D.O.A.'s Favorite Films of 2012

These were my favorite films this year:

1.    The Hunger Games

I went in not liking any of the casting and fearing they wouldn't get anything right.  Every character was perfect and I was drawn into the world as soon as the movie began.  I think they captured the essence of the games and the sickness of the society that promoted them.  I loved all three books and look forward to seeing the rest of the trilogy on film.


2.    The Hobbit

Brave Hobbit!  The original Hobbit adventurer was Bilbo, who finds his comfortable home invaded by dwarves and a wizard one day.  Despite his protests that he wants no part of any adventure he is soon on the road in their company, showing uncommon bravery for a person of any size.   I love the dwarves for their humor and determination.  Thorin Oakenshield is a great character.  It was nice to see Gandalf be a little less sure of himself.   The Goblin King was gloriously horrid.  Ack that fleshy beard of his....Radagast the Brown and his fleet of rabbits!!!!


3.   Lincoln

I just saw this today (12/29/12), but it moves right up the list.  A portrait of the last four months of Lincoln's life it shows him as everything you ever thought he was and more.  A storyteller, legal minded, precise, folksy, humanitarian to his deepest soul, honest to a fault when he chose to be.  I was taken by what a deep philosophical mind and soul he had.  His family problems with his wife and eldest son made him more endearing.  The political maneuvering in the House over the 13th amendment was really interesting to me who hates politics.  I knew the amendment passed but it certainly looked like an impossible task.  I wonder if representatives today toss out such amazing personal insults at each other in the course of debate. Historical movies with bad endings for the hero are hard for me to take.  I'm glad the film cheated and didn't show the assassination of Lincoln.  I had come to just love him over the length of the film and wouldn't have been able to look.

Here is a fun article showing the actors in the film and the real photographs of the historical figures.  Uncanny except for one person.  I spent time after the movie looking up Thadeus Stevens, Lincoln and Mary Lincoln to get an idea of what what their real lives were like.  Incredible lives.


4.   The Dark Knight Rises

I haven't minded the many actors playing Batman in recent years.  The character has sufficient depth so that he can be played with many subtle variations.   The character is almost understated compared to the villains who inhabit his world.  Bane of the Dark Knight rises wasn't an enjoyable villain for me.  He seemed to have the upper hand for most of the film and I'd prefer a fair fight.  Still, there were twists to the plot that made it a great Batman tale.   Anne Hathaway's Catwoman was a fine addition.   Albert, alas, of little faith.


5.   The Avengers

I had seen the movies of the individual characters and particularly liked Thor and Iron Man.  The Hulk was a pleasant surprise as a really intelligent, sensitive Bruce Banner who fought his big green demon.  I loved seeing them all working together.  Captain America stands out also as a man out of place in time but still determined to fight evil.  Just a very solid, noble guy.




6.  Prometheus

The film had so many echoes of Alien despite its being a prequel.   The aliens were so perfectly without emotion or care for what the old results of one of their experiments (us, presumably) might have to offer.  We were of no interest whatsoever.  The nasty spawning cave dwellers who had killed many of the super aliens...now THOSE were something.  It makes you wonder if they had just seen in early man the potential for a weapon.  To use against what?   Elizabeth Shaw, the tiny but insanely tough archeologist is luminous as she does extraordinary things to survive.

 

7.  Cloud Atlas

This convoluted tale within a tale running over multiple time periods is something I'm eager to see again to find what I missed as I struggled to figure out the plot.  And who was who when.  Lots of action, adventure and romance.

 

8.   Skyfall

I don't think Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever or that this is the best Bond movie ever, as the reviews have had it.   I think Craig is cool and suave but a bit humorless.  I did like his backstory and his attachment to Q.  As always, I like a hero who never swerves from doing what is right and what he is supposed to do.   I thought the villain whose name escapes me because he was such a cipher was again, too smart, had everything planned to the T, no failures to his plots, blah blah.


9. John Carter of Mars

Great adventure film. Pure golden age science fiction.  Spectacular bringing to life of an alien world and civilization.  The film should have been called a Princess of Mars after the Edgar Rice Burroughs book or at least John Carter of Mars after the character.   They felt this would not appeal to some audiences so they called it John Carter, told noone what the movie was about in any marketing, and complained about how much it cost to make.

