Released: 2010
Science fiction
Starring: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace
Director: Nimrod Antal
Running Time: 107 minutes
The breakdown: A collected group of strangers are dropped into a jungle where they quickly have to learn to survive against an unknown alien race of hunters.
This is not a remake of any of the Predator movies. It's a brand new spin on the idea. A group of strangers are dropped into a foreign planet jungle unconscious. They all wake up and discover they are not in familiar territory, nor do they know how they got there. They also discover that something is out in the jungle hunting them for fun. They'll have to learn fast, and work together to get out of this terrifying situation. I'll give you a clue, there's four different kind of predators in this movie and the strangers all have one thing in common.
The acting was pretty good, as well as the story line and special effects. If you liked any of the others in this series, like action, or suspense, this is a good one for you. I personally, haven't seen any of the other Predator movies, but this was a good start.
I give it 3 out 5 for being a solid well rounded movie.
sunrise
Sunrise over the Atlantic
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Had to share this beautiful time lapse photography of the Universe
Look at this!
http://video.yahoo.com/editorspicks-12135647/featured-24306389/the-tempest-milky-way-26434946.html
Sorry for whatever stupid ad they make you sit through to see the actual video, but it's really fantastic.
So so gorgeous and makes you realize how small we are on this Earth.
Make your time here count!
http://video.yahoo.com/editorspicks-12135647/featured-24306389/the-tempest-milky-way-26434946.html
Sorry for whatever stupid ad they make you sit through to see the actual video, but it's really fantastic.
So so gorgeous and makes you realize how small we are on this Earth.
Make your time here count!
Mass Effect 2
I'm adding a new category to my blog. That would be a video game review from either a Playstation 2, Playstation 3, or Wii platform.
I'm starting by reviewing the best video game I have ever played in my entire life!
Mass Effect 2 is an interactive first person shooter where your decisions have little and big consequences throughout an entire series of games. Mass Effect started on XBox, which I don't have, so I don't have the experience of playing that first section, but the 2nd one is awesome. It's mainly a science-fiction storyline, but I know everyone who's played it has loved it. It's highly entertaining, even if you don't care for outer space games.
At the beginning of this game, it does a small synopsis of the first Mass Effect, if you haven't played it. If you play it on an XBox then the first game info transfers to the 2nd game and it registers each and every decision you made from that game. Kinda' cool, but I have a Playstation so I couldn't do that.
Anyway, you can choose to make your character, Commander Shepard, a male or female and pick out all the little details like facial structure, hair color, and an outfit. I have played through the game 3 times now, and twice I was a female, once I was a male. It affects the story a little so I wanted to see what the changes were. The female lead actress is much better than the male lead. Not sure why they missed the mark on that, but the actress has a lot more emotion and inflection in her voice than the guy.
Commander Shepard starts out on the old ship from the first game that gets blown up. Your character dies saving someone else's life and a secret organization called, Cerberus, brings you back to life with a few improvements. You're their pet project for 2 years (while you are unconscious) and you awake sooner than expected. Cerebus contacts you through someone/thing called the Illusive Man (voice acted by Martin Sheen.) He shows up through a hologram on the new and improved Normany ship they built for you. Problem is you can't tell if he's a robot or a person through this hologram, his eyes are mechanical. Or maybe he's a group of individuals for all I know. He tells you that there's this alien race (The Collectors) that looks like it wants universal control and will kill just about everyone to get it, but starts with abducting human colonies. No one believes in a race called The Reapers that are even worse. The Reapers are supposed to be a long extinct dangerous alien race and isn't really in anyone's mind, everyone thinks of them as a possible legend at this point, since no one has seen one for ages. Turns out the Collectors and Reapers are working together. The Illusive man confides in you, that if you cannot figure out what's happening in time, no one else will be able to survive these attacks. You are humanity's, and ultimately the universe's last hope. You end up having to start collecting different team members to add to your new and improved ship for the big mission.
The characters that you pick up are different in all regards. Different sexes, races, species, everything. Each one is very well thought out, intriguing, and has their own special abilities. Special abilities fall into a few categories - weapons, technology, telekinesis/mind powers, and a kind of improved body/biotech power - with several mini-abilities within those categories. To upgrade yourself and your crew you have to travel around the universe to harvest minerals from planets. This can monotonous at times, but fun when you find anomalies (surprise missions).
It's a cinematic game with lots of story lines, dialogue, romantic opportunities, action, and lots of big decisions to make. What you decide may eventually lead to an entire alien race being destroyed in the next game.
I struggled with these decisions and there is more than one time where I just didn't want to decide at all. Neither race was anyone who I had had a problem with, neither one did I want to lose, knowing I could need both of them to help me with the next big battle in the final game, Mass Effect 3.
You also get to decide if you want to start romantic relationships with people on the team. It's just amazing how much fun this game is to play. I hesitated by a week to finish it because I just didn't want it to end.
I really became emotionally invested in these characters that had been developed so well. It's hard to see any of them die in the final battle if you don't play your cards right. The more you fail at things during the game, the more teammates you could lose fighting the super bad guys at the end.
This game has humor, romance, great action, suspense, drama, tension, scary parts, and everything you would need to make a fantastic game. Even the soundtrack is terrific! There are tons and tons of trailers on Youtube.com but I included one that shows off a lot of different aspects of the game. Take a look!
http://youtu.be/4ehW_JBAESM
I think I could play this game through 10 more times and not get tired of it. So far, I've always lost at least one member of my team, which is so frustrating, but I did the best I could at the time.
I cannot wait until the 3rd and final one comes out! It's going to be so good (I hope). At least, it looks incredible from the teaser trailers I've seen for it. I'll show you one of those too!
http://youtu.be/vTo_9xyl1LA
If you already have a platform that supports this game, play it! If you have no video game system at home, this would be a game where I actually recommend you buy one of the platforms just to play it. Everyone who has played it loved it, and critics across the board have given it a very very high score. Game Informer magazine reviews every video game made. They have a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the very best. Mass Effect 2 received a 9.5 score. It is not to be missed!
5 out of 5 joysticks for me. This game could only be better if it never ended!
I'm starting by reviewing the best video game I have ever played in my entire life!
Mass Effect 2 is an interactive first person shooter where your decisions have little and big consequences throughout an entire series of games. Mass Effect started on XBox, which I don't have, so I don't have the experience of playing that first section, but the 2nd one is awesome. It's mainly a science-fiction storyline, but I know everyone who's played it has loved it. It's highly entertaining, even if you don't care for outer space games.
At the beginning of this game, it does a small synopsis of the first Mass Effect, if you haven't played it. If you play it on an XBox then the first game info transfers to the 2nd game and it registers each and every decision you made from that game. Kinda' cool, but I have a Playstation so I couldn't do that.
Anyway, you can choose to make your character, Commander Shepard, a male or female and pick out all the little details like facial structure, hair color, and an outfit. I have played through the game 3 times now, and twice I was a female, once I was a male. It affects the story a little so I wanted to see what the changes were. The female lead actress is much better than the male lead. Not sure why they missed the mark on that, but the actress has a lot more emotion and inflection in her voice than the guy.
Commander Shepard starts out on the old ship from the first game that gets blown up. Your character dies saving someone else's life and a secret organization called, Cerberus, brings you back to life with a few improvements. You're their pet project for 2 years (while you are unconscious) and you awake sooner than expected. Cerebus contacts you through someone/thing called the Illusive Man (voice acted by Martin Sheen.) He shows up through a hologram on the new and improved Normany ship they built for you. Problem is you can't tell if he's a robot or a person through this hologram, his eyes are mechanical. Or maybe he's a group of individuals for all I know. He tells you that there's this alien race (The Collectors) that looks like it wants universal control and will kill just about everyone to get it, but starts with abducting human colonies. No one believes in a race called The Reapers that are even worse. The Reapers are supposed to be a long extinct dangerous alien race and isn't really in anyone's mind, everyone thinks of them as a possible legend at this point, since no one has seen one for ages. Turns out the Collectors and Reapers are working together. The Illusive man confides in you, that if you cannot figure out what's happening in time, no one else will be able to survive these attacks. You are humanity's, and ultimately the universe's last hope. You end up having to start collecting different team members to add to your new and improved ship for the big mission.
The characters that you pick up are different in all regards. Different sexes, races, species, everything. Each one is very well thought out, intriguing, and has their own special abilities. Special abilities fall into a few categories - weapons, technology, telekinesis/mind powers, and a kind of improved body/biotech power - with several mini-abilities within those categories. To upgrade yourself and your crew you have to travel around the universe to harvest minerals from planets. This can monotonous at times, but fun when you find anomalies (surprise missions).
It's a cinematic game with lots of story lines, dialogue, romantic opportunities, action, and lots of big decisions to make. What you decide may eventually lead to an entire alien race being destroyed in the next game.
I struggled with these decisions and there is more than one time where I just didn't want to decide at all. Neither race was anyone who I had had a problem with, neither one did I want to lose, knowing I could need both of them to help me with the next big battle in the final game, Mass Effect 3.
You also get to decide if you want to start romantic relationships with people on the team. It's just amazing how much fun this game is to play. I hesitated by a week to finish it because I just didn't want it to end.
I really became emotionally invested in these characters that had been developed so well. It's hard to see any of them die in the final battle if you don't play your cards right. The more you fail at things during the game, the more teammates you could lose fighting the super bad guys at the end.
This game has humor, romance, great action, suspense, drama, tension, scary parts, and everything you would need to make a fantastic game. Even the soundtrack is terrific! There are tons and tons of trailers on Youtube.com but I included one that shows off a lot of different aspects of the game. Take a look!
http://youtu.be/4ehW_JBAESM
I think I could play this game through 10 more times and not get tired of it. So far, I've always lost at least one member of my team, which is so frustrating, but I did the best I could at the time.
I cannot wait until the 3rd and final one comes out! It's going to be so good (I hope). At least, it looks incredible from the teaser trailers I've seen for it. I'll show you one of those too!
http://youtu.be/vTo_9xyl1LA
If you already have a platform that supports this game, play it! If you have no video game system at home, this would be a game where I actually recommend you buy one of the platforms just to play it. Everyone who has played it loved it, and critics across the board have given it a very very high score. Game Informer magazine reviews every video game made. They have a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the very best. Mass Effect 2 received a 9.5 score. It is not to be missed!
5 out of 5 joysticks for me. This game could only be better if it never ended!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Altered States
Released: 1980
Science fiction, horror
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban
Director: Ken Russell
Running Time: 102 minutes
The breakdown: A psychologist ponders experiments based on isolation chambers and mind altering drugs. He begins studying the effects on himself and the results make him believe he is genetically regressing.
I had heard a lot about this movie over the past few decades and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. As far as I can tell, this movie is highly overrated.
The obsessed doctor takes a Mexican drug that has not be studied for its ingredients while in an isolation chamber. He went to Mexico to experience this mushroom based drug with a tribe of primitive natives in a cave. The experience was so strange, he took a sample back to the states to study it. Over time, he continues to mentally regress back to the point where ape becomes man and he gets very primal. One time he comes back with a physical effect of having blood on his mouth from eating an animal in his mental regression. The physical changes only get stronger over time as he continues his experiments. One time he comes out of the isolation chamber as a very small primitive ape/man and almost kills a security guard. I won't tell you the end, in case you want to see it, but it's not a very scary film. It's not a very meaningful or profound one either. I think they intended it to be both, but failed. At the end, I was confused. I don't think the characters were very deep, I don't think the story was fully realized, and I think there should've been a bit more explanation to the audience as to what exactly was happening at the end. The acting was good, and the story was certainly interesting to me, but it just failed in too many spots to be successful.
I give it 2 1/2 ticket stubs out of 5.
Science fiction, horror
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban
Director: Ken Russell
Running Time: 102 minutes
The breakdown: A psychologist ponders experiments based on isolation chambers and mind altering drugs. He begins studying the effects on himself and the results make him believe he is genetically regressing.
I had heard a lot about this movie over the past few decades and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. As far as I can tell, this movie is highly overrated.
The obsessed doctor takes a Mexican drug that has not be studied for its ingredients while in an isolation chamber. He went to Mexico to experience this mushroom based drug with a tribe of primitive natives in a cave. The experience was so strange, he took a sample back to the states to study it. Over time, he continues to mentally regress back to the point where ape becomes man and he gets very primal. One time he comes back with a physical effect of having blood on his mouth from eating an animal in his mental regression. The physical changes only get stronger over time as he continues his experiments. One time he comes out of the isolation chamber as a very small primitive ape/man and almost kills a security guard. I won't tell you the end, in case you want to see it, but it's not a very scary film. It's not a very meaningful or profound one either. I think they intended it to be both, but failed. At the end, I was confused. I don't think the characters were very deep, I don't think the story was fully realized, and I think there should've been a bit more explanation to the audience as to what exactly was happening at the end. The acting was good, and the story was certainly interesting to me, but it just failed in too many spots to be successful.
I give it 2 1/2 ticket stubs out of 5.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Look at this
Ever wonder what happens if a deer starts licking a cat?
I love this video. The cat and the deer are so cute!
http://comedy.video.yahoo.com/?vid=26407048
I love this video. The cat and the deer are so cute!
http://comedy.video.yahoo.com/?vid=26407048
Did you know?
That adding ice cubes to your drinks all day can help your body burn up to 10 extra calories. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're trying to lose weight, every little bit helps!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
2010
Released: 1984
Science fiction, drama
Starring: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren
Director: Peter Hyams
Running Time: 116 minutes
The breakdown:
A crew of Americans and Russians travel to Jupiter to find out what happened to the lost crew of the Discovery.
This movie was based on the book written by Arthur C. Clarke, a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Obviously, since Stanley Kubrick didn't direct it, it's not as quiet, it has a lot more dialogue, and is faster paced than 2001.
Essentially, no one on Earth fully understands what happened 9 years ago to the space ship Discovery. The Russians and Americans have a tense relationship but the scientists work out a way for a few Americans to travel aboard a Russian ship to investigate what exactly happened. While they are near Jupiter a state of war develops between the two countries. The Russian ship arrives at the Discovery and the investigation begins. They need to find out why H.A.L. malfunctioned (if he did at all), what happened to all of the crew, and what's the purpose of the large black monolith orbiting Jupiter.
I liked the sequel myself. It answered some questions, but definitely raised more. The ending for me, was satisfactory and the story line kept me intrigued. The first movie certainly stands alone and didn't need a sequel to be made, but if you want more, this movie's for you.
I won't talk about the entire thing, since this one is a bit more straight forward than the first one, but I can easily recommend it.
I give it 4 out of 5 ticket stubs. It isn't as profoundly meaningful as the first, but it's imaginative and interesting to watch. Well acted and directed.
Science fiction, drama
Starring: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren
Director: Peter Hyams
Running Time: 116 minutes
The breakdown:
A crew of Americans and Russians travel to Jupiter to find out what happened to the lost crew of the Discovery.
This movie was based on the book written by Arthur C. Clarke, a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Obviously, since Stanley Kubrick didn't direct it, it's not as quiet, it has a lot more dialogue, and is faster paced than 2001.
