Movie Time

This past weekend, all three boys went off on a backpacking/camping adventure, leaving me at home alone with Sleepy Pup.

I had grand plans of writing all the words and doing grownup things. In the end, I had dinner out with my dad and watched a lot of movies. (There were a few words written, but honestly, I'm tired of fighting grief to be productive. Especially when I'm not sure if my books matter in the larger scheme of things. But also that's probably depression speaking. Whatever.)

We kicked off the movie time with the Amazon Prime Original, Road House. Now, I probably lose some GenX cred when I say that I never saw the original. I know, I know. I mean I do like Patrick Swayze, so I probably would enjoy it? But it just never got watched. Point being, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. It looked light and also satisfyingly violent.

It was a win on both counts. 

Ryan Gosling (Is that his name? I think that's his name.) Has never been a particular heartthrob to me, but he seemed to do a good job with this. And he wasn't trying to be a swoony hero, which helped. It was amusing, good snappy and sassy dialog. Over the top dumb villains. Just a good popcorn action flick that seemed happy to know it wasn't going to be up for any awards but simply wanted to entertain.

Then, because I enjoyed it so much in the theater, I went ahead and bought us a copy of Wonka. It's a delightful little movie - and another focused on just being fun and entertaining and not seeming to take itself so seriously that you have to spend hours dissecting the cinematic masterpiece of it all. I'll enjoy tossing that into my rotation of movies to have on in the background while doing other things. Although I don't do that as often as I used to, and when I do, I do also tend to return to The Martian. But still. Options are good.

Next up was Dog. 

I'm not sure why I settled on this one. I don't particularly like Channing Tatum (he strikes me as a man who's entirely too full of himself to actually act, because we should just want to bask in the glow of Channing. I could be way off, but that's how he oozes for me.) I think maybe my dad watched it and recommended it?

Either way, it's charming. It's a former Army Ranger and a military war dog on road trip to a funeral, after which the dog is meant to be put down because she has PTSD. And, as you would hope, the dog and the man heal each other and all is right with the world. (And of course he rescues the dog.)

Yet again, a popcorn flick. Not an Oscar winner wannabe.

Finally, I watched Asteroid City. I was intrigued by the trailers when it was coming out. But I scoured the list of Wes Anderson movies and could only find one (The Royal Tannenbaums) that I had even tried to see (and tried to - because I did not understand or enjoy TRT.) So I didn't go to the theater to see it.

But! Several months ago, during a different campout, I stumbled across The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar on Netflix. And oh my. THAT is so worth everyone's time. Now maybe it's because it's a Roald Dahl story and Dahl stories lend themselves to the weird. And Wes Anderson knew just what to do to make it a story that had me enraptured from start to end.

Thus, when I saw that Asteroid City was free on Prime, I was in. And I loved it. Is it quirky? Yes. Weird? Definitely. The rapid fire almost monotone deliveries and deadpan interactions that just ooze kitsch. But also, a really good story with layers underneath.

I'm not sure if I'd say I would recommend it across the board, because I don't know that everyone everywhere would actually appreciate it. But for me at the time, it was perfect, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I will likely watch it again.

On May the Fourth Curmudgeons

Here in Sleepy land, we are not shy about our love for all things Star Wars.

Ewoks? Yup.

Baby Yoda? Double yup.

Rogue One? Yup, yup, yup.

The Last Jedi? Only thing that would've made it better was Kylo and Rey ending up married and saving the galaxy together.

Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Obi Wan coming soon? If it's Star Wars? Bring it. We'll love it.

This is the first year that I've noticed the curmudgeons coming out of the woodwork to pooh pooh the celebratory memes. Before, you might get an eye roll, but that's it.

For us? We're all decked out in Star Wars shirts for our celebratory day and no one's going to tell me it's wrong.

So May the 4th be with you.

Mutiny on the Bounty!

 Youngest is my early riser.

Every morning no later than 7:20, he's downstairs and mostly raring to go. We've fallen into a routine of snuggles and breakfast and then some sort of semi-education TV.

He's a big fan of ocean things. And generically animals. So Wild Kratts. Octonauts. Dino Dan/Dana. But also Planet Earth and Life and other nature documentaries.

I love that our Disney+ subscription gets us the National Geographic channel.

So today, we scrolled around and found Sharks of Lost Island.

On it's own, it's a good documentary of the Pitcairn Archipelago and the state of the coral reefs there. One was just gorgeous -- they said it basically looked untouched -- and it was swarming with sharks. There were others that were also lovely but lacking in sharks which are, apparently, an indicator of reef health.

But what struck me, was the fact that Pitcairn (the island) is where the mutineers from the Bounty were marooned and their descendants still live there today.

