| Superman Returns |
[16 Jun 2006|05:28pm] |
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It is one of the best summer blockbusters you will ever see. Excellent film, enjoyed it a lot. It succeeds much in the same way all of Singer's work does, it achieves every goal it tries to(it's dramatic when it wants to be, it's funny when it wants to be). And it has a bit(lot) of a downer towards the end.
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| I'm of an age when if I started to do eulogies, I'd be doing nothing else |
[10 Jun 2006|03:09pm] |
A Prairie Home Companion, My mini-review.
You don't even have to be a fan of the show, or even like it really to
enjoy this film. It's a send off that asks us to enjoy the time we've had
rather than celebrate or even promote any of the things that are to come.
This could of been a pair of hours where Garrison Keillor says "look what
I've achieved", but instead it's a really profound gesture; asking us to
enjoy our own legacies and to not lament when we come to realize there are
fewer days ahead than there are behind. The show is really part of the
setting and not even part of the premise, it's about a cast of characters
coming to understand mortality and impermanence. Even if you aren't a fan
of the show it's really quite good, it tooke me by surprise. I expected
something novel or warm in the way of grandparent's hug. Instead I left
feeling I'd gotten some of my grandparent's wisdom in the embrace.
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| V for Vendetta |
[24 Mar 2006|11:17pm] |
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I would describe it as masterfully made. I feel it is an excellent movie whose subject matter has gotten more relevant as history marches on. See it and, like me, you may feel like you were just blown out of the theater when it's over.
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| You must |
[24 Jan 2006|04:45pm] |
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If you haven't already and you are reading this, the next time you rent a movie rent "Crash". I heard buzz about it and decided to make a sick day rental of it, and it is quite a good film.
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| A commercialized ordeal |
[25 Dec 2005|09:05pm] |
Okay, so my brother asked for a new computer for christmas. He's one of hte more computer illiterate persons in my life so I knew whatever we gave him would have to be on the upper-side of easy to use. So after looking at what Dell had to offer, I decided it would be more cost effective to build it for him. I would be cheaper to buy from Dell, there is no doubt, but the system would be a Pentium4 purchased at the end of the Pentium4's lifespan; no upgrading for Emmet(my older brother). So I drafted a budget and ordered the parts in late November, got the stuff in early December and at the time was between jobs, so I didn't have shit to do aside from my pet software projects. So I assembled it, a sterling Athlon64 system. Well, it looked nice, but she didn't seem to want to boot. She wasn't pretty, she just looked that way. After a day of swapping out parts I deduce the RAM is bad. So I get it exchanged for the next day only to find the board(as in your mother) is at fault too. So I went to get that replaced, was handed another defective board; or so I thought until I learned the power supply was ALSO bad. Edit for TV, I spend a lot of time making this work, used workbench space at CompUSA, became a temporary employee for the day, kid you not I was helping the customers. During the rest of this ordeal(and I know, there are people in the world whose experiences are really more deserving of the word "ordeal", but it's fitting in the sense that most people buy presents, wrap them, and then turn off the lights feeling giddy that the recipient will feel joy), I am given two more defective parts. The replacement powersupply I'm given is ALSO faulty!
So after a total of about 30 hours of work, I had a shiny new Athlon64 system, copied the complete collection of Tom Baker's Doctor Who episodes to the hard drive and hid it behind the TV christmas morning, running said Baker episodes in a loop. (I downloaded them mostly for this purpose, but also nostalgia) So Emmet finds a box under the tree whose label instructs him to turn on the television, and is surprised by his new computer. I don't know how many of the people reading this are generally interested in this sort of thing, but it's definetely a christmas I'm going to remember for many years to come.
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| Post secret |
[06 Jul 2005|11:39am] |
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
This is fascinating, it's an open blog where people anonymously post secrets on post cards. Now I imagine once this gets trafficed enough we'll get pranksters putting up fakes, but in the mean time this is actually kind of touching.
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| The new Doctor Who is really good |
[23 May 2005|08:56pm] |
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For those readers that care, the newest episode of Doctor Who is a terrifying look at the blitz. Scariest episode this show will ever make in all 40-someodd years it runs.
