A Parable Missing Its Moral

All good stories must start by introducing their characters, and this story is no different. Now, that’s not to presume that this will be a good story. It is more then likely that, in the grand scheme of things, this story will be quickly forgotten, having had no impact whatsoever, being a very mediocre tale. No, this story will bear resemblance to a good story only insomuch as it, too, will begin by introducing the characters.

Our story is about a small business and it’s four members. It is not important to our tale what this business did, we need only understand that they made a product, and had been doing so successfully for more than 30 years. The two founders of this business, Thomas and Kristina, had learned the trade form their parents and had decided to strike out on their own, to see if they could make it. This went well for several years, but as demand increased, Thomas and Kristina decided to take on two assistants, named Kyle and Alex, to help them meet their orders.

The four of them were able to keep the business running smoothly for many, many years. Admittedly, things were not always perfect, but they avoided any real problems, and their business thrived. Until it didn’t.

It is impossible to say exactly when it began, because it happened so slowly at first. Thomas began to arrive late to work. It wasn’t often, and he always had a plausible excuse, but he was late nonetheless. It was still occurring infrequently and, after all, Thomas had been responsible for the last 30 years, so little thought was given to it. Things continued to change, however. Thomas’ tardiness began to become more frequent and more severe. Then, after several months, he began to miss days entirely. It started with just a single day, every few weeks but, as with the lateness, the frequency soon began to increase.

Up to this point, it is doubtful that many of the customers noticed a change at all. The orders still went out on time, and when they saw Thomas, he seemed his regular, jovial self. It was only his coworkers who were beginning to wonder what was going on. Then came the Christmas sale.

Now, before we continue, there is one thing which must be explained about the assistants. It was never the intention of Kyle and Alex to stay at this business for the rest of their lives. Nor was it the expectation of Thomas and Kristina that they do so. It was well understood that one day, when they had the means and the desire, Kyle and Alex would leave and start up their own businesses, and this is exactly what Kyle had done. He had left the business half a year before the Christmas of which we are about to speak and was becoming quite successful on his own. He still spoke to his old coworkers often, and had heard some of the worries about Thomas, but he was largely occupied with his own work.

Which brings us back to Christmas. As you are, no doubt, aware, many businesses run large sales at Christmas and other major holidays as a way to attract more customers, and this business was no different. As such, the coworkers were always together around the holidays, as they worked to make sure that all orders were filled and that their customer’s needs were met. So strong was this tradition, in fact, that Kyle even returned to the business to assist in their work. This particular year, however, Thomas did not arrive at work the day of the big sale. When he did return, after the holidays, he refused to explain where he had been.

Kyle returned to his own business, concerned, but unsure of what to do, and hopeful that things would soon return to normal. As is so often the case, though, the situation would first have to become worse. Over the months that were to come, Thomas’ antics became far more frequent. He would disappear for days at a time, never answering a phone or checking in. Kristina and Alex continued to run the business, attempting to make it appear as though it were business as usual, but it was around this time that the customers doubtless began to notice that something was wrong. Thomas continued to miss the sales for every holiday, and even the anniversary of the business’ opening.

Kristina and Alex consulted with Kyle frequently, trying to figure out how to run the business and how to carry on now that they were understaffed. Kyle did his best to help, but was so far away and so busy that there was little he could do beyond offering a sympathetic ear. Truth be told, were it not for the fact that Kyle had a sentimental attachment to the old business, having worked there for many of his formative years, he would have advocated firing Thomas in January, but to do so would have also meant the dissolution of the business.

This entire time Thomas continued to disappeared, missing work, missing events and celebrations, and refusing to face the fact that anyone might notice or be affected. Finally, Alex had had enough and decided to confront Thomas. The arguments that ensued were legendary in proportion, as both Thomas and Alex were possessed of large tempers and little patience. When Thomas would attempt to leave in the middle of the work day, Kristina would beg him to stay, and Alex would demand that he do so, neither of which produced any results. Thomas’ demeanour was also changing towards his coworkers. He became meaner, always accusing, shouting and insulting them. It got to the point where, on separate occasions he drove into Kristina and punched Alex while they were attempting to keep him from leaving.

As you could imagine, this entire situation became very stressful for Alex and Kristina, and the business suffered greatly. It was so bad that Kristina’s physical health began to deteriorate, and Alex decided to leave to set up his own business, even though he did not yet have the financial means to support it, he just needed to leave the destructive environment.

When news of Alex’s imminent departure reached Kyle, he knew he had to come back to the business, even if only for a short while, as Kristina was going to need his help. To do that, however, meant that he would have to close down his own business, which he did. He gave many reasons for why he was closing it down, none of which were entirely untrue. The main reason, however, he kept a secret unto himself, so that neither Alex nor Kristina could feel guilty about his reasons for returning.

He returned during Alex’s final months with the business and took on much of the responsibility of ensuring the business at least appeared to be functioning marginally normally. The situation, however, continued to deteriorate, with Thomas’ absences occurring far more frequently and for greater lengths of time, to the point where it was considered a good week if his coworkers saw him for even a single day. The whole time, Thomas continued to refuse to explain where he was going or what he was doing, why there were strange charges to the business’ credit cards or even why he couldn’t explain. He even disappeared during the Grand Opening celebration for Alex’s new business.

Once Alex was gone, that left just Kyle and Kristina to keep things running. Kyle could help with the running of things and be supportive, but he didn’t know how to fix things. Kristina was feeling betrayed and abandoned by her long time partner, and Thomas didn’t seem to care.

Kristina had tried begging Thomas to stay, tried to make everything perfect so that he wouldn’t have cause to leave, as she felt it must somehow be her fault. Alex had tried demanding that things change. Both had failed. Kyle was still on relatively good terms with Thomas, and seemed to occasionally be able to get through to him on small issues. He knew he would only have one chance to confront Thomas with any hope of him listening. Once he had burned through that remaining good will, he would be as dead to Thomas as Alex was, and then he would never be able to salvage the business.

Then, one day, Kyle came in to find Kristina in tears, having just gotten off the phone with Thomas, who had been gone for over three days and had, again, refused to tell her when he would return. It was at that instant that Kyle swore to himself he would not play this scene again. He would no longer be the one who just consoled Kristina in the aftermath. He was going to force Thomas to listen to him. Things were going to change. Thomas would make things right, or he would leave, but things were going to change.

