Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

As most of you know, I'm a Transformers geek back since the 80's. Finally got to see Transformers 2 on IMAX tonight at the Air & Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Center, which was actually featured in the movie! Even amidst the bad reviews, I thought it was pretty good. It followed a similar formula as the first movie, and had its share of deaths and resurrections. I was somewhat surprised at how much of the traditional Transformers lore they actually incorporated this time, so I liked how they kept with some of the ideas of the original story. Don't get me wrong, though--the primary premise of the movie is lots of rumbling robots. :) I also thought score was fantastic--very "Gladiator"-ish!

(p.s. Loved the cameos of Lisbeth Scott [vocals] and Michael York & Robin Atkin Downes for 2 of the original Primes, and Frank Welker (the original Megatron from the cartoon) as Soundwave and Devastator!)

Some Cool Facts About the Movie:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctmovies/2009/06/fighting-robots-are-cool.html

Fighting Robots Are Cool

by Todd Hertz

While I wasn't a big fan of Michael Bay's Transformers, the 12-year-old robot geek inside me loved the bots he and his team created. I'm expecting the new movie to have the same frustrating mix of weak plot, frustrating side tangents, needless side plots and annoyingly lowest-common denominator "comic" relief. But I am also expecting bigger and better robot stuff. Here are some cool geeky facts about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:

* There were 14 robots last time. There are 46 robots this time.
* If you had all the gold ever mined in the history of man, you could build a little more than half of Devastator (seen here), a robot comprised of several smaller Decepticons. (Here's the old Devastator.)
* In one key sequence, Optimus Prime will be life size on IMAX screens.
* The first movie took 20 Terabytes of disk space. The sequel took 145 Terabytes. That's seven times bigger and would fill 35,000 DVDs. (That's gonna be awkward for NetFlix.)
* If you rendered the entire movie on a modern home PC, you would have had to start the renders 16,000 years ago to finish in time for the premiere.
* A single imax shot in the movie would have taken almost 3 years to render on a top of the line home PC running nonstop.

Posted by Todd Hertz on June 22, 2009 10:25 AM

Mixed Reviews:

Christanity Today:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2009/transformers2.html

Crosswalk.com:
http://www.crosswalk.com/root/movies/11605045/page0/

EW:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20286964,00.html?xid=email-ThisWeekend-20090625-Opening-Story1

Relevant Magazine:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/features-reviews/reviews/film-reviews/17361-review-transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen

Concerns over the Jive Twins:
http://www.mail.com/PrintableView.aspx?articlepath=APNews%5CGeneral-Entertainment%5C20090625%5CUS-Film-Transformers-Jar-Jar-Again.xml&cat=entertainment&subcat=&pageid=1

The world's highest-grossing "flop" in the critic world:
http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx?articlepath=APNews%5CGeneral-Entertainment%5C20090629%5CUS-Film-Transformers-Critics.xml&cat=entertainment&subcat=&pageid=1

Air Force Concert Band at the Air Force Memorial

We saw a fantastic concert by the Air Force Concert Band along with the Singing Sergeants performed at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA. Here are a couple of the songs from their program that I recorded. Enjoy!

"Waltz" from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky:


Riverdance by Bill Whelan:

Air Force Concert Band Plays Riverdance @ Yahoo! Video

Arlington: The Rap

My father-in-law sent this video to me about Arlington (Where I lived for 11 years, and where my in-laws still do)....Remy's so on target...though he focuses on the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, it pretty much applies to most of the city-county.
It's HILARIOUS--it made me snort...twice.

Meet Mason!

We adopted a new cat from a local rescue. He is a 9 month old Ragdoll, and aside from being skittish with noises, he has warmed up to us nicely. He is slowly getting used to the house, and our other cat, Gigi, is still working on her hostessing skills. He was named Mason, which I don't mind keeping, but Eric may have another idea! :)

MBC Flute Choir plays "Amazing Arrangement"

The McLean Bible Church Flute Choir premiered the group during the services of June 13/14, 2009. Here I am playing with the Flute Choir our offertory piece, "Amazing Arrangement" by Judy Nishimura.