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Messages - Burrito Al Pastor

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 53
1
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: February 20, 2012, 11:22:37 PM »
Secret World of Arietty is pretty darn good.

But when we're talking about Arietty, we're really talking about two things - the original movie (what you see) and the localisation (what you hear.) Localisation is easier, so let's start there.

Some of the voice casting is great. Arietty is fantastic, as is her father. The human boy - Sean, I think his name was? - is not particularly good, but part of the issue here is that he has to deliver everything very deadpan because of the character's conceit and animation. The soundtrack is good, but there's two or three original songs, which are war crimes. The incidental sound effects are curious; there's a lot which don't make logical sense, but which still sound 'right'. (For example, Arietty picks up a needle, which she carries around like a sword; they use a metal-sliding-on-metal sheathing sound for it, even though she "sheathes" it by poking it through her dress, no other metal involved. It makes no sense, but it feels right anyways.)

The animation is spectacular, news at 11. The art direction is typical Ghibli - impossibly lush landscapes and idyllic countryside homes. (In this regard, as well as in the regard of the theme that the main human character is in the countryside for health reasons, is a real return to Totoro, which is an interesting subject to explore.) The story is good, but weirdly structured towards the end; there's no resolution for certain supporting characters, and a really awkward exposition speech from the human.

The single best thing about this movie is the "set" design, and the "oh man, look at that" bits for what the Borrowers are using in their home.

Worth seeing, in any case. Orders of magnitude better than Ponyo.

2
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: January 02, 2012, 09:44:54 PM »
How much edge-of-your seat pulse-pounding nonstop action is too much edge-of-your seat pulse-pounding nonstop action?

About two hours and fifteen minutes, I'd say.

Luckily, Tintin clocks in at just under two hours in length.


It's absolutely phenomenal and I loved every minute. It's a perfect adaptation, too - there's a hundred little allusions to other stories ("Black Isle" appears on a train destination board, there's a crate that breaks full of cans of crab, there's a cameo by a familiar-looking wooden idol, etc.) and the characters feel exactly right.

Also, the animation is amazing. There are extras who appear who I was not honestly convinced were animated - and yet they still didn't feel out-of-place.

3
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: It's the economy, stupid!
« on: December 17, 2011, 11:06:46 PM »
What, it took this for you to not want to vote for him? I gave up on Obama when he appropriated the right to drone-murder American citizens without judicial oversight.

4
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: What the fuck, Arizona?
« on: December 12, 2011, 06:33:40 PM »
I love that infographic. Half of the states that haven't passed immigration laws don't share a land border with any other countries.

But what kind of immigration problem does North Dakota have?

5
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: December 11, 2011, 06:17:57 PM »
As you may recall, I work at a movie theater.

Today, some kids bought tickets to New Year's Eve, with the intent of sneaking into Immortals. They weren't very subtle about it, so one of my coworkers was watching them, and lo and behold.

Normally we'd kick them out, but he instead just sent them back into New Year's Eve - he figured that was punishment enough.

6
High-Context Discourse / Re: Links
« on: December 09, 2011, 03:59:04 PM »
...Huh! That's really, really interesting. Where'd you find that?

7
Gaming Discussion / Re: Game News Dump
« on: December 07, 2011, 09:15:54 PM »
Quote
“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto said...

It's kind of hard to use a nice moderate article title when the man himself keeps throwing around the 'R' word.

8
Gaming Discussion / Re: Steam Deals
« on: December 02, 2011, 02:59:29 PM »
All I remember hearing is that the multiplayer might as well not exist, because it's so incredibly poorly designed.

9
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: Computer security
« on: December 02, 2011, 12:22:34 AM »
It's clear that all kinds of crazy shit can, and often is, logged via Carrier IQ's software; it's still opaque, and incredibly important, what is transmitted from within that data. (I don't have an issue with my carrier or phone manufacturer knowing how many characters I've typed into text messages, but I mind them knowing what those characters are, for example.) Carrier IQ says that the data recorded and sent is by specific request on a per-client basis, meaning that it can be and probably is different for every carrier, but the extraordinary speed at which so many companies (Sprint,  AT&T, Apple, RIM, HTC) are backpedaling from their relationship with Carrier IQ is probably a sign that something really bad was going on somewhere.