View a trailer that shows the wonders of the film and the rich historical significance of Burroughs' story at http://thejohncarterfiles.com/

Man of Steel

http://widgets.ign.com/video/embed/content.html?url=http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/12/11/man-of-steel-trailer


Superman has always been my favorite super hero.  I felt sorry for him losing his family, and happy for him gaining a wonderful foster family in the Kents.  He never swayed from doing the right thing in my years of reading comics, perhaps he has been changed in recent times to something less than heroic because true heroes are too boring.

We have a new trailer.  Life is dark and grim and Jonathan Kent tells Clark he may have made a mistake saving lives in a school bus crash rather than protecting his identity. 

Superman has a beard.  ????    Tell me he rubs his hand over his face and it goes away.

 

I'm getting the feeling Superman is being shown as a lonely outcast.  He doesn't have the strong moral upbringing the Kents gave him.  Would that be boring?

I don't mind Superman's legend being rebooted and rewritten, but I hope they don't take away the innate decency of the character.

 

 

 

Bad Bad Superman Outfit, Eek!

 

 

Happy End Times Day!

If you ever saw the movie "On the Beach"  you will recall the sad camera panning through an Australian town to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" and this banner:

Since the eastern side of the world is still with us, we have to conclude that the Mayans were indeed presenting a calendar which shows us not at the end, but at the beginning of a new era.  There is still time for us to fix what is wrong and celebrate all that is right.  We can do it!

DOA's Toss it in the Crockpot Stew

I make this stew mostly for my husband.  He likes it so much I feel guilty taking any away from him.  Maybe he just gets tired of his chips and dip now and then :)   I started out making my stew from cookbook recipes but they always had you browning the meat in something that resulted in a waxy layer of fat after refrigeration.  Ack.


Ingredients

One package stew meat

2 tablespoons flour

4 Russet Potatoes

4 stalks celery (the single branches not the whole "head")

4 large carrots

One Package Recipe Secrets Beefy Onion (both packets are used)

McCormick Brown or Herb Gravy Mix 4 packages

4 cups of water  (if you have 4 cups of juices from a roast you've cooked in the crockpot of 4 cups or Swanson Beef Broth you can use those)


Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place stew meat in a plastic bag with two tablespoons of flour to coat.  Put on a foil covered pan and bake to brown for 20 minutes.

Turn the crockpot on high.  Place liquid, Recipe Secrets, and gravy mix in and stir till well mixed.

Cut vegetables in small pieces.  About a 1/4 inch for celery and carrots.  I halve the potatoes then cut them again into wedges that are about 1/2 inch thick.   Toss the veggies in as you get them cut.  Stir stew with each addition.

Add stew meat.

Cook 9 hours on medium.   If you have time you can put on high for the first two hours and be ready in about seven hours.

You can also cook on the stovetop in a large pot for about an hour and a half or so, checking on the doneness of the veggies (soft when poked with a fork) and eat it much sooner.   You have to stir frequently howerever so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.  Far better to toss in the crockpot and away you go!

I took a picture of it with my iPod touch but it did not come out well to say the least.

Card Making Ho Ho Ho

I am making my own Christmas cards for the first time.  I'm not sure what the recipients will think of them but it beats the Kmart specials I've been sending for the past few years. 

This is so much fun.  I have tons of papercrafting tools and have added Glitter, glitter glue and all sorts of other embellishments to my stash. 

I'll also include a picture of me and mine and a custom made Christmas Word Search to the package and delight city at the other end, right?

Merry Christmas!

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CAROLERS	CHIMNEY	CHRISTMAS
COOKIES	GIFTS	HOLLY
LIGHTS	MANGER	MERRY
MISTLETOE	ORNAMENTS	PRESENTS
REINDEER	RIBBON	SANTA
SNOWMAN	STAR	STOCKINGS
TAGS	TREE

Make your own Word Search:

http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp

 

 

 

I loved my cards. They were received enthusiastically by two of the recipients and the rest were bleh.  Hmmpf.   I had a lovely time trying out different techniques.  I am going to keep making them anywho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Tantalizing Song Fragment

You may know that I have dabbled in scrapbooking for a few years now.  I confess I spend a bit more time treasure hunting for interesting page embellishments than I do composing actual pages. 

