What I think about on occasion
I liked Valkyrie better than I thought I would. It was suspenseful for a story that you knew the ending of. Do they successfully kill Hitler? Nope. Yet, I was still wondering when the gestapo would kill them all.
Good flick. Makes me want to find out about the actual plot, and its reality. How well does Singer stick to the script of the truth and how much was made up? Did Tom Cruise’s character really act that way?
Better than I thought.
3 of 5 stars.
“Hey! The Great Escape just started.”
“Steve McQueen can’t make it over the big German gap!”
Just start baby. Please start. Yosh!
“Anyone know any manga with cat girls?”
“Cat girls? Not my taste. Good luck.”
Hmmm. Yozakura Quartet.
Worst lamb gyro ever.
“Mmmm. Pralines and cream milk shake.”
“Yuck. Pralines and cream milk shake.”
Anime? Miyazawa!
If you talk about overpriced, highly stylized personal electronic equipment, the companies that jump to the fore are Apple and Sony. They are the two companies that take pride in making consumer electronics that you want to touch and own, to display and fondle, and to have. They make things sexy. Except Apple beats the pants off of Sony when it comes to the unsexy part of the equipment.
Look at the design choices that Apple has made into their plugs and chargers. They still reek of elegance. Look at the design choices that Sony made for their plug and charger. Rather, look at the lack of a design choice. That PSP may look cool, but I just want to plug that thing in a hole in the ground so that I don’t have to look at that ugly.
When will we finally get other consumer electronics makers thinking about the whole experience of owning the junk we buy. Thank kami-sama for Apple. They force others into thinking about design. Let’s just hope the others decide to think all of it through.
Can the fucktard president just take the rest of the year off and hand the reins over to president elect? I mean, what’s fucktard been doing anyway?
We don’t have to listen to President Fucktard anymore!!!!
Hallelujah!!!
I'm up early after a dream of sharks and minnows. Dreams come easy when
your bed is overheated from the unseasonal warmth. There's no sunlight
yet, and the darkness outside is calm. You can just about hear the
construction workers arriving at the plot of land across the street.
They leave their pickup trucks idling as they get some warmth and finish
up their coffee.I get ready for work, shower, brush my teeth, and iron my pants. I put
on a slightly wrinkled shirt that I hope will seem less wrinkled by my
activity during the day. It's going to be warm again, but I do put on a
jacket to ward the morning chill.My car, newly washed, has dew covering it, yet, it still sparkles from
the wash. I lament that I don't get to see it in a more pristine state,
but that happens when you don't park it in the garage. The wiper clears the condensation from the windshield. The car isn't
warm enough to keep the condensation reforming on the windshield. Each
successive pass of the blades slowly clears my vision.I have a bill to mail. It's Columbus Day, and the post office is
closed. I sit in my car contemplating whether to mail it. Should I use
the drive up mailboxes? They are probably stuffed with Sunday's mail.
They will probably stuffed with Monday's mail as well. Should I use the
drop slot in the post office itself? This doesn't get serviced until
the afternoon. It's the last thing they check before leaving. The bill is due Wednesday. Will it arrive on time?
This is interesting, too. On this day, besides Hiroshima, the Spanish town of Guernica was devastated by German bombs. It’s another sad memory for mankind.
Hanging in the Rénia Sofia is Picasso’s La Guernica painted in response to the tragedy of that day. It’s perhaps the most visited painting in that museum.
When we visited last year (it’s been almost year?), there were crowds around it. The scene reminded me of seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. People were intensely studying it and contemplating the horrors of the day. They say it’s one of the more humanistic of paintings. You see it and you wonder how we could do such a thing. Man can be so unkind to his fellows.
It’ll be an everlasting testament to evil.
In Hiroshima, there still exists burnt out shell of the Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall. It signifies our yearning for peace. Can’t we all just get along?
On the Marvel-DC comics divide, I fall squarely in the Marvel camp. I know the rudimentary aspects of the DC universe. I know the major characters, their origins and even some of their story lines. I know some of the tangibles of the DC universe, but honestly, I really don’t care too much with any of the DC heroes. They were too “SuperFriend-ly” for me and seem to have that wholesomeness still grafted onto them. For what they are they can not be too dark.
