Vacation!

Well, not really. Just took the whole weekend off. First time in quite a while.
I feel...human again.

Friday, Belle and I went to the Alamo Drafthouse for dinner and a movie.  We saw Denzel's new flik, "The Equalizer".  If you like improbable movies where one good guy takes out many bad guys, you'll like this one just fine.  The pain of paying for movie tickets was mitigated by a few hoppy beverages and a bacon burger.

Saturday, the man child came over to borrow the driveway for an oil change and hung around pretty much all day.  That was rejuvenating in and of itself.  It's nice to have the brood off the BAR payroll, out on their own and independent, but I miss them terribly.

Sunday, the Musical Daughter and her S.O. spent the day with us. We went out to lunch and then paid a visit to our favorite indoor pistol range.  Daughter is very comfortable with handguns now.  Her Beau had not shot anything in a decade, so I gave him some remedial tutelage.  He did just fine.  No gun safety gaffs, loaded his own mags and 99% of his bullet holes were in the paper.


Did I say "Musical Daughter"?  All those years beating drums in school, I'd no idea she could sing.
That's her, the percussionist singing backup...harmony no less.

World War Z

Boys day out.
The Sonnage and I saw it over the weekend.
We liked it.  However, the only things remotely similar to the book by the same title was, well, the title and there were zombies.
Other than those two things, the movie was nothing like the book. Which is a shame really because I think the plot and structure of the book could have easily been turned into an awesome movie.


Still, we had fun watching it.  But then, I like zombie movies.

World War Z

Another behind the curve book review. Well, not much of a review actually. This is completely analysis free.
I picked it up in an airport bookstore last week.  I got done with my meetings early-ish and had a 7:30pm flight.  I read half the book while cooling my heels in the airport.  I really like the survivor interview format of the book. I read another 1/4 of it this evening and find I haz a sad because I'm almost done with it.
I give it two thumbs up.
I did see a movie trailer for World War Z the other day and the Sonnage and I will be going to see it in an actual movie theater. I'm looking forward to that.  I rarely do movies in a bonified movin piture theater.
The only thing that gives me pause about the trailer was the zombies were moving rather fast (think cheetah) in the trailer, which they did not do in the book. So I have my fingers crossed that Hole-e-wood hasn't totally screwed up another good story.

Hard Times

A movie out of the formerly great Britain. I watched it on netflix the other night.

What would happen if you knocked over a big pharma delivery truck, stole the pharmaceutical drugs* and dumped them down a well to hide them?

It is a simultaneously funny, heart warming and telling story about the state of affairs in gB.

* little blue pill

Avengers

Finally got to watch the movie on Pay per view.
I refuse to pay movie theater prices. Besides, the BAR home theater serves beer.
I enjoyed the heck out of that. I'm going to watch it again, being that I have a three day rental.
Favorite part?  Lokee (however you spell his name, evil weasel brother of Thor) commands the Hulk to cease and desist, I will not be abused like this I am a GOD!  Wherein the Hulk grabs him by the ankles and redecorates the floor with him like an old lady fighting off a bee with a broomstick.
That made me hee haw, especially the wheeze from the Demi-god on the final floor plant.

Some movies are worth $4.99, I don't care what no one sez.

Bond, James Bond

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress .
It's on the idiot box as I'm blog reading.
Last scene of the movie I happen to look up.
James jumps into the boat and clocks the guy twice his size in the jaw and knocks him out.
Other dude on the bow of the boat conveniently waits until 2xsize guy is knocked out and gets thrown over board.
James hits the throttle and boat speeds away from the dock

with the stern line still tied to the boat. 

Scene cut.
Next scene: The boat is non-mobile, James is at the engine compartment with Ursula pressing mammaries closely, while James wipes the 710 dipstick.

"We've run out of fuel"

When I was a kid in the 60's, we waited with baited breath for the next Bond movie, Saturday morning cartoons or a Disney cartoon on Sunday evenings like it was the long awaited second coming.

The old Bond movies just amuse me now. 

heh. I'm going to go hunt for an "Our Man Flint" movie on NetFlix.  What was that other movie with Dean Martin playing the super spy?

Mutual Ignorance

Hollywood thrives on it.
If you and your conversational acquaintance know little about a subject you can have a conversation that will perpetuate itself until your beer money runs out. It is a well known fact that the moment someone who knows even the most minute information about the subject at hand, it shuts the conversation down.
Facts? (quizzical dog look)
Well, I heard...but then it could be...you know that's a really good point.  Where's the beertender?
This is not a concept I came up with.  Patrick McManus is the genius that enlightened me to this concept.
What? You've not read Patrick's books? ( if you ever hunted, fished or camped as a kid, read his stuff. It will make you laugh until your sides hurt)
I've actually used this concept in my work-a-day life.  Once you've groked it, you'll be surprised how often you observe people slipping into the Mutual Ignorance vortex. "Well if the specs say this then it could the that, BUT!, if the specs say that then it could be  THIS!"  (this is a one sentence distillation of a twenty minute conversation amongst myself and two other construction management "professionals"  that made me go, "wait...what?"
 Well, says I, "how about we go read the specs and see what they say?" End of conversation. (this is also known as mental masturbation, but that's a whole 'nuther blog post)
Where was I? Oh yes.
I was watching a Jon Claude Van Damme movie.    Yeah, I could totally do that!  Come head on into a guy with a glock, twist his wrist and kill him with his own gun! That's me man!  I rock!
 Suspension of Belief, is the concept I think. Or is it Disbelief? I'm so confused. I've been watching TV?

