The Summer Lackluster

So, My girlfriend and I saw a lot of movies this summer. We pretty much saw everything from comedies to dramas to actions. I must say, out of all the summers of movies, this one wasn't the most disappointing one, but it wasn't the greatest one either. There were a lot of movies that were good, and there were a lot of movies that were not so good. There were a lot of surprises, and also a lot of expecteds. So, what I have done is I created a list of movies and categorized them in my own way. So, here it goes:

FAVORITE MOVIE I SAW THIS SUMMER: Super 8

FUNNIEST MOVIE I SAW THIS SUMMER: The Hangover: Part 2

THE BIGGEST SURPRISE: Bridesmaids



THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Transformers: Dark of the Moon



MOVIE THAT I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD SEE: Friends with Benefits



THE WORST MOVIE I SAW THIS SUMMER: The First Grader



THE WEIRDEST MOVIE THEATRE EXPERIENCE: The Lion King in 3-D



THE FUNNIEST MOVIE EXPERIENCE: The Harry Potter Finale



MOVIE THAT I LIKED, AND DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT: Rise of the Planet of the Apes



THE BEST MOVIE I SAW THIS SUMMER: Contagion




So, I know I saw more movies than the ones that I have listed. I just don't remember them all. So, if there are movies that you saw that I didn't mention, let me know and I will tell you if I saw it or not. Chances are, I probably saw it. If you have any problems with my awards, you can tell me all about it. It's not going to change my opinion, but I would love to hear yours.

T.V. SHOW REVIEW: Terra Nova

So, I don't really watch a lot of television. The most I watch is reruns. It is very rare that I watch television live on the night that the shows air. But, when I saw that there was going to be a show with dinosaurs, I knew right away that I needed to see this show.

I'm going to be honest. I didn't see the first 40 minutes of the show. But from what I could pick up, the year was 2142 on planet earth, and the world is slowly deteriorating. There was a project labeled Terra Nova which was a way to start over and keep humanity alive. The project: create a human civilization billions of years in the past; the time when DINOSAURS ruled the earth.

The show follows this family, where the father has not been there. They want to start over in Terra Nova. When they get there, one of the first things that they are greeted with is a brontasaurus pack eating the plants just outside the gates. They are just overwhelmed with how great this place is.

You soon learn that along with watching out for this new dinosaur they call, "slashers," they have to fight off a group of people who are known as sixers. They are people who broke away from Terra Nova to make their own civilization. These people are the bad guys (or so we think now).

All-in-all, the show seems like a really cool concept. One of the problems that I had with the show is that everything seems to be a little too predictable. As I was watching, I could tell the outcome and plot of every single character. That shouldn't happen on the very first episode. Another problem that I had with the show is that the acting is very basic. The actors are a bunch of nobodies. Not that that is bad, but in this case, it definitely doesn't help. I won't say that the acting is bad, but if they want this show to last, they really need to work on it.

If I was going to give a number rating for the show, I would definitely give the show about a 7 out of 10, based on the first episode. I will definitely give this show a chance, mainly because there are DINOSAURS IN THE SHOW! You can't go wrong with dinosaurs in your show! As long as the dinosaurs are more of a main focus for the show. I mean, I don't know why, but I kind of was expecting the next LOST. I really shouldn't have done that.

The show airs on Mondays at either 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., whichever direction that they decide to go.

If you saw the show, please comment on this blog. I have also added a new rating system on my blog page. I would love for you to rate this blog.

Football for the Mother's Soul

So, I have been a football fan for as long as I can remember. When I was a little kid, I would grab my father's Oakland Raiders souvenier helmet, grab a football, and run around the house going, "Blue 42; Blue 42; Set, Hut!" and then proceed to tuck the ball under my arm and pretend that if I dove onto the couch, I would score a touchdown. In my house, life has kind of evolved around football. My brothers and I have all played it, and even my youngest brother Patrick still plays currently. In my opinion, it is the greatest sport in the world.

One of the main reasons for why I loved it so much is because of how rough and tough it is. The sound of someone getting pummeled by another player is the greatest sound in the world. My former high school coach always used to say, "Football is not easy. If it was easy, everyone would play." This is something that I completely agree with. This sport is not meant for everybody. If you can't handle the hits, then you shouldn't play.

