Crap I want but don't need

Kindle DX: Amazon's 9.7" Wireless Reading Device
Oh my God, they've made another one. Must. Lock. Up. Credit card.
Amazon

The Haunting in Connecticut

Oh boy! A movie about a haunted house, this is usually a fool proof method to get my attention. With claims of it being “Based on a True Story” we all know what that means. I watched a special that aired on the Discovery Channel a few years ago that gave a dramatized account of the alleged haunting with interviews and those god damn Warren’s again claiming they can feel the presence of demonic spirits. Apparently they only sense these things when a book and movie deal are in the works, Amityville for example. So when I began watching The Haunting in Connecticut I thought I had a leg up on the other viewers, but quickly the story jumped the shark and dove right into the land of necromancy and lost all credibility I would have given it.

We meet Sara and her ill son Matt while they make the long commute from the oncology lab where Matt has been receiving treatments for his cancer. Deciding that the eight hour trip is too much for her son who is receiving radiation and other treatments in his experimental cancer group, Sara begins to look for a house to rent in the interim until that nasty old cancer is cured. Sara makes a late night spur of the moment decision on a house that was close to the hospital and affordable but has a history. The balance of the family moves into the house with Matt and Sara and choose their rooms. Matt chooses the basement for practical reasons, it cool and has a bathroom so he can get all bulimic.

Shortly after everyone is settled in, Matt begins to see dark shadows and visions of a young boy. Worried he is having hallucinations from the treatment he keeps mum about the whole thing. But since this movie is attempting to scare us, the activity progresses. One night the locked doors in the basement room where Matt stays open revealing embalming equipment. Cat’s out of the bag now, they are all living in a funeral home, dun dun dun! At this point, the movie should have continued the path of telling a story of a haunted house, but instead it decides to wing it and tell a story of past necromancy, séances, ectoplasm that displays itself as the scum from the bottom of the Charles River and the defiling of hundreds of corpses from the local cemetery.

Matt goes crazy and his condition worsens and so does the movie. Gotta say that I was very disappointed with this. Why can’t we go back to stories of haunted houses without needed to explain them, their haunted for Christ sake, they don’t need extra flair. Like An American Haunting a well known ghost story has been twisted into something ridiculous and unrecognizable. I long for another Exorcist or The Shinning Hollywood just hasn’t caught on yet, but one day they might.

Daily Memory

Do you remember 1985? If not, let me break it down for you. You were no one unless you had superfluous storage in your pants. I speak of course of the Parachute Pant. In elementary school, your hipness rating depended on how many sippers and pockets your pants had. Extra points if you could fit anything in them.

Yes, I to could be found counting my fellow classmates trousers from time to time. I'm not proud of it, but it has made me who I am today and I'm stronger because of it.

the good, THE BAD, the ugly

This is either a discarded fan found outside of a N.A.M.B.L.A. conference or a discarded fan found outside of a Pentecostal church.

Lets ask Mr. Owl!

Crap I want but don't need

The Existential in Silver - envelope locket with sparrow
I can see myself losing the letter within the locket in less than five minutes
Bombalurina

Blackout

I was surprised to see that this movie was not as well received as I think it should have been. It was a clever story of three people trapped in an elevator during a rolling blackout. I know I would lose my shit in that situation. What made it appealing to me was that the story focused on a small group of people reacting to a stressful situation. The catch is that one of them happens to have a few naughty habits when it comes to keeping people alive, thus a horror movie is made.

We first meet Karl, an Irish actor attempting to hide his accent but comes across as stiff. He’s visiting his late wife’s grave telling her fluffy stories about his day and their daughter. A woman appears and I assume it’s his new wife and his daughter gets out of the car ready to spend the holiday with daddy in the city. Only thing is, Doctor Karl has some business at home that he needs to clean up first and it is agreed that his daughter will arrive by 2:30 the next afternoon. Karl races home.

Claudia is a young woman who we meet with dried blood on her body. We meet her at the hospital where her grandmother is being treated for a car accident. An asthmatic bookworm raised entirely by her grandmother, is asked to collect one thing from their home and return to the hospital with it before she passes. Off she goes, blood and all.

