Okay, I have been listening to the Tranquility Channel on the Dish Network in the background ever since it was hooked up several months ago. I don't want television or movies [I hate TV on a regular television, especially when it is commercially enforced], but I do enjoy the music in the background during the day and at night when I'm sleeping. But it is a downer. Tranquility is great when you want to decompress, but it's hell for creativity and focus.
Introducing Reality Bites.
That's right. This is the name of the music channel that I found the other day when flipping through channels. It is absolutely, hands down, the best music channel I've ever listened to. It's like I've stepped into a musical wormhole and have been transported back to my late teens and early twenties again. I think I can count on one hand the number of songs that I didn't know, or didn't like. The rest are absolutely AMAZING! I find myself every time a new song comes on, yelling out loud, "I remember that one! I need to get that album! I totally forgot all about them!"
So much for the miserable attempts to find music recommendations online. I just listen to this channel 24/7 and I get all the best music delivered right to me.
Ah, technology. Yes! Gracias!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
10 Best Movies [or Movie Series] of my Lifetime - Movie 2
The second installment of my blog series, THE 10 BEST MOVIES [OR MOVIE SERIES] OF MY LIFETIME, brings me to a marathon I'm currently undertaking: The Terminator Franchise. The first of this legendary movie/tv series is THE TERMINATOR. It introduces us to John and Sarah Connor, Kyle Reece and, of course, Arnold as the Terminator (dun dun dun). It is old, and you can definitely tell it when you watching it, but it is surely a classic.
The second in this series is, of course, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This is, by far, the best of the whole series. It introduces us to a new liquid metal based terminator that can change its shape into knives and people. Arnold comes back, but as a terminator reprogrammed by John in the future, sent back to protect John from the new terminator. We find out how the machines rose to power, who invented it and the future gets turned up-side-down. A GREAT movie I could watch again and again.
Now we segue into the television arena and pick up John and his mother when John was a teenager. This is none other than Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This is a tremendous movie and introduces us to yet another type of terminator: the hot, teen model terminator (go figure). It is a great series, though you need to really watch it like a movie or it gets kind of boring, especially near the end of the second season. It was yet another in a long line of TV shows that was cancelled too soon, and all because of money. Figures. Well, not to worry. A few fellas in the fan-fiction world took it upon themselves to finish out the series by writing season 3 and 4 scripts that you can download for free from their websites. There are also the Connors Chronicles, which takes off from where season 4 left off, but it appears to be unfinished and abandoned.
This leads us to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I would say, by far, the worst of the bunch. Though it does co-star Claire Danes and that is enough to make it a worth-watching movie. It has John as an 20-something, fighting female terminators and, of course, Arnold is by his side the whole way. Remember, Claire Danes, so worth watching.
Lastly (so far), we come to Terminator Salvation. This is the latest installment of the series and pretty good. It is a post-JDay world where John (Christian Bale) has to wrestle with the idea that maybe machines can think for themselves and even possibly have a soul. This theme was also visited in The Connor Chronicles on tv as several machines were asked or asked to join sides with the resistance. So, apparently, not all robots are made equal in the future.
Now for the sad news. It appears as if there will not be any more Terminator movies, or, at least, none for a good long while. Lawsuits over copyrights, etc and a production company filing bankruptcy - all has flushed different ideas down the drain for Terminator 5. It's another Bourne situation all over again. Once there's a lot of money involved, I guess people stop thinking clearly. There are two new movies slated before 2018, but whether or not they get made is anyone's guess. I've read that if the rights go back to Cameron he will bury the story for good. But this is the internet after all - who knows what is real. Maybe a terminator came back from the future and wrote that on the blog I was reading so it just looks like there will be no more movies. Another Skynet plan, surely.
At least we have some closure (so I've been told anyway, haven't read the Connor Chronicles Season 3 and 4 yet) in the series scripts. But at this point there are an endless number of futures that can be written about, since they messed with time so much. God, I'm starting to get a headache!
Anyway, this is one of the 10 Best Movies [or Movie Series {and I guess tv and fanfiction scripts}] of my Lifetime. Enjoy watching if you haven't already!
