Come Here.... Four Feet to the Left

In real life, if you have a secret you have to tell someone and you're in a public place, you go into the bathroom, or tuck away in an empty isle, or move way to the side, whisper and try not to make eye contact.

But in television, if someone has a secret, even if it's life or death, and they have to tell someone in public, they begin talking about it... Right there in the middle of the hotel lobby, with people passing by them in all directions. Then they quiet down slightly and pull the person their telling over a bit, as if moving four feet to the left of a crowded lobby makes it any less private.

This conversation is being had in a normal speaking volume in the middle of a crowded lobby:

Man: "Hey, are you the lawyer handling the Billings murder case?"

Lawyer: "Yes, I am...Why?"

Man: "I might know who killed Mr. Billings..."

Lawyer: "How? I was told there were no witnesses..."

After the man uses a normal speaking voice in public and tells the lawyer that he might have seen who the killer was, he then decides to signal the lawyer to move over, as to make the conversation more private. However, they move just a couple feet over. They are still in plain sight. They are still talking in the same volume, only now they're stand 4 feet to the left.

This happens SO many times. Is it so hard to have the actors speak in private? Like the elevator of the hotel, or instead of moving to the left, they duck into a meeting hall in the hotel? Or are we supposed to be dumb enough to think that the 8 people who were standing 5 feet behind them at the check in desk never heard the word murder?

Who has such a serious conversation in public?

In real life if a witness to a murder, openly said that they saw the murder, it would not go unnoticed... and they'd probably no longer be a witness.

Joanna Newsom "singing" in the way of Lisa Simpson

I remember when singers with bad voices, were singers with bad voices. However, more and more these days, bad voices are starting to pass for unique. Now, the shrill, the off key, and the pitchy, can say that they are unique. Newsom may not be directly responsible for that, but she does play a popular roll in the idea that anyone can sing. It's true everyone can sing, but not everyone should sing. Newsom is one of the "shouldn't sing" cases.

Her shrill voice is infecting television now... This is the voice that seems to be inspired by Lisa Simpson.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I read the first installment of the Harry Potter series, HPAT Sorcerer's Stone when it first came out in 1998. Three years later, I saw the movie version of Sorcerer's Stone, and ever since then, I have been waiting for the 7th book's movie to come out. I was thrilled when I heard that the most epic novel of the series would be made into two movies, but I wondered if two movies would do it justice.

In the past, I have loved the movies but I never felt like they represented the books as well as they could. However, for that to happen, the movies for each book would need to be 4 or 5 hours long, which is in no way realistic. I was one of the fans that would have preferred a part 1 & 2 for each book, but either way, I still waited on the edge of my seat for Deathly Hallows Part 1 to come out.


Now, about the movie...

As in true form of Harry Potter movies, it starts out quiet, even peaceful. There are many thrilling parts to the movie that are easy to like. But I love little details; my favorite small detail is when we see Hermione's parents. They seem unaware to a point, of what is going on. We see how leaving takes a toll on Hermione. We never focus much on her family. Much time is devoted to Ron's family or Harry dealing with the roller coaster of loss and gain of loved ones. It's nice to see a more emotional side to Hermione. It helps set a pace of emotion for the whole movie.

I will say, that although there were seemingly valuable moments lacking in the movie, the parts most readers were longing to see, were done well. "The Seven Potters" was amazing. I know most readers were interested to see that. The first fight with death eaters when the 7 potters leave was great as well, although not done according to the book.

A very impressive element in the movie was the ability to keep the interest without an exciting set. Much of the set is in the woods. There is an occasional trip to the Ministry and Malfoy Manor, and some village areas, but the scenes in the woods are just great.

Probably the most impressive scene is when Ron has come back after storming of days ago. He saves Harry from the frozen lake, where he is searching for the sword of Gryffindor. Together, Ron and Harry destroy the locket that has been causing so many problems. That scene is so chilling and so exciting.

The graphics overall make every scene as powerful as it can be.

