Andy Gapin

Personally, I think the trilogy+1 thing is rarely a good idea. An ongoing series is one thing–say what you want, Jason X was awesome–but doing four movies is kind of silly. Shrek Forever After isn’t really much of an exception to this. It’s far from bad and it might even been better than the third one, but the whole thing felt unnecessary and a little forced, not natural at all.

The movie entertains, but not enough to justify the new $20 ticket price at a select few AMC theaters for IMAX 3D. Thanks to reading this article, I decided to just go for the 2D version and save my money. I’m glad I did too. The movie was worth $6 for an AM Cinema ticket, but I would have been furious if I paid $20 for a ticket (not that I think the AMC near my house is one of the theaters charging that).

Shrek 4 has everything a Shrek movie should have, except for new ideas. Shrek was a great concept for a movie or three, but it doesn’t scale out to four movies very well. By the end of the third movie, all the clichés and fairy tale references had been used up and not much was left. Definitely not enough for a fourth movie. Had this flick taken the place of the third one, things might be different.

Still, Shrek Forever After holds true to the fact that you really can make a movie that has something for everyone.

As a huge Shrek fan, there was no way I was going to wait to see this one, so I’m not suggesting anyone should, but what I am suggesting is to take advantage of the cheapest theater option possible.

Rating: C

I remember my first computer, it had 4MB of memory. At the time, that was half decent and that machine was bought for me by my dad who used to build computers and processors and only have a few kilobytes to work with. Since then, I’ve owned countless other computers, each with more memory than the last.

When I started college, I built a computer with 256MB of memory that ran Windows 2000 and Windows XP (I was always back and forth between the two). They both ran great with that kind of memory. By the end of college, I was running machines with a gig of memory and Windows XP. By that time, I couldn’t imagine using anything less, yet it was the same OS that ran just fine on a quarter of the amount of memory only a couple years earlier. By this time, somehow Windows XP seemed to need at least half a gig to run just some basic stuff. Crazy how things change. That gig got me by pretty fine though. I had some friends that were pushing a second gig, but it seemed like such overkill at the time, especially for non-gamers.

That was four to five years ago. Now, I’ve got my MacBook Pro with 4GB at home and a Windows XP machine with 4GB at work. 4GB just doesn’t seem to cut it on either machine these days and that’s kind of crazy. Even my two Windows 7 machines that I only use for light stuff demand 2GB.

At work, at any given time, I’m running SQL Server (limited to 512MB of memory) and SQL Server Management Studio, Eclipse, Firefox, IE, Outlook Express, Google Chrome, Excel, Twhirl (I like to keep Twitter open), Skype, EditPlus, and maybe a couple other things on occasion (Word, Photoshop, etc). Monday morning, things are fine, but once I’ve had Firefox going a while and have actually started getting into some coding, that memory usage climbs quickly. Before I know it, I’m getting close to using all four gigs. I try not to restart unless I have to during the week just because it takes so long to get back up and running with everything open, but by Wednesday, I’ve already had to restart Firefox, Chrome, and Eclipse just to free up some memory. My job demands a decent amount of multitasking on the machine, so on one hand it’s easy to see how the memory goes so fast. But at the same time, some of these applications take up hundreds of megs of memory each. THAT is what’s crazy and out of control.

At home, I’ve generally got Firefox, Adium, Lightroom, Mail, Twhirl, and a few Finder windows open. Sometimes I’ll have iTunes, Komodo, Sequel Pro, Transmission, Safari, iPhoto, and/or Handbrake open too, but I usually try to keep those closed when I don’t need them. Most of the time I’m fine, but when I decide I want to rip a movie and do some photo editing at the same time, things can get rough. The main issue, I think, is Adobe Lightroom. I’ll catch it using a gig and a half of memory sometimes. That’s pretty outrageous, but when you think about it, I am generally editing dozens, if not hundreds, of RAW files at 20MB each. My current catalog has 4,000 images in it and I’m currently in the middle of my massive photo organization Summer project (post coming shortly) so that number is climbing daily. Anyway, that’s a lot of demand even on a computer that still has a solid spec sheet.

Unfortunately, neither machine is getting upgraded anytime soon. The work computer is running Windows XP 32-bit so more memory would be useless and I can’t afford a few hundred dollars worth of memory to upgrade my MacBook Pro to 8GB.

But the point is just how ridiculous computing demands are sometimes. Even though I save a lot of memory by using web apps for a lot of stuff, it still goes quick. The biggest problem is really that developers have been given the ability to get lazy when it comes to efficiency. Computers are so powerful and have so much memory today that there aren’t really a lot of limits that developers HAVE to worry about so they just don’t worry at all–when it comes to desktop applications, at least. Part of it is that we’re running more and more applications at the same time, but the bigger thing is that they each use insanely more memory now. Four years ago, I was able to run just as many applications on my laptop with 1GB of memory. Now, many of those same applications use 4-5 times more memory.

It’s getting out of control.

