This is the forum for the Wright family and relatives where we share our tastes of movies, music, books, and tv. You can write a review, complain, or tell the family you have just experienced a MUST SEE/READ!
Sorry I didn't post this last night. By the time I remembered it was like midnight. Anyway, Elf! My favorite Christmas movie. I am so glad this movie was made, and I am so glad Will Ferrell played Buddy. I cannot imagine anyone else doing as good a job as he did. Matt was the first to guess, then Cat, then Em, then Dad (dad guessed Alph, I'm assuming he meant Elf! Best misspelling ever dad, and I'm pretty sure you did it on purpose). And B guessed last. Way to go Matt!
I finished "The Host" Saturday. I liked it a lot. Very much, and I don't read science fiction much. But it was interesting to me and well written and after you figured out who was who and who was talking to who and all that, it made sense and I was compelled to like the Wanderer. I was on the couch by the tree reading the ending (before the postlude) Saturday afternoon, and I was chokeing up and a few tears were rolling and mom came in and said, "are you crying?" of course I said no and went on with reading with my head turned away. Can you believe that? I'm such a boob. Have you guys heard the story of the sister in our Sacrament Fast & testimony meeting that was bareing her testimony and chokeing and crying and at the end she said, " I'm such a big boob! At the end of the meeting the conducting bishopric member got up to close the meeting and said, "We like big boobs in our ward" Silence, then a spattering of laughter and then more and more as the statement sunk in. hehehehe... One of the better humor meetings attended.
Merry Chrtmas ebau! Love to all of you from Mom and Pops. We just got to the Phisters house and they are all asleep so I thought I would start this blog entry. Had a good time last night here and ate a wonderful prime rib dinner and lots of laughs afterward. Matt will have to post some pictures they tooks. Weathers good and all is well.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Four Stars. Loved it, loved it. I wish I knew how to make the image bigger. ( a little help, Em?) This is a movie called "A Prairie Home Companion". It is based on a radio show I am devoted to. It's like an old-time radio variety show like the kind they did 50+ years ago. It's hosted (for 30 years, I think?) by this guy named Garrison Keillor. He has just the best voice for radio ever. Every week they do this show before a live audience. Mostly from their studio in St. Paul, but they do hit the road and travel to various venues. They've come to Salt Lake a few times, but I have never gone to see it live. The movie is about the show's very last performance. Only some of the players know this. And there is like this death figure on the prowl. And that's pretty much it. It is very Robert Altman-ish (he directed the film, but died before it was released). But I think I had a ginormous grin on my face throughout the entire thing. Kevin Kline is hilarious as Guy Noir (a hapless Private Investigator). Dusty and Lefty (from this cowboy bit they do on the show that is hilarious) are played by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, repectively and are just so funny I had tears down my face during their bit, it was so funny. Lily Tomlin (Altman is to Lily Tomlin as Allen is to Dianne Keaton) and Meryl Streep were wonderful (especially hearing their attempts to do Mid-western accents!) I so wish I was from Minnesota. As far as continental US accents go, that is my favorite. A close second is metro-Boston. A former employee at Motion Control and good friend of mine nick-named me wicked smaht. Love it. Anyhoo, I don't know if you have to be a fan of the show to enjoy the movie, or if you might just take a chance on watching it and join me in what Booker calls "The Grandma Hour". This is the block of time I reserve to listening to my favorite radio shows.
Liar Liar! Cam and I watched this last weekend on cable and I forgot how funny this movie is. I think that was the first time I watched the entire movie. So Matt was the first to guess, then Haley, then Dad, then Em, then B. Cat had the best wrong guess in the world! Her first guess was The Muppet Show! (She meant Muppet Movie) It made me laugh so hard I had to tell someone, so I told Matt. I couldn't imagine what episode of the Muppet Show she thought it was. She knew it was wrong after the second quote and she guessed School of Rock. A much better guess, but still wrong.
This week's quote is from a movie:
I'm sorry I ruined your life and crammed 11 cookies into the VCR.
Fun Fact #7 - Neil Leslie Diamond is his real name. Other names such as Eice Chary and Noah Kaminsky were considered as stage names at the start of his career. When asked right before Solitary Man was released which name he wanted to go with by the record co., he thought of his grandmother who had just died and told Bang Records, ".....go with Neil Diamond and I'll figure it out later."
Noah Kaminsky??!! Fun Fact #8 - Neil was the first ever winner of a Razzie Award for his role in The Jazz Singer. Yet was also nominated for a Golden Globe for the same role. Fun Fact #9 - Neil's 2008 tour has been his most successful of any of his previous tours since 1966. A few months ago, (end of August) he performed at Ohio State with layrengitis. He felt bad about how it went and awarded the entire audience refunds.
