Baron Dave Romm
Harry Potter
By Baron Dave Romm
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Happy Channukkah!
May your flame burn longer then expected.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I
Quick review: If you liked the other Harry Potter movies and/or read the books, you'll like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. I
Mild spoilers for those who aren't familiar with the story so far.Beyond that, quite frankly, there's not a lot to say. The seven Harry Potter novels are all a British school year's worth of time, starting at age 11 when secondary school begins for British students. Frankly, I think basing the books on the slightly-foreign-to-US forms adds to the otherworldliness of JK Rowling's world. The stories begin with the summer just before school and winds down as school lets out. The books more than the movies hew to this structure.
Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series, is quite long with plot and/or exposition throughout. Breaking the book into two movies seems obvious, in retrospect. Part I starts, as usual, just before the school year begins... or would begin if things were proceeding as usual. But, alas, they are not.
Evil is afoot. Specifically, Voldemort. Voldemort, who killed Harry Potter's parents and caused the lightening bolt scar on his forehead, had died but is now coming back. Yes, he's that evil.
Voldemort's was obsessed with attaining immortality. To achieve immortality, Voldemort put his soul into objects called horcruxes (warning, spoilers for the whole series if you read to much of this link). Horcrux creation requires a murder, and destruction is very difficult. It is the task of Harry Potter and friends to destroy these objects.
The Deathly Hallows (warning, link has several spoilers) are powerful objects, the stuff of lore and legend, supposedly created by Death. Possessing all three Deathly Hallows will aid in defeating Voldemort.
Okay, everyone up to speed now? To defeat the Really Really Bad Guy, the Good Guys have to find and destroy hard-to-destroy horcruxes and find and use the nearly mythological Deathly Hallows to finish off the nearly-immortal Really Really Bad Guy.
Hard going. Requires seven books and eight movies.
In this, the penultimate movie, our heroes Harry, Hermione and Ron can trust very few people, so set off on their own. Much of the setting is bleak. Much of the dialog revolves around teenagers raging hormones. Favorite characters appear briefly, if at all. With a few exceptions. Tragedy and triumph. Almost no time is spent on reintroducing the characters, so if you haven't been following the story you'll just have to take a lot on faith.
But if you have been following the story, then you will be richly rewarded. JK Rowling, like the Beatles, took a young audience and dragged them into maturity. So another warning: Deathly Hallows is not a kids movie.
I can't really comment on the movie as a whole because the movie isn't a whole. Suffice it to say that it's a very good movie, and that I will be awaiting Party II. At some point, I'll sit down with all the movies on DVD and go through them. The books are all of one style; the movies several.
The books are better, but the movies are well done.
I'm not even going to recommend Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You either know you're going to see it, or you don't care.
Tangled
My niece, with
her mother and aunt, wearing 3D glasses before Tangled
11/27/10
Tangled is the new Disney version of Rapunzel. I went with my three-and-a-half-year-old niece and family. It's is a fine, affecting, movie. But I'm glad Disney renamed the story. Tangled has little or nothing to do with the traditional fairy tale. The set-up, in brief: A king and queen are having a baby, but the expectant mother is going to die in childbirth. The king sends out soldiers to find the one flower that can heal anything. The flower is jealously guarded by an old crone, who uses the flower to remain young for hundreds and hundreds of years. The king finds the flower and heals his wife. The flower is used up, but its powers are transferred to the child. Who is promptly kidnapped by the crone and locked away in a tower. Where, 18 years later, a thief... well, more would be spoiler.
Suffice it to say that this is another Disney film aimed at empowering girls. Not a bad thing in and of itself, but no one else needs to see this movie. It has nothing for boys. It has nothing for parents. Indeed, Tangled will do for petulant teen girls who are sure they are adopted and that their mother hates them what Hamlet did for teen boys who are sure their father hates them and their mother doesn't care.
