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Amazon vs. Hulu Bracket

@iAmAviG

April 12, 2018

My next bracket, after the Disney vs. Pixar and Netflix brackets is a showdown between Amazon and Hulu. I debated doing each first-round matchup as Amazon vs Hulu…but (**Spoiler Alert**) Amazon would’ve destroyed Hulu. So instead they won’t see each other until the Championship (**/End spoiler**).

SWEET SIXTEEN

Mozart in the Jungle vs. Patriot – Mozart in the Jungle — A sad secret American agent has no chance against the New York Philarmonic
The Man in the High Castle vs. Good Girls Revolt – The Man in the High Castle — Good Girls Revolt showed a women’s world in a sexist industry, but an alternate reality where the Nazis win marches on
Red Oaks vs. Transparent – Red Oaks — Transparent has slowly gone downhill each season, and the Pfefferman’s can’t make it in a tennis club
Sneaky Pete vs. Catastrophe – Catastrophe — Sneaky Pete has been a solid show, but the British Catastrophe will make anyone laugh

The Path vs. The Wrong Mans – The Path — The Wrong Mans saw a duo getting in the wrong spot at the wrong time, but I’d follow The Path up a ladder to see where it might go
Chance vs. The Booth at the End – The Booth at the End — Hugh Laurie’s Chance was dark and grim, as is Booth at the End which will grant people whatever they ask for…at a price
The Looming Tower vs. The Awesomes – The Looming Tower — The Looming Tower is one of the best miniseries on TV, and not just currently but in the last 10 years. And Seth Myers’ animated show won’t advance
11.22.63 vs. Behind The Mask – Behind The Mask — The Stephen King/JFK story was a good read and great as a TV show, but Behind The Mask is an underrated documentary that has won a Sports Emmy

ELITE EIGHT

Mozart in the Jungle vs. The Man in the High Castle – Mozart in the Jungle — The Man in the High Castle had its ups and downs, with Season 3 coming later this year (supposedly), but Mozart in the Jungle hits all the high notes
Red Oaks vs. Catastrophe – Red Oaks — The Gettys are more intriguing than the dysfunctional family

The Path vs. The Booth at the End – The Path — The Booth at the End was so simple a show, but worked on a lot of levels because of that. But The Path creates a full story and journey for its viewers to go down
The Looming Tower vs. Behind The Mask – The Looming Tower — Behind The Mask had the insights of what it’s like to be a mascot, on all levels of professionalism, but the drama in Looming Tower is too good to ignore

FINAL FOUR

Mozart in the Jungle vs. Red Oaks – Mozart in the Jungle — The music of Mozart and the singing of Placido Domingo move on the the Championship matchup

The Path vs. The Looming Tower – The Looming Tower — The two strongest Hulu shows not surprisingly meets in the Hulu Final. Both are strong dramas, one an ongoing series, and one a miniseries. And while The Looming Tower is fresh (the final episode airs next Wednesday), I think it looms (towers?) over The Path

CHAMPIONSHIP

Mozart in the Jungle vs. The Looming Tower – MOZART IN THE JUNGLE — While Netflix has a good array of Drama and Comedy, it seems almost like the best shows here are Drama for Hulu and Comedy for Amazon. But while The Looming Tower is a well-shot show, there’s nothing better on these platforms right now than an Oboeist turning Maestro.

My Next Guest: Jay-Z

@iAmAviG

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April 11, 2018

Episode 3, with Malala Yousafzai, was a bore, hence why I didn’t write about it… I couldn’t get thru the full episode, as Dave tried humor and it just wasn’t working with her…also, and a likely unpopular opinion, I’m not entirely enthralled with her story.

But David Letterman’s special has now reached the second half of season 1, and Jay-Z is the lucky guest.

While the humor wasn’t there last time, Dave makes up for it with a little banter off the top, before bringing out Jay-Z for an interesting look into his life.

Jay is reserved and soft-spoken, even with mentions of his 13 albums and 21 Grammys. Topics range from his life growing up in the Marcy Projects with four siblings, what motivated his songs, and the paper route that led to crack.

I’m told your wife is also in show business. – Dave
Yeah, she’s starting. – Jay-Z

Dave also tries to pry a bit, getting into the rift, before turning more serious and talking about how the n-word is used these days.

Like the other episodes, Dave has some added guests, the first being Nate Holden, an 88-year-old California politician and the one who got MLK’s birthday as a holiday in California, and whose name graces the theater where this episode was taped.
Dave also heads outside the auditorium to Rick Rubin’s Shangri La Studios, to explore the producers world and how music is created, as well as some time with up-and-comer Madison Ward.

