Art La Flamme

Today was Day 2, and I snuck off to the local theater again to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the 4th and probably last installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

Well, it should be the last installment.

Look, I’ll be the first to tell you that the Indiana Jone series has been great, but it’s officially jumped the shark.  They’ve nuked the fridge on the series — it’s over.

With this installment, the franchise has been moved so far away from Raiders of the Lost Ark, that is can’t be reconciled and carried on any further.

Game over.

I grew up on Raiders.  It opened in 1981 — right smack in the middle of my youth.  Temple of Doom, with its dark and gloomy message, came out just as I was starting high school, and The Last Crusade came out while I was in college.  Formative years, all of them.

Easily, Raiders was the best of the lot, and then Last Crusade, and then the mutt of the pack, Temple of Doom.  It should have ended there.  Chrystal Skull slides into the list between Last Crusade and Temple of Doom.

I’m OK with them having made another movie.  They milked it a little bit more, and made a very neutral film.  With the return of Karen Allen and her Marion Ravenwood character, the movie is something of closure for the series.  It was so complete that there was even a scene with Indy at his desk, looking at a photo of his dad and a photo of Marcus Brody, and being all sad and stuff.  I really thought Harrison Ford was going to turn to the camera and ask for a moment of silence or something.
But this was no Raiders.  This wasn’t even Iron Man.  At this point, they’re just dragging down the good name of Indiana Jones.

I could have done without the late-in-life love story.  I could have done without the ants and the slew of other filler scenes.  I could have done without the whole nuked-the-fridge scene.  I could have done without the whole smoke to the eyes visual trick.  I could have done without the boring fight scenes and predictable vehicle chases.

But what I could have used was someone explaining why the Soviets thought there was a connection between the skull and psychic powers, specifically.  I could have used Indiana Jones, Mr. Über Patriot, just clamming up and holding fast to his answer of no, at pretty much any of the times he did say no.  I could have used some creativity.

The movie tried to be all action, all the time.  It’s just that the scenes weren’t threaded together anywhere nearly as well as they were in Raiders.  And a comparison to the other movies in the same franchise should be expected; Raiders is the standard by which all Indiana Jones movies are based.

• I paid $7 to see this, and it was worth it.  Not because this movie by itself was that great, but because it is / should be the last one in the series.
• I would probably buy this movie on DVD, but only because I have the other three and because I would want my kids to see the series several times.
• I would not go see it again in a theater.
• I would not — I do not — look forward to future installments of this franchise if they are anything like this one.
• I might tell others to go see it.  If they’ve seen all of the others, and are fans of all of the others, I would.  Otherwise, no.
• I could watch this movie again in a year.
• I did not recognize Cate Blanchett.
• I think I need to go watch Alien vs. Predator right away, as I now know that to be the sequel to this movie.

I was this.  I was a full-screen widget that shows open WiFi connections.

I have loaded iDetect onto my iTouch, and will give it a go to see if it is close.

Anyone else had this idea and / or found a solution?  Should be the same for iPhones.

So, I was indulging in some YouTube goodness this morning.  I was roaming YouTube to harvest videos for my iTouch — it does video well, and while YouTube posts video in flash format, I use iSquint to convert them to an iTouch / iPhone friendly format.

First up was, of course, Dramatic Prairiedog.  I think that goes without saying — how could that not be the first video added to my new iPod?  Then came the cowbell skit from Saturday Night Live.  But after that, I wandered over to RX’s website, looking for either video or MP3 files (I love hearing Tony Blair sing the Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go?).

But then it all got silly when I found myself back at YouTube, looking at Chad Vader videos (Wikipedia).  There’s a new one out this week (#3 — and here’s #1 and #2) that’s pretty funny.  But I also stumbled onto Chad and the Obama Girl hamming it up (not so funny, though).  And Chad’s vlog — video log — where he chats about his lovelife, and has me in stitches.

