Political Passport: Rubio on Spotify, Ryan’s Future, & Cruz’s First Month

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Joseph Williams in Featured, Politics | 1 Comment

Welcome to the Political Passport, your one stop shopping to check in on what’s happening in that crazy world of politics today! Since my discussion about how we’ve failed in tackling the problem of poverty in America and my reflections on where we proceed after the GOP’s embarrassing defeat in the 2012 election, I haven’t blogged much about politics. With the fiscal cliff mostly avoided and Obama’s second term begun, the problems facing our country are as real as ever before. Political jockeying has not and will never stop. There are a litany of leaders working collaboratively and competitively to lead the Republican Party to greater success in making America better for generations to come. While Washington debates the latest problems of our time, our allies and enemies abroad face problems of their own. At the local levels, there are leaders, political and otherwise, working diligently to solve the problems facing our communities. Political Passport will be a place for you to check in on the world of politics. I’ll regularly share with you some of the latest news in the world of politics and my reflections on it. I’ll share news articles I’m reading, videos I’m watching, and other political tidbits for your edification. I hope you find it helpful and I hope, in my own little corner of the internet, to help make America better each and every day.

Top 50 Films of 2012: 31-50

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Clayton Martin in Featured, Movie Reviews, Movies | 7 Comments

Last February as The Wise Guise was making its debut, I was frantically trying to rank my top 25 films of 2011. I did posts with numbers 11-25, and then 1-10. Looking back, there are a few that I would definitely re-order a little bit. But I’m still very proud of my top two especially.

This year, I want to step my game up and rank my top 50… which is a daunting task to undertake for sure. I just feel like there were so many films that deserve to be spotlighted and a top 25 would not do them all justice. I even have a Word document of another 50+ that I wanted to try to see this year. At the time of this post though, I have seen 78 films from 2012. And what a year it was for film! Read more

Why The Americans Could Be the Next Great TV Show

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Joseph Williams in Featured, Television, TV Reviews | Leave a comment

When I first saw the trailer for FX’s newest drama, The Americans, I was instantly excited. I was skeptically cautious, but I had high hopes that perhaps The Americans would be the next great drama on TV. In the short term, we needed something to fill in between Homeland‘s finale in December and the premiere of Mad Men and Game of Thrones at the end of March/beginning of April. In the long term, we need some new dramatic series as Breaking Bad and Mad Men begin to wrap up their runs with the final season and penultimate season approaching, respectively.

Top 5 Worst Bachelor Moments: Recap

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Liz Riggs in Featured, Reality Check, Television | Leave a comment

1. “Is that a helicopter?”

Said LiabilityLindsay, as she walked towards a helicopter. Sure is, SweatySean responded. Suffice it to say, this girl has little to offer except that she is certifiably crazy and spends most of her Sean-time with her tongue down his throat. She also said the phrase, “When I was an adolescent,” which nobody has ever said, ever. Maybe she doesn’t know what a teen-a-ger is.

Fast & Furious 6 is here. Oscar Race for 2014 is over.

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Joseph Williams in Featured, Movie Previews, Movies | 2 Comments

Well, we’ve all been waiting. I could not WAIT to see Fast Five in the early summer of 2011. Especially after listening to Bill Simmons and Adam Carolla breaking it down on Simmons’ podcast after they saw a preview of it. And the absurd action didn’t disappoint.

Stealing cars from moving trains, cliff dives that made Butch Cassidy & Sundance’s look like kids play, and more babes in revealing outfits than ever before.

But as absurd as the action was and as wonderfully self-aware it seemed, the true joy of Fast Five was found in the little things (like tiny little Jordana Brewster with a basketball under her shirt to look pregnant during the final living-secluded-on-the-beach-scene-where-the-badguys-can’t-find-you-but-Vin-Diesel-can). Or the big things, like The Rock’s arms.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sex/Have No Direction in Life/Do Drugs/Make Awful Decisions and Be Funny

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Warner Russell in Featured, Misc. TV, Television, TV Reviews | 3 Comments

HBO’s Girls is taking the world by storm, and Lena Dunham (on the show Hannah Horvath) is the thunder and lightning behind it all. And to be quite honest, I think it’s a very funny, entertaining, and well-written show. I have seen the 1^st season in its entirety, and at this point have seen all of the episodes of the 2^nd season, so I feel I have a right to make some general statements about my feelings towards it. Read more

Spring Break Forever

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Clayton Martin in Featured, Movie Previews, Movies | 8 Comments

A couple weeks ago, Joseph shared a link with me from a Grantland post about the upcoming Harmony Korine film, Spring Breakers. I was instantly curious about the film and decided to do a little research. Who is this Harmony Korine guy that apparently people have actually heard of? What is this Spring Breakers movie? Well good people, the following is my journey into Spring Breakers and Harmony Korine. Buckle up, because this is an absurd ride. Read more

The Microsoft Internet Explorer Hilarious Commercial Comeback

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Joseph Williams in Featured, Misc. Posts | Leave a comment

We’ve all been there. Mocking our friends or family who still use Internet Explorer. Who still uses that? It’s still an option? Haven’t we all moved on in our internet browser exploration to the Safari or the Firefox? Well, Microsoft isn’t done yet. They’re not going down without a fight. After going into the wilderness, they’ve re-emerged and they’re funnier, more self-deprecating, and according to friends who have explored (no pun intended… not really anyways) the new Windows and other offerings, Microsoft may just have a comeback left in them. If these commercials are any indicator, I like their chances.

Bright Spot: The Danny Webber Story

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Clayton Martin in Bright Spots, Featured | Leave a comment

Today I’d like to introduce a new portion of The Wise Guise that I really hope you guys enjoy and support. With all of the negative news that we consume on a regular basis, I think it’s important that we also make an effort to seek out stories that brighten our days. This is a story I found a couple of months ago and wanted to use in a blog post, but I could never decide what direction to take it in. I liked the idea of us sharing inspirational human stories on our blog after Joseph’s piece. I hope you enjoy this and I want to encourage you to submit other positive stories for us to share! If you have a good story that you want us to use, email us at thewiseguiseblog@gmail.com. Read more

Wolfpac Recap: 2013 WWE Royal Rumble

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Joseph Williams in Featured, Other Sports, Sports | Leave a comment

My journey back to being an occasional pro wrestling fan has been well-documented here at The Wise Guise. First, when my little brother-in-law arrived from South Africa, The Rock returned to WrestleMania and The Undertaker went for his 20th win to stay undefeated at WrestleMania, I caught up on what had happened in wrestling since I’d last watched a decade ago. Then, I couldn’t resist watching again when so many of the top WWE superstars competed in Money in the Bank ladder matches. That prompted me to write my first Wolfpac Recap, a wrestling recap done by a former fan who loved the nWo Wolfpac and doesn’t really know much about who each wrestler is or the story lines. Since then, Alex Beene of The Wise Guise has discussed how relevant WWE still is in 2013.

*Wolfpac Recap Disclaimer: I don’t have much knowledge about wrestling. Other than my experience following pro-wrestling from 1998-2000 and what my 12-year-old brother-in-law Aphiwe tells me, my only other knowledge comes from 5 minute stints of looking things up on Wikipedia, reading The Masked Man’s columns on Grantland.com, and skimming WWE.com summaries.**