Star Wars Tickets/ Hitchhiker's Guide

YyyyyEEEEAASsss!!! I woke up at the crack of 10 today and headed over to the Palace theater to buy me some advanced tickets for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith! It seriously seems like yesterday when I was buying the tickets for episode I. I sat out in the long line next to the theater in the baking sun for over two hours, watching nerds play Star Wars CCG and have lightsaber battles. I also remember sitting there thinking about what episode III would be like and how old I'd be when it came out...19!? Wow! That's old! I'll be like married by then or something!
Yeah, well, it's here now and I can't believe it. I really believe this final installment of the trilogy is going to deliver big time. I've also decided on my costume for opening night, I'm going as George Lucas. I need to gain a few lbs and grow my beard out but other than that I just need blue jeans and a flannel shirt and a pouty face, "aarrererrrrgh, star wars is my burdennnnn, god kill me pleeeease".

I also saw 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' today. I'm going to start off my review with my rating...I give it a 7.432222/10 Annoying Androids. Yeah, not bad, not great, EH!
There were some great moments in the movie, the visuals were pretty unique and so were most of the characters, but there are just too many basic problems.
1. There's no "mcGuffin". There really isn't any strong motivation or ultimate goal that is trying to be reached in the film, there's no sense of urgency to achieve anything which is a real problem because it leaves the movie feeling empty, robbing it of excitement.
2. The humor falls pretty flat most of the time. I really like the BBC show "The Office", so the British humor was not the problem at all. There wasn't any stupid humor that makes you cringe either. It just seems like the writers didn't try very hard to write good jokes.
3. Marvin the Paranoid Android gets old really fast. I think there's only so many times he can say "no one listens to me anyway" or "what's the point" before the audience says "HEARD IT". I pretty sure Alan Rickman was in the studio for a total of five minutes and recorded maybe three lines, which were reused throughout the film.
4. Mos Def is the poor man's Orlando Jones. Mos Def is pretty good in other roles, but for this movie, practically the entire time I kept picturing how much better Orlando Jones could have delivered the lines. I make the comparison because Def acts so similar to Jones in this movie, I'm not sure what the deal is.
5. The sound fx were almost non existent in this movie. I guess it's something you take for granted but you really miss them when they're gone. I'd just like to stop now and thank Ben Burt for his outstanding work on the Star Wars movie's sound. SPACE MOVIES NEED ENVIRONMENTAL AMBIANCE SOUND, 'hitchhikers' was like watching a cartoon almost.

anyway, I know I bashed this quite a bit, but really if you like something different, I recommend seeing it. But for most of you, just wait til it's out on video.

BATMAN BEGINS

And now for my worst post ever...
"a man that dresses like a bat clearly has issues" - Bruce Wayne
"can somebody tell me what kind of a world we live in, where a man dressed up as a bat, get's all of my press? This town needs an enema!" - The Joker
YEeeessssssss, the newest and final Batman Begins trailer is now online and I couldn't be more excited. I LOVE BATMAN. It's dark, it's action packed, it has great actors...AJDF)J)ROE)$(T!@(#$3-92!!!!Lf.
My forcast for this movie?
8 billion opening weekend. Seriously.
It's so beautiful.
Christian Bale is just too cool for school. AAaaaaaaaaaaaagh!! I'm going to scream like a Beatles' groupie when it appears on screen opening night. I'll go dressed in Ward Burton Robin gear, I've been waiting so long for another Batman and it seems like an eternity since that summer so long ago when Batman and Robin profaned the name of Batman on the big screen, even though I'll admit I saw it five times.
"TONIGHT, Hellll freezes ova, KILL DA BAT AND DA BIIIIRD!!!"

I was a wee child when the last great movie (Batman 89 of course) came out. But now he's back and in perfect form. MWAAHAHAhahahah yeeeeeeeyeyeyessss!!

and also, Star Wars Episode III is looking very very good. Yeah yeah, I know, the first two sucked, so will this one...NO!!!!!!, it's going to be awesome. GET YOUR HOPES UP NOW!!! My brain is going TO EXPLOOODE!!!!

Yessums, Not Much at All...

I was mowing my grandparent's lawn today and I saw a squirrel crossing the road out of the corner of my eye. I noticed it was carrying something large. My car was parked by the sidewalk and the squirrel had run underneath, so I stood for a bit waiting for it to come out, eventually it did and started lightly prancing toward the tree. I still couldn’t figure out what in the world it was carrying in it’s mouth, I thought maybe it was a huge acorn, then I thought maybe it was some new carnivorous species of squirrel. Holy crap, it’s dragging the dead carcass up the tree!!! So I start chasing after it, it stares back at me, I look a little closer and notice a baby squirrel is holding onto it’s mother’s neck riding on her underside! I didn’t even know squirrels did that. I thought only monkeys babies road on their parents. Apparently I'mm wrong. It's just I’ve certainly never seen that before, ever. Anyway, it was cute, a little too cute.

