Big Rock Ranch Recap

Last Friday, I got to do something that made my geeky little heart go pitter patter. I got to walk the hallowed halls of one of George Lucas's ranches!
And oh, my gosh, the secrecy! That man likes his privacy. Signing in at the lobby, you have to agree that you will not take any photos. (Or probably blab about it on the internet. I should have read that thing more closely.)
So in lieu of photos, I made this:

And now, unfortunately, we must rely on my story telling skills.
The first thing I noticed was the fence. The county girl in me said "Sheee-yoot. That there fence cost some money. We must be here." It's an extremely nondescript, albeit quite nice, fence. Then there's a nice, but very low profile gate. There are no signs. It would be very easy to just drive past. You can't see a darn thing from the main road.
So, anyway, the buildings. Oh my gosh, the buildings! They're gorgeous. And huge. Huge perfect Craftsman style buildings.
Everything inside was done in impeccable Craftsman style. It was like walking into an art history textbook. The lobby had some amazing Japanese antiques. The hallways are lined with gorgeous old movie posters.
We wound up basically just eating lunch there. In a ginormous, beautiful room. They had a guest chef that day (Indian food!), and all the microbrewed sodas you could shake a stick at. It seemed like everyone ate together. "See that guy over there with the backwards baseball cap?" Our host said. "He's the director."
When I was a geeky teenager, working or Lucasfilm was my number one impossible dream. (Er, okay, maybe that was two or three down the list, somewhere after getting to marry Han Solo, but still.) Seeing it in real life was just...amazing. And I really wish I had photos to show you.

Avatar: the update

Remember a week ago, how I posted a post confessing my ignorance of the whole Avatar thing, figuring it was a movie adaptation of Avatar: the Last Airbender?
WELL OH MY GOSH PEOPLE!

It exists! There really is an Airbender movie!
Guess who picked up the...giant stick wielding bald headed kid and made a giant motion picture?
M. Night Shyamalan!

Two things to notice:
1. BLUE. Check out all the blue in that poster. See, mistaking one Avatar for the other is totally reasonable.
2. They dropped the Avatar part of the name. The first part of the name, also arguably the main part of the name. (It's not like it would be any more confusing to have two Avatar movies running around. Just think of all the movie titles last year that involved "9". No, wait, that is totally confusing.)

Right. So this movie = totally my idea. Please send checks here: Absolutely Small, 1 Big Head Lane, Shamelessville, CA. Attn: Tiara Buying Division.

In which I start ripping on Avatar

First, a disclaimer: someone let Snarky Claire out of her cage this morning. The following post is going to be a mean spirited tirade about all that is wrong in the world movie. Don't read past this cute photo if you still want to think of me kindly, or absolutely loved the movie Avatar and think that it is "better than Star Wars!". Better than Star Wars? Better than STAR WARS?
***PUG BREAK***

Where was I? Oh yes:
It turns out that I am completely out of touch with popular culture. This is not really a shock or even news, but it's all come to an interesting head with AVATAR.
First of all: the name. Up until about a month ago, I was convinced that they had made a movie out of the animated tv series Avatar: The Last Airbender. I have never seen The Last Airbender. I have no desire to see The Last Airbender. And honestly, Airbender sounds like a fancy word for a fart. So why would I want to see a movie based on said flatulence? How was I to know there were no blue people(?) in said animated tv show? And why did James Cameron get involved?
I was calling Avatar "Air Bender" up until very recently. Actually, sometimes I still slip up and call it that.
So, just for the record:
THIS is Avatar: The Last Air Bender:

and THIS is AVATAR, no Air Bender:

I can tell the difference now! Interestingly, if you search Avatar Images on Google, this is what comes up. So at least it's not just me who's confused.
This poor movie really never had a chance with me. Maybe it was the McDonald's tie in commercials. You know the one, where the guy turns to the other guy and says "Since when do mountains float?!"
Since this:

1986, Studio Ghibli
and this:

(also 1986, Studio Ghibli)
and this!

And oh, say 1726 or so when Gulliver's Travels was first published. We won't even mention the whole "phantom cities" phenomenon that gets mentioned in those "unexplained mysteries" type of books. Not that yours truly is suggesting for a moment that said phantom cities have any basis in reality, merely that the concept has been out there floating around (heh) for a few hundred years.

But that's just one random comment in a McDonald's commercial. McDonald's commercials are known to be wildly out of touch and awful. (Remember the "I'd hit that" burger commercial? Good work, fellas!) It's not James Cameron's fault!

But this little tidbit from the hallowed halls of Fail Blog is pretty interesting:


And finally, the "better than Star Wars" line. Better than Star Wars? Them's fightin' words, mister! Okay, the newer three kind of sucked, and had numerous flaws, so maybe. But the older three?


Rant over. Okay, let the flame-y comments commence!