The World Was Shaking So Much I Couldn't See The Pretty-ness

I just saw "Public Enemies" in theatres.

It' s a really good movie, but there are also things that if I could meet Michael Mann, I would smack him upside the head for:

- Johnny Depp was incredible as always. I think this is one of his best performances because he pushed himself emotionally farther than I've seen him go in a while (since his earlier, more "indie" movies). He is simply brilliant! Wonderfully pretty too, as per usual.

- Christian Bale was good, he did his job, but wasn't nearly as dynamic as Johnny. Of course, his character was only a supporting role to Johnny's, but he still could have done more with it. Still pretty though.

- The supporting cast was also really good (especially Marion Cotillard).

- The one thing that I really dislike about this movie though, is that the camera wouldn't stop moving!! It was handheld the entire time! It was bouncing and twisting and whipping around so much I couldn't see what was going on during half of the action scenes. There were also too many really-really-really-close-up close-ups. This movie was shot in digital (as opposed to film) so it was HD and very realistic, which exposes every little detail (and really told me who the truely great actors were among them).

- Oh and for some reason, Christian Bale looked a lot older than Johnny Depp in this movie, when in real life Christian is about 11 years younger than Johnny. Go figure.

Take a look at this resemblance:

In case you didn't know; Dillinger is on the left, Depp on the right. You should know, unless you live in a cave or a hut in Malaysia (no offense to any Malaysians who may be reading this).

This is the eighth time that Johnny has played a real life character. He manages to transform himself into each role every time in a ridiculously uncanny way. Here are a few more pictures from his past movies when he plays a real person. Remember: real person on left, Johnny on right:

Ed Wood (from the movie "Ed Wood")

Hunter S. Thompson aka Raoul Duke (from the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas")

George Jung (from the movie "Blow")

Cool, ya?

Turns out I didn't need the help of the brainless monkeys over at Abobe PhotoDeluxe who are busy scratching their own cabooses. I figured it out all by myself. *Pats self on the back*

I'll leave you with a strange music video for a song I like. Here you go:



P.S. Please feed my fish. His name is Walter, and he is in the top left-hand corner of my blog. Click in his little area to feed him. He will follow your mouse around. Cute. I also added a poll (which will change weekly), so please vote.

Bounce.

Why Do People Watch "Dr. Phil"?

MINI POST

I have done some thinking about this in the time that I haven't been studying, and I have deduced that there are three reasons why people watch "Dr. Phil". It could be a combination of a few or just one. Here they are:

- People watch it to see people who are more sick, twisted, and dysfunctional than they (or their family) are.

- People watch it to see people whine and *itch about their terrible lives when theirs is so much worse.

- People watch it because there is nothing else on, and they are possibly masochistic.

That's my theory.

Take it or leave it.

That'll Be The Day (When I Actually Study For A Test)

Went to see "The Buddy Holly Story" at Stage West on Friday night. It was really good! The guy who played Buddy Holly was really good (but he didn't look enough like Buddy for my liking, actually he was better looking than Buddy). After the show he was selling CD's of his band "The Human Statues" by the door. I didn't buy one, but the people I was with did, and we listened to it in the car. Not bad, I suppose. All of the songs kinda sounded the same. There was one good song; can't remember the title... man on the radio, or something to that effect. The whole CD has a very strong Buddy Holly vibe.
If "The Human Statues" are reading this (which they aren't) here's few tips that you may or may not find helpful, from me to you (great Beatles song):
- Kick up the bass (drum and guitar) quite a bit. Right now the songs sound a tad hollow.
- Not quite so much rhythm guitar. I know you are good at it, but it gets old really fast.
- Mix up your instruments. I suggest violins, or some other different instruments, but I know that can get a bit pricey.
- Stretch your vocal limits. The lead singer has a great voice, but right now, all of the vocals on every song is the same. Experiment with the capabilities of your voice and you'll get a more dynamic album.
- Song lyrics are generally pretty good, but some are quite cheesey. If that was your goal, then you've succeeded.
Well, that's it. My message to the band that isn't reading this blog. Ya.

