The BBC SciFi Phenomenon (or "My Doctor Who Weekend")

So I've really been liking the BBC's SciFi shows the last few years and this weekend was a Doctor Who related weekend. I've never liked Doctor Who until the last few years (I'll lean more towards I disliked it).

Here's my Doctor Who related activities this weekend:

Doctor Who S4E5 The Poison Sky (part 2 to The Sontaran Stratagem) - I was excited that it was on this weekend, but I forgot that it was part two of a two-parter! And it's got Martha Jones in it. Great second part, can't say much without giving anything away, but another very (very) short appearance of Rose. I think we'll see a bit of her (and hear about the Bees until those episodes come up). I was surprised at the mention of Torchwood, but I think Capt. Jack's due for another appearance too (and maybe Sarah Jane).

Iron Man was Awesome!

Just got back from a preview of Iron Man, it was excellent. It was a long movie but it did not feel like it at all, had to be close to two hours. Wonderful visual effects!! I couldn't tell where Tony Stark ended and the CGI began. I was highly entertained and not disappointed at all! I had really high hopes and saw a million different previews and I thought it might spoil it, but that wasn't the case at all.

If you've got kids who want to see it: it's got lots of violence but less than the average violent show (or video game) and the sexual references/scenes are way less than the average soap opera (which is probably too much).

Jon Favreau (who you might remember as the Ultimate Fighting Champion wannabe from Friends) was the director/producer and also played Happy Hogan. The movie adaption book was written by Peter David who always writes good stuff (IMHO) so I'll be checking that out. And of course, a humorous scene with Stan Lee....

Where did our preview tickets come from? We have no idea, they showed up in a Mark's mailbox with no indication of how the were won or distributed. We asked a few people in the theatre where they got their's but it turned out they all "knew someone" or got them from "an aunt/grandmother" and didn't know the original source.

Possible Minor Spoiler below:

I swear in one early scene (at the end of one of the scenes that take place in a club) I heard a few bars from the original Iron Man TV theme song. Did anyone else, or was this my imagination?

Later: I'm certain it was the old theme. It's the casino scene (right after the awards ceremony) as they walk towards the car, it's gets louder and more pronounced (horns?) and then abruptly gets cut off. The last few bars are the clearest...

Even Later: If you're a comic fan, stay after the credits (I didn't) I hear there's an additional scene with a cameo you want want to miss..

Technorati Tags: Iron Man, Iron Man theme song, theme song, Tony Stark, tv theme song

PhotoShop Express On-Line Edition - Inital testing

So I'm using some Costa Rica photos to test the new free on-line edition of PhotoShop. It's very cool, does more than what most desktop packages do, but while limited, I don't need much more. They give you 2 GB of free storage. It's got cool slideshows (full-scren if you like) but I'm sure it breaks some browsers...

Costa Rica Dec 2007
These photos are from when I was in Costa Rica in December 2007 and left Montezuma and took the ferry from the Lower Nicoya Peninsula (Paquera?) to Puntarenaas.

Looks like you can even download your photos in their original size. They're still in beta so who knows what they'll charge for more storage (or features?).

They do give you a way to put thumbnails and links to photos with having to use their viewer. Although it seems to be a 2 step process (thumbnail then link) for each photo. But it's cheap, high-res and the flash interface is great.

If you love PhotoShop, I'm sure you'll hate it. It's pretty as spplications, but since I don't use any features past version 1, it's very nice and easy to use. Here's a link to the palette with all the main options on it. It's even easier to use than I need it to be (and it has more features to use too). It e-mails a really nice graphical html link to your friends too.

Technorati Tags: Costa Rica, PhotoShop, PhotoShop Express

A Fine Frenzy - Detroit at The Shelter - March 2008

Alison Sudol was excellent last night. A very small venue at The Shelter, the cancert was sold out but I'd guess there were only about 300 people there, lots of room. No one was back farther than about the equivalent of about 10 rows (no seats, general admission standing only with just a few tables). I've seen A Fine Frenzy before and it was a smaller venue so it was great having the small crowd and as a bonus it was a non-smoking show.

