There are some actors who have a commanding presence.  Well, ok, most actors, by definition, have a commanding presence otherwise they wouldn't be successful, but there are some actors who demand (and get) a little more attention than others.  You know the ones.  You see the trailer, and whether you think the movie concept is that great or not, the mere fact that "so and so" is in it makes you want to see it.  

Will Smith is one of those actors for me, so the only thing I knew about I Am Legend when I went to see it last weekend was that it starred Will Smith as the last man on the planet.  And let's face it; there aren't a lot of guys out there who can pull off a role like that.  Tom Hanks did it in Cast Away, but that's really all that comes to mind.  
I'm a pro at suspending my disbelief, so I had no problem buying the storyline.  Dr. Krippen, played by Emma Thompson, has discovered a cure for cancer.  By reengineering a common virus (the measles) she has effectively cured over 10,000 patients. Insert uproarious shouts of triumph from all human beings who have ever been affected in even a small way by the horrifying "plague" of cancer.

Fast forward to three years later: Dr. Robert Neville (Will Smith) and his trusty German Shephard, Sam, speed through the deserted New York streets in a red Shelby Cobra with white racing stripes.  After an unsuccessful hunt, they return to a fully provisioned Washington Square brownstone. As the story progresses, we find that something went terribly awry with Dr. Krippen's vaccine.  The apparent miracle turned into a curse when every patient treated with the vaccine devolved into a rabid, flesh-eating night prowler. Some couldn't sustain the rabid existence and perished, and still others, in a true "survival of the fittest" scenario, fed upon the remaining healthy and sane humans. 

Dr. Neville, a physician in the Armed Forces, is, or so we're led to believe, the only remaining healthy and (questionably) sane human.  He is determined to reverse the effects of the vaccine and bring the monsters back from their exile in hell.  Although he holds out hope that there are other survivors, he reluctantly begins to believe that maybe he is the last of the humans. As with any action-packed blockbuster, there are plenty of twists and turns and more than a few nail-biting moments, but I just couldn't help noticing that even though the paved streets of Manhattan are sufficiently deteriorating after three years without maintenance, all the store fronts and awnings are close to immaculate.  However, Neville's reaction to Sam's disappearance into a dark and deserted warehouse quickly blinded my discerning eye to any inconsistencies.

All in all, Smith delivered a solid performance.  Not quite up to Pursuit of Happyness standards, but good nonetheless.  The effects and the storyline are believable, sometimes too much so.  Much as I did in Children of Men, I found myself shuddering occasionally, thinking, "This could totally happen if we're not careful."  The most unexpected outcome of the film: my newfound respect for Bob Marley. I'm not a big fan of reggae, which makes it hard to be a Bob Marley fan, but Neville's exultation of Marley as a proponent of music and love to combat violence and racism has led me to reevaluate my musical opinions.  If you can't manage to catch this one at the theaters, then I definitely recommend it for a DVD and pizza night.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Iowa and New Hampshire have come and gone, and we have had two completely different results.  Mike Huckabee and Barak Obama won the first round; John McCain and Hillary Clinton won the second. What do these results mean to? To me? Voting is a privilege that far too many Americans do not take advantage of, partly because they do not see how it affects their daily lives, and to some degree they are right.

It is highly doubtful that I will vote for Senator Clinton. If she becomes President, my life and, quite honestly, most people’s lives, are not going to change that much.  Had Al Gore been elected in 2000, we probably would still be in some type of war in Iraq and terrorists would have still attacked us on September 11th.  The mortgage crisis would still be happening and the stock market would still be going down.

It would seem that I am making an argument against voting, which I am not.  While your daily life will probably not change overnight regardless of who becomes President, the long-term affects of a President are extremely important.  Ronald Reagan believed that the Soviet Union was the Evil Empire; it was not an empire that we could co-exist with or something that we should  just accept as a reality; it had to be defeated.  Looking back at history, it is obvious that Reagan was right, yet at the time, not everyone believed this to be true.  Many people believed that containing the Soviet Union was the best we could hope for. Reagan believed we could eliminate it and that is what we did.

Ideas are important. The President is important. If you are in an early primary state, make sure you vote in that primary.  When you vote, vote for someone that you believe in. They do not have to agree with you on every issue. Pick the issues most important to you and go with those. The last thing I want to see is someone vote for a candidate because of a negative commercial, misleading story or because of media-based momentum.  Pick what is important to you and stay with it. Like the Bible says, while beauty and charm are misleading and do not last long, character on the other hand lasts a lifetime.

