Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!

I'm thrilled any time a Harry Potter movie comes out, but it just feels right when they premiere in the fall. It's the perfect time for a flagon of pumpkin juice and a return to Hogwarts. HP and the Half-Blood Prince will be out this November and I. Can't. Wait!

Thanks to the internet, I can easily find people who are just as nerdy as me who obsess over details in the new trailer. The nice people over at MTV posted this second by second anaylis.

Did you hear about them there podcasts?

Maybe I'm a little late to the party on this one, but I just got to know podcasts. Here, I'll detail what Lost podcasts I like. I started off small with The Offical Lost Podcast. It often has interviews with producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (including the occasional banjo solo), the actors, and some interesting behind the scenes stuff like how the freighter set was built.

But why listen to one Lost podcast when you can have three? From there, I quickly moved on to two which are fan-created. First, The Transmission, which is recorded in Hawaii by married couple Ryan and Jen. Thanks to their proximity to the Lost set, they often have fun spoilery news items to share. They just returned from ComiCon and to the delight of fans everywhere, have posted the audio from the huge Lost panel. And finally, I also listen to The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack. I think they are a step-father/son combo and have a very entertaining banter going on. While I don't always listen to the entirety of each episode, it's enlightening to hear both shows parse out Lost details and make predictions.

Why So Serious?

Since my last post was about The Dark Knight, it only seems right that my first one in almost, oh, three months should be about the same movie.

I saw The Dark Knight this past Sunday night. Even though it had already been out for just over a week, the theater was absolutely packed for the 7:45 show, and this was still with quite a few other showings in the same theater. As luck would have it, I couldn't find a parking space and got inside so late that the only seats left were in the very first row, which is just about as bad as it can get. During the previews, I sat there fuming that the one movie I was dying to see would be ruined by neck cramping. (Does that make me kind of geeky? Afraid so.)

As it turns out, The Dark Knight rocks sufficiently to make any thoughts of neck cramping disappear like bats on a summer's night. (Get it? Oh, ha ha ha.) Christian Bale is back again as the brooding Batman who makes good use of his daytime identity as billionaire Bruce Wayne, pretending to be a shallow dillettante so no one suspects his crime-fighting nocturnal activities. Maggie Gyllenhaal assumes the role of his love interest Rachel Dawes, and Aaron Eckhart is introduced as newly elected Gotham city DA Harvey Dent (and the future Two-Face). Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Michael Caine as Alfred round out the cast as Batman's indispensible right hand men.

The most exciting presence on screen, though, is Heath Ledger as the Joker. He steals every scene he's in, you can't stop watching him. His portrayal is a departure from Jack Nicholson's more gentlemanly take back in the Tim Burton version, and I have to say, it's phenomenal. He's charming, funny, sadistic, unpredictable, and thoroughly scary. I loved it.