On a more depressing note. Last night I downloaded the “Zapruder” Kennedy Assassination footage. I had seen it once before on a documentary, but it's just as bad every time you see it, it's so eerie. It’s easily one of the most horrific things ever caught on film. The footage I found starts just after the first shot which goes through his neck I think and then hits Govenor Connally. Kennedy holds his neck and motions and if he’s coughing, then a few frames of footage pass and bam, the second deadly shot, the images are really terrifying. I always find it ironic how after he was shot the first time, he should have slumped forward, but was wearing a brace because of back problems, which kept him upright for the second shot. Unbelieveable.

And also, congratulations to me, hooray, a thousand posts! Or something close to that.

I says I don’t need sleep.

Well I learned one thing so far this semester at CHC. I just found out that sleeping is overrated. My resident assistant and I decided that last night would be the perfect night not to sleep or even close our eyes for a second. How this came about, I have no idea but let me just say one thing. It was amazing. Today I came to realize that humans do not need sleep if sufficiently drowned in caffeine. It was a fun filled night of nothing. I'd say about four hours of the night were devoted to listening to music nonstop while my ra wrote a frickin paper. Other than that I would roam the halls of north dorm as quiet as a mouse. As the early morning hours came about, I sat waiting at the end of the hall for the first groggy student to come out of his room. Well, no one ever came out. Yes, disappointing a little bit but I eased my pain with some late night MTV. And yep Mr. Dave was playing "American Baby." After that, I noticed it was 7:00 AM, had a class at 8, decided to take a shower. Where the rest of this story goes, I dont know. Only the day ahead of me will be able to tell. For now , I am looking on the bright side and will probably go to bed early tonight.

A Word From Clint part 2

Random Star Wars thoughts from Clint...
I didn't really look to see who directed the Clone Wars cartoon but it would seem like it would have been cool to have someone outside the realm of Star Wars movies to direct them. For instance, David Fincher who was a cameraman on Return of the Jedi but now is a big time director. Or perhaps someone experienced with Japanese Anime. One thing I enjoy so much about Japanese Anime is the seizures. I can tell you honestly that Clone Wars didn't give me one seizure.

And another question that I have for George Lucas is that I want to know if there are any dance clubs in his universe. I've seen the crazy Ewoks dance and I've seen all of the fun that can be had at Jabba's place but come on there's got to be some place in the universe where a guy can get away from his droids, listen to some music, become entranced by the strobe light, and just let the force take over his body.

Towanda: Police State

For several years now Towanda (in the hizzouse) has been under the subjection of the town of Hudson and their one police officer. He's been parked at the four way stop next to the gas station for years now. Thank you, thank you so much, without your presence the intersection would erupt into mass chaos and no one would ever come to a complete stop! It would become the epicenter of drug dealing and prostitution in Mclean county!
Yeah, no. GO BACK TO HUDSON!!! We can govern ourselves. FREEEEEEDOOOOMMMM!!!

To Mr. Bronze 5-0, In case you happen to read my site...you know who you are, leave us alone. Tommorow we're going down to the corner and making a citizens arrest (aka riot). See you then.

And then after that, I'm declaring myself the new Towanda cop and will then subject Hudson to TOWANDA RULE!! Sweet, sweet irony.

But seriously, there's gotta be some law or etiquette or something that determines how long an officer can remain in one place, it's like profiling or something, or being in Jerusalem and having armed guards at the freakin Fast Stop gas station.

Badfinger: The Drab Four (I'm witty) but it's true, they sucked.

Paul McCartney: "I saw them perform at my cousin's wedding in south Liverpool, they called themselves 'The Plum Eaters'. They had potential and they did Beatles' covers fairly well, they all had nice hair too, which was a bonus I'd say. So after the reception festivities I introduced myself to them, gave a few autographs, took a few photos, then I asked if they'd like to be rich and famous and of course they agreed, but I told them the name had to go, and they agreed."

And it was then in 1968, after a few hours of brainstorming, 'The Beatmongers' were born, then 'Beatstreet' was born, then 'Der Baitals', then 'The Baddles', then 'Baden Schlanger', THEN finally, they went next door to the movies and watched Goldfinger, so then 'Goldfinger' was born, then 'Beetfinger', but then FINALLY: 'Badfinger' was born.

McCartney: "Badfinger and I were in the studio for seven months and recorded maybe a handful of songs. Three members of the band quit during the course of recording and Peter Ham had the attention span of a two year old, so we could never actually get through a song. I was going to kill someone, it was just a matter of time."

