Category: Reviews

Considering I had an entire day to myself upon returning home from my trip (and Katie talking about how great the ending of the book was) I decided to set myself down and finish The Time Travelers Wife.

Other than reading some books for school (by the way, got a B+ in my Comm class this summer. Not too shabby.), I don’t get a chance to read too much outside of my staple Star Wars books and (recently) some old school sci-fi and biographies.

So when I was on Pajiba and they recommended this book, I asked around and found out that Eric and Annie had a copy and they loved it (and they graciously lent it to me during my holidays).

The story revolves around Henry who is a time traveler. But not in the Delorean type of way, but in a way where he has a genetic disorder which can have him time travel at a given moment (usually when he gets stressed out over something) and then he shows up in another time, naked (clothing can’t go through time, you didn’t know that?!). So he has to deal with the consequences of this random time traveling – sometimes he has to steal clothes and money, sometimes he gets into fights because of this, etc.

Meanwhile, the entire book is really a love story as he meets Clare at six years old, but he has to form a relationship with her at this age as she will become his wife in the future. So, imagine yourself meeting your partner when they are six, and you are forty and you have to form a relationship with them. Meanwhile, you time travel on a moment’s notice so you don’t really control this thing.

In the end, the story jumps between the present-day Clare/Henry – where Clare actually meets Henry in present time and tells him how he travels back in time to meet her and then it jumps back and forwards in time to show us their meetings.

The characters are charismatic and believable. I felt that I could relate to a lot of the characters – whether it be their everyday mannerisms, or the crazy conversations about nothing they would have. The writing is uber-modern…it felt strange reading a modern book as it was explicit in language as well as descriptions of their sexual acts in some parts of the book. This is why I would have to put the caveat that I don’t know if Nanny would care for this book.

What can I say about the book on a whole? It blew me away. I was engrossed in this like I am with a Harry Potter novel (yes, yes, I do enjoy a good Harry Potter book). At some points in my vacation I just wanted to pull the car over to keep reading. The relationship of Henry and Clare grew together in an awkward way (which happens when one of you time travel) but the love they had…heck, I’ll admit it. I’m a romantic at heart so this story hit me. It was an amazing story of their good times, their bad, the craziness surrounding time travel…well written novel and the references of the time periods (the music at the time, the restaurants in the Chicago area, BEAUTIFUL!) made this novel exceptional.

Watch out for the film with Rachel McAdams coming sometime next year.

Highly recommended. Really, it is.

Got around to watching the 300 film with Eric, Annie and Mike last night. 300 is based on the graphic novel of same name by Frank Miller (Frank, we love you!) which deals with the 300 Spartans who go to battle with Xerxes.

Stop right there. I don’t know much about Greek Mythology and if you don’t either, don’t worry. You don’t need it to watch this film.

Anyhow, the film shows how 300 Spartans hold their own against the hordes (read: millions) of warriors sent by Persian ruler Xerxes. Hey, this is just a film so if you want to know the truth of numbers, go read some Greek mythology. There’s an interesting quote about this film from the director where he speaks of the narrator and says “Dilios – “a guy who knows how not to wreck a good story with truth.” I feel they are speaking about me because (believe it or not) some of my stories have a little embellishment. 😉

Anyhow, the film was filmed entirely in Montreal around a bluescreen which allowed for each scene to resemble the graphic novel comic book panes once assembled via special effects. Much like Sin City. Very cool concept. I would like to watch it again with the graphic novel in hand.

There was stylized violence (think The Matrix) which I love but others hate and there was this fantastical aura surrounding the film – especially when you peer upon some creatures that the Persian army employ.

I enjoyed it and if you want a good film to check out (but with a lot of battle scenes, the whole thing reminded me of an extended Helms Deep film (Helms Deep from The Two Towers for those who are keeping check)) I would recommend it. I wasn’t blown away by it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Yesterday Benoit dropped by my office to recommend a BBC mini-series called Jekyll. Upon his suggestion I downloaded the six part mini-series and quickly finished up my final essay (yeah boy! That’s right, I’m pretty well done my final essay as of last night.) and Mike and I sat down to check out this modern tale of Jekyll.

Of course, judging from the title of the mini-series, this deals with the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. However, it puts it into a modern context where a scientist – Doctor Jackman – realizes that he is changing into another person when he blacks out for periods of time. He doesn’t really know who he changes into and when we meet him in the first episode, it looks like he has a rapport and rules set up between his alter ego in the form of sticking to some rules, leaving messages on a dictaphone, etc. There’s even scheduled changes so he knows enough to strap himself into a chair so his psychologist friend can talk to Mr. Hyde.