Most of us who read and contribute to this blog were there, but for those who weren't there, here is the long awaited review! And for those of us who were there, let this serve as a great reminder of the fantastic night we had last night.
Most of us Wrights saw Neil Diamond at the Energy Solutions Arena last night. 9 of us went to the concert. 4 Utah peeps (Sue, Cat, Em and Rob), and 5 Wyoming peeps (Mom, Dad, Amy, Matt and Bronwyn). I would like to thank you Wyoming people for coming all the way out here so we could see Neil as a family. And a special shout out to Haley and Marcus, (more WY peeps), for coming out to watch Scout so Em and Rob could go!
We bought the tickets at the beginning of October, and anxiously waited for the concert. I believe there are 3 or 4 postings on this blog that have to deal with the upcoming concert. We have had conversations about what Neil would open with, what he would wear, would he do any Christmas songs? etc. So, how was the concert? FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!
Let me just take a minute to describe where, in the arena, our tickets were. They were directly BEHIND the stage! I bought all the tickets online within 5 minutes of them going on sale. But they actually ended up being pretty good seats! We were very close to Neil! After a couple of songs he turned around and said "what did they tell you people to get you to buy those seats!" But you know what? Besides maybe the first 3 rows of the floor, we were the closest to Neil! Yeah we mostly saw his backside (which isn't a bad thing), but they had a couple of jumbotron screens right in front of us, so it was great! And, he made it a point a few times during the concert to pay special attention to us! His band did too. His band was great about turning around and waving and playing just for us.
So, onto the concert itself. First, what Neil wore. I believe the picture below shows the exact shirt he wore.
We were happy with what he wore, but I think the picture below shows what we all really hoped he would wear. But thats okay Neil! We love you!
Second, what Neil sang. Thanks to the Body Worlds people, I now carry around the little notebook they gave me to write down my observations. So I wrote down the set list in it.
Neil's opening song was, Holly Holy! (Neil, you are a true genius! We all knew you would open with something to let us know you were there, but none of us guessed Holly Holy! It was awesome!) Then he sang:
Beautiful Noise Love on the Rocks (oh yeah, a Wright classic!) Play Me (he turned around and sang the entire song to those of us who had seats behind the stage. It was great. He was a few feet away from us!) Cherry Cherry
Then, because he has a new album out, he had to do a few songs from it. Amy owns it and says it is a good album, and from hearing the songs he sung from it, I would have to agree. So the next 3 songs came from his Home Before Dark album:
Home Before Dark Don't Go There Pretty Amazing Grace (I'm just guessing that is the name of the song.)
Then he sang, Done Too Soon-which Amy and Emily remember Catherine singing a lot when she was little and had a crush on Neil Diamond!
Then he sang, Brooklyn Roads-and the jumbotrons showed actual footage of old home movies of Neil and his family when he was a kid. It was really cool.
Then:
I Am, I Said-Amy's favorite song, and he did a great version of it! Shilo Forever in Blue Jeans-heck yeah! We were all dancing for that one! Sweet Caroline- he got the entire audience going on that one (so good, so good!), when the song was over, everyone clapped and cheered for so long, he did the chorus a couple more times! You Don't Bring Me Flowers-the best part of that song, (besides Neil's beautiful voice) was that the back up singer he sung it with, messed it up! When it came time for her to sing she sang "you don't sing me flowers, you don't sing me love songs". And you could tell that she knew she messed it up! I'm a Believer- yes, the song the Monkee's made popular, but Neil wrote it! Man of God Hell Yeah-I wasn't familiar with this song, so I wrote down some of the lyrics and googled them. It says the name of the song is Hell Yeah!
Suddenly the concert was over! And it was time for the encore. He came right back out with:
Cracklin' Rosie America- he did such a great job at that song, I felt like I was in the audience of that last scene of The Jazz Singer. To me, this song is the essential Neil Diamond! Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show-such a great song! Catherine's favorite Neil songs are Holly Holy and Brother Love's. So he started and ended with her two favorite songs!