Not much Rapunzel; more Aladdin (with a thief swooping in) and The Little Mermaid (with the princess leaving home to find True Love) with a dash of 1001 Dalmatians (with the villainess). The 3D is nice and used to good effect, but not necessary to the story. Our 3-year-old wore the glasses without complaint.
Some good songs and the occasional great bit of animation are a major plus. Still, some animation seemed rushed and the characters rarely rise above their one-dimensional introduction. I can't really recommend this movie for anyone but young girls.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Annie Lowrey: A Joyless Jobless Report (Slate)
There is no shortage of ways that the federal government, if it wanted to, could juice employment. To name a few: It could tax corporations hoarding cash to encourage them to invest or hire workers. It could slash payroll taxes. It could directly hire workers. It could offer vouchers for state and local governments to rehire the workers they have recently let go or positions they have left unfilled. It could offer cash bonuses for the unemployed who find work. …
Marc Dion: Losing the War on Everything (Creators Syndicate)
Headlines are often more important than the stories on which they ride. No newspaper editor ever headlined anything using the word "tragedy" unless he figured he had a weeper of a story.
Scott Burns: Strange Silver in an Ill Wind (assetbuilder.com)
According to recent reporting from Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence firm, the violence along the border continues to escalate. Entire towns are becoming no man's lands. Recent 'Wall Street Journal' photos from Ciudad Mier, a town on the border between Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, could be from Afghanistan. And the known body count continues to rise.
Terry Savage: Holiday Tips With a Grain of Salt (Creators Syndicate)
As the holiday shopping season swings into high gear, everyone's giving advice. As if you needed it. If you haven't learned the lesson of self-discipline by this point in the Great Recession, no newspaper column will help. Instead, here's a bunch of tips sent to me in press releases that range from the obvious to the unique to the outrageous. Many revolve around "surveys" that - no surprise - wind up favoring their own product or service.
Tim Rutten: Hate under cloak of religion (Los Angeles Times)
The Southern Poverty Law Center rightly calls out the Family Research Council's anti-gay rhetoric.
David Lazarus: Collecting debts from the dead (Los Angeles Times)
Regulators are poised to crack down on debt collectors who ignore rules on pursuing the debts of the deceased.
John Dickerson: Stop Playing Nice, Mr. President (Slate)
Why liberals are increasingly frustrated with Obama's efforts at bipartisanship.
Jim Hightower: MISDEMEANORS FOR THE RICH
Here's a crime drama, tragedy, and farce - all in one play. First comes the crime perpetrator, Martin Erzinger. A well-heeled wealth manager in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Denver office, Erzinger handles more than a billion dollars in private assets and describes himself as "dedicated to ultra high net worth individuals."
Howard Reich: "'In His Own Sweet Way': Film celebrates Brubeck's 90 years" (Chicago Tribune)
Dave Brubeck will turn 90 on Monday, and of all the tributes sure to flow his way, one of the most endearing will be public: the broadcast of an ambitious documentary film on his remarkably enduring career.
George Varga: Stoned Alone: Keith Richards' Life Selectively Memorable (Creators Syndicate)
Few rock 'n' roll icons are as fascinating, or as flawed, as Keith Richards, the grizzled, seemingly indestructible guitarist in the Rolling Stones for the past 48 of his 66 years. Likewise, few autobiographies by any rock 'n' roll icon in memory are as fascinating, or as flawed, as Richards' "Life" (a title that could accurately be prefaced with the words "Bigger Than...").
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"The Texas Governor Who Tolled Christmas"
Pay up for Christmas - or Else?
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Wiki-Humpty Dumpty' Edition...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic documents is an attack not only on the United States but also the international community...
"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," Clinton said. "It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity." ..."It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems," she told reporters at the State Department...
Clinton calls leaked documents attack on world | detnews.com | The Detroit News
(I watched her statement live and she looked to be NOT a happy camper... Woe be unto PFC Manning)
Do you feel the release of these diplomatic documents are:
1.) A good thing...
