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Little Drops of Water, Little Grains of Sand
This post is all about L.A. Last night I've watched Crash, and it got me thinking about what I know about the City of Angels. Of course, most of what I know is from movies, fom last night's movie to Collateral and many other crappier movies like Pretty Woman and A Cinderella Story. So it's a very Hollywood view.
I guess the biggest thing is that SoCal folks just wait in traffic too much. Apparently half of life takes place on the freeway. And that's not cool. I wonder if there's much of a public transportation system, because the movies don't talk about anything but taxis.
Secondly, besides that one house up on the hill where John Reuben shot the press photos for Hindsight, it's al flat. And there's no cool trees or nothin - it looks almost as inviting as Nebraska.
The biggest one is that everybody seems to be a self-conceited jerk. Now I know where Tom Cruise gets his attitude from. Life in L.A. seems to be all about how life sucks. And, well, that's not something I can really identify with.
So what did I think of the movie half my friends claimed was the best movie of the year? Frankly, I thought Crash sucked. The music was just high-pitched whining. It was supposed to feel like real life, but when the same five characters get in more problems that all the summer's action movies combined, you know it's not real life. It's just the most pessimistic view of real life that anyone could make up. Plus, it had more characters and plot twists than Mission: Impossible and it was pretty darn hard to figure out what was going on.
If you want to make a movie about L.A., I'd reccomend just doing a highly stylized version of L.A., something like Pulp Fiction. At least that wasn't completely depressing.
In other movie news, check out new trailers for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Underworld: Evolution. That movie was a bit weird, but I liked it. The sad part is that Kevin Grevioux, who came up with the first movie and is a Christian, isn't listed on IMDB for the new one. I hope he's still involved and it just doesn't become a mindless action movie.
Turn Me Up, Man, Let It Surround Them
No, it's not 1996. It's not even 2002. It's 2005. But let's give the soundman room to turn the music up.
My latest fetish are from a rather academic company called Etymotic Research. Mostly, they research technologies for audio in the ear, mostly hearing aids. But they also have started manufacturing amazing products for the audio quality nerds in the hizouse.
Look at those beauts. The sound gets right down into your ear, and from what I'm told, it really works. Many geeks on many podcasts swear by these things when they want something for portable listening with their iPod. Everybody seems to think they sound amazing (like one of my favorite spots, iLounge), and I believe it.
Besides cool headphones, apparently they also sell high-quality earpplugs. I think I need a set of those. With the stupid foam earplugs, it just sounds like somebody's muffling the sound. With these, reportedly, it just lessens the sound, not make it sound that you're listening to it through a speaker covered with a pillow.
Yes, mom, I want to save my hearing. But it comes at a cost: these things are expensive. But you can get me some $25 earplugs for Christmas if you like, really.
I'm Walking Away, I Hear You Call My Name
Last night I made it to a show of Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. They were pretty entertaining but very annoying, but the main reason I went was to see the opening act. Mat Kearney hit the stage with just his acoustic guitar, but that did not detract from his set at all.
Mat kept the small audience engaged, had a more raw delivery during the songs, and played a half hour of great tunes. During a couple songs, he did freestyle verses about Minneapolis, some of the sights in the neighborhood, and the drive through Wisconsin to get here. It was awesome.
Afterwards, I got to chat with Mat a bit. We thanked each other for our interview, I tried to get info about the upcoming re-release without pressuring him (all I really got was that it will be February), and we tried to decide about the headlining band. It was cool.
Why Is It, My Man?
I just think it's funny that when I talk about life or computers or something, I get somebody to comment. But when I talk about music or things like that, probably nobody reads it.
Of course, I know why. I listen to a sector of music that not many people listen to, at least not you guys. I have some friends who write for cMusicWeb.com who like similar music, but if they do visit this blog, they're pretty quiet.
I'm still thinking of making a change in that area. We'll see if the inReview.net podcast actually happens, but I sure hope it does.
This Is What You Need
I just need to make a couple lists.
Artists I Need More CDs From:
- Jason Upton
- Rich Mullins
- Phil Keaggy
- Ashley Cleveland (If you've never hread her, you can download her first album for free.)
- Over The Rhine
- The Rocket Summer
- The Violet Burning
- U2 (possibly)
Artists I Need To Listen To More:
- Andrew Peterson
- Sara Groves
- Mae
- Starflyer 59 (maybe)
For a list of music I've been listning to a lot, check out my Last.fm page.
This Is What You Want
My sister thought I hadn't heard about it since I did not post it yet, but that's just becaue I've been too busy. Of course I knew all about the iPods, although I haven't watched all of the Keynote yet.
Apple has once again rasied the bar in electronics. Many thought they would not release the iPod with video until their current product started declining in sales. Many thought they wouldn't release it just weeks after the release of the iPod nano. But now, Apple has shown they're raising the bar yet again.
Not only does it play video on its small screen, the video quality is just about the same quality that you can play on your TV. Oh, and if you buy some cables, you can play it on your TV too. Oh wait, was I talking about TV? Yeah, you can now purchase TV shows for $1.99 at the iTunes (Music?) Store now. 
(Too bad I haven't watched TV in years and would rather get DVDs.) Also, besides thousands of music videos and TV shows, they have Pixar's short films for download too. (If you've never seen Geri's Game, you gotta watch it.) I'll look at the new iPod next week, and I might have to change my opinion.
Anways, so what's next for Apple? It's definitely world domination. All Apple has to do is start selling Mac OS X for my Dell machine and their already high-performing stock will be even better.
So Take A Photograph If You're Wanting This To Last
Another new link to my blogroll is for Kevin's Daly Depictions. Kevin's one of my many roomates and he does lots of cool stuff with his camera. So of course I hooked him up with his very own photo blog via the open-source PixelPost. It's funky, and Kevin has many cool photos.
A God-Shaped Hole In All Of Us
Alright, I finally did it. I added Infuze Mag to my favorites list on the side.
Infuze brings God to today's culture, mainly. For example, Robin Parrish recently conducted an interview with amazing filmmaker Cameron Crowe. Although they didn't talk about Crowe's faith explicitly (and there's no mention of him being a Christian), they talk about art, beauty, and all the other things important to filmmakers. Crowe mentions a couple times that Robin picked up on things tha most others didn't, and I bet Cameron came away from that interview impressed.
That's how it should be. We can talk on the same level as non-Christians and not have to just bash them for their non-Christian elements. We should appreciate the art for what it is, not what it isn't. And Infuze is one of the few places that understands that. (Of course, they're a bit obsessed with video games and comic books, but oh well.)
Don't Dub A Tape, You Can Go To The Store
Hey folks, now burning music is legal! No, it's still not legit to use LimeWire, it's only legal to burn CDs at Sam Goody.
Yeah, the mall music chain is trying to create a space where they can still sell CDs at prices 30% higher than Best Buy. So their store at The Mall now has a bunch of computer terminals in the middle of the store. They're marked with "CD Burning" everywhere. But what does that mean from a legit standpoint?
Basically, with these computers you can make your own compilation with a case, a sleeve, and everything. The discs start at $3.99 plus 99c for each song. So, if you're gonna fill up a 78 minute disc with 20 tracks, it's gonna cost you almost $24. Yeah, that's expensive.
The amazing thing is that they have most major label releases from most every label. There's definitely a ton more music available there than in the store. (They might even have Pro*Pain, or at least their system says they do.) The other thing that the system does is play clips of every song, which is nice for sampling music. It'd be even cooler if they played full tracks, though, then I'd hang out there for lunch everyday.
In the end, it's nothing I'll actually use, but it's something new that the music industry is trying. I think it'll have to much be cheaper before people start using it (oh wait, that's what we say about everything in the music industry these days).
"My name is John Reuben and you have my word on it."
Doin' The RSS
I've been enjoying using RSS to keep up with the news and all my friends. For the uninitiated, this is a way to gather all the things you want to keep track of into one place. For the past six months I've been using Sage, a very simple reader for FireFox. It's really easy to use and discovers feeds well.
However, there's a new reader on the horizon. Google just released their beta of Google Reader, which is nice because it's not a plug-in on my desktop, but it's a page I can access from anywhere on the web. It uses your Google/Gmail account and you can import all the feeds you'd like. So far, the program (which is of course in Beta stage, like everything else at Google) is pretty good, and I'm sure it'll get even better as time goes on.
So, if you like RSS, try out the Google Reader. You might like it.