One of the things I love about scrapbooking is that any tiny scrap can help tell a story.  Note the teensy bit of old paper above with this bit of song on it.  Who wouldn't toss it?  Not me!  Not only does it give a flavor for a time period, it makes you wish you knew what song this is from. 

We get questions about half remembered songs and song lyrics all of the time.  Noone has ever confessed that their question arises from a teeny piece of paper like this, but you KNOW it happens.

I'm working on Christmas cards so the phrase "Toil the Merry Crew" caught my eye and I said hmmm maybe a Christmas song I can incorporate on a card.

Pre-Internet (yes there WAS SUCH A TIME!) you would have had to look through innumerable song books and indexes in the hope of finding this bit.  It is somewhat difficult even with the Internet because you have the end of two lines, not the beginning.  No problems for D.O.A.

First, I found that it was by Stephen Foster and spent some time looking through this long long list of his songs ( he has some really lovely love songs in there, a few a bit suggestive, I thought in surprise).
I just could not spot the phrase.

So I searched again and added the lines and Stephen Foster in my search and found this page which gave me the title and lyrics.

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The land of my home is flitting,
Flitting from my view;
A gale in the sails is sitting,
Toils the merry crew.
Here let my home be,
On the water wide:
I roam with a proud heart;
Maggie's by my side;
My own love, Maggie dear,
Sitting by my side
Maggie dear, my own love,
Sitting by my side.

2.
The wind howling o'er the billow
From the distant lea,
The storm raging 'round my pillow
Brings no care to me.
Roll on ye dark waves,
O'er the troubled tide;
I heed not your anger,
Maggie's by my side;
My own love, Maggie dear.
Sitting by my side;
Maggie dear, my own love,
Sitting by my side.

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Storms can appal me never
While her brow is clear;
Fair weather lingers ever
Where her smiles appear
When sorrow's breakers
'Round my heart shall hide,
Still may I find her
Sitting by my side.
My own love, Maggie dear.
Sitting by my side;
Maggie dear, my own love,
Sitting by my side.

Stephen King's Under the Dome to be a TV Series

 

 

 

 

 

Reports are that CBS will air a serialization of Stephen King's novel Under the Dome next summer.  Thirteen episodes are ordered.  This is from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, which should be magic, but in TV something goes awry and they just don't seem to be able to carry out an ongoing storyline.  Perhaps if they approach it as a prolonged mini-series it might work.  Remember your failure at the cave, I say.

The novel features a town which is suddenly cut off from the world by a clear impenetrable dome.  The inhabitants have to survive on what they have, while the outside world tries to break in and rescue them.  It has the appeal of a post apocalyptic survival tale with the added angst that goes with the thought that they could all escape somehow. 

I thought the ending of the novel was quite cheap and unworthy of all that had gone before.  We shall see how they handle the ending if they get that far in the story.

D.O.A. in the Kitchen: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn

My favorite blog from the Smitten Kitchen's Blog Roll is "A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn:

Join me on my delicious journey revisiting American home cooking in the era before convenience foods became popular (1919 to 1955), as I bake and cook from old cookbooks and recipe cards of home cooks purchased at estate sales in Akron, Ohio, and other exotic locations."

Not only are the recipes a ton of fun but the author makes you want to start hunting garage sales and eBay for old recipe boxes full of quirky and delightful recipes you may want to make! 

She demonstrates the recipes with photos and shows the handwritten or mimeographed recipe with tips for working without a net on some of these old gems.  There are stories behind each recipe, which I love.

I found myself going back to the blogs beginning and reading through the entertaining posts.  Honestly, if you're looking to relax and fill your mind with pleasant thoughts at the end of the day, read this cozy and inspiring blog.

Revolution: Nobody's Fault But Mine

I had to stop writing about the show for awhile because it had become TOO AWFUL. Somehow in the last few episodes, a miracle has occurred.

Perhaps several.

Charlie’s character has become the sort of girl you would expect her to be given circumstances. Quieter, more thoughtful. Less bullish. Not soooo bratty, pouting, entitled.
It is as if a different actress were in the role. Maybe Tracy just needed time to find her stride and her inner dare-I-say heroine.

