It's rare for me to watch a movie that I remember two years later, let alone one that I not only import on DVD, but that I even end up buying the accompanying comic books too. Or, in this case, the manga. Actually, it's not rare; it's unheard of. While this may not shock those of you who know me well, many suspect that because I work in the videogame industry that I have certain, shall we say, traits. Assumptions are made that I'm into action figures, that I like science-fiction and superheroes, and that I've collected comic books, played Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons, and, well, you get the idea. The truth is, the only action figures I've ever owned were a couple of ThunderCats when I was 10; I hate all things Stars, particularly Wars and Treks; I couldn't tell you who the Superfriends are. I'm not even sure if there are Superfriends or if I just made that up. And though I did buy a couple of "Ghost Rider" and "Silver Surfer" comics as a child, 90% of the reading I've done since then has been, gasp, non-fiction. I'VE. NEVER. ROLLED. TWENTY.
Alas, I am a very poor excuse for a geek. But this doesn't mean I can't be swayed. My time spent writing the Batman: Arkham Asylum Official Strategy Guide two summers ago sparked such a keen desire in me to learn more about the Batman universe that I actually bought the "Arkham Asylum" graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean (an exceptional piece of storytelling and art). Though I now have no idea where that book went, I do recall enjoying it considerably (and yes, I do hope to be writing the guidebook for the sequel later this year... fingers crossed).
And that brings us to my foray into manga and Ikigami...
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Turkeys and Movies... Surprisingly Not One in the Same
Posting (and working) in the kitchen today. It's barely after 8am and the painters are already here, taking down the window blinds, laying drop cloths and getting ready to paint. I asked them to do my office first so I could move back in as quickly as possible.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Kristin and I spent it at the childhood home of a friend of ours. She grew up on a small farm about 90 minutes northeast of Seattle. Last year our friend had to go up a few days early to slaughter the turkey. There was no killing this year -- the family farm is currently without pigs, turkeys, and cows -- but livestock weren't the only things being shown some mercy this holiday. Thanks to our hosts not having a television, Kristin and I were spared the horror of watching the Cowboys trounce the Seahawks. The Seahawks haven't played on Thanksgiving Day in 20 years. Way to make the wait pay off, boys.
Kristin had a pretty bad cold all weekend and had a ton of schoolwork to get done so I spent most of the weekend playing Gears of War 2 with friends and watching a bunch of movies through the Netflix streaming service on Xbox Live. Not sure what happened, but the picture quality has increased dramatically over the past few days. We watched "Rushmore" one night last week and the quality was borderline unwatchable. Not so this weekend.
Here's what we watched:
Unforgiven - I'm probably the last person to finally see this western starring Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman, but it's worth giving a tip of the ten-gallon hat to. It's not my favorite western -- "Tombstone" still takes that honor -- but it was certainly a good movie. Only thing I thought was a bit odd was how introspective Eastwood's character seemed at the start of the movie. He didn't seem the type to sit around a campfire and talk about his feelings so much, but the writers used these fireside chats as a mechanism for providing the backstory. It works, but it was a bit awkward. People don't often provide detailed accounts of their past when they're sitting next to the person they lived through it with.
Supersize Me - Yes, we all know that eating McDonalds 3 times a day for a month is not good for you. Anybody with two brain cells and a spark can tell you that. Nevertheless, this documentary is still a good watch. The facts and figures were rare, but adequately shocking (i.e. premium salad with dressing has more calories than a Big Mac) and thanks to the filmmaker's decision to go on a nationwide tour of Mickey D's while making the movie, he was able to squeeze in plenty of local tales from around the country without them seeing out of place. Personally, I try to limit my consumption of fast food to just 1-2 times a month. I know it's not good for you and it's very high in fat and calories, but gawdam is it good. Those 99-cent double cheeseburgers at McDonalds are just too damn good and cheap to avoid forever. Skip the Coke.
Fifty First Dates - This was actually on USA, a channel neither Kristin nor I could remember watching in about ten years. There's something about Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore that really makes for a nice rom-com. They were perfect in "The Wedding singer" and they were equally adorable in this movie. That aside, I never had any interest in watching this on account of the marketing for it making it seem far more goofball and "zany" than it really was. The trailers made the movie look really stupid and shallow (and it was to an extent), but we thought it was a lot better than that. Barrymore's character has short-term memory loss and essentially relives the same day over and over every day with the help of her father and brother who painstakingly recreate the same day for her every time she wakes up. This changes when Sandler's character falls for her at a diner. Unfortunately for him, everytime she goes to sleep she wakes up with no recollection of what happened the previous day and with no knowledge of who she met. You can see how this would pose a problem for a guy falling in love with her. Anyway, it's a stupid lighthearted movie with plot holes galore, but it was actually quite enjoyable... at 1am at least.
Life & Debt - Wonder why people get so passionate about the World Trade Organization and "Fair Trade" policies? If so, watch this movie. This documentary covers decades of decline in Jamaica on account of the WTO, International Monetary Fund, and a wealth of bad decision-making and greed on account of Jamaican leaders, international corporations, resorts, and tourists. It's a pretty one-sided portrayal and a bit heavy-handed with the guilt-trips, but it's also very easy to understand the Jamaicans bitterness: they can't possibly compete. I sat there watching the movie and thinking how "easy" the solution is: the Jamaicans simply need to boycot international products and buy local, but that's pretty naive. They live on $2/day and everything that comes off a ship is sold at a fraction of what it would cost to produce it locally. They're in a tough spot, for sure, and while the movie offers no solutions (other than wishing international companies would go away), the movie will definitely help those who don't bring their conscious on vacation with them perhaps travel with a bit more of an open-mind and bit more fairly. Recommended to those who care about what goes on outside our borders.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Kristin and I spent it at the childhood home of a friend of ours. She grew up on a small farm about 90 minutes northeast of Seattle. Last year our friend had to go up a few days early to slaughter the turkey. There was no killing this year -- the family farm is currently without pigs, turkeys, and cows -- but livestock weren't the only things being shown some mercy this holiday. Thanks to our hosts not having a television, Kristin and I were spared the horror of watching the Cowboys trounce the Seahawks. The Seahawks haven't played on Thanksgiving Day in 20 years. Way to make the wait pay off, boys.
Kristin had a pretty bad cold all weekend and had a ton of schoolwork to get done so I spent most of the weekend playing Gears of War 2 with friends and watching a bunch of movies through the Netflix streaming service on Xbox Live. Not sure what happened, but the picture quality has increased dramatically over the past few days. We watched "Rushmore" one night last week and the quality was borderline unwatchable. Not so this weekend.
Here's what we watched:
Unforgiven - I'm probably the last person to finally see this western starring Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, and Morgan Freeman, but it's worth giving a tip of the ten-gallon hat to. It's not my favorite western -- "Tombstone" still takes that honor -- but it was certainly a good movie. Only thing I thought was a bit odd was how introspective Eastwood's character seemed at the start of the movie. He didn't seem the type to sit around a campfire and talk about his feelings so much, but the writers used these fireside chats as a mechanism for providing the backstory. It works, but it was a bit awkward. People don't often provide detailed accounts of their past when they're sitting next to the person they lived through it with.
Supersize Me - Yes, we all know that eating McDonalds 3 times a day for a month is not good for you. Anybody with two brain cells and a spark can tell you that. Nevertheless, this documentary is still a good watch. The facts and figures were rare, but adequately shocking (i.e. premium salad with dressing has more calories than a Big Mac) and thanks to the filmmaker's decision to go on a nationwide tour of Mickey D's while making the movie, he was able to squeeze in plenty of local tales from around the country without them seeing out of place. Personally, I try to limit my consumption of fast food to just 1-2 times a month. I know it's not good for you and it's very high in fat and calories, but gawdam is it good. Those 99-cent double cheeseburgers at McDonalds are just too damn good and cheap to avoid forever. Skip the Coke.
