodbye, as he did the year before after signing off on “Late Night.” And he ended his NBC run jamming out on guitar to “Free Bird.” Come on, who wouldn’t love to do that?

Terriers (FX)

Has to be top on my list, mostly because I’m one of under 1 million viewers that actually caught the show on a regular basis. Ted Griffin, writer of Ocean’s 11, created a buddy cop/detective show that was both somewhat a procedural but mostly a character drama that featured two scrappy, down-on-their-luck detectives with a combination of personal issues that by no means took a side note to their episodic cases. Donal Logue and Michael Raymond James brought an incredible chemistry to Hank and Brit’s relationship – a former cop in Logue and a former criminal in James, finding each other in times of strife and establishing a great partnership, solving crimes that the cops can’t always achieve. The show’s sole season also involved a season-long arc involving a corrupt lawyer and a detrimental land-grab going on in the show’s setting of Ocean Beach, California. What I enjoyed about the show was never the episodic cases themselves, but how well the show showcased the emotion and drama of these characters and their loved ones. This dynamic was solidified when Brit’s girlfriend Katie has a drunken one-night-stand with her professor, and is instructed by Hank to keep it under wraps, for fear of ruining a growingly serious and permanent relationship (Brit had been anticipating proposing to Katie in the episodes leading up to this infidelity). A few episodes later, after Brit had proposed and Katie accepted, the truth comes out as Katie reveals her secret with Brit, and to the chagrin of both characters, and the (small) audience who had been pulling for them to figure out the issue, Brit breaks off the relationship, leaving both characters in tears. Hank on the other hand had been dealing with his own issues – his ex-wife Gretchen had just remarried, and trying to hold onto their former life, started the series off by purchasing their old house from Maggie. Jealous and still in love with her, Hank had a buddy do a background check on Gretchen’s fiance, which after Gretchen finds out, gets him uninvited from the nuptials. All in all, the show did a great job of creating sympathetic characters with huge flaws, and followed them through this strong partnership as they tried and often failed to help each other out in their times of crises. The series ended on a question mark, but not one that left the few viewers guessing and upset about the show’s demise. Hank was driving Brit back to the police station after Brit had been arrested for beating up Katie’s classmate, who he mistakenly thought was her cheating lover. As the series came to an end, Hank comments to Brit as they sit at a traffic light – he can continue to go straight toward the police station, and Brit goes to prison. Or he can turn left and they can book it down to Mexico, hide out together. Which will Brit choose? The episode fades to black leaving the question unanswered. As viewers and Griffin mostly agree, Brit decided to take the prison sentence, as he had begun patching things up with Katie, and has the promise of her waiting for him after he gets out. We know that he’s in love with this girl and would wait in prison so he can have her back. We don’t need Griffin to tell us this in post-series interviews.

Louie (FX)

FX really hit it out of the park this year, and I promise the next few descriptions won’t be as long as the first one. Louis CK, a highly respected and well-disciplined genius of comedy in the past few years (although he had been doing standup for around 20 years, as if often the case), was given a six-figure-per-episode budget and carte-blanche slate to create literally whatever he wanted as his TV show. What resulted was a combination of 13 short films featuring a self-deprecating, semi-depressed, divorced father of two young girls who also happened to be a hilarious comedian. Most of the episodes focused around one particular bit of his, from his relationship with his two daughters, to his foibles and follies on the dating scene. But every few weeks there came across an episode with little-to-no comedic moments, save from the Seinfeld-ian bits of Louis doing standup at the Comedy Cellar in New York. One episode in particular that struck viewers was his episode simply titled “God,” which featured a young Louis CK in catholic school, learning about Jesus and how he died for our sins. Stepping outside of the familiar bounds of a comedy-through-awkwardness, “God” provided a fearful insight into the mind of a child learning about the graphic demise of Christianity’s Lord and Savior. This episode proved not only that Louis wasn’t afraid to take risks with this show, but show that a comedian doesn’t always have to be ha-ha funny all the time. Looking forward to the show’s second season in 2011.