She's has such a lovely voice and writes her own songs. She's got this voice that's kind of a Sarah McLachlan / Tori Amos voice and she's just incredible. She so beautiful and has this sunning red head, and while it might not be naturally that red, she's got that anemic porcelain look that so many red heads do, I'm assuming she's actually a redhead. My camera in my phone takes pretty crappy pictures, but I tried to take a few.

She's so into when she plays, and every so often she looks at the audience, I feel likes she's forgotten us and that her manager told her she has to make eye contact every so often and that's why she looks up. I always think of 'gracious' when thinking about her personality, that's just how I feel when she's talking to us and that's how I feel when she talks to you personally. I did get to get to say 'hi" and get her autograph on a promo poster after the concert. She's just so nice, even with just a 30-second conversation...

It was a busy night as we had a fund raiser at work at six and the concert doors opened at 6 too (they're about 25 minutes apart). So we planned to skip the opening act and just see her and depending on the time possibly go back to the auction. When I finally called the concert hall. They said she was going on in 15 minutes!!!!!

So I had to find Kelly and Mark get out of there. We made good time, even with having to go a longer route, found free parking right around the corner and when we walked in the music was playing but she hadn't uttered a word yet!! So it was a great night.

We never got back to the auction, even though it was only 9:30 when we left, it was just a little too late to head back. So I have no idea what or if I won anything. I probably had my name on about $400 worth of things, but I'm assuming I got over bid on more than a few of them (there was still 30 minutes left of bidding when we took off). I had some train tickets to Chicago, baskets of games, chocolate, theatre tickets, plus I bid on one of my donated items and a few more things. One of the items I donated was for my Cat in the Hat basorket which had books/stuff and included a visit from me as the Cat in the Hat (for birthday parties, classroom visits and bachelorette parties), I drove the bidding up to $75 before I left, but if no one bought it I've purchased myself. While I love doing it, it's not worth it to spend a hot summer day outside in the outfit if it's only giving the school that much money so we'll see how that went. I also donated a basket of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans that I picked up the stuff the last time I was in Costa Rica; I'm wondering what that sold for, it's was only at $17 the last time I looked...

Technorati Tags: A Fine Frenzy, Alison Sudol, concert, AFF

Star Wars According to a 3 Year Old

If this isn't the cutest review of episode 4 that you've ever seen...

I'm sure a few parts were re-shot, but it's adorable...

Here's another cute kid video...

Technorati Tags: Hey Jude, Star Wars, Star Wars According to a 3 Year Old

Torchwood: "Meat" by Catherine Tregenna

So this week's episode of Torchwood is called "Meat". It's written by Catherine Tregenna, I bring that up right away because it's a great episode. Low action but lots of story. Rhys is at the scene of an accident and who shows up? Gwen, with the Mystery Machine and the rest of the gang. So this becomes a big part the story-line (this all happens in the first few seconds and in last week's preview, don't worry I won't give anything else away) and I really enjoyed the episode. Lots of great scenes of Cardiff too!

The first thing I did after watching it was to look up Catherine Tregenna and what did I find? A few other great episodes: "Captain Jack Harkness" (when Tosh and Jack get trapped in the 1940's) and "Out of Time" when a plane from the 1950's comes through the rift. As a bonus, she writes "Adam", next week's episode! It looks like she's written two other upcoming Torchwood episodes: Day In The Death Of (episode 8) and "From Out of the Rain" (episode 10) but I only saw that info mentioned at one place on-line (geos) and it didn't mention the "Adam" episode (so maybe an episode title changed?). All the other shows she's written for are other BBC(?) shows that I've never seen (I've only heard of East Enders). She's written some plays and been an actress too.

Then after "Adam", Martha Jones joins up for the next three episodes! I believe she's doing some work for UNIT, but I had assumed she was back finishing up becoming a Doctor...

Technorati Tags: Adam, Catherine Tregenna, Meat, Torchwood

Wordpress For Dummies - Review

I waited so long for WordPress For Dummies, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, and it was well worth the wait. I had been wanting to learn Wordpress and had been a fan of Lisa's blog so it was just what I needed as a motivator.

It's a "Dummies" book so it's got that easy to use format. And it's a reference book so most of it is not meant to be read linearly. If you've always wanted to set up a blog or switch to WordPress this is the way to go. It explains it from the basics up to the advanced. It's step by step and it'll get you running on your own host or at WordPress.com with ease.

