Arthur C. Clarke RIP

Last March 19, 2008, died one of the masters of Sci-Fi... Arthur C. Clarke who together with Isaac Asimov was one of the authors that made me fall in love with the genre.
2001: A Space Odyssey was the movie that opened my eyes to the amazing world of scientific fantasy, although we are way beyond the years that were depicted in the movie and much of its predictions did not come true ( Sorry Pan Am), it still was riveting and groundbreaking way beyond special effects. It was The Matrix of its time.
Great loss.

AIDA and how theatre is done

Being a musical "queen" and a chorus singer I was very much intrigued and excited this Saturday when I went to see Aida performed by the J*Company, a youth troupe at the La Jolla's Jewish Community Center. These are high school kids between the ages of 14-18 directed by Joey Landwehr who also happens to be the choreographer director of our chorus' next performance... Heart and Soul.
Seeing these kids perform was a moving and fun experience I was not prepared for. All the leads were just stunning, Amneris had a powerhouse voice and a sense of timing hard to find in musical theatre... my only quip would be that wig!!! reminded me of the Facts of Life's Blair worst hair days. Aida was sweet and tender but with the strength you expect from her character. I think she was the best duo/trio performer moving with ease from solo performance to blending without effort when needed.
I am a little biased towards Mereb (played by Andrew Miller), Andrew has helped the chorus in previous chorus productions as he will do in this one. His portrayal of the Egyptian slave was just a joy to watch and hear. Besides his soothing vocal performance I think his stage presence and timing was refreshing and worthy of bigger stages.
Finally, Radames had a very interesting actor filling those shoes. I think his solos where well handled and his onstage chemistry with Aida were his "strongest suit" I have to admit I was missing a sort of TOUGHNESS in his role that we expect in the character, it did not make me unlike him just wished for a little more umph.
Overall I think we paid for a show that was well worth much more.

nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine BC

Why or why,
Sometimes I think movie producers think the average movie goer lives in a bubble world in total disconnect with World History and unable to follow more than one plot line at a time. If they are going to campaign against pirating and promote forking more and more money to sit in a barely comfortable seat for a zillion seconds for just a hint of FX and an extreme suspension from reality, they are going to wake up in a bootleg world very soon.
This flick had the potential to be a fun loosely fact checked movie, á la The Day After Tomorrow. But no, once they start the first 5 minutes explaining to the audience that the whole premise is going to revolve around a pre-historic Love Story (without the cancer) you better have a sure exit plan because you will be going to the bathroom more than once. Between the incredibly sharp goatees these men had before Gillette was founded to the amazing idea that the only tribe that spoke a different language where the white grungy D'les, while all the black tribes spoke the same common language...wow.
A Sabre-Tooth that just because the main character saved him from drowning was now his BFF and at the end only appeared for 2 seconds on the next frame.... waist of crappy CGI.
I have to say the most annoying thing of the movie was the old lady leader of the tribe... she almost died every 5 minutes... OMG 'mam die already... didn't you know that the life expectancy in those days was around 30 not 300.
Geography was lost here tooo... snowy mountains that lead to a desert and a "river" ( I can only assume it was the Nile). Last time I checked the Nubians were to the South of the Egyptians (also considering that the Egyptian culture is from 5000 BC not 10000) and finally DOMESTICATED mammoths????
Guys... only rent this movie if your Netflix queue is empty.

Ben Affleck comes Out!!!

Bitch is the new Black!!!

Hillary's Closes at the Presidential Debate in Texas

This is why I voted for Hillary...
made my skin crawl.

Barack Obama: There Will Be Bamboozling

I want to like Obama...but for some reason I just can't... I feel BAMBOOZLED

night and day

Ok... Nothing like an awesome song with clips of hot men to make a day SO much better

Jumping Spiderwicks

Do you remember those good old days at the beach when you could go to the movies for a double feature and super sized pop-corn ( you know, before some smart ass told us how many carbs those exploded corn puffs had), and enjoy a "slightly" passé movie for not much money? Well this last weekend I went down memory lane and repeated those adventures of yesteryear, well.... without the carb-corns, the movies were just released and the price was not a deal (we did see one of the flix in IMAX). This whole incident got me thinking of the whole movie going experience per se and how it has changed during my lifetime. Besides the fact the movies and movie theatres have changed dramatically, I think this only accounts for about half of the experience. We, as spectators, also change during time... we are less impressionable and more cynical. I can remember that just hearing the overwhelming pre-Dolby-surround-digital-7.2 analog sound made my skin crawl; colors and surreal worlds made me quiver. I was happy with just a consistent plot and likeable characters. People would sit down without excited and not talk or eat loud from credits to credits. I personally believe that there is some sort of "been there- seen that" attitude.

After you have seen Trinity leap in the air and “slow time" the first time you will never see again a unanimous crowd spontaneously dropping their jaws in awe and vocally expressing their wonderment. For me that was the epitome of my love for movies. I always go back reminiscing that moment expecting the same. Movies are getting less ambitious and fluffier. As long as you have an A-list actor/tress it is ok for a movie to be full of loop holes and devoid of depth (I am Legend..HELLO).

We saw Jumpers and Spiderwick (IMAX) on Saturday and the best thing from that experience was the ice cream sandwich that I sinfully ate. Jumpers was such a big disappointment- you know those movies that are good if they had just showed what appeared in the trailer. It was a sci-fi chick flick, don’t get me wrong I love those two genres, but rarely do they work when they mix them up. Slow beginning, took forever to develop the characters and once you saw the cool "jumping" effect it got old pretty quick. God bless Hayden but he is the new Keanu Reeves, cute but with a monotone and flat acting skills.... I am sure he would be awesome in a prequel to The Matrix but that would be it.

Spiderwick was sort of better, or maybe it just looked better compared to the previous bland experience. It was Narniaesque and the special effect where interesting enough. Acting was not amazing but cute. If I had to choose between both I would recommend Spiderwick but don't bother in paying for the IMAX experience.

Now back to my regular poll watching and political blog lurking.

My Endorsement 2008

Some of you may know that I am very politically active and love a good debate, checking polls every day and reading right and left-wing blogs. It may be that almost all my formative years where spent under chilean Dictator Pinochet, with no Democracy and no electoral process. In 1988 I was swept by the political winds of change trying to remove our self-crowned King and finish 16 years of authoritarian rule.

When I returned to the US in 2000 it was right a month after the General Elections that had the legal battle between Bush/Gore. I was very taken aback by the intensity and furor of the political process. This didn't last long.... during the last 7 years I have seen how a bad choice can REALLY take a whole nation from the global leadership and admiration it had for decades to a position of international pariah and economic blunder.

Although both Democratic candidates (it goes beyond saying that the Republican bunch is totally undesirable) have there pros and cons, and they pretty much are very similar on policy issues... I have chosen the experience and Health Policy of Hillary Clinton over the Hope and Charisma of Senator Obama. I think Barrack has a promising future ahead of him and he WILL be the President of the US in a 8 years from now. He just needs to play with the political system for a while. We all know how ugly the general elections can get.... HILLARY '08!!!