The story is set in a pair of fictional cities: Besźel and Ul Qoma. They are right next to each other but might as well be a thousand miles apart because the inhabitants of each city must “unsee” the other city. Failure to unsee the other city is a crime and results in Breach, a mysterious power that enforces the total separation of the cities, whisking the Breacher away, never to be seen or heard from again.

Inspector Tyador Borlú has been tasked with investigating the death of a girl. No one knows who she is, but things get complicated when evidence suggests that the murder occurred in the other city. I don’t want to give anymore away than I have to, but you can imagine how things get interesting when a murder investigation spans across cities like these.

The world Miéville has created sets The City & the City apart from any other murder mystery I have ever read. Miéville has crafted a story around the pair of cities that draws the reader into the mystery of their history and the people that live there. The characters are believable and the dialogue is rich in content. I highly recommend this book.

Quantum of Solace movie poster

The Bond trilogy had been getting stale and boring until Daniel Craig took the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. The previous movies had been self-contained with little connection between them so there wasn’t much to be said in terms of plot. Quantum of Solace changes that, but not by much. Nothing really happens… There are a lot of cool action sequences of Daniel Craig being a badass, but the plot hasn’t progressed much at all. It’s like what Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was to Pirates 1. All it really did was setup for the next movie.

Bond’s signature gadgets are notably absent again. Some fans might be disappointed by this, but I personally like the added realism. The action scenes are intense. Some people complain that they’re hard to follow at times because the camera switches every five seconds, but I didn’t mind. And of course, there’s an obligatory car chase scene and a boat chase too. There’s also a definite homage to Goldfinger. Oddly enough, I don’t remember Craig ever introducing himself as “Bond, James Bond” in the movie.

Quantum of Solace isn’t what I expected, but it’s worth seeing. Daniel Craig introduces a more human element to the character while still being a badass. Quantum of Solace is more about Bond coming to terms with his loss in the previous movie than anything else. It explains why Bond is the way he is, but I’m not sure it needs an entire movie devoted to just that. People who liked Casino Royale will probably enjoy this one and those who didn’t might not. I’m in the camp that liked Casino Royale: 4/5 stars.

Not another comic book movie! No, this isn’t just another comic book movie adaptation. The Dark Knight is truly fantastic. The actors are well cast and the plot is darkly immersing. I thought Iron man was good, but The Dark Knight blows it out of the water.

The movie starts with a bank robbery that takes an unexpected turn and the story takes off from there on an epic adventure that will keep you wondering what The Joker’s next “social experiment” is. It’s brutally violent and dark, but that’s why it’s called The Dark Knight.

Perhaps most notable is Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker. The internets had been clamoring about how terrific he is as The Joker, but I was skeptical before seeing the movie. I could not see how the guy who had girls gushing over him in A Knights Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You could take on such an evil persona. But damn was I wrong. Ledger takes The Joker to a whole new level and perfectly embodies the words of Alfred (played by Michael Caine).

Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

What I find most remarkable about Ledger’s performance though is his ability to make the audience laugh at even the most brutal acts of violence–most notably the disappearing pencil trick. I’m not sure anyone else could have made that, or blowing up a hospital, funny in a comical way.

Some say that Ledger’s performance would not have garnered this much applause had he not died an unfortunate death, but I disagree. Many of my friends, including myself, who were not in love with his acting, agree that Ledger is the best Joker to hit the silverscreen.

The plot is much darker and has more depth than any comic book movie I’ve ever seen and probably rivals that of some Oscar films. You just never know what to expect with The Joker running loose in Gotham and even when he’s locked behind bars, he comes back to surprise you with something even more twisted.

The Dark Knight is superb. Although it’s technically about Batman, Ledger steals the spotlight. Everyone should go see it. If you can, see the IMAX version and prepared to get blown away by the amazingness of 70mm film.

I thought I wouldn’t like it, but its beginning to grow on me. There is more focus on the lyrics and its easy to listen to. Overall I think Minutes To Midnight is a great album; I just hope it won’t take as long to make the next one.

Despite the amount of blood flying across the screen, they managed to slip in some humor to lighten the tone a bit. My favorite part is when the King Leonidas says “There’s no reason we can’t be civil” as the Spartan captain proceeds to finish off a Persian warrior with his spear. It’s nice to see a movie like 300 able to have humor and still be serious.

