Best Movie Ever for This Week: The Dark Knight 

Unbelievable movie. I don’t need to give it any kind of a review because you can go read 206 at Rotten Tomatoes and they all same the same thing — “it’s crazy good.” The hype is true about Heath Ledger, the story is awesome (and filled with about 23 sermon illustrations) and everything else ruled, too. Go see it. If normal people got to vote on Oscar awards, this would win a bunch. 

Memorable Line: “Either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” 

Best Album Ever for This Week: Stay Positive by The Hold Steady 

They’re the best band no one listens to, and hopefully this album will change that. Despite the fact that they’re on Vagrant Records they aren’t emo or punk; it’s just straight up rock ‘n roll with hints of piano, some horns and guitar solos. The best part, though, is the story-telling. The lyrics are witty and touching and hopeful and not hopeful and are part of an album-wide story loosely centered on a murder investigation, which seems ironic on an album called ‘Stay Positive‘. But it’s very good. 

Memorable line: Let this be my annual reminder // that we can all be something better

Best Book Ever for this Week: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 

I devoured this book over the weekend. It’s a different book — the main characters (a father and a son) aren’t given names. They are ‘father’ and ’son’. There is no quotation marks, hardly any other characters, no beginning or middle or even end. And it’s quite possibly the most bleak and hopeless thing I’ve ever read. And yet, it wasn’t. The basic premise is that the world has been obliterated into a fiery mess and almost everyone is dead. A father and son are journeying across America to find, well, something. Hope. And that’s it. And yet it’s somehow about love and sacrifice and the goodness of man. The Father and Son story has all sorts of biblical parallels and it’s currently being made into a movie (with Viggo Mortensen playing the father). Check it out when you’re not looking for a bright happy book. An Archie Comic it’s not. 

Memorable Line(s): 

Boy: What would you do if I died?  

Father: If you died I would want to die too.

Boy: So you could be with me?

Father: Yes. So I could be with you. 

The Best Website Ever for This Week: Garfield Minus Garfield 

Ha, this is awesome. A guy has removed Garfield from a whole bunch of Garfield comic strips, leaving only poor Jon…and what now looks like a mental illness. Here’s the actual site description: 

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. 

OK, that doesn’t really make it sound funny at all, but it is. Go here for Garfield. Minus Garfield. 

Memorable Comic: