Found this in Goodwill today:



Here’s the first paragraph:

The way I see, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens and nothing is expected of you.

I think I’m going to like it.

Saw Valkyrie on Tuesday. The entire premise seems to be “Hitler was so bad, we don’t even have to explain why anyone would kill him! We’ll save a ton on scenery and can concentrate on costumes and special effects. We’ll get Cruise to stare, he needs work, we’ll get’em cheap!”

And that’s the way it went, a movie like a fast food burger, perfectly satisfying, let leaving a bad chemical after taste that makes you realize you could have done better. Worth seeing if you haven’t been in move theatre in a long time and miss the experience, but otherwise, why bother?

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is great, no question.

The story is of Liesel Meminger, a young girl in 1930s and 40s Germany, and the circumstances how she got a new family and grew to love them, while in the midst of the rise of the Nazis and her curious relationship with Death, one sided though it may be. Told in short bursts and featuring a large cast of characters, the book sparkles with youthful energy as it deals with the small triumphs of poor people in a terrible position and the things they do to get them through the day. It’s deeply moving, funny and the sort of book you can’t put down. Check it out!

I’m not a big fan of the summer olympics, but these pictures are gorgeous. There’s not much video on YouTube though. Seems NBC is getting that stuff pulled off the site which is a shame ‘cause the opening ceremonies are usually pretty impressive.

Really funny recap of the first 3 seasons of Battlestar Galatica, in a mere eight minutes, in preparation for the 4th season premiere on April 4th

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-6yL_tMUDps

Cloverfield is, quite simply, a scifi/horror Blair Witch Project, wrapped up in the shell of a Lost episode. Yet as good and entertaining as the movie is , what it says about current American culture is one of the bleakest things I’ve seen in a while and I saw No Country for Old Men, which looks like a Disney musical compared to Cloverfield.

In the movie, New York City is attacked by a giant monster and all hell breaks loose. We see the attack from the vantage point of a group of 20 year old friends, who are filming the attack as they first try to escape the city and then try to rescue one of their own. They don’t know what’s happening or why. No one does, not even the US military as it tries to kill the creature. There are no quick thinking scientists who have a theory where the monster came from or a cool and calm solider who’s determined to defeat menace. One minute people are enjoying a party, the next there’s the chaos and the terror of the unknown. And the characters seem to know it on some level. Though their world is reduced to nothing and they’re thrust into a situation they couldn’t have dreamed of, they take it relatively in stride, perhaps because deep down they know, as we all do, just how close the randomness of life and death can wreak havoc on us.

Watched NBC’s Bionic Woman (the site is slow as hell, so click at your risk), mainly to see how Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galatica fame would do. She was good of course, great actress, but the rest of the cast was pretty lightweight, especially Michaelle Ryan as the main star, Jamie Summers, who gets a robotic implants after a terrible car accident. This first episode was very plot driven, designed to lay out future directions, while giving us a brief hint of the characters. It’s whirlwind of mostly cliche plot lines and characters you don’t care about, except for Sackhoff’s character, who was an earlier version of the Bionic Woman, but now seems to have gone a bit crazy.

Watch it again? Sure, just to see Sackhoff, who can really anchor a scene, and in hopes the rest of characters and show will develop into something memorable.

Stillwater, by William Weld, is short and sweet, a nostalgic look back at first loves, be it physical, emotional, family or home. What stands out are the sharply defined images and characters of a rural town as seen through the eyes of 15 year old boy as he comes of age, only to see his way of life torn apart.

THAT is how you do it! That is is exactly how you do edge of your seat drama. The sheer implications of what transpired between the last 10 minutes and the last 5 minutes is just incredible. There are so many questions left unanswered and they are all GOOD questions, the kind that you’ll ponder all summer and want to know. Just outstanding stuff and feels like the show just redeemed itself from the last luster and poorly done twists and turns its become famous for.

I can’t wait till the fall.

Anna Nichole is dead, ok? Just bury her and move, please. Or at least stop clogging up my tv.

Speaking of TV, it all seems weird to me these days. I’ve stopped watching Lost because the constant jerking around of the storyline was enough. It’s first season was so good, but at this point, it just exists to push and pull you through emotional states without really telling anything. I don’t care who the characters are (and neither does the show, judging by easily it introduces and then forgets them), nor the mysteries piled mysteries. Enough already. End it, finish the story. Every story needs an ending, some closure, and the way Lost went, there can never really be and ending to satisfy you. There will always be some question in the back of your head “But what about this…” and it’s never going to be settled.

Have settled into watching an hour of Scrubs many nights. It’s funny and engaging, without much commitment. Battlestar Galatica is on an upswing after a lackluster 3rd season. It focused too long on Starbuck and Apollo, while doing cheap and sometimes stupid filler episodes. Grey’s Anatomy sucked me in for some of the characters, but it’s like Allie McBeal; whiny voiceovers that try to sound profound. Like McBeal, I can’t stand the title character, but many of the side characters and their relationships are fun to watch. Briefly got into 24 into the silliness of having the superspy’s father try to kill him reared it’s head. On sweet flicking box of flick, why do you try to entertain with such silly stories?

But Black Snack Moan opens this weekend. Can’t wait.