I'm not to sure what I should blog about this week. Easter has come and gone (faster than I would have liked), my birthday is just a few short days away (April 8th) and this coming Monday (April 12th) will mark the end of my life as a grad student. Andrew and I are also leaving for our first really big trip where we had to do all the planning, arranging, and booking next Wednesday (April 14th), which if I am unable to blog about on route, will definitely recap after we get home.
I wish I could say: "Bwa ha, ha! I will write about none of the above things. Instead I will devote this week's blog to this random, obscure topic!" Although my head is filled with random, obscure facts that no one really cares about, I will not take the time to write about them just now*. Instead, I will write another lightening round post, as I did a few months ago when I had no standout topics to discuss, but wanted to let my surely limited readership know I was still alive and kicking.
Easter Weekend
Andrew being Catholic meant that Easter weekend was full of church. I grew up in a small protestant church and we only had a service on Easter Sunday with the occasional Good Friday event depending on whether it got organized. In addition, my high school friend Michelle visited, so we had company throughout the weekend. We did a big lunch (lamb was on the menu) with a few more friends on Sunday afternoon.
How to Train Your Dragon
Sunday night we ended up going out to see How to Train Your Dragon. It was super cute and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a light-hearted movie with cheeky dialogue. Also, anyone who has ever owned a cat will see much of their beloved pet in the featured dragon, Toothless--so very adorable.
My Birthday
I'm turning 29 years old on Thursday. I considered calling this my 1st annual 29th birthday (as a friend once had dubbed hers) but I'm not overly concerned about growing older. As pointed out to me recently, this is likely because I'm married, have a reasonable nice apartment, a car, and a cat for a proxy-baby (at present I have no desire for a real one). Andrew and I are going to go out for a fancy dinner the night of, and I will be hosting some friends at our place on Friday. Lemon flavoured cake will be served.
Last Day of School
My last day of grad school will be next Monday. The time has passed relatively quickly, and I can't honestly say I'm too sad about it. If you asked me on the spot what I've learned, I'm not to sure that I could put my thoughts into words. That's not to say that I think I've learned nothing--that's not true (although some classes were vastly more useful than others). I feel like I've got various concepts and ideas fluttering around in my head about librarianship and what it means to be a librarian, I'm just not sure I could verbalize them in any sensible manner.
European Travels
Andrew and I will embark on a 2 1/2 week trip around Europe next Wednesday. We'll be flying into Frankfurt, Germany, then move on to Interlaken, Switzerland, Bergamo Italy, and several different places in France (Caen, Arras, and Paris). We have friends in Germany and Italy, who have been kind enough to offer to host us, and we'll be doing all our inter-country travel by train. The main purpose for visiting France is to see some of the major battle sites from WWI and WWI: Juno Beach (the Canadian landing beach for D-Day) and Vimy Ridge (one of the CEF's major victories). I suspect I will be extremely exhausted when we get back, but I'm looking forward to it immensely.
Ciao,
Andrea
*note the phrase "just now" meaning, those random, obscure topics make yet make an appearance on this small space of the Web.
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Lightening round
A variety of events have taken place recently that I have thought I should blog about, but haven't due to time. Since I see this blog as something of a online journal I don't mind other people reading, it seemed appropriate to take a few minutes to record these occurrences. I will try to keep my comments on each one to a few sentences, hence lightening round.
Friday, February 5th, 2010: FIP (Forum for Information Professionals)
I presented my research project at FIP (a conference run by the U of A Library School) last Friday. I was a bit nervous, but I managed my way through without too many trips or bobbles. I am strangely blessed with the ability to not say "um." I would guess around 16 to 20 people attended and I had a number of questions throughout my talk, which seemed to suggest that people were interested in my topic. I may give this presentation again, if I am accepted to CAIS (Canadian Association of Information Systems) in June.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010: Sherlock Holmes
Andrew and I went to see Sherlock Holmes on Saturday. I wasn't sure what the movie would be like from the trailer--it looked souped up with explosions and fights, and I wasn't sure if I would like it. As it turned out, I loved the movie. I thought the plot was interesting, and it was helped along with good actors. What I liked most of all about Sherlock Holmes was the music, composed by Hans Zimmerman. I think I need to get the soundtrack.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010: Figure Skating
I learned how to do a flying camel spin on Wednesday, and actually managed a few half decent ones (although today's practice was less successful). That means there's only one element (axel) I can't actually do for my next test. I will probably be talking my junior bronze free skate in March, anyway. I'm also having a program choreographed so I can finish off my preliminary free skate test from last year. It's challenging (for me), but it should be fun.