I remember my first computer, it had 4MB of memory. At the time, that was half decent and that machine was bought for me by my dad who used to build computers and processors and only have a few kilobytes to work with. Since then, I’ve owned countless other computers, each with more memory than the last.

When I started college, I built a computer with 256MB of memory that ran Windows 2000 and Windows XP (I was always back and forth between the two). They both ran great with that kind of memory. By the end of college, I was running machines with a gig of memory and Windows XP. By that time, I couldn’t imagine using anything less, yet it was the same OS that ran just fine on a quarter of the amount of memory only a couple years earlier. By this time, somehow Windows XP seemed to need at least half a gig to run just some basic stuff. Crazy how things change. That gig got me by pretty fine though. I had some friends that were pushing a second gig, but it seemed like such overkill at the time, especially for non-gamers.

That was four to five years ago. Now, I’ve got my MacBook Pro with 4GB at home and a Windows XP machine with 4GB at work. 4GB just doesn’t seem to cut it on either machine these days and that’s kind of crazy. Even my two Windows 7 machines that I only use for light stuff demand 2GB.

At work, at any given time, I’m running SQL Server (limited to 512MB of memory) and SQL Server Management Studio, Eclipse, Firefox, IE, Outlook Express, Google Chrome, Excel, Twhirl (I like to keep Twitter open), Skype, EditPlus, and maybe a couple other things on occasion (Word, Photoshop, etc). Monday morning, things are fine, but once I’ve had Firefox going a while and have actually started getting into some coding, that memory usage climbs quickly. Before I know it, I’m getting close to using all four gigs. I try not to restart unless I have to during the week just because it takes so long to get back up and running with everything open, but by Wednesday, I’ve already had to restart Firefox, Chrome, and Eclipse just to free up some memory. My job demands a decent amount of multitasking on the machine, so on one hand it’s easy to see how the memory goes so fast. But at the same time, some of these applications take up hundreds of megs of memory each. THAT is what’s crazy and out of control.

At home, I’ve generally got Firefox, Adium, Lightroom, Mail, Twhirl, and a few Finder windows open. Sometimes I’ll have iTunes, Komodo, Sequel Pro, Transmission, Safari, iPhoto, and/or Handbrake open too, but I usually try to keep those closed when I don’t need them. Most of the time I’m fine, but when I decide I want to rip a movie and do some photo editing at the same time, things can get rough. The main issue, I think, is Adobe Lightroom. I’ll catch it using a gig and a half of memory sometimes. That’s pretty outrageous, but when you think about it, I am generally editing dozens, if not hundreds, of RAW files at 20MB each. My current catalog has 4,000 images in it and I’m currently in the middle of my massive photo organization Summer project (post coming shortly) so that number is climbing daily. Anyway, that’s a lot of demand even on a computer that still has a solid spec sheet.

Unfortunately, neither machine is getting upgraded anytime soon. The work computer is running Windows XP 32-bit so more memory would be useless and I can’t afford a few hundred dollars worth of memory to upgrade my MacBook Pro to 8GB.

But the point is just how ridiculous computing demands are sometimes. Even though I save a lot of memory by using web apps for a lot of stuff, it still goes quick. The biggest problem is really that developers have been given the ability to get lazy when it comes to efficiency. Computers are so powerful and have so much memory today that there aren’t really a lot of limits that developers HAVE to worry about so they just don’t worry at all–when it comes to desktop applications, at least. Part of it is that we’re running more and more applications at the same time, but the bigger thing is that they each use insanely more memory now. Four years ago, I was able to run just as many applications on my laptop with 1GB of memory. Now, many of those same applications use 4-5 times more memory.

It’s getting out of control.

I’ve been really light on the posting lately, I’m hoping I’ll be able to change that soon, but it’s not looking too likely. Oh well. Anyway, here are a couple shots I took today that I liked.

A relatively standard show last night, I’d say. I kept the mic breaks short and concise and had the best segue between two songs I’ve ever pulled off. Minus the Bear’s “My Time” went so perfectly into Growing’s “Massive Dropout,” it couldn’t have been any better.

I forgot to play the “American Slang,”  but I guess I’ve played enough of that one song over the past couple weeks anyway. On a whole, the new Gaslight Anthem record is great, maybe I’ll play something else from it next week. It’s a better record than The ’59 Sound which is saying a lot, but the thing about The ’59 Sound is that it had no staying power for me. I loved it pretty hard for a few months and then stopped caring about it. But I think American Slang is kind of their album that says “we’re for real, we’ve got a lot of good stuff in us and we’re going to be around for a while.” It’s a pretty solid indication that these guys aren’t a fluke. Unfortunately, it also propels them farther away from being “our band,” not that they really have been for at least the last year anyway.

