Patrick

unscripted

Now that prices have become reasonable, I’ve made the leap to HDTV and Blu-ray. I’m quite impressed with the quality; even Jeopardy! looks impressive in high definition. Other recently viewed items include:

The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s most recent film, and my personal favorite so far. While π was wonderfully paranoid and Requiem for a Dream was wonderfully depressing, The Fountain is a beautiful meditation on love lost. Hugh Jackman continues to impress, Ellen Burstyn is good as always and Rachel Weisz plays her usual self. The visual effects, apparently free from computer graphics and relatively inexpensive, enhance the artfulness of the film. Highly recommended.

Re-watching Casino Royale on Blu-ray was enjoyable; Daniel Craig is probably my favorite recent Bond, and Martin Campbell does a decent job avoiding cheese (despite the other crap he’s directed).

Although not on Blu-ray, I thoroughly enjoyed Nanny McPhee for the ever-delightful Emma Thompson. Colin Firth stars as a bumbling widower and Angela Lansbury as the crazy aunt. Also interesting is Imelda Staunton pre-Dolores Umbridge.

Most impressive is BBC’s Planet Earth. I have never seen such breathtaking nature cinematography. The shot (presumably filmed at 960 fps to slow it by a factor of 40) of a great white shark leaping out of the water to attack a seal is particularly sensational. If there ever were a use for high definition, this series is it.

On another note, Tim and I saw Against All Authority (sucked), Streetlight Manifesto (fun, frenetic, and musically literate) and Less than Jake (juvenile humor from thirty-year-olds) at the Norva (skeevy clientele, occasionally good music, maybe?). I need to start going to better concerts. Not that last night wasn’t fun, but what I wouldn’t give to see Radiohead or Arcade Fire…

I sprang for the British Adult version of Harry Potter 7, so until it arrives (after a transoceanic journey) please avoid discussing plot details.

I couldn’t get through, though. Sorry about the poor picture quality; this was with my camera phone.

Looks like I managed to sneak out of the country again without writing anything of substance (or style even). At least I’ll recap the highlights of ephemeral June.

Most of the month I worked, went to the beach and moved in to my new apartment, the address of which is on my Facebook profile.

Last week Kevin and I dined at Zushi. The food was good, and the decor was decent, but the ambiance was laughable. A widescreen TV over the bar featured the Food Network; speakers crooned smooth jazz. When Kevin asked the waitress if they had any “downbeat electronic” they could play instead, the best they could do was reggae. So, a good place to eat if you can ignore muzak.

After RMEFFoWN I made the requisite trek with Shock and others to McGuirk’s abode, where the highlight of the evening was Everybody Votes. Participatory democracy is fun again!

Chris, Katie & I consorted at Starbucks on Thursday. Then I helped them install WordPress, my favourite weblog platform.

Saturday saw my return to Busch Gardens, where some of my former college roommates and I sampled their new ‘coaster: GRIFFON! (And despite my comment at the time to the contrary, that is a recognized variant spelling … subtract one point from Gryffindor for etymology.) It’s, um, smooth? The initial drop is a thrill, and the remainder feels like a short Apollo’s Chariot. Still a good ride.

And now I am trying to pack, do laundry, clean my apartment, select 1 GB of music for the trip and eat a salad while hoping that (a) I will be able to order the iPhone online whilst in London and (b) someone will want to see a late showing of OotP on the 11th.

It seems for now the adult edition of Harry Potter 7 is only available from Amazon at their UK store.

I’m going to take a risk and say that Goblet of Fire is not as good as Prisoner of Azkaban. Gripes:

• The film lacked cohesion. Many scenes felt rushed, several characters and incidents were underexposed.
• Overacted responses by the cast akin to those in Sorcerer’s Stone (as I recall the first film consisted mostly of young children oohing and aahing).
• Dumbledore’s characterization is inconsistent even with previous films, let alone the novels. He seems a bit too manic.
• The score suffered from not having John Williams. This is a bad sign.
• Lack of credible levity to balance the melodrama. The comic relief seemed forced.
• Despite the improvement in computer-generated effects, the overall visual style was rather bland.

So yeah, I was a little disappointed. The difference a good director (Alfonso Cuarón vs. Mike Newell) makes is remarkable. Edit: Saw it again on the IMAX theatre on the peninsula. It’s growing on me.

I’m pretty sure I answered every vocab question on the mensa test correctly, even propinquity. Radiohead is going to be in the new Harry Potter flick.