CHROLS--Breaking Dawn

Well, I finished the Twilight series . . . and have to say that as far as happy endings go, this one was pretty satisfying. Not sure I always like things so neatly wrapped up with everyone realizing their fondest wishes (Leah as an exception here, and I guess the Denali coven who lose their sister--even though Kate ends up with a new and pretty dang cool mate), but I actually thought the final showdown and how everything came to a head was really well done. And if Meyer had something close to this in mind all the way along, then I am impressed. It sure took a frickin' long time to get to this book and all its action, though! I was feeling pretty weary after Eclipse, so I'm glad this one had a lot less hand-wringing and a lot more forward movement all the way through it.

I definitely met a surprise on who Jacob imprinted on (thought it was going to be Leah in one of those typical "I hate you but I really love you" kinds of things--and I have to say I was sort of rooting for that to happen, or at least Leah to find someone to love her), but I thought Meyer did a great job with how that imprinting happened and how it changed the dynamic for Jacob and Bella. The earlier scene with Quil imprinting on that little girl was CREEPING me out, but as it unfolded with Jake and Nessie, the context and what imprinting really means (without inappropriate physical longings when the kids are so young) helped me get past that. And Bella's reactions and hers and Edward's growing acceptance to who had imprinted on their daughter were also pretty believable and well executed.

I generally liked the new vampire characters and thought they were well drawn for the amount of time she gave to them, and I loved the Romanian dudes. They were hilarious. Garrett and his speech was great, and I thought the way Meyer explained the Volturi motivations and the way they ruled the vampire world was decently complex and interesting.

I liked the Jacob and Rosalie relationship and rip-fest, and I'm glad Jasper became a more compelling character in the final two books. Still can't understand the casting choice they made for him for the movies, though. Completely off! Yay, too, for Charlie hanging in there so well through all the changes and also for him ending up with Sue.

Bella.... Still not my favorite character for taking so long to begin to grow into a fraction of confidence. And overall, I'm still not sure the romance novel is a good thing for the world and am pretty solidly against any idea of soul mates, but I guess by the end I was sucked in and rooting for the right people anyway.

Thanks, I guess, for urging me to dive into the world of Forks, Washington ....

WTB: NEW MOVIE Last week of April

Yeah, Dan, you have to start early to beat me when I know the quote and I have to be at the airport at 4:45 AM. I don't know many quotes but I knew that one. I rented the movie about a month ago and enjoyed it huge again. So many funny lines. A little sappy and slapstick at times, but the characters are so funny. Eunice Burns (M. Kahn) is great. Same for Kenneth Mars as a german professor. The whole scene with Judge Maxwell is classic. Anyway, good one Ems and I am back in the winners circle. Not as a Laker, but as a movie guesser guy.

Okay, here we go. First quote:

Girl: "It must be a drag to be a slave to the male sex drive."

Boy: "It's not just sex."

Girl: Oh, you want to start a book club with her?"

Extra quote: Girl: "Don't go mistaking paradise for a pair of long legs."

have fun, peeps......

WTB-- What's Up Doc?

I TOTALLY forgot to do this yesterday! I was even on the blog several times. Weird. Oh well, sorry. Anyway the movie is What's Up Doc?.

Yes, Dan you did get your guess in early and it was wright, but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull one over on ol' Uncle George -literally- he was up at before the dawn with a sharp mind and beat you (his guess came in at 5:03 am). For the record, Dan's guess came in at 10:42 am, and there were no other guesses! Congrats pops! I really didn't know how popular this movie is with this crowd, but I figure it's a good ol movie and if you haven't seen it-- go and do it already.

This is a rollicking good screwball comedy and apparently, you can hate Barbara Streisand and still endorse it (Ami's husband Alex can back that up). Ryan O'Neal plays an uptight nerd with an uptight fiance (Madeline Kahn- her character's name is "Eunice" and they get good use out of making fun of that name). Anyway there is some sort of Nerd convention or scholorship thing- it escapes me what it is exactly- in a hotel and O'Neal meets Streisand's character and she makes him a very grudging participant in a series of misadventures because she falls instantly in love with him and misadventures seem to follow her. Anyway, some great moments and it climaxes with a car chase on the streets of downtown San Francisco that has to be the best car chase in the history of movies. I was talking about this with Ami about a month ago and I mentioned that the car chase makes me clap in delight several times during the sequence. I'm not kidding. I seriously (and literally) do that even while watching alone. Also-- it never gets old. The last hint I did on Friday is also a funny line that is a nod to "Love Story" starring Ryan O'Neal, a VERY sappy movie that features that line (a line I find to be grossly false). Anyway, Streisand tells it to O'Neal and then bats her eyelashes precociously and O'Neal looks at her for a minute and says, "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard". Anyway, funny moment in the film if you're familiar with Love Story.

