Weather report!

Holy crap, it's raining in San Diego! The planes are taking off the wrong way and everything.

The river is even flooding over it's banks out in Mission Valley. (Steve and I were just over there and saw it with our own eyes, so you know it's true.)

It's December already?

Since David is giving me grief over not updating my blog since August – and he has a valid point – here’s a recap of what has happened since then.

Steve and I went to Maine for some vacation and to visit his family. I hadn’t met any of his family until this trip. We had a good time basically just hanging out there. We did go see some of the sights in Portland (lighthouses and such) but mostly we hung around the house and were entertained by his five-year-old nephew. Before we got to Maine, we were in Connecticut. We’ve decided that people in Connecticut don’t like visitors. We tried visiting some beaches there and almost all of them are privately owned by a club, and the beaches that are public have no public parking anywhere near them. We did luck out and find a wildlife area that was completely free. We had a nice walk there and spent lots of time on the shelly beach. Beaches in the east are completely different than SoCal beaches. The Atlantic beaches are coarser, have more whole shells, and are smaller. We also spent one night in Boston to go to a Red Sox game. Our seats turned out to be fantastic and the Sox won in extra innings against the Blue Jays. We had a great time at Fenway eating hot dogs, drinking beer, cheering and jeering with the rest of the crowd. We got to Boston later than we wanted to (thanks to a side trip in Rhode Island), so we didn’t get to Fenway as early as we planned. Instead of doing pictures before the game, we did them after. It seems the grounds crew lets people hang out for about 15 minutes after the game to take picture but then they start shooing everyone out. We were able to walk all the way down to the field (not on the field) right behind home plate. A grumpy staffer started telling us to leave, but then he offered to take our picture. Not satisfied with the first one he took, he insisted he take another. Go figure. We did eat lobstah whilst in Maine and it was good.

After getting back from Maine, it was all work, work, work. Nothing interesting.

In October, we visited Crystal Cove State Beach just north of Laguna and south of Newport Beach on the Pacific. My mom has been obsessed about getting a reservation at one of the historic restored beach cottages at this state beach. She succeeded in doing so back in April, and the dates she got were in October. Yes, these book six moths out via an online only reservations system. They are extremely popular and have only been open since 2006. Steve and I drove up and stayed on night with them (mom & dad were there for two nights). It’s really a great place to go for a little weekend get away. The entire place feels like it’s back in the 50’s. The cottages are all different and have different amenities and prices. We were in a “dorm” style cottage which means two parties stay there. Each has their own sleeping area (some with private baths), and they share living area, porch, and kitchen. Other cottages are completely private but cost about three times as much. All of the cottages are right on the beach and it’s a gorgeous one. We could walk for miles on the beach. At low tide there are tide pools, but we weren’t really there at a good time for low, low tides. There’s not much to do but enjoy the beach. And there are no tvs.

The weekend after relaxing at Crystal Cove, Steve and I headed north to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. This was the same week as the fires that whipped through San Diego County. We were luckily not affected by the fires, nor was anyone we know. Our office was closed for a day and a half. When we got back from the parks, everything was running pretty much back to normal for most people.

We really enjoyed the parks. We stayed in a bath cabin at Grant Grove inside Kings Canyon park. The cabins are old (circa 1910s I think?), but well heated and functionally furnished. The cabins do have mice and we heard scurrying, but since we protected our food, no mice nibbles on anything. We only had two days to visit, so we did the highlights: Grant Grove, General Sherman Tree, part of the Congress trail that features the stands called The House and The Senate, and Giant Forest. We also visited a cave in Kings Canyon and had a very nice walk/hike through forest along the river. We stopped during that walk to have a snack right by the water and Steve declared it was the best apple he ever had. The surrounding were gorgeous. Fall had reached the higher elevations there and all the maple and oak trees were yellow. I love the big trees of Sequoia. They are indescribable because my mind can’t really comprehend how big and old they are. You just have to see them.

I’ve had other travels since August, too. I went to Arizona to have a Greene reunion of sorts due to my Grandmother’s 90th birthday. For work, I’ve been to Arizona and NY to attend conferences. I’ve hardly had a weekend at home for two months.

