If I Don't Turn Into a Giant Smurf This Year I'll Die

After watching the movie Avatar, I am so disillusioned with earth and humanity that I just don't know how to go on. Without a giant hairless flying chicken and magical braid, life just doesn't seem worth living. I yearn to be an oversized smurf.

These attitudes seem to exist worldwide:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html

In short, some people left the film disgusted with humanity and became disengaged with reality and the meaning of life.

This is very strange. I thought Avatar was cool. It had awesome special effects and an okay but not all too unique plot (Pocahontas anyone??). The movie was hyped and I mostly agree with the hype - it was an epic movie. I left the movie thinking it was a well done motion picture. I was anything but depressed out of my brains.

I think that movies, books, and other media can be a great catalyst to think about life and the deeper meaning of things. However, the attitudes expressed in this article blow my mind. To those with these attitudes: this is just a movie! A fictional movie! Fictional means that it's made up; it's not real. It's James Cameron's brain-child! Neither Pandora nor the Na'vi exist! Quit longing for the unobtainable. This is a pipe dream! Now get up, change out of your sweatpants, take a shower, and put on some presentable clothing.

Back? Great! Look around. Humanity and the world are not damned - there is a lot of good out there. I know it's hard sometimes. I'm pretty sure I felt similarly when I found out that the hover-board from Back to the Future doesn't exit, I'd never get to fly on the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca, and there really is no way "to get to Sesame Street." I was five years old.

Again, there is a lot of good out there. For starters, let me offer this clip to help cheer you up!

Beatles 6.0?

For Christmas my siblings gave me a very thoughtful gift: a couple of the remastered Beatles albums. As a fan of the Beatles, I had been ogling these remastered albums since they came out last September but had not yet bought them.

Opening the discs I thought, "Will these remastered, re-released albums be a brand new experience? Will it be Beatles 6.0? Will I 'rediscover' the Beatles? Will they save rock and roll, bring world peace, and restore my hair loss?"


Now for the review. I received two choice albums: Revolver and Rubber Soul. Spinning the discs was intriguing indeed. In comparing the remasters to the original CDs, I noticed both in headphones and on stereo system that the newest incarnations were more crisp and had deeper bass. However, differences were definitely more apparent as I played the tracks on nicer stereo equipment with a woofer.

Ultimately this is not "new Beatles." It's probably not worth the money to most people to replace their whole Beatles catalog. I would recommend the remastered CDs to hard-core fans, fans who would like better quality in their favorite albums, or people who are perhaps thinking of getting into the Beatles (instead of getting the old recordings just get the new ones).

I have only reviewed the stereo mixes. There are also mono mixes. The Beatles' producer once said, "You've never really heard Sgt Pepper until you've heard it in mono." Sadly these mono mixes are only available in a boxed set - for $200 plus. No thanks. I'm sure they'll eventually come out as single CDs.

All in all it has been a delight to digest the remastered albums. Thanks to my sister and bro for the tracks!