Sleep well,

DTE
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Songs of the moment:
DJ Champion – Knock You Out feat. Emily Haines, Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon – Remains, Placebo – Running Up That Hill

Music while I wrote:
Vince Guaraldi – A Charlie Brown Christmas

Good Grief!

It’s now been almost three months since I’ve had an engineering job. During that time, I’ve accomplished… not much of anything. At least not anything important. I’ve caught up on some DVDs and books I’ve been meaning to work through, cleaned my room, and beat a videogame or two, but I haven’t done anything that will ever be written of in the history books.

Oh, and I’ve also applied for new jobs. At least, I’ve applied for the jobs that are out there, which isn’t many. Apparently, the recession is now over. It’d be nice is someone would tell the hiring managers at the engineering firms, because they’re all still acting like they’re on the verge of going out of business. During my period of unemployment, I’ve submitted applications to probably under 20 jobs. That’s not me being picky, that’s just what’s out there. If a company’s got a job posting, I’ve applied. About the only criteria I turn skip an opening based on is location. After my year abroad, I think that I would like to remain close to home, but even then, I’m not firm in that position; if there was a posting for a job I was interested in on the other side of the world, I’d be applying. There just aren’t any positions.

The types of positions that are available also hit me the other day. I realized that of all the jobs I’ve applied for, I don’t really want any of them. If I got offered any of these jobs, I’d take them, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not the type of job I’d go looking for unless I had to. I’m realistic, I’m not the guy who thinks he’s going to get the corner office with a year of experience, that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s not about the power or the prestige. It’s just about finding a job that’s related to something I’m even remotely interested in.

Maybe I should be using this time off to re-evaluate where I’m going with my life. Maybe I’m not supposed to be an engineer. I’ve always been more interested in the creative and entertainment side of things than I have in the math side, but how many people actually get to make a living being creative? It always just seemed more practical to do the engineering thing. And, besides, I was the smart one. Aren’t the smart ones supposed to go out and make something of themselves? Become doctors, or lawyers, or engineers? No one ever told me that that’s what I should do, but I guess that’s just the societal expectation that I absorbed.

Instead of going out and making something of myself, right now it feels like I’m going backwards. After spending the last year living on my own, all over North America, I’m now back living in my parents house. I went from being a full time engineer to working at my old job at the pool, as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. Even socially I’ve begun to backslide, heading towards my old loner ways. I’m not nearly back to my old 15 year old self, but I’ve definitely regressed from where I was a year ago.

As long as I’m doing some self-evaluation, I might as well offer this up for the beginners. Recently, I’ve been reading Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis. I’s a biography of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip (Charlie Brown, Snoopy, et.al.). While reading I could not help but notice how uncomfortably closely I resemble Schulz. If you’re only passingly familiar with the man, you might think this is a good thing, after all, he was wildly successful and died a wealthy and beloved man. However, his personal life was a mess, and his personality up to his mid thirties seems to be nearly identical to my own. All of his insecurities, tics, and neuroses are my own. Seeing this issues in someone else and, worse, how they crippled him, made for a fascinating but deeply troubling read. The similarities were so extreme that I could, without any exaggeration, give a stranger the first 250 pages of this book and they would then know me better than many of my friends and family members.

So, what do I do with this new found self-awareness? Well, I’m not sure. Some would say that the mere fact that I can recognize my own problems in someone else’s life means that I should be able to takes steps to correct them in my own. Moreover, having seen their disastrous consequences, I should have the motivation to take corrective action before those consequences become my own. I’m not sure exactly what’ll do yet, but at least it will give me something to do while I try to find a new job.

I’m not the type of person who needs to always be doing something. I’m trying to look at this time off as the last extended vacation I’m likely to have for quite a while. After all, there won’t be any more summer vacations for me, school is done. The next time I’m likely to have more than a couple of weeks of at a time will be when I’m retired, so I’m trying to make the best of my current situation. The one thing I do wish, however, is that I could somehow know how long it would last. If I could just know that I’d get a job next week or in 6 months, either way, it doesn’t much matter, it’d just be nice to know. That way I could plan out not only my finances, but also what I want to do, what do I want to make sure I get done before I have to go back to work.

As it stands there are still three things that I’d very much like to get done before I go back to work, none of which I’ve even begun to do. The first aid film that we’ve been working on is nearing completion, but it’s been about 10 months since I’ve last worked on the edit. There’s probably only about 8-16 hours of work left to be done, so I need to wrap that up so I can at least say it’s finished and move on. I have an outline for a screenplay in my head, that’s been there for about 2 years, which I’d really like to bang out. Maybe it’ll help to satiate my creative bug for a while. I don’t expect it to go anywhere, but it’d be nice to see what I could come up with, how it’d turn out. I know November is “Write A Novel” month in the U.S., but a screenplay is sort of in the same spirit. Finally, in the pipe dream department, I’ve been toying with this idea of a movie theatre/entertainment complex that I’d love to own. I have no idea how much it would cost, only that I have nowhere near enough. I would like to get a little bit of work done there, however, just to see exactly how much of a pipe dream it really is, if there is any way I could ever conceivably make it a reality. It’s a great idea, but is the cost low enough that I could ever reel in some investors?

I guess that’s what I’ll work on over the next little while, all the while looking for a job. Oh, and if you have any leads on mechanical engineering jobs (or want to invest in a entertainment complex), let me know.

Sleep well,

DTE

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Songs of the moment:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll, Tegan & Sara – Hell, Vince Guaraldi – Cast Your Fate To The Wind

Music while I wrote:
Weezer - Raditude

Should I Stay or Should I Go

As I write this, there is a resignation letter sitting on the desk in front of me.

I had literally just typed the above sentence when my boss and the company’s Human Resources director came in to collect all of the engineering department (the four of us that are left) for a meeting. I’ll get to the content of that meeting in a minute, but first some background on how that letter came to be starring up at me.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I work as an engineer for a major oil drilling supplier. My first year with the company consisted of travelling to various facilities around the world, working on different projects for different branches of the company. At the end of the first year, I would receive offers from offices throughout the company, of which I was to select the location for my permanent position. Which is exactly what happened, with one major difference. If there is an “urgent need” at one of the locations, this can override the chosen position. And that is exactly what happened to me. Rather than the position I wanted, I was sent to a city I didn’t want to move to and placed in a job I did not want to be doing.