Fifty First Dates - This was actually on USA, a channel neither Kristin nor I could remember watching in about ten years. There's something about Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore that really makes for a nice rom-com. They were perfect in "The Wedding singer" and they were equally adorable in this movie. That aside, I never had any interest in watching this on account of the marketing for it making it seem far more goofball and "zany" than it really was. The trailers made the movie look really stupid and shallow (and it was to an extent), but we thought it was a lot better than that. Barrymore's character has short-term memory loss and essentially relives the same day over and over every day with the help of her father and brother who painstakingly recreate the same day for her every time she wakes up. This changes when Sandler's character falls for her at a diner. Unfortunately for him, everytime she goes to sleep she wakes up with no recollection of what happened the previous day and with no knowledge of who she met. You can see how this would pose a problem for a guy falling in love with her. Anyway, it's a stupid lighthearted movie with plot holes galore, but it was actually quite enjoyable... at 1am at least.
Life & Debt - Wonder why people get so passionate about the World Trade Organization and "Fair Trade" policies? If so, watch this movie. This documentary covers decades of decline in Jamaica on account of the WTO, International Monetary Fund, and a wealth of bad decision-making and greed on account of Jamaican leaders, international corporations, resorts, and tourists. It's a pretty one-sided portrayal and a bit heavy-handed with the guilt-trips, but it's also very easy to understand the Jamaicans bitterness: they can't possibly compete. I sat there watching the movie and thinking how "easy" the solution is: the Jamaicans simply need to boycot international products and buy local, but that's pretty naive. They live on $2/day and everything that comes off a ship is sold at a fraction of what it would cost to produce it locally. They're in a tough spot, for sure, and while the movie offers no solutions (other than wishing international companies would go away), the movie will definitely help those who don't bring their conscious on vacation with them perhaps travel with a bit more of an open-mind and bit more fairly. Recommended to those who care about what goes on outside our borders.
Are You Experienced?
November 19th has come and gone and for those of you with an Xbox Live membership, you know what that means: the New Xbox Experience is here. I wasn't aware that NXE was actually an official name for the update, but apparently it is. No longer will we speak of blades and dashboards. Instead, umm, what exactly are we supposed to call this now?
I don't know, but I do know that I like it. As Microsoft has been fond of pointing out over the past 6 months, NXE represents the first time a piece of hardware has gotten what amounts to a complete operating system overhaul -- for free. Those of us who logged on yesterday were greeted with a 7-minute update that completely revamped the interface, streamlined the Marketplace, made navigating our game collections easier (not to mention photos and music), and the ability to create avatars (a system that even an X360 fan like me has to admit pales in comparison with that on Yahoo... and don't get me started on MS wanting to charge for extra clothing and accessories).
The biggest addition, in my opinion anyway, is the partnership between Xbox Live and Netflix. Those with an $8.99 monthly subscription to Netflix can now instantly stream any move from their Netflix instant-play queue directly to their Xbox 360 and start watching it within about 30 or 40 seconds. This is an absolutely phenomenal feature. I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to on-demand programming and instant-play movies, but this is the first time I'm taking advantage of any such service and I have to say the results are mind-boggling. For nine bucks a month we can watch as many movies as we want, when we want, and we only need to wait half a minute for them to start playing.
Of course Sony had to go and play sore-loser and make sure Netflix pulled all of their Sony/Columbia movies from the service, but that's alright as I'm pretty sure if I made it this long without seeing "Spiderman 3", I can go on living without it.
The one drawback to the Netflix streaming is, naturally, your broadband speed. When you select a movie to watch on your Xbox 360, Netflix spends the half a minute or so determining the quality of video it can stream to you. The icon shows four bars and, unfortunately for us, our DSL speed only nets us 2 bars out of 4. Enough to watch the movie instantly, but the video signal is highly compressed. I watched Warren Miller's "Cold Fusion" last night to test out the system and the picture quality left something to be desired. Granted, the film was made in 2001 and wasn't shot in hi-definition, but the picture quality was somewhat disappointing. Certainly watchable -- and enjoyable -- but not the HD movie-watching experience I've gotten used to.
I'm going to update my queue to include some newer movies, hopefully one or two we actually own on HD-DVD (epic fail) to get a sense for the video quality degradation. Either way, it's not the end of the world if the quality suffers. We still get unlimited one-at-a-time discs in the mail with the $8.99 membership and could always just make sure to save the big blockbuster movies for hard-copy rentals and rely on the instant-watching for the movies that don't necessarily need to be seen in HD with surround sound.
What's that you say, all movies need HD and surround sound? I feel ya, bro.
Anyway, I was going to post all of this yesterday but I didn't. And the reason for that is the other aspect of the NXE that I have yet to talk about. As limited as the initial avatar-creation mechanism is (literally about 1% of the options on Yahoo) and as much of a blatant milking of people's MS Points as this is going to be, the inclusion of your avatars as playable characters in some games is an excellent addition. Sure, those of you with a Wii have been able to do it for a while with your Mii characters, but guess what, that meant you had to play the Wii. Now we can do it on the Xbox too.
And the first new game to include the feature is my new BFF, A Kingdom for Keflings. If ever there was a game that made me want to pack a bowl full of tree and just sit and mellow with a bag of Doritos and some Red Vines, then this is that game. KfK is a game that pits you as a giant charged with building a, you guessed it, Kingdom for Keflings. As the giant, you pick up your Keflings and carry them to resources you need harvested. You tell them where you want them to chop wood, mine rock, shear sheep, etc., etc., and show them where to carry said resources when they're done. You then use these resources to build the various parts needed to construct any one of several dozen different building types. There is no combat. There is no adversity. Your kingdom (for Keflings) is never attacked. You just build, grow the town, build some more, re-assign your Keflings to new jobs, and keep on building. Every now and then the Mayor will give you a small quest to complete, but these seldom require anything more difficult than delivering 75 bricks to the factory.
If the game sounds rather boring, it isn't, but you certainly have to be the right type of gamer and in the right mind to play it. Yes, it can get repetitive, and there is absolutely no pressure while playing it, nor is there anything to do that requires any reflexes (save for manipulating the camera) or skill. Like I said, feel free to inhale deeply when playing this game.
Despite the simpleness of it all -- and the fact that the closest I've come to any illegal substances in the past eight years is my old scratched-up copy of a Cypress Hill album -- I played it for four hours yesterday. Two hours in each of two sittings. The game has a therapeutic quality that I find very endearing and, dare I say, addictive. I haven't even touched the multiplayer mode yet (up to four players can work on the same kingdom simultaneously) nor have I played in the sandbox mode just yet. I'm still on that first "New Game with Tutorials" working towards building a castle for my little Keflings.
I don't know, but I do know that I like it. As Microsoft has been fond of pointing out over the past 6 months, NXE represents the first time a piece of hardware has gotten what amounts to a complete operating system overhaul -- for free. Those of us who logged on yesterday were greeted with a 7-minute update that completely revamped the interface, streamlined the Marketplace, made navigating our game collections easier (not to mention photos and music), and the ability to create avatars (a system that even an X360 fan like me has to admit pales in comparison with that on Yahoo... and don't get me started on MS wanting to charge for extra clothing and accessories).
The biggest addition, in my opinion anyway, is the partnership between Xbox Live and Netflix. Those with an $8.99 monthly subscription to Netflix can now instantly stream any move from their Netflix instant-play queue directly to their Xbox 360 and start watching it within about 30 or 40 seconds. This is an absolutely phenomenal feature. I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to on-demand programming and instant-play movies, but this is the first time I'm taking advantage of any such service and I have to say the results are mind-boggling. For nine bucks a month we can watch as many movies as we want, when we want, and we only need to wait half a minute for them to start playing.
