Erik’s Essentials: 4/20/12

1) Genghis Grill

I love stir fry. Absolutely love it. This place is like the Buffalo Wild Wings equivalent of a stir fry place. Put all kinds of stuff into a bowl and have it cooked up for you. My dish included crab, scallops, chicken, more veggies than I can remember, stir fry sauce, chile garlic sauce, and a slew of spices.

I highly recommend it.

2) Cabin in the Woods

Not a bad movie – Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly) co-wrote it. Anyone who loves the classic 80s chiller/horror movies will appreciate this. The movie really is a puzzle and criticism of the horror genre today.

I walked away from this movie feeling a bit freaked out.

3) “Mother” by New Terrors

I like M83, I like shoegaze, I like Burke Sullivan.

 

 

7 movies, 7 words

Since my move to TN, the Netflix account has been at full steam.

Here’s seven things I’ve watched recently, with seven words about each.

Where is our icon?: Finding the Millennial hero

This generation—Millennials, ’80s babies, whatever you want to call us—seems to have an identity problem.

We don’t have heroes.

Ask your dad about his favorite movie. Chances are, things like “Cool Hand Luke,” “Bullit,” “Easy Rider” and “Dirty Harry” show up*. Assuming your dad was born in the early-to-mid’50s (like mine), he was a teenager when these movies came out.

Getting protein never looked so cool.

These were cool dudes driving cool cars, scoping out babes and doing whatever the hell they wanted. For them, life was about the freedom of an open road and .357 kept close to your side.

Even Harrison Ford in “American Graffiti” stirred up a fire with that beautiful ’55 Chevy (which used an M-22 Muncie transmission, btw). Mine and Dave’s dads grew up street drag racing and became pals as a result, so that movie has a special place in my heart. All of these movies do, really.

But here’s the question: Where the hell is our Frank Bullit? Our Cool Hand Luke, our Bob Falfa and Harry Callahan?

I luuurve you, I loave you, I luff you: 5 Romantic comedies that are worth it.

We’ve all been there: You and your girl are hungry and want to watch something. She offers to pay for the food—but you have to pick out a romantic comedy.

Myself, it’s a no-brainer. I would gladly suffer through at least one episode of Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy or Secret Life of the American Teenager if it meant having free a bacon cheeseburger pizza or some spicy chicken in black bean sauce (both with french fries + a side of ranch, thank you).

Movies, however, are tricky. As dudes, we take pride in our movie selecting abilities. Don’t judge a book by its cover? Please. Spotting a bad movie is a skill, but movie hunting with a girl makes us feel like being on the train that is about to wreck, and we can’t do anything about it because we let out stomachs win out (again).*

You potentially have two hours of cringe-inducing kisses and acting ahead of you, so it’s time to act fast.

What do you do?

Well, here’s five RomComs you’ll both enjoy.

What Billy Crystal taught me about women

This post is submitted by everyone’s favorite party pal, Derek Tulowitzky.

“When Harry Met Sally” is easily one of my top five favorite I remember watching it for the first time in high school, but now that I’m in college, I feel I can relate so much more to Billy Crystal’s character.

He’s just out of college (in Chicago, of all places) and he’s just trying to make it in the post-college world.  It’s hard to think that sometime we’re all going to be at that same spot. Granted, some of us are already going to be in love or married at that spot (much like Billy Crystal was, sorry guys).

Luckily, I have Billy to guide me through the motions of how I should or should not react when the time comes in my life. I guess most people had their parents to help them with women. But forget that, I had a pretty cool dude named Billy Crystal giving tips and tricks the whole time.

5 Reasons Why I Believe John Hughes Had a Direct Connection to My Funny Bone

John Hughes was a director most famous for his teen angst movies (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink). Those movies are good, but the ones that really have a hold on my heart are the ones that made me laugh. John Hughes has either written or directed most of my favorite movies.

So here’s 5 reasons why I think he was one of the funniest men to grace God’s green Earth.