It covers Migrating to WP, 10 Great Free Themes, Ten Great Plugins, Using WP as a Content Management System, Understanding Templates and Plug-ins. It covers pretty much everything you need to know but those are the chapters I've read the most and use for reference. If you don't know anything about PHP you'll painlessly learn the bits that you do need to know for modifying templates (this is optional) and you'll have picked up enough for when you want to use PHP for other "web stuff".

As I'm writing this post, I'm flipping through the book seeing if there is anything I've missed mentioning. There are so many areas of WP that I haven't explored yet, I've read about them in the book and I can't wait to try out some of the other features!

Just about everything I've needed to know was in there, the only thing that I couldn't find was detailed info on custom-fields which was (probably correctly) considered too advanced for a Dummies book.

There are 3 different flavors of WordPress (they host, you host, and multi-user) and they all share multiple features so just pay attention to which flavor she's talking about and you'll be fine.

It's an awesome book! If you want to set up your own blog, self-hosted or not, WordPress is easy to use and WordPress For Dummies is the book to use.

Technorati Tags: Lisa Sabine-Wilson, WordPress, WordPress for Dummies

Torchwood - Season 2

So the second season of Torchwood has started up. In case you haven't seen it, it's a semi-secret organization with the job of finding (and removing) aliens and acquiring their technology to better protect Earth.

"Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you gotta be ready. "

Back to Torchwood, the first season was not your normal Sci-Fi show, lots of sexual innuendo, lots of sex implied. I think all of the main characters hooked up with one of the other team members, an alien, someone of the same sex (or all three) at some point in season one (the show was created by Russell T. Davies who created Queer As Folk). Wait, I did say it was SciFi didn't I? There are generally aliens, generally doing bad "take over the world" kinds of things and they usually stop them generally (but not always) saving lives in the process. When I first watched the show I didn't realize it was a Doctor Who spin-off, I actually thought it was some kind of supernatural British cop show, but this was better...

This season season I've read they've pushed it even more and I must say from the first two episodes it seems like it so far. Episode one of the second season there was more kissing than I've ever seen on a SciFi show in my life (maybe all sci-fi shows combined). Episode two is definitely a little edgier and a bit more intense (and violent) than last season, I really had no idea where this episode was going the first fifteen minutes of the show (had I paid attention to the episode title). I can't wait to see where the rest of the season goes...

It's on BBC America on Saturdays at 9 PM and on BBC Two on Wednesdays at 9 PM (GMT).

Technorati Tags: BBC, BBC Two, Doctor Who, eve myles, john barrowman, sci-fi" rel="tag">sci-fi, scifi, Torchwood

Cloverfield - Review

So I've mentioned this movie a few times before, mostly back in the summer of 2007 when I saw the unnamed 1-18-08 preview. I think I was pretty accurate in my original description when I originally referred to it as "Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Project", that's exactly what it was (except the creature wasn't Godzilla). Lots of action, really awesome special effects. The jiggly camera action bothered some people, I was okay with it but I certainly understand why it'd be annoying...

The plot needed a faster start at the beginning, they spent forever setting everything up. I thought the slow start was really odd since I thought the preview did a great job of setting everything up in about 30 seconds (rob,. party, going away, friends, explosion, monster, run) so I'm not sure why it took so long to set up in the film. I've got comments on the end too, but don't worry I wont talk about those. I really enjoyed it, it's pretty much what I expected (but with better effects) so I was happy.

What I didn't like was a few technical details: I thought at the beginning they specifically mentioned the video was specifically found on an SD chip, but throughout the movie it's a "tape" and treated that way too, so I'm not sure why they bothered to set that up. And they didn't seem to bother worrying about the camera battery as a plot problem, which I would have been okay with, except they did worry about they cell phone battery as a plot problem (and they way they handled it could have let them fix it as a camera problem too).

Watch for this: At the beginning of the end credits, it looks like it's overlaid on some (government?) documents / graphics with a 1969 date, I'm not sure what the significance of this was unless I really wasn't paying attention to something significant during the movie (my one bathroom break wasn't that long).

They also showed a teaser of the new J. J. Abrams Star Trek movie, but it just showed the 1701 being built in the shipyards, not much else...

