Tonight we saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into as I am not a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I read The Hound of the Baskervilles in high school and just remember that it involved a moor. So, I can’t really comment on how true the movie is to the character. In terms of the movie itself, I thought it was a pretty good movie. The story was well crafted and followed a logical track in the way that Holmes was able to deduce the clues. The story seems to make sense in terms of what I would expect from Sherlock Holmes. The main antagonist is a practitioner of dark magic and is trying to bring the British Empire back to its full glory. Holmes works through a way to explain all of the magic tricks to explain how they actually happened. I was intrigued to see how most of the Holmes’s deductions were based on chemistry and all made sense and were probably true. I was happy to see Holmes use the flame test I learned about in chemistry.
The way the film was shot was also very interesting. I did not realize that Holmes was quite the fighter and I enjoyed the fight sequences they setup where they walked you through Holmes’s thought process before the fight takes place. The slow motion choppy animation during the fights was a little weird, but I guess it added to the intensity of the scene. The sound was very nice in the film. There were periods of quiet where they would highlight the noise of one of the objects coming at the screen. This gave a slight impression of 3D that I really liked.
I also liked that the movie was very true to the times without seeming dated. The costumes and scenes in the movie never seemed out of place and for the most part the technology was accurate as well. There was one device that electrocuted people that didn’t seem particularly realistic (even now). The rest of the science seemed pretty solid throughout.
What was really eye opening to me in the this film is how much House and Wilson (from the TV Show House) and Holmes and Watson are alike. I have to assume that the character of Greg House was based on Holmes to some extent. The way that Holmes uses little random clues to make deductions is just the same way the Holmes does. Particularly the scene where Holmes deduces everything about Watson’s fiance from small clues is exactly something House would do (and has done). Also, the way that Holmes keeps sucking Watson back into his life and sabotaging his relationship is akin to House and Wilson.
In all, I liked the movie and it kind of makes me want to go read some of the books. This movie fits in well right now in terms of what is popular on TV. It fits in with all of the CSIs and other crime dramas out there. The introduction of Moriarty clearly sets the ground for a sequel and I look forward to that.
Another person getting You Tubed. Here is Emmy Award winning news anchor Ernie Anastos from Fox 5 in New York saying, “Keep Fucking that Chicken.” Mr. Anastos says he meant to say, “Keep Plucking that Chicken,” which apparently means to keep trying at an arduous task.
For example:
This story probably wouldn’t have left New York if not for YouTube making it viral. I have seen it on The Daily Show and heard it discussed on the Nick Digilio Show on WGN because it was high on the Yahoo Buzz Search.
I would like to coin a new term, “Getting You Tubed.” I don’t know if someone has already coined a similar term, but I will take credit. When that means is that you do something bad that would have been buried in your regional news 3 to 4 years ago, but now because of You Tube and other web 2.0 technologies, the story goes huge.
The most current example is Congressman Pete Stark from California. The conversation went like this: Senior Citizen to Congressman Stark: “Don’t pee on my leg and then tell me it’s raining.”
Congressman Stark’s Response: “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg – I wouldn’t waste the urine”.
Before YouTube, this comment maybe would have made the pages of a paper in California, but now it is a national story I heard about on a NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me quiz show, all because of YouTube. I think this is an example that shows that all public figures need to be on notice, that if you say something unprofessional or beneath your level, it will get noticed and it can travel across the globe.
I received this e-mail from a former colleague last year and I found it quite amusing.
A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment.
After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:
Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.
Mrs. Harrington
***I have no idea if this is real, but it is funny.***
As I predicted in my previous post about the Kanye West & Taylor Swift incident, Kanye West, according to People.com, has apologized. To recap, Kanye was, I guess, dissapointed that Taylor’s video won best female video at the VMAs instead of Beyonce’s. He stole the microphone from Swift to make his opinion public. As I later learned, he was most likely drunk when he did this and further I don’t even understand what his point was about Beyonce’s video being one of the best ever.
Well, People.com is reporting that Kanye wasted no time in apologizing.
I still do not think this is enough, and really there is nothing that can excuse what he did. Further, if he were truly sincere, he could have not used all caps, which just makes me cringe. I will be interested to see what Taylor does and I would be so pleased if she wrote a song about this. When she got dumped by the Jonas brother she wrote a song and got in on her album, now hopefully we can see the same thing here. Maybe that will help put a stop to the trend of celebrities acting and thinking they can just apologize it away.
I tried to go to Kanye’s site to get the first hand source, but it is currently down. I don’t know if it has been slammed or maybe he has rescinded his apology.
As I finished my first blog post about the incident on the Video Music Awards tonight, I found out that tonight there were a few shining stars in the show.
First, to MTV, thank you for kicking Kanye West out of the show.
Now, I would like to say the MTV that, while your VMA show is supposed to be a raucous party, maybe alcohol needs to be banned in the future. Apparently when Kanye went on his tirade at the 2006 MTV Europe awards he had been drinking:
I may add these incidents to my pre-prom don’t drink speech next year.
Second, to Beyonce Knowles. She looked out raged when Kanye made his outburst during the show which I think was a general emotion and showed that she was in not one bitter than Taylor Swift won. This is probably in part because, as she says, she knows what it is like to be a young kid being nominated for an award because she was only 17 when she was nominated with Destiny’s Child.
Most importantly, after winning video of the year, she called Taylor Swift up on stage to finish her speech.
In the interest of fairness I went and watched the videos that were in question on the VMA awards tonight. I wanted to do this to see if Kanye West had a point, even though he was out of line as I mentioned earlier. I watched Beyonce Knowle’s video, and I fail to see how it is “one of the best videos of all time.” At a minimum, Waterfall (Destiny’s Child) was better than this and I could probably name four videos from country that are better, let’s see:
See It in Color
Concrete Angel
Waitin’ on a Woman
You’re Gonna Miss This
It is a catchy song, but “You Belong with Me” is, in my opinion, better video, it actually tells a story and is clever and creative. Beyonce’s video is different and kind of cool, but to me it is just dancing to music and doesn’t add anything to the song like Taylor Swift’s does. And, even if you did think it was better, it is not “one of the best videos of all time.”
On a side not, I think “Put a Ring on It” is a great song for weddings when the bride throws the bouquet and I often wonder if writes think about that when they write songs. I bet they do.
In case anyone hasn’t seen the videos in questions from the VMA awards tonight, here are links to both.
