Spider-Man 2

I saw Spider-Man 2 last night at midnight. I just couldn't resist. I may write a full review later, but for now, here are some bullet points:

• I loved the opening scene in which Spidey has 8 minutes to deliver a stack of pizzas across town. When he swings in to lift those two kids out of the way of the truck, all I could think was how lucky they were to have been rescued by Spider-Man.

• Bruce Campbell's cameo is very funny.

• From the first moment he's on screen, it's clear that Molina has Octavious down pat. He looks the part and his delivery is perfect, both before and after the accident.

• If you're a fan of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series, you'll be out of your seat during the scene where Doc. Ock wakes up after his accident. Thinking back, I don't know why there would be a chain-saw in an operating room, but I sure wasn't questioning it at the time.

• Everything was more believable this time 'round. I'm not sure if it was the lack of Power Ranger-esqe costumes, or a better performance by McGuire, but I found it much easier to believe that this was Spider-Man.

• I was a little sad that the web-slinging scenes, where Spidey just whips through the city, weren't as... joyful as they were in the original. I don't consider it a negative point for the movie, since it makes sense; when Spider-Man takes to the skies, it's all business. It was evident, and it gave more weight of the decisions Peter had to make.

• Raimi must have in his mind that Aunt May knows that Peter is Spider-Man. That's the only way her monologue fits into the story.

• I should comment on the fight sequences, but there's just not much I can say. Simply, awesome.

• My only fault with the movie is that, as in the original, sometimes the dialoge gets a little too "Dawson's Creek." Perfect example (Spoiler): The final scene between Mary Jane and Peter, when MJ is standing in the doorway, and going on and on about how she loves him and will risk her own safety to be with him. WE GET IT! You don't need to spell it out. If it were my movie, I would have had MJ give a little explanation, only 6 seconds or so of dialoge, and then one line: "Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot." I was dying to here her say that, and I was a little disapointed that she didn't. Still, I'm happy to settle for "Go get 'em, Tiger."

I'm SO seeing this movie again on Thursday.

April 22, 2005

If you know me, and I haven't proselytized to you about Firefly yet, then it's really only a matter of time. I absolutely love this show. More than Buffy, even (and if you know me, that says a lot). I didn't catch the show when it was on the air, although I always meant to. Unfortunatly, Fox killed the series in their typical fasion before I had a chance to tune in. I don't remember what inspired me to add the first disc of the series on DVD to my Netflix queue, but I did, and watched the entire four hours in one sitting. The next day, I ordered the rest of the series from Amazon and by the end of the week had watched the show's entire run.

When I asked my buddy Dan if he had seen the show, he remarked "Holy bad writing." Now, most of the times Dan and I disagree on something, it turns out that he's right -- partly due to the fact that he seems to know something about absolutely EVERYTHING -- but this time I have the satisfaction of knowing that Dan is completely and unequivicably wrong. The writing is brilliant, and you'd be hard pressed to find anybody who's given the show a fair shake and disagrees. The characters and the world that Joss Whedon has created draws you in so deeply, that you not only will fall in love with it, but you'll want to be a part of it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. What's the show about? The simplest way to describe it is as a western in space; horses and spaceships: that's gist, but it really doesn't do the series justice; unfortunatly, no description I can write, really can. Someone described it as a live action Cowboy Bebop, but although that's certainly high praise, it doesn't really give one a good idea of what the show is about. The best description I can find at the moment comes from the guys at FireFlyFans.net:

Inspired by the Battle of Gettysburg and the Reconstruction Era of the American Civil War, Joss Whedon’s Firefly is the story of Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds and his ragtag crew on the rogue Firefly class starship, Serenity, and their struggle to stay alive in the wake of a galactic civil war 500 years in the future.

"Thrust together by necessity, these disparate men and women are cowboys of the future. They're seeking adventure and the good life, but facing constant challenges on the new frontier, which test and reveal their true identities. FIREFLY is about their unpredictable lives and relationships, as well as their search for meaning in a very uncertain time."