Next on the agenda is a trip to Texas next week. I’ll be going to San Antonio first to visit my aunt, celebrate her birthday, and go to a Spurs-Mavericks game. Love going to those b-ball games! The trip will end in Dallas at the wedding of one of my college friends, Terry. Should be fun to see her since I haven’t seen her since Summer’s wedding back in 2001 perhaps? Can’t remember what year, but needless to say, it’s been a while.

Steve and I did have a weekend at home for Thanksgiving. With Mom & Dad out on the cruise, we did T-day with our friends Roseleigh & Matt. We brought the stuffing, crans, desserts, and dip. They did the rest. It was really nice and we had just the right amount of leftovers. We went to Ikea to buy some shelving for Steve, got my car washed, and other chores. We did go to the beach to enjoy the extreme low tide created by the full moon. The water was so far out we could walk around the end of a rock jetty. It was great. We also went to the zoo. Our first visit since August. We found a keeper working in the enclosure right next to Spanky (the Alaskan Brown Bear who was having health issues), and she said he died. He was old. Poor guy. There was sign in his old exhibit saying a pair of grizzly bear brothers will be arriving soon. We’ll miss Spanky.

And finally, yesterday we found out that the sale of our company (Harcourt) to Houghton-Riverdeep has been approved by the FTC and DOJ. I still don’t know what this means for us yet, but at least we know that changes will be happening soon. I’ll keep you posted.

Steve took pictures during all our trips and visits. He just hasn’t uploaded them to his flickr account yet. I’ll add another entry when they are there and you can take a peek at some of the highlights.

Present Day

Now that I got that ComicCon post I wrote 6/30 and didn't post till today, 8/23, I feel I owe you another one that is a tad more current.

Not much is new. Susan and I heard from Terry, thanks to Summer's heads-up, that Terry is getting married! She met the guy at the gym and it was love at first sweat. Gag, sorry that was was too cutesy but I couldn't resist. The wedding will be in December in Texas.

Steve and I are departing for the east coast next Thursday (8/30) on the redeye. We are going to bouncing up the coast from Connecticut to Maine. First, Steve has friends getting married Labor Day weekend in CT. After that, we head to Boston on the 3rd for a Red Sox game. Fenway baby! It will only be my second trip to this fabled ballpark, and I'm very excited. We had to buy tickets through StubHub because the games sell out so quickly. Here's hoping we don't have one of the notorious "obstructed view" Fenway seats. We'll be in Boston that night, and then head up to Maine the next day. We'll visit with Steve's family for the rest of the week until we fly home at the crack of dawn on the 8th. I'm driving up to LA tomorrow night to leave the Cleo with Mom & Dad while I'm gone so long.

I don't think I've shared the big news at work with you yet. In July, our company was sold, but the deal is not closed yet. The sale of such a large company to a competitor involves lots of governmental approval (anti-monopoly stuff), so we are all in limbo until that happens. No one at either company knows what's going to happen with restructure, merge, etc. The ideal time to have the sale closed would be by the end of this year, but it may not happen till next March. With the government, there is no set time-table. The company that bought us is Houghton Riverdeep, which is headquartered in Boston.

Can you believe I haven't seen the Harry Potter movie yet? I can't. I'm going to try to see it this weekend in LA since it is starting to disappear from theatres. I have seen Ratatouille and Bourne. Rat was cute but not as funny as previous Pixar films. Bourne is nonstop action.

Summer has flown by. Can it really be over? Steve and I only made it to one night zoo night. The San Diego zoo is open till 9 during the summer months, but it ends Labor Day weekend. We went last weekend. Almost all the big cats were doing something! They weren't sleeping! the snow leopards were up and playing, the mountain lion was pacing and stalking kids walking by his enclosure (which is really great fun to watch), and the lynx were wrestling. Even the lions were awake even though they were just sitting staring at us with a very arrogant and bored look on their faces. Our favorite animal, Spanky the Alaskan Brown Bear, was sadly off exhibit. We are worried about him. He's about 23 years old, and last time we saw him there was a sign on his exhibit id tag that he was being treated for some skin growths, but he was still on exhibit. Since he was gone last week, we only hope that he's behind the scenes getting treatment and that something worse hasn't befallen Spanky. We also saw the baby sun bear and his mama. Usually, when we visit the zoo it's during the day when the papa sun bear is on exhibit. This was the first we had seen the baby. He was having loads of fun rolling a large stick/branch around on the rocks.