Anyhow, this is a pretty great mini-series so far (after watching 2 episodes). Benoit mentioned how there are many twists and turns (which I love in a story). The transformation of the Jekyll/Hyde character is funny as the Doctor is a mild mannered individual whereas Hyde is this masogonistic hilarious character who likes to get into a lot of trouble. So there are many times that the Doctor wakes up from the Hyde character and finds himself in awkward positions (the funniest being that every time he wakes up Hyde never bothers to leave him a message letting him know where the car is parked.)

Plus there’s the other half of the story of who really is the Doctor Jackman/Hyde character as it seems he is being hunted by the government for some reason.

That’s about all I’m getting into without giving anything major away. Very cool so far. Download it today (unless you get the BBC. Then watch it somehow.)

So the story goes that awhile back there was a notice sent out that all men who were up for the challenge should grow a sweet moustache for the wedding we were all heading to on Saturday.

I had been growing the goatee for the past month in preparation for this event and ended up seeing out a Fumanchu style ‘stache would work out. In the end, I opted away from this style as it wasn’t connecting well in some areas and went for the classic ‘stache (much to the delight of women everywhere).

After figuring out drive logistics, I headed over to the wedding grounds which was at this beautiful Billings Estate which I had never seen before. It was a beaut. Saw a bunch of people and we had good laughs at our moustaches…I’d like to put the shout out to my brothers who came out in full force with the facial hair – Mike, Duncan, Joe and James.

All in all, it was a great wedding and it was good to see some friends whom I haven’t seen in awhile (back from the Waterloo days). The dinner was great, the dancing was great, and the mood was just right. I was glad that Vero and her sister could make it as she originally had to back out due to her parents coming into town, but since their plans changed, the opportunity arose to come out and have some fun!

Some highlights:

• Hitting up Shannon’s free hotel room before the wedding.
• Vero’s love of the moustache
• Hanging out with the best table at the wedding, which (coincidentally?) was the furthest from the bar. How did that happen? I managed to sweet talk some server there to keep bringing the wine over though. That was a nice touch.
• The fact that I still had a load of cash in my wallet at the end of the night. I don’t know how that happened!
• Hanging out with the drunkest man alive – Phil.
• I like how they had a microphone set up at the actual ceremony so you could hear what the bride and groom were saying. Sure, everyone knows they just say “I do.” but it’s nice to actually hear it.

Cheers to Larisa and Jason on their great day. I think they are headed to Hawaii at this point.

Last night I caught most of the Rene Levesque mini-series on CBC. I’m going to assume it’s a rerun as it’s the middle of the summer, but who knows?

I feel that I’ve become more interested in Canadian history in my later years and I enjoy it when a good mini-series comes out on the CBC to pique my curiosity – like Trudeau, or the documentary on the October Crisis.

Anyhow, the Rene Levesque mini-series started off well and I’m interested in seeing the other two parts. It shows how Mr. Levesque wins the election in his riding against L’Union Nationaliste and all the dirty tricks the other side tried to pull along the way. In the end, he not only won in his riding, but the Quebec Liberal Party wins the right to govern the province and Rene finds himself as a Minister. Great day eh?

I enjoy the actors although…I must admit I find it strange watching what we all know should be a French show, but they have the actors speaking in English with a French accent. Now, I haven’t done any research so maybe they are all actually French actors to begin with, hence the French accent. But I think I would have rather have it as a French mini-series with subtitles to be true to the situation.

However, I guess that doesn’t make for a good film either. Imagine all the the movies you’ve seen which should have been in German but are mysteriously in English. 😉

Anyhow, I recommend watching this if you are remotely interested in Rene Levesque’s rise to power, or Canadian history in general.

As soon as I heard there was a Transformers movie coming out my first reaction was “Uh oh.” I had fear that somehow Hollywood would really mess up the story that we all love and try and make it more of a human story instead of a kickass robots fighting robots story.

Even when the trailers came out, I didn’t really care to see them. I had no anticipation whatsoever for this film. Sure, I love a good Michael Bay film because he throws over the top action at you, but I still had this fear.

The fear is that he wouldn’t get the spirit of Transformers into the film. The fear was that he hadn’t even watched a Transformers cartoon before signing up to do the film (What the heck?)

