We've got some big guests coming to Bagged & Boarded Live at Smodcastle. Last Friday night we had Guillermo Diaz and it was a blast. This Friday we have Michael McMillian from True Blood. The show is at 10 PM and tickets are only $10! You can also buy a four show pack and pay the price of three shows. If for some reason you can't come this Friday, you'll definitely want to be there on the 17th as our guest is:

Alex Winter, aka Bill S. Preston, Esquire, from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure! We'll be asking him questions, maybe doing a little rocking out on stage, and other cool stuff you won't want to miss. For tickets and more show info, head over to the Smodcastle site. If you are a cool celebrity and would like to appear on Bagged & Boarded, please hit me up. Thank you.

Hey everyone,

What did you do for the long weekend? Ric and I drove out to see our brother and sister-in-law's family in Arizona. I drove us out late Friday night. When we got there at 1am, it was still in the 90s. Wow. I love air conditioning.

Saturday afternoon we drove out to see Judi, who was one of my bridesmaids. She recently had a crazy and very early birth, and we are so glad she and her baby boy are doing okay! Born three months early, Jake is still in the NICU, so we met up with Judi there and got to hear the whole story. That evening we got some takeout and hung around the house together just catching up on life.

Sunday we went to church and fired up the BBQ. We had too much to eat, played video games, and watched some Star Wars together. Ric and his brother watched an entire season of Frisky Dingo in one sitting. I wish I had been able to stay awake with them!

Monday Ric and I met up with Becky and Zoe for breakfast. It was great to catch up a bit, and man, it's so fun to see how much Zoe has grown! Since the upcoming week is a busy one, we squeezed in an errand to buy a gift for a wedding we're going to in a few days. We relaxed some more with the fam before packing our bags for the long drive home. The drive seemed extra long this time. I had to ask Ric to help me do the driving because I got too sore. Once we were home I needed to stretch my legs, so I went and did all my grocery shopping, which should also help free up my week a little bit.

Up this week, we've got a mini-golf night with Ric's parents for his mom's birthday, a BBQ to hang out with Erika and Justin while they're in town for a wedding, the wedding, and lunch with the family for my mom's birthday.

Things at work are busy but good so far. I'm still trying to transition a lot of my old responsibilities out to other people, but it's hard because we're at the end of an old software system and at the beginning of a new one, so I'm trying to see out the work on the old system so I only have to teach D what to do on the new one. I'm writing a procedure manual as things come up, and trying to iron out the kinks we're discovering along the way.

I hope everyone else out there is doing well and that you all had a great weekend. I can't tell you how nice it is to think I only have to work four days this week.

When the Brea 5 re-opened its doors and was offering free movies, I recalled that the last movie I saw at that theater was Ghost World; I don't think at the time I knew that the theater would be closing. Nine years later, a wave of nostalgia washed over me when I walked into theater five and saw its chairs. While the lobby has gotten a makeover, the theaters are the same, and seeing the rows of chairs again brought back so many memories. My sister met her boyfriend (a theater employee) there, when he finally approached her after seeing her frequent the theater for years. We got to know several of the people who worked there, actually. I wonder where they all are now - have they found a direction in life? Most of them hadn't yet; we were all young and didn't know where we were headed then. I still remember when Ric came home from his semester in D.C., and he paged me, and I got the page while I was in the theater. I used the pay phone to call him back and accept his invite to hang out. We ended up hanging out for the rest of our lives.

The Brea 5 will always live on my heart as a foreign and independent movie theater and a place where I spent many of my formative movie-watching years, but now it's a slightly higher-end discount movie theater that features movies a month or so before they're released on DVD. For the opening week, the theater offered free admission to any movie. The only pick of the five that I hadn't seen was Percy Jackson. I had a mild interest in the movie because I like the young adult fantasy genre.

I had no idea who starred in Percy Jackson before I watched it. Sean Bean plays Zeus, Pierce Brosnan is Chiron, Steve Coogan is Hades, Rosario Dawson is Persephone, Kevin McKidd is Poseidon, and Uma Thurman is Medusa?! Why didn't I hear about this cast?

I forgot to mention that Catherine Keener was in the movie too. She offers the worst acting I've ever seen from her. What kind of casting agent thought she'd be good in this type of movie? She's so granola that she can't possibly fit in with a CGI world.