I don't think I ever posted the link to the pictures from our weekend in Montana. Steve has them up on his Flickr page.

I think that will do it for now. Hope all of you are doing well. Have a good holiday weekend!

Superheroes, Storm Troopers, and Fairies, oh my!

Note: I wrote this weeks ago but never got around to finishing it. Now that so much time has gone by, I've completely forgotten anything else I was going to tell you about ComicCon, so I'm just going to publish this as is.

When you spot a group of half a dozen Storm Troopers in the Gaslamp of San Diego, you know it's ComicCon once again. This annual event attracts nerds, dweebs, dorks, the women who love them (there are some), and people who make their living selling stuff on eBay. In addition to the Storm Troopers (and Darths, Boba Fetts, Luke Skywalkers, and gold bikini Leias), there are also lots of anime characters I don't know, fairies, Lara Croft-looking women (picture tightly clad women with guns strapped to them), and other things I can't even begin to identify. Steve and I were finally not the palest people in the room.

Festivities got started Wednesday night, and lasted through Sunday. I had the pleasure of attending the show twice, and let's just say, a few hours is all you need. Or at least all you can take.

I was able to take advantage of Steve registering as a "professional" and tagging along on his dual pass. I don't know what we were supposed to be professionals of exactly, but at least we had a *free* full conference pass that allowed us to go to the exhibits and programs. We went to the preview night Wednesday - only open to professionals and full-conference registrants - and wandered around gaping at the not-quite-full-scale-but-pretty-darn-big Pirates of the Caribbean pirate ship, huge Golden Compass polar bear, life-size LEGO R2-D2 and C3PO, vintage Batmobile, Speed Racer's racer, and loads more. We snagged Harry Potter bags (these are the same promotional bags I mentioned in an earlier post) from Scholastic, a Homer Simpson fan from Harper, and other little things from the other trade publishers who were exhibiting. We only attended the show for about two hours that night, but it was plenty.

We went back on Friday right when the exhibits opened at 10. This time, we took more time and went up and down aisles browsing at the wares on display. There are lots of toys, oh excuse me, collectibles, for sale. Other items include pop-culture t-shirts, artist prints & originals, posters, and of course the heart of the show, comic books and graphic novels. The movie and television studios have enormous expensive booths that are all about lights, loud videos, and not much else. The studios also have celebrities autographing but the lines are always huge. I saw someone from Heroes, but since I don't watch the show I didn't have a clue who he was. We did stop at the Golden Compass booth to look at costumes from the movies (Nicole Kidman's dress was on display and she's freakishly thin), and discovered they were taking pictures of people in front of a green screen. The picture printed out almost instantly and you now had a picture of you digitally inserted in the Golden Compass movie poster. It looks like the polar bear is hugging you. Aw. Steve and I did this and now we have a very cheesy--but free--souvenir of ComicCon.

We also stood in a very long line to get autographed DVDs from Nick Frost and Edgar Wright - one of the lead actors and director/co-writer, respectively - of Hot Fuzz. In case you haven't seen this wickedly over-the-top violent and hilarious movie, you have to add it to your Netflix queue today. Now. Have you done it yet? Hot Fuzz is another film made by most of the guys who also did Shaun of the Dead. Add that one to your queue, too.

After the marathon autographing line and wandering the exhibit hall aimlessly, my eyes started to glaze over and a skull-cracking headache set in. It was time to go home.

So this is how it all ends

I won't give anything away here, so it's safe to read this even if you haven't finished HP7.