Of course Sony had to go and play sore-loser and make sure Netflix pulled all of their Sony/Columbia movies from the service, but that's alright as I'm pretty sure if I made it this long without seeing "Spiderman 3", I can go on living without it.
The one drawback to the Netflix streaming is, naturally, your broadband speed. When you select a movie to watch on your Xbox 360, Netflix spends the half a minute or so determining the quality of video it can stream to you. The icon shows four bars and, unfortunately for us, our DSL speed only nets us 2 bars out of 4. Enough to watch the movie instantly, but the video signal is highly compressed. I watched Warren Miller's "Cold Fusion" last night to test out the system and the picture quality left something to be desired. Granted, the film was made in 2001 and wasn't shot in hi-definition, but the picture quality was somewhat disappointing. Certainly watchable -- and enjoyable -- but not the HD movie-watching experience I've gotten used to.
I'm going to update my queue to include some newer movies, hopefully one or two we actually own on HD-DVD (epic fail) to get a sense for the video quality degradation. Either way, it's not the end of the world if the quality suffers. We still get unlimited one-at-a-time discs in the mail with the $8.99 membership and could always just make sure to save the big blockbuster movies for hard-copy rentals and rely on the instant-watching for the movies that don't necessarily need to be seen in HD with surround sound.
What's that you say, all movies need HD and surround sound? I feel ya, bro.
Anyway, I was going to post all of this yesterday but I didn't. And the reason for that is the other aspect of the NXE that I have yet to talk about. As limited as the initial avatar-creation mechanism is (literally about 1% of the options on Yahoo) and as much of a blatant milking of people's MS Points as this is going to be, the inclusion of your avatars as playable characters in some games is an excellent addition. Sure, those of you with a Wii have been able to do it for a while with your Mii characters, but guess what, that meant you had to play the Wii. Now we can do it on the Xbox too.
And the first new game to include the feature is my new BFF, A Kingdom for Keflings. If ever there was a game that made me want to pack a bowl full of tree and just sit and mellow with a bag of Doritos and some Red Vines, then this is that game. KfK is a game that pits you as a giant charged with building a, you guessed it, Kingdom for Keflings. As the giant, you pick up your Keflings and carry them to resources you need harvested. You tell them where you want them to chop wood, mine rock, shear sheep, etc., etc., and show them where to carry said resources when they're done. You then use these resources to build the various parts needed to construct any one of several dozen different building types. There is no combat. There is no adversity. Your kingdom (for Keflings) is never attacked. You just build, grow the town, build some more, re-assign your Keflings to new jobs, and keep on building. Every now and then the Mayor will give you a small quest to complete, but these seldom require anything more difficult than delivering 75 bricks to the factory.
If the game sounds rather boring, it isn't, but you certainly have to be the right type of gamer and in the right mind to play it. Yes, it can get repetitive, and there is absolutely no pressure while playing it, nor is there anything to do that requires any reflexes (save for manipulating the camera) or skill. Like I said, feel free to inhale deeply when playing this game.
Despite the simpleness of it all -- and the fact that the closest I've come to any illegal substances in the past eight years is my old scratched-up copy of a Cypress Hill album -- I played it for four hours yesterday. Two hours in each of two sittings. The game has a therapeutic quality that I find very endearing and, dare I say, addictive. I haven't even touched the multiplayer mode yet (up to four players can work on the same kingdom simultaneously) nor have I played in the sandbox mode just yet. I'm still on that first "New Game with Tutorials" working towards building a castle for my little Keflings.
Hits & Misses
A quick rundown of some movies and games that I really enjoyed or feel currently miss their mark:
HIT
HIT
- The Gears of War 2 single-player campaign was a lot of fun. I played through it on Hardcore mode and there were a few bumps in the road, not to mention a couple scenes in Act 5, but it was very doable without bringing in a co-op partner and quite enjoyable. The final couple of chapters were very fun to play in particular. Definitely a big improvement over the campaign in the first game, even if the dialogue and "story" are still a bit underdeveloped.
- The Motorcycle Diaries was a really enjoyable movie about Ernesto Guevera and the trip he took when he was still in medical school. He and his cousin traveled from Bueno Aires through Patagonia, and up the eastern coast of Chile to Peru. And let me tell you, these guys were not very well prepared. But the trip was remarkable and quite an awakening for Guevera. It's in Spanish with English subtitles, but very much worth watching.
MISS
- As much as I absolutely love playing Gears of War 2 with friends on Wednesdays and Friday nights, playing public matches is abhorrent. Not because the game is any different -- it's still the same fantastic gameplay -- but the matchmaking system takes between 2 and 25 minutes to find a game (a game that might only last 4 minutes), the experience is often laggy because of the need to connect people from around the world, and then when you are connected you have to actually communicate with these people. It's a team game so I leave my microphone on in hopes of talking to my teammates, but if ever there was a reason to fear the future of the free world, it's the inane, offensive garbage that gets spewed from the tween-age set on Xbox Live.
- Talked a friend into going with me to see Quantum of Solace on Saturday on account of me having enjoyed Casino Royale so much and both our wives together at a "crafts party". What a mistake that was. QoS was a huge disappointment. Oh, sure, the action scenes were great but for those of us not needing a Ritalin prescription, it was a huge letdown. It jumped schizophrenically from scene to scene and location to location with little narrative, zero character development, and no backstory. If you didn't see Casino Royale, like my friend Alan didn't, you were completely lost. If you did see Casino Royale, you were probably still more than a bit confused. Casino Royale was an excellent, outstanding stand-alone movie. Quantum of Solace is an MTV-inspired smash-up of fight scenes thrown together with little reasoning and seemingly no connection to the Bond lore. It was a travesty and I have no idea how it is receiving the revies it's getting, other than the reviewers still being in love with Daniel Craig. I also have a newfound reason to be wary of fuel cells.
- Hate to admit it, but I think I might be done with Fallout 3. Oh, don't get me wrong, the game is absolutely fantastic. It's the save system that I hate. Or my inability to deploy it correctly. I'm not sure what happened -- I saved regularly, trying to cycle through the numerically-ordered saves and overwriting ones I didn't need anymore -- but for whatever reason I now have an Autosave in a very sticky spot with little chance of staying alive and my most recent save other than the AutoSave is from 4 hours prior to where I am in the game. Who knows where my other saves are, but if there's one thing I hate doing, it's replaying portions of a game that I've already completed. Sure, 3 or 4 hours might not be a lot in a game that takes 60+ hours to complete, but the magic is lost. The suspension of disbelief has been shattered. The game became a frustration.
Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go downstairs and continue to frustrate myself with one of the above-mentioned games.
Outsourced!
Real quick movie recommendation. Kristin and I downloaded Outsourced over XBLA the other night and really enjoyed it. It's about a thirtysomething sales guy for a Seattle company called Northwest Novelty (they sell lots of kitsch) who is forced to go to India to train the people who are taking over for his department. It stars Josh Hamilton (who bears more than a passing resemblance to Dane Cook) as the executive and the beautiful Ayesha Dharker as the inevitably hard-working phone-bank employee for whom Josh's character falls for.
The movie is pretty funny at times, but also as independent films are typically willing to do, doesn't mind spending some time showcasing the opposing viewpoint to a sensitivie topic, in this case showing an Indian's take on outsourcing. I also enjoyed the movie because of the culture shock-value and because it really seemed to showcase India as India, and not what Hollywood wants us to believe it's like. The portions of the movie that strayed more into travel-zine territory seemed far more genuine than in most other movies. Of course, I hadn't been to India yet, but it seemed presented in a natural state.
