Reviews and More

One question I’m frequently asked is how I choose all the movies I review for this blog. I guess some people are surprised at how many films I watch in a given week, so they want to know how I pick them out. Are they recommendations from other people? Are my choices based on awards or actors? Do I have specific criteria when choosing films to watch?

Well, the short answer to all of these questions is, “No.” I usually just go to one of the video stores in my area and pick three or four films off the shelf. Sometimes I read the back of the box to find out what the movie is about; often I don’t. I figure that as long as I haven’t seen it before, it’s fair game.

Obviously this approach has its pros and cons. On the one hand, I sometimes end up discovering great movies that I might not have otherwise seen. On the other, I sometimes pick out horrible films that do nothing more than waste two hours of my life. The 2006 film 10th & Wolf was somewhere in between these extremes.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): James Marsden stars as Tommy, a young man from the 10th & Wolf neighborhood of South Philly who spends all of his free time hanging out with younger brother Vincent (played by Brad Renfro) and cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi).

There’s a heavy mafia presence in the area, but Tommy is determined that neither he nor Vincent should get involved. Joey is a different story, however, as his father was reportedly gunned down by a mob hitman. Joey then makes a revenge hit, and is immediately drawn into mob life.

Tommy, meanwhile, decides to join the Marines to get out of the area. It doesn’t suit him, though, and he ends up getting drunk, punching out a superior officer, and stealing a jeep in Kuwait. Facing a court martial upon his return to the States, Tommy is approached by two FBI agents, Horvath (Brian Dennehy) and Thornton (Leo Rossi) with a deal: if Tommy wears a wire around his cousin Joey and helps lead the agents to a high-ranking mob boss, they’ll let Tommy off scot-free.

The rest of the film then shows how Tommy struggles with the decision of whether or not to betray Joey to save his own skin — and Vincent’s. He inevitably gets drawn deeper and deeper into Joey’s world, and ends up facing some tragic consequences.

My Reaction: I recently finished watching another lightweight mob movie (Brooklyn Rules), so I guess it should come as no surprise that I didn’t like this one either. 10th & Wolf was similar to BR in many respects, and none of them were good.

As with Scott Caan in BR, I just couldn’t buy Giovanni Ribisi as some badass gangster wannabe in this film. He doesn’t have the look, build, or mannerisms to pull off that kind of character, so I had a hard time trying not to laugh whenever he was on the screen.

Also, I found the Vincent character to be annoyingly inconsistent. In some scenes Tommy and Joey just refer to him as dumb or slow, mostly because Vincent didn’t finish 8th grade. But in other scenes, Brad Renfro plays the character as a person suffering from autism, what with the rocking and hand-wringing and everything. It was hard to figure out what exactly was going on with that character, and it was highly distracting.

James Marsden was ok as Tommy, which helped make the film a bit more tolerable. As Tommy was in almost every scene, the movie had the potential to be god-awful if Marsden played the character in a grating way.

As for the storyline — well, there’s not really much I can say about it. It was typical of the genre, held no surprises whatsoever, and had a fair amount of bloodshed. There were a couple of over-the-top characters as well, including Murtha (what was that all about?) and the dumb-as-rocks Jimmy Tattoo (Tommy Lee).

As a whole, I thought 10th & Wolf was a boring film that did nothing to distinguish itself in the gangster genre. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10, and advise you to skip it.

The blackjack card-counting drama 21 scored big with viewers this weekend, earning a solid $23.7 million en route to dethroning previous two-time box office champ Horton Hears a Who. 21, which stars Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Jim Sturgess, is loosely based on the true story of six MIT students who took on the Vegas casinos armed with a complex card-counting system — and walked away with millions. This is the only current release that I want to see right now.

Horton Hears a Who slipped to second place with a $17.4 million haul, bringing its three-week total to an amazing $117 million. With both Jim Carrey and Steve Carell on board, that film could hardly lose.

Superhero Movie, a comedic sendup of, well, superhero movies, did well in its debut with a $9.5 million take. The week’s other new entry, war drama Stop-Loss, also placed in the top 10. Starring Ryan Phillippe and Timothy Olyphant, the film earned $4.5 million — good enough for eighth place.

