Vicksburg

Yes I know I disappeared...got busy while traveling...actually just tired! Anyway during my day off I traveled east to visit Vicksburg. Have been to quite a few Civil War battle sites. Vicksburg reminds me most of Gettysburg. It was amazing to me that after touring the site I made the reference that Vicksburg surrendered the day after the end of Gettysburg. Wow to think the war truly ended in 1863. Too bad Grant and Sherman had to truly take it to the South to finish them off. Overall the Vicksburg site is not much to see...lots of monuments...but for a seige not quite the grandeur of Gettysburg. The best part of the tour was the viewing of the USS Cairo. Don't hear too much about the Navy during the Civil War but the Navy was certainly involved with the Mississippi river. Fascinating study on a boat they lifted out of the water...great exhibit.

Ian Fleming's - Casino Royale

Well after seeing the movie a while back I figured I would read Ian Fleming's first go of the famous character. A while back I had read "Moonraker" and was rather disappointed. The book just wasn't that well written (well I wasn't expecting alot mind you). I picked this book up at the airport and thought I'd give it another try. This was actually a pretty decent story and a bit tighter of a read. Even the movie sort of followed it. Overall a good read and some classic quotes attached (boy different time back in the day!)

"And then there was this pest of a girl. He signed. Women were for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around. One had to look out for them and take care of them. 'Bitch,' said Bond..."

"Bond drove it hard and well and with an almost sensual pleasure" -About his Bentley

"He wanted her cold and arrogant body. He wanted to see tears and desire in her remote blue eyes and to take the ropes of her black hair in his hands and bend her long body back under his." - Quote about Vesper, he obviously changed his mind about women from the first quote!

Malcolm Gladwell's - The Tipping Point

When traveling what do you do? You read of course...just finished Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Ever seen a picture of Malcolm? He's got an huge curly mess of hair...wow not like anything you'd expect. Decided to give his book a shot after reading him in the New Yorker. Thought his article on homeless people in Denver was fascinating and of course the enron spy article that I read recently. As with any popular book this one has a bit of a hook. It is fascinating reading and has alot of "studies". I guess with anything you have to be a bit skeptical as every study he shows just happens to fit with his premise. I found this book to be very much like James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds (hmm another New Yorker contributer with a book very similar...I see an underlying trend). Both books take a premise...the tipping point is that something that makes something become all present and the wisdom of crowds pointing towards how crowds make better decisions than individuals. The tipping point is based on three underlying themes: The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. I found the book to be interesting as I do things that suddenly become "in". I mean where did the women's thong sticking out become a tipping point? I believe that I am a little bit of a maven as I do track things but I don't believe I am over the top like some people described in the book. I did find the aside on Kevin Bacon's six degrees of separation interesting though. A computer scientist, Brett Tjaden, discovered that Kevin is actually not the center of hollywood (he is 1049th) while Rod Steiger is actually number 1. Anyway good read not for sure all one would put this into practice but next time the "big thing" comes by I will wonder where did it start!

Marie Antoinette

Alright no comment! Hanging out in Monroe, Louisiana at the Holiday Inn and just had give som Sofia Coppola some love. After seeing Lost in Translation (it did make my top 10!) and so I had to give this a look see (hey it was on the company's dime!). Anyway it was a fascinating movie. Didn't know a whole lot of marie antoinette but I do now...interesting story and a well make movie! Visually stunning and the costumes were just outrageous. Hard to believe that in the late 18th century (time of the Constitution) we had monarchs running the world. No wonder they didn't last to long. Anyway too bad this movie got pillaged by the reviewers. It is a decent period piece. Kirsten Dunst does a great job...she stills Mary Jane to me.

Wired Magazine - What We Don't Know

Fascinating article in Wired this month. Things that make you go hmmm....

1)How does a fertilized egg become human?

2) Why do we sleep?

3) Where did life come from?

4) How do entangled particles communicate?

5) What is the purpose of noncoding DNA?

6) What happens to information in a black hole?

7) How does the brain calculate movement?

8) What causes gravity?

Just some deep thoughts!

Larry Niven's - Draco Tavern

A collection of short stories following the "misadventures" of bartender Rick Schumann. Decent set of stories...a few seemed to have been lifted from other anthologies. I found the world a bit confusing because Niven doesn't use his "known space" aliens so it is a bit odd to read a favorite author and feel like it isn't really him! I enjoyed lost, at time traveling story, and losing mars. Over all a good group of stories and though the repetiveness of the creature bios with each story leads you to believe that these stories were written over my years. Gets kind of annoying but do miss the big universe and big ideals that is usually Niven's specialty.

