07.29.06
Posted in Movies at 3:30 pm by Lawrie
The wedding was awesome. This is by far one of my favorite pictures from the day of the wedding. John’s face is priceless. I put up some of the pictures Evelyn and I took here, if you’re curious.
For my birthday last month, Ryan gave me The Movies game. It’s something like "The Sims Go to Hollywood" in that you get to pretend to run your very own movie studio (everything from building sets to picking stars to making movies). The best part of the game is that you can write your own scripts (sort of) and make your own movies. It can take kind of a while to get used to, but I’m enjoying it so far.
I’ve made two movies so far, both of which are pretty lame. No subtitles yet, so feel free to provide your own! (It should be noted that the titles of both movies were randomly generated and thus have nothing to do with the movies themselves…)
Big Alec’s Payback Machine
Following On
Both are in wmv format and are about 2MB. Enjoy 
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06.15.06
Posted in Movies at 11:32 pm by Lawrie
On Saturday, I watched Casablanca and The Sound of Music with two friends from church. One of them had never seen Casablanca, and the other had never seen The Sound of Music, so we decided to remedy the situation. (I had seen both, but it had been a few years. And besides, one of the measures of a good movie is its rewatchability.) I didn’t realize (or remember) until well into The Sound of Music that we had chosen two movies about Nazis. If I were a more eloquent writer, or more profound thinker, I would say something about how holding on to the music of your culture can be one of the most powerful signs of resistance, and how evil does not seem to be able to appreciate beauty (or maybe evil resents beauty, since it knows it cannot produce it).
But as I am neither very eloquent nor profound, I am not sure how to follow up on those thoughts. so I will just say that eating lunch and watching movies with friends is an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
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12.05.05
Posted in Movies, Family at 10:27 pm by Lawrie
When my family gets together, one of the things we always do is watch a movie or two. Last weekend, when we were all together for Thanksgiving, we watched The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (the old school BBC made-for-TV version). It had an evil witch, good kids (although Lucy needed braces), bad special effects (green screen, anyone?), and …interesting beaver costumes (although how would you do talking beavers if you were doing it for a television production in the 80s?). Aslan looked pretty good, until he started talking without really moving his mouth. While watching it, I was reminded of the feeling of adventure I always get when I read the books. I always wish my life could be like that. One minute, I’m going about my business, and the next I find myself in a world full of magic. Instant adventure, right? You go, you meet Aslan (or some other creature), you get a quest to fulfill. Granted, the adventures aren’t easy. Maybe if you’re actually living them, instead of just reading about them, you can’t wait to get back to normal, everyday life, where things like evil witches and goblins aren’t trying to kill you. I still wonder though…How would I act if I were in Lucy’s place, or even Edmund’s? How do you find adventure in a cubicle?
We also watched The Polar Express. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I didn’t see it last year when it came out because I wasn’t sure how they could’ve made a whole movie out of that book. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. And the animation wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be (especially in the character’s faces). After we watched it, my two sisters and I stayed in the TV room while the rest of the family dispersed. My niece came back in to say goodnight to us before going to bed. As she hugged each of us, she whispered, “Do you believe in Santa Claus?” “Yes,” I said, when she got to me. “Good.”
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