Wild Target (2010)

If you like bizarre comedy with a witty twists, then you'll enjoy Wild Target. Recently released on DVD in America, it tells the story of professional assassin Victor Maynard (Bill Nighy). At the top of his career, he's fifty-five years old and feeling pressure from his mother (Eileen Atkins) to produce an heir to carry on the family business. After failing to kill the out-of-control young thief and amateur con-artist, Rose (Emily Blunt), he find himself protecting her with the help of an emotionally unstable Tony (Rupert Grint). Martin Freeman appears as a rival assassin with sinisterly perfect teeth. Though it is certainly not a perfect film, the cast alone is reason enough to watch. Some of the top actors of stage and screen in Britain united to make this film. It's also full of funny moments. Nighy plays Victor Maynard with a dry awkwardness that is strangely endearing-- as is his peculiar relationship that develops with Rose. Witty, ironic, and quotable dialogue is also easy to find. Though it is not a masterpiece, it is a successful farce, and a great way to pass a Sunday night.

History Parody Spam: Musical Edition

I saw this on Lady History's Tumblr yesterday and I convulsed with laughter. Convulsed. It works so well and could be such a great tool for teaching high schoolers about the Revolutionary War, it really could.


Did you noticed I figured out how to resize YouTube videos? It wasn't very complicated, I'm not proud it has taken me this long.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

I'll be honest, I've not read much Adams, I've never read the Hitchhiker's series (I saw the movie when it came out). Still, when I heard about this book the premise intrigued me. Since I've been on a mystery kick lately a sci-fi mystery seemed like fun.

This time there would be no witnesses.
This time there was just the dead earth, a rumble of thunder, and the onset of that interminable light drizzle from the northeast by which so many of the world's most momentous events seem to be accompanied.

So begins Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Adams begins slowly weaving threads of separate stories that don't connect for quite some time. The title character doesn't appear until about half way through the story, though he is shabbily delightful and haphazard. Somewhat of a con artist, he takes the approach of holism, or the interconnectedness of all things and other abstract scientific theories when looking at mysteries to be solved and he charges handsomely. The main character, however, is Richard, a young software designer, who finds himself in the middle of a complicated web of time travel and murder. He isn't particularly interesting, but the experiences he has are.
Adams uses sharp, insightful humor to build a world very much like our own, but just slightly slanted to make room for science fiction phenomenon. Though not all of his plot threads are sewn up in a completely satisfactory way, it still is amusing and thought-provoking. Random inexplicable things such as a sofa stuck in a hallway, a conjuring trick, the poetry of Coleridge, and the mathematical beauty of music all lay in Adams's landscape and add color to the story.
Ideas such as quantum physics and chaos theory are touched on in the story as apart of the plot and the way the world of the novel functions.
The story also curiously combines genres. It is, of course science fiction, but there is a mystery at the center and also elements of a sort of fantasy ghost story as well. Very peculiar.
It was certainly different than most of the books I read, but enjoyable. Adams was clearly a very creative, witty mind that loved combing scientific theory with fun and complex plots and some social satire as well.

So, it's 2011 now

I only have to be excited about this if I acknowledge that time moves in the entirely linear, measured fashion that we say it does. Which I'm still on the fence about. There, I said it.
It does, however, give me an excuse to look back over the (alleged) year 2010 with my spiffy Blogger Stats.
My most read post in the history of this blog is "Death Masks"- a write up I did on a History Channel program in July. It has has four times the views of any of my other top viewed posts.
My readership is international (I knew that thanks to Neci and Traxy- hi guys!), but I didn't realize how extensive it was. My top country of readership is, of course the US, followed by the UK,then Finland, Germany, South Korea, Canada, India, South Africa, Malta, and Australia.
If you're on Blogger but haven't checked out your stats tab, definitely do. It's fascinating and surprising. Somewhat encouraging too. It's nice to know- and have actual figures to back up- that people are reading what you post.
Thanks to everyone that drops by, even if it's only occasionally. So, onward into 2011(you know, if I believed in that linear sort of thing). And I'm giving you all a mischevious grin right now.

This Sums Up Everything

Need I say more? Totally snagged from Bookshelf Porn on Tumblr.

Productivity

Or lack there of.
I locked myself away in my room about two hours ago with the intent of being hyper productive- finishing my oral presentation, catching up on readings and even doing a rewrite on one of my papers. It's really not happening.
A few minutes ago I looked at the clock and thought to myself, "Really? I've been in here that long and this is all I have to show for it?"
All I really want to do is watch my new Sherlock DVD freshly arrived from B&N in the mail yesterday. In fact it's sitting next to me while I work, being all tempting. When are Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman not tempting? (Never.) I'm not going to give in and watch it because then I'll be up all night and probably get even less work done.
On the bright side this is my last week of classes. On the dark and gloomy post-modern side, finals are almost upon me.
I've been bombarded with fantastic ideas for my NaNo story, or rather the sequels to it. I have what I hope will eventually be a five book series plotted out with these characters and I'll just see scenes or hear bits of dialogue in my mind and I have to write it down with notes like 'this should happen in book 3' and such. My NaNo novel is actually sort of like a prequel to what I'd like the series to be.
Oh and this distracted me a bit too.

Pic Spam: Sherlock

Because I can and because NaNo, research papers and newspaper nonsense has nearly crippled my ability to use words. I have to economize where I can. So here are some of my favorite Sherlock images:

Sherlock thinks... and absorbs nicotine.

That John sure has a great sweater collection.

The tension builds... and then...

Jeremy Brett!? No one invited you.

Why can't JB just be content with being second sexiest Sherlock Holmes? Benedict Cumberbatch is not amused.

Okay, that's out of my system. For now. I'm going to finish my apple and try to catch up on sleep, I'm at about 15,000 words. Rough seas ahead, I know this. Troilus and Cressida paper is proving to be troublesome as well. Ah, well, I'll get through. Probably.

English Major Tee Shirts

The science department in my college is the dominant area of study in the school. When the college first opened it was especially dedicated to science studies and those are still the most populated programs of study.
Recently the sciences came out with a witty tee shirt that references how much time they spend in labs, so my friend Sacha and I were pondering what witty tee shirt the English department could come up with to combat this and boost morale.
Here were some we came up with:
"I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm an English major, so I'm a little more perfect than you."
"I have better taste than that, I'm an English major."

Those were our best, but please leave your own suggestions.
Now, I have to go read about 50 more pages without falling asleep or having my eye balls fall out. This will be a challenge.

Colin Meloy Procrastination

While procrastinating -or as I like to call it- searching for inspiration I stumbled upon Colin Meloy's Twitter. Colin Meloy is singer/songwriter/guitarist of one of my favorite bands: The Decemberists. I loved this quote pulled from two of his tweets:

"John Keats would've had a very different view of romantic love if he'd have witnessed newly cohabitating couples picking out sofas at IKEA.
….Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, like a plush Klubbo & matching Skog"

He makes fun of Ikea and references Keats. Wow.
I have to go finish a research paper, make up a journalism portfolio, study my notes on World War Two and significant media studies of the 20th century and take care of my cats and my crazy family. Or... I could just procrastinate some more.

April 1st, a Day Crowded With Incident

In a literary sense this is an exciting day; April first marks the kick-off of Script Frenzy, April is also National Poetry Month (please perform RAPs Random Acts of Poetry!)
It is also a day of pranks and lampoonery. Google has not forgotten that tradition with this entry on their official blog: A different kind of company name. I must applaud them for this as well as their attention to detail. Have you Topeka'd today?
Let the Script Writing and Poetry Reading begin! Visit the websites: Poetry.org and Script Frenzy