The Walking Dead (AMC)

So many zombie-movies, but never an episodic show about them? Walking Dead filled that gap, and while there were only six episodes in the first season, it showed that yeah, it’s about a zombie apocalypse. But they’re not the focus of the series. Rick Grimes, a southern police officer wakes up after being in a coma caused by a gunfight to find that a disease has taken over the world and “woken up” those who have died from it, as they now walk the world, hungry for human flesh (You know the deal with zombies). Rick, like many other characters from zombie films, aims to find his family and make sure they are safe. He hears that Atlanta has a safe zone, but to his surprise when he arrives there, it has already been overturned by walkers. Saved by a young kid in a group of fellow survivors, Rick helps them get out of dodge and meet back up with their crew, hiding out safely by the side of the highway, camped out near the woods and a conveniently placed lake. The Walking Dead focused on the relationships between these survivors, most notably how Rick’s former partner Shane, was now sleeping with and caring for Rick’s wife Lori and son Carl. The show did a great job of balancing the character drama it focused on, while keeping up the excitement and horror of impending zombie attacks on the characters, as they were run out of their camp after a few episodes. Just six episodes, the show had some issues creating a strong season arc, but with a full season 2 order on the books, next season hopes to have more of a prominent storyline.

Conan (TBS)

Not exactly what you’d expect to be on this kind of list, but I can’t cut him out of a Best of Television list (and you’ll see he’ll feature on my Best Episodes list). After 9 months of being off television after a highly publicized and polarizing exit from his longtime employer NBC, Conan came back with a vengeance in a risky move, jumping onto a well-established but image-less basic cable channel. So far, the marriage has been successful, as much as they can expect, and as a viewer and longtime fan of his, I have been pleased with the content they’ve put out over the past couple months. Conan and crew seem to have back the confidence to do whatever they want, no matter how ridiculous the premise, which they often appeared to lack on his version of The Tonight Show. Whereas his move to 11:35 at NBC came with an iffy “we’re not that sure about this” sentiment from NBC, wanting to keep Jay Leno on the network and moving him to 10pm, which may have been a burden on Conan’s confidence going into the job, TBS now seems to have given him their complete confidence and support, letting him do what he does best and hoping that it puts them on the Late Night map. As a full-fledged member of Team Coco, I hope and fully expect this to be a solid success for both parties.

Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Almost forgot about this one (thank Andrew), but to be honest, I was into the show in the beginning, then thought it fell off a bit toward the middle. I believe it ended strong, and think it’s too well done and well-acted not to put it on the list. With a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese, and a concept well within his grasp, a period gangster crime drama, Boardwalk focuses on the prohibition era of Atlantic City, a town run by Treasurer Nucky Thompson, played by Steve Buscemi. While I like Buscemi, I had a tough time believing him as a bigger-than-life crime boss, considering his historically quiet demeanor and shorter stature. However, he did the best he could and was helped by a great ensemble of actors, including Kelly MacDonald as Margaret Shroeder, a young Irish mother, widowed after the first episode, and subsequently taken care of by Nucky himself (who ordered the hit on her late husband). Also filling out a strong cast is Michael Pitt, who plays James Darmandy, a thug of Nucky’s until he takes it upon himself to attack a caravan smuggling booze back to New York. He gets run out of time because of the incident, leaving his wife and kid alone with his mother. The main plot of the season followed Nucky’s crime gang as they continually get attacked by rival gangs. The small details are too much to get into here, but what I enjoyed was the look and feel of the show, plus the inter-character relationships. The season finale summed up a season’s worth of character development and strife, especially between Margaret and Nucky, but didn’t necessarily leave much in question. We’ll see how the second season picks up, I think the first season gave us a good basis for these characters and the era.

