200 Million

News this weekend is that The Avengers has taken over $200 million in its opening weekend in the US. Completely Hulk smashing the previous $168 million record held by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. To be honest given the previous films and the promotional work from Disney/Marvel it is not surprising that it's done well. However to completely destroy records like that is amazing. It's already over the $600 million mark including worldwide sales. I don't know how much it cost to make and promote but I expect there are some very happy investors out there. The one thing that's great about this is so many more people are learning the name Joss Whedon now. For those of us who have been a fan since the days of Buffy and have been through the ups and downs it is an exciting time. Studios are going to be fighting to put "From the man who brought you The Avengers" on their next projects. Perhaps we can have a new TV series that doesn't get cancelled this time.

No Video

There is no video to post today. This is for two reasons. Number one I still need to finish editing the last one and number two there will a special video later in the week probably. I'll let you know about that as soon as it's ready.

May Birthdays

It seems like every weekend this month there is a birthday to celebrate, including mine of course next week. I'm off out this evening for round one of celebretions so no time for a full post today, sorry.

An Abundance of Katherines

This is John Green's second book of five and the third which I've read. It was a good read but I have to say it's been my least favourite of his work so far. I can't decide if Paper Towns or The Fault In Our Stars is my favourite because they're both great but for very different reasons. The thing about Abundance of Katherines was that to start with there seemed to be a lot of similarities to Paper Towns but with less relatable characters. I can't put myself in the shoes of a child prodigy very easily and so while the story was fun I was never really emotionally engaged. There were also some moments that didn't really feel all that realistic. As usual I'm probably missing some deeper metaphor but at my level that took me out of the world.

Lucidity

Delain are a band that I'm only vaguely familiar with. However I'm still planning to see them live in the near future. They're doing a local gig very close to my birthday and the couple of You Tube songs I listened to seemed okay so I figured it would make a nice trip out. With that in mind I decided I should grab a couple of their album to get a better idea and the first I listened to was Lucidity. They're pretty much what you'd expect from a female fronted gothic metal band formed by ex-members of Within Temptation. I enjoyed the album but nothing really stuck out as amazing. However I was working at the time and wasn't paying full attention.

Elder Scrolls Online

Another announcement to talk about, this time in the work of gaming. Bethesda has confirmed they are working on an MMO version of The Elder Scrolls. I'm not sure what I think about this. It feels to me like every major franchise is jumping to an online model because that's "in" at the moment. I'm sure publisher love being able to charge monthly fees rather than a one-off price but what about how it affect the game and the story? In Skyrim you're the Dragonborn, the hero that defeats the World Eater and prevents the end of the world. That's going to feel far less epic if there are 500,000 of you all doing the same thing. It doesn't feel like your world. Part of the reason I like to escape to these worlds is to relax on my own. Having to interact with other brings the stress back when you want to go at your own pace. I don't mind the odd MMO, I subscribe to two after all, but I don't like this idea that everything needs to be multiplayer.

More Fringe!

Good news everybody! It's been announced that Fringe will be getting a fifth season. Although it is only going to be a shortened season as well as being the last one. Still that means the show gets to go out on its own terms, something which getting rarer and rarer these days. Excellent news for one of my favourite currently airing shows.