Essentially, no one on Earth fully understands what happened 9 years ago to the space ship Discovery. The Russians and Americans have a tense relationship but the scientists work out a way for a few Americans to travel aboard a Russian ship to investigate what exactly happened. While they are near Jupiter a state of war develops between the two countries. The Russian ship arrives at the Discovery and the investigation begins. They need to find out why H.A.L. malfunctioned (if he did at all), what happened to all of the crew, and what's the purpose of the large black monolith orbiting Jupiter.
I liked the sequel myself. It answered some questions, but definitely raised more. The ending for me, was satisfactory and the story line kept me intrigued. The first movie certainly stands alone and didn't need a sequel to be made, but if you want more, this movie's for you.
I won't talk about the entire thing, since this one is a bit more straight forward than the first one, but I can easily recommend it.
I give it 4 out of 5 ticket stubs. It isn't as profoundly meaningful as the first, but it's imaginative and interesting to watch. Well acted and directed.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Websites that I want to share with you
I think you can learn a lot about someone by what kind of websites they frequent.
That means, you're about to learn a lot about me : )
I thought I would share some websites that I like, that you might enjoy yourself. If not, you can always make fun of me for liking the ones I've decided to share (me, sticking my tongue out).
I'll try to keep them in some sort of order or category.
Halloween stuff:
(You KNOW I love Halloween don't you?)
pumpkinrot.blogspot.com
This person knows Halloween well. They have a lot of retail store posts with pictures, stories of scary stuff, inspirational images, and movie reviews. It's one I just recently started visiting.
halloweenforum.com
A great place to share with other Halloweenies. Projects, crafts, movies, ideas, ways to build props, or just looking to talk about spooky stuff, this is the site to do it.
grandinroad.com
I love most of the items they sell for Halloween decorations. The only problem I have with them is the quality. It's really hit or miss with them. If you don't buy anything electric, or requiring batteries you're better off. I bought a 5 foot tall female mummy from them and had a hell of a time putting the "2 piece easy assembly" thing together. Be careful with purchasing things from them.
Crafts stuff:
entertainexchange.blogspot.com
This place happens to have a whole bunch of do it yourself crafts that can be used for holiday parties and decorations. I noticed it because of the Halloween crafts, but it's good for much more than that.
save-on-crafts.com
This is a great place if you're looking to host a party and need some centerpiece ideas, candle holders, or cool things like submersible LED lights. They have a huge selection of craft things like fake flowers, containers, lights, and other decorative things. One of my favorites!
Jewelry stuff:
shopbellabeach.com
Can not be beat for the latest Juicy Couture charms. Somehow, they have all the latest up before even Juicy's own website.
carolee.com
I reviewed this store in detail in an earlier post, but I can't say enough about it. Beautiful, quality jewelry that will last for years. This is mostly costume or fashion jewelry and it's pricey, but it's worth it. Plus they offer sales here and there to look for.
juicycouture.com
Just for the charms they sell. I'm nuts about these things and this website is one of the best places to look for authentic charms. There are a lot of impostors out there, but this is the original.
Candle/Bath stuff:
Surroundings.com
Wow, this place is great if you want some ideas for candle centerpieces. They have so many photos of the stuff they sell, you'd have to hate candles to hate this site. Beautiful creations of water, glass, candlelight, and a ton of other accessories to make your party or wedding stand out. I love looking at this site to spur on my creativity and they always have a monthly special.
Bathandbodyworks.com
Of course this place makes me want to shower 3 times a day with all of the wonderful scented lotions and soaps they sell, but they have branched out into a lot more. Little fuzzy, soft slippers, facial products, and candles too, this place is one of my favorites to feel clean and refreshed.
Clothing/Shoe stuff:
Chicos.com
This store sells sophisticated, professional wear that looks great on any woman. Some of their clothes have a decidedly worldly look (like animal prints, or exotic patterns) but they also have unique, gorgeous pieces that are simple and stunning. They are pricey, but do have a rewards card program and a lot of sales. Don't forget to check out the jackets, and jewelry as well.
Soma.com
A sister store to Chico's, they sell intimates mostly, but also dabble in some lounge wear and casual stuff. I can't get enough of this store. They sell the best bras and panties anywhere, trumping my previous love of Victoria's Secret. Well made, high quality, and comfortable, these pieces will last you a long time and you won't regret buying them. They have a rewards card that works for both Chico's and Soma for discounts and they have price adjustments too. Great customer service has made this company the place for me to go to spend money.
Zappos.com
Oh my gosh! This place rocks. They sell just about everything apparel and offer free shipping from your house in case you need to return something. They have great customer service and awesome products. I have never been disappointed in the shoes I've bought from them. I only wish I had more money to spend on their boots!
That means, you're about to learn a lot about me : )
I thought I would share some websites that I like, that you might enjoy yourself. If not, you can always make fun of me for liking the ones I've decided to share (me, sticking my tongue out).
I'll try to keep them in some sort of order or category.
Halloween stuff:
(You KNOW I love Halloween don't you?)
pumpkinrot.blogspot.com
This person knows Halloween well. They have a lot of retail store posts with pictures, stories of scary stuff, inspirational images, and movie reviews. It's one I just recently started visiting.
halloweenforum.com
A great place to share with other Halloweenies. Projects, crafts, movies, ideas, ways to build props, or just looking to talk about spooky stuff, this is the site to do it.
grandinroad.com
I love most of the items they sell for Halloween decorations. The only problem I have with them is the quality. It's really hit or miss with them. If you don't buy anything electric, or requiring batteries you're better off. I bought a 5 foot tall female mummy from them and had a hell of a time putting the "2 piece easy assembly" thing together. Be careful with purchasing things from them.
Crafts stuff:
entertainexchange.blogspot.com
This place happens to have a whole bunch of do it yourself crafts that can be used for holiday parties and decorations. I noticed it because of the Halloween crafts, but it's good for much more than that.
save-on-crafts.com
This is a great place if you're looking to host a party and need some centerpiece ideas, candle holders, or cool things like submersible LED lights. They have a huge selection of craft things like fake flowers, containers, lights, and other decorative things. One of my favorites!
Jewelry stuff:
shopbellabeach.com
Can not be beat for the latest Juicy Couture charms. Somehow, they have all the latest up before even Juicy's own website.
carolee.com
I reviewed this store in detail in an earlier post, but I can't say enough about it. Beautiful, quality jewelry that will last for years. This is mostly costume or fashion jewelry and it's pricey, but it's worth it. Plus they offer sales here and there to look for.
juicycouture.com
Just for the charms they sell. I'm nuts about these things and this website is one of the best places to look for authentic charms. There are a lot of impostors out there, but this is the original.
Candle/Bath stuff:
Surroundings.com
Wow, this place is great if you want some ideas for candle centerpieces. They have so many photos of the stuff they sell, you'd have to hate candles to hate this site. Beautiful creations of water, glass, candlelight, and a ton of other accessories to make your party or wedding stand out. I love looking at this site to spur on my creativity and they always have a monthly special.
Bathandbodyworks.com
Of course this place makes me want to shower 3 times a day with all of the wonderful scented lotions and soaps they sell, but they have branched out into a lot more. Little fuzzy, soft slippers, facial products, and candles too, this place is one of my favorites to feel clean and refreshed.
Clothing/Shoe stuff:
Chicos.com
This store sells sophisticated, professional wear that looks great on any woman. Some of their clothes have a decidedly worldly look (like animal prints, or exotic patterns) but they also have unique, gorgeous pieces that are simple and stunning. They are pricey, but do have a rewards card program and a lot of sales. Don't forget to check out the jackets, and jewelry as well.
Soma.com
A sister store to Chico's, they sell intimates mostly, but also dabble in some lounge wear and casual stuff. I can't get enough of this store. They sell the best bras and panties anywhere, trumping my previous love of Victoria's Secret. Well made, high quality, and comfortable, these pieces will last you a long time and you won't regret buying them. They have a rewards card that works for both Chico's and Soma for discounts and they have price adjustments too. Great customer service has made this company the place for me to go to spend money.
Zappos.com
Oh my gosh! This place rocks. They sell just about everything apparel and offer free shipping from your house in case you need to return something. They have great customer service and awesome products. I have never been disappointed in the shoes I've bought from them. I only wish I had more money to spend on their boots!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Vampires & Zombies - A history
Vampires originated from something called a revenant in Eastern Europe. They had stories of what we would call zombies today where these revenants were basically reanimated corpses looking to feast on the living.
The creation of the modern vampire story as we know it started in the Romantic Age of poetry with the poet, Lord Byron being the inspiration.
1816 in English Literature, Lord Byron was a superstar of his time, much like our celebrities today. He was a playboy poet well lusted after, everyone wanted him at their parties, and everyone wanted to know him better. But one guy really hated him....John Polidori.
Polidori was a doctor at the time, but he was an aspiring poet and took the job with Byron to get his foot in the door. Unfortunately, Byron didn't think much of his writings and was constantly making fun of him.
One dark and stormy night (literally) at Lake Geneva in summer, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Mary Shelley bet each other to write the scariest ghost story. Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and Polidori writes a story called, The Vampyre.
Polidori based his character completely on Byron. He was an aristocratic man who betrayed his friend and sucked the life out of young women. When word got around, everyone wanted to read it, because they thought it was a biography of Byron.
The most famous Vampire of all comes out in 1897. Bram Stoker writes his only best selling story "Dracula". Stoker was a writer and theatrical manager at the time.
The story was published during some great changes in Victorian England. People were afraid of the industrial revolution taking over and this story somewhat played into these fears.
Dracula is probably the most well known version of any vampire.
The rich aristocrat male who is mysterious and sexy, plus a little dangerous looking. He sleeps in a coffin, wears a black cape, and is pale in appearance. He finds lonely attractive young women to prey on and eventually sucks their blood until they're dead. He's a cold-blooded calculating killer and is never caught out in the sunlight or caught by authorities, though they may be suspicious of him.
More recently, people have been playing with this very successful formula to make up their own rules.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a character born to hunt and kill vampires. She falls in love with a sexy vampire who's been cursed by a gypsy to live as a tortured human soul; who can never experience true love or else he'll revert back to a mindless evil vampire. He currently has morality and is trying to do the right thing, but this is only because he's been cursed. He's still a vampire that needs blood and can't get caught in the light. He sleeps during the day and is definitely sexy and dangerous. My mom is in love with him, but I like the character Spike myself. Buffy provides a strong female role model for today's young girls, and the show was funny, scary, and entertaining to watch every week. They took what could've looked like pedophila (like Twilight) and made it acceptable and sexy. Twilight failed at this because they made a young actor look like a stoned creepy old man lusting after a young girl. Not sexy, not even close.
True Blood experiments with the idea that vampires are trying to integrate into society much like a shunned minority and have normal lives. Haven't watched this one so I can't elaborate.
Twilight has changed the vampire so much, he's/she's pretty much unrecognizable in my opinion. Take out the dangerous part, take out the sexy part, take out the sunlight rule and replace it with friendly vampires who want to date your daughter and oh yeah, their skin sparkles like diamonds in sunlight. How lame is that?! Sorry, I have some major beef with that whole phenomena, even though my friends and some family seem to eat it up. Can't wait until the movies are done coming out already!
The Vampire Diaries is apparently about a love triangle between 2 vampire brothers and a young human girl. There's a series right now on the CW network and a complete novel series written by a woman. It seems to be a lot like Twilight, so I don't know which one ripped off who, but they sound the same to me. I haven't watched the show or read the books so I don't know anymore than one who pulls up info on the internet for it.
Dark Shadows is a tv show from the good old days of the late 1960's. A family moves to a new town and lots of strange things happen there. They have all sorts of bad guys in this show, but I think the vampires stand out the most.
The Vampire Chronicles (Interview with a Vampire included) by Anne Rice is another version of the classic vampire story. I read the book, which, I thought, was incredibly boring. I watched the movie, which was an improvement on the book, but still pretty crappy. I didn't care or sympathize with any of the characters and the story is just too bland.
I am Legend is a novella from Richard Matheson. Many people might interpret the monsters to be zombies, but in the original story, the monsters can't come out into the light so night time is the most dangerous and they suck blood as well as eat flesh. I guess, depending on how you look at it, the monsters could be either one or a combo of the two. I personally like to think of them as vampires with zombie tendencies. One of my favorite scary tales of Mathesons.
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant was an ok movie, but this is based on a children's series of books too. A young boy loses his best friend to a gang of "bad" vampires, while he himself, becomes a member of the "good" vampires. Some of the ideas of the story are cute, but I wasn't too much into it.
Sesame Street's Count Von Count aka The Count. A CLASSIC icon of Dracula. Who hasn't seen him and loved him? I love the puppet bats on sticks that "fly" around him. They are sooooo cute!
I'd have to say the classic original Dracula is one that deserves a lot of respect. Without it, a lot of the other stories wouldn't exist. My personal favorites would be Buffy, and I am Legend (the book version).
The creation of the modern vampire story as we know it started in the Romantic Age of poetry with the poet, Lord Byron being the inspiration.
1816 in English Literature, Lord Byron was a superstar of his time, much like our celebrities today. He was a playboy poet well lusted after, everyone wanted him at their parties, and everyone wanted to know him better. But one guy really hated him....John Polidori.
Polidori was a doctor at the time, but he was an aspiring poet and took the job with Byron to get his foot in the door. Unfortunately, Byron didn't think much of his writings and was constantly making fun of him.
One dark and stormy night (literally) at Lake Geneva in summer, Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Mary Shelley bet each other to write the scariest ghost story. Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and Polidori writes a story called, The Vampyre.
Polidori based his character completely on Byron. He was an aristocratic man who betrayed his friend and sucked the life out of young women. When word got around, everyone wanted to read it, because they thought it was a biography of Byron.
The most famous Vampire of all comes out in 1897. Bram Stoker writes his only best selling story "Dracula". Stoker was a writer and theatrical manager at the time.
The story was published during some great changes in Victorian England. People were afraid of the industrial revolution taking over and this story somewhat played into these fears.
Dracula is probably the most well known version of any vampire.
The rich aristocrat male who is mysterious and sexy, plus a little dangerous looking. He sleeps in a coffin, wears a black cape, and is pale in appearance. He finds lonely attractive young women to prey on and eventually sucks their blood until they're dead. He's a cold-blooded calculating killer and is never caught out in the sunlight or caught by authorities, though they may be suspicious of him.
More recently, people have been playing with this very successful formula to make up their own rules.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a character born to hunt and kill vampires. She falls in love with a sexy vampire who's been cursed by a gypsy to live as a tortured human soul; who can never experience true love or else he'll revert back to a mindless evil vampire. He currently has morality and is trying to do the right thing, but this is only because he's been cursed. He's still a vampire that needs blood and can't get caught in the light. He sleeps during the day and is definitely sexy and dangerous. My mom is in love with him, but I like the character Spike myself. Buffy provides a strong female role model for today's young girls, and the show was funny, scary, and entertaining to watch every week. They took what could've looked like pedophila (like Twilight) and made it acceptable and sexy. Twilight failed at this because they made a young actor look like a stoned creepy old man lusting after a young girl. Not sexy, not even close.
