Bringing the Drama

The latest craze in movies these days seems to be the ability to see movies in 3D. After seeing the new TRON in 3D, I’m not sure the added expense was worth it. I went and saw Toy Story 3 over the summer, and that was in 3D, which was okay. Really though, I would have sobbed when they all looked like they would die in 2D, without needing to see it all in 3D. BTW, where can I find a Chuckles figure? I have seen figures of EVERY OTHER character but Chuckles. I want Chuckles.

The other night seeing TRON, instructions came up to put on our glasses, and then a Norelco commercial came on. Then we could take our glasses off for the Green Lantern trailer. They got us to put on the glasses just for the commercial. That was stupid. Once the movie started, I noticed most of it was in 2D, and the 3D parts did not make me feel the extra $3.50 a ticket expense was worth it. For $12.50, I think I should see Lebowski in TRON and leave the movie thinking I just witnessed one of the greatest graphical experiences of my life. After seeing TRON though, the story didn’t really hold up the entire movie, and seeing a CGI version of The Dude made it a little creepy. I decided that I paid $3.50 for a pointless 3D experience. Someone may as well have peed on my rug.

BTW, Daft Punk and TRON is the greatest music and movie combination ever.

So during my unemployment, I’ve been reading the books I’ve bought over the past few years that I never have gotten around to reading. I’ve finished off the massive Book of Basketball that I had gotten for Christmas, tore through the first two Hunger Games books, and finally started to read the Harry Potter books, all of which I bought in hardback from Amazon when the 7th book came out. I honestly don’t know how it really ends, I’ve managed to avoid spoilers.

(If you don’t want the 3rd Harry Potter book ruined for you, stop reading right now)

Last week I finished HP3, the Prisoner of Azkaban. I have the DVDs of the first three movies, but haven’t watched them in years. All I could remember was that Sirius Black was not really evil. The book was fantastic, but I did have one problem with it. Maybe it’s from having seen Back to the Future a bunch of times, but how was Harry able to send the Patronus the first time? In PoA, the plot does not play out without the Patronus coming around the lake. In BTTF, that’d be like Marty going back in time, but his parents being successful before he left because everything had been fixed already. Does this make sense? I’d understand it if everything happened, and then Harry and Hermoine went back in time and changed the result, but the result was already happening before they went back in time.

I just wanted to see what the people who may still read my blog thought. I know I’m trying to nitpick about a story that involves dragons and wizards, but I figured someone else out there may have thought the same thing.

BTW, I haven’t really read a lot of books in a long time. I know when I do get a new job, I’m still going to make time to read. I actually suggested dressing up as book characters for Halloween but was shot down mercilessly.

Last night I went to see Swell Season. To be honest, I didn’t see Once until after the Oscars the year ‘Falling Slowly’ won for best song. I was late to the party on the entire deal. Even after seeing Once, I didn’t find it to be a movie I could watch over and over again. I LOVED some of the songs, and I thought it was cool to see things in Dublin that I had been to. I watched the movie a month or two after getting back from Europe. I walked through the HMV that he chased the thief through. Anyway, so I heard from multiple friends about how amazing Swell Season is live, and when they announced a NOLA date, I was excited. Bands like that usually skip NOLA, and they had for every tour since they got big, but I guess now they’re going back and playing the cities they’ve missed.

Last night started with a visit to a Subway that had the worst staff I’ve ever seen. First, the kid sitting up on the counter eating a cookie. Then the kid with the long hair that hung in his face. Finally the girl who came out of the back to toast just the bread. I kept thinking the kid with the hair would have one fall into a sandwich with him standing over the counter making sandwiches. Then the girl started to make my sandwich, and when I said I wanted it toasted she put just the bread in the toaster then walked off. What? She didn’t come back, so the cookie eating kid decided to do something. All three of those kids didn’t seem interested in just doing their jobs. Working at Subway can’t be that hard or unenjoyable. Hopefully they figure it out soon.

We got down to the HOB right about 8 pm for the show. Rachael Yamagata was the opener. I’m not a fan of sad songs, esp sad songs introduced by trippy explanations. I liked her better when she was singing BGV for Ryan Adams on Cold Roses. It wasn’t very crowded when we got there, and it was nice to be able to move around. When it got closer for Swell Season to come on, the place filled up.

Glen and Marketa came out and sat down at the front of the stage and played their first song. It was so pure I guess is the word I’m going to use. They weren’t trying to do anything other than simply play a song the way they wanted. I hadn’t really remembered many of the songs from the Once soundtrack except Falling Slowly, and I had not heard any of the songs from the new album. I can’t really go song by song to review. The feeling I got from the show was great though. The crowd was so nice and quiet. Usually when I go to shows at the HOB, the crowd is rude and inconsiderate. Not on Thursday though.

