Movie Reviews - Part 1:

(I'm suffering from head cold AND I didn't proofread this post - so I'm sure there's a slew of errors. Sorry)

So, in my spare time I've been trying to catch up on my love for movies and the soundtracks that go with them. You can try to listen to soundtracks without the context, but that's like watching a movie without the soundtrack; they go hand in hand. Of course with this head cold I've been battling, I'm getting a very very very small taste of what its like to not be able to hear (99% zero hearing in my left ear right now... so annoying).

If you have any flicks you don't think I've seen that you think I should, let me know. =)

Anyways, onto some quick movie "Star" summaries, and reviews.

Summary:
Part 1
I Am Legend (2007): 7 out of 10
Logan's Run (1976): 5 out of 10
Gabriel (2007): 7 out of 10

Part 2
Michael Clayton (2007): 6 out of 10
Amadeus (1984): 7.5 out of 10 (3 out of 10 for those that could care less about the genius of Mozart)
Dave Chappelle - For What It's Worth (2004): 3 out of 10

I'll comment more on the Part 2 scores in another post, as for part 1 (Spoilers possible):

I've yet to see the alternate ending to I am Legend; though by far the end was the biggest disappointment to this movie. I hate when a story is sound and compelling, and then riddles itself with so many holes that I completely lose interest in the 'after-story'.

Ultimately, the movie was well shot, even if some of the CGI was what I would consider sub-par for this day and age. I have to say though, this is the only movie in my history of movie watching that actually had me squirming and wincing. I've watched all the Saw movies - and a slew of other bloody, gore, scary, etc, and none of them have every bothered me to the point of when I went to bed it was still vivid in my head. I won't go into details, but it was the scene with his dog back at his house that did me in. A very compelling movie that just didn't finish off right.

Gabriel was a cross between Constantine and 300. Over dramatic, over (and under) exposed footage of basic angel on demon on angel battles. Overall I would recommend it just for the beauty of the film - and because most people haven't ever heard bout it.

Logan's Run was my attempt to educate myself on some of the roots of Sci-Fi. The basic premise of the movie is that everyone, when they hit 30 go into a "renew" facility, where they are supposedly reborn. Well they are not. They are killed. Logan figured this out, and runs (yes, the plot is that complex). Its campy, its horribly shot, the acting is fairly bad, the story takes unreasonable turns, but its a "classic", so for that alone its given its score.

Fun and Serious

Fun:




Serious (its 30+ minutes) - but today's speech by Obama had some extremely good points, and candor that we just don't normally get from our politicians anymore

Fun viewing...

Probably the most impressive robotic I've seen. Going down the snowy slope, and the save on ice are both freakishly realistic.

Takes a sec, but its worth the wait to get to:

Imporant Viewing:

I won't make any personal comments on this one - other than I think its worth 78 minutes of your life. It won the 2008 Academy Award for best Documentary. The acceptance speech was:

"This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light."

Frank b. Gibney (1924-2006), a WWII Navy Interrogator ends the documentary with:

I find it utterly inconceivable that the highest officials, Rumsfeld - Bush - Cheney, would not only count on this torture but would actually advocate it. It really destroyed my faith in the American Government because throughout World War II, and the Korean War we had the sense that we were on the side of the good guys. That you would always get justice in the USA. You would get decent treatment and there was a rule of law. We never forgot that. That behind the facade of wartime hatred that there was a central rule of law that people abided by. It was something we believed. It was what made America different.

So... I'm a liar...

I guess all I had to do was say I'm not going to blog, and then the flood gates of extremely cool stuff that I just can't shut up about will cometh my way.

I don't even know where to start - but we'll start with the biggest one:

Google Sky - (www.google.com/sky)

This is basically like google maps (or mapquest), but for the universe. Ever curious where all the constellations were? I found it to be really interesting.

**

Second - Hulu is now open to the public (in the USA Only). Hulu is basically YouTube for Network TV. They do an okay job keeping up with the recent TV shows - and when I have missed a show, this is the first place I go to. You do get 30 second commercial breaks throughout the show, but I really don't find it that irritating. Free, legal, copyrighted content for 15 or 30 second commercial breaks every now and again is a small price to pay.