The characters are all likeable (except for the one who is purposely a jerk) and the setting is fantastic. It's a pretty short movie at just 103 minutes, but it's won a handful of awards including Best Film at the 2007 Seattle Independent Film Festival.
Definitely check it out.
The movie is pretty funny at times, but also as independent films are typically willing to do, doesn't mind spending some time showcasing the opposing viewpoint to a sensitivie topic, in this case showing an Indian's take on outsourcing. I also enjoyed the movie because of the culture shock-value and because it really seemed to showcase India as India, and not what Hollywood wants us to believe it's like. The portions of the movie that strayed more into travel-zine territory seemed far more genuine than in most other movies. Of course, I hadn't been to India yet, but it seemed presented in a natural state.
The characters are all likeable (except for the one who is purposely a jerk) and the setting is fantastic. It's a pretty short movie at just 103 minutes, but it's won a handful of awards including Best Film at the 2007 Seattle Independent Film Festival.
Definitely check it out.
Media Rundown
Combo-post time!
Movies
Saw the new Adam Sandler flick "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" this weekend. It's stupid. It's vulgar. It's hysterical. And I can't wait to pick it up on DVD when it comes out (which might be any day now based on the reviews).
Adam Sandler is the Zohan (aka Scrappy Coco), an Israeli counter-terrorist with super-human strength, flexibility, and pubic hair. He tires of the constant fighting with the Palestinians and longs to leave Israel for America where he can pursue his life-long dream... to cut and style hair. He wants to make America "silky smooth." He finally gets his chance in a Palestinian-run beauty parlor in New York City and garners quite the fanbase due to his willingness to satisfy the elderly women who patronize the shop. That is, until he falls in love.
I'll be honest here, this movie isn't for everyone. It's pretty over the top in terms of stupidity and has a pretty high raunch factor, but those who want to laugh will certainly do so. Those looking for cinema or an art-house experience should look elsewhere. It's true that the movie does actually address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a pretty humorous way, and it's also true that there are a number of funny cameo appearances in the film. This movie is not unlike Austion Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It's moronic to say the least, but that might be its best feature.
Videogames
Haven't been playing much lately, but I did come across something very interesting in the paper yesterday. A Bellevue vascular surgeon has developed a vest gamers can wear that uses an air compressor to, essentially, inflict the force of explosions and being hit with bullets for those playing action games.
From the Seattle Times:
You can read the full article and see a photo of the vest at Brier Dudley's blog. I can't help but recall a toy I had when I was a kid that tried to provide some physical pain as an incentive to not "get shot" by your friends. The guns took 4 D batteries, were connected to a helmet that you wore, and fired an infrared beam. When "hit" by one of your friends a small plastic piston would rapidly tap you in the temple over and over for several seconds. It didn't hurt, but I can tell you from experience that it sure as hell didn't feel good. Kids today have it too easy...
Oh, one other thing: Gamasutra has a pretty interesting analysis of each of the online game stores available through the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. The gist of the article is to try and show a downturn in the number of games being offered in 2008 versus 2007, but it's using the latter half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 to base the comparison on, which I think is a rather small sample size. See the graphs and read the study right here.
Books
I read Willie Weir's book Spokesongs during my weekend flying back and forth to NJ and readily enjoyed it. The book is divided into three sections with each containing over a dozen brief essays from one of his annual 5-month long bike trips. The book covers his bicycle tour of India, a trip he made throughout South Africa, and also a trip around the Balkans.
I was hoping for a bit more how-to advice or even a little bit more discussion about gear or the logistics of transporting his bike and what he packed, but the book was still enjoyable. Probably more than it would have been if he had made it a how-to book, actually. Many of his stories were entertaining or filled with some sense of dread or excitement, and nearly all of them were just 3-5 pages long so reading the book can be consumed in bite-size portions.
Willie is a fine writer and really paints the portrait well of where he is and the people he's with. And while I'm not so sure extended bicycle touring is something that truly interests me, I did enjoy reading his tales enough to pick up another book on the subject. I'll be digging into the book titled, Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents later this week hopefully. The book chronicles Jim Malusa's bicycle journeys to the lowest point on each of the major inhabited continents. Should be fun.
Movies
Saw the new Adam Sandler flick "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" this weekend. It's stupid. It's vulgar. It's hysterical. And I can't wait to pick it up on DVD when it comes out (which might be any day now based on the reviews).
Adam Sandler is the Zohan (aka Scrappy Coco), an Israeli counter-terrorist with super-human strength, flexibility, and pubic hair. He tires of the constant fighting with the Palestinians and longs to leave Israel for America where he can pursue his life-long dream... to cut and style hair. He wants to make America "silky smooth." He finally gets his chance in a Palestinian-run beauty parlor in New York City and garners quite the fanbase due to his willingness to satisfy the elderly women who patronize the shop. That is, until he falls in love.
I'll be honest here, this movie isn't for everyone. It's pretty over the top in terms of stupidity and has a pretty high raunch factor, but those who want to laugh will certainly do so. Those looking for cinema or an art-house experience should look elsewhere. It's true that the movie does actually address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a pretty humorous way, and it's also true that there are a number of funny cameo appearances in the film. This movie is not unlike Austion Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It's moronic to say the least, but that might be its best feature.
Videogames
Haven't been playing much lately, but I did come across something very interesting in the paper yesterday. A Bellevue vascular surgeon has developed a vest gamers can wear that uses an air compressor to, essentially, inflict the force of explosions and being hit with bullets for those playing action games.
From the Seattle Times:
Coming soon is a helmet in which players can feel head shots and a racing-game vest that simulates the g-forces felt by a Formula One driver.
Yet another model was created for military training. Ombrellaro said he's close to a deal with the Canadian military for units with wireless connections and gas cylinders that can be turned up high enough to leave bruises when soldiers are "hit" during training exercises.
The standard $169 vest includes a book-size air compressor and a USB cable. The compressor fills air bladders in the vest. When you start playing, it feels a little like getting a blood-pressure check, and the air drives eight quarter-sized actuators on the front, back and sides.
Hits are pretty gentle and don't sting. They have about 5 pounds of force, the equivalent of a roll of pennies dropped from about 6 inches above your stomach, Ombrellaro said.
But that's not enough for some early users, so TN developed an upgraded compressor with about 70 percent more pressure. It will sell for around $50 extra later this year.
The top priority for the company, however, is building relationships with game developers so that the vest activation codes are built into their games. It's also pushing hard to break into the console market.
You can read the full article and see a photo of the vest at Brier Dudley's blog. I can't help but recall a toy I had when I was a kid that tried to provide some physical pain as an incentive to not "get shot" by your friends. The guns took 4 D batteries, were connected to a helmet that you wore, and fired an infrared beam. When "hit" by one of your friends a small plastic piston would rapidly tap you in the temple over and over for several seconds. It didn't hurt, but I can tell you from experience that it sure as hell didn't feel good. Kids today have it too easy...
Oh, one other thing: Gamasutra has a pretty interesting analysis of each of the online game stores available through the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. The gist of the article is to try and show a downturn in the number of games being offered in 2008 versus 2007, but it's using the latter half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 to base the comparison on, which I think is a rather small sample size. See the graphs and read the study right here.
Books
I read Willie Weir's book Spokesongs during my weekend flying back and forth to NJ and readily enjoyed it. The book is divided into three sections with each containing over a dozen brief essays from one of his annual 5-month long bike trips. The book covers his bicycle tour of India, a trip he made throughout South Africa, and also a trip around the Balkans.
