I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in IMAX this afternoon. The first fifteen minutes or so were in 3D, which looked a lot better than I expected. I'm a little disappointed that 3D goggles no longer have the cool red and blue lens, but at least the current models are really big and oversized, so I feel like one of the robots from Naoki Urasawa's Pluto. Even for a matinee with a student discount it cost $11.50. I used to be able to see movies in Japan for less than that as long as I went after eight at night.

The movie itself was very well-done. The usual actors do a good job, and I've realized that I like movie Harry better than book Harry, not that that's particularly difficult. Ron felt underused in the movie, but that's not a far cry from the books. He's played mostly for comic relief, while most of the drama is left to Hermione and Harry. This is particularly jarring in the last scene, where Harry and Hermione have a deep, dramatic conversation and Ron just sits there on the stairs in the background like he's waiting for a bus. Alan Rickman is once again excellent as Snape; there are some scenes where his deadpan facial expression and line delivery are used to great effect. Unfortunately, in the movie's most damning flaw, his best line in the book is cut, which severely hurts the film's climax. I was really looking forward to seeing him cut lose and show Snape losing control, but it never happens. It was a very poor choice on the part of the filmmakers. Tom Felton plays Draco well, and I think the Draco subplot works better in the movie than in the book. There are still some melodramatic "Emo Draco is Emo" scenes, not that they aren't in keeping with the tone of the book.

Jim Broadbent was a fitting choice for Slughorn and he makes the character feel very natural. It's a bit strange to realize that I've been watching him in films since Moulin Rouge. Chocolate-rape McPedostache makes a brief appearance, mostly to bitch out Harry for not trusting Dumbledore, so good on him. He's there with Tonks, WHICH RUINS ALL OF MY FANFIC! As does Blaise Zabini being portrayed as a man, of course. Anything that makes extreme Potter fangirls unhappy is a good thing in my book. Interesting thought-exercise: for years it was rumored that Snape was half-vampire. What if Snape was half-Twilight vampire? The fic writes itself. Bellatrix LeStrange is again disturbingly attractive, and Fenrir Greyback is there, but not emphasized nearly as much as in the book. In the movie, it's not even clear that he's a werewolf.

Now, since I can't let a Harry Potter movie pass without some juvenile and inappropriate sexual commentary, Harry totally gets cockblocked by both Dumbledore and some Deatheaters. And make no mistake, that muggle waitress was way hotter than Ginny. I guess Harry's just got a thing for the gingers. Once again, lots of shots of Harry taking long walks in isolated places with a teacher or hanging out with them after hours in their darkly lit office with alcohol nearby, although I don't think Slughorn has the energy to give Harry the same workout as Lupin. But he has a thorough knowledge of potions, which I'm sure has many uses... And then there's the scene when Dumbledore makes Harry promise to do ANYTHING he says without question... And when Draco closes all the windows and doors in the Hogwarts Express car so that he and Harry are completely alone...By this point we're heard it all before. It all seems kind of passe. The age of Potter is over, and a new dark aeon has dawned. The current reigning champion of young adult fantasy lit is a stupider and more sparkly beast.

Still, Reel Big Fish make me nostalgic for my college radio show days. Good times.

I've been having a rough time lately, but some good things happened today to cheer me up. I found out that I got a 99 on my Classical Chinese midterm, and I also saw that the Penn Singers are performing selections from the Mikado, my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan opera, this weekend. I'm reading a really good novel by Dan Simmons called Drood that's historical fiction / horror about the last five years of Charles Dickens' life and the writing of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I was in a musical adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in college, and it was one of the most fun plays I've ever been in. I know enough of the plot to catch a lot of the references in the Simmons' novel. I'll have to post more about it in the future. Furthermore, tonight's Heroes was the best it's been since Season 1. If the new showrunner can maintain this level of quality, I'll definitely keep watching.

I know that I post too many lyrics and they usually don't get any kind of response, but the following describes my recent problems almost exactly. Please pardon the angst.

