iMurphy

We went on a date last night and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the IMAX in Seattle. It was awesome! It made me want to go and punch Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi right in the nose! Wake up people, we are in a war bigger than the Cold War and you and Jonathan Edwards are running around saying the War on Terror doesn’t exist and 9/11 is a card Giuliani is over playing! When will you start taking people like Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden at their word (like Chamberlain should’ve taken Hitler at his), then I’ll no longer be tempted to call you Corn Fudge.  The final battle scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort was sweet.  One could really believe that these were experienced men of gargantuan, magical conflicts.  It was like the Matrix.   Oh, and I couldn’t help but think that Fred and George Weasley’s firework “W” was intended to express support for our president and his policies that have kept this country from getting attacked again!

    I have now scene all the epidodes of Firefly, the failed TV show by Joss Whedon. I used ‘failed’ without great hesitency because the show is practically perfect in every way: I can’t imagine why in the ‘verse they cancelled it! The DVD Boxed set of all 11 aired episodes, with un-aired episodes and special features is great. The movie comes out in a few weeks, and my wife and I are hoping to go as soon as possible after opening. My sister successfully converted us and we hope to bring others into the light. You should go rent it!

    Scowering the internet, I found a good wiki and fan site for the movie. I’ve also started saying lots of the gorram Chinese from the show, dong-ma? I hope, however, that if you haven’t seen any of it yet, that you will trust me and go see it before clicking on any of these links. It’s funny, compelling, sublime, base and thought-provoking. Go see ‘Serenity’ and promote good film-making.

Three hours down the drain! I can’t believe I wasted three hours playing HALO. My buddy was whoopin’ my tail at it and then I was left alone with the XBox. Three hours later I look up and freaked out! This is why I don’t have a gaming console and why I don’t need one for my birthday! I had an half hour from the moment I came out of my drug-like reverie to get to work and secure a dinner. I shoved my car through its courses (enjoying the visceral sensation of shifting the manual transmission), played thumping techno (Juno Reactor and Oakenfold) and speeding. Pita Pit did not come through in a timely fashion, but Cruisin’ Coffee did.

On a related note, the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) caught my eye a few weeks ago, not because I wanted to play games, but because they’re making Linux for it and it can be made Mac ready. So yesterday, I went looking for the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack on Amazon, and because I forgot to specify what manner of media I wanted, I saw that the movie has been released on DVD (UMD) for the PSP. How cool is that? I’m sure Steve Jobs is waiting until Apple can release a superior product in the portable video device market, but it can’t be far now!

I’m excited about Star Wars again!!! After I saw some of the myriad fan film on theforce dot net (several years ago) I let myself get excited about Star Wars again. When I was a kid, I remember having a Darth Vader toy that was dear to my heart. I can recall seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater, even though I must have been very young. I cannot imagine fantastical science-fiction without light sabers. If I ever make a movie, it’ll be a Star Wars fan film. That’s why the last three movies have hurt so much.

George Lucas listened to fans clamor for ‘more Star Wars’ and gave people what they wanted … just not what they wanted. (I would put the second “wanted” in italics, but I want to help you learn to read important Ancient texts that don’t have typographical options, in a way that keeps your mind open.) Just now, I found something amazing on the web. Darth Vader has a blog! I know it’s really by this other guy, but it has all the emotional depth the new movies never did. This same-age-as-me, Canadian author/artist has really hit the jackpot. People my age, in my type of situation, can still be swept away by Star Wars. And we could’ve been!

I was so sad and angry when I left the theater last week, not because of the dark character of the movie, but by the lameness of the acting and plot. How many people with good ideas deserve half as much money to bring them to life as George Lucas blew on that hollow piece of junk!?! Ugh. I’m gonna go read this guy’s blog ’til I’m blue in the face. Ta!

I just got done burning the DVD-R of “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. I was going to include a link to the script, but I discovered it is still copyright. I took our VHS recording (we bought at a garage sale), and brought it in on our Dazzle card to iMovie. I then used iDVD to make it into a DVD, since it’s under 90 minutes. It’s in black and white and differs a little from the play, but I really love it. The third act is all about living life to the fullest and speaks quite meaningfully about death. I have thought highly of this play since high school, when I had two friends die before I even graduated. I highly recommend this movie to any one and will give our copy to whoever buys us the real DVD!

Well, Robert caught me writing an email to a friend about this movie, and that, apparently, means that I must “blog” about it. This “blogging” is obviously very important to Robert since he is willing to give up the computer to let me do it.

Anyway, about the movie, I am one of those people who suffered from STDS (Star Trek Deprivation Syndrome) as a child, but I greatly enjoyed the movie “Star Trek: Nemesis.” It’s not the best movie in the galaxy; in fact, it’s definitely got it’s cheesy, Star Trek/Sci-fi moments, but it was quite enjoyable. It contained a healthy portion of what I like in Sci-fi movies - insight into human nature - as well as some good action. It was also a little darker than most Star Trek movies/episodes.

Some of the more recent Star Trek movies were directed by one of the cast, Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), but this one is directed by Stuart Baird, who directed “Executive Decision” and “U.S. Marshals.” Nemesis is as much a dark action movie as it is a sci-fi movie, so you don\’t have to be a Sci-fi nerd or even a regular nerd to like it. The director even admitted that he’s never really watched the show or the movies except as a quick review in order to make this movie! He wanted it to appeal to people who had not seen the show, and I think he accomplished that.