Long time, no write . . .

Wow, it's been May since I last updated this thing. I guess the bloom has kind of fallen off the rose for me on the whole blogging thing. Still, I feel like I should be doing something with this thing. I'm just not sure what.

I've got a couple of ideas, so hopefully I'll get something more interesting up in the next few days. This entry is really mostly about saying, "Watch this space."

Random Video: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

So, I'm really looking forward to the arrival of this movie next year, but it wasn't anything about the movie that caught my attention when I watched this video diary. I was shocked to see how young Edgar Wright looks. I was expecting this grizzled filmmaker. Maybe balding, maybe a little bit of a paunch on him. Turns out the guy, who according to IMDB is older than me, looks like he's still sixteen or seventeen. Weird.

500 Days of Summer

I happened across this trailer for "(500) Days of Summer". I love that it's made up of still images spliced together to show movement (Okay, I suppose that's what all movies ultimately are, but you know what I mean). I also love the song in the trailer. Apparently it's titled "Sweet Disposition" and it's by a band named Temper Tramp. Hadn't heard of them before I saw the movie, but I'll be keeping an ear out for them now.

I did get a chance to see this movie last month at the Atlanta Film Festival and I loved it. It is easily my favorite movie of the year so far (sorry Star Trek, it was very close, though). I'll drop in the regular trailer, too, just in case you want to get more of an idea of what the film is about.

Frame & Sequence

I've recently begun converting my old slides, taken for a college class called Frame & Sequence, into digital files. These were taken in the fall/winter of 1995 in New York City. I really liked the photo I've got posted above. The others are of varying quality (a few blurry ones to be sure). I've put the first of many sets up on my Flickr account. Feel free to take a look.

Haiku Book Review - Rocket Man by William Elliott Hazelgrove

A well written book,
Tale of suburban ennui.
I quite liked this book.

Haiku of the Week: Time

Daylight Savings Time.
A twice annual hassle;
Time to spring forward.

I Watched the Watchmen

I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this film since seeing the trailer last summer. Well, it has arrived, and while I think the movie has its flaws, overall I enjoyed it very much.

My primary complaint is one that I've been anticipating since seeing that first trailer. What's with all the slow-motion? The use of slow-motion in various places throughout the movie was a stylistic choice that I found a little annoying. To be fair, it didn't bother me quite as much as I would have expected, but still, I could have done without it. I also felt that the pacing of the movie got a little bogged-down in the middle section. This is where I think the reviewers who have complained that the movie was too faithful to the book may have a point, because there are places where the pacing feels more like that of a 12-issue comic series than of a 2-hour (or whatever) movie.

Those complaints aside, however, I'm very pleased with how the movie turned out. The cast was spot on and the art direction and costumes were great. I have to give credit to director Zack Snyder (and whoever else may be responsible) for the biggest deviation from the original story. Without getting into spoiler territory, I think the change in the ending works quite well, and I think I may even prefer it to the original (maybe, I'm still working it over in my mind).

The movie certainly matches the source material for denseness (in a good way), so much so that it will probably only be after additional viewings that I'll be able to solidify my thoughts on it. As I said, I definitely enjoyed it, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read the book. If you have read and enjoyed it, then the movie is probably worth a look.