McCartney eventually decided to bring in the production talent of George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Together with McCartney, they produced Badfinger's first hit "Come and Get it".

George Harrison: "We went out for a bite at a nearby pub, got a little sloshed and then wrote a few new songs. Paul went off to the gentlemen's room to relax, wrote a few more songs, came back and played them, and one of them happened to be 'Come and Get it'."
Ringo Starr: "When we got back to the studio George played the new song for us, we liked it, but then Paul and I realized that we had already heard it before and had recorded it ages ago for a 1963 album we never used called 'Beatles on Parade'."
Paul: "We had Ringo rummage through the storage closet until he found the old recording, we dusted it off and gave it a listen, there was nothing wrong with it so we just used it as a model for Badfinger to follow. They played along with our recording and then we mixed the two performances together."
George: "Then we took their recording and turned the volume to something slightly above zero."

The song would be a huge success for Badfinger who would go on to record, tour, breakup and repeat the cycle for another twenty years.

John Lennon: "I think Paul was living the life a failed musician through the failure of Badfinger, I think he just wanted to see what it was like to have people hate him, and people did hate him, for unleashing Badfinger on the world."

Patch the Pirate: Promoter of Sleaze

oy vey, I was searching Google and came across this article, it's old but worth the read... I've inserted comments, which are in orange lettering...apparently, Patch the Pirate's new material is too hardcore for his mainstream audience.

from http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/becarefulabout.htm

"BE CAREFUL ABOUT NEWER PATCH THE PIRATE TAPES"
June 14, 2000 -- While most of the music produced by Majesty Music of Greenville, South Carolina (headed up by Ron and Shelly Hamilton), is excellent, we must warn that some of the newer recordings are moving in a contemporary direction. This is particularly true of the newer Patch the Pirate children’s tapes.
"The Mount Zion Marathon" tape for example, has a song titled "Lazy Bones," which is certainly akin to rock music. It uses a syncopated rhythm with a heavy, synthesized bass Synth bass?! ROCKIN!. The music would be right at home in a nightclub or a sleazy Broadway play and could easily conjure up such unwholesome images as that of a saucy woman sauntering across a stage. Well, now that you mention it, the lyrics "get up and serve the Lord" are rather 'saucy'! Yowzaaa! But I'm still skeptical, I need more examples, conjure me up some more images please! "Weaaeell, the song could make one think of scantily clad co-eds on the beaches of Cancun during spring break and...yeah that's enough. Though it is tame compared to much of the standard CCM fare today, Patch the Pirate’s "Lazy Bones" will help develop an appetite in children for worldly music and sleaze Other examples of this can be found on their new tapes.
Some will doubtless protest that I have no right to judge Majesty Music by my own opinion of what is or is not worldly, that they themselves see absolutely nothing wrong with the new Patch tapes. I readily admit that there is much that is subjective about music, BINGO! and that it is sometimes difficult to nail down precisely what is and is not wholesome. This being the case, isn’t the wisest approach to avoid all appearance of evil, to be certain that we offend in nothing? Instead of taking this wise path of avoiding every semblance of worldliness and maintaining only the most unquestionable standard for music, though, Majesty Music is pushing the musical boundaries for the fundamentalist and Bible-believing Baptist churches that use the Patch tapes, subtly and gradually moving them into the CCM sphere.
Books published by Ron Hamilton’s father-in-law, Frank Garlock, plainly condemn the use of worldly music to serve a holy God. Dr. Garlock observes: "It is absurd to think that one can unite Christian lyrics with the medium of the world (rock music) and expect the meaning and communication to remain the same" (Music in the Balance, 1992, p. 31). Yet this is exactly what Patch the Pirate is doing with songs such as "Lazy Bones." Dr. Garlock says it is absolutely untrue to claim that music is simply a matter of personal taste (p. 7). He carefully describes the characteristics of worldly music. He defines rock music by its rhythm and quotes British sociologist Simon Frith, "The sexuality of music is usually referred to in terms of its rhythm--it is the beat that commands a directly physical response." That is why rock music is so incredibly popular. It literally feels good; it affects people on a sensual level. And let us be reminded that rock music is not defined by how fast the rhythm moves. Rock music comes in a wide variety of speeds, but the slow or soft rock of "Lazy Bones" is just as much rock music as the soft rock of many of the Beatles tunes. Cue record burning
Consider the following warning by Dr. H.T. Spence, president of Foundations Bible College & Seminary. Dr. Spence is a fundamentalist historian and teacher who has taught music, history, and theology for 25 years. He received part of his music training at Bob Jones University: "The simple, soft music of Patch the Pirate Goes in Space has mutated into an eclectic fashion of contemporary sounds in The Misterslippi River Race (the first of the recordings which caused much alarm from many Fundamentalists) ... the next recording in the series, The Calliope Capers, literally increased the eclectic approach to the music, with just about every song written in a different style of contemporary music" at least there's no rap (Dr. H.T. Spence, Confronting Contemporary).
Don Jasmin, editor of the Fundamentalist Digest, adds this warning: "The Fundamentalist Digest editor firmly believes that children who become ‘addicted’ to ‘Patch’s’ music could develop a light frivolous approach to Holy Scripture and sacred Biblical truth. This does not mean that he believes Bible truth must be presented in a boring and dull manner! He believes that the strategy of Bill Mason and the Children’s Bible Clubs in Greenville, SC, is vastly superior in both its Scriptural teaching approach and musical methodology to that of Ron Hamilton and the ‘Patch the Pirate’ clubs" (Don Jasmin, Fundamentalist Digest).

