...strikes the right chord...

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The following is an excerpt from an email discussion between my brother and me, regarding another aspect to July 23rd's topic:

"And, what I meant by the spiritual remark is that Sufjan's music, more than most others, re-enforces the idea for me that there can be a deeply spiritual source to music. Just the combination of melody and passion (words don't even always matter) that vibrates and echoes deep within. To get chills, and for tears to well up, from so much...sound."
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The Dark Knight

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Well, I finally saw The Dark Knight with Violet, yesterday. Jeez. What an incredible movie! Christopher Nolan is a fantastic director, and did a really great job with Batman Begins. But, as good as that movie was, Dark Knight surpasses it in every way.

Heath Ledger was...phenomenal. He absolutely owns the Joker character now. I heard someone say that the one disappointment from seeing Dark Knight came from knowing that we wouldn't see more of Joker, with Ledger's passing.

I'll not go more in-depth with a review of the movie, as I've written a rather long-winded one on Flixster already. You can read it HERE.

My final word: Go see The Dark Knight, if you haven't already. Personally, having seen it in a regular theater, I am still eager to see it again, but next time I want the IMAX experience.

EDIT:
Well, as it would appear that Flixster is one of those many obstinate sites that won't allow you to view any content without first starting an account with them, I am going to repost my review here.

The Dark Knight
4 1/2 out of 5 Stars
Wow. Just...wow.

The Dark Knight has shot through the ranks and immediately settled itself in, amongst the top few titles in my list of Favorite Movies Of All Time.

Every aspect of this film was truly fantastic, from the directing and acting (of every major role) to the editing. Incredible.

Christopher Nolan has proven, once again, that he is a fantastic director capable of bringing stories to the audience in a deeply engaging and dynamic way. He seems to be one of those rare directors who's choices in story and art direction are difficult to pick apart or find fault in. Every frame of The Dark Knight seems well thought out. While some may argue that the movie felt a bit long, they would be hard-pressed to find the story elements that felt unnecessary.

Much has been said about Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. One might be inclined to think that this is, at least in part, motivated by his recent death. One would be remiss to downplay, even one little bit, the phenomenal performance captured here. Ledger's Joker is a rare example of an actor truly disappearing into a character, leaving no trace of himself. Joker has become so completely...creepy, it's like approaching an awful accident on the side of the road. You feel your skin crawl in the presence of this psychosis, as if he will turn to look at you at any moment, and you will see that he knows what to take from you. But you can't look away. Incredible. Ledger's performance is worth every word of praise.

And even still, with the gravitas Ledger has brought to his role (and the attention applied with his death), there is still a balance careful wrought over the breadth of multiple, well-delivered characters. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Maggie Gyllenhaal: what an incredible cast! I was pleased from the start, with the short but blood-pumping appearance of William Fichtner as the shotgun-wielding bank manager who brings the first adrenaline rush to the screen. Along with numerous big-screen roles, many may recognize him from his role as Alexander Mahone in Prison Break and his enthralling performance as Sheriff Tom Underlay in the (too) short-lived series, Invasion.

The Dark Knight truly delivered on the promise brought forth by Batman Begins; that a superhero movie series can be delivered in a dark but realistic world, and that Christopher Nolan can be trusted to deliver it.

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Some Thoughts on Music

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• I am a very rhythm-oriented person. I notice when music sync's up with things around me. Apparently, I've been this way since I was little. My mom tells a story of when I was about 4 years old, sitting on the bathroom counter as she got ready to go somewhere, and I asked her if she could hear the fact the the faucet was dripping to the pattern of some song.

• The funny thing is, now, as I'm driving along and listening to music, I impulsively time things to the song playing. I will turn my turn signal on, on beat. At night, if I need to flip my brights on or off, I will do so at precise times. It's a mostly unconscious action, but sometimes the timing gets my attention. It's just cool when (like earlier tonight) I am about to pass an oncoming car, for whom I turned my brights off, and as I flip them back on, it happens to be right when a song makes a great change. I just love that. It makes me smile.

• Remember the car commercial where the guy drives down the block and everything happening on the street is in perfect tempo to his windshield wipers? I wish that: 1) My life was like that, even for a day, or 2) I had come up with that idea.

