Related in the order it appears in my head:
1. My parents and I watched two movies on TV. the 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara; who isn't Scarlett's sister, we explained to my father, because Scarlett is a fictional character...This was on TCM so it was unedited. I thought it was being shown because of Halloween approaching but my feeling at the time of that thought was that this movie is even less of a Halloween movie than Frankenstein since it's just about a guy who's deaf and deformed. It turns out it was actually shown because of RKO's anniversary which is a much better reason. I loved the part where Quasimodo was throwing stones off the bell tower on the attacking peasants and then, when he dumped the vat of molten metal, I laughed so hard!
2. We also saw The 40 Year Old Virgin on NBC. (With an 8pm start time no less!) Yeah the language was edited out ("Forget you!") but I really don't think it's appropriate for children. Commercials for Zak and Miri Make a Porno also may have been wrong but I suppose if you open the door you might as well go all the way. In any case, even edited, that movie is so funny...
3. One night while watching Jeopardy with my mother we got to the announcement Final Jeopardy category (Just the announcement!) which was Emmys. I guessed "Who is Ed Asner?" as a joke really. The answer was something to the effect of "This is the only actor to win an Emmy for dramatic series and an Emmy for comedic series for playing the same character." The proper question for this was of course "Who is Ed Asner?" I rock!
4. I finished the Dark Is Rising series while I was away. Silver on the Tree was the largest book yet and had a huge battle at the end, thought not really "movie huge" if you get my meaning, but left some loose threads in my opinion. Oh yes, the main plot threads were satisfactorily tied up but there turns out to be no point to the inclusion of the three Drew Children from books one, three and finally this one. There are hints at Barney and Jane's importance (Simon is never important. He's just there...) I was thinking oh Jane will be Bran's queen in the glorious return of Camelot or the new "Lady of the Light" but none of which ever happened. I was not pleased with the end of Will and Bran's stories either as the "prologue" scenes in Birminghamshire had nothing to do with anything apparently... This review makes it sound like I absolutely hated it but, in truth, I loved it (There was one surprise I didn't see coming at all.) until Cooper started to wrap things up. Another book may fix some of these problems...
5. I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth on DVD. I thought this was a pretty good wrap up of the Ori storyline but I still say they should not have done it on DVD as doing so makes the series finale fairly pointless. I am glad there was no mention of the Daniel/Vala "relationship" which I still contend made no sense. The only part I felt didn't need to be in here was the IOA/Replicator side plot. The Replicators to this point have appeared like a half a dozen times and it's been fully acceptable until now. To me, it smacks of "the volcano blowing" or "the dam bursting" but maybe that's just me... The best scene in the movie was the discussion between Teal'c and Tomin about atrocities and forgiveness. That was very well done indeed. Oh and why do TV shows with a movie budget always cut the lighting in scenes?
6. I've discovered a new artist: the Vermont-based band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Their new album This is Somewhere, which I received as a birthday present, totally rocks. The best comparison I've heard to their sound comes from my father: Thea Gilmore which is probably meaningless to all my readers but here's a comparison:
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals:
Thea Gilmore:
1. My parents and I watched two movies on TV. the 1939 Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara; who isn't Scarlett's sister, we explained to my father, because Scarlett is a fictional character...This was on TCM so it was unedited. I thought it was being shown because of Halloween approaching but my feeling at the time of that thought was that this movie is even less of a Halloween movie than Frankenstein since it's just about a guy who's deaf and deformed. It turns out it was actually shown because of RKO's anniversary which is a much better reason. I loved the part where Quasimodo was throwing stones off the bell tower on the attacking peasants and then, when he dumped the vat of molten metal, I laughed so hard!
2. We also saw The 40 Year Old Virgin on NBC. (With an 8pm start time no less!) Yeah the language was edited out ("Forget you!") but I really don't think it's appropriate for children. Commercials for Zak and Miri Make a Porno also may have been wrong but I suppose if you open the door you might as well go all the way. In any case, even edited, that movie is so funny...
3. One night while watching Jeopardy with my mother we got to the announcement Final Jeopardy category (Just the announcement!) which was Emmys. I guessed "Who is Ed Asner?" as a joke really. The answer was something to the effect of "This is the only actor to win an Emmy for dramatic series and an Emmy for comedic series for playing the same character." The proper question for this was of course "Who is Ed Asner?" I rock!
4. I finished the Dark Is Rising series while I was away. Silver on the Tree was the largest book yet and had a huge battle at the end, thought not really "movie huge" if you get my meaning, but left some loose threads in my opinion. Oh yes, the main plot threads were satisfactorily tied up but there turns out to be no point to the inclusion of the three Drew Children from books one, three and finally this one. There are hints at Barney and Jane's importance (Simon is never important. He's just there...) I was thinking oh Jane will be Bran's queen in the glorious return of Camelot or the new "Lady of the Light" but none of which ever happened. I was not pleased with the end of Will and Bran's stories either as the "prologue" scenes in Birminghamshire had nothing to do with anything apparently... This review makes it sound like I absolutely hated it but, in truth, I loved it (There was one surprise I didn't see coming at all.) until Cooper started to wrap things up. Another book may fix some of these problems...
5. I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth on DVD. I thought this was a pretty good wrap up of the Ori storyline but I still say they should not have done it on DVD as doing so makes the series finale fairly pointless. I am glad there was no mention of the Daniel/Vala "relationship" which I still contend made no sense. The only part I felt didn't need to be in here was the IOA/Replicator side plot. The Replicators to this point have appeared like a half a dozen times and it's been fully acceptable until now. To me, it smacks of "the volcano blowing" or "the dam bursting" but maybe that's just me... The best scene in the movie was the discussion between Teal'c and Tomin about atrocities and forgiveness. That was very well done indeed. Oh and why do TV shows with a movie budget always cut the lighting in scenes?
6. I've discovered a new artist: the Vermont-based band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Their new album This is Somewhere, which I received as a birthday present, totally rocks. The best comparison I've heard to their sound comes from my father: Thea Gilmore which is probably meaningless to all my readers but here's a comparison:
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals:
Thea Gilmore:
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