By all rights being on vacation for two weeks ought to have freed me up to do more blogging, but as per usual I ended up spending the time away from such stressful pursuits as -well- thinking and typing. Instead I spent the time actually playing and watching stuff. Some thoughts on the various bits of media I've been digesting:
Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360): I posted about this last week and we've since tackled two more of the game's four campaigns. My initial impressions remain true: This is a great, great co-op game as long as you're playing with the right people (people you know and like). I rented the copy I'm using from Gamefly, but I'll probably end up buying it from them rather than return it. (We'll see. My heart still wants the PC version.)
Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360): After not playing this game much since it came out I spent a lot of time immersed in this game, mostly so I could overtake Bill on the achievements list (mission accomplished). I've done a few of the drum challenges on Medium now as well as some of the vocals on Hard, but guitar remains where this game is at for me. I can muddle through the guitar on Expert with the exception of about six tracks which I'll probably never be able to complete. Ah well, it's good enough to look impressive when playing the game with relative Noobs on New Year's Eve (as was the case this year). Christmas week I downloaded The Killers and Foo Fighters track packs and they've been a great addition to my RB library.
Portal (PC): I played this game for about a half hour on New Year's Eve and then spent several hours New Year's Day playing straight through to the end. My expectations, based on its universally positive reception, were unrealistically high and I didn't like it quite as much as I thought I would, but I did like it a lot. It's a very inventive game and the fact that it's short keeps the newness and the "hey, this is pretty cool," factor from wearing off before you reach the end. Plus GladOS, the game's antagonist, is damn cool. First thing I did upon completing the game is go on Amazon to buy the MP3 for the song Still Alive that plays at the very end of the game and I've probably listened to it a dozen times. It really makes the game. (I've also downloaded it for Rock Band 2.) As cool a villain as GladOS is, though, she's no SHODAN.
StepBrothers (Blu-ray): For the most part, I like Will Ferrell movies (Anchorman being my favorite); plus, I have three step-siblings myself (two brothers), so it's not surprising that I enjoyed this one a lot. It's not a great movie, but there's a lot of great lines in it. ("You have the voice of an angel. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus.")
Mamma Mia (Blu-ray): My wife likes this movie so I bought it for her. Yeah, not my cup of tea. I think all musicals need to have either a vampire slayer (see the Buffy episode, "Once More With Feeling," or a super-villain bent on world domination (Dr. Horrible). Speaking of Dr. H...
Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (DVD): If you were reading this blog during this summer you know I love the Joss Whedon production, Dr. Horrible. The DVD version finally came out and in addition to the usual straight commentaries and making of extras, there's Commentary: The Musical. It's a commentary track done in the same musical style as the show and it's just as brilliant. Just about everybody involved in putting this together, the Captain Hammer groupies, for example, gets a chance to shine. I particularly like the track describing last year's writer's strike that ultimately gave birth to the concept. Plus, there's more Felicia Day singing and who wouldn't want that?
Marley and Me (Movie Theater): You probably know about this one. Aspiring journalist (Owen Wilson) and his hot journalist wife (Jennifer Aniston) get a misbehaving dog, Marley. The movie documents their lives together through the lifespan of Marley, "the worst dog ever." If you don't like getting your emotions jerked around this flick ain't for you. That said, as much as the story exists to make you want to cry, I can't deny that it's completely honest and authentic about doing so.
If you're a pet person, you've no doubt had to put a pet down at some point and if the movie succeeded in making me weepy during that part (and it did) it's because the scene was so spot on that I couldn't help but flashback to when I put my cat to sleep last year; it was as clear a recollection of that day as I've had of it since it happened. But, for me, the life parallels didn't end there. The main characters are from Kalamazoo, Michigan, my old stomping ground, and leave the state to start their careers. Owen Wilson spends much of his time lamenting that he's in a publishing industry that he wants to be a part of, but not in the role he wants (he wants to be a dedicated reporter and not a columnist), which runs parallel to the fact that I like being an editor for a living, but feel absolutely pigeon-holed doing it for technology books. The marriage between the main characters (whose names I cannot remember) hits a lot of the same parallels mine has gone through, with the whole having an an unexpected second kid soon after the birth of the first and the stress it puts on a marriage. Finally, there's a scene in which (spoiler spoiler spoiler) the main characters go to the OB's office for a routine pregnancy ultrasound only to find out the baby's heart had stopped beating. My wife and I went through the exact same scenario in 2001 and much like the vet's office scene it was so authentic in this movie that it was impossible not to relive my own experience with that moment. Because I wasn't even watching the movie during those scenes so much as I was reliving my own experiences it's hard to give the movie credit for being all that good or compelling, but it is, if nothing else, an authentic well constructed flick.