Birthday Crosswork

I love crosswords...the unlimited possibilities, the mystery, how everything works together to reach the final solution. I only wish I was better at them! Monday and Tuesday...easy, Wednesday, difficult, and the rest of the week forget about it. Hopefully practice makes perfect? Hah!!

This Week in Comics

It's over#$#? What kind finish is that. An 8-parter and all we get is..."Do you want to keep your powers?" Ughhh I so thought this was the story...a riveting tale of our beloved web slinger and all we get in the end is a puff of smoke...disappointing, I really thought Bendis would take us somewhere. Bendis is starting to piss me off. He grabs you with these big story lines and then they go nowhere. Can you say Avengers? It's like he has ADD, he can't keep a story tight and then it just unravels to nothing.






Good story but it is time for Vaughan to move on. Bring in some new blood. It is tough to read a story knowing a new writer is about to start over.











Snore! Wake me up when Morrison is back on

The New Yorker - Big Pictures by David Denby

Wow two interesting articles in the New Yorker last week. New Yorker is one of those magazines that actually write decent stuff almost every week but sometimes it is just a big effort to get through it in a week. The second article that I found interesting this past week was an article on movie business. As a big time lover of seeing films on the big screen I was fascinated by how the movie business operates. With the coming internet movie availability I believe that eventually the movie business will come to terms much like the music industry. Personally watching movies on an iPod is just not my thing...I get no pleasure watching a movie on such a small screen and downloading and moving such large files is just not convient. Some interesting facts:

The average cost of making a movie is $60 million and the average cost of marketing is $36 million.
Presently there are 38,000 screens in the US spread over 6,000 sites

The New Yorker - Open Secrets by Malcolm Gladwell

Interesting article in the New Yorker last week by Malcolm Gladwell concerning information. Titled "Open Secrets" it deals with Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information. Basically he discusses the ways and means Enron ran the company from a #7 company and media darling to bankruptcy and hatred and then compares this to military intelligence. His premise is that there are puzzles and mysteries with puzzles being withheld information and mysteries being inadequate information or trying to make sense of alot information. Not convinced that he thouroughly distinguishes the two all that well. Did think it was interesting in that most of what Enron was doing was legal in some respects although they took things to the extreme which obviously led to their downfall but the scary thing was that they were always forthright in their accounting submittals, unfortunately it would take a PhD in accounting to actually see what it was they were doing. As far as military intelligence it seems he is saying that oftentimes we have too much information and not enough connections being made to make this useful. During WWII there was an organization called K Street that basically studied German news to determine what the Germans were trying to do to keep the German people motivated. Overall interesting article lots of "info" but could use a tighter conclusion...I still not for sure if I get the difference between a puzzle and mystery but as he notes a mystery is often not understood by the individual so perhaps his article is a mystery to me...

This Week in Comics

Actually because of the snow over the last 3 weeks this is a bit late but hey what do you care!

As I wrote last time the whole concept of a girl wolverine is kind of cheap. But I decided to break with my mold and try something new. This is a well written and drawn book. I loved the page where the french teacher asks if she can speak french and she launches into this dialogue of how to gather information by abduction. Finally it was also hilarious how she stole the principal's car (of course what principal drives a jag?) Over all I think this is a winner.





Favorite line, "Oh, and the fact that cops with no powers are guarding a woman who could push this building over with her right boob" Ah Bendis dialogue....classic











Ah the best written book today. Kind of a filler issue and I guess the cyke without glasses is a permanent thing? Anyway kind of bittersweet to think we only have a couple more issues of Whedon....










Warren Ellis is a decent writer and this has a decent shot had becoming something. I originally thought that the New Universe had a shot but unfortunately although the ideals were good some of concepts were translated a bit campy. It wasn't until StarBrand became a bit darker that the series took on a bit more audience. With this rework it seems to be working...I wonder if PsiForce will be making an appearance?






JLA 5....can't say that I am hooked yet? Characters aren't doing it for me.. the history of some long forgotten plot line...I don't care. Maybe if you love the JLA this is good for you but not for me...

Andrew Smith's - Moon Dust

Well you might imagine my thirst for all things astronaut continues. During my last trip to Orlando and visit to the space center I decided to stretch out and find some new books. This book is a bit of revisionist space history. Books up to this point have always shed a gentle light on men (and women left behind!) that put American footprints on the moon. Of course has a young buck I always looked at the achievement has just man's desire to explore. Since I have aged and probably gotten a bit harder on some views, likewise authors have too, we have begun to look at the whole Apollo bit a bit differently. Mr Smith looks at the last 9 remaining moonwalkers and gives us a where are they now look. It is an interesting read because for 4 years these moon travelers were off to great adventure and then boom...nothing. They all just magically disappeared (with moon dust?) back to wherever they came from never really to be heard from again. Some I gave this book a read and it was decent...nothing really earth shattering and really nothing good. It is too bad they didn't send at least a poet. Of the nine stories none of them really gave you a good feeling what it was like and what they were thinking. It is too bad because as Mr Smith claims one day there will be no men left who have walked on another world...

