Uncanny 30 rock valley

So the other day I was watching 30 Rock on Hulu. Tracy Morgan's character wants to design a porn video game to give his kid's a legacy. Frank tells him it can't be done and uses the Uncanny Valley as a reason that it isn't possible, saying that "people get turned off by animation no matter how real they look". IN the show they defeat the valley and create the game. I don't know if it can be overcome in real life, but I know the new Star Wars movie, "The Clone Wars" looks totally not real, yet I am still turned off by it.

Imagine finding this in your luggage (wacky news)

So one of my fears in travelling has always been lost luggage. The last trip I took I had a change of clothes that I took on the plane with me in case of my bags being lost. Mind you I have never had a lost bag, just an unnatural fear that my bags won't arrive at the same time I do.

With the increases in security since 9/11 I have had my bags searched, but I can only imagine the surprise that this traveller had upon opening their bag after returning home from their trip thru the Tokyo airport.

Try explaining that when going through customs. I swear the drug sniffing dog lost his homework.

Indiana Jones and the crystal suck

So I went to the new Indiana Jones movie against my better judgement and it was bad. I didn't leave, but I let myself sleep through some of it. I think I should have walked out and watched anything else, but I didn't. I think they should have hung up the spurs after "Raiders".

A good reason to go to Folklife

And they have Ghost Stories.

P.S.

We arrived to Folklife not long after the shootings on Saturday. The berries were blocked off and we had to wait until the food booths were almost closed, but we still had some chocolate covered berries. mmmm.

phase3 in lineout and at the rendezvous

Check out our blurb in the online music blog LineOut in The Stranger. Check it out.

Speed Racer

Last night we went to see the new "Harold and Kumar" movie. We arrived a little early and headed into the theater and it was very warm. Now on a hot day I love to go to the movies in the late afternoon, early evening to cool down. So if the air conditioning isn't working we may as well be at home, heck it was cooler at our house than in the theater. I think the staff should give some notification that it is 90 degrees in the theater before you just walk out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Anyway we chose to go see "Speed Racer" instead. I have to say it was pretty good. I think better than the reviews I have read. The races looked great, the cars looked just like the cartoon. The action moved very fast and I never thought about it looking too green screen.

I know it helped that I had no expectations going into it. The story was very cheesy, but so was the cartoon. It had the same simple humor of the cartoon and letting it just be what it was a simple cartoon story, made it a better film. So if you think you want to get out of the heat this weekend, or just want to see a simple funny action filled anime experience, go see "Speed Racer".

Redbelt

So last Friday we went to see the new David Mamet film, "Redbelt". I won't ruin it for you by letting any of the story out. Just go see it.