True Blood experiments with the idea that vampires are trying to integrate into society much like a shunned minority and have normal lives. Haven't watched this one so I can't elaborate.
Twilight has changed the vampire so much, he's/she's pretty much unrecognizable in my opinion. Take out the dangerous part, take out the sexy part, take out the sunlight rule and replace it with friendly vampires who want to date your daughter and oh yeah, their skin sparkles like diamonds in sunlight. How lame is that?! Sorry, I have some major beef with that whole phenomena, even though my friends and some family seem to eat it up. Can't wait until the movies are done coming out already!
The Vampire Diaries is apparently about a love triangle between 2 vampire brothers and a young human girl. There's a series right now on the CW network and a complete novel series written by a woman. It seems to be a lot like Twilight, so I don't know which one ripped off who, but they sound the same to me. I haven't watched the show or read the books so I don't know anymore than one who pulls up info on the internet for it.
Dark Shadows is a tv show from the good old days of the late 1960's. A family moves to a new town and lots of strange things happen there. They have all sorts of bad guys in this show, but I think the vampires stand out the most.
The Vampire Chronicles (Interview with a Vampire included) by Anne Rice is another version of the classic vampire story. I read the book, which, I thought, was incredibly boring. I watched the movie, which was an improvement on the book, but still pretty crappy. I didn't care or sympathize with any of the characters and the story is just too bland.
I am Legend is a novella from Richard Matheson. Many people might interpret the monsters to be zombies, but in the original story, the monsters can't come out into the light so night time is the most dangerous and they suck blood as well as eat flesh. I guess, depending on how you look at it, the monsters could be either one or a combo of the two. I personally like to think of them as vampires with zombie tendencies. One of my favorite scary tales of Mathesons.
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant was an ok movie, but this is based on a children's series of books too. A young boy loses his best friend to a gang of "bad" vampires, while he himself, becomes a member of the "good" vampires. Some of the ideas of the story are cute, but I wasn't too much into it.
Sesame Street's Count Von Count aka The Count. A CLASSIC icon of Dracula. Who hasn't seen him and loved him? I love the puppet bats on sticks that "fly" around him. They are sooooo cute!
I'd have to say the classic original Dracula is one that deserves a lot of respect. Without it, a lot of the other stories wouldn't exist. My personal favorites would be Buffy, and I am Legend (the book version).
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
My favorite scary story of all time. What's yours?
For the Halloween nuts like myself, we are coming up on one of the most exciting times of the year! I figured it was a good time to celebrate Halloween and take a trip down a dirty gravel path....
The one that leads into the dark forest on the edge of town.
Tonight's a good night to visit this place....
The air is filled with electricity as a fast moving storm is on it's way to where we are here.
Can you hear the thunder in the distance? Trees are blowing about in the wind, most of the animals have taken shelter since they know something wicked this way comes....
What was that?!
Did you see that?
Oh, sorry, I thought there might've been something moving over there in the shadows, something with shiny eyes and very long fingers,
or maybe they were claws?
![]()
SO! What's your favorite scary story of all time? This can be a book, movie, poem, comic book, etc. Whatever terrified you. I'll go first:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in almost any form (book, movie, and cartoon).
It may be my favorite because as a small girl, I realized that my imagination was strong and running wild at the end of this story not knowing exactly what happened that night in the Hollow to poor Ichabod. It may be that I can identify with Ichabod as being an underdog and being made fun of and picked on. It may be that the 1949 Disney cartoon (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) is so charming and cute that you can't help but like it. It also just happened to be the first exposure I received to the entire story (Thanks Ms. Robinson for showing it in my 5th grade class!).
Every time I watch that one I still get chills, and some nostalgia for my childhood. But it's most likely my favorite scary story of all time because Washington Irving told such a simple believable tale that it's easy for me to get lost in; sure it was probably Brom Bones just trying to scare Ichabod straight out of town, but you are never really sure.
I like a detailed story and this one is full of heavy detail.
The feeling of fear and terror sinking into you when you realize Ichabod is not alone on his way home that night after the party. The build up of anticipation as you see it IS the Headless Horseman fast approaching behind Ichabod and his horse, Gunpowder. You can hear the horses running, the wind blowing past your ears, feel your heart racing and your arms wanting to wrap around Gunpowder's neck and hold on for dear life!!! Scary, scary stuff for me, but I love every minute!
I like the open ending so you're free to interpret what you want.
I enjoy the small town setting and the 1790 time frame. They just don't write stories like this these days.
So please, tell me what's YOUR favorite?
The one that leads into the dark forest on the edge of town.
Tonight's a good night to visit this place....
The air is filled with electricity as a fast moving storm is on it's way to where we are here.
Can you hear the thunder in the distance? Trees are blowing about in the wind, most of the animals have taken shelter since they know something wicked this way comes....
What was that?!
Did you see that?
Oh, sorry, I thought there might've been something moving over there in the shadows, something with shiny eyes and very long fingers,
or maybe they were claws?
SO! What's your favorite scary story of all time? This can be a book, movie, poem, comic book, etc. Whatever terrified you. I'll go first:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in almost any form (book, movie, and cartoon).
It may be my favorite because as a small girl, I realized that my imagination was strong and running wild at the end of this story not knowing exactly what happened that night in the Hollow to poor Ichabod. It may be that I can identify with Ichabod as being an underdog and being made fun of and picked on. It may be that the 1949 Disney cartoon (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) is so charming and cute that you can't help but like it. It also just happened to be the first exposure I received to the entire story (Thanks Ms. Robinson for showing it in my 5th grade class!).
Every time I watch that one I still get chills, and some nostalgia for my childhood. But it's most likely my favorite scary story of all time because Washington Irving told such a simple believable tale that it's easy for me to get lost in; sure it was probably Brom Bones just trying to scare Ichabod straight out of town, but you are never really sure.
I like a detailed story and this one is full of heavy detail.
The feeling of fear and terror sinking into you when you realize Ichabod is not alone on his way home that night after the party. The build up of anticipation as you see it IS the Headless Horseman fast approaching behind Ichabod and his horse, Gunpowder. You can hear the horses running, the wind blowing past your ears, feel your heart racing and your arms wanting to wrap around Gunpowder's neck and hold on for dear life!!! Scary, scary stuff for me, but I love every minute!
I like the open ending so you're free to interpret what you want.
I enjoy the small town setting and the 1790 time frame. They just don't write stories like this these days.
So please, tell me what's YOUR favorite?
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Stills
There's this band that I've never heard of before called The Stills.
I first discovered their music purely by accident. I was watching a wonderful show that was cancelled after only one season and they had one of their songs playing at the end of the episode. It was emotional and the song really grabbed me.
I did some research and found out who it was and then started listening to other stuff from them. You might like them, but I really do like a few of their songs. They play rock I guess, that sounds so generic with all the little sub-genres there are these days, but it's a rock group.
Quite a few songs off this album (Oceans Will Rise) I have liked.
The best song they've done to date is Everything I Build is Breaking Down.
It's a song about loss and fear, a place that I'm in a lot these days unfortunately. But it's nice to have a song that speaks to where you are and makes you feel not so alone in your emotions.
Another song is, I'm With You. Catchy, upbeat, kinda' pop rock I guess.
Snow in California is a catchy one that is always stuck in my head. Easy to sing along with, hard for me to forget.
Rooibos/Palm Wine Drinkard [sic] is kinda' loud and obnoxious, but it's good for when you're in an angry crazy mood I guess. Pounding beats, lots of guitar and angry sounding words bitten off in the lead singers mouth.
I give the album 2 out of 5 microphones, since even I don't like all the songs, and most of my experience with them has been limited to just this album. Obviously, music and sound is hard to describe with words, but I'll do my best to expand my knowledge for this category of my blog.
I first discovered their music purely by accident. I was watching a wonderful show that was cancelled after only one season and they had one of their songs playing at the end of the episode. It was emotional and the song really grabbed me.
I did some research and found out who it was and then started listening to other stuff from them. You might like them, but I really do like a few of their songs. They play rock I guess, that sounds so generic with all the little sub-genres there are these days, but it's a rock group.
Quite a few songs off this album (Oceans Will Rise) I have liked.
The best song they've done to date is Everything I Build is Breaking Down.
It's a song about loss and fear, a place that I'm in a lot these days unfortunately. But it's nice to have a song that speaks to where you are and makes you feel not so alone in your emotions.
Another song is, I'm With You. Catchy, upbeat, kinda' pop rock I guess.
Snow in California is a catchy one that is always stuck in my head. Easy to sing along with, hard for me to forget.
Rooibos/Palm Wine Drinkard [sic] is kinda' loud and obnoxious, but it's good for when you're in an angry crazy mood I guess. Pounding beats, lots of guitar and angry sounding words bitten off in the lead singers mouth.
I give the album 2 out of 5 microphones, since even I don't like all the songs, and most of my experience with them has been limited to just this album. Obviously, music and sound is hard to describe with words, but I'll do my best to expand my knowledge for this category of my blog.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Secretary
Released: 2002
Drama, romance (certainly not conventional romance either)
Starring: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Steven Shainberg
Running Time: 104 minutes
The breakdown:
A young woman just released from a mental institution finds a job as a secretary for a demanding lawyer. This is a raw character study of sadomasochism and is not for children. There is full female nudity, lots of sexual situations, behavioral issues, and some swearing. Watch it after your kids go to bed.
Wow, where do I start?! I'll just have to dive right in because this movie is a goldmine! SPOILER ALERT....I'm going to have to talk about the entire movie to make an analysis. Don't read any longer if you want to see this movie and not know the ending. If this is where you stop......See this movie! It's great!
I had heard a lot about this movie for many years. I thought it was just going to be some movie verging on porno with lots of sadomasochism. I was pleasantly surprised overall. I didn't know Maggie Gyllenhaal was in it. I know when it came out in theaters I didn't know who she was at all. I first was attracted to watching this since James Spader's in it and I think he can be pretty sexy, so given the content I wanted to see what it was all about.
Let's start at the beginning. The plot.
Gyllenhaal plays Lee, a young women who likes to cut herself for relief/release/pleasure? I'm not a psychologist and I can't pretend to understand why people cut themselves to feel better, but that's what she likes to do. That's what she goes into the mental institution for anyways.
When she gets out, she lives with her parents and is a bit lost. She goes to a jr. college and takes typing. She's still struggling to quit cutting herself, but she can't help herself, and soon gets to doing it pretty regularly. She needs a job and finds out a lawyer, Mr. Grey, played by Spader, is looking for a secretary. She did very well in college at typing, so she goes for an interview and gets the job.
At first, Spader is a cruel and demanding boss to her. Through the course of the movie he discovers she cuts herself and he responds to that, he realizes they are alike in a way. He enjoys being the dominant one in a S&M situation and the 2 begin a tightrope as to what their relationship really is. Had they not been attracted to each other, Gyllenhaal would immediately quit and sue him for sexual harassment.
This movie is so complicated with the relationship between these two characters that it's hard for me to describe it.
She doesn't accept herself, because no one else does, i.e. cutting yourself is bad and she went to a mental institution for it (yes it is bad and unhealthy, I'm not condoning that behavior.)
He knows he likes making women be submissive to him and degrade them, but he feels that he's sick for liking that and getting pleasure from it. He's wound very tight, he's putting on a great show for most people that he's under control and got it all together, but she sees through that. He's very anal retentive, OCD, and that certainly plays into his love of S&M.
He sees her as a potential great submissive partner due to the fact that she likes cutting herself and is pretty unsure of herself.
He's very cold with her most of the movie keeping it at a professional level, until he starts spanking her over his desk, etc. etc. The relationship changes, but they don't voice it out loud.
She's confused at first, but he commands her to not cut herself anymore and she doesn't. She, in fact, throws away all of her normal tools to do so. She replaces that behavior with letting him dominate her in the office, but they don't have sex. Though she really wants that, he's still trying to ignore his S&M tendencies, even though, he's probably developing feelings for her.
She's not able to read him and she's been dating this dork from high school that she knew and has sex with him. She's terribly bored during sex with him and their general relationship. She wants to be with her boss, but with all the activities that they do together at work, he doesn't open up to her. In fact, he's still not really anything more than civil to her, SOMETIMES, when she doesn't misbehave in the office by making typing errors = punishment.
Things come to a head when Gyllenhaal's suddenly fired by Spader. He's feeling guilty about what they do and the only way to stop it, he thinks, is to fire her. She realizes he's done this same pattern with other secretaries before her, and she's just the latest causality. Her boyfriend, the nerd from her high school days proposes marriage to her. She says yes because she doesn't really know what else to do. She misses Spader and doesn't tell anyone she got fired. She goes to his office and sits in a car watching as he hires another secretary. At her fiancees house, her soon to be mother-in-law dresses her in the family heirloom wedding gown saying she has to go get her husband to show him how she looks in the dress. While staring at herself in the mirror, she tears off the veil and runs out of the house, leaving her engagement ring on the table. She runs, literally, to Spader's office and confesses she loves him, still in her wedding dress. He still won't be anything but cold with her. He's really overwhelmed at her confession and says they can't play this game all the time. She says, why not? She says she wants to be with him and that he understands her and she him. He tells her to sit at his desk with her feet on the ground and palms on the table and not to move until he gets back. Spader tests her by calling her fiancee to his office. She tells her fiancee she doesn't want him and he doesn't understand what she's doing. He forcibly rolls her chair away from the desk and she hits him to get back to the desk. He does leave, but calls her family and friends to talk some sense into her. Over the course of the next 3 days she stays right where Spader told her to and he checks on her through the window behind her. The media gets involved and thinks she's making some sort of statement with a hunger strike. Her family and friends are constantly talking with her at the office and won't leave. Spader comes back and by then she's falling asleep and very weak. He gently carries her, still in the wedding dress, upstairs to where he keeps a patch of Earth for gardening (he loves orchids and has them all over his office). He lovingly takes her out of her dress, washes her up, and for the first time shows how much he feels for her. It's a real satisfying scene to watch after all the rough behavior from him towards her.
He begins answering her questions about himself and they finally drop all their walls down. They get married quickly. They live together happily ever after, though she's now not his secretary, but his wife. They completely understand each other and accept each other for what they are. They continue the S&M submissive/dominant relationship, and love each other deeply as well. At the very end of the movie, they wake up after a short honeymoon (the weekend, since Spader needs to go back to work) and make the bed. He tells her just how to make it and she's fine with that. She sits out in the morning light on the porch and waves goodbye to him as he leaves for the office. The camera follows his car to the end of the street and then focuses back on her. She's watching him drive off, but then, boldly switches her gaze directly to you the viewer. With just her face she lets you know, this is me, this is my new life, and I'm perfectly happy with myself and my relationship. It's a beautiful character arc, even though the way she got there to some may be disturbing or uncomfortable to watch. Their relationship definitely is inappropriate at first, but certainly not illegal.
My take:
I'm very open minded, that's how I've been raised. Basically, live and let live. S&M is not for everyone, but as long as both parties agree to it, and are ok with it, it's fine between them. Who am I to say it's wrong what 2 consenting adults do behind closed doors?
