Welcome to the pond

Random stuff popping out of my head . . .

• I still have a few Christmas cards to address (that's what people are getting this year, poor as I am). The important ones are not done yet. I better get on that today! It won't take long though.
  

• One of these days I need to buy myself a Celtic-themed Christmas album. I have no Christmas CDs whatsoever (and I suppose I don't technically need one, with radio stations here playing Christmas songs all through December). Something about the combination of Celtic music and Christmas warms my heart whenever I think about it, so I think that's the way I'm gonna go. Maybe sometime in the next year I'll pick one up.

• King Kong is an AMAZING movie! Peter Jackson really learned some lessons from making the Lord Of The Rings movies. He could still use some character development lessons, but I'll forgive him for that. The sets and locations were incredibly well designed, with a few slight exceptions. The movie has a LOT of action, almost nonstop. Just when you think things are getting bad, they get even more twisted and complex. You hardly get a chance to catch your breath. That's ok, because I like that in a movie. There's also some really creepy scenes. The insect-phobic should be prepared to close their eyes once in a while. It's all good, though. It's all part of the moviegoing experience. The action is fairly well balanced with some tender moments between Anne Darrow and Kong. It's not love so much as it is protector and protectee. Those roles are flip-flopped at one point in the movie. There's also a theme running throughout the film about not messing around with nature, and not going where you're not supposed to go. Things get out of control because of stupid decisions by those who are blinded by money, fame and pride. The last thing I'll mention about King Kong is the beauty of the Empire State Building scene. The filmmakers smartly remembered that the top of the Empire State Building is a physical place that can be marred and shaped. When bullets fly at Kong, glass breaks on the structure. That's a level of detail you won't find in earlier films. The wide shots of Manhattan and the two rivers are quite beautiful, and also show us that, big as Kong is, New York City is much, much bigger. If that's not a testament to the greatness of New York, I don't know what is.