Chad Vader is situationally funny, which I love.  If you grew up with the Star Wars culture, and if you get the internet jokes, it’s great stuff.  If not, well, I am sure these clips will seem lame or stupid.  Orwell might get it.  Joe should.  Umzavi, for sure, same for Denis.  Paul?  You’d better.

A long time ago I learned that we are just the sum of our experiences.  With that, out humor is shaped by who and what we are.  It’s why XKCD is funny to me (SUDO make me a sandwich), and to few of my friends.

Anyway, I hope others out there at leats chuckle along with me on these.

When I was heading to the movie theater today, I saw a blood drive bus parked nearby.  I stopped in.  It’s been a long time since I’ve given blood.

And, apparently, it will be a long time before I do it again.  They don’t want my blood, and the FDA, apparently, is trying to figure out if folks like be ever can donate blood.

See, I’ve lived 5+ years in Germany, which is one of a list of countries known to be exposed to the Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.  That would be mentally degenerative disease — your brain sort of breaks down and melts or something.  I guess I can understand why they don’t want that in donated blood.

For me, this is a bummer.  I had heard about not being able to donate blood after being in Germany for a while, but this is the first time someone told me that I might never be able to give blood.  Donating blood is such an easy thing to do, and it makes such a difference.  This is like being told I can’t hold open the door for someone, ever.
Hmm.  Bummer.  This applies to me, and it applies to both of my kids as well as my wife.  My kids, in theory, could go through life not being able to donate blood in America.  That just seems wrong.

A while ago, I had this crazy idea that, while in Georgia, I would try to do two things:

1.  Watch 100 movies in 100 days;

2.  Write about it.

I figured I would be bored out of my mind while here; that I’d enjoy having my Popcorn Hour along for media entertainment; and that doing some serious writing would be a good thing.

Say hello to Day 1.  And today, it’s Iron Man.

So, to begin with, it’s yet another comic book hero makes a movie kind of thing.  Like Superman.  Like Batman.  Like the Hulk.

But no real super powers with this one.  Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, weapons inventory and über rich guy who falls into the hands of some bad guys.  He realizes that what he and his company (started by dad, run by him and his mentor, played by Jeff Bridges) aren’t really helping things out, and he undergoes something of a shift in views of the world.

Torture will do that to a man.

So he builds the suit.  And improves on it.  And adds doo-dads and doohickies to it.  It’s a great big neat toy to him, until he decides to right a wrong via the suit.  And until Jeff Bridges decides to try and use the plans for the suit to make a military version.

And then it just gets all ka-plowie and smack-like.  You know, the super hero stuff.

So, about the movie.

I wanted to cheer for Robert Downey Jr.  I’ve wanted to cheer for him ever since he threw his life away with drugs and arrests and all kinds of legal problems.  I wanted to see him return to being a solid actor — the kind he use to be.

And he has.  And I am happy to say that.  It’s not an amazing performance - he won’t get an Oscar for his work here - but watching this was about on par with watching Robin Williams.  It’s worth it to see him, just to know what he’ll do next.

And Jeff Bridges.  With the baldness.  And the Grizzly Adams beard.  Seriously, I thought he was dead, so it was a surprise to see him on the screen for this one.  If he wasn’t dead, his career sure seemed to be.  But he was good.  Not great, but good.  His character comes across as an opportunistic, back stabbing behind the scenes kind of bastard — which i am sure was the intent.  So, yeah, Jeff Bridges does just fine on this one.

One last thing worth mentioning — Gwyneth Paltrow.  To be honest, after looking at her movie career to date, she just is.  I can’t say that I am a big fan of really anything she has ever done on the big screen.  But she is cute.  And in this movie, yeah, she’s cute alright.  And she plays well the assistant to Downey who just might be in love with him, and who just might actually know it, too.  Good performance on her part — I hope she’s back for the two future Iron Man films that they’re going to make.

