OT: Open Friday Thread

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?

It is a cluster f###. 4 family get together in the 4 days all over the state of KS. I will be happy when it is over. It is pretty much what happens every year.

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?

pass

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.

Loved Kevin Smith (some of his recent stuff is crap)/Any of Mel Gibson’s righteous crap

4. Irrational hatred

poo, I am so happy my last kid is basically potty trained.

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…

Chicken, turkey may be the worst tasting meat on the planet.

1) Thanksgiving- I’ve been doing this with the same people ever since I moved to NY, pretty much. A bunch of Kansas Citians, one of whom is a chef. But the guest-list this year has been contaminated by a girl none of us like, but who is from KC so we have to invite. She’s got a new boyfriend, and invited his awful friends. I’m considering a boycott. In which case, dinner at home, alone.

2) don’t like Dutch

3) I hate Kevin Smith, Michael Bay (duh) and McG (does he count?). There are several others that I don’t like, obviously.

4) hmmm. The way girls use facebook and twitter? Also, the million kids up here who act poor but don’t pay their own rent. They fucking infuriate me, more every day.

5) turkey rulez

1. I’ll be at my wife’s family’s Thanksgiving reunion at her uncle’s house. About two dozen people usually show up. My grandmother will be upset we aren’t making the trip, but this is the deal my wife and I made several years ago. After a couple years of trying to make it to everyone’s place for all of the holidays, well, we stopped the insanity. I’ll spend most of the day playing catch with the kids in the back yard or watching football. There will be 14 different desserts but only one processed turkey “log.” So later that weekend, I inevitably fire up the smoker and smoke my own turkey breast to get my fix.

2. Neal Page. Traveling is a fiasco enough, and I think Neal and I could succesfully leave each other alone.

3. I like Wes Anderson / do not like Michael Bay.

4. The stupid boots that women wear starting this time of year.

5. Chicken, but both are staples in our house (chicken breast and ground turkey). If I had to choose one it would be chicken, but a little turkey this time of year is really nice.

1. Smallest Thanksgiving in forever for me, Just me, my mom, and my brother, and maybe my brothers practically homeless friend.

2. I’ve never seen either of these movies, therefor I can not give a reasonable answer

3. I don’t think I have a favorite directer… So I’ll go with JJ Abrams right now for the hell of it, most hated… Michael Bay

4. Current popular music.

5. Ham

Minus the baggage and the skin pigmentation?

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?

Every year we have dinner with my family since my wife’s family doesn’t really celebrate (they’re Vietnamese immigrants, although interestingly, my family is Korean immigrants).

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?

Never saw Dutch. I guess I’d rather hang out with Ed O’Neill than Steve Martin or the late John Candy though.

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.

Favorite: Christopher Nolan and David Fincher. Was a big Wes Anderson fan for awhile, but the shtick grows thin after a film or two.

Least favorite: Brett Ratner I guess although I don’t really see his movies, they just seem obnoxious. Of the movies I do see I guess I think Michael Mann is terribly overrated. Michael, you’re allowed to use light once in awhile.

4. Irrational hatred

Gourmet restaurants that have counter service. Either have full table service or counter service, but don’t make me pay up front, then have a server fill my drink and bring out my food. Decide what you want to be!

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…

Turkey is superior, but so many people prepare it poorly.

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?

Going to Dallas to visit my Dad for the first time and hopefully last time in years.

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?

I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Del. I’d probably want to kill him eventually, but he did play a polka band leader in Home Alone, so there’s that.

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.

Oliver Stone. I hate Michael Moore’s stuff.

4. Irrational hatred

The St Louis Cardinals. I don’t care how you spin it. If they saved a truckload of babies from torture I’d still hate those bastards.

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…

I’d like a turkey stuffed with a chicken.

1. Thanksgiving plans? Getting an intensive tooth extraction the Tuesday before, so I’ll be on painkillers eating mashed potatoes and gravy at my sisters house.

2. Fictional travel companions? Haven’t seen Dutch but I doubt I could stand more than 20 minutes in a car with Steve Martin and John Candy, so I’ll roll the dice with the Dutch crew.

3. Favorite/Least favorite director? Probably Wes Anderson is my favorite, but Ben Affleck is starting to make a strong impression. And of course, no best directors list is complete without Pierre Morel, director of the amazing American cinematic masterpiece Taken. I don’t like Clint Eastwood’s stuff.

4. Irrational hatred? Burberry’s plaid design. It’s ugly and ubiquitous.

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” I answer “Fish…I’m a seal”

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?
I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?
I have never seen either of those movies, and am in no way familiar with any of the involved parties.

