I went to see Bill Maher perform live at the Riverside Theater in downtown Milwaukee last night. I’ve been a fan of his since he hosted Politically Incorrect and have Real Time with Bill Maher set to record on my DVR whenever its on, so when we found out that he was coming to town, we just had to get tickets.

It was as awesome as I expected it to be. He truly does hold back on TV, even though its HBO. Some parts of the skit were stuff I’d seen him do before, but for the most part it was new. His act is extremely well thought out, original, thought provoking, and above all else, hilarious. There were at least a few times where I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes and I left the theater looking forward to the upcoming season of Real Time even more.

If you’re going to an upcoming show or planning to get tickets to it next time he’s in your area, you can expect to look forward to some serious Bush bashing, conservative bashing, religion bashing, and an ton of great laughs. I highly recommend it! Unless, of course, you’re a Republican tight-ass like the couple sitting next to me. The lady next to me spent the entire two hours shaking her head, looking uncomfortable every time he swore (constantly), checking her watch every 5 minutes, and not at all laughing.

Overall? It was definitely worth the cost of the ticket.

Wasabi Sushi & Sake Lounge is the newest restaurant to open its doors in Brookfield, Wisconsin. I’ve driven by it several times while they were still getting everything ready, and had been hoping that we would get a good Sushi restaurant near us. This past tuesday, they finally opened up. We’ve eaten at a few different Sushi places of varying qualities and first impressions are always important if it’s a place I plan to go back to.

When you first walk in the doors at Wasabi, you will immediately notice the atmosphere perfectly fits the cuisine. It is very simply designed, but also very elegant and makes a great use of the space that they have. It is the type of atmosphere where you can feel comfortable in casual clothes, but fit in just as well in a suit and tie. Jessie and I were immediately seated in a very comfortable well-lit booth. The menu was very reasonably priced and we decided to start off with some Miso soup, which was among the best Miso soup I’ve had. After looking over the menu, we decided on calamari and vegetable tempura, a Philadelphia roll, and a Las Vegas roll. Shortly thereafter, we received all three dishes. I was immediately impressed by not only how tasty it looked, but also the effort put in to the presentation. It was as much art as it was food. Not only did it look incredibly appetizing, but it tasted just as good as it looked. After a fantastic dinner, we split some Green Tea ice cream that was a great finish to the meal.

If you like Japanese food or are interested in trying something new, I highly recommend Wasabi. It’s on Bluemound Road in Brookfield, WI just east of Moorland on the south side of the road.

Here’s the address and website:
Wasabi Sushi & Sake Lounge
15455 W. Bluemound Road
Brookfield, WI 53005

If you drink red wine, you probably know that it will always taste better, have a better aroma, and have better mouthfeel if it is given the chance to breathe before being consumed. This, however, takes time. There are plenty of tschotschkes available for wine drinkers which promise to aerate the wine more rapidly, but if you read the various reviews of these around the Internet you’ll discover quickly that they don’t exactly work well, if at all.

In comes the Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator. I was skeptical, but I used it with a decent bottle of red wine a few months ago and it works great. I smelled it and took a sip without having used it, then poured a glass through the Vinturi and did the same. The difference was noticeable, even to someone who isn’t overly familiar with wine. Using what I can best describe as magic, it instantly aerates the wine by pulling air in and mixing it with the wine as it funnels through the Vinturi. You simply hold it over the glass, pour the wine in to it, and watch in amazement as it instantly mixes the right amount of air in to your wine. It tastes better, smells better, and feels smoother. I highly recommend that anyone from the true connoisseur to someone who just enjoys a bottle now and then invest in one of these. You will not regret it.

Good news, everyone! I’ve been waiting for this day since the final episode of Futurama aired in late 2003. I had always hoped that this day would come and here it is. I swung by Best Buy on my way home from work today and when the friendly, yet persistently annoying yellow shirt at the front door asked me if there was anything he could help me find. I promptly answered no, as I could already see Bender’s eyes staring out at me from an entire row of DVDs in the front aisle of the store, right where it should be. I grabbed my copy and was promptly in a short line waiting to pay. I finally had it. Fresh off the press, brand new Futurama. Now, enough of my mindless dribble and on to the actual review.

