The more you listen, the more themes pop up, weaving each piece into the whole. Amazing.

You can tell this is one of his first novels, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done by an amateur. I confess, I carried this with me on the T hoping and praying Tobin might randomly hop on and see me adoring him. (How embarrassing…)

I do love how this book transcends the givens of the horror genre and concentrates on the main character’s actual issues – the issues that would plague a kid who suddenly finds out that he can’t go back to the life he knew before. Very well done, that.

More vivid than her first album. You can’t fall asleep to this one so easily… Still an amazing miz of bossa nova with everything else in da world. And I love the understatement of her voice!

I think this album rocks harder than other Stereophonics albums. It’s good for rocking out while cleaning your room. Or my room! Come clean my room, please.

I’m not quite in the mood to kill myself these days. I’ll try this album again in February.

A good addition to my collection of creepy coffee table books – piss-your-pants funny!

Definitely figured it out before the end, but still very entertaining. Go Aggie, go!

There’s a song spoof called “Everyone Sounds Like Coldplay Now.” This album supports that theory. I guess the overplayed second track irks me too much right now… I may get to like this as I listen a few more times. But I usually know I don’t like an album if I hear the chords and think, “Wow, even I could figure this out on my guitar.”

I met a VP of Walden Media this summer. He had quite a bit to say about books turned into films, and now I find I can’t separate his speech from my viewing experience. Walden Media, if you don’t know, acts as a sort of advocate of the text in Hollywood – not an easy task at all. I think the film achieved its own goal; it told the story with all necessary parts, evoked the right emotions and questions, and didn’t slip into utter gore (which seems to be the easy way to get ten yr olds to see movies – sad, right?).

I think the filmmakers made great choices. And I think the movie itself is a valuable text to be lain alongside the original text.

So here’s the thing: all of the Harry Potter books have a predictable formula. The stories are not different enough in themselves – the details are the fun part. Rowling’s good at decorating her plot (singular). And of course this creates a problem when paring down a book for a screenplay; one ends up with more plot than decoration. In other words, I feel like I’ve seen this movie three times before.

That being said, I did enjoy it. Most of the parts I felt were flawed (the conspicuous tardiness of global awareness in the wizarding world, for example), were things that bothered me in the books as well. And clearly there’s a “give the people what they want” attitude here and there that makes little sense (i.e., lots of random Weasley Twins moments).

Right, I was trying to say that I enjoyed it. I did. I even felt some chest constriction after a certain character’s death. Overall, I wish I could give it a “worth consuming” sans exclamation point.