![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasThe Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York: If you're a forensics geek at all, you may enjoy this book as much as I did. A look at the start of American forensic chemistry set amid the rise and fall of Prohibition and the incautious beginnings of 'better living through chemistry' kept me very intrigued. Learned lots of new stuff, especially about Prohibition. I had no idea that, instead of making moonshine or other forms of drinking alcohol, the speakeasies would often purchase barrels of industrial alcohol. Industrial alcohol is much the same as drinking alcohol going down, but when broken down by the body, it turns into poisonous compounds. Speakeasies were poisoning their customers, often fatally, but not so often as to discourage the practice (or the customers).
I promised the boys I would take them to see Tron: Legacy if they went to see Tangled with me. I regret to report that Tangled was not so good. As a fan I was dismayed by the lack of story, and a bit horrified by derivative plot situations. They repeated the 'Sound of Music' moment from Beauty and the Beast complete with dandelions, the bar song with colorful rabble (again from B&B), the canyon disaster from The Lion King and the romantic row boat scene from The Little Mermaid. :O Granted stories have their likenesses, but I've seen a lot of Disney movies a lot of times and never seen anything that smacked so much of retreading old ground, and over and over again.
I'm sorry to report that Tron: Legacy wasn't much better. The original had a much better story and holds up visually as well. Tron Story: Hero has been shut out in RL by villain, villain attempts to murder hero by transporting him to the digital world, hero survives and learns how to fight back, finding and losing friends along the way. Sequel story: Hero has abandonment issues (this takes 40 minutes to establish), hero is digitized by villain, hero is rescued a lot and accidentally finds his daddy, hero flails around digitally until he ultimately makes it back to the real world without Daddy but with the HBB Thirteen from House. Hmmm. Yeah. The visuals in the sequel were absolutely spectacular however; combined with the music I was spellbound during the light cycle sequence. They were almost worth it on their own, so if one could regard the movie as being sort of like Fantasia it works better. If I saw it again, I think I would show up half-an-hour late.
Faster was just this huge guy!pr0n thang. I was the only XX in the theater. I gasped with delight as an inexhaustible and relentlessly muscled Dwayne Johnson gets out of prison and his next stop is a spectacular muscle car complete with the following accessories inside: a big mean handgun and a leather jacket. It was very like the Barbie Dream Car only different. Oh, and he drives like a professional stunt driver—and he intimidates prisons full of toughs with just his tattoos. Nevertheless, the movie had a strong, clear story, was visually striking, kept me on the edge of my seat and surprised me again and again. I would say it's the most fun I've had in a theater lately (though I would tend to pull down the brim of my hat when I thought things were about to get violent, which they did, shootings, and a knife fight. Also, an attempted rape though not violent).
Unstoppable had all the edge/seat stuff without the violence and was quite good too.
Can you tell my mom has been giving me movie theater gift cards? Thanks, Mom.
My garden is soggy, but there are always seed catalogs. I'm expecting an order to arrive soon. I planted poppies and corn cockles outside in November and they sprouted well and are looking good. This is the first time I've done this, and I'm hoping for some flowers in early spring. I just finished a book about growing giant pumpkins, and it's kind of tempting.
I am kinda stiff and sore. Is it the freeze tag? The roller skating? I'm getting old.
I promised the boys I would take them to see Tron: Legacy if they went to see Tangled with me. I regret to report that Tangled was not so good. As a fan I was dismayed by the lack of story, and a bit horrified by derivative plot situations. They repeated the 'Sound of Music' moment from Beauty and the Beast complete with dandelions, the bar song with colorful rabble (again from B&B), the canyon disaster from The Lion King and the romantic row boat scene from The Little Mermaid. :O Granted stories have their likenesses, but I've seen a lot of Disney movies a lot of times and never seen anything that smacked so much of retreading old ground, and over and over again.
I'm sorry to report that Tron: Legacy wasn't much better. The original had a much better story and holds up visually as well. Tron Story: Hero has been shut out in RL by villain, villain attempts to murder hero by transporting him to the digital world, hero survives and learns how to fight back, finding and losing friends along the way. Sequel story: Hero has abandonment issues (this takes 40 minutes to establish), hero is digitized by villain, hero is rescued a lot and accidentally finds his daddy, hero flails around digitally until he ultimately makes it back to the real world without Daddy but with the HBB Thirteen from House. Hmmm. Yeah. The visuals in the sequel were absolutely spectacular however; combined with the music I was spellbound during the light cycle sequence. They were almost worth it on their own, so if one could regard the movie as being sort of like Fantasia it works better. If I saw it again, I think I would show up half-an-hour late.
Faster was just this huge guy!pr0n thang. I was the only XX in the theater. I gasped with delight as an inexhaustible and relentlessly muscled Dwayne Johnson gets out of prison and his next stop is a spectacular muscle car complete with the following accessories inside: a big mean handgun and a leather jacket. It was very like the Barbie Dream Car only different. Oh, and he drives like a professional stunt driver—and he intimidates prisons full of toughs with just his tattoos. Nevertheless, the movie had a strong, clear story, was visually striking, kept me on the edge of my seat and surprised me again and again. I would say it's the most fun I've had in a theater lately (though I would tend to pull down the brim of my hat when I thought things were about to get violent, which they did, shootings, and a knife fight. Also, an attempted rape though not violent).
Unstoppable had all the edge/seat stuff without the violence and was quite good too.
Can you tell my mom has been giving me movie theater gift cards? Thanks, Mom.
My garden is soggy, but there are always seed catalogs. I'm expecting an order to arrive soon. I planted poppies and corn cockles outside in November and they sprouted well and are looking good. This is the first time I've done this, and I'm hoping for some flowers in early spring. I just finished a book about growing giant pumpkins, and it's kind of tempting.
I am kinda stiff and sore. Is it the freeze tag? The roller skating? I'm getting old.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 10:55 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the Narnia flick yet. I would like to in spite of uninspiring offerings in the past. It looked so pretty in the trailer, and the book was one of the best of the series.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 04:50 am (UTC)*bounces*
Please let Narnia be good -- I'm looking forward to it.
*crosses fingers*
no subject
Date: 2010-12-21 08:19 am (UTC)*crosses fingers too*
no subject
Date: 2011-01-02 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-02 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-03 01:26 am (UTC)