Moe_Syzlak

Mine took over an hour, but did eventually come.

I saw this recently and the talk of this movies in the Indian Jones thread made me want to post my thoughts here. I enjoyed the movie and I enjoy PTA, but am still waiting for him to really blow me away. To me, it was good, but still flawed. I thought the movie was TRYING to be a character study in contrast. Two men driven by power in different ways: one through wealth and success, the other through religion. Ultimately, they both end up lacking. Plainview, despite his wealth and success, still has no family and is alone. Eli, despite being respected and achieving what he set out to as a prophet of sorts, finds himself broke and willing to give it all up to for some money. I like the idea, but didn't think it was really pulled off all that well. Also, I must say that I was disappointed with the score. I have owned the soundtrack since it came out and LOVE it. But in the film, it really felt awkward and out of place most of the time. It goes without saying that, as per usual in a PTA film, the acting was outstanding across the board.

I'm guessing their server is getting hammered right now. I've been waiting about 10 minutes for my DL email.

Yup that's correct. I'm pretty sure I am going to go the Mac Mini with an external route. So one more question: anyone know about Firewire 400 capable external drives? I'm thinking about the Seagate Free Agent Pro 500GB.

So I will probably go to the Apple store this weekend and I thought VC could help me to not look (too) stupid. If I were to get a Mac, would I be able to watch BluRay DVDs through my stereo and my HDTV? Keep in mind I will be usi9ng my HDTV as the monitor. I use AirTunes to listen to music through my stereo now, but video doesn't go through Airtunes to my stereo.

"Maybe I'm Amazed" is the best song by a solo Beatle.

Man Man - Rabbit Habits (I have VC to thank for turning me on to this)

A lot of people seem to think Kid A is their best album. Apologies in advance for hijacking this thread, but were most people who feel this way fans of the band before that album? I mean, did you like/love/listen to The Bends and OKComputer, and then think Kid A blew those albums away when it came out? Or did you start with Kid A and love it for what it is, and work your way back to albums that you didnt like as much?

 

I realize that I am speaking in major generalities here but I always half figured that the Kid A crowd didnt fall in love with this band for the awesomeness of Sulk or Just. And if The Bends made the hair on your arm stand up, that Kid A didnt quite get the job done.

 

I say this as the guy who fell in love with Wilco when YHF came out and then worked my way back.

My love for Radiohead started with The Bends and I would rank Radiohead's output thusly:

1. OKC/Kid A (tie)

2. Hailto the Theif

3. The Bends

4. In Rainbows

5. Amnesiac

6. Pablo Honey

As I posted earlier, I feel The bends and In Rainbows are awesome, but are less involving than OKC, Kid A and HttT (criminally under-rated, IMO).

Interestingly, I am with you on Wilco. I could not get into them pre-YHF and look at Inrainbows ad SBS similarly in that they both, while great, have stripped away a lot of what I love about each band.

Wow, good point. No, I haven't.

I still love it, but it is a very Bends-like album to me in that it is the same listening experience as the first listen. The intervening albums seemed to reveal themselves slowly over time, providing a different, richer experience with each successive listen.

We were actually talking about this the other night. I like Curb, but like something like Meet The Parents (and increasingly The Office), I find it sometimes painfully uncomfortable to watch. For some reason, Seinfeld wasn't that way for me. The characters are despicable people for the most part, but you still want to spend a half hour with them every week.

"The best argument against Democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." - Sir Winston Churchill

There is a scary/hilarious "monitor mix" I heard years ago from the show where there had been a death threat against Jerry (Deer Creek, I think). It's been a while, but I remember things like Phil saying he keeps thinking he is seeing rifles in the crowd. Some of the banter (which is through the monitors and not audible to the crowd) is very funny.

Thanks for the advice. I am leaning towards the the Mac Mini with external storage right now (as the previous poster suggested), but I still haven't had the chance to go the Apple store to ask some questions/look around. I hope to do that sometime this week.

Seein' 'em in five hours!

"Australia is the key to the whole game."

Dean Moriarity! Ha!

Yeah, I'm thinking desktop, not laptop simply for the lower price and the ease of expansion. I have a laptop for work, so if I need portability, I've got it. The Mac Mini doesn't seem to offer that expansion, so I think that is probably out. I dunno, maybe I will build a PC. While I hear that for media the Mac is a much more stable machine, the price for a Mac Pro (which I think I would need if I want expandibility) is WAY more than I want to spend.

Well that's the whole point. Did W deliver on "compassionate conservative"? Did W make people feel safer? Elections aren't administrations. He can get elected promising change because people will buy into it... they always do. Whether he can deliver that change once elected is largely irrelevant to the election process itself.

Bump!

Any more advice out there?

Yep.

I think Obama is cooked, actually, and this is my reasoning. Obama's fundamental appeal is emotional - people (including myself) voted for him because it felt good to do so, like we were affirming hope. He really has no record to run on; he has positions and opinions, but no real track record, other than being prescient enough to oppose the Iraq war back in the day. When you have a feelings-based campaign, you need a messianic surge of good feeling to get you past the fact that a lot of people not normally disposed to messianic feeling will suspect you of being a bullshit artist. This death struggle with Hillary has stopped this surge dead in its tracks, and the "bitter" comment has only deepened suspicions among non-Obamaistsas that he is a bullshit artist. People yearn for change, well, some do, but they are also scared of it. Barack needed to walk a very fine line - promising change, but not too much and in the context of not blaspheming the American civic religion. Absent Hillary, he may well have been able to walk it.

I don't really agree. Obama has done a better job of marketing than any Democrat I can remember and that, unfortunately, is what presidential elections have come down to.. Primaries are for the base; the general is decided by the middle, undecideds (which is kinda scary because they are generally the ones who don't pay any attention, but that is for another day). Undecideds vote on emotional appeal, IMO. Look at how W was elected because he repeated over and over, ad nauseum "compassionate conservative." Those paying attention knew it was BS, but it still worked. The last elections emotional appeal was fear. Most the country now feels things are going in the wrong direction and want out of Iraq. In other words, they want "change." That could be enough, particularly if the surge in Iraq that McCain pins his hopes to isn't successful (I hope it is successful, for the record).

If Scarlett Johansson had just average sized mammalian protruberances no one would pay any attention to her.

The Mac Mini actually looks like it would be perfect, except it lacks in the storage I'd need. I feel like I'd need at LEAST 500gb of internal.

Oh I've got all my music backed up to an external already ... and double backed up to DVDs as well. I spent so much time ripping the 2100+ CDs in collection that I never want to have to go through THAT again! I just wanted to be sure there wouldn't be a compatibility problem.

Cool thanks. That seems relatively straight forward. Soooo, that begs the question: which Mac?

The Mac Pro is a LOT more expensive than I was thinking of shelling out. Starting at $2,800!?! Given my needs, could I get away with an older, used model? Any suggestions on which one I should look for? Where should I look? Ebay? I don't need (nor do I want to pay for) a monitor. I want to use my HDTV as a monitor as I do currently.

Thanks in advance!