It's the most entertaining game of PR hot potato I've seen in a long time - especially because it's unclear how many of the potatoes are hot, and who knows which potatoes are the hot ones.

(All links via John Gruber.)

10
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: Applepocalypse
« on: December 02, 2011, 12:12:46 AM »
TA, do you think this was deliberate?

It's not a matter of "progressive", it's a matter of "not suicidal". The conspiracy theory that Apple is secretly and maliciously sabotaging their databases to provide skewed information to advance their secret conservative agenda is uncharitable and implausible. Business directories are hard, and it probably doesn't help that the anti-abortion groups have a lot of money to throw at SEO.

Today, I was searching for a band on allmusic. I omitted the word "The" from their name, and despite being the only band with that particular word actually in their name, they were the sixth result. How crazy would it have been to suppose deliberate malice on the part of allmusic's search engineers?

11
Gaming Discussion / Re: Skyrim
« on: November 30, 2011, 07:30:58 PM »
I realized today that the one thing that feels like it's missing is a V.A.T.S. system. That would be fantastic.

12
Gaming Discussion / Re: Skyrim
« on: November 30, 2011, 07:26:26 PM »
You know, I don't think the game has crashed on me once so far?

Of course, it's frozen in an exciting variety of unrecoverable ways, and there was the time I fell outside of the map, but it's never crashed, per se.

13
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: Occupy Wall Street
« on: November 28, 2011, 11:57:44 PM »
Seven trillion? That's, what, half the national debt?

14
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: November 27, 2011, 11:16:22 PM »
Hugo is a stealth hagiography of Georges Méliès. Which I am 100% okay with, because it's the hagiography Méliès deserves.

The whole thing is just a way of tricking theater audiences into learning about early, great film history. There's truly just a part of the movie which is SURPRISE HISTORY LESSON, but it's a montage of great early film sequences (with the interesting omission of Odessa Steps, now that I think about it), so they're images that people kind of deserve to see.

There are segments of the film that I think Scorsese included simply for the pleasure of being able to duplicate, shot-for-shot, sequences of Méliès films. (That, or so he could have a duplicate of the Man in the Moon from A Trip to the Moon hanging over his fireplace.) But it's a joy to see something like those films in modern definition and color, so it's kind of a universal boon.

Of course, all the bits that aren't about Méliès are pretty good, too! (Mr. Cohen is a particular delight.) My only real complaint is that it runs a little bit long, but honestly? It's really worth seeing.

15
Gaming Discussion / Re: Skyrim
« on: November 26, 2011, 11:10:40 PM »
Literally yesterday I was looking for something like that.

I'm only up to "The Argonian Affair" so far, but I really enjoyed An Accounting of the Scrolls.

16
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: November 26, 2011, 11:03:49 PM »
Causing? Like, people go into it without epilepsy, and leave the theater with epilepsy? I didn't know that was a thing.

Although recently somebody claimed the beeping of our popcorn poppers could cause autism. Like, in adults. That was pretty great.

17
Gaming Discussion / Re: Skyrim
« on: November 22, 2011, 08:07:23 PM »
What advantages are there for light armor over heavy armor in the long term? I understand that the heavy armor makes you move slower and gives steeper penalties to your Sneak, but that's only until such a time as you pick up the "weighs nothing, does not diminish speed" perks. Once those are in play, what does light do better than heavy?

18
Media / Re: Movies in the Theater
« on: November 22, 2011, 07:55:56 PM »
My boss saw a trade screening some weeks ago. She's been looking forward to it coming out just so she can see it again.

She believes that being a Muppets fan is, in her words, a "lifestyle".

19
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Re: SOPA
« on: November 15, 2011, 07:44:57 PM »
Well, I'm glad to hear you've written to all zero of your Congressional representatives, then!

20
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / SOPA/PROTECT IP
« on: November 15, 2011, 07:14:28 PM »
So, you guys heard about SOPA, right?

I just thought I'd mention that SendWrite has a SOPA page where you can write a note to your congressional representative (you have three, remember!) and they'll print and mail it.

So there's really no good reasons left for not writing to your congressional representatives.

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