This one stands on its own the least. It’s more like a mini movie with a tenuous connection to the conclusion. That being said, both halves were excellent.
Score: 0.5
Characters
Reusing actors was clever, both for cost and to make us feel like we were connected to them from the first 2 movies. They all did a great job, despite the mishmash of accents.
Score: 1
Dialogue
This was a mess. Too modern and too archaic all at the same time. The second half was a little better, but leaned too heavily into hammy dialogue.
Score: 0
Visuals and Music
The first half was grey and a little boring (Pilgrim life?) the second half went perfectly with 1994. The sets were great, but it was all a little blah.
The music tied in well with the other two, but didn’t add anything interesting.
Score: 0.5
Fun
This was interesting and I was really happy to finally get the answers, but it felt like two short stories. I think actually splitting it into two movies might have made it feel less rushed.
Score: 0.5
Overall
The last part of the series suffers from needing to tie up story points while struggling to tell its own stories. This one really should have been split into two.
I got the guitar amp! It’s lovely. I’m much happier with how the guitar sounds now that the bass isn’t majorly reverbing.
I played mountain king… Meh.
I played “Get to Know You” and the wedding song. I don’t like that I can’t do the percussive element for the former. The latter sounds better with the toning turned up. I still much prefer the sound of the acoustic.
And then! I tried to put chords to the walking song! Yes yes, I know it’s for the ukulele. I played chords that I knew were simple on the uke and I figured out the chord progression for the verse!!!! I tried to figure out the chorus, but it wasn’t working for me today, so I left it for tomorrow.
Then I switched instruments to try to play what I’d written on the uke, and it sounds so lovely. I’m quite happy with it.
Did you happen to catch the cover of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers that I posted today? Click on the tag, because you need to see it!!
May 16: Complete
I had some major issues with the app hearing my guitar today, so after two fails on mountain king, I stopped. It was just pissing me off and I was playing the right notes at the right time.
I played “Get to Know You” twice and then I worked on the walking song.
Omg.
Not to brag, but this song is so flipping cute.
I can hear the cheekiness of the character who “wrote” it.
I ended up writing it on the guitar, but it’s got chords that are really easy on the ukulele (C, F, Am, G, D, and A). I think I was having trouble writing the chords on the uke because I’m not as familiar with the instrument.
I figured out the chords for the chorus, which means the song is complete!
I played it through once, and I’m really happy with it. The ending sounds incomplete, but then I realized that was the point, because Randal (the character making it up) stops singing because he gets distracted.
May 17: Short
I only had a few minutes of playing today, so I grabbed the new song and played it on the ukulele.
I am completely in love with this song.
It’s so cute.
I’m really happy with it.
Some of the chords aren’t in the right place on the paper, but I’ll fix them once I figure out where they’re supposed to go.
May 18: Fixed
I didn’t have much time so rather than pull out the electric, I focussed my entire practise time on the walking song.
I played it through about four times, listening closely to the melody and trying to make the verses as similar as possible.
I ended up shifting the chords a tiny bit in the second line of each verse, and I am so much happier with how it sounds now.
I think I might actually put the chords down on the file instead of penciling them in. Maybe tomorrow, if I’m still happy with it.
Wow. I wrote a song in less than a week. I’m pretty damn proud of myself.
May 19: Swing
I played the electric again.
Sometimes I feel like I’m really getting the hang of it. And then others…..
Mountain king from the app didn’t go so well. I don’t understand how to play the electric loud enough for the app to hear me but stop the echo. Very frustrating when I’m playing a fast song.
Then I played “Get to Know You” twice and the ballad. I shouldn’t have played the ballad. My arm hurts now.
Last, I played the walking song. I played it on guitar instead of the ukulele. It’s okay, the chord names are the same no matter the instrument. I just have to get used to the slightly more complex finger positions. NBD.
It’s cool how different the song sounds on the two instruments. The electric makes it sound much more hard rock, which is fascinating. The ukulele makes it sound much cheekier.
May 20: Fiddling
No, I did not start learning a new instrument. I think two is enough, don’t you?
For now.
Mwahahaha
I started off with mountain king. Ehhhhhhhhh….. I almost feel like giving up while playing the electric, but then I would have trouble with the fingering when I start the acoustic again.
I played “Get to Know You” twice. There was a weird discordant echo the first time I played it. I have no idea how to deal with that. I definitely need a music teacher if I continue with the electric, I think.
I also played the walking song twice. I noticed on the first pass that I wasn’t quite matching up with where the chords were supposed to be. So on the second play-through, I paid more attention, and I ended up tweaking the placement of two chords.
Hence the title of my post. 🙂
Oh, and I finished chapter 14 in our WiP last night, which means we’re 2/3rds done!! I’m really proud of this latest chapter; @ericdesmarais wrote a riddle at the end of chapter 13 and the characters had to solve it, but not too quickly.
Not to brag, but I was really clever. I’m very proud of myself.
