Below is a list to links of my Windows 7 themes that are based on the Smashing Magazine monthly desktop wallpaper posts.  Simply click on your desired theme pack (you must have Windows 7) and it will run.  These themes all use the default Windows sound themes (minus the start navigation) and are set to rotate every 30 minutes.  You can adjust those settings to your liking after installed.  They also use the 1920x1200 resolution pictures from the post as the maximum/best provided for each author.

• January 2010
• February 2010
• March 2010
• April 2010
• May 2010
• June 2010
• July 2010
• August 2010
• September 2010
• October 2010
• November 2010
• December 2010
• January 2011
• February 2011
• March 2011
• April 2011
• May 2011

I do my best to get them out as soon as Smashing Magazine publishes their final selections.  Hope you enjoy them…I do!

As we’ve all been guilty, when you see demonstrations of technologies most of the time the data samples show single table solutions.  When was the last time you’ve developed a single-table system? :-)  Thought so.

In RIA Services demonstrations, most of them have been single-table samples as well.  So how do you go about retrieving relational data (master/details type) with RIA Services?  Here’s an option.  I’m using VS2010, Silverlight 4 and the WCF RIA Services preview using the below sample.  I’m also using the Chinook sample database which has become one of my favorite simpler relational data samples to use.

Creating your project and associated RIA Services

This is easy, create a new Silverlight project and make sure the ‘Enable .NET RIA Services’ link is checked (yes, we know it doesn’t say WCF in that dialog).  My Silverlight application will be a simple button to retrieve artists then show their associated albums.  Here’s my XAML to start:

   1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span>     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="400"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">Button</span> <span class="attr">Content</span><span class="kwrd">="Get Artist Information"</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="GetArtistButton"</span> <span class="attr">Click</span><span class="kwrd">="GetArtistButton_Click"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum5" class="lnum">   5:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ArtistsContext"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum6" class="lnum">   6:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum7" class="lnum">   7:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="Artists: "</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum8" class="lnum">   8:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding ElementName=ListOfArtists, Path=Items.Count}"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum9" class="lnum">   9:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum10" class="lnum">  10:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">ListBox</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ListOfArtists"</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="200"</span> <span class="attr">Height</span><span class="kwrd">="300"</span> <span class="attr">DisplayMemberPath</span><span class="kwrd">="Name"</span> <span class="attr">ItemsSource</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding}"</span><span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum11" class="lnum">  11:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum12" class="lnum">  12:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="AlbumsContext"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum13" class="lnum">  13:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum14" class="lnum">  14:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="Albums: "</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum15" class="lnum">  15:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding ElementName=ListOfAlbums, Path=Items.Count}"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum16" class="lnum">  16:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum17" class="lnum">  17:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">ListBox</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ListOfAlbums"</span> <span class="attr">DisplayMemberPath</span><span class="kwrd">="Title"</span> <span class="attr">ItemsSource</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding}"</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="200"</span> <span class="attr">Height</span><span class="kwrd">="300"</span><span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum18" class="lnum">  18:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum19" class="lnum">  19:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum20" class="lnum">  20:</span>     <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum21" class="lnum">  21:</span> <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">Grid</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

Now on the server side I need to create the associated models and domain services to be consumed.  I’m creating my model using Entity Framework and it looks like this:

Now I need to create my Domain Service class for that model (remember to build the solution after you create your model so it will show up in the tools).  When we create the Domain Service class be sure to enable the checkbox to generate associated classes for metadata.  Once we finish we have some stub services created for us. 