I’ve struggled with what to do for the last month. I was determined to give the position a chance and not just write it off, which I have done. Unfortunately, my feelings on the job and the city have not changed. My options at this point are to pack up and move to this new city or quit.

If it was a job I liked in a city I didn’t want to be in or a city I loved with a bad job, I’d have no problem sticking it out while waiting for something better. The combination of the two makes it much more difficult, however. Moving my entire life to another city, all the while intending to move again, seems like a waste. Additionally, I feel a little like I’m scamming my employer by having them pay for training, setup, etc. when I intend to be gone as soon as possible.

On the other hand, there are very few engineering jobs out there right now. This year’s grads are having a really tough time getting jobs. Though I’d like to think I have a slight advantage in that I have some experience, how much difference will one year actually make? Most of the positions that are available require 5-10 years of experience. If I were to quit, it’s likely that I’ll be unemployed for at least 6 months, if not more.

I can afford to be unemployed, I just don’t want to be. My plan was to buy a house after I got my permanent position, so I have more than enough saved to live on while I look for work. It would delay the purchase of a house, but I won’t be starving and, in fact, wouldn’t even have to change my lifestyle all that much.

So that’s the decision I’ve been wrestling with for the past month or so: do I stay with my job, or do I quit?

I just got back from a short trip down to California, and I spent a lot of time working through this problem, trying to figure out what to do. I spent substantial time thinking in the two places where my thoughts are clearest – the animation building at Disney’s California Adventure and in swimming pools. I had all but decided that I would resign, hence the presence of the letter weighing down my desk, and this blog was originally intended to be a final sorting and organizing of my thoughts on the matter before I made my decision. Which brings me back to where I began.

As I write this, there is a resignation letter sitting on the desk in front of me.

Then came the meeting. We were informed that we would be cut back to alternating 3 and 4 day weeks. This is following the cutting of our department from 15 members down to 3 in the weeks leading up to my arrival (which begs the question why bring on someone new if you’re in such dire straits, but presumably I was cheaper than those who were let go). It was also made very clear that this reduction of work hours did not negate the possibility of more layoffs.

So now my decision has become a lot easier. I kept hoping for some sign as to what I should do, and this morning I got it. This ship is sinking. My personal and financial situation mean that I’m not stuck in a futile attempt to bail out the rapidly overwhelming floods of water until the day that the whole thing goes under. I have a lifeboat and it’s time to use it.

As I write this, there is a resignation letter sitting on the desk in front of me. But by the time you read this, it will be delivered.

Sleep well,

DTE
____________________
Songs of the moment:
David Bowie – Heroes; Billy Talent – Rusted From The Rain; Journey – Don’t Stop Believing

Music while I wrote:
Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown, The Shins – Oh, Inverted World

On Death and Dying

Today I’m forced to think about something I, probably like most people, generally choose to ignore: death.

Now, I don’t necessarily ignore death because I’m scared of it.  I don’t give it enough thought to even allow myself to become afraid or apprehensive of it.  I think it’s just my subconscious understanding that death is supposed to be a bad thing that I’ve just automatically used my innately over-developed compartmentalizing skill to bury all thoughts on the matter deep within my brain where I will rarely have to stumble upon them.

This is a practice that has served me well in my life up to this point.  I’ve been fortunate enough that I have yet to experience the death of anyone close to me.  I had a dog which died when I was 11, which was sad, of course, but didn’t really cause me to think about life and death, just because of my age.  I had three great grandparents who died when I was quite young, probably all before I had turned 8.  Again, they didn’t really hit me as “real” deaths because I was so young and had rarely seen any of them while they were alive, so I’m sure I met the news of their passing with a resounding “Oh.”  In high school one of my younger brother’s old friends overdosed at a rave and died, but I’d only know him in passing and hadn’t seen him since elementary.  Several years after high school I learned that my grade 12 math teacher had died of cancer.  The closest I’ve come to being affected by death was also in high school, when a friend’s ex-girlfriend tried to commit suicide by hanging herself.  She did end up surviving, but with severe brain damage that left her with the mental capacity of a two year old.  They had been broken up for 2-3 years at this point, during which time I hadn’t seen her much, but this was the first (and until recently, only) time I actually really gave any serious thought to death.  That passed after a short time and I went back to comfortably ignoring the topic.  Until a few weeks ago.

That’s when I learned that my current dog has a cancerous tumour in his bladder.  The good news is that he’s not in any pain, but because of its location, the tumour is inoperable, meaning that he has around six months to live.  Clearly this isn’t as important as a human death, and I promptly ignored this information, filing it away where I wouldn’t have to think about it.  However, this one won’t stay buried.  When it crawls its way into my thoughts I do my best to chase it away again, distracting myself with whatever is at hand, but I think this is something I’m going to have to work through, sooner or later.

Of my limited exposure to death, this is the first time it’s come with an expiration date.  The other were all sudden, to me, at least.  This one is like Damocles’ sword, hovering there, just waiting fall.  I want to make the most of my remaining time with my dog, but it’s impossible to keep everything as it was once you know that the end is coming.  It’s like the time travel conundrum: the mere fact that you know what will happen in the future changes that future.

When he does pass, I think it’s likely to hit me fairly hard since, even though he’s just a pet, it’ll be the first “real” death I’ll experience.  And that’s where most of my thoughts actually head when I give up on trying to corral them.  Not how I’ll react to the death of my dog, but what would I do if a person I cared about died.  It’s something that I understand on an intellectual level, but not yet a practical one.  And, to be honest, I’m not that eager to find out. 

It’s not even a question of heaven or hell or just disappearing into nothingness.  Where you go when you die is important for the person doing the dying, not those left behind, though you could argue that believing they went to a better place would make it easier on the survivors, I’m not sure it would really make that much of a difference.  Let’s be honest, grief is an essentially selfish emotion.  You’re not really feeling bad for the person who died, your feeling bad because they died - you feel bad for yourself.  Your dwelling on what you’ll miss about them, what your life will be missing, how you will be negatively impacted.  It sounds callous, but I think if we were really honest with ourselves, most people would agree.  Believing the deceased is in a better place does nothing to make your life better, so I don’t foresee it doing much to alleviate the grief.