I’ve wondered if the cast and crew have rallied behind the young actress and coached her into being a Charlie we can root for. I could be wrong. She does seem strongest in scenes with her uncle Miles. I thought she handled the reunion scene with her mother and brother Danny very well.

The plot thickens. Miles and Monroe face off. Friends since boyhood they are unsure if they can fight the other effectively. Monroe really bares his soul and begs Miles to come back to the republic only to be turned down. A fight to near death with swords ensues. Miles escapes!

Rachel kills the psycho killer guy with a hammer and a spike to the chest. Don’t fool with Rachel. I’m thinking at End Game she will take out Monroe with a screwdriver or toothpick to the groin. Somehow she knows and appears to be buds with Aaron. Maybe she can toughen him up.

Aaron was a really likeable character for me until his backstory episode. Leaving his wife to face whatever bad things would come “because he couldn’t protect her”. Weak. He seems as if he simpers in every scene he is in since then. Disturbing.

Great scene with Miles holding Neville’s wife hostage and Neville absolutely spitting bullets that Miles went into his home and laid hands on his wife. Yow. The secret plan of Neville and his wife to take over the Republic would result in an even nastier regime, I’m sure. Neville’s son will have to join our rag tag crew in the Revolution to overthrow these bad folks.

Unlike some, I’ve been a fan of Nora all along. She is one tough woman but has a sense of honor that doesn’t quit. I liked her back story enormously and feel her desire to protect her sister is part of her deeply decent human ways.

In the last scene our group is reunited at last but on the run with a newly amulet powered helicopter facing them down.  We won't mention the unlikelyhood of a real helicopter pilot being at hand to hop into that puppy and go right after our heroes and heroines.  Or that the fuel in the copter is still viable. 

The show is on hiatus until March 25. This trend of putting new shows on long hiatus before they really have established their audience seems so foolish. Who will remember to watch by March?

Smitten Kitchen Cookery

Tis baking season!  Just when we get all snuggly and extra sedentary, the oven beckons!  Cookies! Cakes!  Interesting meals!

A person can find themselves swinging through the web looking for recipes that tempt.  There are tons of baking blogs out there.  As with any blog, I like baking blogs that not only have recipes for foods I would like to make (some have god awful recipes that you would rather DIE than even know about) but I like when there is a little essay about the food and the writer's experiences with it.

The Smittten Kitchen Blog is just lovely.  There are plenty of new things to try and the essays are wonderfully written and sound as if Deb Perelman, the site author, is speaking just to you.

She has a huge blogroll of other interesting sites on the left under Good Reads.  I've been working my way through the list.

There is a new cookbook out with recipes that have not appeared on her site.  (She says 85% have not).  Beautiful mouth watering photographs, lovely stories about the food and extra tips for preparation success make this a lovely book.

You know a cookbook is a good bet when there are more than one or two recipes you want to make and are likely to make many times.

I was intrigued by:

Brownie Roll Out Cookies   (Perfect chocolately slices)

Gooey Cinnamon Squares (like Snickerdoodle Bar Cookies)

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats  (an intriguing take on Rice Krispy Treats)

Tomato-Glazed Meatloaves with Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes  (Tiny individual meatball sized meatloaves)

Flat Roasted Chicken with Tiny Potatoes (Golden chicken baked to perfection with little potatoes)

All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough  (she confesses she once had trouble with pie dough and it kept her from being the pie baker she dreamed of being.  I'm all over that).


As a small librarian side note, I was talking with another librarian about this cookbook on the desk this weekend when a woman came up and asked why we were talking about the Smitten Kitten, something she had heard discussed on the radio.  It is possible I kept saying Smitten Kitten when I meant Smitten Kitchen.  After Googling Smitten Kitten (don't do it!) I see why she may have been concerned!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From DOA and Company to you, Happy Thanksgiving!  May you enjoy friends and family today and everyday. 

Saturday Night at the Movies: Cloud Atlas

I wasn't sure I'd like the movie because it looked like something that would all end tragically, across varying timelines.

The story has six timelines and it jumps randomly (it feels random) between them.  I don't think because of the way it is structured you understand that these are the same individuals over time making choices for good or ill that carry down the halls of time with them and change what happens to them in their next incarnation.