On top of that - they are now adding some FULL LENGTH movies. Yes, watch unedited, full length movies for FREE (just again, some breaks for commercials). Some of the movies are the edited for television versions - though I'm finding more of them are unedited. Interesting enough the ones that I cannot link into the blog are the unedited, mature rated movies. Not due to copyright laws, but due to Internet Decency laws or whatever. Funny how they finally managed to work out the problems with copyright laws, but god forbid someone manages to watch your Rate R content that isn't 18.

Also, the list of movies up right now isn't a crap list by any means:

Ice Age, The Big Lebowski , Master and Commander (edited), The Usual Suspects (unedited - and BRILLIANT), Mulholland Drive, and quite a few more. For those that have been switching to watch some content off the web (through either Torrents, YouTube, Netflix and others), Hulu is one to absolutely add to your list.

To illustrate the coolness - here's Ice Age - Unedited - Free - *AND* Legal

For anyone that hasn't seen Ice Age, its at least worth watching the first 5 minutes.



**

Lastly (Yeah, I know, Three topics and I said I had nothing to blog about):

For anyone that likes free web based games - specifically anyone that was a fan of the Heroes, Civilization, SimCity, and other semi "turn" based strategies games, you have to check out www.ikariam.com


Its very basic, and starts out nice and slow (this is a game that'll take up a ~10 minutes or so of your day) - but if you select the "Alpha" world to be on, you'll be not just playing a fun game, you'll be playing with Alex, Tow and Me. (yes, its massively multiplayer).

I have to give props to Tow for tracking down this one for us.

Please stand by for regularly scheduled programming

Been very busy at work, and really just haven't had anything blog worthy. I can tell by the number of hits you guys are checking actually MORE often the less I post. Kind of funny actually.

I don't expect any new blogs for another week or so at least. Sorry.

This > Awesome

Every so often good stuff happens in your life. You know, you find a dollar somewhere or some cute girl winks at yah. Its the simple stuff that makes your day.

But there are these rare occasions when the planets seem to line up and you really wonder if its really possible for things to work out as well as they look like they are going to do.

As some of you know Alex and I have birthday's separated by just a day (July 11th, and July 12th). Also, if you've hung around either of for any period of time you've heard us mumble some Eddie Izzard line:

"Do you have a flag?"
"Thank you for flying Church of England, Cake or Death"
"Did I leave the gas on? No, no, I'm a fucking squirrel"
"Do you want a cup of coffee?"

..and so on. Eddie Izzard's Dressed to Kill I happened across when my parents were nice enough to have HBO a good 10 years ago now, and after sharing it with Alex - we literally haven't been able to stop ourselves.

So, Bryce, you say, Planets Aligning and all that crap - what do you mean?

How about Eddie Izzard. In Seattle, for two days only.

July 11th

and

July 12th

Right here and now I'm letting everyone know that if you would like to join Alex and I in Seattle on July 12th for food, fun, festivities, and executive transvestites - you are more than welcome. Tickets are not on sale yet, and you can bet your bacon I'll be posting again when they are.

I don't care who lined up the planets for us, but - thank you.


PS:
Thank you for purchasing your tickets through Ticketmaster

Eddie Izzard
Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA
Sat, Jul 12, 2008 08:00 PM


Seat location: section MF 1, row K, seats 5-6

Hahhahah... Woops.

So, I sit here Wednesday night, relaxing, having a glass of wine - currently listening to Nina Simone - Sinnerman; when I start thinking about stuff I have committed to over the next couple days.

My boss is out most of tomorrow, and all of Friday. With a board meeting looming and a seriously unknown number of borrowers doing their best to get applications in due to our rule change (from Monday's meeting) - things are crazy busy at work. I feel like I have a pretty good foothold on things now, so that doesn't worry me too much.