Keener plays the mother of Percy Jackson, a young kid who doesn't know he's a demigod (son of Poseidon). He thinks his father left his mom when he was young, but Poseidon was forced to leave his family. Now,hen Zeus thinks Poseidon's son stole his lightning rod, he threatens war on Earth.

The worst casting of the movie was for its star role, Logan Lerman, who admittedly isn't given much to work with, but can't quite handle the little he is given. To make matters worse, his sidekick is a satyr. The word satyr sounds cool, but a half-man half-goat isn't all that cool on the big screen. A lot of his satyr-who's-got-game antics are very painful to behold.

Well, Percy has a generic love interest with Annabeth, daughter of Athena. She joins him on his quest to rescue his mom, who has been kidnapped by Hades. Together with their goat friend, they have to collect pearls that will help them return from the underworld. They have to fight some mythical creatures to obtain them, save mom, and restore the lightning rod to Zeus, and all on a deadline.

Oddly enough, while watching the story unfold I could tell it was probably an entertaining book. It sounds like a creative way to introduce younger readers to the world of mythology and learn about its key players and their attributes. Percy is not unlike Perseus in his demigodhood and the places he visits are similar, but the visualization of this modern spin on mythology just doesn't work. The script is hokey, the actors aren't into it, and the special effects aren't very impressive.

I'm sure the idea of making this movie sounded like one with great potential, but the awe of the mythological world is missing here, and as a result, the whole thing feels pretty ho-hum.

Let's all celebrate our favorite zip code and the mother of all melodramas! What's your favorite episode? I can never decide. For some reason the episode where Donna takes over P.A. duties for David and the show ends with a tracking shot through the hallway as "Stand By Me" plays in the background always sticks with me, but who can forget Brandon's brief gambling career and Kelly's stint as a cult member? Ah, memories.

Grinderman

The Best of the Spirit by Will Eisner

Erika is volunteering at a local church's food pantry tonight, so I fed the kids dinner, bathed them, and put them to bed. As I was saying goodnight to Daniel, he said he wanted Erika to come and say goodnight (as he says every night when she is here). I told him that she is still at the food pantry, but if she comes home while Daniel is still awake I will have her come in and say goodnight.

"You know what's the best thing?" Daniel asked.

I replied, "What?"

"When I go to sleep and wake up, and then Mommy comes in."

A few of you already joined up but if you're up for some Fantasy Football you can join our league here. The password is Wildcat. The draft is Monday night but if enough people complain I might be willing to change it.

Reading a book not long before watching a movie can set one up for major disappointment. I know this, yet I set myself up by doing exactly that because I quite liked the book. I thought it was a great young-adult spin on a Logan's Run/Planet of the Apes genre movie. In it, Saoirse Ronan stars as Lena, a girl who lives in the city of Ember. Ember is a bit like Dark City - no sun, all artificial lights, only it's a little less technologically advanced - no one knows how to make a mobile source of light (or capture fire); as such, no one can go into the darkness that surrounds the city. It's self-contained, and to its inhabitants, it is all there is. The people of the city also don't know must of their history, so they don't know that the city was made by builders for a specific purpose, and that the builders left special instructions that were supposed to be opened at a specific time. The instructions were supposed to be passed from mayor to mayor over the years, but got lost.

The city's power supply is failing, and everything's falling apart. Everyone is afraid of what will happen if the lights turn off permanently. Lena stumbles across a partial version of the builders' instructions, and she and her peer, Doon try to uncover what they mean - both hoping that this could be salvation for Ember.

I experienced this story as an audio book. As the narrator read, I was able to perfectly envision an image of Ember, Lena, Doon, and every place they went. That's unfortunate, because my vision of Ember was quite different than what it looked like in the movie. I really disliked the settings and costumes in this movie. I even hated the casting, especially Tim Robbins as Doon's father, which was a complete mistake, as was Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Clary. While we're at it, I'm not so sure Bill Murray was the right person for the role of the obese, corrupt mayor either, nor was Harry Treadaway as Doon (who looks a little too emo to fit in to his environment, so maybe it's more of a styling issue).

But beyond all this, the failure of the movie is that it completely misses the heart of the book. It's like the script was written as a series of snapshots of the book's most interesting parts, but so many of those interesting parts were too hard to film, so they were changed for the worse. It seemed like more effort was spent making Lena's grandma's kooky house and Doon's father's gadgets, which are quite secondary to the central plot. The movie was short, too, and unnecessarily so. There were plenty of places where scenes could have been extended to build character and theme, but character was unimportant, and themes were nonexistent.