A couple of people stand out for always being evil (Hugo Weaving's many characters) or always good (Halle Berry's character, Bae Doo-Na, Susan Sarandon) others go back and forth between good and evil.

I'd like to see it again to straighten out the character stories over time.  Because the overall message was one of hope and good triumphing, I liked the film enough for multiple viewings.

The most compelling tales were :

One in Neo Seoul 2144 with a "fabricant" who is made self aware by rebels.  She broadcasts a message of hope, love and humanity for all times.

Zachary (a member of a mostly savage tribe victimized by an even more savage tribe) and Meronym (one of the last of an advanced race) in a post apocalypic time struggle with ignorance, brutality and hope.

Robert Frobisher, a talented musician struggles to create a piece called the Cloud Atlas Sextet whose musical message of transcendant love ripples throughout time.

Elementary, Dear Bozoid

I have tons of post ideas yet haven't been writing.  Tsk.  Sometimes under duress my mind goes all

So I

Revolution: Soul Train

Interesting episode, dare I say.  This is because the greater focus was on Captain Tom Neville.  He is shown developing from a harried office worker to a tough man who will do anything to defend his family.

Big reveal! Not Nate is his son Jason!  That certainly explains alot.  Jason, after watching this episode, seems to be a better man than his father has become.  That is why he seems to have a soft spot for Danny.  The kid is just more humane. 

Also, Neville keeps working to toughen up Danny I suspect in part, because he really does see the softness and weakness of his own son in Danny. 

Charlie and company work to stop Danny from getting on a steam train to Philadelphia.  Critics of the show have belabored endlessly the fact that the 15 year power outage exiles should be able to use steam. Voila!  A steam train.  The man working to get the train going complains that the train should be in a museum and it is unlikely to make the trip.  Our Captain Neville tells him he can push it the remaining way to Philadelphia if need be.

We got a look at a map of the Monroe Republic:

I had feared that the little psycho had the entire nation but, though he has a large chunk he doesn't have it all.  I suppose having this train will give his empire some oompf.

Charlie of course foiled everything by accidentally running into Neville in town as they were all split up looking for Danny, then following him in a lumbering, Charlie-determined manner.  Shocker he noticed and grabbed her in an alley and stuck a blade to her neck.  Cue Miles to show up and have a chat with his old buddy Neville.

In other developments, Nora plants a bomb on the train to blow up Neville and a bunch of officers in her duties as rebel.  She works with the lone other rebel in town, a crusty old guy who has lost everything.  At the last minute she decides, after looking mooningly at Charlie, that she made a mistake and can't blow it up with Danny on it.  The old geezer wants revenge for his wife's death though, so he stabs her (causing me to briefly think, whoa, they're dispatching another character so quickly...but no just a teeny gut wound) to keep the train on the track to kablooie land.

This gives Charlie and Miles the opportunity to channel old westerns as they easily grab two saddled horses and take off after the train.  Miles leaps train car to train car to get at the log, which he easily recognizes among the hundreds on the car and in the furnace.  Reaches into the fire, grabs that exploding log out and tosses it just in time.

Charlie meanwhile spots Danny in the train car with Neville, plays peek a boo with him a couple of times before Danny decides to make his move.  With Charlie locked outside whacking at the locked door handle barehanded he fights Neville (who had beat him bloody earlier in the episode for fun though Danny's lovely snoot shows no sign of a fight, no swollen lips or broken nose).  Charlie gets the door lock off, pops in and lo, Jason aka Not Nate grabs her from behind.  It doesn't matter where he came from, nope.

Despite the odds, both Charlie and Miles manage to escape and leap from the train, then watch it go away down the tracks.

Last scene: Charlie gives a rah rah "who is coming to Philadelphia" grumbly speech and moves out, clearly now the strong one and the group leader in the minds of the shows' writers.  That's right guys, if you say this is the point at which Charlie has matured and becomes the decisive leader amongst bozos you intend her to be, then by gum we are buying it. Absolutely.  My heroine, yo. 

Survivor Philippines

I missed last week but it turns out to be for the best as the Matsing tribe loses yet another challenge this week.  I thought they were so close tonight to victory but they just could not break the last containers of rice.