That is why it saddens me to see football so dulled down. For some reason, people have been softening up this wonderful game. The NFL has put in a few new rules dealing with hitting and tackling too hard. Too hard? The game of football is meant to have hard hitting. How else are you supposed to get the man to the ground? Now, I'm not talking about illegal hitting, like late hits or high-lows or helmet to helmet. Those ones I don't have a problem with. But if a guy hits another player with his shoulder and completely destroys the guy, then there should be no problem. That is how the game SHOULD be played.

This crap even stems all the way down to high school. These football parents sign their children up to play football because they need their kid to be popular, but they don't remember that football is a contact sport. They didn't realize that you have to be tough in order to play the game. Well, they feel that if their baby isn't tough enough, they are going to complain about how rough the game is. That way, the game has been brought down to their level. Now, they have made the game easily accessible for everyone to play! yaaaayyyyy!

It makes me want to puke!

Now, I understand that you don't want your kid to break his neck, or get rushed to the hospital. No one wants to see that. Unfortunately, it is usually their own fault. When you tackle someone, if you hit them with correct form, you will not get hurt. It is when you hit them with bad form that you get hurt. When you lead with your head down, that is when you get concussions and broken necks.

So what I am saying is that you don't have to change the toughness of the game. That is what makes this game so fun. Instead, we should be teaching the kids at a young age the proper fundamentals of the football. Also, parents should look into football before signing their children up for it. If it is something that you don't want your kids to be a part of, then DON'T SIGN THEM UP FOR IT! Like I have said, football is NOT meant for everyone. If it was, everyone would play.

I know that this does not have anything to do with theatre or anything, but football is and will always be a big part of my life. To be fair, if came before theatre. It actually helped me in theatre a lot. I have made many parallels with theatre and football, and it helped me transition.

That is all!

PLEASE READ!!!

I am writing to you now to warn you about an epidemic that is sweeping the nation. It has been going on for as long as I can remember. It is something that needs to be stopped immediately!

Of course, I am referring to people who do not flush the toilet in public bathrooms.

Whenever I go to use a public restroom to do my business, my business seems to always be disrupted by whatever is left inside the toilet. For some reason, the person decided to either not flush the toilet at all after they were done, or they flushed it and not all of it went down. You see, when you do that, it makes it not only inconvenient for me, but it is also quite disgusting. Sometimes, people just shit on top of what was already not flushed. I have actually seen shit backed up so much that the peak of it was cresting over the lid a good 3 or 4 inches.

This needs to stop. I have to just urge everyone that goes to use a public restroom from now on to just flush the damn toilet. That not only goes for men's bathrooms, but for women's bathroom users as well.

I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this matter.

That is all!

The Accident

So, most people who know me know that when I was in high school, I was in a diving accident at the beach where I broke my neck in 2 places. For most of you, I don't think that anyone knows the complete story. It goes really into depth, with a lot of exposition leading to the accident itself. So, since this is my blog and I can write about anything that I want, I am going to tell you the whole story of my neck.

When I was a junior in high school, I sat on the bench on my football team. I have to admit, it was mostly my fault. I didn't prepare as well as I should have in the offseason, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself. After a whole season on the bench, I knew that I had to put up or shutup. My coach decided that he was going to start a program for all of us called Bigger, Faster, Stronger. This meant that we had to show up at 6 in the morning 3 days a week until the beginning of next season. So I was there every single morning. As the rest of the year came and went, I was getting bigger, faster, and stronger. I was feeling more confident.

After I went to football camp, I decided that I was going to join my family and go to our family cottage on Plum Island. It was great weather all weekend. On Sunday, I was woken up by my father unplugging my air mattress and saying that I had to wake up. He said that it was our last day on the island, and we needed to take our annual swim over to the sandbar. In order to get to the sandbar, you had to swim across a channel that was about 30 ft deep. once you get across the 30 foot drop, it gets to about 5 ft deep so you can get up and walk the rest of the way. Once we got over to the sandbar, the tide started coming in right away, and soon the sandbar was going to be completely submerged. So I started to swim back. I turned around and noticed that all of my brothers were running and diving into the water. Of course, I felt the need to turn back and show off my diving skills just like my brothers. Little did I know that I was going to make the biggest mistake of my entire life.