Enter the new revisionist take on DC. Starting with Infinity Crisis, DC begins to remake themselves into a more grittier universe. Batman always being so dark takes on the mantle of chief dark character in the DC universe. Frank Miller writes the ultimate Batman tale of urban grit and grime in the immortal, The Dark Knight Returns, and ever since then it’s been a brooding, sinister, hard boiled Gotham for the Batman to prowl.
Tim Burton makes a splash with Batman and adds some color to Bruce Wayne’s Gotham. It was a joyous romp taking inspiration from Miller’s The Dark Knight, but adding some sense of whimsy and playfulness to Gotham. Burton knew that he’s doing a comic book movie. His main character is a man in a tight fitting suit. While embracing Miller’s Darkness, Burton weaved into the Batman movie a feel of enjoyment in the comic book.
Almost twenty years on and the DC universe goes through another revision to make it more darker. Superman has a kid. And Batman, well, he’s dark and all.
The first Batman movie of this century, Batman Begins, takes place in the more modern Gotham. It’s like a version of New York in an alternate time. Yet, it still had some fun as a comic book movie: Ra’s Al Ghul, the Scarecrow.
The Dark Knight lacks any sense of comic book-ness and instead goes for reality. You know it when the Joker’s sense of playfulness arises from being completely psychotic. The film is not a summer comic book movie to enjoy, but one to sit in the dark and meditate on what darkness lies in men’s souls. Is the Batman dark? Is the Joker dark? Their souls are joyless in this movie and the seriousness hurts it as a fun time.
And it was forty minutes too long with several endings. I thought the Joker was the main baddy. He’s joined by TwoFace. And then the Penguin, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy would show up next. Yet, if they did, it would ruin the seriousness of the movie, because we must be shown that in all of us there is a darkness and a happiness battling it out all the time. Except for the Joker who is a loon.
So The Dark Knight bored me. Every turn in the plot made me cringe. “What more is there,” I thought exasperated! And can’t they capture one guy shooting at the mayor while surrounded by the entire police force? I mean this was at a police funeral with everyone on high alert. I mean everyone. Right down to the mayor’s wife! Everyone should’ve been ready and when the shots occurred not twenty feet from the mayor and twenty feet from several hundred officers the best the police could do was duck and cover?! How convenient. Let’s just add another forty minutes to the movie. It’ll just suck all fun from what should’ve been a comic book romp of ass kicking goodness.
And that’s my problem with The Dark Knight. Its soul as a comic book movie probably died with Heath Ledger. They wanted to make it more serious in tribute to the fallen actor so that the audience can remember him as a serious actor not as a man dressed up as a clown. Yet, the clown show is what we wanted to see. His jokes were not funny, just ask the guy the guy about the pencil.
Most likely, my reaction to the film comes from my Marvel fandom. Not one to associate myself to much with the DC universe, I could care less about their major characters. They bore me. So too with this film.
2 of 5 stars.
While TheSeed was sleeping and Marge was fighting to keep awake, I was struggling to block the headache induced by new car fumes. We were all trying to watch Hellboy II.
This one had a lot more action. It was quicker paced and it had more laughs. I was missing that one dude from the first movie, but he was written out because he stood out like a sore thumb. Hellboy is still a great character and Ron Perlman is the perfect actor for that role. Abe Sapien gets no love from the writers, but watching it you would’ve guessed the ending anyway since it will always be that way for fate-intwined twins. Johann Krauss was hilarious. He is a cartoon character what with the voice of Ludwig von Drake!
I don’t know if this was del Tormo’s Hellboy or Mignola’s. I can’t imagine Mignola writing something featuring that menagerie of creatures. They were all too vivid. I haven’t read the Hellboy comics too much, but they don’t seem to dabble in ancient mythological history of elves, but of Lovecraftian design. The monsters were more del Tormo.
3 of 5 stars.
We only have ourselves to blame for this predicament we’re in.
If we only decided on higher gas taxes years ago.
If we only decided to build more fuel efficient cars.
If we only decided that SUVs or large trucks were ridiculous.
If our leaders would lead.
If our collective conscience would understand.
We wouldn’t be in this mess.
