Ok so the Stunning Ms. Rachel loves penguins, so it was a given that I'd be seeing Happy Feet. Being that I am such a good boy, I found and procured us tickets for the 12:01am showing of Happy Feet. I mean really who would have thought that there would be a 12:01am showing of such a movie, but alas there was a showing so we went.

I have to say that the movie was a lot better than I thought it would be actually. Honestly I wasn't expecting all that much, but what I got was a fun and feel good movie. It had amazing computer graphics, a suprisingly decent story for the type of movie it was, fun characters, a diverse soundtrack, and just a fun time all in all. There were tons and tons of what the Ravishing Ms. Rachel would call "Pengies", but who could have seen that one coming? My favorite were the "Amigos", they were 5 smaller and decidedly "Mexican" penguins. The Mexican penguins were led by one of the Characters voiced by Robin Williams. There were a couple of parts of the movie that honestly reminded me of Fellowship of the Rings when they were walking in the snowy mountains.

Basically let me say this. If you take this movie for what it is, a fun family animated movie, it is amazing. I have to say this was actually one of the best computer animated movies that I have ever seen. As such I give it a...

93 out of 100...

i am andy! i smell! muah ha

So the fetching Ms. Rachel had Friday off, and I managed to get myself off work ;), so we were planning on doing something fun and spending the day together. So I have been wanting to go to the Opera and discovered the NExt program they run. They sell you tickets for the Opera for $20 ea but you and all your guests have to be full time college students with valid IDs. So luckly for me Rachel wanted to go and at the last minute tickets for this day appeared and I got them the day before and yay we went.

We saw Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi. It was an amazing show, but more on that later. First off the opera house itself is amazing on the inside. The decor is amazing and the accoustics are just stunning. You could hear people cough in basically the entire place they echoed so well. The crowd was an intresting mix of people, mostly towards the elderly end though. Our seats were very good also. I can't exactly tell which section on the main row we were in, but we were either in Mainfloor section 2 or 3 meaning if it was section 2 those tickets normally were $149 each or $117 each for section 3. Now I'm pretty sure it was probably section 3, but it is also very possible that it was section 2. Not bad for $20 ea.

The opera itself was amazing. Now I have never seen an opera before, so this was a new experience for me. The opera was sung in Italian and they then projected the subtitles in English right above the stage. The singing was breath taking, the singers really do have amazing voices. Add in the amazing playing that the Orchestra provides and you have a great combination. I wont go on too much about the details of the actual show but you can read about it HERE if you like. What I will say though is this, if movie writers and directors would write a show of the quality of the Opera we saw then we would have a much better set of movies going around. Now I don't even know if the specific Opera we saw was even one of the better ones out there, but the story and the execution of tell the story really struck me as being of a very very high quality.

After the show we waiting quite a while for my car from Valet but it was worth the wait in the end. Then we decided to stop for dinner and we went to one of my favorite restraunts, the TWISTED SPOKE. The Twisted Spoke is not exactly a dressy place so I thought eating in a suit and tie there was fun. I enjoyed my favorite, a foot long twisted weiner with a super sour puckerpuss (vodka with fresh squeezed lemonade with a bit of pucker). Rachel enjoyed an order of Jalepeno poppers and a fine 2006 vintage water. It was a yummy dinner, I just wish I had some quarters so I could have gotten adult novelties from the bathroom vending machine.

All in all it was a great evening. I highly recommend to all you college students reading, go check out an opera at the LYRIC OPERA when you are in town and get a chance.

So tonight I took the inebriated Ms. Rachel to the movie shows this night, and we ended up seeing Saw III since she has gotten me to see the first 2 lately.

Saw III reminded me more of Saw II than it did Saw. When the movie was finished I was basically like meh. I had been told that it was better than the second one, but honestly I didn't think so. I basically got the feeling that the two of them could have been pushed into one 3 hour long movie and just been one movie. There weren't that many great twists in this one I thought, and that for me made it an inferior movie to the first one. I thought the blood and gore in this movie were a little over the top, basicaly I mean they were there just to be gross not to actually futher the story or the movie at all. The brain surgury scene was just downright disgusting. So yes meh I give it...

77 out of 100 same as saw II, good but not amazing.

