Gary Carter, the ever-smiling Hall of Fame catcher that was synonymous with the Montreal Expos, died today of brain cancer. He was 57.
RIP
Published writer, compulsive reader, Old School Whovian, Match Game enthusiast, NKOTB fan, data hoarder, and - surprisingly, given that list - married with four kids. Welcome to my take on life, fatherhood, entertainment, and whatever strikes my fancy. Enjoy!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Naturally
When it rains it pours - years struggling to find a decent job, and now that I've got one, what happens? I get a voicemail from a hotel asking me to come in and speak about an unnamed position that 'just opened'. Could be a management gig, could be a $7/hr desk clerk. We'll see, but it's worth a call.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The Grammy's
Damn good Grammy's show, no? Beach Boys (w/ a shaky Brian Wilson), Paul McCartney, Adele, Taylor, Glen Campbell, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry - sweet.
Congrats, so far, to Adele, Fergie, Taylor Swift and the Foo Fighters
Damn I love Paul McCartney.
Bam! Just rename the statue the "Adele" already :) Congrats yet again!
Ok Facebook. Grammy's are over, Danny-boo is freshly washed and my clothes are laid out. In 9.5 hours I start my new job, and hopefully begin my rise back to the middle of the bottom third of the middle's bottom third.;) Cya later.
Blue and Gold
Today was the Cub Scout's Blue and Gold luncheon. It went much better than I expected, even despite the fact that my kids were [redacted] grouches from the minute they woke up. They especially liked the Order of the Arrow Native American dancers, joining them for one of the dances. Of course the pics I sent from my phone never posted to FB and I deleted them assuming they had . . .
X-Men First Class
Just finished watching "X-Men First Class". Wonderful, action packed movie with a solid script. I wasn't expecting to like it at all - Marvel's obsession with mutants bores the hell out me - but there ya go. Well done. A.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
This Queen Won't Fit
I spent a good part of the afternoon moving a queen mattress/box spring across town only to discover the box spring can't be moved upstairs because it fails to clear my stairway by about a third of an inch. Debating what to do - and generally disgusted with life.
Stormhouse
We just watched a Brit horror film called 'Stormhouse' about a ghost captured and housed by the Brit gov't. How was it? Let's say this: when a character yelled "Is it over?" I prayed the answer would be 'yes'. A turd of a film. Grade: D.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wild Thing by Josh Bazell
I just finished reading Josh Bazell's "Wild Thing". It's a sequel to "Beat the Reaper", a book I reviewed in '09 (you'll find the link in the first comment below). Our resident MD/former mafia assassin is sent into the wilds of Minnesota to verify the existence of a mythical creature that's allegedly chomping up folks in a lake. Along the way there's meth dealers, gunfights, and, naturally, a sword wielding Sarah Palin. It's a very enjoyable novel, and I continue to be a fan of Bazell's style of annotating the text. On the down side the character is more than a little bit of an as*hole - and judging by the afterword, that goes for the author too. But if you can put aside his ludicrous political, religious and social opinions, you've got a heck of a read. Grade: minus the author's paranoid rants, an A. As is, with nuttiness embedded, a B/B+
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Doctor Who Season Six
I stayed up waaaay too late last night to finish watching season six of Doctor Who. 1st half of Volume 2: "Let's Kill Hitler" was a hoot, "Night Terrors" was ho-hum, been there/done that, and "The Girl Who Waited" was pretty ho-hum itself until the last third, when it really gave your heart a wallop. I literally cursed at the Doctor when he closed the door on 'Old' Amy, the heartless bugger.
2nd half, volume 2 of series six: "The God Complex" was smart and creepy and continues an important theme of Moffat's tenure; dumping the demi-god status granted the Doctor by Rusell Davies. "Closing Time" was grand, a LOL romp marred only by the presence of the Cyberman. It was far too bit of a part for them, and should have been pawned off on another species. Finally, the "Wedding of River Song". CLASSIC Who, just perfect. There's not a wasted line of dialogue in this show; everything comes back to haunt you at some point. Grade: Grade? It's the greatest sci-fi show EVER. There isn't a grade high enough to rank it.
Top Gun
Watching the end of Top Gun on THIS. Just as much fun as when my Dad took me to see it back in the day. Still, not much in the mood for TV or films tonight, so I may just read before bed. How very 1934.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
An Election by John Scalzi
long day. Settling in to watch season 6/vol 2 of Doctor Who
Meanwhile, I finished reading John Scalzi's "An Election", a 46 page story about a human running for a vacant City Council seat in a ward that is alien-majority. Quick, funny, and simply told. Go ahead and read it. I think it's only a buck or two on the Nook.
Metropolis
Once Lis hit the sack I finished watching Fritz Lang's 1927 restored masterpiece "Metropolis", now including 25 min of footage thought lost for most of a century. Marvelous film, although I'm not blind to the fact that Lang ignores a choppy story in favor of using emotion and strong visuals to convey his theme. BTW, the look of the film - my word! It's beautiful. 85 years later and I think Hollywood would have a hard time replicating some of the sets. It must have cost a fortune; I've heard upwards of $4 million *IN 1927 MONEY.* Just gorgeous. Grade: A (duh)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Charles Dickens Turns 200, GNR Rocks, and Arrested Development Returns
Today is the bicentennial of Charles Dickens' birth. RIP Chuck, and thanks.
Oh, and the live version of GNR's 'Knockin' on Heavens Door' rocks.
Tonight after work we finished watching the last of "Arrested Development". What can I say? It's a great, intelligent show, with fine acting/writing/laughs, and it deserves its stellar reputation. We loved it. *spoiler* I did find the finale, while a perfect bookend to the pilot, to be rather depressing. It invalidates everything Michael did in the three years prior, no? It was a waste of three years of his life, and it was a bit of a buzzkill.
GAB
The GAB has announced they will not accept third party challenges to the recall petitions - meaning even if a third party finds my name scribbled on seven different pages, right next to Minnie Mouse and JFK, too bad so sad. Justice - as defined by a 'accountability' board loyal to Dems, means "to disenfranchise honest WI voters by ignoring fraud". Seriously, this state makes me ill. If things don't improve on the personal financial front, I'm leaning towards "Adios!".
Monday, February 6, 2012
A Great Tiger Meeting!
Great Tiger Cub meeting today (IMO at least).
Lisa and Lu designed a really cool poster of the food pyramid for me, and I made a bingo game of "good for you food/not so good" using pictures of various food items I clipped out of a grocery store flyer.
It was surprising how many kids picked ice cream, pizza, or cheeseburgers as "good for you". Then we made candy airplanes for Valentines and ended w/ a snack of watermelon.
Firefly
I finished watching the last of "Firefly", Josh Wheldon's beloved but short lived sci-fi series. I enjoyed it, esp. since I like my mysteries dark and grim and my sci-fi light and fun. But the whole old west-meets the future bit was done 20 years ago on Galaxy Rangers, thank you, and (ducks in advance) overall the series gets more accolades than it deserves just by virtue of its quick cancellation.
Midnight in Peking by Paul French
I've stayed up late to finish reading an advance copy of "Midnight in Peking" a true crime book by Paul French. It's the story of the gruesome murder of Pamela Werner, a 20 year old British woman living in Peking on the cusp of WWII.
Despite taking place in a city literally surrounded by invading Japanese, the murder of a white woman still makes headline news around the world and spawns an intense manhunt, but one that may have been rigged to fail from the beginning.
It's a fascinating tale and French tells it well, although I think he runs out of story 4/5ths of the way through. Grade: B+ On sale April 24th.
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