Using the Domain Service functions

We have GetArtists and GetAlbums functions we can work with.  As an example we can wire up the button click to retrieve a list of artists using the default functions we got:

   1: ChinookContext ctx = new ChinookContext();

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span>  </pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span> <span class="kwrd">private</span> <span class="kwrd">void</span> GetArtistButton_Click(<span class="kwrd">object</span> sender, RoutedEventArgs e)</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span> {</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum5" class="lnum">   5:</span>     ArtistsContext.DataContext = ctx.Artists;</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum6" class="lnum">   6:</span>     ctx.Load(ctx.GetArtistsQuery());</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum7" class="lnum">   7:</span> }</pre>

But what about when a user clicks on an Artist, we want to show the albums for that artist and not the others.  We need to modify our Domain Service to add a function:

   1: public IQueryable<Album> GetAlbumsForArtist(int ArtistId)

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span> {</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span>     <span class="kwrd">return</span> <span class="kwrd">this</span>.ObjectContext.Albums.Where(a =&gt; a.ArtistId == ArtistId);</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span> }</pre>

Now we can use that function when a user clicks on an associated artist to populate the album information:

   1: private void ListOfArtists_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span> {</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span>     ListBox theList = sender <span class="kwrd">as</span> ListBox;</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span>     Artist a = theList.SelectedItem <span class="kwrd">as</span> Artist;</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum5" class="lnum">   5:</span>     ctx.Albums.Clear();</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum6" class="lnum">   6:</span>     AlbumsContext.DataContext = ctx.Albums;</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum7" class="lnum">   7:</span>     ctx.Load(ctx.GetAlbumsForArtistQuery(a.ArtistId));</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum8" class="lnum">   8:</span> }</pre>

Cool.

However, the second event handling for our master-details section for this particular data set seems unnecessary.  After all, why not just include the children data with our initial request if we *know* that we’re doing an explicit master-details view (and our set is not that large relatively speaking).

Modify the metadata classes

Remember the generated metadata classes?  Go back to it now.  You’ll see a definition of the ArtistMetadata that includes this:

   1: public EntityCollection<Album> Albums;

Notice it has an Albums collection property.  Great, so we could just modify our XAML binding to use some element binding and get the Albums property of the SelectedItem right?  Well, not yet.  If we do that, we’ll have no data.  Why is that?  Because we haven’t told RIA Services to perform the necessary additional query to get the data.  Simple add [Include] at the top of the Albums collection:

   1: [Include]

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span> <span class="kwrd">public</span> EntityCollection&lt;Album&gt; Albums;</pre>

And that’s what we need.  Now we can add a function to our Domain Service class to get the additional data:

   1: public IQueryable<Artist> GetArtistsWithAlbums()

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span> {</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span>     <span class="kwrd">return</span> <span class="kwrd">this</span>.ObjectContext.Artists.Include(<span class="str">"Albums"</span>);</pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span> }</pre>

Now we just need to do some clean up.  We need to change our button click code to get the GetArtistsWithAlbums query now instead of the other one first.

Remove unnecessary code and use binding to help us

Now we can remove the SelectionChanged event handler for our Artists ListBox as well as add some binding commands to our XAML like this:

   1: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum2" class="lnum">   2:</span>     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="400"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum3" class="lnum">   3:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">Button</span> <span class="attr">Content</span><span class="kwrd">="Get Artist Information"</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="GetArtistButton"</span> <span class="attr">Click</span><span class="kwrd">="GetArtistButton_Click"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum4" class="lnum">   4:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum5" class="lnum">   5:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ArtistsContext"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum6" class="lnum">   6:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum7" class="lnum">   7:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="Artists: "</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum8" class="lnum">   8:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding ElementName=ListOfArtists, Path=Items.Count}"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum9" class="lnum">   9:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum10" class="lnum">  10:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">ListBox</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ListOfArtists"</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="200"</span> <span class="attr">Height</span><span class="kwrd">="300"</span> <span class="attr">DisplayMemberPath</span><span class="kwrd">="Name"</span> <span class="attr">ItemsSource</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding}"</span><span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum11" class="lnum">  11:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum12" class="lnum">  12:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="AlbumsContext"</span> <span class="attr">DataContext</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding ElementName=ListOfArtists, Path=SelectedItem}"</span> <span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum13" class="lnum">  13:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span> <span class="attr">Orientation</span><span class="kwrd">="Horizontal"</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum14" class="lnum">  14:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="Albums: "</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum15" class="lnum">  15:</span>                     <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">TextBlock</span> <span class="attr">Text</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding ElementName=ListOfAlbums, Path=Items.Count}"</span> <span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum16" class="lnum">  16:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum17" class="lnum">  17:</span>                 <span class="kwrd">&lt;</span><span class="html">ListBox</span> <span class="attr">x:Name</span><span class="kwrd">="ListOfAlbums"</span> <span class="attr">DisplayMemberPath</span><span class="kwrd">="Title"</span> <span class="attr">ItemsSource</span><span class="kwrd">="{Binding Albums}"</span> <span class="attr">Width</span><span class="kwrd">="200"</span> <span class="attr">Height</span><span class="kwrd">="300"</span><span class="kwrd">/&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum18" class="lnum">  18:</span>             <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum19" class="lnum">  19:</span>         <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum20" class="lnum">  20:</span>     <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">StackPanel</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

