The Way Things Ought to Be

The Way Thing Ought to Be by Rush Limbaugh. 

I found this book and his second book the other day in the used book section of a Goodwill and figured I'd give them a read since I've been listening to Rush for years and have never read his book. 

What amazes me most about this book is that it was written in 1992 but many of things he was writing about then are still happening now. I mean our politicians and government are still running rapid through the country like it's some kind free shopping spree, only it's gotten worse now. But most of all it was fun seeing his thoughts in print versus just getting them over the radio because reading them gave him a lot more room to fully embody those radio thoughts. 

It was also fun to see a lot of the frustrations I'm feeling now about our government he was feeling about them then (and now from what I've heard on the radio). If anything this book fully explains the problems with our politicians, on both sides, and that if anything is going to be fixed it first has to be fixed there. It's also amazing at how prophetic a lot of the things he warned about then have taken place now especially dealing with our budget and economy that if we don't stop pouring money into empty, fruitless causes, that get no return, we're going to run out of money fast. Look at what's going on now. If you're looking for a good book and one that will challenge a lot what the Media says (or doesn't say) is true give this book a read.

Holy Motors

Holy Motors. 

I don’t quite know what to say about this film. I didn’t think it was that great but I still felt compelled to watch it until the end.  Enough happened in it to spur me to finish it. 

The best way I can summon up this movie is that it’s a French version of a David Lynch film. So if you like Lynch type of movies you will like this movie, without a doubt. There is enough odd things that happen visually in this movie to teach a college class on and I have no doubt college professors are already lining up to interpret this film. Therein lies the main problem with this film, it seems more concerned with interpretation than in exploring any kind of main theme or the ideas raised within it.  There is little or no characterization, which in my opinion is a major fault.  Because if I was given something to know about the motivation of the main character, I think it would have helped me to understand him and sympathize with the movie better, instead of worrying about interpreting everything on screen. 

 I mean there was a lot going on this film dealing with identities, acting, and preforming, but none of it seemed to weave together in an understandable way. A quote from Shakespeare also summons up this movie, “The whole world is a stage and we are but the actors on it.” In a sense this is a sci-fi film where the idea is the drive of the story and not the technology that makes up what happens.  But if the idea is going to be the drive there has to be someone driving the idea and I never felt there was a driver for this idea, which is a shame.  Because the idea of people who have a job of acting out things in real life, as if it were a job, is a very interesting idea for a society to evolve too. Even now I find myself thinking about the idea and how to make it better by actually having the main character be a character because that’s a world I would like to further explore and was very interested in. That is one of the reasons I think I stuck around until the end because it was an idea sci-fi movie, of which there aren’t a lot of those out there now.  So I gave it a little more wiggle room than I normally would, being a huge sci-fi fan all I tend to do that. Most sci-fi seems more concerned with technology and special effects instead of weaving those two together to make the kind of sci-fi movie which explores ideas instead of being just visual eye candy. This movie is no 2001, which has a story line and a narrative, but also leaves the viewer enough for interpretation without sacrificing the drive of the narrative or story. I never once felt left behind in the story of 2001 like I did with Holy Motors and most of Lynch’s film to which the smug college student or proffer would say, “You just don’t understand it. You don’t get it. The director and writer are just so much more advanced than you.” To that I say, “Have it.”

Mortal Instruments Book One: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments Book One: City of Bones by Cassandra Claire. 

Let’s start out with the good things I liked about this book, before I say what I didn’t like about it. Despite being one of those young adult fantasy series Clare does the unthinkable with writing this book - she uses third person narration instead of the more popular, highly overused, first person narration. And let me tell you this book is all the better for it.  Because this type of narration really lets the story and world building unfold in a more detailed manner where first person narration greatly limits world building, which to me has become more a cheap gimmick and crutch. 

Claire’s world building for this story is a delight to read as her world unfolds in thick rolls of complex history and mythology that made me want to know more about her world. That is a good thing, because creating new and interesting worlds is a hard thing to do and for her to do it like she has was a delight to read. The mythology and history she created was so rich and detailed as to make any geek jump for joy with devouring so much of it - and the geek inside me did do just that. 