A personal note about this movie, I found it on DVD on line somewhere and ordered it and it arrived at my house a few days before the Great Pugh Family House Robbery of '07 and the stupid thieves took it! I never even got to watch it and I haven't seen it to this day. Sniff.

I AM A LAKER!! DREAMER??

I dreamed the other night that I made the Laker team. It was one of those dreams that you remember totally after you wake up. It was so cool. I walked on to a team tryout and made the team. I remember banging it up with the guys on the boards. I could jump. Everything I tossed up went in. The G.M. took my arm later and said I made the team. I went into the locker room and nodded at the boys and picked out my uniforms and shoes. Sweet! I remember thinking, hey, I can get Rob floor seats when the team plays the Jazz. He will be so excited." At the end of the dream I was thinking....hey, I get paid. I get a check. I can pay off my VISA credit card... then I woke up. I was smiling, but still a fat, old man... AAuggggggooowwww..

Spoon and I are back!

Most, if not all of you know that the last 10 days have been pretty crazy for me and Alex. During the middle/end of the semester we stumbled upon a great film making opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. Our good friend and English Professor Ben Evans invited His Eminence: Chokling Jigmed Palden Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist Lama- to come stay at his house in little Riverton Wyoming. It was quite an experience! Every day was packed full of lectures, classroom visits, Empowerments, and other ceremonial things for him to do around different parts of Wyoming- ALL of which needed to be filmed. At this point we have around 65 hours of footage to condense into a regular length documentary. YIKES...
The good news is, we got all the shots we were hoping for and more. I really feel good about what we can make out of this, and have pretty high hopes for the film! 

I couldn't have asked for a better work partner then Alex. He was fun, teachable, hard working, and added some dynamics to this group that I think were very refreshing to everyone. He represented Wyoming, America in every way! He even took the President of the organization out to go shoot clay pigeons! Thanks Spoon, for jumping in and never quitting. It was awesome witnessing miracle after miracle with you.

We both have very mixed feelings as we go back to our day to day normal lives. In a way, it's nice to think about other things and work on school, but we can't help but miss the friends we made, all the broken english, the laughs we had, and the constant search for creativity. We both feel like we need to have a camera or microphone in our hands!
Thanks for all the support B, and the rest of the fam.

Happy Birthday Marcus!!

Happy Birthday today to Marcus! He turns 24 today and I keep teasing him that the only reason I'm excited for his birthday is because we will get cheaper car insurance. Of course I'm kidding but that is a nice bonus! Well, I'm glad that a lot of you have been able to get to know Marcus better the last few years. He really is an amazing person. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father. He works really hard at work and school and also helps me so much at home. Allison LOVES her daddy SO much! Here are some pictures of Marcus:

That is Marcus on the left with his sister and brother

Marcus with his sister Nia

Us going to prom in 2005

Marcus dancing with his little sister at his brother's wedding

Marcus on his mission with some of his good friends from his mission

At our wedding

This is a common Marcus face :)

Marcus and Allison

At the Rose Bowl watching his beloved Oregon Ducks!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Love You, Kisses!!!

YNE (Yes, No, Eh) -- Actors

I'm running with the idea talked about in another post to give us the chance to talk about our idiosyncratic likes, dislikes, or indifference to certain actors and actresses. Because there are SO many and I think we should approach this systematically, I decided to take the list of Academy Award Nominees for Best Actor (not supporting actor--at this point anyway) from the 1980s to the present. That was still WAY, WAY long a list, so I narrowed it down to thirty of them who have had multiple noms in this time frame (the numbers in the parentheses indicate the number of times nominated). I also listed them in alphabetical order by first name (which is how I sorted them in Excel). After this way of culling them down, I also chose a few (listed after this first group) who I thought might be actors that would be polarizing to some of us. I'm sure I left out people who some of you may want to talk about. I have kept my full list, though, so I will do a "catch all" for the rest of these some time in the future.

I don't know the best way to have everyone respond (at least in your first, most formal take), but I don't think you necessarily have to talk about every person on the list. Maybe a good plan would be to first list only those of these who are your HUGE YES guys and maybe give a line or two why you are so crazy about them. Then give your huge NO guys and perhaps reasons why. Then list your "EH" people. Sound okay? If not, go with however you want to format your responses, please!

