Archive for January 9th, 2012

Holy cow.

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Unless I win the lottery sometime soon (and that would require buying a ticket) I won’t be purchasing a Nikon D4.

However, the idea of a camera with built-in wired Ethernet boggles my mind. (The WiFi add-on seems kind of nifty too, especially for the automation it offers. But at $6,000 for the camera, it seems to me to be something that should have been included rather than an extra cost option.)

(Hattip: Les Jones.)

Odd things found on the Internet.

Monday, January 9th, 2012

I honestly do not remember how I ran across this; if I can ever reconstruct the path, I’ll post an appropriate hattip.

Anyway, did you know that there were “Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken” restaurants in the late 1960s – early 1970s? And one of the people behind them was a Tennessee politician with the classic name John Jay Hooker?

“What really happened to Minnie Pearl Fried Chicken?”

Cahiers du cinéma: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Here are my total lack of qualifications for reviewing this movie:

  • I have not read this, or any of the Stieg Larsson books. I have heard people I trust say they’re great. I have heard people I trust say they are awful and overrated. I have heard people I trust say they may have been better in the original Swedish, but Larsson was poorly served by his English translators. My mother wanted to see this because she tried to read the book and couldn’t get more than 20 pages into it.
  • I have not seen any of the Swedish movie adaptations of the books.
  • I’m way behind in my David Fincher. I liked “Se7en“, but haven’t seen anything since. I missed “Zodiac” when it was in the theater (I really should get the DVD), and I have “Fight Club” on (the extra-special) DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. I had no interest in “The Social Network“, and I heard strongly negative things about “Benjamin Button“.

All that aside, I thought “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” was a solid 3 – 3 1/2 star movie. I didn’t feel like I spent my $7 in vain, and the actual movie going experience was pleasant enough. (Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have the Alamo Drafthouse.)

I did have a few quibbles and problems with the movie. I’m going to put those after a jump, even though I’m going to try to avoid major spoilers (there may be some minor ones).

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