smnevans

Watched Wall-E again with the kids this evening. This time around it really seemed like a kids movie. This is a good thing. Too many movies that are ostensibly for kids try to appeal to adults or teenagers by including elements of pop culture or pop psychology. An example of this is the horrible Chicken Little. Wall-E has a simple story. The characters have simple motives. I far prefer this to the kind of fake depth and “darkness” that have made the Harry Potter films so unpleasant.

I remember that when it was released some people questioned whether a film with so little dialog would appeal to children. On second viewing this seems even more ludicrous than it did last year. I can’t imagine any dialog in the first half of the movie that wouldn’t be totally redundant and distracting.

Here, I am … Lonely Wall-E … Only a cockroach for a friend … Wow! What’s that light? … Hey! That’s hot! Hmmm, she’s hot.”

So much is communicated in their gestures and expressions that I actually think Eve and Wall-E talk a little too much.

Sunday, April 26th, 2009 2 Comments

Etymotics Research has some new eartips. They are called Gliders and are shaped like small mushrooms. Having read some glowing reports about their sound quality I wanted to try them out.

I couldn’t find them in any shops here in Japan so I emailed Etymotics asking if they knew of a Japanese source. Their response suprised me: they sent me a pair for free.

A week later they sent me two more pairs. A mistake perhaps but a very nice one.

They have the best sound of any of the eartips I have tried so far. Detailed, rich and warm. They fit nicely in my cavernous ears. They don’t block out quite as much noise as the flange eartips but I only notice it when I am in my school.

Friday, April 17th, 2009 No comments