Foto Friday - 2/24/12

This is my sixty-seventh Foto Friday post. The pictures today are from snow at Crystal Mountain and around my work. Full set with all 15 photos can be viewed here. And, as always, you can click to enlarge these pictures.

My dad and I took Juliana up to Crystal Mountain for her second ski trip. It's amazing how quickly she has improved now. She was able to do some turning, but we think she still hasn't quite mastered that or stopping at the moment. I forgot to take my camera up to the slopes, so I only got to take a few shots when we got back to the car.

I did manage to take a video with my Windows Phone to show how well she stays up. Over two minutes of her flying down the hill without falling or stopping. She's going to be an amazing skier.

Since I didn't really take too many pictures these last two weeks, I took my camera out on a little walk around work. But not before taking a surprise shot of these guys. This is Virgil and Dave who support a lot of the physical installation and integration of our systems at Studios.

Here's the building I work in. People tell me that it used to be a warehouse before it was converted into a production studio. Still love my job.

Across the street from us is Nintendo. Redmond is not only the headquarters for Microsoft, but yes, one of the other biggest video game console and game makers in the world. To be precise, this is the headquarters for Nintendo of America.

Their building is actually pretty new and looks like it's pretty nice on the inside. The outside leaves a lot to be desired. They used to put a Nintendo character's face on a flag on their flag pole, but don't seem to do that anymore. However, there are Mario Kart-style signs on the parking garage, which is fun.

I know one person who works here and I'm still trying to get a tour from him sometime. Other than that, you always see tons of young video game testers probably making slightly over minimum wage. I've heard game testing is a pretty miserable job, though you would think otherwise for a career that requires you to play video games all day. To see more pictures of Nintendo, my work, and the snow up at Crystal, view the full set.

Other Best and Worst of 2011

With the Oscars coming up this weekend and not really having the time I'd like to blog about everything entertainment-related that has been on my mind, I thought that it would be nice to put a little list together of my favorite and least favorites other things from 2011.

Best Actor: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
Runner-up: Ryan Gosling in Drive, The Ides of March, and Crazy, Stupid, Love and Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Thoughts: As much as I loved Ryan Gosling in all three of his films this year, Michael Shannon's single performance in Take Shelter was the most amazing to me. I haven't watched Boardwalk Empire (yet) and have only seen Shannon in smaller supporting roles, so this is kind of the breakout actor for me, personally. The fact that Shannon did not get nominated for an Oscar is a true shame.

Best Actress: Jessica Chastain in The Help, Take Shelter, and The Tree of Life
Runner-up: Viola Davis in The Help
Thoughts: I only saw three of the six films Jessica Chastain acted in and what I saw was a fast-rising star. She's pretty, a great performer, and has a bright future ahead of her. Viola Davis is just on top of her game right now, as well.

Best Breakthrough Performance: Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene
Runners-up: Felicity Jones in Like Crazy and Shailene Woodley in The Descendants
Thoughts: All three of my favorite breakthrough performances came from young ladies this year. My favorite was definitely Elizabeth Olsen's in Martha Marcy May Marlene. Considering that she's coming up in five new films already, I would say that she will have success. Oh yeah, and I got to meet her.

Best Soundtrack: Drive
Runner-up: Attack the Block and Hanna
Thoughts: I listened to the Drive soundtrack more than any other soundtrack this year and I still love it.

Best Score: John Williams for War Horse
Runner-up: Ludovic Bource for The Artist and Cliff Martinez for Drive
Thoughts: John Williams is still my favorite film composer. War Horse's score was a wonderful return to his older material. Great stuff.

Worst Movie of the Year: The Smurfs
Runner-up: Gnomeo & Juliet, Life in a Day
Thoughts: I only went to see The Smurfs because my daughter wanted to see it and it was free. I don't think anyone could pay me to see this movie again.

Best Sci-Fi Film: Attack the Block
Runner-up: Super 8
Thoughts: Not an extremely high amount of sci-fi films this year, but Attack the Block is definitely one of my favorites of all-time now. Huge surprise. One of the most enjoyable experience I had in a movie theatre last year.

Best Comedy: Crazy, Stupid, Love
Runner-up: Bridesmaids
Thoughts: I probably laughed at Bridesmaids overall more than any other film, but Crazy, Stupid, Love was a lot more intelligent to me. Every time I see Steve Carell pull out his velcro wallet for Ryan Gosling, I crack up.

Best Action Sequence: Bagghar chase sequence in The Adventures of Tintin
Runner-up: Boat dock shootout scene in The Guard and Berlin U-Bahn fight in Hanna
Thoughts: There were some great action sequences last year, but the best of all came from Tintin in what looks like one long take with the virtual camera through the fictional city of Bagghar. I am still in complete awe when I watch that scene. Should have been nominated for an animation Oscar.