Popularity: 7% [?]

As a bit of good old fashioned randomness, I wanted to share with you the most popular topics our visitors search for that lead them to CultureFeast through search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, Ask). This in no way indicates which topics we cover the most often, but rather just which topics/pages of ours are popular and rank well. 

Papaya Clothing Stores
This topic has been the #1 driver of traffic in the history of CultureFeast. I saw an opportunity last year when Papaya's website had been "under construction" for six months. No one could find the nearest store without a functioning website, so we had Papaya shoppers from around the country post comments about the stores they knew of. The Papaya site is now live, yet we still get a LOT of traffic from Papaya fans.

97.1FM The Eagle Returns
The rock station everyone knows in DFW is back on the air after several years hiatus. Why they left the FM I do not know, but there are plenty of people searching for more info on the returning rock station. There's still a good-sized rock fan base here to necessitate a radio station. I'm still surprised they disappeared in the first place. Welcome back, Eagle. 

Taylor Glover Leaves Kidd Kraddick in the Morning
Who would have thought that Taylor was this popular? Well... me, for one. The third most popularly searched topic that led visitors to CultureFeast was the departure of Kidd Kraddick's spunky valley girl. The show has not recovered from her absence. It lacks the energy and spunk she brought to the show each day.

The Celebrity Apprentice
Apparently, people are so bored with the Writer's Strike that they find Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice to be worth investigating. I have nothing more to say about this show. I lost interest the moment I finished posting this article. 

Dolores O'Riordan
The former lead singer of The Cranberries is still big news, and apparently has yet to shed the trappings of Cranberries fame. Despite her quality debut solo album, Dolores is still known and appreciated most as the lead singer of The Cranberries. I've always been a huge fan of her voice. If you haven't heard her sing Ave Maria, go to iTunes and check it out. Every song involving her is worth hearing.

And because I can, here are some topical runner ups worth mentioning:

Penelope Trunk Interview and also mentioned here and here.
Little Ball of Hate (Jennifer Engle)
Kidd Kraddick mentioned several times, including here and here.
Dale Hansen
Randy Galloway
 

Popularity: 100% [?]

Every year we experience different types of award ceremonies: in the media, schools, music, writing, food and in our own little neck of the woods.  But this year, I came across an award that almost made me fall out  of my chair.

As I was surfing the Net, I came across the funniest story that really caught me off guard. Every year, Harvard University is one of these little schools known for their high prices and intelligent students. So how in the world did they decide to award Ms. Paris Hilton Woman of the Year?

This girl is either one really good actress or just one really ditsy blonde. First of all, right before the premiere of The Simple Life which co-stared lifetime bff Nicole Richie, Ms. Hilton came out with her first movie, i.e. One Night in Paris. Now i don't know about you, but I thought that it was a pretty funny tape. She didn't seem to mind it all that much until mommy was asked about it in an interview and then all the sudden Paris was enraged by the violation of her privacy.

My mom taught me that anything I would'nt want to get around about me is best left unspoken, and I think the same would go for making videos. As we all know, Paris didn't do so bad raking in the dough from The Simple Life. And then she made sure to get into a real life drama-filled fight with Ms. Richie to insure the ratings of her show for the next two seasons.

So now she has a movie coming out on February 8, 2008, called "Hottie and the Nottie." It's superficial story about the hot friend and the ugly friend. Hmm... I wonder which character she will play? So right before the premiere of her movie, Ms. Hilton will be on campus at Harvard University receiving the Woman of the Year Award and, of course, she will be  premiering the movie on campus all day! Wow! I'm so glad some parents can afford that higher education. But the joke is that she is being awarded by Harvard's Lampoon, which is the oldest running comedy magazine. It has to make me wonder if she is really that smart or really just that dumb?

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you're like me, you're trying to figure out who to despise due to the lack of content on tv. Do we blame the writers or the executives? Possibly both, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is finding a Prime Time replacement for all the shows I usually enjoy. Due to the recent lack of watch-worthy content, I've chosen seven solid steps to survive the strike (God, please end it soon!).

YouTube
If you haven't been to YouTube lately, I think you'll be surprised by some of the content there. Everything from music videos to interviews to mini episodes. Weeks worth of entertainment just sitting there waiting for you. Just be careful how you search. "Stupid" takes on a whole new level of meaning when it comes to Americans and home video. 