Honorable mention – Rubicon (AMC) – another short-lived show, this time a slow-moving spy drama featuring 24 alum James Badge Dale (Damnit Chase!) as a data analyst for a fictional government spy agency. The show focused on conspiracies surrounding the leader of this agency and his childhood buddies/colleagues/powerful business executives. Will Travers is promoted to department head after the unfortunate but suspicious death of his father-in-law and mentor David Hadas. Will spends the entire series trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and understand why David died and what he had learned about their boss, Truxton Spangler. At the same time, Will’s analyst team attempts to find a middle-eastern terrorist in order to prevent another attack on American soil. The season’s climax resulted in a failure to capture this terrorist before the attack, which took form of an explosion on an oil tanker in the gulf, well-timed with the rel life oil crisis over the summer (well, a couple months after that disaster, but still a relevant topic to capture). The show doesn’t make the proper list, because it was slow-moving and didn’t take off until the last few episodes, and I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending. Will confronts Spangler on the rooftop of their building, but the climax seemed to have already passed, and nothing solid is really embedded into the viewers minds. Perhaps if a second season had happened, we’d get more of a conclusion to this dramatic tension.

That was fun, coming up really soon (like, I’m going to write it after I post this) will be my list of best episodes of 2010. This will feature episodes from both the current season (fall 2010) and end of the previous (Spring 2010). So expect multiple entries from some shows.

First up on my list is my favorite movies of the year. I’m not going to put a number or ranking on them, this is just a spattering of movies I enjoyed from the past year, and why I liked them. Simple enough.

The Social Network David Fincher

I reviewed it after it came out, or at least blogged about how I felt about the movie itself, and how Facebook has changed over the years I’ve been using it, and how much a part of my generation’s online life it holds. The movie itself was well-written, directed, shot and of course, acted. Jesse Eisenberg uses his strength as a fast-talking, nerdy-looking lead and put on his jerk-face to create a character that while not necessarily true to the real Mark Zuckerberg, carried the movie with a headstrong passion. Eisenberg really captured Zuckerberg’s drive to create a revolutionary enterprise in Facebook, and helped solidify the movie’s non-stance on the creation and subsequent litigation surrounding Facebook. The cinematography was also great, in particular the tilt-shift focused crew race sequence. I found myself glued to the screen, mesmerized by the sights and sounds projecting from above. We’ll see how the movie fares as we inch closer to the imminent award season, but if I were a voter, it would definitely be on my list.

Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich

The emotional and cathartic conclusion of Pixar’s amazing franchise, Toy Story 3 was timed perfectly with the generational change occurring in both the film’s main human character Andy, and it’s audiences. When the first Toy Story came out, aside from being wowed by the technological prowess that Pixar provided with an entirely computer-generated film, the idea of having toys come to life and experience real human emotion with their owners was something every kid wished for. Now, 15 years later, my generation, like Andy in the film, is growing up and no longer play with those childhood toys we all loved so much. The movie captures the emotion that comes from growing up and letting go of your childhood, and while many of us painfully let our parents give away our favorite toys, and left it at that, Toy Story 3 gives us as sympathetic viewers, closure as Andy plays with Woody and friends one last time before giving them away to a young girl. It simultaneous gave us closure with the franchise’s end, and also with our own childhoods, and I applaud Pixar for achieving that near-impossible task.

Inception Christopher Nolan

I also blogged/reviewed this when it came out, and I was in the “wow that was amazing” state coming right off the movie. In the months since it came out, there has been a good deal of criticism of the movie, mostly calling out the logic flaws and lack of original plot, some going as far as saying the only real value of the movie was its visual effects. While all of these criticisms have their strong points, I simply go back to how I felt about the movie right after I saw it, and know that I enjoyed myself during it, and it left me thinking – whether it be specifically about the top spinning at the end and if it drops or not, or even just about the concepts of , and the rabbit hole that brings me through. It was exciting throughout, and like many of Christopher Nolan‘s films, leaves you guessing. I bought into it, and perhaps after another couple viewings it may lose its luster, but I still believe it belongs on this list.

