Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? A lot of the ol’ silence ’round these parts has been due to a lot of painting work. I’ve joined one email group of artists which has managed to kick-start my creativity–I’m working on about four or five canvases now, including the group’s August project (…sort of. The vote was for a castle, but I’m painting the apples.) So there’s that.
Also, I finally broke down and bought a larger TV, one of the digitally compliant ones so I won’t have to worry about the move to “all HD” a year or so down the road (one of those oft-promised-oft-delayed things). It’s a nice 42 inch plasma, and let me tell you, everything looks gorgeous on it. I also bought an external HD DVD drive for the XBox 360, and watched the HD version of Corpse Bride last night. Well… In Best Buys and WalMarts throughout this great land of ours, the HD movie I’ve seen most often demo’d is the first Pirates of the Carribean movie, specifically an early sword fight between Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. And while watching, I note that I can see every bead of sweat on their faces. And while noting that, I think, If I’m watching every bead of sweat on their faces, I’m not being enthralled by the story, right? So the heck with HDTV.
Corpse Bride made me into a convert. I think the HD version looks better than it did in the theatre (not surprising, I suppose, since it was all digital to begin with, then transferred to film). I was completely drawn into the “reality” of the film. (Which remains a thing of rare beauty; the improved presentation didn’t detract from the story at all.) As a caveat, though, I doubt this is going to affect movies made prior to the current century; I imagine that DVD technology pushed older films to the best display that they can aspire to. I could be wrong, though. (Like that’s never happened.)
Incidentally, I have a history of backing the wrong horse in the various cultural upheavals–I thought laserdisks, for example, were going to rule the world, and we all know how that ended up. And sure enough, shortly after a bought the little HD DVD thing, readings on the web make it look that, barring some unforeseen spectacular development with HD DVD, Blu-Ray will become the dominant HD format of choice. Sorry about that!
Some paintings, perhaps in a day or so, and thank you for your patronage in the meantime.
A Planet That Has No Sky 
Sorry to say it – but my money’s on Blu-Ray. I’m seeing too many PCs shipping with Blu-Ray drives and too many Blu-Ray disks being offered for sale. Still, I’m staying behind the times for a while. I have too many older films to catch up on and I’ve always been a huge fan of B-movies. By the time I’m old enough for that to change – I’ll be dead.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure Blu Ray’s the winner. Oh well, I still have all my laserdisks…
Thats why I have a tendency to wait till I see one of the technologys triumph before I get into it. I stayed with Cassette tapes for much longer than necessary,a dn have yet to switch to I-pods yet now that I have CD’s. Maybe I’m just complacent.