They are now down to a mere two players and although I have seen them pick off a tribe down to the last person it is really no fun.

Of the remaining players I like Denise, Malcolm, Lisa and maybe Carter so there are at least still people to root for.

The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech

This is a modern day folk tale set in the small town of Blackbird Tree and on a "grand estate" called Rook's Orchard in Ireland.  Two sets of girls have their lives changed by a boy named Finn who falls from a tree.

The girls in Blackbird Tree, Naomi and Lizzie, are orphans who have no idea what the future holds for them though they have hopes and dreams.  Their status makes them fast friends despite their very different personalities.

When Finn drops in on their lives he fires the imaginations of both girls but especially Naomi's.  A long summer stretches out before them filled with good deed visits to some of the town's crazy old folks, chores at home and magical bits of time with Finn. 

The Girls in Ireland are old women now and Old Friends.  In their case Finn falling from his tree in their youth resulted in a lifelong heartache and a keen desire for revenge.

The lives of the four girls are brought together over the years and miles by Finn and the improbably named Dingle Dangle Man.

Beautifully written and sweet, this is a novel for anyone needing a bit of the unexpected.

Revolution: The Plague Dogs

The dogs in question are owned by a brutal psycho who stabs Maggie, slitting an artery in her leg and thus making her the One Who Dies as advertised.  She went out dreaming she was reading to her kids.  Nice touch.

He also grabs Charlie and ties her up with a triggered trap so when Miles and Not Nate open the door an arrow is launched.  Luckily Charlie was able to rock the chair, which was bolted to the floor, out of the way at the last second.

Charlie acquits herself well saying goodbye to Maggie.  Miles tells Charlie he will stay with her.

Danny meanwhile predicts a tornado like storm that causes Neville and company to take shelter in a barn.  Danny has a moment to escape and he takes it.  Neville catches up with him almost immediately and they run to a storm cellar together and ride out the storm.  The tornado damages the building and Neville is trapped.  Danny could escape but Neville convinces him his dad would help out.  Danny does and immediately Nevilles got him back under wraps.

Charlie's mom is shown leaving the family, walking off on her own.  By show's end we see she left the family on the orders of Miles who has her hands bound then he walks away as she asks if she'll ever see her kids again.  He coldly does not reply.

In current times, Monroe has a torturer come in with his toolkit to try to get information from her.  She seems to have resisted as Monroe then threatens to torture Danny in front of her for better results.

Nice, eh?

Elementary: While You Were Sleeping

Sherlock is a bit calmer and easier to take this week.  No doubt Watson is calming him down already.  The two of them are still very much at odds with each other and have not built a give and take so that they bounce ideas off of each other and work skillfully as a team.

Watson keeps probing to see what was at the root of Sherlock's supposed breakdown that landed him in rehab in NYC.  Sherlock probes back by hacking into her life and fooling with her relationship with her Ex.

The mystery this week was suitably convoluted and involved a fortune and previously unknown heirs popping up and getting dispatched.

Cleverly, the most likely suspect was in a coma for length of the show.  Had to be her, but how?

Nothing like an AA meeting to help Sherlock unravel this mystery.

Sherlock is playing his violin by episode's end.  A casual remark by Holmes that they have had take out five days in a row makes me think Mrs. Hudson is due to appear.  I'm sure the part is  already cast, but they need Hudson to be some burly ex sailor with even more tattoos than Sherlock and a cigar who happens to be a great chef.

Person of Interest: Bad Code

I asked Mr. DOA what significance bad code has in his world and he gave me a couple of explanations that went right over my head and didn't seem to fit the episode.

So we shall posit that Bad Code is modern lingo for Bad Seed.

In tonight's episode Finch is still in the possession of Root, the aforementioned Bad Seed. 

We get some flashbacks of a night in small town Texas where a girl gets in a car and disappears.  Reese and Carter are certain this is Root and go to investigate the old crime.  Not only do they uncover what happened in the past, they show the good old boys who is boss and find out where Root currently is. 

This showed some real mental agility that Reese hadn't previously revealed.  I think he has been smart as a killing machine but has not been able to turn his mental skills towards good.  Carter is a fine foil and is able to fill in some of the human elements and procedural methods that Reese doesn't have.