• Roky Erickson With Okkervil River – Be And Bring Me Home – True Love Cast Out All Evil
• Frog Eyes – Lear In Love – Paul’s Tomb: A Triumph
• Night Driving In Small Towns – Serial Killer – Serial Killers
• Sean Hayes – Pwerful Stuff – Run Wolves Run
• The Press – Pattern Mill – INTEOTWIJTEOAE
• Minus The Bear – My Time – Omni
• Growing – Massive Dropout – Pumps
• The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt – The Wild Hunt
• The Salteens – Hallowed Ways – Moths
• CocoRosie – Grey Oceans – Grey Oceans
• The Mynabirds – LA Rain – What We Lose In Fire We Gain In The Flood
• Kate Nash – Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt? – My Best Friend Is You
• The Black Keys – Tighten Up – Tighten Up [Single]
• The Hold Steady – Our Whole Lives – Heaven Is Whenever

Source: 90.3 The Core

I guess I could have just posted these along with the playlist for the show last night, but they were still sitting on my camera at the time. I haven’t posted much in the way of photos (or anything) recently, so I figured I’d at least post a few of these pictures even though the subject matter isn’t super interesting and I’ve posted way more than enough pictures from the station. It’s not that I haven’t been taking pictures, I have, I just haven’t really had many that I’ve loved. Maybe I’ll have pictures to post soon that aren’t from the radio station or of my cat.

The Playlist last night was not one of my better shows. Everything felt off. The segues weren’t what I wanted, I didn’t really have any life in my mic breaks, and trying to work the Crystal Castles request in with the music I had picked out was a disaster.

Oh well, they can’t all be winners.

• Love Is All – Never Now – Two Thousand And Ten Injuries
• Gaslight Anthem, The – American Slang – American Slang
• Crystal Castles – Untrust Us – Crystal Castles
• Fanfarlo – Finish Line – Live [EP]
• Tallest Man On Earth, The – Troubles Will Be Gone – The Wild Hunt
• Hold Steady, The – Our Whole Lives – Heaven Is Whenever
• Mynabirds, The – Give It Time – What We Lose In Fire We Gain In The Flood
• Kaki King – The Betrayer – Junior
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy And The Cairo Gang – The Sounds Are Always Begging – The Wonder Show Of The World
• Minus The Bear – Animal Backwards – Omni
• Laura Marling – Blackberry Stone – I Speak Because I Can
• Manchester Orchestra – I’ve Got Friends – Live At Park Ave -
• Roky Erickson With Okkervil River – Birds’d Crash – True Love Cast Out All Evil
• Murder By Death – You Don’t Miss Twice (When You’re Shavin’ With A Knife) – Good Morning, Magpie

Source: 90.3 The Core

Reviews seem to be all over the place for this thing. Movie critics seem kind of meh about it, but nerds and bloggers are liking it. Well, I’m a nerd so that’s where I stand. I mean, if anything, Iron Man 2 is more than worth it simply for Scarlett Johansson. She’s never looked this good before.

But ScarJo aside, this movie is insanely entertaining. My brother saw it before me and tried to tell me there was no action, I couldn’t disagree more. There was way more than enough action, yet no danger of falling into the trap of having too much action as many sequels tend to do. I think the most surprising aspect of Iron Man 2 was how much Jon Favreau packed in without too much force. There is kind of a lot going here, yet for the most part, it doesn’t feel like an overload and most things got the attention they deserved. I also found it impressive that the proverbial nerd load wasn’t entirely blown on the first film, they pulled out a lot of awesome new fantasy tech that made me wish I was living in the future.

Between having just the right amount of action and story, a solid cast–seriously, is there a better person to be Tony Stark than Robert Downey Jr.?–, and a ton of nerdgasms, Iron Man 2 is probably one of the best action sequels in a long time. It’s not the first flick, but enough is brought to be more than satisfying.

Rating: B+

I got to play new Minus the Bear, Hold Steady, and Gaslight Anthem on the show last night. I’m glad we got this stuff in the station now since I don’t normally like to play leaks on the show. I guess it’s not really a big deal, but I kind of feel weird about it.

Other than that, the show was pretty solid. It was fun and I kept all my mic breaks really short.

• Against Me! – I Was A Teenage Anarchist – I Was A Teenage Anarchist [Single]
• Minus The Bear – Into The Mirror – Omni
• The Press – Fine China – INTEOTWIJTEOAE
• Jonsi – Animal Arithmetic – Go
• Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy And The Cairo Gang – With Cornstalks Or Among Them – The Wonder Show Of The World
• Gaslight Anthem, The – American Slang – American Slang [Single]
• Codeine Velvet Club – The Black Roses – Codeine Velvet Club
• Manchester Orchestra – Tony The Tiger – Live At Park Ave
• In Tall Buildings – Walking Man – In Tall Buildings
• The Hold Steady – Rock Problems – Heaven Is Whenever
• Fanfarlo – Finish Line – Live [EP]
• Kaki King – Sloan Shore – Junior
• The Mynabirds – We Made A Mountain – What We Lose In Fire We Gain In The Flood
• Roky Erickson With Okkervil River – Goodbye Sweet Dreams – True Love Cast Out All Evil

Source: 90.3 The Core