Black Swan Darren Aronofsky

Just saw this, and was mesmerized by it throughout, especially watching Natalie Portman‘s psychological transformation. I always liked her as an actress, but I think this movie especially allowed her to show some real range as a sweet, innocent and driven ballerina, into an aggressive, sexually experimenting, paranoid, hallucinating ballet star, striving for perfection. Shot very intimately, the film-making allowed the viewer to watch this transformation, and Portman makes us believe every bit of it, even the horror-esque sequences. A real cross between Darren Aronofsky‘s “The Wrestler,” and “Requiem For a Dream,” both director and lead actress take us through a thrilling and emotional psychological journey. All in a movie about ballet.

The Fighter David O. Russel

Also just saw this, so it too is fresh in my mind, but I really enjoyed the gritty look at a struggling boxer caught between his career aspirations and his family. While everyone was great in it, I think that Christian Bale took the film, having lost 20 pounds and starving himself to portray a scrawny, crack-addicted has been boxer, trying to make a comeback by training his brother. A notorious method actor, Bale nailed the performance down to the last dropped r, (or should I say “ahh”), and this was especially evident after seeing the real life Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, giving a sign off to the crew after having been a part of the production process. The movie was half a boxing movie and half a family drama, and the boxing didn’t really show itself until the third act, where Micky is finally getting his shot and fighting toward a title shot. One of the more emotional parts of the movie occurs when the HBO documentary about crack-addiction airs, and the entire cast of characters huddles around their respective TVs, even Dicky in a large viewing in prison, hamming it up for the crowd of convicts. When they realize it is more of a tragic story than a triumph, the emotion of the family, and especially Dicky himself, brings down the excitement, and I think David O. Russel and the cast did a great job of capturing this quick emotional turnaround. Dicky says it best when he yells at his co-habitants to stop laughing, “my kid is crying and wants to be with his father, but he can’t because I’m in here with you all!” *may have gotten some of that quote wrong. As a coda, living in LA, across the country from my hometown, I love any movie that is spoken primarily in Boston accents. It’s a full-proof reminder of home. You may find me subconsciously dropping my r’s after seeing a movie like that.

*Honorable Mention – The Town Ben Affleck – Another Boston movie, this one showed Affleck’s ability to direct an action flick with some great sequences, including a European-style car chase through the narrow streets of the North End, and also a huge climactic shootout in Fenway Park. Great performances by Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively, both nailing a tough accent to grasp.

Feel free to comment on what you agree, disagree, or would like to add to this list. Stay internet-dialed to Josh Glass Online for more Best Of 2010 lists in the next day or two.

One of the major pluses t0 being accepted into a college was getting your “.edu” email address, which meant you could sign up for “The Facebook.” When I joined, it had expanded a good deal from its Harvard-only exclusivity, but nowhere near as open as it is nowadays. It was a couple of years before they let high-schoolers sign up, and then eventually everyone. It was a part of my college experience even before I got to college. I “met” and talked with people who were on my freshman year floor, some of which I would actually become friends with. In REAL life. Although, there was always the awkward “This person is being a little stalkery,” even in the early days. After seeing the movie, at least in the view of the filmmakers, the idea behind the social tool was to be able to find out information about people you knew, or kind of knew, without necessarily having to speak with them directly. This dynamic was already present in existing social networks, especially in Myspace’s case.

Not only did Facebook coincide with my college experience, it really came into my life when I first got my own computer. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this milestone, and it’s an interesting insight into the simultaneously privatized and publicized lives of young college students 5, 6, 7 years ago. We became independent with our own computers, moving away from home into our new lives, which allowed us a more private computing use – no need to worry about sharing a computer with family members, everything you did on your laptop was yours. But at the same time, we began expanding our online lives, sharing various bits of information about ourselves – our interests, our relationships statuses and sexual preferences, who we associate with, what we say to each other, etc.

Once pictures came into the mix, it became a whole new scenario. Suddenly you had to be careful what was posted of you and how you were shown in pictures – underage drinking at college parties, drug use, being in photos with members of the opposite sex when you had a significant other stalking your page. Very quickly, the freedom we had to express ourselves and share our lives with peers online had a shadow cast over it – there were consequences to our online actions, oftentimes dire ones – relationships ruined, jobs lost, parents upset.