<pre class="alteven"><span id="lnum21" class="lnum">  21:</span> <span class="kwrd">&lt;/</span><span class="html">Grid</span><span class="kwrd">&gt;</span></pre>

Notice how the DataContext of my Albums ListBox is now set using element binding to the SelectedItem of the Artists ListBox.  Then the ItemsSource of the ListBox for Albums has a {Binding Albums} command.  This is because our Artists query now includes the associated Album data and we can just reference the property.

Use with caution

While this example shows how easy it can be to have included results in your Domain Service query result, be mindful of when you are using.  For instance if you have a customer database of 1000 customers and you want all orders to be retrieved…it might not be wise to use this particular type of method. 

This presents merely another choice for areas where you may want/need it (i.e., country/state/city) for your application.

You can download the sample solution for the above code snippets here: SilverlightApplication41.zip.  Reminder that you will need to have the Chinook database installed already – it is NOT included with this sample download.

Hope this helps!

Happy new year to all!  I hope you enjoyed a safe celebration whether that be playing a board game with friends, toasting the new year with some bubbly, throwing things at Ryan Seacrest on TV, or whatever.

Each quarter, new MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) candidates are awarded.  January 2010 is the first awards of the year and so I present the new/moved/re-awarded Silverlight specific MVPs:

• Jeff Prosise – If you aren’t subscribed to Jeff’s blog, stop and do so now.  It’s filled with some great nuggest that are usually on the advanced ‘how’d he do that’ side of things.  Jeff does a good job spelunking the framework and figuring things out.
• David Yack (@davidyack) – David is a CRM guru and has also written a great Silverlight 3 Jumpstart book (recommended for beginners).  He’s been spending more time with RIA Services for biz/CRM apps lately and been providing great insights into integration uses.  He should blog more :-)
• Laurent Duveau (@LaurentDuveau) – another re-award for Laurent who keeps cranking out great stuff and helps with the Silverlight Tour in Canada.
• Laurent Bugnion (@lbugnion) – one of the XAML experts at IdentityMine, Laurent also has written one of the definitive Silverlight reference books – and is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet.
• Ward Bell (@wardbell) – Ward has some great thoughts on application building for XAML clients and extensive experience with multicolored jackets and general antagonistic views ;-)
• Page Brooks – organizer of SilverlightContrib and various control development efforts in the community.  Control Wrangler?
• Rob Eisenberg (@EisenbergEffect) – one of the brains behind Caliburn, an Open Source Silverlight application framework.
• Andy Beaulieu – have you played a Silverlight game?  If you have, it’s most likely been one of Andy’s :-)
• Jordan Knight (@jakkaj)– hailing from down under (is that phrase still used?), Jordan does a lot in the Melbourne area around Silverlight community and has a great blog of content.
• Alessio Leoncini (@aleoncini) – One of our Italian friends that has been doing a lot in working with Silverlight in Italy and spreading the good word! Grazie!
• Andrew Tokeley – Andrew was one of the developers behind the Buttercup Reader, a completely accessible Silverlight application which is now Open Source.
• Koen Zwikstra (@kozw) – Have you heard of Silverlight Spy, the indispensible Silverlight debugging tool!?  Koen is the brain behind it.
• Qing Li is a new MVP in China that has been doing a great amount of work helping the community understand and learn Silverlight development.

