Category: thought of the day

thought of the day: do green gummy bears have the same effect as green m&m’s?

it’s bloody cold here in minneapolis, but that statement is true for more than half the year, so it’s not news. this time of year it is exceptionally true. last weekend was -8ºF (with -29ºF windchill factor), and even today was -11º, which means i’ve been spending less time indoors. while i have plenty of games to occupy my time, i like some diversity among my diversions. unfortunately, thanks to the writer’s strike, many of my favourite shows aren’t airing new content, and haven’t for some time now, forcing me to look beyond my normal comfort zones of television, and to some smaller extent, movies.

U2 3D

most recently, i acquired pre-screening tickets to a private showing of the new imax feature U2 3D, a milestone of modern 3D cinema in the sense that it was shot not only in the gigantic imax film format, but also shot live, and of course in the extra-dimensional effect. that i’m a superfan of U2 aside, it really is an amazing experience for anyone who might enjoy music, the band, or just something different. normally i don’t pay much attention to imax releases because the ticket prices feel as large as the screens, but from time to time, i just can’t ignore them.

in the case of U2 3D, the film follows the band on their Vertigo Tour during a show in Buenos Aires. Having been “front row” to more than one of the band’s shows–including one on this same tour–i had a specific point of reference for what to expect from this film. from the very beginning and the first song, it’s surprisingly accurate to the feel of the show, and the dimensionality of being so near the stage and performers; seeing it on such a large screen only helps to amplify the effect. like stepping into a steaming hot tub, the overwhelming sensation wears off after awhile, even just two or three songs in, but in effort to combat that complacency, some clever visual tricks have been added to freshen the audience and pop some ‘wow’ back into their brains. for example, every shot is a three-dimensional space, but from time to time, they collage together several layers of such space, essentially multiplying the effect. during the song “love and peace or else”, lead singer bono is filmed in a tight closeup during a quiet bridge between anthemic refrains, and always the performer, he starts miming the lyrics with hand gestures such as turning a dial or finger painting mid-air. to these gestures, a post production effect i’ll call “light drawing” was added to emphasise and provide additional dimension, not to mention interest. strangely, it wasn’t until the end of the show where things got really over the top. one of their encore songs, “the fly” already had so much going on with the giant stage display behind the band, that to have the insanity of so many words, shapes and colours mimicked, enhanced and complemented in full 3D as a foreground layer atop the live action was just overwhelming, in a good way. similarly, the light drawing re-emerges toward the end of the closing credits, after many had left the theatre. one of the best effects in the film, it was a combination between the 2D drawings, and 3D animation. just a tip to stay start to finish when you go see it, and you should go see it if there’s an imax theatre anywhere near you.

MONK

two weeks ago, while enduring the interim between shows on a boring sunday night, i found myself scouring the programming guide for something, anything. the USA network is nearly adjacent to the Sci-Fi channel where i spend a fair amount of my television time, so in the vacuum of other interests, noticing it on the same screen as the rest of the schedule i planned to watch later, i decided to give monk a shot.

unaware of the show’s premise, i soon figured out why some people who know me well enough know that i have a somewhat mild case of OCD would suggest i see it sometime. after a few minutes, i wasn’t entirely convinced, but gradually my scepticism wore thin as my amusement at the lead character’s quirks grew. not that his condition itself is amusing, but instead that i see a lot of myself in him and the things he does, and how his surroundings affect him. i can appreciate how the writing uses what many would consider a weakness and instead use it as a powerful advantage, even though the crime-solving aspects don’t typically interest me as much as enjoying the character’s idiosyncrasies, and relating them to myself. in fact, the crime-solving is never very puzzling for me, i typically have things figured out before the first commercial break. while it’s certainly not new by any measure, to have found a program with such a richly developed character and hefty backlog of episodic content is a huge win for me.

LOST

i’ll admit, the series lost just never appealed to me, despite so many of my fellow geeks, gamers, etc. all seemed to really dig it. so here upon the cusp of season four about to begin airing in a week, i started seeing advertisements on abc.com (sinfully, while watching missed episodes of Grey’s Anatomy) for a new, free availability of the show in HD, from the very beginning to most recently aired…three full seasons in total.

so what of it? the first handful of episodes was really a test run for me; while i wasn’t immediately engrossed, i wasn’t bored either. much like my favourite show, Battlestar Galactica, the series centres around a cast dealing with their dire circumstances and each other; it’s a character drama that happens to have a slight sci-fi twist. the show has a strong tendency to tie the current events and theme of the episode to the characters’ pasts during scattered flashbacks, thereby revealing not only more about the characters, but helping to reinforce the lessons learned in each one. the problem for me at first was that the show has so many characters, that it takes a long time for a viewer to develop any sort of attachment to any of them, and in turn a loyalty to the show; it requires so many episodes to make progress on that front. it’s a sort of vicious cycle in some respects; not knowing enough to care about characters, and not enough time to find out enough to care. however for the vigilant come the rewards.

to put it another way: in a matter of 3 days, i watched the entire first season; 24 episodes at 45 minutes apiece for around 18 hours of content, most of that time at the expense of my sleeping schedule. as i continue to barrel through season two, the pieces falling into place one episode at a time, i can only curse that the show is but an hour long, and for such a complex cast and story, it simply isn’t enough to satisfy the appetite of avid viewers. so it’s free, it’s in HD; everyone really should give it a go.

next post may have to be a retelling of games i find myself currently involved in playing, or some new additions to my design galleries. stay tuned!

listening to:
In Rainbows
Radiohead