Harry Potter Part I

So after a much longer than anticipated the wife and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.  To start, I will never go to another movie theater in KC again.  The AMC Mainstreet 6 is phenomenal.  A bar in lobby, comfortable seating, and best of all, you can order tickets online and pick your exact seat.  Phenomenal.   Anyway, back to the movie.  Movie was great, every bit as good as I hoped it would be.  As I've commented before, books to movies are always going to have holes, gaps, and changes - it's a given.  That being said I feel like they did a pretty solid job taking this one from page to screen.  I think part of it is because they have 5 hours to make it work versus the standard 2.5 hour run time. 

I will say my favorite part, which is an odd favorite part, was the story of the three brothers and the deathly halllows.  I thought the way they handled this very important story was pretty awesome.  The only truly bad thing is that we have to wait so long for what is sure to be an amazing finale to this series.

Video of the Week

Preview is finally here and it looks awesome.

Remember

CoD Black Ops

Every bit as good as advertised, for those who are interested in such things... 1AM bed times are not kosher.  Actually glad to be out of town next week to catch up on my book.

iPod Fail?

So everyone with an iPod and an active iTunes account has songs and/or artists on there that they would be, for lack of a better terminology, embarrassed if played in front of mixed company.  But nevertheless, it remains on in your library and you dust if off every once in awhile and give it a listen when no one is looking.  For me, it's Taylor Swift.  Now, her stuff sounds incredibly odd when preceded by Rise Against, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, or one of many other relatively homogeneous bands that dominate my nearly 5 GB music library.  I'm not even a huge fan of country music, I mean I listen to a lot of it and I appreciate it for certain.  But it's not my go to genre by any means.  But with her music, I think it's the voice.  She just has a tone to it that is just really relaxing.  Anyway... what prompted this was buzz on Twitter and what not about her performance on the recent CMAs, which I attached below.  It was pretty awesome, I will say.   

  

PS Stop laughing, you know you have something on your iPod that's right in this same wheel house....  

New Video Game Day

It's new video game day and I am very excited as I often am on this day.  After my two previous video game desires got horrible reviews  they were no gos on the the purchase front (one of which was borrowed and confirmed as a solid decision), I have high, yet measured hopes for Call of Duty Black Ops, I don't think there is any way possible for the storyline to beat Modern Warfare 2, but they did bring in some big guns for voice overs such as Gary Oldman.  So there is potential, but with such a disappointing year in video games thus far, I've gotta approach this with caution.  If preorders are any indication it'll be epically awesome or a colossal bust, because early indicators have it paced to beat MW2, which put up HUGE numbers.  I'm picking this up after work and ... it'll likely be a late night/early morning combo.

Video of the Week

Maybe the best video game commercial I have ever seen...  Kobe? and Kimmel with an RPG? no talking frog or horse with creepy human characteristics can top that.

Picture of the Week

Sign from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear... hilarious and awesome, it is now my new desktop background on all PCs.

Election Day

I truly and sincerely hope that the winners of today's elections will remember that they represent the people.  The people are in need of some sanity.  I hope they check there personal and party agendas at the door and do what is right.  I'm really truly trying to remain positive about it but given the environment and the amount of mud that's been slung this campaign season, I see more of the same taking place and no true change.  The preschool bickering has to end, compromises need to be made in order to make progress.

I'll be heading to participate in the process this afternoon, because as small as one vote may be in the scheme of things - if I want to criticize things I should probably participate in the process.  Big thing on the MO ballot is the City Income Tax.  I hope it's defeated and the city has to decide how to make what they have work.  I understand there is a shortfall due to the commuter nature of the KC metro area and KCMO is in general a business center and not much for residences, but hitting KC residence who already pay property tax, vehicle tax, sales tax, etc. with another 1% is pretty tough to swallow.  Other cities manage (I *think* KC and St Louis are the only cities with a tax, could be wrong on this point).

I will again renew my efforts to pay attention to politics given the new faces that will likely be in Congress, but as with the past - I can only take so much of watching preschool children fight over who gets to play with the Transformer.

A Game of Thrones

**Book-It has finally been updated with a new book!**

Finally picked up a book to get back in the reading groove.  Harry Potter was just so good that it has taken me some time to find a suitable follow-up.  I really needed a series to keep me going (see gap in HP to now as Exhibit A).  After many options were explored I picked up the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.  For those unaware HBO has picked this series up for a show beginning in 2011, probably after Boardwalk Empire and their teasers for this spurred my initial interest, it literally gave me chills.  So after some light Google searching  I asked my brother if George R. R. Martin (author) rang any bells with him, and low and behold he had and gave it two enthusiastic thumbs up citing it as an all-time favorite.  The chills and his ringing endorsement led me to go ahead and just dive into it, despite it's hefty appearance at 800 pages (and that's book 1 of what is 4 so far...).  200 pages deep and I will say that I could not be more impressed, great writing, great story, fantastic all the way around - and I mean look at the guy, how can this guy not tell a good story?  The story is fantasy but not too extreme.  One thing I especially appreciate is how well us utilized names.  Now, doesn't sound like a big deal, but I think I would be a huge fantasy fan if it wasn't for keeping the names straight.  George does an awesome job of making names about 50/50 there are some made up names but also some normal names like Jon, Ned, etc.  Which makes tracking storylines a lot easier.  The storylines... don't want to give anything away but I'll just leave it at wow... I expected things to move slow in book 1 given it's 800 page length and the length of the series in general, but the storylines' hit the ground running very fast, which was fantastic.

If you're in the market and ready to invest some time, I'd highly recommend this as well - I'll update again at the end of the book, but 200 pgs in I doubt my opinion will change.

P.S.  I'm predicting now that this will be one of the best series HBO has ever produced.

I Need a Hero

Stumbled upon a fantastic new website: Hero Complex, site is part of the LA Times, and while generally I avoid all things California, this site is aweseome.  Great news on Movies, TV, and Video Games so far the posts have been brief and focus on what the fans want to know with little of the gossip (although there is some).  I'd absolutely add it to your daily website check. 

PS  Given the time this site is FULL of Harry Potter features