entertainment

I'm a late-blooming fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit books (and movies), but I'm happy about the announcement today that Peter Jackson is now officially slated to executive produce (2?) films based on The Hobbit. I wonder, though, how his not directing or writing will affect the vision and quality of the film, currently due in 2010, and a "bridge" movie set between The Hobbit and FotR in 2011.

Yeah, yeah, so I got roped into this, too. I still think Michelle picked the wrong guy to elf her. Well, at least we only picked on the dog and didn't seriously harm our children's psyche for a little fun... (Who can name the band who had the album by the same title as this blog entry?)

EDIT: After having this up for a couple days inline with our webpage, I am now tired of it starting each time the page loads. Now there's a linky to click instead.

See what happens when Michelle told me to go Elf Myself. How rude.

I've not found an official ABC press release, but the buzz has been out there for the last week that ABC is going to provide High Definition streams of various shows starting this July. This is what many loud voices have been calling on Apple to provide in the iTunes store for a year or so now. And much more so now that the AppleTV is available and can handle 720p content. I admit it, I am an HD junkie.

Read more about this over at Broadcasting & Cable

I had so much fun working on this project with my family. I am working on a Girl Scounts badge called "Camera Shots" and one of the activities to do is to make a video. Mommy and I worked together to make up a script. The writing and the filming took about two hours. Then, I worked another hard hour on editing with Daddy using iMovie.

I hope you enjoy my first video. (click the blue words)

Let me know what you think by leaving lots of comments so it will make Mommy jealous. 8^ )

PS. Look for my cameo appearance.
PPS. Some parts are quiet so you might want to turn up the sound a bit. And sorry about all the noisy wind.

Michelle and I had an awesome time last night at the Tim McGraw-Faith Hill Soul2Soul concert at the Rose Garden. It was the closest we ever have been to a concert stage, as we could literally lean forward and touch the plexiglass surface.

And while we don't idolize these talented and lovely people, it sure was nice to make a physical connection via a hand squeeze, shake, or fist "bump." There's something tactile about us humans that I tried to make sense of last night, but couldn't figure it out exactly. I remember a ST:TNG episode where Data asks the same question of Capt. Picard regarding touching an object.

Anyway, Tim and Faith rocked. We loved the whole show, though we're both more fans of Faith than Tim. Faith did an incredible rendition of "It Is Well" a capella with her three backup vocalists. Amazing harmonies.

Check out the August photo album for pictures and video from Michelle's cell phone at the concert. The quality is darn near low-level poor, but it's all we had.