Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

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Serenity Preview / Spoiler-Free Review

That Strange Feeling

First I’d like to comment on the social experience. Have you ever one of those awkward moments like meeting your doctor at the kid’s soccer field? You want to make small talk but this guy knows things about you and has been places that no one else ever will. The doctor is this mythological character that you share your most intimate experiences with and he’s never supposed to leave his office. This was similar because these people are just screen names that never leave their keyboards. Suddenly I’m looking at 45 strangers that potentially know me better than some of my close friends and family. Of course, I’ve shared their secrets too! Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be an ice breaking moment to really strike up a conversation with anyone other than the news paper’s official reviewer. Perhaps another social gathering sometime soon.

Many thanks!

My thanks and appreciation go out to Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) for arranging this special viewing!

Serenity Crew

Previews

We had a single preview forDoom which is totally targeted at computer geeks. The movie is shot in first person shooter style. It will get its revenues purely from the novelty of seeing our greatest time waster on the big screen!

Starship Serenity

Serenity

In theaters September 30th – Official Site

Technical

Fantastic! I felt like we’d taken cinematography to another level. I had to check myself to make sure I wasn’t simply being woo’d when my wife commented on one scene as "a bad set." I couldn’t disagree but the computer enhanced effects greatly overshadowed such scenes. At points the scenes felt almost three dimensional. Serenity certainly keeps the bar high for special effects.

Character Development

In any movie time constraints lead to tough choices. More action? More character development? More plot history? Serenity creates a decent balance with plenty of opportunity for further character development in any potential sequels. We learn just enough about the main characters to complement the story and build affection or distaste for them. I would have enjoyed more background on the supplementary characters but that would have added nothing to the story. Some of the characters backgrounds were presented subtly which I missed but my wife and son picked right up.

Plot/Story

The story was well conceived with a very interesting presentation in the beginning. I felt like the middle and end of the story could have benefitted by some of the qualities of the beginning presentation. Our protagonist has his epiphany a little too quickly and too strongly for my taste which broke the realism of his character briefly for me. They did a great job tying all the elements of the movie together. I felt nothing presented was frivolous. Overall I saw very few holes, nice twists and a captivating concept. There are certainly many angles that can be exploited for sequels.

Conclusion

I’m going to watch it again. I want more. I may even have to tune in for Firefly. I give this a high recommendation for sci-fi fans!

Oh, yes, we were the people with the infant in theatre. Evan thought the movie was great and only one scene scared him. He says, "coo coooo coo *giggle* burp."

Blogger’s reviewing:

GA Mongrel
"As a fan of the TV series, I loved the movie."
Misplaced Keys
The power of a good story is that the audience can place the story into its own context. This is where, I believe, Joss Whedon’s wild west space adventure shine, it is a great story. And Joss Whendon is a great story teller….
AlphaPatriot
Early reviews of the movie Serenity are in: eight liked the show (nine if you count me) and one didn’t. The Conservative Zone:It exceeded my expectations in every way. There were places for you to laugh, a couple for you to get mad in, and…
Stackable Bards
Many bloggers (but not me, alas) have been able to score early tickets to see Joss Whedon’s Serenity, a movie followup to his excellent but short-lived, Fox TV show called Firefly (DVD available here). Here is a roundup of reviews. Note: Great minds think a like. Stackable Bards has a head start on this roundup and I recommend reading on from there.
The Primary Main Objective
The blogger preview was also a radio station preview. The it was sponsored by two clear channel stations, one country, and one urban.
Domestic Psychology (with picture)
It felt like watching television on a monster screen, but it was fun television and as socially unpopular as it is to admit, I like television.
G. Bob’s House O’ Blog
Either you get why cowboys in space are cool or you don’t. It’s just that simple.

Wow! This list goes on and on and on…

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Because there is more than one way

I had to call my grandmother yesterday. She is 86 and stronger and more mentally stable than most I people I know. Anyhow, I’d been working a problem and was stuck when it suddenly occurred to me that "there’s more than one way to skin a cat" and I came up with a different solution rapidly.

Now, I’ve been skinning cats since I was about five but I have never questioned exact why we skin cats. So I went to the source. See, when we’d get a bath at my grandmother’s apartment as the kids were stripped down, she’d say "there’s more than one way to skin a cat." Her answer? She chuckled and said, "I don’t know."

So what does Blingo say?

World Wide Words
Points out that it dates back to 1678 as a common proverbial phrase but gives no real origin other than conjecture. Relates it to the Southern US states to skinning a catfish.

bartleby.com
"Many tasks can be accomplished in several ways." but we know that already.
Phrase Finder
"a boy’s gymnastic trick" with a description of the trick and a note "Mr. Funk doesn’t say WHY anyone would actually skin a cat" A reply to the post claims "People used to skin cats to use the fur" but gives no citations
TakeOurWord.com
Cheapness
AOL Member
Another catfish reference
EZBoard forum
"boys (and adults too) did torture cats in the 16th-18th centuries" but refers to harvesting the fur
Messy Beast
catfish and fur references. Perhaps the best description thus far.
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Seeking extra hardware

Does anyone in Knoxville have a spare DSL modem (preferrably westel) lying around? I know someone that needs to run a test to confirm that their modem is bad. If their modem is bad and you want to sell yours they will probably be willing to buy it. Just let me know in comment or email. Thanks.