Then I saw her face

[austin_dern]

In an unprecedented move for me, unless you count UPAC movies on-campus at RPI, I went to another movie despite being to one already this month. The film this time: Shrek 2, which I thought I should catch before it left the theaters altogether. I could only find three theaters playing it at all this week, so made a trip up to Sembawang to see it. The mall the theater was in is a small and ... strange place. I can't say what's wrong, but it doesn't feel like a coherent design. Hallways don't match up, and the arrangement of walkways over the open central area seems arbitrary. It does have a branch of the national library -- many malls have libraries, an amazingly good idea -- as well as a housewares store called ``The Seagull Hardware,'' which either tries to call on a seagull so iconic it's identified just by the article (I don't know of one), or else feels a word short of being a name.

The only amusing anecdote from the cinema was the queue to buy tickets changing direction while I was in it. The arrangement of rope barriers was ambiguous, and apparently when we got to the point I was the only person left the next people coming in line chose the other lane and they got served first. Gr. For the movie, I ... fell short of feeling enchanted. I can't pin down a specific flaw, besides maybe finding the settings unimaginative. Thin Parody Beverly Hills always struck me as even weaker a background than Real Beverly Hills -- which doesn't have anything interesting about it other than it's been in a bunch of movies and TV shows -- so the only place I really liked was the magic factory. I liked John Cleese's and Antonio Banderas's characters, but the rest of the movie felt like stuff to pad their scenes up to movie length. I think I'd have liked to see more of Donkey and Dragon's kids, but that's supporting cast to the supporting cast so they shan't be getting any great attention (and the choice to make a half-dozen of them means they can't be much of a subplot in the next sequel, unless they get thinned out like Popeye's Nephews did).

Still, this gives me a record of four movies seen in the theaters this year, and there's still nearly half the year to go. Will I see that elusive fifth? Who knows.

And at Funan the IT Mall I picked up a little USB Hub, mostly so I could have more cord space for my mouse. I'm really happy with this one because it's got internal LEDs to shine. They had a bunch of other LED-lit USB cords, and I'll definitely be buying those in the future. Computers out to be neat to look at, and blinky lights are usually the right choice.

Trivia: The (British) National Gallery portrait of King Henry IV is a 16th century adaptation of a woodcut of French King Charles VI. Source: Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485, John Julius Norwich.

Currently Reading: The Mightiest Machine, John W. Campbell. Classic slam-bang space opera featuring extremely Anglo-Saxon types cheerily committing genocide in distant galaxies`cause those aliens looked all evil, packed with the flaky physics, bizarre anthropology, and shaky characters that make one appreciate how much restraint Doc Smith had. It's an exciting read if you overlook the atrocities.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Somehow - and likewise, it's difficult to focus on exactly why - I left with the same impression. It's certainly a lot of fun, but like the original, if I were to ask myself whether I'd buy it, the answer would have to be no.

Perhaps some part of it is audience sympathy? With Marlin, you really wanted him to succeed, and be reunited with Nemo; for Dory to be able to remember something; for Nemo not to wind up with the dentist's daughter. They needed our help, or at least, support. Shrek and Donkey will manage, and you'd just be getting in their way.

Even if you don't have any Firewire devices, this Godzilla (http://www.charismac.com/Products/firedino/) is easily the coolest hub of all. (Some more photos here (http://www.macobserver.com/exporeport/2002/03/25.2.shtml))

it doesn't feel like a coherent design. Hallways don't match up, and the arrangement of walkways over the open central area seems arbitrary.

That reminds me of the Hotel San Diego, a glorious fleapit across from the new courthouse downtown, and about the only affordable place to stay during ComicCon. The number of left and right turns didn't seem to quite match topologically, and all the corridors were bathed in a hue befitting a faded sepia movie. The oddity was not lessened by the realisation that the pale blue sand-based paint had been spray-blasted onto the walls, including the doorknobs for each room.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think you may be on to something, there. The movie never quite felt like it was among the most important days in the lives of Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona, despite the plot trying mightily to act like they were. I'm not sure I can make that idea precise without coming across like an idiot, but there was some kind of ... urgency ... missing in it.

I love the Firewire Godzilla.

Probably if I ever finish my project of detailed photography of the MRT system without being arrested I could move into mall photography. Some malls fit together naturally; this one just feels like it doesn't fit somehow.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

You're beating me. So far this year I've seen "The Triplets of Belleville" (recommended by Porsupah) and "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". I'm meaning to see Shrek and Harry Potter, though.


> The Mightiest Machine, John W. Campbell.

Where do you find stuff like this? I grew up reading Golden Age SF, most of which has long since been purged from the libraries.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

In this case, I got The Mightiest Machine at The Book Garden, a florist's/used book store/comic book shop (http://www.spindizzy.org/austin/2004/June/bookGarden.jpg) on Route 537 in Jackson, New Jersey, about five miles west of Six Flags Great Adventure. It's a marvelous place, with a good-sized warehouse space in back and a bunch of pre-UPC books, not just in science fiction. The National Geographics, Collier's, Life, and Saturday Evening Posts alone reach back to the 1920s, and you can find everything from Linotype manuals to 1984 Amtrak schedules to The Peanuts Cookbook there. I love it.

Another great source for old stuff was the Troy Public LIbrary; they went so long without new funding they couldn't afford to take old stuff off their shelves, so they have wonderful things like the Man Will Conquer Space Soon series collected as a book, or The Wreck of the Penn Central, or Woodrow Wilson's history of the United States. It's the only place I've found a copy of Clifton and Riley's They'd Rather Be Right, much heralded as the worst novel to ever win the Hugo award, and a book so overflowing with the dopier of Campbell's manias that if it were a bit smarter I'd think it was a brilliant satire.