movies

adventures / Friday / iPhone / movies / photo / Twitter / video — Comments Off on Look down, look down
28
Dec 12

Look down, look down

Seen alone or with a friend, knowing the story or completely new to it, as a moviegoer or — as I did — with Broadway purists, Les Mis is good.

Russell Crowe, as Javert, is the weakest part of the performance. And he was reasonably acceptable.

The best part was this: Colm Wilkinson, the original Jean Valjean, plays the Bishop of Digne. It is a great part, and so obvious and well done, and everything is in good hands throughout.

This is pretty incredible, too:

Typically, the soundtrack for a movie musical is recorded several months in advance and the actors mime to playback during filming. However, on this film, every single song was recorded live on set to capture the spontaneity of the performances.

Saw that this evening. Beforehand I got a shave. The professional kind. The someone-else-has-sharp-implements-aimed-at-your-face kind.

This was a unique Christmas gift my father-in-law and I received. He made the appointment, we went down to the salon this morning and saw this sign:

Barber pole

I knew about this association of barbers and blood letting, but this was a good time to be reminded. Especially so soon after my fall haircut experience where my local barber almost took off my ear. It clearly got to him. He got me out of his chair quickly, without finishing the haircut, which was why I had a great feathered look for a few days as my hair got to a certain length.

Alas, there would be no hair cutting today, just face shaving. And this is how they do it, as my father-in-law went first, I could watch with detached cool from the sofa in front of SportsCenter.

She only missed one spot. Also better than I do.

Have you had a professional shave? The next time you have a big event coming up you should consider it.

errands / journalism / links / Monday / movies / Samford / site / Tumblr / Twitter — Comments Off on This plumbing has happened before, this plumbing will happen again
17
Dec 12

This plumbing has happened before, this plumbing will happen again

For the seventh time in our two-plus years in the house I undertook a plumbing chore this evening. The working mechanism in the tank of one of our toilets had forgotten how to turn off — a plastic tab having turned to dust or what have you — which threatened an overflow and so on.

The good news is that this is the third one of these I’ve replaced in the last 18 months. At least it is easy.

The big thing is keeping everything dry. You have to drain the tank, and then climb between the cabinet and the porcelain and work your way through two plastic bolts. These were made in China, of course, so they are the best plastic money can buy.

And then there’s the water dripping, because a little drip is better than a lot of sponge drying. After that the new device, which will surely find some way to crumble before 2014 arrives, goes in.

Seen another way this is really an exercise in defying the Mayans, who were big on plumbing:

A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.

“Water pressure systems were previously thought to have entered the New World with the arrival of the Spanish,” the researchers said in a recent issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. “Yet, archaeological data, seasonal climate conditions, geomorphic setting and simple hydraulic theory clearly show that the Maya of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, had empirical knowledge of closed channel water pressure predating the arrival of Europeans.”

I had no idea I’d find that story when I started the Mayan joke.

Anyway, after a few attempts, the washer was seated. The newest fine plastic from China was in place and tightened.

Also replaced some light bulbs in the other bathroom, because electricity with wet hands is fun for everyone! And because if you’re going to one of the home improvement stores you may as well combine your misery. The bulbs are on the primary aisle when you walk in and the cheap plumbing stuff isn’t far away. Naturally, since I knew exactly what I needed tonight, I ran into two staffers who offered to help.

“Yes. Can you just wait here? Soon enough something I don’t understand will inevitably break in my house.”

We did our Christmas cards tonight. I was responsible for the stamps and the return address. The cards look great, because my lovely bride picked them out. I think everyone most in our address book is getting one.

Everyone else is getting an email with a JPG attachment.

Then I made a Christmas card for Allie. I’ll put it here tomorrow.

Tonight I also added several new banners for the blog. Many of the new ones are a departure from the thin 900 by 200 pixel design. Tell me what you think. (And reload to see more. Or see them all in one place, here.) My next trick will be to organize them in something that resembles a seasonal classification.

Oh, hey, there are new things on the Samford journo blog:

Maps that tell stories

A few lessons from Newton media coverage

You saw the Newtown picture now read the story behind it

There’s also Twitter and Tumblr and this, the complete Star Trek trailer.

