Maiden Voyage

My friend Bess has just launched her very own blog. Her first post includes tales of a road trip that subconsciously stir up Thelma and Louise memories...for some reason.

Take a visit to Besside Myself.

Trumpet Nerds Unite!

Because he fronted the Tonight Show band for so many years, Doc Severinsen is frequently overlooked when people think about trumpet masters. In his prime, Doc was one of the best trumpet players in the world.

I've just today seen this clip for the first time, and to a trumpet nerd like me, it is jaw-dropping. Never mind the cheesy arrangement and clothing...this is world class trumpet playing.

Campaign '08 in 8

Check out this really impressive video from Slate that condenses the entire Democratic 2008 campaign into 8 minutes. Great editing.

Well, I Saw It

Well, I finally saw it. Indiana Jones is back after twenty years. Overall, I'd give it maybe 3.5 stars out of 5. My lowered expectations were really crucial...it in no way would've lived up to my hopes if I had gone in cold.

Some more specific thoughts...and these will be packed with spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

What didn't work:

• Indiana Jones movies have always required some serious suspension of disbelief...but there were a couple of moments in this film that went too far. Mutt and the monkeys? Ugh.
  
• No human being could survive a being hurled hundreds of yards in a refrigerator. This is one thing that bugged me about Iron Man, too. Just because someone is inside of something strong (like a fridge or a suit of armor) does not mean that they can survive an impact with the ground at over 100 miles an hour.
  
• I really do miss the days before CGI. When movies required the building of sets, things looked real (Jabba the Hutt looked REAL, dammit). The effects were incredible...but the entire movie had a sort of washed out, pristine look that didn't fit with Indiana.
• I'm no fan of Indiana Jones in the 1950s. They really had no choice but to set it in the '50s, unless they pretended that Harrison didn't age, but it didn't feel right to put Indiana Jones in the world of sock hops.
• The first 20 minutes. For the entire opening 20 minutes, it felt like I was watching Harrison Ford pretend to be Indiana Jones.
• Not enough whipping!
• The dialogue. In spots, the script worked well...but it sometimes felt forced...particularly when trying to cram in 50s slang like "daddy-o". One friend told me that the dialogue made him feel "stabby".
  

What worked:

• Shia LaBeouf. He was surprisingly good and had some real chemistry with Harrison.
• The action. The chase sequences really did feel like old Indiana Jones again. The chase by the Russians through the university campus and the jungle chase were really, really good. Great stunt work.
• The cinematography. I had read that Spielberg wanted long shots, rather than the rapid-edit shaky cam style that's been popularized by the Bourne trilogy. There were several really impressive shots during the chase sequences that were long, unbroken shots.
• Harrison. After the movie got going, Harrison finally did seem to inhabit the character again. He's really at his best when crawling through a cave or involved in a sort of chase.
  
• The humor. The amount of silliness was basically just right. I found myself laughing several times (when the chase goes into the library; when Indy is caught in the dry sandpit).
• The references to previous films. The nods to the other 3 Indy movies were mostly subtle and clever.

This is one of those movies that I enjoyed, but didn't LOVE. I expect that I will buy it on DVD, watch it again, and like it more the second time.

Tonight is the Night.

Tonight I will finally see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. On one hand, I'm expecting to like it. On the other hand, I've had a few friends who have seen it warn me to lower my expectations a bit. I think they have been sufficiently lowered, but trying to lower my expectations on something I've waited 20 years for is not easy. Indiana Jones was the absolute ultimate idol of my childhood. Hearing these harsh words about the movie is rough. It's as though I'm finally going to meet Santa Claus now that I'm an adult and someone telling me, "Yeah...he's neat and all...but you should know...he swears a lot and smells like beef stew."

Maizy's First Hair Cut

This is going to be a departure from the normal tough and cool subjects I typically cover in this blog. Our dog just got her first real hair cut.

She is about 5 months old, and had grown into a bit of a furball. Here she is, pre-hair cut, with Casey.

After her hair cut, she's a lean, mean, fighting machine:

She looks like half the dog she was before. I now call her "The Weasel".

Could Coldplay Be...Good?

On Friday, I bought a ticket to "Lazerfest 2" which will allow me to cross Stone Temple Pilots off of my "bands to see before I die" list. The bad news? My $35 ticket cost me over $45 after Ticketmaster tacked on their ridiculous fees. The good news? I got a free iTunes download.

It just so happens that when I received my free iTunes download I was approaching hour 73 of the hijacking of my brain by Coldplay's new "Viva La Vida" single. I must be squarely in the center of Apple's target demographic, because the iTunes commercial that features Coldplay is on every show I've watched for the past two weeks. So I gave in, cashed in my free download, and acquired "Viva La Vida".

It's such a great single that I have been forced to re-examine my completely uninformed judgment of Coldplay. I don't think I've heard 10 seconds of Coldplay before this new song, but I had this surprisingly fleshed-out preconceived notion of them as a sort of whiny, moody, wimpy Euro-pop band. You know...the kind of band whose music evokes a "mood" but has no discernible melody and has no point other than to sound brooding and sophisticated. This song has forced me to realize that I may have come to some rash conclusion about Coldplay without a shred of evidence.

Could Coldplay be...good?

Anyone out there actually have an informed opinion about Coldplay?