When I dove into the water, I immediately knew something went wrong. It felt like I was thrown off of a water tube being pulled by a motorboat. I started to think that I was just disoriented and will get back to normal in a second. Then I realized that my body was not moving. I was trying to move, but nothing was happening. It was the first time that this had ever happened to me. I also couldn't breath. I started to think that I might actually drown. Luckily, my buoyant body was able to float to the surface. That was when I was able to barely get my head out of the water to let out a very weak "help!"

Just then, my father and brother were right there to grab me. My brother grabbed me under the arms, and my father grabbed my head and kept my head stablized. Once they had me, I started to think that it was just a stinger. That is when a nerve is pinched in your neck. Sometimes you lose feeling in your extremeties. That's what I was thinking. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was something much worse. I couldn't move my arms or my legs. Not only could I not move them, but I couldn't feel them either. And I was having a hard time breathing.

In about 10 minutes, my aunt, who is a doctor of physical therapy, was there to put my neck in distraction. After about 20 minutes lying on the beach, I started to get movement in my arms and legs again. My father wanted my to sit up and show my mother, who was on the opposite shore, that I was okay. If I had actually done that, I would probably be in a worse situation.

Well, was then rushed from boat to an ambulance. from there was rushed to a nearby hospital where they med-flighted me to Boston. There, they diagnosed that my neck was in fact broken. They told me that it is fixable, but the pain that I was feeling was probably never going to go away.

When I was in Brigham and Women's Hospital, they told me 10 days. I was out in 3. When I was at Spaulding Rehab, they told me that I had to be there for at least 8 to 10 weeks. I was out in 2. That's because I refused to give up. I refused to accept the fact that I was not going to lead a normal life. Like hell, I wasn't.

Now, I am almost 23-years-old, I have a theatre degree, and have a wonderful girlfriend. So, out of the darkness came something great. Not a day goes by that I don't think about that day. Not a day goes by that I don't think about what might my life might have been if I didn't get football taken away from me. I do miss it everyday. But, so much good came out of that accident. I would not be the man I am today if it wasn't for that day.

I know, for those of you who have heard this story a million times, I am sorry. But, I still love telling the story to those who have never heard it, even if it's only one person.

Remembering 9-11-2001

Everyone remembers that fateful day back in early September of 2001.

I was in the 7th grade at the Wilmington Middle School. It started out as just an ordinary day. I was sitting through all of my classes, hating the fact that I was in school. I was never a very good student, and Middle School just made it worse. The highest point of my day was lunchtime. I went to lunch with a huge smile on my face because I didn't think that my day was going to end. It was a huge sigh of relief. I don't remember what I had to eat that day. I wish I did.

After lunch, the assistant principle said that we all needed to head down to the auditorium for an announcement. No one had any idea why. I asked one of the teachers and they said that it was just a very important announcement. Next thing I remember was sitting in the packed auditorium with every grade level there as well, not just my grade. I knew something was up.

We were then informed by our principle that 2 planes had crashed into the Twin Towers and into the Pentagon and one crashed in Pennsylvania. The way that they had worded it made it sound as if it was an accident. In my head, I thought that the pilots had to either be drunk or just bad pilots to crash into the Twin Towers. These were the 2nd biggest buildings in the country. How could you possibly not see them.

After the announcement, we finished the school day as if nothing had happened. When we were on the bus ride home, everyone was joking about it. We didn't know. None of us did. I'll admit, I helped take part in the joking around. I didn't know what really had happened.

As I was walking home from the bus stop, joking around about what had happened, all of the parents were giving me a look. They were looking at me like there was something wrong with me. Again, I had no idea.

When I got home, I walked into the house, and my mother was standing with her hands on her hips staring at the television. When I was able to see what was on T.V., I was confused. I thought it was an accident. Why were they saying that it was terrorists? What are terrorists? Osama who?

That night, I was trying do my homework that my science teacher had given me. One, I had no idea what to do because I have always been terrible in science. Two, I could not take my eyes off of the television. I could not believe what I was seeing. I was in complete shock.