I finished the last installment of the Harry Potter saga yesterday. Part of me wanted to read this book as fast as I could because I was just dying to find out how it ended, and part of me really wanted to slow down since I knew it would be the last time I'd read a new Harry Potter. I think I could have read faster, but I made myself do things. Such as . . . I made myself go to bed. I made myself eat and not read at the same time. I made myself talk to Steve. We even went out to dinner Saturday. I made myself go grocery shopping. All those things interrupted reading and helped me savor the book from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Still, I guess that's pretty fast to get through about 750 pages, although I know others got through it faster. I didn't take a shower on Saturday, and that may have bought me about 20 minutes of reading time. :)

So what did I think of it? Well, I don't want to say until everyone is done.

Instead, I'll tell you about the midnight release party I went to on Friday. Steve and I rolled into La Jolla about 10:45, and made our way to Warwick's. I managed to find the person one person in the mob distributing line numbers and received the fantastic number or 243. Yes, that meant I was the 243rd person in line. Great. Warwick's staff didn't get us lined up until about 11:30, so the rest of the time we spent people watching. (People watching and going to Von's - a grocery store - that was only a couple blocks away. I was out of cat food.) The store had set up various activities and food items along the sidewalk. Each booth had a HP theme. Professor Trelawney was there to tell fortunes, there was a quill shop where people could write their names or whatnot, a joke shop, ice cream, etc. I was quite amazed to see how many people were in costume. It really felt more like Halloween. The age range was extremely varied. It seemed all ages were accounted for, the bulk being older high school kids who were probably the same age as Harry when the first book came out. There were plenty of adults there without any kids in tow, and many adults were dressed up, too. Women in witch hats, men in capes. Everyone was very excited.

When we finally got the call to get in line, the process was surprisingly smooth. I think I was just about in the middle of the pack because I saw some numbers that were over 400. Warwick's staff kept morale up by raffling off promotional bags provided by Scholastic featuring the jacket art. These bags were all over ALA and BEA, and I wasn't surprised to see them at the event. The woman right ahead of me - #242 - won one of the bags and she was so thrilled. She kept showing it off to everyone.

There was the obligatory countdown during the last 10 seconds and a cheer went up from the line. And then we stood there. It was rather anti climatic. I think it was a good ten minutes after the doors opened before we moved two feet. For some reason, those ten minutes were far less productive than the second ten minutes, during which we moved forward regularly and I was in the store by 12:30 or so. Since I had already paid for my book, I turned in my voucher and got a book and t-shirt. Steve took my picture outside the store after I got my book. I'll post that pic soon. I am such a geek.

I was home by 1, when I promptly started reading. I really, really, really wanted to peek at the end of the book, but I managed not to. I had told myself that I would stay up reading as long as my eyes would allow. That was only another hour and half. By 2:30, I was in bed. But I woke up at 8:30, and couldn't go back to sleep because that book - which I had left in the living room - was calling.

And that was the weekend. I read and read. I took a nap. I read some more. I didn't shower. I didn't do the dishes. Cleo loved having me on the couch all day. The timing of the book couldn't have been better though. I already had an excuse to stay at home all weekend - it was gay pride weekend and the epicenter for the events was at Balboa Park. Which means, parking in my neighborhood becomes very difficult. I didn't want to move my car all weekend. People got very creative with their parking and most of it was illegal - parking in fire zones and crosswalks. Steve came over Sunday morning to pick me up so I could get my weekly grocery shopping done. We got back from the store right before the crazy parking started and managed to find a small parallel spot around the corner of my place. We lucked out. On Saturday night, as I said previously, we did go out for dinner, but we walked rather than drove. We walked up to Hillcrest - about a mile and half one way - for some Thai.

This has probably been a pretty boring post to read. Sorry. This was my weekend. I really enjoyed it but I will be glad to have a bit more freedom next weekend. Between Harry and Pride, I felt like a shut-in.

Let me know when you're finished!

14 hours and counting!

In case you missed it, there is a little book coming out tonight called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Or HP7, aka DH, in fan-speak. Here are what the other titles are in shorthand, not that it takes a rocket scientist to figure them out:

SS - Sorcerer's Stone

COS - Chamber of Secrets

GOF - Goblet of Fire

OOTP - Order of the Phoenix

HBP - Half-Blood Prince

I wanted to get a good night's sleep last night so I could read a bit tonight after I get my book at midnight, but I seem to have a sudden bout of insomnia this week and wound up getting about 5 hours of sleep before I was rudely awakened by the cat TWO lousy minutes before my alarm was set to go off.