But then the reviews started trickling in. We’re not talking proper reviews. We’re talking about the reviews that really mean something. We’re talking about your friends coming up to you and saying “Palmer, you NEED to see this film.” It really hit home when Krista’s roommate (who I didn’t peg as a Transformers fan) said it was the greatest movie ever (paraphrase).

On Friday night, amidst the chaos which was the Silvercity full of wizards and Muggles (everyone was there watching the Harry Potter film), the lies were burned off of my soul.

It was incredible.

I think there was a single tear that came down my face at the end of the movie…not because I was choked up from an emotional scene…moreso because it hit me with this onslaught for 2 1/2 hours and never let up and once it did my body couldn’t take it.

I don’t even know where to begin…Michael Bay NAILED the Transformers. Everything that they are as a cartoon was there. Robots fighting robots, the Autobots out there not wanting to hurt humans, OPTIMUS FREAKING PRIME!!!! Oh my God Optimus was amazing. Megatron didn’t turn into a lame handgun! Starscream gets berated by Megatron!

What else can I say? Go see it now. I don’t care if you are in the middle of class reading this because you are bored. Get up, go out and watch this film.

Five billion thumbs up.

I’ve had this album for the past 10 days which allows me to give its proper review.

The last time The Smashing Pumpkin offered up an album was in 2000 with their release of Machina II – The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music. This was a very limited vinyl only release (25 copies made) with instructions to rip it and release it for free on the web. This was definitely a better album than Machina – The Machines of God but in the end, it didn’t matter because the Pumpkins broke up in 2000.

Enter seven years later with the Pumpkins reformed (with Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain) and they have released their new album – Zeitgeist – today.

Zeitgeist is a return to form of hard hitting tunes. Reminiscent of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (which is an excellent move) but it seems more modern. Billy’s tricks of the trade from Adore to The Future Embrace are scattered around the album. There are definitely some heavy hitters for the first half of the album and then the more laid back Future Embrace style rockers.

At first listen, I was thrown aback by the layering of vocals done of the majority of the album. It took away from the rawness of the tracks, which I witnessed while listening to several bootlegs from the Europe tour for the past month. After awhile, the vocal layering grows on me although there are a few tracks where I would prefer it not to appear.

In the end, the album is killer. A true return to form for the Pumpkins. If Mellon Collie was a fork in the road which created Adore and Machina, then Zeitgeist is a return to that fork in the road and taking the other path. I am enjoying this path so far and look forward to the next few years with this album.

Fave tracks at the Moment: Bleeding the Orchid, Tarantula, Starz, United States

On Friday after visiting the Doctor, I headed out to the Annual Gaspé Golf Tournament.

Stop. Rewind. What’s this?

My entire family stem from the grand city of Gaspé down on the coast of Quebec. Because so many have left the metropolis years ago, someone had a brilliant idea of having an annual golf tourney so that people can see one another again.

I went to this tourney last year as quite a few of my own relatives went and it is a nice spot to see them all at once. My parents had never gone to one but they ended up going this year and I believe they had a smashing good time seeing people they haven’t seen in upwards of twenty years.

Now, this year was the beginning of what Uncle Greg referred to as ‘the sophomore blues’. I didn’t understand what he meant until the end of the tournament. Let’s just say I could NOT get it through my head what was going wrong with my golf game. On Friday when I showed up, Uncle Johnny, Lynn and Greg and I headed to the golf course to play a quick game of 9 holes. I can’t say I was doing all that well but the great things about these guys are that they are super patient. I figured that my game would get better by the next day (the day of the actual tournament) but it wasn’t until the 17th hole where I realized that I was standing too far away from the ball and I believe that’s what was affecting my game so badly. I think there are a few things I want to change before heading out there next year:

• Play a game before heading out there so I am not so rusty.
• Figure out what I’m doing wrong before that point. For some reason I cannot for the life of me figure out how to position my body. It’s like I failed geometry or something.

Anyhow, all griping aside about how much I was frustrated with how I was playing, the weekend of golf turned out to be amazing. The weather was great on Friday and Saturday looked like it would be a bust but it got pretty hot for the better part of the day and we finished our game as soon as the rain started coming down (which is definitely different than what happened last year! http://palmer.grumpster.com/2006/06/weekend-in-golf.html)

I ended up hitting another person’s ball (who wasn’t even on our team) so that didn’t go over too well. Oh well, I learned the hard way that I should always know what ball I’m playing.

I am anxious to head out again to play a round of golf and hope to do so before next year. I should see how much a set of golf clubs cost.

