Roy's Town

My Semi-Occasional 101 Favorite Songs List

2011-03-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

Haven't done this in a while but here it is. I admit some of these songs probably fall under the flavor of the moment category (No, you won't find Rebecca Black), that's ok. When I do the list again they will probably fall off. Anyway, here they are in alphabetical order. Enjoy and tell me what you think. Just so you know, I am right.

7 - Prince
Across the Universe - The Beatles
All You Need is Love - The Beatles
Allison Road - Gin Blossoms
Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
Black Sheep - Metric
Blue Orchid - White Stripes
Body Movin' - Beastie Boys
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
Brilliant Mind - Furniture
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground - White Stripes
Die Die Die - The Avett Brothers
Don't Stop Believing - Journey
Dream On - Aerosmith
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears
For No One - The Beatles
Forest - The Cure
Great DJ - The Ting Tings
Hang On - Dr. Dog
Helplessly Hoping - Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
Hotel Yorba - White Stripes
How Bizarre - OMC
I Am Mine - Pearl Jam
I Can't Smile Without You - Barry Manilow
I Melt With You - Modern English
I'm Bound to Pack it Up - White Stripes
I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles
If You Leave - OMD
In a Big Country - Big Country
In Your Room - Depeche Mode
Intergalactic - Beastie Boys
Is She Weird? - Pixies
Jump - Van Halen
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Just What I Needed - The Cars
Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen
Kiss Off - Violent Femmes
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
Leif Erikson - Interpol
Let's Go (Nothing for Me) - New Order
Livin' on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Lounge Act - Nirvana
Man Who Shot Liberty Valence - Gene Pitney
The Middle - Jimmy Eat World
Moon River - Audrey Hepburn
More than a Feeling - Boston
Mr. Knowitall - Primus
Mr. Roboto - Styx
Myriad Harbour - The New Pornographers
No One Knows - Queens of the Stoneage
Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry
One Headlight - Wallflowers
Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin
Paint it Black - Rolling Stones
Pure - The Lightning Seeds
Rainbow in the Dark - DIO
Rainy Days and Mondays - The Carpenters
Redemption Song - Bob Marley
Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads
Round and Round - Ratt
Runaround - Blues Traveller
Running to Stand Still - U2
S.O.S. - Rihanna
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Save it For Later - English Beat
Shame - Avett Brothers
Shine on You Crazy Diamonds - Pink Floyd
Sin - Nine Inch Nails
Sitting - Cat Stevens
Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Iz
Space Age Love Song - Flock of Seagulls
Stay - Lisa Leob
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Street Spirit - Radiohead
Such Great Heights - Postal Service
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits
Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
That's Love, That it Is - Blancmange
These Foolish Things - Roxy Music
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
The Touch - Stan Bush
Uncle John's Band - Grateful Dead
Under a Milky Way - The Church
Until the End of Time - Doris Day
View to a Kill - Duran Duran
We're Going to Be Friends - White Stripes
What do All the People Know? - The Monroes
What You Need - INXS
When Doves Cry - Prince
Wind of Change - Scorpions
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away - The Beatles
Your Protector - Fleet Foxes

Hurray for Music!

My New Ride! Hog Heaven!

2010-12-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

My Christmas Village 2010

2010-12-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

What is Church Coming To?

2010-05-09T21:38:00.001-07:00

Finally, not only is this a training that Val isn't guilting me into going to but she REFUSES to let me go. Seriously though, six kids later I don't think I need it.

(BTW this is from our real program, I didn't photoshop or recreate this. If you want to attend the training let me know).

Sony Rebooting Spider-Man in 2012! - ComingSoon.net

2010-01-11T19:10:00.001-08:00

Sony Rebooting Spider-Man in 2012! - ComingSoon.net

Posted using ShareThis
Seriously, how stupid is this? Just as they were getting me excited about putting the franchise back on track with John Malkovich as the Vulture. Now they are starting over and all of Spidey's adventures will be about how tough it is to be a superhero and a nerd in High School. I really hope Zac Efron is the star so I can hate it as much as possible. Here comes High School Musical 10: Spiderman Goes to Prom

Best Christmas Ever

2009-12-27T16:47:00.000-08:00

Last year I was watching The Game of Death with Valerie and I mentioned how cool it would be to own Bruce's famous yellow Jumpsuit. She was paying attention.

I have the best wife ever!
Love you, Val!
"Where's the Doctor?!?"
"Red Pepper."
"Red Pepper Restaurant?"
"Yeeesssss!"

The Fattest Week!

2009-11-23T22:09:00.001-08:00

This is not going to be a good week for my waistline. I have to work on Thursday but they are providing a huge free Thanksgiving feast at work for FREE! I will be bringing a pecan pie (my new favorite!) and a lemon meringue pie. Then on Friday we are having our own Thanksgiving at the Fillmore house. At least 3 more pies. Then Saturday is the BYU Utah game. I'm the only guy I know who has DirecTV so lots of people will be coming over. I bought 3 racks of ribs, 3 bags of chips with cheese dip and salsa as well as 4 six packs of IBS Rootbeer. I'm also encouraging everyone to bring some food as well. If I don't gain 5 pounds this week it will be because I've died of a heart attack.

BTW go to The Holy War Blog to weigh in on this week's game!

Halloween, The Musical!

2009-10-29T21:17:00.001-07:00

Hurray! The 2009 Halloween album is finally complete! Well, almost anyway. Still working on the cd booklet. Hope you enjoy the above cd cover and the pic at the very bottom which is going to be our back with the play list. Haven't added that yet. But the music is done and here for your pleasure. Click to listen or right click to download. Enjoy your very own Halloween 2009 cd (curses! It makes you sign up for an Adrive account. Well it is free. I'll do my best to find another option)! Hats off to Jon for fine song selection and what will certainly be a quality cd booklet!

1. Heads Will Roll - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Mr Smiley - Mustard Plug
3. Eaten bu the Monster of Love - Sparks
4. Thirteen - Johnny Cash
5. Of Wolf and Man - Metallica
6. Werewolf Vs. Zombie - Oingo Boingo and Nellie McKay Feat Jon Madsen
7. Monster in the Parasol - Queens of the Stoneage
8. Shanty for Arethusa - The Decemberists
9. Burying the Bunny - Shriekback
10. The Twilight Zone - Golden Earing
11. Storm Coming - Gnarls Barkley
12. Satin in a Coffin - Modest Mouse
13. Rocking Horse - The Dead Weather
14. Sickness Taking Over - Pankow
15. Shadows on Your Side - Duran Duran
16. Every Last Breath You Take - The Police Feat NosfeRoytu
17. Les Velos Pour Deux
18. Re: Your Brains - Jonathan Coulton
19. Complainted d'VN Mate - The Avett Brothers

As you can tell we went with the zombie theme. We were afraid that by next year zombies would be so last year.
Happy Halloween!

I Lost!

2009-10-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

I feel just like this kid. In fact, no only did I lose, I only got 1 3rd place vote! What happened? It was delicious! Seriously! I'm not just saying that! It was much better than my winning chili last year. Here are some possibilities:

1: Not sweet enough. My chili last year used a bottle of bbq sauce as stock. The winner this year tasted really really sweet. Baked beans level of sweetness.

2: Mine was too spicy. There were a lot of peppers in this chili. In fact it was difficult to tough it out in the kitchen whil chopping up the peppers. Lots of coughing and eye watering. I thought it was mild enough. You know? Just tingly lips spicy! Never underestimate the wussiness of the female judges!

3: I used no beans. At the last second I decided to keep them out. I didn't want to alter the already winning taste I already had going (I discovered in an earlier chili that one can of black beans has a VERY strong flavor influence). Plus this year I learned that real chili has NO BEANS! I'm serious! I was shocked to learn it myself but check it out here at the ICS (International Chili Society) official website! So my chili was the only real chili there! Sigh. I think I may have lost some serious points because my chili didn't look "chili" enough.

2 more quick possibilities. There was a big table of chili for the judges and a small one off to the side because there were too many chilis. Mine was on the side table. My bowl didn't look like it was well sampled. Maybe poor placement? Maybe, but the 2nd place chili was on my table. Also, mine was the only chili that didn't use ground beef. Instead I used cubes of chuck which, after cooking for 3+ hours just dissolved in your mouth! That should have HELPED, right?

Anyway, if you can offer any words of solace and none of gloatiness or criticism it would be appreciated.

Also, try this recipe and Judge for yourself if it rocks or not. Trust me, it rocks, hard!

Texas Style Chili

Prep Time:
25 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
2 hr 30 min
Level:
Intermediate
Serves:
6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
• 1/4 cup rendered bacon grease or vegetable oil
• 3 pound tri-tip or boneless sirloin or chuck roast, cubed
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 3 large jalapeno or serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 5 New Mexican green or red chiles, roasted, stemmed, seeded and chopped
• 6 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 (12-ounce) bottle Lone Star or Shiner Bock beer (I used O'douls, a non-alcoholic brew but there are other substitutes)
• 2 ounces tequila (I omitted this. Didn't feel comfy buying tequila!)
• 3 chipotle chiles in adobo, chopped (hard to find. I used a pailla pepper and chipotle chili powder)
• 4 to 5 cups beef stock
• 1/4 cup to 6 tablespooons masa harina
• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, garnish (omitted. I hate cilantro)
• Finely chopped white onions, garnish (omitted. Trust me, there is enough onion in this recipe already)
• Sour cream, garnish
I also added pure maple syrup to taste for a sweetener.

Directions
*NOTE: When working with chile peppers, always wear rubber gloves and be careful not to touch your eyes or skin. Wash all utensils and cutting surfaces well with hot, soapy water before proceeding.
In a large heavy pot (such as a cast iron Dutch oven), heat the fat or oil over high heat. Add the meat and sear, stirring, until no longer pink. Lower the heat to medium-high. Add the onions, jalapenos, garlic, chiles, and chili powder, and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions are wilted and start to color, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper, and cook until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the beer and tequila and cook, stirring, to deglaze the pan. Add the chipotles and adobo sauce and 4 cups of the stock, stir well, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender, 2 to 3 hours, adding the remaining cup of stock as needed if the chili becomes too dry or thick. When the meat is tender and the chili is ready, add the masa harina 1 teaspoon at a time to thicken to desired consistency, stirring well and cooking after the addition of each before adding more.
Remove from the heat and correct the seasoning, to taste. Skim any fat from the surface.
Ladle into bowls and garnish each with cilantro, chopped onions, and a dollop of sour cream. Serve with hot cornbread.

Chili Time

2009-09-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

It's Chili Cookoff time at the Halawa Ward here in Hawaii! Last year I whined and whined until we held the First Annual Chili Cookoff. Well it was a smashing hit so we are doing it again. Also, I won! Read about it here! So it's time to defend the title. Now as I've been looking around for a good recipe I discovered that real chili (according to Texas rules) has no beans, tomatoes or onions. So I found a recipe and made it and it was kind of glorified sloppy joe topping except not as sweet. It had a good bold flavor but I missed the texture. So I decided to see what my friend Bobby Flay has to say about Chili. I tried his Black Bean Chili. There was a snag when one of his big ingredients was beer. Thank heaven's for O'Douls! Anyway, it was much better than the Texas chili I tried out. I've got about 4 or 5 more recipes I want to try out. Either way, on Oct 23rd it's going to be a delicious night to remember!

Farewell Truman

2009-05-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Truman Madsen, my favorite employer and family friend, has passed away. You can read his obituary here. When I returned from my mission I took my turn as one of the Fillmore boys who had the immeasurable honor of working for Truman as a secretary, transcribing his correspondence and some writings. In this brief time I learned an enormous amount from his wit and wisdom.He once made a comment in a letter to a friend that I will remember forever. He said "Faith is trusting what your spirit already knows."

When I was engaged to be married he spoke with me and my wife and shared with us knowledge that he had uncovered regarding my personal relationship with Joseph Smith. Indeed it is from Truman that my love and admiration of the Prophet Joseph first began to grow. I believe that Truman must be in the Prophet's company right now. Where else would he be? Thank you Truman and God be with your family.

Food Storage Rocks!

2009-05-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

So my younger brother Jake is currently working for a company that sells high quality food storage. It's good stuff and it has an amazing shelf lfe. Right now val and I have been just rotating groceries which means every few months or so we find expired food that we have to throw away. It's like throwing away money except it smells worse. Click here for the readypak website. Anyway, here's the info on the stuff and also some infoif you'd be interested in selling it yourself.

If you know of anyone who is interested in food storage, please email readypaksales@gmail.com for a free sample. Easy, affordable, nutritious gourmet meals. See for yourself, the quality, taste, and shelf life are the difference. For every 5 people that your refer who buy a year supply, we will give you personally a 6 month supply of food storage absolutely FREE!!!!Readypak Emergency Preparedness Food Storage♦30-Year Shelf-Life♦Quick + Easy Preparation♦Group Discount♦Retains Nutritional Value♦Vitamin + Mineral Fortified♦Great Tasting Menu♦Truly Affordable♦Convenient Mylar PouchesReadypak is expanding and currently hiring across the U.S. If you refer a sales employee to us, after they make their first year supply sale, you will personally receive $100! If you are interested in applying full or part-time, please email readypaksales@gmail.com. Spread the word and contact Jake 801-602-3708 for more info on this limited time offer.

At Least My Dad Likes Me

2009-05-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

My dad came to visit me here in Monterey last weekend. We had a super good time and now I'm going to chronicle it for you in pictures and in words. Because I'm not afraid of words. On Friday I picked him up at the Monterey airport. He almost missed his flight from SF. It's a long story but suffice it to say it was expected. I'm pretty sure getting on a plane as late as possible is a favorite game of Bill's. Like playing chicken with the departure gate.

Anyway, we first went and ate ginormous burgers at R.G. Burgers. I got the Black and Bleu and he got the Bleu Cheese Burger. We also each got a shake. It was enough fuel for the whole weekend. We immediately dragged our burger filled bodies over to the Bayonet Golf Course. It was cold and foggy. Very interesting playing in fog. It was a very beautiful but very challenging course.

Afterward we went to Lugano's Swiss Bistro in Carmel and got the fondue, which was mediocre. I shoulda gone with the giant plate of sausages.

The next day we went whale watching. While taking a picture of my thumb a few dolphins rudely entered the frame. There were hundreds of dolphins! Here are a few more. How do they move so fast without moving? Also, did you know that identical twins DO NOT have identical DNA? I didn't know that. Now, we never saw a whale. They tried so hard that we missed our Black Horse tee time. But I did get a rain check so I can go try and see a whale again. Note to self: Dramamine!

So we played Bayonet again and the weather was beautiful! This hole was memorable for me. Look real hard and you can see the tee box. I am taking this picture from where my drive landed. I was very proud. It went pretty far (I outdrove Bill on this one) and right in the middle of the fairway!
This was my best shot of the day. I am taking the pic from in front of the tee box. You are looking at the green in the distance. On my drive I hit the freaking pin! The ball did not go in but rolled a few feet away. I flubbed the birdie and settled for a par. But I HIT THE PIN!
That night we ate ate the Monterey Fish House with some friends of my Dad's, the Cummings. I got Chipino and Bill got the Swordfish pasta. We expressed that we were going to try each other's dishes so they brought each of us a plate/bowl of each. It was a lot of food and very tasty. Then I made the mistake of ordering the creme brulee. Very bland and the top was actually a wee bit burnt. Harumph!
We then went to Angels and Demons. It was better than The DaVinci Code (just like the books!). I don't know what else I can say.

The next day we got all religious and went to church. Afterward we went to Compagno's for sandwiches. They were enormous. We also asked for a slice of cake and I swear we got a 1/4 of the cake. It was all very tasty and healthy.

Anyway, thanks for coming to visit dad. Can't wait to see you in Hawaii!

My (Temporary) Homecoming

2009-05-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

On May 1st I decided to go home to Hawaii and surprise Val and the kids. So when I got to the door I called Val to make sure she was home. She was. Then I told her I was going to send her a picture. So I took a picture of our front door and sent it to her. Here's the picture.

So I got all excited and I sat on the bench waiting for Val to run to the door. Nothing happened. SoI waited for a few minutes and still nothing. So I knocked on the door and Jon answered. He just said "Oh hello," like I'd just come back from the store. I told him to be quiet and I snuck in the kitchen and surprised my wife. Lots of screaming ensued. Anyway, she said she was washing dishes so didn't plan on looking at the picture till she was done. Oh well. It was a good idea.

Anyway, we promptly went to Stone Cold and got some Cookie Mintster all around. The next day we spent hours just hnitting up our favorite spots on the island (but not until after Val participated in a Primary activity. There's dedication for ya!), Matsumotos, Sharks Cove for snrokeling, Ted's Bakery and then we had dinner at Teddy's Bigger Burgers where I enjoyed the Jala burger (a 7 oz burger with jalapeno poppers on top!). So we went home and watched Twilight together (my kid's new favorite movie, go figure). It was a wonderful weekend and hopefully it was a very productive weekend (maybe more on that later). Now I'm back in California and all I have to console myself with is lots of good food.

Can't Pronounce it but it Eats Well! Dining at Aubergine

2009-04-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

This week was amazing for eating out. I was nervous because this place is pricey and it suggested that I wear a jacket. Well all I had was a suit and I found at Sardine Factory I was the only one in a suit. Happily most men at Aubergine wore at least blazers and many wore suits. This is the outside of the hotel. Very nice.

So I was the first one patron to arrive for the night. This room is the entire restaurant. Very cozy. What was cool is the Maitre'd knew my name before I said anything. I guess I was the only one that night with a 1 person reservation. Anyway, I thought it was cool. Before long plenty of diners filled the room. Then in walked the Chef.
Cristophe Grosjean is the Executive Chef here. It is always comforting to see the Chef actually there. So I was inspired to get the 8-course Chef's Tasting Menu which means: 1-The Chef had carte blanche to pick my courses as he saw fit and 2-all my courses were not just overseen but cooked personally by Chef Grosjean. That's a serious bonus. Before we get to the food let me say that the service was amazing. I had a server for my water, a server that made sure I never ran out of bread and my main server who wore white gloves. That was kinda neat. Now none of the help was in tux but they all dressed very fine. I think it really enhanced the atmosphere. Also, the help seemed to know a lot of the patrons personally. I don't know who can afford to eat at a place like this on a regular enough basis to ask about the Maitre'd's children but I'd like to be that person. On to the food!

This was my veggie plate. Dipping sauce was good. Not my favorite veggies. I don't even know what most of the vegetables were but they were radishy.

This was my Amuse Bouche. I think that translates to "yummy corn mush." OK so it's meant to jump start your taste buds before your first course arrives. Mission accomplished!

I know what you're thinking. Roy once again has no idea what his dishes are called. Wrong! I got them to print me my menu! So you're about to get all the details! So the above 1st course is Watercress and Sweetneck Oyster with la ratte potato, creme fraiche, and California osetra caviar on seaweed butter brioche. That's a lot of fancy words. Anyway, I'm not the biggest fan of oysters and caviar is too salty/fishy for me. When i slapped it on the bread it was pretty OK. I'm sure for oyster fans it was pretty good. Anyway, it looked pretty!

2nd Course was the Fennel & Crab with rouille, tarragon and dungeness crab bisque. I've been dying for crab so this was perfect. This was the most delicious thing I put in my mouth that night! The crab dissolved in my mouth but I could have drunk a gallon of the broth. Thank you Cristophe!

It's like the Chef was reading my mind. 3rd Course was the Artichoke and Halibut with "pata negra" ham (the thin slice you see that could be used for a water filter!), manilla clam, and paprika. So halibut is my favorite fish. It has such a great flavor. Even the artichoke was good (read: I don't like artichoke). It was very tender. It just melted on my tongue.

Course the 4th! This is my Potato and Duck with a potato and truffle ravioli, wild spring onions, "vinaigrette d'abat," and foie gras. This duck was much better than the duck I had at Pacific's Edge (which was also good). Delicious sauce, delicious ravioli. The potato slices on top: I can't tell if they were really sliced and fired or just potato chips. Either way it worked.