I was hoping for a bit more how-to advice or even a little bit more discussion about gear or the logistics of transporting his bike and what he packed, but the book was still enjoyable. Probably more than it would have been if he had made it a how-to book, actually. Many of his stories were entertaining or filled with some sense of dread or excitement, and nearly all of them were just 3-5 pages long so reading the book can be consumed in bite-size portions.
Willie is a fine writer and really paints the portrait well of where he is and the people he's with. And while I'm not so sure extended bicycle touring is something that truly interests me, I did enjoy reading his tales enough to pick up another book on the subject. I'll be digging into the book titled, Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents later this week hopefully. The book chronicles Jim Malusa's bicycle journeys to the lowest point on each of the major inhabited continents. Should be fun.
Kite Runner Movie
Into the Wild made me forget my rule about not seeing movies based on books I've already read. Into the Wild was so true to the source material and such a fantastic visualization of Krakauer's best-seller that I had forgotten that it was the exception to the rule, not vice-versa.
If only the adaptation of The Kite Runner was so good. In retrospect, I know it's impossible to expect a 2 hour drama to convey the depth of character development and emotion that is capable in a full-length novel, but I'd at least expect the movie to not gloss over major background information nor skip right on past one of the most powerful scenes in the story (no, not that scene but the other one).
This isn't to say the film version of The Kite Runner was a bad movie. It wasn't. It was, instead, shallow. As a relatively slow reader, it speaks volumes to Khaled Hosseini's storytelling ability that I was able to read the book in just four nights... in my tent at TransRockies. And it only took that long because I had to will myself to put it down in order to get some needed sleep. But the richness of the scenery, the characters, and the times and places that Hosseini described just wasn't found in the movie. The complexities of the relationships were never truly established in the movie and the inner struggles within the main character, Amir, were only hinted at. And in passing style at that.
Heck, the actual kite running portion of the story was given little more than lip service in the movie and no mention was made of the glass-coated string, nor did we ever see any of the excruciatingly described bloody hands of the kite fighters from the tale. Instead, we're left to believe the kite strings cut one another through powers uknown. And while I'm on the subject of the kite scenes, I know the wizards behind the powerful CGI computers like to use their imagination and that it's easier to show a landscape from, say, 3,000 feet in the air, than 300 but if these kites were flying any higher, they'd have to worry about gettting cut by a passing 747, not another kite. It was beautiful and stupid all at once.
I was really looking forward to seeing this movie in theatres back in the fall of 2007, but it was constantly delayed due to concern for the child-actor's safety back in Afghanistan where the movie is set (let's just say that there is a scene that many who are easily offended will no doubt take blood-curdling offense in). The movie didn't ever make it into theatres, at least not here in the Seattle area to my knowledge, and that's probably a good thing for Hosseini. I'd hate for people to see the movie and wonder what all the fuss was over the book. If you've read the book, I'd suggest no more than renting the movie if for no other reason than to see the role of Baba come to life, Homayoun Ershadi did a fantastic job playing the role of Amir's father. But if you hadn't read the book, do so. Skip the movie and give the book a try. As hollow as the movie was, it didn't dampen my love of the book. And I'd still recommend it to anyone.
If only the adaptation of The Kite Runner was so good. In retrospect, I know it's impossible to expect a 2 hour drama to convey the depth of character development and emotion that is capable in a full-length novel, but I'd at least expect the movie to not gloss over major background information nor skip right on past one of the most powerful scenes in the story (no, not that scene but the other one).
This isn't to say the film version of The Kite Runner was a bad movie. It wasn't. It was, instead, shallow. As a relatively slow reader, it speaks volumes to Khaled Hosseini's storytelling ability that I was able to read the book in just four nights... in my tent at TransRockies. And it only took that long because I had to will myself to put it down in order to get some needed sleep. But the richness of the scenery, the characters, and the times and places that Hosseini described just wasn't found in the movie. The complexities of the relationships were never truly established in the movie and the inner struggles within the main character, Amir, were only hinted at. And in passing style at that.
Heck, the actual kite running portion of the story was given little more than lip service in the movie and no mention was made of the glass-coated string, nor did we ever see any of the excruciatingly described bloody hands of the kite fighters from the tale. Instead, we're left to believe the kite strings cut one another through powers uknown. And while I'm on the subject of the kite scenes, I know the wizards behind the powerful CGI computers like to use their imagination and that it's easier to show a landscape from, say, 3,000 feet in the air, than 300 but if these kites were flying any higher, they'd have to worry about gettting cut by a passing 747, not another kite. It was beautiful and stupid all at once.
I was really looking forward to seeing this movie in theatres back in the fall of 2007, but it was constantly delayed due to concern for the child-actor's safety back in Afghanistan where the movie is set (let's just say that there is a scene that many who are easily offended will no doubt take blood-curdling offense in). The movie didn't ever make it into theatres, at least not here in the Seattle area to my knowledge, and that's probably a good thing for Hosseini. I'd hate for people to see the movie and wonder what all the fuss was over the book. If you've read the book, I'd suggest no more than renting the movie if for no other reason than to see the role of Baba come to life, Homayoun Ershadi did a fantastic job playing the role of Amir's father. But if you hadn't read the book, do so. Skip the movie and give the book a try. As hollow as the movie was, it didn't dampen my love of the book. And I'd still recommend it to anyone.
Best Buy Rewards HD-DVD Customers
I'm a firm believer in buyer beware and knew full well the risks involved in buying an HD-DVD player this past December. I'm sure there are those crying foul about "being stuck" with brand-new obsolete technology and are looking for someone to blame, but in this day and age there's just too much information too readily available to not take responsibility for your actions when it comes to consumer decisions. And although I naturally wish the format would have been given more of a chance, I don't regret the purchase. And I certainly don't feel mislead in my purchase. I'm still glad to finally have an upconverting player, not to mention a killer version of the BBC's Planet Earth production, thanks to my sisters-in-law.
That said, I received an email from Best Buy tonight letting me know that they will be sending a $50 gift card to everyone who bought an HD-DVD player from them before February 23rd. The email doesn't explicitly offer an apology -- which it shouldn't -- but they mention being dedicated to making sure their customers have the "right technology." They also offer a trade-in program for the HD-DVD players and used HD-DVDs. Clearly they're hoping we use the gift card and/or trade-in program to buy a Blu-Ray player.
We won't be doing that just yet, but I'm sure there's something in Best Buy we can spend $50 on [Insert maniacal laughter here]. And I appreciate the gesture, especially since it's completely unnecessary in my opinion. Way to go, Best Buy!
That said, I received an email from Best Buy tonight letting me know that they will be sending a $50 gift card to everyone who bought an HD-DVD player from them before February 23rd. The email doesn't explicitly offer an apology -- which it shouldn't -- but they mention being dedicated to making sure their customers have the "right technology." They also offer a trade-in program for the HD-DVD players and used HD-DVDs. Clearly they're hoping we use the gift card and/or trade-in program to buy a Blu-Ray player.
We won't be doing that just yet, but I'm sure there's something in Best Buy we can spend $50 on [Insert maniacal laughter here]. And I appreciate the gesture, especially since it's completely unnecessary in my opinion. Way to go, Best Buy!
For months, there has been much debate surrounding the two competing high-definition video formats: Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-ray Disc. Recently, Toshiba announced that they will no longer produce HD DVD players, and movie studios have decided not to release new titles in the HD DVD format.
As the owner of an HD DVD player, you may have concerns about these developments. At Best Buy, we are dedicated to making sure you always have the right technology for you. That's why we're offering you a complimentary $50 Best Buy gift card for each HD DVD player you purchased from Best Buy before February 23, 2008. (See details and qualifying models.) Use the gift card to treat yourself to anything you want in our stores or online. Most qualifying customers will automatically receive their complimentary gift card by mail in the coming weeks. If you qualify and haven't received yours by May 1, 2008, please call us at 1-888-BEST-BUY to verify your eligibility (have your receipt handy, if possible).
Firmware Update for the Win
Thanks to RG reader Jeff Carter for knocking some sense into me and reminding me that these newfangled next-gen DVD players need periodic firmware updates.
Turns out that our player was running firmware version 1.1 and Toshiba had already updated all the way to version 2.0. I couldn't get the HD-DVD player to communicate with the server no matter how many different times I tried going online with it, but fortunately Toshiba had very detailed directions for making your own update disc. So, one 38-meg download, a quick burn of a CD-R, and then voila! The system was updated to version 2.0 and our Netflix copy of Syriana on HD-DVD played all the way through without a single hiccup.
The disc itself did look a bit cleaner than the previous discs we got from Netflix, but I'm sure the firmware update deserves more than a small bit of the credit for our uninterrupted movie-viewing experience.
But this raises an important question: are the majority of consumers ready for products that require frequent updates? It's one thing to upgrade computers and videogame consoles which are essentially designed for online use, but I don't think most people are going to anticipate having to update such benign equipment as DVD players. What's next, televisions? Refrigerators? Microwave ovens?
For all these years that we've had DirecTV, I've never once hooked the receiver up to a phone line, regardless of how many times DirecTV has asked us to do so. It just never seemed necessary. I know the true winner of the next-gen formats isn't going to be HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray, but rather downloadable content and I suspect at that point we'll all be used to everything being connected, but until then, I wonder? I have a hard time believing that most people are ready to not only make sure their computers are online with broadband, but that their movie players are too.
I'm pretty into the technogear and even I think the whole idea is a little odd.
Turns out that our player was running firmware version 1.1 and Toshiba had already updated all the way to version 2.0. I couldn't get the HD-DVD player to communicate with the server no matter how many different times I tried going online with it, but fortunately Toshiba had very detailed directions for making your own update disc. So, one 38-meg download, a quick burn of a CD-R, and then voila! The system was updated to version 2.0 and our Netflix copy of Syriana on HD-DVD played all the way through without a single hiccup.
The disc itself did look a bit cleaner than the previous discs we got from Netflix, but I'm sure the firmware update deserves more than a small bit of the credit for our uninterrupted movie-viewing experience.
But this raises an important question: are the majority of consumers ready for products that require frequent updates? It's one thing to upgrade computers and videogame consoles which are essentially designed for online use, but I don't think most people are going to anticipate having to update such benign equipment as DVD players. What's next, televisions? Refrigerators? Microwave ovens?
For all these years that we've had DirecTV, I've never once hooked the receiver up to a phone line, regardless of how many times DirecTV has asked us to do so. It just never seemed necessary. I know the true winner of the next-gen formats isn't going to be HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray, but rather downloadable content and I suspect at that point we'll all be used to everything being connected, but until then, I wonder? I have a hard time believing that most people are ready to not only make sure their computers are online with broadband, but that their movie players are too.
I'm pretty into the technogear and even I think the whole idea is a little odd.
Netflix Update
I love this company.
We called them today to complain about our run of bad luck with their HD-DVDs. The customer service person who answered claimed to have not heard many complaints of this sort (clearly he didn't field the call from our friends with the 5 unplayable Blu-Ray discs) but nevertheless, apologized profusely and not only credited our next 3 months of membership for free, but even sent out the next two movies in our queue just in case one of them doesn't play (we recently downgraded to a one-at-a-time plan, instead of having three movies out at once).
This doesn't really address the fact that their packaging is damaging the discs, but if it really is just bad luck and most people aren't having this problem, then this gesture makes up for the frustration.
We called them today to complain about our run of bad luck with their HD-DVDs. The customer service person who answered claimed to have not heard many complaints of this sort (clearly he didn't field the call from our friends with the 5 unplayable Blu-Ray discs) but nevertheless, apologized profusely and not only credited our next 3 months of membership for free, but even sent out the next two movies in our queue just in case one of them doesn't play (we recently downgraded to a one-at-a-time plan, instead of having three movies out at once).
This doesn't really address the fact that their packaging is damaging the discs, but if it really is just bad luck and most people aren't having this problem, then this gesture makes up for the frustration.
For Next-Gen DVDs, Look Beyond Netflix
Well this is rather unfortunate. It's not bad enough HD-DVD, as a format, has gone to the big Beta-Max in the sky, but the sleeve packaging that Netflix uses to mail out their DVDs are damaging both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs during shipping. We've encountered numerous problems with 4 of the 5 HD-DVDs we rented from Netflix and friends of ours had issues with all 5 Blu-Ray discs they've received from Netflix.
The problem is that the information on these discs is much closer to the actual surface of the disc than standard DVDs or CD-ROMS and, therefore, is much more prone to being damaged. The fibrous sleeves that Netflix uses to mail their discs are causing loads of minute scratches in the read-surface of the discs and rendering them inoperable. Our friends with the Blu-Ray player were barely able to get past the opening credits in each of the five movies they rented and while we were able to get much further into the movie, we would often have to skip ahead to get past trouble-spots in the disc.
It's clear to me that Netflix needs to change their shipping packaging to something a bit sturdier, perhaps a plastic hard-back with the circular snap-in piece to keep the discs from sliding back and forth. This will no doubt increase the cost of shipping, but not more than repeatedly sending unplayable movies back and forth through the mail, which is what's going on now.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who also uses Netflix for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray and seeing if we've just had really bad luck, or if it's more commonplace than Netflix is letting on. Personally, as much as I love the Netflix service, I can't really recommend them for next-gen formats until they change their packaging.
The problem is that the information on these discs is much closer to the actual surface of the disc than standard DVDs or CD-ROMS and, therefore, is much more prone to being damaged. The fibrous sleeves that Netflix uses to mail their discs are causing loads of minute scratches in the read-surface of the discs and rendering them inoperable. Our friends with the Blu-Ray player were barely able to get past the opening credits in each of the five movies they rented and while we were able to get much further into the movie, we would often have to skip ahead to get past trouble-spots in the disc.
It's clear to me that Netflix needs to change their shipping packaging to something a bit sturdier, perhaps a plastic hard-back with the circular snap-in piece to keep the discs from sliding back and forth. This will no doubt increase the cost of shipping, but not more than repeatedly sending unplayable movies back and forth through the mail, which is what's going on now.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who also uses Netflix for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray and seeing if we've just had really bad luck, or if it's more commonplace than Netflix is letting on. Personally, as much as I love the Netflix service, I can't really recommend them for next-gen formats until they change their packaging.
The King of Kong: Fistul of Quarters
Kristin and I were playing Scene-It on the Xbox 360 the other night and one of the questions showed a clip from the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong. We were asked to name the movie -- duh -- and one of the options was "The King of Kong". I thought it was just made up to try and trick players away from answering correctly and thought nothing of it.
Then the next day I was browsing the available downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace and came across a movie called The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. It's a real movie title, after all. A real movie about the the competition that surrounds setting world records in classic arcade gaming. I couldn't tell from the description if it was a documentary, a mockumentary, or if it was entirely fictional.
Let me say that we were a good thirty minutes into the movie and I still couldn't tell if it was fake or serious. The main character, Billy Mitchell, comes across as such a total loser in the movie that the whole time you're watching it, common sense tells you that it has to be fake. Nobody would actually act and look like this clown. Nobody in real life, in the mid 2000's could allow themselves to be filmed looking this bad and while being this obnoxious. But then you realize that it's real and well, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
But let me back up and say that the movie centers around Billy because back in 1982, Billy was the recognized record holder for a bunch of video games. Games like Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac-Man and so on. Well, as time went on each of Billy's records were broken except his Donkey Kong record. That is, until 2005 when a guy named Steve Weibe living right down the road here in Washington, in the Redmond Ridge development, broke his record. Needless to say Billy and his merry band of disciples who oversee the record keeping (and somehow manage to make Billy think anyone cares about his 'celebrity') try to find ways to invalidate Steve's new record.
