Pops random movie trivia quiz

Okay, you coven of nerdlings! Movie nerds that is. Question: Who is the actor that if you added up all the movies he has been in, it would total the highest money grossing list of pictures ever? Matt is exempt from answering for he and I talked about it some months ago. Sorry, Matt. You can try to answer part No. 2.....the random movie quote for the day. "What did I tell you boys and girls, don't ever argue with the big dog. The big dog is always Wright!"

Happy Holloween..... Go, Bella and Joseph

Body Worlds Anyone?

So, I am really interested in seeing this. I have been hearing about it for a long time and was surprised to see it in was coming to Utah. I heard it was only here until Nov., but now the site seems to think it will be around until Jan 11th. I think I'll trust the site, rather then rumors at my work. I am a little put off by the admission ($22), so I am stewing about it.

Any Utah peeps interested? Or Wyoming peeps interested enough to make a trip out here sometime before Jan? It looks REALLY interesting. As I explored more about it, I kind of thought Scott might have some interest.

This is the third exibit this artist has made, and this one is Body World 3 which focuses on the heart, there is one with the entire blood vessel system in tact:

Rad.

Lots of Pictures!!

Here are a lot of pictures of a lot of stuff we have been up to here in Wyoming! This includes, our new kitties that we got from someone who rescued them after they were abandoned in a stock yard. There were three that he found and one was already dead. Poor little things. We got them last night and they are so adorable! They are both male. We kinda want to name them Jacob and Edward but aren't sure if those names really fit them. Haha. I think they look like little gremlins! Anyway, there are also pictures of carving pumpkins last night, our trip to Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower, and B's birthday. Enjoy!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Emily wanted me to post after I finished reading the sixth Harry Potter. I finished it last night and have to say, I'm pretty shocked. There were a lot of things that I was not expecting, but also things that I could kind of see coming for a while, just becuase of fore-shadowing and all that. I really enjoyed this one and I think I like the books more and more as I go. They are getting more complicated and mysterious and I like that. I also like how in this book, there were a lot of mysteries but she didn't make them too easy to figure out. I thought that was cool. It is hard to talk about these with Sue out there reading these because I don't want to give anything away. I have no idea what will happen in the seventh but Em wanted me to give her a few of my guesses so I think I will do that by other communication means!

Mystery Halloween Book

So today, a book from my youth popped in my head and I am going to pull a dad (The Promise) and ask you all what book it is. I know we owned it for a long time and I hope mom and dad still have it.
Here are the details I remember:

-A kid (or maybe 2 or 3), are dressed up for Halloween, one is a ghost I think, and they run into like a real Halloween party in the woods.

-They see real moster or goblin-like creatures having a party and cook out and kind of try to blend in.

-I remember as a child being particularly impressed by a scarab beetle of some sort, I don't know the role of the scarab beetle, but I remember a picture of it.

-I remember one of the goblin like things (with a read shirt and orange hair) getting sick or having a stomach ache or something.

-The book was one of those really beautifully illustrated books (not cartoonish), and had a very distinct smell. You know how all books have some sort of smell and some are stronger then others? This one had a strong one.

HELP ME!

Road Trip (2)

Back from Road trip 2 last night. Good times had by all. I got the group together by 8 am Saturday morning and took off in Amy's Denali with Mom, Matt, B, Simone and Feliz. We drove to Cody and took in the W. F. Cody Histerical Center. Very interesting Museum of Art, Indian and Nature and Guns. We had lunch and took off for the South entrance to Yellowstone Park. Just inside the park, B and Simone shouted "there is a bear". I turned around and up on the hill was a Grizzily bear walking down the side of the hill towards the road. Way Cool! He or she made it to the road right next to us and matt got some good video of it. We went on through the park and ended up at West Yellowstone Montana and spent the night. We had an expensive pizza for dinner and Matt, Simone, Felix and I went to the IMAX show and saw a film on Yellowstone. Pretty neat. I had a rough night as the pizza never digested well and I had a hard stomach all night. Sunday morning I got them all up and fed and we were on our way by 9 am and saw a bald eagle, some buffalo, coyotes, lots of geysers plus Old Faithful. The day was sunny and we had a great time. We got back to Riverton around 5 oclock and had Bronwyn's birthday party and some food and cake and bread pudding. Fun weekend for us.

