Out and About

This being my crunch year means I don't have a lot of time to update this thing that often. But I'm taking a bit of a break now and feel that this would be as good of a time as any.

On a recent trip to Canada, I picked up a book of poetry by David O'Meara. It's pretty good. He makes excellent use of form in most cases, though in a few of his poems he seems to be more a slave to the rules rather than bending the rules to fit his work.

If you haven't seen either Napoleon Dynamite or Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence you're missing out on some quality films. Napoleon is one of those little movies that, while light on plot, just has so many classic moments that it's hard not to love it. GITS 2 picks up where the last movie left off, so you really need to see the first one to get a good understanding of the plot. Either way, the story is okay, but visually it's absolutely stunning. A perfect blend of CGI and traditional animation.

Speaking of Anime, ADV films seems to be on an Anime licensing frenzy, which is good and bad. Good because it means that most of the titles they're picking up will ultimately make it into the United States, and bad because the turnaround for US releases is anywhere from six months to two years.

Due to the unbelievable generosity of Tom (you can check his journal out on the sidebar, but he hasn't updated in quite some time), we managed to check out the Killers show in DC on October 3rd. Overall a good performance, if a little short (I think they played for about 45 minutes. In their defense, the whole album doesn't run more than fifty at most). A couple of things though. I didn't realize that Brandon Flowers was so short. But then I notice in alot of the photos I've seen he's rarely pictured next to the other band members, who tower over him. Surfer Rosa, the first opening act, flat out sucked. I understand the 80's comeback thing, and I was willing to forgive the full body leotard, but a) learn to sing, b) make sure all bandmembers are playing the same song in the same key, and c) The mullet is still wrong, particularly on a female lead singer.

Oh...and Kerry destroyed Bush in the debates. Still not a fan, but, better than the alternative.