Monday, July 28, 2008

off-line for a little bit

Sorry, I haven't felt like spending my free time blogging. I've been working long hours on the computer this past week, so I've been savoring my off-line time. Hopefully, work will settle down next week.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

breaking: possible Family Guy: Wrath of Khan???


Star Trek Stewie, originally uploaded by mrankinen.

Hot Giggity! From TVWeek.com (via TrekMovie.com):

. . . ["Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane] says, "If Paramount would let us do ["Star Trek II:] 'Wrath of Khan,' that would be the coolest thing." He adds that "Star Wars" works because a majority of the show's fans know the movie line for line, but Lucasfilm is pretty generous with the license, too. . . .

I'm almost more excited about this than the new "Star Trek" movie.

TrekMovie.com has possible Family Guy-STII:TWOK character casting ideas.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Hellboy II: The Golden Army: B


Hellboy II: The Golden Army Team, originally uploaded by MyCine.

Scott dragged me to Hellboy II on Sunday. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or his first Hellboy. Of the three, I liked Hellboy II the best. There is more humor, a simpler story, and beautiful fantasy scenes.

What doesn't really work for me in either Hellboy movies is the clash between fantasy and present day. Hellboy II even has a scene with real late night comedy hosts casually debating Hellboy like Paris Hilton. Also, Hellboy himself just seems ridiculous-looking.

WALL-E: A


Wall-E by Drew, originally uploaded by jasonshellen

I mentioned in my prior post that Scott and saw WALL-E during the holiday weekend, but I didn't really write my mini-review.

This was a great, entertaining movie. Not overly kid-friendly. It verges on being a little too preachy about consumerism, but its message is taken to such an funny extreme that it's hilarious. Be sure to check out the Buy-N-Large website and it's hilarious disclaimers.

The only thing that annoyed me a little was that Fred Willard appeared as a live action while all the other human characters were animated.

Monday, July 7, 2008

lazy holiday weekend

The three-day holiday weekend caught us unprepared. We had no plans or excursions planned. It was great!

On Friday, Scott found the amazing Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. It's was a little hike from the trail head through canyon to a spectacular multi-tier falls that cuts through a narrow, lush crevasse. Surprisingly the canyon was humid and smelly which is unusual for the usually windy, cool gorge.

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I'm amazed that after all these years visiting the gorge, there are still some amazing falls to find.

We had dinner with mom at Gustav's and then crashed at home for the rest of the holiday.


On Saturday we spent the morning doing nothing useful. Our latest obsession is You Are What You Eat on BBC America. It has almost inspired me to go on a diet. Well, almost.

Sheena came over in the afternoon and we took our first bike ride of the year. We biked from downtown through the Eastbank Esplanade and Springwater Corridor to Oaks Park. It's a relatively short ride, but we were so tired that we had to turn around. We'll definitely need to do more training rides if we plan on doing the Providence Bridge Pedal next month.

Having been denied Russell Street BBQ on the holiday, we had dinner there on Saturday night.


On Sunday, we went to church and had brunch with mom and Sheena in the 'Couv. We then picked rasberrys at Kruger's farm on Sauvie's Island with Paula. I was not a fan of strawberry picking when we visited the farm two years ago, but raspberries are much easier to pick and the weather was much cooler. We have so many berries.

We ended the weekend watching WALL-E which was terrific.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

anti-gay website turns athlete homosexual

One of my pet peeves is when conservative "news" websites refuse to use the word gay. They often insist on using homosexual -- I assume because it sounds less positive and more like an affliction. I always assumed there was some right-winger who carefully searched for gay in articles, but apparently not. They just use search-and-replace. The folks at RightWingWatch.com caught anti-gay group the American "Family" Association changing the name of athlete "Tyson Gay" to "Tyson Homosexual".

Apparently, this isn't the first time the AFA has changed the words of an Associated Press news article. Last month, Good As You reported that AFA re-wrote an AP article by Lisa Leff changing "same-sex opponents" to "advocates of traditional marriage". It's bizarre that the Associated Press lets a religious/political activist group inaccurately manipulate its writers' articles.

(Hat Tips: Guardian.co.uk, More Musings On)

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Get Smart: B


GET SMART, originally uploaded by wbmoviesgirl.

Scott and I saw the new Get Smart starring Steve Carell. I assumed the late Don Adams' original Maxwell Smart and Mike Myers' Austin Powers did pretty much did everything possible with the bumbling spy agent parody. The new Get Smart is a more subtle comedy compared with Mel Brooks' and Myers' blatant comedy shtick. While the new Get Smart still has some silly comedy, more of the humor is based on everyday personality conflicts. The new Maxwell Smart is basically another version of Carell's 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office characters.