I need a tux...

(Present mood - Mildly stressed vs. Contentedly pumped)
(Listening to - You Know My Name by Chris Cornell)





*dun-de-da-dun-dun DUN-DUN-DUN dun-de-da-dun-dun DUN-DUN-DUN!*

...uh, that looks/sounds a lot better if you picture it coming out of a heavily twanged 70's guitar. :)

So, yes, this is going to be a 007 post. Went and saw it last night with my fellow "live-in-Div's", though there was a slight fiasco trying to get to it, seeing that none of us knew where the theatre was, nor that the early show was sold out an HOUR before we got there. Honestly, a good sign that the flick will do well - regardless, or even in spite of, the occasional negative or just to nitpicky review of it. (which I imagine this one will be a bit)

I'm hardly a Bond aficionado, though I do enjoy the films quite a bit as a genre unto themselves. As well, due to this fact, I do believe I have some idea of what belongs and befits a Bond film, and what doesn't. That in mind, here's my take on it (WARNING!! MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

First of all, our introduction to him is just GREAT. Dead on delivery of his cocksure attitude mingled with cold accuracy. Well played. Next, we have probably the best action sequence in the entire movie - a freejumping chase scene, which was high-wired and crazy-go-nuts cool. As an acquaintance of mine put it "The chase was really cool cause you saw the skilled runner versus the cleaver runner." You can guess which one was Bond.

(FYI - Freejumping AKA "Free running" or Parkour - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_running or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour and you'll get it.
Gotta LOVE Wikipedia! :) )

The cars in this flick were also great, but underused, which too was good. To those who are used to Bond and his "gadgets", this flick ain't really for you. It shows off Bond's skill to know how to handle himself given what he has at hand and based on his training. No lazer watches, no cellphone controlled cars, no "Mission: Impossible-esque" anything, really, save a portable defibrillator device the size of two decks of cards side by side. It's reminiscent of the original few Bonds (ie: Dr. No for sure) that just had Bond, his wits/charm, his skills, and his gun, to help him out of a jam. That too was fantastic, as it really played up the character being "new" as a double-O.

This is not to say that there aren't gadgets - its just that most of the gadgetry used ANYbody these days uses. That's the really weird thing. We've come so far since the original Bond that most people have access TO the gadgets once only dreamed of... well, except jetpacks (which also were not in this film). So, it was more HOW he made use of them rather than just having them. Oh, and did I mention product placement GA-LORE? Geez. Between all the cars he used, to his SONY cellphone, to his SONY laptop, his SONY cufflinks, geez. Remember when it was just Smirnoff that was strategically placed in the foreground? Said friends and I had a good laugh at the idea of how many billions they must have made off of his martini habits.

Speaking of necessary items for a Bond film - we have the new song. It's the first one since the past "reincarnation" of Bond to NOT use a woman to sing it (perhaps due to Madonna's computerized disaster last time around!) However, they chose former Soundgarden, now Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell to do it. I love Chris Cornell as a performer AND songwriter so this was a great change. He delivers too, with his tune "You Know My Name". G'head! Go to http://www.myspace.com/chriscornell and see! It's hard rock meets Bond-orchestra sound, with basic moderately-movie-theme-based lyrics, like the last few GOOD ones. Goldeneye had Tina Turner (great classic sounding choice), Tomorrow Never Dies had Sheryl Crow (also great smokey sounding choice), while the other two... well, blech.

So, all in all, great film for action, for misdirection towards the end via a lull of false security and questionable tit-for-tat, line-after-line feeding sessions, the wonderful adaptation to the "now" of the original Bond, great tune, and the lovely and hilarious Dame Judi Dench as M.

Now... about the new guy...

Personally, and I'm aiming to defend myself over this matter, I believe we have a new Sean Connery on our hands. He's buff and tall; plays the character as suave, cold and cocky - knowing how to deliver short witful lines without cheezing it up TOO much - he's a complete package! Oh, and on behalf of "Liz the Div", he's got icy-cold blue eyes that just sizzle you from the inside out. There you are, ladies. He's hot, but not "pretty"; handsome as Sean was. I mean, Sean was a boxer/bodybuilder before acting! Most of the others were Shakespeare trained (thank you, Timothy) or kinda skinny (I'm lookin at YOU Pierce). I will never say that our last newest Bond didn't do a fine job resurrecting the character (Goldeneye was great, and Tomorrow Never Dies was okay), I just think he got handed the proverbial "Joel Schumacher's Batman" versions of Bond films during his time doing them...

So, personal opinion, our new boy Daniel Craig, I tip my martini to you. Thank you for bringing the Sean Connery feel BACK to Bond!

So, go see the damn thing! It's actually good for action enthusiasts, Bond fans, and just plain ol' anybody!