While I am extremely afraid of the death of others, as I said, I’m not afraid of my own death.  I routinely tease that I’m want to be dead by the time I’m thirty, and though it’s obviously not something I intend to actually pursue, there are some people who are genuinely upset by that statement.  These people clearly have a different view of life and death than I do.  While I have absolutely no intent on actively working towards my own death, I’m only really interesting in a life that I can enjoy.  So while dying doesn’t scare me, getting old and decrepit does.  Immensely.  It’s a fairly juvenile mindset, but I want to be able to do what I want without having to worry about consequences: go where I want, eat what I want, do whatever, all without having to think about the repercussions caused by my dying body not being able to handle it anymore.

I also want it to eventually end.  I have no interest in living forever (though as a bit of a tech junkie, I wouldn’t mind getting to see the technology that will be developed in the next few hundred years).  In order for anything to be truly appreciated or worthwhile, it must have an end.  Living forever, whether you were the only one able to do so or if everyone suddenly could, would be pointless and actually depressing.  If someone offered me eternal life, I don’t think it would take much thought on my part before I turned it down.  Continuous youth for a normal lifespan?  I’d take it in a heartbeat, but eternal life, not so much.

I’ll leave the talk of death there, for the time being.  I’ll likely revisit it in about six month’s time, possibly with a drastically different take on the matter.  Until then.

Sleep well,

DTE
____________________
Songs of the moment:
Metric - Gimme Sympathy; Puscifer - The Mission; Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitter

Music while I wrote:
The Killers – Day & Age; Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans

The Finger on the Button

My time in New Orleans has come to a close and I have returned home.  Among the many reasons I am glad to have left it behind, even though it meant returning to a land where I could wake up in the morning to an unexpected and unwelcome dump of snow (as happened this morning), one of the strangest, and most omnipresent, must be the  radio.

First off, as a fan of alternative and modern rock, I was disappointed to learn that there was only one rock station, and it played exclusively corporate rock, including an abundance of Nickelback.  To make matters worse, their regular playlist consisted of only 16 songs.  No, that’s not an exaggeration, I counted, they play the same 16 songs over and over, with only the occasional exception, for a month at which point a few songs are replaced by new ones.  It should also be noted that “new” seemingly has a different meaning down there.  They featured the premiere of the “new” Kings of Leon song “Sex on Fire” in February.  Problem is, the song had been released everywhere else since at least the previous fall, and had been playing in my hometown since June.  The only bright spot was that they did play slightly more Canadian music than the stations in Austin did, including the aforementioned Nickelback, Finger Eleven, Gob, and Buckcherry.  Lots of Buckcherry, but more on that in a minute.

And that brings us to the biggest problem with the radio in New Orleans: censoring.  Now, yes, obviously all North American radio stations employ censoring to some degree, but the extent to which it was used there was obnoxious.  They don’t just excise the usual suspects, like the shit and fuck, but virtually ALL curse words, right down to damn, hell, and ass.  That wouldn’t be so bad, but they also censor for content, removing references to drugs, guns, and drinking, among others.  Even this would be bearable, except the record labels don’t provide tracks with this degree of censoring, meaning the station does it itself.  To accomplish this, they use one of two tactics: either they just cut the offending word out – resulting in what sounds like a CD skip, or they play over the word with a “record-scratch”-like sound.  The result of both these techniques is an extremely distracting, disjointed listening experience.

You wind up with lines like (censored elements in black, highlight to read):

Sublime – “Wrong Way”
“her seven horny brothers and her drunk-ass dad”
“Happy and sad, wanna shoot your dad”

Third Eye Blind - “Semi-Charmed Life”
“With a tick tock rhythm and a bump for the drop,
And then I bumped up. I took the hit I was given,
Then I bumped again,
And then I bumped again”

Everlast - “What It’s Like”
“And smoked the finest green”
“He pulled out his chrome .45, talked some shit, and wound up dead”

There are two that are even stranger, though.  The first is Buckcherry’s “Crazy Bitch”.  For this one, they play the word replacement version (“fuck” is changed to “look” or “rock”, etc.) from the record label and then add their own censoring, most notably they remove the word “bitch”.  What makes this strange is that when announcing the song, the DJs always refer to it as “Crazy Bitch”.  So the DJs can use the word, but the song can’t?

The worst offender, though has to be what they did to Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer”.  The fifth line of the first verse is “It’s been shitty”, which obviously can’t be played on the air.  Recognizing this, the label provides an edited version to radio stations with the offending word removed.  But instead of using this version, the New Orleans station has created their own.  They have cut the line out of the song and in its place inserted the fourth line of the second verse.  So, not only did they change the song on their own, they destroyed it musically, since the inserted line is completely out of place.  If they had even used the fifth line of the second verse (which would have still made sense lyrically) the result would have been much better, but as it is, it’s just horrible.

Finally, after the station is done playing you all it’s censored music and you’re sent to a commercial break, all of the adds are for porn shops, breast enhancing cream, breast enlargement surgeries, and pills to increase your penis size.

Southern logic.

Sleep well,

DTE
____________________

Songs of the Moment:
Metric – Gimme Sympathy; No Doubt – Stand And Deliver; Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls

Music while I wrote:
No Doubt – No Doubt; Five Iron Frenzy – Upbeats and Beatdowns

BSG Sitrep pt. 2

Battlestar Galactica has finished, it's finale having aired on March 20th.  I caught up in time to view that final two episodes as they aired and, as promised, I’m back to write my final thoughts on the second half of the series.

Seasons three and four increased the mythology of the universe, as well as developing a series long plot arc.  It also looked a lot more closely at human nature and the meaning of existence.  These happened to be the two requirements I listed, in my last post, to make a great series.  So, does that mean that I now think BSG is a great series?  Yes, I can say, without reservation, that it is a great series.  It’s not the greatest series ever made, but it is one that everyone should check out.