Tv Shows on DVD
One of my favorite pastimes is to find a tv series I never watched or rarely watched in the past and watch episode after episode. That's how I got hooked on LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Nero Wolfe, Monk, and Roswell. They're shows worth watching that I just missed the first time around. Shows I would avoid include Weeds, any Law & Order, and any CSI. 

RSS Feeds
I have something like 45 feeds in my feed reader. Who has time to read fresh content daily from 40 sites? So now I get to catch up on the news, tips, and deep thoughts around the world. In addition to that, I'm taking this time to be more selective with my feeds. I'm whittling it down to a solid 30 soon. Oh, the decisions!

StumbleUpon
This is one of the coolest websites/web applications ever. When I want to find something cool online that I've never seen before, I click "Stumble" with my StumbleUpon Firefox toolbar, and it takes me to other cool sites that people have submitted. People randomly surf the web, and when they find something interesting, they click a button on their SU toolbar and SU begins to share it with everyone else. Visit StumbleUpon, download the toolbar for Firefox, and start stumbling! 

Blogging
I own more blogs than is healthy for any one individual NOT working for himself. Who has time to blog daily on one site, much less seven?!?!? Not me. I just like to purchase domain names and throw up a WordPress theme. Of course, then I can't not post a few blogs because the empty space saddens me. But if you're like me and own even ONE blog, you can take this time to establish yourself as a daily blogger - one who is worth returning to each new morning. 

Family Time
I'm now spending more time with my wife and baby girl. How can I complain about that? Answer: I can't. It's time well spent. Every time I look into Kathryn's face, I know that she will only grow older and I will never regain this time when she has the cutest chubby cheeks and facial expressions. I savor this time, knowing that time is fleeting and she will someday be a grown woman with her own family. 

There are dozens of things you can do to avoid boredom and Prime Time Depression. What do YOU do to chase those blues away? 

Popularity: 2% [?]

Just a quick note. If you are looking for a car or have the money to buy a car, you'd be a fool to pass this up. Trophy Nissan is selling brand new 2008 Nissan Altimas for half of MSRP. That means you can buy a brand new Altima for just under $12,000! That's right!

Of course, the catch is that you have to get there in the next 4 days. Today may have been the first day, so you might only have 3 days left. If I had the money, I'd be there right now. Take my word on this. If Trophy Nissan didn't lie in their commercial, you can get one of best mid-range vehicles for under $12,000. 

Get there early Friday. And then come back here and let us know that you purchased a sweet new car because we mentioned it. 

Popularity: 6% [?]

While a lot of people are MySpace savvy, many MySpacers still don't understand the difference between a MySpace blog and a professional, public blog. MySpace is typically the place for random half-thoughts and copies of email spam and pics from one's latest night on the town or baby photo shoot. It's a place to share stuff with friends, hence the tagline: "A place for friends." But MySpace doesn't challenge people to fully develop their thoughts or share information in sensible stages. In fact, I'd say that the majority of MySpace bloggers are lazy, only posting anything when they have an inspirational blip, which typically disappears mid-post. 

Brian Clark shared another valuable post on strategic content development from his Innovative Content series recently. This is stuff that every aspiring blogger should read and every established blogger should revisit. Because regardless of our background and experience, it's easy to get busy and lazy and let the content of your blogging suffer. And let's face it, everyone loses when your blogging suffers. 

Rather than plagiarize Brian's content, go read the post for yourself. When you are taking on a new blogging project, it's good to begin by asking yourselves the right kind of questions. It can be difficult to break out of the generic mental vomitting style of MySpace, but just asking yourself these questions and following these three steps will prepare you to write a more informed, adult sounding piece. 

Always make sure you have fun with blogging, but part of the fun lies in doing something well. Nobody would pay Kobe Bryant if his shots were all air balls.  

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Kingdom is one of those movies that require a hush as the credits roll. No conversations. No cheap comments about how good the movie was. Just silent contemplation. The value of life. How quickly it dissipates. How easily a new generation of hate grows to replace the old. Just a few, simple words, spoken at a time of great loss. "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all."

Those haunting last words as the film closes on the face of a boy destined to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather. And as the credits roll, you experience an impending sense of doom that can only come from seeing the innocent face of a future enemy. 

Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner all delivered believable performances. The real gems of this film were Ashraf Barhom and Ali Suliman. As Saudi policemen, they evoked deeply exotic mysteries about Saudi culture, thought, belief, and reality.