Riverton Volleyball

Hey, I've never done this before so here goes! I spent Friday and Saturday in Sheridan, Wyoming watching Kelly's High School Volleyball team play in the Regional Championship tournament. Our team struggled this year with one of our top players, who is 6'2", tearing her ACL and is out for the rest of the season. We came in ranked at the very bottom of the league, in 6th place. We weren't expected to win any games and kindof planned on going home after the first day. In order to continue on Saturday we would have had to win both our matches on Friday against two schools from Cheyenne--much bigger & more powerful schools than us. We packed our overnight bags just in case and encouraged the girls to play their best. Well, they did! They beat both Cheyenne schools in matches where they had to play the best of 5 games. This meant that they qualified for State which will be this weekend in Casper. We stayed the night and watched them play the number 2 ranked school (Sheridan--with a home court/crowd advantage) and they came close, but lost. They then beat one of the Cheyenne teams again to place third in the region! We're proud of them! Kelly has worked really hard this year and has improved a lot. We're looking forward to State and for her Senior season next year.

Sunday's With Sue

Fletch! This was a tough one for you guys! Only 3 people guessed and they guessed after I gave the hints! Amy was first, then Haley then Dad. I didn't hear a word from Em, Matt, Cat or B! I thought my hints would have helped all of you! Amy said I was right, Scott really likes this movie. And the common element in 3 of the quotes? Chevy Chase! It cracked me up when I realized it. Chevy Chase has a reputation for picking really bad movies. Most of his peers say that he is or was a very funny guy, but because of his habit of choosing really bad movie roles and turning down good ones, he has ruined his career. He turned down the role in American Beauty that Kevin Spacey took and won an oscar for. So I thought it was pretty funny that 3 out of the first 4 movie quotes were Chevy Chase ones! I guess us Wrights like his movies!

Here is this week's movie quote:

First I played with Judd, then I played with mommy. Now I want to play with youuuuuu!

Halloween Cookies!!

Last Saturday me, Em, Scout, Cat and Booker got together at Em's house to decorate Halloween cookies. Since we were totally abandoned by our family, and left to live in Utah by ourselves, we have to come up with our own holiday traditions, hee hee. We had a lot of fun and pretty much giggled the entire time, imagine that! Emily has the best sugar cookie and frosting recipe. Here are some pictures.

Scout was pretty excited to decorate the cookies. While we were making the different colors of frosting she kept saying she wanted to decorate the witch's broom. Then when we finally got down to decorating she totally forgot about the witch's broom.


Here is a view of the table with all the decorating supplies.


Here are two of the cookies Scout decorated. She had a lot of fun with the frosting. She didn't quite grasp the concept of holding the top of the decorating bag. I think I spent more time fixing the decorating bags than I did decorating. That black and white spider web one she decorated had about 6 inches of frosting on it. I did the pumpkin and Em did the spider web.



Here is a view of as many cookies as I could fit in the camera frame. I think I like the witch hats the best. And the kitties of course.

I had to include this picture because it has the Prudence cookie Cat decorated. We laughed so hard when she was decorating that one. It also has 2 of the witch brooms Scout talked about for over an hour then completely ignored once we started decorating.

This picture has 3 of the cookies Booker decorated. He did the tombstone, the pumpkin and the spider web. I love the face on the pumpkin. And he did a great job on the spider web.

Here are a couple of cookies I decorated especially for B. I know how much she likes purple, so I found the biggest cookie we had and covered it in purple frosting. And we thought she'd really like a tombstone with Neil's name on it.


This picture has a bunch of the cookies Em decorated. She obviously has the most artistic touch out of us all. Pay special attention to the Frankenstein head she did, you'll see why in a second. With her decorating skills and her great cookie and frosting recipes, she and B should seriously think about making and selling those Disney princess cookies B mentioned once.


And finally for the biggest laugh of the day! When we first started decorating, Cat picked a Frankenstein head and started decorating. We didn't pay much attention to what she was doing as we were all busy decorating our own cookies and fixing the frosting bags Scout was mangling. When all the cookies were decorated we were sitting there looking at all the cookies. Em noticed the Frankenstein Cat did and laughed a bit and mentioned how funny his face was. Then Em started laughing really hard, I mean really hard. Cat and I were laughing too, just because Em was laughing so hard. I didn't think the face on Cat's Frankenstein was that funny. We asked Em what was so funny. With tears pouring down her face Em says "you've got the b.b.b.b." then she laughed hysterically. Then she did it again "you've got the b.b.b.b." By now, Cat and I are laughing as hard as Em, but we still didn't know what we were laughing so hard at. Then Em did it a third time! "you've got the b.b.b.b" She was laughing so hard she couldn't even say what was so funny. Finally, Em gained enough composure to scream "it's upside down!" Cat and I looked at the Frankenstein head that Cat decorated and burst out laughing. I seriously thought I was going to choke I was laughing so hard! What Em was trying to tell us is "you've got the bolts upside down!" I think we laughed for about half an hour. Cat, you are priceless! Thank you for the best laugh I've had in a long time! Check out the picture below. Can you tell which one Cat did?