Crush of the Year: Alison Brie
Runners-up: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Emily Browning, Felicity Jones
Thoughts: This is other than my wife, of course. I've never really spoken about which girls I have crushes on because I've always felt ashamed, but now I don't care. I think Alison Brie has a very striking look and is a fun actress to watch grow with her experience.

Best New TV Series: Downton Abbey
Runner-up: Portlandia, Revenge
Thoughts: I don't really talk about TV as much as I used to on here, but we did a top five TV shows episode of Cam-Fu and Friends earlier this year where I announced that Downton Abbey was my favorite new TV series. I often make comparisons to Mad Men, but that's probably only because Mad Men was on last season (March 25th baby!). Bethany and I are completely caught up on Downton and cannot wait for season 3.

Best Video Game: Uncharted 3
Runner-up: Portal 2
Thoughts: This is a close call because Portal 2 was also so very good, but I gotta give the edge to Uncharted 3. Oddly enough, I don't think I liked it as much as Uncharted 2, but it's still a fine piece of gaming. Anyone who likes video games and adventure movies would love this game. It's like playing a movie.

February 17-19, 2012 Box Office Results

Weekend of February 17-19, 2012

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance – $30,000,000 estimate – My prediction: Over – $22,115,334 actual – Under
This Means War – $18,000,000 estimate – My prediction: Under – $17,405,930 actual – Under
The Secret World of Arrietty – $5,500,000 estimate – My prediction: Over – $6,446,395 actual – Over

Not too much of a shock this weekend, although a fairly good weekend for the movie business in general. Good job Jason and Randy for getting all of your predictions correct.

Safe House came out at #1 this weekend at the beginning of its second week of release. It’s a 40.8% drop from last weekend, but it still managed to sneak past The Vow, which opened at #2.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance had a sad opening, which is personally fine with me since the first movie was shite and this second one looks even worse. Looks like no one was interested in the sequel, especially after five years of waiting. Box Office Mojo did a really cool comparison showing how Happy Feet 2 also came out five years after the original and opened to 51% of Happy Feet 1’s opening. Ghost Rider 2 opened to 49% of what the first film made. No idea what made me choose Over. I presume that I was on some sort of narcotics.

Journey 2 held up well on its second weekend and beat out This Means War. The Secret World of Arrietty came in ninth place for the weekend, but it was only released in 1,522 theatres, which places it at #15 on the per theatre average list.

Four new films will be added to the mix this weekend. Act of Valor will get a wide release. The film stars real active-duty Navy SEALs in an action film inspired by true events. When the directors were prepping this film, they released that no actors could correctly portray a real Navy SEAL, so they used actual SEALs whose names will not appear in the credits. Then there’s Wanderlust, the Judd Apatow-produced Ken Marino and David Wain-written comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. It’s basically the same team that brought you Role Models which I found quite funny at times. Then there’s the thriller Gone starring Amanda Seyfried. Haven’t heard much about this, so I don’t think we can see big returns for it. Finally there’s Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds which is directed by Tyler Perry and written by Tyler Perry and starring Tyler Perry and produced by Tyler Perry and screened by Tyler Perry and watched by Tyler Perry.





Tyler Perry.

REVIEW: The Grey

 There are some spoilers in this review.

PLOT: In Alaska, an oil drilling team struggle to survive the elements and a pack of wolves after a plane crash strands them in the wild.


THE GOOD: Score. Although the score for The Grey is simple, I thought it was well-composed. Marc Streitenfeld seems to be a favorite with Tony and Ridley Scott, who produced this film. Streitenfeld is writing the score for Ridley's upcoming prequel to the Alien universe, Prometheus.

Theme. There are two running themes in this movie. One is about survival and the other is about spirituality. The lead character of Ottway, played by Liam Neeson, is a mysterious man from the start. One of the survivors prays over the victims of the plane crash and Ottway just stands there. He doesn't start walking off, yet he doesn't exactly join in the circle around the crash site. Perhaps he doesn't know what to believe in at this point. In a later scene after a tragic moment, Neeson's character is seen screaming up towards the sky at God, demanding help. When no response is given, he says something along the lines of "F*ck it... I'll do it myself." This is an understandable reaction that would probably resonate with most people. Where is God when you most need him? But there is a redeeming moment within the last couple minutes of the film where Neeson's character gets down in his knees in a prayer-like position and looks through the collected wallets of the deceased. After he observes the drivers licenses and personal photographs of the men who have been lost, he places the closed wallets on the ground before adding his own. And if you look carefully at that arrangement, you might notice that they form a cross. Unless you're just a super big hardcore atheist, then you'll just see a lowercase T.

Ottway: "Now I'll never get my SkyMall order."

