Today was my first day of vacation. If you’re familiar with the “Scumbag Brain” meme, my scumbag brain is pulling the “It’s your first day off in months and all you want to do is sleep-in? 5:30 AM IT IS” deal.
I’m hoping that some endorphins will help.
In any case, we’ve got a poker night coming up and I think I am going to be seeing The Hobbit on Saturday.
So… what’s on your docket?
What time Saturday? Need a third wheel? K saw it opening day.
Hoping to see the Hobbit as well, if son home from college can squeeze me into his social calendar.
I want to say the 11ish show on Saturday at the one on Powers. Maribou will be able to give full details.
It’s the 11:40 am @ Carefree Circle (aka Powers aka That One Near Where Y’all Work). We’ll be meeting our buddy Joe and possibly (not likely) another person or two in the front area of the lobby @ 11:30ish…. would love to meet you there as well. The more the merrier!
Ok. I’ll see what I can do but since one boy has violin at 1000, no promises.
Violin is canceled! Are the times above still valid?
We’re gonna be there… probably VI afterwards for lunch/pie/discussion of how that was the longest movie in the history of the world.
Ok. See you there.
I too will most likely see the Hobbit on Saturday.
Other than that I won’t be doing much. The pre-Christmas period exhausts me.
Saw The Hobbit on Tuesday night. It was AWESOME!
This weekend we head north to the tundra of O-hi-o for a visit with the wife’s family. Thank goodness for house sitters so the pooches get to avoid the kennel.
Eleven days off for me, can’t wait. Once the X-Mas responsibilities are over I am actually looking forward to digging out of my honey-do list which is embarrassingly long. I’ve had a chronic case of the lazies since June. The cold weather seems to have gotten me out of that funk.
“Saw The Hobbit on Tuesday night. It was AWESOME!”
I will issue a dissenting opinion here. The Hobbit was overly long, bloated and gratuitous. There is no reason to turn a teen-novel into a three-movie and nine-hour epic but filling it with random odds and ends from Tolkien. The battles seems were largely identical. The music pretentious (as much pseudo-Classical from movies is), and the jokes redundant.
Determining what kind of gift I want.
It’s from Canada.
$4.99
Canadians, any thoughts?
A box of “Ah! Caramel!”
(they/she are/is not paying for shipping).
Looking for something electronic.
A nickel-bag of some good stuff from a greenhouse in Vancouver?
… expensing that would be hilarious, I don’t doubt.
but, seriously, the goal is to be in LESS trouble, not more.
(‘sides, even the smell of pot always makes me sick).
A Tim Horton’s gift card?
I think your gift idea works well with my gift idea.
One of my super good friends gets married tonight! I’ll finally get to break out that dress that I only wear like twice a year. Hope it fits! I’ve got a blind date, but I don’t know when or where. You can probably guess how invested I am in that happening. I’m driving halfway across the state to see my sister and niece and driving home the same day. And birthday prep since I’ll be a year older on Thursday.
I’m going to try to stay busy because I just don’t have enough going on at home to warrant a full vacation so I’ll be working M, W, F next week.
Just got home from seeing the Hobbit with my kids. Peter Jackson needs to be horsewhipped, then tarred, feathered, drawn and quartered.
I loathed what he did with the story. And never let it be said that Jackson missed an opportunity to throw in a Hollywood cliche. I had planned to go back later to see the 3D high frame rate version, just out of curiosity about the visual effect of the high frame rate. But damned if I’ll ever pay another penny to see this film.
If you don’t care about Tolkien, and can stomach Hollywood action flick cliches, you’ll like it. And your kids will like it. But if you are even 1/4 a Tolkien purist–if you had any complaints about how he did the LOtR–you just may hate this movie with a deep burning passion.
Well I am glad someone agrees with me on the Hobbit but I have no wish to violate the 8th Amendment.
I am intrigued by your last paragraph though. I’ve personally never really liked Tolkien but all of my Tolkien friends are swooning for the movie or at least really enjoying it. The people railing against the movie are overly educated film/theatre snobs like me who wonder whatever happened to editing (and keeping things at a reasonable length) and people knowing their Aristotle.* you in an introductor
*Spectacle is the least important part of the Drama says Aristotle in the Poetics.
I’m of two minds.
As a Tolkein purist obviously it’s vile.
As a movie viewer most of the changes make sense.
-Of course he’d have to alter the dwarves to make them fit into three movies. Let’s face it; the Hobbit dwarves as a group were a relatively comical and not particularly heroic bunch. Even Thorin was quite unlovable; the only time he didn’t spend being stuffy was the time he spent being sullen.
-Of course he’d introduce an active enemy. You can’t do a movie that’s essentially just the group versus the local environment.
-Of course he’d pad it out with a couple video games worth of pointless battle effects. It’s a commercial movie, they want to sell video games.
I get the concept of the changes he made, and think they’re all reasonable…in concept. In execution, I thought it was done dreadfully. And video game is right; the whole goblin cavern looked like it was designed by people well-versed in video game design but with never a course in or engineering. As before, Peter Jackson proves himself too immature to be trusted with the Tolkien franchise. Maybe in another generation somebody who successfully completed puberty will be given another shot at it.
The other thing to keep in mind was that Jackson was kindof done with the franchise and the studios first dumped a tanker load of money at his feet, second begged piteously and then finally threatened to give it to Uwe Boll in order to get him to direct. So it’s no wonder Jackson ran fast and loose with it. Also, well, the Hobbit is a lighter bouncier book.
a tanker load of money
Bart: How could you, Krusty? I never lend my name to an inferior product.
Krusty: (gasps and sobs) They drove a dump truck full of money up to my house! I’m not made of stone!
The Hobbit is more than kind of a kid’s story. I mean, trolls that speak in Manchester/Cockney working class accents?
I wonder now what I’ll think about it. I’m hardly a purist, but there are impurities and then there are abominations. James seems pretty clearly in the abomination camp.
I don’t see how it can possible be a more offensive adaptation of a work than Dune, and as horrible as that is, it’s not *that* bad.
From what I heard, most of the changes were more taking things out of the greater Middle-Earth mythos and threading it through The Hobbit, which would seem to be a *good* thing to do if you were trying to update a kid’s book and tie it into the very PG-13 LOTR trilogy.
Re: Your last sentence. I went into the movie expecting that and thinking it was wholly legitimate, and perhaps even the best way to do the movie. But as they say in sports, execution, execution, execution.
Visually, of course, the film’s top notch.
I actually liked it, but then I’m neither a Tolkien purist, or even a fan.
sometimes i get stuck doing this whole weekend with the in-laws thing, and i think to myself, “self, what kinds of acids do you need to dissolve bones and can you get them at home depot?”
the christmas music doesn’t help. dear lord deliver us from this christmas music which you have seen fit with which to vex your servants so.
let’s take the christ from christmas music so we are left with “mas music”, because i goddamn love reggaeton.
I seem to be largely doing nothing. Such is the fate of a Jew with four days off while everyone else around him is in Christmas and family planning mode. There is the Latke ball but I did not have fun last year* and decided not to go this year.
*Club night for Jews on Christmas Eve. I never really had fun in clubs.