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| A promising looking star wars film? |
[06 May 2005|12:44pm] |
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=9479
Kevin Smith gave it rave reviews, so we may finally see a decent film out of the more recent efforts on the franchise. I mean, Star Wars astonished a lot of us when, almost a decade ago now, it reappeared on screens and proceeded to eat itself with worsening degrees as each year passed. The only real explanation is that Lucas is a godawful writer; there are plenty of books on the shelves at Barnes and Nobles that make this quite clear. I hope this time around he had some kind of help, or had some kind of epiphany. I'll see it when I get around to it, and I hope they send the franchise off in way that isn't as lack luster as it's been for the last, 9+ years.
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| Zaphod W. Bush |
[30 Apr 2005|09:51am] |
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Saw the new HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy last night. It's different from the book but I have to say I think I like the changes. Sam Rockwell pulls in a subtle (or maybe not-so subtle) imitation of a sort of George Bush as galactic president. And the love story was always there, they just brought it to the fore-front which I have to say gave Trillian more of a purpose in the story. I original Marvin's chameo appearance in the acquittal line.
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| Other people's lives |
[26 Apr 2005|12:38pm] |
I went to a friend's wedding; I left mid-way through the day from work on Friday, got stuck in an hour long train of immobilized motorists lolling along at our near REM-inducing 7 miles per hour. That's not really the point of me writing this, it's just how I got to where I had a strange life experience.
It's strange for a variety of reasons; one, I have known these people from the very day they met, literally. Watching this kind of monumental thing happen in someone else's life is really strange. I'm happy for them and all that, but I mean; that's it. They in theory, in some combination of the two of them, will watch each other die. I was there when they introduced themselves, and now I'm watching them exchange vows.
And the second is harder to deal with, so here's how it happened. I'm at the rehearsal dinner, Heather seated to my left. When into the room comes the Groom's family. In all the time I have known him he never told me he had two brothers... and as they approached I began to have a torrent of mixed emotions as to why that might be. The first of the two of them bore a striking resemblance to Tim except he looked so out of place, lost in the way you think of 6 year olds in an early-evening supermarket. Then the second of his brother's came into view and my heart found a new pace; he was drooling. Both of Tim's siblinbs had some mental disability. Tim had never told me, I have known him for 4 years now, and I am almost certain he never mentioned siblings. I did what felt right, I greeted them and tried to make them feel like they weren't somewhere at the end of isle 6, the entire time feeling that sudden pressure around the eyes that comes with the notion of having felt something you aren't sure how to deal with.
I don't know the medical condition they have, I don't know what the taxonomy we would choose to describe someone that was genetically robbed of something so precious. I've met people with Down's Syndrome and in that experience I felt like I had been taught a lesson or two about this "having a life" thing. But this was something new altogether, these were people on the edge of something else emotionally, something barren. They had none of Zeb's emotional high's or low's, they were so stoic. Zeb, the first person I have ever known with Down's Syndrome, was someone who was so passionate about everything. And I always thought that that made his life a wonderful and worthwhile experience for better or for worse. I think we take our capacity to feel anything for granted, it's maybe more important than intellect. If you lived your life at a high level of brilliance but were completely dispassionate I don't think you'd be all that attached to your corner of the universe.
Being attached or involved I think is the very core of what we should be about, I think it's what makes us happy, feeling that way have a place in the world. For nearly two years of my life, for a variety of reasons, I felt a strange sense of being out of context. It was entirely self-imposed so you aren't going to hear me blame someone or something else, they may have provided the stimulus but all my wounds were ultimately self-inflicted. This isn't about me though, I'm only trying to bring a frame of reference to this paragraph. Being a part of other people's lives and having a sense that you have some significance to the people who are significant to you sounds like something an afterschool special tells you, but it really is probably the essential part of being 'happy'. So my point in all that is trying to articulate the sorrow I feel for someone who is somehow not inclined to either an intellect or an active and healthy emotional connection with his or her world.
One of Tim's brothers needed to the use the restroom and, much like in the supermarket, didn't know where in the store it was. So I escorted him, my eyes slightly shrink-wrapped in tears. After he found his way through the door; Heather approached and I think for a moment saw something unusual on my face. Bless her she didn't say anything, but I was still thinking "he never told me, we've talked about so many things. I had no idea."
Like I said, hard to deal with. Even now in typing this I'm partly afraid of offending someone because this is such a powerful thing to have to discuss. Anyways, that's just an experience I wanted to put into text. If for no other reason I may see it oneday and say "oh yeah, that's why I should feel grateful every day."
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pinballsorceror's journal