Great stuff...

Animal cams!

This would be easier if Mighty Clog were on Facebook.

Movies

Yojimbo - 1961 Akira Kurosawa movie that was the inspiration for the Clint Eastwood character in the 'Dollars' movies.

Masterless samurai comes to town on the brink of collapse as two rival gangs fight for control. He uses his skills to help the regular townfolk rid themselves of the gangs and the strife that comes with them. Toshiro Mifune stars, as he does in most of the Kirosawa films you may have heard of - Seven Samuria, Roshomon.

A really good movie with some great cinematography. A great early scene features a dog carrying a human hand in its mouth to indicate the level of decline the town has experienced.



The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - 1966 Sergio Leone movie featuring Clint Eastwood as The Good, Eli Wallach as The Ugly, and Lee Van Cleef as The bad. Wallach really gives the stand out performance of this movie.

Not sure how I managed to live to 38 without seeing this in its entirety, but I can admit that it's true. I watched the new 'Expanded Edition' courtesy of Netflix streaming, a 2:58 minute whopper of an epic. (The original version was still pretty freaking long, at 2:41)

Lots of great things, both from an acting point of view and a directing point of view. Very surprised by the scope and epic nature of the movie with huge sets and cast of thousands. I think I'd always assumed this was more like the austere 'Dollar' movies, but it's really more in line with either the bible epics of the day or it's young grandchild, Dances with Wolves.

Clint is good as the pretty boy 'blondie', and the hair, so luxurious....

Both highly recommended.

HP and the HBP

The movies (as with the books) continue to get better (and clearly there is some correlation). Once we left behind the sucktastic world of Chris Columbus, we've been treated to a pretty solid series of movies, each remaining true to the general feel while allowing the influences of the varying directors. So it is with the latest, number 6 of what is now 8 - yes they opted to split #7 into two, with the last coming out in the summer of 2011, ten years after the first. Holy crap.

Other than to say it is worth your while, especially to experience on the big screen, I have only a couple of nits to pick, and then a return to the meta narrative that has framed these conversations from the beginning. Spoilers ahead...



The biggest little nit in #6 regards the manner in which Harry witnesses the death of DD at the hands of Snape. In the book he was an entirely reluctant (having been frozen in place under his invisibility cloak) witness, while in the movie he has been compelled by DD to watch and do nothing. This choice, while somewhat understandable given they chose to forgo all plot points related to silent spell-casting, is completely at odds with the very nature of Harry. While he was able to abide DD's wishes in the cave in order to secure the alleged horcrux, there is no way in hell he would stand by and watch Snape kill DD without being restrained. Harry hates Snape about as much as he hates inaction. Harry's constant willingness to throw himself into the fray, despite the misgivings of all around him, is part of what makes him such as appealing character. Harry is selfless to a fault. Showing him otherwise is an affront to his character.

The second nit regards the lack of pageantry surrounding the death of DD. The song of Fawkes the phoenix, the respect shown by merpeople and centaurs alike, and the general sense of gravitas that should go along with his passing has been left out. Perhaps this becomes the beginning of #7 or finds a home in an expanded DVD edition, but either way, that seems wrong. After 2:33 minutes, another 5 showing the importance of this event should have been included. They could have still returned to the discussion amongst Harry, Hermione and Ron in order to allow the audience to leave buoyed by their resolve, but DD should have had his moment.

Third nit: burning down The Burrow? I understand that the whole wedding plot in #7 could be difficult to make sense of, and could possibly be left out, but good grief, burning down the Weasley home really seems to have been unnecessary.

And now for the meta. No one seems to have read or found interest in the previous posting about how HP would have been better as TV, but I think the idea of a denser, more serialized HP would have been great. So much has to be left out of an 800 page book to fit it within the running time of even a long movie, stuff that matters, and stuff that helps put flesh on the bone of the detailed world that JKR created. Dozens of minor characters and the little details of their lives. all of them helping to round out and make Harry Potter real; most of it flushed down the toilet. It's a bummer. 7 years of 22 episodes (or perhaps combining books 1 and 2 into one season) could have really been magical.

The other meta is the decision to eliminate Harry's inner voice from the movies. So much of the books is in Harry's head, and while Daniel Radcliffe (along with all of them) is really coming into his own as an actor, you simply can't get all the details across with a look. Perhaps it would have been hokey, but it seems like it would have been worth a try, in some form or other.

And none of this to say that I don't like the movies. I do.

Harry Potter the TV show?

Good post here.

More on the latest movie coming soon.

Ends justify the means: what ends exactly?

We all know that the Bush administration stretched or broke the law in the supposed interest of fighting the War on Terra(tm). The latest seems to have Cheney specifically ordering the CIA to not tell congress about some secret program they were operating, possibly with the express intent of assassinating top al Qaeda leaders.

Since they only ever seem to kill/capture the supposed #3 (the most dangerous job on the planet), can we definitively say that Bush et al were the most incompetent boobs in history? If Cheney sees only ends and cares little for the niceties of means, and he consistently failed to achieve those ends, what does that say?

I'd actually bet money that this latest intrigue involves a program far more sinister than assassinating bin Laden...something done by the CIA on American soil, or creepier.

Good stuff here

14 minutes of your time...

Next up: Tomacco

Bad ideas all around.

At least Tomacco was hilarious.

Some movies

Watched some movies over the last week or so...

Star Trek (theater) - implausible (but perhaps perfect for the franchise) plot but still pretty great. Characters/actors are excellent with Karl Urban pretty much channeling Deforrest Kelley (I barely recognize him from his flaxen haired Eomer days). Pretty emotional almost from the first scene, something most of the previous movies have lacked. The reset/origin story is often the easiest (though perhaps not in this case). I look forward to future installments assuming they can keep the core together. Highly recommended even for Trek cognoscenti.

Prince Caspian (Netflix streaming) - having read the book series several times in my childhood, my only recollection of this one was that it took most of the book to bring the principle characters together and that it was frustrating to have Narnia be in such dire straights. The movie was ok, but nothing to go out of your way for. The characterization of the Telemarines as swarthy Spaniards was a little much, though they certainly came across as unique and homogenous. The main character was a bit of a dud.

Slumdog Millionaire (Netflix snail mail) - I was a little surprised by the grittiness of this movie given its characterization in trailers/commercials/etc. It was nicely woven together and generally feel good by the end, but the adversity along the way is pretty extreme (and realistic given the origins of the main characters). Highly recommended.

YPF (Netflix streaming) - a totally random selection among the 12000 streamable titles. YPF is shorthand for young people fucking, and while there's plenty of nudity and sexual situations, the dialogue wins the day. This is a very funny movie. Basically it tells the simultaneous tale of four 'couples' (one is a three way) in differing stages of their relationships on a night that centers around each couple's sexual encounter. Also recommended.

Tell No One (Netflix streaming) - a French adaptation of a novel by an American (originally set in NJ) about a guy whose wife is killed 8 years in the past. Current events begin to unravel the threads that bound the original explanation for the murder and the man's life is turned upside down. Pretty much an excellent thriller. You'll have to deal with subtitles, but that gets to be second nature pretty quickly. Highly recommended.

Holy crap

The Onion versus Star Trek

Hitting most of the right notes...


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'