Ah, The Incredibles. Who doesn’t love it? It’s a fantastic movie that wasn’t outdone until this summer’s Wall-E. So assuming you love The Incredibles as much as I do, pop in disc 2 of the Incredibles DVD set I know you own. I can’t remember exactly what section it’s in, but somewhere there’s a feature called Vowelette and you should definitely watch it.
If you DO get to watch Vowelette, you’ll find that the voice behind little Violette is popular history essayist Sarah Vowell. Vowell is also a frequent contributor to NPR’s This American Life (you can check out some of her episodes here). She is both incredibly smart and super hilarious. Having seen her read some of her work live, I can tell you her readings are more like comedy shows than public readings of history essays. I know what you’re thinking. “How could history essays be interesting?” I don’t know what to tell you other than pick up one of her books and you will soon know. Actually, skip the book and go for the audio book read by the author. That way you get her witty writing said in her particularly witty way.
My personal favorite work of her’s is The Partly Cloudy Patriot [audio link here]. That one isn’t so much historical in subject matter, but given that it’s her obsession, there’s lots of tid bits in that subject throughout. Most of it is just interesting stories and musings she has on her life as an awkward geeky writer.
You’d be surprised how interesting her historical stories can be too, though, as in her other book Assassination Vacation [audio link here]. This work deals specifically with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. I found it so interesting and entertaining that I was actually sad the audio book version is abridged. For instance, did you know that the Oneida company that makes tea pots started as a sex cult? You would if you read Assassination Vacation.
The reason you should be paying attention now is Vowell’s new book, The Wordy Shipmates, comes out next Tuesday, on October 7th. This one apparantly is about the Puritans, and though that specific subject doesn’t directly interest me, I’m pretty sure this book will deliver as much as if not more than her previous ones. Look for it to be in book stores AND on iTunes come Tuesday for your enjoyment, and believe me–audio is the way to go.
I know this all may seem like a bit of a departure for me, it being non-technology-related and all, but that being said, Partly Cloudy Patriot and Assassination Vacation are available in Kindle format. I’m sure Wordy Shipmates will be as well, being new.
Also, let us not forget that October 7th also sees the release of Sleeping Beauty in Blu-Ray format and 30 Rock Season 2. Gooooood Tuesday!!!
Okay guys. I’ve got the tech wants. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been dreaming about lately.
1. Kindle - Amazon.com’s Wireless Reading DeviceI know what you’re thinking. “Why on earth would anyone want an e-book reader?” I, too, once thought they were ridiculous. THEN I saw a similar e-book on display in a book store that used the same e-ink display technology that the Kindle employs and let me just tell you it looked so much like a real piece of paper with ink on it that I thought it was a sticker on a hollow plastic model of the device. It’s really pretty ridiculous and I would highly reccommend going to check one out in person if you possibly can. You can’t check out a Kindle in person (unless you meet up with a private owner as Amazon.com can try to set up for you… creepy) but all you need to know is that it is pretty close to reading an actual book as far as comfort and strain on your eyes. Now add in the fact that the Kindle is hooked up to cellular data networks (no monthly charge) and can download new books, magazines, periodicals, blogs or whatever from pretty much anywhere. Oh yes. Now you see it. Also, books cost way less when you buy them for the Kindle. I recently looked at a $100 textbook that was available for $23 in Kindle format. If textbooks started being made available on the Kindle en masse, well then I would just be done. I would have to buy one. That being said, I really want to buy one as it is.
2. Buffalo’s New External Blu-Ray BurnerThis one is not out quite yet, but should be by October. Blu-Ray obviously means fantastic things for movies, offering high definition video and sound. They can also be wonderful for data storage, with one optical blu-ray disc being capable of holding 50 gigs. As someone who really needs to back up both his extensive music and score collections, this could be quite useful. This burner here is one of the first sub-$400 (at $399.. which is SO sub $400..) burning units, and with Blu-Ray burning speeds of 8x, this unit promises to burn an entire single-layer Blu-Ray disc in 15 minutes. That’s pretty awesome. Oh, and it still manages CD-Rs and DVD-Rs and all that jazz as well.
3. A New Macbook ProOkay, this is actually just a rumor, but I don’t care. If the new MacBook Pros are able to gain any degree of the sleekness of the above model, I will be in major want of them. I am finally ready for a laptop with more power than my lovely White MacBook and the lure of 802.11n wireless speeds and rumored internal Blu-Ray drives are just making me salivate right at this very moment. The size might take some getting used to. My first laptop was a 12″ model and even the 13.3″ upgrade felt huge compared to that. Regardless, if many of these rumors prove true, this will be something to look forward to in the Spring.
I love television. I don’t care if it makes me dumb or stupid, because I love television and I watch a LOT of it.
