have you heard of the grey album? a mix of jay-z's black album and the beatles' white album. well here's the story. i'm hosting (for now) a place for folks to hear this album for themselves. it's been on heavy rotation in my i-tunes since i picked up a copy last week. enjoy.

semi-weekly updates have now returned!

wow, its been a long time since i updated huh? sorry about that. i really wanted to update but white house lawyers kept telling me about the PRINCIPLE. if i updated my blog over spring break i would permanently weaken the instituition of spring break. how can future spring breakers enjoy a week of hedonism without worrying about whether or not their blog is updated? for their sake my blog has been on hiatus.

but seriously, quick recap of what's going on. break was good. went to nyc had a blast. came back to school, crazy busy. the madness of march, my final four: duke, pitt, uconn, kentucky. so how'd meatloaf put it? "two out three ain't bad." how about two out of four? yep, my bracket ain't worth the paper its printed on now, which is a damn shame 'cause i'm in four pools. que sera que sera. that's about it. watching the 9/11 hearings, college hoops, getting psyched about the cubbies. the weather is starting to get nice in chi. in my far from humble opinion no city appreciates it's nice weather days better than this one.

abby and jon came down from milwaukee. it was a good weekend.

in its usual tradition of follow the leader, after the billion-plus-dollar-11-oscar success of the lord of the rings hollywood thinks, "there's gold in them there fantasy hills!" disney just announced today that they're getting ready to make movies based on c.s. lewis' the chronicles of narnia series. after tolkein, this was my favorite series i read as a kid. let's hope they put in the same dedication as peter jackson's and the weta crew. the narnia stories are great, but lets not forget the reason why they haven't been made movies before is because of the really unique filiming challenges they present.

in some ways narnia is even harder than lotr. with lotr you have a huge sprawling epic that has to be told over a long period time. jackson took the risky gamble of filiming all three films at once. while narnia's story is much more linear than tolkein's, narnia's biggest problem is going to be the talking animals. i mean lets face it, if you screw up making a realistic aslan your movie is toast. all right this post is ending, any fellow geeks that want to drop me an email on this subject feel free. one last geeky thought could lloyd alexander's prydain chronicles be the next fantasy series optioned by hollywood?

i suppose since st. patrick's day is only a couple of weeks away this caption should be about leprechauns and pots o' gold. but i think its more apropos to reflect on two credence songs. "have you ever seen the rain (coming down on a sunny day)" and "looking out my back door" cause this was the scene outside my back door yesterday around 4:00 p.m.

well the oscars are over for another year. my favorite highlights: bill murray on the red carpet, billy crystal welcome back, nice tributes to bob hope, katherine hepburn, and gregory peck. the film giants need to be recognized by this generation. best thank you speech award goes to blake edwards: touching, funny, and not long winded. jack black & will ferrell need to do a movie together, best pairing of the night. adrien brody "freshening up" to greet the best actress winner. best dressed/looking jennifer garner and johnny depp. depp i like the ladies but, when you go for that 21 jump street look i see why the women swoon.

no complaints with any of the trophies. all were very deserving. the only major award for a film that i did not see, was renee zewellger for cold mountain; but since she probably should have won for chicago last year, i can't complain about her beating anyone else. this past weekend the wife and i saw pieces of april, and patricia clarksonwas very good in it. all in all a good year for movies. billy crystal don't go away for so long again.