Speaking of parents, once Facebook was opened up to the general public, where anyone with an email could join, many of our generation’s parents started joining, as they had obviously heard so much about it from us, because it was as much a part of our lives as college and high school kids as music, movies, comedy, fashion, drinking, partying – any and all of our interests.

Through the whole time, Facebook was expanding and quickly becoming the biggest social network out there, and making Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in the world. This is where I found “The Social Network” very interesting. Having been on Facebook from its earlier stages (not the earliest obviously, but within a year or so of its inception), it was interesting to see what was happening behind the scenes with Zuckerberg and his business partners throughout my own personal experiences with Facebook. I remember when they dropped the “The” from the title. I remember when it expanded worldwide, and when it reached 1 million members, and it’s so amazing to think that now, only a few years later, they’re at 500 million members and still growing.

A good way to conclude this pseudo-review would be to imagine what life through college would have been like without having this social tool to help us through it. Sure, there would have been other venues of communicating with each other – perhaps AIM or G-Chat later on would continue to carry online communications between college kids. Perhaps texting would have taken off a few years earlier. Of course, another new thing would eventually have to come along, clearly the idea was thought of in similar senses in similar circles, had Zuckerberg not created what he created. But despite all those “what-ifs,” the fact remains that Facebook exists, and is pretty much in everyone’s lives, whether they use it every day, or just check it every so often. It’s helped college kids make new friends freshman year, it’s helped people find former high school and college classmates, years after they’ve lost touch. It’s allowed us to share anything and everything with each other, its helped craft both the course of our personal lives online, and also the course of social media in general. Now, you can log in to almost any site with your Facebook profile, there isn’t a site out there that doesn’t allow you to share things on Facebook. “Facebooking” and “Friending” are in our collective vernacular, (and in our dictionaries, at least in the case of the latter). Facebook is as much a part of our lives as television or movies are, it’s even social water-cooler talk – “did you see what Jim said on his Facebook? He caught a foul ball at the Sox game yesterday, and was on TV!”

I was thinking a bit about brand loyalty while watching “The Social Network,” and I came to this conclusion – there are very few companies that have such a strong hold on their consumer base as Facebook does. Apple comes to mind, but it’s slightly different, because Apple creates tactile products that cost money. Facebook is a free, extremely useful tool, and I think it may be safe to say it goes beyond seeing Facebook as a brand. I really think that it’s clearly not a fad, and may even overtake our use of email as the primary source of online communication. If not Facebook specifically, than the various social networks that exist – Facebook for primarily social forms of communication, Linked-In, or something similar for our business networking, Twitter for real-time updates on news, events, traffic conditions, whatever.

It’s an exciting time we’re living in, in terms of technology and social media – things that haven’t always garnered such strong attention, and in the case of social media, didn’t exist a decade ago. Just look at the box office numbers for “The Social Network” after this weekend is done. The movie isn’t even necessarily an entirely fact-based account of the beginnings of the Social Media giant. But everyone is going out to see it, because everyone is on Facebook, and everyone is interested in its story. And it’s a good story to be told.

Feel free to Facebook your comments.

Oh yeah, and my quick review of the movie itself – Aaron Sorkin wrote a great script, extremely well-shot and directed, thanks to Mr. David Fincher and his DP, Jeff Cronenweth, and the interpersonal drama between the main characters, despite being almost entirely based on legal issues and testimony, which many find tedious and boring, was compelling throughout. While no one actor really shined off the screen, perhaps Justin Timberlake could be mentioned just for the fact that he’s proving himself to be more talented than any of us thought from his “Bye, Bye, Bye” days with *NSYNC. While Facebook may or may not have started in exactly in the way that the movie portrays, the tension sifts throughout the heavy dialogue and business/legal jib-jab. You leave the movie not really sure whose side to be on, aside from maybe just Facebook’s side. We use it. We like it. We’re addicted to it. We don’t necessarily care one way or another whose original idea it was, or who screwed who out of the company. I for one, am content with simply clicking the big “like” button on “The Social Network.”

