You are what you eat—literally. And in a similar fashion
what entertainment you choose to indulge in can tell a lot about you as well.
Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been consuming lately.
Movies
I don’t go to movies a lot. The number one reason is that
movies quite often disappoint me. I watch trailers and get excited only to find
out the best parts were shown in the trailer. Or, I read and liked the book, so
I’m interested in the movie but it turns out that someone interpreted it
differently; I mean they decided to change the story significantly. I hate
that. Or the absolute worst is when a movie feels like it’s packed full of
fabulous effects and enticing action sequences but there is no plot, no story.
All of this makes me skeptical of movies in general.
So far this year I’ve seen two movies: John Carter and Red
Tails. I had completely different experiences with each of them.
John Carter
I saw John Carter
last week. I’ve been excited to see it for a while now, mostly based on the
trailers ;-). Hi I’m Scott and I fall for this kind of thing often. Curse you
Hollywood! Besides the impressively cool trailer, sci-fi and fantasy are my
favorite genres. How can you go wrong mixing them together? And one more thing,
this movie was my choice, not my wife’s.
Overall I liked it. It was worth the price of admission
including the 3d tax. The pictures on the screen were beautiful. The 3d detail
was impressive. I found myself staring at the Tharks’ skin textures more than
once. The story was good, even though it was a bit predictable. I liked how
John Carter learned to use his special abilities on Mars. And I thought the
inclusion of Edgar Rice Burroughs as a character in the movie was a nice touch.
There were a couple of times, however, when I was scratching
my head about how easily John got out of difficult predicaments. And John
Carter’s backstory, how his wife and child were brutally murdered while he was
away at war could have been handled better. But of course that would have taken
time away from the pretty pictures. Anyway I didn’t buy that as motivation for
his selfishness, although it’s clear that’s what they were trying to sell me.
This trope has been used before, most recently in Cowboys vs Aliens, Jake Lonergan and in the TV show Hell on Wheels Cullen Bohannon, both of
which deal with it in more believable ways.
In summary I had high expectations for John Carter. And while I did like it, I really wanted to like it
more. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.
Red Tails
I’m sure I saw a trailer for Red Tails, but I honestly don’t remember it. When my wife suggested
we see it I had to go to flixster to figure out what it was about. Two things
got me into the theater that night back in January. One, there wasn’t anything
else playing I wanted to see. And two, my wife chose it and I was hoping to win
points for going along with her. I had nothing against it; it’s just that when
I think of a fun time at the movies, war films don’t jump to the top of my list.
I was thinking it was going to be closer to a history lesson than
entertainment.
When I’m wrong sometimes I’ll admit it. This is one of those
times—I was WRONG. Please mark this down so I get credit. Red Tails was packed full of engaging action, relatable characters,
a compelling story and yes, even some history too.
Red Tails made me
want to fly in one of those shiny P-51 Mustangs, or at least to build a model
of one. I was pumped up with emotion along with the characters in the scene
where they prayed on the runway right before they went on their big mission. I
liked the characters before, but after that I couldn’t help but root for them.
I related most to Joe “Lightning” Little. My natural
instinct is to fight injustice head on without really thinking it
through—usually in much smaller ways. I should be more like Martin “Easy”
Julian though and think about the best way to achieve my goals. Sometimes that
means enduring is more important than fighting, especially when fighting
commonly makes us ineffective by taking us out of the game.
When I’m in a leadership position I am like Easy. I often
second guess myself and/or beat myself up and feel like quitting when I make a
wrong decision. There was a great scene when Easy tried to give up his command
but the admiral wouldn’t let him. Easy learned to accept himself as the leader,
even though he sometimes made bad decisions. Leader or not moving on in life,
despite the fact that I make wrong decisions sometimes, is an important lesson
to learn.
I liked the WWII part of the movie more than I thought I
would. But why the military leaders couldn’t convince all the pilots that
protecting the bombers was more important than shooting down enemy planes is a
disappointing message about their own abilities to lead. If I were a WWII pilot
I think I might be tempted by the impulse to rack up hits. But, if it were
explained that our side was losing bombing crews, and potentially losing the
war because of it, I hope I would have done the right thing and not just what I wanted to do. That made the other
pilots seem petty and selfish in comparison.
I kept thinking about Red
Tails, long after I saw it. I had low expectations to begin with and it
blew them away in the end. I walked away from Red Tails feeling good inside.
The rest of this movie year holds great potential. The ones
I’m looking forward to most are: Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Dark Knight Rises,
Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man and Brave. I hope I’ll have something good to say
about a few of these too.
