Okay, okay

Yes, I do realize it's been a while since I've shared my thoughts. First there was the hustle of final exams. Next there was the joy of being off work for 3 weeks or so. Then there was the bustle of beginning the new semester. Further, it didn't appear that anyone was missing 3rd B. All I had was one er "odd" comment from my old pal Omar. I have, however, heard from 2 people in the past day, wanting to know what has become of my blog. Given that overwhelming appeal for me to continue sharing my thoughts: I'm back.

Let me see, where to begin? Christmas was good. Mostly just relaxing, though I did appreciate the loot I got. Oh, Caffeine Dad had rotator cuff surgery last week, so the family has been dealing with that. I did manage to go on a couple of day hikes, but no overnight adventures to share. I've also been trying to build an "MP3 download" album on Amazon. If you don't know, Amazon now has an "MP3 store" to, I assume, compete with iTunes. Seeing as how I have a good bit of Amazon credit built up, I figured I'd try to build me an Amazon album based on two criteria: 1) It has to be a song available from their MP3 store. 2) It (sort of) has to be on an album that I would not want to own in its entirety. I thought it would be easy to do using songs from my Pandora station, but I've run into some trouble. Here's what I've got so far (though it changes a bit from day-to-day):

City Hall -- Vienna Tang
A Thing Called Raw -- Jackie Greene
Hell Is An Open Door -- East River Pipe
Mercy -- Po Girl
Clear and Present Danger -- Eddie From Ohio
Overcome -- Live
Tulsa County -- Son Volt.

I'm still iffy on a few of those songs, but the most frustrating thing is that some of the "best songs in the world" I hear on my Pandora station are not available from Amazon's MP3 store (or anywhere else in some cases). For instance, I'd REALLY like to include The Indigo Girls' version of "Romeo and Juliet" and two obscure tunes (Streets of London by Sinead O'Connor and Dreams by Cat Power), but those are not to be. Hence, I'm still building my album. By the way, the Cat Power tune happens to be more easily available in the UK than here, so if any of you English readers happen to have it, well ...

In other news, I have been to THREE movies in recent weeks -- that has to be an all-time record for me. First the bad: Beowulf -- in 3D no less! It was horrible. Seriously, this movie rivaled You, Me, and Dupree or Triple X for all-time badness. The only potentially cool thing about the movie was the 3D aspect, but they only had one little 3D trick that they kept doing over and over. Honestly, it felt as if you were in a Nintendo game, running from level-to-level, slaying beasts along the way. I still cannot figure out how they convinced so many "name" actors to participate in this fiasco. Actually there was one redeeming feature to this film. It gave me an opportunity to adopt a new "tag line". For the past few weeks, when I'm around the folks I saw it with, I will say, with much seriousness, "My name (LONG pause) is BEOWULF!" Yes, one could make a great drinking game from this movie by imbibing every time that dolt screams that line. Other than that, it was pretty worthless.

Now for the good ... I did see No Country For Old Men and I thought it was every bit as good as the buzz. I had read the book and I'll admit I was a little underwhelmed by it. Don't get me wrong; it was good, just not THAT good. The movie, though, was excellent. The pacing was excellent, the characters were spot on, the dialog was crisp. [The weakest part of the movie was the Woody Harrelso character, and even he wasn't bad.] There were no wasted scenes in the whole film. Heck, even the silence was a character. I honestly don't think there was a score to the movie -- at least not one that I noticed. If I had a 3rd hand I'd give it 3 thumbs up. Now the disclaimers. It was bloody and violent. It wasn't "cheap thrill" violence, but it would have been rough if I were squeamish about that stuff. More importantly, if you haven't read the book you're going to hate the ending. No not the ending itself, but the "unsatisfactory" nature of the ending. I'll leave it at that.

Finally, just last night I finally got around to seeing Juno. Given the stratospheric praise this little "indie film" has generated, I was fully prepared to hate it -- or at the least be sorely disappointed. In actuality I really, really liked it. I won't go so far as to say I loved it, but it was very, very good. It was fast, witty, and intelligent. They mostly resisted the sentimentality trap that would have been oh so easy for this film to fall into. For the most part, I'd say the critics and the movie-going public got this one right. A couple of complaints, though. First, the movie does seem to suggest that teen pregnancy might not be such a bad thing as long as the girl is hip and witty enough. I realize it wasn't supposed to be a "message movie" about teen pregnancy, but still ...

What bugged me more, though, is that this movie essentially was an alternate history version of what would have happened on the Gilmore Girls if Rory had ever gotten pregnant. [Well it was that with a better actor than old Alexis Bledel.] I liked the Gilmores, so why is that a bad thing? Well it's not a bad thing, it's just that America is crazy about this movie, yet most of America ignored the Gilmores. Seriously, they were every bit as hip and "with it" as Juno, yet they never got this kind of response. True, the Gilmores were (I think) WB's most successful program for a while, but they never captured the wider audience Juno has. I just don't get it.

As for Juno itself, ... It's a really good movie and I recommend it highly. You'll laugh, you'll groan, you may even tear up (if you're a tear up at the movies kind of person). The story is good, the music is quirky, and the acting is really good. Honestly, the most disappointing performance was that of Michael Cera, but I think I only say that because he essentially played the same character, in the same way, as he did in the TV show Arrested Development. All-in-all I don't think it was as good as last year's indie darling, but it was very good. Actually I just remembered the movie it reminded me of. It was a lot like The Opposite of Sex, with a much more likeable main character.

So anyway, ... Avoid Beowulf at all cost -- even with the cool 3D glasses -- but do go see No Country and Juno. At least that's my opinion.

Well now you're sort of caught up with me. I'm sure I have things to say about steroids in baseball and all the books I've read since I'm last reported. I'll get to those. For now, however, I need to get back to work.