Next up for this series? Actress, comedian, producer: Tina Fey.

La Casa de Papel / Money Heist – Part 2

@iAmAviG

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April 10, 2018

La Casa de Papel Part 2 dropped this weekend, and now that the American audiences have clamored over it (after the successful Part 1) Netflix has fully rebranded it as Money Heist and made “English audio” the seeming default for the Spanish language show.

Our cast of city named thieves are continuing their takeover of the Royal Mint, under the now watchful eye of the police. When we last ended the police had stumbled upon the staging house, and all the evidence in the world seemed stacked against our group. But is this all a giant part of The Professor’s (Alvaro Morte) plans?

Helsinki is still caring for his likely dead brother, Oslo…Tokio (Ursula Corbero), our narrator, has had enough of the plan, as her and Rio dream of a life after, and Berlin (Pedro Alonso) won’t let her ruin everything.

Meanwhile, on the outside, the Professor and Raquel (Itziar Ituño) are getting closer to each other…will their relationship get destroyed when this is all over?

This season is the culmination of the Ocean’s Eleven meets Inside Man robbery, one of the greatest jobs in recent history…will our group of outlaws get away with it? Or will the house of paper go up in flames?

This season concludes with an 8 out of 10 performance.

NYPD Needs To Clean The Streets – Vehicular Edition #FixNYC

@iAmAviG

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April 9, 2018

NYC has gotten out of hand in recent years, with a visible increase in the homeless on the streets, and parking violations being ignored.

Today I want to focus on those parking violations, and how the NYPD is either turning a blind eye or just flat out not patrolling and cracking down on the seemingly “minor crimes” of parking violations:

There is a used car dealer doing work on the street, on a major avenue just a few blocks from my house, that snarls up traffic and takes up all the parking spots
- He usually starts with a car carrier pulling up in a driving lane and stopping there for 1-2 hours, to unload 6+ cars that all have prices and info on their windows. This carrier reduces the road to just one lane, which quickly slows traffic, including MTA buses and commercial traffic.
- They unload the cars, parking them (with no license plates at this time) at bus stops, hydrants, and taking up a long stretch of metered parking (without paying the meters)
- What follows is hours of work on the cars: Changing batteries, cleaning prices off the windows, and generic work on the cars
- When the day is done they pop out of state plates on the cars and leave them until the next day, when they move them and bring in the next shipment
On my block, there are a few hydrants at which cars are parked throughout the day. In NYC it’s illegal to park at a fire hydrant, but these people have no shame in doing it, day or night. Sometimes they’ll pull their cars up as close as they can to the curb, hoping that a patrol car driving by won’t notice the hydrant…this makes it harder, in the event of a fire, for the FDNY to get around the parked vehicle to use the hydrant
Illegal driveways — This one is a tougher fight. People don’t park in front of them, because they see it as a driveway, and even if they would they would face the backlash of the homeowners. But these driveways cut away from the street parking, causing people to park at the hydrants. Yes, I understand that the driveway occupants would just park in that spot, evening out the number …but the hours that they are away would lead to extra spots.

InstLife

@iAmAviG

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April 5, 2018

InstLife is the latest fad game, to hit Android (only available on Google Play, with talk of an upcoming iOS app), and it’s the perfect example of a mind-numbingly boring, time-consuming, game, made by Indie company InstCoffee.

Like your life – but instant.

Upon opening the game you are born as a random gender in a random country, and instantly your life takes off.

Go to school, get a degree…find jobs or be unemployed for life…
Find a lover, a mistress, have drugs, drink too much, get a drivers license, or just go to the gym with your last dollars.
Buy a house or car, plan a family vacation, and figure out your sexual orientation.

This game lets you live life, from start to finish, in a matter of minutes, eliminating the need (for now) of a save function.

InstLife is still under development, and every update provides new exciting features and life events (or ads…but you can’t really fault them for that), but is an enjoyable play for a few times thru on a rainy day.

A Series of Unfortunate Events – Season 2

@iAmAviG

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April 4, 2018

What if I told you that this show was terrible? Well, that would be false. But if I told you you’d enjoy it, you shouldn’t disagree. But look away, and don’t take in the troubles that the Baudelaire’s have to face in Season 2.

The banker (K. Todd Freeman) is still clueless *cough*, the narrator (Lemony Snicket/Patrick Warburton) warns you to stay away, yet you can’t take your eyes off of the screen.
And why would you want to? Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf is outstanding. His multitude of characters and disguises continues to show his range and abilities.

They address the aging of the children as they’ve been sitting on a bench waiting forever to be taken care of…and Sunny (Presley Smith) is the cutest character on television, with teeth that can cut thru everything.