To say anymore would give away too much of the story since it's a short movie (80 minutes) and relies heavily on the conflict that comes from an unknown (Steve), trying to crack a decades-old geeks-network of classic gaming enthusiasts lead by head-slimeball, Mitchell. Perhaps Mitchell is more likable in real life (unlikely), but you do sort of pity him for trying so desperately to hold onto his record.
Anyway, the movie did receive multiple awards from film festivals around the country for Best Documentary and it's definitely well made. Even if you have no interest in classic gaming (I don't), I still recommend watching the movie for the simple voyeuristic value it provides.
Then the next day I was browsing the available downloads on Xbox Live Marketplace and came across a movie called The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. It's a real movie title, after all. A real movie about the the competition that surrounds setting world records in classic arcade gaming. I couldn't tell from the description if it was a documentary, a mockumentary, or if it was entirely fictional.
Let me say that we were a good thirty minutes into the movie and I still couldn't tell if it was fake or serious. The main character, Billy Mitchell, comes across as such a total loser in the movie that the whole time you're watching it, common sense tells you that it has to be fake. Nobody would actually act and look like this clown. Nobody in real life, in the mid 2000's could allow themselves to be filmed looking this bad and while being this obnoxious. But then you realize that it's real and well, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
But let me back up and say that the movie centers around Billy because back in 1982, Billy was the recognized record holder for a bunch of video games. Games like Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac-Man and so on. Well, as time went on each of Billy's records were broken except his Donkey Kong record. That is, until 2005 when a guy named Steve Weibe living right down the road here in Washington, in the Redmond Ridge development, broke his record. Needless to say Billy and his merry band of disciples who oversee the record keeping (and somehow manage to make Billy think anyone cares about his 'celebrity') try to find ways to invalidate Steve's new record.
To say anymore would give away too much of the story since it's a short movie (80 minutes) and relies heavily on the conflict that comes from an unknown (Steve), trying to crack a decades-old geeks-network of classic gaming enthusiasts lead by head-slimeball, Mitchell. Perhaps Mitchell is more likable in real life (unlikely), but you do sort of pity him for trying so desperately to hold onto his record.
Anyway, the movie did receive multiple awards from film festivals around the country for Best Documentary and it's definitely well made. Even if you have no interest in classic gaming (I don't), I still recommend watching the movie for the simple voyeuristic value it provides.
I'd Like to Thank the Academy
So last night was the big night. It was the night after Memphis's unbeaten streak came to an end and the world sat and wondered, "What will we possibly watch on television tonight?" One network had an answer: The Academy Awards.
This is what I know about last night's Oscars broadcast: John Stewart was funny, but seems awkward. I also learned that the Coen Brothers apparently made a movie this year. That movie won them a bunch of awards, Johnny Depp won zero, and a stripper won for best screenplay. I don't remember for what movie, but I know she had a tattoo that looked just like the girly pics soldiers painted on the sides of their planes in the movie Pearl Harbor.
I don't remember many details because I came up with the perfect Oscar-viewing plan. I exhausted myself all afternoon on a 5-hour mountain bike ride. Then I drank a bunch of beer, showered, and laid on the couch right at 5:30 when Jon Stewart was coming on stage. 15 minutes later I was sound asleep and, according to my wife, proceeded to mumble the words "Who", "What?", and "Why?" on and off while sleeping for the next three hours. As far as she was concerned, I was awake and just echoing her own sentiments as she sat and watched... and waited for a movie she had actually seen.
I did get up to pee at one point and saw the musical performance for one of the two-dozen songs from Enchanted. It was the one with 600 people on stage and the lady in the white dress was asking the same question over and over, and the reggae dude was trying to get her stoned. At first I didn't know if we were still watching the Oscars or if Kristin had changed the channel to CNN and this was just Nancy Grace orchestrating an elaborate reenactment of the Natalee Holloway death.
Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take you...
And back to sleep I went.
I woke up in time for Best Male Actor and was really upset that I couldn't complain that Clooney and Depp were robbed because I hadn't seen any of the movies nominated. So I protested the rest of the show and went back to sleep.
It was my best Oscars in years. And while I'm at it, let me take a moment to thank the writers for ending their strike and letting the show go on. Without their ability to come to an agreement, the Oscars would have been cancelled and I would have risked staying awake and watching some worthwhile programming.
So I too would like to thank the Academy. Thank you deeply for scaring off all the decent programming last night and for helping me get a nice long nap in. Without your efforts, I'd be useless today. I'd be groggy, grumpy, and my whole day would be shot. They said it couldn't be done but you gave me HOPE and you helped me believe in my dreams and, dammit, you were right. I could fall asleep! I could take a 3 hour nap! And best of all, I didn't miss a thing. Watch out world, I'm well-rested and coming to get ya! As Barbara Streisand might say, "thank you, gorgeous!"
This is what I know about last night's Oscars broadcast: John Stewart was funny, but seems awkward. I also learned that the Coen Brothers apparently made a movie this year. That movie won them a bunch of awards, Johnny Depp won zero, and a stripper won for best screenplay. I don't remember for what movie, but I know she had a tattoo that looked just like the girly pics soldiers painted on the sides of their planes in the movie Pearl Harbor.
I don't remember many details because I came up with the perfect Oscar-viewing plan. I exhausted myself all afternoon on a 5-hour mountain bike ride. Then I drank a bunch of beer, showered, and laid on the couch right at 5:30 when Jon Stewart was coming on stage. 15 minutes later I was sound asleep and, according to my wife, proceeded to mumble the words "Who", "What?", and "Why?" on and off while sleeping for the next three hours. As far as she was concerned, I was awake and just echoing her own sentiments as she sat and watched... and waited for a movie she had actually seen.
I did get up to pee at one point and saw the musical performance for one of the two-dozen songs from Enchanted. It was the one with 600 people on stage and the lady in the white dress was asking the same question over and over, and the reggae dude was trying to get her stoned. At first I didn't know if we were still watching the Oscars or if Kristin had changed the channel to CNN and this was just Nancy Grace orchestrating an elaborate reenactment of the Natalee Holloway death.
Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take you...
And back to sleep I went.
I woke up in time for Best Male Actor and was really upset that I couldn't complain that Clooney and Depp were robbed because I hadn't seen any of the movies nominated. So I protested the rest of the show and went back to sleep.
It was my best Oscars in years. And while I'm at it, let me take a moment to thank the writers for ending their strike and letting the show go on. Without their ability to come to an agreement, the Oscars would have been cancelled and I would have risked staying awake and watching some worthwhile programming.
So I too would like to thank the Academy. Thank you deeply for scaring off all the decent programming last night and for helping me get a nice long nap in. Without your efforts, I'd be useless today. I'd be groggy, grumpy, and my whole day would be shot. They said it couldn't be done but you gave me HOPE and you helped me believe in my dreams and, dammit, you were right. I could fall asleep! I could take a 3 hour nap! And best of all, I didn't miss a thing. Watch out world, I'm well-rested and coming to get ya! As Barbara Streisand might say, "thank you, gorgeous!"
And It's Official: Blu-Ray Wins
For the first time in the history of recordable media, Sony has come out on top. Bucking a trend that started with Betamax and continued through Mini-Discs, Memory Sticks, and UMDs (and I'm probably missing one or two), Sony has finally developed a media format destined to be the defacto standard.