A bittersweet moment is when Dobby dies. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Griphook, Ollivander and Luna are being held at Malfoy Manor in the dungeon. They are unable to get out, even with magic, and see very little hope of escaping. Hermione is being tortured upstairs, and Wormtail fetches Griphook from the dungeon since he's next to be tortured. Dobby appears. Being an elf he can get in and out with no problem. He takes Luna and Ollivander to Shell cottage and then comes back for Harry and Ron after they've stupefied Wormtail and made it upstairs to save Hermione and Griphook. Dobby tries to get everyone out without harm, but Bellatrix throws a knife that follows them when they apparate. They arrive on the beach and Dobby is dead. The scene is done well, but it's a sad scene. I cried the second the knife was thrown, because I remembered what happened next. It's great to get that much emotion from 2 minutes of film. It shows how well they developed Dobby's character and how they got us to love the little elf.

Another thing I enjoyed, was seeing another side to Draco Malfoy. I liked seeing that he wasn't really choosing to be as dark as he appeared.

The entire movie was done so well, but it leaves a lot to be expected in the last movie.

A big desire for me pertaining to the last movie: I want to see them all digitally grown-up with kids of their own getting on the train to Hogwarts. But I want it done digitally, not just actors who are 10 years older and look similar enough.

All in all a wonderful moving that was more than I hoped for!

Smile Like A Crazy Person

Smiles are supposed to make people happy; not make people feel uncomfortable and scared. I've been noticing more and more, women with scary smiles on television.

Giada De Laurentiis has the over all biggest and scariest smile I have ever seen. She smiles in a way that looks painful and forced. It's as if she spent thousands of dollars for her smile, so she's going to show it off. Either way she looks crazy when she smiles.

Jodi Gilmour is second on my list. She's the host of For Rent on HGTV. She pushed Demi out of second place very easily. She smiles not stop. And I mean NON-STOP. She smiles while she talks, no matter what she's talking about. Just say this phrase, "This apartment has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a balcony, and a great view."
If you say that phrase, while smiling, you will feel like Jodi. It's just insane to smile that often. People will say they don't like the apartment and she smiles and says, "Right, it doesn't offer everything, but it comes in under budget."
Stop smiling all the time Jodi, you look crazy when you talk and smile at the same time!

Demi Lovato is third, but for a while she held second place quite well, before Smiley Jodi was discovered. Demi is finally learning how to control her smile though, which is why she's third on my list. She can show some teeth with out looking like she's fallen into another personality. But it still bothers me, because when she's excited, oh boy, she shows it... All the way to the uvula and wisdom teeth!

Facebook Friends

Why do we "friend" our friends on Facebook? So many people on Facebook have hundreds of friends, and I always wonder, 'Do they really know 549 people?' How does someone meet and remember that many people? And even if we remember meeting these people, why do we become "friends" with all of them. I can honestly say that of the 112 friends I have on Facebook, I only keep up with about 10 of them. More than half of the 10 are family. But we see someone we knew 10 years ago, and decide to reconnect. But we never do that either. I have never really reconnected with anyone from my past via Facebook. And yet, I have so many friends. I don't know if these friends are married, I don't know when their birthdays are, I have no idea where they live now, but at one point in my life, they were present a lot, so I "friend" them.

I bet the very same people I am talking about, think the same thing about me. They see my name, and add be because they remember going to school with me, or working with me, or were a friend of a friend. But then they probably think, "Why does it matter if I am friends with her? I didn't keep in touch with her, I barely remember her, and I really don't care what she is up to now."

Now, I must say that every now and then, I wonder if my school friends look the same as they did then; if they're taller, thinner, fatter, prettier, more handsome. Some people, I remember being awkward and I wonder if they grew into the swan or not. I look through their pictures to see if anything has changed. But that is really about it. I don't care what movie they went to see, or where they are going shopping, or what they are merely thinking. And still, I keep them as "friends".

Is there any answer to why people have hundreds of Facebook friends with no intention of ever talking to them? Maybe there is some deep rooted reason I am overlooking...

