What To Do Next Time You're in Utah

P1040730, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm Watching / Reading:

Jon took Brenden to the drop zone Sunday Night so I finally rented Tropic Thunder. I was laughing my ass off, which is a major accomplishment for any film if I'm watching it by myself. It's about the biggest group of pampered, insecure, prima-donna actors appearing in an overproduced, on-location Vietnam war movie that's about to get its plug pulled because it's way over budget. The director decides to get the movie filmed guerilla-style (or Blair Witch style if you please) by taking his actors deep in the Southeast Asia jungle and having them act it out while making it back to their camp. Things go bad fast.

It reminded me that Ben Stiller can have a very sharp eye for satire (he wrote it). Robert Downey Jr. stole the movie as an Australian method actor who goes a wee bit overboard with the method acting. Tom Cruise (!!!) is insane in this movie, too. Tropic Thunder did its very best to inflame and assure my worst prejudices and suspicions about Hollywood.

Hey, am I the only person who remembers that Downey got his start on Saturday Night Live? Then he was in Back to School, where he thought football was a neo-fascist metaphor for nuclear war. I always wanted to point out to him that football is a metaphor for conventional warfare, but that's not really important.

I've been reading John Scalzi's blog for a while, after being directed there by another blog to view a picture of a cat with bacon taped to it. I finally started reading one of his books over the holiday weekend, and I ripped right through Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades. I finished The Android's Dream this morning. His books are right up my alley: science fiction, war, adventure, sympathetic characters, and screamingly funny (and sad - I was boo-hooing at the end of Ghost Brigades). They're also zippy reads, which is a refreshing change from all the Dan Simmons and Neal Stephenson I've read lately.

Oh, speaking of cats, we may have a new family member in a week or so.

Canon Fodder

ST XI Kirk-Spock, originally uploaded by corrini.

So my brother and I were talking about movies on IM, and we were discussing the almost uniform hatred and disgust regarding Terminator Salvation. The big reason I wanted to see Star Trek over this movie was because the director of the Terminator movie also directed the Charlie's Angel's movies. And the writers wrote Catwoman.

It's funny how changes to stories can affect people differently. I had no problem with the changes to Star Trek and I loved the original series when I was a kid. There's a change to the canon of the Terminator universe in the new movie that really pisses me off so who knows when I'll get around to watching it on DVD.

Anyway, Ed pointed me towards Harry Knowle's review. Here's the opening salvo:

It is a very rare thing for a film to shit squarely on my open and unexpecting eyes to such a degree that absolute hatred and loathing festers out of my every pore… but McG managed to do it with TERMINATOR SALVATION..

We ended up discussing critics, and I mentioned my favorite, MaryAnn Johansen. She trashed Terminator Salvation, too. She and I have VERY similar tastes in movies so I have come to trust her judgements implicitly.

Then while talking with Ed for some reason I yet again mentioned Star Trek and how MaryAnn wrote an article about how everyone thinks that female fans of the Star Trek series all went for captain Kirk and how that is totally not true. Ed was surprised when I told him that (old Trek or new) chicks dig Spock. Why is this a surprise?

What I'm Watching:

eomer, originally uploaded by green_field_92.

Since everything I watch has been cancelled or is on hiatus* for the summer, this is the part of the year where I traditionally start watching movies. Since Jon was out of town I settled on a Lord of the Rings marathon on Sunday. I skipped The Fellowship of the Rings because I think I've watched that one twice as much as the other two put together.

I like the extended versions, but near the end of The Return of the King I remember yelling: "Will you get your hobbit butts up the mountain already?" Still I love those movies.

Saturday night I was surfing through downloadble Amazon titles (I prefer on-demand due to lack of time so we no longer use Netflix) looking for something different. I ended up with an low budget horror movie from New Zealand: The Irrefutable Truth About Demons. It was not good. That's not to say it wasn't entertaining - it had some good humor in it, some of it even intentional. It's about a guy (Karl Urban, in case you were wondering why I rented it in the first place) terrorized by a group of demon-worshippers who got their sense of fashion from watching old music videos (When will demon-worshippers learn: if you want to be super-creepy look conservative? Didn't they watch Rosemary's Baby?). The only other good thing about the movie is the ending was better than I expected. I was thinking I was going to get a downer Race With the Devil end but ended up with more of a Serpent and The Rainbow end only not as much special-effect cheese. I'm thinking that was a budget limitation more than a artistic decision.

*Cancelled: SCC. BOO! Renewed: Dollhouse. YAY!

45

Game over man! Game over!, originally uploaded by Duckyguy.

Time for the traditional song:

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy BIrthday Bill Paxton,
Happy Birthday toooo youuuuu!

Season Enders

Fox Fringe Fibonacci (Leaf), originally uploaded by FringeTV.

So the season enders of Fringe and Lost happened, and in the case of Fringe I say holy cow poop, and Lost I say OMFSM! 24 is just about over too, but Tony really is a bad guy so I'm pretty meh about everything again.

Fringe's appeal to me is still the mad science, and the season ender introduced us to William Bell (who looks suspicioulsy like Leonard Nimoy) who is hanging out in a parallel universe where the World Trade Center towers still exist. I want the characters to become more interesting but in this case the wacky plots are pulling me along. If Noble and Nimoy get together in the 2nd season and talk Mad Scientist shop I will be a happy dork.