Here’s the complete Top 10 at the box office for 3/30/08:

1. 21, $23.7 million
2. Horton Hears a Who, $17.4 million
3. Superhero Movie, $9.5 million
4. Meet the Browns, $7.7 million
5. Drillbit Taylor, $5.8 million
6. Shutter, $5.3 million
7. 10,000 B.C., $4.8 million
8. Stop-Loss, $4.5 million
9. College Road Trip, $3.5 million
10. The Bank Job, $2.8 million

I admit to reading tabloids and celebrity-centered websites every once in a while, but unlike most people I’m not all that interested in the gossipy stuff like who’s dating whom, who’s pregnant, who’s cheating, or who’s getting a divorce. Instead, I like checking out candid photos of movie and television stars engaging in everyday activities like grabbing a burger or walking their dogs. I know, I know — it’s because of people like me that paparazzi hound these celebs all the time, right? Oh, well!

Anyway, I recently saw a couple of photos of Jake Gyllenhaal and Adam Brody, two of my favorite actors these days, out with their pet pooches. This is almost enough to make me want to move to LA on the off chance of running into one of these guys. Can you imagine how wild it would be to go to the vet or to the store for dog supplies only to end up seeing a movie star doing the same thing?

I first read Anita Shreve five years ago after a friend gave me Fortune’s Rocks while I was laid up in the hospital for a few days. I couldn’t put that book down, and though I haven’t actively sought out Shreve titles since then, I do read her from time to time. I have liked Shreve’s work more often than not, so when I recently saw the audiobook version of her 2007 novel Body Surfing available at my local library, I checked it out without even thinking twice.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The New Hampshire beach house that served as the setting of Fortune’s Rocks and several other Shreve titles is the backdrop for Body Surfing as well. This time, the house is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, a wealthy couple from Boston who like to spend their summers at the beach with their grown children, including the beautiful 18-year-old Julie. The main character of the novel, however, is 29-year-old Sydney Sklar, Julie’s SAT tutor.

Sydney comes with an interesting past, having been divorced and widowed before age 30. She has taken a real liking to the simple, innocent Julie, but also knows that Julie is destined to disappoint Mrs. Edwards since there’s no way the girl will be able to get into one of the top colleges that the mother has her heart set on. Julie has some kind of learning disability that the Edwards family is inexplicably reluctant to acknowledge, so Sydney feels her work with the girl is just going to waste.

The main plot starts to take shape after the family’s two grown sons Jeff and Ben arrive to spend their vacation time at the beach house. On the very first night of their arrival, Jeff, Ben, and Sydney venture out to the ocean for a moonlit body surfing session.

While under water, Sydney distinctly feels one of the brothers brazenly run his hand up and down her body. She’s shocked, but doesn’t come out and say anything. Instead, she resurfaces and notices that Ben is close to her, while Jeff appears to be some distance away down the shore. Sydney assumes that it must have been Ben that touched her like that. She is instantly revolted, and from that point forward wants nothing at all to do with Ben.

The complete opposite is true with Jeff, though, as Sydney and Jeff slowly fall for each other, with Jeff breaking off his engagement to another woman in order to be with Sydney.

The rest of the novel then deals with various problems that arise as a result of the Sydney-Jeff coupling, not the least of which is a nearly complete break between the brothers that affects the entire Edwards family. There are several twists along the way, and everything culminates in a big reveal that shows just how wrong Sydney was about several things.

My Reaction: I had a lot of problems with this book, particularly after it became apparent that Sydney was going to end up with one of the brothers. I usually like the way Shreve handles romance and relationships in her novels, but this was definitely an exception. There were so many ridiculous aspects of the Sydney-Jeff pairing that I never bought their relationship for a minute.

First, I thought it was incredibly childish for Sydney to be so revolted by what she thought was a deliberate touch from Ben that she didn’t even confront him about it. I mean, she was so disturbed by the incident that she couldn’t bring herself to accept so much as a beer from the man at a party later on, yet she never said anything to him? No way! She was 29, not 9. I half expected her to run away from Ben screaming, “You have cooties! You have cooties!” at some point. Yes, her reaction was that childish.