Here's the thing -- I did not realize that was an historical event. I thought it was a story like Treasure Island or Master and Commander. (I mentioned this to my dad at lunch and he just shook his head and asked who taught me history. But honestly! I can pretty much guarantee you that this was never touched on in any history I studied. Never ever.) I had equated Captain Bligh to Long John Silver in terms of veracity.

So, yes, embarrassing, and yet the kiddo and I spent a good hour sussing out the story and looking up maps and the ship and the captains and on and on and on. 

Now I need to find myself a book that includes the story more than Wikipedia and the like can give me. Because I'm just simply fascinated.

All in all, it was well worth it for the sharks, for the Bounty, and also to find that yes, indeed, the archipelago has been made into a marine reserve which should help protect those pristine reefs and hopefully allow the hurting ones to rebuild.

Hamilton Thoughts

I will admit to having seen, with something approaching gleeful anticipation, that Disney+ was going to be releasing Hamilton on July 3rd.

When it opened on Broadway and took everything by storm, I watched with interest. Mostly because I am and ever will be at heart a theater nerd. I listened to a few songs on the soundtrack thought maybe I was just not getting it because I was missing the whole stage experience.

Honestly, everyone was hyping this show. You couldn't turn around but everyone was oohing and ahhhing and I thought to myself, "Self when you get the chance, you should see this."

The traveling show came to the Kennedy Center last year (was it the year before last? I feel like maybe Mom and I talked about it, which would mean 2018. I know we talked about the show, so I'm not sure if I'm melding that with the thought of the ticket prices into one conversation even though it wasn't.) I looked at tickets and nearly died. Because I'm just simply not paying $300 to sit in the nosebleeds. I'd maybe spend up to half that, depending. 

Anyway, since I realized my budget was never going to stretch to seeing it live, I was stoked about seeing it on Disney+.

And so, last night while we were waiting for it to get dark enough to light off our small explosive celebrations, we turned it on.

It was...not what I was expecting.

Don't get me wrong, it was good. I enjoyed it.

But it wasn't the most amazing thing ever released upon the stage and OHMYGOSHWHYHAVEN'TYOUSEENITYET!!!!! Like I figured it would be.

I actually spent a little time on the intertoobs trying to suss out where all the hype came from. Best I can see is because it was revolutionary (see what I did there?) to have a primarily minority cast taking on the roles of old, dead white guys.

I think maybe I'm just not hipster enough to care about that. (Should there be more minorities cast on Broadway? Yes. If there are people of any race/creed/color/etc qualified for and auditioning for whatever roles are out there, then their race/creed/color/etc should not be what's keeping them from getting those roles. Does having a cast that leans heavily on less represented folks automatically make that show amazing? I'm gonna go on a limb and say no.)

The music was fine. I'm not super into hip hop and rap, so I mean I was probably never going to love it. I also don't listen to Kanye and...honestly I don't know enough about the oeuvre to even come up with a second name to throw in there. Ke$ha? Is that what she does? (I like FloRida, but I'm guessing he doesn't fall into this category.) For what it is, it was good. 

If they did a musical that was all country music, I would also not be enthralled with it.

Beyond that, they spend a lot of time on the suspected but not proven affair between A Ham and his sister-in-law and the proven indiscretion with the other chick. And...I mean I get he torpedoed his career with the latter but I just...infidelity leaves me blergh. He was a creep. Which okay, he was a politician so I guess it follows. I just wish there could have been less focus on it (and I remarked to hubs at the height of the affair bit that if A Ham was running for office today it would either not matter or, more likely, give him some cachet. Because that seems to be where things are these days.)

So, did I like it? Well enough I guess.

From a theater nerd standpoint, did I love it? I mean, I enjoyed how they handled some of the technical aspects -- having the stage crew taken on by the chorus, the double revolving stage, the staircases that move in order to "rearrange" the set somewhat. It's a very stripped back set and I thought they did a good job with that, but I'll admit a preference to the more elaborate staging. (Actual helicopter a la Miss Saigon? Yes please.)

There were definite high points.

Will I watch it again? Meh. If someone wants to watch it and I'm around, sure. I guess. But I don't see myself seeking out anything other than the 7 minute compilation of King George's songs on YouTube. Because those? Those are gold.

The Writing Was Still Bad

Now that Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker is on Disney+ (and I broke down and got us Disney+), we loaded that up to watch with the boys tonight.

Youngest hadn't seen it yet (he's just not amazing with the theater experience, especially if there are slower more thoughtful/pensive moments. He gets bored easily.)

As much as we all love Star Wars, I will say the ending to this one is just bad.

Kylo Ren did not need to die.
He and Rey should have gotten married and made babies to carry on the Jedi.
Because seriously.

Other than me being grumpy about the end, everyone enjoyed the movie for the whatever number time it was for their viewing (2nd for me, 3rd I think for hubs and eldest, 1st for youngest.)

