An Official Gammish has moved!

88888888

Plus, we are now An Official Gemish!

888888

Please update your link to us and come by and visit!

I’m not saying that people are wrong to be unhappy with the amount of taxes they pay. And I’m not saying that people don’t have a right to protest. But teabags? Just plain dumb.

Remember that the reason for the Boston Tea Party was to protest a TAX on TEA. The colonists were dumping tea into the harbor causing economic damage and refusing to allow anyone to pay a tax they felt was unfair. They were destroying the offensive product.  How do these tea parties to day do any of that? If you don’t like paying taxes, then don’t. Go outside and burn a tax return. Or determine how much of your tax bill goes towards spending you disapprove of and deduct that from your return, don’t pay it and then go publicly announce what you’ve done.

If you want to protest unfair taxes, TAKE A RISK. The protesters in the Boston Tea Party did, and Henry David Thoreau did when he refused to pay taxes to support a war he opposed. Your tea bags mean nothing today.

I didn’t hate this movie, but I didn’t love it either. Overall, I enjoyed this story of the film, but there was nothing really special about it. It flowed well, was fun, and allowed me to get attached to the characters, so in that sense you could say it was okay. It did however, seem like a pretty long 90 minutes. In addition, there were enough things that bugged me about the movie that outweigh the things I enjoyed. To make things easy, I’m just going to list my likes and dislikes. And to be honest, it took listing my dislikes to realize what I liked.

Dislikes:

The 3-D: Wow…. Watching Coraline, I got to see what the future of 3-D could be. Watching Monster vs. Aliens, I got to see what 3-D shouldn’t be. This movie was an assault on my senses from beginning to end. I felt like I was watching a movie that was playing on the tip of my nose. Instead of feeling part of the film and having fun with the multi-dimensionalness of the movie, I found my eyes tired and stressed. There were several times when I had to close my eyes just to give them a rest.

In addition, a slight move of my head either left or right caused me to lose the entire 3-D experience and see the layering. Also, there were some parts of the film where the 2-D was just bad. You could see the flatness of the film. 3-D in no way enhanced my viewing experience of this film.

I should add, that the little kid next to me was so scared that early on in the movie he took his glasses off and refused to watch.

The rest of my dislikes apply to either the 3-D or the 2-D version.

Susan Murphy/Ginormica: Why are we still in an era where female cartoons have the body type of a toothpick? I was immediately disappointed by the body frame chosen for Susan Murphy and remained disappointed throughout the film. I laugh at how she could stand up without toppling as Ginormica—especially on moving platforms. Can maybe our illustrators give us a real woman with a real figure?

Nerds: Really, name calling? And wedgying? Why is it funny to train little kids to abuse scientists and intellectuals? I mean, criminy… even the president calls the guy a nerd! I find this completely unacceptable. If the writers feel compelled to name-call, at least let the nerd show himself as smart and successful.

Portrayal of Government/Military: General W.R. Monger, and an inept president? Super secret prisons and the immediate “silencing” of anyone who dares speaks the secret? Nice way to develop that overarching lack of trust in government that we all need.

Thumbless In-Law: I’m not even going to explain this. Humor at the expense of physical deformity. Nice.

Likes:

B.O.B.: Seeing the trailers, I figured the world would love him, but that I would not—that’s just how it goes for me. I was wrong. I LOVED him. Seth Rogen did a great job voicing him and he was simply put… fun. Animation-wise, I loved that at his base, B.O.B. never stopped rippling, or oozing, or whatever you call it. His eye was great, his expressions were great—-everything about B.O.B. was great.

Insectosaurus: – All I can say is that Insectosaurus was tooooooo cute! And, I want one. There better be an Insectosaurus plushy out there somewhere!

All the monsters were actually good. B.O.B. and Insectosaurus just stood out.

Susan Murphy/Ginormica: Susan starts out as a weak woman willing to follow her man even when it was clear that they weren’t really the “team” he kept saying they were. However, her experience as Ginormica changes her for the better. It was a pleasure to see her grow from the horrific weak thing she was into a strong, independent woman. She probably could have been stronger, but nonetheless she did develop. If only filmmakers would let women’s bodies have some healthy growth.

So there you have it. The story is not so bad. But the the weight of the rest of the film just ruins it for me. Honestly, I might have fully enjoyed it if the the social implications of what were written and drawn weren’t so important. This film keeps us on the road of women with unhealthy body proportions being in the limelight, a disdain for the intellectual, and mistrust of our government. In addition, there is no need for the ugliness of teasing, bullying, and disgust of difference that is in this film. Why is it necessary to visit this type of thought/belief on our children?