5th Course and the 2nd best of the night. This was the Mustard and Veal with morel, crushed potato, and shallots. Those morels (I think they are a type of mushroom) were amazing and the veal was so darn good! Very tender and the sauce was radical. By the way, I don't know why my red meat pictures always turn out so dark.

OK so 6th Course was my cheese plate with a raisin bread. I was told to eat from left to right. I had four cheese with respectively pistachios, macadamias, grape slices and goo. Pretty darn good. I now love grapes and cheese. Who knew?

This is my 7th Course and my first dessert course. It is a Citrus and Yogurt with blood orange coulis, meringue, tangerine sorbet and yogurt panna cotta. Mmm. I call it a parfait! It was really good and the panna cotta was like finding a little cookie treasure in my dessert! Mmm mmm!

Final Course was Raspberry and Chocolate with a dark chocolate tart, raspberries and white chocolate ice cream. This was also very good. Not as good as the dessert I had a Pacific's Edge (read below! Now!) but it was darn good. I appreciate my chocolate a little bitter especially with fruit and it was just right.

And here is my "while you pay for a meal that cost the same as a cheap roundtrip ticket" treat. Cookies, chocolate and marshmallows. All were good but I was leary of the marshmallows. I thought it would be like popping a staypuft in my mouth but they were really soft and coated in some sort of lemon powdered sugar. It was really good. have I said that before? Well it's always really true. Now let's talk about the overall experience. This was the second best meal of my life. The food I ate at Chef Mavro's last year in Hawaii was just a little better. The filet and scallops I ate at Mavro's are the 2 best pieces of food ever to enter my mouth. But this meal was very comparable. What set this place apart is how it felt so refined and yet not uptight. It was absolutely delightful. This could set it apart as the best dining experience of my life. Thank you Chef Grosjean! I wish I could afford to come back!

Oh! This is when I went to Willy's Smokehouse and pigged out on appetizers during $4 appetizer night. I was stuffed and it only put me out $15. Fine choice.

Eating on the Edge of a Loose Noodle!

2009-04-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

This very weekend I ate at Pacific's Edge at the Highlands Inn in Carmel. I have been looking forward to this for a while. Chef Ayer's restaurant is the recipient of a 15 toque review from Gayot (my restaurant guide of choice) and consistently is in the top 10 U.S. Restaurants with a View list every year. I wasn't against the window but the view was spectacular. Now on to the food.
Let me start out by saying that as the sun faded my poor phone camera was inadequate. Sorry. However, I had plenty of light for my grilled prawns! This was the start of my 4-course (I eventually turned it into 5) meal. The grilling brought out a really nice unexpected flavor. And the presentation was nice. Look! They're friends! Hey! No spooning!
OK so the second course was a grilled duck breast on top of a rutabaga puree. Look at the cute little quail egg on top! The flavor was good, not amazing and one of my slices of duck wasn't as tender as I had hoped but the rest was pretty darn good.

Stupid candle light! Anyway, the dark glob above was my lamb on an I have no idea what kind of sauce (I guess I should take notes). But it was very tender and very tasty. I love lamb! A lot!

This was my dessert course. A Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp with Mascarpone and some sorbet. Oh my freaking gadget that was one of the tastiest things I've ever consumed. It kinda looked like a graham cracker sandwich but it was very light and super tasty.

However I was still a bit hungry (I wish they offered a 5 course meal).

So I added the creme brulee. Creme brulee is always good and especially with fresh fruit. So Pacific's Edge was a very enjoyable experience. The view was fantastic and the food pretty good. It was a bit noisy but it's a lot of people in a small place so what can you do. Plus they have a live singer doing Rat Pack-ish music and that's always good.

Now as for Saturday I went to the Loose Noodle. OK I had soup, Spaghetti and Meatballs and Dessert for $23. And the spaghetti was freaking awesome. I could be talked into going back in a heartbeat. Plus it looks so pretty! No I did not lick the carrot garnish off.

Instead I got some carrot cake. Probably my favorite kind of cake and they did a good job. What else can I say? I continue to enjoy eating well in one of the best dining areas of the country. Next week I'm looking forward to a little place called Aubergine. So stay tuned!

The Extremely Haunted Winchester Mystery House

2009-04-19T14:09:00.001-07:00

This weekend I went with John Snow (Val's brother) to the Winchester Mystery House! I've wanted to do this for a long time. Some say it's the most haunted place on earth except really that's just me. But some people swear it's haunted. Our guide said he'd never seen anything but maybe he just only believes in science.

This is the extremely huanted Gingerbread representation of the Winchester Mystery House. In fact it is so haunted it would be deadly to eat it (or because it's 19 years old).

This is the extremely haunted staircase that leads to nowhere. Pretty weird.

This is the extremely haunted bedroom where Mrs. Winchester died. Probably while being haunted.

This is the extremely haunted front door where President Teddy Roosevelt was told to go away. He probably haunts it.

This is the extremely huanted front staircase where I hope someone once got murdered. They didn't say as much but it's just perfect for it. I mean look at it! And I love the lamp.

The extremely haunted organ where ghosts may or may not play scary music.

The extremely haunted door that leads to nowhere. Mrs. Winchester killed scores of unwanted visitors by asking them to see themselves out late at night through this door. Except not really.

Shot of the house from the extremely haunted (but gorgeous) gardens. OK so I didn't see any ghosts but only because they hurried us through this toor so fast you would think the guides had laxatives for lunch. The place is really cool both inside and out. So go, right now! If you dare...

I Know What Roys Like...Roys Like Food!

2009-04-19T13:52:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago (I'm sorry I'm behind!), I ate with my brother-in-law John Snow at the Montrio Bistro in Monterey. It has been voted the favorite restaurant in the city by readers of the local paper for several years in a row so we had to check it out. Above you see the interior. Rather groovy I thought but if you look at the ceiling you'll notice that it has what I think are supposed to be clouds but they really look like pealed potatoes. Well what can you do?

We started with Sunchoke Soup and some calamari. I had no idea what sunchoke was. I thought it was pretty good but sunchoke turned out not to be my choke of choice.

I love halibut! This was pretty good. I liked it better than the sturgeon I had a few weeks ago at Passionfish but maybe just because I like halibut so much. It was very fresh and the honey mustard was a good sauce choice.

We decided for dessert to get their "dessert bites," kind of a sampler platter of everything. Starting at the top left and moving clockwise we have the Lemon Raspberry Tart (John's favorite), the Salted Caramel Cheesecake, Carrot Cake with Ice Cream and Creme Brulee. I loved all of them. I think my favorite might have been the salted caramel cheesecake! I would go back just for the desserts.

The next day I was in Socal visiting my family so we had to go to the Saugus Cafe where James Dean had his last meal. I hope his Biscuits and Gravy weren't luke cold like mine. They would have been so yummy warm! Anyway, it didn't warrant a picture.

But the Cherry Pie did! Everytime I go to a dinner I think of Agent Cooper and I feel obligated to get some cherry pie. It was a good choice. This was a good weekend of dinning highlighted by desserts galore!

More Monterey Eats!

2009-04-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

OK so last Friday I ate at Passionfish. Pretty tasty and reasonably priced too! So I got for my appetizer a spicy Mango Calamari salad with red peppers and other stuff. Mmm. Yeally yummy. The mango...I can't make up my mind on how well that worked with the rest of the salad esp the spicyness and squid. It would have been a great salad with or without the mango.

OK so I went here based on rave reviews on Yelp. And most of the people loved the above fish. It's a sturgeon with some kind of crazy sauce that was really good. Sturgeon isn't the strongest fish but the flavor in the sauce and the tenderness of the fish was wonderful.

On Saturday I ate at the India Ambrosia Bistro. OK I love indian food. Way. I told myself I wasn't going to repeat any restaurants while I'm here. I may have to break that rule because of this place. This chicken Samosa was very good. And look at the presentation! Beautiful and yummy!

Couldn't decide what I wanted so I got the Feast. I LOVE lamb and it came with some yummy lamb. My favorite stuff was the two dishes at the top. The sauces were freaking fantastic. Great food, great presentation great restaurant. Gonna try and talk my brother in law into going there with me tomorrow. Anyway, can't wait to post again after I eat more free food!

Eating Out!

2009-04-03T13:02:00.000-07:00

OK so this is going to be part 1 of a series. I am here in Monterey right now and the government is giving me plenty of dough to eat so I'm exploring the fantastic Monterey Restaurant Scene.

I got this appetizer at the old Fisherman's Grotto on the wharf. Their Chowder was fantastic! Also, I loved their presentation. So above is my crab cakes with a honey mustard garnish. It was pretty yummy.

This is the Chocolate Creme Brulee the waiter recommended. Good Choice! Notice there is no picture of my main course. This is an unfortunate trend. It comes to my table and it's so yummy I just dig in! Sorry! It was a lobster stuffed with scallops and shrimp! Yeah!
This is at the Chart House. A little swankier than the Fisherman's Grotto but the chowder wasn't as good. This appetizer is the coconut shrimp. I love this stuff.

Here's my lava cake. The chef was from Hawaii! Anyway they are famous for this desert and it's pretty darn good. Again no pic of my main course. It was a prime rib. It was very tender and it came with a dipping sauce that was fantastic.

This is a friend of mine at the Sardine Factory. We ate here for my birthday. This place is pretty famous and the waiters were decked out. This room is called The Conservatory and I was hopping we'd be able to eat here. We all got the Abalone Bisque (they are famous for it ever since serving it at President Reagan's Inaguration). It was very good.

This was my pallet cleanser. You can't see but between the wings it a cup of mango sorbet. The waiter told me not to lick the ice sionce it is lightly irradiated (hence the glow). Wow! An atomic dish!

Here's my free Birthday desert. It was pretty good (and free!). For dinner I got the Steinbeck Duo (Prawns and a VERY tender Filet Mignion). It was a lot of fun to dress up fancy and eat there. This weekend I am eating at Passionfish and Ambrosia Indian Bistro. I'll take pics of my main courses this time, I promise!

So Wrong but so right.

2009-03-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the video for the new Depeche Mode video wrong. I like it. Let me know what you think.

Depeche Mode - Wrong Video Clip
Uploaded by Mightybaut

Happy Valentine's Darling

2009-02-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

Dearest Valerie,

Happy Valentines! On this day that we set aside to celebrate love I want to say that you are the one person who occupies my whole heart. The best thing that has ever happened to me was meeting you. You are the best person I know. If everyone were like you this world would be full of people who try only to make every one else happy with no thought on how those actions would be repaid. You are my best friend. You know me and not just how to make me happy but how to make me look at myself and confront the faults that cripple my growth. But even as I try to make difficult changes you are right there holding my hand. You love me without reserve or second thought and that kind of support makes it possible for me to do even the most difficult things. In return I love you with everything that I have. I am yours and will be forever.

In short, I love you Valerie.

Starsky and Hutch...Finally

2009-02-12T14:07:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry. I know I should have posted this a long time ago but I didn't. It's been a busy month.

So I know that there are a few adultish scenes in this film. Sorry to anyone who was offended. I had an edited copy, so I guess I skipped that stuff and NO it did NOT become a 5 minute movie. It was at least 45 minutes long! So anyway here it goes.

This is of course an adaptation of the 70s television show, which I've never seen ever. But I'm sure it was real fine and good. I would say my closest brush with Starsky and Hutch is the music video for Sabotage by the Beastie Boys (click here to watch it now!).

So the movie starts with Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You." You may notice that song is the first track on my V-Day CD this year? So we find Reese Feldman who kills a man for losing one of his 3 planes transporting cocaine. The body is dumped into the ocean and later the body is found and leads to the our friends linking the crime to Feldman.

Anyway, cut to our intor of Starsky and Hutch. Starsky is a by-the-book cop. Hutch is laid back and irresponsible. Because Starsky fired a gun in a crowded street and Hutch got caught "undercover" robbing a bookie they are paired together, supposedly as punishment.

Their differences come out immediately. Their only common link is Starsky's car which Hutch absolutely loves. They discover the body in the water and they trace it back to Feldman who says that Terrance (the body) was an ex-con that works for him under a fresh start program that helps paroled convicts get a job. During their meeting it is apparent that Feldman is obsessed with his Yacht. Starsky and Hutch then decide to track down the maker of Terrance's denim jacket, a man by the name of Big Earl. Big Earl is in prison and they visit him to get some information. This is the funniest part of the whole film. Big earl gives them a bag of coke in exchange for Hutch first showing his bellybutton and then imitating a dragon. Big Earl is obsessed with dragons. Big Earl finally coughs up the coke but not until Starsky and Hutch do "2 dragons." This is one of those rare movie moments where I laugh out loud really hard.

In the mean time we learn Feldman is selling a huge amount of Coke that has no odor so it can't be detected by dogs or superficial drug tests. In fact the drugs that Starsky and Hutch get comes up as plain old sugar. So Stasky uses it in his coffee during a date. He gets wasted and nearly shoots some people at a disco, after losing a fixed dance of to Dancing Rick!

The next day Starsky and Hutch are shot at by a Korean man. After they capture him they learn he was hired by a man with a yacht. Putting two and two together, Starsky and Hutch go to Feldman's daughter's Bah Mitzvah, where they promptly shoot the girl's new pony. They are kicked from the force, and break up when it is learned that Starsky tried to get a transfer because he dislike Hutch. They make up and figure out that Feldman is giving out his coke in cars he is giving away at a benefit party. In the end they capture Feldman ala Key Largo with Huggie Bear knocking Feldman out with a golf club. In the chase however, Starsky's car is lost. At the end of the film we learn that Huggie Bear has bought Starsky a new car (exactly like the old one) from two white dudes, who turn out to be the actors who played the original Starsky and Hutch.

There is some really funny stuff in this movie. I love the mic that they wire Huggy Bear with. It has a huge antenna that extends from his waist to his armpit and the mic itself looks like it came right off a mic stand. I love Starsky's character that he plays at the benefit. "Do it! Do it!"

I also love the scene at the police station locker room where Starsky has a fight with another cop who points out that the big towels are on the top shelf. Starsky and Hutch hav hand towels wrapped around their waists. Pretty sure that's a jab at Starsky's height. Anyway, pretty darn funny movie. Sorry about the less kid friendly parts.

Now we are going to do a Valentine's movie but we are low on time so I am simply going to post a poll of movies that I chose. And then for the March movie I'll let whoever picked Starsky and Hutch pick the category. So check out the poll and Happy Valentine's day!

The V-Day (not VD) CD is Done!

2009-02-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Valentine's CD is finally done! As many of you know, this is Valerie's answer to the Halloween CD that Jon.R. produces every year. This is the 9th V-day CD and a very exciting one. Once again I picked half of the songs and Val picked the other half and we alternate. Try to guess which half is mine - the odds or the evens.

1. Can't Smile Without You - Barry Manilow

2. Stand By Me - Ben E. King

3. I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles

4. Eyes - Rogue Wave

5. Head Over Heels - Tears For Fears

6. Little Luck - E.G. Daley

7. I Have But One Heart - Nino Rota

8. Sleeping With the Lights On - Teitur

9. I Go Crazy - Flesh For Lulu

10. Come On Home - Franz Ferdinand

11. I've Got to See You Again - Norah Jones

12. I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders

13. Anything You Want - Spoon

14. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's

15. I Melt With You - Modern English

16. Missing You - Jem

17. Friday I'm in Love - The Cure

18. Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers

19. Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry

20. Unforgettable - Nat King Cole

We cut in quotes from the last 2 minutes of Joe Versus the Volcano. I love that film, btw. You can now click on the songs above and listen to them or download them or whatever.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Goodbye, Hello!

2009-02-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

So as many of you know I recently lost my cell phone. I left it in my pants on the floor of my room and it followed the rest of the dirty clothes into the washing machine. I owned the above phone. Yes the infamous (murderous or just more than famous?) Motorola Razr. I know I bought it about 5 years after it was really cool but it was the first cell phone I owned that wasn't simply the cheapest phone Verizon offered me. It made me feel cool. I loved the crisp snap that occurred when I flipped it open and closed. In fact, flipping it closed to end a call was one of my favorite things. I can't explain it. It also helped that all the cool fashion people on Ugly Betty (they must have had a contract with Motorola) also used the Razr. So I figured I would just get another one. But Verizon didn't offer it anymore. So I had to find a new phone. Enter the LG enV2.

It's a good thing my contract was ripe for extension because I definitely couldn't afford to pay much and I also didn't want a refurbished phone that had an antennae bigger than the phone itself. I ended up paying $50 for this. Good thing I got the deal. I had no idea how much it was till I tried to upgrade my wife's phone at full price. It costs more than my Wii. Anyway, I have fallen absolutely in love with it. On the outside it's a good solid phone. It is sturdy with a reassuring weight to it. That amount of heft told me that it had to have lots of good stuff inside. It MUST be chock full of cell phone goodness. Plus it looks pretty cool. Then I opened it and my cell phone life changed forever.

Hurray! The full keyboard! Where have you been?!? I can type a term paper on this baby faster than it used to take me to respond to "Are you at home?" So if you get a text message from me that is overly long, please forgive me. I'm just still excited. Next cool feature. As soon as I brought it near my computer the bluetooth mechanism on both devices synched. I didn't even know my Mac had bluetooth! Anyway, my phone now has a Harvey Unga wallpaper and the song "My Love is Like a Nectar." I must admit though that I don't plan on using this as my portable music player (there's a memory card slot if you are serious about doing so). Someone already invented something called the Ipod.

Now the more I explored this phone the more I realized that it could do really cool stuff: Tell me when I get emails and let me access my gmail and yahoo email accounts, give me step by step spoken driving directions like a car navigation system, help me find a good restaurant or where a movie I want to see is being played or just map my current location and follow me around, watch video content from ESPN to Cartoon Network and everywhere in-between as well as browsing web based content from sports to news (not the full internet mind you). The catch with all of these really cool things was that I am on the most basic cheap plan the world has ever seen. Good thing I got a raise this year because I am no longer on that plan. I couldn't not do it. It was like having a Ferrari and using it just to cross the street. You can see below how happy my enV2 has made me.

We haven't been apart yet. We'll never break up! I can feel it! Anyway, if anyone is looking for a new phone and you want to become one of the cool kids, you can't go wrong with the enV2. Buy one and maybe we can hang out again.

Wii UnFit

2009-01-16T18:43:00.001-08:00

I feel like I just won the Wii lottery! I went to the local Gamestop to pick up Super Mario Bros galaxy for my kids when there it was. The employees had just unpacked 6 Wii Fits. They said that the shipment had come 30 minutes ago and had already moved half of their order. Since the salesman was answering the phone with "Thank you for calling Gamestop. We have the Wii Fit in stock," I imagine the rest would only be there for another 30 minutes.

So I ran home and hooked it up. The results are in. I am healthy, but just barely. I am right on the line of overweight. I need to lose 19 pounds to have my optimal BMI (thanks a lot, stupid delicious holidays!). That's pretty close to what I thought (I'm 181 and I want to be 160-165ish ) so we're on the same page. My Wii Fit age is 44. Well that's only 12 years older than I am I guess. Anyway, the good news is I have good posture and sense of balance. I have to go to work or I would have started sweating off my gut immediately but I'm excited to give it a try. Val is also excited since she can use it to work out while I'm in Monterey for the next 4 months. Hurray! Everybody wins!

Oh yeah. Super Mario Galaxy looks pretty fun too.

Important Enough For this Blog.

2009-01-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

There is right and there is wrong. And what's right is the University of Utah's football team getting voted #1 in the AP poll. It is hard for me to blog about this since I hate the Utes with all of my heart. But let's look at this.

1. Utah is the only unbeaten team in College Football.

2. Utah beat 4 top 25 teams including two teams that will end the season in the top 10.

3. Utah pounded Alabama. This is the same Alabama that was #1 for 5 of the last 6 weeks of the season. This is the same Alabama that almost beat Florida who is going to the championship game. This is the same Alabama that only lost one game in the SEC. Utah didn't just beat Alabama, they BEAT UP Alabama.