Last is Tommy, a rebellious kid who has made plans to elope with his girlfriend to save her from her abusive father. He races home to meet her when she is able to sneak away from home.

All three converge in the lobby of the building which is clearly under a lot of construction and the last few occupants have left for holiday or until the extensive renovations have been completed. They step into the lift and when they hit the 6th floor the blackout hits, stopping its assent. Trapped, they struggle to locate a way out and complete what they had designed to do. As the hours tick, tension builds and they begin to unwind and one of the occupants has a bit of a psychotic streak in them.

Sure the writing could have been better, but the story is what did it for me. I enjoyed it, it isn’t the first movie about being trapped in an elevator, but it was a unique vision none the less.

Daily Memory

The other night I had a dream I ran away with Vin Diesel and forests were full of large cubed fish tanks that had only one large colourful fish in each. Once that nightmare was over, I dreamed that I decided to splurge a little and buy those chick tea bags that are shaped like pyramids but I had to buy the tea bag string separately. I then went on to buy $500.00 worth of multi-coloured T-shirts that read "I (heart) Macy's."

Seriously, What the fuck?

the good, the bad, THE UGLY

According to the internets, tiny hats are making a comeback in the fashion scene. Hell yeah, it's about time, I haven't laughed so hard since the Bedazzler hit the scene.

I really hope I don't end up wanting one.

Crap I want but don't need

Yarn ball earrings
How perfect! Little balls of yarn and needles for a knitter!
Max's World

Custom Wool Felt Laptop Case
This is so close to going on the "Crap I bought but don't need list" the only thing holding me back is th8 price tag, it's not worth $73.50 but it is still worthy of my drool.
Indibe

Push

Finally, a fun action movie worth watching. I’ve read several reviews that seem to believe that the story line was weighty and there was too much to digest to truly be understood. I can only say that if you can’t follow the story line and the variety of characters, you should stick to watching romantic comedies, you won’t find them mentally taxing at all. I enjoyed the constant flow of story mixed with action, effects and interesting characters. The movie is similar to Jumper in the fact that it is a group of people with special abilities that are tracked and captured in order to contain these extraordinary powers. Where they differ is the simple fact that Push had variety, it was clever and kept me interested.

So, the research during the second world war on psychic abilities did not end with the war, but continued in secret. There became a broad set of abilities from clairvoyants, telekinesis, mind control, physical manipulators and a few others. Those with these abilities either go into hiding or work for an organization called The Division. What the Division basically does is uses people with these abilities to basically become weapons. The Division also uses these people as lab rats and they have been developing a serum that heightens the abilities, but it keeps killing the patients. One girl, Kira, survives and escapes from the Division and wakes up with no memory of these events in Hong Kong where she has left herself a message, a number and a name.

Elsewhere is Nick, a “Mover” living in Hong Kong, under the Divisions radar since his father was killed ten years earlier. His powers are weak and he uses them primarily to cheat at Craps. When two Division “Sniffers” visit Nick at his apartment, they begin to grill him on the whereabouts of “The Girl”. Nick obviously knows nothing and after they sniff his place for any trace of her they leave. Shortly after, his next visitor is from a young girl, Cassie, who is a “Watcher”. Cassie see’s the future and draws the visions into a notebook. She needs Nick to find the girl the Division is looking for because she escaped with a briefcase that contains what Cassie needs to free her mother from the Division.

They track the girl to the port where Nick discovers that the person everyone is Kira, an old girlfriend who was taken by the Division when it became obvious to them that her powers as a “Pusher” were strong. They hire a “Shadow” to conceal her from the sniffers and begin looking for the case. Eluding not only the Division, but also racing against a Chinese family of “Bleeders” who scream until your head pops and another watcher who is stronger than Cassie.

Unlike many of the adventure and action movies I have seen lately, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It kept me interested and wowed my superficial need for effect and colour. If you are looking for a standard action movie with a basic story line and minimal character plots, do not watch this. If you can handle your action with a little more meat on its bones you will not be disappointed with Push.