I really only had two issues with the second half of the series.  First was the treatment of Lee Adama.  It felt like he was a character that the writers simply couldn’t wrap their heads around, couldn’t come up with something for him to do.  He bounced from being a pilot to the CAG (head pilot) to a lawyer to a politician.  At times it felt like when a character with a new profession was needed, rather than creating a new character, they just dropped Lee in instead.  As I said before, I have no vested interest in Lee, but it just felt like sloppy writing, perhaps made more apparent since the rest of the writing was so strong.

My second issue was with the larger arc.  To me, if didn’t feel very planned out.  It seemed more like the writers had a bunch of good ideas that they threw together, hoping they would somehow form an arc on their own.  it wasn’t until about a third of the way through the fourth season that it felt like there was a clear direction.  I don’t know when the series was actually mapped out, but it felt like it came very late in the game, leaving them with a lot of disparate threads which needed to be tied up.

But tied up they were, in the fantastic finale.  The elegance with which the final three hours came together makes me more willing to believe that it had been planned out for quite some time, but I suspect that the truth is it is more due to Ron Moore’s writing skill than anything else.  I felt it was extremely satisfying and just felt “right”.  There have been some complaints about the inclusion of the last twenty minutes, which serve as a coda, as some feel it was unnecessary, but I think that it absolutely earns its right to exist through the small character details and gives the audience an opportunity to say goodbye.  Even more complaints about the final three minutes have surfaced, but again, this scene is essential.  It is this scene that most clearly presents the ultimate goal of the series, what it was trying to accomplish and what it wanted to say about humanity.

In the end, I’m glad I broke down and decided to watch this series.  Part of me wishes that I had watched it live week to week over the past 5+ years, but I think it plays even better watched condensed over a few weeks.  This is a series I’m sure I’ll be recommending for years, and I have no doubt that once I buy the Complete Series Blu-ray set when it comes out in July it will spend almost as much time being lent out to others as it will in my own possession.

Sleep well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the Moment:

Metric – Help, I’m Alive; Metric – Gimme Sympathy; Social Code – Everyday (Late November)

Music while I wrote:

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

BSG Sitrep

I admit it. I finally gave in and did it. I started watching Battlestar Galactica.

“What took so long?” you’re probably wondering. “You like sci-fi and will watch any kind of quality TV, so why are you just starting BSG now? Every critic and film media creator can do nothing but sing its praises, and the fanboys think it’s the second coming!” Well, up to this point I’d deliberately avoided the show. Living in Canada, I don’t receive the US Sci-Fi channel and its Canadian equivalent, Space, didn’t start airing it until much later. Even then I wasn’t enthused. My knowledge of the property was based primarily on the ‘70s original: a cheesy, low budget Star Wars knockoff. By the time I’d heard enough good things about the new version to make me think it might be worth my time, it was already too far into the series and I didn’t feel like investing the time it would take to get caught up. So I avoided it. Until two weeks ago.

I’ve been working in Louisiana, and there’s not a lot to do here. After the first five weeks here, I ran out of things to do. So, desperate for something to do, I went down to Blockbuster and rented the miniseries. After that, I was hooked.

At this point, I’ve completed the first two seasons, and decided to record my thoughts on the series so far. This is mostly because, again, I’m bored. I’m out of rented discs and I’m not going back to the store until tomorrow. So here it is.

My first comment has to do with the reaction to the series. When it first came out there was a lot of talk about how it was redefining the sci-fi genre. I have to say that statement is completely wrong. It’s not the next evolution of sci-fi, it’s actually a step back to classic sci-fi. It’s sci-fi that is a metaphor, allowing the viewer to examine themselves through the filter of the story. Yes, it’s different from most sci-fi we see now, the dumbed down action movie in space/the future, but it’s not a new concept, just one that had gone out of style, and it's return is certainly welcome. BSG is also routinely hailed as one of the greatest television series ever. This is something that I can’t yet agree with. I will definitely agree that there have been some fantastic hours of TV, but I think that more is required for a great series. The show has to have an engaging, ongoing arc, and it needs have something to say about us as a society. At this point, BSG doesn’t have that. Again, remember, I’m only at the end of season 2 and there’s certainly the potential for that arc to develop in the seasons I haven’t made it to, we just haven’t really seen it yet.

What do I like about the show? As I said , it has a lot of truly great episodes. It also raises a lot of intriguing moral and ethical questions and challenges a lot of “truths” a lot of us take for granted. It’s shot with a grit and intensity that make it very easy to become engaged in the stories. Finally, it has very well-developed, believable characters.

My reactions to those characters are something that I find a little puzzling. There is no other show, film, or book that I have ever experienced where my engagement with the characters was so highly gendered. In most other instances, the characters I react most strongly to, whether positively or negatively, are fairly evenly balanced between male and female. In Battlestar, that’s not the case. In this show, the characters I react to are exclusively female. This is even stranger given the fact that I am male and, typically, viewers react most strongly to those of their own gender.

My favourite character is Cassie, the mechanic. She hasn’t had a lot to do so far, but I find her to be a really interesting, strong character. The same can be said of Dee, the communications officer. Finally, I also really like Starbuck. This one is less surprising, since she’s more or less the primary character of the series, so all viewers have to be able to connect to her. What’s interesting here, though, is that although I’m interested in her character I know for a fact that, were she real, I would not be able to get along with her, probably not even for an hour. But I still care about and am interested in her character. That’s the mark of great character writing.

The characters that I hate the most are also all female. It’s important to define “hate” here. I don’t mean that I dislike the fact that the character exists within the universe, but that I dislike the characters themselves. President Laura Rosland is self-involved and short-sighted, even though she thinks she’s looking to the future. Everything about the Viper pilot "Kat" bothers me. Colonel Tigh’s wife is manipulative and power hungry, the epitome of the gold digging trophy wife. Sharron has a superiority complex so great she is blinded to even the possibility that she might be wrong. My dislike of her character may also be slightly fuelled by my feelings about the actress who portrays her. I think she’s about the only weak link in BSG’s cast. She really doesn’t seem to be able to act at all, delivering flat performances every time. Again, though, the fact that I have such strong reactions to these characters means that they are being very well written.