Technorati Tags: 1-18-08, Blair Witch Project, cloverfield, Godzilla, J J Abram, J. J. Abrams, Star Trek

A Fine Frenzy - Live Session (iTunes Exclusive) - EP

So on Thursday the 4 track A Fine Frenzy - Live Session EP came out exclusively at the iTunes store. Of course I purchased it, can't pass something like that up from A Fine Frenzy. It's a great EP with 4 tracks - Almost Lover, Borrowed Time, Last of Days, and The Minnow & the Trout. They don't sound very "live" to me but that's okay with me, they're more like different versions of the songs. And for $3.49 you can hardly go wrong...

Technorati Tags: A Fine Frenzy, iTunes Exclusive, iTunes music store

Tori Amos at the Fox Theater in Detroit - Review

Tori Amos was awesome! I really haven't listened to her newer stuff very much but I really enjoyed the latest album when she played those songs. She played a lot of older songs, which is what I like.

I've seen Tori a few times, I'm guessing about a dozen times now, spaced out over the last 15 years. So by this time, not only do I know where to sit, my mother knows, she specifically asked me on the phone, "did you get a seat on the right-hand side?", I'm surprised she remembered something like that. I did sit slightly to the right and before I went and I thought I needed to be a bit more to the right, but my seat was perfect! Plus, all the people sitting in my line of sight were short!

She's always a little quirky, but she didn't talk much so it was hard to tell. But after her first outfit change, she was halfway through the third song and she stopped, and asked the guys to continue to play, "I've gotta go take this corset off, it's killing me". They finished up the song as she came back out and she just went on to the next song :)

Yoav opened for her and her was great! Not sure how to describe him, but he was a good act, could have listened to him more. He had a short EP for $5, they really needed to have a seperate line for his CD at intermission (maybe a ca$h only line). Everyone ran out to get it and it was a disaster.

You can see more of my Tori Photos at flickr (they didn't come out very well, but you can see the different stage setups). If you saw my photo of the ceiling of the theater, go back and look at it because I added some more info (and sort of link to some older photos).

Technorati Tags: concert, Detroit, Fox Theater, Tori, Tori Amos

Kerby's Coney Island - Dearborn, MI

So I just got a bite to eat at the new Dearborn Kerby's Coney Island at Ford and Mercury (next to the Best Buy). I gotta tell you this is the most boring Chile-Cheese Omelet I've every had in my life. The eggs are boring, the chili sauce is boring and the toast seemed boring. I even tried the hash browns, which I generally find boring, to also be boring. Fortunately, the strawberry jam tastes normal so I know it's not me; and the water actually tastes pretty good!

There is another (non-chain?) restaurant, Parthenon II (Coney Island), where I usually get a Chile-Cheese Omelet, a little farther into this strip mall area that I've been to a million times and I'll be sure to go back there next time. Unfortunately, they'll probably lose business since Kerby's does have a much better location.

I've also got to try the new Seahorse Grill which just opened at the same mall.

UPDATE - I just drove by the Parthenon II and it looks like they are out of business :(

Technorati Tags: Coney Island, Kerby's Coney Island

Brandi Carlile in Detroit - Mini Review

This past Sunday Brandi, as usual, was excellent. She just belts out some of those tunes and other times she's just kind of mellow, she did a great concert. She covered a Queen song on the piano and it was awesome; it might not have been "a" queen song, it might have been a multiple medley song since I know part of Bohemian Rhapsody ('momma, just killed a man') was in it but I think there were parts of that song not sung ('Gallileo Figaro - magnifico'); does anyone know for sure? She did the Queen song so perfect, I've got to think some of the younger crowd assumed it was a song of hers...

She talked about people traveling from Ann Arbor to see her (and vice-versa) and was excited by the response. I've driven to Chicago to see her and it was worth it! This was my third time seeing Brandi and I'll go again next chance!

Back to her music. Some of her more passionate songs just totally get inside me. It wasn't just me, you could see some were affecting other people too, I don't know exactly what it is. But a couple really got to me, especially Hallelujah at the end.

Little did I know that while I had an excellent time at the concert that it's emotional high was just that start of a roller coster ride of emotions this week...