But seriously. JJ Abrams needs to get over his problem with happy endings. (I'm looking at you, Serenity.)

Thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker - probably spoilery

I went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last night. My thoughts below are likely spoilery, so if you don't care for that, then look away.

Generically, I loved it.

Less generically, I think it was everything the last Star Wars movie needed to be. It created a circle -- and in fact there were a few moments throughout the film that I thought, "This is a lot like episode 4. You have new Han (Poe), new Luke (Fin), and new Leia (Rey). You have old Chewie, R2D2, and C3P0. And so your intrepid group of friends must defeat the dark side and make a way for the Jedi to triumph.

But it's not simply a retelling of any of the other movies. There are twists.

And laugh if you want, I even think having Palpatine return is a decent twist. Some have said it's the sign of not knowing what to do with the storyline, but if that's the case, then all writers should have this problem, because I think it was just what we needed. We didn't need a new villain. We had Snoke and he was still basically the same anyway, so why not go back and see where Palpatine's plot from the very beginning -- as in The Phantom Menace beginning (as much as it pains me, this last movie made those 3 necessary. Which I mean, great. But at the same time, I know it means my kids are going to start watching them again and...yuk.) -- was headed and is ultimately thwarted.

Kylo Ren is, hands down, my favorite character arc in these final three movies. It was exactly what it needed to be as well and is really the first time (at least that's immediately coming to mind) that a Star Wars movie had true redemption. People have always either been dark side or light side and that was kind of it. And okay, sure Darth Vader/Annakin ended up sort of that way, but his always felt more like a deathbed conversion than true redemption. Kylo/Ben was headed toward a life on the right side of things -- he didn't necessarily know he was going to die, he made the change with the intention of living and doing right, not as a last ditch effort to save his soul.

I am mad that they killed him. I get the great sacrifice blah blah blah. But dang it, this romantic needed Kylo and Rey to get their happily ever after. If anyone EVER earned it, it was the two of them.

Of course, if they'd done that, future writers would probably have screwed it up like they did Han/Leia. So maybe it's for the best.

I think some people were surprised by Palpatine being part of the end, but I (and others I know) have been speculating that Rey was, in fact, a Palpatine since she came on the scene. So I think it was natural to just go there. And to have the irony of the Skywalker (Ren) being the Sith and the Palpatine (Rey) the Jedi. And then, of course, to have the two of them unite on the side of light.

All in all, I loved it. Other than not killing off Ben, I honestly wouldn't change a thing. And I feel like anyone who's bitching and moaning about it being terrible needs to get over themself and remember that all of the Star Wars movies -- like literally ALL of them -- led up to this playing out the way it did. To want something else is akin to having Frodo get to Mount Doom and change his mind and join Sauron.

Apparently I Don't Know How to Slow Down

When mom was going through cancer treatment, one of her biggest frustrations was that she couldn't do like she was used to doing. And boy was she ever (usually) a doer. If something needed done? Call my mom. She'd get it done fast, better than you thought possible, and single handedly.

It's a set of skills/traits/characteristics/what have you that both mom and dad encouraged us to also develop.

Given how I've been chomping at the bit this week as I'm told to rest and take it easy, I think it worked.

I hates recuperating.

I can do a few things. I just do them slowly. And then I am tired.

It's all very expected and reasonable and whatever.

Also? Annoying.

Tuesday and today I think I might have pushed a little too far. So Wednesday I spent the bulk of the day more flattened than seemed reasonable, but I did get some quiet time to watch the first Harry Potter movie. Always a favorite.

This week, I've also watched an entire season of Blue Bloods, so I'm all caught up there (I know you were worried). And I stumbled across The Jane Austen Book Club.

I don't know why I hadn't heard of this movie, but I'm looking for someone to blame. So if you knew about it and didn't tell me? On. My. List.

It's cute. Romantic. Jane Austen-y. And fun.

It was absolutely how I needed to spend some time on the couch.

I'm not sure what tonight holds (the boys are all xboxing at present, though youngest got sent to his room because of attitude issues, so that may be over. But if I can talk someone into a romcom, I'm totally going to.

Date Night In

Last night, hubby looked over where I was mindlessly scrolling and clicking on various baking and cookie decorating videos and says, "Do you want to watch a movie instead?"

Sure, why not, says I.

After some scrolling on the Amazon Prime and Netflix choices, we settled on Jupiter Ascending because we both had vague recollections of having wanted to watch it when we saw the preview in the theater at one point.

Oh my word. That movie is crap.

Calling it crap is actually insulting to crap.

It's not even the kind of movie that MST3K could do something fun with.

I was expecting it to be either a decentish space action flick or something campy and fun like The Fifth Element.