So the way I see it, if Florida beats OK on thursday then how can the AP give the #1 spot to anyone other than Utah? Now if OK destroys Florida then that's that. But Florida is good enough (I think they are the best team in College Football) that it should be a close game.

What a wonderful world we'd live in if we woke up Friday morning and the Utes were #1 in the AP poll. What a fantastic argument for a legitimate playoff. So just this once, I'm pulling for you guys. You deserve it.

Christmas Vacation

2008-12-28T15:06:00.001-08:00

The December movie of the month, as chosen by a horde of Sticht family voters, is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation! This is a favorite of mine and I watched it a week before the poll went up. So I'm ready to go!

This is the story of the Griswold Family and the attempt of Clark to pull off the perfect family Christmas. This sets the film up for lots of disasters of course. The crux of the story is that the Griswolds are hosting Christmas at their house to include both sets of grandparents. Clark has a big surprise for everyone. For the big Christmas gift he plans to use his annual Christmas bonus to pay for a swimming pool. However, in order to get the work order submitted in time he had to write a check that would have no funds to back it up until the Christmas bonus is deposited. The whole world comes crashing down when on Christmas eve he receives a letter from his boss which for the first time in 16 years has no bonus but a membership to the Jelly of the Month club. As cousin Eddie puts it, "that's the gift that keeps on giving." Clark goes crazy and upsets the family. He says that he wishes his boss was right there right now so he could tell him what he thinks of him. Eddie obliges, kidnapping his boss. When confronted not only does his boss not fire him, press charges etc. he reinstates his bonus and adds 20%. All's well that ends well.

What I love about this film is that everything that goes wrong has happened to each of us on a much smaller scale. But it's all relatable. Visiting family that we have difficulty getting along with, enormous effort put into Christmas displays that don't work (check every light again), having your Christmas tree dry out (we had a tree one year where the lady didn't know what a fresh cut was. After one week we were afraid to even be angry in the same room as the tree in fear it would burst into flames), and the big one: spending money you don't yet have for that one great gift. Most years we manage to have our tax return mostly spent before December is over. So it's all relatable and you just feel so bad watching Clark try so hard to just make the best Christmas ever. Sometimes when we try that hard it is inevitable that there'll be disappointment. Some of the best Christmas memories are the ones that just happen and were not the result of planning at all (I learned that from "Deck the Halls," one of the worst Christmas movies I've ever seen).

Favorite line : Clarke - Hey, kids, I heard on the news that an airline pilot spotted Santa's sleigh on its way in from New York City!

Eddie: You serious, Clark?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it. Please tell me what you thought.

The category for the January movie of the month is Buddy Cop Films. It is too bad that so many good buddy cop films are Rated R. My favorites are Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours. Sigh. I thought I was going to go with Starsky and Hutch but I think I'll pick a real american Classic and submit In the Heat of the Night with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. Even if this film loses (I'm sure it will) you should watch it anyway. Great movie.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini!

2008-12-13T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hey hey hey! Jon was fortunate enough to be able to see the winner of the November Movie of the Month! Here's his wonderful review!

Don't let the name fool you. "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" is not what it sounds. Sure, it has has lots of girls in bikinis and it's plenty offensive, but the actual stuffing of the wild bikini is just one minor mindless song out of seemingly hundreds of mindless songs in the movie.

The action starts with Frankie (who isn't even in the opening credits) on military assignment in an island somewhere in the South Pacific. His duties are to think about his girl at home -- Dee Dee (Annette) and make whoopee with the native girls. One of these girls plants the idea in him that Dee Dee may be just as unfaithful as he is. Initially he blows this idea off, explaining the sexual double-standard of men and women, but then he gets worried. He goes to the island witch doctor (played stereotypically by Buster freaking Keaton!) who is able to see what Dee Dee is up to. Dee Dee proves to be faithful -- for the time being. Just to be sure, Frankie and the witch doctor concoct some kind of black magic woman to teleport back home. In the witch doctor's words: "she's a creature so beautiful -- no boy will look at your girl."

So the temptress appears at home beach, initially as a floating bikini. Then the beach gang sings a song about filling said bikini, which i guess is where the title comes from. Part of the song is explaining that the perfect "filler" should be 36-22-36. Eventually, the bikini is filled by Cassandra (Beverly Adams). Cassandra is pretty cute. She's got a red color of hair that I'm pretty sure only existed in the 60s. She isn't, however, far and away cuter than all the other girls on the beach. Nevertheless, every single guy on the beach gives full attention to Cassandra. These guys obviously have never seen "A Beautiful Mind."

In the meantime, Dee Dee is just sitting on the beach reading and throwing smiling glances to her debauched friends. Not only is Dee Dee fully clothed on the beach, but she appears to be wearing a business suit. Good thing, because two ad-execs show up. They're looking for the perfect girl to model for something and also go on some cross-country bike race or something. One of the execs is played by Mickey Rooney and he decides on Cassandra. The other exec, the one who will actually go on the bike trip, is smitten with Dee Dee. His name is Ricky and he's played by Dwayne Hickman. Dee Dee, of course rebuffs Ricky and asks him why he just doesn't go for other girls like Cassandra or any other girl at the beach who will give it up all at once. Ricky explains that it's a lot funner to work for it.

In the meantime, all the girls are trying to get cozy with Mickey Rooney because they want the gig over Cassandra. They even sing a song saying they're "chicks who know all the tricks" and that they're "ready and willing."

Eventually Dee Dee discovers Frankie's infidelity and consents to wholesome dating with Ricky.

Oh yeah! There's also this motorcycle gang and the lead biker wants to win the advertising biking spot. The lead biker is the goofiest, dopiest, oafiest, nerdiest, oldest character in the movie. It was as if Jerry Lewis was the leader of a motorcycle gang.

Near the end, Ricky and Dee Dee enter the big race, along with the biker leader (I think his name is Zipper) and Cassandra and a bunch of other bikers. It's wicked important. It's also fixed. Mickey Rooney and the bike gang have set up traps for Ricky and Dee Dee to fall into, including a tiger in a pit that only eats men. Ricky and Dee Dee totally win, but Dee Dee breaks up with him afterwards. She explains that the moral of this story is that you should be a doormat to your cheating boyfriend instead of fall for someone who's willing to work toward a relationship. Poor Ricky then solicits Cassandra just before she evaporates away.

There are some other random elements that I need to throw in. There's a subplot about Cassandra's clumsiness explained by male-o-phobia. Dee Dee also wears Dr. Evil's uniform in a club scene. There were SO many songs in this movie and it seemed more than anything else that these songs were in because the movie was contractually obligated to have 30 songs in it. The singing was consistently whiny. This movie came out two years before the Summer of Love, but there was a lot of sex in it. I'm also amazed that the movie didn't set the feminist movement back 30 years. Also, sometimes Ricky and Dee Dee would take walks on the beach and it was VERY OBVIOUS that they're WALKING IN PLACE with stock beach footage behind them.

On the plus side, I couldn't take my eyes off this film. I had to respect it because it's not like it was so bad it's good -- it's more like they tried as HARD AS THEY COULD to make it bad. Maybe bad is a strong word. They tried as hard as they could to make it annoying. None of the actors had any shame. I guess this was a very spazmatic period of our nation.

Christmas Time!

2008-12-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

OK just thought I'd show you how our tree and village shaped up this year. Tree first.

OK so I'm kinda a minimalist (like Yoshi!) for my tree. This is a really pretty, fragrant and very full Grand Fir. In fact I bought it tied up and when I cut the final cord it kinda went poof all over our living room. Anyway when it's lit up it looks real darn pretty. We stuffed the bronze star on top with white lights. That was a really pretty effect. Then the lights "step on." It's kinda like fade in and out but in steps. It's pretty. Trust me. Maybe I should do a video of it at night and post it. We'll see.

Anyway, here's my Department 56 Alpine Village. I decided against showing a picture of the full village. It doesn't work. So here's my two favorite detailed photos.

I decided to go for a mountainous look. It is an Alpine village after all. So here in the hills we have (top to bottom left to right) the Quilt-maker, the Nutcracker Shop, the Wheat Mill, the Game-maker and The Cuckoo Clock shop. Fun stuff!

Here's a shot of the town center. From left to right we see a corner of the Rathouse, the Alpine church in the background, the Alpine Schoolhouse and lastly the Music Academy. If you look up in the background you can see Santa's house and Santa and his sleigh taking off. That cheesemaker had better get his kids to bed cause Santa is on his way!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone!

Back to the Beach and let's Finally Move On

2008-12-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

So the winner of last month's Frankie and Annette movies poll was "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." Unfortunately, HTSAWB was unable to perform her duties as winner (unrentable). Therefore The Vice-Winner "Back to the Beach" was asked to step in as acting winner. It has also proven difficult to rent. Fortunately I saw this film about a million times as a kid. So here goes my review based on having watched it with my mom about 15 years ago.

This is the story of real life Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon who play themselves. They have a black leather wearing rebellious child named Bobbie and a daughter who lives on the beach in Southern California. Frankie, who used to be a surfing legend called "The Big Kahuna" has not been back to the beach since a monster wave dubbed "The Humunga Cowabunga From Down Unda" nearly killed him many years ago. On their way to Hawaii they a layover in Socal where the decide to drop in on their daughter, Sandi. Unbeknownst to them she is living with her fiance Michael. Frankie is determined to have a terrible time in Socal until he meets an old flame named Connie at her bar. She has erected a shrine to The Big Kahuna which includes his own board. Annette becomes upset at the flirting and they have a fight. Needless to say, the end up missing their flight to Hawaii and the time is spent Frankie trying to win back Annette and Michael trying to salvage his relationship with Sandi. Throughout all this their son is trying to find his own identity and falls in with a group of surfer punks. To win back the respect of his son, Frankie has a surf off with the gang's leader. After a few poor attempts he finds himself yet again confronted with the Humunga Cowabunga from Down Unda. This time he surfs it like a pro. He gets his wife back and his son learns to respect him - going so far as to get an identical Frankie Avalon hair helmet.

Writing this up makes me actually want to see it again. Cursed very long wait! This was a fun film with a lot of good musical pieces by a ska band, music by Dick Dale and Stevie ray Vaughn and a stud named Troy. My favorite line of the whole film is "I dig chicks. Chicks dig me digging them. Dig?" Who WOULDN'T fall for that?

Here's a quick clip of Troy:

Awesome.

It's hard to criticize this film when it makes no attempt at being anything resembling a film that should be taken seriously. So watch it. It's good fun. Jon, feel free to review HTSAWB as soon as you get it in the mail.

As for December, well the category is Christmas movies of course! I'm suggesting Fred Claus. Santa should be the most stressed out guy in the world and Paul Giamati does a good stressed out Santa.

Let me know what movie to put in the poll and quick. I want the poll up by the start of next week. Stay cool everybody and Merry Christmas!

THE BEATLES! OH MY FREAKING GADGET THE BEATLES ON ROCK BAND!

2008-11-04T22:58:00.000-08:00

How I missed this is beyond me but apparently on Oct 30th Harmonix (the makers of Rock Band) and Apple Corp announced that they have inked a deal to make a stand alone game featuring (according to some sources) 45 tracks spanning the entire Beatles career. This is huge. This is the Holy Grail of music based video game deals! A close second would be Led Zeppelin but THIS IS THE BEATLES!

The game is set to be released by next Christmas. So how did Rock Band land the deal and not Activision (Guitar Hero)? Apparently they paid through the nose for it. What I am understanding is that most deals made with the musicians favor the video game company because of the increased exposure they give to the band. Well all that leverage goes away when you are talking about the greatest (subjective) and still highest selling (objective) band of all time.

Here is a youtube clip to pump you up!

Just in case you are worried that this is just rumor and wishful uh wishing, you can read the Apple Corps. press release here at thebeatles.com

And here is the press release from Harmonix.

When I play Across the Universe I'd better be wearing the stadium pal because I guarantee I'll wet myself! Anyway, what are the 10 songs that for you MUST be on this game? I'll post mine:

Across the Universe
While My Guitar gently Weeps
Revolution
Helter Skelter
I Am the Walrus
Hide Your Love Away
Twist and Shout
I'm Looking Through You
Can't Buy Me Love
Come Together

Let's hear yours.

Poltergeist Movie Commentary

2008-11-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

I linked to the actual commentary in my Poltergeist blog, but Jon says I need a new post so it'll show up in your reader, otherwise no one will ever know. So click here, here, here, here or here and listen to our movie commentary. REMEMBER TO HAVE POLTERGEIST READY TO PLAY or at least fresh in your mind.

Stay cool.

Halloween Can Now Begin!

2008-10-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the track list (If you click on the song name you can listen to it):

1. Date With the Night - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Disturbia - Rihanna
3. Evil and a Heathen - Franz Ferdinand
4. Vampires Will Never Hurt You - My Chemical Romance
5. Rock the Night - Europe
6. Walking With a Ghost - The White Stripes
7. Is It Scary? - Michael Jackson
8. Back In Flesh - Wall of Voodoo
9. Children of the Night - NosfeROYtu (an original Garageband composition of my own!)
10. Chill Factory - Jondis Featuring Thom Yorke
11. City of Delusion - The Muse
12. Kingdom of Doom - The Good, the Bad and the Queen
13. Witchcraft - Wolfmother
14. Things That Scare Me - Neko Case
15. She's Lost Control - Joy Division
16. Children of the Grave - Black Sabbath
17. Headhunter - Front 242
18. Mad World - Gary Jules Featuring Michael Andrews
19. The Beginning is the End is the Beginning - Smashing Pumpkins

Here is our back insert. Feel free to download the images and the tracks so you can have your very own copy of the best Halloween cd ever made in 2008!

This must be what Santa feels like when he finally returns to the North Pole after delivering all those presents. I wonder if his wife is as upset as mine at the amount of time he spent doing his job too...
Happy Halloween Everybody!

All Hallow's Eve Eve Eve! - Pumpkin Time!

2008-10-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the pumpkins we've carved so far. I'll finish the rest tonight. By the way in recent year my kids have had me carve insane things in the pumpkins that have frayed my nerves and gotten away from the simple theme of jack-o-lanterns. So we've gone back to basics.

Three handsome Jack-O-Lanterns in a row!

I did this for uh someone else's kid.

And this is for someone else's baby girl.

This one is mine.

Poltergeist

2008-10-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

Wow it is only a few days until Halloween and I am trying like crazy to wrap up this review, watch a few required films (Ghostbusters, Night of the Living Dead, The Sixth Sense and Donnie Darko not to mention Dracula on Halloween), carve pumpkins AND finish the Halloween cd which I hope to have done tomorrow. Songs are picked and artwork is in place. Just need to mix the songs and pick some fonts etc.

Anyway, I love this month but it always gets stressful in the last week. All that aside lets talk about Poltergeist.

So this is the story about Coach and his family who live in Cuesta Verde (what does that mean? Green what?). He sells houses for his company and apparently is very good at it. he has sold 40% of the houses in the area. One night their daughter, Carol Anne, sits in front of the TV (pictured above) and starts to talk to the white noise. Anyway, no big deal. Next night same thing happens and a spectral energy shoots from out of the TV into the house. Carol utters the famous phrase "They're here." AFI voted this the 69th most famous movie line ever. So now things start to happen. Chairs stack themselves. Things slide across the floor. Glasses break. Etc. All good fun until one night when a tree outside the kids' house breaks through and tries to eat their son. At the same time Carol Anne is sucked into the closet and enters a portal. This scene scared the girl who played Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) so bad that Stephen Spielberg insisted that there be no additional takes. Anyway, Carol Anne is now in a place with the spirits of the dead that are causing the disturbances. They are drawn to her life force and this prevents them from moving on.

So some parapsychologists check out the house and have one spooky night. One of the men looks in the mirror and thinks he is tearing his face off (the one scene that scared me as a child). They decide it's time to call in the expert. Tangina is a very short very stout woman who is known for cleansing houses. In the meantime we learn that their house is built on top of where a cemetery once was. Bad idea. Anyway, Tangina arrives and they send the mother in through the portal attached to a rope. She must find Carol Anne and separate her from a dark presence that is preventing the other spirits from moving on. Getting more of this back story makes it worth renting Poltergeist II. Kane is a pretty creepy character and we learn a lot about these spirits that are trapped. but Poltergiest III is terrible and made me mad it was so bad. Anyway, the mother finds Carol Anne after she helps the other spirits move on and all is well. They spend one more night in the house while moving out. For whatever stupid reason they put the kids back in the bedroom of death. And of course they are attacked again, presumably by the dark presence that had no intention of moving on. They escape the house and all sorts of bad begins to happen. Graves come up through the ground and skeletons surface in the backyard hole where they were digging a pool. BTW, real skeletons were used but the actress who was in the muck with them was not so informed until after her scene was done. Sneaky!

So Mr. Plute (the president of the developing company) shows up as the house is imploding and we learn that when the moved the cemetery they only moved the headstones. They left the bodies where they were! Sure it saved money but the you risk a poltergeist. House implodes and the film closes as they go into their room at the Holiday Inn, putting the motel TV outside of the room.

Okay now this is one of the first big non-Rated R horror films. Originally this movie was given an R rating but the producers begged it down to a PG (no PG-13 back then). So it was a big deal. Sort of a family friend;y horror film. In fact the first time I saw this as a kid was with my mom and dad. Shame on you Mom and Dad! Oh J/K. I don't remember any nightmares if that makes you feel any better.

Also of big not is that this film feels like a Stephen Spielberg film. You expect to see his name come up as director but it doesn't. However he did write and produce it. That being said, everything I read says he had a very heavy influence and was more or less the director in everything but name. Now the real director is none other than Tobe Hooper. Who is Tobe Hooper you ask? He directed the cult classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So for whatever reason Spielbergo decided to creat a family friendly horror film and decided that no one could pull it off better than the director of one of the most disturbing horror films of all time! Well what can you do.

Anyway, this really is probably the best film yet made on the topic of hauntings or poltergeists. Seriously. So many crappy films on the subject. Like The haunting with Liam Neeson. Ugh. To be fair, you could say that one of the best horror films of all time is about a haunted hotel. I'm talking about The Shining. If you put that film in the Haunting category then it is the runaway best in the genre (and my favorite horror film of all time!)

Well I hope you enjoyed this well made, rather tame horror film. I did a movie comentary of this film with Jon Madsen. Check out the podcast. What's more I hope you enjoy Halloween!

Steve Bay, who chose Poltergeist has decided to continue the scary film category. He has decided we should choose Frankie and Annette films! Boo! That IS scary! I'm going with Back to the Beach. Let me know what you thought of Poltergeist and what Frankie and Annette movie you want to see. Have a very scary Halloween everybody!

I'm a (Chili) Winner!

2008-10-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY won a freaking chili cookoff! It was the first annual Halawa Ward Chili Cookoff (which I've been begging for since I got her in Feb 2007). The recipe I used is clled Bunkhouse Chili and the special ingredient is a bottle of Jack Daniel's Original Spicy BBQ Sauce. I admit it was delicious and I was supremely confident in victory.

It didn't hurt that I was the organizer of the event. I know some will smell a rat in that association but I had nothing to do with the voting. Except for counting the votes. But I swear I was on the level and I only had three dead people vote, I swear! If anyone wants the recipe let me know.

Poltergeist - Simpsons Style!

2008-10-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's the clip from Bad Dream House, the Simpsons season 2 spoof of Poltergeist. For one of my favorite lines ever, go to 4 mins and 20 secs to hear Homer call the real estate agent! Enjoy!

Scary Movies I've Watched So Far

2008-10-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

Every September I get all my scary movies together and put them in a separate DVD book. I get so excited about watching all of them. But the last few years it seems like I watch fewer and fewer of them. I think it has to do with increasing offspring...the band of course.

Anyway we've already watched The Wolfman, House of Dracula and The Blair Thumb about 1000 times. I'm glad people here like the classics. Here's a clip from The Blair Thumb:

If you enjoyed that I think you can youtube the entire thing! Hurray for the internet!

Silliness aside I have watched a few good horror films. Wait Until Dark of course. It's Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin and scares my pants off. I insisted on a completely dark house for the last scene.