2.) A bad thing...
3.) Sorta good - Kinda bad...
4.) Hey! What happened to the Holiday Season theme - thingy?
Send your response to
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
In The Mail
Re: Wikileaks Guy
Hi Marty!
When I read the article on BCE about the Wikileakers I noticed that PFC Manning was being held in solitary confinement at a "Military Base in Quantico, Virginia."
Back in my troubled youth, I was in the Navy and went AWOL, and as punishment I was sent to the aforementioned Military Base in Quantico ,which was at the time run by Marine Corps officer candidates (biggest bunch of loser assholes ever assembled outside a Tea-Bagger pot-luck/lynching). It is what is considered a "Red-Line" brig, which if you can equate it with a civilian prison, makes it a super Super-Max, on a par with Abu-Grhaib.
Beatings were routine and severe, and I, being a sailor, was exposed to more than my share of abuse for the 2+ years I was incarcerated there (for going AWOL for only 2-weeks).
To show you how insidious and dreadful the place is, during my stay someone shot President Ronald Raygun and he was immediately sent to good ole Quantico cuz they could think of no place more hateful/hurtful for someone who shot their Messiah ...The place was (and more than likely still is) a Hell-Hole that should be closed down forever for humanitarian reasons.
Just Another Citizen With A Story...
Thanks, JACWAS!
It was my decision to withhold this person's name. Why?
Because I think I should.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The return trip from Sac was pretty awful - close to 400 miles of one nasty storm after another.
Lots of lightning, and heavy, heavy rain.
Had a few things that were in the mail that I'm gonna put off til the other side of some sleep. I'm just too tired.
Winfrey Book Club Pick
Charles Dickens
Oprah Winfrey has selected a pair of Dickens classics, "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations" for her book club. The two novels are being issued in a single bound Penguin paperback edition, around 800 pages, with a list price of $20. The electronic version, also from Penguin, sells for $7.99.
Because the copyright has long expired on the 19th-century novels, they are available through a variety of publishers and even directly from retailers. "Great Expectations" can be downloaded for free on Amazon.com's Kindle reader. "A Tale of Two Cities" costs 99 cents on Barnes & Noble's e-book device, the Nook.
Winfrey is to announce her selection Monday, when her long-awaited reconciliation with Jonathan Franzen will air.
Winfrey picked Franzen's "Freedom" nine years after his ambivalence over her selection of his novel "The Corrections" led her to withdraw his invitation to appear on her show. Franzen has written enviously of Dickens' time, when a new literary release "was anticipated with the kind of fever that a late-December film release inspires today."
Charles Dickens
Accident Halts Live TV Show
"Wetten Dass"
A live broadcast of a popular German game show was halted after a contestant was severely injured while trying to jump over a moving car driven by his father.
The accident occurred Saturday night just before Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber was to appear on the show, prompting him to say on his Twitter account: "Please pray for Samuel Koch & his family as we wait and hope for his health and safety."
Koch's stunt may have gone terribly wrong because the special shoes he was wearing for the jump, featuring a suspension system, malfunctioned.
Broadcaster ZDF said the accident by the 23-year-old prompted it to cancel the live broadcast of the "Wetten Dass" ("Bet It"), which had an audience of about 10 million people, according to German media.
"Wetten dass" has been on TV for nearly 30 years and is one of Germany's most successful shows.
"Wetten Dass"
Web Browser Flaw
"History Sniffing"
Dozens of websites have been secretly harvesting lists of places that their users previously visited online, everything from news articles to bank sites to pornography, a team of computer scientists found.
The information is valuable for con artists to learn more about their targets and send them personalized attacks. It also allows e-commerce companies to adjust ads or prices - for instance, if the site knows you've just come from a competitor that is offering a lower price.
The technique the University of California, San Diego researchers investigated is called "history sniffing" and is a result of the way browsers interact with websites and record where they've been. A few lines of programming code are all a site needs to pull it off.