Lost. I promise no spoilers. One of my favorite TV actors (Titus Welliver, who has the most amusing belongs-in-a-Western name in the business next to Garrett Dillahunt)(yes, they appeared in a Western together: Deadwood) appears in the last ep and promises to be prominent in the last season. All I can say is what he does puts a WHOLE BOATLOAD of scenes from the show in a different perspective. I think one of my projects for the summer will be to rewatch all the previous seasons.

Stuff plus Random Old Photo

Spooky, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I took last Friday off and drove with Brenden over to my mom's house. She turned 70(!) this year and we haven't seen her in a while. Brenden took one look at the lake and desperately wanted to go fishing. I desperately wanted to rest from all that driving. We compromised with a boat ride (thanks, Price!)

Mom had cataract surgery and is seeing just fine. She was surprised at how tall Brenden is and we talked about the only tall people in our family (her dad, and her dad's dad) and we both wonder if he will inherit those genes. God knows nobody else did. She says she can see some of her dad in Brenden, which is very cool considering he was KIA in WW2 (she was 5).

We stayed overnight then drove to Nancy's in Athens for a visit. Brenden is about an inch taller than Anthony now. Except for one incident with a wooden gate they played well together and I even tried trusting them to be alone. I actually got to watch a whole movie - Working Girls, by Mike Leigh (whom I got confused with Stephen Frears). It's a small film about two women who become friends during college and a reunion they have six years later. It definitely passes the Beschdel test with flying colors! While they do talk about men, it's not the only topic. Good movie!

While I was there I was incapable of not gushing about the new Star Trek movie and fortunately when Nancy and her mom went to see it they were just as entertained as I was.

That drive just sucks. Actually it's not that bad it's just the suckage that is Atlanta traffic. Starfleet needs to perfect their transporters so I can go see every one more often.

Monday night Jon and I watched Yes Man with Jim Carrey. Don't bother.

Enterprising weekend

Star Trek USS Enterprise, originally uploaded by skookums.

So yes, Jon and I managed to get out of the house Thursday night and saw Star Trek. My review in a nutshell: J.J. Abrams is my new boyfriend.

If the idea of someone messing with Star Trek's canon bothers you, this movie isn't for you. It was, however, made for me. Specifically for me. If Abrams had called me on the phone and asked me what I wanted in a Star Trek movie not much of this movie would have been changed. I would have given McCoy and Scotty more to do at the end of the movie - it was the Kirk and Spock show at that point but *that's a quibble!* I expect they will do more in the sequels.

I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed my popcorn. This movie reminded me of just how big of a nerd I used to be am.

This *really* sucks

this *really* sucks, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Life has been officially cancelled.

Crappity crappity crap.

The 610

The train, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Short Bits

I'm enjoying my damn hobby when I can - I was detoured last weekend when I opened the pool. Before / after photos soon come.

I did so some work in my little 'garden' over the week but it's so tough with Brenden. I was planting my hostas so I was trying to encourage him to help me. I dug a hole and gently removed the hosta from its pot. I gave it to Brenden and told him to place it in the hole. He decided there was too much dirt on the roots and grabbed the plant by the base and started shaking it violently. The hosta is still alive, which is a miracle.

Also while I was trying to get the darn thing planted I finally noticed Brenden had a shovel and was attacking one of my newly-planted gardenias. I confiscated the shovel and looked Brenden in the eye and said, "Brenden, I really need you to listen to me. Are you my reincarnated grandma? This is all revenge for that tree I cut on with my knife, isn't it? Really, grandma, I'm sorry, OK?"

Brenden started laughing, hard. It sent shivers down my back.

This last weekend was a 10" wash - really we had an extra 5 inches of water in the pool on Saturday so I vacuumed the bottom with the pump set to 'waste'. We went to Chattanooga on Sunday and when we got back there was another 5 inches in the pool.

Speaking of Chattanooga - Jon, Brenden and I went to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum of a Day out With Thomas (the Tank engine). Brenden had fun, but the train ride was lame. The kids had fun, but the Thomas engine is a fake - the train had a diesel in the back of it doing the real push / pulling. The 610 steam engine was also running that day and it's a much niftier ride. Photos soon come.

Jon and I are going out on a date! There are 7pm showings Thursday night of the new Star Trek so we got a babysitter. I haven't seen a movie on opening night in ages.

Riding the Shark

Riding the Shark, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm Watching:

Quantum of Solace: I finally got around to the 2nd Daniel Craig Bond film. I knew the first, Casino Royale, was going to be all sorts of different because there were no naked dancing chicks in the opening credits. The naked dancing chicks are back for this one so I was afraid that we'd be back to the old Bond formula and I was right.

I still think Craig makes an excellent Bond - in some spots of the movie here he's trying to be polished but his inner thug comes out quite often, and the movie tries to address his state of mind after his betrayal from the last movie but it gets lost in all the action.

Still, the people who reset the series are trying: during the beginning car chase a car goes off the side of the cliff and doesn't explode. I was so impressed!

Lost: Eloise Hawking wins the award for Worst Mother of the entire Time-Space Continuum.

What I want to Watch:

Star Trek: They're hyping the Hell out of this one, aren't they? But if I get to see one movie in the theaters this year this is the one I want to see. Yes, even over the new Terminator movie! I know some fanboys are soiling themselves over some of the changes - the kerfluffle over Spock and Uhura having some special moments in this movie is pissing some folks off to no end ( I think it's great! My two favorite characters! Well I love Dr. McCoy too but if Uhura had ever been given the chance to actually have a shipboard romance she totally would have gone for the science officer! Smart is sexy!).

Sorry for the major geek squee moment. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't mind someone taking someone else's ideas and reworking them as long as it's good.