Also I watched the Others. I enjoy this film. Not to scary. Has a Sixth Sense kind of end, which also means that when watching it again you slap yourself in the forehead wondering how you missed it. They do beat you over the head with clues. It doesn't hurt that the actress in this film is moderately attractive.

On Jon's Advice I watched 1408. Here's the trailer:

Actually pretty scary for the first half. Parts of this film kept me from sleeping for a bit. But the second half turns into self healing for the main character. It's all about how he needs to learn an important lesson about himself and that's when it stops scary the turkey lips out of me. Too bad.

I also have had the pleasure of watching Blacula.

According to the description on the sleeve this was supposed to be Shaftula kicking drug dealer butt in L.A. Instead he just kills some people while try to hook up with a chick that reminds him of his former wife. I did dig skillet though.

I am going to watch Poltergeist tonight. I'm excited. In a few days I'll review it here. As well Jon and I are doing a live commentary for his podcast. I'll let you know when we are broadcasting in case you want to participate. Until then enjoy this clip:

Anyway, let me know what good scary movies you have enjoyed so far this year or your favorite scary movies or whatever.

Balm of Gilead Soothe My Soul

2008-10-18T02:14:00.000-07:00

So I have been feeling pretty down in the dumps since yesterday's unimaginable (yet strangely foreseeable) atrocity in Ft Worth Texas. I'm talking about BYU getting worked by TCU. BTW I started a blog with a U of U buddy called The Holy War . I would say check it out but this is too depressing a week to do so. The background color of the blog illustrates who is on top in the current week. Well it ain't blue right now!

Anyway, after losing a lot of sleep last night - yes, I lost sleep over a football game - I woke up wondering how I could ever be happy again. And then it happened. My copy of Rock Band 2 came in the mail. It wasn't supposed to arrive until next Thursday so it must have been a miracle sent from angels on tiny olde time bicycles that fly to ease my pain! It worked. I played Eye of the Tiger and things were moving in the right direction but it was when I played Float On by Modest Mouse and Today by Smashing Pumpkins that my spirits were soaring once again. Thank you Harmonix. You saved my life. If BYU loses to Utah on nov 22nd could you release a 20 track pack from The Cure? Thanks again.

I Am Married?

2008-10-13T00:01:00.001-07:00

Did you all know that I have a beautiful wife named Valerie? Most of you did but you wouldn't have guessed from this blog. Aside from my occasional reference to a girl named Valerie, I have kept this blog almost exclusively about myself. But it's not my fault, Monique. Thanks for asking BTW. If it hadn't been for your complaint that Val was never in my blog she never would have allowed it. Let me explain.

Valerie trusts the Internet about as much as you can trust Penny Fathrington in a candy store during a ribbon candy sale. By that I mean she trusts the Internet less than zero.

A few years ago when we were first married Val went to a seminar sponsored by the Relief Society in Portland, Maine where a policeman spoke about safety. Two things came of that meeting. 1 - It is imperative that we have a cell phone. 2 - No trace of our family would ever EVER end up on the world wide interweb.

So when I started this delightful blog a year ago (mostly in envy of all my Blogging friends) Val insisted that to my readers I would present myself as a lone man in the world.
I agreed and have tried my best to keep it that way. She has softened some as I posted pics of our last (10th!) anniversary and mentioned her name a few times. This doesn't mean this blog will start covering the every action of my sweet wife. She wouldn't have it but she should get mentioned more often and maybe the occasional picture too!

So we've been married for 10 years. I know what you are saying. Lucky Valerie! I know. I remind her every day. Seriously though I don't think I could have found a more perfect partner. She is kind and forgiving but just pushy enough to get me to do
the stuff I know I should. I've pictured myself without her "assistance" and it's not pretty.

Perhaps the thing I love the most about Valerie though is that she is a hopeless romantic. Our first Christmas she was game for whipping out our credit cards and spending a month in Europe. What a ridiculous thing for penniless college students to do. But it was wonderful. New Years Eve in Paris (unwitting victims of jet lag while everyone else was at the Eiffel Tower), train rides through the Swiss-Italian Alps, looking for bathrooms all over Italy and checking out the gorgeous country side of Greece. I love and will never cease to be amazed by Valerie's willingness to do things that don't always make sense in our heads but seem like the right thing to do in our hearts.

I love you Valerie. You are the best.

Happy now Monique?

The Big Three

2008-10-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have a bit of a beef with Halloween. Don't get me wrong I love Halloween. I can never decide if I like it better than Christmas but it's very close for me. I love the whole mood. We are allowed to be a bit scary and we also allow ourselves to be sacred. Which is fun. Some people who may or may not be my wife think that it is wrong to want to be scared. That there could be nothing fun about feeling frightened. But it is fun. In fact, our body releases the same endorphins that it releases when we eat chocolate, kiss a pretty Valerie, etc. So our body actually enjoys being frightened. Fact.

Anyway, my problem with Halloween is that all kids go as these years are Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Spiderman, Ralph Nader, Ballet Dancers etc. The whole holiday is based on the celebration of ghosts and goblins and all things scary. Ballet Dancers don't scare me. Maybe if it was a zombie ballet dancer, then I could go for it. My friend Jon often does this. Last year he was a Star Trek character but at least he was the Vampire version of it. Thank you Jon.

So I have decided that costume-wise I am going to go with the Big Three: Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolfman. I'll rotate them around but they are so solid and so what I enjoy about Halloween that I think I'll be set for some time. I hope you enjoy them too. In fact, I recommend that this year you make a point of watching the original Frankenstein, Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr) and Dracula. I watch Dracula every year on Halloween, but all are classics. This is what Halloween should be about - Monsters, Ghosts and the Undead. Not pink power rangers.

One final ramble. I know they are in the process of making new versions of movies with my three favorite characters starting with the Wolfman next year. I know there are directors that know how to make horror flicks. So please can we actually put these characters in real horror (scare my pants off) films? Picture Dracula meets the original Halloween. That could be really scary. Are you reading this Mr. Carpenter?

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE!

2008-09-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have to get some unpleasantness out of the way first. I was accused by 3 different people of rigging this poll. It's just not true. I didn't even vote for it myself. I voted for The Adams Family. In fact I haven't talked to anyone that admited voting for it. I threw it in the poll becuase it was such a terrible movie and I thought people would get a chuckle out of seeing it mentioned.

Now I am the first to admit that it's a terrible film. But terrible films can be a treat. After my mission I spent several glorious months with my good friend J.B. Flinders becoming acquainted with the worst films ever made including Puma Man, The Destroyer, Scanners, every Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel and the entire V series (that was one glorious night!). These movies are terrible but that is what makes them so good.

However, a problem occured. I had no idea this movie would win so I never imagined how hard it would be to watch it. Up until this week it sat at the top of my Q with the words "Short Wait." Well last night that changed to "Very Long Wait." Fortunately while doing my latest Star Trek Podcast I asked my good friend Jon Madsen to bail me out and write this review. Netflix delivered the film to him weeks ago. Harumph!

So without further ado, here is Jon's uncut review of Masters of the Universe.

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Masters of the Universe. I never saw it when it came out. All I knew at the time was that the bad guy in Rocky IV would be playing the good He-Man. That must've blown my mind and I never saw it (and also nobody would drive me to the theater). Later in life, a friend of mine would be so desperate to get a free iPod nano that he actually signed me up for a month of Blockbuster Online to get the points he needed. Little did I know that he also filled the queue with movies -- the first three of which were already coming in the mail. On the top of the list -- Masters of theUniverse (followed by Breakin' and Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo). So in a very funny, yet annoying way, I was forced to watch Masters of the Universe instead of any other movie that I may have wanted towatch.

How ironic then, that it's the same Blockbuster Online that suddenly has a scarcity of the same movie now.

Later in life I'm all set to enjoy Maverick as the movie of the month. It may not be the best movie, but at least it's a movie that I have not yet seen. Then, out of nowhere Masters of the Universe, my oldnemesis, rises to victory in the polls. Once again the movie thwarts me.

Perhaps it's more of a hate/hate relationship.

Okay, just kidding. It's not that bad. Anyway, this movie is based on the Mattel toys of Masters of the Universe. Apparently it's not based on the old tv cartoon, which is why He-Man never has a timid alter-ego named Adam who looks exactly like him. Also there's no annoying ghost thing named Orko. Instead, there's an annoying dwarf thing named Gwildor. That's all the justification that not basing the movie on the tv show gets, because some of the other changes made they simply have no excuse for (except for the obvious excuse that the studio only gave them a few bucks to pull the whole production together).

So the movie starts out in the familiar He-Man world of Eternia. The evil Skeletor has won! He's captured the sorceress and Castle Grayskull. BTW, am I the only one who thinks it's weird that Castle Grayskull ISN'T Skeletor's home castle? I mean, it's a big skull, right? Skeletor's also a skull (supposedly). He should be in the skullcastle, not the snake castle. Anyway, Skeletor and his army have also captured the majority of the Eternian forces (which apparently consists of four dudes in the desert who are being held at gunpoint). The rest of the Eternian forces (three people -- c'mon there were abunch of good toys they could've stuck in the movie -- like Mekaneck (see picture)) now regroup. They are Man-At-Arms (who we learn is actually named Duncan), his daughter Teela (who really seems to have nothing going for her) and our hero, He-Man (who wears a cape and NOTHING ELSE). Eventually they meet up with Gwildor (who is played by the cameraman in UHF), a dwarf that makes these weird keys where he can take them anywhere in the universe instantly. So they escape Skeletor's forces to... Earth.

Earth was never a part of the He-Man mythology. I'm pretty sure it was for this movie so that the director could literally film it in his backyard.

While on Earth, our heroes get separated from their warp key. It'spicked up by Courtney Cox and her boyfriend. Courtney Cox's parents just died so she's leaving for New Jersey TOMORROW. She's not waiting one more week for school to finish, she's leaving THE NEXT DAY. Her boyfriend thinks the key is some sort of Japanese synthesizer. Skeletor wants He-Man killed and to get the key so he uses his own key (I think) to send his greatest warriors to Earth. Beast-Man is one of them and the three others are three guys who weren't in the cartoon OR were ever toys. One is a normal human with an eye patch (always classic), one is a melted troll doll, and the other one is a stinky lizard. That's right, they didn't bother to put in Trap-Jaw or Mer-Man or Tri-Clops or even Stinkor (see picture).

Anyway, the good guys make friends with the earthlings and they all fight off the bad guys. The bad guys go back to Eternia and Skeletor kills the stinky lizard. Then he sends Evil-Lyn to "finish the job." She does a pretty good job. She dresses up like Courtney Cox's dead mom and just asks for the key nicely. After that the bad guys capture He-Man. Soon Skeletor himself comes through the dimensional door to Earth. Oh no! Skeletor is going to use his advanced technology to bring the entire war to Earth! He'll take all our natural resources and claim Earth as part of his own domain! Actually... no. He just comes, picks up the key and He-Man and goes back to Eternia. No worries.

Fortunately, Cox's boy friend is a musician and he knows the right tones to open a portal back to Eternia. Our heroes (aided by Principal Strickland of Back to the Future) barge in and free He-Man in time for him to have the climactic battle with Skeletor. Then the earthlings go back to earth. But they don't JUST go back. Courtney Cox asks if Gwildor can send them back in time to before her parents died. He does. They go back a week earlier. I wonder why they weren't using the time travel capabilities of the key the entire movie. Weird.

So in between all this stuff is a bit of fun. Like when He-Man is fighting the guys who fly on trash can lids. Also they fight with guns AND swords. I suppose it's not that weird. We did it in the Civil War. But it just seems that any civilization that masters interdimensional galactic travel would also find the idea of using swords as positively quaint.

I imagine the woman who plays Teela got the part because despite allher deficiencies she probably claimed that she could shoot a gun well.She lied.

I read on imdb that Dolph Lundgren did all his own stunts. A more accurate way of saying that would probably be that the stunt man for this movie also spoke while on camera.

So I can't say the movie was especially good, but it certainly wasn't boring. Often that's even more important. Some cheese, like this, really works. It sort of reminds me of Flash Gordon a little. Of course I think this one was trying to be a little more serious. It only sort of reminds me. Flash Gordon is hallowed ground. I guess it'snot really hate/hate.

Thank you Jon. That brings us to the best month of the year! Please submit your favorite Scary/Halloween movie. I'm going with IT (Gotta love Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown!).

Frockly T-Shirt Giveaway

2008-09-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

I just want a free Harvey Unga shirt

Frockly T-Shirt Giveaway

He-Man Goodness!

2008-09-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here's some clips to get you pumped for The Masters of the Universe!

Stairway to Heaven (AKA The Haiku Stairs)

2008-08-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Today I went on one of the most difficult and amazing hikes of my life. The Stairway to Heaven hike is on the Windward side of Oahu. It is called the Stairway to Heaven for 2 reasons: 1 - It is over 3000 steps bolted into the side of a cliff - at times the incline is so steep it's like climbing a ladder, 2 - The mountain peak is often shrouded in clouds. This hike was murder on my legs. I don't expect to be able to walk much tomorrow. It was essentially 90 minutes of walking up stairs at about a 70 deg angle. Also, the view from the top is heavenly indeed. When any of you visit and would like to do this amazing hike, please tell me and we'll make it happen. I hope you enjoy my slideshow above and the dulcet tones of Big Iz singing what I consider Hawaii's state song. Notice the picture with the circular rainbow. That was awesome.

Sabrina Fair

2008-08-23T21:58:00.000-07:00

Sabrina was Audrey Hepburn's second major American film and one of my favorites. Great story, great cast (Bogie and Holden) and great Audrey. So let's get to it.

Sabrina is the daughter of a chauffeur for the wealthy Larrabee family who lives on Long Island. All her life Sabrina has watched the elegant parties hosted by the Larrabee's and always dreamed of being a part of that life. Furthermore she has always been in love with David Larrabee (William Holden), the youngest of the Larrabee sons. Sabrina goes off to Paris to a famous cooking school. There she gains confidence and a new sense of style and fashion. In the meantime, David Larrabee has become engaged to the daughter of a businessman whom Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) hopes to make a major business deal with. When Sabrina returns to Long Island she is so transformed that David initially doesn't recognize her. He is immediately taken with her and it is clear that she has not forgotten him either. David invites her to one of the famous Larrabee parties. His in-laws-to-be freak out when they see David dancing with the beautiful and elegant Sabrina. Linus, in order to save the business deal, sets off to woo Sabrina himself, with the idea that he will trick her to return to Paris. It backfires when he falls in love with Sabrina too. David realizes that this is another one of his infatuations and sees that David really loves her. In the end the right guy ends up with the right girl.

Wow long plot summary. I'll have to work on that. Anyway, this is a great Audrey movie. She is very young in this film and so it's not her most polished acting but she can't help but shine. What I love about this version vs the Harrison Ford remake (which I also enjoy) is that Sabrina comes back from Paris truly changed and supremely confident of herself. In the remake Sabrina is wiser and prettier but still so insecure. It just feels like all Julia Ormond did in Paris is cut her hair (which she says at the end of the film).

Also, gotta love the supporting cast. Bogie's acting feels a bit stiff at times and he is painfully older than Audrey, but a strained acting job by Bogie is better than most other actors' best. Also, never really like Holden (although he's great in Born Yesterday), so it works in this film that he's the guy you don't root for. Oddly enough, Holden and Hepburn struck up a real life romance during this film. Go figure.

So I enjoy this film. Not enjoyed because Val and I continue to watch it every now and then. Speaking of which Val's choice (she picked Sabrina) for the September category is: Movies adapted from Television series. Valerie has chosen Mission: Impossible and I am putting forth The Fugitive. So let me know what you thought of Sabrina and give me a movie for September.

*Note: Whoever picks the winning movie for September will choose the movie category for November. I'm sorry but I reserve the right to pick the category for my favorite month (October) of the year.

The Magnificent Seven

2008-07-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

One fine day, Yul Brynner is in a movie theater watching The Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa's epic classic. He is so blown away that he immediately decides that it must be adapted for Hollywood and western audiences. This is how the Magnificent Seven was born. Once word got out that the movie was being made, Hollywood's biggest clamored for the roles. Actors cast include Charles Bronson (He cleans house!), James Coburn, Robert Vaun and Eli Wallach (also in the Good the Bad and the Ugly). Steve McQueen was originally unable to be in the film because he was working on something else. So he crashed a car and while "recuperating" he shot the Seven.

Anyway on to the film. This movie is about a Mexican village where the farmers are terrorized by local bandit Calvera (Wallach). He rides in with his gang and takes whatever he wants leaving the villagers just enough to live. Now if you saw this movie (Jake Willis is a stubborn jerk face), you will note that Calvera looks EXACTLY like El Guapo from the Three Amigos. Just a note.

So the villagers decide they are fed up with the situation and go to buy guns. They meet Chris Adams (Brynner) who convinces them it would be cheaper and more effective to buy gunmen. So he recruits 6 other guys and they go to protect the village. The first time Calvera comes he is driven off. But the victory is short lived. Some of the villagers have a weak stomach and their fear persuades them to turn on their seven protectors. Calvera drives them away, but like the good men the west was just full of, they return and drive off the bandits, killing Calvera in the process, though all but 3 of them die in the process.

So I enjoy this film very much. Great actors, great story, lots of action. And it is a more accessible version of the Seven Samurai, which, while brilliant, is a long and deliberate film. Favorite line:

Calvera: What I don't understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm?

Vin: It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him the same question, "Why?"

Calvera: And?

Vin: He said, "It seemed to be a good idea at the time."

Some fun things about this movie. Although it is a western, three of the gunmen aren't "Western." Brynner was born in Russia, Bronson is Lithuanian and Horst is German. I think Bronson pulls it off best. Brynner's accent is just too strong and Horst is so freaking German that he can't move without it being really obvious.

Steve McQueen was constantly trying to upstage Brynner during the film. Any scene that includes the two of them will usually find McQueen playing with his hat, or make some kind of distracting action or gesture. Apparently it drove Brynner crazy.

Bronson's character Bernado, in my opinion, is the inspiration for Dusty Bottoms. He has kids following him around and asking about what they can do for him when he dies. I was hoping he would ask if there was anything else to eat besides Mexican food.

Anyway, good movie. So tell me what you think. Also, the August Movie of the Month Category (via Steve Snow Jr.) is Audrey Hepburn Movies. I am way excited. I have to admit I'm semi-obsessed with Audrey Hepburn. I consider her to be the Queen of Hollywood. If I have another daughter, probably gonna slip the name Audrey in there somewhere. Seriously if you have never watched one of her films then I am really excited for you. So I'm suggesting the film Wait Until Dark. Actually pretty scary with an evil Alan Arkin and Colonel Trautman. Let me know what Audrey Hepburn film you want to see and I'll have the poll up on August 1st.

Heath Ledger's The Dark Knight

2008-07-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my freaking gadget that was so good! Go! Right now! Steal a car and go right now!

So last night I went to the midnight screening of The Dark Knight. I rarely do this. But the reviews were so good and I've been waiting so long that I couldn't bear the thought of this movie showing and me not seeing it yet. However, I couldn't get anyone to go with me (people tell me that they work Friday morning) so I went alone. I hope Jon appreciates that.

So everyone knows the plot. I won't rehash. And no spoilers here. So let me just say that Heath Ledger steals the show. This is HIS movie. He is amazing. Absolutely amazing! There's lots of little details like constantly sucking on the inside of his cheeks, or reinventing the story of how he got his scars to his absolute giddy delight he experiences at anyones pain including his own. Brilliant. He should at least get an oscar nomination. Fine jobs by Eckart, Bale and the supporting cast as well. I just re-read that. It really does feel as though everything else in the film plays a supporting role to Ledger's Joker. Again, amazing.

Plot is well written. All about crossing lines and trying to fight crime in a corrupt world. The way the Joker sets up Harvey Dent in the last portion of the film was a wonderful surprise.

Quick notes:

There is a major character that dies and I'm pleased that I guessed it right.