The Police shot the..er..EFF out of a car door, behind which the bad guy was driving the car.  And, the bad guy drove away and escaped.
Except, it broke the conversation I was having with the movie. Because I know a bit about that.   End of conversation.
The Buick O' Truth.

Oh, the box 'o truth part of the site is highly instructional as well.
It boils down to: You can shoot the bad guy through the wall in your house. Of course, physics being what it is, he can shoot you through the wall as well.  And, you should be mindful of where your neighbors are in relation to your target.  Good fences and carefully selected sight lines make good for good neighbors.

Usually this takes longer

Maybe I just don't pay very close attention to this stuff. It seemed to me that formerly successful child actors slipped in to obscurity for years before they really started the serious work of destroying their lives.

I mean, it really hasn't been that long since the release of the final Harry Potter movie now has it?

Hogwarts Bully 'Vincent Crabbe' Arrested

Another crappy movie review by kx59

That's not to say that it was a crappy movie, that is to say that my reviews tend to be crappy.
Caveat numero uno: I really suck at these
Caveat numero dos: I'm usually way behind the curve on movies.
The Movie:   True Grit
The original with teh "Duke", I actually didn't like that much when I saw the original.
The movie, like all of the Duke's movies..were...about the Duke.
 Having Glen Campbell (wife beater, abject drunk) as the Texas Ranger I did not find so inspiring. The rhinestone cowboy was mostly...rhinestone, but of course all that other crap came out later.
Having Matt  Damon as the Texas  Ranger this time was not so much better. His character hardly, and I mean hardly did the Texas Rangers justice.
I rant and digress as usual.
First and foremost Hailee Steinfeld was, IMHO, just absolutely awesome in this remake. She absolutely dominated in her role.  Her character was so much better than the original.
Jeff Bridges played it different than the Duke. I'd heard good things about his portrayal of Rooster, but I was really pleased and impressed.
Watched it on pay per view tonight (I'm cheap..spend my money on my wife and my children)
My two favorite quotes from the movie:
If it's not loaded and cocked it doesn't shoot
If those men want'ed a decent burial they should have gotten themselves kilt in summer

Movies

The lovely Belle has a big day planned after work tomorrow. First, the last of the Harry Potter movies. (She's read all the books, multiple times and seen all the movies). And, second, off to commune with drunks with pointy things. I never really could get into the whole Harry Potter series. I like the first movie ok, but after that it just did not click with me. So after dutifully attending several of the Harry Potter movies with Belle, I finally found the courage to tell her, "I think I'll pass on the next one".

The prodigal son and I were sitting on the couch watching TV a week or so ago when a movie trailer came on. He reacted immediately with "Really?" ( and not the snarky connotation of Really I'm prone to use)

He went on to explain that there was an online "web comic" he had followed for quite some time, which he believed that the movie might be based upon.

Cowboys & Aliens.

With a big smile on his face, he went on to relate some of the more ridiculously epic episodes of the comic book series.

This is a movie more to my personal, and I admit, my inner juvenile, tastes. First, there are cowboys. And, guns. And, explosions. That right there is enough to get my interest, but they also have Spaceships and ALIENS!

Turns out Son'age was right about the web comic, but the original goes farther back than that.. The movie is based on the original comic book and the web comic.

Based on what I've seen from the trailer, the first part of the movie starts out like a pretty good tough guy cowboy movie. From there, for me, it only gets better.

I might have to actually spring the increasingly worthless greenbacks to go and see this one at the movie theater.

Movie Review

We rarely go to the Movie Theater to see a film. It's gotten rather expensive, and If I have little else, I do have the patience of water.

Belle mentioned that Black Swan was on pay per view ($4.99). Having the most basic of cable TV, and a penchant for Natalie Portman, I agreed we should watch the movie.

The disclaimer:

If you saw "The Piano", or "Brazil" (many years ago) and did not like either, you won't appeciate this movie. Actually, you'll switch over to "Swamp People" in a heartbeat, cussing the five bucks you just wasted. I'm not diss'ing anyone, Swamp People is one of my go to shows on cable right now.

The actual review part:

Ultimately, Black Swan is about a slip into psychosis. The cinemaphotography is outstanding. In all respects the movie was done very well. It is one of those movies I will watch again. Not because it was a great thrill ride, but because after it was over, I said to myself...what? , I suspect there were nuances I missed.

The progressive message:

However, there is an undercurrent in the movie that runs strong. In simplistic terms, it says that sexual repression (oh!, and striving for a life long goal) leads to psychosis. (So, don't work so hard.) Natalie's character does not fantasize about a rugged handsome man, but rather about a competing female dancer. So to spell it out, if you are female and represssing sexual feelings about other females, it will make you crazy.

Well, that summation was a bit kludgey, but I didn't want to spill the whole plot in case anyone is inclined to watch the movie.

Like "The Piano", "Black Swan" is a disturbing movie. Before my 24 hour pay per view fee runs out, I'll probably watch again.

Your's truelly

Kx59

a higly educated, and licensed, Redneck