REVIEW: City of Ember

This fall, you'll see posters and signs for City of Ember, aND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE TRAILER YET YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CHECK IT OUT. IF FOR NOTHING ELSE, BILL MURRAY.

Crap. Caps lock. Sorry. Not re-typing it.

Anyhoo, I went out and bought the book. Also bought its two sequels (which sucks when you know that the story's going to be continued.)

The book is great. Really, nicely done. A simple story but it gets rolling toward a goal that is somewhat surprising, though you likely will figure it out if you're 16 years older than the intended readership age. Like me.

Anyhoo, The story is this: This mysterious city is all alone in the dark, dark world. No lights from the sky or anywhere else except the lamps powered throughout the city. By these lights the Emberians live, but recently the lights are flickering or staying off longer than normal. And everyone can sense an impending Doom, though two frends are the only ones who can do anything about it.

It's a familiar formula to the Harry Potter series, if you're just going by the above paragraph. But I had to write a LOT at work this week, so cut me some metaphorical slack. It's really not like Harry Potter at all.

So here's the thing about the book: It starts off as a great story, but in the last third of the book you can sense when the author finally gets an idea that she's not going to finish the book at all, but rather continue it into an Epic Saga. Do you remember the days when books and movies stood on their own? When sequels didn't have to be so much a part of the creative process? I kind of wish this story stood on its own, because if the quirky and quiet marketing campaign doesn't draw asses in the seats this movie might never get the sequel treatment it needs to stay true to the books.

Of course, it's Hollywood. It's not like they're coming up with anything else.

Jacked-up Jedi hijinks

Can't. think. of blog.

A post shall come soon about Meep Day, which is the annual Mahoney family rite of spring/winter (sprinter or wring don't work) where gifts are made, not bought. We do this instead of Valentines Day, which is celebrated by watching Army of Darkness and thumbing our collective noses at Hallmark.

Because really: Are we better off with Valentine's Day? I say nay.

Instead, here are all the references to Star Wars I've come across in the last three days:

1. At an Urban Outfitters in Connecticut yesterday, I came across a Star Wars cookbook.
   
   
2. On Family Guy, Stewie just froze a guy in Carbonite.
   
   
3. While walking in downtown New Haven, Conn. we came across a mailbox painted like R2D2.
   
   
4. I paid two bills today using the last of our Star Wars stamps which were stuck onto the reply envelopes for our wedding. Darth Vader went to car insurance; Obi Wan Kenobi has gone to the electric company.
   
   
5. While visiting Ain't It Cool News I came across an ad for Spike TV advertising the whole series.

Errands, Mahoney style

Pick up the kids, get groceries, maybe stop by Home Depot. I don't KNOW. I DON'T KNOW IF WE'LL HAVE ENOUGH TIME!!!!

Sure, that's what the errands might sound like in your house. But here at Mahoney Central, it's a very different story:

1. Apple Store for Word for Mac.

2. Lego store to drool over new line of Indiana Jones toys.

3. Barnes & Noble to pick out new books.

4. Berman's for some wine, Blithering Idiot, and Magic Hat #9.

5. Walgreens to pick up the photos.

That's how we roll.

Coming soon.

I have stumbled on a book that I'm about halfway through but can already feel is changing my life. And while it SHOULD be "The Universe in a Single Atom" by the Dalai Lama, which I've been reading for the better part of a year in order to understand it, it is not. This book was named one of the top 20 novels of the 20th century by Time magazine. Its got surprisingly deep characters with very complex issues.

And it's a comic book.

I'm reading The Watchmen, which is actually a graphic novel but most of the folks that are regulars of this here blog will see it and say, "That's a comic book." But I know better. Just thought you should know that I know that.

So stay tuned, as there's a review to come, Neil Cumpston-style I think.

To tide you over, watch Will Farrell get verbally bitchslapped by a two-year-old.

All your base are belong to Bryan

In his book, "The Universe in a Single Atom," the Dalai Lama offers this insight into language barriers as they relate to the subjects of "conciousness" and "the mind":

"The problem of describing the subjective experiences is complex indeed. For we risk objectivizing what is essentially a set of internal experiences and excluding the necessary presence of the experiencer. ... Although we tend to relate to the mental world as if it were homogenous - a somewhat monolithic entity called 'The mind' - when we probe more deeply, we come to recognize that this approach is too simplistic." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom, p. 122, Morgan Road Books, copyright 2005 by the Dalai Lama.

Ok. I get that. Then what the hell is this:

Angels Fix the Printer!

Angels are everywhere in literature. Whether you're a wrath-of-God fan like me, or a casual observer of man's interpretations of angel behavior, there's a lot out there to satiate your cravings.

Sometimes, as you can see from this photo, they appear while you're waiting for your page proof to print when you're at work. Those are reporters' heads in the foreground. I should also mention this was taken by Vasiliy, our photographer, who's the blackest white Ukranian I've ever known.

If you'd like to learn more about angels (and I'm not that much of an angel nut myself so this stuff isn't too weird) check out the following:

Paradise Lost: John Milton's epic poem about the parts of the Bible the Apostles didn't want you to know. Its descriptions of the angel battle scenes inspired fillmmakers for generations - swords, gold armor, glorious choruses bearing Death on their wings, ham sandwiches. A side note: Milton was known to have read every book in the world at the time of his writings. Of course, this was just before or right at the time of the printing press, so those books probably numbered in the 10-30 range. But it's still an impressive thing to be able to say. Another side note: I'm not sure if I read about the ham sandwiches or if I dreamed them. Mmmm. Sammiches.

His Dark Materials: Phillip Pullman's series of three books was inspired by Milton, so naturally it involves angels. "His dark materials" refers to a passage in Paradise Lost describing the building blocks God used to create the universe. That should NOT be confused with the dark materials of Cletus Randall Johnson, a resident of Wayne County, NY who in his double-wide once declared that "his dark materials" were responsible for the great Johnson family sewage explosion of 1995.