The Weekend

Well, sort of. I have to go take the car in for an oil change this morning and lovely wife has to run her Mom around for a few errands, so it's not the relax and enjoy type weekend. But we'll get there. McK has read enough books to get a free one from Barnes and Noble. I'm not sure why we're encouraging them to add more books to the house other than the fact that I'm certainly all for reading...

We went kitchen table shopping the other day and found a nice 6-8 person table for $800. They were doing a promotion where if you spent over $400 or so you got to spin the big Wheel O' Prizes™. We managed to win No Sales Tax. Which was lovely. Anyway, the real point of this story is that they had the most beautiful bookshelf unit I've ever seen. It was probably a good 6 feet wide or more (it would easily take up a wall) and it was probably 7-8 feet high. (Again we're talking wall sized here.) It had 4 or 5 shelves across about 3 divisions and then a set of cabinets at the base. But the best part was the sliding ladder that you could move across the face when you wanted to reach something from the top. It was amazing. It was also $3000. If I had a spare $3000 it would have been mine. Oh yes, it would have been mine. As it is I think I'll have to talk to Dad or Uncle Paul. I think they need a new project...

So. Cloverfield. Let's talk Cloverfield. For what it was, I feel it worked. In a found footage, slice of life/documentary sense it was good. Which is to say that I appreciated the movie more than I liked it. I appreciate that you were strictly following a small set of people as they encountered this random monster attack. My wife wanted to know more about the monster. What was it? Where did it come from? Did it die? And so on. This movie doesn't give you that. Oh and yeah, spoilers and what not ahoy. Unread this paragraph if you don't want details about the show. As for me, I was ok with not getting some of that, but I would have liked a little more than you did get. I'm not saying they should have switched to following a scientific or military unit, there was certainly more tension in what they did, but I do like seeing a little more of the monster than you get to see. It's also pretty short, but in some ways this works to it's advantage. The initial, get to know the people segment, was timed just about perfectly - in that if they didn't introduce the monster when they did I was going to start strangling people. I've heard one of the bigger complaints is that you don't care for the main characters. And there's a little truth to that. They're mostly ordinary people with the usual faults, so yeah, kind of jerks. I liked them well enough. Part of my problem was that I kept getting the few things I'd heard about the movie and the big ARG they ran for the movie mixed up. I could swear there was a bit about the monster and the ocean at the end. But that must have been online. Also, I knew the monster was young, but that's not explained in the movie (that I remember - as my wife certainly didn't notice this fact either). Again an online fact that would have been helpful in the movie.

Spoilers still, yadda yadda, last paragraph getting too big. Which I guess brings me to my real issues with the movie. I'm not really young enough for this movie. Or part of the right crowd. This movie was made for that group of people that is part of the Youtube generation. The people that live their lives online. That will play through the ARG and dig out the clues and follow the websites and watch clips and get the whole experience. If you just watch Cloverfield, you're not getting the story. You're getting the hour and a bit in the middle. Which, again, does work for what it is, but don't get fooled into thinking it's the whole story - it isn't. So. There you go. That's Cloverfield. Cool monster that you didn't get to see enough of (and the Statue of Liberty's head bit was very cool) and a story that you're, hey, not getting enough of. Trend spotted. Oh and the shaky cam thing, while not as bad as it certainly could have been, is getting really old. I'm really tired of that.

Finished up a little more Scott Pilgrim and Hikaru no Go. Still both enjoyable. The latest Scott Pilgrim was a little better than volume 3. Not as jumpy around and there were definitely some good jokes in there. Checked out In Search of Anne of Green Gables for my wife. We'll see if she likes it. She often rolls her eyes at me when I try to get her to read or watch things, but then she gets sucked in and I get to say, "See? I know things!". That's fun. And then there's more eye rolling and it's a wonder we're not constantly dizzy.

Mom would have liked this season of Psych. I miss calling her up and saying, "Did you see it? And what about this bit? And this one?" It's pretty good. Although we need to watch last night's episode still. We had a progressive dinner with some folks in the neighborhood. It was fun and the food was good.

Well, this has rambled on long enough. The only bits you're missing out on are stories about G at the pool (and his neverending supply of energy) and umm, other stuff. I've no idea.