There is a major character that does NOT die. That surprised me.

I am still bothered by the Batman voice that Bale does. What can you do?

The movie did not end at all how I expected it to as far as setting up a third film. But I am pleased because I didn't like the prospect of what I thought the third film would be. Wish I could be specific. See the movie and we'll talk!

The movie is very dark but there is plenty of humor in it to keep things from turning into a bleak abyss of a film. Still no kiddies. Not as intense as I thought, most of the really gruesome stuff occurs off camera and the first really gory act of violence by the Joker happens so fast that you don't really see it. But it got a huge reaction from my audience. I think maybe my oldest could handle it. I'll have to take Val first see what she says. By the way, Dad if you read this, you should know that you are going to hate this film.

My one tiny complaint. It is a long film and at one point I sort of felt how long it was. Could be just because it was very late and I was very tired. But it IS 2 1/2 hours.

Will I see it again tonight at a more sane hour? Probably. By which I mean yes.

Simply MAVROlous! Our 10th Anniversary Dinner

2008-07-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

So for our 10th Anniversary Val and I decided to really eat well. We checked out all the places here in Hawaii and Found Chef Mavro's. This restaurant was named to Fodor's top 10 restaurants in the world in 2006 and to Gayot's top 40. So we made our reservations (way in advance) got all gussied up and went. The restaurant was great although in a seedy location. What can you do. The interior is fine and you can almost not hear the police cars outside. Our head waiter (we had a team of waiters actually) reminded me of John Locke on LOST. But that's all sillyness. One caveat before we continue. I was gonna take a bunch of pictures but it became evident as soon as we sat down that this was not the place to act that way. So I chickened out. All these pics are stock photos or images from the web. Sorry for being a wuss. Anyway, let's get to the food.

First thing we got was our Amuse Buche. The idea is to give your taste buds a jump start before the real food comes out. I expected it to be sweet but it wasn't. I think our waiter said it had coconut, curry and some sort of grass in it with tapioca for texture. Really tasty but odd.

1st course: Valerie got the Foie Gras (above) with yellow and red baby beets and other fancy stuff. I was really excited about this but very nervous. Not real big on liver, but foie gras is famous right? Well it was pretty yummy. Extremely tender with a good flavor. The beets were a great addition. My dish was better. Escabeche of Diver Scallops (below). I only understand the last part of that name but it was my second favorite course. That green stuff that the scallops is sitting in is amazing and the scallops just melted in my mouth. I would have like 4 more courses of scallops!

2nd course (Fish Time): I don't really like fish. But this is really expensive fish so it had to be good! Valerie got the Confit Hamachi in Olive Oil Leek Emulsion. Sorry I can't find a picture. Her fish was pretty good but the leek puree that it was in was fantastic. I had the Day Boat Catch Marseillaise in rock fish soup with safron and aioli sauce. My fish was better and the safron sauce was tasty but not as good as the leek puree. So our dishes tied.

3rd course (I wish Pinchy were here to share this!) We both got Keahole Lobster A La Coque (above). I think that means Lobster on Sweet Corn even though there doesn't seem to be any corn in this photo. Well it was there on ours. This was Val's favorite dish. My third favorite. It was really really good! For reals! Next time you cook lobster put it on top of sweet corn.

4th course (manly meat): Val ordered the Roasted Mountain Meadow Lamb Loin (above). She ordered it medium but it came out so rare I thought she wouldn't dare. But she ate it and enjoyed it. I also liked it. There was a yummy curry lemon sauce. Not in my top half but pretty good. I ordered the Filet Mignon and Corned Short Rib (below). This was my favorite course. Both selections of beef were fantastic but the filet was the most amazing piece of food I have ever consumed. I have no idea what that dark sauce was but I wanted to marry it. And the beef was so tender that when it looked at my approaching knife it just split on it's own. Good gadget it was good! My course definitely won. After this course they brought us some sorbet to cleanse our pallet.

5th course (first dessert): On the waiter's recommendation we both got the Mousse of Brie De Meaux (Below). It was pretty tasty. The Brie was almost too bitter but the mango short bread it was on balanced it out nicely.

6th course (second dessert): Val ordered the Bitter Chocolate Bar in Avocado Sauce with Vanilla Sorbet. OK I hate avocados but this was a fantastic balancing taste to the dark chocolate. Pretty good. I ordered the Lilikoi Malasadas (below). Malasadas are a Hawaiian dessert like donught holes but better. Very tasty and very moist. Also came with pineapple coconut ice cream! Both melted in my mouth. Our dishes tied on this one.

After our desserts they gave us this plate of chocolates(below) and truffles (not pictured) I love truffles so no complaints from me.

They asked if we were celebrating anything and I told them it was our 10th Anniversary. They made this dessert (below) for us as a final treat. I thought it was really cool. Tasted pretty good too.

One of the cool things is that we saw Chef Mavrothalassitis come in and out of the kitchen several times. It felt like being at a movie and seeing the star walk up and down the aisles. I know that sounds silly but it was true. This guy had been so decorated and celebrated that it gave me goosebumps to see him. Not to mention the relief that he was actually in the kitchen that night.

So we had a great time though it cost us a bit. I won't say how much but it was more than $20 and less than $239 before tip. I know all the portions look small (they are) but six courses later and we were stuffed. We planned this as a once in a lifetime meal but now we think that we will make it a tradition to use a chunk of our Tax Return to eat well on our Anniversary. We think next year we will go to Alan Wong's (the other highly celebrated chef here in Oahu) but since Chef Mavro changes his menu on a regular basis we might just go back. Anyway, best meal of my life. If any of you ever come out here and want one really good meal we highly recommend Chef Mavro's.

WALL-E!

2008-07-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

So I am on vacation in Southern California with my in-laws (having a great time!) and I saw WALL-E the other night. I didn't take any kids cause I heard it might be too boring for the little tykes. While I do think it is geared more towards adults I think kids will probably still enjoy it. More on that later.

I know that WALL-E has gotten a lot of hype so I feel stupid saying it but this is honestly easily the best movie I have seen so far this year and perhaps the best Disney Pixar collaboration to date. That's hard for me to agree with because I really like The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. But WALL-E is just...more.

Quick plot summary. Humans left Earth 700 years ago because mankind made it uninhabitable. But we left behind a handful of robots like WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) to clean up the mess. WALL-E has been taking all the garbage and crushing it into cubes. But WALL-E at some point found a copy of Hello Dolly. All of his knowledge of interaction between individuals, and more specifically love, comes from Hello Dolly. Consequently he has become very lonely. I never really liked Hello Dolly but it is perfect in this film. In fact we see and hear it so much that Michael Crawford probably ought to get his name in the credits. So one day a new robot EVE is sent to earth searching for life. WALL-E immediately falls in love and follows her back into outer space where they find themselves on a mission to bring humans back to earth.

So visually the film is stunning. It ought to be. Pixar has had plenty of practice. But the story is sublime. It really is just a love story between two robots. If you don't like romantic films you probably won't dig WALL-E. I've heard some people say they slept for part of the film. I can see that. Part of that might be due to the very little spoken dialogue. There are human actors but they don't have many lines, especially for the first half. So I'm just saying if romance isn't your cup then, well I'm just saying. Kids aren't really gonna get the relationship stuff, but there is plenty of humor and and action so that most kids should still dig this film.

So what makes this film so extraordinary is that they have created a story and characters that work so well that you care deeply for them. You hope that WALL-E and EVE find a way to be together. There is especially a scene at the end that I won't give away but if it doesn't get you just a little bit then...well I don't know but it just should.

Anyway, highly recommended. Barring 7 or 8 really amazing films this year I honestly expect WALL-E to get a Best Picture nomination. We'll have to see. But in the meantime, if you haven't seen it yet I strongly recommend that you do. Enjoy!

What "The Living Daylights" Was That?

2008-06-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

I would like to start this review by asking a question to those who voted for this film: What were you thinking? Seriously I want to know. So many good 007 films to choose from and THIS won? Most people acknowledge this as one of the worst Bond films, and now I can officially agree. As soon as it was over I had to watch Thunderball to remind me that James Bond movies are actually enjoyable. Anyway, let's get through this.

The Living Daylights stars Timothy Dalton as James Bond. James Bond helps Russian General Koskov defect to Britain. Once there he is recaptured by what looks like the Russians, but it is a ruse so that he can team up with Mitchell. More on that later. Meanwhile, British agents are being killed with messages pointing to the KGB. But it's not them. It's General Koskov and Brad Whittaker, an arms dealer, who are trying to get the US and Russia to go to war with one another. All so that they can smuggle diamonds out of the country and use them to buy drugs in Afghanistan. It's just easier to do that sort of thing during a World War I guess. James Bond figures it out with the help of General Koskov's old girlfriend. Together they foil the plan and help those brave Afghan Taliban defeat the forces of Koskov and Whittaker. That's basically it, I'm sorry to say.

Poor Timothy Dalton. I actually like him. Pretty good in Flash Gordon and I think he could have been a decent Bond. Well maybe. Problem for him is that this script was written for Pierce Brosnan who was stuck in his Remington Steele contract. Dalton isn't great with the one-liners and it's painful to watch.

This film also suffers from what I call Ladyhawk Syndrome. Let me explain. Ladyhawk is a good story, decent actors (Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pheiffer both faves of mine) and plenty of action etc. But there is a terrible 80s synth soundtrack that is present throughout the entire film. Who ever thought that the Dark Ages and the keyboards from Strange Brew would be a good match? So same problem here with Living Daylights. Terrible synth soundtrack. I'm not talking about the theme song written by a-Ha. It was OK. Not nearly as good as A View to a Kill by Duran Duran but not bad. It was the constant really early depeche mode sounding stuff throughout the action sequences. The opening credits were also pure 80s and equally terrible. Now don't get me wrong, I like 80s films. But this is a James Bond film, not an 80s film. I thought, well I can look past that if the story is good. And it started out just fine. Then it all collapsed as the evil plot unfolded.

The evil plot is so subpar in this film. World domination shmorld domination! Who needs that when you can just buy cheap drugs and sell them for profit? What kind of weak James Bond plot is that? When I figured out that was what they were really after I wanted to put the dvd in the microwave. But Blockbuster might not have liked that.

Now let me get to one of the few redeeming aspects of this film: Mitchell.

By that I mean Joe Don Baker playing the part of Whittaker. Everytime I saw him all I could think about was him grabbing a 6 pack of beer with his toe, or asking for some more butter on his gravy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Joe Don Baker was in a film called Mitchell. He plays the worst cop ever. It is one of the funniest not-supposed-to-be-funny movies I have ever seen. Right up there with L'Uomo Puma(Puma Man)! I highly recommend you watch the MST3K version of it. It has the most intense car chase ever with HOT MERGING ACTION! So I did enjoy that. But that's about it. I'm sure I'm being too critical, so tell me what else I should have liked about this film.

Alright on to July. The category of the month as suggested from Jon Madsen is: "Westerns or Tron". So you can either suggest your favorite Western or you can suggest Tron. I think that's a good American category for the month of July. I hope to see a good ballance of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen and Tron movies. My suggestion is A Fistful of Dollars. Tell me what Western or Tron movie you want in the poll and I'll put it up on July 1st.

Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ

2008-05-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the trailer. Watch it or else.

So this month we honor the passing of our friend Charlton Heston by watching and discussing Ben Hur: A tale of the Christ. I hope everyone enjoyed it. So here we go.

Ben Hur was made in the day when huge epics with elaborate sets and thousands of extras were the norm. Back then people had no problem going to the theater and having an intermission. Can you even imagine that today? What would you do for 15 minutes? Probably steal someones seat while they are in the bathroom. So in an age of Epics, to me this was the Epic film. Ben Hur tells the tale of Judah Ben Hur, a Jewish prince. His childhood friend Messala returns from Rome to be the tribune in Judea. He asks Judah to help him put down local unrest. Judah refuses and loses Messala's friendship. The new Roman governor, while entering town, is struck by a loose tile from the roof of Ben Hur. Ben Hur is condemned to be a galley slave. En route to his ship Ben Hur is given water by a man that he does not know but who is obviously Jesus. Then, while at sea his ship is lost but he saves the life of Quintas Arrius who adopts him as a son and teaches him to be a great chariot driver - 5 time champion at the Roman Circus. Judah returns to Jerusalem to find his mother and sister and to exact revenge on Messala who could have freed all of them. Judah teams up with an Arab horse owner to race against Messala. In this race Messala is defeated and mortally injured. Ben Hur visits him on his death bed and declares to Messala "I see no enemy." Messalla with his last breath reveals that Ben Hur's mother and sister are lepers who live in the valley of the lepers. Judah finds them. He brings them into Jerusalem in the hope of finding Jesus who is known to heal the sick. they come too late and find Jesus just as he is being led away to his crucifixion. It is only then that Judah realises that this is the same man who offered him water while he was a slave. Later, while reflecting on who Jesus was, Ben Hur's mother and sister find themselves healed.

One of the first things I want to bring up is the title of the film: Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. I really wanna hear your comments on this. Why go with that title when we only see Jesus (and never his face) for more then 2 minutes in the entire film? The most important scenes are the ones that mirror each other: As Judah is dying of thirst Jesus gives him water to drink. Then as Jesus collapses under the weight of the cross he is bearing Judah returns the favor and offers him a drink. The other times we see him from behind as he preaches to a crowd but he seems to follow Judah with his eyes as Judah walks away. We also see him lifted up on the cross. So why call it A Tale of the Christ? Why not call it Ben Hur: Chariot Racing Barrel-Chested Hunk? My own take is that story of Jesus is perhaps best told on the role he plays in the lives of those who benefit from His great gift. Judah's life is touched several times as his life is sustained by miracle after miracle, but perhaps the greatest miracle is that Ben Hur learns to forgive. There is also a great image in the end where the rain washes away from the crosses and (it may just be my poor quality copy) but there seems to be blood washing away with the rain. How appropriate since it is the blood of Christ that washes us clean from our sins, as rain washes the earth. Anyway, let me know what you all think.

Charlton Heston won Best Actor for this role. Deservedly so. This is probably his best acting work. He kinda get's John Wayney in his later films where he just plays Charlton Heston no mater the role (which is fine with me), but he really pours himself into this role and it shows.
Ben Hur won 10 other academy awards. So, good for it. I also learned that despite what I had always held to be true, no one was killed during the filming of the chariot race. In fact there was only one minor injury. The footage of Judah flipping over the front of his chariot and climbing back over wasn't supposed to happen, but it looked so good they kept it in. The stuntman got a cut on his chin. Anyway, great film.

On to June. The category, ala the Chapman Family, is series films. For example the Police Academy movies, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars. The way this is gonna work (sorry Monique but I'm about to take some licence) is that everyone will suggest a series. For example I am going to put forth the Jason Bourne movies. I will do a poll and one film series will win. From that series I will do a new poll with all movies from that series (Ex: Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum) and we will choose the best one and watch it, perhaps commenting on it's place within the series as a whole. So suggest away.

Where Magic Happens

2008-05-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Sportswise this is the hardest time of the year for me. This helps a little bit.

Let's Go Surfing Now

2008-04-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Val finally broke down and let me buy a surf board. We'll be here for 3 more years so it should get plenty of use. I'm way excited! We're gonna try to go at least once a week. we would also at this time like to thank President Bush who made all this possible with the Economic Stimulus Check. We did our part by putting a chunck of it back into the economy. So our country grows stronger and we get to surf. That's a win win my friends.

Batman Begins...Twice

2008-04-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to talk about these films. Although I have to admit that I saw them both over a week ago and have been dragging my feet because I have no idea how to compose this. I guess I can't put it off any longer. So I hope you enjoy this rambling disjointed Batman movie discussion. Here goes. We are comparing Batman (1989), which happens to be my favorite comic book movie of all time, with Batman Begins, which I don't really even

think of as a comic book movie. It's more like an

action film about a crime fighter who also likes to dress up like a giant bat. One is the ultimate comic book film and the other is a great film that happens to use a comic book as it's source material. And I know that strictly speaking one is not a remake of the other. Actually they are both remakes of the comic book. But they both tell the story of the introduction of Batman to the world. So it works for me. Now let's do this thing!

PLOT: Batman - Story begins and Batman is already Batman. Crime Boss Carl Grism sets up his #1 guy Jack Napier, to get caught by the police. He doesn't get caught but instead is dropped in a vat of acid and becomes the Joker. He terrorizes the city as Batman attempts to thwart his efforts. Batman learns that the Joker is the same man that killed his parents years ago. It all ends in a showdown on top of Gotham Cathedral. Batman is victorious and the city accepts Batman as sanctioned crime-fighter.

Batman Begins - Bruce Wayne as a child falls into a well and is surrounded by bats. He is very frightened. He later forces his parents to leave a showing of the opera Die Fledermaus. His folks are murdered by Joe Chill. At Joe's parole hearing years later, Chill is killed by one of local crime lord Falcone's thugs, preventing Bruce from killing Chill himself. Bruce is slapped around by leading lady Rachael Dawes. He runs off to the criminal underworld to explore crime so as to better fight it. He is offered a position in the League of Shadows by Henri Ducard and is to lead the League in the destruction of Gotham. He turns the offer down. Bruce returns to Gotham and takes on the persona of Batman to fight crime and in the process earns the trust of Sergeant Gordon. He puts Falcone behind bars and learns that Ducard has come to the city to destroy it. He manages to defeat Ducard in the nick of time but we learn that other criminals are coming forward, including a man who calls himself the Joker (BTW I can't wait to see The Dark Knight). Batman Begins probably has the better plot. It hurts to concede that but it's well thought through and things unfold very well.

STYLE: Batman - I call Batman the ultimate comic book movie because of the way everything is presented both with visuals and story. Everything is in starkly contrasted colors. The city of Gotham is dark and grey because it is seeing hard times. Batman is in black. He is the mysterious, messed-up-inside hero. Vicky Vale wears almost exclusively white. She is the embodiment of good. Like Tess Truelove in the Dick Tracy series. Then there's the Joker who wears all sorts of outlandish colors as he tears across the story line. Also everything is exaggerated from the Batmobile to the Joker's gun with the 3 foot long barrel. It's all like a cartoon come to life.

Batman Begins - This film takes a much more gritty realistic approach. It almost has an industrial feel to it. There isn't much for me to say other than everything in the film makes me think that, yeah this could happen. Gotham is relatable and feels a lot like Chicago. All the gadgets Batman uses actually work. Batman wins on style. It's really hard to say that since Batman Begins doesn't try to have a comic book feel at all. But they are comic book films and, what can I say? I love Tim Burton.

BATMAN: Michael Keaton - I thought that Michael Keaton gave a wonderful performance as the caped crusader. He just has that quality where you know he's a good guy and he's level headed, smart etc. But you also know that he's a little nuts and he could lose it at any time. And then of course there's The Line: "Who are you?" "I'm Batman." His deliverance of that line makes it an iconic movie moment. I get chills.

Christian Bale -

He does a good job. But I can think of a few other actors that would have done as well. Not a standout performance but good. I think it bugs me a bit when he's Batman and he talks in his angry gravely voice. I'm pretty sure I laughed the first time. Michael Keaton wins this one because I can't think of anyone else who could have played the role. He WAS Batman, and I believe replacing his with other actors is a big reason the franchise started to fail.

VILLAINS: The Joker. OK anyone who has talked to me for more than 10 minutes knows that I believe that Jack Nicholson as the Joker is the greatest casting fit of all time. And I think he was robed for not getting an oscar nod. Go ahead and laugh. He plays an absolute creep as Jack Napier. But as soon as he becomes the Joker he almost takes over the film. He looks like he is having a blast and the audience can feel that. Not to mention his delivery. My two favorite lines are: "And remember. You! Are my number one uh-guy!" and of course the imortal "And where is the Batman? He's at home. Washing his tights!" I still use that line when people ask where someone is. In a very accomplished career I still see this as Jack's greatest work.

