I've Moved

I'm now over here. Yeah, I know it's another Blogger account... so why the change? New username, new Blogger, new blog. I donno. I needed a fresh start, I guess.

Where to Eat?

Where to eat out? If in doubt try the Wheel of Food. Just enter your ZIP code and spin!

Oh! So that's how Google does it!

Ever wondered how Google search works? Nah, me neither. But if you want a serious explanation you can read it here. Yes, folks, trained pigeons, not duel core processors are the way of the future. Someone should tell Intel.

Oh another note, I know nobody reads my blog, but I apologize anyway for not updating in forever. So, I guess I would be apologizing to myself. Whatever.

Good Monsters

Album: Good Monsters
Artist: Jars of Clay
Genre: Rock
Year: 2006

I've been kinda busy lately and haven't had the time or inclination to post much. I just wanted to pop in to tell everyone (all 3 of my semi-regular readers) about my new favorite album: Jars of Clay's "Good Monsters". It is a fabulous album. Highly reccomended.

What's up with the title? Well, according to the band it is an illustration of who we are as Christians and human beings. As men, we are fallen. We are evil. We're monsters, if you will. As Christians we try to act contrary to our sin natures. We are good monsters. As the song of the same title says: "Not all monsters are bad, but the ones who are good never do what they could..."

The lyrics on the album reflect wonderfully the sentements of the album. The lyrics are definately worth a read through even if you don't care for the music (which should have a broader appeal than some of their past albums.) I'll probably be posting some of those in the future with commentary.

Until then, enjoy this music of the song "Work".

Back to You-Know-What

*sigh* I started school today. Another summer come and gone. Well, at least I feel like I accomplished more this summer than last.

The following unashamed rip-off song that I penned at the end of last summer pretty much sums-up my feelings on this subject.

I'll Go to School

Tune of "I'll Fly Away"

Some dark morning when the summer's over I'll go to school

To a place where homework never ends, I'll go to school

I'll go to school, oh phooey, I'll go to school

When summer dies and all the children cry, I'll go to school

When the shadows of the seasons lengthen, I'll go to school

Like a bird stuck in prison bars, I'll go to school

[Chorus]

Oh how sad and gloomy when we part, I'll go to school

Books and homework shackled to my back, I'll go to school

[Chorus]

Just a few more happy days and then, I'll go to school

To a land where the work will never end, I'll go to school

[Chorus]

There you have it. My short career in parody songwriting and my thoughts on the end of summer all in one song. Yeah, it's terrible. I kinda ran out of ideas towards the end there and the whole song is really repetitive. And school won't be that bad--it never is. I may post some of my serious work sometime though. Be assuaged; it isn't anything like this.

"Dead Man's Chest" Review

Well, I finally got out to see the latest record-breaking blockbuster movie yesterday... and the day before… That’d be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, in case you didn’t already know. It’s already broken the single day and three day grossing records and promises to set even more if that’s any indication.

I don’t generally go to sequel movies expecting a lot, but Curse of the Black Pearl was so good that I really hoped this one would be able to measure up. Fortunately, it proved to be a worthy sequel to its predecessor though it doesn’t surpass it.

The basic plot picks up where the last movie left off. Elizabeth and Will are kept from being married by both their arrests for their part in Jack’s escape at the end of the last movie. Meanwhile, Capt. Sparrow is pilfering and plundering his filthy black guts out when he learns that the dread Davy Jones is after his soul. Will is then offered freedom if he will go and “negotiate” with Jack to get his mysterious compass that doesn’t point north. So the plot ends up essentially like this. Jack wants Will’s soul to barter with Davy Jones. Will wants Jack’s compass so he and Elizabeth can be set free. Davy Jones wants Jack’s soul as payment for a past transaction. Norrington (the commodore guy from the first film) wants revenge on Sparrow. And Elizabeth just wants to be married. If this sounds confusing, it is. It makes for a well-written, complex story that is at times difficult to follow. It’s definitely one of those movies you have to see multiple times in order to catch everything in it.

So how does it compare to the first one? As far as humor goes, it’s almost as funny as the first one. The humor is less about dialogue and more about physical humor, though. Worry not, Sparrow is still hilarious in manner and speech, but his character is developed in other ways as well. The action sequences top the original, especially Jones’s large, tentacled sea monster the Kraken.

It’s a wild, crazy, convoluted movie and to top it all off it ends as a cliffhanger. Naturally, they had to set it up for Pirates 3 which we will only have to wait a year for, and good thing, too.

So if you saw the first movie and liked it… you’ve probably already seen this one already. If not, you’ll like Dead Man’s Chest as well. In fact, I’m gonna go out on a very sturdy limb and call it the best movie of the summer (and probably the year.)

"Cars" Review

As I’m something of a Pixar aficionado, I felt it was my duty to go out and see their latest picture “Cars” yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t a bit nervous that it was going to be a bad movie. I mean, hey, it’s Pixar, right? They’ve been animating for 20 years and making good movies for eleven (yes, Toy Story is eleven years old now.) But maybe I should have been a bit nervous because they were recently acquired by the evil empire: Disney. That fact, I think, is going to be the eventual demise of the animation studio, sooner or later. But it appears that this film was too far along for Disney to have messed it up.

Pixar has a sort of formula for making movies, I think. They simply find a different perspective on a relatively normal issue. For example, the movie Finding Nemo was essentially about child-parent relationships, but seen through the eyes of fish. This is a great formula not only because it has worked so well, but also because what it does for the audience. On one level, the older audience can identify with the personified characters’ very humanlike emotion and behavior whether they be toys, fish, monsters, bugs, or… superheroes. On another level, the unique approach to the situation allows for wonderful humor.

This film is no exception from that formula and that’s a good thing. Obviously, there are tons of car jokes (and lots of other hilarious pop-culture references.) As for the humanlike characters’ story? Cars focuses on a megalomaniac racecar named Lighting McQueen (which, indecently, I think is a very cheesy name.) Lighting is out to win the Piston Cup which is something like Nascar’s Nextel Cup. On his way to California for a final race, Lighting ends up stuck in a Podunk little town call Radiator Springs (reportedly the “cutest little town in Carburetor County.”) Through its inhabitants, Lightning learns the values of teamwork and selflessness.

One thing disappointed me about the film and that was its lack of restraint. No, it’s not nearly as bad as some of those ill-humored Dreamworks animated movies, but Pixar’s kicked it up a notch. There are a few wink-wink moments of bad humor to older audiences and even two utterances of bad language. I was quite shocked, not only because it’s a Pixar movie, but also because it’s “G” rated. I also could have done without some of the country-esque music.

That aside, Cars is very much worth seeing. I’m quite certain that it is either the best or second best summer movie of 2006 (which, come to think of it, isn’t saying all that much) and definitely the best family movie of this summer (which is saying even less.)

So… um… go see it if you want. It’s good. And be sure to stick around into the credits. It’s probably the most hilarious part.