Technorati Tags: Brandi Carlile, concert, Detroit, Hallelujah, Saint Andrews Hall, St. Andrews Hall, You Oughta Know Tour

A Fine Frenzy in Detroit - Review

So A Fine Frenzy opened for Brandi Carlile on Sunday and they were so awesome they should be on their own tour. It was a small venue at St. Andrews and I've never seen it that packed, they were sold out and they were was a great crowd for AFF. Alison Sudol is the singer and she's wonderful the songs she did were just beautiful, I wish she had played more. She was so polite and so gracious when everyone kept clapping after a few of her perfectly done songs. I so wish they would have played longer, I thought I saw an extra song on the set list but they didn't do an encore; I couldn't read the title so it might have been a song earlier played...

Alison did show up at the sales table to sign autographs. So of course, I purchased another copy of the CD. I got her to autograph it, a booklet and I got my picture taken with her (I sure wish I had a better camera than my phone with me, the lighting was pretty poor were we stood). Once again, she was so polite and pleasant with everyone, almost shy like. I hadn't realized how very beautiful she was until I got that close to her, it made me feel kind of shy at that point.

The booklet was interesting about ten 5 inch by 7 inch pages with great photos and an interview. I think they were giving them away (at least I didn't pay for the ones I grabbed for my friends and I) but they were really nice. They looked like they were from an earlier tour (maybe from some kind of press or info packet).

I've been so happy with all the 'opening acts' that I've seen lately I've been very happy with most of them and become a fan of many recently. Heck, Brandi opened for Indigo Girls when I saw them a few months ago. I would travel a ways to see AFF again! I was really surprised that Alison didn't sing a sone with Brandi (or vice-versa).

A few odd things - The manager(?) wouldn't let me take a picture when she was signing photographs, "please wait until she poses" (or something like that). I would have put it with the spot where I was talking about her signing, so that it totally was in context; but it didn't seem worth it to try an explain it.

Someone posts Twitter updates for A Fine Frenzy but they didn't do any in Detroit, which I was keeping my eyes open for (and since they didn't have a concert the next day they might have still been around).

Technorati Tags: A Fine Frenzy, Alison Sudol, concert, Saint Andrews Hall, St. Andrews Hall, You Oughta Know Tour

Stardust - The Movie

So I've been excited since I originally saw the preview for Stardust a few months ago and I got to see a preview of the movie a few weeks ago (the movie is out now). I really enjoyed the movie and the cast was great (Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Charlie Cox). They didn't follow the book exactly and I have no problem with that, I'm re-reading the book and I'm finding that I really enjoy it after just seeing the movie.

I really like Neil Gaiman but I really haven't seen them promoting him much in relation to the book and the movie; the book came out about 10 years ago as both a regular book and as a graphic novel (illustrated by Charles Vess). And I've seen this book in so many variations of the cover not even including the movie editions or the graphic novels...

Claire Danes as the falling star was wonderful, technically she was a fallen star but that sounds like it has a negative connotations and she didn't have any. From the previews I wasn't sure how Claire would be in the part (I eel they edited the preview oddly) but I thought she was perfect. DeNiro played a different part than I expected from the previews; I guess it was a different role than I've ever seen him in before. Charlie Cox was great, I'm not sure where I've seen him before.

Technorati Tags: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Stardust

AppleTV is Awesome!!!

My AppleTV is awesome! An "iPod for your TV" is a accurate description. I ran the software update (painless!) and it gave me YouTube videos and fixed "enhanced podcasts".

It mirrors one of your computer's iTunes just like an iPod does (and allows you exceptions) and will stream from any other computers running iTunes (platform independent) and I don't think there is a limit. I can't believe how fast it pulls hi-res movie previews from Apple down to the unit, it's very very fast. It's actually much faster than pulling down YouTube videos (many which are low-res).

It really streams full-scren video from other computers really efficiently. Very rarely does it need a moment to catch up. It has no problem with steaming audio. It almost makes no sense to download podcasts, I bet you could stream them live if you had a way to just get the RSS feeds onto the AppleTV.

With "enhanced podcasts" it now properly advances the embedded images to follow along with the audio. The problem is that it just shows them to the side like the album artwork, some images are much larger so it really cheats you by scaling them down. Since you don't use the up/down keys on the remote during this process "up" would be a great way to enlarge the images.