So, as you can see, Neil did a great set. He looked and sounded good. He has a great band, and it was just a great, fun night all around! A few people in our group were hoping he would do some of his Christmas songs, which would have been okay, but personally, I'm kind of glad he didn't. I love his Christmas stuff, but I was there to hear Neil do his classics, and he did not disappoint! Although, I have to say, there are a few songs I would have loved to hear. And they are:
Song Sung Blue Hello Longfellow Serenade September Morn Solitary Man Turn on Your Heartlight-(hee hee, just kidding)
But that's okay Neil! I love you anyway, and last night was so great! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I loved being there with my family. And thank you Mom and Dad for passing on your love for Neil Diamond to all of us! You guys played a lot of music while we were growing up, and I think Neil is the only one we all collectively love. I do love Johnny Cash, but I think Kenny Rogers, Helen Reddy, Vicki Carr and Lynn Anderson are pretty much lost on us. But Neil will live on forever!
Matt, the below picture is for you. I'm so glad you love Neil. And I know you love his dramatic, arm extension, endings.
The below picture is for all of us. Our favorite movie ever! Do you guys realize this movie came out 3 years before Matt was born?
I want to take another moment here to record some observations I had during the concert. I didn't just write down the set list, I recorded some other stuff. Like this:
--The backup singer on the far right was awesome. Her dancing was great! --Some dumb guy wore a Santa suit to the concert, and he seems to think he is really cool. --Neil wiped away a fake tear after Brooklyn Roads. It was so cheesy! But that is a part of what we love about you Neil! You can be pretty cheesy! --The old man behind me is pretty grumpy. --When Neil was introducing his band and he got to one of the guitar players and said "he's good". It made me and Matt laugh pretty hard. --The girl in front of me really likes Neil Diamond! --I'm really glad there is a jumbotron.
And finally, there was a part of the concert that got me and Matt laughing so hard. Neil started talking about his band, and he was going on about how they've all been touring for 10 years or so and they were a family. He said that when he gets down they bring him up, and when that isn't good enough they bring him upper! It reminded us of a Saturday Night Live skit where Will Ferrell plays Neil Diamond in a VH1 Storytellers episode. I tried to find the skit on youtube, but I couldn't. If you can find it Matt, please add it.
I meant to add this when I first posted the review. But I believe we can all agree that Neil Diamond is way better than the Neil Diamond impersonater we saw last summer!
Here is a playlist of what we heard last night. I did it in order of the concert. One or two songs are missing, but you'll get the gist of what we heard last night.
Here is my contribution---- This is the best thing ever.
Hey, you all! Tiny Elvis is dead and buried. I had to put her to sleep this morning and then buried her up here at the airport where she can watch the planes land and take off. It's so sad, as she was a good cat and lived a long, good life. I just could not have her ruin our house any more. Mom is not adjusted to it and didn't want me to do it, but I took a stand and now it is done. I hope mom will speak to me tonight! I felt like Rubin of Rubin and Ed, going around the airport perimeter fence looking for the Wright place to inter poor ol Tiny. I am in near tears writing this. Love you guys, see you tomorrow. Dad
Ok, so my mom bought the Michael Crawford(Phantom) Christmas Album last Christmas and we turned it on and we all thought it would be really good. Matt was there and loves the original phantom so he was really excited. Well, I guess he is really stuck in his role as the phantom, or that's the only way he knows how to sing because we all laughed our heads off. It is worth listening to just for the first word! So for your audio pleasure...I present the Phantom singing "Mary, Did You Know."
(I couldn't find it for a playlist, but I found it on youtube. Please listen to it, it is so funny. We have exaggerated it a bit, of course. Hehe. You should hear Matt sing it!)
A little Christmas cheer, random drunkenness, and an interesting difference between men and women.
Fun Fact #3 - The song "Jingle Bells" was originally written and sung for Thanksgiving, but as it often goes, Christmas stole it's thunder. Fun Fact #4 - Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in just 6 weeks (in 1843).
Fun Fact #5 - Men process women's voices using the musical parts of their brain, and women process men's voices using the mathematical part of their brain. Something to think about...... we really do hear each other differently. Fun Fact #6 - (This is my all time favorite Radiohead fun fact I have come across, I had to share it) While trying to record "Planet Telex" (of The Bends), they decided to take a break and go to a pub. After mass amounts of wine, they went back to the studio. Thom was "a little tipsy" and had a hard time standing, so he pulled up a cot and did the vocals lying down, and it must have worked, cause it's that recording we hear on the album. -While not my favorite track of the album, I can't help smiling every time I hear it to picture him singing it.
Entertainment news: They have picked a new directer for New Moon (YAY!!!!!!!!!), and it is Chris Weitz who directed (and wrote the Screenplay) for one of my favorites, "About A Boy". So needless to say, I am thrilled with the news. Weitz kind of specializes in turning books into movies, so I think he is up to the task.