With Hurley, while there are some good songs I do enjoy – “Trainwrecks,” “Hang On” and “Brave New World,” I was and still am quite disappointed with the album’s first single “Memories,” as I am with the slower, softer songs on the album; I’ve primarily enjoyed River’s softer forays – from the classic “Butterfly” to Raditude’s “Put Me Back Together” and “I Don’t Want to Let You Go.” Hurley’s “Time Flies,” and “Unspoken,” are a little boring for my taste.

As a whole, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in Hurley, especially after how excited I was to hear about the album title. There are some good tracks on there, but where Red and Raditude had a more classic Weezer album feel, even if the songs themselves weren’t as good as Blue through Maladroit (yes, I’m including Maladroit). I’ve defended both Red and Raditude by saying that River’s stuck with what he was really good at – writing a perfectly crafted pop rock song, and after trying and failing to step away from that with Make Believe, did a good job returning to form with those two. Hurley almost seems like he coasted through the process, because he was back in his song-writing wheelhouse.

That being said, I do feel obligated to support the band, as they have been among my favorite ever since I got into music. I even got the deluxe edition, with the bonus tracks, including a pretty decent live cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” which is a song I (and probably a good deal of America) got tired of when it was a big single, but enjoyed hearing from another big act. Not as cool a cover as their “Kids/Poker Face” from Raditude, but I’ll take it. Also, the short-but-sweet “All My Friends Are Insects,” seems to me, at least on the basis of bugs being in the title, a little tribute or homage, or even just a call back to the aforementioned “Butterfly,” an unappreciated favorite of mine, which starts out with a nice piano introduction – a change of pace to the always guitar-heavy hooks of the previous songs on the album, then tells a little story of a guy who enjoys Earth’s little creatures. I can’t say that I relate – I refuse to befriend insects. Also in the bonus tracks, their Unofficial U.S. World Cup Team Anthem – “Represent,” which didn’t get much notice during the tournament, but I enjoyed nonetheless.

I’m not much for grades or ratings, because if I like something I’ll usually just give it my non-patented Thumb-Up-Of-Approval, but in this case I’m going to stick with a 5 star scale, of which I’ll give Hurley 3 stars. For reference and comparison, Blue and Pinkerton get 5 stars, Maladroit and Green get 4.5 stars, and Red and Raditude get 4. Make Believe gets a 2.

P.S. I give the Album Artwork 5 stars. Hurley’s the Man.

He's such a happy guy, how can you not smile when you see this?

Let’s shift back in time a few years, to when I’m entering college. I decided upon Boston University because they had a great Communications school, and I was looking to study Journalism, because I enjoyed writing. However, the beginning classes in Journalism, and the articles I took it upon myself to write for two school papers quickly made me realize that writing was really the only thing I liked about journalism – not the reporting, not newspaper deadlines and formats. Just writing. I saw columnists like Dave Barry, or in later years Bill Simmons, and saw that they pretty much had carte blanche to write whatever they wanted, and both seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. However, you can’t just become a national syndicated columnist with the green light to write about 90210 or Silly Putty. They had to come up from somewhere, learn the ropes of the industry and work their way up to the top, where they wanted to be.

Again, nothing wrong with that career path, but I realized that I liked writing, and just wanted to write about whatever – my first bouts in writing all were personal memoir-type journal entries and stories, I never had the burning desire to report on school funding and where exactly our large Undergraduate Student Fees really went to. I figured since I was at this great Communications school, which aside from a great Journalism program, had a great Film and TV program, I should focus my writing desires into television, where I could not only write from a more personal level, but I’d have more creativity with it and it was a medium I always enjoyed, and found it incredible that I could study it as a major.

And so, I ventured into the world of entertainment, looking to write for television, and as I took classes at BU, really enjoyed them and knew this is what I wanted to do. Once I found out about BU’s Los Angeles Internship Program, I knew that it would be something I’d benefit from, and it would also give me a taste of what Los Angeles and the real Entertainment Industry would be like. I did the program, liked it, and that pretty much cemented my decision to move out here.

