Movies People Like

Max, your idea is such a rational one that I'm pretty sure those kinds of restaurants already exist! I know I've been to multistory McDonald's restaurants in Miami and London. We just don't have the sense to do it in Indianapolis, or something.

Today, I watched Billy Madison, and my life makes just a little bit more sense now. First, we've got this guy:

I don't know what his real name is, but he's Josh Lyman on The West Wing (a thing I like). So while I realize that he's the antagonist in Billy Madison, I just kept thinking about how eloquent, witty, progressive, and awesome he is on The West Wing, and I just really wanted him to win during the movie.

Also, now I know what it means when people shout things like "Knibb High football rules!" or when they say "This does not make the ribosomes happy." And when Goyle in AVPM says, "Oh, Goyle rules!"

I mean, it's not a great movie, but it's a great movie. That's kind of my point in this post.

I like to think that all of my favorite movies are genuinely good movies, but that's really not true. I can look at my Facebook page and tell you that something like Mr. Holland's Opus is kind of a mediocre movie. A lot of the time, it's the context of a movie, a single character or quote in a movie, or a song in the soundtrack make it something we really like.

Of course, that's not true of all movies that people like -- The King's Speech, for instance, is a movie most people agree is beautifully and uniquely pieced together. What makes it a good movie for me, though, is the dry humor and the ecumenical theme of overcoming obstacles. It's a personal thing, which is what it all comes down to. Preposition.

Ramble ramble ramble. I like when John and Hank are together:

Five of My Favorite Movies

As the "cheese or chocolate" debate continues, I'm going to take a break from the feud and talk about something else. It's opportune that the day I decided to blog about this falls on a Monday -- that's right, today is one of my infamous Top Four Mondays (that aren't actually infamous because they've never happened before and probably will never happen agaaaaaiiin)!

Something interesting happened today. I was doing a lot of homework blogs, and as I was reading Never Let Me Go, I had music playing in the background. Beethoven's seventh symphony came on, and when I heard the second movement, I really wanted to watch The King's Speech.

THEN, after that, I was looking for a German article I could blog about, and I found one that looked fairly reasonable to read, and it was about a teenager in Germany who stutters. I didn't make the connection until after I was finished reading, and then I figured it was destined for me to watch The King's Speech today, so I did.

THEN, I wanted to blog about it, but not everybody wants to hear me talk about one movie for 628 words. What everyone does want to hear me talk about is four movies for 628 words! Subject-verb agreement is killing me.

These are my top four movies in nooo particular order:

1. The King's Speech: The most recent of my favorite movies, this film had a huge influence on me when I saw it last year. It's about finding one's voice, no matter what obstacles try to prevent that.

2. The Harry Potter series: I watched the first movie when it came out in second grade without reading any of the books, and then I got it on DVD, and I watched it over and over again. Every. Day. For probably a year. And now Erin hates it. But it's definitely a series that's influenced, you know, my entire childhood.

3. Rain Man: If you want to be one of those people who understands everyone's pop culture references, this is a very important movie to watch. Today, I watched an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway? featuring Colin Mochrie playing Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. I'm an excellent driver.

4. The Sound of Music: One time, my mom told me that I always compare every movie to The Sound of Music when I try to judge them. Which miiight be true a little bit.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

Cheese or Chocolate?

Abby from the comments:

"I predict... disagreement on one point."

Max, if she's talking about your point that "nothing is worse than dark chocolate," then she couldn't be more correct. Not that "correct" isn't an absolute.

I like dark chocolate. I like when there's dark chocolate in my M&Ms, in chocolate muffins, or just by itself. Overall, dark chocolate is just a good thing for me. And in my opinion, Max doesn't have a normal palate -- I've learned within the past week that Max likes neither Subway nor pizza, which is not normal -- so he's not allowed to make food judgments. I mean, "not normal" is a good thing in my eyes, but . . . so is dark chocolate.

But that's not what my post is about today. I want to talk about a more important issue that was brought up earlier in my life through a few vlogbrothers videos.

Hank asked a simple question: cheese or chocolate? John answered, "Why did you just name two things I can't eat anymore? God, that's so mean!" Hank's response was, "Chocolate, because it's more advanced. It's more difficult. It's more new and fresh and complex."

So you'd think that chocolate won the battle. But then a few months later, when John and Hank were looking for things to feud about, Hank brought up the "cheese or chocolate" issue again. Here's what he said: "I'm a cheese man, myself. There are just more kinds of cheese than there are kinds of chocolates; I feel like I would be giving up more."

How could Hank have been so wishy-washy? I'll tell you why. It's because the "cheese or chocolate" issue is kind of like modern political issues in that it's hard to know what the right thing to do is.

I wonder what this week's poll is going to be . . . hmm. . . . Well, as for last week's poll, Charmander is the most common favorite starter Pokemon among our readers. I picked Pikachu because I don't know anything about Pokemon and somebody referenced Pikachu on Whose Line Is It Anyway? recently.

For the new poll, I ask everyone one question: cheese or chocolate? I want you to think of it like if you pick one of them, the other one would disappear from the world. I like them both; I really do. More than most people would understand. Few people know which of the two I prefer, though. I'll let everyone know which one I voted for after the results are final.

Feel free to debate which one is better.

Music Bryan Likes

It's really early, Max. I feel like I'm staring into the sun as I'm looking at the computer screen. For the next few posts, I'm going to try really hard not to talk about (deep breath) the H word. Since my list last week was a generic "five things I like" list, whereas your list was a "top five," I want to add something that probably would have been on my top five list (and was on yours, too). Music!

Most people probably know that my tastes in music are not conventional. There's a word for that. Unconventional. So here are just a few genres I enjoy.

Since I'm between jazz camps right now, I'll start with jazz! I'm actually being serious when I say that I like jazz because of the humanity in it. Max, here's a song that I think you'll enjoy -- Dave Brubeck's version of "Hi Ho" from Snow White. It's not exactly a jazz classic, but . . . here!

I also like really, really old music. Especially from the classical and romantic eras. For an entirely random example, I love Brahms. Max, I think you'll recognize this song!

I do like some songs that are popular on the radio. However, I always feel like it's easier to make fun of songs by Katy Perry and Ke$ha than it is to enjoy them legitimately. All in all, I'm sometimes open to listening to new music. My sister would probably disagree. Just remember that what I listen to now includes people like Tom Lehrer, Hank Green, and the Mountain Goats.

Until tomorrow, Max!

Things Bryan Likes: Part Two

I don't have very many words to work with, so let's get to it!

Number three! I like Tom Lehrer. I probably idolize him too much.

Number two! I like Nerdfighting. DFTBA!

Number one! I like Harry Potter. I would post a preview of the upcoming movie, buuut . . . I refuse to watch that. So here's one from the second movie. Hah, I got chills watching this trailer for a movie that came out almost a decade ago.

Max, I'll be back on Saturday.

Things Bryan Likes: Part One

Good morning! I'm in a different city right now, but you can't tell because you're on the Internet. I hope everyone enjoyed my punishment video. And I hope you don't have Christmas songs stuck in your head for too long.

While I'm gone, I will be posting videos of five things that I like because it's easy. I like a lot of things, but these things are at the top of the list. Thiiiings. Hopefully, you can get a better idea of where a handful of my references come from. <--

Number five! I like math. This is a song about pi, which is a pretty cool number. I don't really remember, but there might be a tiny questionable lyric, so you have been warned.

Number four! I like A Very Potter Musical. I would post the entire thing, but I would probably go over the word limit. Well, I would definitely go over the word limit.

There will be more on Thursday! I used lots of exclamation points in this post.