I was so disappointed in this movie, but am so glad I caught the book. It explores a lot of ideas in a very simplistic way, and I'm all about it being a sort of introductory sci-fi story for the kids. I'd write more if I had more time, but that's basically it, and I've got to get back to work.

Another night with the Agadonis brought another movie I've been meaning to see but never seen, even though people have been telling me to see it for a long time. I'm sorry, but I have a Netflix queue that's roughly 400 movies long, so when people tell me to watch something, I can probably only tell them I'll see it within the next five years - if I'm lucky. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (the punctuation-free title makes me wince) was ages away from being seen, so I'm glad Amy chose it as her pick for the evening.

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as a thief named Harry who accidentally ends up at a movie audition and gets invited to a party, where he meets Perry. Perry (Val Kilmer, in possibly his best role ever) asks Harry to join him in an investigation, which will help Harry get into character more. Another person Harry meets at the party is Harmony, who turns out to be a childhood friend. Between Perry's investigation and Harmony's past, Harry's quest for a better life is derailed and the three end up entangled in a puzzle filled with dead bodies (sometimes recurring ones).

I love how the movie turns into a noirish jumble of mistaken identity and murder mystery in a present-day setting. It moves a little more quickly than typical noir, but the introspection on Harry's part is what gives the movie its depth. Every once in a while, I felt like the story-telling methods were a little bit overdone. There were fun gimmicks, but they weren't necessary ones, and they didn't always fit in with the overall feel of the movie.

This is the first time I've been impressed with Michelle Monaghan. I know a lot of people liked her in Gone Baby Gone (wow, she likes her movie titles sans punctuation, doesn't she?!), but I never felt like she was given much of a chance to shine because her character was underdeveloped. After watching this movie, I can't help but wonder why I haven't seen a lot of her. At the risk of getting too Mary, I have to say that I think the lighter color of hair makes her stand out much more. She's so vivid here, and it's no wonder that Downey's character is head-over-heels for her. As always, Downey's a charmer and plays well off of Monaghan and Kilmer, although I have to admit that he comes across as RDJ more than Harry to me, because I've seen him do the charming, chatty routine a few times.

At any rate, I can see this being a movie that I would stop to watch whenever it's on TV. It's got such a good balance of humor and darker material, the players are all perfectly cast, and it was fun to see a modern spin on noir that worked.

This is the time of year you start hearing folks whining about how wish the fall TV season would start already. I firmly believe those days are over and those folks are missing out. When the networks take their holiday, cable networks step up and in many cases offer vastly superior product. Right now I'm watching some of my favorite shows. I'll actually be sad when it's fall because that means having to wait for these to start up again.

Weeds: We're two episodes in on this season and I am digging it. The banter between the family members is hilarious this season and Shane has been the show stealer show far. I'm curious to see how Kevin Nealon and Guillermo Diaz will come in to play this year.

Rubicon: Some people are saying this show is moving too slowly but that is exactly why I like it. I love the atmosphere of the show, that bizarre office building, the city. I am very intrigued by the storylines and very curious to see where this one goes.

Mad Men: Overall this is still probably my favorite show on TV. We're seeing a much more vulnerable side of Don Draper this season and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Entourage: I guess I understand the criticisms this show receives but I enjoy it. I was glad to see Billy come back as he is one of my favorite characters and I enjoy seeing Ari finally squirm.

True Blood: Oh True Blood. This show is so insane and that is why I love it so much. I don't even know where to start.

The big show I am looking forward to right now is Boardwalk Empire. It looks absolutely incredible. It also has Omar. On top of that we have the returns of Eastbound and Down and Bored to Death next month. I may never watch network TV again.

OK, that is a lie.

So I was talking to a guy who asked me what it was about Christianity that appeals to me. I found it more difficult to answer this question than I thought I would. To answer it honestly anyway. This is what I came up with for him.

I see the world this way – the rich and powerful use their wealth and power to maintain their position at the expense of the poor and helpless. We don’t use our advantages to help others, but rather we live at the expense of others. And institutions that have been setup to do good, don’t.

