I AM LEGEND directed by Francis Lawrence

Review coming soon...

THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

A powerful and moving novel about the unbroken bond of father and son even in death, drained by the lack of plot.

I expected The Road to be an amazingly powerful novel, and granted, the emotional bond between father and son is evocative. But the plot of this novel is boring and flat. The novel is a tale of a nameless father and son whose journey is along a road and their only destination is survival. Events take place along the road that motivates the reader to continue, but there is no plot depth. Plot in one sentence; a situation emerges along the road, the situation is remedied and then they continue to walk along the road.

The style of writing McCarthy uses is simplistic with short fragmented sentences. It makes the novel a fast read and allows the exchange between characters to be read at life speed. Though the may plot lack the writing style makes for a fun read.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

My overall thought is that I was waiting the entire movie for something to happen and that something never happened. I have the feeling like I've been left empty handed after watching the The Golden Compass and, in my opinion, the first part of a trilogy has to set a hook for the audience. This movie did not.

For someone that has not read the book I found the movie lacked adequate explanation on certain aspects. Dust? Demonds? I am intuitive enough to get the jist of the entire concept, but come on, I shouldn't have to sit through this movie searching for explainations. And why are they called demonds? They were more loveable than their human counterparts. I hope the story will be better explained throughout the trilogy, though I don't know if I'll be paying to see them in theatres.

Main points:
Poor character development
Horrible fight scene
Overall lack of interest

On a good note, I might pay to see the second just to see if this trilogy can redeem itself.

You've got a DIAMOND FISH!!!

Okay, first off let me say that not all of my stories will pertain to fish or fishing, but I do have a funny story about a recent fishing trip for you to read and enjoy. Then we'll see about switching topics to something more interesting like... hmmm, maybe congressional hearings or sitting in DC traffic (which now that I think about it could actually have some good
stories).

So several of the top sales reps for my present employer like to get together for deep sea fishing trips. These trips have been known to become the main topic of conversation for weeks following the trip, and the biggest fish, oops, I mean sales rep that catches the biggest fish has bragging rights till the next voyage. Its not like they pick numbers out of a hat to determine whose turn it is, wait, I guess that is what they do, but there's a lot of skill involved to earn these tremendous bragging rights. I would list these skills but they've apparently slipped my mind. Ohh I remember, don't forget your turn and reel away.

So now that we've laid the ground work for the all male trips and everyone has a clear understanding of the ground rules I will follow by saying the female members of our sales staff have now been included on every other trip. These trips are less intense and a more jovial. They are geared to make sure the women have a good time, and the trip really is fun for all.

On this particular fishing outing one of our reps, we'll say Walt, told a lady on our sales support staff, hmm, let say Doris, that the Maryland fishing commission has starting tracking certain fish by having the fisherman (0r woman) report the catch to the commission.

Well Doris' eyes swelled and your could see the questions pile up in her head, but she happened to ask the perfect combo of q's.

HOW DO THEY KNOW WHAT FISH ARE THE RIGHT ONES? AND WHY WOULD SOMEONE TAKE THE TIME TO REPORT IT?

And Walt's master prank began to unfold beautifully.

WELL YOU SEE, THEY FIGURED IF THEY PUT DIAMONDS IN EACH OF THE FISH'S MOUTHS EVERYONE WOULD BE MORE THAN WILLING TO CALL IN AND REPORT THEIR FISH, AND OF COURSE YOU GET THE DIAMOND. BUT CATCHING ONE OF THE FEW FISH IS NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE WITH ALL OF THESE FISH IN THE BAY.

Little did Doris know that Walt had bought the biggest cubic zarconia diamond he could find the night before, and upon arriving that morning to the boat he divulged the entire plan to the first mate.

And so the day continues, and as it goes each of us learn of the diamond fish except poor Doris. Before we know it the mate screams FISH ON and Doris grabs that poll and starts cranking that fish is, which I'm sure at this point the diamond has long since slipped her mind. And I'll be damned if that first mate didn't pull out the biggest damn rock I've ever seen.

DORIS. DORIS, YOU GOT ONE. YOU GOT A DIAMOND FISH. And he pulls up his hand with that rock slapped between his fingers.

HOLY SHI*. I'M RICH, I'M RICH. LOOK AT THAT DAMN DIAMOND. I'M RICH. I've never seen a woman jump that high in my life, and she began to tell everyone her plans to travel the world, get a new car, and so on.

So besides the fact of next to quiting in front of her boss because of her new found wealth she goes on for the better part of an hour about what she's going to do with the money from that diamond.

Well by this point nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to tell her that her rock is worth about $10. So I look at Walt and I don't know if he got sea sick or began to realize that he's got to break the news, but he is about to puke. And right when I think he's about to spew he interrupts Doris on the phone with her husband and breaks the news.

I can't describe the look on her face except to say that it probably resembles Julius Caesar's expression when looking up at Brutus with his final breath. Sheer agony.

After half an hour or so the mood lightened up again, but those few seconds were truly priceless.