My plan will be to put up a new group once per week, so plan on Best Actress nominees next week.

Now, let er rip!

Multiple Nominations for Best Actor:
Albert Finney (3)
Anthony Hopkins (4)
Ben Kingsley (2)
Clint Eastwood (2)
Daniel Day-Lewis (4)
Denzel Washington (3)
Dustin Hoffman (4)
Geoffrey Rush (2)
George Clooney (2)
Jack Lemmon (2)
Jack Nicholson (5)
Jeff Bridges (2)
Johnny Depp (3)
Leonardo DiCaprio (2)
Michael Caine (2)
Morgan Freeman (3)
Nick Nolte (2)
Nicolas Cage (2)
Paul Newman (5)
Peter O'Toole (4)
Robert De Niro (3)
Robert Duvall (4)
Robin Williams (3)
Russell Crowe (3)
Sean Penn (5)
Tom Cruise (2)
Tom Hanks (5)
Warren Beatty (3)
Will Smith (3)
William Hurt (4)

Single-time noms who may generate some commentary:
Al Pacino
Bill Murray
Billy Bob Thornton
Brad Pitt
Edward Norton
Gene Hackman
Harrison Ford
Heath Ledger
John Travolta
Kevin Costner
Matt Damon
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Richard Dreyfuss
Robert Downey, Jr.
Tom Wilkinson
Woody Harrelson

WTB This Week

Sue, I'm kinda sad I beat you this week (so close!) since you haven't won any yet, therefore have never won any of these ever. Except for that Wizard of Oz post....... So once perhaps (but by default).
Anyway-- good luck with this one folks!




Woman: I can't see!
Man: There's nothing to see really, we're inside a Chinese dragon.




For my musical selections this week, I decided to get back to my roots- my Radiohead roots. I have been into b sides and hard to finds for some time now and decided that this week, I would post the songs that made me fall in love with RH in the first place.
Ahhhhhhhhhh.... first love- isn't it grand?

Plus I added one song for the JWMCC

Also, there is one little giggly surprise and one Pixies song, just cause it's so dern good.

WTB—Dave!

Oh my heck, am I disappointed on several levels that more of you haven't seen this movie, or at least recognized it from the clues! It's awesome. In fact, it was number one on my Top 5 lazy/rainy/sick-day movies that Sue had quizzed us all about on the blog a while back. Also one of the ones listed as a favorite on my Facebook profile. Anyway, enough about me. If you haven't, you need to see this really enjoyable movie. Kevin Kline is so likeable in this, and it has some really great relationships, fun cameos by a ton of people, including real politicians (the clue about the donut was a line by Arnold Schwarzenegger, though before the time he was the Governator), and that's not to mention just the romp of a story it is in which a man who looks like the president steps in to play the role-and does it so much better than the original guy. Highly recommend, and it seems to me to have all the elements that Wright folk should love.

As far as the contest goes, I must tip my hat to Emily, for the girl plays hard! She ended up winning by sheer effort, piecing together clues for a movie she hasn't seen. After an early wrong guess, which actually was a good one given the two clues she based it off of, there were no guesses until the big giveaway one that names the character as well as adds a second clue to the idea that this had to do with the President of the United States. Congrats, Em! I do also feel redeemed a bit by Sue, who came in early this morning (seven hours after Em, though) with the right answer AND claimed that she'd been racking her brain and LOVED the movie Dave. Thanks, Sue, for that! Big relief that someone at least had seen and liked it like I do. No other guesses.

Anyway, ready for some Radiohead everyone? It's Em AGAIN....

Kind of Weird....

Some stranger recommended my blog to this blog interview sight that complies interesting blog from around the web and they interviewed me. Thought you all might be interested to read it and vote for my blog. I guess you win prizes if you are in the top 15 blogs every month. Anyway, just thought I'd try it out. You can read the interview and you can also vote for me (every 24 hours) by clicking a link that is now on the sidebar of my blog.

It's weird, I get a lot of hits from people clicking some "next blog" button. I must happen to fall next in line following some really popular blog, cause I get a lot of hits from everywhere around the world. Wish I knew what that blog was.
I don't know what this is going to do to my blog- maybe nothing- but do I have to be all interesting now?

ps-- for you all that are having a hard time finding the vote button it is toward the top of the page and looks like this:
Here is a link to where you vote, to make it easier.

Cheers

WTB--Here we go again!