Last week, I saw a licence plate that said, "MUGGLZ."

Like I said, I'm picking up my copy of HP7 tonight at Warwicks at their midnight release party. Tomorrow, the UPS guy is going to be the most popular guy in the neighborhood.

Fourth of July in Big Sky Country

Hello all. I can't believe my last post was back in April. Actually, that's a lie. I can believe it. Things have been so busy and blogging hasn't been on the agenda.

I'll start with the most recent events because let's face it, who really cares what happened two months ago.

Steve and I flew to Great Falls to spend last week with Susan & Pat. They moved about a month ago from Choteau - NW of Great Falls - to Moore, which is NE of Great Falls. Moore, if you look it up on a map, is quite literally smack dab in the middle of the state. And there ain't much there. Moore is very small and surrounded by hay and alfalfa fields. It was also hay harvest and most of the fields were cut, being cut, or already baled. Steve's allergies acted up a bit but he kept them controlled with some Claratin. I thought all the freshly cut hay smelled wonderful - the epitome of summer.

We flew up on Monday so we all could drive to Choteau on Tuesday for a *free* Willie Nelson concert, courtesy of David Letterman, the "anonymous" donor. Dave has his big ranch near Choteau and he provides gifts to the town and residents every year. This year, he got Willie Nelson to play at the Choteau Rodeo Grounds for free. Three thousand tickets were given out to residents. Willie played with the sunset and a huge Texas flag behind him. My favorite Willie song, "Pancho and Lefty," was the third song he played. The concert was fantastic and we didn't even realized it was 2 1/2 hours long even though we were standing the entire time.

We slept that night at their friend Ian's house. Ian's house has decor that features lots of animals. The biggest elk rack I've ever seen dominated one wall. A mountain goat pelt hung on another. We had to move his ammo around in order to make enough floor space for our sleeping bags in his finished attic. Before the concert, Ian and Pat grilled up blue cheese elk burgers for dinner.

On Wednesday, we got up to go to the Choteau 4th of July parade. The parade consisted of classic cars, home made floats, local charities and businesses, women on motorcycles, lots and lots of horses, fire trucks, and of course, Shriners in their mini Corvettes. They were hauling ass up and down the street in those things. Ian was also in the parade leading the Forest Service black pack mule train. Another one of Susan & Pat's friend was driving the Forest Service's fire truck.

Later that day, we attended the Choteau Rodeo. It was Steve's first rodeo and he seemed a little dumbfounded by what he saw. After, I asked him which event was his favorite, and he like the team roping. Of course, our favorite was actually the unofficial event of "wild cow milking." This chaotic event consisted of six teams of three guys (some drunk) wrestling a beef cow for control and milking her enough to pour it out of a beer bottle. The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo has the calf scramble, and Choteau has wild cow milking. Many of the rodeo participants were from Choteau, and many of them were still teenagers. Even the bull riders.

We took it easy on Thursday back in Choteau. We drove home on Wednesday, and made it to Lewistown (the closest "big" town to Moore doing city fireworks) for the fireworks show. I was a little skittish by the do-it-yourself fireworks that were being set off in the parking lot. Fireworks were going off everywhere. On Thursday, we attempted to spend some time at Crystal Lake, a mountain lake in the Little Snowies, but we were chased out by huge biting horseflies. It was very pretty and I would have liked more time there to hike and maybe dip a toe or two in.

We flew home Friday and spent the weekend recuperating from the oppressive heat we had in Montana. Susan's car had broken AC, so we did all the driving in the heat. More accurately, Susan, Conner (her dog), and I did the driving in the heat. The boys rode in air conditioned comfort in Pat's truck to and from Choteau. Men.

The Montana countryside is gorgeous. East of Great Falls towards Moore, the land is rolling. Mountains are visible in every direction. The fields are all green and gold. We saw whitetail and pronghorn deer many times. No other wildlife other than some birds.