Now that we have that out of the way, you should know that it is Fall and that’s a really exciting time for television shows, DVDs and movies. Why, just since last week I’ve recently acquired two new Blu-Ray titles (Baby Mama and Pushing Daisies). I’ve yet to delve into the latter, but just to briefly comment on the first–I love the movie and all, but why is it there are features listed on the back of the regular DVD that don’t seem to be on the Blu-Ray anywhere?!?! Not that I think the alternate ending to Baby Mama is like beyond exciting or anything, but I at least want to see it, especially considering I paid more than the DVD for the Blu-Ray.
The awesomeness on the DVD front really begins on October 7th. Sleeping Beauty is making its Blu-Ray debut, making it the first of the Disney classic animated films to make the jump. I think it’s a pretty good choice. It may not be the most entertaining of the Disney classics, but it is undeniably the most beautiful piece of art Disney has ever created. It’s truly a masterpiece and I hope the Blu transfer shows this off well. Mostly I’m happy about it because with Sleeping Beauty out of the way, we can get to much more exciting releases like Cinderella and the “modern classics” like Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Sidebar, if you have a Blu-Ray player, I would highly recommend picking up Enchanted in Hi-Def. There’s an interactive Disney trivia game you can play with it, and when they show clips of Beauty and the Beast you’ll be able to see that the title is clearly ready for the jump to Blu. By the way–it comes with a bonus DVD copy of the movie. Just in case you’re too dumb to understand what Blu-Ray is?
The FIRST thing I’ll be popping into my player come 10-7 though is Season 2 of my favorite television series, 30 ROCK. Now listen. I don’t know if you watch this show. I don’t know if you’re a Tina Fey fan. I DO know that you should be both. 30 Rock is simply the funniest new show I’ve seen on television since Will & Grace, bar none. That should mean more, but is it just me or has most television comedy of late been real terrible? This comment should not, however, diminish how hilarious and brilliant 30 Rock is. If you haven’t watched it, I am going to direct you to Hulu.com right now and specifically my favorite episode from season 2, Jack Gets in the Game. I would also direct you to iTunes, where you can download my personal favorite episode of the series, Hardball, from season 1.
Then way into the future, we have Sweeney Todd making its Blu debut to look forward to on October 21st (dangerously close to my birthday, hint hint) and my personal favorite movie of the year, Wall-E on November 18th. There’s also rumors of another Pixar classic making the jump to Blu on 11-18. Can we hear a “The Incredibles” please? Yes yes, I know. It should be Finding Nemo. That was pushed back to 2009, so don’t hold your breath.
So with all of these great DVDs to look forward to, why do I have a television at the top of my blog post? Because we are REALLY close to Fall premieres, that’s why! September 28th sees the return of Desperate Housewives, where we’ll get to figure out why the crap Gabby is so fat among other things abruptly presented to us in the last 5 minutes of last season’s finale. Later that week on October 1st, we’ll see the premiere of what will hopefully be Pushing Daisy’s first full-length season. The show’s beginning last year was both super entertaining and promising, but it did not make the return after the writer’s strike. I’m eager to see what else the show has to offer us. Flash forward one more week to October 9th, and we can see the series premiere of “Kath & Kim” on NBC. Now, as I’ve said, most new comedy shows are terrible, so don’t hold me to this, but I think this show could be really funny. I mean, after all, Molly Shannon (left) is pretty brilliant and the commercials have been pretty good. WAY WAY into the future (October 30th) 30 Rock finally returns. I actually don’t know if I can handle that wait. It’s way too long for my taste. [That’s what she said]
The moral is that I have a lot of waiting and anticipation ahead of me over the next few weeks, and that can only mean one thing: lots of electronic Phase 10 (which incidentally I also HIGHLY recommend).
Ah, The Incredibles. Who doesn’t love it? It’s a fantastic movie that wasn’t outdone until this summer’s Wall-E. So assuming you love The Incredibles as much as I do, pop in disc 2 of the Incredibles DVD set I know you own. I can’t remember exactly what section it’s in, but somewhere there’s a feature called Vowelette and you should definitely watch it.
My personal favorite work of her’s is The Partly Cloudy Patriot [audio link here]. That one isn’t so much historical in subject matter, but given that it’s her obsession, there’s lots of tid bits in that subject throughout. Most of it is just interesting stories and musings she has on her life as an awkward geeky writer.
You’d be surprised how interesting her historical stories can be too, though, as in her other book Assassination Vacation [audio link here]. This work deals specifically with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. I found it so interesting and entertaining that I was actually sad the audio book version is abridged. For instance, did you know that the Oneida company that makes tea pots started as a sex cult? You would if you read Assassination Vacation.
The reason you should be paying attention now is Vowell’s new book, The Wordy Shipmates, comes out next Tuesday, on October 7th. This one apparantly is about the Puritans, and though that specific subject doesn’t directly interest me, I’m pretty sure this book will deliver as much as if not more than her previous ones. Look for it to be in book stores AND on iTunes come Tuesday for your enjoyment, and believe me–audio is the way to go.
