R.I.P.

Book Review: Blonde Bombshell

Now, I'm sure that after I put "Blonde Bombshell" as a tag, I'll get a lot of visitors that weren't expected a book review. Ha!

Recently I finished my second book by Tom Holt (the first being Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages). You may notice that the one thing both titles have in common are that they are a bit on the silly side. That is a good indication of what's inside the books. The best label I could put on Blonde Bombshell is that it's a sci-fi comedy. No doubt this is following in the footsteps of Douglas Adams (side note, I saw his grave today) and of Futurama. It's an odd little book, which has a distinctive British feel to it (don't ask me what that is, if you know what I'm talking about, you'll understand) even though none of it is set in England.

The basic plot is that a smart bomb (read that literally) has been sent to destroy earth after the first attempt failed. This bomb then creates a probe which takes on a human form (or dirter, as the bomb initially calls them - think Earth=dirt and then it makes sense) and tries to blend in as a human in order to find out what happened to the first bomb. Strangely enough, things happen to the probe and it starts to become... well, human. We then follow an ensemble group of characters (some of which are definitely not werewolves) in the quest to stop the destruction of the planet against unknown (or are they?) forces. I won't reveal much, but if you liked those two things I mentioned above, you'll surely like this.

There is a lot of "foreshadowing" that is fairly obvious, but that's part of the fun of the book. Things are suggested, but often not fully explained until later. It's like the reader is having a nice "in-joke" with the author. Definitely worth checking out and in the future, I'm going to try to find more of his books to read.

That's all for now. It's late and I'm tired.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

Imagine a world where teenagers are forced to fight to the death. Now imagine that fight is a hugely popular reality TV show. You'd probably get something resembling The Hunger Games, which could also be described as what you'd get if The Truman Show and Gladiator had a baby (how many of you are imagining a baby that looks somewhere in between Jim Carrey and Russell Crowe - not a pretty thought). But seriously, the result is pretty good.

The basic premise is that Katniss Everdene (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to be a "tribute" and fight to the death once her sister is selected. We then follow her journey towards participating in this ritual (which apparently is because of and in order to stop outbreaks of violence in what is definitely a modern-day version of Rome) and her relationships with the other tributes and those who are helping her get ready (Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz and the not so helpful Elizabeth Banks, though we can't blame that on her, that's just the character). You do the math though, there can only be one victor. Oh, did I forget to mention she just happens to be almost as good as Legolas with a bow and arrow. That surely will come in handy.

If I were basing my verdict of this movie solely on the premise, I'd give it pretty good marks. I mean, this is one messed up society. The scary part being how it doesn't seem to be too many steps away from what we have now. There is a huge emphasis (but not overwhelmingly so) on how good a show the whole thing is. It tells, but it doesn't preach.

But I don't base my judgments on premise alone (see here for probably my biggest disappointment). The execution (pun half intended) was also quite good. You get a good sense of what these kids are going through at times and that helps with understanding. It's not just a bunch of fighting (there's not actually all that much of it, really). You also get to see how those who control the "arena" (actually a big wilderness area) really do show a sense of detachment. They don't see these children as living things, just a pieces on a chessboard (a really, REALLY high-tech chessboard).

When I first saw the trailer for this movie I was hooked instantly (well, not Cloverfield hooked, but how often does that happen?). It was only recently that I had my doubts when I saw the massive marketing machine behind the movie. But I didn't let the teen target audience deter me from going and I'm glad I did. Certainly this is a way better movie for teens than Twilight (ugh, preview for the last one beforehand). Katniss is certainly a worthy hero and I can't imagine anyone not rooting for her.

The movie is based on the book (first of a trilogy, so guess where the movie's going...) by Suzanne Collins (who was recently featured in the Observer for this particular book). Guess what just jumped onto my reading list?

A lot has been said about this movie and there are definitely high expectations for it. I'd suggest you go give it a try. Even if it's not your thing, I think movies like this will make you think. Hopefully you'll see a little bit of our world in there. Will this happen? Probably not, but it does make one wonder what path we're on and what our current obsessions will lead to.

Watch the trailer (sorry, YouTube won't let me embed this).


Note: Last week I saw two movies that I'm hoping to put reviews up for soon, but it may take a few days. Also, a book review coming and some other stuff (if there's time).

A Potential Comeback

Not long ago I was browsing through all my bookmarks and came across this blog. I looked at the date and said did a little double take when I realized it's been almost 4 years since I wrote anything here. How could I fill in all those massive gaps? For those of you who know me, you'll know that I went from being in Korea (18 months), to volunteering and travelling in East Africa (3 months), being unemployed (I don't want to calculate for how long, but it definitely seemed a lot longer than it was) to being in London, England. Part of the reason I was looking at the aforementioned links is that I'm about to embark on an even greater move: to New Zealand (Auckland specifically, but we'll see where life takes me when I land). What is different about this move is that I'm going from one overseas country to another. Not the easiest thing to organize, though I guess a lot easier (and cheaper) than flying to Canada and then on to New Zealand.

The last few months have also been a huge period of upheaval in my life, for various reasons. I figured that perhaps a return to blogging might help me sort things out, even if I'm the only one who reads it. At least it's out there. If no one cares, meh. I'm not too concerned.

I spent a bit of time, updating things a bit (blogger has changed, though not that much, in four years). I've added some pictures to the sidebar (still uploading them so that they can display, will take a while with all the places I've been), a twitter feed (yes, I also joined twitter, though same deal as this blog, if people read it, they read it, I'm not too concerned) and a few other things. I may change other aspects as time rolls on.

I don't know how often I'll write, but I want to write about things that interest me. I'm planning to write about books and movies I read and watch. As well as any interesting news I run across. Probably will write about my experiences teaching, as well as my past and future experiences in foreign countries. We'll see. This will probably be a grab bag of stuff with no coherent message or focus. So pretty much a good representation of myself. I'll do my best not to edit things too much. Just write what I feel. I don't want this to feel like a chore, so I'm not going to take it too far (unless someone offers me money to write, then, of course, I'll do whatever I have to).

I'll end this here, but I think I'll try to write something in the next day or so (maybe even later today, though that's not all that likely).