Something inside me tells me this is wrong. It misses the mark. It’s the opposite of the way it should be. It’s a world that needs to be turned upside down and given a good shake. I think that’s the appeal of a T.V. show that MaryEllen and I enjoy. It’s called Leverage. It’s about a bunch of crooks that have turned their powers to helping people. There’s the ringleader, the computer genius, the con artist, the cat burglar, and the violent guy. The tag line is “The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.” And it’s fun to watch the weekly mark get what they have coming. Seeing their face fall when they realize they’ve been had – it’s great.

And so given that – the story of a god – the most powerful being in the universe - who comes to the world to set it right appeals to me. But our god doesn’t come as those of us frustrated with a corrupt and hurtful system would like him to come – like the violent guy from Leverage – making things right with his fists. Instead he shows up as a helpless infant of questionable parentage, poor, far from home, in a cave, in a backwater province of the Roman Empire. When this boy grows up, he wanders and preaches and spends time with the weak and helpless outcasts. And the triumphant climax of this god’s making the world right – turning it upside down – is to get himself tortured, killed, and propped up as a symbol for all to see what happens when someone tries to mess with the way the world is.

I like the story of a god who comes to shake things up and gets shaken and broken just like us. A god that turns the world upside down by turning upside down our very notion of what a powerful god is. A god who shares our frustration with the state of the world, who calls for us to set it right, and who suffers with us when we suffer in out efforts.

If Muslims shouldn't build a community center in lower Manhattan because a few nutjobs from one sect of their religion committed grave crimes near there, then we shouldn't allow any churches to be built near schools because a few nutjobs from one sect of that religion have raped children.

Or maybe the psychopath killers in al-Qaeda don't represent all Muslims any more than the psychopath rapist priests represent all Christians.

There are a lot of things to love about our local TV station's news website: the spelling and grammar mistakes, the charmingly mundane stories, and the aneurism-inducing reader comments.

But my favorite is the News RoundUp. This regular feature highlights and summarizes the most newsworthy items of the day. The thing is, though, that the writers feel the need to capture the essence of each story in just a few words, and then to combine the three, separated by commas, within the headline. Usually this results in something like, RoundUp: Iowans and credit, Rathbun Lake tour & health care. But occasionally the news items are worded in such a way that their juxtaposition results in some unintended meaning. These are always a delightful surprise.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Proving you're a citizen, forgery & a new high school
With a couple of punctuation changes, this could be the title of a fantastic weekend seminar.

Worker accused of having sex, yoga & Tasers
I'd like to know what kind of job that worker was hired to do.

Ignoring laws, lightning causes house fire & shorter school year
Something must be done about this lightning's utter disregard for our society's laws and our school schedule.

Hi everyone,

The past week has been one of changes!

First off, we got new neighbors! A couple weeks ago, Ryan and Amy closed escrow on a condo in our complex. Yes! They now live four doors down across the way. We helped them paint in their new place last weekend:

This weekend, we helped them move in. It was a hot day and we all got tired, but we finished early, and it was great. I like having people I actually know in my complex, especially when one of them is a best friend.

Second, I got a new job! No, I wasn't applying for anything outside; we had an office re-org. Previously I worked with the registrar-side of things for our university's degree completion program. The program is closing, and our office wants to keep the two of us who work with it, so they decided to start shifting things around so that no one will wonder why we have two people dedicated to helping only 300 students out of 6000. I have moved under a new manager and into a newly-created position. I'll continue working with the software we've converted to for our student administration, as well as managing our office website, social networking, communication between departments, reporting, and learning and supporting the office's various softwares and the special projects related to them.

It's a big departure from what I was doing in the past (which was overseeing registration, grades, probation, etc.). I've spent over ten years working with registration, so it's definitely weird to leave it behind. I will definitely miss it. I'm also going to miss working with and sitting next to D, my partner in crime, and having frequent chats with K, my movie and WordTwist buddy. We'll still be around each other, but probably won't be sitting as close to each other when some office Musical Chairs takes place.

I am excited about the prospect in the sense that it's nice to be recognized for my aptitude, but I am nervous as well. It's a less structured job. It will be harder to measure my progress/achievements on a day-to-day basis, as well as stay focused, since I'm more of a task-oriented person. It's also daunting to think of how much I have to learn, and I'm nervous about my ability to keep up as well as become an expert on so many softwares. I'll probably have to start learning some new coding languages too. It's going to be a challenge. As I told some friends already, I think I'm being placed in a job because I am good at certain things, which makes sense, but only time will tell if I actually like having a job doing those things.