See you tomorrow. Remember: Allie’s Christmas card will be here.

football / movies / Thursday / video — Comments Off on The there-ness of it
6
Dec 12

The there-ness of it

What I’ll be doing next May:

I don’t think he’s Kahn. I think he’s Gary Mitchell even less. That’s part of the fun at this point, but you don’t even want to allow yourself that much fun. You know, eventually, you’re going to find out who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing. There will be one too many teasers, or interviews. Someone will see it and write it online. Best not to suspend disbelief at all, then, right?

That shot of the ship stumbling into the water is impressive, though.

My high school was in the state championship football game tonight at Jordan-Hare. I don’t follow them at all — haven’t been to a game since my senior year — but they’ve had a great season. They came into the night 14-0. Their defense hadn’t allowed more than two scores in any one game all season.

The head coach struggled and stammered his way through an embarrassing health class my sophomore year.

They apparently lost their quarterback at the start of the season. The kid calling plays is really a defensive player; still, he’s done well.

Despite a handful of NFL players and more than their share of kids making big college teams this was the first time my school has been in the big game. They let the kids check out early to make the trip to the game. And they’re letting them check in late tomorrow if they made the trip.

They played one of the state’s powerhouses, and they were in rhythm tonight. My school was badly beaten.

They were showing the net yards on the scoreboard. My alma mater broke 100 yards three times. They’d get over and then there was a penalty, moving them back. They’d get over and then turn over the ball. They’d get over and then suffer a sack. This was in the third quarter, when it had become clear that everything was going right for one team and wrong for the other.

The student body cheers, apparently, haven’t changed. The band is not as good as I remember.

One of the players, after the game, said “We had good chemistry on this team … We laughed. We had fun. Now we’re crying, but we did it all.”

But, hey, they made it there. Played on one of the big fields, saw themselves on the big HD screen, got a runners-up trophy for the big display case, met Bo Jackson — the most famous alumni — and dressed in the same locker room he once used. They made it there.

“It was a good season.”

collarbone / iPhone / movies / music / photo / Samford / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on Where I complain about feeling bad, and also, Meat Loaf
28
Nov 12

Where I complain about feeling bad, and also, Meat Loaf

I worked with students. I had a critique meeting with the newspaper staff. We discussed how we managed to leave an entire question, ‘Why?’ out of a story.

But at least we managed to reference something from 1939 in that piece which didn’t really matter much at all to the story today. Z has now happened, which was a logical conclusion of X, which brought about Y. And now here’s a tale of B, C and D.

That’s the way of it sometimes.

I told one funny story. I worked on this for much of the afternoon:

cameras

I had a headache and various other aches. This hurt and that hurt and my shoulder was bothering me for no reason at all and my collar bone was weird and on and on. Pretty rough for most of the day. By the evening I was in a foul mood of my own creation and for no good or real reason.

So I watched Memorial Day, which was what a movie that’s not trying to be a movie might look like.

This is interesting. Here is the trailer from the movie’s distributor:

And here is the trailer, YouTube says, “From the actual filmmakers. Not the distributors.”

I wonder what brought that on. Which of these movies would you rather see?

If you like the Cromwells, this movie is worth seeing. Everyone else is just holding serve, but that’s OK. When your film is about a flashback within a flashback the leads are running the show anyway.

I watched the Jackson Browne DVD, Going Home, but it didn’t fit my mood.

So I soothed myself with Meat Loaf:

Tomorrow will be better. Has to be more delightful than this one.

movies / photo / Storify / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on The last Twilight Twitter fest
15
Nov 12

The last Twilight Twitter fest

Thankfully these dreadful, dreadful movies are behind us. To sum up: somewhere along the way The Yankee started reading these books. She wanted to see the first movie. Figuring I owed her a movie for some horrible thing I made her watch I went along. I made fun of it on Twitter because it was just horrible and over the years this has been an event, making fun of the movies with a running commentary from inside the theater.

It has become a minor hit and, lucky you, I’ve archived them all. That includes the last installment. We saw it tonight, before most of the country, apparently. (I spoiled nothing below.)

The first movie is at the top. If you want to skip to the most recent movie Storify will continue to load as you scroll. Just do a word search for “And now, the fifth bad movie” and you’ll find yourself at the beginning of my last Twilight commentary.

I am glad this is over, though it was amusing to make fun of it and, as always, nice to make so many people laugh.

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