TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Upcoming reading material

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I’ve been between books for a while now, and have been casting about for what to read next. My next book I’m now good for — I can’t think of the title right now, but Candice loaned me a book last night that explores many of the different religions and/or cults (depending on your point of view) in the world today, from Mormonism to Scientology, should be interesting reading.

Today I was reading this thread on the Home Theater Forum where they’re discussing some of the reviews that have been coming out for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. On [page two of the thread conversation turned to whether or not the film would capture that near-undefinable “magic” or “epic” feel of really good fantasy or science fiction. In the course of the discussion quite a few books and series were mentioned, and I thought I’d jot some of them down so I can pull from this list next time I need to find a book to dive into. Here’s what they’ve mentioned so far:

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Aaaah! I wanna see it! I wanna see it now!

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Reviews of the first Lord of the Rings film, Fellowship of the Ring, are starting to hit the net…

Here’s what I’ve found so far: Home Theater Forum Sneak Peaks, Sir Ian McKellan, The White Council Forums, Ain’t It Cool News, The White Council Forums (another one), Home Theater Forum. I may be back to update this list later on, but these are the first batch.

Enterprise: Civilization

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It’s been a couple days since the most recent Enterprise episode, “Civilization“, and I hadn’t been able to come up with much to say about it. After working on it for a bit, I think it’s just because there really isn’t much to say — while it wasn’t a really bad episode, it certainly wasn’t really good, and was definitely nothing new. It basically felt like a retread of episodes that every Star Trek series have done at least once or twice at some point during their run, all around the same “Enterprise officers interacting with a primitive society, trying to hide, and failing miserably” theme. Decently done, but not exactly treading new ground.

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Please? Pretty please? With Muppets on top?

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If any of you kind souls out there who check this page (yes…all five of you) could find it within your heart to do so, I’ve found my perfect Christmas grovel.

The Best of the Muppets!!!

I know it’s a bit pricey. That’s why I’m grovelling. Really grovelling. I’m actually on my knees right now. It’s a little hard to type, but it’s worth it. As an added bonus, if I get this from someone, I’ll pay to have one of your shoes shipped down here and I’ll plant a big ol’ sloppy kiss on it — close as I can get to kissing your feet — then ship it back. Really.

Please?

What’s with the black bars?

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While most of my friends have been around me long enough to understand my preference for watching films in widescreen or letterboxed format, occasionally I get questions about the ‘black bars’ at the top and bottom of the screen. While I think I usually do a pretty decent job of explaining why they’re there, one of the members of the Home Theater Forum put together a really nice Shockwave Flash animation demonstrating what’s going on. If anyone’s got any questions about widescreen presentations, this link should help get the idea across:

Original Aspect Ratio, or, Why Widescreen?