I knew we were taking a risk buying an HD-DVD player in December, but damn, I didn't think it would be over this soon! In the immortal words of emailers the world over, "WTF?" For chrissakes, Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds and even he thinks Toshiba hit the mat too easily.
From Reuters:
I knew we were taking a risk buying an HD-DVD player in December, but damn, I didn't think it would be over this soon! In the immortal words of emailers the world over, "WTF?" For chrissakes, Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds and even he thinks Toshiba hit the mat too easily.
From Reuters:
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video, allowing the competing Blu-Ray camp a free run, public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.
Toshiba is expected to suffer losses amounting to tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) to scrap production of HD DVD players and recorders and other steps to exit the business, Japan's NHK said on its website.
No one at Toshiba could be reached for comment.
The format war between the Toshiba-backed HD DVD and Sony Corp's Blu-Ray, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s, has slowed the development of what is expected to be a multibillion dollar high-definition DVD industry.
Toshiba was dealt a blow on Friday when Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it would abandon the HD DVD format, becoming the latest in a series of top retailers and movie studios to rally behind Blu-ray technology for high definition DVDs.
Toshiba plans to continue selling HD DVD equipment at stores for the time being but will not put resources into developing new devices, NHK said.
Netflix: Follow-Up
Below is the email I just received from Netflix regarding their switch to Blu-Ray exclusivity.
So there you have it. They're going to continue offering their current selection but will not add to it or replace any discs that get lost/stolen/scratched. So we get to continue watching HD-DVDs via Netflix for the rest of the year. Hopefully by then the Blu-Ray players (i.e. Sony PS3) will come down in price and there will be some games worth playing on it.
You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.
While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.
Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.
So there you have it. They're going to continue offering their current selection but will not add to it or replace any discs that get lost/stolen/scratched. So we get to continue watching HD-DVDs via Netflix for the rest of the year. Hopefully by then the Blu-Ray players (i.e. Sony PS3) will come down in price and there will be some games worth playing on it.
Netflix Goes Blu-Ray Only
Can't say I'm surprised, but I am disappointed. The decision to get an HD-DVD in December player was done in part because of Netflix's sizable collection of movies. And now they're going Blu-Ray only for next-gen formats.
Hopefully their existing collection of HD-DVDs will continue to be offered, or at least put on sale cheaply, but I doubt it.
Article here.
Hopefully their existing collection of HD-DVDs will continue to be offered, or at least put on sale cheaply, but I doubt it.
Article here.
Choosing Poorly in the HD Format War
It appears that Santa made a boo-boo.
Just two weeks after a very HD-DVD oriented Christmas in my house, Time-Warner and Paramount have dropped their HD-DVD exclusivity and switched allegiance to Blu-Ray. This leaves Toshiba's HD-DVD camp as lonely as a Crystal Lake bonfire after a Jason Voorhees visit. And me with a technology that is potentially DOA.
Apparently the lower price-point of the HD-DVD players and more feature-rich media wasn't enough to convince movie houses to ignore the truckloads of money Sony is rumored to be driving into their lots. That and the belief that Blu-Rays are more secure. It's not over for HD-DVD, but it certainly looks as if Blu-Ray has the edge and if Sony can ever gain some momentum with the PS3 (which comes with a Blu-Ray player built-in), then they will finally, once and for all, win a format war after a long, long string of failures.
Or maybe nobody will?
Time-Warner issued a statement saying that their switch to Blu-Ray was done to help eliminate confusion on the part of consumers. I'm guessing consumers apparently couldn't understand that movies with a blue case played on Blu-Ray players and those with a maroon case played on HD-DVD players. Bull. That's like saying that people don't understand that Xbox games don't play on a PlayStation. I understand the majority of Americans can be pretty thick at times, but are we color blind too?
If the announcements of these two companies dropping their HD-DVD exclusivity doesn't create a surge in Blu-Ray player sales within the next three months (combined with post-holiday sales) then I think it will be pretty safe to say that neither format is going to replace DVDs and that, instead, consumers will simply wait for the next big thing. As it is, I already had a Radio Shack register jockey trying to sell me a cable that supports up to 1440p, which doesn't exist yet.
As for me, I'm disappointed to hear that HD-DVDs may not come out on top, but I'm not regretting the purchase. I've been saying all along that at $199, the Toshiba HD-A3 (with 7 free movies) was cheap enough to be worth getting even if Sony's Blu-Ray format eventually became the standard. And I still believe this, especially given the fact that we hadn't yet bought an upconverting DVD player. Standalone Blu-Ray players are still upwards of $399 and although they are now offering rebates for 10 free movies, that's double the price of Toshiba's model (the 1080i version, not the 1080p). Also, we hadn't bought any living room technology in over 3 years which, in today's universe, is a lifetime and after downloading HD movies over Xbox Live we realized we were really missing out.
There are some really good movies out there on HD-DVD and both Best-Buy and NetFlix have enough of a library to keep us entertained for many months to come. And should the HD-DVD movie selection follow the not-so tragic path of the UMD movie format, then I guess we'll just have to buy a combo-player or, who knows, maybe even a PS3. I figure by then there'll have to be something worth playing on it.
Just two weeks after a very HD-DVD oriented Christmas in my house, Time-Warner and Paramount have dropped their HD-DVD exclusivity and switched allegiance to Blu-Ray. This leaves Toshiba's HD-DVD camp as lonely as a Crystal Lake bonfire after a Jason Voorhees visit. And me with a technology that is potentially DOA.
Apparently the lower price-point of the HD-DVD players and more feature-rich media wasn't enough to convince movie houses to ignore the truckloads of money Sony is rumored to be driving into their lots. That and the belief that Blu-Rays are more secure. It's not over for HD-DVD, but it certainly looks as if Blu-Ray has the edge and if Sony can ever gain some momentum with the PS3 (which comes with a Blu-Ray player built-in), then they will finally, once and for all, win a format war after a long, long string of failures.
Or maybe nobody will?
Time-Warner issued a statement saying that their switch to Blu-Ray was done to help eliminate confusion on the part of consumers. I'm guessing consumers apparently couldn't understand that movies with a blue case played on Blu-Ray players and those with a maroon case played on HD-DVD players. Bull. That's like saying that people don't understand that Xbox games don't play on a PlayStation. I understand the majority of Americans can be pretty thick at times, but are we color blind too?
If the announcements of these two companies dropping their HD-DVD exclusivity doesn't create a surge in Blu-Ray player sales within the next three months (combined with post-holiday sales) then I think it will be pretty safe to say that neither format is going to replace DVDs and that, instead, consumers will simply wait for the next big thing. As it is, I already had a Radio Shack register jockey trying to sell me a cable that supports up to 1440p, which doesn't exist yet.
As for me, I'm disappointed to hear that HD-DVDs may not come out on top, but I'm not regretting the purchase. I've been saying all along that at $199, the Toshiba HD-A3 (with 7 free movies) was cheap enough to be worth getting even if Sony's Blu-Ray format eventually became the standard. And I still believe this, especially given the fact that we hadn't yet bought an upconverting DVD player. Standalone Blu-Ray players are still upwards of $399 and although they are now offering rebates for 10 free movies, that's double the price of Toshiba's model (the 1080i version, not the 1080p). Also, we hadn't bought any living room technology in over 3 years which, in today's universe, is a lifetime and after downloading HD movies over Xbox Live we realized we were really missing out.
There are some really good movies out there on HD-DVD and both Best-Buy and NetFlix have enough of a library to keep us entertained for many months to come. And should the HD-DVD movie selection follow the not-so tragic path of the UMD movie format, then I guess we'll just have to buy a combo-player or, who knows, maybe even a PS3. I figure by then there'll have to be something worth playing on it.
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