But unfortunately there were a lot of things she did that hindered her world and book from being all that it could be. There were way too many things she used that were blatant thefts from Rowling’s Harry Potter. Now some things I can understand, but she went a little too far in my opinion.  They call humans “mundanes” in her book (Rowling called humans “muggles”); her villain is named Valentine and wants to pretty much wipe all downworlders off the face of the earth in some kind of racial genocide (Rowling’s bad guys is named Valdemort and he pretty much wants to wipe everyone but pure blood witches off the face of the earth in some kind racial genocide); there are hints at some kind of search about to take place in the later books much like Rowling did with her gang chasing down the horcruxes; there’s a picture of Claire’s main character’s parents and their friends much like Harry’s parents and their friends; and, last but definitely not the least, there’s just this feeling that the main character in Claire’s book is going to be some kind of chosen One that is going to save the world. Each time these came up I just groaned inside, because it would have been so easy to come up with something more original than that and, considering all of the trouble she went too to create this richly detailed world, one would think she could have came up with more original ideas than those. 

Also her characters who are under eighteen talk and act like adults, which just drove me nuts that I didn’t care for many of the main characters.  I found the side characters much more interesting, believable, and easier to relate to. In fact, I kept wanting the main characters to either get killed or just really badly beat up, because their annoyance became so grinding at times that I felt nothing for them but hatred.  But such was the world she created that I felt compelled to keep reading. I just felt Claire forced things to quickly pacing wise, whereas Rowling took her time to build characters before she really started revealing the past histories of everyone. Because she took that time to develop the relationship between reader and character, the reader became invested in the character so that when revelations and histories became revealed they were a big deal. Claire just starts out revealing some many revelations and histories that none of them have any real impact except as a gimmick because I have nothing invested in the characters at all. She hasn’t earned it, whereas Rowling earned every ounce of it. 

Now after saying all of this, this is still a good series to commit too and one that I will be reading the next books in the series, unless the characters just start to over power the world building that has taken place.

Wreck-It-Ralph

Wreck-it-Ralph by Disney. 

Had a movie night with the kids last night and watched this movie and I've got to admit it was much better than I thought it was going to be. I don't really know what I was thinking it was going to be like, but I had a lot of fun watching it, as did the kids.  Especially my little girl who for some reason had really, really, wanted to see this movie. When it was over she wasn't disappointed and said she liked the movie and wanted to see it again. I think the little candy land girl in the movie helped with that situation. 

This movie has the typical storyline about fitting in and finding your place in the world, but like my brother and I have been saying over the years: there's not really a great abundance of new stories out there, it all comes down to how you tell the story - that is what makes the difference. Characters make this approach to telling a good a story a really big deal.  Because if you don't have good characters, no matter what the story you tell, who's going to care about the story? Good, focused characters help to guide the audience through the story you're telling. The more good characters you have the easier it will be for the audience to get into the story. Wreck-it-Ralph does manage to have some good characters to help the audience with the story. 

I'm not saying these characters are on par with the Toy Story movies, there's nothing that groundbreaking here, but they do serve as good characters are supposed to serve, and that is to help the audience along with the story being told. Visually they are some really interesting characters from Ralph - his freakishly big hands, Felix - the small repair main with the magical hammer, Vanellope - whose glitch only makes her more interesting, and Calhoun - the high-def tough guy persona with metal armor and short blond hair. These characters are extremely helped along by the voice talents behind them, who help to flesh these characters out even more, and make them more endearing to the audience. 

Another thing that makes this movie stand out, is the great visuals of the game world themselves that are vastly different, yet wildly entertaining, and, basically, become mini-characters in the movie, as they add so much to what is going on. Ralph's world is the basic 16-bit graphics with nothing wild going on, which only magnifies the insane, high intensity, High-definition of Calhoun's world that's fast passed and a complete 180 from Ralph's world. Then we are thrown into Vanellope's world, where the majority of the movie is played out, and her world is the richest in color and wildest in design, as candies - and their assorted colors - act as the building blocks for everything in her world, and truly give it a distinct difference from Ralph and Calhoun's world. All in all it was fun watch and a good family night.  You can't go wrong with watching this movie.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee. 