I have the same image size concern when viewing slideshows with the "Ken Burns effect", sometimes I want to view the whole image. Once again this would be another great use for the up button. The down button could be used for viewing filenames, date, time and other info about the images. Actually, this would be a good use for the down button while viewing videos or audio.

A few more features (like on the TiVo) like weather, movie listings and maybe Flickr photo viewing and it'd be even better...

What I don't like is that it only lets you sync with one computer. I'd like to sync music with one, videos with another and podcasts with another (not so sure if I care about the latter).

What I need:
1) A way to automatically convert videos and stick them into iTunes for me (so when I drop/download a file to a folder, it starts processing for me). I could probably do this via Mac or Windows....

2) A way to play other file formats on the AppleTV, such as AVI and DiVX files. I think I can hack it to do that but I'm not sure if I want to take it apart yet.

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, AppleTV, iTunes, Ken Burns, Ken Burns effect, Flickr, TV

The Police

I saw The Police in concert tonight at the Palace in Auburn Hills. They were excellent!!!! You'd never know these guys hadn't toured in years, any other reunion (or county fair concert) I've ever seen you could tell everyone was out of practice, but not these guys.

I had a great seat, I wasn't real close but I was a few rows off the main floor, I had a way better seat than the people who were 15 feet from me on the main floor that (I think) paid a lot more. They had an incredible stage setup, huge video displays and great camera angles.

Here's the run down on the guys:

Indigo Girls - Act 2 in Ravinia

So I'm a little behind on the Ravinia concert updates, so here we go.

As all Indigo Girl concerts go, all the fans know all the lyrics and sing along to all the songs. Okay, so not every song, but pretty much every song. By the end of the concert my ears were ringing a little bit and it's not because of the speakers, it was because of the fans singing.

The concert was excellent, one of the better ones I've seen of theirs (I'd guess I've seen them about 10 times). Philadelphia was one of the best, maybe the farther I go the better they get? And I'd have to say the time I saw them in Lilith Fair (Auburn Hills, MI) was probably the worst. But I digress...

So it was great and they had everyone going from the beginning, I was a little worried since Brandi Carlile tried to get us to sing along to something and it bombed. We all cheered and sang and applauded over and over. Brandi sang backing on a song. They played some more and Amy Ray sang Romeo and Juliet and it was incredible, it's one of my favorite songs of hers and she totally nailed it. And Brandi came out and sang Kid Fears, she did the Michael Stipe (REM) part and it gave me chills (I'm getting them even as I type this weeks later), it was amazing. Then IG just continued (and didn't stop) with an awesome concert, it was well worth the trip. I'll finish up my review in part 3 (that I promise to post soon).

I've got the word "dancing" here in my notes, but I'm not sure exactly why I wrote that. I must have had an anecdote related to that and I assumed I'd remember...

Technorati Tags: Brandi Carlile, concert, Indigo Girls, Ravinia

Limited Edition Alpha-Bits

So about 18 months ago I mentioned that Post removed all the sugar from Alpha-Bits cereal. Not only that, they removed all the flavor! They were awful!!!

So someone e-mailed me last week about the new "Special Edition" dark blue box that was out. Here's the thing, the box says "special edition" but not what's "special" about it. THe box does say it's sweetened but that's it. Very strange.

It's like the old Alpha-Bits are back. Very yummy! The last box I bought was the un-sweetened kind and I didn't even finish the first bowl. I hope these last a while. I which there was a place to vote or something they should never return to the awful bits they've been trying to peddle for the last year...

Technorati Tags: Alpha Bits, Alpha-Bits, Limited Edition, Limited Edition Alpha Bits, Post

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

So I'm not the largest Harry Potter fan, I've read the books, but I think I missed the last movie. I got dragged to the latest one but I did enjoy it. Except for the flying in the opening sequence the effects were awesome. They cut so much out of the books (and the books keep getting bigger), it'd probably be better if they'd make the movies twice as long and just release them in two parts (but twice as often) and make them 'to be continued'...

The parts when the magistrate (government) were nosing around the school with what should be taught and how it should be taught were hysterical, especially the parts about the standardized testing.

