One word: overkill.
Sometimes good, sometimes bad. But that’s the single most precice and concise description I can come up with to summarize Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Geekery
Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.
Music, books and other real-world fun
Back in the summer of 1991, right after I graduated high school, I took a trip to Germany with the Bartlett High School German Club. While there, I was browsing through a music store and stumbled across a band that sounded interesting — Poems for Laila. I picked up two of their albums, Another Poem for the 20th Century and La Fillette Triste.
Unfortunately, over the years, tapes die — especially well-listened to tapes, as these definitely were. I’d never been able to track down any PfL albums over here in the states, and the times I’d looked into trying to get them as imports, it had either been more expensive than I’d wanted to try, or I hadn’t had a credit card available. This week, however, I stumbled across AudioGalaxy (one of the modern Napster alternatives), and have spent the past day downloading PfL .mp3’s like a madman. Not only have I been able to regain both of the albums I used to own, but I’ve also got the entirety of two more albums (Katamandu and I Shot the Moon), plus much of a few other albums that they’ve released since then. It’s great to finally be able to hear this band again — wonderful, beautiful music. So I’ve been cheezing over that.
I also picked up my next book to read — a compendium of the entire Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. I haven’t read these in ages, and am greatly looking forward to diving back into them again. Should be quite cool.
That’s really about it for now, I suppose. Tomorrow starts the work week again — what fun!
Woohoo?
The Complete Chronicles of Narnia
Well, I just finished all seven books of Narnia. I hadn’t read these in many, many years, and at some point C.S. Lewis decided that he’d rather have the books presented in their chronological order (according to events in Narnia) rather than the order they were written in, so it was in many ways an almost entirely new experience for me.
Incidentally, the preferred order of the books is as follows: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.
I had a blast reading these again — though it was a far different experience from when I did when I was younger. I really had no idea there was such strong Christian symbology running throughout the series! It doesn’t really surprise me, as I’m somewhat familiar with some of C.S. Lewis’ other work, it was just something that I hadn’t caught on to when I first read the books. At this point, though TLtWatW is the one that is most known, I think that either THahB or TLB are my favorites in the series — THahB mostly because of its somewhat different take on Aslan, and TLB for coming up with not just a wonderfully fitting end to the entire series, but for its depiction of Aslan’s country and what happens after the end of everything.
Wonderful stuff, and well worth re-reading after all these years.
Why blog?
Some days I sit back and wonder just why I do this. My site doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic — primarily just my folks and a few friends who stop by from time to time when they remember. And, admittedly, much of what I write probably wouldn’t be of any real interest to the world in general. Bits and pieces of my life, what I’m doing, what’s going on. Heck, I don’t even get personal enough most of the time to make for any real good drama!
I found the following quote over on Peach’s site after she left a comment to one of my posts, and it seemed to sum up fairly accurately why I keep banging away at this — because, whether or not it’s seen all that often…it’s fun.
I am very pleased with my (o.k. and yours too) blogger. I feel like I have fallen down the rabbit hole; just falling and falling in a blissful state, sans the drugs. I love IT! It is peering through my own looking glass at my own ego and my written word. Whether you are an amatuer or a professional; whether you are an exquisite artiste or you stink, it makes no difference. Most people who create at some time or another, have a strong sense of who they are in the images they create. Mediocrity is the scare word for us. Your word or my word, we all checked off ‘public’ for a reason. We would like to be read and responded to.
Sometimes, though, I feel that I shouldn’t be ‘published’ unless I am very, very good. And then again, who cares? It’s my Journal and if you want to read it, be my guest.
Ack
Oops — I just upgraded my blog software to the newest version, and in the process nuked the hack I had that inserted smileys into posts. Hence, my Spider-Man post isn’t displaying the stars at the moment. Grr. I’ll fix it tomorrow….
Spider-Man
I told you I’d get around to this. ;)
In brief — it rocked. There are a select few movies that were a successful translation from the comic book medium to the silver screen (Superman, Batman, and X-Men — all IMHO, of course), and Spider-Man just rocketed straight to the top of that list.
Plot — well, okay, it’s a summertime comic book movie, but for what it was, it worked quite well. Cast — spot-on. Effects — a bit shakey here and there, but overall quite impressive. Directing — Sam Raimi kicks much booty.
American Gods
What happens to our gods when we stop believing in them?
Since the dawn of man, we have created gods to explain the universe around us, to worship, and to sacrifice to. As people moved from place to place, their gods came with them, carried along in their thoughts, dreams, and ceremonies. When people started coming to this continent — whether in the cargo holds of slave ships, as settlers immigrating to a new land, or as tribes crossing the ancient land bridges — they brought their gods along, asking for their help as they got started in the new world.