After watching the final episode of the series, I felt empty. There were so many great storylines set up in the first 14 episodes, yet which were never realized. We never did find out the secret of Book's past, or exactly what the Hands of Blue guys were up to. Most of all, I couldn't stand the thought of not being able to continue to join in the adventures of these fantastic characters. Fortunatly, there were still the hopes of a big screen adventure, but who knew how long before we would get to enjoy that.

Well, apparently, the answer was "about nine months." The premire of Serenity, the Firefly movie, has been set for April 22, 2005, and I am fucking thrilled! I'm probably going to spend all my free time until April just re-watching the series in order. Then I'm going to start making a costume to wear to the premire. I'm balls-out crazy about Firefly!

You can read updates from the set of Serenity here:
Serenity: The Official Movie Website

Craigslist

I was browsing craigslist this morning, just for the heck of it, and I found this entry:

Ok I'm a guy

I have 2 Swedish girls from Sweden, they ariive here 3 weeks ago from Sweden.
They are staying over my house so far but I cannot have them with me because I have a girl friend.

My girl friend arrive back from her vacation and she will come to see me very soon and if she see these 2 girls in my house she will kill me.

Is there any guy in here that have extra room for these 2 girls,

These gilrs are blond and sexy, I mean real sexy and cute ages 22 and 23,
the 22 yeard old is 5 feet 9 and weights 140 pounds, she is curvey and she has nice looking breast like anna Nicole smith.

the Other one is 6 feet 2 inches tall and she is slim with killer legs.

Please note , I never had sex with them, I let them stay here because My friend Unvited them to viet NY and on the dau they ariive he told me to keep them in my house for a few days, a few weeks pass and he told me that he cannot have them over his house because his girlfriend is living with him.

Why should I do. These girls Bought their tickets until August.

Read the rest here. It's pretty funny.

I also found this entry by a female MBA who's having problems finding a job:

I am looking for a special favor not for money nor for drugs. All that I ask from you is the contact info. of your corporate recruiter or HR manger. Contact info. must include name, phone number, mailing address and e-mail address. I will not ask your name or need any of your personal info. Consumer products industry, package goods, retail, and advertising company, marketing agency, pharm/biotech or anything international is good for me.

And in return I am ready to offer you the time of your life. After you email me the information, we will arrange a time for us to meet either at my private Soho apartment or I can come to you. You can have me and do me as you please, as long as you please, as many times as you please.

Yikes. I mean, I'm having trouble finding a good job, too, but I guess I didn't realize the lengths that some people are willing to go to find one. It also illustrates a theory I've got about the corporate world. I think that business is the best modern illustration of the animal nature of humans. Relationships within companies seem to follow a model of pack mentality. Imagine the boss as Alpha Male and the sycophantic young executive as the Omega. When two packs meet to make a deal, it's about intimidating and outsmarting the other guy. Here we've got a woman willing to trade sex for something that she perceives as necessary to her survival. She's trying to join a pack, and using one of man's most basic desires to do so.

Let the hilarity begin.

Yesterday I got an email from cool-guy Garrett (who hooked me up w/ a G-Mail account). He had this to say about something of mine he had read:

HILARIOUS!  You need to start a blog

Garrett is right. I am hilarious. Fucking hilarious, even. Unfortunately, I have no outlet for my hilarity, and thus it sits unspent, in an empty Poland Spring jug at the back of my closet. If at first glance the jar appears to be filled not with my abundant sense of humor, but instead with about $25 in change, that's because I'm a goddamn lier and I'm actually not hilarious. Oh, and the jug only holds about $13. I lied about that too.

The truth is, I do consider myself funny, but not that funny. At the very least, I think I'm a creative guy with a job that allows absolutely no creative outlet. I've tried to start up fancy websites before with complicated backends that I really didn't understand and always abandoned I was unable to realize what I envisioned. With one post-script, Garrett has inspired me to try again, with a much simpler format. I'm going to let Blogger handle the backend so I have a chance to just express myself. I know that sounds egotistical, but it's what I need right now. Unlike previous incarnations of Silence Now, this time I'm not setting any definitions or rules of what this is supposed to be. It's a personal notebook that happens to be public, and that's it.