I’ve been pretty busy this week with daylong meetings at work and lots of deadlines. Things should return more or less to normal next week. More or less. Since I’ve got so many pending deadlines between now and mid-April (and I seem to be adding more daily—I just haven’t been able to say no to some new opportunities), I’ve taken my to-do list and turned it into a calendar. I hope to get a few of them crossed off the list this weekend and then I’ll start tackling the rest in order of priority by date rather than by which one I think I want to do at the time.
My daughter and I went to see Coraline in 3D the other night. I was impressed by the 3D technology. You still have to wear the funky glasses, which isn’t so convenient when you already where spectacles, but the movie is perfectly watchable if you don’t wear the glasses (although I did). There were a few cool 3D effects, but for the most part the 3D is used simply to give the film depth of field. It’s a little like watching a movie on one of those old ViewMaster gizmos many of us remember from childhood. There was one thing they did during the closing credits that impressed the hell out of me. It was very near the end, when the “paper” mice floated out of the screen toward me, and it felt like I could reach out and grab them.
As far as the story goes, it was cute without being terribly deep. Probably disturbing to young children. I liked the Russian gymnast and “Wybie,” Coraline’s tilt-headed buddy. It’s not something that requires a lot of scrutiny after it’s all over, but it was pleasant enough.
Though people have been proclaiming the merits of this week’s Lost, I thought it was good but not revolutionary. Essentially it was a back-fill episode that covered a lot of ground that we could probably have guessed at ourselves. Necessary, but not forward moving, except for the brief scenes on the island in the “present,” however that’s defined. The events in the hotel room were interesting and a little surprising, but the rest of it was pretty much by-the-numbers. They are still doing a good job of keeping us off-balance in terms of who’s the good guy, and maybe the answer will ultimately be that there isn’t one.
Poor Jerry on Survivor, evicted by his digestive system. I think it was probably best for him to go, because now he can figure out if his illness is simply digestive or something worse, which would be a concern. Last week I said that the teams seemed to be evenly balanced. I take that back. Coach’s team is dysfunctional, weak, and lacking in direction. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cross-tribe collaboration before like the one that is shaping up. Could be interesting.
Life on Mars this week was an adaptation of one of the UK episodes, as is next week’s. I wonder what direction they’ll take next week, since the original was based on IRA bombings. What 1970s group might have the same impact in New York? The SLA?
