So far, this has been a week of some pretty stellar entertainment.

Tuesday nights activities involved a visit to our local cineplex for a viewing of this summers big blockbuster, "Transformers". I should point out, that although I am a "child of the 80's", I was never really a big Transformers fan - I was more of a Star Wars and GI Joe guy. That being said, I do enjoy explosions and stuff.

Going in to the movie, I really wasn't expecting much. I mean, this is a movie that is based on a cartoon and toy series right? Not only that, but the entire premise of the movie is based on alien robot beings who come to earth in search of a cube-like artifact know as the "Allspark", which they are able to track down through an item that is for sale on eBay - [4 realz]. These alien robots decide to disguise themselves as common everyday GM vehicles and must battle against the evil alien robots thats disguise themselves as various weapons of death.

This movie was also quite easily one of the biggest United States Armed Forces / General Motors commercial ever made - and when I left the theater I found myself asking in disbelief if it might have been THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE! It certainly is not the type of movie that will win any award for acting, screenplay writing, or dramatic monologue - but oh man were the robots ever friggin awesome! And the explosions! Wow. This movie was candy, and extremely entertaining. Go see it.

The entertainment continued last night as I had a chance to see the White Stripes at the Charlottetown Civic Center. The Stripes are at the tail end of a cross Canada tour that included stops in every province and territory in the Great White North. Earlier in the day, Meg and Jack played a very cool surprise secret show on a boat in Charlottetown Harbour. They have been doing something like this in most cities on the tour, playing on buses, in bowling alleys, and at the YMCA - though I do think we ended up with the most unique secret performance of the tour, which is pretty cool.

Their full performance at the Civic Center was brilliant. They played non stop for close to 2 hours, literally leaving it all on the stage. Jack White is an absolutely amazing guitar player with a stage presence that had the crowd following his every step. Meg White may not be the greatest drummer in the world, but that's ok, I still want to marry her. It was a loud and sloppy rock and roll concert - the kind that causes kids to go home, save all their summer work money to buy an electric guitar so they can grow up to be like Jack White. Yes, it was that good. In 5 years those same kids will be pointing to this show as their first introduction to real, live rock and roll.

The show ended with Jack and Meg walking out on stage with a PEI flag and thanking the crowd for showing up - something that might have come off as pretty cheesy if it was any other band, [like it will when Aerosmith does it next weekend!] but showed some real class from these guys.

Amazing show. Amazing band. Worth every penny spent.

Set list [stolen from whitestripes.net message board. ]

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Icky Thump
Hotel Yorba
Cannon
I'm Slowly Turning Into You
Wasting My Time
Jolene
Catch Hell Blues
The Same Boy You've Always Known
I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman
I Think I Smell a Rat
In The Cold, Cold Night
You Don't Know What Love Is
The Denial Twist
One More Cup of Coffee
We're Going To Be Friends
Fell In Love With a Girl
Ball and a Biscuit
[encore break]
Black Math
Blue Orchid
Party of Special Things to Do
I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself
Seven Nation Army
Boll Weevil

I updated the set list from a very good bootleg of the show that I found at www.nyctaper.com. The sound quality is surprisingly good, definetly worth downloading.