Reviews and More

About a month ago, I told you about a cool site called Thoof.com where you can check out the latest articles, photos, and videos all in one place. As I mentioned back then, the best part of Thoof is the way it allows you to build a user history and get truly personalized news that reflects your interests.

Well, I’ve been using Thoof.com since that time and have to say that I really like the way the site works. What’s more, the crew behind Thoof.com aren’t just resting on their haunches now that the site has taken off. They’re still adding great new features that go a long way towards making the Thoof experience even better.

For instance, there’s now a ThoofRank badge that you can add to articles you submit. The ThoofRank badge will then express the relative popularity of your article in percentage form. I tried this out on one of my other blogs, and the post now has a ThoofRank of 67%, which means that it’s considered an above average article by other Thoof readers.

I just submitted another article today (again from my other blog). This one is about skateboarder Jake Brown’s gnarly crash at X-Games 13. I included a video in that post, so hopefully I’ll get a higher ThoofRank as a result. To see it, just click the ThoofRank button below and it’ll take you to Thoof.com where you can click again to see my post. By the way, I don’t recommend watching the vid if you’re squeamish. Jake falls straight down from a very high ramp and lands almost flat on his back — with the impact blowing his shoes off. (No joke.)

If you haven’t tried Thoof.com yet, you’re really missing out on some good stuff! Quit wasting time reading articles you aren’t interested in; just head on over to Thoof.com for the most personalized news site on the Internet!

As you can tell from the content of this blog, I’m a huge fan of movies, TV shows, and celebrity news. Because of that, I’ve been reading Variety.com for the past year or so in order to get some insight on what’s going on in the industry. Along with the movie and TV reviews, there’s news about upcoming projects, box office receipts, executive comings and goings at different studios and agencies, plus theater news (for stage plays, I mean).

In the year that I’ve been going to Variety.com, I’ve never upgraded to the paid subscription option, which costs $165 per year. There are a couple reasons that I’ve never bothered paying. First, I don’t really notice a lack of information with the free option. It seems to me that the website is frequently updated and there’s always lots of new articles and photos to look through. Second, the subscription page doesn’t tell me much about what a paid membership will give me. It just says I’d have access to all Variety articles, which obviously implies that a bunch of stuff is limited to members only.

Anyway, if any of you have a paid subscription to Variety.com (not the printed paper), can you tell me if the $165 per year is worth it? What extras do you get from the site with your paid membership?

My husband and I often talk about relocating from Chicago sometime within the next five years. We would really love to live in a place that has milder weather than we currently get, yet where we’d still be able to experience four distinct seasons. We also want to live somewhere that would still give us access to the wide variety of shopping, cultural, and entertainment options that we’ve grown accustomed to.

From everything I’ve read, I think that Asheville, NC could be ideal for us. Residents there enjoy precisely the kind of leisurely lifestyle we want, along with the four seasons that we can’t do without. Moreover, after looking at sample floor plans of some of the newest Asheville condos available, I know we’d be able to upgrade from our current standard of living for nearly the same price that we’re paying on our mortgage right now.

My college roommate used to spend her summers in Asheville back when we were in school, so I know that what I’m reading isn’t just hype. She absolutely raved about the place, and understandably wasn’t too excited about having to return to the harsh fall and winter weather of the Midwest for classes. I think I need to email her a list of specific questions about Asheville life so I can get the inside scoop here!

Last night’s episode of Entourage was another filler episode that didn’t really serve to advance the season-long story arc in any significant way. Like most filler eps, this one had the boys together for most of the program, plus there was a B plot featuring the latest happenings at Ari’s agency. Anyway, here’s my recap of “Gary’s Desk.”

Vince/Eric/Drama/Turtle: Eric wants people in the business to start taking him seriously, so he decides to change things up a bit. His first move is to rent a tiny office so that he can get work done away from the guys. But the place is so small and cramped that when he shows it to the guys, they all give him shit about it, especially since he’s using a fold-up table instead of a proper desk.

Vinnie decides to get Eric a real desk as a present. Instead of going to an Office Max or a regular furniture store like the rest of us would, he wanders into an antiques shop and sets his sights on the desk that was used by Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. When Vince learns that Robert DeNiro also once owned the desk, that seals the deal. He wants to buy it despite the $42,000 price tag.

But the salesclerk comes back and tells him that she made a mistake: the desk has already been sold to Gary Busey. The boys then head to Gary’s house to try to convince him to sell them the desk. He’ll do it only if he can paint Drama, which in Gary’s messed up universe, consists of throwing paint at Drama’s head and chest. Drama complies, and the boys get the desk.

Problem is, it’s way too big to fit in Eric’s office. So what does Vince do? He goes and rents new office space that’s big enough for the desk and for the four of them so they can still spend their days together.

Meanwhile, Eric wants to get the word out around town that he’s Vince’s official manager so people don’t have to keep calling Ari to confirm things. He tries to put an ad in Variety, but they won’t run the ad without Ari’s confirmation. He then gets Shauna (Vince’s long lost PR manager) to hook him up with someone at Variety, who ends up writing a full feature on Eric. The angle of the story was Hollywood’s “new nepotism” and talked about how a bunch of nobodies like Eric were trying to make it in the biz just because they’re friends with a star.

Ari: Ari was trying to prep his agency for an impending visit from client Mary J. Blige, but ran into problems with twin employees Jeff and Jim. They’re at each other’s throats, and Jim’s demanding that Jeff be fired. Ari tells them to work it out, but they continue their bickering, which eventually escalates into a full-on brawl in the conference room. When Ari sits them down to find out what happened, he learned that Jeff slept with Jim’s wife. Instead of firing Jeff, he waits for some reports from accounting to see which agent has earned the most money. Seeing that it’s Jeff, he fires Jim instead.

This comes back to bite Ari in the ass when it turns out that Mary J. Blige really liked Jim because of all the personal attention he gave her. When she learns what Ari did, she leaves the agency and takes her business elsewhere.

My Reaction: While there were a couple of laughs in this episode (all courtesy of Ari, of course), I was mostly bored. Although I actually like the idea that Eric should have an office and try to be officially associated with Vince in the eyes of other industry players, I didn’t think this point warranted an entire episode. Plus, I was hoping for some sort of follow-up regarding the British girl from last week, but we got nothing on that.

This was not a memorable ep at all; let’s hope next week’s is better!