Are the male characters, then, written more poorly? No, I don’t think so. I really can’t explain why I don’t react as strongly in this case. It’s something that I’ll be working through in the coming weeks as I continue catching up with the series. What I can say, at this point, is that Battlestar Galactica is a very strong series and one which I would recommend to any fan of good TV. I’ll be sure to write a follow-up to this piece when I finish the series. Hopefully by then I’ll have some more insight into my reactions to these characters.

Sleep well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the Moment:

Metric – Help, I’m Alive Acoustic; The Main Drag – Love During Wartime; Treble Charger – Red

Music while I wrote:

Paramore – All We Know Is Falling

Prognosticating Oscar

To the under informed, that title likely sounds like an invasive, thoroughly unpleasant surgical procedure.  Either that, or the title of a gay porn film.  In fact, it is neither, as those with a slightly larger than average vocabulary will know (see all the extra effort I go to for you, I don’t even make you look it up yourself).

There are really only three Unwritten Laws of blogging.  You must conclude the year with some form of Top Ten list, you must give your predictions for an awards show, and you must spew obnoxious and uninformed opinions whenever possible.  I took care of the first one a little over a month ago, and, of course, I expel my opinions constantly.  So now I will fulfill the final law by presenting my predictions for the 2008 Oscar Awards.

I’ve listed the nominees in each category, with my prediction for the winner in red.  In those categories where I think a film deserves to win, but will instead lose to another, the film that deserves to win is marked in blue.

So now, without further ado, my predictions:

- NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY - 81ST AWARDS -

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)

Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)

Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)

Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)

Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)

Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)

Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)

Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)

Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)

Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

Best animated feature film of the year

"Bolt" (Walt Disney)

Chris Williams and Byron Howard

"Kung Fu Panda" (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)

John Stevenson and Mark Osborne·

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Andrew Stanton

Achievement in art direction

"Changeling" (Universal)

Art Direction: James J. Murakami Set Decoration: Gary Fettis

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Art Direction: Nathan Crowley Set Decoration: Peter Lando

"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films)

Art Direction: Michael Carlin Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway

"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Art Direction: Kristi Zea Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

Achievement in cinematography

"Changeling" (Universal)

Tom Stern

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Claudio Miranda

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Wally Pfister

"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Chris Menges and Roger Deakins

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Anthony Dod Mantle

Achievement in costume design

"Australia" (20th Century Fox)

Catherine Martin

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Jacqueline West

"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films)

Michael O'Connor

"Milk" (Focus Features)

Danny Glicker

"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Albert Wolsky

Achievement in directing

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

David Fincher

"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)

Ron Howard

"Milk" (Focus Features)

Gus Van Sant

"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Stephen Daldry

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Danny Boyle

Best documentary feature

"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)" (Cinema Guild) A Pandinlao Films Production

Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath

"Encounters at the End of the World" (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment) A Creative Differences Production

Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser

"The Garden" A Black Valley Films Production

Scott Hamilton Kennedy

"Man on Wire" (Magnolia Pictures) A Wall to Wall Production

James Marsh and Simon Chinn

"Trouble the Water" (Zeitgeist Films) An Elsewhere Films Production

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Best documentary short subject

"The Conscience of Nhem En" A Farallon Films Production

Steven Okazaki

"The Final Inch" A Vermilion Films Production

Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant

"Smile Pinki" A Principe Production

Megan Mylan

"The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306" A Rock Paper Scissors Production

Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

Achievement in film editing

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Lee Smith

"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)

Mike Hill and Dan Hanley

"Milk" (Focus Features)

Elliot Graham

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Chris Dickens

Best foreign language film of the year

"The Baader Meinhof Complex" A Constantin Film Production - Germany

"The Class" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Haut et Court Production - France

"Departures" (Regent Releasing) A Departures Film Partners Production - Japan

"Revanche" (Janus Films) A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production - Austria

"Waltz with Bashir" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production - Israel

Achievement in makeup

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Greg Cannom

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal)

Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Alexandre Desplat

"Defiance" (Paramount Vantage)

James Newton Howard

"Milk" (Focus Features)

Danny Elfman

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

A.R. Rahman

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

"Down to Earth" from "WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman Lyric by Peter Gabriel

"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Gulzar

"O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

Best motion picture of the year

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) A Kennedy/Marshall Production

Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers

"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production

Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers

"Milk" (Focus Features) A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production

Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers

"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production

Nominees to be determined

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A Celador Films Production

Christian Colson, Producer

Best animated short film

"La Maison en Petits Cubes" A Robot Communications Production

Kunio Kato

"Lavatory - Lovestory" A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production

Konstantin Bronzit

"Oktapodi" (Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L'école de l'image Production

Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand

"Presto" (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production

Doug Sweetland

"This Way Up" A Nexus Production

Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

Best live action short film

"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)" (Hamburg Shortfilmagency) An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production

Reto Caffi

"Manon on the Asphalt" (La Luna Productions) A La Luna Production

Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont

"New Boy" (Network Ireland Television) A Zanzibar Films Production

Steph Green and Tamara Anghie

"The Pig" An M & M Production

Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh

"Spielzeugland (Toyland)" A Mephisto Film Production

Jochen Alexander Freydank

Achievement in sound editing

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Richard King

"Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment)

Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Tom Sayers

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood

"Wanted" (Universal)

Wylie Stateman

Achievement in sound mixing

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt

"Wanted" (Universal)

Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

Achievement in visual effects

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)

Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin

"Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment)

John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Adapted screenplay

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)

Screenplay by Eric Roth Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord

"Doubt" (Miramax)

Written by John Patrick Shanley

"Frost/Nixon" (Universal)

Screenplay by Peter Morgan

"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

Screenplay by David Hare

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight)

Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original screenplay

"Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Written by Courtney Hunt

"Happy-Go-Lucky" (Miramax)

Written by Mike Leigh

"In Bruges" (Focus Features)

Written by Martin McDonagh

"Milk" (Focus Features)

Written by Dustin Lance Black

"WALL-E" (Walt Disney)

Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

So, there you have it.  The Oscars air February 22, at 8 ET/5 PT on ABC.  Be sure to tune in and see how it all turns out.