As a whole, the film was well shot. The settings were dusty and frightening... mission accomplished. We Americans know next to nothing about Middle Eastern culture. We are both wooed and terrified of it. And in the end, both sides respond to killing with a vow to kill. The bloodshed will not cease. Of this we can be certain. And we can grieve.

It tells the tale of a story bigger than us. Bigger than our selfishness or desire for creature comforts. We are invited to despise ourselves just a little over how easy life can be in America... and how sheltered we are from the rest of the world. 

If you have a problem with seeing people get shot, this isn't for you. Otherwise, you probably should not miss this film. And while you watch it, ask yourself whether you understand these people well enough to judge them. Ask yourself if maybe a six month visit and immersion in their culture wouldn't serve to show you that there is more than one way to look at life. 

Popularity: 3% [?]

CultureFeast.com is in the midst of change... again. While I have been the primary contributer, we've had guest bloggers on occasion covering various topics. Guest posts will continue, and you'll still hear from me every week. In addition to more of the same, I've invited some bloggers to join the team to contribute weekly. The hope is to have at least one blog post from a new author each day of the week. 

One of the biggest complaints I've heard over the past two years has been that posting here has been sporadic. No one will keep your RSS feed in their feed reader if they don't get regularly updated content. That's going to change. CultureFeast is going to produce content every day of the week.

The second most common complaint has been theme... mainly, people wonder what ours is. The point of adding a few new bloggers into the mix is to give each one the opportunity to focus on a category. Some team members will still roam the open topic plains, but most will be known for one or two subjects tops, and those topics will be released on the same day of each week. That way you will know what days are best to visit based on your interests. 

I'm still looking at people, so contact me (daniel-at-culturefeast.com)or leave a comment if you'd like to contribute weekly. If we get seven weekly bloggers, we'll grow to 14 people so you can get culture topics twice daily. 

Popularity: 5% [?]

Mike and Mike in the Morning spoke with NFL quarterback Trent Green this morning on ESPN Radio about concussions and the affects of head injuries. Despite his horrendous performance this year as the Miami Dolphins starting quarterback, Green is an accomplished quarterback and quite the speaker. You can hear the interview via podcast here.

Golic asked Green about the most recent concussion he suffered and whether he was suffering any post trauma effects from the blow. Green claims he is fine, with no noticeable after effects, which may or may not be true. Keep in mind that a professional athlete, especially an NFL quarterback, is more vulnerable to replacement today than ever before. Now, I don't know what kind of quality replacement Miami has at the QB position right now, but it's still in the best interests of an athlete intent on starting next year to put on his best face in public to avoid any speculation on the need to replace him with a healthier version. 

Despite the possible threat to his career, Green sounds confident about the prospect of returning next season. And why shouldn't he? Even if he doesn't play again, he has a promising career ahead of him as an NFL analyst. 

Based on this one radio spot, I like Trent Green. He sounds intelligent, informed, and responsible. He's talked with a lot of veteran quarterbacks including Steve Young about their experiences with concussions. He's researched the latest developments in brain trauma treatment and sounds like a man confident in his ability to recover. 

One avenue of brain trauma treatment/recovery Trent Green may not have investigated yet is neuro-feedback. The Sams Center in Plano handles cases from coast to coast. Success rates with various types of brain trauma are better than anyone would have expected 20 years ago. Check them out online if you have a similar issue: brain trauma, ADHD, ADD, bipolar, depression, etc. The treatments seem laughable, but they work. Sometimes, you'll try anything once you've exhausted the more traditional treatments. A lifetime of medicating yourself is no way to live if there's a better way. 

Popularity: 3% [?]

For those of you who find the time to comment occasionally (no pressure, just do it more often) to the posts here on CultureFeast, it's time you got some facial recognition. We've added Gravatar recognition to comments so we can see your shiny mug each time you share your thoughts. 

How does it work?

It's simple. Go to the Gravatar website, and click signup in the top right corner. You'll create a user profile and upload a pic of yourself. You can add as many email addresses as you want to your profile, and give yourself a different photo per email or use the same for each. The point is, once you've set it up, you can go to any blog that has gravatar enhanced comments and just make sure you enter the same email address you used for your gravatar account. 

That way, you can be seen AND heard (or read, however that works)! Sound good? If you have any questions, post a comment here and ask. We want to see your shining happy faces and it only takes maybe 3 minutes to set up if you already have a photo ready, so just do it. 

Popularity: 5% [?]