So this week, along with an already busy week, I'll be teaching D the ropes of what I've been doing for the past six years. When you think of it, I could definitely use a little bit of prayer.

Also up this week are some changes in office decor! I'm heading up a group of people who are decorating the office for a university-wide department spirit competition for Opening Day on Friday. Seeing as we started planning about two weeks ago, it'll be rushed, but hopefully our ideas will come out well. I'll definitely post photos on Facebook. If you're not on Facebook, then you're missing out on all of my lovely photos, which I post all the time!

May you all have a great week! I'm off to get a little exercise before hitting the stores in search of groceries and decorating supplies!

While we had our opening night a couple weeks ago, this weekend marked the first weekend of the regular schedule at Smodcastle. In addition to working the door and other assorted duties while wearing a silly hat, I also joined Matt and Jesse for our first episode of Bagged & Boarded Live. For the live show I will be joined by a guest for my segment and my first guest was none other than Jason Mewes. It was a lot of fun and people seemed to dig it. Mewes and I actually ended up discussing Dungeons & Dragons at length, which was pretty cool. Matt & Jesse really did a great job and I am looking forward to joining them every Friday night. You too can join us by buying tickets here.

Plain View #115 - June 14, 2010
Rough week

Maly's coolness

Party Down

Dexter

Bunch o Movies

Busking

Kid Stories

If you miss the links in the notes, let me know, otherwise, they're gone.

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I live in a condo with a very compact kitchen and am always trying to find ways to save space. I had a double-tiered Lazy Susan in my pantry that was crammed full of spices. It was taking up precious pantry space, as well as getting so packed that it was always hard to find the spice I was looking for because sometimes what I needed was sitting behind another bottle; I started buying duplicate spices because I thought I didn't have an item. The more I played around with cooking, the more spices I bought, and the more spices I bought, the less room my pantry had. It was a mess.

After searching online for ideas, I kept seeing magnetic spice racks. Unfortunately, most of them were sheets of metal and only held up to around 16-20 spices, and most of them couldn't be used very flexibly. Related to that, another idea was to buy watchmaker tins and put magnets on them, then affix them to my fridge. But from what I read, the tins aren't very airtight, and the warmth of the fridge might affect the spices. So what now?

Well, I have small, long cabinets that hang above my sink. I thought it would be great if I could somehow have a long row of spices that stretched the same length. I considered building a small shelf that just extended beneath the cabinets, but going out to buy supplies and making it permanent with a professional look was a little daunting. I found out that there's such a thing as magnetic primer, and thought maybe I could coat the underside of the cabinet, but found out the primer can really only support light items (like pieces of paper).

All this time I wanted something cheap, but really, my ideas were too grand for cheap. Once I realized this, I finally gave in to my gut instinct: magnetic knife racks. I popped over to Ikea, got a few slim racks that cost about $8-9 a piece, and had the husb attach them to the cabinet. He had to trim one of the racks (I think he actually used--and possibly destroyed--a handsaw). But they were up there!

As for the jars, well, I had to hunt for jars with lids that I knew would be magnetic. Most jars with metal lids should work. For me, since I already had one spice rack with magnetic jars, I just caved in and bought the rack again (after a failed call to the manufacturer to inquire about buying replacement jars), and gave away the extra spices to some friends.

It took a while for me to transfer all of my spices from my variety of bottles to the jars, and then I labeled them all using clear labels in the handy-dandy label-maker (every home should have one).

Once I popped all those jars up there and saw the colors and how streamlined it looked, I was giddy. It makes me happy every time I look at it. I have room in my pantry again, the spice rack looks great, and man, it makes cooking so convenient too!

Additional thoughts, added post-post:
I have to say that my initial reason for doing this was to save space, but the function aspect has been a huge bonus. When I'm cooking or baking, it's awesome to have everything accessible at an arm's length. I even have baking soda and powder on the rack. Plus, there's the great satisfaction of popping the jar off and on the rack!

I think I may add one non-conformist jar to the mix, since it's used more often: vanilla. I do have to store a few excess spices/powders in a cabinet, but they take up very little space and only need to be accessed at refill time. My one regret with the whole project is that I wish the space above my sink were even longer, because I have a few more spices I'd like to add to the lineup! For now, I plan to put the least-used spices (who needs saffron on a regular basis?) in a cabinet. Right now, that's only about 4-5 bottles, which is something I can deal with. :)

Tom the Dancing Bug illustrates an important point:

I'm pretty sure I was going to say everything word-for-word as Nobody said it in his review (which he has yet to post online), but now that he's said it all, I can take a pass, right?

