bobafred

Well, my unplanned trip to NY went as well as could be hoped for. The airline/airport misplaced my mom’s luggage for about a half an hour, but that was about the only problem.

I hope that Robert’s cat had enough food and that our new year’s plans end up going ok (two things that I sort of had to abandon due to my abrupt departure).

Hope everyone is having a grand holiday time. I did.

I might be bordering on obsession about this movie. That’s ok, though. So, I found this link to a pretty serious and interesting discussion about the temporal anomalies to be found in Donnie Darko. Now, if you have not seen the movie, I DO NOT suggest that you follow this link.

Anyway, listening to the director commentary clears up a few of the questions that are mentioned in the article. But, all in all, it is a great read.

Ok, so this isn’t about the movie. What I speak of is the triumphant return of my all time favorite digital media player. Yes, it is winamp. Now I know that I bashed winamp a few weeks ago, but I then realized that they had abandoned winamp3 to concentrate on the next generation of players.

Winamp5 appears to be this. I have only just downloaded it, but already I am excited about the new features. It features built-in global hotkeys (something that I truly missed when I went to iTunes). There also appears to be a pretty robust media library, something that has been lacking from previous winamps. On the visual level, the skinning system seems to be pretty advanced from versions 2 and 3.

I’ll need more time to play around here, but wanted to give my devoted readers the heads up. So, here it is. Go d/l winamp and be happy.

The three most recent movies I’ve watched on DVD have all been the same movie. That movie has been Donnie Darko. I watched it twice in normal mode and then once with the audio commentary (not all on the same day). This was the first time that as soon as the movie was over, I wanted to watch it again immediately.

Donnie Darko tells the story of one confused youngster that is having strange dreams and sleepwalking adventures. The dreams and visions are often prophetic. Like someone is trying to communicate with Donnie for some greater good. Of course there is more to the story than this, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. Donnie is played brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal. The cast also includes excellent performances from Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, and (interestingly) Patrick Swayze.

The movie takes place in a small town in October of 1988. This obviously affords for killer 80’s pop music to be heard throughout. This is accomplished with tunes from Tears for Fears and Duran Duran, amongst others. But, the highlight of the film is the song Mad World, which was written by Tears For Fears and was performed here by Gary Jules. Although the song was written in the early 80’s, it seems like a perfect fit for the movie.

The movie spans many genres with elements of sci/fi, fantasy, horror, comedy, drama, and suspense. It marks the major film debut of (at the time) 26 year old writer/director Richard Kelly. I’d like to compare him to another young writer/director, M. Night Shyamalan. And, I think it is a fair comparison. I can only hope that the studios and financial backers get on board with Mr. Kelly’s talents and he gets to continue to make outstanding films.

This movie is great because it makes you think. It forces you to become involved with the characters and follow every subtle nuance of their development. This adds depth to the story and makes for a more enjoyable experience. More movies should be like this one.

Back after my host was down for nearly 2 days.