Strangers in Good Company - movie

Ok, I probably shouldn't post this, in the chance that one of my friends might see this and tease me about renting a "chick flick" - but I don't care. It was a good movie. (And to be fair, I would fully accept the teasing - time to man up ;)

So, this movie came up as a netflix recommendation. I have watched so many independent and foreign films that I never know what netflix will recommend to me. (I would imagine I'm a real pain to the netflix algorithms because my movie tastes are so varied).
If you're a guy, and reading this, you can stop now, and go watch a baseball game, or some other manly cliché. But, if you don't care what other people think, and would like to see a good movie - OR maybe gain points with your lady next time you have to rent a movie together ;)
Ok, moving on...
This was a strange movie, I will admit. It's called Strangers in Good Company (imdb). It's not a complicated movie to review actually as the storyline is straightforward. A bunch of elderly women (in their 70's and 80's) are on a bus trip out in the country, when the bus breaks down. The women find an abandoned house and decide to take refuge there until (hopefully) someone finds them. Ok, I should fess up... I missed the first 5 minutes of the movie! I put it on, and pushed play, thinking I had time to take my dinner dishes out to the kitchen, then I got sidetracked putting away some leftovers, and by the time I came back in, I missed the part about the bus breaking down! I never went back to rewind it, cause it didn't seem important to me at the time. Oh well.
So anyway, these women, using their wits and skills learned over a lifetime, try to survive on their own. In a way, it's a sad movie. There is a lot of talk of death and dying, and reminiscing. But at the same time, you tend to feel happy for them for living a full life and having these stories to tell. Imdb uses the word Melancholy, and I suppose that fits well. It's certainly not an action adventure movie at all, but it was entertaining. A sort of raw look at the human spirit, and the frailty of getting old. Now, here's the strange part... None of the women in this movie were professional actresses, and apparently there was no official script. So the dialog is free flowing and awkward at times, just like in real life.
The cinematography was very well done too. It was filmed in Canada, and some of the scenes were just so peaceful.
My biggest complaint... Some scenes were - shall we say - altered to keep the movie progressing. One example, two of the women try to set up a makeshift fishing net, using a pair of pantyhose. Later, they hold up a string of large fish caught in this "net" - I'm sorry, as someone who has fished before, there is NO WAY this contraption would ever catch a fish larger than a minnow. It was obvious they added this into the movie, and it really bothered me.
If you're looking for one of those movies that probably only 5 other people have ever seen, then go rent this one. It's a gem, in spite of some rough edges.

itunes - you got competition!

So, lets start from the beginning...
I admit, I've downloaded some songs from the internet back when Napster was new. I discovered Napster just when it was starting to cause all sorts of trouble. I knew it wouldn't last forever, so I grabbed some songs that i felt "justified" in doing so. For example, I had/have a large cassette tape collection. So rather than try and convert all my tapes into an mp3 format, it was easier for me to grab the songs off napster. So in that sense, I paid for them already. I will admit, I grabbed some songs with no justification, other than I believed the record industry had made a TON of money off of my purchases since I was a young teen. I started out with 45's as a young kid, along with some albums. When A young teen, I got back into 45's and albums (my favorite music store was "Peaches"! - now you might be able to tell how old I am now?)
Anyway, When it became clear to me that napster was headed for legal troubles, I stopped downloading. I soon switched to limewire, but I only limited my downloads to songs I could not find anywhere else. In other words, If I could buy them legally, I would, but since I could not find the cd, and any local stores, I would go to limewire.
(we're only talking a few songs here, it's not like I was downloading a huge library).
Then along came itunes.
I started to feel guilty in not buying songs, and I felt, that the new itunes store that offered songs at ¢99 each was a fair price to pay. So since then I've bought all my music via itunes (again, if itunes didn't have what I was looking for, I would see if limewire did - but itunes has a vast library, so that's rare.)
So just last week...
I forget even where I saw it (on the internet somewhere I'm sure), I heard something to the effect of "Amazon.com has gained a foothold in the mp3 selling business and is now #2 in sales".
One of the big selling points of amazon... NO DRM!!! (DRM = Digital Rights Management = I can play an mp3 that I bought on my computer, my ipod, put it into a homemade itunes movie, bring it into garageband, etc, with no limitations. Wikipedia) IF I used an alternative mp3 player, I could play them there too.
Well, tonight, I decided to check it out.
I might be a new convert now.
A lot of their songs are priced at ¢89 (compared to apple's ¢99). AND, on a whim (after hearing my sister's itunes/soundtrack post, and seeing Pink Floyd, I decided it was time for me to embrace Pink again. (That's a whole other story for another time as to why I put a self-imposed ban on myself from ever listening to Pink again.)
So, I stopped over to the amazon store. Guess what... For "The Wall" (which is a double disk album with 26 songs) they were only charging $8.99!! At first, I thought this was a typo, or maybe that was for one of the disks and not both. But sure enough, $8.99 for all the songs. Wow! (I know, you say it louder ;) Itunes was charging the full price of about $26 for the same songs - AND Amazon has the benefit of being DRM free!
So a no brainer there.
It was a little confusing at first, I had to download a small "helper" program from Amazon, and the install/download process is slightly confusing, but I figured it out pretty easily.
So, I think from now on, I'll be checking Amazon first for any new songs I want, then itunes.
Kudos Amazon.
(ahem... apple, are you listening to your customers?)