Maggie Gyllenhaal took a role that could've turned out really very dangerous for some actresses, given how raw the storyline is. It could've turned out ruining someone's career because they couldn't pull it off and then end up looking like some cheap prostitute. Or made a very interesting movie into something sick and twisted and hard to watch. This movie is nothing like a porno, let me make that clear first. It's like a drama with a mostly gritty romance until the end when it softens.
What works about this story is that you have a couple of really amazing actors who work well together.
Spader is amazing as a hard ass demanding demeaning boss who is completely cold and self loathing.
Gyllenhaal is terrific as an unsure, self-conscious woman learning about herself, relationships, and what she really wants.
I love the confident bold look she gives the camera at the end, breaking the fourth wall incredibly effectively, and telling us she's finally happy, comfortable, and she accepts herself and her lifestyle. By the end of the movie, you forget she was in a mental institution at all and believe the character has made a huge journey throughout the film to be well-adjusted at the end.
Some of the scenes were very sexy, very effective at creating sexual tension and chemistry between the 2 characters is intense. The caring, loving scenes at the end are very well done showing how much Spader's character feels for Gyllenhaal and can finally let it show and accept himself and his lifestyle as well.
Great character study movie. Great sexy movie. Great acting, and directing as well.
I give it 4 1/2 ticket stubs out of 5 for the intense sexual tension growing between the couple over the entire course of the movie and the loving romantic scenes at the end that really show a compatible couple blossoming together. It's really refreshing at the end to see a happy ending for a love story, though, this one doesn't start where most do. A strong, unique, interesting well done movie.
Drama, romance (certainly not conventional romance either)
Starring: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Steven Shainberg
Running Time: 104 minutes
The breakdown:
A young woman just released from a mental institution finds a job as a secretary for a demanding lawyer. This is a raw character study of sadomasochism and is not for children. There is full female nudity, lots of sexual situations, behavioral issues, and some swearing. Watch it after your kids go to bed.
Wow, where do I start?! I'll just have to dive right in because this movie is a goldmine! SPOILER ALERT....I'm going to have to talk about the entire movie to make an analysis. Don't read any longer if you want to see this movie and not know the ending. If this is where you stop......See this movie! It's great!
I had heard a lot about this movie for many years. I thought it was just going to be some movie verging on porno with lots of sadomasochism. I was pleasantly surprised overall. I didn't know Maggie Gyllenhaal was in it. I know when it came out in theaters I didn't know who she was at all. I first was attracted to watching this since James Spader's in it and I think he can be pretty sexy, so given the content I wanted to see what it was all about.
Let's start at the beginning. The plot.
Gyllenhaal plays Lee, a young women who likes to cut herself for relief/release/pleasure? I'm not a psychologist and I can't pretend to understand why people cut themselves to feel better, but that's what she likes to do. That's what she goes into the mental institution for anyways.
When she gets out, she lives with her parents and is a bit lost. She goes to a jr. college and takes typing. She's still struggling to quit cutting herself, but she can't help herself, and soon gets to doing it pretty regularly. She needs a job and finds out a lawyer, Mr. Grey, played by Spader, is looking for a secretary. She did very well in college at typing, so she goes for an interview and gets the job.
At first, Spader is a cruel and demanding boss to her. Through the course of the movie he discovers she cuts herself and he responds to that, he realizes they are alike in a way. He enjoys being the dominant one in a S&M situation and the 2 begin a tightrope as to what their relationship really is. Had they not been attracted to each other, Gyllenhaal would immediately quit and sue him for sexual harassment.
This movie is so complicated with the relationship between these two characters that it's hard for me to describe it.
She doesn't accept herself, because no one else does, i.e. cutting yourself is bad and she went to a mental institution for it (yes it is bad and unhealthy, I'm not condoning that behavior.)
He knows he likes making women be submissive to him and degrade them, but he feels that he's sick for liking that and getting pleasure from it. He's wound very tight, he's putting on a great show for most people that he's under control and got it all together, but she sees through that. He's very anal retentive, OCD, and that certainly plays into his love of S&M.
He sees her as a potential great submissive partner due to the fact that she likes cutting herself and is pretty unsure of herself.
He's very cold with her most of the movie keeping it at a professional level, until he starts spanking her over his desk, etc. etc. The relationship changes, but they don't voice it out loud.
She's confused at first, but he commands her to not cut herself anymore and she doesn't. She, in fact, throws away all of her normal tools to do so. She replaces that behavior with letting him dominate her in the office, but they don't have sex. Though she really wants that, he's still trying to ignore his S&M tendencies, even though, he's probably developing feelings for her.
She's not able to read him and she's been dating this dork from high school that she knew and has sex with him. She's terribly bored during sex with him and their general relationship. She wants to be with her boss, but with all the activities that they do together at work, he doesn't open up to her. In fact, he's still not really anything more than civil to her, SOMETIMES, when she doesn't misbehave in the office by making typing errors = punishment.
Things come to a head when Gyllenhaal's suddenly fired by Spader. He's feeling guilty about what they do and the only way to stop it, he thinks, is to fire her. She realizes he's done this same pattern with other secretaries before her, and she's just the latest causality. Her boyfriend, the nerd from her high school days proposes marriage to her. She says yes because she doesn't really know what else to do. She misses Spader and doesn't tell anyone she got fired. She goes to his office and sits in a car watching as he hires another secretary. At her fiancees house, her soon to be mother-in-law dresses her in the family heirloom wedding gown saying she has to go get her husband to show him how she looks in the dress. While staring at herself in the mirror, she tears off the veil and runs out of the house, leaving her engagement ring on the table. She runs, literally, to Spader's office and confesses she loves him, still in her wedding dress. He still won't be anything but cold with her. He's really overwhelmed at her confession and says they can't play this game all the time. She says, why not? She says she wants to be with him and that he understands her and she him. He tells her to sit at his desk with her feet on the ground and palms on the table and not to move until he gets back. Spader tests her by calling her fiancee to his office. She tells her fiancee she doesn't want him and he doesn't understand what she's doing. He forcibly rolls her chair away from the desk and she hits him to get back to the desk. He does leave, but calls her family and friends to talk some sense into her. Over the course of the next 3 days she stays right where Spader told her to and he checks on her through the window behind her. The media gets involved and thinks she's making some sort of statement with a hunger strike. Her family and friends are constantly talking with her at the office and won't leave. Spader comes back and by then she's falling asleep and very weak. He gently carries her, still in the wedding dress, upstairs to where he keeps a patch of Earth for gardening (he loves orchids and has them all over his office). He lovingly takes her out of her dress, washes her up, and for the first time shows how much he feels for her. It's a real satisfying scene to watch after all the rough behavior from him towards her.
He begins answering her questions about himself and they finally drop all their walls down. They get married quickly. They live together happily ever after, though she's now not his secretary, but his wife. They completely understand each other and accept each other for what they are. They continue the S&M submissive/dominant relationship, and love each other deeply as well. At the very end of the movie, they wake up after a short honeymoon (the weekend, since Spader needs to go back to work) and make the bed. He tells her just how to make it and she's fine with that. She sits out in the morning light on the porch and waves goodbye to him as he leaves for the office. The camera follows his car to the end of the street and then focuses back on her. She's watching him drive off, but then, boldly switches her gaze directly to you the viewer. With just her face she lets you know, this is me, this is my new life, and I'm perfectly happy with myself and my relationship. It's a beautiful character arc, even though the way she got there to some may be disturbing or uncomfortable to watch. Their relationship definitely is inappropriate at first, but certainly not illegal.
My take:
I'm very open minded, that's how I've been raised. Basically, live and let live. S&M is not for everyone, but as long as both parties agree to it, and are ok with it, it's fine between them. Who am I to say it's wrong what 2 consenting adults do behind closed doors?
Maggie Gyllenhaal took a role that could've turned out really very dangerous for some actresses, given how raw the storyline is. It could've turned out ruining someone's career because they couldn't pull it off and then end up looking like some cheap prostitute. Or made a very interesting movie into something sick and twisted and hard to watch. This movie is nothing like a porno, let me make that clear first. It's like a drama with a mostly gritty romance until the end when it softens.
What works about this story is that you have a couple of really amazing actors who work well together.
Spader is amazing as a hard ass demanding demeaning boss who is completely cold and self loathing.
Gyllenhaal is terrific as an unsure, self-conscious woman learning about herself, relationships, and what she really wants.
I love the confident bold look she gives the camera at the end, breaking the fourth wall incredibly effectively, and telling us she's finally happy, comfortable, and she accepts herself and her lifestyle. By the end of the movie, you forget she was in a mental institution at all and believe the character has made a huge journey throughout the film to be well-adjusted at the end.
Some of the scenes were very sexy, very effective at creating sexual tension and chemistry between the 2 characters is intense. The caring, loving scenes at the end are very well done showing how much Spader's character feels for Gyllenhaal and can finally let it show and accept himself and his lifestyle as well.
Great character study movie. Great sexy movie. Great acting, and directing as well.
I give it 4 1/2 ticket stubs out of 5 for the intense sexual tension growing between the couple over the entire course of the movie and the loving romantic scenes at the end that really show a compatible couple blossoming together. It's really refreshing at the end to see a happy ending for a love story, though, this one doesn't start where most do. A strong, unique, interesting well done movie.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Halloween Decor and who's selling it
I'm talking about stores you wouldn't normally think of for selling home decor stuff and Halloween accessories first. Secondly, the stores you know have Halloween stuff.
Bath and Body Works -
Cute little candle holders and Halloween scents in their candles, hand soaps, and anti-bacterial hand sanitizers.
Crate&Barrel -
They sell quite a bit of stuff for entertaining. Things like barware, some home decor, and little odds and ends.
Pottery Barn -
Lots of glass jars, little knick-knacks, and entertaining stuff for parties. Similar to Crate&Barrel
Yankee Candle Company -
Candle accessories by the truck load (Boney Bunch, which I personally don't like), Halloween and fall scents for candles, and a few little decorating things non-candle related.
Bed, Bath, & Beyond -
I always find a few little candle things here or cutesy small decorations for Halloween every year here.
Grandin Road -
Be careful with this store. They have some of the coolest looking Halloween decorations here, but the quality is spotty. I bought a 5' female mummy from them and what was supposed to be an easy 2 piece assembly took hours to put together with 2 people working out all the little problems as to why the 2 pieces would not fit together. That would be my genius brother and me! Only if you don't mind fiddling with things to make them work right, or buy the little things where assembly or electricity isn't involved might you be ok.
Michael's -
This place is like an addiction for me. Every year they have all the little table decor that I want like mini skulls and potion bottles, but I just can't afford the whole store.
Joanns Fabric Store - Also like Michael's. They have a lot of crafty stuff with decor mixed in and usually, it's really cute. Stickers, stamps, and baking stuff galore. Don't say I didn't warn you.
And stores you know are selling Halloween stuff:
Spirit Halloween Stores - They pop up all over every year and are chock full of costumes, masks, and cheap holiday decor.
Halloween Express - Same idea as above, though some of these stores are permanent. Masks, costumes, and cheap home decor.
Hallmark - Always a small treasure trove of holiday stuffed animals, bowls, little decor items, and a ton of cards.
Target - A ton of stuff. Most of it's cheap, but sometimes I find some really nice stuff amongst all the junk.
Kmart - Quality is low here, as you expect. I think this store will go completely belly up within the next 2 years. It's been struggling for too long to last much longer, and ever since they got rid of their snack bars in the 80's and got rid of my favorite food item (taco snacks!) they haven't been the same.
Happy Shopping!
Bath and Body Works -
Cute little candle holders and Halloween scents in their candles, hand soaps, and anti-bacterial hand sanitizers.
Crate&Barrel -
They sell quite a bit of stuff for entertaining. Things like barware, some home decor, and little odds and ends.
Pottery Barn -
Lots of glass jars, little knick-knacks, and entertaining stuff for parties. Similar to Crate&Barrel
Yankee Candle Company -
Candle accessories by the truck load (Boney Bunch, which I personally don't like), Halloween and fall scents for candles, and a few little decorating things non-candle related.
Bed, Bath, & Beyond -
I always find a few little candle things here or cutesy small decorations for Halloween every year here.
Grandin Road -
Be careful with this store. They have some of the coolest looking Halloween decorations here, but the quality is spotty. I bought a 5' female mummy from them and what was supposed to be an easy 2 piece assembly took hours to put together with 2 people working out all the little problems as to why the 2 pieces would not fit together. That would be my genius brother and me! Only if you don't mind fiddling with things to make them work right, or buy the little things where assembly or electricity isn't involved might you be ok.
Michael's -
This place is like an addiction for me. Every year they have all the little table decor that I want like mini skulls and potion bottles, but I just can't afford the whole store.
Joanns Fabric Store - Also like Michael's. They have a lot of crafty stuff with decor mixed in and usually, it's really cute. Stickers, stamps, and baking stuff galore. Don't say I didn't warn you.
And stores you know are selling Halloween stuff:
Spirit Halloween Stores - They pop up all over every year and are chock full of costumes, masks, and cheap holiday decor.
Halloween Express - Same idea as above, though some of these stores are permanent. Masks, costumes, and cheap home decor.
Hallmark - Always a small treasure trove of holiday stuffed animals, bowls, little decor items, and a ton of cards.
Target - A ton of stuff. Most of it's cheap, but sometimes I find some really nice stuff amongst all the junk.
Kmart - Quality is low here, as you expect. I think this store will go completely belly up within the next 2 years. It's been struggling for too long to last much longer, and ever since they got rid of their snack bars in the 80's and got rid of my favorite food item (taco snacks!) they haven't been the same.
Happy Shopping!
Friday, August 19, 2011
My favorite candies of all time
I'm sure y'all don't care about this, but I'm about to list off my favorite candies of all time.
If you've never heard of some of these, or tried them, you should, they're really good.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - always a great way to suck up to me.
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If you've never heard of some of these, or tried them, you should, they're really good.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups - always a great way to suck up to me.
Ferrara Pan's Alexander the Grape - now known as Grapeheads (a much better version of Lemonheads)
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| The good ole day packaging |
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| The current packaging |
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| I know they look like little canon balls here, but they are delicious little flavor bombs. |
There are many, many candies I enjoy eating, but those 2 top the lists. A few should be mentioned on a list of close, but no cigar for the top spots:
Chick-o-stick: These are delicious crunchy little pieces of peanut buttery candy.
Air-heads: Can't say there's much of anything else like them. Not taffy, not gummy bears, not jolly ranchers, but more like a mix of all three.
Heath/Skor Bars: There are just about the same, but both have the wonderful coating of chocolate on top of English toffee.
M&M's: My 2 favorite kinds are the peanut butter and peanut, oh and almond too, almost forgot. So, 3 fav's.
Snickers: Hmmm how can you beat chocolate, chocolate nougat, peanuts, and carmel? You just can't.
Snickers Almonds: This was a direct replacement for the Mars bar disappearence, and it's a pretty good substitute.
Charms Blow Pops: Sugary heaven especially the grape and strawberry flavors.
Did you know?