I suppose you could make the argument that she didn’t want to jeopardize her job, but that doesn’t hold water. It was a summer tutoring gig, not something Sydney was planning on doing for the rest of her life. If she was so damn uncomfortable and grossed out, surely she could have told Ben off, packed her bags, and left. End of problem. End of story too, which I guess is why Shreve had her main character act like such a 19th-century prude.

Another aspect of the Jeff-Sydney dynamic that I didn’t buy was the way that Ben just let them ride off into the sunset together even though he knew Jeff was simply out to spite him. The fight scene between the two brothers on the night Julie disappeared comes to mind here. At that point, we’re supposed to believe that Ben had fallen hard for Sydney, which is why Jeff swooped in to scoop her up (this was revealed later).

Yet Ben, who knew full well that his brother had a long history of doing such things, never once said a word to protect Sydney, whom he was supposed to care so much about? Again, this was completely implausible. Perhaps if this novel had been set in the Victorian age, it would be easy to believe that people would just bite their tongues and not say anything, but in 2002 (or whenever this was set), that scenario would never play out the way Shreve described it. People confront each other. People announce others’ shortcomings to the world. They don’t keep it all bottled in like that.

Also, I didn’t like the way the book ended, with Sydney cavorting in the ocean with Ben in a scene that recalled the earlier body surfing scene. Although the author didn’t come right out and say so, I felt that there was definitely a hint that Ben and Sydney might end up together (especially with the way Ben was hoping to meet her at Julie’s art show in Montreal). It just didn’t seem logical for Sydney to want to be part of that family in any way, so the ending came off as incredibly contrived.

If there was anything I liked about this novel, it’s the fact that I listened to it in audiobook form. It was read by actress Lolita Davidovich, and I thought she did a wonderful job with the performance. She has one of those calm, comforting voices that are easy to listen to for extended periods, so that was definitely a plus. I also liked the fact that Body Surfing was a short, quick read. At least I didn’t invest too much time in it!

Overall, Body Surfing is not one of Shreve’s better novels. If you’re looking to get into this author, I suggest starting with something else first. Fortune’s Rocks would be my choice!

I just got done watching the trailer for the new movie 21, and boy am I bummed. I swear, the basic premise is something that a friend and I came up with years ago back when we were in college. We were totally into blackjack back then, practicing and playing every single day. After one extended session at the casino where we won pretty big, we started talking about how cool it would be if we could win our tuition money by counting cards.

We talked about that idea so much that I actually ended up writing a short story with that plot for one of my English classes. This was way back in 1994, so don’t go saying it was a Rounders ripoff or anything like that!

And now here’s 21, about a college student who gets into card-counting so he can come up with tuition money. Damn!

Obviously, there are differences, as my lead character wasn’t at MIT and wasn’t playing as part of a team, but the basic story is the same.

Oh, well, maybe I should have turned my story into a screenplay way back then. If I had, I’d probably be pretty wealthy today, with acres of prime Outer Banks or Wilmington real estate to my name.

At any rate, I definitely plan on seeing 21 in theaters, even though it has been panned by most critics. Hopefully I won’t get too depressed about what might have been!

I had my reservations about watching Into the Wild from the very first time I saw a preview for the film before its theatrical release. I usually don’t like main characters who are dubbed as “free spirits”, nor do I like the whole concept of a character shunning society because he thinks everything sucks. Since the previews indicated that this was the essence of the lead in Into the Wild, I didn’t bother with it.

But then I let the buzz, hype, positive reviews, Academy Award nominations, and the fact that it’s based on a true story get to me. So many people loved this movie that I felt there might be something there after all and finally gave in the last time I was at Blockbuster. I should have just trusted my initial instincts on this one, however, as I started squirming restlessly from the opening scenes almost until the credits rolled — a seemingly interminable 148 minutes later.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Back in 1992, Chris McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch) graduated from Emory College in Georgia full of dreams and ideals. Unlike most 22-year-olds, however, he wasn’t thinking of grad school, a career, or accumulating material possessions. Instead, he wanted to give everything away and wander around for a while, living off the land like his hero Henry David Thoreau.

Towards that end, he donates most of the money he has left over in his college fund ($24,000) to Oxfam International, loads up a his old Datsun, and takes off with nary a word to his parents Walt (William Hurt) and Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) or his sister Carine (Jena Malone). His car gets trashed in a mudslide soon thereafter, and from then on Chris walks and hitchhikes to wherever he wants to go.

