Saturday, December 8, 2012

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Marathon


I was excited for this day. A few weeks back when the tickets for The Hobbit went on sale they announced that they were going do have a one day marathon where they would screen all three Lord of the Rings Extended Edition movies back to back to back. Well being the huge fan that I am I jumped at the opportunity to get tickets. I put a call out there in the social network world asking if anyone wanted to join me. I mean I would have gone alone if needed. No one responded and I wanted to get the tickets quickly to get good seats. So I purchased two and figured I'd find someone in the next few weeks to join me.

I asked my bestie Josh who is more of a Tolkien fan them me (I know it's hard to believe). But he had work and was already requesting time off the following week so he didn't think he could get the time off. I then asked another bestie of mine Robert and after a few minutes to consider what he was agreeing to, he said yes.

So today Robert and I met up at The Arclight Sherman Oaks at 9:30am. When we got there we found a table where employees explained to us what was about to happen. We had 20 minute breaks between each movie. We would get popcorn and soda free all day and they had box lunches that we could order if we wanted to. We immediately took advantage of the free popcorn and soda. Got into the theater and found our perfect seats.. We sat there and chatted at what we were able to do watching other folks come in with pillows, sheets and such to get comfy. At 10am an employee came in and once again went over what was to happen, the run time of each movie (which everyone laughed) and when each movie would be starting. The lights dimmed and the The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition began.

228 minutes later ( 3 hour 48 minutes) Fellowship was over and we were 1/3 through our day. We got up and headed to concession, which was a madhouse. We waited in line our entire 20 minute break. We got the the front with only a few minutes to spare and planned on getting some hot dogs for lunch but they were out (very poor planning). So instead we got some apple smoked sausage baguettes things which were just like hot dogs only spicier. Of course we refilled out popcorn and soda and headed back into the theater. Since it was such a mess outside they extended the break another 10 minutes before starting the next installment The Two Towers.

235 minutes later ( 3 hours 55 minutes) Two Towers was complete and we were now 2/3's of the way through our marathon. My right knee was starting to act up so I walked around a bit. The concessions weren't as bad this time around but we had misunderstood about the box lunches, you had to order them before the intermission so they were ready at the intermission, so our dinner plans fell through and we resorted to more popcorn and some candy for dinner. Headed back into the theater for our final installment of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. This one was special as it had a Hobbit preview as well as an introduction by Peter Jackson. I think this is the print they used when the Return of the King played in the theater for a day to promote the Blu ray release.

263 minutes later ( 4 hours 23 minutes) Return of the King was finished thus concluding our Lord of the Rings Extended Edition movie marathon.

I had done this marathon in a theater before when Return of the King was first released, they did Fellowship EE and Two Towers EE and then premiered Return of the King. This was at the Cinerama Dome and the seats were horrible uncomfortable. The Arclight has much better seats. But this was my first time seeing the Extended Edition of Return of the Ring in the theater.

The audience was perfect, they cheered, boo'd and clapped during the movies. It was a room full of Lord of the Rings diehard fans and it couldn't get any better then that. These people payed $30 a ticket to sit in a dark room for over 11 hours and watch one of the best movie trilogies of all time.

Robert was amazed at what he actually just did. I'm glad I got to experience this with one of my best friends. It truly is a rare occasion (this actually being the first time ever) where you can watch all three Extended Edition movies back to back to back on the big screen. I'm so happy I did it.


Afterwards we headed back to Robert's place, picked up some much needed food from Taco Bell and crashed at his place for a half hour or so before heading back to my place as we had planned to spend the entire day tomorrow watching Holiday movies and hanging out.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Making Christmas Gifts

Well today I spent the majority of the day catching up on some recorded TV shows but I wanted to feel productive so I sat down in front of the TV with all my materials in front of me and started making my Christmas gifts for friends this year. I actually went out yesterday to get supplies but I needed more so I headed back out for a few hours but couldn't find what I needed. I'll have to go back out on Monday and look as my weekend is booked full.