Too Much (Is Never Enough) - Firewater

You fall across the street like a shadow
In your brand new funeral clothes
You wish that you had a chance in hell
But you know that you don't

You tell yourself that you're gonna make a new start
But you know you lie like a dog
You can't believe the things you tell yourself anymore

Because it's all too much
Too much is never enough

You fake your best impersonation
Of a functional of human being
She reads you like a broken clock
Whatever that means

You think you know your way around her
But you fuck it up everytime

You wanna hate the things about her
That you love

And its all too much
Too much is never enough

Yeah, it's all too much
Too much is never enough

Well, you need her
Like a bullet in the temple
But you dig her just like a grave

You swear that you're never gonna do it again
But then you do it again

And it's all too much
Too much is never enough

Yeah it's all too much
Too much is never enough
Too much is never enough

And it's all too much
Yeah it's all too much
It's all too much

Gather ’round, ye lads and lasses, set ye for a while
And hearken to me mournful tale about the Emerald Isle
Let’s all raise our glasses high to friends and family gone
And lift our voices in another Irish drinking song

Consumption took me mother and me father got the pox
Me brother drank the whiskey ’til he wound up in a box
My other brother in the Troubles met with his demise
My sister has forever closed her smiling Irish eyes

CHORUS:
Now everybody’s died
So until our tears are dried
We’ll drink and drink and drink and drink,
and then we’ll drink some more
We’ll dance and sing and fight
until the early morning light
Then we’ll throw up, pass out, wake up, and then go drinking once again

Kenny was killed in Kilkenny and Claire, she died in Clare
Tip from Tipperary died out in the Derry air
Shannon jumped into the River Shannon back in June
Ernie fell into the Erne, and Tom is in the Toome

“Cleanliness is godliness” me Uncle Pat would sing
He broke his neck a’slippin’ on a bar of Irish Spring
O’Grady, he was 80 though his bride was just a pup
He died upon the honeymoon when she got his Irish up

CHORUS

Joe Murphy fought with Reilly near the banks of old Doneen
He took out his shillelagh and he stabbed him in the spleen
Crazy Uncle Mike believed he was a leprechaun -
In fact he’s just a leper, and his arms and legs are gone

When Timmy Johnson broke his neck it was a cryin’ shame
He wasn’t really Irish, but he went to Notre Dame
McNamara crossed the street and by a bus was hit
But he was just a Scotsman, so nobody gave a (ARRGHH)

CHORUS

Me drunken Uncle Brendan tried to drive home from the bar
The road rose up to meet him when he fell out of his car
Irony was what befell my great-grand Uncle Sam
He choked upon the very last potato in the land

Conor lived in Ulster town, he used to smuggle arms
Until the British killed him and cut off his lucky charms
And dear old Father Flanagan, who left the lord’s employ
Drunk on sacramental wine, beneath the altar boy

CHORUS

(slower)

Someday soon I’ll leave this world of pain and toil and sin
The Lord will take me by the hand to join all of me kin
Me only wish is when the Savior comes for me and you

(a tempo)

He kills the cast of Riverdance, and Michael Flatley too

CHORUS (2x)

I'm amused that Ayn Rand is in the news at the same time a movie is in the theaters whose characters are inspired by superheroes created by one of her followers. Can a Mr.A movie be next? On the other hand, I'm horrified that this means we'll see more Objectivists.

One little compliment can make you feel amazing. So give me a compliment, anything in the entire world, even that my shoelaces are pretty. Put this in your journal. And once you get some comments, put that entry in a memory or tag and when you are feeling down, just go to that entry and this will remind you how great you are.

I don't think there are words to describe how much I love this. I'm going to be singing it to myself for days.

Life would be far simpler if I had the ability to turn people into velociraptors and have them do my bidding.

This has been a terrible week, and it just keeps getting worse.

It seems that "The Skin of a Killer" is the name of an actual piece of music on the Twilight score.

Glorious.

Your International Spy Name is Shock Danger

Your Code Name: Kneecaps You Reside in: Prague Why You're a Good Spy: You a master at disguise

Kneecaps is an awesome code name, especially because it reminds me of a cool Book quote from Firefly.

I spent the evening reading Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country. I'm not sufficiently well-read in Japanese literature, and I'm trying to gradually correct that. This is one of the early stages of the process. To be honest, I don't have strong feelings on Snow Country. I can't say that it was bad or that I didn't like it, but it didn't move me in the way I'd hoped or expected it to. I've heard so much about it, so maybe I was expecting too much. To be honest, I didn't understand it very well. Perhaps I don't have the life experience or emotional maturity to really grasp the emotional relationships between the characters. Even imagery that I'd expect to impress or move me didn't, with a few exceptions, like Shimamura watching insects die or the long section on how the special kind of weaving is made. Possibly it says something about my personality that I find such a thing as insects dying to be memorable. Having lived in Tohoku for two years, I'm genuinely surprised that the novel didn't evoke more of a reaction in me. Perhaps I'll enjoy it more on a reread.

I haven't been keeping up with the Naruto Shippuden anime, but the new ending is pretty entertaining, especially since it includes the two best characters in the series being awesome. Watch it, meditate on the glorious Springtime of Youth, and shed manly tears at the setting sun.