It. Is. None. Of. These. Things.

When we paused to go make sure eldest turned out his light, I saw the progress bar and nearly cried. We weren't quite half finished. How in the name of all that was holy could we still have 54 minutes of that drivel left?

We persevered to the bitter end. Because we're not quitters.

But maybe we ought to rethink that stance.

The Book is Always Better - Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Edition

For a number of years, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society has been one of my favorite books. I've revisited it at least once--often twice--each year. Reading it is like sinking into a comfortable chair among friends who love everything about you, even the weird parts.

So it was with a bit of trepidation that I saw it was going to be a movie. After all, we know the book is always better. And a book written in letter format? That's challenging to translate into a movie wherein one assumes actors and actresses will want to do more than sit at a desk and pretend to write. Still, I was encouraged by one of my favorite movies of all time, 84 Charing Cross Road (and the novel by the same name on whence it was based), and so I held out hope.

The movie (a Netflix original) is delightful. The casting was well done, etc. Were TGLAPPPS not one of my favorite books, I would be wholeheartedly enamored of the film.

And yet, TGLAPPPS is one of my favorite books.

I can get past some of the major inconsistencies between the movie and the book (e.g. Juliet never agreed to marry Mark before heading off to Guernsey, in fact she told him she wanted time to think about it. And of course, Mark didn't propose on the dock, but rather at a restaurant several nights prior.) I can overlook leaving out some of the side plots of the book (where were the Oscar Wilde letters and all the intrigue? And Sydney's trip to Australia? And Remy?) I understand that, for expediency's sake and perhaps to explain why Amelia cared one way or the other about Elizabeth I imagine, they made poor lost Jane the daughter of Amelia instead of Eben, but I don't have to like it.

But the more I think of it, I can't get past the picture the movie paints of Elizabeth herself who, for all she's not really *in* the book is, absolutely, the soul of it.

In the movie, Elizabeth is a bold, devil may care, selfish, in your face woman. She does what she wants and to hell with anyone who wants her to do differently.

In the book, Elizabeth is bold, yes, and does not bow to convention, no, but she does it because her heart is so big, there's simply no other way for her to be. She's one of these rare people who lives every moment of her life to the absolute fullest, and drags everyone around her into the wonder with her.

The book version of Elizabeth is someone you can't help but wish you had in your life.

The movie version of Elizabeth needs a good spanking.

And it's that disconnect that I find hard to overlook, let alone forgive.

The Incredibles 2

This afternoon we trekked off with friends to the theater to see The Incredibles 2. I'll admit that I had a bit of trepidation based on, one, the fact that it'd been SO long since the last one, and a few articles I'd read here and there about it.

It. Was. Delightful.

It picks up right where Incredibles 1 ends. You see the Underminer appear, the Incredibles throw on their suits in the parking lot, and the chase ensues. Of course, there is madness, and mayhem, and a lot of collateral damage which, supers being illegal, lands the Parr family in quite a bit of hot water. And they didn't even catch the guy.

This, of course, is a particularly good setup for the rest of the movie.

I loved seeing Edna again. I loved Jack Jack. And I even loved Mr. Incredible as Mr. Mom (one part I was absolutely dreading, because I was worried it was going to turn into a rah rah feminist screed - it didn't.)

My single quibble is that, if I recall correctly (and it hasn't been years and years since I've seen the first, but rather months as it's a family favorite), they knew Jack Jack had powers at the end of the first movie. But there's a whole running bit about the baby coming into his powers, and "What? Jack Jack has powers?" and so forth and so on. While not a huge distraction, it did make me grumble a bit each time it came up.

All in all, it's an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours and I'm awfully glad we decided to go see it. It gets a hearty two thumbs up from every member of the Sleepy family.

Thoughts on Ready Player One

Hubs and I roped my dad into babysitting on Saturday so we could be off to see Ready Player One. I read the book when it came out in the 2011 time frame and loved it (and also thought I had blogged about it at one point, but a very minimal poke about here says that no, in fact, I didn't. Or I can't find it. Which is really basically the same thing in terms of who cares.) When Tim started using audiobooks as a way to, hopefully, alleviate some of the suffering of his commute, this was one I grabbed for him right off. He also loved it. And thus, when the movie trailers started coming out, we were both excited. Plus, date night is never a bad thing.

Short review of the movie: It was good.

Longer review (of sorts)

First off, one never heads to a movie based on a book expecting it to completely and accurately reflect said book. Because it just doesn't. There has been one singular book in my lifetime wherein I've found a truly accurate representation and that's the version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root. That movie? You can sit with the book in your lap and read along.

So, that said, I will agree with a friend who said it's true to the spirit of the book.