It was fun spending the day creating various Christmas gifts. I don't want to post any pictures because several of you who read my blog will be getting one, two or three of my Christmas gifts. These gifts aren't anything expensive but they are made from the heart and I think those are the best kinds of gifts. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

I Got The Job!!!!

I finally got a call from the place I interviewed a few weeks ago. I pretty much just figured that they didn't want me and I'd never hear from them again so I was surprised when I got the call asking if I was still available and if I wanted the position of Post Production Supervisor for the second season of their show "I'm Having Their Baby" for Oxygen. Will be working in Universal City. And there is potential for this to become a staff position. I start when I get back from vacation on Jan 3rd. Super excited that I can now enjoy December and the Holidays and start fresh and new with the new year. Thanks everyone for all your well wishes and happy thoughts.

Besides the awesome news of getting the job I went out Christmas shopping and spent way to much on my niece and nephew.. if that's even possible. I got both of them some very adorable clothes for Christmas. I also picked up supplies to make my yearly Christmas gifts (there are two different ones). 

Got back to my place and had two screeners waiting for me "This is 40" which had Paul Rudd who I enjoy and the other movie "The Master" which I had never heard of but come to find out it's about the creation of Scientology. Not sure it's my type of movie but as I have said with others that are not my type of movies.. I will watch if it a friends wants to watch it with me. 

So all in all a pretty good day for Kenny.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

More Screeners, Hiking & Buffy Time

Jackpot today on screeners.. with one delivery I got four movies in one package. Anna Karenia, which I do know a little about and want to see so I was excited to see that in the pile. Hyde Park on Hudson, is something that I had never heard of.. I did look it up and it stars Bill Murry as President Roosevelt, the movie is due out this Friday. Promised Land stars Matt Damon and isn't coming out until early Jan 2013 and ParaNorman which I do know and have seen many commercials. Anna Karenia and ParaNorman are the two that I wouldn't mind seeing.. the other two I would see if someone wants to watch them with me.. but I wouldn't put them on and watch them if I was by myself.

Finally after rainy crappy weather it was very nice out today so I decided to head to Vasquez Rocks to go for a hike. I had planned to do a thirty minute hike but it turned into an hour.. it was just so nice outside and it was beautiful at Vasquez.. I really do need to take advantage of this more as it's in my back yard.

For the evening I headed down to my buddy Robert's place to watch some Buffy. Got there around 6pm and we walked to Taco Bell to get some dinner. We started with S3 Ep8 "Lover's Walk". This was a huge episode as the Xander/Willow love thing finale gets resolved. We see the return of Spike and poor Cordelia almost dies. I really enjoyed this episode. We then moved on to S3 Ep9 "The Wish", this episode introduces one of my favorite "regular" characters Anya. It's cool to see what Sunnydale would look like if Buffy never came to town... I like these "What if" kind of episodes. Our third episode that we watched was S3 Ep10 "Amends".  Again I liked this episode.. got a lot of emo Angel, but they did introduce us to the first evil which we see again in future seasons. It was cool to see Jenny (kind of) again. Not my favorite episode of the night but fun. And our final episode of the night was S3 Ep11 "Gingerbread". This episode was all about a Witchhunt. It was okay.. again not a favorite of mine but an okay way to end the evening.

As always had a fantastic time hanging with my buddy Robert.. love our Bro-Dates.

Twinkie Adventures Continues

So if you read my blog last week I went on a Twinkie scavenger hunt and came up empty handed. I turned to Ebay but some of those prices they were asking were crazy loco, a buck for 1 twinkie... but I did manage to find one that had four boxes of Twinkies (so 40 Twinkies) and it was close to ending so I watched it and made my offer with only seconds left. I was willing to pay $30 for the four boxes, but wound up only paying $25.50 with an additional $5.30 shipping for a grand total of $30.80 and if you dived that by 4 you get $7.70 per box. Now the price on the box that they paid was $4.49 so I paid $3.21 over per box.. and to be honest I'm happy with that.

Depending on if and when someone buys the recipe and starts making more of them I will eat these extremely slow and try and make them last as long as possible.