Harry is starting to look pretty old, I'm not sure how him and the gang are going to make it to the 7th movie without looking like 5th year college students.

Technorati Tags: Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Order of the Phoenix, standardized tests, standardized testing

I'm really liking (Will) Traveler

After the pilot, the next few episodes of Traveler were a little slow (and complicated) and I didn't really think I'd get into it. But after that I was hooked! It had the chase scenes and the conspiracy and the action but they didn't waste time repeating themselves all the time like so many other shows do. It's like they're Jack Bauer and they've been falsely accused of bombing a museum. On paper the guy who did it doesn't seem to exist so they've got to evade the law and prove that Will exists and that they didn't do it.

This weeks show was packed with twists and turns and ended with a great twist. Unfortunately next week is the season finale, this has got to be the shortest season I've seen, it was only eight episodes. As sad as I am that it's only eight, I prefer that over them stretching the same story out over 15 or 20 episodes. I'm not familiar with the directors/producers but I'll watch more if they make it.

FYI, on a non-related note, the new season of Psych starts Friday on USA.

Technorati Tags: Psych, Traveler, Will Traveler

Transformers - The Movie

So I was never a huge Transformers fan. I never understood the reasoning/idea of the robots Transforming into cars (please don't try to explain it to me) as a great story-line even for the comics. But the effects and the Michael Bay action couldn't keep me away.

THe effects were awesome, lots of action, lots of destruction and a bit of campy humor. I was totally into the movie and the chase scenes and the explosions. It did take more than a few minutes to set the movie up, but since the movie was two hours and twenty minutes I really won't complain about that. My biggest complaint is to ditch the little robot that transforms into the tape deck, but they probably needed something that wouldn't totally slaughter the humans...

If it interests you, go see it, you'll love it. My piece of trivia for this movie: the voice of Optimus Prime is the same guy who did the voice for the cartoons.

I still don't get the idea of the robot/car transformations, but I certainly want my car to be able to do it!

Technorati Tags: Michael Bay, Transformers

Brandi Carlile - Act 1 in Ravinia

So back to the concert in Ravina that I've mentioned sever times already. Brandi Carlile was the first act, she's big enough these days that I'm surprised she didn't get mentioned in the listings for the concert. She was incredible, I really like the songs on her current album and she played quite a few songs in the forty minutes that she was up there. Man, she can belt out a tune. Any & Emily came out and did a song with her which I never realized that they sang with her on the album.

So Brandi has changed a bit in the last year since I saw here in Ann Arbor. When she was there she was excellent but she was kind of casual about her look (in a good way). When I saw the video for The Story I noticed how much makeup and hair-do work she had done, I didn't even realize it was her at first (and who else would it have been). She still had her jeans and cowgirl boots on, but she definitely was still a bit more made up than I've seen her before (in person and album covers, etc.) and the jeans seemed a bit more low-cut than how I picture her normally. Speaking of last year's concert, I do recall her being very grateful and chatty about Grey's Anatomy but it didn't get a mention at all this concert.

She mentioned she was a huge Indigo Girls fan and tried to get us to sing along to a song (she knows everyone sings along to every Indigo Girls song) but it was a hard one, we didn't didn't do so good, we did better singing with some songs that she didn't encourage us to sing on.

After her concert she cam back out and sang "Kid Fears" with IG, she did the Michael Stipe (from REM) part. She was incredible, it actually gave me chills when I heard it.

She sang more with IG, but that's another post (or two).

Technorati Tags: Brandi Carlile, concert, Indigo Girls, Ravinia

Waitress

So I went to see Waitress, starring Keri Russell, at the Main Art Theater (in Royal Oak, MI). I like Keri, unfortunately there is something about the parts she plays that I generally don't like. But the reviews have been giving her great acclaim for this movie. Rightly so, she did an excellent job and I really liked her and her character in this film.

She plays a small-town waitress in a rotten marriage who makes pies. These aren't ordinary pies, they're extra-ordinary pies. She thinks these pies out according to her mood, they might be called:

Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer

For the effects I give it a big WOW! THe effects were amazing. Where were these movies when we were kids? We would have gone nuts over them. Now most comic story-lines are so complicated, you could never make a movie out of them.

