It's got a -smell-!

Have you ever gone overseas?  It's interesting because when I was in Japan, it had a distinctive smell.  Not just where I landed but the whole region.  You can't mistake the overpowering aroma of wet, thick marijuana smoke and raw sewage with a hint of decaying fish.  It's omnipresent.  There's no escaping it night or day.  Other GIs had commented on it upon arrival.  Tokyo was fainter and smelled a bit more like car exhaust and metal.  I know it's hard to describe the smell of metal.  Try tasting your car keys for a second.  That's what metal smells like in Tokyo.  This was in 1996.  It probably smells a lot more like nuke now. 

When I moved to Denver back in 1993, I remember it smelled very fresh compared to Boston.  Brisk like the smell of snow (another hard one to explain.. like wet ozone maybe, pure oxygen out of an ionic breeze in a humid room).  I don't smell it anymore though.  Been here too long.

Other places smell differently too I hear.  Asians, when moved to Vermont said it smelled like apples everywhere, all the time.  When I got back to Boston on a few visits, the original scent now somewhat removed from my familiarity, smelled a lot like wet stone and dry leaves, which is actually quite nice, though the subways will always smell like hot urine.  There's no way to erase that.  Urine since 1880 hot and rich and pungent and in-your-face.  New Hampshire smelled sweet-ish like butterscotch and wood.

In 2003 I got to go to Michigan which smelled of rich, rich earth dirt smell, so rich it almost smelt edible.  Like crumbled chocolate cake.  Looked like it too.  I resisted a nibble.

It takes time to "unlearn" a smell from a region, and eventually you forget it's there.  You get used to it over time, maybe after a few months.  Astronauts (and, grudgingly, cosmonauts) on the International Space Station get used to that space-funk after a few weeks and then they don't notice it anymore.  Our brains turn-off the smell after a while.  Maybe it's a defence mechanism so we don't use our brains too much to over-analyze it lest it get too tired perhaps.  I never got over Japan though.  So thick smelling.  I'll never miss it.  Stuck to the back of my throat.  On Wednesdays they burn their dead country-wide.  I think on Fridays, Mothera would come sometimes and attack Gigan, though I never saw it, I bet it smelt like cherries and solar flare.

Does anyone else notice this?  What does other places smell like?  What does Mars smell like?  Are we all used to Earth smell?

Comment section BRO-KEN and Zombies.

Google Blogger is a bit new and the comment section puts users in an infinite loop with a little red rectangle (thanks to Antonio on that one).  I sent an email to Google to fix the issue.  If you want to comment, I can add it if you comment on my email section and I'll post it as your name.

A little bit on the Zombie section.  Again, a lot of folks like to brain-dump when they watch movies I guess.  I do the exact opposite.  Someone asked me why I over-analyze movies so much.  It's because I LOVE movies.  It's probably one of my most favorite things in the Universe!  I love 'em tons!  I savor every bit of it.  Every nuance.  Means so much to me.  YES I enjoy the movies a LOT.  I cherish period accuracy, great acting and character development, gripping me into involvement as if I'm actually THERE.  Characters coming up with solutions to problems and plausible reality with a smattering of suspension of disbelief (Ninjas teleporting by smoke-bomb for instance.. well, they're ninjas.. or spaceship fighterjets banking in a dogfight (it's somewhat possible.. you can make a circle on an etch-a-sketch after-all).  The Zombie rating is for those that turn their brains OFF during the movie for sheer enjoyment.  I turn mine on to 11.  It's why I can't sleep while watching a movie.. EVER, even if it's a slow sappy love-story.  Zombies love big badda boom, and Audi A6 cars spinning in air while the passenger shoots out the window, then lands it at 50 feet vertical, complete CGI-gasm.  Not my bag, baby.  Now if a stunt-guy pulls this off, it's physically possible, and therefore much better, and great kudos to the stunt-driver (see the movie Bullit 1968 (arguably best car chase movie of all time).

New Website Version 0.2 is UP!

Okay, folks!  After some dealings with Yahoo web-hosting, the new website is up, http://www.mikecronis.com/.  I put a little content on there and a link to this blog, etc. etc.

Now for a blog.

Just saw Harry Potter Deadly Hallows Part 2.  It's a far cry from Part 1 which had a lot of nice character development.  Part 2 is (insert laser sounds and spells and middle-grade special effects here) of which there are no real deathly hallows whatsoever.  Lots of characters you don't know who they are and/or were never introduced in the movies, such as a married couple that can't seem to touch fingers for some odd reason.  Not much except a bunch of quick fights.  SPOILER ALERT:  Harry gets this super-cool wand at the end and instead of at least fixing the school, he breaks it.  Stupid-o. 
For fans who actually read the books, the entire series, to include the Order of the Phoenix (who's characters play no part in the rest of the series, nor barely in the eponymous movie itself) I'd give a higher grade.  So..

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Book series fans: C+
Zombie folks :     B- (yay, flashy colors!)
Everyone else:     D+

Now be advised there are folks that just "like to be entertained without thinking".  I meet a few of these folks from time-to-time.  I guess to them, entertainment is turning their brain off and seeing bright flashy colors and boom boom sounds.  Therefore, for the unintelligent, I give a third rating for the zombie brain-dead.

Secondly, we watched Captain America: First Avenger.  Not to be confused with the 90's movie which was pretty cool.  There was a lot of nice detail in things like 1940s paint colors (drab green metal for instance, for those who know) and little nice details of cars and the like.  The first half of the movie is a delight.  Well executed and delivered, though Chris Evans gives a rather wooden performance, the script is tight enough to carry him along.  Hayley Atwell, the love-interest-agent gives an unusually ice-princess performance to Chris Evans' dumbfounded acting (he seems a bit confused at times how he got the role) leaving the audience wondering why it's lacking warmth.  Still, flicks of passion glimmer a bit, which is nice.  Seems the movie's been rated-PG'ed down, making it a tiny bit more Indiana Jones and less Batman: Dark Knight.  Though not a complete shame.  Fisticuffs and gun-fights are tastefully done.  It's nice to see the cheesiness of 1940s propaganda, albeit overplayed and shiny a tad.  Bucky is present but seemingly gets a small part.  Where's the Extended Director's Cut?!
The movie moves on to NO dialogue really, just a LOT of fisticuffs and gun-fights and p'tchew p'tchew bang bang kaBOOM stuff with middle-grade special effects again.  Not too bad but I was enjoying the story.  The villian is nicely unlikable, there's Nazis to unlike, and some Steampunk elements as is expected with Nazi super-science.  I break up the movie into two parts.  (Yes, there's an Avengers preview at the end of the film if you wait). 
Captain America: The First Avenger (first half)
Comic book  fans: B- (some inconsistencies)
Zombie folks :       D+ (Only 1 fight scene?!  Graah!)
Everyone else:       A-

Captain America: The First Avenger (second half)
Comic book  fans: B- (some inconsistencies)
Zombie folks :       A- (Nazi Boom Yay!)
Everyone else:       B

Welcome to Mike Cronis!

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