This morning I saw that the iTunes App Store had a new program that allowed me to post a new blog entry right from my phone. Perfect for “toilet” blogging!
No doubt toilet blogging will be a hit, err let’s all hope I am wrong!
Gotham city during the day has a completely different feel to it. It’s something I don’t recall experiencing during Batman Begins. It may be a different feel, but the criminals are up to their same old tricks. Not even 2 minutes into the movie, we’re following a group of masked (clown masks naturally) robbing a bank. It’s the first time we’ll see The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, and during the next 2 1/2 hours you’ll beg to see more!
It’s lucky that you do indeed get a lot of him, because his performance is simply incredible. He is both funny and sadistic at the same time. Jack Nicholson looks like a fuzzy bunny compared to the Joker that Ledger portrays.
Not only do you get to see Gotham during the day, but you get to see a safer, more inviting city, as Batman has really done a good job of cleaning up the city. He hasn’t done it alone though. Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and his girlfriend, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) have all had a big part to play in the recent war on crime. They have the mob and various criminal minds all trying to keep a low profile. But that’s not what The Joker has in mind!
The next two and a half hours are a wicked roller coaster. Batman is having a hard time putting down the incredibly smart and evil Joker. The chaos that has ensued has begun returning Gotham to the dark and scary place (for the average citizen) and the only way to make it stop is for Batman to reveal his true identity…but is it really?
I wouldn’t dare relay how things turn out in the end. But what I will say is that The Joker is brilliant! Also, Harvey Dent’s transformation into Two-Face is both believable and sad.
My biggest complaint of the movie, and it’s a very small one, Christian Bale’s choice of voice as Batman. In Batman Begins once he put on the cape, he got a husky growl but this time around it seems more obvious and slightly silly. But only slightly.
Posted some photos from my Nashville trip to Flickr. Click the photos button at the top of the page (or click here).
I was taking a few days to get out of town and needed to rent a car for the trip. I picked up a 2007 Dodge Caliber from my local Enterprise. I was somewhat surprised to receive an SXT rather than the base SE model. At first sight, I was repulsed by the “khaki” color that adorned both the exterior and interior. The color does not help the shape and angles that from my checking out of photos only looks good in a few colors. In addition to the color, was the presence of many hail dents that the agent hadn’t noticed until I pointed them out.
ENGINE:
My rental was equipped with the 2.0L rather than the stock 1.8L which is definitely adequate at propelling the 3000 lb. Caliber. The engine is somewhat noisy under somewhat heavy throttle. If I were buying my own, I would opt for the 2.4L which produces an extra 14 hp over the 158 that the 2.0 has available. It was comfortable motoring along at 75 mph all day long and my return trip home averaged a tad over 27 mpg. I would really like to see a diesel version available here in the US.
TRANSMISSION:
Upon driving off of the lot, noticed an odd response from pulling away at stop signs or lights. 
There seemed to be an initial surge and an obvious gear change as I sped away. This seemed odd considering the car was equipped with a CVT (continuously variable transmission). I assume that this was intentionally done by Dodge in the computer controls of the transmission as early CVTs were often felt to be for low power cars as drivers expected the feel of a gear change. If almost feels as if there are two ‘gears’ in the CVT - one for low speed (under 25 mph). Once at freeway speeds, the car is incredibly smooth and offers a unique experience when passing cars as there is no downshift. Were I purchasing my own Caliber, I’d opt for the manual transmission instead of the CVT.
INTERIOR:
The interior is the biggest flaw of the Caliber. Hard plastic surfaces as far as the eye can see! I’d love to see the door panels and/or dash use a softer feeling plastic - particularly where your elbow rests on the window sill. Initially, the utility of the Caliber seems bountiful. There are storage areas everywhere. There are at least 8 spaces to put your crap within reach of the driver: 1 in each door, a space to the left of the gauge cluster, in the center console, center dash, and 2 glove compartments in front of the passenger! While all these spots are nice, many of them are small and/or shallow and made of the same hard plastic as the rest of the interior which causes whatever does fit in them to fall out on the first corner you take. A rubber bottom of the center cubby under the radio as that is where I had placed my ipod while it was connected to the AUX input. The seats were quite comfortable and my ass never complained during the 4 hr journey from Atlanta to Nashville.
One minor annoyance was the lack of a manual hatch release in the car, instead you must use the key fob built into the key to unlock the hatch. There seemed to be plenty of rear seat legroom given the size of this car. With the financial troubles that all the domestic automakers are going through, I don’t expect to see better quality interiors in the caliber anytime soon but I still hope they will make this a consideration.
PERFORMANCE:
The model I was driving can’t be considered a performance machine but didn’t have trouble getting out of it’s own way and braking was adequate from what I experienced (never had to do any panic stopping). Just outside of Chattanooga, TN on Hwy 24 the road becomes curvy and mountainous which provided a chance to get a feel of the handling of the car. It has a decent amount of body roll while cornering but at speed the car feels well planted.
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
The base price starts at about $14k but if I were purchasing one, make sure you check that box that adds the larger displacement engine and if you want to have lots of fun driving and can afford it - go for the SRT-4! Also, make sure you are comfortable with the rear visibility as it isn’t great. I played with my rear view mirrors a bit to get them so I was more comfortable that nobody was behind me on the driver side. I hadn’t initially intended on doing a ‘review’ of my rental caliber and I am NOT a car reviewer, just an auto-enthusiast so if you disagree - keep it to yourself!
I have just finished watching the most recent episode of 30 Days. The episode took a woman who lived in the Boston area and sent her to rural Ohio where she lived for 30 days with a man and his son who were gun collectors. Her outlook was that she felt there was no place for guns in the hands of anyone except police and soldiers.
She had a friend who had been killed by someone with a gun. In her neighborhood, there has been several murders. Her outlook isn’t surprising to me. The thing is, neither was his.
These two people on opposite sides of the fence have completely different experiences of guns. In the city, the sound of a gunshot means that someone has very possibly been killed. In his rural town, that sound isn’t associated with a crime and that is the basis for their opposing views.
At the end of her 30 days in Ohio, she came away with a realization that a guns sole purpose is for death. She no longer feels that only cops and soldiers should own guns but still hopes that some form of gun control can be legislated to keep guns from those who plan to do harm with them.
I’ve lived in rural areas of New England where guns don’t have the stigma that they did when I lived in the D.C area (or the Atlanta area). I have shot some guns (with my father) before and am not fond of the experience.
I, personally, dont believe automatic weapons have a purpose in our private citizens hands but can understand, and more importantly respect, those who feel the need to have a weapon for protection or sport. Alas, any regulation won’t prevent guns from entering criminals hands. It’s a poor situation without a good solution at this point.