Tonight I went to see a great movie- Once. It’s set in Ireland, and some of the actors have brogues so thick I was almost needing subtitles. It’s rated R for language, and really, that’s the only unobjectionable thing in the movie.
Plot? I didn’t care there wasn’t much of one. There were long moments with just someone singing or playing, but it wasn’t self-indulgent- just a very pure performance, without all the glitz.
It’s a musical- but nothing like Sound of Music or even Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter- it’s a new look at the genre.
The acting wasn’t that great, but the characters were real- partly because I think they were actually genuine. These are musicians (and really good ones at that) first, and actors second.
Cinematically, I’m guessing it was shot digital, but I really liked the look. It wasn’t overly polished, and the style seemed to mirror the position of the musicians- using what is available to make something beautiful.
And the music- that in of itself is a treat, really. I’m hoping to get my hands on it. Really… it’s a great movie. Go see it.
For the 10th Anniversary of Blogging, Pete Cashmore at mashable.com
wants to know about your 10 favorite blogs.
Here are
mine:
- Rule the
Web- I’ve always thought “Pimp the Web” would make for a
better name
- Seth’s
Blog- All things
marketing
- The
Documentary Blog- the name says it all
- Poynter Online-Romensko- Journalism
stuff
- BoingBoing- a crazy conglomeration of
everything
- Zefrank.com-
and by extension, The Show
- pregunta en
mis pestañas- from a fellow short term
MCCer
- God?s
Politics- a blog from Jim Wallis of
Sojourners
- The
Nemesis Bird- From my brother, Bird Nerd
Drew
- Rocketboom- Daily vlog, but I’ll admit
it’s been awhile since I’ve watched it
If anyone wants a Grand Central invite, leave a comment, and I’ll get you one.
Grand Central is a service Google just bought, that gives you a phone number for life, and that number will basically ring all of your phones, so you can answer wherever you are. You can even switch phones midcall.
It seems cool, but I actually haven’t had time to try it out… but these things are in hot demand, evidently.
So leave a comment, with your email, and I’ll try to get you one.
Okay, feel free to disagree, but I really like Madonna’s “Ray of Light” live concert music video. If you get a chance, check it out. The dancing guys so make it worth the time spent listening to the song. The way the guys leave the stage is truly impressive.
I’m a true sucker for things like that, for some reason. I’ve even watched N’SYNC’s performance at the MTV VMA’s multiple times. Their interaction with video screens was pretty sweet.
Maybe I’ll try for a sweet dancing scene in my next music video. Any suggestions on a song?
And no, I will not be the one dancing
I’ve been reading “Guns, Germs, and Steel” recently, which by the way is very interesting. Through the overview of all of pre-history and history, I saw a third segment of time emerging, more so in our culture, although it did somewhat come out in the book.
Post History. This mindset says that, yes, it is wonderful to learn history, and it should be taught in schools. But we don’t need to learn from history. Maybe we’re beyond the reach of historic trends. We’ve conquered so many sicknesses, made so many improvements, etc.? Great empires have always failed, but the United States won’t. Churches have broken about before for this reason, but we won’t. Racism is a thing we conquered in the 60′s. Sexism ended when we let women vote. Somehow we’re above the past.
And then there are people writing tomorrow’s history today. For example, this article in the OC Register talks about an “historic debate” that was started a year ago. The Wall Street Journal called an upcoming talk between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs historic (The press release is titled “Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Make Historic Joint Appearance”. Can’t we let history decide what is actually historic?
Or is that just allowing the powerful of tomorrow to write a history conducive to making them even more powerful?
Saw this in the theaters last night. It’s a bit long, at about 2 and a half hours…but not a bad way of getting some air conditioning.
I was warned that Spiderman goes Emo. It’s almost true. He dresses emo, yes… but then there is that scene that isn’t sure if it’s from Grease or Anchorman or maybe even Saved by the Bell.
Awhile ago I posted on Redemption in Movies. Spiderman 3 actually gives a good example of this. Won’t say what happens… but it shows that it is possible for things to work out in ways that don’t include violence.
I do wish that the black goo had a name. Think of the marketing possibilities on the black goo… a black soda that makes you aggressive, a black silly putty that has directions on how to throw it at people you don’t like.
And I liked the incorporation of Poke Balls.
Besides having a pretty catchy theme song, USA Network’s Psych actually isn’t a bad show. I laughed out loud a few times, which is a good sign. It drags occasionally, could be a bit more full. But it somehow appeals to me- a normal guy pretending to be something he’s not, and something pretty dang unpopular at that. And get away with it. It’s not doing for CSI what Scrubs did for ER. It doesn?t have enough quirky characters. It only seems to have one, maybe two really quirky people, where as every character in Scrubs is abnormal. It has that My Name is Earl awkwardness about it, which always makes me awkward (I have to walk away when the awards ceremony comes on in Zoolander), but it?s not overwhelming.
And puns… I like the double meaning of the name.
old blog, Reviews | James | 
August 10, 2007 10:07 pm | 
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