]]> http://gammish.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/monsters-vs-aliens/feed/ 1 ziaharmony monsters-vs-aliens http://gammish.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/let-the-right-one-in/ http://gammish.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/let-the-right-one-in/#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:17:42 +0000 godzillamonster http://gammish.wordpress.com/?p=333 ]]>

Eli, the vampire next door.

Let the Right One In is not a horror film. It really isn’t. Sure, there’s a vampire. You’ve got me there. And people get killed. And it isn’t pretty. Still. Let the Right One In is less about horror, and more about finding someone who will stick by you. No matter what. It’s about connections between people that transcend everything.

Let the Right One In is a Swedish film based on a 2004 novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist and centers around the budding friendship between Oskar, a bullied twelve year old, and Eli, the vampire who moves in next door. The film is shot on a stark, snowy Swedish landscape, creating a heightened sense of isolation throughout.

I’ve heard a lot of folks say that Let the Right One In is what Twilight should have been. That’s pretty much bulls**t. Twilight is what it is–a teen romance starring sexy, romanticized vampires. It’s a fantasy. And it’s pretty damn good fantasy at that.

Oskar considers the school bully.

Let the Right One In is something else completely. Sure there’s a vampire. That’s about where the similarities end. The relationship that forms between Eli and Oskar is not idealized. It is not romanticized. It is not sexy. I can’t even say for sure that it’s beautiful. But it is real. And it is honest. And for that reason, the film transcends the trappings of the vampire genre. You don’t have to be into vampires or horror to love this movie. And the cinematography and score alone are enough to make any film lover drool. Combined with a fantastic script, and brilliant acting from the two leads, and it all adds up to something quite special.

Let the Right One In is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

The T-Mobile G1

Okay. I recently purchased a T-Mobile G1, kind of T-Mobile’s answer to the iPhone. It is integrated into Google (uses Gmail, and Google calendar etc) and runs on the Android platform. So far I love the phone! The keyboard is great. Lots of free apps, such as weather, Phoneflix, Bank of America, a cute pink squid called Astrid who makes sure I’m on task, and one I game I played for the first time yesterday.

It’s called Zombie, Run! and has to be the most entertaining video game for a phone I’ve ever played. Here’s how it works. You go outside. Yes, you have to play outside. Why? Well, the GPS needs to know where you are. And also, you’ll have to run.  Once outside, you start up the game. You input a few settings: the overall concentration of Zombies in the area and how fast they move. You give the phone a few seconds to put you on the map, and then you tap your destination on the map so the game knows where you’re headed. Then the fun (terror?!) begins.

Once you start the game, zombies appear on the map.  The goal is to move to your destination before the zombies catch you and eat your brains. I played one game by myself yesterday, and one with my wife. The one with my wife was a pretty short trip, but it had us swiftly cutting through church parking lots and taking roundabouts throught a parking garage to arrive safely at our destination, both of us out of breath.

It’s great fun, and good exercise to boot–probably most suited to urban areas where you don’t have to cut through people’s yards, but also could be fun in a rural setting, as long as there’s no chance to plunge into the woods and get lost!

Anyway, if you have a G1, check out the game. If you’re thinking of getting a smart phone and can’t decide which,

The G1 uses the Android platform.

consider the G1. As far as I know, it’s the only phone you can use to play Zombie, Run!  Cost of this awesome app? Not a dime. Most Android apps are still free, althogh for a lot of games you have to shell out dough for the full version. Not so with Zombie, Run!  At least for now.  Using the GPS will zap your battery, which is the only downside. But walking from one place to another will never be the same again!

It’s not really the animation that’s amazing, it’s what the pilot was able to do—and do it so calmly!

I’m on Twitter! Search ziaharmony and feel free to follow me!

Click on the image to see the ad.

I also found a version of the ad from a few years ago. If the one above doesn’t get the message across, maybe this one will. Kill Your Speed (2007).

Kill your speed, or live with it.

Take some time to think about this..

———————-

Here’s a question…

Why is it okay to use animals for testing medicines and other products, but not okay to use animals for entertainment like cock fighting or dog fighting?

That’s really all there is to say.

Other than that the worst of them all were any of the godaddy.com ads.

Alec Baldwin…you rock!  and so do you Hulu!

1) I got a pull up bar and may have overdone it on the upper body.
2) I’m a little wheezy today–I’ve been coughing and I’m a little short of breath. Maybe getting a cold?

Anyway, the two day break will be nice. We’ll see how it goes on Sunday!