Get Smart and Meeting Steve Carell

A couple of months ago, my wife and I were lucky enough to be invited to a special premier of the new (then) movie Get Smart by my friend Doug. What made it particularly special was that Steve Carell would be in attendance and would be doing a Q&A session at the end of the movie plus there was the opportunity to have a picture taken with him and his lovely wife (picture included).

I admit to some trepidation about a Get Smart remake compounded by a particularly weak trailer released a week or so before the movie was released. I was really happy to find out that not only were my expectations extremely low, they were way off base. The movie was really funny and Carell did a great job making a new Maxwell Smart that was still respectful of the original Don Adams version.

On top of that he and his wife were just the nicest and most gracious people you could possibly imagine. Every interview I've ever read about him describe him as gracious and I have to say that those interviews were definitely on the mark.

It was an awesome evening that let me meet, albeit it briefly, one of my favorite performers.

Batman Gotham Knight

So I watched this last night and I'll confess up front that I went in with low expectations. I enjoy some Anime and some anime-inspired work (like Teen Titans) but by and large the style does not appeal to me. I correctly anticipated my reaction as I did not enjoy the look of the movie and Kevin Conroy's voice come out of an emo androgynous Bruce Wayne was downright disconcerting.

The larger issue was that overall the stories were not well written. Heck, the first one was a rip-off (but I'll be generous and call it an "homage") to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series which involved a bunch of kids telling of their encounters with Batman. The Dead Shot story, the last one sadly, was actually pretty good but it's also the most traditional one so that may simply reveal my biases.

It may be that a viewer who enjoys Anime more than I do would enjoy Gotham Knights, I really can't say. I will say I didn't care for it and couldn't really recommend it.

Muddled Thoughts - Dr. Horrible & SDCC 2008

Very tired for some reason so despite the long delay in posting, the end result will be anti-climactic. Of course at this point, the only one who is reading the blog is me, so no big deal. I'm doing this more to get disciplined (ha!) about blogging.

Watched the Dr. Horrible Act 1 premier today and I have to say that I went into this with extremely high expectations and I was still blown away. The music was fun and the 3 main cast members were great fun. I had seen Neil Patrick Harris doing his musical bit of Les Miz before so I knew he could sing but Felicia Day was a delight (pretty geek girl can sing!). I've already drop my 4 bucks for the season pass and I full expect to spend more at San Diego ComicCon <--transition.

So, I'm heading to ComicCon at the end of the month. This is the first comic book convention I've been to in probably 30 years or so. I'm going on business but I still expect to get out on the floor a fair bit. I view this convention with a bit of trepidation due to my fear that I'll see far more people in far too little clothing (and spandex) than is appropriate for their body-type.

That said, lots of folks I want to see, like The Guild Folks, the Dr. Horrible Folks, Scott Kurts, Wil Wheaton and a host of traditional comic book people will be there. That's really exciting and I do worry I'll nerd out too much and be rendered speechless. Particularly if I get near Joss Whedon who proves that bald(ing), non-Adonis like guys can be way cool.

I also hope I'll also get to see Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue, who I knew casually from the days when Warren Ellis hung out on Delphi, just to say "hi".

Hmmm, more typing than I expected and hopefully fewer spelling and grammatical errors than people can tolerate.

Whoops - speaking of grammar, here's a plug for a writing book I just picked up but haven't gotten too far until (yet still looks like a lot of fun): Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Take a look.

Rails Applicatinos Scales Like Any Other App

This video is a really interesting look at how LinkedIn's LED (Light Engineering Department) took on the very hard problem of scaling a web application. Despite Twitter's all too visible scaling issues, this seems to demonstrate that Rails is scalable if you do the right things up front.

That said, the the view that dynamic content is a problem seems to present some serious issues for Twitters since just about everything they are distributing is dynamic.

Some People Don't Get It

WoW Priest Healing Guide
So I read this and it's the funniest WoW post I've seen in a while. I wouldn't call it particularly subtle, and be warned the spelling is painful, but the irony in the post clearly escaped the first 3 commentors. One even saying he felt stupid after reading it - I don't think the author can be blamed for that, I think the commentor came that way.

It is amazing how anything that people become passionate about, whether it's a game like World of Warcraft or Religion (note the upper case "R") or even food, somehow turns over their humor sensor.

Dr. Horrible

A second post already? Shocking! Anyway, a great day to be a Joss Whedon fan as there's new information about his Internet-delivered musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog including when it will be available (and how).

Inaugral Post - Of Course About Me

While I doubt I have much to write about in the long term, a blog seems a fine way to list things I want for my birthday. In the end, blogs tend to be exercises in narcissism anyway, so why not be explicit about it.

• I was listening to Coverville this morning on my iPod and they had an ad for the Audioengine 5 speakers, which had a really interesting feature set. I took a look at them on Amazon to see the reviews and was blown away by how positive they were. So, first item on the wish list - these speakers.
• Shelby Lynn's Dusty in Memphis, which I also heard today on Coverville. Awesome version of Dustry Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" which is a personal favorite.
• Rockferry by Duffy. I caught this on the radio, one of the rare instances I listen so it was serendipity, and was blown away. Plus, Mercy was a big hit with my 8-year old daughter (also an Amy Winehouse fan).
• My obligatory nerd request, a book on Ruby programming.
• One last idea is a gift certificate to an excellent restaurant in Hudson, MA - Choloe.
  
• And as always, my Amazon Wish List is a great source of things I want but haven't gotten around to buying myself.

On an unrelated note - going to see Iron Man on Monday night, on what Kathy (my wife) calls a "man date". I wonder if I'll be able to squeak in seeing the Hulk the same evening.