Elmo Now Daddy!

I'm trying to type a post  here on Slapinons while Smiley stands behind me on the chair pulling my necklace taunt and yelling "Elmo now daddy! Elmo now!".

tired. kids and their friends are playing in the basement, no doubt destroying whatever's left in one piece down there.

Mum Mum Mum Mah

I just finished one of those ridiculous but entertaining little do-dads on Facebook, one that asks what you think consider are the five 'best' albums. By 'best' I assume they meant 'favorite', as I'm sure there's some obscure Flemish recording of farts and xylophones that meets the critics notion of 'perfection'.

Now, as God himself would acknowledge, music came close to dying the day Courtney pulled the trigger on Kurt, just as it was only truly born when Flannel came to Seattle. My list reflects those facts.

My choices: Pearl Jam's Ten, Nirvana's Bleach (eh, coulda gone with Nevermind), Garth Brooks Double Live, a best-of Artie Shaw, and the great Singles soundtrack.

BUT . . that doesn't mean I can't dig a great dance tune.

Question: How do you annoy Lady Gaga? Pokerface. How do you make her happy? Just dance.

Eh, you'll get it in a minute. Here's two of her songs, Pokerface (and baby when it's love if it's not rough it isn't fun) and Just Dance.





Enjoy!

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

One thing I don't like is when an author takes the time to ridicule other writers in his work. Stephen King has been guilty of this a few times, criticizing, among others, William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist) while oddly leaving the formulaic Dean Koontz alone.

In his recent short story collection King takes a swipe at the novel The Memory Keepers Daughter,using it to highlight the difference between the intelligent character - who couldn't get through it - and the comic foil husband who loved it.

Whatever. I didn't read the book, but Lisa did, and while she didn't rate it as high literature, she found it an enjoyable and interesting read.

Because she liked the book I rented the movie version from Netflix. It was pretty much as expected, a TV quality movie version of a tearjerker.

In the movie a respected and beloved doctor's wife gives birth to twins, a healthy boy and a girl with Downs Syndrome. As his wife passes out from the ordeal we are treated to a series of mystifying, silent flashbacks that lead the Doctor to give up his daughter to an orphanage and tell his wife she was stillborn.

We learn the flashbacks are of his own childhood, when the death of his sister broke his Mother's will to live. A fear the daughter will do the same to his wife serves as the alleged motives behind his actions. Here the novel has more time to dwell on the matter, and from what Lisa says it does a better job of justifying his feelings, but in the movie it doesn't ring true.

Anyhow, the nurse who's charged with taking the baby to the orphanage can't make herself do it, and adopts the baby as her own. For the next thirty years the Doctor lives with the knowledge that his daughter is alive and well, and as another bitter pill to swallow the guilt and shame has led to the destruction of his marriage and the alienation of his son.

The movie does a halfway decent job of redeeming the Doctor, who at heart is a good man and continues to become a better one as time goes on, and the idea of being so well and completely trapped by a single decision . . well, it's a terrifying thought.

As for the Mom,as portrayed she was a bit shallow for us to fully sympathize with her (and you'd think the audience would be 100% in her corner) and oddly, she doesn't appear to age at all in the thirty years that pass on the screen.

Not a bad movie.

2.5 out of 4.

Random thoughts on a Monday night - it is Monday right?

I was going to post my review of the hate filled The Assasination of JFK, Jr. today, but I think I'll shelve it for a bit. I hate going back to back on subject matter, be it political, reviews, or family pictures. Sure it happens sometimes, just recently in fact, but I find it's like playing two slow songs back to back on the radio - ewww.


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If you're on Facebook you'll notice a big surge in my activity there. I'm still not sold on the concept, but I don't want to fall too far behind the times. Still I figure it's better than Twitter, as I see no reason to throw my every thought online. Can you imagine how boring and routine would that be? Sex, money, family, baseball, sex, sex again, means of egress in the event of the Zombie Invasion, baseball. No thanks.

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Speaking of hate filled propaganda, Selena Roberts *poorly written* hatchet job on A-Rod tanked, with reports that fewer than 20,000 of the initial 150,000 printing have sold. I had the misfortune of reading a few of the ghastly chapters before I gave up and closed the cover, and trust me: it was crap.

It couldn't have happened to a better person. Keep in mind that aside from being dismissed as a hack and a fraud in the baseball community, Roberts tried, convicted, and executed the Duke lacrosse players time and time again in print - and then refused to admit she was even the tiniest bit wrong when they were exonerated. Pi*s on you Roberts, and well done Reading Public.

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Please note the re-emergence of the Free Rice game on my sidebar. Now you can choose your subject area - art, foreign language, math, etc - instead of just practicing your vocabulary.

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I'd congratulate the Lakers' on their 15th Championship, but on the rare occasions when I care about the NBA I don't devote an ounce of time to cold, corporate, high payroll teams that use their cash to dominate the league.

Now you'll excuse me as I finish signing up for my Yankees Fan Club.

TV Time

Watching I-Carly with Smiley and Ginger

Just put Ginger down for a nap. I've been calling the dentist for Lisa - the insurance claims not to have received their request for approval. I'm also writing some reviews for Slapinons to post later in the year. Meanwhile, Smiley's at a picnic and the abels 2009,

An 'animated' discussion on the 2010 Gov. race

The claws have come out in the 2010 Wisconsin Gubernatorial race. Some background for those out of state:

Democrat Jim Doyle is expected to seek a third term, but seperate surveys give him between a 48-60% dissaproval rate from state voters. Combine that with an approval rating that's floating between 34-43%, and, at least from a year's distance, you've got problems.

It certainly doesn't help when the state's biggest paper quotes a fellow Democrat at your party's state convention as saying:

Most of her fellow Democrats might disagree, but Jolynn Woehrer thinks Gov. Jim Doyle won’t run for re-election in 2010.

Woehrer, a Milwaukeean attending the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s state convention, praised Doyle. But she said "he’s a little bit more moderate" and that she senses more progressive leaders are emerging in the party.

"That’s what the voters want and that’s what we need," Woehrer said.

Make a note people. This may be the one and only time I ever defend Doyle, but the guys tax happy and about as party-line as a Democrat can get in the Midwest. Any attempt to replace him with a more 'progressive' (read: overtly socialist) candidate is just asking to give away the office.

Anyway, what's the first and last thing you do in politics when the numbers aren't going your way? You attack, preferably with a bitter ad that says nothing whatsover, but maligns your opponent. Check this ad out (paid for by the state Democratic party).

As BadgerBlogger pointed out, this cartoon (!) "seems to be aimed at 6-year-olds . . ." Looks like 2010 will be full of polite, good natured campaigns, eh?

Be Quiet!

Annoyed at the amount of noise coming from the street. It's 2am on a Monday morning - get in your car and go home already.

Pizza Hut with Smiley and Ginger

Smiley came home from school one day with a certificate for a free pizza from Pizza Hut, some kind of reward for reading. Odd that, as the boy can't read a lick. But, free food is free food, and one day when the older girls were out and about I took Smiley and Ginger to claim his prize.

Here's some pics from that day.











As an extra-special Bonus pic, here's one of Ginger goofing around with a Santa hat.