I have a chiropractic appointment from 1-2 tomorrow; yet another chip out of the day courtesy of that wonderful domino's delivery driver. Okay, not huge deal. I'll work around that too.

Oh, but then the fun starts. "I Love Tacoma" is doing one of their events at Can's in Tacoma from 5:30 til; lets be honest, too late for a work night.

Then I have physical therapy the next day at noon.

Then I have softball later that day (still in olympia) from 5:30pm until at least 8pm

THEN I have an acoustic performance up in Seattle that starts around 9pm that I just can't miss.

So, I find myself packing softball stuff into my car for Friday, on a Wednesday night - realizing that I'm clinically insane. I'd pack a change of clothes for after softball, but I think Forrest wouldn't appreciate being left inside from 7am until midnight, so I have to swing by the house anyways.

Oh, yeah. Saturday there Late September Dogs are performing in Tacoma - so anyone that wants to see what I've been raving about over the last couple weeks swing on by - though I honestly have no idea what the venue in Tacoma looks like. Or if I'll be able to push my clutch in far enough to get my car out of my garage. Maybe if you don't mind, swing by my house with a wheel chair. Thx.

..and while I'm making myself look a tad bit on the foolish side might as well explain to everyone what the (currently) 50/3000 means next to the rally counter up top. As I have been closing in my weight loss goal for the year (I have already weighed in once this month at 161.4) I'm trying to find yet even more interesting ways to challenge myself.

So - seeing that I haven't done any strength workout, at all, since March of last year I thought, "Hey, you used to be able to do 100 push ups at once. You should get back to that." So shooting from the hip, I came up with 3000 push ups a month to start. I've done 50. Well, technically I did 50 last night, and this morning got down to do more, and did 1. And then cried, and realized I'm a fiscally successful version of Screech.

Zero Punctuation

Devil May Cry 4

I really wonder what this guy would be like at a party, with say, 6 beers in him.

Again, language probably not suitable for work speakers.

Primaries and Rally

(Gratuitous rally shot to let you know more fun stuff below this political stuff)

Most people know that I like Obama, but honestly - if the tides were exactly turned, I would be posting this same message. I know I've posted on this once before, but I guess I just am a little annoyed that very possibly all this *record* voting the American public is doing just might not matter one bit.

The details:

There are 12 delegate "states" left (states in quotes because that counts Guam and Puerto Rico), totaling 611 delegates left to be assigned pre-super delegates.

Right now the totals are Obama - 1355 Clinton - 1213 (142 point lead). Again this is pre-super delegate, don't link me any Fox News / AP / CNN. Also, those that say super delegates that change their vote are committing political suicide, there already have been a couple, and they are doing just fine. I stand firm that super delegates should not be counted until they have actually voted.

Lastly, the democratic party splits the delegates from each state based on % of vote totals. So, if my math is even close to reasonable Clint would have to average beating Obama by 23.2% until the convention just to match his totals.

But hey - the Race is still "close" right? Don't kid yourself - in New York, Clinton only won by 17% (Reference: Obama won Illinois by 32%)

Anyways, I just don't want to see all the record turn outs and impassioned people on voting get screwed by literally ~100 people.

**************

Second Topic - SO much more fun. RALLY MEXICO



The third round of the best racing on the planet (BROTP?) proved some of the recent changes to the rules is really mixing things up. Over the past couple years the tire choice, brand and cuts have really made a difference on gravel rallies; though all cars now run on a control tire, unable to make extra cuts. This really has taken an unnecessary variable out of the equation.



On top of that, this is the first year that the cars are not allowed to use run flat moose either - so if you collect a big rock there's the consequences are much higher. Of course, this did play out just as the rule makers (FIA) hoped - and some the top drivings can be see dashing out of their car to change a tire in the middle of the race (which, most can do with just the drive and co-driver, on the side of a gravel road, in a round 2 minutes). Personally I think that would make Nascar just slightly more entertaining if Jeff Gordon had to get out of his car and change his own tires. Hah.