TV
I probably watch more TV than I should. I justify it by
calling it creative research for my writing. Anyway, you know a show is good
when you can’t wait for the next episode. So then it’s a bonus to actually find
the time to sit down and watch them. Lately a few stand out over the rest: Walking Dead, Being Human, Justified, Hell on Wheels, Grimm and
Once Upon a Time.
Walking Dead makes
me cringe and then I come back for more. They’re not afraid to kill off major
characters and I want to know how the ones who remain alive are going to
survive.
Being Human is
about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who simply want to live “normal”
lives. Unfortunately for them their monster-ish selves always seem to get in
the way. I’m not a vampire, a werewolf, nor a ghost but I can relate to their
desires for the “ordinary.” I quite often feel like a monster when I don’t
measure up to my own lofty expectations, when I make mistakes.
On Justified
Raylan Givens is a rogue U.S. Marshal who does what he thinks is the right
thing even when he knows it will get him in trouble. His flaws are obvious and
it’s a miracle he’s not dead yet given his propensity for walking headlong into
fire. But he’s a guy I enjoy rooting for; and sometimes I wish I could get away
with cutting to the chase the way Raylan does.
Hell on Wheels is
a western. The setting is the American West post-Civil War, the railroad
expansion in particular. The images on the screen, from the scenery to the
clothing, are incredibly beautiful. The story is good too. It’s between seasons
right now. But I’ll be right there when they start back up towards the end of
2012.
Grimm and Once Upon a Time are similar in that
they explore fairy tales. But each does it in a very different way. Each comes
with its own plusses and minuses. But I’m still watching both of them.
That sounds like a lot. I know. But we wouldn’t be able to
keep up without TiVo. My wife and I typically watch one of the recorded
episodes after we put our kids to bed. It’s something we enjoy doing together.
It helps us wind down after an action packed day of work and plenty of kid
stuff.
Sports
We’re in the middle of March Madness and I still haven’t
fully committed to basketball this year. The NBA lockout really soured me.
Luckily I’m still riding high remembering how my favorite football team, the
San Francisco 49ers turned things around this year. And even though they could
have made it to the Super Bowl I’m proud to be a fan. I’ve been a fan since the
beginning of the season that ended with Joe Montana and Dwight Clark hooking up
for “The Catch” to nudge the 9ers past the Cowboys and into the Super Bowl.
All I can say is Jim Harbaugh is the man. It was impressive
to watch him turn essentially the same team as last year around in such a
convincing manor. I’ll admit, the last few years have been more down than up.
It’s been tough to see my team go through it. But this past season made it all
worth it. It gives me hope for the future. That’s what I love about sports.
Seasons come and seasons go, but the beginning of a new season is filled with
tremendous amounts of hope—next season might be the one.
Something New?
Have you heard about Coliloquy? On their website they describe themselves as “a
digital publisher of active fiction, specializing in reader engagement and
serial storytelling.”
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how traditional
publishing might change using technology to create something new and
interesting. That’s how the programmer in me thinks. I’m not sure if Coliloquy
is going as far as I thought possible, but I’m excited they’re willing to do
something to push forward into the future.
I haven’t been able to sample any of their dynamic content
just yet because, as of now, it is only available on Kindle devices other than
the Kindle Fire. I have an iPad and my wife has a Kindle Fire. So for now I’m
sitting on the sidelines waiting for their next step, which is rumored to
include not only the Kindle Fire but iOS options as well. Please hurry up
Coliloquy.
I am definitely keeping my eyes on them to see what they can
do. Have any of you read titles from Coliloquy? If so, please let me know what
you think of them.
Reading
I recently started two interesting books. One is Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac and the
other is Here, There Be Dragons by
James A. Owen. Every night I can’t wait to pick one of them up and read
further.
In comics I’m looking forward to Avengers vs X-Men (AvX)
coming out in a few weeks. I’ve liked the X-Men for a long time. The Avengers
are less familiar so I’m learning about them by reading New Avengers, Secret
Avengers, Avengers: X-Sanction and Avenging Spider-Man.
Summary
I’m not exactly sure what all this means, other than it
looks like I spend a boatload of time consuming all different kinds of media.
So when do I find time to write? Well actually, writing is my top priority. It
pushes all this other stuff aside. But all this “other stuff” is necessary to
reinvigorate my creative juices. And some of this other stuff is how I stay in
contact with my family, especially my wife. We do most of it together.
One thing that stands out about what I choose to watch is
that I like strong characters who try to do the right thing even though they
end up making lots of mistakes along the way. And I just might like watching
characters do things I wish I had the opportunity and/or courage to do. As I
have written all this down it’s interesting to find out that I seem to
gravitate towards characters who have some admirable qualities, and who are
striving to be better no matter what position they find themselves in. Me too.
Oh, and one more thing. I learned that I should trust my
wife’s movie choices more often.