Apple Newton 3.0

Separated at birth...the grandparent and grandchild. The more things change the more they stay the same!

College Mythical National Championship

Geez it ain't even half over and yet it's half over. 50 days off, 50 days to prepare...why too much time for college football athletes. We need a playoff system. Scrap the bowl system...does anyone really care anymore and does any one even make any money? Start over please...make more exciting...help please!

Classic Movies - Top 5

#5
Alien was a bit spooky for me. It really was a horror movie in my opinion but Aliens was just an all around kick ass of the movie. The Colonial Marines was just a fantastic element. The whole setup was great and the nonstop action is just fantastic.


Useless fact of the day - Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen are the only two actors toplay characters killed or injured by a Terminator, an Alienand a Predator. Paxton was killed in The Terminator, Aliensand Predator 2, while Henriksen was killed in TheTerminator, ripped in two in Aliens and killed in Alien vs.Predator.






#4

How can you miss with Speilburg and Lucas. If only movies were made like this all the time. This is just plain fun. Fantastic character, big story, and fantastic action scenes. To me the best action scene ever in a movie is the truck scene when Indiana is trying to rescue the truck back from the bad guys. Him going under the truck is still the best stunt of all time. To think this was done before computer animation trickery. The second film was a let down but the third one came back strong. If they would only get off their butts and do the fourth one!







#3
This movie was so poignant for me that a bunch of my friends tried to replicate the movie growing up. Skipping school that day was one of the best memories growing up. Throw in some classic lines and this is just a great all around movie.

Save Ferris!










#2
My pseudo serious film entry for the top 5. Scarlett really breaks out in this one and her co-star Bill Murray is just a great complement. The two lost characters in the topsy turvy world of Tokyo is a simple yet powerful film. My guess is that Bill whispers, I love you at the end....













#1

My all time favorite movie. Just a grity scifi spectacular Ford does a great job. Just a complete picture...love it!

Classic Movies - #10 - 6

Alrighty back to the posting! I gave my honorable mentions at the end of 2006 - now on to the biggies

#10
What*^^&%? A chick movie? Yeah, yeah I'm a sucker for a good love story. This movie, more than any one I have seen since, fits the bill. A beautiful movie, great story, and great acting. An adventurous pilot who loves Herodutus. Which by the way is a bitch of a read. A stunning beauty in Kristen Scott Thomas. fabulous film











#9
It's Michael J Fox! I have a thing for time travel as you will see. This movie, especially, is just a well rounded movie (forget the other two, although as an ensemble they do fit rather well). The set up for this is fantastic and how it just fits into place is magical. I enjoy movies that just seem to flow and meander and in the end all makes sense. I love how at the end just a simple punch changed it all. Go Marty...we're sending you back to the future!












#8
Well of all the Star Wars movie this one takes the cake. Watching this and then watching the first three is just painful. It is really too bad that Lucas forgot how to tell a story and got caught up in his special effects. Episode 5 just has it all. Good battle scenes, nice love triangle, Yoda, and best lightsaber battle of them all with a cliffhanger too boot! I remember seeing Star Wars in the theater with my dad but Empire was the one I actually stood in line to see that first weekend with a bunch of buddies. It really was an experience and I only ever felt it again when I saw all the rereleases in LA.








#7
I'll Be Back...the movie that launched the catch phrase. Once again another time traveling movie. I probably have to say I liked the sequel better than the original just because of the non-stop action but for purists you have to go with what started it all. (Ignore Empire above!). This time traveling trick can get tricky when you think about it so I don't; but this movie began the insane action films of the late 80s and 90s and of course jump started Arnold (which ultimately lead to his downfall in Last Action Hero...how appropriate). Sarah Conner is just a great character. The action scenes at the time were great and the ain't over until its over really became a mainstay.






#6
Yippe Cay Hey MF! If Terminator started the action film then Die Hard was it's apex. This one has it all, action, action, and more action. Movies, sequels, and whatever only tried to copy this format. A believable lovable action hero saving the day for the little guy. Bruce Willis is just the perfect action hero. Great film.

Happy New Year - 2007

WOW hard to believe it is the new year...my goal is to continue writing this blog daily and to better track some thoughts...kind of got away from me during the holidays but I am entering a new year with new vigor!