PS> Music is amazing! I've not heard some of these Floyd songs in over 20 years, yet as I listen to them now as I type this, I can remember most of the lyrics like it was yesterday! Music and memory are a powerful combination.

PS2> I'm aware apple has toyed with some DRM free songs. But I still don't understand it. Something about having a choice, or paying extra or something? anyone understand it, please leave a comment.

Tech Tags: amazon.com itunes apple music mp3 drm

Lazy Mind?

So, I've been thinking lately about a few things, one of which, is how do I motivate myself to learn more? (which in itself is some weird logic loops, because by thinking about this and hopefully someday figuring out the answer, I will have learned something!)
But I've been mentally frustrated over the past month (maybe longer), about my inability to learn. Is it a physical limitation? (ie: I'm not that smart), is it an age limitation? reaching that point in life when you start to feel "comfortable" with having thought a lot and can accept what you know as your limit know (which is scary).
Is it a time limitation? There is SO MUCH that I want to learn yet! That I feel overwhelmed. There is no way that I'll have enough time to learn it all - therefore, how do I pick and choose where to best put my time?
Finally, (which I think is the root of my problem) I'm lazy. I'd much rather watch the season premier of Battlestar Galactica (which was awesome by the way), than to pick up a book, or jump on the web, and learn about what does a "volt" mean in relation to a 9 volt battery?
I enjoy being entertained! I don't enjoy the "process" of learning (somethings).
So, I think I've figured out now:why... my next process is... how do I "fix it"?
Well, that turned out to be a self reflective rant that I didn't intend when I started this post.
But, in this post, I hope lays a glimmer of an answer...
TED talks. I've blogged about this awesome event before - and how it's awesomex2 that they post some of the talks FREE on the web, so that joe schmoe's like myself can watch them.
I watched two this morning...
Possibly one of the smartest man alive - giving a talk about such things as "universe", aliens, and the future of the human race (Stephen Hawking!)
Then I just watched this talk, which was amazing!
I wish I had .003 percent of this guy's energy!
I'll embed Clifford Stoll's talk here, but I also enourage you to watch Stephen's talk too...

Tech Tags: ted ted+talks stephen+hawking clifford+stoll mind lazy learning

youtube - being corporatized

So, maybe it's been a slow process where I had not noticed before, but this morning it hit me like a ton of bricks...
Youtube is being (has been) corporatized!
So, it was only a few days ago, that I noticed youtubes new policy of putting advertisements into the videos. They "pop up" about a quarter to a third of the way into the video. I know... this is a capitalist society and all that, but it saddens me to see websites that started off as a "grass roots" project for users to share video content turn into just another large advertisement for big business.
Today's youtube page was nothing but Rolling Stone's videos, to promote (that's code speak for "advertise") their new upcoming film.
I stopped over at the youtube advertising page, and sure enough, they have a whole section dedicated to putting more ad's on their sites, and embedding them into the videos.
It's just a matter of time, until the people get tired of being advertised to, and they'll move to a new technology for sharing videos.
I'm also curious... I don't know yet if youtube is forcing their ads into the videos of the users without them having a say or not. I've not uploaded anything recently so I don't know if there is an option for this or not.
If youtube forces an ad onto my video, and then doesn't pay me for it - I won't be using youtube anymore.
Remember youtube/google - Don't be evil.