That running around barefoot or in shoes like flat sandals, or flips flops is bad for your feet. When walking around a lot with either no shoes, or shoes that have no arch support, your feet are actually harmed.
I've been walking around just in socks for years since I have no job and am in a house all day so my feet have been hurting. I had to investigate as to why. I thought it was because I've gained some weight, but that wasn't it.
Make sure you wear some shoes with arch support like sneakers, even if you're just walking around your own house for days.
I've been walking around just in socks for years since I have no job and am in a house all day so my feet have been hurting. I had to investigate as to why. I thought it was because I've gained some weight, but that wasn't it.
Make sure you wear some shoes with arch support like sneakers, even if you're just walking around your own house for days.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Project Runway is back!
Sorry y'all. I had no idea that Project Runway was running it's 9th season currently. I love, love, love this show. First off, being an interior designer I love watching other people be creative and in a short amount of time to boot.
If you're oblivious to this show, there's a ton of contestants that start out every season from different backgrounds. They are all competing to be the last fashion designer left standing and get a huge prize. $100,000.00 to start their own line and a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine. They have some ridiculous challenges like making a garment out of pet store supplies, making an outfit out of their bedclothes, and stuff like that.
I'm addicted and I love watching the fashion show at the end.
I don't know who I'm rooting for yet, but as the weeks go on, we will have to see who really stands out.
Airs on Lifetime television network. Probably the only good show they have on. The rest of the channel is too pumped full of estrogen and weird movies of the week that involve some mother's hunt to find her abducted child while getting a divorce from her mass murdering husband who just got a sex change. Stuff that like.....too much weeping.
If you're oblivious to this show, there's a ton of contestants that start out every season from different backgrounds. They are all competing to be the last fashion designer left standing and get a huge prize. $100,000.00 to start their own line and a fashion spread in Marie Claire magazine. They have some ridiculous challenges like making a garment out of pet store supplies, making an outfit out of their bedclothes, and stuff like that.
I'm addicted and I love watching the fashion show at the end.
I don't know who I'm rooting for yet, but as the weeks go on, we will have to see who really stands out.
Airs on Lifetime television network. Probably the only good show they have on. The rest of the channel is too pumped full of estrogen and weird movies of the week that involve some mother's hunt to find her abducted child while getting a divorce from her mass murdering husband who just got a sex change. Stuff that like.....too much weeping.
The A-Team
Released: 2010
Action, comedy
Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Wilson, Sharlto Copley
Director: Joe Carnahan
Running Time: 117 minutes
The breakdown:
If you've seen the series from the 80's you know, but if you're younger than that...
A four man team of military elite get falsely accused and punished for a crime they did not commit. They escape prison and try to clear their name anyway they can.
So the movie's a bit different than the 80's tv show of course. On the show they just got hired by people to do certain jobs to make a living after they got kicked out of the military. In the movie, they do crazy things just to clear their own names. No one hires them to do anything.
I thought the movie was going to be bad, but it wasn't. First off, there's 3 hot guys in it, which I didn't know about so that's a bonus, plus Bradley Cooper has his shirt off a LOT so, that's always nice. Anyway, um, hmmm...what was I saying?
The cast of characters goes like this:
Liam Neeson plays Hannibal, not as good as George Peppard of course, but you can't beat the original. He's the plan maker, and leader.
Bradley Cooper plays Face and does a pretty good job of it. The ladies man.
Some wrestler named Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson plays Mr T.'s old role of B.A. Baracus. The super tough guy "pity the fool" who messes with him.
and Sharlto Copley (who was the male lead in District 9) does a damn fine job of playing Murdock with a southern accent and insane ideas. Literally, the crazy one who's good at flying choppers and planes.
What was strange that I noticed was actor Brian Bloom (hard not to notice since he was absolutely gorgeous in the 80's and 90's but has since cut off all his hair) co-wrote the screenplay and played a bad guy. He's not as handsome as he used to be without the hair, but he's balding, what else can he do? I'd still sleep with him.
Back to the plot,
The guys get framed for killing a higher up in the Army and stealing some evidence. They all get shipped off to different prisons around the world, Murdock gets sent to an asylum in Germany, and of course, break out. The CIA agent helping them is really out for his own interests, so there's some backstabbing and twists, but overall it's an entertaining remake. Some of the action scenes are completely unbelievable and that always takes away from my enjoyment a bit, but I'll accept it and just move on.
If you wanted to see it but had reservations, go ahead, it's a fun time.
3 out of 5 ticket stubs because some of the action just isn't believable and it's a remake, so not an original idea.
Action, comedy
Starring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Wilson, Sharlto Copley
Director: Joe Carnahan
Running Time: 117 minutes
The breakdown:
If you've seen the series from the 80's you know, but if you're younger than that...
A four man team of military elite get falsely accused and punished for a crime they did not commit. They escape prison and try to clear their name anyway they can.
So the movie's a bit different than the 80's tv show of course. On the show they just got hired by people to do certain jobs to make a living after they got kicked out of the military. In the movie, they do crazy things just to clear their own names. No one hires them to do anything.
I thought the movie was going to be bad, but it wasn't. First off, there's 3 hot guys in it, which I didn't know about so that's a bonus, plus Bradley Cooper has his shirt off a LOT so, that's always nice. Anyway, um, hmmm...what was I saying?
The cast of characters goes like this:
Liam Neeson plays Hannibal, not as good as George Peppard of course, but you can't beat the original. He's the plan maker, and leader.
Bradley Cooper plays Face and does a pretty good job of it. The ladies man.
Some wrestler named Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson plays Mr T.'s old role of B.A. Baracus. The super tough guy "pity the fool" who messes with him.
and Sharlto Copley (who was the male lead in District 9) does a damn fine job of playing Murdock with a southern accent and insane ideas. Literally, the crazy one who's good at flying choppers and planes.
What was strange that I noticed was actor Brian Bloom (hard not to notice since he was absolutely gorgeous in the 80's and 90's but has since cut off all his hair) co-wrote the screenplay and played a bad guy. He's not as handsome as he used to be without the hair, but he's balding, what else can he do? I'd still sleep with him.
Back to the plot,
The guys get framed for killing a higher up in the Army and stealing some evidence. They all get shipped off to different prisons around the world, Murdock gets sent to an asylum in Germany, and of course, break out. The CIA agent helping them is really out for his own interests, so there's some backstabbing and twists, but overall it's an entertaining remake. Some of the action scenes are completely unbelievable and that always takes away from my enjoyment a bit, but I'll accept it and just move on.
If you wanted to see it but had reservations, go ahead, it's a fun time.
3 out of 5 ticket stubs because some of the action just isn't believable and it's a remake, so not an original idea.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The pyromaniac in me must say this......
Nothing makes a house feel more like a home than candles I think. They really warm up an otherwise "cold" interior. I know there are a lot of electric candles, flameless, and LED's, but my favorite are the old fashion light 'em up wicked candles.
I'm a bit of a candle snob actually. I'm incredibly picky about purchasing candles. It's not just for one trait alone either. They have to smell good, or not smell at all. They have to burn clean, last a long time, and be worth the money.
As I've said in the past, Illuminations had the best candles for clean burning and beautiful reusable containers. The candle accessories they offered were top notch quality, something you could pass down as a family heirloom kind of quality, but I really didn't like too many of their scents.
Yankee Candle has an incredible assortment of scents and I love a lot of them, things like Blueberry Scone, Christmas Cookie, Cranberry Chutney, and my list goes on and on, BUT they are really expensive. Their candles sometimes smoke up and their candle accessories lack a lot.
Some of my friends swear by Partylite and/or Gold Canyon, but neither one of them do it for me. Either I don't like a lot of their scents, or their accessories are a bit bland. Every once in a while I will purchase something from them, but only because I really like it. No offense intended to my dear friends who like these lines.
Northern Lights Candles had some great smelling candles and accessories in the past but they are spotty when it comes to stuff I want to buy. If you've never heard of them it's
northernlightscandles.com
Surroundings is a company out of Oregon that will show you what's possible with candle centerpieces and then if you want, purchase all the things you need to make them yourself. They have an incredible inventory of candle accessories and holders, but I haven't actually smelled any of the candles. A lot of the time, they are selling centerpieces and not really scented candles. But for creative centerpieces, they are awesome.
Unfortunately, I just haven't found a candle store that sells awesome accessories and has affordable awesome smelling candles. I think Yankee really needs a company to step up and give them some competition.
I'm a bit of a candle snob actually. I'm incredibly picky about purchasing candles. It's not just for one trait alone either. They have to smell good, or not smell at all. They have to burn clean, last a long time, and be worth the money.
As I've said in the past, Illuminations had the best candles for clean burning and beautiful reusable containers. The candle accessories they offered were top notch quality, something you could pass down as a family heirloom kind of quality, but I really didn't like too many of their scents.
Yankee Candle has an incredible assortment of scents and I love a lot of them, things like Blueberry Scone, Christmas Cookie, Cranberry Chutney, and my list goes on and on, BUT they are really expensive. Their candles sometimes smoke up and their candle accessories lack a lot.
Some of my friends swear by Partylite and/or Gold Canyon, but neither one of them do it for me. Either I don't like a lot of their scents, or their accessories are a bit bland. Every once in a while I will purchase something from them, but only because I really like it. No offense intended to my dear friends who like these lines.
Northern Lights Candles had some great smelling candles and accessories in the past but they are spotty when it comes to stuff I want to buy. If you've never heard of them it's
northernlightscandles.com
Surroundings is a company out of Oregon that will show you what's possible with candle centerpieces and then if you want, purchase all the things you need to make them yourself. They have an incredible inventory of candle accessories and holders, but I haven't actually smelled any of the candles. A lot of the time, they are selling centerpieces and not really scented candles. But for creative centerpieces, they are awesome.
Unfortunately, I just haven't found a candle store that sells awesome accessories and has affordable awesome smelling candles. I think Yankee really needs a company to step up and give them some competition.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Coldplay's new album!
Released: To be released October 24, 2011
I'm very excited. Coldplay is set to release a new album and I'm looking forward to hearing it. I'm looking forward to finding out how to pronounce it. It's called Mylo Xyloto. I think it's pronounced My Low Zy Low Toe broken out into words that sound like it. On their website, coldplay.com, they have a pronunciation key, of course, that's hand written in a semi messy fashion, so that's not too helpful to me.
This is their fifth studio album.
First was Parachutes from 2000 and it was incredible. They became my favorite band in a very short amount of time, and still are. The combination of emotional lyrics, orchestral instruments, and contemporary rock instruments make this band to me, unbeatable. Parachutes was heavy on emotion and orchestral instruments along with piano. One of their best albums.
Then in 2002 they released A Rush of Blood To The Head. A strong, driving album that mixes powerful melodies with incredibly touching lyrics, this one is my absolute favorite. In addition to the wonderful music, the artwork on the album and individual single releases is so interesting and visually arresting, I can't help but recall them while listening to the album.
The next studio album was released in 2005 called X&Y. I feel like they stepped away from the formula that worked so well for them in previous albums. Some of the songs are really really good, but the songs didn't touch me as deep as the previous albums. I was a bit disappointed with this work. A lot more synthesizer sounding instruments and less strings just made it sound less like themselves. Ironically, the song called "The Hardest Part" is one of my favorites of this album.
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends came along in 2008. I was disappointed further still by this album as it sounds like they moved towards a more mechanical modern instrumental sound. Not so much of the orchestral stuff they mixed in before that made their music so unique and beautiful. I still really like about half the songs on this album, but some I just don't like.
So that brings us up to date on all the studio albums they've released. There are a lot of live albums I've skipped, but I'm covering the important stuff here. I really have to go back to A Rush of Blood to the Head for my favorite songs of theirs. Stuff like Politik, In My Place, God Put a Smile Upon your Face, A Warning Sign, and the title track are amazing pieces of music. I can't get enough of these songs and they are always so powerful and meaningful when I hear them. I love them as much today as I did when I first heard them. If this new album is anything like the first two albums they put out, I will be very very happy. We will have to wait and see.
I'm very excited. Coldplay is set to release a new album and I'm looking forward to hearing it. I'm looking forward to finding out how to pronounce it. It's called Mylo Xyloto. I think it's pronounced My Low Zy Low Toe broken out into words that sound like it. On their website, coldplay.com, they have a pronunciation key, of course, that's hand written in a semi messy fashion, so that's not too helpful to me.
This is their fifth studio album.
First was Parachutes from 2000 and it was incredible. They became my favorite band in a very short amount of time, and still are. The combination of emotional lyrics, orchestral instruments, and contemporary rock instruments make this band to me, unbeatable. Parachutes was heavy on emotion and orchestral instruments along with piano. One of their best albums.
Then in 2002 they released A Rush of Blood To The Head. A strong, driving album that mixes powerful melodies with incredibly touching lyrics, this one is my absolute favorite. In addition to the wonderful music, the artwork on the album and individual single releases is so interesting and visually arresting, I can't help but recall them while listening to the album.
The next studio album was released in 2005 called X&Y. I feel like they stepped away from the formula that worked so well for them in previous albums. Some of the songs are really really good, but the songs didn't touch me as deep as the previous albums. I was a bit disappointed with this work. A lot more synthesizer sounding instruments and less strings just made it sound less like themselves. Ironically, the song called "The Hardest Part" is one of my favorites of this album.
Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends came along in 2008. I was disappointed further still by this album as it sounds like they moved towards a more mechanical modern instrumental sound. Not so much of the orchestral stuff they mixed in before that made their music so unique and beautiful. I still really like about half the songs on this album, but some I just don't like.
So that brings us up to date on all the studio albums they've released. There are a lot of live albums I've skipped, but I'm covering the important stuff here. I really have to go back to A Rush of Blood to the Head for my favorite songs of theirs. Stuff like Politik, In My Place, God Put a Smile Upon your Face, A Warning Sign, and the title track are amazing pieces of music. I can't get enough of these songs and they are always so powerful and meaningful when I hear them. I love them as much today as I did when I first heard them. If this new album is anything like the first two albums they put out, I will be very very happy. We will have to wait and see.
Identity
Released: 2003
Horror, Mystery
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Director: James Mangold
Running Time: 90 minutes
The breakdown: A Nevada motel during a torrential rainstorm gives safe haven to 10 strangers who suddenly realize they are getting murdered one by one.
Ah this could've been such a great movie with a surprise ending.
The plot here is that through happenstance 10 strangers come together at an isolated Nevada motel because there's a terrible rain storm outside and most of the streets are completely flooded. There's a limo driver, who used to be a cop, driving his client, a has been actress. There's a couple who just got married that day. There's a prostitute on her way home to Florida. There's a middle-aged couple with a stepchild. There's a cop transporting his convict, and the manager of the motel.
Well let's start with the good stuff. The acting was good and I enjoyed the story up until the end. There are a few points where I was really wondering what was going on and was interested to see what was going to happen next. But that ending, I'm not going to ruin it for you. I will just say they should've stopped the movie at a certain point and it would've been a great ending and a great movie. Instead, they pushed it a bit farther and it made the entire movie crap and the ending was unintentionally funny. Very very sad on the screenwriters part and the director for keeping the ending the way it was. This movie is pretty unique and I didn't expect the story to turn out the way it did, but it was refreshing (removing the crap ending of course).