Late plane

I am here at the airport with Duncan waiting for the 10:40 flight to come in and it is now 11:25 and it is 20 minutes out. I am so bored I keep reading the family blog and trying to think of something interesting to say and I am strikeing out. So bored I have been watching the Farting Preacher on Youtube and that is pretty sicko. I am stoked about tomorrow and our trip to Cody and Yellowbellystone park. Love to you all.....from sicko pops

Get to work

Matt: If you are reading this, get back to work on the Cub Scout race video!

The Bucket List

I saw the Bucket List the other night and liked it quite well. Better than I thought it would be and it had some good lessons on life and death and relations along with humor. The story line developed well and Nickelson and Freeman were as always, good. Not a bad little flick for a cold night in Wyoming. Here's to baby steps toward a better life......

HALLOWEEN IS THE BEST!!

I am totally stoked for Halloween! I still have no idea what we are going to do, but I don't really care because just the feeling of it is awesome. I love the cold air, the lit up pumpkins, the leaves on the ground, and even driving slow because of all the kids everywhere dressed up like freaks. 

Most of all, I just love the eerie feeling that seems to always be there halloween night. Whether that's me getting all psyched out about something weird in my mind, or me just scaring the living daylights out of somebody! 

You all know that I am a Youtuber, well, I spent some time on there the other day and found a ton of way sweet halloween related video's I thought I would share with you all. 

I know it isn't an "entertainment review". I hope you don't mind me taking up so much space on the family blog. Check these out! Must have sound. (wait til you get home from work Sue)

I had to start out with the Classic Brittany Spears kid. 

I got a few laughs out of this one as well, It' worth watching just for the fish kid at the end!!

I can't really see anyone else thinking this is funny, but I laughed because he just does the same dumb thing over and over. Plus he wearing the dorkiest outfit ever. It gets funnier as you keep watching. I would hate it if some random guy screamed in my ear though.

This is what should have happened to the last guy.

These are pretty good too. Some great ideas.

This one is old, but I just love it so much!

Try to look for the ghost

Real or fake?? I think it's fake, but it still creeps me out.

We have all seen this I think, But man, even though I know the story behind this, I still have a hard time watching it. I sometimes picture this guy when I am in the dark and I get all messed up!

Ok, This one takes the cake...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Palace

HUD SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I honestly think this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. This movie makes Plan 9 From Outer Space seem like a great movie. The story line, dialogue, acting and special effects were just awful. Cam and I saw this last week and I had to wait until now to do the post because I didn't want to think about the movie. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg should be ashamed of themselves. Seeing the movie makes a recent Southpark episode make more sense.

I'm not going to get into the storyline, it is just too bad to repeat. Harrison Ford is so bad in the movie I'm embarrassed for him. I started thinking during the movie "Is Harrison Ford a good actor? Or is he one of those that people think is a good actor just because he's good looking?" I started thinking of the movies I've seen with him in it, and realized I haven't seen too many of his movies. I've seen the Star Wars movies, The Fugitive, Witness, Mosquito Coast and Working Girl. I like Han Solo, but I don't think Ford's acting really stands out. Tommy Lee Jones is what made the Fugitive so good. The creepy amish kid is what made Witness good. And River Phoenix was the best part of Mosquito Coast, besides the story itself. And I really don't remember much about Working Girl except Joan Cusak has great 80's hair. Anyway, I don't mean to bag so much on Harrison Ford. The dialogue they gave him was so bad I don't know if anyone could have pulled it off.

The movie went from bad to worse, and by the time the ending came around Cam was seriously angry. He likes the Indiana Jones movies and was looking forward to this one. So watch it if you feel you need to punish yourself. If you have already seen it and liked it, it would be best if you didn't tell me. I would loose a bit of respect for you.