I am still trying to get some Cup Cakes and Ding Dongs.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Screeners and Cards

Today I got Skyfall and Hitchcock screeners. I know Skyfall is the current Bond movie but I'm not a huge Bond fan. I mean I haven't even seen Danial Craig as Bond yet, but since I have the screener I do plan to watch this one. I hear that's it's pretty good. I really don't know anything about Hitchcock...I mean I assume it's a biopic about Alfred Hitchcock. Doesn't sound like my kind of movie but if one of my friends want to watch it I'll give it a go.

I also got my first Christmas card of the season. I use to get tons of cards but the past few years there has been fewer and fewer. Maybe it's because I no longer send cards out. I did cards for years and years and stopped a few years ago as I just didn't have the time. Maybe it's Christmas card karma.. I have to give one to get one. Anyways.. Thanks Janna for this AWESOME card. It's hand made and it's Star Wars.. two of my favorite things. It made my day.

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - My Review


So I got to see a sneak preview of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey tonight at the Warner Brother's lot. I have been looking forward to seeing this movie ever since they announced that it was being made. Of course at the time I didn't realize it was going to be one of three movies.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan, I've read/listen to The Hobbit a few times, Lord of the Rings to many times to count and The Silmarillion a few times. I love the world of Middle Earth so much so that I have a tattoo of the script "One Ring to Rule Them All" on my right arm with JRR Tolkien initials in the middle.

I invited my best bud Josh, who is also a HUGE Tolkien fan to join me. We got to WB at 6pm as the movie was starting at 7 and we wanted good seats. We parked and then proceed to walk the WB lot for the next 20 minutes looking for the theater. I mean if I wasn't in a panic to get good seats I would have loved the walk. We were walking through backlots and sound stages.. they were even filming an episode of Ellen, as we could hear the audience cheering as we passed. We finally found the theater and made our way up. The theater was about half full already (these screening room hold about 100 or so people). We checked in and grabbed our glasses. We were seeing this film in 3D and in HFR (48 fps). I was pumped to see this version as this is what Peter Jackson intended it to be viewed.

Now I'm not going into great detail about the movie, there might be slight spoilers (but I mean it's a 75 years old book that most people have read) . I plan on giving my overall thoughts and views. First let me say that I totally LOVED this film. It was everything I had expected and so much more. I can't wait to see it again and again.

Let's start with the world. From the first shot it felt like you were stepping right back into the Middle Earth that we visited in Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed how the movie opened, the narration and how it lead into the LOTR movies. The costumes and sets were amazing just as they were in LOTR and what you would expect from Jackson and company.

The acting was fantastic. Freedman was wonderful as Bilbo Baggins and McKellen was, as always, wonderful as the Wizard Gandalf. I'm still trying to get the 13 dwarves names down but I love how Jackson gave each one a very different look and personality. Ones that stood out for me would be of course Thorin, he was the King, he had that royalty presence. Another was Balin who was so loyal to Thorin and boy could he fight (and it's cool/sad to know that this is the same Balin from LOTR who dies in Moria.). Other Dwarves who stuck out to me were Ori (funny and young), Fili, Kili (both good fighters and cute) and Bofur (who bonds with Bilbo). The others (Nori, Dori, Oin, Gloin, Bombur, Bifur and Dwalin) had moments but not enough to really make an impact on me.


I had heard some negative things about Radagast The Brown (another Wizard), some were calling him the Jar Jar of this movie. First of all Jar Jar didn't bother me and maybe that's why I wasn't bother by Radagast. He's a recluse, he prefers the company of animals, of course he's going to be a bit off. I actually enjoyed his character. 

You get a much calmer and cooler Elrond in this movie, you can see the stress of Sauron rising has not effected him yet. He's like a different character. It was great to see Galadriel and Saruman in the short White Counsel scene. I liked the Galadriel and Gandalf moments, you can tell they have known each other for hundreds of years.

The actions scenes were incredible and there were moments that I felt were kind of nods to LOTR. I noticed several parallels. Like when the company is running through Khazad Dum mimicked the company running through the Goblin Town (which was one of my favorite action scenes). Could be similar music playing.

