Wednesday, September 28

Serenity Review  

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

See previous blog comment about this movie.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. The_Rose did as well. From my feeds to day, I also see that Daniel Drezner, Mary Katharine, Jacob T. Levy, Matthew Yglesias and The New York Magazine (I could have sworn somebody said that was a NY Times link!) all find the movie a thumbs up.

You got your yucks in, you got your heart touching moments in, you got your kick ass space battles in, you got your psychological moments in. I'm very impressed with the cast of this movie. I'm impressed by everyone involved with this movie. Hollywood, this is the kind of movie I enjoy! And while I got in free this time, I'm going to try and sneak out and see it again before it leaves the theaters.

The_Rose, which knew less than I knew (and that's not really saying I know much more than a total of an hour of watching bits and pieces of episodes) about the series also enjoyed it very much. This movies doesn't depend on you knowing the series first, it stands on its own. So if you didn't watch the series, don't let that stop you from seeing the movie.

I would like to thank Grace Hill Media for letting me in to see this movie.

I have some nits that don't exactly go with the movie however.

My invitation said 8:00PM. The theater actually showed it at 7:30PM. Now, I was told to get there 45 minutes ahead of time, and I actually beat that by another half hour, so it was cool. And the theater wasn't filled to capacity, so it isn't a real big deal. I just notice things like that.

Now, I went to see this at the AMC Regency in Jacksonville. It was still in the 80's outside when we left the theater to go home. But somebody in the middle of the movie turned the AC off. AMC, I've been going to your theaters for years (I still have and use my white AMC Moviewatcher's card, which is got to be going on 20+ years now!) and I really expect a better experience than that. Maybe there was a malfunction. Just waiting for The_Rose to get out of the restroom, I got a blast of hot air in the lobby. But this is Florida, and we still need our AC!

Other than those two nits, which are in the scheme of things pretty small, I encourage everyone to go see this movie. 4 stars out of 4 from me.

Relevant Link

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Monday, September 26

home page | Beyond Delay  

home page | Beyond Delay

OK, so they list Tom Feeny in Florida, and Bob Ney in Ohio.

Both my home states. Very… interesting.

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Update:

Talk about your corruption.

The role of an obscure Ohio congressman during negotiations in the sale of Fort Lauderdale-based SunCruz Casinos in 2000 has drawn the attention of federal investigators.

Obscure from who? Sheesh! This just gets better and better… for somebody!

What a bunch of coincedences. I'm from Ohio, living in Jacksonville, Florida, where SunCruz Casinos has a boat you can gamble on here. And I started coming to Florida on a regular basis in 2000, before moving down in 2001. It could only get richer if I were a former constituent. But I'm not.

Relevant Link

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Wednesday, September 21

Real world Vs. Bush's world - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com  

Mike Barnicle:

I am in aisle three of the supermarket, watching a woman choose between a box of store brand Frosted Flakes and the real deal sold by Kellogg. She is holding a child, maybe four years old, with one hand and a cereal box with her left. And she is about to do something that Bush the president is either incapable of doing or figures isn't necessary: make a budget decision based on common sense and economics.

The President clearly believes everything is possible. We can hemorrhage billions in Iraq, spend billions more to rebuild New Orleans and resurrect our very own Gulf, trim taxes and throw it all on a credit card someone else—our kids—will pay in the decades ahead. This guy, smiling in his rolled up shirtsleeves, has obviously never had to sweat while signing a check for college tuition, sneakers, groceries or to bail out a basement filled with water.

His fiftyish face is nearly wrinkle free because he has been blessed with a fortunate life and a "thanks dad" existence. He is charming and friendly, isolated and uncurious about the world that has come crashing down around him—not the political world. The real one; the universe filled with disasters large and small that ordinary folks navigate on a daily basis.

So, Katrina might be to George W. Bush what Tet was to the last president from Texas, Lyndon Johnson. In February 1968, the pictures from Vietnam resulted in LBJ's administration joining the casualty list despite the fact that the North Vietnamese suffered a true military defeat. Yet it reality didn't matter. Impressions won the day.

Facing South also has some thoughts that are going through my mind as well, about if Bush has lost his base. Go read them both. I'll wait. I'll even open them up in new windows for you.

Good, you're back.

Relevant Link

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Sunday, September 11

4 years ago…  

4 years ago, I dragged home from the airport at 1:30AM. Against my wife's wishes that I just spend the night in Columbus and wait for the next flight out. Flight canceled out of Columbus (CMH), but they had me set up on an earlier flight that flew to Newark, NJ (EWR), and then Jacksonville, FL (JAX). Weird that I was getting assigned to a flight that was supposed to be leaving that minute. Bad weather prevented that flight from getting off the ground, and it was at least 3 hours late. We finally get to Newark, only to wait for a gate to open up for us to get off on. Of course, the terminal I needed to be at for the next flight was opposite the one I ended up in. I run to the terminal, give The_Rose a phone call (she's ready to cuss me out at this point, no sleep for her that night, and she had work the next morning), and then they call the flight. So I get on board and get home.

Had I waited the next day, there wouldn't have been a flight out the next day. My friend Mike, who I'd been with over that weekend gives me a call, saying that one of the World Trade Center towers has been hit by a plane. I turn on CNN, just in time to catch the second plane hit the tower — live.

I call The_Rose for lunch at our usual spot, and end up watching the news there for an hour and a half.

Needless to say, she was quite happy after that that I didn't wait for the next flight the next day.

Permanent link posted by bytehead @ 9/11/2005 09:57:00 PM    0 comments Links to this post

Monday, September 5

President Bush: Sell the Ranch  

President Bush: Sell the Ranch

Interesting open letter. Fiddling while Rome burns is basically what I would call it.

Relevant Link

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Article Index

Serenity Review
Serenity movie update - short
home page | Beyond Delay
Serenity—The movie.
Real world Vs. Bush's world - Hardball with Chris Matthews - MSNBC.com
On the road...
4 years ago…
My tarot card
President Bush: Sell the Ranch
Luke Murphy: Animation, writing, film production, photography, websites