Stardust

It was a fulfilling movie going experience for me. I am an "all the way" Neil Gaiman fan, so this was a beautiful gift from my wife to me (Thanks Kim). I enjoyed the show 100%.. I loved the richness of the story with its ability to surprise me with magic. As in, it is pretty obvious that you are watching a world where magic is in the open but it still manages to get you when you see magic occur.

There is something beautiful and special when a story is essentially a coming-of-age story and a love story between a prince (from a magical world) and a fallen star but you never stop to think - how exactly does the "love" i know of translate to something shared between a prince and a fallen star. Instead you just accept it, get caught up in it and find yourself rooting.

:-) Then again maybe I am uniquely qualified to enjoy movies like this completely. I can easily suspend disbelief and be completely lost in a rich land provided the story stays seamless as it keeps stretching reality. This one did that for me.

Highly recommend it but YMMV. Btw, to be 100% honest, my wife mentioned that she felt like it dragged a bit in the middle. The run time is ~2hrs.. it felt like 45 mins to me :-)

My wife took me to a movie

..and it was fun :-) We saw "Once" (imdb link). The plot outline is apparently

"A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story."

Does not quite do it justice though. You have to see it for yourself. Btw, if you enjoyed "Before Sunset". There is a pretty good chance you will like this one.

Random notes from recently

Books read/reading

• Complications by Atul Gawande (in progress)
  
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman (re-read)
• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (re-read)
  
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• Eldest by Christopher Paolini
• Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy (in progress)
  
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (in progress)
  
• Polar Shift by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos
  

I think there are probably a few more but i am forgetting them. Work related reading would fall into this category but you need to follow my del.icio.us tags for that.

Movies from recent

• Transformers
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean by III
• Invincibles (repeat)
• Hot Fuzz
• Iron Man (partial)

Houses bought/sold/moved into

• One :-)

Job started/quit/getting used to

• One :-)

Living my life, loving my wife - priceless.

We saw "Chalk" last night and it was good!

Go see it.
It is a very funny movie that has 5 real actors in its entire cast. I know because I was at the QandA last night after the movie. The rest are either people with little acting experience or not actors. It has real teachers, real students and employs heavy improvisation. All in all well done. It is humorous but also a revealing documentary on the state of our public school educational system and its effects on the lives of all involved.

Other related bits,

• Movie details here. This movie website is hosted by Bside which was started by Chris Hyams and also employs a bunch of other smart and cool folks I used to work with. They are doing really good work with their product. Check it out here :).
  
• The movie was directed by Mike Akel and I found that one of my friends (Rod Henegar) edited the first movie Mike made. Mike is also close friends with some other friends of mine. Basically Austin is kind of small and you eventually find connections with people :)
• I am currently with a startup and our goal is to help us (the USA) move away from the school we saw in the movie. One school at a time of course ;-). Nothing like a big goal eh. We are just starting.....