I love doing the holiday calendars, but this year, between my tendonitis, a return to conventions, a return to the office, and my tendonitis; we’ve had to make the hard decision to not offer holiday calendars this year.
The amount of effort over a short period is just not safe for me to attempt this year. Hopefully next year I’ll be up for it.
Thank you for understanding and hope to see you at Ottawa ComicCon.
Éric Desmarais, JenEric Coffee’s Head Roaster and Taste Tester
Today we’re talking about the 2022 film Lightyear.
Story
This was a great concept. A movie about the real Buzz Lightyear. The character is the basis for the toy in Toy Story.
Unfortunately, there are some issues with this sort of story. People are expecting a movie about the cartoonish and silly character. This means that people who only care about Toy Story might be turned off by the science-fiction elements, while people who love science-fiction might be turned off by the the association with Toy Story.
That being said, this is an excellent adventure / science-fiction film with influence and nods to so many other great films.
Score: 1
Characters
The character of Buzz is only changed a little from the toy; his silliness is toned down, but he’s still brash, overconfident, and single-minded.
The rest of the cast, although not as fleshed out, are fun and have rewarding story arcs.
Score: 1
Dialogue
There are plenty of references to both Toy Story and classic Sci-Fi. With so much reference material, it could easily have been a quote fest that left people feeling like they missed something. The writers did a great job balancing the quotes and the original story. To a point that they’re great for those that know, but pass over other’s heads.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
I was in awe of the space scenes, and pretty much all the animation. Pixar ups their quality with every movie and I love it. Beyond the animation, the cinematography is fantastic and references so many other great movies. The shot of Zurg’s ship rising from the floor was just like Vader’s in A New Hope, the airlocks look just like those of 2001: A Space Odyssey, there were plenty of others too.
The music was epic and had just the right balance to be remarkable but not overpower the action.
Score: 1
Fun
The fun you get from this is definitely influenced by your expectations. If you’re expecting the tone and feel of Toy Story, you’ll be disappointed. I went in expecting cheesy sci-fi and was surprised by how much fun it was.
My five and three year old both loved it and sat through the whole thing without complaining. The rest of the family seemed to really love it too.
Score: 1
Overall
The movie is a retro sci-fi with all the best parts from the movies of the genre in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. It’s delightfully littered with Pixar and Sci-fi references and has a fun and heartwarming story.
Final Score: 5* Stars out of 5
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
I played it today. It’s really fun. A little longer between the frets than my acoustic, but with a little practise, I should be fine.
I played mountain king and all 3 of my songs today, with only a little pain in my shoulder, so this guitar is doing what it’s supposed to do.
I still think I’ll prefer performing with my acoustic, but we’ll see.
May 10: Wider frets
The biggest difference I’ve found between the acoustic and the electric is the wider frets. So I’ll play the C chord, for example, and my ring finger has to stretch further to get onto the fifth string, third fret.
I’ll get used to it, but right now it’s just frustrating.
My brother-in-law tells me that I’m supposed to strum differently as well, so I should probably look into that…
Played mountain king not well at all. (Wider fret issue)
Played “Get to Know You” twice and the wedding song once. Because I’m using the capo on the 3rd fret, there’s less of an issue with the frets, which is nice.
May 11: Tuning
I didn’t have to tune strings 4, 3, 2, and 1 today. That’s nice.
I played mountain king. Ehhhhhhhhh… I think I’m getting better? Maybe?
I also played “Get to Know You” and the wedding song. I played around with the tone knobs and volume. It’s a lot of fun, but I still prefer my acoustic. I prefer the sound.
I still haven’t looked up the difference between acoustic and electric strumming. I should really get on that. (I say as I pick up volume 4 of Heartstopper by Alice Oseman.)
May 12: Echo
I had a lot of trouble with my electric today. Like, I had to stop in the middle of my song to tune it again, even though it didn’t actually need tuning, because one string was sounding so discordant.
My husband suggested that it was because I’m using a bass amp instead of a guitar amp, so there’s an echo and a bass reverb and my ear can’t handle both.
Maybe?
My amp is supposed to come in tomorrow by 8pm, so I’ll find out by Saturday at the latest.
I nearly failed mountain king. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten such a low score and actually completed it.
I played “Get to Know You” and the wedding song.
May 13: New song
So… I wrote a new song yesterday afternoon.
It’s for the ukulele. It’s a walking song, so there’s no capo and needs to have easy, repetitive chords.
Today, I set about getting used to the ukulele again. I used my husband’s tenor uke rather than the soprano. No particular reason for that, really. Maybe I like the sound a tiny bit better?
I played a couple songs from the ukulele app first, to get used to the chords.
I really love the Winnie the Pooh song. It’s so cute. I played it twice just because.
Then I tried to put chords to the song.
Yeah, that didn’t go so well.
I’ll try again another day.
May 14: Late practice
One of the best things about having an electric guitar is that I can play it after the kids go to bed and they can’t hear it. (If it’s not plugged in.)