Congratulations to all the new/renewed/moved Silverlight MVPs.  I look forward to seeing you at the MVP Summit soon!

I’ve never been so frustrated with a piece of software as I have been with iTunes lately.

NOTE: Yes, I work for Microsoft.  Yes I’m aware they make the Zune.  I’ve got years invested in hardware with iPods, and until someone makes an OEM integration kit as good as what I have, I can’t switch.  Truth be told, from a portable device player, I *do* think the Zune is better.  But let’s just leave that out of this argument for now.

In my home there are roughly 4 iPods floating around.  We have a library of over 5,000 songs both popular and not that are in our digital library.  That digital library is mostly MP3s, mixed with some iTunes purchased songs (although not since Amazon MP3 began).  That library sits on a shared drive on my Windows Home Server so it can be accessed through various streaming means (Home Server streams to iTunes software, XBOX, etc.).

Also in my home are roughly 6 computers ranging from desktop to laptops (mostly laptops).  These are used between my wife and myself (and one for the kids).

We all listen to music on our devices and via our machines.  We all want to listen to the same library, create our custom playlists and have them available everywhere.  We all want to be able to sync on whatever computer we want, but we’ll settle to be tied to one that you can pair with.

iTunes…sucks.

Yes, I’m looking at you iTunes.  I’m aware of the other options like Songbird, etc. but frankly I haven’t tried them out yet.  If you have and they will solve my woes, can you share your experiences?

Why does iTunes suck?  Easy…

• It assumes 1 user/1 computer – the “library” is a local and static library unless the user interacts with it.  What I mean by this is it does not have the ability to monitor folders (like pretty much every other software out there for media does).  I want to point my iTunes library to my server share and whenever I add music to it via other computers, that other ‘libraries’ will be aware of it and just add it to my local library.
• Portability sucks – try to transfer your iTunes library to another computer.  I dare you.  Navigate through all the Apple support suggestions and hacks online.  Frankly unless you are Mac to Mac migrating, it is not easy for a healthy configured library.
• Not informative – one of my biggest issues is that when I configure the library to be a mapped drive (let’s say M:), if M: is not available for some reason, iTunes decides on it’s own without telling me that it is going to switch the library back to the local volume/hard drive.  Any future action (i.e., iTunes purchasing, Amazon purchasing, etc.) now doesn’t save to my server library.  WTF?!  Can you at least tell me: Hey user, that location you set for your library, ‘M:’ is not available right now…what would you like us to do.  Stop moving it around for me.
• Home Sharing – what is this supposed to be again?  I thought this would save me.  I could have at least one place that would be the library and home share to other clients who could then use this feature to sync.  Um, nope.  This is basically the sharing they already had except with a new name.  Worthless.

I wish the iTunes team would put in their lab 3 iPods and 4 computers with 2 users and a library stored on the server.  Work toward making your software work in that environment as seamless as it does with 1 user and I’ll be happy.  Until then I have to navigate your changes and try my best to explain to my wife why the music we bough on the desktop is not on her laptop until she adds it to the library that is already mapped to the network share where the music already exists.  Yeah, that’s what I though.

I did my best to disconnect for a 2 week+ holiday at the end of this year.  It’s winding down and while the kids are napping (and the wife) I am bored and thought I’d post my list of movies I watched this break.  Having a full-time job that also happens to be your hobby plus two kids doesn’t leave a ton of time for theater going.  So this holiday I maximized my Netflix subscription both in DVD and (mostly) online instant watch via my XBOX.  Here’s some of my favorites. 

