The Potter Phenomenon reached the USA at midnight on Tuesday night. Crowds of “Dumble-Dorks” waited in line for hours waiting for the newest installment. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince follows our heroes through yet another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Our young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) faces another year of learning, friendship, adventure, and even…romance? But trouble returns to the school in the form of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), and even Harry’s potions book causes trouble. It is mysteriously marked with the name “The Half Blood Prince”.

With him are his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). Drama heats up with Ron’s little sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright). And Harry becomes Quiditch Capitan.

Though the movie defers from the book it couldn’t be any better!!!! It’s hilarious, brilliant, and MAGICAL!!!!!!!!

Taylor Swift is swiftly moving up the charts and is own her way to make country-pop history! This 19 year-old had humnble beginings in the town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. After singing at many Karioke contests she signed on with Big machiene records. Taylor Swift is a song-writer, singer. She plays guitar, piano, and even ukelele!

Her first self-titled c.d. came out in October 2006 with the tracks;
Tim Mcgraw
Picture to burn
Teardrops on my guitar
A place in this world
Cold as you
The outside
Tied together with a smile
Stay beautiful
Should of said no
Mary’s song(oh my my my)
Our Song
im only me when im with you
invisible
a perfectly good heart
Teardrops on my guitar(pop version)

Taylor’s newest album, Fearless came out November 2008. The songs on this album were;
Fearless
Fifteen
Love story
Hey stephen
white Horse
You belong with me
Breathe
tell me why
you’re not sorry
the way i loved you
forever & allways
the best day
Change

Taylor Swift has won many awards, and is currently nominated 4 CMT awards, and You belong with me, is sitting at number 2 on the GAC top 20 countdown.

Keep watching this Fearless teen idol as she Swiftly makes history!

What do you get when you throw Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical expertise on an island in the south Pacific?
PURE BRILLANCE!
A handful of romance, a sprinkle of comedy, and a dash of drama, is the perfect recipe for a musical that’ll be loved for generations.
A book inspired Rogers and Hammerstein for their stage play which was later turned into a movie.

The story is set on a naval base on an island in the south Pacific. A young nurse, Nellie(Mitzi Gaynor) falls in love with a French plantation owner, Emile(Rossano Brazzi). And a Lieutenant Joe Cable finds happiness with a pretty native girl.

You’ll definitely have “One Enchanted Evening”:

And a load of “Happy Talk”:

With your “Honey Bun”:

After watching SOUTH PACIFIC!!!!!!

“Watchmen”  opened two weeks ago, and I’m going to be blunt with you:

IT’S AMAZING!

The actors were very well cast, in particular Jackie Earle Haley (yes, as in The Bad News Bears Jackie Earle Haley) as Rorschach and Jeffery Dean Morgan as the Comedian.  Although their characters are probably the most sociopathic and least relatable of the cast, they wind up carrying the major emotional arcs of the piece, and they do so with aplomb.  Rorschach’s last scene is the most powerful scene in the movie, due in no small part to the brilliance of Haley BEING his character.  Billy Krudup is an initially startling choice for Dr. Manhattan- the almost universal response I’ve heard from people about him is, “I almost imagined Dr. Manhattan with a deeper voice,” but his understated, soft spoken take on the super-human is effective and grows on you as the movie progresses.  Patrick Wilson is a good Nite Owl, making him far less pathetic then his graphic novel counter part, while still preserving his dorky “everyman” nature.  The two more dubious cast members are Malin Akerman as the second Silk Spectre, are Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt.  While Akerman is visually dead on for Laurie Jupiter, she doesn’t really leap off the screen and tear your throat out like Haley does, and seems to be more “generic action woman hero” then anything special like the other actors.  Goode is by no means a bad actor, but his fey German Veidt is a vast departure from the graphic novel’s “All-American Boy”, and he doesn’t look physically intimidating or strong enough for many of the fight scenes at the film’s end.

 

 
John Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley, as the Comedian and Rorschach.  These are the actors to watch in the film, and are so good they need the three names to contain their awesomeness.