Ra's al Ghul/Henri Ducard - I really like Liam Neeson. And I think he does a fine job in this role. Again the idea was to go for a very human, very real villain. And this film produced it. He was cold, ruthless and deadly. But he wasn't very much fun. Maybe bad guys shouldn't be fun. Then our kids wouldn't emulate them etc etc. This is another case of a character that could have been played by several actors. Now I do have to give kudos for Dr. Crane/Scarecrow. That guy freaked me out. I think they used him because the villain side lacked theatricality. Batman wins this one. I don't even have to explain why.

Supporting Cast/Characters: Batman - This film has a host of forgettable performances. You wouldn't want to distract from the main show anyway. But the other big character is of course Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale. Yuck. I guess she's closer to Bruce's age but I've never really liked her acting in this or any film. I can't say much more than that.

Batman Begins has a great supporting cast. Michael Kane is a great Alfred. Morgan Freeman is great in anything so he's welcome in this film. Rutger Howard has a very small roll, but come on! He's Roy the Replicant! Gary Oldman is wonderful as Lt. Gordan. And Katie Holmes makes for a fine Rachael Dawes. Strong, smart and beautiful. Batman Begins definitely has the stronger cast. I guess when you have Keaton and Nicholson you don't need anyone else.

Conclusion: I really like both of these movies a lot and it is hard for me to see which is better. Batman Begins probably tells the story of how Batman came to be better. But Batman is just more fun to watch. So how to settle all this? Musical Score: Danny Elfman's imortal Batman themes stomp all over the sufficient and forgettable score for Batman Begins. Also, I just like Batman more. So there.

OK tell me what you think!

Now on to the May movie of the month. Steve Snow (who suggested the Batmans) has appropriately suggested that we reprise the category of Charlton Heston films. I whole heartedly agree. I am submitting Ben Hur, which may not be my favorite movie of Chuck's but I must say it's probably his best. So don't forget after you comment on Batman to suggest a Chuck Heston film. Remember that the person whose film is chose will pick next month's category. And Jon, I'm instituting a 2 movie per person limit.

More Batman Goodness

2008-04-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

While you are enjoying the Batman movies...

2008-04-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

Charlton Heston 1924-2008

2008-04-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today I am sad to report that one of my favorite actors, Charlton Heston, has passed away.

Click here for the CNN story issued today.

For me Charlton Heston represents a golden age of science fiction with what I consider the Holy Trinity of Sci Fi - Planet of the Apes, Omega Man and Soylent Green. But his career spans more than half of the last century with such memorable roles as Moses, Ben Hur, John the Baptist and El Cid. Always the good guy, never taking guff from anyone Charlton's barrel-chested no nonsense attitude is the embodiment of masculine America for better or for worse.

Rest in peace Chuck. You'll be missed

Cinderella Man

2008-03-18T18:55:00.001-07:00

The March movie of the month was, of course, Cinderella Man staring Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger and the wonderful Paul Giamatti. This is the true story of Depression era boxer Jim Braddock's rise from the soup line to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Quick plot summary: Braddock is at the peak of his career when the depression hits. We learn that he lost a big fight and his career has spiraled downward to the point that his boxing license is revoked. Living in poverty, Jim is forced to go on relief and even beg to keep his family together. Then opportunity comes. Corn Griffin, the number 2 contender, has to find a fighter on short notice when his opponent drops out. Braddock is chosen on the novelty that he has never been knocked out (and no one else will take a fight without time to train). In a shocking turn of events, Braddock wins in the 3rd round. He continues to win matches and finds himself fighting for the Heavy Weight Championship against Max Baer, who recently killed a man in the ring. In the meantime Jim has not only distanced himself form poverty but also paid back all the relief he was given. He is dubbed the Cinderella Man and is made a hero of the common people. Think Seabiscut but a boxer. Braddock wins the Heavyweight Title and all is well.

I know a lot of people don't like the sports movie genre because they don't like the idea of taking sports and turning it into a metaphor for life. I personally don't have a problem with that formula. I love movies like The Natural, Hoosiers, Rocky etc. But what sets this movie apart is that it's a true story about a man who finds himself in dire circumstance and manages to fight his way out. And by the way he's a professional athlete. So it's really the life story of an amazing man who happens to be a boxer. I think that's also why I love the original Rocky. There's only really 5 minutes or less of boxing in that film. Anyway, I digress. Cinderella Man is a great story about the triumph of the human spirit, beautifully told through the eyes of Opie.

A quick note that makes the story more palatable for me: Max Baer is kind of depicted as a murderous thug. The truth is that Max was devastated when he killed Frankie Campbell in a match earlier in his career. In fact he lost 4 of his next 6 matches before moving to the east coast and defeating Primo Carneira for the title.

So I need to talk about the actors. There is something I really don't like about Russell Crowe. I can't put my finger on it but he drives me crazy. On the other hand I must concede that he is a fine actor. This film and Beautiful Mind, among others, are fine examples of his workmanship. When I finally pin down what I don't like I'll let you all know. It's there, trust me. I also have very mixed feelings about Renee Zellweger. I keep telling myself that I don't really care for her acting but every film that I think of with her in it she does a pretty darn good job. There are scenes in Cinderella Man where we see her struggling with the realities of poverty and fighting to keep her family together that put a lump in my throat. But something about her still bugs me. The "You are the champion of my heart" was a bit over the top but it could have been worse. Now Paul Giamatti. In my book this man can do no wrong. I love him even in really crappy movies like Lady in the Water. But you should check him out in The Illusionist. I just really like watching him act. His portrayl of Joe Gould puts all the fun into this film. And he delivers one of the best lines of the film. Jim is begging for money and when he approaches Joe he appologizes. Joe replies by saying "What the hell do you have to be sorry for?" I seriously am moved just thinking of that part and Paul's delivery in that scene. Wonderful. Maybe my favorite part of the film. I hope he continues to make many more movies.

So that was Cinderella Man. I hope you all really enjoyed it like I did. On to the April Movie of the month. This category is a bit more complicated. I want everyone to suggest 2 films - an original and it's remake (or a film based on the original). Let me give examples: Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven (for that matter, Magnificent Seven and Three Amigos), Bringing Up Baby and What's Up Doc, Cheaper by the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen, Father of the Bride (Spencer Tracy) and Father of the Bride (Steve Martin), Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invasion, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bedtime Story and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Man Who Knew Too Little, Oceans Eleven and Oceans Eleven, The Italian Job and The Italian Job etc etc. You get the point. Feel free to submit one of my suggestions above. If you need help I found this website useful.

My official submission is Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr. Deeds (2002). If you found this category a pain I promise next month it will be much lighter. So let me know what you thought of Cinderella Man and DON'T FORGET TO SUBMIT YOUR MOVIES!

Hawaiiland!

2008-03-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

So i went on this hike today with a bunch of friends. What a beautiful hike and what a fun swing over a waterfall into a natural pool.

Kinda makes you wanna come out. We'll put you up you just gotta fly out here.

February Movie: Pride and Prejudice

2008-02-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

I'm actually quite pleased this film was chosen. Val was out of town last week and I got on a Jane Austen kick. So I watched this just a few days ago. On the other hand it is hard for me to review this film without comparing it to either the book (which is simply one of the greatest pieces of English literature period), or the 6 hour BBC version. I'll do my best.

Pride and Prejudice is a film about the Bennet family in Georgian England. Their plight is that there is no son to inherit the estate. So one of them must marry well. However, they have no dowry or social connections to entice such a suitor. Salvation seems to arrive when a Mr. Bingley arrives to settle down and falls in love with Jane, the eldest sister. However, Bingley is accompanied by a friend, Mr. Darcy, who has a proud demeanor and seems to disapprove of everyone as being beneath him. Elizabeth Bennet (who we named our last daughter after, incidentally) immediately dislikes Darcy. What she doesn't know is that he is falling in love with her. Mr. Darcy convinces Bingley that Jane does not love him and they leave for London. All seems lost until Elizabeth, visiting her friend Charlotte Lucas, runs into Mr. Darcy again. He confesses that he loves her and she rejects him. Lots of other plot turns etc we find out that Darcy is a very honorable gentleman and saves the Bennet family from never ending shame at his own considerable expense. Long story short: Jane marries Bingley and Elizabeth marries Darcy.

This really is a very good film. Very well acted and considering they fit such a plot heavy story into 2 hours it really is an amazing feat of screenplay writing. The parts of Mr. Collins and Jane Bennet are especially well played. Whereas you can read the character of Collins as being a bumbling fool, he is portrayed here as a character who you can not help but feel the utmost pity for. It is painful to watch him. I also like that Elizabeth is portrayed as a little more free spirited and almost wild at times. Elizabeth is one of the strongest female characters in English literature and a Keira Knightly gives a fiery performance.

On to complaints. First of all, apparently Keira Knightly is the most beautiful woman I the world and I was not told. I don't see it. She is very pretty, but her cheekbones are so pronounced that she reminds me of Eric Stoltz in MASK. I just can't help it. And yet that seems to be the one feature everyone loves in her. Go figure. Mr. Bennet is not very sharp. He is portrayed more as pitiable. But he is supposed to be the equal of Elizabeth in the Bennet family as far as intellect and wit is concerned. He just comes across as tired and constantly overwhelmed. Now my biggest complaint comes from one scene in the film. When Darcy comes upon Elizabeth just as she has learned that her youngest sister has run off to do adult things with the villain, we are supposed to be left with the impression that he wants nothing more to do with the Elizabeth owing to this scandal. Instead we know exactly how he feels and what he is going to do. I want to find things out for myself and not be told how to feel. This scene gives me step by step instructions. Harumph!

OK so even though the complaints section is twice as long as my comments about what I liked, I really did like this film. Expectations are so high for a film based on a piece of work of this caliber and for the most part this movie comes through. I hope you all enjoyed it and have a happy Valentine's Day. Tell me what you think.

The March movie category is Biographical Films. I'm submitting Amadeus. Don't forget to suggest a movie yourself. If you don't then you have no one to blame but yourself if you don't like the poll (Chapmans).

Valentine's Day CD Finally Finished!

2008-02-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

So Val and I finally sat down last night and put the 2008 Valentine's CD together. I'm pretty pleased. I was going for more of a contemplative feel and Val wanted love to be a dream like quality so it worked out well. We snuck a few upbeat songs in there so that we wouldn't fall asleep. Also I used My Love is Like a Nectar because that is exactly how I feel about Valerie and I slipped in SOS to prove we can still relate to kids today (and it samples Tainted Love. How can you not dig that?). Here's the track list:

1. La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf

2. My Love is Like a Nectar - Nacho Libre

3. Once Upon a Dream - Sleeping Beauty

4. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Platters

5. Maps - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

6. Fading Like a Flower - Roxette

7. SOS - Rihanna

8. Living in Oblivion - Anything Box

9. Co-Pilot - Letters From Cleo

10. Theme from Somewhere in Time

11. The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love

12. Top of the World - The Carpenters

13. Love - John Lennon

14. Arrested By You - Better Off Dead Soundtrack

15. You Surround Me - Erasure

16. In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel

17. Love - Smashing Pumpkins

18. I Love You - Sarah McLachlan

19. I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie

20. Will This Be the Song? - Game of Death Soundtrack

So tell me what you think and let me know if you would like a copy of this or any previous Valentine's CD we've done. Happy V Day!

Edward Scissorhands

2008-01-21T14:25:00.001-08:00

Let me start off by saying that this is one of my favorite movies ever. Probably in my top ten. So if I gush a bit you know why.

Written and directed by Tim Burton in 1990, Edward Scissorhands brings together what is in hindsight an amazing cast and crew who would go on to create many more films together. In fact it feels as though Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman are inseparable. Why not? They made a fantastic team in this film and have made many more wonderful movies together. But back to our film.

Edward Scissorhands is basically a retelling of Frankenstein. Edward was created by a lonely inventor (played by Vincent Price) who died before he was able to finish his work. And so Edward is left with scissors as hands. Furthermore he is left to himself for a long time and is given no moral guidance or any kind of exposure to normal life (which will lead to the difficulties he will have with the local "peasants"). So one day the local Avon Lady, Peg Boggs (played by Diane Wiest) calls. She finds Edward and is initially horrified but then overcome with pity as she sees the cuts covering Edward's face. She decides it would be best to bring Edward home with her. Edward is first seen by the community as a wonderful and mysterious creature. But through a series of events the neighborhood turns on him. In the meantime Edward falls in love with Kim Boggs (Winona Ryder). She is dating Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) but realizes that she no longer loves him and instead is falling in love with Edward. So in the end we find Edward being chased by an angry mob of neighbors back up to his house. There is a confrontation between Edward and Jim which ends in Jim's death. Kim leaves Edward, never to see him again, and convinces the mob that Edward too is dead.

So let me say why I love this film so much. Tim Burton is perhaps our greatest living Auteur Director. What that means is that any film by that Director is immediately recognized as his. Alfred Hitchcock was a great example. Now with the exception of Planet of the Apes, every Tim Burton film just feels like a Tim Burton film. And none more so that Edward Scissorhands. Tim Burton is huge on visuals and style. So here we have this neighborhood where every house (and car) is painted in pastels. All the cars leave for work at the same time and they all arrive home at exactly the same time. The look really gives this film a timeless quality. You would swear this might be the 50s except that Jim mentions his parents just bought a cd player. So in the backdrop of this town is this huge dark hill with Edward's castle of a house on top of it. Just like something right out of Nightmare Before Christmas. When we see inside the castle in real time and in flashbacks we see all these machines made by the inventor. They all resemble 1940s era conceptions of human looking robots with huge rivets and glowing red eyes. And of course Edward's costume is no different. He looks just strapped and riveted together. Then there is one of my favorite touches of the film. Kim's Christmas dress is basically a white version of Edward's black outfit. A huge strap across the top and buttons that look just like rivets going down the front. It is beautiful. There are also a lot of little things like the bank being this huge white building with only one desk inside but it is right in front of a huge vault. In fact, everything in this film that deals with authority and "reality" is oppressively oversized. Anyway, everything you see in this film is an absolute piece of Tim Burton art at its best.

Now what would a good Tim Burton film be without a score by Danny Elfman? As many of you know, Danny Elfman was the singer/songwriter for Oingo Boingo and has gone on to have a very successful film career. A few years ago he released a 3 disc collection of highlights from his film scores called Music For a Darkened Theater. In the notes he mentions that Edward Scissorhands is still his favorite. I agree. It is beautiful in it's simplicity, often using very few instruments backed up by a haunting chorus but also full of the kind of dramatic embellishments we expect from Danny Elfman.

The acting in this film is pretty darn good but my favorite performance is from Alan Arkin as Mr. Boggs. It's his ability to take the most absurd situations as though it were expected and just go with it. A great example is when Edward tells the family that Joyce (the lustfull neighbor who starts Edward's tragic fall from grace) has shown him a salon where he can work cutting hair. He then mentions that she showed him the back room where she took off all her clothes (don't worry mom, no nudity). The whole family just stares at Edward, but Mr. Boggs replies "Well that's great Edward. I suppose you'll be going to the bank next?" Alan Arkin delivers that kind of performance the entire film and really is the sole comedic presence.

So on to my favorite scene. Can it be anything other than when Edward is doing the ice sculpture in the front yard and Kim comes out to what she thought was falling snow and dances under the falling ice shavings? It is one last moment of perfect happiness and beauty right before it all comes crashing down. Edward accidentally cuts Kim's hand, fast forward to deadly confrontation at the end of the film. But for that one brief scene everything is perfect. This scene also goes on to explain how we know that Edward, to this very day, is still up in the castle. "Before he came down here, it never snowed. And afterwards it did."

So tell me what you thought. I hope you all actually watched it. This is an amazing film. But moving forward. At my wife's request the February movie of the month category is simply Romance. That's pretty broad (anything from Casablanca to Joe Versus the Volcano), so I'm eager to see what kind of movie suggestions you all give me. One request - please don't suggest an 80s High School film as I want to make that a category all its own at a future date. My pick for February is Somewhere in Time. We'll open the poll Feb 1st.

Rock Legend or Rock Band?

2008-01-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

OK so for Christmas I got Guitar Hero III for the Playstation 3. My wife is the greatest! I love it like mad and wasted many a good hour playing it. I started getting the itch to play with a second person and GH3 guitars for PS3 are scarce. It started to occur to me that maybe the Rock Band guitar would work (more on that later). So the seed was planted. Then as I regularly checked the Playstation 3 Store via my PS3 I noticed that Rock Band was adding a ton of killer songs while GH3 was getting very little and mostly crap. So with a hefty tax return imminent, I made a deal with the devil (Val gets a COSTCO membership and a ton of food storage and I get Rock Star). So what follows is my review of both.

Guitar Hero 3: OK it rocks. Hard. The set list is great. Most of the songs by the original artists. When I played Paint it Black for the first time I was in heaven. That being said, most of the songs fit into a few narrow genres and are limited in numbers. You can buy songs in game when you earn money but mostly from a bunch of no-name bands. You can download new songs as made available but so far the selection has been disappointing. That being said, I expect them to release an expansion set like they did with GH2 and the 80s pack. We'll see. Moving on. The guitar is very responsive and playing the songs is way fun. The star power triggered by tilting the guitar happens with ease (not so in Rock Band). The format is pretty simplified and is geared toward just getting to the music. You can play all the songs through for a final battle with Lou but once you've done it at any level then that's it. You can change the difficulty but the story is the same. So the guitar is better (not as pretty as the fender, but feels better and more responsive), and the guitar play is more fun. I almost forgot this as I've been playing Rock Band almost exclusively lately. Then today I whipped out Slow Ride on "Hard." What a freaking blast!

Rock Band: What sold me on this game is what still makes it so much fun for me and that's the set list. When I saw that you could download "Limelight" by RUSH I think that's when I decided to buy it. So there are nearly 100 songs on the game that you play in your normal set list, can add as bonus songs and then an additional 40+ songs that you can download. I bought 16 of them at $1-2/per song. The songs span every genre and I have had so much fun playing songs like "Creep" by Radiohead and "Maps" by the Yeah Yeahs. There's a ton of great songs. GH3 just can't match it. The guitar is fine but not as good as the GH3 guitar. The whammy bar is too high off the body and it's hard at time to trigger overdrive by tilting the neck. But it works fine. It does have a second set of frets for small hands and big finishes. Game play is much more sophisticated. Your player can be customized down to great details. I have Duncan and Watts as drummers based on characters from "Some Kind of Wonderful." I know. I'm a nerd. On solo the play is just like GH3. You progress through all the songs on your skill level then you are done. But in band mode it's more complex. You have to gain fans, groupies and roadies. Also you can't beat any part of the tour by staying on easy. You eventually have to up the skill level or your fan level will plateau and you can't progress. So that's pretty cool. Also you play half of your music as set list. For each gig you build a set list and there is a random request list and some gigs have local band set lists. So that's cool. Great gameplay that you won't get bored of quickly. OK on to why people buy this game: the full band. So far I have had Joe play guitar while I do drums (which is to much for his current coordination). It's a lot of fun. One thing that bugs me is the way you send the drums into overdrive. You have to do a freestyle banging on the drums and it often interupts the song and doesn't sound right. But that's being pretty picky. The drums are hard. When you start getting into the drum pedal...well let's say Medium feels like Hard to me. Also, I've had friends over and we take turns picking up the mic. This is like the best Karaoke ever. Now if only we had a second guitar for Bass. OK, time to complain. The guitars should be compatible for both games and Harmonix made a patch for just that but Activision is blocking it. Which sucks because you can't buy a guitar by itself for Rock Band and the GH3 guitar is in very short supply. The 2 companies say they are still negotiating. Well they had better hurry or they will both get screwed. Nyko is releasing a guitar in March that will work for both. I know at least one customer who will buy one if the Rock Band and GH3 folks can't get it together. Complaint over.

In summary, Rock Band is better for gameplay/storyline etc, the ability to play with others instead of taking turns watching each other and a killer set list. Did I mention their incredible set list? GH3 is better if you just want to rock out. I can't say why but the guitar play is just more fun and the guitar works better. So is one better than the other? The only solution is to buy both. I'm sorry for your wallet but it's just true. I gotta go. Joe says there's a gig in Seattle that requires our attention.

