Happy Easter 2013 - Jump Jump

Have a "hoppy" Easter...Jump to it and have a great weekend. :)

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Book Review - Locke & Key, Vol. 2: Head Games

About a year ago I read "Welcome to Lovecraft", the first book in the Locke & Key graphic novel series. I was impressed by the creativity and unique nature of the story being told but was turned off by the graphic violence and strong language. The story was rather compelling and I had some people tell me that it only got better throughout the series and that the violence and language did tone down a bit in future books. So with their prodding I hesitantly picked up book two, "Head Games" and started reading.

In the first book a lot of the graphic violence comes from the brutal murder of the father. His kids and wife are present and are pursued by the murderer and forced to confront him. The scene itself is violent and portrayed rather gruesomely and is then replayed in flashbacks or nightmares a couple of times throughout the book.

In this second book the event of the murder has been put behind us. The family is still reeling with the emotional turmoil of the event but they are not visibly reliving the details on the page. Just removing that scene lessened the violence level of the book. There was still some swearing and though there was less, it was still jarring.

The story of Locke & Key follows the lives of this family as they try to adjust and move on after their father's death. But more than that this is a story of magic. They are living at "Keyhouse", a strangely magic place where their father grew up. Within Keyhouse there are (apparently) a vast number of magical keys with a variety of special properties. In the first book we found out about the Anywhere key that allowed the user to open a door to anywhere and step through. We also found the Ghost key which literally opened a door that when the user stepped through they turned into a ghost flitting and floating around.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day from my family to you and yours.

May your life be lucky and filled with magic. :)

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Happy Pi Day 2013!!!

Happy Pi Day 2013!!!

Might I suggest you pick up some Pie and watch The Life of Pi.  :)



(NOTE: Images taken from Wikipedia, Imdb, and this blog)

Movie Review - Oz, the Great and Powerful

Through both the various new and reimagined stories of Oz as well as (finally) reading the original Wizard of Oz book, I've had a lot of refamiliarizing myself with the world of Oz over the past few years. When Disney initially announced that they were making a new Oz movie, it wasn't clear what to expect. Would it just be a remake of the popular Wizard of Oz film with Judy Garland? Would it be the speculated movie-musical for the popular Broadway show Wicked? Would it be based on some of the other Oz books? Or would it be something completely new similar to their reimagining of Alice in Wonderlandd from a few years back? The answer became obvious as more details were known and especially once the trailers were released. We were getting a new story in the form of a prequel explaining how the Wizard arrived in Oz and what happened once he was there.

As the title credits rolled, I enjoyed the art style and the music. The art around the credits was somewhere between pieced together whimsical carney work and an higher tech almost steampunk style. I've always been partial to Danny Elfman's music and the opening threads of the score definitely had sounds characteristic of his other work but it was also fresh and unique and had a fun and approachable style.

Once the credits finished, we were dropped into a circus/carnival scene presented in black-and-white. We remained in black-and-white through the entire opening sequence in the same way the Judy Garland film was in B&W throughout her Kansas scenes.

We quickly meet Oz, the Great and Powerful as he prepares for his show in one of the sideshow tents. In a few short scenes we get insight into his character and behavior. He's a selfish, self-centered, womanizing, egotistical swindler. At the same time, we see a hint of a conscience. There seems to be an internal struggle between his sense of what might be the "right thing" to do fighting against his sense of "what's in it for me". In spite of an apparent stream of women that he cares nothing about, we also meet a longer term love interest that he seems to truly care for. Even though it's clear that he has feelings for her, he can't seem to overcome his selfish nature enough to do what needs to be done to allow himself to be with her.

Book Review - The Measure of the Magic

The Measure of the Magic is the second (and final?) book in the Legends of Shannara duology and the bridging stories that take us from our "modern" world of science and technology (from the Word/Void and Genesis of Shannara series) into the fantasy realm of the rest of the Shannara series. I felt like the first book in this series was interesting generally but at the same time it felt to me like it dragged on and moved a bit slower than necessary. The cynic in me felt like these two books would have been better had they been edited into a single book but for revenue purposes there was a push for two books. It could have been a larger single book as there wasn't a lot that I felt extraneous or in need of culling. Like I said, I found the first book interesting, just a little slow.

With that introduction, it should come as little surprise that I enjoyed this second book in the duology much better than the first. The first book left a large threat (an army of trolls) looming over the inhabitants of the valley and in this book that threat is off the page for a good chunk of the reading. The trolls aren't completely ignored or forgotten by the text. It's just that most of the action of this book takes place inside the valley and the various schemings and machinations of the inhabitants there.

I really loved the way this book started. While the trolls were only a peripheral threat until near the end of the book, this book introduces a new antagonist for our heroes to deal with. The book begins with a seemingly crazy old man wandering through the post-armageddon world outside the valley. He calls himself the Ragpicker and for the first little while it's unclear whether he will be friend or foe to our protagonists. When he is finally noticed and confronted, we quickly learn his true nature. He is a demon and he hunts the Black Staff that figured so prevalently in the first book and the Genesis series. The Demon can sense the magic and he is trying to track it to its source. He discovers the troll threat and the presence of the valley and he works his way into the valley to subvert and manipulate the inhabitants in an effort to draw the staff Bearer to him.

Theatre Review - Curtains

Over the weekend my wife and I went to see our local high school put on their spring musical. They were presenting the relatively new show "Curtains." I had heard a couple of songs from the play before and knew the very high level premise but didn't know a whole lot about it.

The basic idea is that we're watching the backstage goings on of a musical being produced in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Our play starts during the finale of the opening night in Boston. After the final number, the cast takes their bows…and the leading lady drops to the floor in a heap. A scene or two later, a detective appears on the scene and lets the entire cast and crew know that they are all suspects in a homicide investigation. The detective lets them know that nobody is allowed to leave the theatre until the mystery is solved. He also lets them know that "the show must go on" and he doesn't want to interfere with rehearsals or preparations. In fact quite the contrary, he reveals himself to be an avid lover of musical theatre and wants to help them with the show in any way he can.

The play is a witty comedy filled with lots of excellent writing and situational comedy. There are multiple love triangles or secret romances throughout the cast. Eventually things turn darker as blackmail is uncovered and more murders occur. A lot of the humor comes in the strange balancing act of getting the murder mystery solved while also trying to revise the show to make it a success. Especially funny is the way the detective alternates between his desire to solve the crime and his stronger desire to improve on the show and be a part of show business.

This High School production was well cast, well directed, well choreographed and well produced. The show was directed by Jim Christian the theatre professor from a local university. Jim has written and directed shows all over the country and he does a fabulous job. The local High School directors, producers, choreographers and other adult talent also did an excellent job as shown in the overall quality of the show.