 

The film is 2 hrs and 42 min long, and with commercials it is almost exactly 3 hrs.  It feels 3 hrs long, by the time it’s through.  It is almost as if it was composed of several shorter films- Dr. Manhattan’s origin story could stand as an excellent short on it’s own, and even the opening credits are an ode to minimalist film making.  The film wants to make the statement “Superhero movies aren’t just for kids”, and goes too far in trying to get that message across.  It has gratuitous sex and violence in the most literal sense- they didn’t have to go that far, but they did anyways.  By the time a man’s bone snaps out of it’s skin during one of the many fight scenes, you may find yourself longing for a “rated” version of the film.  However, these brief episodes of shock don’t detract from the film’s grander, more psychological point.  While the ending may be lacking in Giant Psychic Squid (thank GOD), it is still surprising and powerful.  It is actually the one scene in the movie that could’ve stood to be a little more gruesome.  Due to the events of 9/11, the filmmakers thought it necessary to limit the graphic scenes of destruction orginally portrayed, and thus the epic horror of the events doesn’t really resonate with the viewer, by comparison to all the other mayhem they’ve been exposed to at that point.  All in all, this is an excellent EXCELLENT movie that I give 5 out of 4 stars, and deserves several Oscars (if doesn’t win any, will be forced to find liberal neo-Commie traitors who voted against it, and break little fingers.  HURM. </Rorschach>) ; )

Think how different our lives would be without music. Life would be unimaginably dull, quiet, and boring. From Beethoven’s symphonies to today’s popular pop. We’ve awarded musicians with the Grammy’s for 51 years. We dance to it, we listen to it on our iPods, and we jam out to the radio in the car. What would we do without it? Teenagers play it loudly on electric guitars, or sing in the shower. Our emotions flow out in a string of words thought carefully put along notes on the guitar or piano. On the guitar, piano, voice, violin, kazu, the list goes on and on of the tools we use to make our lovely noise. The year’s the best song is Viva la Vida by Coldplay.

We’ve gone from symphonies to big bands to garage bands. From records to mp3s. But one thing that has always stayed the same is humanity’s love for music.

A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence.  ~Leopold Stokowski

 

Without music life would be a mistake.  ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

 

Life is music, play it louder!

 

” ‘She is like a little safe, lockedthat no one can open. Perhaps there is a treasure inside.’                                                    ’Maybe it’s emptey, too?’ “                                                        

 

Probably the most acclaimed scenes in the play are the Breakfast scene:

And the Wah-Wah scene:

Living in a constant state of fear, not knowing where you are, what direction you’re facing, not knowing your friends hair or eye color. A big scary world. At school I am in the school play, The Miracle Worker.  Just to let every one know The miracle Worker is about Helen Keller, and her teacher Annie Sullivan .I have a tiny part but still, it’s a lot of work. My character is blind, so today the director took all the blind girls, blindfolded us, than proceeded to terrify us by running us all over the auditorium, and making us find a certain person on stage.  Not fun. Well actually, though terrifying, and hoping you don’t fall off the stage, it kind was, like a roller coaster spinning around, doing loop de loops,in the dark.

Yeah, all in all a preatty scary world for a blind person.

Christmas List

 

1. Gears of War 2 (Box 360)

 Price New: $60

Why: Heard nothing but good reviews and friends have so I can play on live with them.

Priority (Out of 10): 9.0

 

 

2. Mirrors Edge (Box 360)

 Price New: $60

Why: Its like virtual free running, with cool graphics and game play.

Priority: 8.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Nintendo 64 Games (About 5 Total List Below)

 Total Cost $60-80

Games: “Super Smash Bros. 64”, “Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time”, “Mario Kart 64”, “Golden Eye 007”, “Star fox 64”, “Super Mario 64 (Super Mario 64 is not a must have though would add to collection)”

Why: I miss my 64 games and need them to complete my collection.

Priority: 6.5   

 

4. Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero: World Tour (Xbox 360)

 Price: $190

Why: A good party game to have, nothings better then having you and your friends play plastic instruments.

Priority: 7.0

 

5. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Xbox360)

 Price: USED $26.99

Why: Missed out on it the first time now it is cheaper used… Jets….mmmmmm

Priority: 6.0

_________________________________________________________________

 

Questions and Answers

Where’s The Wii - I already have everything worth having for my Wii, and don’t want any of the games out at this time.