Road trip (1)

Instead of staying home and watching "Somewhere In Time" , Mom, Amy, Kyle, Simone, Felix and I took a trip to South Dakota Sunday afternoon (after "time with Jesus"). Simone's brother flew in from Germany Saturday afternoon and he will be here for 10 days or so. Amy wanted to show them Mt. Rushmore, Crazy horse and Devils Tower so we went. Had a great time and saw the sights and videoed the whole thing and drove a lot of miles on Monday. Haley and Marcus drove their car and followed us and joined in the trip. Had lots of fun. We all have grown fond of Simone and her two year older brother is pretty cool also. Mom, B & Matt and I are going next Saturday with them to Cody and Yellowstone so we get to take Road Trip #2 next weekend. We went to Bear Country (lame name, but way good place) outside of Rapid City. It is a wild animal park that you drive your car through and look at the animals. Elk, lots of wolves, bears, mt. goats, cougars, just about everything we have here in the west. I got some good videos except in the backgrown is Mom and Haley yelling at me to close the window. Course that is the rule, but who plays by the rules? They thought the bears and cougars were going to attack us by jumping in the window. Pretty funny! I admit, I was working it a little and pulling their chain a bit...hee,hee,hee. Anyway, fun stuff and good to be out and about with the fam and friends. They did think it funny when I was driving after seeing Devils tower and saw some wild turkeys on a dirt road and I chased them in the car shooting video through the windshield of these turkys running down the road. Devils Tower is awesome. You guys are awesome...

Beans needs love and a funny top ten list

We had to take Beans to the Urgent Care place tonight because she refused to go potty because she said it was "too ow-ies". Sure enough, she has a urinary tract infection. She fell alseep in the car, and pretty much slept through the doctors, except when we had to get a very sleepy little sample to test. We picked up her prescription and went home where it took 25 minutes of coxing to get her to take the medicine. For any that might not know, Scout it THE WORST medicine taker on the planet. But she did real good (it took being enticed by half a mint ice cream sandwich) and lots of explainations about how it will make her better. It is going to be a long 10 days.
She periodically starts crying and clutching her little back because I think her kidney's hurt, it is really quite sad. The doc said she should be feeling a bit better in 24 hours. Anyway, thought you all should know she needs your love, she's kind of sad- but a trooper.

On another note, this made me laugh tonight, thought I would share, since many of us are fans of these guys. It was a re run, but I missed it the first time around:

Scout!

This is the school picture Em has mentioned. She gave me a copy yesterday. I'm not sure if anyone in WY has seen this yet. Em didn't order a very big package of pictures. She is going to order more online, because as you can see, it is the cutest picture ever! Sorry it is a little lopsided. I just thought everyone at least needed to see the picture, and I don't think Em's scanner is working or something. (along with all of her other electronics!) So enjoy! I'm sure Em will send everyone a picture once she gets the new ones ordered.

New Sunday's with Sue is below this posting!

Sunday's With Sue

Three Amigos! Everyone did well with this one. Most people got it with the first quote. Haley was the first to guess, she guessed within like an hour of posting it. Way to knock Em off the top! Matt was next the Em, Em thought at first it might be Young Frankenstein. It definitely sounds like it could have come from that. Cat was next then Dad. I'm not quite sure when Dad got it, when he emailed me he said he had gotten it before and forgot to send me the answer.

Here is this week's. It's again from a movie:

That's an interesting name, Mr...?
Babar.
Is that with one B or two?
One. B-A-B-A-R.
That's two.
Yeah, but not right next to each other, that's what I thought you meant.
Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named Babar?
Ha, ha, ha. I wouldn't know. I don't have any.
No children?
No elephant books.

Harry Potter - 3, 4, and 5!

Ok, so I might be behind in my reviews but I am certainly not behind in my Harry Pot Pot reading! Yes, I finished the 5th one last night. Once I hit the last 3 chapters I couldn't put it down! I am really enjoying them so far. There really isn't much I can say because I don't want to give anything away. I really like them and I think they are so interesting and not nerdy at all. I still love all the Weasley's, they are so great. The twins are a crack-up. Professor Umbridge is the devil. Really the only complaint I had in the 5th one is that Hagrid was kind of weird and you didn't know why. I was finally relieved when I found out why because I didn't want him to stay like that. I am also glad that a certain Headmaster is back and that he and Harry "made up." I am also glad that Harry finally finds out the whole truth about the mystery that he is. I am excited for the 6th one!