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.
That’s a tough one. I’m not some one that really pays much attention to the director of films. Does Kevin Smith direct or just write? Spielberg? Those are probably the only two directors that I can align with work. I recognize other director names, but couldn’t tell you what they’ve done. Wait, something Nolan? Didn’t a Nolan do memento, inception, and the batman reboots? I liked all of those movies.

4. Irrational hatred
Mostly people. Like, I hate a lot of my coworkers for no real reason. I hate the way one’s voice sounds, the way another laughs, the way another drags her feet when she walks.

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…
Gardein vegetarian fake chicken.

1) Going to Naples to celebrate with the grand parents, then going to University of Miami football, volleyball, and basketball games back to back….Then the next Tuesday I’m going to West Lafayette to see my two teams (and parents alum) Purdue and Miami basketball
2) wut? I’m too young
3) Favorite Coen brothers/least favorite Uwe Boll and Michael Bay
4) I hate blackberries and I hate when in math the answer is “negative two” and someone answers “minus two”
5) I would slap you and then answer turkey

1. First Thanksgiving in our new house. Seven friends and one infant coming down from the city to break it in. Sidebar: This is the first house-house, i.e. not an apartment, I’ve lived in in nine years. (Crazy Bay Area real estate value related.)

2. Never heard of Dutch. My answer to this is lame. Sorry.

3. Too many faves: Tati, Powell, Wilder, Jarmusch, Cassavetes, Von Trier, Malick. Least favorite by a mile: Kevin Smith

4. 10" records, ice cubes in milk, glass coffee mugs, purple.

5. I hand you the briefcase without even making eye contact and we both part ways: me for the subway, you for the concession stand.

1. The wife and I are staying in town and having a small celebration with my mom, stepdad, sister and brother-in-law.

2. I’d say Candy and Martin. Martin might be a little annoying at times, but Candy always struck me as the jovial, fun-loving fat guy that would make sure everyone was having a good time.

3. I still like Mann a lot. Even the movies he’s done that I don’t really like that much, I still love the direction, look, and feel. Go back and check out “Manhunter”. Other than the clothes/style and technology/cars depicted, you could film that movie the EXACT same way using today’s actors. Hard to believe it was made in 1986. As for the opposite end of the spectrum…Bay = awful. Oh, and a Special Achievement of Suck Award for every fight scene that Greengrass has ever filmed. Those actors worked for hours, maybe days, on their fight choreography, probably actually got beaten up to some extent, and I can’t tell what the fuck is going on during the whole scene??? Congrats, Paul.

4. Professional men in their 40’s and 50’s using backpacks. For the love of God, buy a decent briefcase. You look like a 10-year-old walking to catch your school bus. If you working out before or after work, then use a gym bag.

5. I’d probably grab your wrist and put you in an arm bar. But, this close to Thanksgiving, I’d definitely have to say “turkey”.

I’ve got a few new batches of homebrewed beer in the works. I’ve done enough now that I’m starting to do some of my own recipes, which means that I get the right to name them, and I’d like some help with a good name.

A vanilla porter.

A spiced winter ale (sort of like Boulevard Nutcracker)

A whiskey-oaked double IPA. I’m thinking ‘hop-scotch’ if I use scotch for the oaking or ‘hop of the morning to you’ if I use irish whiskey for the oaking.

1) Dinner with my mom, brother and his family. Same every year. I have acid reflux and have been known to indulge in the good weed, and several years back belched a small cloud of marijuanna smoke at the Thanksgiving dinner table…no way to play that one off.
2) Del Griffith, as long as I brought my own towel.
3) Kurosawa. John Favreau (post-“Made”).
4) I’d like to think there’s good rationale for all my hated ones, but I can’t think of a good reason why I don’t like Flo, the Progressive chick…oh wait, yeah I can; she has Malamute Husky eyes and is on everything 300 times a day.
5) You had me at ‘lower thigh’, after that I forgot the question.

1. I don’t live close to any family, so I really don’t have any plans at all. Kick back on the couch, watch football, talk with family over the phone – oh, and eat and drink whatever I want all day long.

2. Never saw Dutch, and it’s been years since I’ve seen P.T. & A. (the initials sound a little dirty). Don’t have an answer for this one.

3. Favorite – Alfred Hitchcock. Most Hated……I guess I don’t keep track of the director when I see a bad movie.

4. People who drive Lexus cars (specifically cars – not the Lexus SUVs). I’ve noticed that they almost never (like 98% of the time or more) signal lane changes or left/right turns. It’s like they expect everyone else to know where they are going and to get out of their way.

5. I’d ask you to remove your hand from my leg before I remove it from your wrist. Maybe I should add “being touched on the leg by a stranger” as an irrational hate?

It’s always a tough deal when something like that happens.