He did notice some things I did, such as the comparison of Leo in Shutter Island and this movie. It's interesting to me that he chose to do both of these movies so closely together, since it's hard to avoid comparison.

The one thing I feel like an idiot for not noticing was the director's role as architect and that the cut at the end is a potential inception of the audience's interpretation of the film.

For me, an interpretation of the ending wasn't necessary because the movie seemed quite straightforward, and I haven't really entertained any discussions about it, although it's been funny listening to them go on on the other side of my cubicle wall.

Overall, I was pleased with this movie. I've been waiting for a summer blockbuster that looks good, contains some exciting action, and uses its brain a bit. Inception accomplished all three. That the movie was released to mainstream audiences almost seems a shame, since I have a feeling it could have been given more depth if it had been made for an indie audience. And it did lack a character with which one could empathize, despite the emotional dynamics between Mal and Cobb. Despite those couple of points, I found it interesting and entertaining, and just drank in the sets and effects. Joseph Gordon Levitt didn't look too shabby either (awesome suit).

On a related and final note, I'm quite proud of JGL and LDC for both making it through childhood as actors on TV sitcoms (Roseanne and Growing Pains) and turning out to be smart young men who choose interesting projects.

I'm pretty flattered!

Gary Oldman holds a lot of sway for me. He's one of my favorite actors, and as such, I have put up with a lot of bad movies just to see whatever brilliance he might perform. He has been a thickly-accented villain in a futuristic world, Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, Lieutenant Gordon, a white guy who wants to be black, a Russian hijacker on Air Force One, a two-faced cop, and Beethoven. (On a side-note, I found this handy-dandy list on Amazon that features the many accents of Gary Oldman, should you ever want to experience more of them.) Not all of his movies are great, but his presence usually yields more credibility to a movie for me. Stick with me here; there is a point.

Denzel Washington also holds a lot of sway for me. I try to sway away (yes!) from his movies. I know he has won an Oscar and has been nominated for others, but there's something so slimy about him. Doesn't anyone else see it? He comes across as so arrogant and self-righteous, or at least he seems to be attracted to roles that accentuate that quality in him. And if he's not self-righteous, he's more of a martyr, which makes him annoyingly righteous. At any rate, in most of his movies, I don't see the character - I see Denzel. One day, when Ric and I heard the song, "Don't Bogart That Joint" and decided it wasn't fair that such negative connotations would be attached to such a great actor when there are actors like Denzel around. So we adopted a habit of substituting his name for Bogart's. Example: "Don't Denzel the peanut butter M&Ms; I'd like to eat some of them too."

Anyway, when presented with the dilemma of a movie that starred both Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington, Ric and I both screamed (I love him for sharing my sentiments). We put off the movie for the cheap theater. Once it got there, we put it off even more. Apparently, out dislike of Denzel was stronger than our love of Oldman - who knew? But eventually, an evening with friends made the decision for me, and I quietly acquiesced when The Book of Eli was the chosen entertainment (and I love my friends for apologizing to me).

All that to eventually say that this is possibly the best Denzel movie out there. Thankfully, he walks around by himself a lot, so he hardly has any lines at all. He is, dare I say, subtle. I didn't think he had it in him.

His character is traveling in a post-apocalyptic world down a road. Before you say that this sounds too much like The Road, his precious cargo is not his son - it's a book with the power to save mankind, and apparently it's the only one left in existence. He's on a mission to reach a place where he can pass it on so that it is preserved, and Gary Oldman's character wants to steal it from him because he recognizes its power and wants it for himself. Together with a young girl, he battles against those who would steal the book from him and continues down the road toward his final destination.

I like the idea behind this movie a lot. As I've heard said, it's sort of like a Pilgrim's Progress. There's a straight path, and every time you leave the path, you are faced with danger, temptation, and death. There are a lot of parallels and insights one can draw to the plot, but unfortunately, the way the movie plays out feels a bit too familiar to me. I've already seen The Road, I am Legend, 28 Days (and Weeks) Later, and many other worlds like this, so I was hoping for a fresher take on a post-apocalyptic world.