LARS random comments

Mom and I watched Lars and the Real Girl Saturday night. I really liked it a lot. Not so sure what mom thought although she liked it better than "The Kite Runner" we watched the night before. The acting for all parts was really good. Lars, the brother and Sister-in-law, the girl (as you said) was great and I liked Dagmar the Doc. I thought Bianca was rather stoic. Ha ha. The writing was very good. Very sutel, very soft storytelling if you know what I mean. The progression of Lars with his disorder was really well done. The city folk and church people going along with it all was great. Lars reading Cervantes, Don Quixote, (another disalusional (sp)character) to the doll was classic if anyone noticed. Of course giving CPR to the teddy bear was cute and fun. Anyway, I loved the movie and glad we saw it.

Under the Radar

I wasn't expecting to do another Under the Radar so soon, but I watched this movie yesterday and decided everyone must watch it now. This is posted mainly for you Matt, you told me once you really like documentaries. Well this is a documentary about a chorus in England. The average age of the chorus member is 80 and they sing rock songs! The Clash, Rolling Stones, Sonic Youth, Talking Heads etc.

I read a feature about them in the New Yorker probably 5 years ago. I thought it sounded interesting, but never really thought of it again. Then last year, I heard there was a documentary made about them and it was showing at Sundance. I also heard a radio interview with the chorus director and the filmmaker, and I knew I had to see it. I put it on my Netflix que and waited for it to be released on DVD. It finally was, and everyone needs to see it.

Seriously, Em, Cat bump it to the top of your que. Wyoming people, someone needs to put it at the top of their que. Or just buy it. You will love this movie. Watch it with the whole family. You will laugh out loud several times and then cry. You will fall in love with these old people. Some of them are in their 90's and they are singing Sonic Youth! And there are like 3 music videos in it with them singing. They do David Bowie's Golden Years, hilarious! But the Bee Gee's Staying Alive is the best. I'm not just recommending this movie, I'm demanding that everyone watch it.

They did a performance here in Salt Lake a few months ago, and I am kicking myself for not going.

Sunday's With Sue

This one was harder for you guys than I thought it would be! No one guessed until I put the second quote up. And 3 people thought the first quote was a John Candy line from P's T's and A's. That was fun! Catherine and Dad both guessed Talladega Nights. Which was an excellenet guess! Dad changed his guess to Meet the Parents. Which is fine by the way, I don't care if you make multiple guesses. Just let me know what the final answer is.

Last week's winner was Emily again. She was the first to guess Meet the Parents. Then Matt, then Haley, then Amy, then Dad. Congratulations again Em!

This week's quote is another movie:

Maybe you could kiss me on the veranda.
No, on the lips would be fine.

North and South

3 1/2 stars

This was a BBC Miniseries done a few years ago, and was just recommended to me by my friend Ami. She saw it and liked it, and figured I would like it (she knows me very well). It was written by Elizabeth Gaskell, excuse my ignorance, but I didn't know who that was. I looked her up and she was a British author in the 1800's and was friends with Charlotte Bronte and wrote a biography of her life. Anyway, this is a Austin-esque story, but besides a romantic entanglement, has added things Austin didn't deal with. The story is about a young women that moves from Southern England with her parents to the more industrial North. She meets a Cotton Mill owner and dislikes him right away, thinks he is cruel to his workers. He likes her right away, but they are at odds because they don't understand each other. We see the driving force behind his actions and see him to be an extremely good man, while she doesn't, she just sees the cruelty. There is a worker's strike in the movie that goes badly, the history of those labor unions and stuff and the quandry everyone finds themselves in while striking was very interesting to me.
The love story is very Elizabeth/Mr. Darcy like, he proposes mid way through, she totally dislikes and misunderstands him so turns him down rudely, then finally does like him and understands him better, but gets herself into a misunderstanding, you know the story. Good stuff. Wonderful ending in a train station, worth all 4 hours.
So, lovers of period pieces and Jane Austin, this movie is totally worth your time! Now, the reason it didn't get 4 solid stars, is yes, there is a little cheesiness, I had to knock half a star for that. A few cringe worthy moments (some horrible dream sequence/flashback things) that were so cheesy! Also, John's sister (the main dude) plays her part a little over the top, sometimes I laughed, but sometimes I cringed a little. Here is the deal with that. I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes, in the name of a good story, you have to block out a few moments where the cheese is high. You must forgive and move on. This movie is worth that. I liked how it wasn't just high society, it delved into old industrial England and problems of the lower class. Anyway, the lead actors were good, he especially, I thought his performance was totally flawless. Rob and Matt will definitely skip this one (I don't know about dad's stand on this particular genre, but gut says, he will make fun of it.) However, Amy and Haley, this is right up your alley! I am sure you will love it. Mom too, but I don't know how much of this info she gets, tell her about it. In fact, I haven't read the book, but imagine it would be very good book club material, with all the added parts of the story to talk about. Totally check it out.
I watched it in 3 nights. Again, it's on Netflix instant (I am beginning to wonder what I ever did without that), and divided up in 4 one hour installments, so I watched one a night, and then last night, just had to watch the last two! Miniseries are good that way, you can break them up into do-able segments, instead of like a 3 hour movie, I like that.