Any frame that Root is in is of course painful, whether she is using torture tricks on a government agent or just getting in Finch's face and being cooly slimy.  I am really unhappy they let her get away, I do not want to see her again.

On the plus side, Reese figured out just where Root was holding Finch, got there just after they had left but he followed the breadcrumb trail Finch left for him of a cufflink and code typed into a cell phone...decoded the code at good speed, raced to the train station...rescued Finch, but let Root go when he could have easily gotten her.  Grr.

Finch will now have that Dutch speaking watchdog as a companion.  He accepts it even though the dog ate an Asimov rare title. 

Kudos to the show for not quite going with the stereotypical librarian who was more than key to the disappearance of Not Root.  The librarian was warm, friendly to everyone, but flawed in her choice of loves.  Happens.

DOA's Five Game Blogs to Read in 2013

Modeled after a certain blog shout out that DOA never makes for some odd reason, I thought I'd like to do my own blog recommendations on a variety of topics.

We'll start with gaming blogs.  These are personal blogs because I like knowing what a real person thinks about games I might want to play.  These folks have been writing for awhile and they have interesting opinions that haven't been filtered through some soul sucking "we have to please a company or entity" filter.  Game on!



Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog

These two guys talk about all kinds of games and they seem to strive between them to play a little of everything.  Very opinionated yet thoughtful, they cover alot of ground and are working on designing their own game.



Stylish Corpse

Isn't this one of the best blog names ever?  Its author has been writing for a long time, and has recently finished a run of columns at mmorpg.com   She plays mostly MMOs but I seem to recall her sneaking in Skyrim as well.   She is a stylish writer, really informative and fun.


Biobreak

Written by Justin Olivetti who appears in many places as "Syp" and on Massively and Biobreak as himself, this covers alot of territory.  If it is out there he knows about it or is playing it.   He generously works to promote and encourage new bloggers to keep those fledgling game writers coming.


Ardwulf's Lair

Ardwulf writes about a variety of games, largely MMOs but he does try out some of the latest new hot stuff.  He also avidly plays table top games so he has a sort of strategic thinking mode thing going at all times.   A busy guy who doesn't always have time to write, he keeps adding new features and methods of getting his gaming thoughts out there.



Gnome's Lair

Gnomie (as I call him secretly) is a bundle of manic retro gaming energy.  He has a series of You Tube posts and interviews and he reminds me of someone I just can't put my finger on.  You'll see what I mean.  He is a champion of Indie Game Development as well as old RPGs, platformers and you name it.  High energy, lots of fun.

Revolution: No Quarter

I'll just say this episode was not as bad as the first two, though it is still highly flawed.  I'm not sure if this was because there was less focus on Charlie and more on others, or if Charlie was mostly more calm than previously.

We have Nora, Miles and Charlie attempting to help a group of wounded rebels escape a "base" in a restaurant.  They have the one sniper rifle and the large group of militia have tons of guns and ammo.  There is a standoff once the sniper rifle comes into play.

Miles suggests they tunnel out the back wall of the restaurant (criminy!) instead of trying to ease people out the windows in a back room.  Doh.

Once the sniper runs out of ammo the militia charge the restaurant which they could have done at any time rather than just letting themselves get picked off one by one to use up the sniper's ammo as their leader (Jacob from Lost) directs.

The militia leader is an old buddy of Miles and he lets everyone know that Miles is head of the Militia, that he created it, and has been Monroe's right hand man since the beginning.  Miles turns himself in to the militia in return for the militia letting the rebels go.  They agree to this for no good reason, once their leader is freed they would in fact wipe out the rebels and away they go.  But.

Next thing you know the militia leader and Miles are walking across a bridge shooting the proverbial breeze and yo, explosions go off, Charlie and Nora pop up and grab Miles in the confusion and take him posthaste to the other end of the bridge. 

Charlie, barely lifting her crossbow or aiming manages to hit bullseye! a backpack full of explosives she cannily dropped in the center of the bridge.  Eye poker!

