A couple of new toys

broderic on April 3, 2005

.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

iSightDualDisplay
iSightDualDisplay,

Forgive me for the crappy shot that this picture is, but I had to show some of the fun stuff I recently purchased or was sent to me. I took this shot with an iSight that my cousin sent to me as part of a payment he owes me. It is of my new 20″ cinema display. I have it hooked up to my TiBook and using it as a second monitor. Having dual displays rocks.

2 More Movie Reviews

broderic on April 3, 2005

The battery on my laptop is going quickly, because I just got the 20″ Apple Display, that I have to review the two movies I saw this weekend

Guess Who. And in starring in Sydney Poitier’s role as the awkward part of an inter-racial couple is Ashton Kutcher. America has just been punk’d. It was weird watching this flick. It was a marketed as a comedy, but had some tones of the original on which it was modeled after. There were some flat spots because of the need to harken back to the original. It was maddeningly a mixed bag. Funny at times, stupid serious at others. It was a train wreck in the making.

2 of 5 stars.

Sin City. Don’t believe the hype. I have read 3 of Frank Miller’s comic books from this series. They were awesome, especially when I went through my high end pulp fiction phase (think: the black lizard imprint of vantage (?)), yet placed on the big screen, the dialogue sounds awefully bad. The stories were straight revenge. I wish they done the “Dame to Kill for” story, but I think they weren’t after the femme fatale plot of many noir flicks. This was Death Wish for the comic book geek set.

3 of 5 stars.

The reading list continues…

broderic on April 1, 2005

March has come to pass and a quarter of the year is done. How am I doing in my doing in my quixotic quest to read 3 books a month? Surprise! After not reading anything last month I finally finished a book not including my assigned school reading. The tally is 2 and a half in January, a quarter in February, and one in March for a grand total of, drum roll please, 3 and three quarter books. My pace is one third what it should be. I am not planning to take a class in the summer, so hopefully, I can make up for the lost time. One question, if I finish off the books I should’ve read, do I count them as a book for the month or for the month that it should’ve been finished?

This month’s book was Sarah Vowell’s Assasination Vacation. It was the book she described on the 2nd disc of the Incredibles DVD. I found it very humorous, and quite good. The blurbs on the jacket are correct and she has a unique literary, and vocal, voice. I plan to read some of her other stuff. A+

The Will Ferrells Crash!

broderic on March 30, 2005

Amazing Race 7 brings out the funny in people. The team of brothers Brian and Greg bring their humor to the show. I chose them to win this race, but it looks as if they may have run out of laughs.

Update: And they escape again in a thrilling footrace against this year’s J-Vic team! Yes!

The Incredibles on DVD

broderic on March 24, 2005

In reference to the last post, I have watched the Incredibles almost every day since I got it last week except for when my nephew took it home. I bought a new one to replace it. I love this movie.

Sarah Vowell

broderic on March 24, 2005

Sarah Vowell voiced Violet in the Incredibles. She’s awesome. Get the DVD. Watch the second disc’s Sarah Vowell short. It rocks. She rocks. Catch more of her here.

Dub

broderic on March 16, 2005

In the mid-90s, I fell in love with dub music. It stemmed from my fascination with instrumental music. I guess it came from trying to play surf music on my guitar. Listening to The Ventures lead me to listening to Friends of Dean Martinez. Then it was onto Thievery Corporation. Loved them when I bought their first album on a whim because of the cover. The opening song is a dub like tune. Listening to it made me get into it. I don’t have a lot of dub albums, but I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know why. It probably has to do with the reverb drenched sound, the beats and the bass.

Amazing Race 7: There should be a rule against that

broderic on March 16, 2005

Today, my predictions have gone to pot. It’s just like the NCAA tournament. My brackets have been blown apart. First, those I chose to be last won the latest round, the team I had picked second has been eliminated, and Rob and Amber are making me hate them.

I think that there shouldn’t be scheming and playing in the Amazing Race. The first couple of times was cute but the latest (quitting a roadblock because it was too hard) was sucky. It’s a terrible ploy. This is a race and it should be won by the soles of your feet not by your brains. This is why the eating roadblocks where they eat more than ever should be thought over.

Movie Review: Be Cool

broderic on March 13, 2005

While I went in expecting a terrible movie, I was pleasantly surprised by this comedy. It wasn’t as bad as the reviews made out to be and it wasn’t as bad as the lack of audience for it has been.

Be Cool was a meta movie. It knew that it was only a movie and played itself out as one. In fact the story line was explicitly told in the first scene. If you kept this in mind the movie was fun. I like that it was meta. It had Swingers. It had Pulp Fiction. It had weaved a wonderful story. I liked it.

3 of 5 stars.