So, I paid $7 to see this film in a theater, and another $10 for popcorn and a drink (both of which were size medium, and both of which were large enough to sustain my family for a week).

• This movie was worth $7.  Robert Downey Jr. was worth $7 in this movie.
• I would not buy this movie on DVD, having seen it in the theater.
• I would not go see it again in a theater.
• I would — I do — look forward to future installments of this franchise.
• I would tell others to go see it.
• I could watch this movie again in another 6 to 12 months.
• I would want Pepper Potts as my assistant.
• I would be nicer to the Shelby Cobra.  He lost cool points for his mistreatment of his car.

Oh my God.

I just unlocked my new 8GB iPod iTouch.  I can now load other programs to it.

So, it plays music.  It plays movies.  It goes Gmail and other email, and it surfs the web.  It keeps my to do list, and my contacts, and my calendar.

And it can do anything else I ask it to.

(I love the internet!)

A while ago, when I was rebuilding our other Mac laptop, I posted a piece and some replies about what software to add to what comes from Apple.

Time for an update.  Read the rest of this entry »

I did it.

I bought a new MacBook Pro.  Went down to the Apple Store here in Kansas City, which was a fantastic experience.

I bought the low end verion — 15 inch, 2.4 ghz — and got the education discount.  I opted to throw the $200 I saved that way, at some more RAM, taking it from 2GB to 4.  I also got the 8GB iTough, and a low end printer, both of which Apple had a rebate for (which I filled out online in the store while they installed the RAM).

I think I’ll call it KC.

Yippee!

So, where was I?  Oh yeah — Baltimore.

Wednesday night closed out well. JB and I went down the street to a tequila bar for some food and a drink (or two).  Yummy food, and wow, good drinks, er, I mean, drink.  Bartender took pity on us, I think, or at least found humor in serving up drinks, er, a drink to a guy who’d been living out of the country for so long.

So.  Thursday.  Wow.  Drove a lot that day.  600+ miles, from Baltimore to Louisville.  After two nights of about 4.5 hours of sleep each night.  No problem, though.  Took my time.  Even took a cat nap at a restplatz at mid day.

One of my goals of this drive was to stay off of I70.  Interstate 70 is something I’ve been on before (I can’t remember how many times I’ve driven across the country in the last 30+ years), and in a word, it’s boring.  I don’t want to be in Kansas City, I want to drive to Kansas City.  So, getting there is important.

Out of Baltimore, though, I had to suffer through some I70, but just a little.  Then poof, off into the hills.  It looked like this:

Please excuse the dirty windshield.  America is, apparently, a dirty place now.

Along the way, I ran across things I had forgotten about, like this:

Runaway truck ramp?  Yep.  Long hill going down and, well, they plan for the worse.  Never saw this in Europe, that I can think of.

The drive itself was uneventful.  I was amazed at the American drivers — cigarette in one hand and cell phone in the other hand, driving 70 in the left lane for no reason at all.

Lots of puffy clouds, though.

One thing I did decide on the drive, though, was that I was pleased with my plans for my Garmin.  I brought it along, and had picked up a 12v to USB adapter, so that I could keep it charging while I drove.  It’s set to best-record mode, so when this is all over, I should have a great and detailed Google Earth file of the entire drive.

Here’s what it looks like.

I also noticed that day that yes, Tess gets some funny looks.  Here’s a photo of one lady giving Tess the Huh? look.  I wonder if it’s ’cause she’s a Mini, or because of the unusual license plates she’s sporting.

So, good drive.  I got into Louisville around 1800 — a little under 11 hours of driving.  Averaged almost 30 mpg for the drive — up a bunch from my normal 23+ in Germany.  So much for top speeds on the autobahn, huh?

When I was checking in, guy behind the counter asks if there’s anything else he could help me with.  “Yeah,” I say, “did Germany beat Portugal?”  Sure enough, they had.  Best news of the day.

Friday, I was up early and out the door and driving while it was still dark.  Did I mention that I love my car?