Sleep Well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the Moment:

Metric – Help, I’m Alive; The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives; Dandy Warhols – We Used To Be Friends

Music while I wrote:

Stephen Schwartz – Wicked soundtrack

The Joys of Tech Support or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Sit on Hold

Okay, we’ll start off with fair warning: today’s post will consist largely of self-indulgent whining and complaining, with very little in the way of new insight or anything meaningful or of value to anyone. Mostly it’s just catharsis for me, and possibly a little for you if you’ve had to deal with a tech support person lately.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, lets begin with some background. I use a Dell laptop, an XPS M1330 to be specific. Overall, I love it. It’s light, it’s extremely thin, and it’s powerful enough for all of my film editing and gaming needs.

I do have one problem with it, however: the reliability of the hardware itself. Last December (2007), six months after I’d purchased it, the system board unexpectedly died. I contacted the special XPS tech support line, where I was surprised to have my call answered by a real person on the second ring. He arranged for my system to be sent back to Dell, repaired, and returned to me, all free, under warranty. The whole process took about seven days. I decided I’d just had some bad luck and was pleased with the fast response time I’d received. Jump ahead one year, almost to the day. On Saturday, December 27th I entered my room to discover that the system board in my laptop had once again died. Clearly there is a problem with this part, as I am extremely careful of my electronics, the unit had never been dropped or abused, hadn’t even been placed on soft surfaces like couches or beds (which can cause excess dust buildup inside the unit). Yet the part had failed again. I immediately picked up the phone, expecting the same quick resolution I had received previously. But that’s not what I got. Instead, I was placed on hold. I should mention here that, just six days prior to this event, I had spent a combined total of nearly two hours on hold with United Airlines, trying to track down a piece of luggage they had lost, so my patience for the whole customer “service” / tech support thing was already wearing thin. Thirty minutes later, I finally got to talk to a representative. I explained my problem and, to his credit, he did a good job of trying to diagnose the issue and then decided that the unit would have to be sent in. The issue here was that in seven days I would be leaving Canada to work in the US for three months. The computer would be unlikely to be returned to me before I had to leave, and they were unable to ship it over the border. I had to keeping the non-working unit and carry it with me into the US and then call tech support back again, dial the extension I was given, and then repair in the US could be arranged.

I arrived in the US on Sunday, January 4th (days without PC – 8). The first thing I did upon arriving at my hotel was call the tech support number and extension. And I was greeted by a voicemail box. So I left all the pertinent information, as instructed, and waited to be contacted. On Tuesday I repeated this process. On Wednesday I tried the e-mail link for unresolved tech support issues. On Thursday I got an e-mail saying they were “sorry, but this is a technical support question. Please call our tech support hotline”. Of course it’s a tech question! This was the tech e-mail! You even asked for my tech support case number! At this point I gave up on doing what I had been told and just called the tech support line again and sat on hold, again. 35 minutes later I spoke with another agent and, after about 20 minutes of jumping between talking and being put on hold again, arranged for the box which I needed to return my computer to be sent to my hotel.

The box arrived at my hotel shortly before 9 the next morning (days without PC – 13), while I was at work, so it was waiting for me when I got home. I had just enough time to pack up my computer and drive to the FedEx drop off box before the daily pickup was scheduled to take place. Since I arrived at the drop off box literally two minutes before it was supposed to be collected, I decided to wait see if the truck would come (don’t ask me why). About five minutes later it did. I sat in my car three stalls away and watched as the driver got out, opened the box, rearranged several packages inside (mine included) and began talking to himself quite loudly. My car windows were closed so, unfortunately I couldn’t make out the words, but he was clearly upset about something. He removed one envelope-type package, closed the box and went into the back of his truck, doing whatever it is he does. I assumed he would return for the bigger packages. I was wrong. After finishing with the small one, he just got behind the wheel and drove off, before I could even get out to stop or question him.

I returned to the hotel room and called the FedEx customer “service” number. Here my call was at least answered quickly, without first being put on hold. I told my story first to the call center agent, who then transferred me to the regional dispatcher, who then transferred me to someone else who didn’t reveal his position. This person all but told me straight out that I was wrong, that there was no way that my package had been left behind, and refused to contact the driver to see if there was any possible reason why a package would be left behind. Dissatisfied with this answer, I called back later and was told by a different call center agent that the driver would be had been told to return to pick up the packages, but that they were unsure when this would occur. I’m not sure if there was any truth to this, or if it was just being said to placate me. Regardless, I’m more than tempted to return to the site tonight and wait and see if my package still resides within the pickup box, or if it was, indeed, picked up on Friday.

UPDATE: I did, in fact, go back to ensure that my package had been taken. Sure enough, when the box was opened, my package was gone. I guess they weren’t lying and actually did send the driver back.

So now we’re caught up to today, Monday, January 12 (days without PC – 16). And that is why I am currently fed up with tech support. Over the past several weeks I have spent entirely too much time sitting on the phone, waiting on hold, being treated like I don’t know what I’m talking about, and just generally trying to correct problems that weren’t my fault to begin with and that I shouldn’t have to deal with. There’s really got to be a better way, but at this point, I’ll settle for just getting my stuff back in working order and going back to avoiding tech support at all costs.

UPDATE 2: I got the package with my laptop in it back yesterday, Friday January 16th. I turned it on, only to discover that it had not been fixed. I called tech support again and after nearly an hour on the phone (though, thankfully, only about 10-15 minutes on hold) they arranged to have a technician come out to my place to fix it, rather than me having to send it in again. He should be here sometime in the first half of next week. (days without PC - 21)

UPDATE 3: I received a phone call from the repair guy yesterday, Wednesday Jan. 21, saying that he would give me a call after 4:00 and be over to fix my computer. The second call never came. This morning, Jan. 22, I called him back, and was told the same thing. When he didn't call back by 4:30, I called him again, an he said he would be over aroud 7:00. 7:00 came and, shortly thereafter, he arrived. I'm now typing this on my own computer, which appears to be as good as new. The saga is over. All told, I was without a computer for a total of 26 days.