Thursday, February 11th, 2010: Pirates of Penzance
Andrew and I, along with a couple of friends, attended a performance of Pirates of Penzance by the Edmonton Opera Company last night. I've seen it a couple of times before (Stratford Festival, a community theatre group in Calgary), and I played Ruth when I was in grade 7. I enjoyed the show immensely, especially the "faux ballet" with Major General Stanley, which occurred in the second act. Also, the copper ensemble was excellent. I find that in community theatre, the coppers tend to be the weakest part of the show, so it was nice to see them well done.
Friday, February 12th, 2010: Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Andrew and I, and a couple of friends, are going to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (on television) tonight. I've prepared a main course for us to maow down on while we take in the spectacle. Some Wii-playing may also be a part of the evening.
Go Canada, Go!
Ciao,
Andrea
Friday, February 5th, 2010: FIP (Forum for Information Professionals)
I presented my research project at FIP (a conference run by the U of A Library School) last Friday. I was a bit nervous, but I managed my way through without too many trips or bobbles. I am strangely blessed with the ability to not say "um." I would guess around 16 to 20 people attended and I had a number of questions throughout my talk, which seemed to suggest that people were interested in my topic. I may give this presentation again, if I am accepted to CAIS (Canadian Association of Information Systems) in June.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010: Sherlock Holmes
Andrew and I went to see Sherlock Holmes on Saturday. I wasn't sure what the movie would be like from the trailer--it looked souped up with explosions and fights, and I wasn't sure if I would like it. As it turned out, I loved the movie. I thought the plot was interesting, and it was helped along with good actors. What I liked most of all about Sherlock Holmes was the music, composed by Hans Zimmerman. I think I need to get the soundtrack.
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010: Figure Skating
I learned how to do a flying camel spin on Wednesday, and actually managed a few half decent ones (although today's practice was less successful). That means there's only one element (axel) I can't actually do for my next test. I will probably be talking my junior bronze free skate in March, anyway. I'm also having a program choreographed so I can finish off my preliminary free skate test from last year. It's challenging (for me), but it should be fun.
Thursday, February 11th, 2010: Pirates of Penzance
Andrew and I, along with a couple of friends, attended a performance of Pirates of Penzance by the Edmonton Opera Company last night. I've seen it a couple of times before (Stratford Festival, a community theatre group in Calgary), and I played Ruth when I was in grade 7. I enjoyed the show immensely, especially the "faux ballet" with Major General Stanley, which occurred in the second act. Also, the copper ensemble was excellent. I find that in community theatre, the coppers tend to be the weakest part of the show, so it was nice to see them well done.
Friday, February 12th, 2010: Olympic Opening Ceremonies
Andrew and I, and a couple of friends, are going to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies (on television) tonight. I've prepared a main course for us to maow down on while we take in the spectacle. Some Wii-playing may also be a part of the evening.
Go Canada, Go!
Ciao,
Andrea
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I watched the Watchmen
Last night Andrew and I went to see Watchmen. Since leaving the movie last night I've been thinking about what I would write about it today. And I'm still not too sure. I guess it might be good to start out by saying that I liked it. Quite a lot, actually. In general, I like super hero movies (I can glance over at our DVD collection and see all 3 Spidermans, X-men 1 and 2, The Hulk [the version with Edward Norton], The Incredibles, the first 5 season of BTVS, etc), although they tend to leave me feeling a little wistful. It's not so much that I want a super power, but I want the clear-cut purpose that superheros tend to have. There tends to be an obvious bad person, bent on doing harm to the human race and the hero has to stop them. Wouldn't it be nice to have such a straight forward purpose in life? Fight crime, stop the bad guy, save the day and possibly win the girl (or boy).