Stuck in the Stephanie Meyers Twilight Zone

2008-01-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

OK so I had heard a lot of good things about the Twilight books from a lot of people including my sister and my mother-in-law Carolyn. This didn't surprise me since it's basically a teenage romance novel and my sister is still sort of a teenager and Carolyn had previously sent me a whole shelf of romance novels. But then my good friend Jon Madsen also strongly recommended them. So I asked for the set for Christmas. Good thing I didn't have to work much because I started reading the set (3 book each book between 500 and 650 pages) on Dec 26th and finished on the 29th. That involved going to bed at around 5 am most mornings.

So I really enjoyed these teenage vampire romance novels. The action wasn't the best being a little predictable and the romance wasn't the best being a little over the top. If Bella wasn't in a breathless stupor EVERY TIME she's with Edward it would have been better. But all in all it was a great set of books. It had to be. Otherwise I would have got more sleep. I think she does a great job of leaving chapters in such a way that you have to read the next chapter now. I call it the 24 effect. If you've ever watched a season of 24 on DVD you know what I mean. So the first book is slated to be realeased as a movie Dec 2008 b y Summit Entertainment with Katherine Hardwicke directing. I'm a little worried that Stephanie didn't hold out for a better studio. While halfway through the 1st book I started picturing all the chapters as scenes in a movie and I got excited. But I think it could get messed up pretty easily.

So I wondered how Stephanie would handle the whole erotic vampire angle, she being LDS and all that (another concern I have for the film if she released too much control). There are a fair amount of make out scenes. So what she came up with is Edward can't "do it" with Bella cause he's afraid he will kill her - whether losing control of his passions will make it impossible to not go for the jugular (literally), or whether he will lose control of his strength and kill her. So they suck face a lot but he always pulls out his for Strength of youth pamphlet before anything happens. Then I was even more surprise when he agrees that they can try... after they are married. Ed's reasons being he doesn't want to put her standing with the big man upstairs in any jeopardy (even though he's consented to make her a vampire) and also he was actually born early in the 20th century so he's a little old fashioned. So that was interesting.

My favorite character is Alice. She is the cutest vampire ever. She's like Galinda from Wicked but with deadly vampire skills.

OK now my big problem with these books is also my big problem with women in general. Apparently someone just has to be a good kisser and women have no choice but to give in and also decide that they don't feel at all the way they thought so darn sure they did. Read Eclipse and you'll know what I mean. Also Bella tries to juggle her love with her best-friend-with-benefits. Personally I think women do this to have a safety net. I was said safety net in High school for some crummy girl who shall never be mentioned by name. Ever.

Alright, enough bitterness. I really dug these books and recommend them to most people. These aren't pulitzer prize material. But think of it as Ann Rice where you won't feel guilty when your parents find you reading it. I think this was my most disorganized post ever.

Tales of Daring and Peril

2007-12-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went snorkeling with some friends. We saw plenty of beautiful fish, a very large manta ray and this bad boy.

This is the mighty great White Tip shark (not to be confused with a Great White). None the less, this shark was about 20 feet away and close to 5 feet long. I told my mom and she was a bit freaked out but the White Tip is a non-aggressive species. So it looked way cool but posed no danger. All the same, I now swim with sharks. This particular shark I fought but allowed it to live. That's because I respect and yes even love this killer (of tiny fishes) of the sea.

Bill Murray is Totally Scrooged!

2007-12-11T17:59:00.001-08:00

Scrooged (1988) staring Bill Murray: Frank Cross runs a US TV station which is planning a live adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Frank's childhood wasn't a particularly pleasant one, and so he doesn't really appreciate the Christmas spirit. With the help of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, Frank realizes he must change. OK so that's the IMDB summary. Frank is President of IBC and he is about to run a live Christmas day special of The Christmas carol with Buddy Hackett as Scrooge and Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. She not only walks but she does a double somersault! So his show is terrible and his promo ad for the show is even worse with the intent being to scare the audience into watching. It actually scares one viewer to death. He also fires the one person who questions the ad (Bobcat Goldthwait who later gets drunk, buys a gun and comes back to kill Frank). Frank's secretary has a son who is our Tiny Tim. He hasnt spoken since his father died. They have no money with which to seek decent medical care. Frank doesn't know but probably wouldn't care. He even cuts his secretary's bonus that year. So he obviously has no Christmas Spirit. In come the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. We discover that as a child Frank got veal for Christmas and sat in front of the TV non-stop. We also learn that he is madly in love with Claire Phillips (Karen Allen who played Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark). Frank tells her in their past "I never liked a girl enough to give her 12 sharp knives. But Frank blows it because he chose his career as Frisbee the Dog over being with her on Christmas Eve. This decisioin is what leads to his ascension at IBC television. We learn in the future that Claire has become mean and bitter because of comments he makes to her about saving herself and his secretary's son is in a padded room. Of course he changes his ways. He interupts the live show and goes on live TV and talks about the true spirit of Christmas. Sort of.

OK now it is a sad reflection on the state of movie adaptations for A Christmas Carol that this is the 2nd best version. Even sadder that the best version involves a frog. Anyway, I watched this movie a year ago and I remembered really enjoying it. I did enjoy it but not like I thought I would. So let's start with my criticisms. This movie feels way too 80s. Not in a good way. There are lots of good 80s movies. But this one feels like I should see Gina Davis pop up at any moment. Does that make sense? I hope so. Also, the change is too sudden. He is still pretty hard hearted up until the Ghost of Christmas Future. And then the change seems hokey. I'm afraid that this part of the movie requires an actor that can sell drama. Bill can't. While yelling that he can change he comes across like Bob Wiley insisting that he will go away. It works in What About Bob but not here. I also don't like that our Tiny Tim ends up in a padded room. How does that happen? Because he can't talk? Yeah OK. And then in the end he talks saying "God bless us, everyone." OK that had to happen but it still was way cheesy. Lastly, when after the visit from the last ghost he changes his way and he interrupts the live program and goes on his ramble...OK so it's supposed to be spur of the moment train-of-thought but it gets to the point where I am going crazy cause he's not getting to the point. But you get the payoff when Claire shows up and they reunite on stage.

Which brings us to the things I liked. Number one is Marion. I know her name is Claire but she'll always be Marion from Raider of the Lost Ark to me. So I'm going to call her Marion. Anyway, every time she smiles it steals the scene. She is the ultimate girl next door who you could have had a wonderful life with if you hadn't ignored her for the prom queens sort of thing. So her character is great. The best part of the movie for me is when Frank is doing his live TV thing and he gets a kiss from a tv dancer and says that it's very good but not great. There has only ever been one great. It cuts to Marion's homeless shelter where she works and Frank says her name on TV. Everyone at the shelter goes crazy. That makes me smile lots. So Marion is wonderful. The fact that she still loves Frank is unbelievable.
I also really dug the Ghost of Christmas Present as played by Carol Kane. Can't help but love her. Though her continual beating of Frank tends to get old. I also loved the score. Danny Elfman which surprised me. But since I liked the score it shouldn't.

Anyway, good movie but not great. Bill Murray is always a pleasure but this is not one of my favorite Bill Murray films. Again it's a decent Christmas movie but not one of my favorites. That's OK cause I still have plenty of time to watch White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life and Edward Scissorhands.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope this is a great one for everyone! On to January. The category of the month is one that is near and dear to me. For January, please submit to me your favorite Tim Burton film. I am putting forth the best Comic Book movie of all time, Batman (1989).

4th and 18!

2007-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

It was at that very impossible moment when I was thinking of ways to have Harvey Unga killed for dropping 2 touchdown passes. You see, because he muffed an easy touchdown catch on a 4th down on BYU's last drive, Utah was able to go up by 1 point with a minute and change left. I thought "OK just like last year. BYU can do it." 3 plays later with BYU at their 12 yard line on a 4th and 18, all I wanted to do was murder Unga. I wondered if I could scrounge up enough dough for the hit. Then Max Hall threw a 49 yard pass. Several plays later all I could think of was whether it is appropriate to send one of my children to Unga in appreciation of his 15 yard touchdown run to win the game. It's been several hours now and I can barely talk because of how much I screamed and several of my children still won't come near me. Today was the 2nd happiest day of this year! Thanks Cougars!

Your Fully Invested Fan

Roy

Charleton Heston, the alpha and Omega Man!

2007-11-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

First things first. I deeply apologize for anyone who was surprised by those 2 scenes. It has been 10 years since I saw the film and I plum forgot. So if I caused anyone discomfort, I promise it won't happen again.

OK onto the good stuff. Omega Man is one of my favorite Charleton Heston films. It's all about Barrel Chested glory and killing things instead of trying to fix them. More on that later. Quick plot summary for Omega Man: Omega Man is a 1971 science fiction thriller starring Charlton Heston. The movie is based on Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend. The screenplay was written by John William and Joyce Corrington, and the movie was directed by Boris Sagal. The story was first filmed in 1964, under the title The Last Man on Earth, with Vincent Price in the lead role. A third adaptation of the story, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith, is scheduled for release on December 14, 2007." I love anything Vincent Price and I am deeply disturbed about the upcoming remake. So Charleton plays Robert Neville, a survivor of germ warfare that wiped out all humanity. He is the only person who was immune. There are others who are alive but suffering from severe symptoms including ash-grey skin and hair, weird looking eyes, lots of cysts, light sensitivity and they can only wear black cloaks. They call themselves The Family and they hate anything to do with technology which they blame for what has happened. So they spend all their time burning stuff and trying to kill Robert. Robert soon discovers other surviving humans who have not yet succumbed to the plague. He decides to use his blood as an antidote and take everyone to the hills. The family has other plans.

So the film starts with our hero, Robert Neville, just taking a pleasant drive through downtown LA which is oddly vacant. Then he stops and starts shooting at a shadow in a window. You know immediately that we are in for a good time. In short time we get through the flashbacks that fill us in on what happened to the world (crummy germ warfare!), and find ourselves viewing a shirtless Charleton Heston shopping for clothes. Not just shirtless but glistening. Then we are let in early on Robert's deteriorating mental state. He imagines that every phone in the city is ringing and has to scream that it's not true for it to stop. He then goes home and plays himself in Chess and watches himself on TV. Chuck, in commenting on the film said that Robert is trying to survive his own survival and is failing. For example, why hasn't he headed for the hills? Why does he stay where his life is at risk? It's because it is better to be surrounded by enemies than to be completely alone. So as soon as he discovers other humans he decides that it IS time to head for the hills. One of these survivors is a boy named Ritchie. He is in an advanced stage of the plague, but Charleton manages to save him with his immune blood. We learn that it can take weeks to turn or an instant. so Ritchie had time but others won't be so lucky. Segway into Lisa, Robert's love interest. She is also Ritchie's sister. She has some awesome outfits including a red snake skin pant suit. So anyway, after Ritchie is cured he asks why Robert doesn't try to cure the family? Robert says they are vermin. Well stupid Ritchie goes to the family and tells them that they have a cure. What do they do? The kill him. NEVER EVER TRY TO HELP OTHERS! Anyway, long story short, Lisa turns and as Robert tries to save her he is killed, but not until he manages to get a bottle of his blood to the survivors. So he is the savior of the new world, in case you missed the crucifixion pose that he dies in.

My favorite line is "You better hitch up your drawers." I also love it when Mathias is expounding upon the evils of mankind and Robert says "You're full of crap." Anyway, great Sci-Fi film. Charleton made it after Planet of the Apes and right before Soylent Green which I consider the Holy Trinity of 70's Sci-Fi. Another sweet thing about Omega Man is it is parodied in one of the best Simpsons Halloween Specials ever with HOMEGA MAN. If you haven't seen it, here is a link thanks to Jon Madsen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ekLDyPGX9a0

I hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know.

On to the movie for December. Obviously the theme is Christmas. I vote for Edward Scissorhands. I'll take your recommendations and make a poll on Dec 1st.

Star Trek Shmar Shmrek

2007-11-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

So I recently made fun of a friend for being a Vampire Captain Kirk for Halloween. Sorry Jon. I've never really liked Star Trek and I often look down on those that do. But recently I had an epiphany. I was trying to get someone we'll call Shmoe to eat something he had never tried before. I was so frustrated because I knew he would like it if he just gave it a chance but because of the way it looked there was no way it was going to happen. That's when I realised that I had never seen a single Star Trek movie or perhaps even an entire episode. So here goes. I have placed in my Blockbuster Online Que all three original seasons (there were only 3?) all the movies and all of the Next Generation. I hope to watch them all in chronological order. Either this will open up a new world to me or at the very least I will be able to say with confidence why I can't stand this stuff. Wish me luck.
I do have a question for Jon. Should I watch Next Generation season 3 before or after The Final Frontier? For that matter any time there is a movie same year as a season of the show should I go with movie first or season?
To those of you who are ashamed of me, I understand.

Coming Home

2007-11-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Remember when we were in High School and we made fun of the grads who came back for school dances? What a bunch of low lifes. Then one fine day our freshman year at BYU Jon and I got a call from our friend Sara (the) Morrison. So we went back to Timpview's Homecoming. Yeah, we were losers. Anyway I found this pic. The girl I'm with turned out to be the best friend of my yet unmet wife Valerie. Hey! Jon had hair!

November Movie of the Month - Heston Fest!

2007-11-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

I am so pleased to announce that this month we will be featuring a Charleton Heston film for the movie of the month. Go vote in the poll to the right immediately. Now.

Here is a brief line from IMDB that sums up Chuck better than I can: With features chiseled in stone, who else but Charlton Heston could you picture as Michelangelo, as Ben-Hur, as Moses? Heston's movie career took off with The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and reached light speed with Ben-Hur (1959). Although he has played a pantheon of larger-than-life roles, he usually prefers to talk about the day-to-day daily grind of the movie business, and especially credits the writers and directors he has worked for much of his success. Though aging gracefully, the venerated Heston has lately been more interested in promoting right-wing political issues than acting.

So we all know Charleton from his big pics like 10 Comandments and Ben Hur (he won an Oscar for Best Actor in Ben Hur), but a decade ago I really got to know his brilliant sci-fi work. Planet of the Apes is amazing and Soylent Green is still one of the movies that can make me laugh to tears. But I'd have to say Omega Man is my favorite. I desperately hope that wins the vote so that those of you who have not yet seen it can have that pleasure. Either way it will be a joy to salute one of America's finest actors. So make your choice and let's dive head first into barrel-chested glory!

Halloween Music For the Masses...Finally!

2007-10-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

OK so the 2007 Halloween cd has finally been produced. Well almost. The art work should be done tonight but the set list is complete and I will share with you below.
This year we decided to go on the theme of how scary and terribly destructive girls are. This picture is what I think will end up as our cover. It's Vampira from the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space. Anyway, this is a unique cd. Usually we have a core of songs that goes along with the theme but this year ever single song (except for the intro piece) is about girly badness (with a few we had to stretch the interpretation). Jon did a brilliant job of ordering the tracks. Jon went with the theory that with evil (and women) we follow this progression: "First we fear/despise it, then we tolerate it, then we embrace it' but (we end it) with a sort of victimization coda." Also we substituted the usual movie quotes with stanzas from The Raven as read by Christopher Walken. We've wanted to use this for a number of years and fortuitously the poem is all about a man going insane from the haunting memory of a woman. So here's the list and explanation of the song progression:

1. It's Halloween - The Shaggs (Intro)

2. Scarecrow - Beck: the hero's journey begins

3. Burn the Witch - Queens of the Stoneage: the hero discovers the antagonist and recognizes her evil

4. Reptile - The Church: although this song i think is about the post effects of being wronged, i'm still putting it toward the beginning in the 'despise' phase since that's what the narrator feels

5. Strange Brew - Cream

6. Witch Queen of New Orleans - Redbone

7. Voodoo Dolly - Siouxsie and the Banshees

8. Spookshow Baby - Rob Zombie

9. The Beast - Concrete Blonde: acknowledgement and respect for the evil

10. Out of Limits - The Markettes: a thought process

11. Spooky Little Girl Like You - The Classics IV: an apparent infatuation

12. Be My Druidess - Type O Negative: a proposition

13. Heart of Lilith - Inkubus Sukkubus: an acknowledgment of desire for what is wrong

14. One Caress - Depeche Mode: longing for darkness

15. Cold From Fever - Sunshine Blind: confusion

16. Rainbow in the Dark - DIO: seclusion and betrayal

17. Dead Heaven - Gary Numan: numbness and angst

18. Exit Music (for a Film) - Radiohead

All the song notes come straight from what Jon told me for his reasons. He deserves full credit. I did none of this. I'll happily take credit for the theme, suggesting some songs and some of the cover art, but all the creative stuff I leave to the pros. Especially this last week. Jon has worked like a Jon possessed. Thanks hard Jon.

So I'm way happy with this cd. I've been wanting to use some of these songs for years including Rainbow in the Dark and Spooky Little Girl (the song that led me to our theme) and Out of limits. I discovered some great new songs like Scarecrow by Beck and Voodoo Dolly by Siouxsie Sue.

So anyway, if you want a copy, let me know. I realise it's a little late this year but well too bad. I had an out of town wedding and a baby born and Jon went to Hawaii. Be happy we did it at all.

Now I'm finally ready for the big day. HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

October Movie - The Lady In White

2007-10-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

So the movie of the month - as voted by you all - is Lady In White. I have to think that we chose this film based on nostalgic feelings of when we were all in junior high and the PG-13 horror film genre didn't really exist yet. So we got REALLY pumped about the one horror film we COULD watch...Lady In White. Even back then I remember being disappointed. If we were feeling nostalgic I wish we had chosen Something Wicked This Way Comes or even Salems Lot. Anyway, here goes.
This film is based on a popular urban legend about the "White Lady" who had a daughter that was killed by a predatory suitor. Finding her daughter dead she kills herself and she haunts the lakefront to this day. So we start the film with this legend already going on. Our nerd hero, Frankie Scarlatti, gets locked in a coat closet at school by the cool kids. While there he sees the ghost of a young girl. She drops something down a grate then she is apparently murdered. We later learn that this apparition occurs every night and that the girl is carried off all the way accross town and thrown off a cliff. Why has no one else seen it before? Is everyone asleep by 10 pm? Anyway, after the ghost leaves we see a real man come in and try to retrieve the item from the grate (the furnace is about to be replaced and if the item is found there where the girl was killed this guy could get caught). The man sees Frankie and tries to kill him. Why not? What's one more murder (there had been 10 or so)? He survives and we spend the rest of the film trying to figure out who this man is. In the meantime we see the Lady in White several times but it's never scary. The director should have watched Halloween on lessons for how to freak you out with the appearance of the scary thing in your movie. Then we get a real treat when we meet the Lady's living sister who is Mona from Who's the Boss? That's the scariest part of the film hands down. We learn that the murderer is Frankie's uncle who in the end tries to kill Frankie. Of course Frankie is saved by Mona and then again by the Lady herself. Uncle Phil dies and the Lady and her daughter can now both rest forever as they blast off into space. But Mona is dead. So that's good news.
Lots of problems. First, this film feels like the Halloween version of The Christmas Story with the author (in this case the Author/Director Frank LaLoggia) narrating the film like a fond remeniscence. It doesn't work for a scary movie. You can't have a cheery, nostalgic scary movie. Then there are the Puma Man flying effects which were so funny in The Puma Man but not here. Then there's the forest which has an eternal layer of fog on the ground. I could go on but it's really upsetting me. I can't remember how many times I hit the status button to see how much time was left. If we have another one like this then I may start exercising veto powers.

So the movie category for this month is Charleton Heston films. No one can screw that up. My vote is for Omega Man.

Home for Good...Or At Least a Few Days

2007-10-14T14:27:00.001-07:00

As you can see I photographed only the most important stuff, such as Training Table Cheese Fries.

Spencer won some fabulous prizes in the Guess the Contaminant in the Milk contest. Contaminants included onions, salt, ketchup, refried beans, tuna juice, chicken boulion, A-1 steak sauce, chili powder etc.

I actually came out for a wedding. Here is Spencer and the new Sister-In-Law Erin. She's great.