The second in this series is, of course, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This is, by far, the best of the whole series. It introduces us to a new liquid metal based terminator that can change its shape into knives and people. Arnold comes back, but as a terminator reprogrammed by John in the future, sent back to protect John from the new terminator. We find out how the machines rose to power, who invented it and the future gets turned up-side-down. A GREAT movie I could watch again and again.
Now we segue into the television arena and pick up John and his mother when John was a teenager. This is none other than Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This is a tremendous movie and introduces us to yet another type of terminator: the hot, teen model terminator (go figure). It is a great series, though you need to really watch it like a movie or it gets kind of boring, especially near the end of the second season. It was yet another in a long line of TV shows that was cancelled too soon, and all because of money. Figures. Well, not to worry. A few fellas in the fan-fiction world took it upon themselves to finish out the series by writing season 3 and 4 scripts that you can download for free from their websites. There are also the Connors Chronicles, which takes off from where season 4 left off, but it appears to be unfinished and abandoned.
This leads us to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I would say, by far, the worst of the bunch. Though it does co-star Claire Danes and that is enough to make it a worth-watching movie. It has John as an 20-something, fighting female terminators and, of course, Arnold is by his side the whole way. Remember, Claire Danes, so worth watching.
Lastly (so far), we come to Terminator Salvation. This is the latest installment of the series and pretty good. It is a post-JDay world where John (Christian Bale) has to wrestle with the idea that maybe machines can think for themselves and even possibly have a soul. This theme was also visited in The Connor Chronicles on tv as several machines were asked or asked to join sides with the resistance. So, apparently, not all robots are made equal in the future.
Now for the sad news. It appears as if there will not be any more Terminator movies, or, at least, none for a good long while. Lawsuits over copyrights, etc and a production company filing bankruptcy - all has flushed different ideas down the drain for Terminator 5. It's another Bourne situation all over again. Once there's a lot of money involved, I guess people stop thinking clearly. There are two new movies slated before 2018, but whether or not they get made is anyone's guess. I've read that if the rights go back to Cameron he will bury the story for good. But this is the internet after all - who knows what is real. Maybe a terminator came back from the future and wrote that on the blog I was reading so it just looks like there will be no more movies. Another Skynet plan, surely.
At least we have some closure (so I've been told anyway, haven't read the Connor Chronicles Season 3 and 4 yet) in the series scripts. But at this point there are an endless number of futures that can be written about, since they messed with time so much. God, I'm starting to get a headache!
Anyway, this is one of the 10 Best Movies [or Movie Series {and I guess tv and fanfiction scripts}] of my Lifetime. Enjoy watching if you haven't already!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The End of X Factor For Me
That's right. Tonight marked the end of this season of X Factor US simply because they voted off all the good acts I supported [I stopped watching the UK version last week for the same reason]. Tonight, though, was a real travesty. How in the world could you vote off Drew and keep Marcus? Really? Seriously? Are they that inept?
I was surprised to realize that Drew was only fourteen years old. No wonder she took it as hard as she did, beside being blindsided like she was. No one - and I mean NO ONE - expected Drew to be in the bottom three, let alone GET VOTED OUT of the competition! Ludicrous. As our cousins across the pond say, I'm simply Gutted. Just Gutted.
I agree with Simon; it was his fault. And I think there is surely more to the story. Quite possibly Drew wanted to do more up-beat songs and Simon wouldn't let her. Some of her comments tonight truly showed her young age, but I can't imagine what it's like being thrust into the national lime-light like that, only to have it ripped out from under you. And she did so well with her save me song, too.
Gutted. Simply Gutted. Now I need to brainstorm a little on what I'll write about on my blog. So much for the X Factor this year.
I was surprised to realize that Drew was only fourteen years old. No wonder she took it as hard as she did, beside being blindsided like she was. No one - and I mean NO ONE - expected Drew to be in the bottom three, let alone GET VOTED OUT of the competition! Ludicrous. As our cousins across the pond say, I'm simply Gutted. Just Gutted.
I agree with Simon; it was his fault. And I think there is surely more to the story. Quite possibly Drew wanted to do more up-beat songs and Simon wouldn't let her. Some of her comments tonight truly showed her young age, but I can't imagine what it's like being thrust into the national lime-light like that, only to have it ripped out from under you. And she did so well with her save me song, too.
Gutted. Simply Gutted. Now I need to brainstorm a little on what I'll write about on my blog. So much for the X Factor this year.
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