Anyways - download away:

Rally Mexico DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3

Busy busy

For those that have spent more than 10 seconds around me you probably have heard me mention something about an "auction crisis" and "hospitals losing money" or something.

Well, there's finally some local press about it as Adam Wilson of the Olympian attended our emergency board meeting yesterday:

http://www.theolympian.com/legislature/story/378098.html

Da Holy Crap - #200

Its actually a bit hard for me to believe, but this is actually blog #200 on blogspot. Ironic to me that my first couple blogs were about working out and contemplating my inability to hit on women. Nice to see some things never change.

I have actually been racking my brain for something worthy of my 200th blog spot, though honestly, that's never what this blog has been about. As Doug has so eloquently put, I'm his Web Sherpa, and this is my forum to share some of my findings along the way.

The only thing out of the norm for this post I guess is to take just a quick moment to thank you all. Honestly its been the comments and emails I get from you all that makes me continue to update this darn thing with new crap (Rally countdown, Last.Fm stuff, etc). I've amassed over 5,000 hits and who knows how many comments and emails. Thank you.

Onto a couple random topics:

So, this morning I had a couple distinct bachelor moments. After I got out of the shower and weighted myself (166 - up 2.2 pounds due to french toast, hamburgers, chicken strips, fries and 3 beers) I realized that my morning activities had suddenly become highly limited. My day had been decided for me by the strict limiting factor of no clean underwear - and the even more bachelor thought of, no underwear in sight worthy of a second go.

Oh, but we're not done with my bachelor morning. Obviously at this point I have to do laundry (and blog); since those are things that can be done without underwear (ahh, aren't you lucky). Well, I wander over to my washer to be reminded that I had seen this problem coming on Thursday and started a wash of whites...which still remained in the washer.

The Bachelor moment? The sniff test came back that 2 dryer sheets would probably be sufficient; and into the dryer they went. We'll see if I was right here in a bit.

Expanding on this problem just a bit more; I remembered this up and coming situation yesterday at the mall, where I was getting a hair cut before heading up to Fuel to see Late September Dogs again. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to fulfill my true bachelor solution: Buying more underwear. Seriously. Oh well, another time I guess.

Anyways, onto another topic. Live bands.

Thank you Linda. She's been key to my dive into some of the live music scene in Seattle, which for I'm extremely grateful. Over the last couple weekends I've had the pleasure of seeing a couple bands that really surprised me initially. I was shocked a bit by how a $7 cover (or in some cases, free) can get you into see such quality musicians. Of course, it then dawned on me just how many world class bands got their start in the Seattle area (and still do) and I should just sit back and enjoy.

Last night was no different. I went up to Fuel (a club) to see Late September Dogs. They are self described as basically an Alanis Morrissette meets Aerosmith. Their lead singer, Lyzz Tyson, does just a wonderful job interacting with the band and the crowd. Its something that you don't really think about when listening to music, but after you watch a couple performances you realize the importance of it.

One of my favorite songs, "Helpless" can be found up on Myspace:

Late September Dogs

The other band, which I'll hopefully be able to catch doing an acoustic performance at Fuel this next Friday is Windowpane. The just updated their myspace to some newer music, which for me personally, isn't as impressive as their older stuff. They were impressive (and loud) live though; and I'll be very interested to see how they perform on Friday.

Windowpane

And last - but not least - A new Iron Man trailer. I really wasn't too convinced with Robert Downy Jr. doing this part, but so far in all the previews he looks very good.




P.S. Its taken me long enough to write this blog that my first round of laundry is out of the dryer - and my sniff test was spot on. Though I have come to realize I've completely destroyed any good laundry moments for myself (yes, laundry moments). You know, when you finally are done with the whites and you move onto the darks where a full load takes like 30 seconds to fold, compared to what seems likes endless hours with the whites?

Now, with my suits and dark GQ socks and crap, my darks are even worse. Hell if I can tell if these are the blue socks with little dots on them and that design at the top, or the black socks.. with little dots on them and that design at the top.

Stupid socks

...and anyone who replies, "Yeah, its the SOCKS that are stupid - gets banned".