Baseball been bery bery good

I had more I wanted to say here, but I ended up sitting in my chair tonight watching TV, and playing with my new toy (kp3), and now I lost my train of thought as to what I wanted to say. So rather than wait until tomorrow where I might lose even more, I'm just going to throw this out there...
Last night I went to a Phillies game! My friend got some last minute tickets through his office, and asked if I wanted to go. I told him "to be honest, I'm not a big baseball fan, so if you know someone who does like baseball more than me, I think he should ask them" - luckily, he didn't so I agreed to go :)
We got there just a little late (still first inning), because of a traffic jam going over the Walt Whitman Bridge. A car had broke down on the bridge - ugh.
We made our way through the stadium (which was very nice and clean) down to our seats. The seats were amazing! We were about 7 rows back from home plate. If you drew a line from the Right fielder, through the batter, that would be where we sat. The tickets go for $75 a piece! Yikes! I was thinking of my family out on the west coast, because they're all big baseball fans, and I so wanted them to be there but 3000 miles can put a kabosh on that. I know they would have loved it though.
I can't comment too much on the game itself, and I don't know much about the game. I will say, that twice, we saw two amazing plays! The batter hit the ball, and it was headed right between the center fielder and the Right field. The right fielder started running to try to make the catch (I thought, no way, it's going to be a base hit for sure), but much to my surprise, the ball had such a spin on it, that it literally curved right to the right fielder where he made the catch! I have never seen a ball curve that much after being hit. It makes me wonder about the physics involved in that. I can understand how a golf club can embue a golfball with spin, but a bat? And a spin that goes in parallel with the direction of the bat? That's crazy! (I know, it probably happens all the time, but it's the first time I've seen it and from the perfect angle.)
I was also blown away by how clear the big screen was! You know the one that's basically a large screen TV just above (or below) the scoreboard. The picture was incredibly sharp, and brilliant colors. very cool.
Lastly, the prices! OMG! One beer (bud) was $7.00! (I fell for the extra ¢25 for the phillies aluminum "bottle", only to throw it out at the end of the game, because we realized it would be considered an "open container" if we were to get pulled over by the police!) A Hotdog, was $5-6... and they had these little 6" stuffed toys (Philly Phanatic) that sold for $14!!!
I mean, I had this vision in my head of baseball being a sort of blue-collar "Every-mans" game, but you'd have to be rich to afford these prices! The thing is... people all around me were buying this stuff up! So, I gotta give the stadium credit cause they know they can get away with charging these prices cause people will buy them.
Overall, I enjoyed myself, and had a fun time. The weather was a bit cool (they said it was in the high 30's!) but I just had my jacket on and was comfortable. No complaints.
It was easy to get caught up in the buzz of the game too, there was a genuine enthusiasm that seemed to be amongst the entire crowd. It was opening night after all.
Who knows... I might become a baseball fan someday :)
(though to be honest, the Phanatic's antics were the highlight of the show for me ;)

Tech Tags: Phillies baseball stadium concessions prices hotdog beer phanatic

Amazon.com Coupon

Ok, I may be about a half hour too late in posting this, but it should still work...
Here's a coupon I found online for $25 off on any item on Amazon.com
Enjoy :)

My Own Personal soundtrack

Ok, this was fun and interesting. I got (stole) this idea from my Sister's blog today.
Copied and pasted here:
This meme went around ages ago, but I didn't have an ipod to participate. I grabbed the format from Stories from the Red Tent. If your life were a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

So, here's how it works:
1. Open your itunes library
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie
7. I added one more feature, though. I listened to each of the songs (except the first one) that came up then included a line or two from the lyrics which seemed especially fitting.

