Just got home from seeing Batman Begins. Jim got tickets to a sneak preview thing, so we headed up there to see it. I had heard the movie was going to be quite a bit different theme-wise compared to the older ones. It certainly was. This movie gripped me from the beginning until the end. I was tense throughout most of the movie. The action scenes were well done, and really not over the top. The plot flowed nicely, and as some reviews have noted, the hallucination scenes were extremely well done.

I liked the little touches (the explanation as to why he created ears on his cowl) that really helped me suspend disbelief. The background info on how batman came to be with all his toys and fighting skills was also covered, and again, was very well done.

In short, I loved this movie. I want to go see it again. Our seats were pretty close to the screen, so I missed some of the dialog, and the action. I just want to see it again. I don’t say that about too many movies.

Neither Sue nor I was in much of a mood to cook last night so we both agreed to go out for dinner. We headed to the Gorge Point Pub. I must say, that it was one of the best dining experiences I have had in a long time. Withing a couple minutes of sitting down a server came by and dropped off menus. We ordered drinks, they came quickly. The appy arrived, and no soonerhad we finished eating it, the plate was taken away. Our main meals showed up very soon after that.

Once we were finished eating, the dirty plates were taken away quite quickly. The server brought the bill very soon after. This was magic to us since one of our biggest peeves about a restaurant is having to wait forever to get the bill once we are finished eating. When teh server came with the bill I gave it a quick glance then handed over the credit card which was processed quickly.

In all it was a great experience, and the food was very good too.

I headed over to La Fiesta for lunch today. For the record, the 2 soft taco combo is pretty close to enough for 2 people. Add a third taco and you would be there. Yum! It is close to work, and usually pretty quick on the service. Their food is top notch, and for the price, you get huge portiona. Today was the first time I had tried them for lunch, and faced a hefty wait. Never seen that for dinner though.

Last night was the David Usher concert. Before the show K, sue and I went to Darcy’s Pub for dinner. Mmmmmm. The food was awesome, and the beer was darn good too. Nice pub. Sue and I will definitely go back someday.

On to the show. What can I say. David Usher is just so charismatic. Simply fantastic. The show was more that I had anticipated, and that includes the volume! It was crazy loud, but the crowd was lots of fun.

For me it is hard to distinguish between Moist and David Usher songs. They played quite a few Moist songs. Besides David, the bassist Jeff Pearce was also playing last night. Jeff and one of the other guitarists were having so much fun up on stage. They had huge smiles and were goofing off a bit while playing. It appeared to me that they would have little contests to see who could play loudest/fastest/whatever. Their dynamic helped make the show great.

The vocals were absolutely amazing. How he can go from screaming so loudly to something soft and quiet all in one breath was astounding. His voice never cracked once, which was pretty incredbile since he was putting so much force behind his singing.

David Ushers music is something I can never get enough of. I get his CD the day it is released, and after listening to it once, I am craving a new album already. His lyrics are something I love to read and try to interpret (something I am not very good at). His songs are somehow complex, yet very simple. This dynamic makes them infinitely listenable for me. I hear him play live, and I get a renewed energy to listen to all his music again (rightnow I am listening to Moist’s Creature album).

Unfortunately the sound quality was really lacking. The volume was turned up way, way, way too loud for my liking (and I generally like loud music). When the band was really rockin and David was belting out the song, everything became a jumbled wall of sound. You couldn’t distinguish any one instrument or person. It was simply loud sound. Horrible. At times there was some awful feedback too. This happened way too often. yeuck. The crowd interrupted David a lot too. Some songs the band would stop to be quite for a second before picking up the song again. The queue for them to begin was David singing, but when he leaned towards the crowd to start singing, their cheering was so loud, that he couldn’t start. It threw him off a bit. He also had to ask the people in the front row to keep their hands below his knees :0

He loves the crowd though. He kept reaching out, shaking hands while he was singing. He made eye contact very well. It didn’t feel contrived. Quite a few times he stopped singing and let the crowd do it. He always smiled and thanked us. I lost track of how many times he thanked the crowd for coming.

I really enjoyed the show. The next time he comes back through town I will be getting more tickets. I love his music, his energy, and his presence. It truly is a treat to see him perform.

Friday afternoon I saw the Matrix Revolutions. I was really hoping it was better than the second one.

