Sith Happens

All right ladies and gents? Mixed bag today.

Krissa and I trotted out as part of a big bunch of peoples to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith on Friday night at the Ziegfeld in Midtown, notable for the pre-movie warning - 'Please turn off your cellphones, pagers, and light sabers', as there were a few glowing swords waving around above the crowd while the pre-film commercials were running.

So...yeah! What's the general reaction to the film?

I thought it was visually stunning but beyond completing the saga there were a few items which smacked of having been bolted on at the end to smooth the transition into the older films. Most memorable of these for me was Yoda pulling Obi-Wan's 'extra training' out of the bag at the end, which would seem to be nothing more than a one-line disclaimer so that the 70s trilogy's repeated use of Alec Guinness' echoing and spooky voice is not totally incongruous.

But other than that, it was great. I think that Lucas may have been shying away from the general evilness which he would eventually have to deal with, like someone avoiding bringing up an unpleasant topic of conversation, or bad news. We started out with a completely likeable little youngster who would ultimately go very very bad indeed, but I think Lucas took a liking to Anakin Skywalker, kept him good for too long, and then gave him too much ground to cover in his fall from being a pious knight with a quick temper to the complete and utter torturing bastard we know Darth Vader to be.

Aaanyway.
I enjoyed it.

Timing

So now that Krissa and I have a Playstation 2, it was inevitable that the Playstation 3 and the other big companies' next-generation consoles would be unveiled this past week or so. Having read a little around the subject, I'm impressed by some of the specifications, not least this quote from a playstation.com press release:

"Activision has already confirmed that Spider-Man 3 would ship on next-generation consoles, but at Sony's 2005 E3 press conference today, we got to see a real-time Spidey doing his thing. The character was amazingly detailed, so detailed in fact that we suspected he was from the last Spider-Man 2 movie. In fact, he was. Sony claims that the PS3 is so powerful it can run the computer generated Spider-Man from the movie in real-time..."

Blimey.

Guest-a-licious
Alex, a flatmate of mine at Warwick University, is currently staying with Krissa and I until Thursday. On Saturday night we picked her up at La Guardia airport and took her to a birthday party in Brooklyn. Yesterday, while Krissa nipped over to Biscuit's for an Alias catch-up, Alex and I took a whistle-stop tour of the city, taking in Fifth Avenue, Times Square, The Public Library, Grand Central and the Staten Island Ferry, before rounding off, and I can still hardly believe this as I type, with pizza at Grimaldi's, and cheesecake at Junior's. Click below and browse the pictures!

At Grimaldi's we were sitting next to a trio of firemen from Hampshire, UK, who were in town for training with the FDNY, and who realised I wasn't exactly local from my Cowes Week sweatshirt (Cowes is a town, and Cowes Week is a sailing festival)...and at Junior's we sat at the bar and ate two slices (even between three this is an impressive feat, after Grimaldi's, it's unbelievable) of cheesecake served up by a friendly waitress.

I might be getting predictable, but hey, I have to say it, it was another great weekend.

Oh, and before I forget and this mention becomes effectively useless, The Shivs are playing at The Luna Lounge tonight, at 7.30.

I'll be there.