The movie. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. It's rated R. There's violence, sex and...lots of rain. It actually ends pretty happily despite all things, which is perhaps needed so that viewers can cope with everything they witnessed during the two hour and forty-five minute movie. As I think back, the violence, although at times extremely brutal was mostly tolerable. There were only two occasions (both involving the character Rorschach) where the action made me cringe. For the purposes of comparison, I would say that Sin City was a more difficult movie to watch. The hand-to-hand combat sequences were well done. And I'm always happy to see female characters (no matter how suggestively dressed) who can take on their fair share of the fighting, which the Silk Specter did. If you can cope with the movie's violence, the last issue is the graphic sex scene in the middle of the movie, set to Lenard Cohen's Alleluia. After that you just have to deal with the movie's main theme: the dark side of human nature. A piece of cake (to go with your tea), really.
I won't go into much detail on the plot, I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's viewing experience, but I would like to briefly touch on the story's setting: 1985, although an alternate reality to what we know. Richard Nixon is in his forth (or was if fifth?) term, America won the Vietnam war and the Dooms Day clock is at four minutes to midnight. Definitely not a happy place to be. For some reason the fact that it's set in 1985 amuses me, I think it's something about the fashions. The characters are dressed in hideous corduroy sports coats and wear enormous-rimmed glasses it's great and terrible at the same time. There are also all kinds of other interesting 1980s references such as computers equipped with the original MAC OS, clips of movies playing on television (such as Mad Max) and some of the music choices. Actually, the sound track was pretty awesome, it included: Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkle, the afore mentioned Lenard Cohen, Wagner and I think some Mozart as well.
According to Andrew the plot line was kept close to the comics (he just finished reading them). Many of the scenes and dialogue come directly out of the original material, although some of the side-stories have been cut to keep the movie manageable. Apparently the ending has been changed slightly as well, although the changes don't seemed to have affected Andrew's enjoyment of the movie. According to what I've read, the author Alan Moore, has totally disavowed all connection to the movie and in his opinion it's an unfilmable story. Maybe a true retelling isn't possible, I don't know, I haven't read the comics yet, but I'd say the movie was a fine adaption.
All in all, as long as you can tolerate the things I mentioned above (the violence and sex) and you don't mind dwelling on human darkness for while, you'll probably like the movie. We'll definitely be purchasing a copy when it comes out on DVD.
Ciao,
Andrea
The movie. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. It's rated R. There's violence, sex and...lots of rain. It actually ends pretty happily despite all things, which is perhaps needed so that viewers can cope with everything they witnessed during the two hour and forty-five minute movie. As I think back, the violence, although at times extremely brutal was mostly tolerable. There were only two occasions (both involving the character Rorschach) where the action made me cringe. For the purposes of comparison, I would say that Sin City was a more difficult movie to watch. The hand-to-hand combat sequences were well done. And I'm always happy to see female characters (no matter how suggestively dressed) who can take on their fair share of the fighting, which the Silk Specter did. If you can cope with the movie's violence, the last issue is the graphic sex scene in the middle of the movie, set to Lenard Cohen's Alleluia. After that you just have to deal with the movie's main theme: the dark side of human nature. A piece of cake (to go with your tea), really.
I won't go into much detail on the plot, I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's viewing experience, but I would like to briefly touch on the story's setting: 1985, although an alternate reality to what we know. Richard Nixon is in his forth (or was if fifth?) term, America won the Vietnam war and the Dooms Day clock is at four minutes to midnight. Definitely not a happy place to be. For some reason the fact that it's set in 1985 amuses me, I think it's something about the fashions. The characters are dressed in hideous corduroy sports coats and wear enormous-rimmed glasses it's great and terrible at the same time. There are also all kinds of other interesting 1980s references such as computers equipped with the original MAC OS, clips of movies playing on television (such as Mad Max) and some of the music choices. Actually, the sound track was pretty awesome, it included: Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkle, the afore mentioned Lenard Cohen, Wagner and I think some Mozart as well.
According to Andrew the plot line was kept close to the comics (he just finished reading them). Many of the scenes and dialogue come directly out of the original material, although some of the side-stories have been cut to keep the movie manageable. Apparently the ending has been changed slightly as well, although the changes don't seemed to have affected Andrew's enjoyment of the movie. According to what I've read, the author Alan Moore, has totally disavowed all connection to the movie and in his opinion it's an unfilmable story. Maybe a true retelling isn't possible, I don't know, I haven't read the comics yet, but I'd say the movie was a fine adaption.
All in all, as long as you can tolerate the things I mentioned above (the violence and sex) and you don't mind dwelling on human darkness for while, you'll probably like the movie. We'll definitely be purchasing a copy when it comes out on DVD.
Ciao,
Andrea
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)