Meh
We're getting DirecTV in the near future. I'm none too pleased about it, as we don't have a choice in the matter. Our condo board has decided to enter a bulk agreement to the tune of an additional $30-40/month on the assessments. This is a savings for current cable customers, of which we are not.

We had cable at our last apartment, and I thought about getting it again when we bought this place. But I never got around to making the call, and Netflix turned out to be a cheaper, better home entertainment option: instead of having to search 100 channels for something to settle for watching, we always have something we *want* to watch at hand. And lately I'm out of the house most nights of the week, what with gaming, curling, and pub quiz going on.

I'll admit I'm intrigued by impending dish access. A month will be cheaper than a tank of gas, after all. I'd just rather have the choice. And it feels like the board has been spending money like drunken Republicans lately.

The Lutheran church across the street from us now has a discreet rainbow flag on its sign. Good on them. I do find this surprising, only because the congregation seems to be predominantly black. Not that I'm up on Sunday morning in a lawnchair holding a clipboard or anything...

Movie Log 2007: #62-69


Hollywoodland - Liked the George Reeves A-story; could have done without so much Adrien Brody subplot. BTW, how does Brody, who's all nose, sire the kid in the film who's all ears?

Sicko - While Moore generally preaches to the choir when I see one of his films, I do find it ironic that he made his bones with a movie about a corporation laying off thousands of workers, yet if he gets his healthcare wishes, how many healthcare employees get their walking papers?

Transformers - Do I have any right to be disappointed in a movie I flat-out knew would suck? As bloated as this was, only about 40 minutes were devoted to big robots clobbering each other. Most of the time they were in their cheaper boring car form. Ah well, it was nice to have the truth about Herbert Hoover come to light at last.

The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai - So this Japanese sex worker gets shot in the head, and the bullet in her brain makes her a supergenius, then gets caught in a fight for the cloned finger of GW Bush. Endearingly low-budget -- at one point a cutaway scene set in the US is enacted with action figures.

For Your Consideration - This felt like a Waiting for Guffman remake. My favorite character was the meteorologist/ventriloquist with the monkey puppet. I'd watch that morning show.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I tend to like the Potter movies slightly better than the books, because there's usually a subplot I find tedious in the books (most notably house-elf emancipation), and I think Rowling's not all that as a writer. This was the first film I found disappointing. It felt too cursory, rushing from one set piece to the next. I'm not sure what I would have added, though. Luna's casting was quite good; there was great potential to make the character Drusilla-level annoying.

Breach - This and Hollywoodland prompted "who's that woman?" moments - it was Caroline Dhavernas in both cases, reminding me I need to finish watching those Wonderfalls discs. This was quite good. The director again manages to coax a great performance out of a lightweight actor (this time Ryan Phillippe; previously it was Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass).

Dreamgirls - Pretty good considering I loathe Jennifer Hudson's singing style, and all the songs were completely unmemorable. I bought Beyonce (mostly because I don't know much of her regular career). I had a hard time buying Eddie Murphy as anything other than Eddie Murphy. Speaking of which, what's with the Norbit trailer on the DVD? Why not just kick Murphy in the nuts a few times?

LOLBOTZ!

9 months
If all continues according to plan, a major life accomplishment should be complete in nine months.

(No, not that. Please. Do you even know me?)

Hey, do me a favor: download this week's Out of 5 and tell me if it's anywhere as interesting to listen to as it was to create. This "Random Association" theme took an extra week to compile. Andrew kicked us off by sending a song to the next participant in line, that person associated it with a new song and sent it to the next, etc. Since we only received one song ahead of us, I had no idea what led Dee to choose Bryan Ferry's cover of "Falling in Love Again," but my first instinct* was Madeline Kahn channeling Marlene Dietrich in Blazing Saddles. And as a bonus, I learned how to conver YouTube videos into mp3s.

*My second instinct was Klaus Nomi covering the same song, but I thought such repetition might be inappropriate.