Musings From New York

On the one-year anniversary of my blogging, I am moving my blog to TypePad's services. I was quite bugged with Blogger the other day for not giving me any control over the layout of my page ... and signed up for the free 30 day trial at TypePad. After 5 days, I can definitely say I'm sticking with it.

So please point your browsers to, and bookmark:

http://bloreboy.blogs.com

This is the funniest comic strip I've seen to date.

Yesterday, one of my guildmates, a rogue named Crono, got himself a tuxedo stitched. He was so kicked that we took a bunch of photos outside Ironforge. Frostrane (a guild Paladin) and Caterin (another rogue) were in Ironfroge too, and posed as well.

Yes, a year before the Academy Awards, the hunt for the next host is on.

IMDb reports that "Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, is thrilled with how Rock handled his chores, but that he he has huge doubts he'll be asking the funnyman back - at least not next year."

Thank the Gods, I say! I didn't like Chris Rock's hosting - I thought it was toned down, and frankly ... lame!

You know who would make a good host? Seinfeld! Can you imagine Seinfeld-episode-ish shorts sprinkled through the whole Oscar show ... and stand-up routine at the beginning? That would rock!

Jay Leno might be good too. Conan O'Brien is probably too fringe for the Academy crowd though.

So yesterday I was going through a mock-run of a presentation I gave today to a client. The presentation was about my firm's consulting methodologies. During my presentation, I used the phrase "the final solution document" ... as in, "outputs from these activities will be used to create the final solution document".

Someone told me not to use the phrase "the final solution", as it was what Hitler used to justify the Holocaust. I am now teaching myself to say "final version of the solution document."

Now, I like to think I'm sensitive to other cultures and sensibilities. But this is ridiculous.

Now, to be fair, I must say that I love Noir, and I love the Tarantino/Rodriguez camp of movie-making. And I haven't read any of the comic books (though now, I plan to!) But damn, what a movie! In fact, this is probably the first non-mainstream comic-to-movie adaptation that's worked. For example, I loved The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the comic), but the movie sucked!

Thinking about it, you could say that Sin City in similar to Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1: both movies distill the essence of their genre into this highly concentrated, and highly potent mix, that kicks like a mule and leaves you dazed as you exit the theater ... OK, I'm struggling with this metaphor here, and I hope you understand what I'm trying to say!

The look of the movie is great - the gritty, shadowy world of noir is really brought to life. The shadows take on multiple shades of black, with the only color in sight serving to emphasize a character or situation. It's the most visually appealing movie I've seen since ... Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow.

The movie is quite violent - but hey, it's Robert Rodriguez, the guy who made the El Mariachi trilogy & From Dusk Till Dawn! The movie really pulled me in, immersed me in the feel of Sin City, and that's no mean feat considering how jaded I've been about movies recently.

Two mentions about the acting: Bruce Willis as the weary old cop, Hartigan; and Clive Owen as the troubled soul seeking redemption by helping the leather-wearing, machine-gun & katana-toting hookers of Old Town. I hope the top dogs at Sony take a look at his acting here and reconsider casting him as James Bond after Brosnan retires.

Ever feel like you can't get started in the morning? Banana-Strawberry smoothie not cutting it anymore? Get that familiar bitter taste when you have your morning cup of joe? Well maybe you ought to grab one of these!