Did I mention that after we got back from the LATE show of it (bloody ticket sellout...) that we proceeded to then watch Dr. No with chocolate martinis and snacks? What fun! Especially comparing where the franchise began to what it's become. I believe we have a new weekend activity over here at Trinity. :)

Anywho, back to said grindstone. More later!

Moses' Big Day Out!

(Present mood - Famished)
(Listening to - Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai)





(Seemed the best title since "The Exodus" and "There and Back Again" were taken ;) )

So it's been QUITE some time since I've updated, and a fair bit has happened too. I'll try my best to start at the beginning.

First off, MidTerm Break (aka "Reading Week") was upon us. That's a whole week off in October. I happily spent it with Bones and Ainz - two very close friends of mine, who are my first married couple in terms of the whole priestly life. :) For those who wonder, no I can't actually legally marry anyone, but I can officiate the entire service except the "Do you? I do! Now sign the book" part. Anywho, this required a trip to New Haven - a 14 hour trip by train. Yuck. So the 22nd of October rolled around and I was off!

For the record, though a long ride, the train was quite comfy. Lots of leg room, big comfy seats, and get this! An outlet for plugging stuff in! THAT was grand. Very helpful for those with laptops and portable DVD players. I used mine on the way back. On the way down, however, I read my new book "The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes". (very very fun!) My one complaint about trains - believe NOTHING of what they say initially to departure concerning how long it will take to get there. Between stupid hold ups due to construction and other little "hiccups", we were near a whole hour late into New York. Sheesh.

Speaking of NY, I must say that the scenery was okayyy. Not breathtaking, by any means, but okay. I was expecting a little something given that we had to go allll the way accross the state of New York, and I've only heard good things about upstate. However, given that most of the buildings and businesses down by the tracks are hardly what I'd call "ritzy", but since it was Fall, the colours and chill in the air gave one of my favorite looks to the towns. Oh, not to mention that the graffiti actually had some effort put into it. I know that sounds ridiculous, but damn! It's an ART form in some places. Hardly comparable to the scrawlled gangtags of most.

Anyway, got into town at 1AM, after jumping from New York to New Haven - the familiar leg of the journey, as I made it a couple of times when visiting last time in NY city. From the moment I got there, what fun! New England is always great this time of year. Got the intro to Yale, the basics of NH, ate at the "birthplace of the hamburger" (heh), and just happily got to hang out with my friends between their work and school. Ainz even got to practice bellydancing for a workshop for a middle school she had to teach, which was pretty cool. Oh, and Bones works in the Yale bookstore, which is also awesome. It was nice to hang out and get my comicbook jones back on, and get back on top of the mess that's there. Ahh. A lovely week had, really.

Of course, classic Moses this past year, I missed my ride back. This time, though, I can honestly blame the city of New York, because one of the subway workers pointed me in the wrong direction to get to Penn Station from Grand Central. *sigh* Bad enough I stayed up till 4am to catch the first train back to NY which takes 2 hours exactly, only to miss the important train that only leaves once a day at 7:15AM specifically, but it being on account of people just not wanting to help out?? Fucksakes. Anyway, I at least got to exchange my ticket for the next day (didn't even miss class or nuttin'), but it cost an extra $25 - which presently, I will fight to bill to the city of NY. :)

This little blunder, however, led to a GREAT result, though! That night just happened to also be the Halloween party night at Yale! So, with Bones as House from the "House" TV show, and Ainz as the little girl from "The Ring" (Gahhh, so scary!), I nabbed a quick well-to-do authentic Jason hockey mask and away we went. Quite a few great costumes, and Ainz was freakin the hell outta ANYbody who looked, cause she even went so far as to disjointedly walk around like the girl. *shudder* It was freaky. And of course, I did my best to walk slowly and speak as little as possible, tossing creepy blank-eyed glances all around as I went. Whee! No Freddy's to fight nor Mike Myers to contend with, though I did bump into Jesus who said, as I glared at him, "Hey! (he points) I'll get YOU later!" Hil-AR-ious. :)

Anyway, I got home on Sunday in one piece, and am presently finally readjusted fully to a normal way of sleeping when on campus. *L* My only regret thus far is not having a big meat cleaver or butcher knife to go with my mask.

Anyway, this week's been fun and constant all at once. Not much to report save that we burned Guy Fawkes a few days early so that the "kids" could go drinking on Thursday and have a debate about him. There was a whole mini-ceremony about it in the courtyard, as a straw-stuffed Guy was set ablaze, with a mock Bishop and officials leading us all in a scripted mob and singing of God Save The Queen. Whatta laugh!

Hmm. Aside from that, not much to report, except that it's friggin NOVEMBER. AHH! Where the hell is the year goin?... Guess I'd better start Christmas shopping...

More later! Hopefully a "me as Jason" picture post! :)

(oh, and FYI - http://spectre-general.livejournal.com/ is my friend Bones' LiveJournal. His wife is the creepy Ring lady pictured in the first post. Yee!)