First a quick recap before a more in depth review. I enjoyed Revolutions much more than Reloaded. Still, it wasn’t as good s the first. Revolutions wasn’t as over the top, yet it attempted to solve the story for you. Some of my aggravations of the second were still in Revolutions. The talking in riddles really confused me in Reloaded. There was less in this one, but I still was sufficiently confused that I wanted to watch it a second time, only to figure out what the hell they were talking about.

Read more for the rest.

OK, spoiler alert !!!

As others have said, the second and third stories did a lot to explain why things were in the first movie. The Matrix was such a mind blowing movie, but I found the second anf third mind numbing. They attempted to explain everything in the context of the movie. This didn’t help me at all.

I really did not enjoy Reloaded. The effects were too over the top. The CGI not good enough. If I can look at a scene and see the CGI in an obvious manner, I usually don’t like it. Some of the fight scenes between Neo and Agent Smith were just ludicrous. The chase scenes, although spectacular, were completely unbelievalbe. The introduction/explanation for phenomena such as vampires, ghosts, etc. was just unneeded, except that it allowed the Wachowski brothers to play with some cool effects. They did not add anything to the story in my opinion.

Revolutions had less of the things I disliked about Reloaded. The stunts were less over the top, and generally more believable. There was some predictability (Neo’s follower saving the day), but it wasn’t too bad.

One thing I got though was something that other reviews I have read touched on, but never really talked about. When Neo was blinded, he started “seeing” things. He could see the guy who was trying to kill him, and he could see the machines. It was a new kind of code similar to the matrix code, but all fiery looking.

It is my belief that the “machine world” as told by the movie was in fact another level of the matrix. What better way to keep the humans subservient than to allow them to think they can escape “the Matrix”. Their struggle to save Zion was created for them to allow their minds to believe they can save themselves. Belief is a very powerful force. When Neo’s eyes got fried, somehow he learned to see the new code. I am not sure if he realized that the meachines were part of the Matrix or not. To support this, remember back to the end of Reloaded? Neo stopped the machines while he was in the machine world? Maybe he learned that he could control the machine matrix like he could control the matrix he was from? That also lends credence as to how agent smith took over the human. He didn’t take over the human insomuch as he took over the machine world matric version of the human.

Maybe the 4th movie will get into this topic (if they create one).

Tuesday night was another great concert night. Sue and I travelled to Vancouver to see Dave Matthews Band at GM Place. We met up with Erin and Christine ahead of time for dinner, then it was off to the show.

I had seen DMB one other time, and that concert was absoutely amazing. Excellent sound, wicked energy from the band, and by far the best light show at a concert I have ever seen.

This show had a lot to live up to.

I lived up to my hype though. Again the sound was excellent, the band was full of energy, and the light show excellent (not quite as good as last time). The music was so fluid that I had a hard time not believing I was listening to a CD. Of course the songs had some of the best solos I have heard, flowing from the song to solo after solo until each band member had their turn, then again blending back into the song.

Few concerts are perfect though. There was a large Jumbotron (for lack of a better word) that was above the band. It was a beautiful screen with crisp clear, and bright images. The problem was that it was so easy to watch the band on the screen, it distracted from watching the band. Several times I shook my head and realized that I had been staring at the screen for the past while, and hadn’t even really been watching the band (something I normally love to do).

Another distraction was that they sometimes toook large breaks in between the songs. To me it ruined the flow of the show, but I did notice that during a couple of the breaks, a technician was attempting to repair something on the massive drum kit. The breaks did highlight one aspect of the band, and that is their timing. After one long break, just as the crowd was starting to relax, all at once there was an explosion of sound and light emanating from the stage. It actually startled me.

The negatives aside, I really enjoyed the concert. The drummer was amazing, and alway, always, always had a huge grin on his face. The fiddler, had such energy, and really seemd to be having fun up there. The sax player, blended in perfectly. The keyboardist was OK, and basically did his job. The bassist was hilarious. Usually when the camera was on him he started dancing really funny, and aking fishy faces. I am not sure if he as in a strange mood, or if that is what he does.

Dave. What needs to be said about him. He is a mumbler. We were talking about it at dinner, and the few times he talked to the crowd, I had no clue what he was saying. Singing is a different matter, and that was excellent.

I all, I would rate this an excellent show, and would recomend anyone who likes his music to see him live.