My Harry Potter Fix

So, all this Harry Potter talk has left me needing a little fix. This little challenge we have going prompted Sue and Cam to watch all the LOTR's movies one weekend, and it took me a little longer, but I needed something myself. I cruised Netflix to see if they by chance had any of the movies on instant queue, they did not as I suspected, but they did have a little documentary.
It is called Discovering the Real World Of Harry Potter and it isn't as nerdy as it sounds. Ok, maybe it is, but I liked it! After Sue did her review of the first book, we had a lengthy discussion of the real references behind the book. Well, this was a documentary that talks about that very subject. We talked about the mythology we recognized from the book and mostly about the philosopher's stone. So I put it on the lap top after Scout fell asleep this afternoon, set it on a chair next to the tub and took a hot bath and watched it on this frickin' freezing day. Here are some things that the show touched on:

-King's Cross station and a real legend surrounding it

-Hagrid is a real Greek myth! I had no idea, he was cast out of heaven but was allowed to remain on as Zeus's gamekeeper, (which sounds quite familiar).

- There is a school in Scotland (which is where Hogwarts is supposedly located, even though the exact location is kept a secret in the book), anyway this school was founded by a supposed sorcerer, who built hidden passages and dabbled in the dark arts and supposedly sold his soul to the devil. I guess he was a sytherin (haha, nerd joke). Prince Charles went to school there, and it even divides the school into houses which is common in British boarding schools, which I did not know.

- The legend of Nicholas Flamel and the philosopher's stone. (His tomb was opened and was found empty, I didn't know that, that is pretty cool).

-The Arthurian legends that tie with Harry Potter. The only thing I had picked up on before on this subject, is that Albus Dumbledore is "of the order of Merlin". There was quite a bit more, I didn't know.

-There is a guy they consult with that calls himself a "white witch" and is fairly incensed that the Rowling witches and wizards ride their brooms the wrong way! He is wearing a red robe and a pentagram looking thing around his neck and he entertained me a little.

Anyway, obviously, this doc is not for everyone, but I think anyone that has read any of the books would find it interesting. I am thinking particularly of B (who has been lamenting that she isn't a Harry Pot Pot) and I also think Kyle would really like it. It is available through Netflix, either online, or through mail and is narrated by Hugh Laurie. Also, there is a program after, which I think I will watch tonight that is about ghosts, and seems to be loosely based on the Harry Potter ghosts (the gray lady is a real ghost that supposedly haunts a castle in Britain). Anyway, ghost shows are always kind of fun, especially this time of year.

**Update**

Ok, I just watched the 2nd documentary and what the bip?? It was not all about ghosts, just the first little part. It was actually kind of the same thing, just reversed (they went through most of the same points, but in a different order) and this one was narrated by an American. Most of the info on this one was different, but about the same stuff. Really weird. It also was distictively cheeser, then it's counterpart. I kept watching it because there was new, interesting info, but I don't get what was going on. It was almost like they made that one and had someone review it and go, "dude, that was cheesy, maybe you should rework it". So they made it better, added some different info, got a famous British actor to narrate it, and then someone still thought the first one had merrit, so they tacked it on to the end of the better one to make everyone happy. It did remind me of an interesting thing, JK Rowling grew up on a street like Privet Drive and played witches and wizards with a little neighbor boy named "Potter".