The story-line was great but they had this constant sub-story line of stupid jokes and their powers bouncing back and forth which was just a waste in my humble opinion. Reed working around the wedding plans trying to save the world was interesting. And it was a lot faster moving than the first movie, IMHO. There was something odd about Jessica Alba, was it just that she was a blonde or was there too much make-up or what?

We lost power just before the end of the movie so a few of us were debating if it was going to end in a few minutes or if it was 'to be continued', I was for the latter, I felt that way before going to see the movie.

They had a bit of product placement, mostly by joking about sponsors for the team, which I enjoyed. And over at Population Statistic, Costa noticed that the name of the catering company was Edible Planet.

Being a comic fan when I was a kid I really enjoyed this movie movie even with the above comments. Just remember it's a movie, not a comic and they take some liberties.

Did the girl named Frankie have the last name of Ray? Doesn't she eventually become a herald of Galactus?

Technorati Tags: Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer

Indigo Girls AND Brandi Carlile in Lincoln Park Illinois

This was the best concert!! It wasn't just Brandi Carlile opening for Indigo Girls, a good part of it was Indigo Girls AND Brandi Carlile together!!! Not only that, it was like the concert that wouldn't end! They just kept singing!

I went way early and upgraded my lawn seat to row H (the 7th row actually) since Ravinia lets you do that (which is great). I originally purchased a lawn seat because I just didn't know if I actually was going to go. But due to some empty seats, I really spent most of the concert in rows 2 or 3!!!

At the beginning they did a song with Brandi and later she did one with them. Then Brandi did Michael Stipes part for Kid Fears and it actually gave me chills! Then she did who knows how many with them at the end (at least 4, maybe 6), some just backing but many performing with them. And they just kept playing, the fans kept cheering every time they played an additional song. They went way past when Ravinia says they normally stop playing (at least according to the brochure).

I will be posting more on this later: Brandi, IG and Ravinia will probably get some more entries...

Technorati Tags: Brandi Carlile, Chicago, concert, Indigo Girls, Ravinia, Vacation

Third Time's the Charm!

So I'm at McDonald's and I want my regular order, a number 3 combo (Quarter Ponder, Fries, Soda); so I order a "number 3, no pickle, no mustard" slow and articulated but as usual they have to ask me again what it is that I want. I don't understand how they don't get it the first time, it's a limited selection of items that I can order even if I slur my voice someone should be able to figure it out, it's not like I ordered an iPod with a side of onion rings. But that's actually not my complaint today, she did get it correct and processed that part of the order quickly and accurately.

So they hand me my order, while the QP box has the "no pickle, No mustard" tag on it there is an excessive amount of mustard on the box which lets me know to check before I bite. Sure enough there's mustard on it (maybe pickle too). So I sent it back. Minutes later I get another one, with pickle and mustard. So I send it back, it's easily 5 minutes more until I get a correct sandwich. They did give me fresh fries (the first order was better than delicious) and offer me a pie (but they didn't have apple so I passed). They handed the final order to me in a togo bag, was that a hint?

How much money (food and staff time) did they waste trying to make this sandwich correctly? We're not even factoring in my time wasted and the fact that this is the most expensive McDonald's around here.

Technorati Tags: fast food, McDonald's

Laura Veirs in Concert (Part 2)

So I did a quick photo blog from the concert the other day but I've been so busy I never said anything else (actually I've barely said anything lately). Laura Veirs was excellent! The Magic Stick is such a great small venue, $12 at the door and you can get closer than if you had front row seats at a larger venue. The group talked to us and even asked for some requests. Then they explained their goofy outfits which I'm not even going to try to explain, I'll look and see if anyone has any good photos somewhere on-line.

I'm always so happy with the smaller venues, I've got to pay more attention to people coming to town to see some people I would haven't normally gone to see. And it's really nice when they hang around and autograph their CDs! I bought two and got them both signed...

"Lake" opened for them and they were pretty good but it just wasn't the sound that draws me in too much. Kelly Jean Caldwell was a local opener (I'm pretty sure she's local) for them that I heard was excelelnt but I showed up late (my niece, Courtney Robb, was playing at a club down the street so I went to see her first) so I'll have to keep my eye open for her to come back.

Laura Veirs in Detroit