Lemony: Nobody should be here. Because everything about the Baudelaire orphan situation is horrible to contemplate.
Poe: Everything about the Baudelaire orphan situation is delightful to contemplate.

The Quagmire triplets (definitely not twins) play a much larger role this Season, and the guest list is star-powered, featuring Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Nathan Fillion, David Alan Grier (In Living Color), and Robbie Amell (When We First Met).

They do a fun job referencing the show, mentioning “other episodes” and even NPH in How I Met Your Mother, and I can’t wait for the third and final season, and for us to maybe find out what VFD actually stands for…

This show continues its outstanding run and gets a 9 out of 10 for Season 2.

Dissecting The Anti-Jewish Op-Ed From The Washington Post

@iAmAviG

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April 3, 2018

The Washington Post published an op-ed on March 29th entitled “I Am Tired of Being a Jewish Man’s Rebellion” by Carey Purcell, and I wish I could say that it was an April Fools joke.
The article comes across as idiotic and makes her sound like she isn’t the brightest bulb in the box.

Now personally, I am not easily offended and feel that everyone is entitled to their opinion, whether they are right or wrong. But as I read through this article, the stupidity that I was reading actually hurt my head and made me realize how clueless people can be to other religions, or even to their own…now let’s dissect:

First of all, congrats Carey on knowing how to mix a drink, and not having control of how much alcohol you actually put in. Maybe if you weren’t drinking them too often, you wouldn’t have a problem finding men who will stay with you.
You call yourself a “very liberal Christian”, but when these guys who are “lackadaisical Jewish” don’t know their own religion you get upset…maybe it’s hard for you to understand, but within every single religion there are different levels of religion. Some people keep more of the laws, some keep less. Some keep them in public, some keep them in private, and some are just doing their own things.
Do you Carey not eat meat every Friday during Lent? What about when there’s that 5 for $5 sale…have you ever snuck a quick burger in? But man, these Jews don’t fast on Yom Kippur, aren’t they just the worst?
You dated two guys for a few years total…you stuck with them despite these “flaws in their Judaism”…yet now that you are alone and miserable, you use those as your excuse to lash out against Jews.

I now half-jokingly consider myself a Jewish man’s rebellion and guard myself against again landing in that role.
But, living in New York and working in theater, I frequently meet Jewish men. At almost every event I go to, they approach me. As flattered as I am, I don’t welcome the complications and potential heartbreak I’ve experienced back into my life.

I work in the Television industry, and meet no Orthodox Jewish women…and somehow I don’t date the Christians that I meet because I know that that’s not what I ultimately want. I have a little thing called “self-control”.

Maybe your issue is that you are dating the wrong kind of Jews, because like you said: “Jews are more likely to intermarry than other religions.”…or maybe the problem isn’t them, but your close-minded-self.

Netflix Bracket

@iAmAviG

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April 2, 2018

My second in a series of brackets will focus on Netflix, after the infamous Disney vs. Pixar bracket…and if you have any ideas for future ones, send them my way!

ROUND OF 32

House of Cards vs. Fuller House – House of Cards — House of Cards, despite recent issues, was one of the first binge-watch shows, and will easily beat out a reboot
Orange is the New Black vs. The Punisher – The Punisher — By far the hardest matchup of the round. OITNB has become a classic staple of Netflix, but has it run its run out? I put thru The Punisher, as it’s part of MCU, but can also stand as its own great show
Sense8 vs. Atypical – Atypical — An autistic child coming-of-age takes the cake over Sci-Fi
Narcos vs. Jessica Jones – Jessica Jones — Narcos to me was always someone reading a boring Wikipedia page…while Jessica Jones’ Season 1 is my favorite Marvel season on Netflix

Stranger Things vs. Master of None – Master of None — Aziz may have come under fire for his dating actions, but his character is super-relatable
The Crown vs. She’s Gotta Have It – The Crown — Queen Elizabeth is going to wave her way thru to the Sweet 16
The OA vs. On My Block – On My Block — No idea on either of these shows…
A Series of Unfortunate Events vs. Santa Clarita Diet – A Series of Unfortunate Events — Neil Patrick Harris was really good as Count Olaf, who just returned this weekend for Season 2

13 Reasons Why vs. Grace and Frankie – 13 Reasons Why — 13 Reasons Why faced a lot of flack when it first launched, but upon first watching it was one of the best things I’d seen on Netflix
Ozark vs. Dear White People – Ozark — Jason Bateman headed to the Ozarks to launder monies for the Cartel
Mindhunter vs. Everything Sucks! – Everything Sucks! — Mindhunter had potential and turned into a boring dud, while Sucks! was a 90s A/V club special
Altered Carbon vs. Glow – Glow — Women’s wrestling took a whole new light in Glow

Alexa and Katie vs. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — Unbreakable won’t get bracket busted
Nailed It vs. One Day at a Time – Nailed It — Mmm, food.
Luke Cage vs. Queer Eye – Luke Cage — Only the third Marvel show to make the cut into the Round of 32
Castlevania vs. American Vandal – American Vandal — Mockumentary > Animation?