While on his journey, he decides that his ultimate destination is Alaska, where he wants to spend considerable time living by himself outside the constraints of society. On his way there, he meets countless people who embrace him and his quest, treating him with more kindness than strangers usually bestow on ragged wanderers.

After finally making it to Alaska, Chris finds an abandoned bus meant to be used as a shelter for hunters. There are some supplies in the bus, so Chris moves on in and lives there through the winter. When his food stores run low, he decides to head back to civilization to stock up, but can’t cross a raging river that is much higher and swifter than it was when he first arrived. With a lack of game to hunt, Chris slowly and painfully starves to death.

My Reaction: I actually saw Into the Wild four days ago, but waited to write the review because I feared that my initial reaction was too strong. After giving myself time to think about it, however, I still HATE this movie and regret that I ever wasted this much of my life watching someone throw his away.

Before I get into all the things I disliked about the film, I just want to say that my reaction is based only on the movie that I saw. I didn’t read the book and know nothing about the real Christopher McCandless, so this is simply my reaction to the events as portrayed by director Sean Penn and actor Emile Hirsch.

That being said, I could not stand Hirsch’s performance throughout most of this film. He came across as very smug, self-centered, arrogant, and ignorant, with few redeeming qualities to speak of. I did enjoy some of his scenes with Hal Holbrook (where Hirsch made Chris seem to be a genuinely nice person) but for the most part, I hated watching this guy — to the point where I practically cheered when he got his ass kicked by the railroad inspector.

I simply couldn’t identify with McCandless at all because people like him are nauseatingly self-righteous in real life. Material possessions aren’t cool — unless they’re old and junky. Chris wouldn’t accept a new car, but didn’t mind his old one. Why is that? A material possession is a material possession, right? Big corporations are evil and lead to a corrupt society — but that didn’t stop Chris from working at McDonald’s to make money for his trip to Alaska. Hypocrite.

Another thing I didn’t like about Chris as portrayed in this film is the way Penn took great pains to show how much Chris admired Jack London and Henry David Thoreau. Well, if that was the case, then Chris didn’t really learn much from either of those guys, did he? If he had read London carefully, he would have had far more respect for nature and how brutal the elements can be, and he wouldn’t have gone into Alaska so woefully unprepared.

If he had read HDT carefully, he would have seen that hard work and foresight are required to live off the land. Walden is basically page after page after page of Thoreau hoeing land, taking care of his crops, storing up food for winter, and just working, working, working to make his experiment a success. Sitting around in a “magic bus” watching his food stores run low is not something Thoreau would have done.

You might say that I’m just attacking Chris’s personality here and not really talking about the film. That’s kind of true, but it’s because nothing noteworthy happened in the film!! It was all about this kid who took off basically because he hated his parents (which, BTW, boo friggin’ hoo. Lots of people have rough childhoods, but they don’t run off to Alaska on a suicide mission). There was no action, no conflict… nothing else to talk about.

I guess I could mention something about Penn here, since those who enjoyed the film inevitably talk about how beautiful it looked. Yes, some of the wilderness shots were nice, but I thought Penn was rather heavy-handed throughout. I mean, how many times did we need to see Chris making new notches in his belt? He’s losing weight because he’s not eating enough — we get it!

Chris’s slow death was excruciating to watch because nobody deserves to die all alone like that, not even someone who brought it on himself through sheer stupidity. He didn’t prove anything. He didn’t make a profound statement. His death was completely unnecessary, and I feel sorry for the family he left behind. Alexander Supertramp? How about Alexander Stupidtramp.

Overall, I couldn’t stand Into the Wild and give it 3.0 stars out of 10. I’m not sure why people are so in love with this film, but if I were you, I’d take the positive reviews with a grain of salt.

I’m one of those people who has the radio on all the time. When I’m blogging or doing other online tasks, I have my favorite stations on at low volume to serve as background noise. When I’m doing housework or cooking dinner, I crank the tunes up and rock out!

Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot about how much better HD digital radio is than typical analog broadcasts, so I finally looked into what would be required for an upgrade. It turns out that all I need to do is purchase an HD Radio Receiver, and then find out which local radio stations are broadcasting digitally. From there, I can enjoy the unparalleled sounds of HD radio for free, with no monthly subscription fees required.

Since I know nothing about HD radio receivers, I started reading through some information over at HDRadio.com. I found out that many low- to mid-range units are actually quite affordable, and still come with great features such as an iPod dock with iTunes Tagging. I would definitely want this tagging capability because it would allow me to instantly save a song’s information to my iPod, making it easier for me to locate and buy the song the next time I use iTunes.

Finding local radio stations that broadcast in high-def is a breeze, thanks to HDRadio.com. They have a comprehensive list for every state, so whether you’re looking for Seattle, Chicago, or New York High Definition Radio stations, you’ll have a bunch of options to choose from.

I’m sold on this whole idea of upgrading my radios, so I’m going to get an HD receiver for my home. I can’t wait!

In one telling scene of the critically-acclaimed 2007 Ridley Scott film American Gangster, a high-ranking mobster tells drug kingpin Frank Lucas, “We can be successful and have enemies, or we can be unsuccessful and have friends.” This bit of wisdom comes after Lucas has been complaining about the way he feels other New York drug dealers are disrespecting him, and is a very accurate pronouncement about Frank’s situation.

Lucas has plenty of enemies out there, including Ritchie Roberts, a crusading detective from the Newark PD. Roberts and his handpicked band of officers are closing in on Lucas fast, and it’s just a matter of time before they bring Lucas’ empire down.

Scott’s film could easily have gone down a predictable Hollywood path and ended in a violent shootout — as it might have done had it been written by Oliver Stone (think Scarface). But American Gangster is based on a true story, so the ending is actually a lot tamer and more believable.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): In 1968, the big man in Harlem was gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (played by Clarence Williams III). Everyone respected Bumpy, and business (primarily drug dealing) was run in an orderly fashion. But when Bumpy dies suddenly of a heart attack, the ensuing power vacuum gives rise to a bunch of wannabes, and near-chaos ensues.

That’s when Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), Bumpy’s former driver, sees an opportunity. Lucas gets the brilliant idea of starting up a whole new drug distribution ring, one in which the middleman is completely eliminated. Frank will get his drugs directly from the supplier — in this case, an army general in Thailand. Frank’s cousin, who is in the U.S. Army, will see to it that the drugs get smuggled into America inside the coffins of dead soldiers being shipped back from Vietnam.

The plan works beautifully, and soon Frank is selling what he calls Blue Magic, a very pure form of heroin that he offers for a fraction of the price of his competition. In no time at all, Frank becomes the biggest drug lord in New York, and consequently is targeted by other gangsters and, of course, the police.

Speaking of the police, we also meet Det. Ritchie Roberts (Russell Crowe) who early in his career earns an Eliot Ness-like reputation for honesty and integrity after turning in a bag containing nearly $1 million in cash that he recovered from a drug dealer’s car. The implication here is that most other cops would have kept it, or skimmed a bit off the top at the very least.

And in another move reminiscent of Ness, Roberts assembles a small group of detectives who he knows can’t be bought. Together, they try to bring down Lucas — and eventually succeed.

My Reaction: Even though I knew going in that American Gangster received mostly rave reviews, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. I thought it would turn out to be a pretentious, overly-preachy marathon that would be torture to sit through — but I was completely wrong. American Gangster was a terrific film that was made enjoyable by the riveting performances of Washington and Crowe.

Denzel Washington was awesome as Frank Lucas: calm and cool on the outside, but ready to explode in an instant if someone dared to cross him. Usually I don’t like graphic violence even in R-rated films, but the two scenes where Lucas went psycho on people (interrupting his breakfast to go shoot one guy in the head and the scene at his party where he started beating the crap out of someone) were absolutely necessary, and served to underscore that despite the well-dressed businesslike exterior, Lucas was a cold-blooded murderer.

I liked Crowe as well, and thought his take on Roberts was very good. Roberts exhibited a genuine earnestness that was believable because it stopped well short of being holier-than-thou. Roberts hated that other cops were on the take, but he didn’t go around preaching against them or trying to show them up. He just went about his business without injecting his brand of morality on anyone else. Perfect.

The film managed to remain interesting throughout, with the only slow spots coming whenever Roberts’ marital problems surfaced. Was any of that stuff even necessary?

Overall, I thought American Gangster was one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. From strong acting to a solid storyline, this definitely is a movie that I could watch again and again. I give it 8.5 stars out of 10.

Last night’s much-hyped episode of How I Met Your Mother was called “Ten Sessions”, and featured guest appearances by Britney Spears and Sarah Chalke. I don’t pay attention to promos, but there was so much talk about Britney’s appearance that it was hard not to wonder how it would turn out. I only vaguely remember Sarah Chalke from Roseanne (I don’t watch Scrubs), so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing her or anything like that.

As it turns out, I thought the episode was mostly a dud — until the very end when Ted did the whole two-minute date thing. That was cute, and very much like S1 or S2 Ted, the guy that attracted me to this show in the first place. Other than that though, I was yawning and looking at my watch through most of the ep.

Ted: This episode more or less continues from where 3×11 left off — with Ted getting ready to go out on a date with Stella, the dermatologist he’s seeing for his tramp stamp removal. Now we get the full story, with Stella telling Ted that dating a patient would be against AMA rules and so forth (which is why the “date” turned out to be a group thing), but that doesn’t deter Ted at all. He just tells her he’ll wait until after his 10 sessions are over and then ask her again.

During the next 10 weeks, Ted and Stella get to know each other during their sessions. They flirt a bit, Ted becomes convinced that he absolutely does like her, and then asks her out again when he’s no longer a patient. She puts him off again by saying that she has an 8-year-old daughter and simply doesn’t have time to date. The only free time she has during the day is two minutes during lunch.

That’s when Ted shows up for a two-minute date, complete with cab rides, dinner, movie, coffee, and a good-night kiss.

Barney/Robin/Lily/Marshall: These guys mostly just sat around in the bar offering commentary on whatever was happening with Ted and Stella. Marshall and Barney both went in to see Stella on their own in order to find out if she was into Ted or not. Barney ended up convincing Ted to grow a tiny porn ’stache by saying that Stella loves those things (not true), while Marshall found out that Stella had a crush on Ted.

Also, from a throwaway line, we learned that Barney wanted to hook up with Robin but she said no.

My Reaction: Since Britney’s guest role on this show has been talked about for weeks, you’d think the least she could have done was wash her hair for the occasion. Man, did it look greasy as hell in half of her scenes, or what? Also, she can’t act worth a damn, so fortunately her character wasn’t the focal point of this ep otherwise I would have probably turned it off.

As I said above, I was pretty ‘meh’ on the ep until the two-minute date. The scenes between Stella and Ted weren’t very interesting to me, so I was mostly bored whenever the two of them were on. I thought the group scenes in the bar were a little better, but again, there weren’t many laugh out loud moments there.

And though I think Stella will probably be back for at least a few more episodes, I really don’t think she ends up as Ted’s wife.

I’ve been reading that HIMYM is on the bubble as far as being renewed by CBS. I really hope the writing picks up down the home stretch here, because as uneven as the eps have been this season, I still think this is a quality show overall. Maybe next week’s effort will help prove that.

We’re living in a fairly nice townhouse right now, but my husband and I both agree that this is just our starter home. We dream of being able to afford a single-family home one day, with a fenced-in backyard where our son can play with the dogs, practice baseball, or even camp out under the stars. We’re saving as much as possible every month because we want to purchase our dream home within the next five years or so.

While we’re saving, we love looking through different house plans online to see what kinds of choices are available to us. One of the better sites we’ve found is called HousePlansAndMore.com, where they have tons of beautiful plans to browse through. I love how convenient it is to view plans based on our own criteria, such as estimated cost, square footage, and number of bedrooms. This makes it very easy to isolate plans that fit our needs while ignoring the rest.

I also like being able to view specific styles, and think that their Colonial Home Plans are simply stunning. When we’re ready to build our home, I know this is the style we’re going to choose.

If you’re thinking about building a home in the near future, then I recommend visiting HousePlansAndMore.com for ideas to get you going. Whether you’re looking for elegant Victorian house plans or rustic log home plans, you’ll find everything you need right there on the site. Check it out today!