Celebrated Christmas this year by unplugging and before that
December got hectic. Getting back in gear now and intend to get some
fresh thoughts flowing here.
A few observations / thoughts to get the observational flow going again:
- Radiohead's "name your price" strategy yielded more fruit for the band when I demanded the boxed set of their studio albums
for xmas. Working my way backwards to trace the path to In Rainbows, by
far my favorite album of the year. Now, just to see them live. Milan in June sounds like fun!
- Finally reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Taking me back to the thrill and mythic majesty of reading Tolkien as a teen, though as Pullman says in this interview, the thrust and spirit of the two series could not be more different! And while the film of The Golden Compass
had some beautifully realized characters (Kidman's Mrs. Coulter and
Lyra) and a few gripping scenes, the story just never really got any
momentum. I found myself wishing that Peter Jackson had directed it...
Perhaps if he'd settled his feud with New Line sooner, it would have been another blockbuster series?!
- For others who didn't get a wii under the trii, check out another electronic game that gets kids and adults off the sofa: HyperDash. Brought to you with the magic of RFID! Good wholesome family fun, as they say...
- See Juno. And not just because Ellen Page and Jason Reitman are both Canadian or because they somehow made Vancouver stand in for Minneapolis!
It doesn't fall in the wholesome family fun category, necessarily...
But see it because we should collectively reward the movie industry for
such a sympathetic and optimistic rendering of ordinary, decent,
self-aware people triumphing in a sticky situation. Dammit: it IS
because it feels really Canadian that you should see it!
Might actually have a thing or two to say about web marketing once I soak in it for a while...