The Riddles in the Dark scene was amazing. Andy Serkis outdid himself as Gollum. The CG has advanced so much in 10 years. The Gollum scenes were just so heart wrenching. Gollum and Bilbo's interaction was just as I had hoped.

Lot's of scenes and dialogue were pulled directly from the book, it was amazing to see this world come alive. The Hobbit is a much different book then the LOTR. It actually is a children's book. And this movie though feels very much like LOTR has a totally different vibe storywise. It's a lot funnier and comical without going over the top. I mean there is still an edge to it with Goblin heads getting chopped off left and right but Jackson and company very much succeeded at making this feel the same but very different.

As for changes from the book.. I haven't read the book enough to noticed any major changes. I asked my friend Josh if anything was major and he said they moved little things around here and there and embellished a bit but nothing major was changed. As for the ending.. I'm not going to say where the movie ends but it was a satisfying ending... much like Fellowship of the Rings. 

Now for my thoughts on the 3D and HFR (48 fps)

I kept telling myself: ‘Oh Kenny, your eyes will get used to it… just give it a bit longer.‘ Well that never happened.  I couldn’t help but think, ‘Why does this look like some highly produced BBC TV drama?‘ It was like every 10 minutes or so I would think to myself.. do I like this or not.. It was very difficult for me stop noticing the difference. I guess it's like watching HD for the first time. It's so different then anything you've ever scene. Don't get me wrong the picture quality was crystal clear and the colors were amazing, I've never seen anything so sharp. But with that said I think it took away some of the  "filmyness" of the movie. Maybe I'm just old and enjoy the old school 24 fps. I mean film has a certain look to it as does TV and it was odd seeing HD TV on the big screen.

If I could do it again I would see the movie for the first time in 2D, so I could enjoy the story and characters and not think so much about the technical stuff.. I would then go and see it in 3D HFR (48 fps) just to experience it... it is pretty amazing.

Even with the 3D 48 fps I thought this was a GREAT adaptation of the beginning of what will doubtingly be another EPIC trilogy from Middle Earth.

My Gimpy Life Podcast Episode 8

 Download from Itunes ow.ly/eYv9G or Listen, get direct download mygimpylifepodcast.com

Show Notes:

Now that My Gimpy Life season one series has come to an end. There will be no more companioncasts, but that doesn't mean the podcast is over... far from it.

In this episode I update listeners on what is happening with various cast members. Also have an audio comment from faithful listener Steven Cain.

There is also a special announcement about more My Gimpy Life webseries.

thanks & enjoy,
Kenny

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Christmas, Reviews & Fairytales

Well I started my Christmas shopping today. It was pouring down rain and crazy windy but I had to start as I feel like I'm really behind. I'm making some of my Christmas gifts this year like I did last year so my only goal for today was to go to Michael's to pick up some crafty supplies so I could start making these gifts. After Michael's I went to grab some lunch at Panda Express before heading home.

Every once in a while I go to itunes and look up my podcasts pages to see if I have gotten any reviews. For the most part, I'd say about 90% of the reviews are positive and folks are enjoying the podcast. Occasionally I'll get a negative review, and sometimes they are just down right horrible. Well I got one of those today on my MASH podcast. Logically I know better then to let it effect me. I mean it's just one person and most of the time they haven't even listen to the podcast and are just trolling. But it still sting when you hear something negative about yourself. This one for MASH wasn't about me this time but I have gotten ones that have complained that I laugh annoys them or that I have a big head and like to drop names. Like I said I know the majority of the people enjoy my podcasts and negative comments are the price you pay putting yourself out there.. but it doesn't mean I have to like them.

Tonight was the mid season finale of my favorite TV show on right now Once Upon A Time. And as always I watched it with my bestie Chris. This episode didn't disappoint. It was happy and sad and resolved things while opening up huge things for the remaining episodes next year. I have been extremely happy with season 2 so far and I can't wait to see where this season goes.