What can I say, it was great. Really, it was beyond great. I have no doubts that part of what made it a phenomenal movie was the anticipation, but even having watched it a second time, it’s still incredible. It fits perfectly with previous episodes of Futurama and fulfills any expectations I had of the movie. As with every previous episode the humor ranges from slapstick to extremely intelligent and the entire film is filled with quotable lines which I’m sure will be a part of my regular speech in due time. The dialog and plot were extremely well-written and the cameos that one has come to love and expect in the series were awesome and, in all instances, hilarious. Without spoiling anything, I can say that Al Gore had a few lines in the film that had me literally laughing out loud. Beyond the constant humor, great cameos, and well written plot, the tie-ins with previous episodes in the series were very well done and fit in perfectly with the episode. I could probably continue to go on about how impressed I am with the return of Futurama, but I’ll let you go back to whatever it was you were doing before you decided to read this.

Final thoughts? Go buy a copy. It’s worth it. In fact, buy two. Give one to a friend.

I watch my share of television. I am even willing to admit that I’ve been totally hooked on several shows (Futurama comes to mind). Never, however, have I seen a series as enthralling as The 4400.

I’ve been watching it more or less since the beginning. It originally aired as just a 6 episode miniseries, which was great, but it was so critically acclaimed that it came back the next summer as a full-fledged TV show. I’ve since watched every season since it first aired and so far own the first two seasons on DVD. I’ve truly never seen this happen to any TV show quite like this, but every single season gets exponentially better. I’m honestly not exaggerating, every season is better than the last by a long shot and that in no way leaves out the just-concluded fourth season. Multiple times during the most recent season’s finale my jaw literally dropped and I got giddy with excitement for what had just happened, what was about to happen, and/or what was alluded will happen during the next season - which, by the way, I cannot wait to see.

So you’ve read this, you’ve never seen the show, which seems to be the case among many of my friends. Here’s all you need to know, taken from Wikipedia, before you start watching it:

What is originally thought to be a comet deposits a group of exactly 4400 people at Highland Beach, in the Cascade Range foothills near Mount Rainier, Washington. All of the 4400 disappeared at various times starting in 1946 in a beam of white light. After their return, none have aged, all are disoriented, and remember nothing between the time of their disappearance and their return.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that beyond what you’ve read above, the show is classified as Sci-Fi. Take from that what you will, but whether you’re a Sci-Fi fan or not, this series is phenomenal and worth your time as well as every penny of the cost of buying the currently available seasons. If you know me personally and want to borrow seasons one and two, just ask. If you don’t know me personally but still want to watch it, go buy season one. You won’t regret your purchase.

Ok, so I didn’t see it on its first day in theaters. I didn’t even see it on the second. I did, however, finally see it. There’s been a thread at Digitally Wise building up hype for this movie for over a year now posting pictures, rumors, and whatever other tidbits of information we could find. Because of this, my expectations of the movie were set extremely high. At the same time, it being directed by Michael Bay made me worried. Sure, he’s done a few memorable movies like The Rock and The Island, but he also did Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and both of the Bad Boys movies. Even with my worries about the director, the childhood nostalgia kept my hopes up and I went in to the movie anticipating a great film.

Transformers went above and beyond my expectations. So much so, that I think my jaw was sore afterwards from hanging open for almost two and a half hours. The action was incredible, the effects were even more incredible, and the plot was exactly the type of thing you’d expect in a Transformers movie. All of this combined with the nostalgia skyrocketed the movie beyond awesome in my eyes. I was literally twitching with excitement the second Bumblebee first rolled in to the car dealer’s lot (Jessie can verify this) and it only got better. I was extremely pleased with the set of transformers that they chose to include in the film and however impatient I was for this movie to be release, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to wait for the upcoming sequel.

If you grew up with the original Transformers, you will absolutely not be in any way let down by this movie. Even if you weren’t the biggest fan but just enjoy a good action flick, go see this one. Transformers is easily the best action movie I’ve seen in quite some time and likely the best recreation of one of my childhood favorites that I’ve ever seen. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it now! It truly is more than meets the eye.

Thanks to my awesome Papa, I now have a grill! I put a lot of thought in to which one I wanted and I ended up getting the Weber One-Touch Gold charcoal grill. I chose charcoal over a gas grill because it tastes better and its more fun to grill with and I was right! I’ve only grilled a few times so far, but I enjoy doing it and the few things I’ve made were (I think!) pretty good. I obviously still have a lot to learn before I’ve mastered my grill, but I’ve got the rest of the spring, summer, and fall to practice. To my friends and family: You’re always welcome to give us a call and come over for a meal, I’d be more than happy to grill for you!

UPDATE: I’ve definitely gotten the hang of the grill and I’d recommend this exact grill to anyone who wants to have a fun and tasty grilling experience with easy clean-up. The grilling surface is huge, the space between the charcoal tray and the grilling rack is just right, and the pan at the bottom that catches the ash makes the clean-up afterwards simple.