300 is a great movie and I enjoyed every second of it. It reminded me of Gladiator except with ten times more violence and 300 hulking Spartans. I left the theater satisfied and I can see why it made an estimated $70 million in one weekend. Now only if they would hurry it up on the sequel…

In case you don’t remember, I’ve been on the hunt for a media player. My PSP wasn’t cutting it because of its size and interface so it just wouldn’t do. The Zune caught my eye because it had more features than the iPod and was the same price. Initial reviews from some major sites are rather lukewarm, scathing in some cases, but I think it’s because they’re all Apple hugging zealots who are too attached to their iPods. The Zune will probably never be able to top the iPod since it is so entrenched in culture, but that doesn’t make it a bad player. Hit the jump for the rest of the review.

Design

The Zune may not be as sleek as the iPod, but it is a pretty good looking device. The 3 inch display dominates the front of the device with the controls right below. At first glance it seems like it has a scroll wheel like the iPod, but it’s actually just a control pad shaped like circle with an “ok” button in the middle. A play/pause and back button flank either side of the control pad. The back is very minimal with a Zune logo and a circular indention mirroring the control pad. Near the bottom of the back is a little message: “Hello from Seattle”. The top has a headphone jack and a hold switch and the bottom presents a connector port to connect the Zune to a PC. The shell seems pretty sturdy. It’s made of plastic that lets you grip it really easily and isn’t prone to fingerprints.

Interface

The interface is pretty much idiot proof. I picked up the Zune and had the menu system figured out in a few short seconds. From the main menu, you’ll see a few general sections including music, videos, pictures, and radio. Each section is further divided into a series of sub-menus. When your listening to music, the album art is displayed along with other track information. When you hit the back button, it brings you one step higher up the menu hierarchy. Each successive press of the back button will bring you higher and higher until you return to the main menu. The neat thing is that the music keeps playing while you navigate the menus. Unfortunately, the Zune can’t multi-task, so you can’t listen to some tunes while looking at pictures. Even more cool is the ability to play music while looking at pictures.

Audio

The audio quality is excellent on the Zune. The sound comes through crystal clear using the headphones that come with the Zune. My one complaint is that it doesn’t have built in podcasting support. I have a feeling Microsoft shies away from anything with the word “pod” in it. Yet another reason why we should be calling them netcasts… The Zune also has built in FM radio though. It can even display the song that is playing if the radio station is using RDS. Each menu in the music menu organizes music in a different manner so finding that one specific song is a breeze.

Video

Watching video on the Zune is a joy. Unlike the minuscule screen the iPod has, the Zune’s screen is actually watchable. Getting video on to it is pretty straight forward. The Zune itself only supports WMV, but the software is able to transcode any video format playable on the iPod. Sadly, it can’t transcode anything other than what can be played on an iPod, so you’ll have to use some third-party software to transcode all your AVI and DivX files.

Pictures

Not much to say really. It’s pretty hard to mess up displaying pictures. You can divide up your pictures into folders and watch them in a slide show. An option in the settings menu allows you to change how long each picture is displayed. You can also use a picture as the background for your Zune which is kind of neat.

Social

Microsoft marketed the Zune as a “social” device. It has built in wireless capabilities that allow it to communicate with other Zunes. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to test out the wireless functions yet since I don’t know anybody else with a Zune. However, based on what I’ve heard, it’s not that great. The Zune allows you to send a fellow Zune user a music file, the catch is that it is wrapped in DRM restricting how many times it can be played. That sounds fair but it does this even for un-DRMed files that weren’t bought off the Zune Market Place. Based on that, I can tell its a flop, hopefully Microsoft will make it less restrictive with future firmware updates.

Software

The Zune also comes with some software. It’s Windows only at the moment so Mac users are out of luck. You need the software in order to transfer media onto the Zune since it isn’t mass storage compatible (see hack). The interface has some neat features like displaying how many songs you have in an album by the depth of the “stack” of music. Through the Zune software, you can do the usual tasks like burning and ripping music. You can manage all your music, videos, and pictures through it and synchronize your media library with your Zune. Setting up the software and Zune was a pretty straightforward process, but it was long and drawn out.

Final Verdict

Overall the Zune is a solid media device, despite its few flaws. If your an iPod owner who has bought tons of music from the iTunes Music Store, I wouldn’t recommend switching. Contrary to popular belief, the Zune can not import music bought from iTunes. However, if you are in the market for a new media player, I would seriously consider the Zune. It’s a nice player and you get more bang for your buck than you would for most other players. It might not be as cool as the iPod, but it has a lot more functionality built in.