Say Anything: September 2006

Friday, September 29, 2006

Drama is Drama in Any Language

I've never been much of a fan of soap operas. My mom, however, tapes her shows every day and watches them religiously every night. I just could never get into them...well, not for very long anyway. Yes, I know it's mindless entertainment, but it's just a bit too cheese for me.

So, the other day I was flipping channels and caught a glimpse of subtitles across the bottom of the screen. I figured it would be Spanish I would hear, but to my surprise, it wasn't. Since I have digital cable, I hit the "info" button to see what it was, but all it said was the title Ros na Run. After watching the drama unfold and listening intently for a name (to confirm what I was thinking)...sure enough, I start seeing the likes of Mack, Maire, Tadhg, Deirdre.

In case you still haven't guessed, it happened to be an Irish soap opera, in the Irish language. After doing some research online about the show, I found out that Ros na Run is actually a made-up name for a town set in Western Ireland (it does however closely resemble names of real towns and villages in that region).

Well, anyway...this is a soap opera I could definitely get into. The English translations made me chuckle and some of the "drama" that went on seemed very inherently Irish. Maybe if I watch it more often, I'll pick up some Irish words!

In case you're interested, check your local listings. Those in the Philadelphia/Tri-State area can find it on public television (WYBE).

[Whatever you do, make sure to check out the show's website to view the synopsis...just a note, the Catholic priests don't need any more scandals!!!]

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Hurricane Schwartz and the OFA

I'm sure many of you have heard of the Old Farmer's Almanac. Every year, the big deal is their supposed forecast of the kind of winter we will have (temperature- and precipitation-wise). Just last week, I heard on the radio that this year's forecast said a bad winter for most of the U.S. and a lot of snow for the locations that usually see that type of precip. I've always taken their forecast with a grain of salt, and I look at it more for entertainment value. The best part of the OFA for me has always been the random bits of history and trivia (because I'm a nerd like that).

Anyway, Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz of the NBC10 Weather team in Philadelphia has recently posted his own blog about this, which I found interesting. It does well to debunk the myths of the OFA without slandering it. And, to my fellow Penn Staters, take note...Hurricane mentions his course work in Meteorology at Penn State...yep, he's a Nittany Lion too!

Jump to the article...

Sunday, September 17, 2006

My Movie Must-Sees

It’s Movie Season!...well, for me, anyway. I consider Fall & Winter to be a great time for movies. Maybe it’s the colder weather or shorter amount of daylight, but in any event, it’s something I look forward to every year. Don’t get me wrong, I get excited by the Summer blockbusters too, but more and more it seems I’ve been overall disappointed by the Summer releases lately. Hopefully, someday that will change!

So, I’ve been looking around at the upcoming releases and thought I’d share some that are piquing my interest. However, there are way too many that I'm interested in seeing, so I'm just going to post some for now.

The first few are ones that are already in theaters, but I haven't gotten around to seeing yet. I’ve included a trailer for each, as well as a link to it in Quicktime format, according to your preference. So, here goes:

(In order by release date)

The Illusionist - 8/18/06 (Limited) - A turn-of-the-century mystery where nothing is as it seems.