Now, during this time,  I may have only discussed school-related things with friends and family on rare occasions; whether it be family functions or short catch-up sessions during school breaks where we’d talk about how school was going for about 15 minutes, then go back to making dick and fart jokes and reminiscing about high school, realizing that the drama we thought we left at home still existed whenever we came back. We never really delved into what I was doing and what I wanted to be doing. Plus, especially with friends, and I’m guilty of this too, college and the work involved is so self-involved that there’s not much time to concern yourself with how your friends are doing in their individual endeavors – you have a big midterm to study for.

This sounds a bit cynical, and I don’t mean for it to be. I’m just commenting on the inherent personal pressures we all face in college, and especially toward the end, when we’re trying to finish school and figure out what’s next, it’s easy to get caught up in it all and forget about the other people in your life.

Anyways, back to present time, where I find that every time I go home and hang out with friends, or see a family member, I have to update them on how things are going, which inevitably means rationalizing the decision to move to LA. Yes, this year has gone a lot better – I’ve found more consistent work at a reputable production company, and have also been getting consistent freelance editing work on the side, but it’s still nowhere near the financial security that a lot of my friends have. Right now, I have jobs lined up for the future, but I am still technically out of work and struggling between jobs. But I am happy, and the work I do is very helpful in learning new things about editing and the post production process, which will definitely help me later on in my career. But despite this, there are still parts of my life I have to rationalize to them – I’ve worked but there are always periods in the industry where work dies down and people have lulls in projects – it’s just the nature of the beast. I’m not going to start out as a CEO of a Production Company or an Agent – I won’t have job security for a few years at least. But I can take this time off to write, to pursue other interests like comedy or photography (which will come once I have money to buy a nice camera). When you just have a desire to create and entertain, everything you do toward that goal is considered progress.

Every now and then I have to think back and ask myself if I could have done anything else with college or my life after college, and I really can’t find a solid answer to that – which probably means I’m either not qualified for anything else, or I picked the right place and industry to be in. In a way, it’s an industry full of ambitious and creative people, who often did not have other options or qualifications; something compelled them to create and focus their ambitions toward entertaining the masses of people who chose more stable and realistic careers – many of whom are the same friends and family who ask “Why LA? Why Entertainment?”

That’s my long answer to the question, but I guess it can be answered in a short way too – “Why Not? What Else should I do?”

"Inception" 2010

“Inception” is the kind of movie where the previews don’t tell you much, but something about the presentation, and the fact that its a Christopher Nolan film, makes you know you’ll be in for something amazing. Before going to a movie, I like to keep my expectations in check, because my initial thoughts on movies always relate to how well they meet my expectations. For Christopher Nolan films, I have no qualms about letting my expectations run wild, and once again, like “The Dark Knight” in 2008, he did not disappoint.

The main plot of the movie focuses on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb, a thief who enters people’s dreams to extract ideas. If you bare with me on these details, like the viewer does while immersed in this film, the specifics won’t bother you. In fact, they’re presented in such a way that it makes complete sense. That is another thing Christopher Nolan does well – in dealing with fantastical plots that require a suspension of disbelief,  we as viewers never question the premise, because it’s presented in a way that raises no doubts. It’s explained as well as humanly possible. In the case of “Inception,” it’s understood that these are people who have been taught how to share dreams, and are hired to use this method to invade a subject’s subconscious and take ideas or secrets.

Cobb is the leader of this team, hired by Ken Wattanabe’s Saito, a wealthy businessman, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Cobb’s right hand man and a series of other characters with different responsibilities – Tom Hardy as Eames, the Forger who can morph into someone else’s identity in the dream, and Dileep Rao as Yusuf, the chemist who creates the concoctions that allow the dreamers to stay in a deep enough sleep to pull off their heist.

Saito hires Cobb for a special job, one that requires a great deal of preparation and execution, and since his previous team member, Architect Nash (Lukas Haas) failed on a previous mission, Cobb goes to his father-in-law, (Nolan film regular Michael Caine) who taught him everything he knows about shared dreaming, to recruit a young, genius architect – Ellen Page’s Ariadne. Together, the team must perform an “Inception,” the act of planting the seed of an idea into someone’s subconscious, as opposed to stealing one. Saito’s mark is Robert Fischer Jr., (Cillian Murphy), who’s the heir to a business rival of Saito’s , who wants the team to convince Fischer to take down his dying father’s empire.