Man Caves and Closet Hogging Women

I watch HGTV a lot. I love the shows focused on buying or renting a house: House Hunters(Internaional), Property Virgins, My First Place, For Rent...etc.

The things that bother me are:

1. When every man feels the need to say that they can use the bonus room for their "man cave". Why can't they just call it a media room? Or the game room? Man cave makes them sound like such idiots. It's such a dorky thing to say. And I bet saying it makes them feel more manly, but it doesn't. It really doesn't. The funny thing is, that most of the men that use the phrase, "man cave" are nerds. Very awkward, embarrassing, uncorrdinated, scrawny guys, who look as though they play video games all day, rather than watching football. Not all of the man cave men are nerds, some of them are big beefy guys, who don't know any better. But usually the men who call it a man cave are doing it to feel manlier.

2. This bothers me even more. When couples go house hunting, and the woman ALWAYS feels the need to say something along the lines of, "I love this walk-in closet. It's as big as a full bathroom. But honey, where would you put your clothes?" Followed by a stupid ditzy giggle. Or, "I see my closet, by where is yours?" We get it. For years women have been trying to commically imply that they have a ton of clothing, purses and shoes on these house hunting shows and it's getting old. Why can't women say, "This is a nice size, if everything doesn't fit in here, we could always buy another dresser." Don't they understand yet, that all their doing is inflaming the stereotype that all women know how to do is shop? I have had HGTV on for 2 hours now, and every woman mentioned having to hog the walk-in closet because of a glutenous amount of clothing and accessories. Every man mentioned needing a man cave.

Oh and by the way, the goofy dork that is in need of a man cave in the episode I'm watching right now, was drinking red wine, pinky out. Somebody better get that lion back in his cage!

3. The people with 1 kid, who claim to be outgrowing their 4 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home. I'm now watching a new episode; no longer the episode with the man cave dork. The couple in this episode have a 2 year old son, a 4 bedroom 2.5 bathroom 2600 sq. ft. house that they are out growing. They have 2 spare rooms, how are they outgrowing anything?! Why do 2.5 people need enough room for an 8 people? Greedy much? It's insanity. No matter how much money I had, I would never buy a house bigger than I really needed.

And the mom in this couple kept refering to their 2 year old as "the baby". "The baby" was talking though. And she kept saying, "I think the baby likes it." Never "he" never a name, just the baby.... Weird.

The couple I'm watchhing now

Pirates of the Caribbean Movies

Before you read this, whoever you might be, trust me when I say that I know it seems like a late time to be writing this.

Johnny Depp: Jack
Orlando Bloom: Will
Keira Knightley: Elizabeth

I was initially excited to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, when it came out July 2003, until I heard from my friends that it was 50% action and 50% comedy. It sounded pretty awful to me. The plot sounded awesome enough. A blacksmith(Will) in love with the governer's daughter(Elizabeth), seeks the help of the crazy pirate(Jack), in order to save her from other pirates, who happen to be the undead mates of Jack.

That sounds thrilling. We get to see not only pirates, but cursed undead pirates. We get to watch a man fight for the love of his life. We get to be led through the life of Jack and discover why the undead pirates are undead. And we get to learn what the Black Pearl really is. So why add lame and poorly executed comedy? There are so many action scenes that raise your adrenaline, only to be brought down by Johnny Depp saying something like, "My goodness, there's a bloody whole in my ship." It's not a very funny statement. It brings down the whole mood and makes it seem less intense than it really is. And the "Pirates" movies are the kind of movies that could be really thrilling and intense.

I think another reason it throws me off, is because the actors are all strong actors. None of them have the comedy vibe.

The Rush Hour movies are obviously going to be slightly commical because Chris Tucker is involved and he is a known comedian. But it seems confusing and odd to have Knightley, Bloom and Depp in a comedy since none of them give that comedy feel.

I thought the movies would get better; that they would see that the comedy didn't fit well, and get rid of it. But they didn't do that at all. They kept the comedy thing.

I swear that the "Pirates" movies would be so much better without all the lame comedy.