Reflections on my birthday

So it was my birthday this past weekend.  Well, Saturday was my birthday, but I couldn't do much on Saturday because I was working.  However, my parents did come up to buy me dinner, which was really nice.  They brought me a really neat present.  Apparently, there's a this little comic book and collectable shop in Jasper now, and whenever they're in Jasper they see it and think of me.  In their latest trip, they brought me this.

It's a tin sign, featuring a very classic looking Wolverine.  I came to the X-Men party kind of late, so when it comes to art of Wolverine, I'm used to things like highly detailed Alex Ross prints and the like.  So, to see some good ol' 1980s-era promo art for Wolverine is kinda cool.  Still figuring out a good place to hang it.

On Sunday, I was able to head off into the city and go through with my annual birthday tradition.  Ever since my 11th birthday, I've gone to see a movie on my birthday.  So this year, I was off to see The Amazing Spider-Man.

I really liked The Amazing Spider-Man.  What really sold it for me was the Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy romance.  It just seemed so much more real and genuine than the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson stuff in the other trilogy.  And it was really neat how they re-told the origin of Spider-Man.  Like a lot of folks, I was kind of upset that they were going to be re-telling the origin story so soon after the last movie.  So you start looking to how they're going to re-tell it...what they'll be focusing on this time, and omitting.  And I really like how they retold it.  It was such a different take on it, that I actually got a little bit misty-eyed when ol' Uncle Ben bit the dust.

That being said, though, with all this emphasis on character, I don't think we really got to know Dr. Curt Connors as our villains.  It would have been nice to have spent a little more time with him before he turned into the Lizard.  And, as I'm sure you can tell by the commercials, they're really playing up this whole "mystery of Peter Parker's parents" to be our over-reaching arc for this new batch of films.  It's kind of forgotten early in the film, then brought back again for the now-requisite post-credits sequence.  It seems extraneous at this point.  Ya know, it's still fine to make a film franchise where the films mostly stand alone.

With the other Spider-Man films out there, I'd put it a shade below Spider-Man 2, but with the reboot coming this soon, you just can't shake the feeling that you've seen it all before.  I give it 3.5 out of 4 nibs.

I've got my complete review over on my main site, so check it out if you so please.

Then it was off to HMV.  I'd resolved to spend a little birthday money on a Blu-Ray I'd been denying myself for a long time:  the original 1933 edition of King Kong.  I've been looking at this one in HMV for 2 freakin' years, but for some reason, I'd always fret about it being too expensive or some BS like that, and so I finally said, "Fuck it.  Let's get it."

And then, because it was on sale, I also bought the 2005 Peter Jackson remake of King Kong.  Now, as I've blogged many times before, I'm in no rush to upgrade my DVDs to Blu-Ray, because I still don't have an HDTV to fully enjoy them on.  But, I have enjoyed Peter Jackson's King Kong remake enough to be curious enough about it's extended version.  Yes, like his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson did an extended version of King Kong.  And when I saw that the Blu-Ray contained both the original theatrical version and the extended edition, and it was on sale for just $15, I figured "Why not?"  It's going to make an interesting double-feature next weekend.

And then I had to swing by the Apple Store.  Three years ago, when I bought my BlackBerry, I signed for the three year contract and said, "Yeah, after three years it'll be time to upgrade."  Well, my three year contract runs out at the end of the month.  And I really want to upgrade to an iPhone.  But I'm starting to get cold feet.

Because, dude, iPhones are expensive.

Right now, I'm looking at the iPhone 4s with the 32G memory, because it's the top of the line for iPhone's right now, and I figure I might need a bit bigger memory with all the messing around I'd be doing with it.  Right now, that goes for ~$260.

And I'm certain that if I did my shopping around, I could probably find a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Google Android with most of the same features for around $50.

But...but...iPhone!

So I'm still figuring out what to do on that front.

But all in all, the birthday weekend wasn't too bad.  I've been too busy to go into the usual spiral of depression it usually brings.  I'm still waiting for that moment where I officially become a grown-up.  If anything, the words of Dr. Johnny Fever describing the radio announcer lifestyle grow more and more accurate every day:  "Pushing 40 and still living like a college kid." 

And here's what I've been listening to while writing this.  Jazz covers of Studio Ghibli music.  SO AWESOME.