Under the Radar

I've decided to start a new feature on the blog called "Under the Radar", unless I come up with a better name. Emily doing the post about Lars and the Real Girl made me think of it. I am a huge fan of the smaller, low budget, independent films, that a lot of times go unnoticed (under the radar), but are really excellent movies. I like a lot of the bigger budget, mainstream movies too, but independent films are my favorite. So, every couple weeks or so, I'm going to highlight one that I've seen and really liked. You guys can take my recommendations or not, my goal is just to put them out there. You never know some of them could end up being Wright Family Classics!

I'm also going to really try to pay attention to the movie ratings and try to only highlight ones the whole family can watch, (and that won't scar B for life). Well, except for this first one. It's rated R, but it's really good and I think the R rating is sort of a stretch, one of the cable channels showed it about a month ago, so maybe you can see it that way.

As you have probably guessed, my first pick is Shopgirl. It came out in 2005, and stars Steve Martin, Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman. Steve Martin also wrote the screenplay.

Claire Danes plays Mirabel, a girl who works at Saks selling evening gloves. Within a couple of days she meets 2 different men. Ray (Steve Martin), an older, sophisticated rich man, and Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a broke musician who is somewhat socially inept. The scene where Mirabel and Jeremy meet in the laundry mat is the best. Jason Schwartman is so funny in this! I really like him. He was Max in Rushmore, another favorite of mine. As a side note he is Francis Ford Copolla's nephew, which makes him Nick Cage's cousin.

Anyway, Mirabel and Jeremy go on a date and have a one night stand. He then leaves for a couple of months to be a roadie for a band. He really likes Mirabel and decides he needs to improve on some things in himself so she'll like him back. He buys a bunch of self help CD's to listen to while on the road. Very funny. Mirabel doesn't really think about him again, and starts seeing Ray.

That's about all I'm going to say about the plot. The characters in this movie are great. I can't say enough about Jason Schwartzman. I like Claire Danes and think she does a great job with Mirabel. And Steve Martin is the best. I like him so much. His character is pretty serious, but Martin's sense of humor comes out in great ways. I read that Martin had Tom Hanks in mind for the role, and Hanks was going to do it, but the director insisted on Martin playing the part himself.

The cinematography in the movie is really good too. There are some really beautiful scenes and interesting uses of color and light. For instance, if you watch it, notice how the color and light in Mirabel's apartment change subtly with her mood.

So, watch it or don't. If you do, let me know what you thought. I'm still trying to think of why it is R. I watched it when it was on cable a month ago, and I don't think anything was cut out. There is a scene where you see Claire Dane's butt. But they showed that big fat guy's butt on NYPD Blue, and that was on TV. There is another scene where a girl in lingerie seduces Jeremy because she think's he is Mirabel's rich boyfriend Ray. But that scene is more funny than anything. And I don't think it's because of language. None of the characters are really the cursing type. So, I don't know!

Please also let me know if you want me to make this a feature on the blog.

Matts' new pic

Way to go Matt: Love the praying Mantis picture. So much like you, green and nice. I didn't know that Foosies were green, just Kermits. Let's hear it for Rarnee!! whorah, whorah, Whoop, whoop, whoop and yea, yea, yea....

Nightmare Girls

So, I've been wanting to see this movie forever. Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar, and it was nominated for 46 awards and won 41 of them, according to IMDB.com. So I Netflixed it, and Matt and I finally had a free night, and sat down to watch it together. Matt hated it in the first 10 minutes, but I gave it a good 45 minutes. I cannot believe it won so many awards. I thought it would just be a fun flick with good costumes. It had good costumes, and great hair, except for Eddie Murphys. And it had an awesome cast! Dannie Glover, one of my childhood heros (I watched Lethal Weapon as much as watched Beauty and the Beast), Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, and a lot of other black people. So why did it suck so much? BECAUSE it tried to cram every single aspect of african american/showbiz/political life in!! Seriously, at one point there's a riot outside the recording studio, and Effie (Hudsons character) walks outside, where people are shooting at everything, and buildings are on fire, and her boyfriend walks out to comfort her, and then the scene changes, and that never gets addressed. Effie also has a neverending scene where the Oscar win probably comes from (best supporting acctress), that Matt and I couldn't wait to be over. It's half really stupid musical, and the rest of it is just bad confusing storyline. Seriously, there was a jump of like 9 years in 2 seconds, and I had no idea what happened. You've got mothers on welfare, family feuds, Eddie Murphy smokes Heroin, Martin Luther King Jr's speech, one hit wonders, a Jackson 5 look-alike band, lawsuits, comebacks, affairs, temper tantrums out of nowhere, you name it. It was waaaay too confusing, and a very poor adaptation of a Broadway play, that I should have loved. It was right up my alley, but sadly, sucked.