• I remember reading Tad Williams' book, "Otherland" (Vol. 1), which takes place some time in the future, and there's this killer who had an implant put in, which allowed him to orchestrate music in his head. It was an implant in his ear, so he was actually hearing it. I would do anything to have one of those.

• Along with sending chills rushing through me, beautiful and powerful music brings tears to my eyes. It doesn't necessarily have to do with lyrics. It's just the sheer, overwhelming...sound. It's good for my soul.

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At Long Last...(Pt. II)

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And now, the exciting conclusion to "At Long Last"...

So, I spent about two weeks, earning my stripes in COD4 (sort of literally; after all, it is a military game). And I was doing pretty well at it. There are few gaming experiences cooler than going into a match in which you are the lowest ranked player, and coming out with one of the top three performances of that match. It makes you feel like a wild card, one that no one saw coming.

Now, something really cool started happening in these two weeks. As I mentioned, I had started to be an active member on the TRS forum, posting fairly frequently, having back-and-forth’s with a few people, even going so far as to speak up on someone's behalf when they were rather unnecessarily attacked.

Well, something surfaced that tied everything together; all of my new gadgets, all the functions they served and the opportunities they provided. It was simple. A thread moved its way back to the top of the forum, a thread that asked for Playstation Network ID's and what games people were currently playing. After putting up my information, I began using the list to send out friend invites to those who were playing any of the games I owned and with my name being new on that thread, others were sending me invites in turn.

Suddenly, I was not only playing games with very specific people, and communicating with them as we played (through headsets), but they were fast becoming anything but strangers as we had video chats. Even as many as six of us were able to have a group video chat; sitting around, talking about games we had played together and games that were coming, talking about TRS (our most common thread), and things about ourselves such as where we're from*, etc.

Now, the neat thing about being a member of the TRS forum (as I suppose is the case with many forums) is having a common interest, a starting point for any interaction. TRS is about all things rad, yes, but it's pretty widely understood that those involved speak to and from the geek culture. Indeed, most are proud members. As Jeff (one of the hosts) says, "Geek is the new cool." With video games having pushed their way in, to become a mainstream pastime; and with so many people knowing a little bit of coding these days (at least enough to customize their Myspace pages), I think it's safe to say that there's some truth to that statement. Of course, the fact that I'm saying this in a blog probably ensures that I'm preaching to the choir.

While I consider myself a bit of a geek, and am therefore familiar with some aspects of the culture, there's quite a bit for which I knew nothing.

As I've been mentioning, I recently began learning about the world of online gaming. Something I was happy to learn, upon building up my PS3 friends list with TRS fans, was the level of interest in forming clans** for many of the games. Naturally, most of this group was eager to be a member of a TRS clan, for any particular game that had enough people interested.

And so, I became a member of the TRS clans in a couple of the games I had begun playing online. This meant that I was not only playing with people I knew, but we had decided to make the effort to strategize, to work as a team. The strategizing didn't always work (still doesn't always), but we all at least knew that someone had our backs.

This started a great new side to my (somewhat humorous) social life, and I had begun to see some pretty great friendships coming out of it. But, as these things will go, I would soon find out first-hand, not everyone is looking for good times with good people.





*Surprisingly, I have ended up talking to and playing games with a lot of Canadians. Three of the guys I play with most, all live in Canada. Canucks like to play video games. Who knew? What?! I kid, I kid.

**Being a member of a clan just means that someone starts a group. This group will have a call sign (clan tag) that displays in front of all members' names, ingame. It signifies what group someone is a member of, and games tend to keep clan members on the same team.
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At Long Last...

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And at long last, I will get down to business. Though I must say, I fear that all of these stuttering missteps and promises and cliffhangers may have led to a level of expectation that might not be met. It quite possibly won't be, after all, a thrilling story to most people. I will, in the end, only relay what I intended to all along. I am merely telling the events that occurred and which, for me, were quite thrilling.

Having a new PS3 and Zune meant that, even with my pace for learning how gadgets work (i.e. - functions, tools, applications, etc.), I suddenly had things that did...things, with which I was entirely unaccustomed. I was suddenly able to have the PS3 online at all times, and wirelessly no less, having put a wireless router in, some time ago. With this ability, I could not only play online multiplayer matches (as I discussed before, shortly after my first experience with it, and ended up sounding like some old guy that just got a hint at what's up with that whole "internet" thing), but I was able to download demos, PS3 themes, and purchases from the PS Store. With a bit of effort (and some ingéniosité, after the how-to guides I found online fell short), I was able to have the PS3 recognize our computers as media servers, allowing us to stream music, photos, and video straight to the TV! Suddenly, ours started looking like one of those "connected" houses, a house of "the future," as some might describe. It was all a bit overwhelming. But it was only the beginning.

