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.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
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?
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?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
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.
*My second instinct was Klaus Nomi covering the same song, but I thought such repetition might be inappropriate.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Movie Log 2007: #58-61
24 Hour Party People - This could have jumped from very-good to great had there been less Happy Mondays, and a lot less "tell, don't show" that they were some sort of geniuses. But I liked the way the movie intercut archival footage, and the Howard Devoto cameo was priceless.
Punk's Not Dead - This documentary was well-meaning, but in the end I'm not sure it proved its titular thesis. It's nice that bands like the Adicts and Buzzcocks are still touring. But then they spend most of the film talking to organizers of the Warped Tour, and some rep from Hot Topic, and the likes of Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance; and give just a little attention to the organic DIY scenes still popping up around the world (the Russian kids look like fun).
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea - Another feel-bad documentary, this one about the troubled saline lake and the people who still live near its ghost resorts. For a couple of condo payments, we could by a big swath of land in the desert....cool! But after seeing this I'll never eat tilapia again.
Maxed Out! - How the credit industry preys on underinformed consumers (and especially people who have previously filed for bankruptcy), who then get get into debt cycles that ultimately lead to suicide in some cases. Meh...I felt bad for maybe three people in the film. The elderly woman who was talked into having her 40-ish retarded son transfer their mortgage (signing in block letters he had to copy) to one they couldn't afford was particularly heartbreaking. But most of the people they talked to just blithely "got some credit and lost they damn minds" to paraphrase Chris Rock, and then cried victim. The only real nod to any sort of personal-responsibility plan is in a DVD extra. This could have been something more than Super Size Me for banks.
24 Hour Party People - This could have jumped from very-good to great had there been less Happy Mondays, and a lot less "tell, don't show" that they were some sort of geniuses. But I liked the way the movie intercut archival footage, and the Howard Devoto cameo was priceless.
Punk's Not Dead - This documentary was well-meaning, but in the end I'm not sure it proved its titular thesis. It's nice that bands like the Adicts and Buzzcocks are still touring. But then they spend most of the film talking to organizers of the Warped Tour, and some rep from Hot Topic, and the likes of Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance; and give just a little attention to the organic DIY scenes still popping up around the world (the Russian kids look like fun).
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea - Another feel-bad documentary, this one about the troubled saline lake and the people who still live near its ghost resorts. For a couple of condo payments, we could by a big swath of land in the desert....cool! But after seeing this I'll never eat tilapia again.
Maxed Out! - How the credit industry preys on underinformed consumers (and especially people who have previously filed for bankruptcy), who then get get into debt cycles that ultimately lead to suicide in some cases. Meh...I felt bad for maybe three people in the film. The elderly woman who was talked into having her 40-ish retarded son transfer their mortgage (signing in block letters he had to copy) to one they couldn't afford was particularly heartbreaking. But most of the people they talked to just blithely "got some credit and lost they damn minds" to paraphrase Chris Rock, and then cried victim. The only real nod to any sort of personal-responsibility plan is in a DVD extra. This could have been something more than Super Size Me for banks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
