ConnectiCon! It was a fun time. :)

Met up with Daniel Willingham of Head Doctor Productions, "Nanda" of Ugly Girl, James Rossi of Spriteville, USA, and M.Niels of Pocket Kitten. My brother also came along for the ride.

Basically, the convention was pretty much as I expected...most of the same stuff as Anime Boston, just not as much of it. Or at the very least, more compact, since it took all of one floor of the Connecticut Convention Center. Sadly, I only went the one day (Sunday), so I didn't get to poke around some of the panels that may have interested me, and I missed out on the scheduled Pirates tournaments. However, I did enjoy the poking around that we did do, plus I squeezed in a game of Pirates with my brother.

The main point of this trip, however, was to meet up with friends. So, after the initial mozying around, we opted for lunch. Which proved to be more difficult that we imagined, since (1) no one seems to be around Hartford on Sunday afternoons, and (2) there are practically no restaurants near the convention center itself. So we had to spend a lot of time walking around an unfamiliar city trying to find something agreeable to all. We settled on a Subway two or three blocks away.

Returned to the con and spent some time doodling in each other's notebooks. I may show off these sketched later.

More poking around and the aforementioned game, and it was getting to be dinner time. A problem, since as I previously stated, not a lot of restaurants nearby. (I don't know...am I too used to Boston, where you can't throw a rock without hitting at least 3 restaurants?) After several blocks and a few attempts later, we found one of those brewery/restaurants, except the kitchen was purposefully being held up to catch up on an unusually high volume. As we later found out, this volume was due primarily to the people attending the American Idol concert at the nearby Hartford Civic Center. The other reason, of course, was the fact that this was one of the few restaurants open within a half-mile radius. We were getting pretty hungry by that point, but we managed to entertain ourselves with Daniel doodling on a scrap of paper. The meal quickly disappeared after it was received (eventually) and we decided to call it a night.

A request for the city of Hartford, CT: maybe you could convert some of those extra Dunkin Donuts you have strewn about into some more diverse eating establishments. And perhaps some closer to the more popular venues and tourist attractions. And come join us in the 21st century and have these places open on Sundays, like everyone else.
posted by Tim at 11:45 PM

Went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest tonight.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Warning: spoilers may or may not apply here. I'm not going to try and figure out what I say is a spoiler or not.)

Yes, the plot is a little convoluted, with all the "I'll get this for you if you get this for me" business, and all the subsequent backstabbing. Yes, it is all a bit of a setup for the third movie. Yes, it does run a little on the long side (although I never thought to look at my watch until I realized things were wrapping up towards the end, and even then I didn't actually look...though it may have had more to do with the fact that I needed to go to the bathroom at that point). Yes, there was quite a bit of "Hey! Remember this from the first movie? Huh? Do ya? Wink wink!" All that doesn't matter to me.

I pretty much enjoyed beginning to end. The effects were well done, especially with Davy Jones and his crew. The big action scenes where entertaining, and the slow parts didn't drag too much at all. In fact, this wants me to play Pirates more...the card game and Puzzle Pirates. And even maybe that dice game they were playing (which I saw for sale at Barnes & Noble already...plus PotC Monopoly and chess...yeesh).

I was, perhaps, a touch disappointed that the kraken's big confrontation with Jack Sparrow (sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow) was somewhat reduced to a comic relief moment. Ms. Swan finally got a bit dirty (a sticking point of mine from the first movie...how could she continue to look so good after basically being out to sea for 3 days straight?) One question, though: how did the monkey manage to stay undead after the Aztec curse was lifted?

My verdict? If you liked the first movie, you'll like this one. Go see it; you shan't be disappointed.

2007 is already looking to be a good year for movies that appeal to me. Pirates 3, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers...hot damn.

Tomorrow: ConnectiCon!

Also, at this point a touch belated, but a Happy Birthday to my sister.
posted by Tim at 1:02 AM

My thoughts about Superman Returns:

In a word? Meh.

I'm sorry to say, I wasn't all that impressed. I was starting to get a little bored about halfway through. I believe the problem can be summed up by what Perry White said: "The story isn't the blackout; the story is Superman." The blackout, of course, being Luthor's doings. A lot of the action sequences where already shown in the trailers/commercials, so there wasn't a lot to be surprised by. (at which to be surprised?) The whole thing came of as a bit predictable.

The lack of super-action made me think back to the first two X-Men movies (you know, which Singer also directed)...a few action sequences sandwiched between a lot of charatcer development. With the X-Men, it's one thing, since you've got a lot of characters to deal with. But we've got considerably fewer here, and since it's a "Returns" movie, the characters are all already established, so all this exposition really just kind of slowed things down.

The effects are about as good as one can expect. I'm sure way back when seeing someone fly blew people's minds, but now, I don't know...maybe I'm a touch jaded from seeing so many other people fly over the last 10 years or so.

I know Singer was going for the shock value when Superman gets shot in the eye by the bank robber...but come on...any normal person would instinctually blink, wouldn't they?! (And don't give me that "but Superman isn't a normal person" crap, either)

Just how bad do you think Superman felt when he realized Lois moved on...into the arms of Cyclops? ;)
posted by Tim at 1:51 AM

Stupid thought as I half-listened to the news:

Know who they should get to promote Nintendo's next-generation console?





Michelle Wie.


Thank you, I'm here all week.

(Actually, that's true. I'm on vacation for the next couple weeks, during which time I may actually get around to fixing my damn computer. So if there's a hiatus soon, don't say I didn't warn you.)
posted by Tim at 2:11 AM