The bad, well, it's really that bad of an ending where the audience is just like, why did you have to go and do that to a perfectly good movie? Why ruin it that way, really?
Up until the end, I was really enjoying it.
I can't say too much if I'm not to reveal the end, but I enjoyed 95% of it.
If you've ever been on the fence, I say watch it, but do so cheaply. Don't pay too much for it.
3 out of 5 ticket stubs because of the God awful stupid ending.
Horror, Mystery
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Director: James Mangold
Running Time: 90 minutes
The breakdown: A Nevada motel during a torrential rainstorm gives safe haven to 10 strangers who suddenly realize they are getting murdered one by one.
Ah this could've been such a great movie with a surprise ending.
The plot here is that through happenstance 10 strangers come together at an isolated Nevada motel because there's a terrible rain storm outside and most of the streets are completely flooded. There's a limo driver, who used to be a cop, driving his client, a has been actress. There's a couple who just got married that day. There's a prostitute on her way home to Florida. There's a middle-aged couple with a stepchild. There's a cop transporting his convict, and the manager of the motel.
Well let's start with the good stuff. The acting was good and I enjoyed the story up until the end. There are a few points where I was really wondering what was going on and was interested to see what was going to happen next. But that ending, I'm not going to ruin it for you. I will just say they should've stopped the movie at a certain point and it would've been a great ending and a great movie. Instead, they pushed it a bit farther and it made the entire movie crap and the ending was unintentionally funny. Very very sad on the screenwriters part and the director for keeping the ending the way it was. This movie is pretty unique and I didn't expect the story to turn out the way it did, but it was refreshing (removing the crap ending of course).
The bad, well, it's really that bad of an ending where the audience is just like, why did you have to go and do that to a perfectly good movie? Why ruin it that way, really?
Up until the end, I was really enjoying it.
I can't say too much if I'm not to reveal the end, but I enjoyed 95% of it.
If you've ever been on the fence, I say watch it, but do so cheaply. Don't pay too much for it.
3 out of 5 ticket stubs because of the God awful stupid ending.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Xanadu
Released: 1980
Musical
Starring: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelley, Michael Beck
Director: Robert Greenwalk
Running Time: 93 minutes
The breakdown:
8 muses in the shape of women come down to Earth and inspire people to create. This is the story of one of those girls, Kira.
Ok so this is a really badly written movie with really cheesy scenes and some terrible acting on the male lead's part, but I still love this movie. There's dancing, singing, roller skating, and some great Art Deco sets. The reason why I love it is most likely sentimental. My uncle repeatedly watched this movie when I was little and I heard the soundtrack nonstop for years.
First off the plot. There's this mural in L.A. that has 8 women on it. All of them come to life and dance around (in really cute outfits that still look cute today) and take off for the purpose of inspiring people all over the world. Well, Kira, played by Newton-John stays in L.A. and falls in love with the man she's supposed to be inspiring. She's adorable in this role! She's a good actress and sings like a dream. She's one of the highlights and I love most of her wardrobe in the film. She inspires the artist, Sonny Malone, played by Beck, who's pretty terrible. He couldn't sing so they got someone else to do the vocals, he really can't act, in fact, I don't know why they chose him at all. Gene Kelley plays Danny McGuire, a wonderful role with all of his singing and dancing top notch. Anyway, Kira inspires Sonny to do some of the best painting of his life. While he's on the beach he runs into Danny and they eventually become business partners to build the latest greatest disco roller skating rink (it's 1980 remember!)
The most awesome thing about this movie is the soundtrack. I like every single song in the film and Olivia Newton-John is magic! This was Gene Kelley's last film and he was really good in it. I know there's a lot of people who probably won't admit they like this movie, but I'm not afraid. I love this movie because I have great memories attached to it and the music kicks ass!
In fact, Macy's just recently started using a remade version of the the song from this movie called, "Magic" in their television ads.
If I can catch this on cable, I usually listen to it more than watch and it brings me into such a good mood and lifts my spirits if I'm down.
I can't recommend this movie unless you want to see some great roller skating scenes, or see some visuals for the great songs. I can and do, recommend that if you've never listened to the music, you should. It still stands up today and doesn't sound dated. My favorites are Magic, Whenever You're Away from Me, and Dancin'.
For the movie, without my sentimentalness getting in the way I give it 2 out of 5 ticket stubs because basically the plot is lacking and there's just not enough there to make a movie out of it.
For the soundtrack, this is one of the best I've ever heard created for a movie alone, I give it 5 out of 5 microphones because the songs are so contagious and you can't get them out of your head in a good way. They stand up over time and you can relate to them today.
Musical
Starring: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelley, Michael Beck
Director: Robert Greenwalk
Running Time: 93 minutes
The breakdown:
8 muses in the shape of women come down to Earth and inspire people to create. This is the story of one of those girls, Kira.
Ok so this is a really badly written movie with really cheesy scenes and some terrible acting on the male lead's part, but I still love this movie. There's dancing, singing, roller skating, and some great Art Deco sets. The reason why I love it is most likely sentimental. My uncle repeatedly watched this movie when I was little and I heard the soundtrack nonstop for years.
First off the plot. There's this mural in L.A. that has 8 women on it. All of them come to life and dance around (in really cute outfits that still look cute today) and take off for the purpose of inspiring people all over the world. Well, Kira, played by Newton-John stays in L.A. and falls in love with the man she's supposed to be inspiring. She's adorable in this role! She's a good actress and sings like a dream. She's one of the highlights and I love most of her wardrobe in the film. She inspires the artist, Sonny Malone, played by Beck, who's pretty terrible. He couldn't sing so they got someone else to do the vocals, he really can't act, in fact, I don't know why they chose him at all. Gene Kelley plays Danny McGuire, a wonderful role with all of his singing and dancing top notch. Anyway, Kira inspires Sonny to do some of the best painting of his life. While he's on the beach he runs into Danny and they eventually become business partners to build the latest greatest disco roller skating rink (it's 1980 remember!)
The most awesome thing about this movie is the soundtrack. I like every single song in the film and Olivia Newton-John is magic! This was Gene Kelley's last film and he was really good in it. I know there's a lot of people who probably won't admit they like this movie, but I'm not afraid. I love this movie because I have great memories attached to it and the music kicks ass!
In fact, Macy's just recently started using a remade version of the the song from this movie called, "Magic" in their television ads.
If I can catch this on cable, I usually listen to it more than watch and it brings me into such a good mood and lifts my spirits if I'm down.
I can't recommend this movie unless you want to see some great roller skating scenes, or see some visuals for the great songs. I can and do, recommend that if you've never listened to the music, you should. It still stands up today and doesn't sound dated. My favorites are Magic, Whenever You're Away from Me, and Dancin'.
For the movie, without my sentimentalness getting in the way I give it 2 out of 5 ticket stubs because basically the plot is lacking and there's just not enough there to make a movie out of it.
For the soundtrack, this is one of the best I've ever heard created for a movie alone, I give it 5 out of 5 microphones because the songs are so contagious and you can't get them out of your head in a good way. They stand up over time and you can relate to them today.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Yankee Candle Vs. Illuminations Halloween Decor Specifically
It's coming up on the time of year where summer starts to end, kids go back to school soon, and my thoughts turn towards fall, my birthday, and Halloween.
I love Autumn for many reasons. Being in Arizona, it means that the summer heat is about to dissipate and finally get comfortable again. The leaves change color in a dramatic fashion and always makes for beautiful scenery in places like Wisconsin. My birthday comes along and I get some much needed love and attention no matter how old I get. BUT the highlight of the season is HALLOWEEN!!!! Yay! Yeah! Yippie!
So where am I going with this you ask? Decorating for Halloween is my favorite part of the holiday. I don't like giving away candy. I don't like kids. I'm never skinny enough to wear the kinds of costumes I'd like to pour myself into, and I certainly don't like being scared. But somehow, I love Halloween and all the decor that goes with it. I also love candles and candlelight so these two work together in harmony for this holiday.
When a store called Illuminations was around, the decor that they offered could not be beat. They offered a little bit of every style - classy, fun, scary, campy, and sophisticated to fit your needs. They sold stuff that I bought like little fuzzy spiders, boulder sized marbles that had eyeballs painted on them, little glass pumpkins, and a huge array of candle holders. If you saw the store in its glory you would instantly be relaxed in its atmosphere. If you never visited before they folded, when you entered it was dark. Mostly the store was illuminated by candle light only, and they had a LOT of candles all burning safely at the same time. It was a great way to relax, shop, and see what all their products looked like in use.
I didn't particularly like their scented candles, but the quality of the actual candle itself was awesome. I bought floating candles from them many times and they never burned unevenly or smoked.
Their designs were truly unique and attractive. They were more expensive than most, but the quality was worth the price. I have glass floater bowls that are super dense and beautifully made. I know I can't get them anywhere else, which is why I'm glad I did while I could.
I miss them so much. It was the biggest disappointment to me when I learned of their buy out from Yankee Candle.
Now, Yankee Candle assured us shoppers that they would buy out Illuminations and to watch in the coming months for them to alter their product line to kind of merge the 2 companies styles. That was over 2 years ago and I still see no Illuminations like quality product from Yankee.
Yankee I have liked for a long time. I think their scented candles cannot be beat for duplication of real life scents and the candles do burn for a long time, though you have to spend a lot of money for a large jar that burns around 300 hours. I think the price is up to $25.00 or so.
They have always celebrated the holidays as well by putting out limited edition candles and accessories, but I never cared for them as much as the accessories from Illuminations.
Yankee Candle always seemed to make their Halloween line a bit kiddish, and not scary at all. It's like cartoon skeletons and such, and not much outside of candles and candle holders. This is where Illuminations really gave shoppers some choice on how to integrate candles and home decorating on their own, instead of being locked down to a single idea from Yankee. I suppose I could phrase it as Illuminations gave out a ton of ideas in their catalogues with lots of different pieces and you decided which you liked the best. If you didn't you could create something entirely different with the same pieces. Kinda' like Legos. They show you a book full of ideas, but you can still make whatever you like. There's no way to do that with Yankee stuff or any other candle company out there. Illuminations gave you more creative freedom, which I thrive on, and Yankee says take it or leave it, this is what we designed this year.
So, I'm pretty pissed off that Yankee Candle bought out their best competition (and a better product line), promised they would have something left of them for us faithfuls, and then gobbled them whole without leaving a trace of their legacy. It's frustrating and saddening.
I've found no suitable alternative yet. I'm still looking and if you know of anything that resembles Illuminations, please let me know.
I still shop at Yankee for lack of a better store. It's a love/hate relationship I guess. It's just to get my candle needs accommodated until something better comes along.
I miss Illuminations... *sigh*
I love Autumn for many reasons. Being in Arizona, it means that the summer heat is about to dissipate and finally get comfortable again. The leaves change color in a dramatic fashion and always makes for beautiful scenery in places like Wisconsin. My birthday comes along and I get some much needed love and attention no matter how old I get. BUT the highlight of the season is HALLOWEEN!!!! Yay! Yeah! Yippie!
So where am I going with this you ask? Decorating for Halloween is my favorite part of the holiday. I don't like giving away candy. I don't like kids. I'm never skinny enough to wear the kinds of costumes I'd like to pour myself into, and I certainly don't like being scared. But somehow, I love Halloween and all the decor that goes with it. I also love candles and candlelight so these two work together in harmony for this holiday.
When a store called Illuminations was around, the decor that they offered could not be beat. They offered a little bit of every style - classy, fun, scary, campy, and sophisticated to fit your needs. They sold stuff that I bought like little fuzzy spiders, boulder sized marbles that had eyeballs painted on them, little glass pumpkins, and a huge array of candle holders. If you saw the store in its glory you would instantly be relaxed in its atmosphere. If you never visited before they folded, when you entered it was dark. Mostly the store was illuminated by candle light only, and they had a LOT of candles all burning safely at the same time. It was a great way to relax, shop, and see what all their products looked like in use.
I didn't particularly like their scented candles, but the quality of the actual candle itself was awesome. I bought floating candles from them many times and they never burned unevenly or smoked.
Their designs were truly unique and attractive. They were more expensive than most, but the quality was worth the price. I have glass floater bowls that are super dense and beautifully made. I know I can't get them anywhere else, which is why I'm glad I did while I could.
I miss them so much. It was the biggest disappointment to me when I learned of their buy out from Yankee Candle.
Now, Yankee Candle assured us shoppers that they would buy out Illuminations and to watch in the coming months for them to alter their product line to kind of merge the 2 companies styles. That was over 2 years ago and I still see no Illuminations like quality product from Yankee.
Yankee I have liked for a long time. I think their scented candles cannot be beat for duplication of real life scents and the candles do burn for a long time, though you have to spend a lot of money for a large jar that burns around 300 hours. I think the price is up to $25.00 or so.
They have always celebrated the holidays as well by putting out limited edition candles and accessories, but I never cared for them as much as the accessories from Illuminations.
Yankee Candle always seemed to make their Halloween line a bit kiddish, and not scary at all. It's like cartoon skeletons and such, and not much outside of candles and candle holders. This is where Illuminations really gave shoppers some choice on how to integrate candles and home decorating on their own, instead of being locked down to a single idea from Yankee. I suppose I could phrase it as Illuminations gave out a ton of ideas in their catalogues with lots of different pieces and you decided which you liked the best. If you didn't you could create something entirely different with the same pieces. Kinda' like Legos. They show you a book full of ideas, but you can still make whatever you like. There's no way to do that with Yankee stuff or any other candle company out there. Illuminations gave you more creative freedom, which I thrive on, and Yankee says take it or leave it, this is what we designed this year.
So, I'm pretty pissed off that Yankee Candle bought out their best competition (and a better product line), promised they would have something left of them for us faithfuls, and then gobbled them whole without leaving a trace of their legacy. It's frustrating and saddening.
I've found no suitable alternative yet. I'm still looking and if you know of anything that resembles Illuminations, please let me know.
I still shop at Yankee for lack of a better store. It's a love/hate relationship I guess. It's just to get my candle needs accommodated until something better comes along.
I miss Illuminations... *sigh*
Saturday, August 13, 2011
2001: A Space Odyssey - the plot and its meaning
Released: 1968
Sci-fi, Drama
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Ed Bishop
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Running Time: 141 minutes
The breakdown: A science fiction drama about alien intelligence, mankind, apes, and space travel. It's extremely difficult to sum this movie up in a few short sentences.
I have seen the beginning 20 minutes of this movie so many times I can't count. I've seen pieces of the middle and then the end a few times, without being able to even guess what the rest of the film's about. I had heard a LOT of things about the film, and how so many people liked it and that it's probably one of the best films ever, so I finally sat down and watched it, in its entirety last night.
I liked it. At first, I didn't really understand it, and it's certainly confusing and open to interpretation so I'll do my best to tell you about it.
The plot runs like this, and since this is an older film, I will discuss all of it, including the ending. So if you are saving yourself to watch this sometime - just stop reading now - SPOILER ALERT ahead!