So then, the soundtrack of my life:


Opening Credits:
Title: The Hornburg
Artist: Howard Shore
Album: Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
Lyric: Instrumental

Waking Up:
Title: Miracle
Artist: Erasure
Album: I Say I say I say
lyric: The Miracle of Love...

First Day of School:
Title: Little Things (HA!!)
Artist: Good Charlotte
Album: Good Charlotte
Lyric: How fitting! HA! This song starts with a dedication... "This song is dedicated [this is good charlotte] to every kid who ever got picked last in Gym Class, to every kid who had no date for a school dance, [this is for you], To everyone who's ever been called a freak, [this is for you]"


Falling in Love:
Title: Down
Artist: David Gahan
Album: Hourlgass
Lyric: Opening line... "I need some company"
Chorus: "Down on the Ground, there's no one around"
Ok, this little blog meme is starting to freak me out now.

Breaking Up
Title: Joan
Artist: Erasure
Album: Chorus
Lyric: It's just not within the scheme of things, to give up your life so easily,

Prom:
Title: Aprés Moi
Artist: Regina Spektor
Album: Begin to Hope
Lyric: I must go on standing.
(ok, this one doesn't really fit)

Life:
Title: Break Stuff
Artist: Limp Bizkit
Album: Significant Other
Lyric: It's just one of those days when you don't want to wake up, everything is F*d, everybody sucks
Oh so fitting! (well, on my bad days anyway).
Ok, I cheated on this one. The first one that popped up in my shuffle was "dreidle" from the SouthPark Cartoon. But since it's not really a true song, I'm not counting it. But it's interesting to see how the remaining songs fall...

Mental Breakdown:
Title: Cold
Artist: Tears for Fears
Album: Elemental
Lyric: Cold... bring to me my big ol' sweater, nothing more will make me better.

Driving:
Title: Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C Major K 299
Artist: Pierre Narrato
Album: Classics for relaxation
Lyric: instrumental
I can visualize the scene of driving along in my jeep with the top down on a sunny day in the country ;)

Flashback:
Title: Eye in the Sky
Artist: Jonatha Brooke
Album: Back in the Circus
Lyric: I am the eye in the sky, looking at you, I can read your mind...

Getting Back Together:
Title: Contre Le Temps/Back Door Man
Artist: Hesperus
Album: Unicorn
Lyric: Every married woman, I believe she's got some back door man. (blues song).

Wedding:
Title: Mess of Doubt
Artist: The Giraffes
Album: The days are filled with years
Lyric: Right now, nothing glued down, my life is just a mess of doubt
(note: I'm not married, so not sure if this one applies)

Birth of Child:
Title: Why should the Fire Die?
Artist: Nickle Creek
Album: Why should the Fire Die?
Lyric: I'm not scared of being alone...

Final Battle
Title: Nothing
Artist: Depeche Mode
Album: 101
Lyric: Sitting, waiting, anticipating, nothing.... Life is full of surprises, it advertises nothing. What am I trying to do, what am I trying to say, I'm not trying to tell you anything you didn't know when you woke up today.
(with all my dm songs it's about time one of them popped up)

Death Scene:
Title: New Favorite
Artist: Alison Krauss & Union Station
Album: New Favorite
Lyric: I saw the light go out...
I skipped another one that doesn't match up... a techno song called Home Zone by Digitalism.

Funeral Song:
Title: Come Play
Artist: Tweaker
Album: The attraction to all things uncertain
Lyric: Techno Instrumental - again doesn't fit in here.

End Credits:
Title: A Question of Lust
Artist: Depeche Mode
Album: 101
Lyric: A Question of Lust, a question of trust, a question of not letting what we've built up crumble to dust, it is all of these things and more, that keep us together.

Ok, this experiment was fun at the beginning, but the last several didn't seem to fit in. Oh well, it was interesting - thanks Sis!

Funny to note, that my song library has 2090 songs in it. I'm amazed at the repeated bands of DM, and Erasure. I have such an eclectic library too, which this list does not reflect. Perhaps, it's not as eclectic as I thought it was? Interesting too, how you can listen to the lyrics intent on finding a thread of meaning in relation to these topics. Some were a stretch I'm sure.
I almost want to go back through my library, and then intentionally pick some of these songs and see what kind of story that would tell. Maybe another day...