So tonight I played a couple songs I hadn’t touched in a while and “Get to Know You” because I have the beginner version memorized and I didn’t want to run down to the basement to get my music.
I also tuned the guitar again. It thought my D string was the high E string. 🤷🏼♀️
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll try the uke again and be able to get the chords down for the walking song.
I decided to try to record a blog post and that way I don’t have to worry about typing long blog posts; so today will be all about my health issues and how I’m doing.
But effectively in June, I started having massive arm pain in this part of the arm and this part of the arm, on both sides, and my doctor diagnosed me with tendonitis and possible carpal tunnel. I was scheduled to go to do some more tests for carpal tunnel specifically; I just got those last week and good news: I don’t need surgery!
It looks like I don’t have any issues with carpal tunnel; the carpal tunnel specialist said that he thought maybe there was something muscular.
My physio, which I’m seeing three times a week, is helping a lot.
She’s a godsend.
She thinks it has something to do with my ulnar nerve.
Basically, all this is telling you more tests, more time.
Meanwhile, I’ve been following the proper procedures and filling out workman’s compensation forms.
Oh my gosh!
Filling out forms when you have tendonitis hurts. Pencils, typing…
Thank heavens for Jen.
If it wasn’t for her, I would be having a lot of trouble right now.
Beyond that, I am doing better.
It’s been a month and a little bit and it’s no longer a burning, sharp pain.
It’s now a burning ache, and if I don’t do too much, which means not going on my phone.
too much, not typing too much, not cooking too much, not changing too many diapers, that kind of thing, I’m OK. It hurts, but I’m…
The problem gets when I’m trying to do something.
So at the end of July I didn’t want to break my own rules and fail on the serial story, so I typed 1000 words over three or four nights and it was hard.
I’m not going to be able to go back to my 3 to 5000 words a week that I used to do, and that makes me really, really sad.
Hopefully with Physio, by the end of August, I’ll be able to do a little bit more, but until I know for sure what’s going on, I don’t know.
I’m also really nervous about going back to work and doing document formatting, which basically means I’m doing short keys and mouse clicks for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours a day.
And yeah, that doesn’t sound like much fun right now.
My doctor has me going back on September 1st.
I’m hoping that I’ll be OK to do that.
I’m hoping my work will be OK with giving me a little bit more leeway in getting my stuff done. I have no idea what’s going to happen and it’s kind of scary.
Right now, I am concentrating on the things that I can control.
Those being slowly, carefully, roasting coffee for Ottawa Comic Con. It’s going to be the first convention, that’s going to be in September, the first convention that we actually get to sell at since COVID started and I’m terrified.
Not only because I’ve heard so many stories of people getting sick at Montreal Comic Con and other conventions, but also because I have no idea if roasting and preparing for a month… Like, so much stock is going to be sold, or if we’re going to leave with a negative… I’m just hoping to make back our table.
That’s my basic goal.
We’ll see; and I guess my other big goal is not to get sick. On that front, Pegasus has gotten his first shot at the end of July. We’re hoping to get the next one by the end of August, early September, so that he’s covered when we go to Comic Con.
He’s not coming with us, but if we’re going to bring anything back, which is always a possibility, I don’t want him to catch this thing after 2 1/2 years! Gah.
So back to the health stuff.
My doctor gets back on Tuesday, which is tomorrow when you guys are watching this, and hopefully he’ll have some sort of diagnosis for me or another series of tests, which I have a feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of those in the future, which sucks.
And I really miss typing.
It’s my stress relief. Even like just basic typing is my stress relief.
I was really enjoying the stress relief of playing ukulele, but I… I’ve barely touched it.
Although I did dust, literally dust, the ukulele the other day just because it looked sad.
All that to say that I am nervous but I’m getting better and I am trying to prepare for Comic Con, so hopefully my doctor will be able to fix things, and my physio will help me fix things and I can get back to writing novels.
I had fun looking for pictures that made me think of the book Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers.
And I thought, why not share it with you?
Mood board of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers. Pictures of a black motorcycle, a stargate from Stargate SG1, a metal pineapple, a cottage, a street sign indicating Westmeath is to the right, a fun-looking mushroom, a stuffed bear, two croissants and a coffee, and a dessert pizza surround the front cover of the book, art by pinkpiggy93, layout by Nathan and Mackenzie.
Summary
Kennedy Fairfield just graduated in the class of 2002, and is now trying to find her purpose in life, or at least a job in her field. When she saves Jason Johnson, the leader of a secret Community of supernatural people called Aetherborn, from an attempted assassination, they embark on a whirlwind epic romance and adventure.
For Kennedy and Jason to discover why people are disappearing in time to save her friends, they’ll have to face teleporting assassins, grumpy wizards, gossiping hags, mafia robots, and secret military groups, all in the city of Westmeath, Ontario, which has more secrets than residents.
The first book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.