 

Music Game  - Yes, they can be muy expensive but also quite fun in large groups of people. Rock Band 2 has more downloadable content though Guitar Hero (4) has a better start track list. Tupples would enjoy this greatly but would rather have more games then just this one though this in addition would be nice.

 

Where Should I Buy These? – The Tupples suggests that you buy from, Best Buy, Gamestop, www.gamestop.com, www.amazon.com, or www.ebay.com. Most of the games will be easiest to find at gamestop but for the Nintendo 64 games it will be easiest off of Amazon or Ebay.

 

What If Relatives Ask… “What Does Will Want.” – Well right now I’m a little peckish so fruit cake (Pannettone) will do nicely. No, Not Really. Heres Items that Can Be Subsitituted: (2) Xbox 360 Controllers, $20, Gamestop Gift Cards, Xbox Live Point Cards (NOT MONTH CARDS POINTS FOR BUYING FROM ONLINE STORE), Tales of Vesperia, or what they choose.

 

Whats The Purpose of this list? – To help you the mother find the right things for your loving Tupples this Christmas.

 

Used Games- If your going to buy used games from gamestop Tup-Tup can give you his member card so you can save 10% on all used games. (New Games get nothing off)

A “Professor Layton and the Curious Village” Review

This game might be rated ‘E’ for everyone, but this isn’t a simple puzzler to give a 5 year old, or even a 10 year old.  The storyline is very simplistic- the ‘twist’ can be spotted within the first hour or two of gameplay.  You play as the titular Layton and his assistant Luke, going to the village of St. Mystere in search of hidden treasure.  While playing through the game, composed of smaller puzzles, the plot is driven by the search for answers to several larger ‘mysteries’, which can be figured out dozens of chapters in advance by anyone who isn’t a small child.  Still, the explination for some of the smaller of these mysteries seem arbitrary and a bit hand-wavey.  Despite it’s basicness, it is still serves it’s function well, and the beautiful graphics and real, fully voiced animation sequences (few in nature but high in quality) more then make up for it.

The meat of the game is it’s brainteasers.  Did I say brainteasers?  I meant braintorturers.  (This is where the not-for-10-year-olds part comes in.)  The difficulty level varies wildly, and the ‘picarat’ rating system doesn’t always match up to the puzzles actual dificulty.  They cover a wide variety of puzzle types, from block-sliders to logic, and your relative difficulty with them will be based entirely on how well you do with each type.  Be aware that the in game hints (which cost one of a limited number of well hidden coins) are only helpful on the 2nd and 3rd hints- the 1st simply restates the instructions slightly differently, stressing the key words.  A few of the puzzles are very difficult because of the entirely random nature of the answer (#67 “The Chocolate Code” comes to mind), which leads me to think that it was originally a sensible Japanese problem, which had to be entirely reworked to even halfway make sense in English.  With 120 genuinely challenging puzzles and 15+ bonus puzzles, you really do get your moneys worth for the game.

This walk-through has all of the in game hints, so if you get stuck you don’t have to use up one of your hint coins.  More guides and solutions can be found here.  This is a more thorough review by IGN.  The official site has examples of the graphics and more information about the game, including the online downloadable play.

Here’s hoping the new year brings the games sequals!…or at least consistent puzzle updates from Nintendo.
(Also, thank you mother, for buying me this game! I lessthenthree you thiiiiiiiiis much equal close paren)

 Alas, no snow. Again.

Christmas night I wasn’t bundled up around a cozy fire, wrapped in blankets, drinking hot chocolate. No, definitely no.  Me, I was sweating up a storm in shorts and a T-shirt, on a trampoline. Yep, no snow.

Christmas day was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  20 % chance of rain, not snow. Well, so much for dreaming of a white Christmas.

Yeah, Houston Texas is not the place to go for a snow vacation.

I’m dreaming of a not so white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know. Where the palm trees sway. And children play, in the green lawn.

If you can’t get the real thing watch the movie- White Christmas.

What are your chances for a white Christmas?

Want to get away for a White Christmas find out the top 10 snow vacation spots.

 

Merry Christmas!