Stranger Than Fiction – 4 stars
I’d been excited to see this movie almost from the first moment I saw its trailer months ago. It had a quirkiness that was right up my alley, reminiscent of The Royal Tenenbaums, one of my favorite movies of all time. I am happy to report that Stranger Than Fiction did not disappoint. It was charming, compassionate, and very well written. Well filmed, too. Oh, and beautifully cast; I could not imagine this movie with different actors. And let’s not forget the soundtrack, which set the tone perfectly (bonus points for using tracks from Max Richter’s The Blue Notebooks) without bashing you over the head. So to sum up, I liked it a lot.
getting the new camera is that I’m rediscovering (or in some cases, discovering for the first time) my neighborhood. It seems that I’m looking at everything these past few days with a photographer’s eye—which sounds presumptuous, but what I mean is that I’m looking at everything with new eyes, trying to find what is visually interesting and photo-worthy (read: an excuse to use my new gadget), and in general noticing things I’ve never noticed before. It’s quite an illuminating experience, truth be told.
If that is, in fact, his real name.
Just keep checking my photostream.
My D40 arrived today, and I’ve uploaded my first set of pictures taken with that camera to Flickr. All were taken in P, or “idiot mode”.
First impressions:
- It’s unbelievably light, even with the lens. Comparable to my Olympus 8080, even, though it is bulkier.
- Having the nicer lens makes a palpable difference.
- I’m going to start calling myself “Shakey Robinson,” because I’m having a real problem holding my hands steady for some of these shots taken at larger apertures.
- I’ve got a long way to go to become a good photographer, but having this sweet piece of equipment will surely help on the way.
More to come soon!
From Digital Trends:
The market for flash-based solid state disk drives which act as drop-in replacements for traditional hard drives used in mobile and portable devices is heating up: Samsung announced today that it plans to ship a 64 GB solid state drive in the second quarter of this year. The announcement comes on the heels of SanDisk announcing a 32 GB flash drive only a couple weeks ago, and Fujitsu announcing solid state drives as an option in selected LifeBook portable computers.
You know what this means? Well, lots of things, but the most important to me is large-capacity iPods (read: iPhones) with no moving parts. Woo! (Via Slashdot)
Adobe today introduced Photoshop CS3, and Wired News has a look at what’s new and improved. Even if there were no improvements aside from the app being a universal binary, I’d upgrade. Running CS2 is agonizing on my MacBook Pro. The new version will be available sometime next month, the article says.
Finally got my photos from Point Reyes and Liberty Dock up on Flickr. Check em out!
One of these is heinously late; I watched it more than a month ago, but never rated it. The other I just finished watching:
- Thank You for Smoking – 4 stars
A delightfully irreverent black comedy (my favorite kind), this movie was a much-needed relief from the preachiness you often associate with recent Hollywood offerings and the entire PC movement. Featuring a spot-on performance from lead Aaron Eckhart, and a stellar supporting cast (William H. Macy, Maria Bello and Sam Elliot among them) despite its low-budget nature, this movie was both a pleasant surprise and an enjoyable experience. Recommended.
Aside from that, though, I have a question. When did the words “making-of documentary” become synonymous with “30-minute-long infomercial for the film”? Forgive me for my naive hopes, but I thought the making-of documentary was supposed to be, you know, about how the movie was made. Not a series of interviews with the mutual admiration society that is the cast and crew. God.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – 3 stars
This movie was about what I expected: mindlessly entertaining, swashbuckling fun. Though much better than its predecessor, plot and character development were again short-changed in favor of some admittedly spectacular special effects—especially on Cap’n Davy Jones and crew—and some inspired comedic scenes (usually involving the show-stealing Johnny Depp). I enjoyed it, but I certainly wouldn’t call it the best movie of 2006.
I just ordered myself a Nikon D40 dSLR camera, which I should be getting in the next few days. Woo! What prompted this big purchase? I have a digital prosumer camera right now, an Olympus C8080WZ, which I like quite a bit, but whose autofocus capabilities and glacially slow raw shooting I have become increasingly frustrated with. I wanted something that would give me fine manual focus capability and quick raw shooting, which amounts to getting a dSLR.
Along with the kit lens, I ordered a 50mm prime lens. I didn’t bother spending the extra money on getting an AF-S or AF-I lens (one that has a motor in the lens—because the D40 doesn’t have a focus motor in the body). I figure the extra pain of having to focus manually will be worth the ability to more affordably upgrade to a different camera later. Look out for my first set of D40 pictures soon, along with my latest set of Olympus shots, taken this weekend at Point Reyes.
