About 2 weeks ago I had one of the greatest weeks of my life. It started on a Tuesday. 8 of us went out to Hyde Park Steak House with Bree. It was kind of like a parting dinner before Bree left for Texas. The dinner was excellent (and very expensive) and we all suited up and enjoyed a little bit of the high ($$$) life. We were expecting that Superman Returns was going to have a midnight showing that evening, but were shocked to see that it actually started at 10:00 when we strolled over to the theater around 11:20. No worries, we saved that for the next day.

Went and saw Superman Returns the next day and it was as good as I was expecting. The writers did a real good job of relating to how the old movies portrayed Superman and also brining in some of their own new ideas and creations. The acting was by far the best part of the movie. From Jimmy Olsen to Lex Luther, all of the casting was spot on and really well done. A couple of us ended up going back to see it again in IMAX 3D the following Tuesday. More on that later.

Friday I went down to Cincinnati with Nick, Mike and my brother for the Reds Indians game. We arrived just as the first inning was beginning and wouldn’t you know it, the Indians had just hit a homerun. By the time the inning was over the Indians were up 5-0. I felt we were in for a long game, but it was alright because our seats were amazing. A few months back I had picked up the Season tickets that Ashland had for this game. They were 10 rows up from the field, just a bit past first base. The whole game we had to listen to Nick applaud and cheer for his Indians but it was all worth it when Adam Dunn hit a walk off Grand Slam in the bottom of the 9th. That was something I will probably never see again in person during my life. Everyone around us turned and gave Nick all sorts of grief as he sulked in his seat. After the game there was a great fireworks show. Catch all the pictures below.

Saturday Bree and I got up early and headed out to Dayton to meet up with my Dad and Brother to drive over to Indianapolis for the US Grand Prix. It was a pretty hot day but our seats were awesome. We were sitting right at the first turn at the end of a long straight away. The cars would come down the stretch as fast as possible and then slow down in seconds to take off into the curvy infield. You can check out those pics in the photo section.

On the first turn of the first lap there was a huge wreck in which 7 of the 22 racers were taken out. Unfortunately the rest of the race didn’t hold nearly as much competition with fewer racers, but the sound and sight of every car going by made every lap incredible. I can’t wait to go back next year.

Monday evening we had a party for Bree leaving dubbed “Breeapaloza”. Good times. Pictures of that event as well below.

Tuesday I went with Nick and Mik3 to see Head Automatica, Angels and Airwaves and Taking Back Sunday in concert at Promowest (now the LC). It was a great concert. A gentle rain was coming down almost the entire time which, combined with the lights and rock music, made for an “epic” night (according to Tom Delong). I must admit, it was a very cool atmosphere. Taking Back Sunday definitely puts on a good show and ranks somewhere in the top 5 of bands of seen play live.

Wednesday we went back for more Superman action, but this time in 3D and IMAX. Or so we were told. There actually was no IMAX. The theater was about 1/3 of the size of theater we saw it the first time in. No worries though. Sound and picture quality were excellent as always (Go AMC). The “new” 3D technology wasn’t really all that. Only 20 minutes of the film were in 3D. The presentation did a real good job of letting you know when to put your goggles on or take them off, but overall it didn’t really do too much more that blue/red 3D does. I guess it looks a little better, but for ever new scene it took your eyes a minute to adjust and for any scene with a ton of action it just plain didn’t work. Most of the 3D scenes looked like 2D models at different depth planes. It really isn’t as explosive of a breakthrough as sound or color were.

Thursday Bree left for Texas. A sad day indeed but friendship is stronger than distance so I’m not too bummed. Friday we went and saw the squeal to Pirates of the Caribbean (along with millions of other people apparently). It was good, but very very long. For an action adventure movie one could say it was too long. Plus the story wasn’t resolved at all which made it feel even longer. Apparently the director pulled a Lord of the Rings and filmed the second and third movie back to back, so the third movie will come out a year from now July 2007. That makes the cliff-hanger of an ending a little better to bare, and with the news that Pirates stomped Spidey’s weekend record, I doubt they have second thoughts about putting Pirates 3 out.

Anyway, that’s been my life for the past week and a half. Very busy and full of activity. Hopefully the next few will be a little more relaxing. My new audio setup should be running full blast within the next few days so I’m looking forward to spending some evenings lazying it out to HD and 5.1