THE BAD: Characters. The way writers Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers toy with your emotions was not a fun experience. There is little character development in this film. Even the lead character of Ottway doesn't really have too much of a back story. It was initially kind of interesting and then nothing for an hour and 45 minutes and then the big reveal is, well... again, I feel like I had been played. You can tell that each of the supporting characters have stories to tell also, but you don't really get to know them until 2-3 minutes before their demise. Even one man, who spoke of how he loved when his daughter would dangle her long hair over his face to tickle him, had little to share with us. I feel like the writers were attempting to tug on our heartstrings to make us feel some type of connection with these men, but I was quite turned off. You could tell exactly when each one was going to perish. And the only person who seemed to have convincing monologues was Liam Neeson. Probably because his character had a bit more substance than the rest, or maybe because he's a more talented actor, but I'm sure part of it was adding in the great score for his stories.

Plot holes. I'm not going to start pretending like I'm a wolf expert or anything, but it was hard for me to believe that a giant pack of wolves wouldn't just attack those men. Especially when the group's numbers were dwindled down to the few. I've seen videos of dogs at shelters with more gusto than those weak-ass wolves.

The survivors would have had much better luck if they were vampires. Go Team Liam!

Chaos cinema. I'm going to start using a term more often in my reviews that I've been searching for for a long time: Chaos cinema. In a two-part online video essay, Matthias Stork coins the term that examines the extreme aesthetic principles of 21st century action films. While I understand his point, and agree with it to a certain aspect, I don't think we're in deep trouble yet. I've always described this quality as "shaky cam," which is a very direct way of describing what I'm talking about. It's a quality that plagued the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for me, and I even mentioned it in my review for another Liam Neeson film that I actually enjoyed, Taken. The Grey's use of chaos cinema is not lengthy, but it is the only way director Joe Carnahan decides to show the killing scenes. Blurred shots of fur, blood, and loud sound effects of wolves growling is how the filmmaker decides to convince us of the attacks. It's unintelligible and lazy.

Jump scares. Admittedly, there was one really good one that I thought was quite effective. It got me so good that a jumped in my seat higher than ever before. But the film relies too heavily on this technique and, again, I feel like I'm just being manipulated.


THE END: The Grey is a completely forgettable movie for me. If you want to see people get picked off one-by-one and nothing more, than you'll probably like this movie. There's not much more substance to it other than a spiritual message that never quite hits a clear message. When the movie tries to be profound, it comes off as pretentious and a waste of time. It's a mask to show a overall very basic survival tale. Survival tales have been told in more creative and thought-provoking ways. Skip this one. You won't be missing a single thing.


DISCUSS: What did you think of The Grey? What did you think of the spiritual message in the film? How would you compare this film to other survival pictures? What was your least favorite aspect of this movie?

In this movie, Liam Neeson's character boxes wolves with a knife and broken bottles taped to his hands. In his next film, Neeson will be hitting hyenas with a tire iron.

That Girl's Laugh When We Were Young

Got three new songs that I've been listening to a lot.

#3 The Decoration - "That Girl's Got Spark"
That Girl's Got Spark
The Decoration is a new discovery for me. I've fallen out on most pop music. I've liked a Katy Perry or Bruno Mars song here or there, but I can't say that I've really gone crazy for any of them. The Decoration takes me back to late '90s pop. It is a duo formed by former Ellington band member Jake Bosci and his fiancé, vocalist and violinist Rhian Thomas. You can officially consider their music to be indie-pop, and that's no different with "That Girl's Got Spark." It's their second track on their debut EP Anywhere is Home. It's a very optimistic and dreamy album that I would recommend to anyone who wants something fun to sing along to. It is produced by Matt Malpass who has produced, engineered, mixed, or written tracks for bands like Copeland, Cute Is What We Aim For, Rookie of the Year, The Ready Set, and Relient K. The whole album is great. The Decoration could be huge.

#2 Sucré - "When We Were Young"

And now for some Eisley-related goodness. Stacy DuPree (or Stacy King now), one of the girls from one of my favorite bands, Eisley, is going solo so to speak. I don't think there's any bad blood or anything, just a will to try and create something new. She will be called Sucré and her debut album will be out April 12th. It is one of my most anticipated albums of the year because Stacy's writing and voice are just so beautiful. She worked on this album with her husband Darren King who is the drummer from the band Mutemath. "When We Were Young" is the first preview off the album and I already like what I'm hearing. It's Stacy's usual self, but will a more poppy sound. The album is being produced by Jeremy Larson who has done some work with Mutemath, but does a lot of his own stuff, which is pretty good.

#1 Eisley - "Laugh It Off"

This song goes out to a good friend. My love for Eisley is unashamed and unrestrained. They just keep putting out good music. Their latest EP, Deep Space, just dropped a few days ago on Valentine's Day and I cannot stop listening to "Laugh It Off." In a way, it's a song that's a return to the band's roots. I would expect to hear this track on one of their first Extended Plays, but there's also a touch of all the experience the band has gained over the years. Stacy's inspiration for this song came from her marriage and says that the song is simply about "when things get tough or life just looks really bad, and how beautiful it is when one person helps to pull the other along." Those angelic backup vocals you hear in the song actually come from the band's youngest sister Christie DuPree who has her own solo project.

What have you been listening to lately?