1. Going home to DC for the first time in quite awhile. Making a feast for 11. I’m pumped about some of the dishes I’m trying out.

2. Never seen either movie. Boo.

3. Favorite Director: anybody who makes a film I like
    Hated Director: anybody who makes a film I don’t like.

4. When people use the phrase “you know what I’m saying” over and over.

5. Where is this bench? Are we out for a stroll together? Are we strangers at a park? Are we homeless buddies?

Five questions that are unrelated to one another:

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?

Every year, we go to my mom’s for brunch, my in-laws for dinner…first thing Thanksgiving morning, my mother in law and I bake a dixie pie for my wife…now that my sons are a little older, they come with me and help.

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?

Not sure who’s who, but Planes, Tranes, and Automobiles is pretty damn funny.

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.

Favorite: Stanley Kubrick…Most hated: I don’t know, Robin Williams, does he direct?

4. Irrational hatred

John Fox, people who constantly mispronounce names (it’s fucking Snyder, not Schneider…it’s Commiskey, not Comminsky

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…

The square root of pi

Who was the player a few years ago the Royals and Braves kept claim from each other? It happened a half does times or so.

1. Thanksgiving with parents, and sister. Same as every year.

2. No opinion

3. Favorite director right now is Chris Nolan. Most hated/least favorite? I might go with James Cameron the plagiarist. Since he’s a plagiarist.

4. Other people. People suck. That’s why I spend my time talking to fictional characters.

5. “Neither. While you’re at the bar, get me another mojito.”

1. The one holiday I’ve managed to selfishly carve aside for my immediate family (wife and daughter), usually join up with the wife’s family later for bowling. Perhaps my fave holiday.

2. John Candy, for sure. Steve Martin’s character was a unsympathetic prick in that film. Dutch? They all deserved to die.

3. Faves: Jarmusch, Sayles, Bunuel, Malick, Hawks, and of course, no list would be complete without Hungarian sensation Marta Meszaros. Unfaves: Eastwood, Ronnie Howard, Spielberg, Tony Scott

4. Irrational hatred: Thomas Friedman, and former Omaha World Herald Publisher and columnist Harold Andersen. Maybe current Nebraska AG John Bruning.

5. “Exactly”

1. What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are these your plans annually?

We have a few friends over (we live way too far from our family to do Thanksgiving with them). This will be the seventh year of doing this.

2. There were two seminal Thanksgiving travel films of the late 1980s and early 1990s*: Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Dutch. Would you rather spend a holiday weekend in transit with Del Griffith, Neal Page, Dutch Dooley, Doyle Standish, or the two missile twisters in the backseat?

Del, probably.

3. Favorite director. Most hated director.

Favorites: Malick, Hitchcock, Scorcese, Jarmusch, Almodovar, Cuaron, Inarritu. Hated: Spielberg, de Palma. Don’t particularly like Eastwood either.

4. Irrational hatred

Where to begin? Sandals. Passive drivers. Ray Milland. Tourists.

5. You and I are sitting on a bench. I put my hand on your lower thigh. I ask, “Chicken or turkey?” You answer…

I always answer turkey.

1. Native American Oppression Day is now spent wrestling 2 small children across 4 houses in a never-ending fight to find a tv showing football. Hope it’s better than last year when all 4 of us had violent stomach flus. I won’t be eating green bean casserole this year.

2. I would join right in with Candy in annoyance of Martin.

3. Kubrick. And I hate Spielberg especially so after the butt rape that was AI.

4. Aaron Rodgers. He has done nothing to show me otherwise, but I think his sullen eyes hide the hatred in his heart. (I have James starks on 4 teams and Rodgers on 0). Btw. Do the packers not celebrAte an awful lot for a team that supposedly “plays the right way”. I definitely see some stl cards similarities there. Jack marsh will love those comments.

5. What Juancho said. Don’t violate my personal space.

3. Kubrick, Malick, Herzog, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Wells, sometimes Sayles and Polanski and Costner - hate: Almodovar, Scorcese,

4. Irrational hatreds: Tech-gadget culture, Scorcese, football

We should all be ashamed.

1) Visiting the parents. Other siblings come in town, tend to do several days of overeating, looking forward to the steak day, much more than the turkey day.

2) Gotta go with Candy, would prefer the Candy from Uncle Buck though. Coolest uncle ever.

3) Directors I love: The Cohen Brothers, John Carpenter, John Huston.
Hated: Jan De Bont (directed Speed), Roger Christian (Battlefield Earth); both are unforgiveable sins in my book.

4) Hate, hate, hate, hate anything St. Louis: the Cardinals, Budweiser, the Arch; they can all just shove it.

5) I place my hand on your thigh and whisper moistly into your ear (while grazing the nape of your neck with my beard stubble) “stuffing”.