As I mentioned, I also purchased a Zune around this time. It had one feature that I had never tried before, something that scores of people have been familiar with for some time: podcasts. By having that one option listed on the main menu of the Zune, and offering the ability to search for and subscribe to podcasts from within the desktop software, I decided that it was worth a shot.

I started with subscribing to a few random podcasts for gaming and tech stuff, but wanted one that had movie reviews/news, so I did a search and saw The Totally Rad Show in the results and decided to try it out. I loved it immediately. When I subscribed to it, only the previous six months were available in the feed, though the show had been going for nearly a year. I watched six months worth of episodes in about six weeks. And once those were done, and I was caught up to the new weekly episode, I started downloading the rest of them, starting at the beginning, and closed the gap.

The Totally Rad show, or TRS, is a simple idea that works. It's pretty much just three guys (all in their late-twenties, early thirties) who sit and talk about movies, video games, and sometimes television shows and/or comics. It's just three 80's kids, talking about things they think are rad.

What's unique about the show is the aesthetic. It's completely relaxed and people often describe it as feeling like a conversation one would sit around and have with friends.

One of my favorite elements of the show is the opening. They begin each episode with a retooling of a famous movie scene. My favorite example would be the Cliffs of Despair swordfight from Princess Bride, done as a ping pong match.

Well, watching TRS all the time, and constantly hearing Jeff (one of the hosts) mention "the forums," and recommending that I check them out, I decided to do just that. I signed up, started reading and, at some point, started posting. So now, by following a podcast (something I'd never done), I was becoming an active member of a forum (another something I'd never done).

At some time, during all of this...NEW...I was experiencing (and loving), I decided to just jump in and try an online match. Actually, I was a little too nervous for all of that, so I just chose to start some Free Skate in the aptly titled game, Skate, and to see if anyone would show up. I won't go into that experience, as I already have. To read my awkward, fumbling description of it, read the March 20th entry (scroll down, or click HERE).

That was all it took for me to realize what I'd been missing, with the whole Online Gaming experience. I wanted more. This time though, I was ready for the harder stuff**. I decided to try Call of Duty 4.

What followed is a blur, a 2-week blur, a 2-week blur of playing NOTHING BUT COD4! Being a modern-warfare military squad setting, this blur consisted of a lot of sprinting across open ground (or cover, if I was lucky), dropping to a crouch, lobbing grenades, and approaching enemies from behind and disposing of them with my field knife. And it was fast...

This concludes Part One of "At Long Last." Please join us next week for the exciting conclusion, in which Jan finally tells Richard that she's pregnant, and Emily has to make a tough decision about school...***





*This means that there was no clock running or score accumulating, just skating around for fun. In a video game. Yes, seriously. Hey, I can't afford to go breaking any limbs on a real skateboard. I'm a little past the age at which that would work out okay.

**Though that phrase might bring to mind ideas of various unhealthy drug addictions and moving from recreational drugs into something more dangerous, and though that comparison wouldn't be entirely inappropriate, I was in fact referring to the idea of trying a game that required more skill, or at least had a scoring system in place.

***Next week...or in the next few days...or tomorrow.
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So Many New Things...

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Previously, I made reference to timing; how things had changed, new things coming from where I was, when posting the entry before. I promised to get to it later, and so, without further ado, here it is*:

Thanks in large part to Violet, I was able to get a PS3** in mid-December. I was, apparently, having a tough week, so she decided to order it for me with the credit card. She's just that cool. We had discussed my interest in getting one, and had made the "when" plans. She decided to forego those plans, in order to surprise me and to put me in better spirits. It worked. She came into the living room, having explained that she had gotten me a gift but, not being a Christmas gift, she wanted me to open it immediately. As soon as she left the room and came back in, pulling this large box behind her, I knew what it was. Man, was I freaked! So, that led to Christmas, and getting a few games for it. And, after the new year, I got myself a couple more.