When my father got home, he was a complete mess. He seemed befuddled. He seemed very short with everyone. He usually gets this way when something breaks or he gets frustrated with something. When I started working on my homework, I asked him if he knew how to figure out a problem.He was a teacher, after all. He grew infuriated. Not with me, but with the fact that my teacher gave out homework. He said, "What kind of person would give out homework today, of all days?! You are NOT doing your homework tonight. If she has anything to say about it, tell her she can talk to me!" The moment was very somber. On the inside, I was a little happy that he wasn't making me do it. My mother wrote a note for the teacher explaining that I did not do my homework because of what happened that day.

For the rest of the night, my family and I watched in horror as the death toll climbed higher and higher. The more and more deaths that were being counted, the angrier and angrier we got. My eyes were glued to the television. I watched in horror and fear as the president made his announcement to the nation. Although my eyes were glued, I was able to tear them away for just a few seconds. I looked at my father. He was sitting in his blue recliner with his eyes glued to the television as well. I was wondering why he wasn't saying anything. He was crying. I couldn't believe it. For my whole life, my father was someone that I thought was superhuman, a beacon of bravery. When I saw him crying, it made me realize the true severity of the events.

When I went to school the next day, everyone was quiet. Our homeroom teacher made us write what we felt about the events of the day before. I didn't write this. In 7th grade, I was a little more closed off. On this ten-year anniversary, something made me feel like I should share this with all of you. I am very fortunate of not knowing anyone who died on this tragic day. It makes me feel like I am not worthy of sharing my stories with the public. My story doesn't compare to the stories of those people who lost so much on that day. My prayers have been going out to those people since that tragic day. They may have destroyed our buildings, but they did not destroy our American spirit and pride. They awoke a sleeping giant that they were not expecting.

For Your Entertainment

Just thought I would post some videos of me performing in a play back in 2010 at MCLA, which is where I went to school. I realized that I talk a lot about theatre, and those of you that don't know me, you have never seen me in shows. so here's some videos. They are both from the show The Wild Party written by Andrew Lippa. The song was the duet that I sang with fellow classmate and actress Megan Tainter. I played the role of Eddie and she played my girlfriend Mae:

People Who Read Books Ruin Movies

I have always said that people who read books ruin movies. let me tell you what I mean. Have you ever come out of a movie really excited because YOU thought it was a really awesome movie. There is no greater feeling in the world after watching a great movie. Then all of a sudden, some little bastard (or bitch) comes out right behind you and says, "well it was really good, but it wasn't as good as the book." RRRGGH! You just get so pissed off! You want to just turn around and slug the kid right in the face, but he's talking on his cell phone. I HATE THAT!

Now, this might make me sound like an idiot. I am not saying that you should stop reading books. That would be awful. There is something you get out of reading books. I don't really enjoy reading. It frustrates the hell out of me when I read. I can never comprehend something after reading it once. I have to reread it over and over again. That's why it takes me forever to read a book. Then when I talk to my friends, they tell me all about how they read a book in like 3 or 4 days. I take like 3 or 4 months with some books. I get pissed off. So I stopped reading books.

What I am talking about is the fact that when people go to see a movie that was based off of a book, they expect that everything is going to be in the movie. They get so angry because a lot of it has been cut. They don't seem to understand that it is a movie. Along with filming a movie, they have to worry about keeping it in a time frame. So they have to cut all of the boring narration and stuff that is in the book. You should expect that. Don't go into that movie expecting that everything is going to be in it, because obviously, you will be very dissapointed. You have to know that they do the best that they can to try and please their crowds. This is one of the main reasons why the Harry Potter series has been sort of turned off for me. Every one of the movies that I have gone to see has ended with people walking out of it talking about what they left out of the movie and how they were upset that they didn't put this part in or that part in. You can't just admit that the movie was actually really good? You can't just be happy? I think that is the problem with not only movie goers, but Americans in general. No one is ever satisfied with anything. With movies, politics, religion, food... the list goes on.

I am not trying to convince you to stop reading books. I am just trying to tell you that you shouldn't be so upset when a movie leaves stuff out. If it makes you feel better, they probably did film that one part that you are so angry they didn't put in. We're sorry, but there was nothing they could do about your little scene.

(Badlands Barry) (RealMikeBarry) (Michael Barry)