SWEET SIXTEEN

House of Cards vs. The Punisher – The Punisher — HoC having more seasons hurts it, as some of the boring moments make it fall behind The Punisher, which can grab any audience
Atypical vs. Jessica Jones – Jessica Jones — Kilgrave should use his powers to get rid of Michael Rapaport

Master of None vs. The Crown – The Crown — Prince Philip was outstanding and much better than “Arnold”
On My Block vs. A Series of Unfortunate Events – A Series of Unfortunate Events — The Baudelaire orphans advance thru to the Elite Eight

13 Reasons Why vs. Ozark – 13 Reasons Why — Ozark was innovative and entertaining, but the audio tapes will move on
Everything Sucks! vs. Glow – Glow — Alison Brie showed off her moves in the ring with this 80s show knocking out the 90s

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt vs. Nailed It – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — Titus Andromedon…need I say more? Besides “Pinot Noir”
Luke Cage vs. American Vandal – Luke Cage — Netflix’ strong man powers thru this one

ELITE EIGHT

The Punisher vs. Jessica Jones – Jessica Jones — The only MCU vs MCU matchup I have this tournament…and Jessica’s heroine side will take out the lovable villain of Frank Castle

The Crown vs. A Series of Unfortunate Events – The Crown — Historical fiction should not be this good…but the monarchy is thoroughly entertaining

13 Reasons Why vs. Glow – 13 Reasons Why — “The little things matter” and will beat out Marc Maron

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt vs. Luke Cage – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — It’s a miracle!

FINAL FOUR

Jessica Jones vs. The Crown – Jessica Jones — Both Final Four matchups are tough, but Jessica’s story in Season 1 is better than when the Kennedy’s visited England

13 Reasons Why vs. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — Suicide vs. the bubbliest show on Netflix…Dark vs. light…Kimmy will advance

CHAMPIONSHIP

Jessica Jones vs. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT — This one was a real buzzer beater, but the mole people will come out of their bunker, and take the Championship over Patsy

Ferdinand

@iAmAviG

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March 30, 2018

The last animated movie I saw, Coco, was one of the best I’ve seen it years, so Ferdinand would have a hard time living up to it…but it made a really good effort of getting there.

From a young age Ferdinand wasn’t like the other bulls…while they were all headbutting with their freshly grown horns, he was watering flowers…and when the Matadors showed up his dad was picked to go the ring.
But he didn’t want to grow up and be like his father, he just doesn’t want to fight.

Thankfully he settles in with a family that supports his flower addiction, and loves him for who he is…but when he goes off the reservation, he gets returned to his childhood home and pushed towards bullfighting again.

One of the funniest scenes is when this overly large, gentle bull, is making his way through a china shop, trying his hardest not to break anything.

The cast includes John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, David Tennant, Gina Rodriguez, and the hilarious Peyton Manning.

The music is okay, the storyline is fine, but overall it could’ve been made a lot shorter. It was enjoyable but not outstanding. It’s a very silly movie, pulling in an 8 out of 10.

Sneaky Pete – Season 2

@iAmAviG

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March 29, 2018

Sneaky Pete released Season 2 on Amazon almost three weeks ago…which is an eon ago in terms of “binge watch television”. But getting released in the same weekend as Jessica Jones and Love didn’t do it any favors.
But despite dropping to Number 3 on my watch list for the weekend, this season kept up with the big guns.

Last season we had a lot of Marius (Giovanni Ribisi) pretending to be Pete and living with his family, but by the end of the season he was mixed up in all of their messes, from bail bonds to cops getting killed.

But people still want to get ahold of Marius and have him return monies owed, and Season 2 picks up right there, as everyone has a little secret, and no one knows the next persons, so it’s only a matter of time before it all comes out…especially when it involves that aforementioned dead cop.

Also, the real Pete is getting out of prison, and it’s bound to be chaos if he goes back home…especially as his real mother comes out of the woodwork.

Now Marius has to do one big con to help free his new found family from his previous mistakes.

This “Ocean’s Eleven” style show, stretched over a full season, was one of the slowest binges I’ve done in years. But I wasn’t bored with it, but at the same time, I wasn’t enamored. It’s enjoyable, but not necessarily memorable. This season gets another 7 out of 10.

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