Although security experts have known for nearly a decade that such snooping is possible, the latest findings offer some of the first public evidence of sites exploiting the problem. Current versions of the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers still allow this, as do older versions of Chrome and Safari, the researchers said.
The researchers found 46 sites, ranging from smutty to staid, that tried to pry loose their visitors browsing histories using this technique, sometimes with homegrown tracking code. Nearly half of the 46 sites, including financial research site Morningstar.com and news site Newsmax.com, used an ad-targeting company, Interclick, which says its code was responsible for the tracking.
"History Sniffing"
Pokes At Palin-The-Lesser
Margaret Cho
Bristol Palin says her mother didn't force her to go on "Dancing with the Stars."
The 20-year-old daughter of 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R-Quitter) used a Facebook post to react to a blog entry by a fellow contestant, comedian Margaret Cho. Cho wrote that the former Alaska governor blamed her daughter for the 2008 loss and told her she "owed" it to her to go on "Dancing with the Stars" to win back America's love.
Bristol Palin - who was an unmarried teenager when she had her son, Tripp - says it saddens her that anyone would think her mother blamed her for anything that occurred in the election. She says her parents were her top supporters on the show.
Bristol Palin finished third in the contest.
Margaret Cho
Glove Brings $330,000 At Auction
Michael Jackson
Items from the Michael Jackson's stage wardrobe, including one of the King of Pop's famous gloves, attracted furious bidding at an auction of celebrity memorabilia in Beverly Hills.
Julien's Auctions says a lone glove worn by Jackson during the "Bad" tour in the late 1980s sold for $330,000 at the "Icons & Idols" auction Saturday night. A jacket signed by Jackson brought in $96,000 and a fedora he wore on stage went for $72,000 at the Julien's Auctions event.
Other highlights from the auction were an x-ray of Albert Einstein's brain, which brought $38,750, and a pair of Marilyn Monroe's empty prescription bottles sold for $18,750.
A military-style jacket worn by John Lennon for a 1966 Life Magazine photo shoot sold for $240,000.
Michael Jackson
Weekend Box Office
'Tangled'
Mandy Moore's animated musical "Tangled," a new take on long-haired fairy-tale princess Rapunzel, sewed up the No. 1 spot with $21.5 million in its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. That raised the Disney release's domestic total to $96.5 million.
"Tangled" had debuted in second-place over Thanksgiving behind "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," which had been at the top of the box office the two previous weekends.
"Harry Potter" slipped to No. 2 this weekend with $16.7 million. The next-to-last chapter in the Warner Bros. franchise about the teen wizard lifted its domestic haul to $244.2 million.
Business was off sharply after a brisk Thanksgiving weekend, which is one of the busiest periods of the year at movie theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Tangled," $21.5 million.
2. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," $16.7 million.
3 (tie). "Burlesque," $6.1 million.
3 (tie). "Unstoppable," $6.1 million.
5. "Love & Other Drugs," $5.7 million.
6. "Megamind," $5 million.
7. "Due Date," $4.2 million.
8. "Faster," $3.8 million.
9. "The Warrior's Way," $3.1 million.
10. "The Next Three Days," $2.7 million.
'Tangled'
In Memory
Palle Huld
Danish actor Palle Huld, who reportedly inspired a Belgian cartoonist to create the comic book reporter Tintin, has died. He was 98.
Huld was a stage actor with Denmark's Royal Theater, and he appeared in 40 Danish films between 1933 and 2000.
However, his fame came before his acting career began.
In 1928, he won a competition organized by Danish newspaper that wanted to send a teenager would-be-reporter around the globe.
For 44 days, the 15-year-old traveled to North America, Japan, Siberia and Germany, and was greeted by 20,000 people upon his return to Copenhagen.
Herge, the pen name of Belgian author Georges Remi, heard of Huld's journey which reportedly inspired him to create Tintin, the globe-trotting reporter.
Palle Huld
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