So what else has happened since April? Here's the rundown:

Movies I've seen: Spiderman 3, Ocean's 13, Shrek 3, Pirates 3. Bottom line review: They all suck. They all disappoint. Of course, what was I expecting.

Places I've gone for work: San Antonio, Toronto, Washington D.C.

People I've seen (other than Susan and Pat): Amy Schumacher, Auntie

Friends who have had babies: Jason & Corrie - a preemie baby girl! (Keep those updates coming J!)

Friends who are going to Uganda later this month: Katrina!

Friends who bought an iPhone and I sat in line with them but I didn't buy one: Steve!

Baseball games I've gone to this season: six - two on my dime, four on the company

Championships the San Antonio Spurs have won: FOUR!! Go Spurs Go!

Books I've read: uhhh, I can't remember all of them. I've read several manuscripts for work purposes, and I started Special Topics in Calamity Physics during my trip to DC (I was stuck in airports and on airplanes for 12 hours trying to get home). Currently, I'm rereading Harry Potter #5, to be followed by #6, before the release of #7. I went to Warwick's, an independent bookshop in La Jolla, over the weekend to prepurchase my copy and to get a spot for their midnight release party on the 20th. I've never gone to a midnight release party and I figure this is the last one. Call me a nerd, but I'm very excited.

Guess that's enough information for now, chillens. When Steve goes through all his pictures, I'll post a few.

Have fun out there!

Weekend Update

This past weekend was a nice one. Not that they aren't all nice, but this one was a little different from most. Mom and Dad drove down from L.A. for a little San Diego visit. We had all sorts of fun at the zoo, beach, and museum. Not to mention all the good eating out. Steve also went along for almost everything, too.

Here are a few pics.


This is Mom, me, and Steve beach combing on Coronado at sunset.

Everyone at the beach, thanks to the automatic timer.


Panda at the zoo munching on some delicious bamboo.

A flock of prissy flamingos walking around with their noses in the air.

On Sunday, we walked over to the Museum of Art to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. It was a very interesting exhibit split 50-50 between family & personal photos to her famous portraits of celebrities. I ended the day Sunday back at the beach. I was pretty walked out from walking to and from the zoo, walking all over the zoo, and walking to and from the museum. So I just chilled on a blanket with the Sunday crossword puzzle while Steve continued his quest for finding all the sea glass on Coronado beach. I got a little sun, but nothing that lasted to the end of today.

This is my last week at home before heading to San Antonio for TLA next week. Going to spend Easter weekend with Auntie and Mom. We are going to a Spurs game, which I am looking forward to because it will be the second time I get to wear my Tim Duncan jersey. Oh the little things . . .

Cheerio till next time.

Where Darth goes on his day off

So, a couple weekends ago, Steve and I decided to take a leisurely stroll along the Coronado beach. This beach is divided in half by a rock jetty in front of the Hotel del Coronado. As I am coming up over this jetty, I see something I really, really didn't expect. I saw Darth Vader, Storm Troopers, and other various Star Wars costumed beings. Hmm.

After some at-home research, we found that there is some big group of people called the 501st Legion, and we think this may have been a local chapter. This group is an avid Star Wars costume group.

You can see a whole slew of pictures here, or just click here to see a great shot of Darth and pals with their surf boards. Only in California, right? Also, Steve and I are in the background. We are all the way on the right, just above that guy's shoulder.

Talking cats

Next to Panda Sneezes, this is my next favorite thing on YouTube. The cat at the end with the subtitles is the best. You MUST have speakers for this one.

Evil Genius

So some of you didn't think that last quiz & blog entry was funny (MOM!), and I doubt some of you will like this one, too (MOM!). This quiz is one from work. We're publishing a book called Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks, and she and our Internet Marketing department came up with this Axis Institute for World Domination web site, complete with quiz. Enjoy!

Morbid link

Lifted this link off of a blog I monitor for work:

'What" will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Panda sneezes

I've been slow at updating my blog. Sorry.

In case you aren't a regular to the YouTube site, this will probably be new to you. For those of you who have heard of YouTube and are an occassional visitor, you've probably seen this already. It's definitely one of my favorite things I've seen. Speakers help so you can hear the sneeze, but not necessary since it's really the reaction that is so funny. Love it.