Aaron and Maggie spend the episode hanging out in Grace's house.  Grace is gone we don't know where.  Aaron tries to put together her smashed computer in vain.  Maggie hangs out calmly.  After a short speech by Aaron talking about all that has been lost to him in the blackout, suddenly his amulet glows and power comes on for a minute or so.  A walkman on a table plays Marvin Gaye's "I heard it through the grapevine".  Maggie's iphone powers on and her kids smile out at her.   The power goes away as suddenly as it began leaving them stunned.

Daniel, the whiny pouty brother of Charlie has to deal with a nasty bully who beats him in retribution for his dead friend who Daniel killed with a crossbow in episode one.  I'm not a fan of seeing anyone tied up and beaten, especially a goofy misguided kid like Daniel.  Luckily Daniel has a bit of spark, when the guys comes around again he fakes an asthma attack and throttles the guy warning him he'll kill him if he messes with him again.

Good Charlie moments were where she seemed like a normal character when she was tending the wounded, and when she listened to Nora's story.

Bad Charlie moments when she got all peeved about Miles and his bad boy past and when she called her dead father a coward.  Also that half arsed shot she took at the backpack.  Whap.

Next week's episode merrily promotes that SOMEONE DIES!  They try to show a little bit of everyone including a tied up Charlie so you go oh nooooooes, but we all know poor Maggie is marked for death.   Keep that suspense coming, guys.

Once Upon a Time: Broken

The season premiere did not disappoint!  It opens with a man walking a city street who I thought at first must be Bale, but on closer inspection it looks like Jefferson.  There is a Hatter poster of some kind on his apartment wall so, not Bale, I say.

He is obviously leading a miserable existence and its raining and he can't get his window closed.  A dove stops by with a postcard that has a picture Storybrook and the message "Broken" on it.

Storybrook isn't actually broken, but it is working a bit differently than might be expected since magic has returned.

Doctor Whale, who remains enigmatic and unidentified as a fairy tale character leads a mob against Regina.  She has a moment where she tries to use magic to blast them with her returned powers only to find that they are not back after all.  The crowd presses in.

Charming, Snow, Henry and Emma arrive just in the nick of time to break things up.  Interestingly Henry shows he has feelings for Regina after all as he begs the crowd not to harm her.

Doctor Whale and Charming go head to head and Whale defiantly tells Charming you're not my Prince.  Where did this rapscallion come from anyway?

Gold slides around his promise to Belle not to kill Regina by sending a soul sucking wraith after her.  The wraith is pretty crummy looking but he is bent on getting to Regina.  She is put in jail to protect her from the mobs and the wraith.

Regina has a plan to send him through Jefferson's hat to another place.  She claims fairy is gone so it will send him into a void or she isn't sure what.  Regina desperately turns the hat as the wraith approaches trying to infuse it with magic so they can lure the wraith in. 

It is not until Emma kneels by her side and touches the hat that it spins and opens and the wraith can be drawn in.  Emma is sucked in too.  Snow, unwilling to lose her daughter after just regaining her jumps in after.  The Prince tries to follow but the portal has closed, leaving him with Regina and Henry.

He takes Henry's hand and leads him back to Snow's apartment where they gaze sadly at a picture of Emma and Snow.

Meantime in fairy, there is a small bit of the land left and Sleeping Beauty is found and wakened by her prince.  He is accompanied by Mulan (!).   Somehow the prince is also marked by the wraith so the reunion of the Prince and Aurora is cut short by the attack of the wraith. 

This leaves Mulan and Aurora who both loved the prince as it turns out.  The wraith is contained in an amulet.  Among the rubble of the battle Mulan pushes some debris aside revealing what she says is the source of the wraith:  Emma and Snow.


Sending Snow and Emma off to fairy is a good plot twist.  Emma is still having trouble identifying with all of these crazy people.  She can't understand what their existence was like, she can't imagine the power of magic and the battles between good and evil that could take place that might make two parents desperate enough to send their child off to an unknown fate.   It looks like she is going to learn.

Instead of the battle for Henry between two mothers that dominated the first season, we have Henry in the custody of Charming, his grandfather.   He can get some grounding in what life should be like in a magical world.  Since he is of this world, I'm guessing that Henry will have his own magic and Charming can steer him in a decent use of that magic.

I'm glad Belle came back to Gold at the last, because we know Beauty loves her Beast despite his flaws and frightening ways and she can help redeem him.