Reason 742 why I love Jon Stewart

I know I've been bad and have not updated much lately. I will try and get to it later this morning. But for now, please enjoy the very sane, Jon Stewart.



I wish I could have been there.

Quick Work Thingie

Here's a quick one. Last Friday, I was eating lunch out at our picnic table with a co-worker. She told me this story.

She was in the office of one of our accountants. Someone had brought him a watermelon from their garden. It was a little bit darker green in color, but she still knew what is was. She asked the accountant who brought him the watermelon.

He made the comment that he was glad she properly identified the watermelon. He then told her that earlier in the day Disney had been in his office. She too had seen the bounty from the garden and said, "Is that a green pumpkin?"

(Editor's note: when I was first told this story, I mocked Disney over the idea of there being a green pumpkin, then this weekend, I actually saw a green pumpkin...I guess that is what happens when the pumpkin doesn't get enough sun when it is first growing)

He looked at her, perplexed. He said, "No. What comes out of a faucet?"

Disney answered, "Water."

The accountant sort of motioned his hands to prompt her to connect the dots.

Disney thought for a second and said, "It's a water pumpkin?!"

I kid you not. This is one of the reasons why I recently noted on my facebook page that I now understand why people sometimes take a pee in their co-worker's office.

Another example of David Fincher's brilliance

I'll admit that when I first heard someone was doing a movie about the beginnings of facebook I thought "who cares." While I have page on facebook, I suck at updating (no surprise I'm sure). Then I found out that David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, the upcoming Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) was directing and I was there on opening night.

The movie is based on a book about the creators of facebook, but as I understand it, none of the folks involved talked to Fincher or to excellent screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Sports Night, The American President). Talk about creative freedom. The opening of the movie features Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) having a lightening fast conversation with his, at that moment, girlfriend, Erica (Rooney Mara, who will be playing Lisbeth in the American version of Girl With Dragon Tattoo). Mark's intellect is obvious, as is his social awkwardness, while he spins the talk from one tangent to another, often jumping far ahead of his girlfriend. She is left trying to piece together his logic as he moves ahead oblivious. His mental jumps reveal his insecurities and Erica picks up on his emotional stumbling blocks. None the less, he says some hurtful things and doesn't seem to be aware that they are hurtful. You get the idea that this has happened before and often. Erica has had it and she breaks up with him. At first, Mark doesn't understand what is happening. But, when he realizes she is serious, all his insecurity and his inadequately expression emotion comes forward in a burst of anger, hurt, and math. He goes back to his dorm room at Harvard and alternately blogs and writes code. He wants to get back at his girlfriend. After talking to a roommate, he comes up with the idea for facemash.com. He hacks into the web pages for the different dorms on campus and sets up a website where viewers can vote who is the hottest girl based on pictures he took from the student listings on those dorm sites. He sends out a few emails with a link to the site and quickly seemingly every guy on campus is playing this game...enough so that the site ends up crashing Harvard's servers.

But here's the thing...the break up with the girlfriend that seems to start the ball rolling didn't happen. The writer and director created a situation where they set up that our main character is both brilliant and insecure. Had Zuckerbeg talked to Sorkin and Fincher, maybe they would have had a real life example to use. Though, I don't think that's the point. This isn't supposed to be "historically accurate." It is a movie about social interaction both on-line and off. The Mark Zuckerberg in the movie shifts between being someone you feel sympathy for and someone who just seems like a dick. It is ironic that the guy who created THE social networking site seemed to have few friends. And, in the movie at least, he shafted his one best friend out of the business that they created together. The final scene in the film lets you once again feel sympathy for Mark. He's been told he will probably end up settling his various court cases. Through the trials, he has lost his best friend. He is left alone in a conference room with his computer. He goes on facebook and looks up the girlfriend he broke up with at the beginning of the film. He sends her a friend request then sits quietly while hitting refresh every few seconds waiting for her answer.

The film looks great. Eisenberg is quite good at keeping Mark from turning into a total dick. He plays him with the right amount of brilliance and emotional obliviousness. Andrew Garfield (the new Spider Man) is also excellent as his facebook co-creator, Eduardo Saverin. Eduardo does his best to stay Mark's friend and protect him from those who want to abuse his mental creativity...in other words, Justin Timberlake. Timberlake is very good at doing dickweed smarmy as Napster creator, Sean Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. The whole cast actually is great. There's even a girl from the Disney Channel who plays Eduardo's girlfriend that caught me off guard.

One more bit of super coolness, the score was done by my fave Trent Reznor along with Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is able to convey both the excitement of creating something new and forward thinking, while also tapping in to Mark's emotional landscape. I liked the score enough that I picked it up.

There you have it. The movie about a website I barely visit is one of the best movies I have seen this year.

Next time, I will try to remember to review Let Me In, which I also saw this weekend.

Rock on and don't forget to update your profile page.