This movie is everything Castaway wanted to be and failed at miserably. I will tell you this if you’ve got a Blue Ray player, a large screen TV with 1080ip, and a killer sound system this movie will most definitely blow your mind. I’ve only got one out of those three and I still didn’t get to watch it on Blue Ray, but I still thought this movie rocked. 

Now it does take around 40 minutes for the movie to get to the ship crash and ocean scenes which by Hollywood standards is way too long. It does feel a bit long but this movie is building the character of Pi and without these scenes you don’t get to know him, so when the ship sinks and he’s on the life boat it matters and you feel for him, because of all the set up that has gone into his character. Ang Lee has made some movie misses in his career but more or less he’s a capable director, a lot better than Ridley Scott and Tim Burton have been over the years.  And he seems to really care about the movies he makes.  His direction always shows it as his communication from written word to screen is impressive because there's not a lot of confusion in that translation.  But I'm not saying all of his films are perfect.  I'm  just saying his ability to communicate through direction is much better than a lot of other directors out there.  No matter what projects he gets, he seems to brings a good keen eye to the visuals. 

He really takes his time with this movie, as I said before, until he just goes full tilt with the visual feasts and eye popping wonder when Pi and the tiger are on the life boat in the middle of the ocean. One of my favorite scenes of this movie is near the beginning and didn’t involve any mind blowing effects or computer generated imagery it was simply Pi telling the story about his name that only involved him, his class, and a chalk board. But the depth of his character this scene showed mixed with the simplest of visuals, told wonders, and is one of my favorite scenes I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. How Lee build story through showing and not telling was wonderful and is a lost art in Hollywood.  The scene reminded me a lot of the opening scene in Rushmore and just conveyed enormous amount s of information about Pi’s character without getting carried away with all the things Hollywood movies tend to get carried away with now-a-days. Namely overindulgence for the sake of everything else, this scene was so economic in everything it did but yet the volumes it conveyed through visuals was mind blowing.  It was a great piece of storytelling, as this movie was a good movie to see and worth the time to watch.  But having said all of that I still think this movie is a little over rated, because I can’t really see myself watching it again as one times seems enough. I can’t help but being aware of that as I think about this movie and wonder how well it will age with time.  Because normally the use of that much CGI is harmful for a movie the further time goes on.  It just has a dated look to it.  So I find myself wondering how dated this movie is going to be for its massive amount of CGI or will the story line that focuses on character protect the CGI?  Only time will tell.

Arrested Developement: Season Four

Arrested Development: Season Four staring Jason Bateman, Michale Cera, Will Arnett, Jeffery Tambor, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, Jessica Walter, Tony Hale, and Alia Shawkat.

Well, here's the verdict after binge watching these episodes after they landed on Netflix.  This season is not better than the previous three seasons, but I still felt they were good and watchable and fit well into the Arrested Development canon.  I'm not saying they're perfect because they're not.  But as a continuation from Season Three and as new episodes of the Bluth family, these will do extremely well and serve their purpose, which is to extend the storyline and build upon the Bluth legacy. 

This season needs to be binge watched because of the episodic nature of the story line.  Basically Season Four is one long story told in 15 parts with each episode overlapping into each 15 parts of the season.  Editing this must have been a nightmare as it was hard to follow at times for me, but rest assured the people behind it do know what their doing as it pertains to the overall story line.  Each episode is told from the perspective of one of the Bluth family, as it breaks that perspective at certain times throughout the episode, but for the most part stays focused on that Bluth member.  There's a lot of back story as this season catches the viewer up on what happened to each Bluth member for the last five years.  You can imagine all the trouble this family can get into in five years.  By doing this the writers introduce a lot of new people and have a lot of things going on as they pertain to each Bluth member, so that's new people and new plots for each family member.  That's a lot of things to keep focused on.  By the last episode all the major loose ends are tied up and all the balls in the air are caught except for the news ones thrown up into the air with the last few episodes.  The ending for this season was one of a head scratch-er also.  I still don't know what to make it.  It was very abrupt and very quick, the credits started rolling when I thought they were going to the next scene.  It had the feel of the last episode of the Sopranos, it ended that quickly, but with that kind of ending the creators did set it up for a movie or a new season.  And I would welcome either one.

