Of Batman and other things...

So, first off, go and look up Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog RIGHT NOW. It will only be up until the 20th and then will disappear forever, and you will miss the cutest tale of a super-villain just trying to make the world a better place through nefarious deeds. And his nemesis is played by the guy who played Malcolm Reynolds and is called Captain Hammer. And did I mention it's a musical?


So, on other fronts, I've been watching a lot of Batman recently to prep for Dark Knight (woo!). It had been a while since I saw the first two Batman movies (starring Michael Keaton), so it was really interesting to watch them again with a better understanding of the whole mythos. First of all, the movies now strike me as incredibly Tim Burton-esque (not surprising as he directed both of them). The sets are all kind of twisted, the characters pretty gimicky and deranged, but none of it in a really threatening kind of way. I mean, the Joker is definitely psychotic, but he plays up the clown-themed super-villain angle quite a bit. I mean, seriously, who uses a 10 foot long extendable boxing glove anymore? Conversely the Penguin traded in all of his gentlemanly ways to become a monster (and, coincidentally, his gang looks a lot like the Joker's).

Another strange thing about those early Batman movies is Batman's willingness to kill. Seriously, in the first movie Keaton kills almost every single villain he comes across and his entire motivation is violent revenge. Heck, he flies the damn batplane into a crowded square and launches missiles and heavy machine gun fire! And even though he is at least as psychotic as the Joker by the end of the movie, the Commissioner simply says "yay Batman! He's a good guy!" It just seemed to me that Batman would at least seem as dangerous to the population as the Joker; he just happens to choose victims that are villains. Also, if you're going to kill them anyway, why not use a gun?

But still, they were pretty entertaining movies and helped me to get more in the mood for Dark Knight (like I needed any help... heck, I'm printing out "I believe in Harvey Dent" posters for my car... [side note: in the first Batman movie, Harvey Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams, aka Lando Calrissian. Crazy world, huh?]).

I'll be altering a bit of my Heffenzopf baking post to include some information that I forgot the first time around, so be sure to check back there if you have the recipe and want to try to make some. Also, I found two really good sites for physics GRE help- http://www.physicsgre.com/ and http://grephysics.net/ans/

That's about it for now; I should have my photos from NH up within the hour.
edit: they are at http://picasaweb.google.com/herzlbem/NewHampshire

"A lot of guys ignore the laugh, and that's about standards. I mean, if you're going to get into the Evil League of Evil you have to have a memorable laugh... What, do you think Bad Horse didn't work on his whinnie? (pause) It's a terrible... death whinnie..."
-Dr. Horrible