Hope you’re still with me. Cobb and Arthur teach Ariadne the ropes of shared dreaming, and creating a realistic-enough dream world where their mark will believe it to be reality – the catch of shared dreams is if something within the dream is too out of the ordinary, the subject will point it out through their projections – the masses of “extras” within the dream, that fill out the realistic world – unnamed co-workers, passersby, the general public, etc. Once the dream gets too out of control, the projections will attack the dreamer who’s changing things – much like white blood cells attack foreign objects within the body. Ariadne takes to her task with ease and a sense of enthusiasm, to the point where Cobb is forced to warn her of the negative effects of using her new-found powers too creatively. Her curiosity causes some tension between her and Cobb, as she finds out about his disturbing past and how it constantly affects his dreams and subconscious. Aside from confiding in Ariadne, Cobb keeps these issues to himself, but because of the shared nature of the task at hand, threatens to destroy the team’s entire plan.

I’d better stop there, or I’ll delve into spoiler territory.

Christopher and Jonathan Nolan do many great things with this script, but what really is apparent is the strength of their reasoning and scientific explanation of this fantastical premise. Every bit of explanation makes sense in the realm of real life – for example, waking up from a dream thanks to a “kick” i.e. the feeling of falling. Also, if you’re killed in a dream you wake up from it. (unlike how if you’re killed in the Matrix, you die in real life. This is not 1999 science-fiction people.)

Once the specifics of shared dreaming are covered, we’re treated to some visual and psychologically stunning film-making. One of the things I loved about this movie was that none of the special effects were considered showy – sure, they were breathtaking and awe-inspiring, but all of them had purpose and were never like “hey, check this shit out!” Psychologically, due to the mysterious nature of dreams, you’re left with both the wonder of whether something like this could actually be possible, and the recurring thoughts of what your own subconscious is telling you in your dreams.

The pacing of the film is great too – there isn’t a dull moment, and it’s not completely covered by tension and action, like it was in “The Dark Knight,” (not a knock on Dark Knight, they’re just different kinds of movies). The nature of the film and its premise keeps the viewer on the edge of their seats – it helps that dreams are inherently a fascinating subject to wrap your mind around. Nolan does a great job of both confusing and immersing the viewer in the action. The confusion is never to the point of giving up, its enough to keep you guessing until the very end, which is exactly what Nolan does.

Writing and directing aside, the film is wonderfully cast and the main actors, especially Leo, provide incredible performances. Thank God Martin Scorsese let Nolan borrow his muse for a film. Not sure who else would have been better in that part (although I have to admit, parts of his character’s emotional struggles reminded me of his “Shutter Island” performance). I’ve always liked Ellen Page, and she’s great as a young and enthusiastic addition to this team of professionals – adept at her job, but curious enough about her leader to bring about a good level of character drama that really solidifies the dramatic tension of the film. Marion Cotillard, who plays Cobb’s wife Mol, does a great job of toying with Cobb’s emotions throughout. I found myself locked in on her character whenever she would show up. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll understand why. If you haven’t, seriously – stop reading this and go see it now.

My only criticisms of the film is that during the main action sequence of the triple-deep-dream, the dramatic tension follows the characters down through each level of dream, but the previous dream levels remain the same until one big culminating moment that makes up for this. Also, I had a bit of an issue with Saito’s character getting injured during this sequence – to create more tension they could have played up the consequences of this injury more, which would make the resulting payoff between Saito and Cobb hit a bit harder.

It’s been said a bunch, but this is definitely the kind of movie you’ll have to see again, which fits right into the trend of recent Christopher Nolan films. You’ll read it over and over about how great the film is, but a review like this really can’t do it enough justice. I’ll go see it again with you, just so you can see it for yourself. Seriously.