Once again the fetching Ms. Rachel wanted me to see Saw II, after having seen Saw, and before seeing Saw III.

Honestly I really don't have a whole lot to say about Saw II. It really wasn't as bad as I had figured, but it also really wasn't anything that I would consider memorable. I did enjoy the people in the house with the gas flowing in, but honestly I don't really thing it was a good as the first. Of course you have to compare it to the first since its a sequal so I think I am fare in doing so. I think the movie relyed on gore and shock a bit more than the first one, which I think was its downfall. The "twist" towards the end was so-so. All in all i'll give the movie a.

77 out of 100

You know I have just realized that I have been a rude host. I have never said hi to all you wonderful people who have just stumbled upon my blog, or may have some how found it after an exhausting searching based on maybe my myspace or something. So to all of you people if you are out there: Hi I can see you! Well no I can't but anyways...

Cheers.

So I didn't make it on Friday, but I did make it on Saturday evening with the incomparable Ms. Rachel. Now Rachel had seen Borat already, she managed to get to see it free and a month or so early by the way of a free myspace preview. LUCKY! So I had been looking forward to this movie for quite some time after hearing all about it.

Let me just say it was amazing. Not only was it laugh out loud hilarious, I thought it was really a fairly a pretty intelligent satirical comedy. You can tell that Sasha Baron Cohen is not just another random Tom Green doing funny things to random people and filming it. This was a well put together movie that was funny and really it was something new and fresh. The Borat character was amazing. If you didn't know better and weren't told you almost might believe that he was really making a documentry if it wasn't for some of the over the top things they added in (i.e. Running of the Jews). So basically you all really need to go and see this movie. This is one that should win an award for its creativity, but sadly probably wont. I'll give it...

94/100!!!

Since Borat was lame and didn't have any 12:01am shows on Thursday evening I went to see Running with Scissors with the lovely Rachel. We were the only people in the theater, which was odd, so she put up arm rests and layed down. I found that funny.

There really really should have been more people at this movie. It was a really good movie. I thought it was hilarious, it was a dry and somewhat dark comedy I would say. The story was amazing and I think all the actors did a really great job. The soundtrack was also a bright spot in this movie and it fit really well with what was going on in the movie. I like that in a movie, it makes the movie come alive a little bit more for me. There are so many times when you will watch a movie and a song comes on and you're like WTF? This just makes me enjoy the good movies that much more. So anyways yes go see Running with Scissors. This is one of those movies that wont be big but it really should be. So I will give this movie a...

91/100

So I don't know about you but I am excited about going to see Borat tomorrow night. So I thought what should I do with a hour or so I have to kill but scour YouTube for Borat clips and share them with my adoring public. You are all welcome *bows* So enjoy and don't for get Borat opens tomorrow, my review should be up soon ;)

Without Further Adieu:


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Well now that October is done, that brings us to you guessed it... November. To me this is the real start of the Christmas season, not the day after Thanksgiving anymore. Christmas just keeps getting pushed back earlier and earlier. In the like of "work" that I am in the Christmas season is really not a happy thing.

Retail can be hell all year long, but if retail is hell then the Christmas season is like being frozen in the 9th layer of hell. The Christmas season is supposed to be about love, caring, giving and selflessness. Someone please tell that to the people shopping at my store. I notice the exact opposite actually. The closer to Christmas it gets, the more angry and mean people get. This brings me to my next point...

I feel like such a grinch because in the last few years I have really started to hate the Christmas season. Working at Carsons has really ruined it for me. I dread the crowds, I dread the constant drone of the same 20 christmas songs from the 50's crooners, I dread the long hours, I just plain dread it all. You know what? This makes me really sad too. I don't want to be a grinch, I don't want to hate Christmas.

I want to just be a kid again and enjoy the Christmas seasons that I remember as a kid. I want to look forward to watching Frosty the Snowman on TV. I want to read the Grinch who Stole Christmas. I want to make a Christmas list, maybe I will write one. I REALLY want to go with to cut a christmas tree down, but that can't happen since its always the day after thanksgiving we go. I want to go driving around looking at the extravagent christmas lights. I want to go to the brookfield zoo to see Holiday Magic.

So who knows maybe I can snap out of my grinchary this year, wish me luck all...