I don't think anything like this has ever been tried before with a television series.  The way the story acted like a Gordian knot and tied back in on itself so many times.  I've never seen anything like it, especially for a comedy.  It could also be said it was almost too smart for its own good.  But the one thing that really hurt this season was not having the Bluth family together more than it did.  This is an ensemble cast that needs to be together to feed off of each other, they act so well together that to not have them together more really hurts everything that's being tried.  Also some characters just don't work as well on an island alone.  That feeling of being stranded on a island, was really there for parts of this season.  These characters are all assholes and act like complete bastards to just about everything around them.  So when they aren't with each other these flaws become way more apparent and border on psychological insanity.  They need each other to balance out these flaws and the longer they aren't together the more these flaws stand out, and not in a good way.  But I will say this, that when the cast was together it was just like old times and the laughs were coming in fast and furious.  I welcomed those moments when they came. 

Things they kept that needed to be kept.  The insane amount of puns and play on words.  The bleeped curse words.  The documentary feel of a single camera following this family.  This show actually incorporated the camera crew in much better ways than the copy cat The Office failed at.  Use of music in certain scenes: the Charlie Brown song and the Sound of Silence were instrumentally used throughout this season.  I still love at how oblivious the whole Bluth family is to everything going on around them, except for Maeby who is, I still think, the most focused of the Bluth family.  I mean she actually has a real job and actually works and doesn't get caught, as much, as a deer in head lights like most of the other family does.  There's two times unexpected things happen to her that she can't do anything about and completely blindsides her.  When she receives her life time achievement award (the Opies), and has it's  meaning explained to her, and when George Michael fires her.  Both of those she never saw coming and the look on her face is one of perplexity but other than that shes in full charge of everything around, other than her clueless parents. 


Guest actors used to perfection.  Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen as a young Lucille and George Bluth, were perfectly cast and did a great job in ever scene they were in.  Isla Fisher as Ron Howard's daughter was simply brilliant.  I don't see enough of her acting as it is, but having her in here was a delight, plus the fact she's insanely hot doesn't hurt her screen presence either.  Spotting all the other various guest actors as they popped in for a scene, or two, was quite fun and only added to the viewing enjoyment. 

Ron Howard's narration was used was too much, but I thought having him play himself, as Michael tried to get the movie rights from his family was brilliant.  Howard just seemed indifferent to everything in every scene he was in, which fit in perfectly with the self-centered family, who thinks the universe revolves around them.  I actually didn't mind him as much as most critics seemed to, and normally I don't like it when Hollywood becomes all lovey-doovy with itself, but his self centered persona was perfect. 

All in all I thought it was a welcomed return to the Bluth family and I look forward to whatever they do next. 

Breed

Breed by Chase Novak. 

This is a horror novel that feels written by David Cronenberg and that means everything it says. Also this isn’t they typical horror novel filled with over the top horror, blood splattered on ever page, countless bodies piling up, horrific monsters, or the supernatural taking over.  But is much more in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, it takes the normal daily life and puts a horrific spin on it and has a faithful ending to the story told. 

The story? How far would you go to have a child if you’ve tried for a long time with no results? The parents of this story go a great distance, travel-wise , and try some experimental things to get a child. It works but the results that follow are horrific to the extreme and Novak writes the story well, never fully writing the horrific scenes, but lets the reader imagine those horrific scenes.  Because he knows the things a reader can imagine in their head are truly more horrific than anything he could write. The decent into the horrific and madness that follows is crazy and insane, but made all the more horrific because of the normal married couple built up in the first section.  Novak builds an interesting couple and then sets about destroying them, as their lives go completely Topsy-turvy

and family life that is displayed. I won’t go into any details here but will say this is well written book and worth your time in reading. It has a well thought out idea and is executed well by Novak with the situations that happen in the book feel realistic and in no way feel cheap or unrealistic. Another thing I love this cover design as it presents an silhouette of a pregnant woman using the color blood to draw: subtle yet says everything about the book with that simple image.