As for the final scenes, I'm not sure if I was supposed to be surprised by them; I wasn't. That's not necessarily bad. I actually liked the closing scenes and concepts for the most part. I think I was expecting a more climactic resolution based on what other people told me about the movie. But that's okay. It's like taking a nap after a long journey - it's not very exciting, but it feels right.

While some reviews claimed that Oldman overplayed his role, I'm not sure I agree. Have they seen The Fifth Element or True Romance? Hahaha. Well, at any rate, I thought he was very even in his role. His character, Carnegie, wanted the book for evil, but revered the book for its good powers. The respect for what he sought was a nice touch to his character and made him a little less one-dimensional.

Overall, I was surprised to find the movie wasn't just a loud action flick, and that's a good thing. It didn't break out in any new areas ('though I think it had the potential to do so), but was solid enough, and I think I could potentially appreciate it more with repeat viewings. So there. Is that a surprising review from a Denzel hater?

I heard this story the yesterday about some Republicans who want to remove the part of the 14th amendment that automatically allows anyone born within the United States to be a citizen.

I thought that conservatives are committed to preserving the constitution (or at least what they imagine the constitution to say). Apparently, that only applies to the parts of the constitution that agree with their agenda.

As usual, the debate seems to center around what congress intended when adopting the amendment. So just to clarify, when legislators wrote 219 years ago that "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," they clearly meant that private citizens should be able to own and operate assault rifles and machine guns in 2010, but when they wrote 144 years ago that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside," they clearly did not intend to include Mexicans.

Got it?

One of my favorite things about All Songs Considered is their coverage of the big music festivals each year, especially the Newport Folk Festival. It will be a long time before I can actually attend (if ever), but I can experience the concerts vicariously through NPR’s comprehensive coverage: I believe audio recordings for all the performances are available through the Live Concerts podcast and I’ve spent the last week listening to them straight through.

There’s a great show by Punch Brothers, a band I would love to see live. While I couldn’t find a video of them playing “Rye Whiskey,” a favorite of mine, at Newport, here they are gettin' down on another occasion:

They also closed their set with an odd cover of Radiohead’s “Kid A.”

A band I’ve just learned about through these live recordings is O’Death. Here they are performing “Grey Sun” at Newport:

They fit into that wildly-aggressive-playing-of-traditional-insruments genre that I love. Just watch that guy go to town on the violin at the end. I’m definitely going to be checking them out some more.

My most exciting discovery, though, was John Prine, who apparently is a very famous and renowned folk artist that nobody bothered telling me about until now (I’m disappointed in you, Internet). He sings a song (also apparently famous) titled, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.” There is a YouTube video of him performing it at Newport here, but the quality isn’t very good, so here's an almost completely unrelated performance from several years ago:

When I heard this, I assumed it was a fairly recent song, probably written during the height of the Iraq War, considering its message about religion and shallow patriotism. It turns out, though, that it dates all the way back to 1971. It’s interesting how such a specific satirical song can be so timeless. Again, something I’m going to have to check out more of.

Hey everyone,

I only have a few minutes to post, so I thought I'd just write a few updates about live in general.

I've been keeping busy having fun with my summer. Every short Friday, I'm out there exploring the area in which I live. There are so many places to see. I'm already making plans for next year, since there were some things I wasn't able to get to this summer. Today I'm heading out with a couple girls from work to go to the Natural History Museum. I'm a little bummed the dinosaurs won't be on display since they're updating the exhibit, but it should be fun. Last Friday I spent eight hours at the OC Fair. It was so fun. I was on my own for most of the time, and I just walked along gradually and saw whatever I could see. From butter sculptures to racing pigs to Michael Jackson macaroni art, it was full of exciting and interesting things. I loved it.

My health is doing better these days. I've been taking medication to try and help what appears to be a slight insulin resistance. It's been making my more normal again. I don't know if that's what did it, but all of a sudden, my exercise seems to be working, and I'm starting to lose weight more rapidly. I am happy to say that I reached my pre-surgery weight, and I'm going down from there. Clothes are starting to be less tight, and some of them are even too loose. That's a great feeling. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up! It's all God. Every time I'm out there jogging, I think, "Can I do this?" and then remember it's really "we". He's got complete control of my health, and he's been allowing me to jog more and more.

Oh, well, I was going to start writing more about my summer, but time's already up. Let's just say I've watched a lot of Dr. Who and Torchwood this summer, and am enjoying the ride.

I hope all of you are well and happy. Lates.