Right now I am supposed to be studying for my General Studies 300 (remember... the class that has turned me into a hypothetical zombie?) final exam. I'm a chronic procrastinator and that will never change (unless I'm doing something I actually want to do or enjoy doing).

Last night I watched "Amelie". An incredible French film starring Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz, both of whom I love! I can't get enough of that movie, even if subtitles aren't the funnest part of a movie.

OK, I will leave you with a cool film clip from the movie "Trainspotting".



Choose Life.

Reminiscing About Old Good Movies

On Friday night I watched most of "Boogie Nights" and it reminded me just why I thought it was such a great movie in the first place. It is an incredibly crafted and well-made film by the wonderful Paul Thomas Anderson (filmmaker of "There Will Be Blood", another awesome movie). The acting is just amazing all around. I have to make a special mention to Philip Seymour Hoffman. While his role was small, he was absolutely brilliant. It didn't matter whether he was the focus of the shot or not, he was always in character and you could just watch his little character ticks and everything he did had a purpose. I incredibly admire an actor that can do that.

On Saturday morning I watched "The Truman Show" and was again reminded why it is one of my favourite movies. Jim Carrey gives one of his best peformances to date, he is wonderful to watch. The direction was awesome, as was the music.

What is weird is that I watched both of these movies on TV, but I own both as DVD's.

I went out with friends to a pub on Saturday night, which was fun. Had a Crantini and the spring rolls. Talked about complete nonsense for a long time.

However, this weekend I did spend a grand total of 14 hours working on a 13 page essay with Tif. It's in script format and it consists of Aristotle, Cesare Beccaria, and Elizabeth I discussing changes that should be made to The University of Calgary's Sexual Harassment Policy. *Holds hypothetical gun to head, pulls trigger, and hypothetical brains shoot out the other side.*

Painted my toenails purple.

Visit http://www.deadwhale.com/. Lots of awesome games!

Watch this. Brad Pitt being crazy in these clips from "12 Monkeys".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zgP2YA8EMM

Playtime!

Viva La Coldplay!

Oh my goodness! That was the best comcert EVER! It couldn't possibly have been greater! The seats weren't as bad as I had expected, but they were still kinda far. I still had an incredible time! I loved them limitlessly before, but now I love them even more!!

Here's a play-by-play and a theme-by-theme record of the night:

- Well, it opened with the band Howling Bells (they were the opening act for the opening act - tough gig) and they were pretty good. Then Snow Patrol came on and they were great. No match for the headliners though.

- During the transition to the Coldplay stage, there was this one roadie that looked like he was just sweeping the stage, but then a spotlight came on and he started break-dancing to the hip-hop music that was playing. It was totally awesome!

- Before we went in, I bought a T-shirt that says "Life in Technicolor" on it. I love merchandise!

- Now for the songs they played, they did a remix of a few songs which rocked. So here's a semi-list of the songs they did, in relative order, as close as I can remember: Life in Technicolor, Violet Hill, Clocks, In My Place, Yellow, Glass of Water, Fix You, 42, God Put A Smile Upon Your Face (remix), Talk (remix), The Hardest Part (remix), Postcards From Far Away, Viva la Vida, Cemetaries of London, Strawberry Swing, Lost!, Green Eyes, I'm a Believer (Beatles cover), Politik, Death and All of His Friends, Lovers in Japan, The Scientist (encore), and Life in Technicolor ii (encore). OK, I definately screwed up the order, but that's a songlist nonetheless.

- About three-quarters of the way through the show, Chris made the techs turn all of the lights off in the Saddledome and we all did the Mexican Cell Phone Wave. It was freaking awesome!

- All of the cool song-specific effects were there! The lasers for Clocks, the giant yellow crowd-surfing balloons for Yellow, and the butterfly confetti for Lovers in Japan.

- Chris and Jonny were just as "lovey dovey" as usual. They were awesome! They are truely blood brothers! I love how totally in-sync the entire band is with eachother, it's like nothing could ever separate them! Will Champion even sung a song for us!