I suspect what happened is Cline looked at the book and realized there were quite a few slow spots and someone who knows things about movies said, "Um, slow spots don't translate super well to film." Thus those were removed and replaced with car chases and drones.

All in all, it was enjoyable and I'd watch it again quite happily, just as the book is enjoyable and will most likely be rotated into the re-reading cycle at some point.

So if you're on the fence? Go see it. If you haven't read the book but enjoy sci fi, go see it. If you read the book and are a purist about movie adaptations, stay home and re-read the book.

Assembling the Avengers

Tim went to see The Avengers with some friends a few weeks back. I was (ok, am) desperately jealous. He's promised me he'll watch it with me again when we can figure out those logistics, so there's that. In the meantime, with the heat and the mini-vacation we've got going on right now (he was off Wednesday and his regularly scheduled Friday off is today, so it was a no brainer to take today off and get 5 days off for the price of 1), we've been having family movie nights the past two nights.

Because I am woefully behind in the movie watching world. I have seen Iron Man...and that's it as far as any of the Avenger beginning movies go. (Sad. I know. It's a sad state of affairs.) So, while we waited for it to be dark enough to do fireworks on the 4th, we threw in Thor.

Oh. My. Goodness. How was there not more buzz about Thor?! What a fantastic movie! (Even Natalie Portman, who normally I dislike, manged to actually, you know, ACT in Thor.) And it really is a shame that Chris Hemsworth can't be Finnick in the Hunger Games. Cause he'd be perfect. Now, I'll admit, my only previous knowledge about Thor comes from the Thor-obsessed little girl in Adventures in Babysitting (another fantastic flick, btw). So maybe that helped me enjoy it more than a true comic lover would? I don't know. I just know it was rockin' awesome.

Last night, after a brief debate, we threw in The Incredible Hulk (the 2008 version). The brief debate was because we had seen the 2003 movie Hulk and, well, as did everyone else in the thinking (read: has a pulse) world, we hated it. That's one of those movies that's so bad you wish you could un-see it. (Seriously, where are the Men in Black when you need them?) And Tim loves a good B movie - it's really rare for him to find something so terrible that he decrees it unwatchable. Hulk? Totally unwatchable.

The Incredible Hulk, on the other hand? Also rockin' awesome. I know a bit more about the Hulk as I remember enjoying the TV show as a child. (In all it's cheesy glory.) I can't say I know much from a comic lover angle because, well...I've never really read comics that didn't come in the Sunday paper. Still - totally great movie. And I didn't dislike Liv Tyler, though for whatever reason I did realize that she really has a pronounced under bite. Has that always been the case? Or did they just do a ton of profile shots in TIH, where they don't in other films she's been in. Regardless, it was, clearly, distracting enough (for me) that I remarked on it. Tim didn't seem to notice or care.

I'm hopeful that somewhere in the next several days/weeks we can round up Captain America and Iron Man 2. (And I'd like to throw The Green Lantern in there, even though he's DC, not Marvel, and therefore not an Avenger. Though Tim says that may not actually be the case. We'll see how that pans out - I can't imagine Marvel and DC crossing the streams.

(Sometimes, like looking back over this post, I realize what being the mother of boys has wrought. In this case, I'm totally psyched at the whole new world open at my feet.)

The Weekend

To try and differentiate this post from the last, I'll forgo the bullets. But fear not, this is still just a random collection of thoughts. One of these days I may get back to blogging in a format less suited for facebook status updates. Or not.

This weekend was the elder boy's T-ball parent's meeting. The kids were invited "so they could meet each other". There wasn't a whole lot of meeting going on though - everyone sat with their parents and the coach never even had us introduce ourselves. That said, I like the coach (and really, I wouldn't have mentioned the other if he hadn't made such a big deal in the email about how everyone would get to know everyone else as the primary purpose of the meeting). His philosophy on T-ball is that it's for the purpose of fun and that there is no yelling. This is very much in line with Tim's and my philosophy, so that's nice. We got his uniform, which seems excessively large, but it's what they had (the coach was annoyed at the sizes we were given as well), and we'll make it work. After the meeting, we headed to the store to get a glove, bat, and tennis balls for practice. The coach suggested tennis balls as they don't hurt when they hit you. Always a good idea not to foster fear of the ball.

From there, we stopped by Lowes to get a few various things (new sprinkler head, fertilizer, so forth). We were doing great until the check-out line. At that point, everyone in the world apparently decided to check out and so whereas before we were well on our way to being on time for lunch with Tim's family, that last stop, along with Saturday traffic, conspired to make us a little late. I was the only one who even noticed though, as Tim's family runs on Sleepy time (which is universally 10-15 minutes behind any sort of actual time-keeping mechanism.)

