Movie reviews/thoughts, now being blogged at...

...scatteredmoviethoughts.blogspot.com.

I know I'd been moving from site to site with my movie posts, and made it look I was all settled back here, but it's more appropriate to me now that "Derrick Does..." is for stuff I actually do, or make, and while posting my thoughts on movies I've watched is something I do, it is focused on things other people have made--namely, movies. So my thoughts on those go to "Scattered Movie Thoughts."

So I hope that is settled once and for all.

Music

Some of my latest, or latest to go public, productions:

1. http://noisefog.dominionofawesome.com/W39ATG3L43O3I5VTA86GO2I0C0M1RLA6

(Sample source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMIPeLZy8-g)

2. http://noisefog.dominionofawesome.com/7XG1FYSS04FZKQNAO0MZVD5SB6H1U9KP

3. http://blerg.cc/#Derrick/121

Common Experiences

A dedication.

It's been a roller coaster last couple of weeks, years even. I've been through a lot, but more importantly it's all about the people I've been through it with. My family, friends, fiancee...but to someone who went through more, and is now free. R.I.P. to my cousin Phillipe*. I'm grateful that I was one of your people, if only through blood, but thankfully through years.



And to all of us surviving and still living on earth--including you reading this now. Don't compromise your life. Live it. And thank you for being...with me. Let's keep going.



*More on Phil by Terri DeLima (via online obituary guestbook), who worked with him: "....Phil was a great guy to work with, hardworking, very smart.
He contributed major accomplishments to the Artificial Retina project which is helping blind people regain sight. Take pride in the fact that what he has accomplished with his life in such a short time will be helping a lot of people in the dark see light(.)
I'm a firm believer that from bad experiences something good is born from them. Look for the good(;) you may not see it now, but you will.

My thoughts on this year's NBA finals matchup.

Boston and L.A. again?

*yawn*

Wake me when the draft starts.

(I'm still getting my feet wet, so you might want to stay away from this blog for awhile if you want something more substantial.)

Getting my feet wet again.

Hello again blogspot. I'm home.

With that out of the way...

Iron Man 2 was a nice set-up movie. The Avengers needs to knock it out of the park. Edward Norton, please step on deck...

Robert Downey Jr.: take it easy for now. We'll need you for the playoffs.

(There's a metaphor that needs fixing up there somewhere, I know. Anyway, it's blockbuster season again. Let's see if I have more worth saying before it ends again.)

(It's good to be home.)

Moving my reviews, sort of.

So, I've decided to re-activate my facebook account, and I've decided to just put up new movie/music/etc. reviews in to one of my status feeds as new comments. Granted, the medium sort of dictates that the reviews will probably be shorter than my blog entries here, but maybe I'll put longer rants here when needed. Til' then, here's the feed link, with blurbs on Rounders, The Great Buck Howard, and a little more written for 9 and The Blueprint 3.

More likely to come.

Once again back is the incredible...

No, I'm not talking about myself, but thanks anyway, yeah?

I am talking about "The Legendary".

I know, they're not making a comeback, because they didn't go away a long time. But in a way they did. One could argue The Roots descended into darkness with their last two albums, Game Theory and Rising Down; not the most fun-loving albums those were.

But a glimmer of light shines through with this new track, which debuted not too long ago on Late Night (Jimmy Fallon's show, which I blogged about here).

I say glimmer because it's not all sunshine and jumping jacks, but it's a more optimistically nuanced track that leaves the evil synths of Rising Down behind for the time being.

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It's still blockbuster season, and I'm still involved. I have to say that The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was better than the version that came out this year, which was differed in title by using the numerals "1 2 3". The differences don't end there though, as the respective tones of each film couldn't be any more unrelated. Walter Matthau wins (But Denzel Washington is still the man).

Up was fun and touching. Not perfect though. I'm still not sure how I feel about "talking" dogs.

I'm sure I saw other movies too, but I really just wanted to say that I hopped back on to the Harry Potter express, after missing the last one (the only one I haven't seen), and I'm glad I did. Half-Blood Prince was very entertaining, but pretty much all just set up for the climatic two-parter The Deathly Hallows. Consider me hyped.

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Hey Stockton folks, I just started going to a young adult group weekly meeting for Catholics (but non-Catholics are welcome). Really nice folk, and learning about faith in a (young) adult setting is great and something pretty much new to me. I've been in a young adult group that fizzled out shortly after it began, but this particular group has been around years now, so I could potentially be in for the long haul (or at least until I'm 39, which is what their website says is the cutoff). In any case, check out their site, lukefive.org and maybe see me there on Tuesday nights and hang out. They don't bite.