Interesting. The song "Lazy Bones" is actually inspired by Native American music.
Anyheeewwww. These kind of arguments always make me wonder...1) do they condemn African and other various converted tribes who worship God by rhythm and beat driven music?
and 2) THE ONLY way rhythmic music "conjures" up "saucy" or "racy" or "scandalous" images is if someone WANTS us to see it (I.E. rap videos) or HAS TO REMIND OF THE FACT (I.E. THIS ARTICLE)
But really, stuff like this inspires me by how trivial it is and how there's a world full of people who need our help.

Tetris: The Eternal Obsession

One of my few memories of childhood involves Tetris. I remember my sister and I were being babysat by our usual favorite babysitter, Kelly I think her name was. It was like 8 o'clock, which for me was really late and we were playing Tetris, which she rented for us. I just remember sitting there in the dark living room watching these glorious shapes and colors move down the television screen. It changed my life forever.
Why do I still love this game? Because I have mild OCD and it's the perfect therapy. Placing shapes into their corresponding place eases the tention in my brain. It's like a smoker getting their fix, it relaxes obsessions.
And the music, aaaaaaaagh I love the music! I think it's part of the reason I like wierd cerebral mood music now. Who knows.

"Wallstreet Kid"the videogame for kids who didn't like puzzles, action or sports....
...BAHAHAHAAaa, oooohhh, yep, reeeally sad.

Sin City, a little more sinful than Vegas

Clive "2 hot 4 tv" owen

I don’t really enjoy writing reviews for good movies because I don‘t like analyzing the nuances of filmmaking, so usually I just say ‘it’s good, go see it‘. I prefer writing reviews for bad movies or movies with lots of cheesiness because there’s plenty of humorous material to rip apart. Everybody loves parody! Anyway, Clint said “are you going to write a review?”
So yes, here is it.
Once again, just like the last comic book movie I watched (Constantine), I didn’t really know anything about it. I knew Frank Miller created it, so I knew it was going to be bizarre and dark, but not much else. I did skim through a few pages of the graphic novel at Borders though. What I do know is that anything different is (usually) good.
The movie starts out with a beautiful scene on a rooftop that sets the mood of not knowing what to expect. The color is really the first thing that strikes you. About 90% of the film is done in black and white, but a brilliant idea which I’ve never seen done in a movie before, is how certain objects and people are given color to draw attention and accent shadows.
The second scene of the movie started to get me pretty worried, it involved Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen exchanging some badly delivered lines. Willis was ok, but Madsen was very disappointing. He delivers his lines in this really cheesy dry manner. And so I thought, great, here we go, this movie isn’t going to be believable at all.
But very quickly the quality of the acting and believability increase, it takes a bit to get used to but you’re quickly drawn in to the world of Sin City.
Stylistically Sin City reminds me a lot of the Dick Tracy movie (which I love) with Warren Beatty and Al Pacino. Sin City has that same type of highly stylized imaginary world. It has a lot of over-the-top memorable characters, much like Dick Tracy. And to my surprise, Sin City was a very funny movie, at least every 10-15 minutes there was a great laugh shared by the audience. Some of it because of funny lines but some of it was also caused by the occasional extreme cartoonish violence.
Though Sin City takes place in this far out world filled with extreme characters, the actors make it believable. Everyone does an excellent job, especially Mickey Rourke and Clive Owen, who play their characters with perfect conviction. Clive Owen is my new hero, he is so amazingly cool in this movie and HE NEEDS TO BE JAMES BOND!
The only real problem at all that I have with the movie is the occasional sloppily done blue screen work. Most of the movie’s environments are computer generated and were done wonderfully, but sometimes the actors and their background just don’t look right. It was really only noticeable 4-5 times in the movie though, but detracts from the quality, just a little bit.
Very good movie, kept me captivated, awesome art direction and acting, I give it 8.76/10 Jessica Albas