Entertainment

This review has been a long time coming, but finally got to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX Theater. I would have to concur with the masses that this sequel is one of the few that lives up to it's predecessor and even surpasses it at some points. And, I also agree that Heath Ledger's Joker was one of those truly inspired performances. This second installment is definitely darker than Batman Begins, but it is just as well written (if not better) as Batman Begins. I am not a Batman fan by any stretch, but I will definitely be picking this one up when it is finally released on Blu-Ray.

Finally saw the movie Wall-E with my nephew. This is the latest movie from Pixar Studios and, despite my low expectations going into the movie, I was very surprised at how much I liked it. I definitely liked it better than Cars, though I am not sure if I liked it better than The Incredibles.

This weekend (in between reconfiguring my nephew's new computer ), I had a chance to view a special by CNN called "Black In America", a two part special that examined the lives of Black Americans from different perspectives since the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
(This is evidently will be available for download on iTunes as well).

(Note: Another good examination was done by the NYTimes several years back called How Race is Lived in America, a fifteen part written series that also examined the issue of race in America from different perspectives.)

OK, I'll admit that I am very late to the party on this one, but my generous coworker has (again) shown me the light and hooked me up with the TV show Scrubs. Let's just say that I stop watching it at work, because I was trying to hard to not laugh out loud. (so now I am watching it at home laughing out loud - currently meandering through Season 1).

Since I was a big fan of Alex Gibney's Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, I had a piqued interest in his later movie Taxi to the Dark Side. Very appropriately, this movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Needless to say, I'll be viewing this when it finally comes to my area (hopefully before it is released on DVD {which is rumored to be on 09/30/08 ).

Finally! After patiently waiting , Entourage: Season 4 will finally be released on DVD August 26, 2008. Sadly, this show (like many others was hit hard by the writers strike, so there are not a lot of episodes for Season4). However, it seems that production for Season 5 started in April 2008, but due to the writers strike will start being shown in September 2008 instead of June.

Some more sad news as I found out that Jim McKay and Bo Diddley as well as Harvey Korman had all passed away recently.
While I wasn't a huge fan of his music (slightly before my time), I certainly do admire Bo Diddley's pioneering efforts as an artist, to say nothing of his longevity on the music scene.

Jim McKay is probably known best for 1972 Munich Tragedy and ABC's Wide World of Sports, coining the phrase "The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat".

Harvey Korman was best known probably for the Carol Burnett Show (he is certainly fixed in that role in my consciousness - who can forgot "Ed and Eunice" ), but he also had a key role in Mel Brooks' movie Blazing Saddles.

Rest in peace....

After being a fan for so many years of the group Rush, I finally had the chance to see the in concert (thanks to one of my friends getting a sweet deal on tickets). There was no opening band and Rush played from 7:30 pm - 11:30 pm, with only a 15 minute intermission. There was a good mix of the old and new songs to keep everyone happy and it was quite nice to see that after 30+ years of making music, all three members of the group still have it (how many other groups from the 70's can you say that about? ). Happily, my Nikon binoculars worked fabulously, especially for seeing Neil Peart do his awesome drum solos (yes, there is no doubt that he is a drumming demigod ) It was also obvious that there is quite a bit of creativity (not just musical) within the band. The light show was pretty cool and there were several short outtakes in between songs and a couple of the more entertaining ones was the South Park outtake doing the lead-in to Tom Sawyer. Also, the cartoon dragon that ended up spouting real fire on stage was also a nice touch. All in all, a very well spent evening and definitely worth the price of the ticket (and how many stadium concerts can you say that about? )

With my nephew turning into a regular movie buff ;-), I am getting the opportunity to see quite a few movies this year. So the movie for this weekend ended up being The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Since the movie running time was given as 2 hours 20 minutes and the reviews hadn't been that good, I was a little nervous about seeing this one (it must be stated as well that I was a big fan of the CS Lewis books when I was younger ). So I was pleasantly relieved when it actually turned out to be a decent movie - it certainly didn't feel like 2:20 hours of sitting and as further proof, my nephew's attention was also held for the entire movie. Again (like in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), the movie remains fairly faithful to the book. I also must complement the special effects - it seems that more movie makers are learning the lesson of letting the special effects support the movie, rather than upstaging the movie (George Lucas, are you listening? ). If you were a fan of the first movie, I could certainly recommend this one.

Finally got a chance to see IronMan and, even though I am not a comics fan, I did throughly enjoy this movie (especially the incredible technology on display in the billionaire's house - if I had displays like that, I probably wouldn't leave the house ). Thankfully, my viewing experience was vastly superior to my coworker's - not a single constantly talking kid to be found . The theater was packed with a very appreciative audience - always a plus for movie watching.

Aah, the joy of new technology. After having continuing strange ( and intermittent ) problems with my Sony Blu-Ray player (picture flaking out, sometimes not showing at all, etc), my first instinct was to blame my HDMI switcher and duly tried switching the input ports around with no luck. Finally got off of my lazy duff and swapped the Blu-Ray player HDMI cable with the DVR box HDMI cable. Wouldn't you know it, the DVR box started having issues - freezing up, etc. Hmmm - time to get a new cable perhaps? Since I need instant gratification, I duly made the pilgrimage to my Best Buy store to pay an inflated price for a new HDMI cable (for those not in need of instant gratification, this online store comes highly recommended to me by a coworker), and, presto, HDMI happiness all the way around.

Finally had the chance to see a much overlooked movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown. It is a documentary, intercut with concert footage, of The Funk Brothers. The Funk Brothers were an outstanding group of studio musicians that played on every Motown hit, but still remained largely unknown, even though their hits are legendary. It was a very well done movie and I would highly recommended it, especially if you are a fan of music history. (now if only this movie was available on Blu-Ray.... )

Thanks to the generosity of one of our vendors, I (and some of my friends) was able to take in the Casting Crowns concert this past weekend. It was the first time that I had the opportunity to view a concert from private box and it was quite an enjoyable experience . I was also relatively new to the music of Casting Crowns as well, but I will definitely keep an eye on this group going forward. ( For the record, the Skillet concert was still my favorite one this year )

All those (Blu-Ray fans) who didn't see this coming, please raise your hands. Now that the hi-def format war is essentially over, one of the first effects evidently will be Netflix raising the prices on their Blu-Ray rentals.

The stars must truly be aligning. This past weekend, one of my coworkers whom I have been bugging forever to get on the Blu-Ray train finally succumbed and purchased a Blu-Ray player (of course I missed the post, so now I'll be the one receiving the ribbing ) and now rumor has it that Season 2 of Heroes will be released on DVD in August 2008. And in even more good news, Heroes: Season 1 and Heroes: Season 2 will be among Universal's first releases on Blu-Ray. Yes! Incidentally, Season 3: Villains starts September 2008.