Love Wayne's World. Hard not to find quotes from that one that wouldn't have given it to me. I'll take the tie and the chance to run the game this week, though I know you are all upset not to hear my tasty tunes this week....

Good luck everyone. Here we go with the new contest:

You're LINT! You're a FLEA! You're a BLIP!

WTB: Wayne's World!!!!!!

Wayne's World!!!! One of very few movies that I can quote from start to finish. I watched this probably 4-5 times a year growing up. Mike Myers always looks weird to me with short hair!! So does Dana Carvey. Rob Lowe will always be Benjamin to me, and Alice Cooper has the best cameo. I apologize, I should've switched the Wednesday and Sunday hints and made it a little more challenging, but hey, I'm new at this!! And the winner is....... a tie!!!! Sort of. Here's the deal. Alex, Matt and Em ran into the kitchen to check out the new quote on Sunday night. Alex came sprinting back in after he'd read it and whispered it in my ear. I didn't look at the time. Less than 10 minutes later, I logged into my Facebook and saw that Dan had made a guess!!! At 10:26!!! And it was about 10:35 when I logged on. I asked Alex what time he'd told me, and we couldn't really remember, but it was pretty much at that time! SO! There was a discussion held, and the conclusion that we came to is that Alex is going to be really really busy this week, and won't have time to look up quotes and all that stuff, so he wants the playlist, a point for both him and Dan, but Dan can pick the movie and do the quotes this week. How does that sound? Fair? Does anyone have any objections? I'm so sorry I screwed this up so badly. It's a good thing I don't ever win!! So Dan and Alex won, and Matt got it later Sunday night, and not a peep from anyone else, although Emily knows she knows it. And I know Sue knows it. Thanks for letting me play guys!!

Happy Birthday Allison!!

I can't believe it has already been a year since my favorite little person came into the world. She truly is such a joy and I feel so privileged to be her mother. We really don't know what we would do without her! Here are some pictures of Allison Kelly:

 

Love you, kisses!!!!

Happy Birthday Matt Wright!!!!

Disclaimer: Due to the recent amount of awesome pictures of Matt uploaded to Facebook, which I'm sure you all have seen, I tried to find lesser known pictures of Matt to show the world this awesome person in a different way. However, there are some classics that just had to be added due to sheer amazingness.

Happy Birthday Matt Wright!!!!! I count myself among the most fortunate people on the planet because I get to be your wife!!!!!!! How cool is that??!! I'm sorry this is a day late, but you know as well as I do our busy schedule. So better late than never, wright? For Matt's actual birthday, we went to Taco Bell, and then skipped photography class to go watch a hypnotist, because Matt has been skeptical about hypnotism his entire life. It was awesome, and at one point 3 different groups of hypnotized people sang to Happy Birthday to Matt in "Chinese", garage band style, and opera. It was highly entertaining, and probably the most unique birthday song Matt's ever gotten. Today, we're having presents, Asian Cuisine, and Matt's dissecting a pig in Biology. What could be better?! Here are some pictures of Matt Wright for your viewing pleasure...

Who knew that this drooling little sweetheart would grow up to...


Be extremely popular

Throw himself down large obstacles with only a piece of wood and some wheels under his feet

Be a "Woolies" model and spokesperson

Dress up in pioneer gear so that he could film a bunch of nuts with handcarts walk through the desert

Try to unlock his own front door with his automatic car unlocker device

Have rubber skin

Do inappropriate things to cats with pink bums

Own his very own Nissan Sentra AND videography business

Dance like a maniac, no matter who was watching

Do a phenomenal elf impression

These are just a few of Matt Wright's accomplishments. Among others, he's about the most loving and generous person any of us will have the pleasure of knowing. And one of the funniest. So here's to Matt Wright, our favorite 27 year old ever.

Love you, kisses!!

B

Happy Birthday Matt!!

Happy Birthday Matt!!!!

(late)

That's all I got.

