Urban Planning for a Post-Obesity Age

The NYT today has a fascinating article about the fight against obesity in Louisville, where the city's government is trying to use smart urban planning as a tool to help citizens slim down. But do we have suggestions? Well, okay!

• Every building in your city is five miles apart. Also, you've ripped out all the roads in your city.
• Your city is built on a mountain. The 7-11 is at the very top of the mountain.
• There weren't any mountains where your city is, so you had to pick up your whole city and carry it to the mountain.
• You put weights on top of all the stuff in your city.
• Instead of cars in your city, you have a large boulder that you just push against, then stay right where you are.
• You get the army to surround your city for 900 days, and everyone goes on the "Siege of Leningrad Diet." Not really. You just don't allow food in your city.
• Your city has moving sidewalks? Yeah, moving in the opposite direction.
• Your city mandates that fast food restaurants may only be built in a special "zone," located in another city.
• It's illegal to cheat on that last rep, in your city.
• You know who's from your city? Muhammad Ali. Just do whatever he did.

*via gawker

Things are about to get.... weird

So today on the train ride home there was some severe weather and power was lost and the train got stuck. Well, I learned a few things about myself tonight. We were only stuck for about 30 min, but after 10 minutes or so, I was ready to lose my shit. All I kept thinking about was busting opening the doors and just making a run for it. Running and never looking back. I wanted off that mother fucker.

If I were ever on a stranded island, I would not waste anytime eating anyone that was with me to survive. I'd do it. Saving my own ass would be my number one priority. If one day Dos and I go on a vacation and our plane crashes and we are missing for a long time and only one of us comes back, well, I ate Dos. Simple as that. I would like to take this time to apologize for eating you Dos. It was nothing personal. Also, for the love of God eat more protein. There was no meat on your bones!

The moral of this post is that the slightest inconvenience can cause me to lose my mind. That is all.

All right. This one time I'll let you ask me about my affairs.

There are so many things wrong with Dos's post I don't know where to begin. Every trilogy has their weak links and problems. There is no denying that. Back to the Future is no exception. The first one is a great movie. The second one, while good, is far from perfect. And the third one, often boring and just feels like it is going through the motions. I am not going to spend this post talking about my favorite trilogy (The Godfather / Lord of the Rings / Star Wars). I have talked highly about them in other posts. I want to analyze what a perfect trilogy should be.

I think first and foremost, in order for a trilogy to be perfect, the cast must remain the same. Rotating actors take you out of the moment. The Godfather, rather than replacing Tom Hagen with a different actor, instead wrote him out of the script. Back to the Future, on the other hand, replaced Jennifer Parker and George McFly. I am not saying The Godfather trilogy is perfect, because lord knows Part III is a mess compared to the first two, but it had such strong characters that they could not be easily replaced by other actors.

A perfect trilogy has a complete story. An ending that bookends the first chapter. The Godfather certainly accomplishes this (as the ending is truly one of the best parts of the third movie) as does Lord of the Rings. It should also be noted that Lord of the Rings is ONE story. It is just so long that it has to be broken up into three parts. Back to the Future is a perfect stand alone story. But they tacked on the ending to set up a sequel that didn't necessarily need to happen. It felt like a cash grab to me. The ending of the third one as well didn't wrap everything up either as it ends with Doc's train converting into a hovertrain and departing for an unknown time. It feels as if they wanted to keep the door open for another entry in the series. I didn't feel the closure I wanted to like I did at the end of The Godfather and Lord of the Rings and even the Star Wars trilogy.

If I had to pick a favorite trilogy, I would have to say it is The Lord of the Rings. That is the most realized film trilogy and complete story. While I love The Godfather and the Godfather Part II, the story should have probably ended with the second one. Even though there are elements of the third I do love.

A perfect trilogy needs to have the complete story laid out in front of it before the first one is even made. Otherwise, you are just trying to continue to add on to something that might not need any adding on to (cough*back to the future*cough). Back to the Future is definitely in the top 10 of best trilogies though. This day and age a great trilogy is hard to come by as time passes another entry is added. There have been talks of more Godfather movies and even Back to the Future movies at some point. So enjoy your precious trilogies while you can before greedy Hollywood ruins it be adding and even more unnecessary 4th entry - Indiana Jones and Scream are some of the recent ones that come to mind.

This Is Heavy: Why Back to the Future is the Best Movie Trilogy

There are many famous movie trilogies, but it is clear to me that Back to the Future is the greatest one. All of the star wars films are really terrible messes. Lord of the Rings is overlong and has too many homosexual undertones. Indiana Jones is no longer a trilogy. I have been told that the original three Muppet movies do not count as a trilogy. Lastly, Godfather Part III has some unwatchable scenes. What is left? Back to the Future is left and it is the best film trilogy ever made. Every single movie is essential to understanding the whole story and every movie has an individual feel to it. Part I is cheesy 80s, yet has universal ideas about time, love and family. Part II is endlessly creative and like no movie ever made. Part III, deemed the weakest, has the most heart and is needed to conclude the amazing ending of part II.

The Back to the Future saga is also much more meaningful than I remember. I just re-watched them and while they are undeniably fun and creative, many have pointed out their lack of meaning. I disagree with this whole heartedly and find them to be the most meaningful trilogy, with the possible exception of Godfather. The movies explores issue of time to show how fragile everything is. This includes love and relationships. If Marty's grandfather never hit George McFly with the car, Marty wold not exist. When Biff gets the almanac, this alters all of 1985, not just Biff's life. The movie is also thought provoking with its ideas of time. Most importantly, the film is as quirky as anything Wes Anderson can dish up. Its oddities are remembered and are iconic. 1.21 jigawatts, 88 miles per hour, the Libyans plutonium are just some examples.

I wonder if Doc will agree with me or if he will support another trilogy as being the best ever. Good trilogies are only as good as their weakest entry. So, let's examine Part III to show that it is not as bad as Godfather Part III and all of the other weak members of the trilogies. Unlike Godfather Part III the film is not overlong and there is no one whose acting makes you sick to your stomach. I appreciate Sofia Coppola as director, but we have to face up to the fact that she is terrible in this movie. I watched the Godfather Part III commentary and Francis Ford Coppola said that since the previous two entries won the best picture, the critics were just looking for anything to pick on and were really going after Francis when they went after Sofia. Francis has to wake the hell up because Sofia really is that bad. Since she is also a key component to the film and its ending, the film is ultimately not very good, even though it has some nice moments. So, I guess we have to talk about the character of Clara in Back to the Future Part III. She is a bit of an annoying character and they shoehorn her in to being perfect for Doc. However, she is a necessary force in the plot to its ultimate conclusion. Her acting is OK, but Doc's search for love is necessary to the development of the character. It is not a great section of the trilogy, but much better than Sofia in Godfather.

Back to the Future Part III also does better than any entry into the star wars or lord of the rings saga in the fact that it is entertaining throughout. We all want to fast forward during those ewoks and scenes between sam wise and frodo. However, Back to the Future Part III has no scenes that one would ant to fast forward through. Every scene is necessary to resolving the plots of the first two films and references those films as well. The other trilogies do not fair as well and have some clear time wasters, such as the scenes I have just mentioned. Doc you are just going to have to come on the blog and admit that I am right because there is no doubt about it, Back to the Future is the best film trilogy ever made...unless the first three muppet movies count as a trilogy. Do they? Because then I have to do this post over again.