Here's one to horrify my mother. I've always liked Dana Delaney (probably because "China Beach" was my mother's favorite show for awhile). I read an interview on Sunday about her tendency to date much younger men. That means if I'd played my cards right, my mother could be thrilled to actually meet one of her favorite actresses while simultaneously horrified that I was dating someone my mother's age.

That'd be a fun Christmas.

Labels: amusement, entertainment

Multiverses, not just for fun and fiction anymore.

(Actually, this isn't really "news." The multiverse theories have been around for awhile. The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics has been around since at least the sixties, and I first read about it in the late nineties when I read some of the works of David Deutsch. I was just amused to see it make Yahoo's news page.)

Labels: entertainment, quantum mechanics, science

Courtesy of Lisa, followed a scant four hours later by Jamie:

Labels: entertainment, fun, holiday

Yay!

Labels: entertainment

Lane and I settled comfortably into cushioned seats, with overpriced snacks in hand, to watch "The Golden Compass" yesterday. And were horribly disappointed. As fans of the intricately and brilliantly crafted world portrayed in the books, we were dismayed at watered down and missing themes, clumsily rewritten characters and plot hooks, arbitrarily rewritten chronology, a complete lack of character development for even the big name actors (with the exception of Nicole Kidman), and, most egregious, the complete excision of the ending (despite foreshadowing of the final plot twist; Lane and I both said "Wait, that's it?" when the movie just ended during the journey to what is the climactic finale in the book). The armored bears were impressive (and Ian McKellen makes an excellent bear's voice), and much of the CGI and visible world were excellent, but it hardly makes up for such a poorly edited adaptation.

The ending of the movie, mangling, as it does, the ending of the book, is a clumsy hook into the second book, but the studio has already indicated that whether future movies are made will depend on box office numbers for this movie, so it's entirely possible the movie never will be "finished." To be honest, I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

For those curious about the real world controversy, the religious themes of the book were watered down so far as to be unrecognizable. Only the briefest of mentions of Dust being related to original sin and an across-the-board shift of the theme of questioning religious authority to questioning authority.

Labels: entertainment, religion and atheism

I caught a matinee of Resident Evil: Extinction today. It's certainly no Oscar-winning production, but for what it is (mindless entertainment featuring apocalyptic zombie wastelands based on a video game), it isn't bad.

I did find it amusing, however, that, despite the horde of zombie movies over the years, and the fact that these particular characters have been fighting off zombies for more than 5 years, no character in a zombie movie ever seems to wear the proper clothing. Every heartfelt, sad moment where a character reveals to a close companion that he or she was bitten in the previous skirmish and will now change into a zombie, forcing said companion to cry out in anguish and reluctantly agree to kill the character "when the time comes," could be avoided if the damn people weren't traipsing about the end times in shorts and t-shirts. My god, people, how hard is it to put on a motorcycle jacket before you enter a "supposedly abandoned" building? For extra safety, add some Motocross armor, reinforced biker pants, a helmet and Kevlar gloves and boots (as Gregg will attest, these are all readily available at any now-deserted-due-to-zombie-attack motorcycle store). Then those sad scenes could instead be "Oh, that's a nasty bite-shaped bruise you have there, but luckily it didn't break the skin! Now we can ride off into the sunset and have lots of babies!" But, no, we're going to whine and complain as we're picked off one by one because we've decided the standard uniform should be khaki cut-offs and tanktops.

On an only vaguely related note, the film was prefaced with a trailer for a horror flick called 30 Days of Night, whose hook is a brood of vampires terrorizing an Alaskan village after the sun dips below the horizon for an entire month. Perhaps it's addressed in this specific film, but as a general rule, both vampires and zombies (making it applicable to the previous movie commentary) are walking corpses, which means they're non-heat-generating walking corpses, so they should, theoretically, assume the ambient air temperature given enough time; in the case of arctic, snow-covered, below-freezing locales, this should mean frozen-solid undead in a matter of days. Granted perpetually cold locations aren't ideal for human survival, either, but hey, the Eskimos and Norse seem to have gotten by just fine for thousands of years; I'll take that over being eaten by walking corpses . . .

Labels: amusement, entertainment

Lane and I saw Transformers today, which, I'm happy to say for the sake of my childhood memories, was good (although John Turturro's character was annoying as hell, and it amuses me that this is the current primary picture for the movie on IMDB). I have a box of Transformers somewhere in my basement, kept carefully from the 80s, so I have some passing familiarity with the concept, if not quite the same vested interest as die hard fans; thus, I got most of the inside jokes inserted in the movie that the majority of the audience missed, and I was also happy to hear (not see, mind you) that they hired the guy who did the voice of the leader of the good Transformers in the 80s cartoon to do the voice of the same character in this movie (it's a *very* distinctive voice, and for fans it feels familiar). The ending, of course, set up a sequel, and I imagine it did well enough to warrant one. Lane enjoyed it as well, although she rolled her eyes nearly hard enough to fall over when I pointed out the poster for the fetid stain upon entertainment that is the upcoming Bratz movie.

The twins are developing language at a rapid rate. Kyle in particular is now regularly stringing words together into short-but-complete sentences. "I'm so tall!" when riding on my shoulders, "I'll be okay!" after a choking on a mouthful of pool water, "I say more!" when she wants me to swing her around in the air again, "Where did Alec go?" and, my personal favorite, "Come on, Jay. Let's go swing!" Alec is almost constantly pointing at things and saying "What's that?" and then mimicking the response.

The twins have also shown a notable divergence in their manipulation tactics. Kyle has chosen the "brute force" route, employing crying, screaming and insistence to achieve her goals. Alec, on the other hand, in displays of almost eerie effectiveness for a two-year-old, has already adopted pouting and puppy-dog-eyes (and she's damn good at it). We're talking sighing, burying her head in your shoulder and just sitting there looking sad for *10 minutes* without even the hint of a smile. Of course she snaps right out of it when she gets what she wants, or a suitable alternative, but I fear Scott and Lisa are going to have their hands full.

The only other note of the weekend concerns an interesting discovery at my homestead. I suppose I was bound to be subject to the random act of theft eventually (I've lived here 8 years, after all, and it's pretty much impossible to completely burglar-proof everything). I realize I'm supposed to feel victimized and outraged by the personal intrusion. I find myself oddly amused and confounded instead, though, as the stolen property in question wasn't my new $100 fire pit or $50 patio chairs or $25 copper torches. No, it was a set of cheap, black plastic solar-powered sidewalk lights I bought for $20 two years ago from Wal-Mart (lights that have seen far better days). Which were right next to the copper torches (two of the lights were within two feet of the torches). And it wasn't all eight lights, but rather 5-1/2 (they left the base of one and two other complete ones). It seems like the oddest thing to steal, unless you're specifically out looking for a set of sidewalk lights (and even then, there are *much* nicer lights along my block). I suppose if you're going to be robbed, that's the best way to do it . . .

Labels: entertainment, house, twins

I have to say that this is disappointing. Maybe New Line will wake up before it's too late.

On an unrelated note, does anyone want to buy me a new furnace? I'll bake you cookies . . .

Labels: entertainment, house