Lunch was nice. It was to celebrate Tim's sister's birthday. We went from the restaurant to their house to partake of Georgetown Cupcakes that I had delivered to her. (She loves the show and wanted to taste their wares.) I have to say...I wasn't over the moon. There is too much icing and it's too cream-cheesy. And the cupcakes themselves are more like mini-pound cakes than a cupcake. (Not light and fluffy...very very dense.) All told, I found them too rich, too sweet, too firm, and much too expensive. But hey, now we've done it once, I can say I've done it, and I will go back to Betty Crocker when I want a cupcake.

My father-in-law had to make 3 different comments that summed up to his concern that kiddo the younger is "fat". He's 7 weeks old. He has chubby cheeks. Healthy babies who are not failing to thrive do tend to have chubby cheeks. I could have throttled him. I managed (barely) to hold my tongue and say nothing. Poor Tim got an ear-full though.

At that point, we were all so beat that we bailed on the plans we had tentatively made with friends for dinner (plus, we had lunch at like 2, so really dinner at 5 wasn't going to need to happen anyway.)

On Sunday, the ladies in our Sunday school class met to see The Hunger Games. I liked the book (though I didn't love it, nor am I one of the clamoring fans) and was curious to see the movie - though again, I could just as happily waited for DVD. But they all wanted to go (2 of them are clamoring fans), so hey, why not. Overall, I liked the movie. I thought it was very true to the book - though they left out parts that I thought were important - but then, that's always the case with a book to movie adaptation. I did think they handled the violence well - it was not gratuitous, nor was it overt and gory. Most was implied with cut aways or the sound of the cannon (signalling a death) from afar. The one scene that, in the book, is described as a bloodbath was by far the worst of it, and it really wasn't any worse than what you'd see on CSI. That said, I don't think younger kids should see it, and I don't necessarily even think younger kids who've read the book should see it. There's a level of psychological maturity that you really need to have with this one (and honestly, I'd even say to read the book -- if they're not ready to read Lord of the Flies, they're not ready for The Hunger Games.)

Today has been a laid back day of swimming and laundry (wouldn't it be nice to combine the two?!) Both boys are napping and I'm thinking I might actually go lie down myself.

Overthinking Cars (Or What Happens When Your Child Gets Fixated On A Movie)

So the latest movie that is on anytime I will allow it now is Cars 2. This started out as a welcome relief from the original Cars, which I'm pretty sure I could quote completely backwards. However, Cars 2 has brought up some questions that I'm not sure how to answer. Thankfully these questions have not yet come from the kiddo, but I'm expecting them at any minute.

See, in Cars 2, we travel around the world to various races and we get a chance to see other kinds of cars. The Japanese cars are all petite, for example. And it got me to wondering...in a world where there aren't people, just cars, do you get to decide what you want to be when you grow up or are you what you are based on the body type you have at manufacturing? And how did you get that body type? Do your parents choose? If, for example, Lightning McQueen and Sally go on to get married and have a baby, what will it look like? Will it be a small stock car? A small Porsche? Half and half? What if it doesn't want to be a race car? What if it decides it wants to be a tow truck like Uncle Mater? At the end of college, do cars undergo extensive reconstructive surgery to allow them to participate in their chosen career? Or, if you're born a Porsche, are you just SOL if you decide you want to be a tow truck?

Also...what happened to Doc Hudson? At the start of the movie they talk like he's gone...but how does a car die? And do they bury them or recycle their parts? (Is that similar to organ donation?)

Honestly...this movie needs to go missing sometime very soon.

Weekend Round Up

This weekend started out with what is, normally, the type of Friday I look forward to: Tim was off. This week, however, I needed to spend the day helping supervise the offloading of my parent's moving truck, so rather than a family day, it just meant that Tim and the kiddo had a fun day together and I didn't have to worry about the little one being in the way of the movers all day. Win-win, really.

Mom and dad now have all their worldly goods located in their new house. Unpacked will be another, longer, more arduous story, but co-located is a good start.

Saturday, the three of us went hiking in the national forest near us in the morning. We took Orion and left Cassi at home thinking (correctly, it would appear) that he would think it was the best thing in the world and that she might enjoy a morning to herself. Everyone had a lovely time and we got to my parent's house around lunch time tired, but satisfied with our brief jaunt into nature. I spent a few hours that afternoon helping unpack while Tim and the kiddo took Orion home and took naps.

Saturday night I went to see Water for Elephants with two friends. I was hesitant, having really enjoyed the book and the reviews had been terrible. But honestly? I don't think the reviewers know what they're talking about. It was a very well done movie, a great adaptation of the book, and honestly? I thought the casting was just fine. I didn't think Twilight every time Pattinson was on the screen, nor did I have any issue with Witherspoon. Which I guess is the difference between a professional movie reviewer and someone who just enjoys a good movie based on a good book. If you liked the book (or honestly, even if you haven't read the book but you like depression-era romances with the fun of the circus thrown in), go see the movie. It's worth your time.