I wasn’t really a fan of the songs that Marketa would sing. She only did 4 songs. Glen did several songs by himself, and with the band, and then with just him and Marketa. The highlights I can remember were songs like “Feeling the Pull”, “Back Broke”, and two covers Glen said he and the band learned because they were playing New Orleans. I could tell with how he introduced them that he wasn’t learning or performing them to seem cool, he did it out of genuine respect. He intro’d a song called “Lakes of Pontchartrain”, which sounded awfully like the song “Banks of Pontchartrain”, which I saw Nickel Creek cover at the HOB in 2003. It’s not the same song after some googling on Friday. They saved “Falling Slowly” for the encore, and it was just Glen and Marketa on the stage. He came over with his shoddy guitar (from the movie, which I thought was awesome) to the piano and they played it in similar fashion to that first performance in Once (which is my favorite part of the movie).

They played past 11, which I think is past the curfew of the HOB. I almost didn’t want it to end. The music was just fantastic. I’m not going to say it was the BEST SHOW EVER or anything, but it was definitely worth the money I paid and the hassle getting there, and the long drive after. I’m really glad they decided to make NOLA a tour stop. While I’m not sure the movie has repeat watching for me, I think the live show definitely does. Oh, and I scored a poster for $10. I love cheap merch prices.

A while back I had read about the Star Wars In Concert show, where they’d show clips of the movies along with a live orchestra. I eagerly bought tickets for the NOLA show, but I’m not sure if I was as excited as I eventually became. When we walked in to the Arena on Tuesday, I didn’t quite freak out but came pretty close.

One of the coolest things about the concert was that they had set up costumes and props from the movies AND they had people dressed up as characters. Of course, there were plenty of regular people dressed up, but the people I’m talking about were with the show. The disappointing thing was that they seemed to just have characters who wore masks, like Boba Fett. I would have flipped out for a picture with Han Solo. The closest I could get to that picture was a picture with Chewbacca.

There were TONS of people getting pictures with the characters. Little kids were dressed up in their Halloween costumes, or maybe they were pajamas. Adults didn’t shy away either. I saw multiple Obi Wan Kenobis and random Jedis.

The show itself was really great. My favorite part is the beginning, with the dark screen and everything just begins with the music and the scrolling text. That’s pretty much what happened Tuesday night. It was great. They pretty much went through all six movies with clips along with the music, which was incredible.

They had Anthony Daniels, the guy who played C-3PO, as the night’s MC. He would talk and advance the story so the orchestra could take breaks. When he mentioned the Imperial Empire one time, the arena was quiet and listening, and this one guy booed very loudly. It was really funny, and I might have missed the following description about whatever scene was being set up. Only in an arena full of SW fans would someone booing the Empire get that kind of reaction. It was awesome.

This week has been up and down being back at work since going out of town last weekend. It was my first five day week at work in a while, not counting the weeks I was working OT. I had my midterm in my grad school class to take this week which I scheduled for Friday. Having to study for the midterm and knowing it was coming was hanging over my head. Things still worked out by the end of the week though.

I had sent my dad the link to the website for It Might Get Loud a couple of weeks ago. I had heard good things from friends that had gone to see it. My dad dug the trailer, so we were going to go this weekend. The problem came in that the theatre in NOLA with the movie was only going to have it for a week, and it was leaving the theatre on Thursday of this week. I called my dad late Wednesday afternoon and asked if he wanted to go see it. He did, and said he’d get off work at 5:30 and pick me up. The movie was awesome. It was so interesting seeing where the three guys came from as far as their guitar playing, and seeing pictures and video of them when they were just starting out was cool. One of the highlights was seeing a very young U2 playing Street Mission. Also how each of them got some of their most well known guitars was cool. I’m really glad we got to go see it together. Not sure if my dad will want to listen to White Stripes now, but at least we got to talk about them.

Thursday was just a bad day. Maggie, my iPod nano, died suddenly on my way to work. The last two songs she played were Hurt by Johnny Cash and Oh My Sweet Carolina by Ryan Adams. A fitting end now that I look back on it. I was so freaked out about my midterm and having to study, that I left work at lunch to come home and study. My lost night of studying on Wednesday and then plans to go to a concert on Thursday added up to high stress. I studied all afternoon, and committed several acronyms and vocab words to memory. I ended up skipping the concert on Thursday night, which was a blessing in disguise. The hassle/disappointment ratio was so high that the only way the show would have been worth going to would be if Paul McCartney or someone showed up to play half the show. I knew if I went that I’d just be thinking about my midterm and how I should be studying. I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate crossing that off my list of things to get done.

Friday I woke up and went in to work dreading the test. I had scheduled to take it at 10, but emailed the guy in HR who is my proctor and rescheduled for 1. When I finally went to take the test, I crushed it. If it would have been a fight they’d have had to pull me off. I was the Drago to the test’s Apollo Creed. I was the Patriots and the test was the Titans. It was 15 question short answer and we had an hour to finish it. I was done in 35 minutes. My hand hurt from writing so much so fast. I filled each page with writing. The prof hopefully sees that I knew what I was talking about and more. Some of the stuff I studied wasn’t even on the test, and I could have explained that too! I probably won’t get my grade back until next week, but I feel really good about it. Maybe grad school isn’t so bad after all.