So it’s been a really long time since I’ve actually gotten a chance to blog. I apologize for disappointing you all. Joe and I have been doing okay. The new year has been sort of rough. For those of you who don’t really know yet, I changed the name of my business. That’s right, I said goodbye to Starr Fallen. A name from my high school years, it always had that sort of immature and not fully developed sound to it. The new name is Bravos Media. I’ve even registered it as an LLC, so it’s definitely official. So between that and trying to get my taxes straight, it’s been really rough. Especially since I haven’t had any real time to find new clients.

As stated in my previous post, Joe and I joined Netflix. Which has been really nice. We should get the chance to watch a lot of great (and probably not-so-great) movies because of it. We just rented The Brothers Grimm, which was sadly lacking. Apparently Terry Gilliam didn’t have the creative control he needed. The special effects were probably the worst I have seen in a really long time. On the other hand, we also rented Whisper of the Heart. It is a Studio Ghibli film (Ghibli is Miyazaki’s studio - the guy who did Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle - I am definitely a huge fan of his work). Whisper is not done by Miyazaki, but it is still pretty interesting. It was about a girl who loves to read - that’s all she does, in fact, is read books that she borrows from the library, and write song lyrics to “Take Me Home Country Roads“. She starts to notice that every book she borrows has already been checked out by a guy with the name of Seiji, so she begins a search for him. It’s a cute movie, with a very strange ending (we joke that the ending is not exactly a “Whisper” of the heart). Definitely worth a watch if you like these types of movies. It’s also the prequel to “The Cat Returns” - so if you are thinking about watching that one, you should probably pick this up first, although it probably doesn’t matter that much.

On a recommendation by a friend I have started listening to Regina Spektor, who is very odd at times, but great to listen to. Some of the things she does with her voice are great. Also, Patty Griffin just released a new CD, which as always, is beautiful. You may also be interested to check out Dabney Morris. His CD “Songs from a Broken Violin” is really wonderful. I downloaded half of it for free at his web site, and bought the rest on iTunes.

Alright I have to get ready to leave. Love you all.

~Sarah

Joe and I recently purchased a PS3. So, since there are no video games out on it (aside from Resistance, which Joe has already conquered), we decided to take advantage of it’s Bluray player, and the fact that our TV goes up to 1080p resolution. Since Bluray Disks are semi-expensive, and have limited availability, we decided to do online rentals. We made the decision to go with Netflix after visiting Blockbuster’s stupid and aggravating web site (if their web site is that aggravating when they are trying to get you to PURCHASE their service, why would we expect it to be better when we HAVE the service?), and speaking with Blockbuster’s less-than-informed managers (we assume that Blockbuster Online did not have HD DVD or Bluray Disks since no one seemed to know and we couldn’t find it on their web site).

So far Netflix has been okay. Their web site has many nice features, is very easy to use. It has a “Friends” feature, where you can add friends who have Netflix, see what they are watching and what they thought of the things they have seen, and send notes to them. I am trying it out with my friend Mike Schmid, and it is interesting. Although I think I am annoying him with stupid crazy notes.
The movies come the next day. If I send a movie back, it gets to them the day after and I receive my next movie the day after that. It is very fast. We’re still in the first week of our 2 week free trial and so far we have received 4 movies (if we would have started with the 3 out-at-a-time we would have had probably 6 movies by now).
The only problem we have had thus far is every Bluray disk we have gotten has had horrible problems with skipping. The first movie that we had seemed to play fine after Joe wiped it off very extensively, but the disk we watched tonight still had problems, even after he cleaned it twice. We aren’t sure if this is due to a crappy player built into the PS3, or if it is the disks themselves and the way they may have been handled by Netflix. We haven’t had any problems with DVD’s we have gotten through them, but we have played them on our DVD player.

Hopefully everything turns out good, and we figure out what is going on. If anyone else has had this problem with Blurays, let me know. Other than the weird skipping on those disks, I’m happy with the service, and if we get things sorted out, then maybe we’ll be long-time customers.

So…. My husband went out and bought We Love Katamari the day it came out… For me… not him. I loved Katamari Damacy, and I hail it as one of the greatest games ever created…ever.

The graphics are childish and fun, and horrible - but rightfully so. The cinemas are playful and yet, disturbing. Katamari Damacy begins the day that the King of the Cosmos knocks all of the stars out of the sky. The entire game is to roll Katamaris around, rolling up things on Earth to make them big enough to be stars. The concept is so absurd and so hilarious. You start as a small Katamari and roll roll roll, eventually rolling up animals, people, houses, skyscrapers, tornadoes, islands, and clouds.

In We Love Katamari, it plays off of the popularity the first game had, and makes the game even more absurd. Giving you a backstory on the King of the Cosmos, allowing you to roll up the sun, and pretty much granting the fans’ wishes.

I love it. The music is great, too. There is even a song that is all animals. It begins with barking dogs. You would think it would be annoying - like one of those Barking Dog Jingle Bells or something - but it’s not.

It’s one of those games that you can put on and forget about the rest of the world. Just disappear into the happy retarded world of Katamari. It makes me happier. It makes me feel like the world really isn’t that bad.

Even though this game’s graphics are not perfect - they are not supposed to be, and therefore, they are perfect (you will understand when you play the game). Anyone who gives this game a lesser rating because the graphics didn’t improve didn’t “get” the game. If the graphics would have been any different than what they were, I would not have been happy. It is one of the joys of Katamari.

If you are looking for a great, fun game - give the Katamari games a chance. They may seem weird at first, but you will get sucked into the world of the King of the Cosmos.