Just finished reading this a few minutes ago. This is one of my all time favorite novels. I've probably read it 5 times before. And, of course, it blew me away as always. I just love John Steinbeck. He doesn't really ever use many literary 'tricks'. It's just the way he words things that slays me. I have this collection of 4 Steinbeck works in one volume. I got it out to read 'Of Mice and Men' because of Sawyer. Then there was 'Tortilla Flat' and I was like, well, I'll read this because I've only read it once before and I remember it being kind of a cute little story. Then there was 'Cannery Row'. And, same thing, I thought well, I've only read this twice before, but I liked it quite a bit. I really love the Doc character and I wanted to remember why. Hey, I'll read it again. Then there was grapes and I just had to. It has been several years since I read it last. It was in college and I did a big thesis on it. This is truly Steinbeck's masterpiece. The writing is so beautiful, it will make you pause. It's a compelling story about the triumph of the human spirit. It takes place in the '40s during the dust-bowl migration. When thousands of families were forced to flee the Oklahoma/Kansas region in search for work in California. I'm kind of glad I've finished it now, though because for the last couple of weeks, my inner narrative has been in the voice of a Joad (the central family). For example, when I'm really hungry, in my mind I'm saying 'I ain't et yet' and such. Hopefully that will fade over time. All: I implore you; If you have not read this book (Em), do treat yourself. It is amazing. Now 'git'.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

This movie is Deeeeeelightful! Loved it, 4 stars. So funny and just a joy to watch. Especially when Mr. Fox eats his waffles. Laughed for days.

CHROLS--Eclipse

After a several-month layoff, I picked up Eclipse again this week and just finished it last night. I liked it much more than the other two books, making me slightly motivated to continue on pretty soon into Breaking Dawn. Bella's is still not my favorite head to be inside--still too guilty and self-loathing, too emotional and weak/swoony, though admittedly with some courage when it comes to battle. I liked hearing the Quileute mythology about how they came to be wolves, and I was interested in hearing about Jasper's back story and wars among the vampire groups and the stuff about armies of newborns. I'm still Team Alice, so it's good that Jasper is a bit more worthy a companion for her than the earlier books (and especially the movies) have presented him.

I can see why Lorri and Hope both told me they liked the camping scene with Jacob playing space heater and he and Edward finally communicating. Overall, I guess I liked it, too, but it was also really contrived feeling with neither of the two guys seeming like real people at all (then and hardly ever). Too eloquent, too noble, too "ooh, look how cleverly I'm playing the game to win Bella." And it cracks me up how riled up and ready for sex Meyer has Bella practically every minute of the book yet any of the intense scenes where Bella or someone else is actually pushing the matter are so chastely written. Ah, Mormonism ... ye crack me up many times.

I guess in the next book I'm looking forward to Jacob finding someone and how all of Bella's imperviousness to the Cullen and Volturi "gifts" plays out. Plus, did I hear there's finally some headboard banging? If so, I'm looking forward to seeing again how Meyer manages to keep all the characters hands and mouths solely resting upon lips, necks, collar bones, and waists!

Oh, and I still can't see why none of you (the Spoon women included) like Kristen Stewart as Bella. Having read in these books, she seems like she's playing Bella exactly as written. Is it that you somehow are thinking Bella's a stronger person than Stewart is showing? If so, I say read again!

WTB, YAAAYYY!!!!

So... I was beginning to think that this was never going to happen. I'm am going to actually double my score!!!!! I don't even know what to do with myself!!!!!! Just kidding. I'm actually suffering from too little sleep and too much sugar and Nerts anxiety. That's why I didn't get around to it until late Sunday, Dan. We've just been having too darn much fun up here! But anyways, here is this weeks quote.

"Or, imagine, being able to be magically whisked away to... Delaware. [pauses] Hi. I'm in Delaware."

WTB? I Married an Axe Murderer!?

"Woman!! WOAH- MAN! WOOOOOAAAHH MAN!!"

I have always loved this movie. And I know it was watched many times in the Wright house in the early nineties. There are tons of quotable lines that seem to make their way into conversations from time to time, such as "evil.... the freeewwits, of the Deviiil." Or "I do care for apple jacks a great deal" and "We shall dance like children of the night!!"

Yay for B!! She guessed first, then Emily, then Alex, then Dan, then Cath.

Sue and Dan both fell into my little trap... They both guessed Juno after the first "smelled like soup" quote. I LOVE JUNO. We have it on dvd and watch it often and it is also very quotable. There is a line when Beaker says basically the same thing about a girl in his school. I always wonder when I hear it if it is a tribute to So I Married An Axe Murderer. Or if they just stole it? I doubt it. Or maybe nobody even remembered that line. I kinda doubt that too. So, anyway, Sue and Dan, I am still impressed that you guessed Juno, because you were pretty much Wright. Dan changed his guess though after the last hint, knowing that only Mike Myers could be capable of such over the top insults. (I'm sure you knew what movie it was as well Sue, just didn't bother to change your guess or something)

Wow, that was long. Sorry!

Go B!!