Media Month in Review – October 2009.

So, it’s time to cover what-all I’ve watched/read during the month of October. I’ve went to Icon 2009, the largest Israeli convention of the year, which might get a post of its own. I’ve also begun my third and final year of my B.A., which had been helpful in reading more books.

I am considering every so often perhaps making a post where I give one paragraph to several movies/books I don’t want to talk about at length, but want to give more than a sentence. Opine below.

Uninhibited Media Consumption? Click picture for source.

Read on for my media consumption of lastmonth, which had been quite significant, though I’m not sure if as significant as the spending list. Then again, buying takes less time than consuming what one buys!

Books:

• Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny, in Hebrew. It’s just so short, so I picked it up and read it, again.
• Legend, first book of the Drenai cycle, by David Gemmell. A very enjoyable and solid heroic fantasy read, with roman and “celtic” overtones.
• Burndive, by Karin Lowachee, in Hebrew. An enjoyable read, very similar in the storyelling tone to the first book, Warchild, though the characters couldn’t be more different (or could they?). Now it turns out there’s also a third book, Cagebird. And I have no idea why it’s so expensive on Amazon.
• Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris (sadly, not with the cute cover). That was a fun romp. I am not sure I have the room and money to devour the whole series right now though. Might go through some of my current “stock” of books first…
• Fables comic TPBs 1-3, Legends in Exile, Animal Farm, and Storybook Love. Bill Willingham was the guest of honour at Icon 2009. We have the full series in trade paperbacks, and I need to read it all, you know? Been too long since I’ve last read it.

Movies:

• Last Chance Harvey, which was nice, but nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve suffered some instances of “Viewer sympathetic embarrassment” for the character of Harvey, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman.
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was not very good, to put it mildly. At least I didn’t feel my brain cells dying.
• District 9 was quite nice, if a bit heavy handed on the allegory. Icon 2009’s opening film.
• Gamer in Icon, where Gerard Butler had been so similar to Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
• The Clone Returns Home in Icon, which is basically a French movie made in Japan. Too heavy on the nature shots, too light on making sense and having plot. It has one heart-rending scene.
• Zombie Girl in Icon. A documentary on a 13 year old girl who had made a full-length feature film zombie horror film. Had some pacing issues, when things were slow in the production, and we could feel them slow watching them.
• Let the Right One In in Icon. A nice little movie, and I never thought young girls with blood-splatters on their face would look so adorable.
• The Secret of Kells in Icon, which was quite nice, and had an animation style that combined Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls. It also has some really nice music.
• A short movie collection in Icon, which moved from the great to the sophomoric. List includes Marooned?, Fun on Earth, The League, Simulacrum®, and The Story of Sputnik).

Anime and TV:

• Kyoran Kazoku Nikki 12-17. Too silly to watch non-stop, non-silly enough that I keep watching. Really love the opening.
• Claymore 1-18. I had since finished the series. It begun slowly, and for some reason I can’t point out I ended up quite enjoying it and being sucked in.
• Boston Legal ends. It had a good run, and it was time to step off the soap-box.
• Ugly Betty, season 3 runs. A guilty pleasure, what can I say? And I knew Kimmie Keegan was portrayed by Lindsay Lohan.
• Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone at Icon. It was somewhat neat, it wasn’t “good”. Heck, if the anime ended where this movie ended, we wouldn’t have said it’s good either. This was the exposition. Now need to get to 2.0 where things would happen.