Sunday was more laid back with church and general hanging around the house (coupled with minor tidy-up). We watched a little TV, but not much - basically ending the TV time 30 minutes after the Amazing Race finished. (If the Globetrotters win this season, I'm going to be very upset. You'd think professional athletes would know something about good sportsmanship. In the case of the Globetrotters you would be so, so wrong. They disgust me. They disgusted me on their season and their spots have not changed.) Regardless, I didn't hear about bin Laden until this morning.

My only real reaction to it is that I'm frankly surprised our current President had the guts to order the strike and I hope that we remember who it was who set the stage for this to be possible - cause it sure wasn't Obama. Do I think it's going to change much, if anything? Not really, to be honest. I guess we'll see what happens.

Now In 3D!

As has been the trend of late, I find myself with no plans for a Friday night. [Tim and I become football widows every year as the folks we tend to do stuff with are really into football and, well, I suspect there are things we care less about, but nothing is leaping to mind just now. (As a slightly related aside - I'm enjoying the respite from pages and pages of status updates as football season ends. I often remark to myself that if I cared about what was going on in a particular game, I would watch said game. Happily for me (ha!) the majority of my FB friends keep me apprised of every yard gained and lost as the game progresses. I've nearly hidden half my list for just this reason.)] So, since Tim has made plans to play XBox online with a friend after dinner, I found myself thinking that perhaps I would find (or hey, hire) a friend and go see a movie.

And then I looked at the movie listings.

Who is actually going to see this crap? And the few things that I'm actually slightly interested in seeing aren't just offered as a movie. They're 3D. Or IMAX 3D. And really, I just want to go to a movie. I don't want to pay a zillion dollars (because those cost more) for the benefit of getting incredibly motion sick. Have I mentioned that 3D stuff nauseates me? I can, mostly, do magic motion rides. But the 3D movie type rides? Not a chance. I suspect it's the same reason I can't read in the car with my glasses on. My peripheral vision just goes haywire.

Now, it's possible the the 3D glasses technology has improved since the last time I tried it. But I'm not willing to risk the physical side effects to find out.

So while I try to figure out what to do with my evening (most likely? I'll be reading) you can simply rest assured that this blog will never go 3D...even if I already have a perfect tagline:

And Then I Woke Up - Now in 3D! Where the boredom just reaches out and grabs you!

Date Night

Tonight, Tim and I left the kiddo with his folks (at our house) and headed out with friends to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part the first). As is often the case around here, traffic was horrible (it being Friday and all) so Tim was actually a bit late getting back to the carpool lot. So our plan to meet up at Panera for dinner before the movie morphed into slurping down Panera in 15 minutes or less (seriously) in order to get to the theater on time. Thankfully I went yesterday to pick up the tickets, so we didn't have to deal with that then - and it was early enough that it wasn't hard to get seats (the other thing we were worried about).

I won the preview bet (which netted me nothing other than bragging rights, so yay me! 7 previews.) though there weren't really any, other than Tron Legacy, that I want to see. I'm not 100% clear on why they all seemed to be horror-ish (again, other than Tron and Yogi Bear) -- I guess that's the HP demographic? Young people who are into scary movies? I was actually expecting that maybe they'd be more kid oriented.

The movie itself is very, very well done. It seemed to me that they actually stuck a bit closer to the book in this installment than in previous episodes (though I haven't had huge issues with the decisions they've made previously, either. Perhaps that just means I'm not a die hard fan, or perhaps it's simply that I understand that any time you make a book into a movie you're going to lose something. Sometimes you still end up with a wonderful movie. Sometimes you end up with dreck. It's all about how good your screen writer is.) I also thought they picked a perfect place to break between part 1 and part 2. I had been trying to figure out what that break point should be and hadn't landed on anything that seemed to suit very well - which is why I was not the screen writer. (Ok, one of thousands of reasons.)

*slight spoiler ahead if you've not read the book or seen the movie*

Perhaps the most amusing part though - and honestly in some ways it's good, because it kept me from bawling like a baby - was the man in the fourth row from the front who has serious apnea problems and was snoring so loudly, frankly I was surprised we couldn't also *feel* the vibrations. And the snores picked up in volume right as poor Dobby was dying. So, while I would otherwise have been tearing up (I love Dobby!), the whole theater started to snicker - seriously, everyone - because of this moron who came to the theater and promptly fell asleep. (There are definitely cheaper places to nap.) One person a few rows back finally tried whispering loudly "Wake up!" - to no avail. And then Dobby was buried and things settled back in for the end of the movie. And we were all spared from weeping and feeling a bit silly about it.

