Gotye - Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra

So, in my move over from my LJ account to this one, I'm going to rustle up my old favorite videos and repost them here.  I figure it'll be easier to have them over on this blog and I won't have to go digging them up over there so much.  So, here's the first, the multiple online artists covering Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know".  It's a nice mashup.

Looking back on A Storm of Swords

I think it's time to admit that I'm done with my Livejournal blog.  No one reads it, I don't have any interest in maintaining it, and though I have fewer readers at this blog, at least blogspot gets traffic, so you never know.  I've been putting off this blog post for some time, so it's time to get to it.

I've never been the most avid reader.  I've wanted to be; I've read lists of my friends who seem to be reading classic novels all the time and telling how it's changed their lives this week.  I wanted to read these classics and see how such things would make me more intellectual.  Maybe read Ulysses and figure out what the big deal with Bloomsday is.  Gabriel Garcia Marquez and whoever wrote The Wasp Factory.   But I also want to keep up with great television, independent movies, blockbusters, the latest video games, study to by a physicist, lose weight, and explore the beauty of my current state of residence.  There's not enough time in life for all of those things, so many of them have to give.

So, you can see why when HBO began their hit TV show Game of Thrones, I was skeptical that I would ever find the time and will to read the books on which they're based.  I was especially skeptical after watching the first two seasons.  The story is amazing and rich and fascinating, but I didn't think I would want to read stories which I'd already seen onscreen.  I'd done so with The Lord of the Rings and as a result realized that I liked the movies more than the classic books they were based on.  But I finally did.  I checked out Martin's first book, got the audiobook and began reading and listening.  One thing I realized is that if I really like the story, I don't want to hear it on audiobook.  I discovered this with a Star Wars book a tried to listen to a few years ago and rediscovered it with A Game of Thrones.  Audiobooks work for some, but with me, I feel that I need to read the words to get the full experience, to have it in my head and my head alone.  As a result, I read A Clash of Kings more than I listened to its audio and I marveled at just how different the show had gone from that book.  Perhaps if I'd read the book first, I would have been put off by the changes, but I actually like many of the changes the show made, particularly in Dany's story.

Then came A Storm of Swords, a story for which I was rather spoiled in many aspects and which I must put a SPOILER WARNING from here on out.  So, SPOILER WARNING for A Storm of Swords as well as for a major revelation in A Dance With Dragons.  If you have not yet read ASoS and don't want to be spoiled, don't read on as I'm reacting quite a lot to events that take place in that book.  I'll warn you again when I get to the Dance with Dragons spoiler and speculation that spawns from here on out.

Still reading?  This is your last chance...

Okay...

Nolan Worlds Collide

The Dark Knight Rises is still over a month away, but the excitement is undoubtedly building.  When the second trailer debuted a few months back, someone made this nice little video combining clips from Nolan's Batman trilogy with a voiceover from The Prestige.  And it works.

The Stars in Us

Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about the most astounding fact in his minad and someone sets it to a beautiful video.

So, feel large.  Feel significant.  Because we are.

The Spot

Hello, Blogspot!  Might as well join the crowd and start one here.  I've had a livejournal forever, so why not start one of these, too?  We have liftoff.

Oh, wait, it's called blogger now.  Okay then.