2007

And it was silly of me not to wish everyone a Happy New Year yesterday. So a day late, I hope you will accept my well-wishes for a happy, healthy, and excellent 2007.

Dreamgirls review

So yesterday I saw the much hyped Dreamgirls movie. Hmm. Overall, I think this was a quality movie. But there were so many problems with it. I don't think it should be a best picture winner in any category.

Things I liked.
1. Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "You're Gonna Love Me." Her very powerful voice conveys the vulnerability of her otherwise strong character. It's musical raw emotion. I don't watch American Idol, but the audience who voted her off must be morons. There was prolonged spontaneous applause and cheering at the end of this number.
2. Beyonce's changing make-up, costumes, and hair styles are really fun to watch. She's gorgeous in just about every shot and the resemblance to a young Diana Ross is uncanny. Several shots are exactly copies of some of Ross's iconic pictures and styles.
3. Eddie Murphy for taking on a completely different role. But is it a good role for him? He's passable but there's a reason we love him doing comedy - he's good at it.
4. The costumes.

Things I didn't like:
1. The songs. I love music but there were so many songs that went on forever. I know it's a musical and songs are a critical part of a musical, but quantity doesn't substitute for quality. I think using real songs from the era that the audience is familiar with might have allowed the audience to embrace the musical format more.
2. It's long. Even if this wasn't based on the real-life events of the Supremes, the characters are stock and have predictable story arcs. It's the same story we've already seen countless times over.
3. It was uneven in the storytelling and production technique. Some scenes were directed as if they were in a live stage performance, but other scenes were directed in a completely "normal" realistic manner. This same technique was also used in the film version of Chicago, but the difference was that every production aspect of Chicago was just over the line from realistic. The cinematography, costumes, choreography, make up, sets, everything was just a little too showy to be considered real - even for the dialogue scenes. And the musical numbers in Chicago went way over the top. The production direction of Chicago was complete, consistent, and committed. [Look at the movie version of A Chorus Line for the other way to do a musical - completely realistic, both the musical numbers and dialogue. Other over-the-top movie versions: Rocky Horror, Moulin Rouge (although not a B'way show), Hairspray, The Producers, Mary Poppins. Other realistically done movie versions are Rent, The Sound of Music. West Side Story is a well-done mix of both.] In Dreamgirls, there wasn't a consistent across-production vision. The musical and dialogue scenes in Dreamgirls didn't mesh enough for me. I think it would have been a better picture if they took out some of the songs and stuck to more dialogue.

So there you have it. It's long and I got a little bored in the middle after Jennifer Hudson's big number. I also think she is the bright spot in the movie. Her character, Effie, is the most interesting, carries the most conflict/drama, and her voice is miles above everyone else's, even Beyonce's. The movie is really about Effie. When her storyline isn't onscreen, the film drags.

Also, I saw the Will Ferrell - Emma Thompson film, Stranger Than Fiction, a while back. This movie was completely underrated and didn't get the audience it deserves. If you get a chance to see this smart, literate, coy, and fresh movie, do it. Add it to your Netflix queue right now. In case you don't remember this movie, it's about Emma Thompson, a writer, as she writes her newest novel. Will Farrell plays a man who suddenly hears her voice in his head as she writes. He has become the main character in the book she's writing. Of course, this lends itself to moments of hilarity. I was concerned that the film makers would take this gimmick too far, but they don't. I was surprised in how they used her voice in his head. They didn't overdo it. Will Farrell is very good playing a semi-tragic character with serious OCD. Emma Thompson looks pretty awful through most of the movie as she wallows in writers block under publisher mandated deadlines. And Dustin Hoffman almost steals the show with his eccentric, brilliant literature professor to whom Will Farrell turns to for guidance. Queen Latifah and Maggie Gyllenhaal also add to the story. The entire film - except for Dustin Hoffman's office - has a very minimalist feel and design, which is interesting because we rarely see movies that aren't inundating us with visual details. There is plenty of sly allusion to famous works of literature that only book lovers will get. Those allusions are like inside jokes. This is an enjoyable movie and not being able to predict the ending is refreshing.