Now, of course, I can't wait for the next one to come out - though it'll be sad to see the series end - if they do half as good a job on it as they did on this one, I will leave feeling very satisfied.

Tim's Response To The Idea of the Movie "The Time Traveller's Wife"

"Don't let the temporal vortex hit you in the butt on your way out, dear."

Ponderances

Last night I went to see Julie & Julia in the theater with a friend and her friend who was in town visiting. It was a delightful, charming movie. The cast was fantastic and the scene changes between Julia Child's time and Julie in 2002 were seamless. Beyond that the story was simply charming. It left you with a happy, contented feeling - and that's an unusual thing to leave a theater with these days. (Or at least, that's been my experience lately.) I'm looking forward to it coming out on DVD as it's something I'll definitely be purchasing and I see it becoming a favorite very quickly thereafter.

At the same time, we're back in the ebb phase of my PhD and honestly, I'm not sure I have the ability to deal with the mood changes of the IRB. Sufficient to say that right now, it's all off and I'm not sure what's going to happen. I have 4 days to withdraw and get a refund from this semester's tuition (and put in for a deferral so that I'd have a semester to figure out what I'm doing - either choose a new idea and get started on a new idea paper or realize that this degree is just simply not in the cards for me and move on. Right now I'm not sure that I could tell you that I care one way or the other. I'm just so incredibly frustrated.

Beyond that, I find myself struggling with some serious ennui and I'm not sure exactly how to pull myself out of it. This, in itself, is frustrating in the extreme. It's irritating to have the logical side of your brain berating the rest of you for feeling the way you feel. It certainly doesn't help you feel better. Yet there it is.

For now, I think maybe it's time to go take a nap.

Movie: The Tale of Despereaux

At some point in the last couple of months, on the recommendation of my mom (who is an avid review reader - particularly Christian movie reviewers), I picked up The Tale of Despereaux on DVD at Costco. Often, if there's a movie more than 4 of us want to see, we go ahead and pick it up, figuring that even at $20 (which usually they're not) that's still less than at the theater and, if we like it, we have it to watch again. Usually this works out as we haven't honestly ended up with that many stinkers that no one wants to watch again.

--Spoilers follow, if you care (my recommendation? Don't bother caring.) --

Saturday night we finally got around to watching it. The story is that of a mouse who, unlike the other mice in the Kingdom, won't cower, doesn't like scurrying around afraid and is, generally, pretty brave. On top of that, he likes reading fairly tales (rather than eating the books and destroying them.) Because of this, he adopts a code of truth, justice, and honor. Also because of this, he ends up banished from the mouse community and put into the dungeon with the rats (from whence no mouse has ever returned.) Here is he is saved by a very un-ratlike rat and together they try to right the wrongs that led to rats and soup being banished. It all, of course, goes pearshaped before managing to get put back together.

A sub plot involves a young girl who is the daughter of a pig farmer. The pig farmer sells her, along with the pigs, to the castle and so she ends up as a maid to the princess. But she is jealous and thinks she should be the princess and through various twists, ends up capturing the princess and giving her to the rats to eat.

All this would have been fine, except that they then felt the need to explain why this maid's heart is so black and full of bitterness. Any guesses? Anyone? Well, it's because she's adopted, of course! See, her father (incidentally, he's the guard in the dungeon) couldn't take care of her. So he placed her for adoption with the pig farmer and his wife who then went on to mistreat and sell her. Because adoptive parents are, as we all know, crap people who mistreat the child and only wanted them for slave labor. And, of course, once she's reunited with her father (he recognizes her from a birthmark later on) then everything is sunshine and light. So whatever other message this movie thought it was portraying, all they managed to do was reinforce the common and pervasive idea of our culture that adoption is evil.

And this isn't just an adoptive mother over reacting. It really isn't. (Though even if I am only seeing it from my perspective as an adoptive mom, the way they present it is so over the top offensive that I will never let my young child watch this movie - if he wants to see it when he's older and more secure in the fact that his adoption came out of the most sacrificial love possible on the part of the incredible young woman who gave birth to him, then fine.) Adoption gets a bad rap, in general. And I'm so sick of Hollywood and any other type of media (fiction writers especially) jumping on the bandwagon without bothering to see what adoption really is when lived out in the homes around the country - where a child that is given in adoption is a precious and amazing gift that brings light and joy to a family. Instead, young women go into a pregnancy center and tell the counselors over and over that they would rather kill - and yes, they use the word kill, not abort - their child than place him or her for adoption because it makes them a better mother to choose death over a life with a loving family that isn't biological. What a sick, twisted world we live in that this is an accepted - and praised! - thought process.

Because of this, and because the rest of the story was incredibly slow and boring, The Tale of Despereaux gets a negative five stars. Seriously, they should have saved their money. You should certainly save yours.