Sleep well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the Moment:

Metric – Help, I’m Alive; Ten Second Epic – Life Times; Kings of Leon – Use Somebody

Music while I wrote:

Michael Giacchino – Lost Season 1

Movie Round-up: The Best and Worst of 2008

Everywhere you look online this time of year, people are making top 10 lists.  Since I have still haven’t had time to write the post that’s been percolating in my head for about a month now (it’s about feminism and is sure to be an insightful, witty, must-read post.  If it ever gets written), I’m going to follow suite and give all of you (as always, “all” is hypothetical) my list of the best, worst, most surprising, and most disappointing films of 2008.  I know of at least three people who read my film reviews on a regular basis, so this post might actually be useful to someone, somewhere.  Then again, maybe not, but I’m writing it anyway.

This year my total for films seen in a theatre is down slightly to only 40, which I blame on having to do my final engineering design project and beginning a new job which requires a large amount of travel.  The films I saw did cover quite a lot of ground, in terms of themes, styles, and subject matter, so I think that’s still enough to make a fairly well-rounded list.  So, without further ado, we’ll begin.

First up is the most surprising films of the year.  These are films I went to which I didn’t necessarily expect to be great but which exceeded those expectations.

Most Surprising:

21 – I went in hoping to see just a slick, glossy movie.  That’s what I got, but with the added benefits of interesting characters and a smart-ish plot.

Speed Racer – Again, I was there purely for the visuals.  Along with those spectacular visuals I found a truly fun film.

Eagle Eye – This looked like another wannabe thriller for teens.  It’s actually quite a well made and entertaining thriller, not exclusively for teens.  This is the second time I’ve been surprised by a D.J. Caruso film (the first being Disturbia), maybe it’s time I quit underestimating him.

Bolt – Due to Disney’s recent lackluster track record with in-house animation, I wasn’t expecting a lot from this film, but it’s really quite entertaining.  This comment basically echoes what I said about Meet the Robinsons last year.  Again, I think it’s time I quit underestimating them.  Under John Lasseter, the studio seems to be able to make quality films again.

Next, we’ll take a look at the most disappointing films of the year.  These are the films that I wanted to be good, or which could have been good, but weren’t.

Most Disappointing:

Be Kind, Rewind – Not a bad film, but coming from Michel Gondry, I expected so much more than passable.

Smart People – Had some really strong performances, but the script just felt like it was continually hitting just short of the mark.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – I really wanted this to be good, but I knew it wouldn’t be.  The problem isn’t that the people involved didn’t do what they were supposed to, it was the medium.  This was three 30 minute TV episodes shown back to back.  Had they been shown on TV over three weeks, it would’ve appeared much stronger, but in a theatre the TV animation doesn’t hold up, and the pacing is all wrong.

Pineapple Express – The weakest of the Apatow comedies, it just can’t stand up to the others.

The Punisher: War Zone – A Punisher movie should be easy, but they’ve tried three times and failed three times.  This one got the violence right, but anytime someone opens their mouth it falls apart completely.  Fortunately, there’s not a lot of talking.

The Spirit – Great script, good visual style, horrible, confused directing.

On to the worst of the year:

5 Worst Films of 2008:

5. The Punisher: War Zone – Mostly an uneven mess.

4. I Am Legend – Technically this is a 2007 film, but I saw it in 2008 and it’s bad enough to warrant being mentioned here.  Sure, Will Smith’s performance is fairly strong, but he has no script to work with, poor direction, the awful choice was made to show the zombies too clearly, too soon, and a weak ending.

3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – I’ve already explained this one in the “Most Disappointing” list.  Basically, it just didn’t belong in theaters.

2. Vantage Point – Though it had a cool concept, this was just poorly executed.  By the final 20 minutes the audience was actually laughing at just how bad and clichéd the film had become.

1. Max Payne – Really nothing to redeem this one.  Bad script, bad acting, bad choreography, bad cinematography.  Not even enough her to recommend it to fans of the game.

Finally, the ten best films of the year.

10 Best Films of 2008:

10. Speed Racer – Visually stunning, this is a live action anime that completely delivers.  Yes, it lost more money than any other film this year, since it had a massive budget and no one went to see it.  But take a look at what the people who went to see it thought of it.  The few dozen people who actually bothered to see it loved it.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

9. Iron Man – A different kind of superhero movie.  Well made with a fantastic performance by Robert Downey Jr. and great special effects, this is a great popcorn film.

8. Benjamin Button – Well crafted and thought provoking, this is an engaging film, though it could probably stand one more edit.

7. Rachel Getting Married – A perfect representation of a family gathering, this film is claustrophobic and uncomfortable.  You’ll likely recognize yourself and your family in the characters, and not to be overlooked is Ann Hathaway’s stellar performance.

6. Hellboy 2 – Another superhero film, this year was good to a traditionally second rate genre.  Guillermo del Toro’s take on the material is breathtaking, creating a beautiful, fascinating, intelligent story.

5. Synecdoche, New York – It’s pronounced Sin-ek-duh-key.  And it’s great.  It’s about the horror of growing old, addressing a fear present in everyone, whether we admit it or not.  Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut, the script is every bit as smart and engrossig as you’d expect.

4. The Dark Knight – Yet another superhero film, this one the most ambitious and adult of the bunch.  Fantastic directing, a strong script, and Heath Ledger’s perfect portrayal of The Joker all make this a great film.  But you already knew that, since everyone went to go see this back in July.

3. Let the Right One In – A vampire film from Sweden about two eleven year old kids.  Also the best vampire film in years.  It’s haunting, frightening, engrossing, and fascinating.  Not to be missed.

2. Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle has crafted a terrific, film, chronicalling the life of a boy who grew up in the slums of India.  Beautifully shot and as energetic as the country in which it was made, this is one that everyone will enjoy.

1. Wall·E – Pixar has been nothing if not consistent.  Year after year they deliver films that are not just great, but also push the boundaries of the art form, and Wall·E is the most ambitious yet.  Just because it is animated does not mean that it is only for kids (or for kids at all) and Pixar has proved this time and time again, making films with something for everyone, miles ahead of the competition.  Wall·E is beautifully crafted in every sense and hands down the best film of the year.

Last year I was surprised by the large number of comedies on my “Best” list.  This year it’s back to normal, with comedy completely absent in my top ten.  It’s a little unusual to have an animated film in the number one spot, but not surprising given Pixar’s record.  Other than that, there’s not really anything worth noting about these lists.

That wraps up another year of films.  Time to begin 2009.

Sleep well,

DTE