Over time, though, as cultures grew, met, and merged, the old gods found themselves with fewer and fewer believers. Old beliefs and religions became supersitions and stories, as new gods arose in the minds of the people of the new world. Odin and the Norse pantheon, brought here with the Viking explorers; Anasazi who came with the African slaves; even the Hindu god Kali; all found themselves passed by, nearly forgotten, existing only on the few prayers from those who still believed in them.
Meanwhile, the new gods gain in strength, as more and more people worship them, though their worshippers don’t always realize it. Gods of the train, the automobile, the television. Gods of drugs and the internet. New gods, who see the future as their world — and hold those old gods that still scrape by, existing where and how they can, as useless. Relics of ages gone by, doing no more than getting in the way of the future.
And a storm is coming….
Now this is what I was hoping for from Neil Gaiman.
After being less impressed than I hoped after I read Neverwhere, I hedged a bit in the bookstore before deciding to go ahead and pick up American Gods. I’m quite glad I did, though — a much better book than Neverwhere.
Drawing upon mythologies the world over, Gaiman has created a fascinating look at the conflict between old beliefs and new, and the dichtomies created in America when so many cultures and religions come together, clash, mix, and evolve over time. Of Gaiman’s works that I’ve read so far, this is easily my favorite.
Panic Room
David Fincher‘s (one of my favorite directors) latest film, Panic Room, has been in the theaters for a few weeks now, and I just finally got around to seeing it today. Some fan, eh? Ah, well, life’s been a bit crazy lately.
Not quite awake enough to make a full writeup, but in brief — entertaning, not bad for a matinee, but not nearly up to the level of his last few films (Fight Club, The Game, and Se7en). However, PR is a much more straightforward film than any of those three — a story of a mother (Jodie Foster) and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) trapped inside a ‘panic room’ inside their new house by a small band of thieves trying to get to a fortune hidden inside the house. Fincher has his usual fun with the cinematography, and the cast all does well — there just wasn’t a lot to the story. Decent mindless escapism, however — worth a rent when it comes out.
A few new site bits
I’ve added a few features to the site — one a couple weeks ago, and two just a few minutes ago — and I figured I’d babble for a moment about them.
In brief — the first is a list of books I’ve read recently, found in the right sidebar just underneath the search box. As I start reading a book I’ll put it in, and it will appear at the top of the list. Once I’m done with a book I’ll babble about it, and a ‘Comments…’ link will appear after the book title — click on that to read what I have to say. Simple, sweet, works.
The second — well, the second is a blatant plea for money and support. :D Up until now I’d avoided doing anything like this, but as my finances aren’t what they used to be, I figured it was worth a shot. Via a program that Amazon offers, there’s now a voluntary paybox towards the bottom of the righthand sidebar (at least I didn’t put it right at the top…if I’m going to beg, I’ll make it as subtle as possible). Should you feel like it, click on that, and you’ll be able to donate money to me to help me keep things afloat. I’m not expecting much (if anything) from it, but I figured it was worth a shot. The worst anyone can do is ignore it, right?
The third is also a potential way for me to make the occasional buck or two off the site. Another Amazon program allows me to set links for books, movies and the like to point to their site — then, should somone click through the link to buy something, I get a small percentage of the purchase price. As with the others, it probably won’t add up to much, but every little bet helps.
Technical details follow below.
Not Another Teen Movie
I’m not normally one for many of today’s ‘comedies’. Humor, for the most part, seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into the lowest forms of sophmoric bodily-function humor (something I mentioned briefly in the next-to-last paragraph of my post regarding Evolution back in January). My dad and I often have very similar opinions on movies, which is why I was somewhat suprised a while ago when he told me that Scary Movie was worth a rent — and even more so after I’d seen it. Admittedly, much of what he related to me as what he enjoyed about the film was amusing (a girl running from a killer comes to a signpost with two signs, one pointing towards “Safety” and the other towards “Certain Death”, and she follows the “Certain Death” path, and similar such silliness), however the majority of the film entirely failed to impress or amuse me.
A while ago, though, I started seeing trailers for Not Another Teen Movie, and they actually caught my eye. I didn’t ever get around to seeing it in the theaters, though, so Candice and I rented and watched it a couple nights ago. Surprisingly enough, for the most part, I wasn’t let down — I had a grin on my face for the majority of the film, frequently giggled, and even out-and-out laughed at a few moments. This, then, is my counter-recommendation to dad’s recommendation of Scary Movie. In my opinion, a much smarter and funnier spoof film, and well worth watching — especially if you’ve seen any of the many ‘teen films’ from the 80’s through today.