Yeah, I do.

I stopped for gas after a little bit, and this is what I was greeted with:

Because obviously, truck drivers crave more than porn, booze and smokes.  But, I should mention that they also had fresh fruit, so I guess they’re taking a holistic approach to caring for the long haul truck drivers. So nice of them, huh?

Filling the tank (12 gallons, on average — just under 50 liters) has generally been about a $50 event.

That’s a far cry from the $100+ that I paid per tank when we drove the Alps.

Coming out of Louisville, I hit the flats.  It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was still pretty flat.  I ran into some long stretches of rain, too.

One thing I did not do was pack meals and eat at the rest areas.  Should have.  Baltimore to Louisville, I did not eat — not sure why, either.  Friday, I stopped for a late breakfast, then had a bagel and cream cheese in St. Louis and a late dinner.  But the rest areas across America are nice and often have picnic areas.

At this one, inside, there was a screen with weather and travel info.  While looking at ti, the man and woman (older) walk over.  “Does it say?” she asks.  “No,” he says.  “I just want to know what bridges aren’t out,” she says.  “Think of it as an adventure,” I say.  He laughs.  She does not.

Soon enough, I was approaching St. Louis.  You can tell you’re getting close — it’s like playing Where’s Waldo:

Just a hint of an Archway peeking through.

St. Louis:  Good town.  How do I know this?  Do you really need to ask that?

I stopped and saw an old friend who lives and works there.  Her office is across the street from a new Mini show room.  She really needs to stop reading this and take a break from her work and go test drive a Clubman.

Really.  Stop reading this.  Go.  Motor on.

St. Louis to Jeff City, where I would spend the night with my cousin and his family.  OK, here’s the story.  I posted a message on a Mini website, saying that I was driving from Germany to Hawaii, via Louisville, St. L, KC, and Augusta, and where should I go, what should I do, etc.  Gal from St. L chimes in — oh, from here, go to Augusta MO, then on to Hermann MO.  Pretty.  German.

German?  Really?

Seems that, back in the day, a group of Germans in Philly weren’t happy with the English influence there, so they sought out and bought a huge piece of land out here, because it was just like Germany.  And, having driven through it, I have to say, Yeah.  It is.  They started by building Hermann, and growing grapes, and making wine and beer, and building boats and bricks and musical instruments and so on.  School was taught in German, papers were printed in German, and so on.

So, I have to say, her advice was spot on.  Great driving (55 mph speed limit, too!), and great stops. I picked up some wine at a small winery near Augusta, and some really good beer in Hermann after I had toured the city / town museum.  I had a good laugh on the “tour” (me and a volunteer) when I saw on display an orange cap described as having been worn by a guy when he went to University in Heidelberg.  Pretty funny.

I mentioned flooding and bridges and stuff, right?

Yeah.  None shall pass.  Had one stretch of road closed.  GPS took me around it.

Later today, cousin and I are going back to Hermann — there’s a beer fest.  What?  How can I not go back for that?  $10 says I get to judge the beer or something.  After that, we’ll swing back through here so I can drop him off, then it’s on to Kansas City and, hopefully, a chance to do laundry tomorrow.

(more photos, here)

She was sooooo happy to see me.  She pretended that she had a dead battery, so that I had to spend the afternoon with her driving all over Baltimore.  Such a good girl!

After our few hours together, and after my talk with the insurance company about the two of us taking to the streets of America, I headed out for a run.  I’m staying up on Federal Hill in Baltimore, with a friend, and just down the street and the hill is Fort McHenry (worth reading), which somehow I’d never been to.  So, today I drove through there when Tess and I were out and about, and then I ran down there and back today. 

Good day, indeed. No cell phone yet, but I feel ready to make the drive to Kansas.  Tomorrow night is Louisville — I’ll likely go for a run there, too.  Yippee!

(and more photos are up on my flickr site, too — here)