- At the end of the concert we got the free live CD that we were promised!

Had the best night in a long freaking time!

(I did not take this picture...)

I'm off to listen to my live CD and watch some Coldplay music videos. I encourage you to do the same. Do it. Now. Worship Coldplay for the musical geniuses that they are. Go.

Now.

The Heliocentric Model

I already knew that the sun was at the centre of the Solar System and for some reason we did our presentation on Galileo for the class that's turning me into a zombie. He was definately one of the better choices out of the ones that were on the list of potential presentation topics. Certainly better than Adam Smith. *Snore* Capitalism is SO sixteen months ago!

Anyways, that class will eventually be the death of me. I'll be lucky to clear a decent mark. Our presentation wasn't that bad, I don't think. We had a video at the end (made by yours truly) and rockin' baked goods. Life Lesson #437: You can never ever go wrong with baked goods!

I saw "My Life In Ruins". Not so great. It's one of them fluffy, chick-flick, cliche movies. If you are into those, you might like it. It's just not really my tea and crumpets with jam.
I did watch the last half of "Trainspotting" (a work of the marvelous Danny Boyle) one morning and I really (really really really really really) want to see the whole thing!

Going to the Coldplay concert tomorrow night!!! That's right! The night I've been waiting for for months is finally here! I will have to bring binoculars in order to see there brilliance better from the seats we are in, but that's no problemo.

New shows to keep your eye on:
- NCIS: Los Angeles
- Law and Order: UK

OK, here's the trailer for the movie "Nine" that's coming out in November. By the same director who did "Chicago"; Rob Marshall. It's got Daniel Day-Lewis (Mr. Amazing himself), Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, and Kate Hudson. Seriously! Look at that cast! And it's a musical!!! I'm infatuated with this movie already.
Here it is:



Also, here is the music video for a song I really like. Amy Macdonald's "This Is The Life":



Ciao

They Grow Up So Fast...

You see what I did there? The title could be referring to the fact that on May 28th, I turned the ancient age of 19, or it could be referring to the fact that my baby tomato plants are growing up to be lovely little tomato plantlings. It will still be quite some time before we see any lovely little tomatoes, but every inch counts.

Well, I had a good birthday. I'll leave it at that, but it was fun.

Sorry (again) that it's been such a long time since my last post. What is wrong with me? Not being loyal to my blog is shameful. Simply shameful behaviour. Only 3 posts in May all-together? Shameful.

I did get the first season of Arrested Development for my birthday. Such a funny show! Gotta love Gob (Will Arnett)...

I have a project to work on for the class that is progressively turning me into a zombie (also known as General Studies 300). It's on Galileo. He was an interesting and revolutionary fella. Should be fascinating, or stressful, who knows.

I've been reading up on the rules, or laws (as they're called), of the wonderfully British game of Cricket. Relatively similar to baseball, but more interesting in my opinion. I wish they had Cricket games televised in Canada, I would watch it!

I've moved up to hard on guitar in Rock Band 2. I'm not too bad either. Just thought you should know that.

Here are the movies I want to see this year:
- Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian
- Public Enemies
- Bruno
- Taking Woodstock
- 9
- The Invention of Lying
- Where The Wild Things Are
- A Christmas Carol
- Nine
- Sherlock Holmes

Two movies called nine; crazy right? I know.

Do you ever get bored reading something that you've written? It's like getting bored of listening to yourself talk, only more boring. I'm kind of feeling that now, a little. Maybe I should stop typing, but I can't. It's like my hands have taken over my brain. Wow. That was probably the most boring thing I have written in this entire blog. If I ever get bored when I'm writing my short stories, I usually delete the entire thing and start again. Should I do that with this blog? No, because the spontaneousness of a blog is what makes it what it is. Oh well.

There's a reason why snore rhymes with bore.

If there isn't; there is one now.

Speaking of writing.
Here's another story. The challenge I gave myself for this one was to write a story entirely in dialogue. So, don't expect a plot...

Familiar Nonsense

Next story coming soon.

Snore.