We've got no choice, men. We need the Rhino Squad!

It's just a fact of life.

Sometimes Wisconsin sucks.

Well, I had to post something to go with the new banner, avatar and title. I'm not sure what the banner signifies, but its got Ayame on it, so it can't be all that bad. Can it?

Tonight, we dine in HELL!

300
Jaw-droppingly immersive. The only way anybody should be seeing this is on a large screen; anything else will diminish the amazing effect it has on the viewer. If you can see it at the IMAX, do it. The visuals are absolutely stunning. The most incredibly fluid action I've seen since The Matrix. Anyone coming here for things like plot will be dissappointed, though there is some strong characterization and even acting to be found. Not terribly historically accurate, I guess, but again, not the goal. This is a movie to simply be watched. So do it.
Rating: A-

I went and saw that on opening night, but haven't written about it until now so I could get my thoughts in focus and make sure I'm not overhyping it. After thinking about it enough, that's fairly accurate. The screening was late Friday night and a lot of fun. Went with the guys and endured lines stretching to the end of the theatre and fighting for seats. One of our number didn't even make it in. All worth it. The finest moviegoing experience I've had in months.

The Man Who Came to Dinner has wrapped up and I'm already missing it. I'm told, however, that Banjo was one of my greatest performances and I'm actually inclined to believe it for once. Had a lot of fun with that role. Now I must deal with the grim cleaning of the backstage area, wrapping up my high school acting career. I'm gonna miss this band of dorks and misfits.

I'm going to miss a lot of High School now that I'm thinking about it. College is right around the corner (UW-Milwaukee, thanks for asking), and I think I'm ready for it.

I should probably be writing this from my brand new laptop, an early graduation present, but at the moment, its nothing more than a derelect skeleton of a computer with none of my stuff on it. I'll have to get that.

Turnabout 2: Electric Boogaloo is this weekend and I'm looking forward to that. That's not actually what they're calling it, but damnit, they oughta be.

Exile was pretty good. Allston's trademark humor and characterization skills are always a delight to read and I'm glad Ben actually has character and motivation now, instead of simply being "Luke's son".

At the urging of pretty much the entire god-damned Internet, I started A Game of Thrones and I'm enjoying it immensely.

So to conclude: The two most important aspects of a truly great movie:
1. War Rhinos
2. Bewbs

See the cat? See the cradle?

So much for being a prophet when I grow up. All this snow came on the weekend, meaning I don't even get a snow day out of it, because roads will likely be clear by tomorrow morning.

Blah.

Cookie to anyone who knows where the title comes from, I guess.

I hope you dine well tonight, Hitler. For soon, you shall die.

So hey, courtesy post.

Bridge to Terabithia
An excellent family film and had I children, I would most certainly take them to it, as it contains a message I think most children would benefit from. The ads make it look like a Narnia rip-off, but there's only about ten minutes of what the trailers show you. Faithful to the book, to the best of my memory. The child actors are far better and more memorable than most of the adults and the little CGI work is well-done. As the film skews towards a different audience, I'm using a slightly different scale, but the movie definetely pleases for all ages.
Rating: A-

Rehearsal for my eighth and final play has begun in earnest. In DI's production of The Man Who Came To Dinner I play Banjo, the goofy Hollywood actor who's basically an amalgram of all four Marx Brothers. Well, maybe not Zeppo. It's going to be great.

Star Wars Allegiance is pretty good; Timothy Zahn manages to nail all of the main characters for the time period and Mara Jade's sidestory isn't the groan-inducer I was expecting. By far the most interesting side plot was the one involving the renegade stormtroopers. At any rate, Exile is out next week, and I'm expecting good things from Aaron Allston.

Um, the Turnabout dance is tomorrow. Unless we get all the snow we're supposed to have. Which I doubt will happen for some reason. The dance is totally on.

Call it a hunch.

Hot Double-Posting Action

In case it's not obvious, I screwed around with Blogger's new templating interface. I'm still perfecting all of the colors. This makes either the third or fourth layout redesign, I can't remember which. Banner change to come at some point in time.

That is all.

The Hot Needle of Inquiry

Heh. The Ringworld Engineers is a nifty book.

And speaking of books, here's a list of everything I read last year. I have no life, so I record this sort of thing. It's in no particular order, and the ratings are pretty arbitrary and I tried not to think too hardly about it. Stuff with an asterisk was read for school.

Star Wars – Legacy of the Force I: Betrayal by Aaron Allston – 4/5
Star Wars – Legacy of the Force II: Bloodlines by Karen Traviss – 3.5/5
Star Wars – Legacy of the Force III: Tempest by Troy Denning – 4/5
Star Wars – The Dark Nest: The Swarm War by Troy Denning – 3.5/5
Star Wars: Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover – 3/5
Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn – 4/5
Star Wars: Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn – 3.5/5
Star Wars: Darth Bane – Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn – 3/5
1984 by George Orwell – 4/5
Animal Farm by George Orwell* - 4/5
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller* - 3/5
The Crucible by Arthur Miller* - 2/5
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe* - 3/5
Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman – 3/5
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – 2.5/5
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson* - 3.5/5
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley* - 4/5
The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare* - 4/5
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare – 3.5/5
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – 4.5/5
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – 4/5
American Gods by Neil Gaiman – 3.5/5
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman – 5/5
Stardust by Neil Gaiman – 2.5/5
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – 3.5/5
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski – 4/5
Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski – 2/5
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – 3/5
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown – 3.5/5
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 5/5
Ringworld by Larry Niven - 3.5/5
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton* - 2/5

It occurs to me that I forgot to review Night at the Museum when I saw it. That should tell you my opinion of it pretty well. It was all right, but forgettable. In contrast:

Little Miss Sunshine
A charming little flick, if slightly overrated. Steve Carrel is fun to watch in his role and the rest of the cast performs admirably; Abigail Breslin as Olive is simply adorable. A great movie for those who like their comedy edging on dark, dealing with suicide, drugs and such. The moral of the story is simply to be yourself, a message I can really get behind. I wasn't bored with a single character and the story sets itself at a nice constant pace. Worth seeing.
Rating: B+

For those with a free half hour ahead of them, might I suggest viewing the first episode of Le Chevalier D'eon for free?

I don't really have anything else to say here.

Shoo.

But we're teenagers! You'd think we'd know this sort of thing!

It's a lot harder to find stuff to do when you're in Germantown and it's a zillion degrees below zero outside than you'd think.

Exams came and went. Aced World Lit, Pre-Calculus and probably German. Looking forward to next semester, which has Sociology and Advanced Composition. Rad.

Auditions for The Man Who Came to Dinner start next week, now that Trolls is over and done with. I'll be very happy to put it to rest myself. I'm very much looking forward to this, my last play with Dramatic Impact ever, so I'm looking to go out with a bang.

If I could get away with just sitting around my house watching Scrubs all day, I think I would be pretty content. For you see, I've recently become addicted to this hilarious dramatic show featuring wise-cracking doctors and zany non-sequitor jokes.

I'm getting sick of people calling me asking if I would like any more information on [random college]. I'm quite happy with the oodles of paperwork thank you very much. Jeeze, getting a decent education shouldn't be this time-consuming.