I also got Violet a new computer for Christmas (man, I love having a Dell account!). While this was a great update for her, it left me in the lurch, regarding one small but important function. I had this great 20GB touch-screen Olympus mp3 player/camera. Yes, they dabbled briefly in the mp3 player market, adding their own little touch (the camera). Unfortunately, having backed out of the market quickly, before Windows Vista had come out, the desktop software only worked with XP. I had gotten my laptop some time ago, with Vista on it, and realized my problem. I solved it by having the software on Violet's computer. Once both computers were running Vista, I had no way of ever syncing my mp3 player again.

So, I found myself in need of a new mp3 player. Of course, being a tech...enthusiast (ed.: attempting to disregard the fact that "tech junkie" was the first phrase that came to mind), I thought to myself, "Awe shucks! It looks like I need to do a little shopping." What I came up with, and ordered, was an 80GB Zune.

All the pieces were in place, and so it began.





*It should here be noted that I have inadvertently (of this, I swear) misled you, the reader. I have not, in fact, gotten to the subject matter I promised earlier. There has been further ado. Know this: I have now placed the pieces; described the setting and elements involved. Nothing remains, but to get to it.

Only the story itself remains.....for next time.

**It should also be noted that, when discussing my purchase of a PS3, it was agreed that I could also get a PSP, which I did in January as well. This, of course, just put the level of my being spoiled...over the top. I took it surprisingly well, considering I had almost never before been spoiled.
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...when you're having fun

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Wow. I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but it would seem that the timing for my last post happened to fall just at the eve of many things changing for me. I will get to all of that.

I will admit that I have found myself in a situation with this blog, which very closely echoes a problem I have experienced more than once in the past. Over the years, beginning in my early teens, I have kept writings. Be they poems or some form of journal, I have had a long history of...attempting to write. And therein lies the rub. As I have found out, over the years, inspiration comes in waves. In the first years, it went fluid. I once filled every page of a five-subject notebook with poems for a girl who I was only ever in proximity to. I would sit in a hall or across a room and just...write. As the years have passed, my desire and discipline to write has waned, and only sometimes surfaced, less and less frequently. This formed an interesting issue.

Though I find that the interest to write resurfaces now and again, I often end up doing nothing because of an inherent problem. Each time I would feel compelled to write, most often in a pre-existing journal, the fact that so much time had passed since my previous entry leaves me with far too many of life's experiences having happened to skip, in order to simply say what I intend. This continuous problem has led me to simply live my life, without attempting to document it.

I suppose that the simple way to describe the problem is that I have had a lack of interest (or focus, or ability to focus on my interests). This is specifically in regards to the long-term.

It's rather the opposite with immediate interests. I become so fully engrossed in what my current fascinations are, that I spend the majority of my time thinking about them, when not able to actually be hands-on. The success with which I am able to balance these interests with the rest of my life varies, from time to time.

But things have changed in the 15 years since that notebook of poems. The fact that I am writing this on my phone means a LOT has changed. And perhaps my issue lies directly in the attempt at keeping a journal, full of chronological entries, recording every major journal-worthy event. I simply forget to record them. Time has proven that. I certainly haven't done much to help maintain Posterity's good name.

So, I have let time sneak by, the fact that I had near-empty blogs going to waste (which, in this digital format, can only be measured by the date stamps fixed to the last entries), returning to mind numerous times. And each time, I have avoided them altogether, out of embarrassment over the time I have let pass. Were it myself alone who knew of these dormant blogs, the issue would be minimal. My error to surpass has been in the small, inescapable fact that I let others know of my blogs at their inception. Ugh.

The single event that brought me around, only just this week, was in watching an innocent little podcast. It is a podcast that I enjoy regularly, but this is probably due to the fact that it has never before spoken directly to my inadequacies. The particular "episode" (if you will) that moved me to action, spotlighted a website devoted entirely to One-Post Blogs. They have sought out and brought to the public eye scores of failed attempts. It's a group whose company I was inadvertently keeping, who had an idea and let it get away from them. This was enough to get me going. After all, who really wants to be one of those guys?

And this is what interests me the most. My love of all things "tech," and the ways that they define how we share who we are, brings so many possibilities to light. And with such ease we enjoy these tools. I won't go into a spiel about what has undoubtedly been a topic of much discourse, but will simply claim an interest in the ways it has affected me greatly, particularly in recent months. But that is for next time.
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