Alex's Genre Favorites Blogfest

The amazing, astonishing, awesome Ninja Captain Alex Cavanaugh (who I believe is visiting from another planet) is hosting a blogfest.

Rules are:

List your favorite genres.

Movie. Special Effects teamed with humor catches my eye. Like Galaxy Quest, Addams Family, Princess Bride, JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. Animated features like Toy Story, Up, Despicable Me.

No On Golden Pond movies if you please.

Music. Rock only, in the vein of Nickelback, Shinedown, 3 Doors Down.

Books. Urban Fantasy, epic, and just about everything in between.

A guilty pleasure genre. Special effects so good that you *BELIEVE* it is real.

Jurassic Park

When that brontosaurus reared up on its back legs, pulled the branch, and the treetop snapped back It. Was. Real.

Any movie or book that can do that to me is a marvel.

Update. Maryann Miller reminded me of another movie. No not Avatar (excellent movie that it was). No, it was Star Wars. That first glimpse of the orbital star cruiser coasting along. OMG! 

YO!

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!








Alex Cavanaugh's Genre Favorites Blogfest starts tomorrow.

Hate Your Computer? Your Dryer?

Come on, admit it. Everyone at some point has wanted to do this to some inanimate object.

Like a dryer that quit mid-cycle.

Picture this: two guys, one defunct dryer, and explosives.
A perfect combination.

I believe the conversation went something like:

"Hey! You wanna blow this up?"
"Hell yeah. I'll bring the beer."

Update:
New information just came in from my...er...relative who shall remain nameless. She said this was actually the second time they blew the dryer up.

Apparently the first explosion didn't do enough damage.

Remember

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana

Only a person who enjoys self-flagellation would dwell on the past. As humans, we prefer to remember the happy times. The laugh of a child, a soothing word from a parent, or the first declaration of love from our mate.

We hold these memories close and cherish them daily.

But to paraphrase Mr. Santayana, to forget or ignore the past puts those children, our spouse, our mothers and fathers in danger.

Our enemy once said, ‘You have the watches. We have the time’.

Never forget. 

Books into Movies, The Good, the Bad, and the Blah

I have an opinion and express it frequently. Sometimes my thoughts about movies and books follow the mainstream. Other times? Eh, not so much.

I have three categories. The Good Ones, the movies that brought the books to life and vice versa; Blah, movies that fell flat. And the movies that surpassed the books by a wide margin.

In the Good column (according to my vast research of the last few minutes with IMDb):

• To Kill a Mockingbird. Comparing the book and movie isn’t relevant. The two are both outstanding in their own right.
• Hunger Games. The first chapter sucked me in and wouldn’t let go. The movie started slow. Then exploded. The hubby rolled his eyes when he saw my choice for that night’s entertainment. Then was mesmerized until the very end.

The Didn’t-Work-for-Me column:

• Gone With the Wind. About everyone has seen the movie. But what about the book? Holy crap, read it. The written word, the storyline with all the side streets and alleyways, gives us the reasons behind Scarlett and her character traits. It makes the movie seem trivial.
• Twilight. Yeah I liked the movies. Got posters of RPatz and everything. But the screenwriter didn’t capture the true magic of the books.

Movies that Blew Me Away. And are nothing like the books:

• Harry Potter. IMO, the books can’t touch the movie. Absolute genius. And I get chills thinking of those words, ‘you have your mother’s eyes’.
• The Princess Bride. I loved the movie so much that I figured the book would be great also. *shiver* Ahhh, no. Horrible, in my opinion. Nasty ending and blah writing.

Do you agree with my choices? How about a few of your own.