Great Big Sea show

Went to a great show tonight at the Paramount Theatre in Denver. Great Big Sea (a band from Newfoundland) played, and I got to see them again for the first time in a couple years. Great show! It was the first time I've been to the Paramount and I really enjoyed it. It's a great old style theatre and had a nice ambiance for the concert.

The show in itself was incredible. They just put out a new album called "The Hard and the Easy" a CD of traditional Newfoundland folk tunes. The first set was mainly off of their new CD, and then their second set was more rock tunes from all of their other CDs. If you haven't heard of Great Big Sea you should definitely check them out. Their vocals are incredible and they blend really well together. They came back
for two different encores, the second one they all started at the front of the stage & told the audience to be quiet, and then did an acapella song (I think it was called Mr. Brown's Daughter) with no microphones or anything. Really cool.

Anyway - it was a great show, great venue & we had great seats. The next time their back in our neck of the woods you should definitely check them out.
Great Big Sea's website

"The Chronicles of Narnia" movie review

Tilda Swinton rocks. Easily the best part of the movie. She was so good at being so evil, and she blew me away in the last battle. I don't think they could have cast anyone better as the White Witch.

So on to the rest of the movie. There aren't many movies that I've seen that I consider better than the books that they're based upon. This was definitely an exception. I read the Chronicles of Narnia a short time ago (all of them) and thought that they were okay, but nothing exceptional. Each book is so short, it seems like nothing much happens and there's really nothing in between the things that do happen. After reading them again the first time in years, I was skeptical of the movie and how they were going to make a two hour epic out of it. Well they did, and they did a pretty good job. When reading the book, CS Lewis does a good job of making the children really annoying and making you get pretty much fed up with them on the first part of the story. The same is true in the movie. The kids are annoying (and I'm not saying anything about the actors - they were great - it was just the parts written) in the first two thirds of the movie, and then they get a lot better. Liam Neeson is a great voice for Aslan, as well as the actors who do the voice for the Beaver (Ray Winstone) and the Wolf (Sim Evan-Jones).

Overall I thought the movie was really good, great visuals, great sounds, and battle scenes that were definitely up to par with what has become the norm with all of the recent epic movies.

I give it a high 7 out of 10. The annoying part the kids played took some away from it for me, but Tilda Swinton was awesome. The movie in itself is worth seeing to see her coming into the last battle in her chariot.

"Wallace & Gromit" movie review

I give this 9 out of 10 stars. I might even go 9+. Its a great movie, I loved it. But for totally different reasons than why I loved "City of Lost Children".

"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" just made me smile the entire time. First of all, I love Wallace & Gromit and have seen all of their shorts, so when I heard that there was finally going to be a movie, I knew I had to see it. Saying that, I find it hard to believe it took me this long! I guess that's what happens when you have other things to do in your life. The animation is incredible, and the voice talent does a great job. Helena Bonham Carter is perfect for her part. The comedy is great and there's a lot of little subtle visuals and lines that just had me busting out laughing. I particularly liked the "dog fight" at the end.
Check this movie out if you're in the mood for just an overall good entertaining movie. Great family movie as well.

"Aww. The bounce has gone from his bungee."

"City of Lost Children" movie review

"I had a weird dream"

Little bit of an understatement. This was a crazy movie. Really dark, think Terry Gilliam at his best. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is quickly becoming one of my favorite lesser known directors. His visuals, set design, and color schemes are incredible. Think of the color schemes of "Amelie" and then go to the opposite spectrum of dark and twisted. Ron Pearlman does a great job in it (he's Hellboy in the movie of the same name) and the young actress Judith Vittet is incredible. The story is truly unique about this super intelligent guy who was created from a test tube but the person who created him left him and created him without the ability to dream. So he kidnaps children to try to see into their minds and what they are dreaming, but when he trys to get into their dreams they become only nightmares.

There's a lot of great memorable scenes in the movie, but one will stick out in my mind for quite sometime. For those of you who have seen it, you'll know what I'm thinking about, but since I don't want to give it away, I'll just say that looking yourself in the eye while you're dying would really freak me out.

If you're a fan of dark movies (I was a huge fan of "Dark City" and this is kind of in the same vein) you should definitely check it out.

I give it 8 out of 10.

Happy Groundhog Day

Today is February 2nd - Groundhog Day! So go celebrate by doing whatever it is people do on Groundhog Day. I guess it's a big thing out east, especially in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but if you happen to live no where close to that little town, celebrate in your own way.

The date is also the traditional day of Candlemas on western calendars. This was the date 40 days after the birth of Christ where the Virgin Mary would have gone to the temple to attend a ceremony of ritual purification and present her child to the temple.

Some traditions and superstitions surrounding Candlemas are that traditionally it was on the eve of Candlemas that all Christmas decorations were taken down for any traces of holly, lights, trees and anything else Christmas-like after Candlemas would bring death and misfortune in the coming year. (So all of you people who still have your Christmas decorations out, take them down already!) Also it was traditionally found that good weather on Candlemas Day meant another 40 days of winter, which is where the tradition of Groundhog Day originally comes from.

Also, Groundhog day marks the 6 week mark to another lesser known and even lesser celebrated holiday, St. Urho's Day. St. Urho is a fake legend that the Finnish made up when immigrating to America and wanted their own holiday to keep strong ties to their Finnish culture. (Some people think they were jealous of the Irish & St Patrick's Day) Apparently he is celebrated because he drove out all of the Grasshoppers from Finland...similarities?

Anyway a little fun trivia for you today on Groundhog's Day.

And by the way, Phil saw his shadow today, so hope you haven't got all of the skiing out of your system just yet.