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- Kelly, I’m sorry that Thursday miscellanea is two days late. The biggest celebrity of my lifetime died, and then I had another skunk story.
- When I was a boy in the late ’70s, my dad had exactly two celebrity crushes: Lynda Carter and Farrah Fawcett-Majors (remember, she was Mrs. Six Million Dollar Man then). I still remember going to the beach one year with a T-shirt that matched his, each with the iconic red swimsuit photo of Farrah. How cool was that? Might have to dig out Logan’s Run this weekend. RIP.
- Watched Taken on Blu-ray on Sunday with Lea, and we both loved it. It checks in at 93 minutes soaking wet, and you want to know why it’s so lean? Because it skips all of the pseudo-moralizing and hand-wringing about the good guy’s guilt, and the bad guy’s motivation, and how White Men who work for Big Oil in the Great Satan America are somehow responsible for it all. “Sometimes, bad is bad.” – Huey Lewis and the News
- Watched Up in 3D on Thursday with my family. It was my Father’s Day present, and a fine one it was. Pixar earns partial redemption from that largely dreadful robot movie. I’m not sure the 3D added much to the experience for me, but as they say, YMMV. Pixarians, where the bloody hell is The Incredibles 2?
- When I see her again—probably next week—Melanie’s got some of those upside-down tomato planter things for me, courtesy of her recently deceased mother. I’m excited about it, because Nathan went through the roof when we saw an ad for them and I didn’t order them right then. It may be a Web 2.0 world, but the power of television remains scary.
- I know you have a right to be there. But bicyclists, you might consider sliding your schedule just a little bit if you insist on riding to and from work. Using a two-lane, bicycle-laneless route out of the arsenal at 5:00 may be legal, but it’s also thoroughly asinine.
- More geocaching soon. Been much too long.
- The two ingredients with confirmed spots in tonight’s dinner, so far, are shrimp and home-grown banana peppers. Ahhhh. How poorly could that possibly go? I hope you’re having a good weekend too.
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Up doesn’t need to be 3-D at all. It’s a new marketing ploy to get the kids to urge their parents to see a movie they wouldn’t otherwise care about. Then the parents, who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise tell other grownups how good it was. Brilliant.
PS – geocaching, yay! There are about 4 caches on the rails-to-trails place north of Athens I’ve been wanting to hit. And in a couple of weeks, I’m geocaching the coast.
I’m with you about Taken! There’s not a lot of depth to it, but it’s an exciting individualist ride that doesn’t get preachy.
HEY! I am honored.. I got a ‘cameo’ on the blog. 🙂
I liked “Taken,” but was disappointed at how short it was. They could’ve gotten a lot more out of it even without wasting their time with the stuff you mention.
Try “Traitor.” I thought that was pretty good, too.
I believe Pixar’s next film will be “Toy Story 3.” There is also a “Cars 2” planned. Original films will be “Newt” (no, it’s not a Gingrich biopic 🙂 ) and “The Bear & the Bow.” That all that’s known between now and the end of 2013. No word on a “Incredibles 2.”
Nice to see Luc Besson come back as a writer with Taken. When he rolled out The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, and Leon The Professional all in a row he ruled the world for a while.
can kory and i come geocaching with you next?!
‘seester: I think we’ve been there before. If it’s the place I’m thinking of, there’s an old caboose there that makes for great photos. We’ll sure go back, though.
Kelly: I think of you every time I do it. 🙂
Greg, NHFalcon: I enjoyed its lack of moral ambiguity, and though it’s an overused term, its tautness. What would you have added? I guess he could have stowed away on the boat.
BamaDan: Thoroughly French, and not an anti-American bone in its cinematic body. Go figure! Maybe our “standing in the world” was never as bad as all that.
Sarah: Shoot, yeah. We’ll make plans soon, before you get well and truly miserable.
I’ve only seen it once, and it was a while ago (though if I see really cheap I’ll buy it), so my memory’s a touch foggy, but…
He seemed to figure things out a bit too quickly. Perhaps some backstory as to how he acquired his skills, why he became so anal and paranoid, what that did to his marriage, etc…
Stuff like that, I guess.
See, I think it added to it that you didn’t know his backstory. It underlined the difference in perception / respect his ex-wife and daughter had about him versus how his former associates viewed him. His friends knew he was a very effective badd-ass. His ex and daughter didn’t know any more about that other life then the audience. It added depth and mystery to his transformation from incompetent dad to this lethal machine.