• The Yes Men – an interesting indie film of two guys’ satire site for the WTO turns them into representatives and gets them invited (by people who think they *are* the WTO) to conferences, etc.  What’s funny is that the only audience who called their BS and outlandish statements were university students.  Other world leaders and business executives didn’t budge on their absurdities.
• The Way We Get By – a touching documentary of a senior citizen group in Maine (gotta love those accents) and how they greet EVERY incoming US armed forces troops back to the states.  The dedication of this group is pretty humbling.
• MonsterCamp – no idea why I started watching this one, but didn’t last long – fantasy games are just not my thing…then introduce real-life re-enactments…sigh.  It was pretty funny to watch people call out their strengths: My destroy power 10 eliminates your 2 power power fist…or something like that.
• Food, Inc. – hands down, my favorite movie of the year.  You must set aside some time and watch this.  Amazing.  About the food industry over time and how very few actual companies control the food production in the US.  And the story of Monsanto is a bit frightening.
• McLibel – a close second to my favorite.  Apparently there is a law in the UK (not sure if it still exists) that people must apologize in public if a company thinks they are wronged.  Two people (not companies) refuse to do this and stand by their claims against McDonald’s.  The film documents their trial.  Stick it to the man.
• Outfoxed: Murdoch’s War on Journalism – interesting behind-the-scenes expose film about the FOX news network.  Truth be told, I bet similar things could be found about all media agencies.  This film though challenges your thought on mainstream media.
• America the Beautiful – a documentary about perception of beauty in America.  Film was ‘meh’ for me.  Not well done.
• Google Me – watch as Jim Killeen sets out to interview his search results.  I actually really enjoyed this one.  It was fun if anything for the voyeuristic nature of learning about different people.  The best part of the film is near the end with the rapid-pace answers by each of the 7 Jim Killeens hailing from all over the world.  Incidentally I had a question about the film, wrote to Jim (the director) and he quickly wrote me back…cool.
• 9/11: Press for Truth – chronicles mostly the Jersey wives that were in the news about getting the government to actually launch the 9/11 commission…and some of their disappointments.  I know 9/11 is a hot topic for people who are passionate about all sort of issues around the subject.  I was interested, and watched this film.  I leave no opinion here about the content.
• The Soloist – was hoping this would be a good movie for me.  I found myself doing other things in the background.  I think it was just too slow for me.
• The Maiden Heist – meh.  Lots of reviews of how funny it was.  It wasn’t.
• Watchmen – it took a while to get through near 3 hours of this film.  Was hoping for a little more comic book-ness out of it rather than what I got.  I liked the style of the film though.  Could have cut a lot of time out of the movie…like the superhero sex.  We get it, they hooked up.  I don’t need to see the dude’s arse.
• The Corporation – a documentary about the entity of ‘corporation’ and the history.  This was recommended to me by a few.  The style was not attention grabbing and I lost a lot of interest as I watched it.  It was, however, insightful of the history of the corporation.  Reminded me of learning about copyright laws from Lessig.
• Sherlock Holmes (theater) – I never remembered ol’ chap Sherlock being such a bad arse.  But he is in this movie.  I guess it’s the modern day budget interpretation of all the quirks of dear Holmes.  Entertaining flick.  Jude Law was the winner in this film.  I’m going to be him for Halloween…or the Butcher from Gangs of New York.
• Old Dogs (theater) – I thought this was an entertaining flick.  Call me lame, but it was some fun humor.
• The Blind Side (theater) – wow, great movie.  Had no idea about this story.  Cool to see how recent it was.  Recommend seeing this one.

Yes, I killed a lot of brain cells in the name of film entertainment for my holiday.  When you don’t sleep well and everyone’s doing their own thing, heck Netflix instant watch is a good thing to have on hand!  And yes, I like documentaries.  I like things that challenge mainstream thought as well as my own.  I enjoy ‘fun’ movies as well, but there hasn’t been a lot that have really reached my favorite bar in a while.  NOTE: My favorite movie is The Big Lebowski.  I’m looking forward to A Serious Man and The Informant.