Other than the golf tournament, good times were had. As soon as I arrived at the hotel I saw Aunt Mariette, Nanny and Mom and they were jumping up and down and screaming “We’re going to Costco! We’re going to Costco!” I thought this was extremely strange (but not so strange for someone like Mom who just doesn’t have a Costco around her!) but then Uncle Greg jumped in on the fun. Later on I mentioned how strange I thought it was that they were all excited to be going to Costco but it turns out that they were screaming “We’re going to Alaska!”. Yes, that’s right, the Patterson Clan is heading North on a cruise next year. I haven’t decided if I will go along but I definitely will head out to British Columbia when my parents hook down to see Uncle Brent after the cruise.

I enjoyed hanging out with my family and watching the hockey game and ordering a few pizzas undercover of other Gaspesians with the nose for pizza. Here’s where I throw out a public apology to Uncle Greg for ordering not one, but TWO meat lover pizzas last year when I had forgotten that he does not eat meat. Woops! He let me hear about it this year!

The higher powers must have been with us this weekend as none of us were feeling rough in the morning (well maybe Uncle Greg, but just for a bit) and there was plenty to laugh at. Especially the squirrel which had swallowed a golf ball!

On Sunday, Mom, Dad and I headed to the flea market outside of Morrisburg and I picked up a CD and then we parted ways and I cruised on home enjoying the back roads all the way to Orleans. It’s nice to just get on the road and drive sometimes. I then went over to Eric’s and helped him set up his new pool which by my estimates should be full by next week.

iplaying: Make This Go On Forever – Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)

Who the heck are The Himalayans?

More importantly, who knows Adam Duritz?

Of course everyone knows the name Adam Duritz as the singer from Counting Crows. Counting Crows are the best band ever (except for the Smashing Pumpkins). They aren’t even on the same scale, but there. It’s been said. Much of my guitar playing is credited to the great songs of Counting Crows.

So before Counting Crows got together, Adam was bumming around looking for something exciting to do and he answered an ad in the paper asking for a singer of a band. This band became The Himalayans and I never knew about them until now as they re-released a remastered first (and only) album.

Turns out that the band was going to make it big but then Adam left to create Counting Crows. While this gets a little muddy in my brain, I guess there are some musicians out there that are in multiple bands and then decide to focus on one at a time. This is what happened here. Adam left for Counting Crows.

Now, what really piqued my curiosity about this album was the fact that it has turned out that Counting Crows Round Here was actually a COVER of the original which was recorded by The Himalayans! Imagine! So I picked up this album (only available from Adam’s new record label Tyrannosaurus Records if you want it) and am plesantly impressed with it.

I must admit that I have come a long way in my music tastes. I am more into the classic rock styles so this low-key alternative music isn’t exactly my thing anymore. But I managed to but my 1991 ballcap on my head and listen to the album as it should be listened to – with your frame of mind back then, and not in the year 2007.

In that, I find a great album with some great tracks intermixed with radio interviews. Essentially they wish to collect everything that the band was at this moment in time. It is strange to hear Adam sing to different songs and especially strange (yet cool) to hear the original Round Here. It’s rolling bass line holds the song in familiar territory. The album is worth picking up for this reason alone!

So there you have it. If you’re a Counting Crows fan and enjoy Adam’s great vocals, and won’t mind a different style of music from Counting Crows (but still clearly from the early 90s), then pick this album up.

Iplaying: Angels in American – The Himlayans (She Likes The Weather)

Is this a Linkin Park album or something else? Gone are the days of their hybrid of rap and rock (or nu-metal for those of you in the know). They have revamped their music entirely which I was a little scared of at first. Can a band still survive when they change their direction? I was hearing strange things from the studio – listening to a lot of Pink Floyd during the recording. How can Linkin Park survive an uprising from metal-esque screaming music to some laid back riffs?

Well, they managed to pull it off. This is definitely NOT the Linkin Park of old. Forget everything you know about them. Just appreciate this as a good album and you will love it. I cannot get this out of my stereo right now. There are some key tracks which I come back to (Valentine’s Day, Bleed It Out (which, coincidentally I heard on Saturday Night Live last week and thought it was the most horrible song ever. Clearly their live versino of the song doesn’t do it justice). They have the classic Chester vocals all over the place and a lot less of Mike Shinoda. Some of the tracks remind me of old Linkin Park (ala My December-like).

I thoroughly enjoy this album but prepare yourself for something entirely different from the Linkin Park you know and love. But you will enjoy this album if you enjoy some good music.

iplaying: Diamonds and Babies and Cars – The Himalayans (She Likes The Weather)