Beat It...Just Beat It

You know in the movie TOY STORY, when Mr. Potato Head says "Did you all take stupid pills this morning?" Well...that's what I've been thinking with all these media personalities, fans, and news agencies talking about the death of Michael Jackson. Enough already! All weekend it seemed like every music video channel had some sort of tribute going on. There were also tributes and "look-backs" on an array of 24 hour news channels...showing fans all over the world in grief over the death of Jackson. I just have to scratch my head. Have people forgotten already who this guy was and what he was accused of doing?

It really is true how death can glorify a celebrity...especially someone who's as big as Jackson globally. Don't get me wrong...I was a fan of him along with the rest of the world (back in the 80's). But as he got older he got weirder and weirder...and outright criminal (allegedly). Yeah sure...the guy used plastic surgery like he was hooked on heroin. But the legal problems. Holy cow! How many times was he accused of child molestation? Some he was acquitted for, but others he settled out of court. You know what they say...where there's smoke.

I have to admit, when I heard about Jackson's death I thought "Wow. Michael Jackson huh?" Then after about 10 minutes I moved on. I thought most of the world had moved on. Wasn't Jackson the source of endless jokes by comedians...and even journalists? Amazing how someone's death can make people forget.

At The Movies

LAND OF THE LOST - Will Ferrell stars as Dr. Rick Marshall, a so-called expert in the field of time travel. After rigging together a pseudo time machine Ferrell and his friends travel into another dimension where the future and past all meet in one place. This is based on the popular kid's show from the 70's, and the movie keeps some of the traditional "campiness" that was so evident in the original show. I've heard a lot of critics downplay this movie but Jenny and I liked it. It's not Ferrell's best work, but it's not his worst either. He delivers plenty of laughs here to keep you entertained. Fun movie.

THE READER - Kate Winslet plays Hanna, a german woman who falls in love with a much younger german boy over the course of one summer in Berlin in 1958. The center of their romance is how the boy reads Hanna stories...which she loves. The romance soon ends and the years pass. Then unexpectedly the boy discovers Hanna on trial for participating in Nazi crimes. Thus the boy is forced to reflect on his relationship with Hanna and what she exactly means to him. This is a really good film. Winslet delievers her usual powerful performance, and Ralph Fiennes is exceptional as the now-grown German boy. Really interesting film.

BABYLON A.D. - One of my all-time favorite movies is BLADE RUNNER, and to this day I still see movies stealing images and ideas from the 1982 film. Take for example BABYLON A.D., starring Vin Diesel. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Diesel must take a mysterious woman from eastern Russia to New York City in 6 days. All the while mysterious men in black are chasing them and trying to take the woman for themselves. I won't ruin anything for you here, but if you've seen both BLADE RUNNER and CHILDREN OF MEN you can already figure out what this movie is about. There are moments of interest here. Diesel is a great action hero in the tradition of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. But overall the script is extremely flawed. Even some of the stunning images of a futuristic New York City (taken right out of Blade Runner) can't save this movie. Not very good.

X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE - I watched this recently on cable around the time Michael Jackson was found dead. So let me get this straight...I was watching X-Files at home on TV and Michael Jackson was on the news. Hmmm...it must be 1993. After a 10 year hiatus Mulder and Scully return to the land of creepy humanoids, psychics, and aliens...this time to investigate the disappearances of some missing women. There's also a psychic here, and a hidden laboratory complete with a mad scientist and body parts...just to remind you this is the X-Files and not CSI. This one was okay. I was entertained, and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson recapture some of their original chemistry from the 90's television show. But as you would expect this is more of homage to the original series, rather than anything new that we haven't already seen. It's okay...but not as good as the television show.

THE WIRE: SEASON 1 - After having enjoyed THE SOPRANOS Jenny and I went through a little "Sopranos withdrawal" after we finished the series. So after hearing so many great things about THE WIRE we decided to give it a try. I'm glad we did. The story basically about THE WIRE is you follow both the cops and criminals throughout one case. Each episode builds on the case and you quickly become involved with not only the good guys, but also the bad ones. The first season here is very hard to follow at times. I wouldn't say this show is for the "casual viewer." You really have to stay with it. But if you do you will be greatly rewarded. Shows like this make LAW AND ORDER look like Sesame Street. Great show...and highly recommended.

THE DANA CARVEY SHOW - This was a show that came out in 1994 and ran for a single season. Here you can watch all the episodes that aired on two discs. I remember this show back then, and I thought it was great. Critics however thought audiences weren't ready for something this weird. Each episode has Carvey's brand of comedy that we all loved on Saturday Night Live. But there are also skits here that are just plain odd...funny mind you...but odd. As an added bonus here you get to see the early work of Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert and Robert Smigel...all of whom play supporting actors in all the sketches. The talent that went behind this show makes it worth checking out alone. Too bad it didn't last...but we can always remember when on DVD.

RIGHTEOUS KILL - Finally...Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino make a movie together and THIS is what came out of it? Egads! DeNiro and Pacino are two New York City detectives that share bad attitudes and a lack of ethics. Both are somewhat dirty cops, but only one is a killer. The question is...which one. This sounds like a cool premise, and the two top actors are right for the parts. The problem is this movie was made about 15 years too late. Both Pacino and DeNiro feel too old and slow for this kind of a movie. Didn't care for it...but I probably would have if this was made about 20 years ago.

CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION - Another Woody Allen movie. This time Allen plays CW Briggs...an investigator working for an insurance company in the 1940's. This is a comedic-homage to the romance mysteries of the 40's and 50's. Allen has some funny lines in this one, but it's no where near the level of greatness of CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS, ANNIE HALL, or MANHATTAN. It's okay...if you're an Allen fan.

Another Summer At Dow Gardens

Today was our first visit of the summer for the storytimes at Dow Gardens. It's one of our summer routines up here every year. The kids listen to a story or two, water the plants, do a scavenger hunt, and play around the garden. There's squirting water holes, bubble trays, and a fish pond. So there's lots to do to keep the kids busy for an hour or so. Later in the summer the workers will let the kids pick vegetables to take home.

Life At Random

Here's some random pictures of the kids being kids, including Ben swimming in the neighbors pool and the kids reading together at Barnes & Noble.

Hiking at the nature center

On Saturday the 4 of us went to the Nature Center for a morning hike. Ben likes to wear his backpack and binoculars when we go to the center. This was actually Megan's first real hike (on her own) and she wanted to wear a backpack just like Ben. It was cute watching the two of them go on ahead of us on their own. We of course stopped at the frog pond and saw some tadpoles, and we of course saw lots of dragonflies and other bugs. No animals this time. Anyway, it was a nice way to spend a morning.

Our New Hammock

Jenny got me a hammock for our backyard woods. For years we've talked about putting one up but it was always a question of where exactly. It took me a while to figure out where we had enough room for one. But we found a cozy little spot in the corner of the woods, and it's nice to lay out in the backyard under the trees. Ben likes it more than me I think.

Camp E.D.G.E.

Last week Ben did a week long nature camp at our church...Camp E.D.G.E. (Experience and Discover God Everywhere.) He did it with his friend Nicholas, so they had a good time together doing crafts and other fun things with the rest of the group. His troop's name was the Green Turtles. I guess our only complaint about it was the fact that it started the first week after he got out of school. It would have been nice for him to have a week off in between. But overall it was good for him, and I'm sure we'll do it again next year.

Summer is here!

Well...summer is finally here. Ben's finally out of school, and it's now finally warm enough for the kids to do summer things, like swim and go to the splash park. Here's some pictures of our first visit to the splash park this summer. It was also Megan's first visit, so it took her a little while to figure it out and warm up to it. But she eventually settled right in and enjoyed herself.

It Might Get Loud

Came across this trailer for a movie coming out soon...called "IT MIGHT GET LOUD." It looks to be a documentary of sorts with conversations from guitar greats Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes). Kind of a conversation piece about their music and what it means to play the guitar. Wow!
I've been playing the guitar since I was 10, and I still play it every day, or every other day. If there was ever a movie that looked to be made just for me it would be this one. Can't wait for this one.

Glacier

Lately we've had a bit of news with Glacier. For a few months she had been nibbling at her food, and not really scarfing it down like she used to. She might eat in the morning, and then might not eat again until the next day. Of course any kind of table scraps she'd gobble up immediately, but as far as dog food went...she just seemed bored. So I thought what we needed was a simple change of dog food, or maybe move to a senior formula. She is going to be 10 in August so I thought that made sense. Anyway, a few weeks ago I took her to the vet for her routine checkup and I told the vet about the food issue. She seemed a lot more alarmed than I was, and she wanted to do a blood test because she said the food issue wasn't normal. Well, the results came back the next day and the vet said she had "Pancreatitis," (inflammation of the pancreas.) In a nutshell she told me that it was either related to food fats, or worse...cancer. It kind of hit me suddenly. I wasn't expecting anything like that, but knowing her age I've been on the lookout for any signs of her nearing the end. So we switched to a low-fat formula of dog food to see what would happen. The good news is her levels went down from 1900 to 600. So it was just the fat content of her dog food and not cancer. Whew! The other good news is the vet told me that Glacier is in great shape for a dog her age. She said on average you can expect a dog of her size to reach 11 or 12, but she thinks Glacier might push it to 14 or 15. Makes sense to me. She still runs around the yard chasing balls like she's a puppy. For most of her life Glacier has been very healthy. Only once have we ever had an issue, and that was a non-cancerous tumor we had to have removed from her side. That was about 5 years ago I think. But other than that she's always been healthy and very active. Of course anything could happen the next few years, but at least the outlook is favorable for the near future. She's more neurotic than ever...but at least she's healthy. HA!

Midland Highland Festival

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Midland Highland Festival. My uncle here in town is a bagpipe player in a local bagpipe band, and his group has been the main organizer of this festival since its inception 3 years ago. After the first year I never thought there would be a 2nd annual festival...let alone a 3rd. But despite receiving little assistance from the city, the festival has continued to grow steadily in its 3 years of existence. It's a grass-roots effort put together by volunteers, but it's fun to go to. You hear various bagpipe bands play, you can watch sheep-herding dogs run around and herd sheep, and you can watch a bunch of muscle guys throw cabers and hammers. And of course...there's lots of kilts. This year was the first year there was a kid's area. Megan and Ben got to color their own bagpipe player, and Ben got to do the kid's version of the caber toss.
For those of you who don't know, the Frames are mainly of scottish origin. My grandfather immigrated from Scotland and my dad and his siblings (2 brothers and 1 sister) are first generation. My grandmother, who lives here in town as well, is originally from the Isle of Man, which sits just next to Scotland in the Irish Sea. So she obviously enjoyed the day yesterday. As my grandmother always likes to say at parties..."Here's lookin' up your kilts!"