Quote of the Day [1.07.10]
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring."Rogers Hornsby
G’uh? B’uh.
Bored at work. Who does like to work? I sure don't and on my current project, I'm about at the stage of not caring. If it was only better, or something I would've wanted to do, then maybe I would actually attempt something, but I'm just checking out things.I'm giving some links here that discuss animation. If you remember of my take on the last decade of film, the Pixar film, The Incredibles, was the one film to really stick with me through the decade. I had said that watching that had been a revelation of what animation as a medium can do. Also, I expressed my disappointment in the rest of American animation. It doesn't try to stretch the boundaries in terms of stories. Then I expressed fondness for the Japanese animation director, Miyazaki, and his Spirited Away. Is it international animation that is more daring?So, I'm thinking that I have plenty of time on my hands to research and understand the state of animated films. In particular I want to look at the difference US and international animated films.http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/search/label/Pixar%20Week
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2009/12/29/seitz_miyazaki/index.html
Get off my yard!
This actually looks good.http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_US-nexusone_tech_specs.htmlGood riddance.
Nine
There are better ways of spending some quality staycation time than watching the failure of a musical, Nine, like ironing. In fact, I was ironing just before I decided to catch this mess. I wonder why I choose this flick after all, I am not really a fan of musicals especially the newer ones.
Nine extends Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2 onto the Great White Way. It is a musical devoted to the writer’s block from a great director who can’t put his latest movie down in script. He spends time dredging a semblance of a tale from the various ladies in his life, the wife, the mother, the mistress, the confidant, the leading lady, the whore. Each girl contributes something for him to use and amuse himself into writing a movie.
Penelope Cruz was the mistress. I like her corset. Sophia Loren was the mother. She’s old. Marion Cotilliard is the wife. She’s resigned. Fergie was the whore. She had the best song (supposedly), the only song I think I’ve heard about.
Nine was supposedly a Tony winner. The songs were also. I thought the songs were not remarkable. I don’t think I liked any of the songs. I should’ve walked out.
1 of 5 stars.
Sherlock Holmes
Watching the movie, Sherlock Holmes, is similar to reading the Arthur Conan Doyle books, because you’ll be puzzled about the mystery until the end when Holmes shows his work.
Basically, the plot is to take down the British government, recapture the United States and take over the world by the Illuminati or whatever they’re called in this book. Holmes and his trusty sidekick use wit, muscle and the power of deduction to stop the plan. Do I even have to tell you that they succeed?
Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes had me wondering when he was gonna crawl into an Iron Man suit. Jude Law is a pretty Dr. Watson. Rachel McAdams was wasted in this movie and I kept wondering if her character was ever in any Holmes novel.
Sherlock Holmes is a good winter diversion.
3 of 5 stars.
Weight Loss Retrospective and Prediction
Back in 2009, at the end of summer, I said that I will lose 20 pounds. It didn’t turn out just right.
As of the end of the year, I weigh 200 pounds on the dot. Ridiculous. (Even more so when I consider that I started out the year at 193.)
But it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying. I did dip down to 195 after my Holiday Challenge, but eating and partying during the Christmas Season has decimated that gain (loss) and made it a loss (gain) on my end.
So, to get back on the game plan, it’s still 20 pound goal. It’ll probably start as soon as I get access to a gym. It’ll start sucking as beer and burgers are so fun to consume.
This blog will then turn into a journal chronicling my attempt to get back to the weight I was ten years ago.
Let's get 2010 Started Right
Let’s get 2010 Started Right
Originally uploaded by browsermetrics.
Quote of the Day [12.31.09]
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and days of old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Auld Lag Syne, Robert Burns
My Movie Viewing Decade
I’m avoiding my queue of reviews to write by writing my thoughts on the movies of this past decade. I’m not gonna list them as the best what’s the point as I am an amateur at movie reviewing. I can’t also put them as the best because I’ve only seen a fraction of the movies put out during the past 10 years. I really didn’t start to get serious about movie going until perhaps 2002 and since I didn’t have a blog to jot down my reviews I don’t really remember many of them. I’ve really seen lots, some good, some bad, some good I found bad, and some bad I found good. It’s just too much to list out, and anyway the Seed will complain about something.
So instead, since I did come back to enjoying watching movies, I’ll tell you how movies that made me have fun in the theatre or on DVD: my favorite moments from my movie viewing over the past 10 years. While I’m gonna try to stick to movies released during the past decade, I’m gonna meander to some older films.
Trying to figure out this list, the only movie to jump out of my memory quickly is The Incredibles (2004). This is the point where I thought Pixar and American animation has grown up. You can make animated CG movies that go beyond kids fare. Of course, it didn’t turn out completely this way as Pixar still adheres to family flicks, but they showed flashes of brilliance in their successive films after The Incredibles. Still, The Incredibles will always remind me of the joy of watching movies. Its score is still much a favorite. I remember sitting in the theatre and cheering just as the trumpets blare in “Marital Rescue.” Love that cue. And so that is how these films will be on this list: fun and moving.
The second film to pop out of my memory is The Queen. Why? No idea, but I was shocked in my response to it. I thought as I watched, “This is a really good film.” It was and I still think of that stag. But what connects me to this film is the day Diana died. I was at a bar after a shift at work. I drank a toast to the dead Princess.
Let’s go the DVDs, The Parent Trap and Rushmore always are the movies of the year 2000 for me. The former picture was my favorite at the start of the year because Lindsay Lohan is just so darn cute in it as both Hallie and Annie. Go Annie! Plus, it was the movie I watched the most as my dad lay dying. The latter film reminds me of my dad’s funeral and the wistful, melancholy of those days. That’s the way the decade started and those two are the movies I remember for the year 2000.
One sleeper hit for me during the past decade has to be Wicker Park. I think it is unappreciated because of the two stars. Shaggy and the dude from Pearl Harbor, but it did have Rose Byrne and the hottie whose face launched a thousand ships. Little did I know how much I would dig the film going in. The unrequited love, the play on Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s plays, all contribute to me liking the flick. Love was illusory for me this past decade. I’ll just continue wistfully thinking I will find it.
Duplicity is another movie I enjoyed in the theatre. Fun to guess the plot twists.
The Lord of the Ring trilogy was something every Tolkien fan waited for. It doesn’t live up to the books and your imagination, but it still is something to behold. I caught every one at the midnight showing. I remember fighting off sleep for the Fellowship. I just wanted to see Moria and the Balrog. I remember wondering why they changed Theodred’s motivation in the Two Towers. I remember the glee I had to see the ride of the Rohirrim in Return of the King. Those where moments that made me glad to see Tolkien in live action.
I’ll have to put Hitchcock on this list. From watching Vertigo, Notorious, Rear Window, and The Birds on DVD from Netflix or watching them at The Charles Hitchcock will always be the master of movies.
Finally, anime and with it Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. The best animated film of the decade. Yes, even better than The Incredibles, because it is so touching and poignant in its themes of searching for identity and environmental awareness. Miyazaki is how I thought Pixar would mature to being. Not yet, but maybe they’ll get there.
That’s about all the movies I care to remember for the decade. Every time I think about movies, I remember the fun I had. Like the guy calling Spidey a bitch during Spiderman 2. Or the lady grabbing my arm as she cooed with delight for the abs of 300. I remember watching and not seeing any of the fright movies I went to see in the theatre (The Grudge, Drag Me to Hell, etc.).
It will always be about the experience of movie watching. The movies will come and go. There will be good and bad ones. There will be ones that make you laugh, make you cry, make you think, make you love. There will always be movies to watch. Here’s to those in the past, and here’s to those in the future.