Ah yes, The Jerk. One of the funniest movies ever. Reading through the quotes got me laughing so hard, I'm going to have to buy this one. The picture is from the very funny "he hates those cans" scene. Matt got it first! He wasn't sure it was from the jerk, but felt the first quote was "hillbilly" sounding. Way to use deductive logic Rarnee! Cat guessed second then Emily. And that was it! I'm trying not to make these too hard!
Here is this weeks quote from a movie:
Person 1: My teacher says real beauty's on the inside.
Since we were talking about how much Sarah and Sandra Bullock look alike, I thought we could play a little game and guess which one is in this picture! Just write your answer on the comments.
P's, T's and A's! Can I just say I am very disappointed that Dad and Amy didn't get it. I am going to chalk it up as they have just been too busy or something this last week and a half to give Sunday's With Sue much thought. So, who is the winner? It is B! And she has never even seen the movie! She only knew what it was because apparently Matt quotes the hint quote to her all the time! That is hilarious! We've all seen this movie dozens of times, and the one person in our family who hasn't seen the move, guessed it first! I love it! Em guessed second, then Matt then Cat.
Here is this week's quote from a movie:
Mama always knew how to treat me right. For my 18th birthday, she prepared my favorite meal…tuna fish on white bread with mayonnaise, a Tab, and a couple of Twinkies.
I was surfing the channels this afternoon and I saw that Midnight Run was on and ending. I watch that movie a lot and love the ending. DeNiro getting Charles Grodin to Los Angeles and then letting him go and Grodin talking off his money belt and giving it to DeNiro. Just love it! Probabally not that special to many others, but to me, it works and gets to me. Thus, the idea of this posting: Movies that have special endings for you and work for you. When they come on cable you will watch the ending just to see it again... All of you won't agree and that is okay...This one is a personal thing..... For your consideration:
a. Midnight Run. For the above reason.
b. Dances with Wolves. The winter scene, saying good by to the tribe and exchanging gifts. The Kicking Bird or what ever he was called....up on his horse, waving his spear and yelling across the valley with all his might..."you are my brother" you are my brother. "I will never forget you" To me, powerful stuff.
c. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The supprise of her showing up with the boat of people and that exchange and then taken them by the arm and saying, "Let's go get em, boys!" Classic!
d. High Noon. Gary Cooper throwing his badge on the ground in front of the city people and riding off with Grace Kelly.
e. Notting Hill. Roberts and Hugh Grant on the park bench. She's pregnant and they are reading. Just nice!
There are a ton more that you will think of and I will later. Of course, we could do the same for bad endings of movies....starting with "Pretty Woman" Sooo Chezzey!
So, in light of my recent title "The Source", I have decided to make my own little section of the blog. I don't think I will rope myself into a day of the week (or even know if I will do it every week), but these will just show up at random. I find when I am forced into a time frame, my creative juices run dry and things become a chore. I am a natural researcher and seeker of interesting facts. This comes in handy once in a while when playing trivia games and the like. If I like something, I tend to seek out everything I can about the subject. With all of this in mind, I will share my little nuggets I find of interest (and try and keep the subject within what I feel most of you will be interested in).
Here we go.
Fun Fact #1 -
Twilight is now, the number #1 box office Vampire movie. The top 3 as of today's date are as follows:
1 - Twilight $138,552,000 2 - Van Helsing $120,177,084 3 - Interview With The Vampire $105,264,608
(Twilight is ranked #12 in money makers for 2008. Sadly, Kingdom of the Chrystal Skulls is #3)
Fun Fact #2 -
Authors, John Irving (The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp) and Stephen King (I think you are all familiar with him) made a public plea to JK Rowling not to kill Harry Potter in the 7th book, before the book was released.
Entertainment News -
Stephenie Meyer has said in a recent interview that she will probably pick up and finish Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's point of view) in 2 years or so (She says after everyone has forgotten about it -yeah right). She thinks her next project will be a book about mermaids (although, she refers to them as Sirens, like the Ancient Greeks).
Matt (and dad) I had a dream last night I recommended this movie to you guys. I have no idea why, I don't know if you guys have even seen it or not. I haven't thought of this movie in years, so I have no idea where it came from except that a few weeks ago me Cat and Sue were talking about how much we like Adrien Brody (but we didn't mention this movie). When I recommended it in my dream, Matt- you were really excited to see it and dad said and I quote, "yeah, I'd see a movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody".
So there you go, just doing my duty. (Since it is about an 19th century village, I am wondering if Mose planted it in my head, trying to spread his beliefs. I am trying to appease Mose as much as possible.....). So if you haven't seen it YOU WATCH IT and report back so I might make an offering to my Amish ghost.
