TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

While I do consider myself a Star Wars fan my fandom is limited to the live action shows and movies. Even though I've watched almost all of The Clone Wars animated series I never really connected with the ongoing stories of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Though I did like the first prequel, The Phantom Menace , the two subsequent prequels I've always found to be difficult watches. Largely because we get too much in the way of Jedi. They no longer feel special or formidable. In fact with so many youngling Jedi, in addition to all the adult Jedi, being a Jedi seems more like a trade that anyone could study. I mention all of this to say, as much as I do like Ewan McGregor, a series or movie about Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't anything I was hoping to see but it's live action Star Wars so of course I'm going to watch.  Obi-Wan Kenobi is set a few years after the  last prequel, Revenge of the Sith . Obi-Wan, now going by the name Ben, has made something of a despondent l...

"a painting of a fox sitting in a field at sunrise in the style of Claude Monet” Image by DALL-E 2, OpenAI.com One thing people have often said is that machines will never replace creative artists because they lack the imagination and emotion required to create anything meaningful. A.I. technology is now good enough to work as writing assistants, including sites like Jasper and Rytr , where you simply tell the A.I. what you want to write about and it'll produce a complete article on that subject. The article may not be perfect but it can sure save you a lot of time. DALL-E 2: Realistic images and art from a description in natural language. With the release of DALL-E 2 there is now an A.I. that can produce realistic (or artistically styled) images based entirely on text prompts in seconds. We're not just talking about collaging a few images together here either. DALL-E 2 can create images where everything looks fairly seamless and purposefully included. Rather than me try...

I must admit I was expecting Top Gun Maverick to lean a lot more on nostalgia. While it has plenty of callbacks to the original movie, it does feel like its own thing with a new story and cast of characters. That said, the events of the first film drive (or is that fly) a big part of the character arcs, as Maverick (Tom Cruise) has to face the death of his wingman, Goose, all over again with Goose's son, Rooster (Miles Teller) (I'm using everyone's call sign because their actual character names aren't spoken out loud enough for me to remember them), who, somewhat surprisingly, isn't holding a grudge for his father's fate. Top Gun Maverick picks up with Maverick no longer in the Top Gun team. Instead he's a test pilot for experimental fighters being developed by the Navy/Airforce/US Government? (I'm not sure because technically Maverick is a Navy fighter pilot - which he says in the film, he flies for the Navy). However he is recalled to the Top Gun team...

Despite being an animator I don''t tend to watch a lot of animation outside of superhero related animated movies and the classic WB cartoons I watched as a kid. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers caught my eye purely for one joke in the trailer that makes note of Dale's CGI makeover. Aside from it being a funny, throw away moment, I thought it was interesting that this movie mixes live action with 2D and 3D (CGI) animation. The premise of the movie sees Chip and Dale, many years after the cancelation of their animated TV series, Rescue Rangers , getting on with their lives. Chip sells insurance, while Dale keeps his celebrity alive on the convention circuit, selling merch and signing headshots. When an old friend mysteriously goes missing Dale must reconcile differences with Chip while they race to find their buddy. Invariably this movie gets the Who Framed Roger Rabbit comparison (or Space Jam 2 ) and, while Chip 'n Dale does make an effort to blend its 2D animation wit...