So I had a really good time, watched a lot of The Office and got very little sleep. It was great seeing Jon, JB, Jake and his kids. Then there are those I didn't get to see. I would make angry cursing words but I'm sure you had your reasons. I promise not to hate you all for the rest of my life. While I was there I discovered a treasure trove of goodies from my past. Most of which I promptly threw away. Should I have burned them? It is an effort to purge the memory of She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named out of my life completely. I figure if I treat her like Rocky 5 (pretend like it never existed) then I can be sort of happy.
I DID find a fantastic old pocket watch, the ruined remains of one of my favorite x-mas gifts ever - a Book on classic horror films Jon bought me many a year ago (sorry Jon but it looked like it had been sitting in a tub of water for 10 years) and a pic of me and Jon going back to Timpview's Homecoming dance our Freshman year of BYU.

So it was a fun and fruitfull trip. I hope to come back out again this next summer and of course the ultimate goal is to move out there permenant like in 4 years. We'll see. Thanks to all for a great time.

Hawaii Jon-0

2007-10-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Jon and Maria came to Hawaii a few weeks ago. I'm sorry I didn't post earlier but I promptly went out of town. Oh there'll be a post about that too.
So we surfed (the above pic wasn't just a pose) in shark infested waters, we snorkled in Shark's Cove (oddly NOT shark infested waters) and we ate at Teddy's Bigger burgers. Aside from that they taught us a new game called Bang (which I highly recommend) and they put up with a game of Cities and Knights (I like parentheticals). Why does no one like that game other than Val and I? It's all these crummy purists who insist that it distracts from the "real" game. Well if you can't handle it, then something something.

Anyway, it was great to have Jon out. I hope that in the next 4 years we recieve many more visits from equally distinguished visitors. Thanks for coming out Jon. It was good times. Now LET"S DO THE FREAKING HALOWEEN CD! Call me! Email me! Anything!

Returning to My Fatherland

2007-09-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

So in a few days (October 10-14 to be exact) I will be back in Utah for my brother Spencer's wedding. I'm way excited for him and Erin. While I am out there I want to hook up with as many of my Utah friends as possible. So here's what I'll have available.
Oct 10th I'm free all day until the evening. I think it would be fun to do lunch at the Spaghetti Factory in SLC or Tucanos/China Rirry in Provo or something. That night I have a family dinner. Of course the 11th is the wedding. My time should be open on the 12th. I would love to have a get together at my place that afternoon/evening or whatever. Please let me know where and when we can hang out and be cool. I look forward to see you all soon!

What About Bob?

2007-09-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Released in 1991,What About Bob? is a film about multi phobic personality Bob Wiley (Bill Murray, duh) who has a tendency to cling to his psychiatrists. Bob's current doctor pawns him off on Doctor Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfus) who has just written the best seller Baby Steps and is about to go on vacation to Lake Winnipesauke where Good Morning America is coming to talk to him about his book. His final appointment is with Bob who after 10 minutes with Doctor Marvin feels for the first time that there is hope. The breakthrough moment comes when Bob mentions that he is divorced because "There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't. My ex-wife loves him." Doctor Marvin responds with "So what you're saying is that even though you are an almost paralyzed, multi phobic personality who is in a constant state of panic, your wife did not leave you, you left her because she loves Neil Diamond." Bob is stunned when he realises that maybe his wife left him. Let the healing begin. But when Bob learns that Doctor Marvin is about to go on vacation he breaks down and follows him. Bob gains the love and admiration of Doctor Marvin's family and drives Doctor Marvin insane. Doctor Marvin tries to kill Bob and naturally Bob marries Leo's sister.

Let me start by saying that even though I love this movie I can understand why some people don't. My dad, for instance, hates it. I think it's because he is a lawyer and has been a Bishop multiple times. So what I gather is that there have been "Bobs" that have not let my dad have any peace. Can you really imagine how it must be for Doctor Marvin? Now that we are past that, we can get on with enjoying a fantastic comedy. This, I believe, marks the first Bill Murray film where he no longer is the big jerk character (Stripes, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day etc. BTW I DO love those movies). He is a very likable character. Kind, caring, funny. I think that's why we sympathize with Bob even though his behavior is outrageously inappropriate.

This movie has one of my favorite quotes ever. In the beginning of the film Bob turns to his Goldfish and says "Good morning, Gill." Not getting a response from Gill, Bob fixes the fish with a steely glare and says "I said, good morning, Gill." The delivery is fantastic. I also love when Bob tracks down Leo at the Lake and goes into his plea "Check it out! I'm really bad! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! I need! I need! I need!" There are two scenes in this movie that almost make my sweet wife...well let's just say she can't watch it when she's pregnant and there's already too much pressure on the old bladder. The first is near the beginning of the film when Bob is at the bus stop and a bus passes by. After the bus passes we see bob on the ground crawling around. The other is Bob eating dinner with the Marvins.

Something I find great in an odd way is having Richard Dreyfus for Doctor Marvin. You see, I haven't liked a single Richard Dreyfus film since Jaws. And I didn't like any before Jaws. Really Jaws is the only Dreyfus movie for me. Can you imagine if he had been picked as Han Solo? Ugh! So I LOVE having Richard Dreyfus being the victim of Bob turning the good Doctor's family against him.

Now there is one part of the movie I don't like. If the Guttman's saved all that money, why didn't they buy another dream house on the lake? They are stuck living above there store because the Marvin's bought their dream home? What happaned to all that money they saved? It get's me.

But that's not so big a deal. I can forgive the Guttman's because I assume they sold Bob his fantastic "Don't Hassle Me. I'm Local" T-shirt. Ahoy Bill Murrray fans. This movie, just like Bob, sails.

So tell me what you think. And don't forget to suggest your favorite (not Rated R) Halloween film. My pick is Night of the Living Dead.

Movie of The Month Club Thingy

2007-09-11T20:34:00.001-07:00

OK so I want to start a movie of the month sorta deal with all of you my buddies and my enemies. And I want to run it via this blog. What I'm thinking is each month we'll do a movie and I'll post a blog about it. Then because you all want to participate, you will also watch the movie and then you can all comment about it. When you post your comments, don't forget to suggest a movie for the next month. I'll take those suggestions and make a poll and we can all vote on the next movie. Keep in mind that next month is October.

As for this month, I want to start with a Bill Murray movie. See the poll to the right.
"So let's get going. There's no other choice. God willing, we will prevail in peace and freedom from fear and in true health through the purity of our essence of our natural fluids" - Dr. Strangelove

Exploring Roy

2007-09-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

So when I got here to Hawaii I decided it was time for a fresh start. A new me. So when people would ask I started saying that my name was Roy. I used to think that name was so sissy. The only thing I knew was I was spared the french version (LeRoy) by my mother's intervention, and that there is a town in Utah called Roy.

But lately I've been thinking of how cool that name is. Maybe I would have been popular if I had gone by that name in High School. Roy is the guy with feathery hair who plays accoustic guitar for the girls in the high school cafeteria. That being said I'll quickly mention my favorite Roys.

Roy Stalin
Roy Stalin is of course the high school hunk in Better Off Dead who stole Lane Myer's girlfriend Beth. She told Lane over the phone that she would be better off dating someone more popular. Feathery hair, plays accoustic in the high school cafeteria. Sound familiar? Roy is a Dreamboat. If he were from California he would be a California dreamboat. Roy is the reason high school girls put up with jerks for boyfriends.

Roy Orbison

My mother loves Roy Orbison more than all get out. I don't really know that much about him. I know. He's a member of the legendary Traveling Willburys. Which seems to be the most famous band I know of where no one can tell me any of their songs. All that is beside the point. I dig that he is a prolific musician but what really gets me is the growl. I'm talking about the part in the song Pretty Woman where he rolls his throat. That's sexy. I've been working on it. Also, the glasses are great. Guys can't don (Roy doesn't wear anything, he dons) eyewear like that anymore. I don't even dare try.

Deep Roy

Deep is my current favorite Little Person. OK So we all know that he was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but did you know that he was also the "pig-brained Peking Homonculus" or "Mr. Sin", a villain with a distinct appetite for homicide, in the acclaimed Doctor Who story The Talons of Weng-Chiang? It's true. Also, he was freaking in Flash Gordon - one of the funniest movies ever - as Princess Aura's Pet, Fellini. Now don't confuse him for that silly actor in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. That ain't Deep.

Robert Roy MacGregor

Otherwise known as Rob Roy. My family swears that we are related to William Wallace as I'm sure everyone with Scottish ancestry does. Now we do have Scottish blood and my Uncle Jim tells me that we had ancesters who bled at Dunkirk, so this is as close as I can get. I don't know much about Rob Roy other than what Liam Neeson has taught me. But I'll tell you that the final sword fight in Rob Roy is the best. Of course he gets beat but you can't defeat a guy who simply grabs your blade with his hand and pulls you in to kill you.

Anyway, that's all I got. Those fantastic famous Roys and of course Roy Utah. Now you tell me that I should go with Jeremiah over Roy? Yeah, right.

The Happiest I've Ever Been! Ever!

2007-09-01T18:14:00.001-07:00

So as many of you know every time I buy something that I want to use immediately Val makes me put it in the Christmas pile. Well this time I worked it! I sold a game Val didn't like (those silly skimpy outfits of the Marvel Comics Girls!) and used the money to buy Tiger Woods PGA 07 (I love that game too). So I put THAT in the Christmas pile and I whipped this one out. Oh my gadget I love it! Of course I picked BYU as my dynasty. I started out using the "Freshman" difficulty level to get my feet wet and promptly blew out Arizona and UCLA by 50 point margins. So I switched it up to "Varsity" and immediately lost to Tulsa in overtime. Well I'm getting better. I just learned how to do the tripple option. Which is good cause I'm not very good at passing. Crummy corners close so fast! But I use Manase and Fui like a dream. Anyway, I'm really enjoying myself. Val has had to wash several pairs of my shorts as I soil myself with delight every hour or so. Thought I would share my joy with you guys. Hey! You can come over ANYTIME to play with me!

Halloween Albums of Yore

2007-08-30T21:17:00.000-07:00

As per the post below (I suggest you read that post first), here's the All Hallow's Eve Discography. I'll post 2007 as soon as I know what it is.

1995
1 Dead Man's Party (Extended Brass Mix) - Oingo Boingo
2 Helter Skelter - The Beatles
3 Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones
4 Life in the Gladhouse - Modern English
5 Waiting for the Night - Depeche Mode
6 Exit - U2
7 Cry Little Sister (Lost Boys) - Gerard McMann
8 Lost in the Shadows (Lost Boys) - Lou Gramm
9 Golgatha Tenement Blues - Machines of Loving Grace
10 Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
11 Stonehenge - Spinal Tap
12 Adam in Chains - Billy Idol
13 Burn - The Cure
14 Pimpf - Depeche Mode

1997
1 To the Shock of Miss Louise (Lost Boys) - Thomas Newman
2 Dead Man's Party (Original Version) - Oingo Boingo
3 Country Death Song - Violent Femmes
4 Winter Kills - Yaz
5 One Hundred Years - The Cure
6 Break on Through - The Doors
7 Dead Souls - Nine Inch Nails
8 Thriller - Michael Jackson
9 Return of the Dead Man - Oingo Boingo
10 Tainted Spooky - Soft Cell
11 Face to Face - Siouxsie and the Banshees
12 Ghost Rider - Rollins Band
13 Psycho Killer - The Talking Heads
14 People are Strange - The Doors
15 Fascination Street - The Cure

1998
1 Insanity - Boingo
2 Everyday is Halloween - Ministry
3 The Line Between the Devil's Teeth - Peter Murphy
4 The Witch - The Cult
5 Hellhole - Spinal Tap
6 Lullaby - The Cure
7 Asleep - Agnes Poetry
8 No One Lives Forever - Oingo Boingo
9 Nemesis - Shriekback
10 Spiritual High - Xymox
11 Fly on the Windscreen - Depeche Mode
12 Nowhere Girl - The B Movies
13 Eyes Without a Face - Billy Idol
14 Dreamtime - Love and Rockets

1999 (The first year we started mixing in movie quotes to the songs)
1 Murderous - Nitzer Ebb
2 When the Lights Go Out - Oingo Boingo
3 Crazy - Seal
4 The Night Comes - Billy Idol
5 A Night Like This - The Cure
6 Dressed In Black - Depeche Mode
7 Moon Over Bourbon Street - Sting
8 The Long Way Home - Faithless
9 After the Flesh - My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
10 Temptation Waits - Garbage
11 In My House - Dead or Alive
12 Spooky - New Order
13 Cold - The Cure
14 Pseudo Joy - Agnes Poetry
15 Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
16 Somebody (J.R.s Somebody Bloody Somebody Mix) - Depeche Mode

2000 (My personal favorite)
1 Death By Stereo - Lost Boys
2 Mephisto - Depeche Mode
3 This Corrosion - Sisters of Mercy
4 Bloodletting - Concrete Blonde
5 Bloodrush - ACT
6 Flaming Telepaths - Blue Oyster Cult
7 Fill the Void - Oingo Boingo
8 A Lullaby For Caine - Sinead O'Conner
9 Dragula - Rob Zombie
10 Feed My Frankenstein - Alice Cooper
11 All You Zombies - The Hooters (Jon and I both thought the other found this song. Spooky)
12 Back From the Dead - Spinal Tap
13 Love Song for A Vampire - Annie Lennox
14 Metal - Nine Inch Nails
15 Purple Haze - The Cure
16 Stigmata Martyr - Bauhaus
17 Haunted - Love and Rockets

2001
1 Waiting for the Sun - The Doors
2 Enter Sandman - Metallica
4 Giant Robot with Bird Head - The Aquabats
5 Dracula From Houston - The Butthole Surfers (Anyone know what this song has to do with Dracula?)
6 Vampires - Pet Shop Boys
7 Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man - Concrete Blonde
8 Sweet Transvestite - Rocky Horror Picture Show
9 Grey Matter - Oingo Boingo
10 Dangerous Places - Alphaville
11 Paranoid - Black Sabbath
12 Certified - ACT
13 Nerves - Possum Dixon
14 Charlotte Sometimes - The Cure
15 Mask - Bauhaus
16 Starve - Peter Whitley
17 I Scare Myself - Thomas Dolby
18 Haunted - Poe

2002
1 Sally's Song - London After Midnight
2 Open - The Cure
3 Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
4 Carousel - Siouxsie and the Banshees
5 No Spill Blood - Oingo Boingo
6 Revenge - Ministry
7 Kaleid - Depeche Mode
8 Sinister Purpose - Zacharle
9 Science Fiction Double Feature - Rocky Horror Picture Show
10 Monster's Wedding - The Aquabats
11 Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
12 Nosferatu - Blue Oyster Cult
13 Dark Entries - Bauhaus
14 Black - Sarah MacLachlan
15 Psycho Magnet - London After Midnight
16 Sweet - Switchblade Symphony
17 The Only Thing That Shines - Shriekback

2003
1 Faded Flowers - Shriekback
2 Torture - The Cure
3 Strap Me Down - Leather Strip
4 Dangerous - Depeche Mode
5 Upside Down - Agnes Poetry
6 Kult Konnection - My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
7 Lovesong (Actually it's called Hate) - London After Midnight
8 Ribcage Mambo - Frenchy
9 Into the Woods - Sleepy Hollow
10 Ripple - The Church
11 Sister Madly - Crowded House
12 Myxomatosis - Radiohead
13 Return of the Phantom Stranger - Rob Zombie
14 Scarecrow - Siouxsie and the Banshees
15 Tribute - Tenacious D
16 Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon (He passed away that year)
17 The Mosquito Song - Queens of the Stone Age

2004 (The Sci-fi Album)
1 The Day the Earth Stood Still Instrumental
2 Ascension Day - Alphaville
3 Girl Without a Planet - My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
4 Martian Girl - The Aquabats
5 Haunted - Evanescence
6 They - Jem
7 Dracula's Wedding - Outkast
8 Voodoo - Godsmack
9 Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
10 The Creature Stole My Surfboard - The Dead Elvi
11 Sanity Assasin - Bauhaus
12 Mad Love - LCD
13 Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
14 This Big Hush - Shriekback
15 Spanish Caravan - The Doors
16 Blood Milk and Sky - White Zombie
17 Dark - Gary Numan
18 Under a Milky Way - The Church
19 Forbidden Planet Instrumental
20 Fear of Ghosts - The Cure

2005
1 A Forest (Damian Lertora Mix) - The Cure
2 Halloween - Rob Zombie
3 Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
4 The Devil's Whip - Man O War
5 This Devil's Workday - Modest Mouse
6 Watch Me Bleed - Tears for Fears
7 Premonition - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
8 Only (Jon Madsen Down In It Mix) - Nine Inch Nails
9 Fashion Zombies - The Aquabats
10 The City Sleeps - MC 900 Foot Jesus
11 Dracula's Castle - New Order
12 Dead or Alive - Oingo Boingo
13 The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen
14 Black No. 1 - Type O Negative
15 This Protector - The White Stripes
16 A Forest - The Cure

2006
1 Nothing to Fear - Oingo Boingo
2 The Night is Young - Nosferatu
3 Splintered in Her Head - The Cure
4 Is She Weird? - The Pixies
5 Light Years - 311
6 Boogie Monster - Gnarls Barkley
7 Psychic Voodoo Doll - Deadbolt
8 Iron Head - Rob Zombie
9 Red Right Hand - Nick Cave
10 Tubular Bells - Book of Love
11 Witchcraft - Frank Sinatra
12 Scary Monsters - David Bowie
13 Torture - The Jackson Five
14 Overkill - Men at Work
15 Sell My Soul - Midnight Oil
16 Zee Deveel - Incubus
17 Hellraiser - Ozzie Ozbourne
18 I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
19 Straight to Hell - The Clash

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2007-08-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Halloween season is almost upon us and the activities and traditions to be upheld are overwhelming. Or at least whelming. Either way, it's a good thing. Many people think of Halloween as a day but I think that it has a season just as much as Christmas. The season starts October 1st of course. From that day on I listen to nothing but the Halloween CDs in my car. This used to be tedious (listening to 2 or 3 cds for a month is hard to do) but there are so many cds now that I barely manage to get through them before halloween. These are also the only actual cds I listen to. Everything else is on IPOD but a big part of the Halloween cds is the art so I dig em up and throw em in the glove compartment.

For those of you who are wondering what I am talking about, the Halloween cd is a tradition that was started in 1995 when Jon Madsen and I made a tape of great Halloween songs. When we returned from our various missions we just kept going. We call ourselves Jon R. Productions. I think. If you would like a copy of any of the previous cds (or the 2 disc 10 year retrospective) I can get those for you. Just let me know. I'll post the track lists in another blog.

This year's cd is in the works. We are still settling on a theme. I think we are going with creepy girls. Songs about witches, blind dates etc. Spooky by the Classics IV and Witch Queen of New Orleans by Leon Redbone are good examples. We still haven't decided if it will be a full on Ladies of Halloween album (every song going with the theme) or just heavily themed (like the Sci-fi album of a few years ago and last year's Hell album). Also it's been mentioned that the theme could be interpreted as only songs sung by girls. That might make it easier in some ways but I think it would actually be harder to get enough songs. If we could pull it off, a Halloween cd of nothing but female vocalists could be way awesome. Anyway, vote over there on the right on what you think we should do.

This year for Halloween I think I'm going to be the wolfman. Val bought me a black silk shirt that I wore with khakis to church. I later watched Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and I think I was dressed just like Lawrence Talbot (Lon Cheney Jr.). Last year I was Frankenstein and the year before I was Dracula. I'm trying to pay my respects to the classics.

I'm also really excited for scary movie times! I already put all my Halloweeny movies into their own book so that I can plow through them next month. I'm especially excited about the Frankenstein fest. I have about 6 Frankenstein movies all made by Universal in the 30s and 40s. However, this means I'll be spending a lot of time alone as Valerie won't watch scary movies. She calls Snow White a scary movie. What can you do?

Anyway, I hope you all have a very merry Halloween!