Whoohooo!!! I'm so excited! It is going to be so fun to see Neil with everyone! I've had the tickets forever and now it is finally close! And this is the best picture ever. Highlights are: the messy hair, the zip-up work out thing he is wearing which has to be velour, the turned up collar, and the puppies running around on his chest.
I love to laugh and I'm so glad I come from a family that loves to laugh. It makes me so happy that we can all sit around a living room or kitchen table and just giggle for hours. I can't imagine what it would be like to come from one of those quiet, boring families. I thought I would share with everyone 5 random things that can get me laughing pretty hard everytime. A couple of them are photos, a couple are memories and one is simply a word! And these aren't in any special order.
5- The picture of me that Amy took at La Jolla beach when the birds attacked me, Cat and Matt. When I first saw the picture, I don't know if I've ever laughed that hard. Thank you Amy for turning around and snapping that photo. It was about a year later that I noticed mom in the far left corner just happily watching her kids get attacked by birds.
4- Cat's Frankenstein cookie. I guess I should have added a picture, but it's here somewhere on the blog. It makes me laugh so hard whenever I think of it. I don't know what makes me laugh harder, the cookie itself or the memory of Em laughing so hard she couldn't even tell us what was so funny.
3- This is really random, but Scott's dream child named Grover. Em and Cat are probably the only ones who know what I'm talking about. But when Amy and Scott were still dating, Scott used to talk about his future kids and what type of kids he wanted. The best one was named Grover and he fit in Scott's hand, I think he was just a head. Just remembering Scott talking about him and how hard it used to make us laugh cracks me up to no end.
2- This picture of a little girl who looks like Chris Farley that Cat emailed me a couple of years ago. I think it speaks for itself.
1- The last name Higgenbotham. First, it is just one of those silly last names. Second it reminds me of one of the funniest days I had at my last job. My friend Kristen (my puppet partner), and I were working. She spoke with someone who's last name was Higgenbotham and it cracked her up. A couple of hours later I spoke with someone who's last name was Wigglesworth, and it cracked me up. We spent the rest of the day laughing about these last names. We imagined how funny it would be if people with those last names started a law office. We imagined the receptionist answering the phone "law office of Higgenbotham and Wigglesworth, how may I help you?". Then the phone being transferred to Wigglesworth and him answering "Wigglesworth here". I know it is totally stupid and juvenile, but it made me laugh so hard! This was probably 5 years ago, and to this day just remembering that day can get me laughing so hard tears run down my face.
There are lots of other things that can make me laugh hard by just thinking about them. These are the first 5 that came to mind when I thought of doing this post. I could probably do a top 5 memories of Matt that make me laugh.
3 and a half stars.Because it's worth seeing for sure, and I loved it, but "loved it loved it"??...
Pops and I watched this yesterday and both dug it. He bought it. I don't know if it was one somebody recommended to him or what. I have always liked movies that have anything to do with anti-racism, and that was pretty much the main point of the movie, that we are all equals. I think the easiest way for me to do a review of this is to do the Pro's and Con's thing.
PROS
1. Great cast! (except for con#1 and #2) Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, and Chris Cooper were so great!!
2. A memorable line for me was "Gotta love the Lord for making things like that" Oliver Platt says it right after Sandra Bullock leaves the room. SO FUNNY when you know the characters. "things" haha!!
2. Court room movies are sweet.
3. Good story. I had those weird stomach muscle spasms that happen right before you cry...but didn't cry. So that was nice.
CONS
1. I can't stand Matthew McConaug-hud. I hate his face, his voice, his attitude. And he is the leading role. Bummer.
2. Sandra Bullock can hardly act, and I felt this movie proved that. I really didn't like her. Although she does look almost exactly like Sarah in this! SO WEIRD!!
3. Ok, this movie felt very "rushed" to me for some reason. I like a fast paced movie and all, but this was different. It felt like they went nuts in the editing and just cut parts of the dialog out for time. It also seemed to cut too fast from scene to scene. I don't know, just didn't like the editing.
4. Did I mention Matthew McConaughey?? He took away a star.
Sorry I didn't post this last night. By the time I remembered it was like midnight. Anyway, Elf! My favorite Christmas movie. I am so glad this movie was made, and I am so glad Will Ferrell played Buddy. I cannot imagine anyone else doing as good a job as he did. Matt was the first to guess, then Cat, then Em, then Dad (dad guessed Alph, I'm assuming he meant Elf! Best misspelling ever dad, and I'm pretty sure you did it on purpose). And B guessed last. Way to go Matt! 