The plot is in 4 "chapters" if you will. This is a very detailed synopsis to better explore the meaning of the film at the end.
The first is:
The Dawn of Man (title card)
A whole bunch of ape-like humans are shown sitting around doing ape stuff. They search for food (they eat herbs and shrubs at this point), they go to the watering hole, they pick ticks off each other, they sleep. On one occasion at the watering hole, they are confronted by another "tribe" of ape-like humans. They do not fight, they just get chased out by a lot of posturing and hooting and hollering. One of the apes gets killed by a leopard, since it had no way to defend itself. This "tribe" is pretty scared and huddle together nestled up against a cave-like rock for sleep. In the morning, they wake up to find a large black monolith in front of where they slept. The monolith creates a lot of stirring, jumping, screeching, and curiosity. They circle around it for a while and then one brave one touches it. The others follow. Soon after they find the monolith they go on to start the evolutionary process. One ape discovers a long bone from a dead animal can be used as a tool and a weapon. They begin killing other types of animals to eat them, becoming carnivores. They go back to the watering hole they were once chased away from and reclaim it by killing the leader of the other tribe. The triumphant ape throws the bone into the air, twirling end over end, and the bone becomes an orbiting space satellite in the distant future. (The space satellite was, in an early draft of the movie, supposed to be a series of nuclear-weapon satellites from various countries; making the shot a weapon-for-weapon trade. This was later changed and when I saw it, I just took the space ship looking thing to be a generic space ship showing how far mankind had evolved from the apes.)
This first section of the movie running about 30 minutes has no dialogue and few sounds. It does have a classical song playing over the dramatic sequences though.
Second:
No title card but some refer to it as TMA-1
A space plane carries a man, Dr. Floyd, to an orbiting space station above the Earth. We discover he's on his way to the moon. While there, he runs into some of his colleges who ask about a rumor they heard. Allegedly, on the moon station, there has been an epidemic that has knocked out any kind of communications for 10 days. Dr. Floyd is not at liberty to discuss matters he says and politely leaves his friends.
On the moon station Dr. Floyd has a meeting with the personnel who work there. He apologizes for the epidemic cover story and says they all have to keep what's really going on a secret for humanities sake. Why he's there is to investigate what's really going on - an artificially made artifact has been found deliberately buried 4 million years ago on the moon. They call it Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One (TMA-1).
Dr. Floyd rides with others, in a moonbus to the dig site. Once there, we see a black monolith identical to the one early on in the film. The humans act remarkably like the apes did once seeing it. They get close to it, apprehensively touch it and want to take a picture in front of it. As they are gathering around it, they are suddenly reacting to a very loud radio signal emitting from the monolith. (This sound is most likely only been activated after people [intelligent life - smart enough at least, to get to the moon] have touched it, or after sunlight hits it for the first time, being unburied by an intelligent race.)
Third:
Jupiter Mission (title card)
18 months later.
We see a huge space ship called Discovery One heading for Jupiter. There are 2 astronaut scientists awake on board - Dr. Poole and Dr. Bowman, and 3 others who are in a state of hibernation until they arrive at Jupiter. Then they are supposed to be woken up and to do research of some kind. Controlling the ship in almost every aspect is the artificial intelligence computer known as HAL 9000. HAL is always present everywhere, but is only seen as a red-light-looking eye in scenes where it's talking. The astronauts are watching a transmission from Earth during a meal. They were interviewed about the mission and about HAL previously. HAL has been programmed to be as human as possible with respect to emotions so it can better relate to the humans on board. Dr. Bowman has been asked if HAL has genuine emotions to which the Dr. replies, he appears to, but no one really knows. Even HAL is interviewed and shows enthusiasm and pride for the mission, as well as mentioning that HAL 9000 are basically perfect and have a 100% service record. HAL specifically mentions it is,"foolproof and incapable of error."
In the next important scene HAL begins questioning Dr. Bowman about the secrecy of their mission and what was really going on on the moon 18 months ago. While they are talking HAL interrupts himself to report of an imminent failure of an important antenna that links them to Earth. Dr. Bowman goes out into space in a pod vessel to replace the faulty technology and brings in the old one. They sit together and test the faulty unit, but find no errors with it. HAL tells the astronauts to put it back in to see if it really does fail, but mission control back home has to be consulted. Mission control agrees with HAL but says that their twin HAL on Earth indicates the ship's HAL is in error about the faulty part.
When the astronauts question HAL about the error, he says as with all previous issues with HAL computers, the error lies with humans, not the computers. The doctors are worried. The doctors hide themselves into a pod in the docking area and turn off all the audio so HAL cannot hear them. Between themselves they discuss HAL's behavior. They realize they both have bad feelings about him/it, but decide to follow his suggestion to put the "faulty" part back in until it fails. They also decide to disconnect HAL's brain so they can control the ship safely, if the part doesn't fail, meaning HAL really is in err. What they don't realize is that even though HAL can't hear them, he can see them talking through the window and can read lips.
Dr. Poole goes out into space in a pod to place the original part back into the antenna when HAL disconnects his air hose and pushes him out into space alone. HAL does this by controlling the pod Dr. Poole took out while Dr. Bowman is not looking on the monitors back in the main ship. Once Dr. Bowman realizes Dr. Poole is in serious trouble and/or dead, he suits up and goes out into another pod to rescue him, but he leaves his suit helmet behind accidentally. Dr. Bowman doesn't realize HAL is to blame. While Dr. Bowman is out of the ship, HAL terminates life support for the 3 scientists on board that are in hibernation. Once Dr. Bowman retrieves Dr. Pooles body he comes back to the door of the ship asking HAL to open the door. HAL refuses. HAL says that he knows what the astronaut is planning to do and the mission is too important for him to be deactivated. Dr. Bowman risks his life and manually opens the emergency door with the pod to get into the main ship, but has to leave Dr. Poole's body out in space as well as the destroyed pod. Dr. Bowman gets his helmet he left behind and heads straight for HAL 9000's memory core to deactivate him immediately. HAL first asks the doctor what his is doing, he tries to reassure the doctor he will be fine, he's safe to leave active. Then he begins pleading not to be terminated. HAL finally shows fear of deactivation, but the doctor continues. HAL's voice never waivers from monotone and is quite creepy throughout the whole scene. As the doctor is disconnecting his modules, the computer regresses to its initial programming memory. The song "Daisy Bell" which Dr. Bowman asks him to sing until the computer cannot finish and is completely deactivated.
Once the deactivation is complete, a pre-recorded video message appears on the screen from Dr. Floyd. He says they found an ancient artifact on the moon that hasn't done anything except for transmit a terribly powerful radio emission towards Jupiter. The last words spoken in the film is what the man says last. "it's (the artifact's) origin and purpose still, a total mystery."
Lastly:
Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite (title card)
The Discovery One arrives near Jupiter and Dr. Bowman is the only crew member to see it. He sees an identical black monolith orbiting around Jupiter and takes a pod out to investigate. As he approaches, he suddenly is in a tunnel of light (assuming he's travelling at light years now, far into deep space). He is visibly shaken and scared at what he sees. They show a strange, weird colored terrain of other unknown worlds and bizarre cosmic events. Then all of a sudden he is middle-aged in his spacesuit inside a mostly white Victorian era furnished room. He hears something and turns to see a figure sitting at a dinner table. He (middle-aged) sees himself in a mirror and realizes what we've already seen, he's middle aged, but still in his spacesuit. Then he turns to the figure at the dinner table and we see it's him again, but now in a robe and even older. The spacesuit version of him is gone. Lastly, the old doctor who has dropped a glass, shattering on the ground, looks towards the bed and sees himself now as an elderly weak man laying in bed. The version of him seated at the table is gone.
The elderly doctor looks up from his bed and sees the black monolith we've seen throughout the whole film at the foot of the bed. He reaches for it, but it's very hard for him since he's very very weak. Suddenly we see a human-like fetus contained in a glowing orb of light floating out in space over the Earth. The being turns to face Earth and the movie fades to black.
This last 20-30 minutes of the film is completely quiet except for some strange moaning/faint music sounds.
The meaning:
So, I'm trying to analyze movies more these days. Too often in the past I've been a passive movie watcher, just letting the movie come to me and ask other people what it meant, or hopefully, the movie would spell it out for me. Before I looked for help, I tried to figure it all out myself.
I guessed that the monolith was a physical representation of an idea. The idea stood there and waited to be discovered by the apes, and once they touched it, one realized how to make a weapon and a tool, making the human race begin evolution. Once I got to the moon monolith though, I was stumped. An idea for what? To travel to Jupiter, I guessed. Then at the end, that theory really fell apart as I had no idea at all. I also guessed that the monolith might have been God, but that didn't hold water for very long either.
So for all my trying to use my brain on this, I needed help from the experts. I went to the internet and found that a lot of experts had a lot of confusion and different ideas as well as to what the movie was about. Essentially, it's about evolution, that can be agreed upon. But if the opening space scene is from a bone to a space satellite, than that means, look how far we've evolved from apes to brilliant beings capable of space travel. If the opening space scene is viewed as bone (used as a weapon) to nuclear satellite (weapon) that means we haven't evolved very far at all because we are still learning to control others with weapons.
I researched what Arthur C. Clarke intended his book's meaning to be (written the same time as the script by himself and Kubrick.) The best I can summarize it - is that the monolith is certainly an artifact made by aliens smarter than us. It is like an item meant to push apes to begin the evolutionary process in the beginning, it's a marker left on the moon for any intelligent life (probably inhabiting Earth) to find and once it is, that means the life was smart enough to get that far, so the monolith sends its signal to Jupiter to trigger the intelligent life (humans) to want to go there; and finally it's a portal orbiting around Jupiter to make that intelligent life (us) reach the next level by making it that far. The monolith is an ancient alien tool, left behind for someone/something smart enough to find and be rewarded with the next evolutionary step up. Dr. Bowman at the end is rewarded from being the only being to discover the orbiting monolith and ages fast, dies, and then is reborn as a new and improved star-child super-human. I know there's a sequel, but I haven't got that far yet. I'm still trying to absorb and research all of this one first.
It's a really interesting plot. What I didn't like about it, was the pace of the film. I don't like Stanley Kubrick at all as a director. I think he's weird on purpose just for the sake of being weird and trying too hard to be enigmatic. I understand for this film that he was trying to show how vast and empty space was, how isolating and quiet it is, to be out there, all alone, I get that. But, the pace for the outer space scenes is very very slow. The only thing you hear often is Dr. Bowman's breathing in his suit. I know it's dangerous, I know it's a vacuum, I know, I know. I think it's debatable at least, as to how long some of those outer space slow shots should be. I guess, you just have to be in the right mood for that movie, and you have to have patience to sit through it. Outside of the slow pace, I really liked it, even though it's confusing and open to interpretation and it's dialogue-light, it's well worth watching.
If you've been like me and just never been able to sit through it, do it just once in your lifetime, I think everyone should see this movie, if nothing else, but to open your sense of imagination and to wonder what's out there in space and beyond. It's considered a classic by most and one of the best films of all time in a ton of people's opinions and now I understand why.
I easily give it 4 and 1/2 ticket stubs for it's mystery, imagination and great plot.
Sci-fi, Drama
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Ed Bishop
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Running Time: 141 minutes
The breakdown: A science fiction drama about alien intelligence, mankind, apes, and space travel. It's extremely difficult to sum this movie up in a few short sentences.
I have seen the beginning 20 minutes of this movie so many times I can't count. I've seen pieces of the middle and then the end a few times, without being able to even guess what the rest of the film's about. I had heard a LOT of things about the film, and how so many people liked it and that it's probably one of the best films ever, so I finally sat down and watched it, in its entirety last night.
I liked it. At first, I didn't really understand it, and it's certainly confusing and open to interpretation so I'll do my best to tell you about it.
The plot runs like this, and since this is an older film, I will discuss all of it, including the ending. So if you are saving yourself to watch this sometime - just stop reading now - SPOILER ALERT ahead!
The plot is in 4 "chapters" if you will. This is a very detailed synopsis to better explore the meaning of the film at the end.
The first is:
The Dawn of Man (title card)
A whole bunch of ape-like humans are shown sitting around doing ape stuff. They search for food (they eat herbs and shrubs at this point), they go to the watering hole, they pick ticks off each other, they sleep. On one occasion at the watering hole, they are confronted by another "tribe" of ape-like humans. They do not fight, they just get chased out by a lot of posturing and hooting and hollering. One of the apes gets killed by a leopard, since it had no way to defend itself. This "tribe" is pretty scared and huddle together nestled up against a cave-like rock for sleep. In the morning, they wake up to find a large black monolith in front of where they slept. The monolith creates a lot of stirring, jumping, screeching, and curiosity. They circle around it for a while and then one brave one touches it. The others follow. Soon after they find the monolith they go on to start the evolutionary process. One ape discovers a long bone from a dead animal can be used as a tool and a weapon. They begin killing other types of animals to eat them, becoming carnivores. They go back to the watering hole they were once chased away from and reclaim it by killing the leader of the other tribe. The triumphant ape throws the bone into the air, twirling end over end, and the bone becomes an orbiting space satellite in the distant future. (The space satellite was, in an early draft of the movie, supposed to be a series of nuclear-weapon satellites from various countries; making the shot a weapon-for-weapon trade. This was later changed and when I saw it, I just took the space ship looking thing to be a generic space ship showing how far mankind had evolved from the apes.)
This first section of the movie running about 30 minutes has no dialogue and few sounds. It does have a classical song playing over the dramatic sequences though.
Second:
No title card but some refer to it as TMA-1
A space plane carries a man, Dr. Floyd, to an orbiting space station above the Earth. We discover he's on his way to the moon. While there, he runs into some of his colleges who ask about a rumor they heard. Allegedly, on the moon station, there has been an epidemic that has knocked out any kind of communications for 10 days. Dr. Floyd is not at liberty to discuss matters he says and politely leaves his friends.
On the moon station Dr. Floyd has a meeting with the personnel who work there. He apologizes for the epidemic cover story and says they all have to keep what's really going on a secret for humanities sake. Why he's there is to investigate what's really going on - an artificially made artifact has been found deliberately buried 4 million years ago on the moon. They call it Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One (TMA-1).
Dr. Floyd rides with others, in a moonbus to the dig site. Once there, we see a black monolith identical to the one early on in the film. The humans act remarkably like the apes did once seeing it. They get close to it, apprehensively touch it and want to take a picture in front of it. As they are gathering around it, they are suddenly reacting to a very loud radio signal emitting from the monolith. (This sound is most likely only been activated after people [intelligent life - smart enough at least, to get to the moon] have touched it, or after sunlight hits it for the first time, being unburied by an intelligent race.)
Third:
Jupiter Mission (title card)
18 months later.
We see a huge space ship called Discovery One heading for Jupiter. There are 2 astronaut scientists awake on board - Dr. Poole and Dr. Bowman, and 3 others who are in a state of hibernation until they arrive at Jupiter. Then they are supposed to be woken up and to do research of some kind. Controlling the ship in almost every aspect is the artificial intelligence computer known as HAL 9000. HAL is always present everywhere, but is only seen as a red-light-looking eye in scenes where it's talking. The astronauts are watching a transmission from Earth during a meal. They were interviewed about the mission and about HAL previously. HAL has been programmed to be as human as possible with respect to emotions so it can better relate to the humans on board. Dr. Bowman has been asked if HAL has genuine emotions to which the Dr. replies, he appears to, but no one really knows. Even HAL is interviewed and shows enthusiasm and pride for the mission, as well as mentioning that HAL 9000 are basically perfect and have a 100% service record. HAL specifically mentions it is,"foolproof and incapable of error."
In the next important scene HAL begins questioning Dr. Bowman about the secrecy of their mission and what was really going on on the moon 18 months ago. While they are talking HAL interrupts himself to report of an imminent failure of an important antenna that links them to Earth. Dr. Bowman goes out into space in a pod vessel to replace the faulty technology and brings in the old one. They sit together and test the faulty unit, but find no errors with it. HAL tells the astronauts to put it back in to see if it really does fail, but mission control back home has to be consulted. Mission control agrees with HAL but says that their twin HAL on Earth indicates the ship's HAL is in error about the faulty part.
When the astronauts question HAL about the error, he says as with all previous issues with HAL computers, the error lies with humans, not the computers. The doctors are worried. The doctors hide themselves into a pod in the docking area and turn off all the audio so HAL cannot hear them. Between themselves they discuss HAL's behavior. They realize they both have bad feelings about him/it, but decide to follow his suggestion to put the "faulty" part back in until it fails. They also decide to disconnect HAL's brain so they can control the ship safely, if the part doesn't fail, meaning HAL really is in err. What they don't realize is that even though HAL can't hear them, he can see them talking through the window and can read lips.
Dr. Poole goes out into space in a pod to place the original part back into the antenna when HAL disconnects his air hose and pushes him out into space alone. HAL does this by controlling the pod Dr. Poole took out while Dr. Bowman is not looking on the monitors back in the main ship. Once Dr. Bowman realizes Dr. Poole is in serious trouble and/or dead, he suits up and goes out into another pod to rescue him, but he leaves his suit helmet behind accidentally. Dr. Bowman doesn't realize HAL is to blame. While Dr. Bowman is out of the ship, HAL terminates life support for the 3 scientists on board that are in hibernation. Once Dr. Bowman retrieves Dr. Pooles body he comes back to the door of the ship asking HAL to open the door. HAL refuses. HAL says that he knows what the astronaut is planning to do and the mission is too important for him to be deactivated. Dr. Bowman risks his life and manually opens the emergency door with the pod to get into the main ship, but has to leave Dr. Poole's body out in space as well as the destroyed pod. Dr. Bowman gets his helmet he left behind and heads straight for HAL 9000's memory core to deactivate him immediately. HAL first asks the doctor what his is doing, he tries to reassure the doctor he will be fine, he's safe to leave active. Then he begins pleading not to be terminated. HAL finally shows fear of deactivation, but the doctor continues. HAL's voice never waivers from monotone and is quite creepy throughout the whole scene. As the doctor is disconnecting his modules, the computer regresses to its initial programming memory. The song "Daisy Bell" which Dr. Bowman asks him to sing until the computer cannot finish and is completely deactivated.
Once the deactivation is complete, a pre-recorded video message appears on the screen from Dr. Floyd. He says they found an ancient artifact on the moon that hasn't done anything except for transmit a terribly powerful radio emission towards Jupiter. The last words spoken in the film is what the man says last. "it's (the artifact's) origin and purpose still, a total mystery."
Lastly:
Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite (title card)
The Discovery One arrives near Jupiter and Dr. Bowman is the only crew member to see it. He sees an identical black monolith orbiting around Jupiter and takes a pod out to investigate. As he approaches, he suddenly is in a tunnel of light (assuming he's travelling at light years now, far into deep space). He is visibly shaken and scared at what he sees. They show a strange, weird colored terrain of other unknown worlds and bizarre cosmic events. Then all of a sudden he is middle-aged in his spacesuit inside a mostly white Victorian era furnished room. He hears something and turns to see a figure sitting at a dinner table. He (middle-aged) sees himself in a mirror and realizes what we've already seen, he's middle aged, but still in his spacesuit. Then he turns to the figure at the dinner table and we see it's him again, but now in a robe and even older. The spacesuit version of him is gone. Lastly, the old doctor who has dropped a glass, shattering on the ground, looks towards the bed and sees himself now as an elderly weak man laying in bed. The version of him seated at the table is gone.
The elderly doctor looks up from his bed and sees the black monolith we've seen throughout the whole film at the foot of the bed. He reaches for it, but it's very hard for him since he's very very weak. Suddenly we see a human-like fetus contained in a glowing orb of light floating out in space over the Earth. The being turns to face Earth and the movie fades to black.
This last 20-30 minutes of the film is completely quiet except for some strange moaning/faint music sounds.
The meaning:
So, I'm trying to analyze movies more these days. Too often in the past I've been a passive movie watcher, just letting the movie come to me and ask other people what it meant, or hopefully, the movie would spell it out for me. Before I looked for help, I tried to figure it all out myself.
I guessed that the monolith was a physical representation of an idea. The idea stood there and waited to be discovered by the apes, and once they touched it, one realized how to make a weapon and a tool, making the human race begin evolution. Once I got to the moon monolith though, I was stumped. An idea for what? To travel to Jupiter, I guessed. Then at the end, that theory really fell apart as I had no idea at all. I also guessed that the monolith might have been God, but that didn't hold water for very long either.
So for all my trying to use my brain on this, I needed help from the experts. I went to the internet and found that a lot of experts had a lot of confusion and different ideas as well as to what the movie was about. Essentially, it's about evolution, that can be agreed upon. But if the opening space scene is from a bone to a space satellite, than that means, look how far we've evolved from apes to brilliant beings capable of space travel. If the opening space scene is viewed as bone (used as a weapon) to nuclear satellite (weapon) that means we haven't evolved very far at all because we are still learning to control others with weapons.
I researched what Arthur C. Clarke intended his book's meaning to be (written the same time as the script by himself and Kubrick.) The best I can summarize it - is that the monolith is certainly an artifact made by aliens smarter than us. It is like an item meant to push apes to begin the evolutionary process in the beginning, it's a marker left on the moon for any intelligent life (probably inhabiting Earth) to find and once it is, that means the life was smart enough to get that far, so the monolith sends its signal to Jupiter to trigger the intelligent life (humans) to want to go there; and finally it's a portal orbiting around Jupiter to make that intelligent life (us) reach the next level by making it that far. The monolith is an ancient alien tool, left behind for someone/something smart enough to find and be rewarded with the next evolutionary step up. Dr. Bowman at the end is rewarded from being the only being to discover the orbiting monolith and ages fast, dies, and then is reborn as a new and improved star-child super-human. I know there's a sequel, but I haven't got that far yet. I'm still trying to absorb and research all of this one first.
It's a really interesting plot. What I didn't like about it, was the pace of the film. I don't like Stanley Kubrick at all as a director. I think he's weird on purpose just for the sake of being weird and trying too hard to be enigmatic. I understand for this film that he was trying to show how vast and empty space was, how isolating and quiet it is, to be out there, all alone, I get that. But, the pace for the outer space scenes is very very slow. The only thing you hear often is Dr. Bowman's breathing in his suit. I know it's dangerous, I know it's a vacuum, I know, I know. I think it's debatable at least, as to how long some of those outer space slow shots should be. I guess, you just have to be in the right mood for that movie, and you have to have patience to sit through it. Outside of the slow pace, I really liked it, even though it's confusing and open to interpretation and it's dialogue-light, it's well worth watching.
If you've been like me and just never been able to sit through it, do it just once in your lifetime, I think everyone should see this movie, if nothing else, but to open your sense of imagination and to wonder what's out there in space and beyond. It's considered a classic by most and one of the best films of all time in a ton of people's opinions and now I understand why.
I easily give it 4 and 1/2 ticket stubs for it's mystery, imagination and great plot.
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Amazing Berry Almond Chicken Salad at Wendy's
I just had to mention this in a post somewhere.
Recently, it was late at night, and I was starving, having skipped dinner.
I wanted something filling, but not heavy since it was so late.
I sauntered over to the closest Wendy's and ordered their new salad.
I'd seen lots of commercials for it and just wondered if it was any good or not.
It was absolutely delicious.
Here's a picture so you can see what I'm talking about.
It has whole blueberries, sliced strawberries, 11 different kinds of mixed greens, spiced chunks of warm grilled chicken, Asiago cheese shreds, and comes with a bag of almond slivers roasted with sea salt, and a packet of raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
The salad is cold and refreshing with the fruitiness of the berries, but the warm chicken and crunchy almonds makes an interesting balance of flavor and temperature. I wasn't sure I was going to like all the ingredients in one salad, but it really works out nicely.
The bad thing about this is that the whole sized salad costs about $6.50 and the half about $4.50, so it's a bit pricey, but if you're in a hurry and want something fresh, this is a good choice.
The nutritional info for the full sized salad:
First number is what the food item contains/second item is based on a dietary recommendation of the FDA, based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. (Though if you're trying to lose weight, 2,000 calories a day isn't going to get you there.) If 0 is the second number, that means, you should have as little of that as possible, like: cholesterol, saturated fat, and especially trans fat.
Total calories: 450/2000
Calories from fat: 150
Total fat (grams): 16/65
Saturated fat: 6/0
Trans fat: .5/0
cholesterol: 95/0
Sodium (mg): 1300/2400
sugars (grams): 31/40
Carbs (grams): 42/300
Fiber (grams): 7/25
Vitamin A: 80%
Vitamin C: 70%
Calcium: 30%
Iron: 15%
The worst thing about the salad nutritionally is that it has more than half your daily intake of salt allowed, and there's a little trans fat, but it sure beats a burger and fries for calories and nutrition.
Recently, it was late at night, and I was starving, having skipped dinner.
I wanted something filling, but not heavy since it was so late.
I sauntered over to the closest Wendy's and ordered their new salad.
I'd seen lots of commercials for it and just wondered if it was any good or not.
It was absolutely delicious.
 |
| Berry Almond Chicken Salad |
It has whole blueberries, sliced strawberries, 11 different kinds of mixed greens, spiced chunks of warm grilled chicken, Asiago cheese shreds, and comes with a bag of almond slivers roasted with sea salt, and a packet of raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
The salad is cold and refreshing with the fruitiness of the berries, but the warm chicken and crunchy almonds makes an interesting balance of flavor and temperature. I wasn't sure I was going to like all the ingredients in one salad, but it really works out nicely.
The bad thing about this is that the whole sized salad costs about $6.50 and the half about $4.50, so it's a bit pricey, but if you're in a hurry and want something fresh, this is a good choice.
The nutritional info for the full sized salad:
First number is what the food item contains/second item is based on a dietary recommendation of the FDA, based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. (Though if you're trying to lose weight, 2,000 calories a day isn't going to get you there.) If 0 is the second number, that means, you should have as little of that as possible, like: cholesterol, saturated fat, and especially trans fat.
Total calories: 450/2000
Calories from fat: 150
Total fat (grams): 16/65
Saturated fat: 6/0
Trans fat: .5/0
cholesterol: 95/0
Sodium (mg): 1300/2400
sugars (grams): 31/40
Carbs (grams): 42/300
Fiber (grams): 7/25
Vitamin A: 80%
Vitamin C: 70%
Calcium: 30%
Iron: 15%
The worst thing about the salad nutritionally is that it has more than half your daily intake of salt allowed, and there's a little trans fat, but it sure beats a burger and fries for calories and nutrition.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
I'm tired of tv shows called fill-in-the-blank Wars.....
Has anyone else noticed this trend?
The one where a new television show pops up called ________ Wars. Here's a list of just how many shows there are that I'm talking about:
Storage Wars
Whisker Wars
Whale Wars
Parking Wars
Cupcake Wars
Wedding Wars
I've never seen any of these shows but they are all about fighting. The whale show I've watched but it's more focused on interpersonal drama on the ship that chases after whaler ships than it is on destroying the whaling industry. For some reason, whaling is huge in Asian countries (it's incredibly disgusting and saddening to see a beautiful peaceful creature get killed before your eyes for ridiculous inane reasons that the Asian countries lie about and say it's for research. Really? You need to kill hundreds of humpback and blue whales for research every year, year after year, when they are endangered or close to it?)
I'll probably write a separate post about that later, it makes me so infuriated.
Storage Wars I hear, is about people bidding on unopened abandoned storage units.
Whisker Wars I hear, is about a whole bunch of men that grow beards and mustaches for entering contests to win cash.
Parking Wars, I really don't know what this is about....Parking meters? Tow away zones?
Cupcake Wars - no idea. I can't even guess.
Wedding Wars - who has the best wedding and is somehow judged?
Obviously, I'm not a fan of any of these shows, it's just bugs me that every reality tv show is now going for showing lots of fighting and airing anger and shouting.
What's the value of these shows? The only thing I can think of, is for the whale show so that people know whales are getting slaughtered illegally and for no good reason, but stupidity. That is a powerful image and hopefully we can stop the countries that continue to kill whales.
The others? Nothing good or interesting to come out of these.
That's just me.
Do you watch any of these shows and why or why not? Do you think there's a reason these are so popular right now?
Can't we just make love, not war?
"WAR
what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing....I say it again...."
P.S. I just learned of another two called Swamp Wars and Border Wars.
The one where a new television show pops up called ________ Wars. Here's a list of just how many shows there are that I'm talking about:
Storage Wars
Whisker Wars
Whale Wars
Parking Wars
Cupcake Wars
Wedding Wars
I've never seen any of these shows but they are all about fighting. The whale show I've watched but it's more focused on interpersonal drama on the ship that chases after whaler ships than it is on destroying the whaling industry. For some reason, whaling is huge in Asian countries (it's incredibly disgusting and saddening to see a beautiful peaceful creature get killed before your eyes for ridiculous inane reasons that the Asian countries lie about and say it's for research. Really? You need to kill hundreds of humpback and blue whales for research every year, year after year, when they are endangered or close to it?)
I'll probably write a separate post about that later, it makes me so infuriated.
Storage Wars I hear, is about people bidding on unopened abandoned storage units.
Whisker Wars I hear, is about a whole bunch of men that grow beards and mustaches for entering contests to win cash.
Parking Wars, I really don't know what this is about....Parking meters? Tow away zones?
Cupcake Wars - no idea. I can't even guess.
Wedding Wars - who has the best wedding and is somehow judged?
Obviously, I'm not a fan of any of these shows, it's just bugs me that every reality tv show is now going for showing lots of fighting and airing anger and shouting.
What's the value of these shows? The only thing I can think of, is for the whale show so that people know whales are getting slaughtered illegally and for no good reason, but stupidity. That is a powerful image and hopefully we can stop the countries that continue to kill whales.
The others? Nothing good or interesting to come out of these.
That's just me.
Do you watch any of these shows and why or why not? Do you think there's a reason these are so popular right now?
Can't we just make love, not war?
"WAR
what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing....I say it again...."
P.S. I just learned of another two called Swamp Wars and Border Wars.
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