The redeeming moments were when Beyonce realized that she was getting screwed, and needed to get out of her situation, Eddie Murphy when he wasn't on drugs, the costumes, and before the girls got too involved in stardom. So besides the costumes, it did have 20 good minutes. I was happy to get out of my homework vortex, and I'm pretty sure none of you would ever watch this on your own free will, but in case you are ever tempted, don't give in unless you're paid to.

Cool out, COOL OUT!

I got the tickets! I bought 10 tickets to Neil Diamond! So this means everyone who said they want to go, had better, or I will smack you in the mouth! I got tickets for me, Cam, mom, dad, Amy, Matt, B, Cat, Em and Rob. There was an 8 ticket limit on how many you can buy at a time. I talked it over with Em. We thought buying 8 and then 2 would really not be fair to the 2 that had to take the ones away from everyone. So we decided splitting it up 5 and 5 would be good. It works since 2 people (Amy and Cat) are not going with their spouces, so they can be the 5th wheels, so to speak.

I know it sucks that we won't all be totally together, but the good news is we are close. I was able to get us all in the same section, same row, just a few seats apart. Well, about 14 seats apart. But that's not too bad! At least we aren't on opposite ends of the arena! I bought them online, and tried to go as fast as I could when I bought the second set of 5, but 14 seats got sold in between.

I went for the $53.00 tickets. With tax and service fees etc, each ticket comes out to exactly $67.00. The concert is Friday, December 19!

We got an unexpected visit from Matt today!!!

HAHAHA!!!

Scout found a praying Mathis on the wheel of our garbage can and so we captured it (which was no easy feat given my history with these guys).

We brought it upstairs to show Rob and then let it go again.

I think this should be Matt's profile pic.

Music Video!

I made this little video because I had a bunch of random fun footage that I didn't know what else to do with, I thought this Frank Black song would go perfect. ENJOY!

Matt's Vimeo Test from Matt Wright on Vimeo.

Sundays with Sue

Sorry it's so late this week. I've had a very busy day losing money in Wendover.

So, you can probably guess that the quote from last week came from the Wright family classic Seems Like Old Times. I love this movie. Going over the quotes from this movie, made me really want to see it again. Maybe next time we are all out in Wyoming we can watch it. If B hasn't seen it, she should. I think she'd like it.

Emily was the first to guess it right. Then Amy, then Haley, then Catherine. Those were the only people who guessed. Congratulations Em! Cat first guessed The Jerk, then she took it back. But that was a really good guess Cat. Dad, I posted a second quote in the comments last Wednesday.

You might have gotten if from that second quote.

Okay, here is today's quote. It's from a movie:

Do you like Peter, Paul and Mary?

Yes I do, big fan.

Dad's movie quotes

Sorry Sue. I don't mean to take anything away from your contest and "Sunday's with Sue". I just think of things on occasion and just have to post it. No rules here! Just make your answer on the comment thing.
Movie quote: "Lighten up, Francis"

Top 5 Best Cover Songs

Best remakes of all time!

1. 99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger covering Nena
2. I Will Survive - Cake covering Gloria Gaynor
3. Candy Says (Country Jellyfish Version)- Blind Melon covering the Velvet Underground
4. Nobody Does It Better - Radiohead covering Carly Simon (with Jonny's guitar stylings the last half of this song--yeaH baBy! This song never had it better...)
5. Is a tie (from same album)
Superstar - Sonic Youth &
Rainy Days and Mondays - Cracker both covering The Carpenters

Very hard to choose 5!!!!

Honorary mentions:

All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan - TOTALLY made it his song.
Tangerine - Big Head Todd and the Monsters covering Led Zeppelin
Groovy Kind of Love - My Superhero covering The Mindbenders
Cruisin' - D'Angelo covering Billy Holiday (first version of song I know of)
Crash - The Mr. T Experience covering The Primitives
Turning Japanese - No Use For a Name covering The Vapors

I could only find one of my honorary mentions in playlists.com! Shame. Tangerine is particularly good.

Here is Matt's (1) song he mentioned in the comments:

Here are Sue's (sorry, couldn't find Neil's On Broadway, too obscure i guess. Too bad for all but B):

Here's Cats (couldn't find Tom Petty's License to Kill, lame.):

Here is the video to Cat's Tom Petty song: