Stones, Potter Movie, Mom's Visit, Trip to Cali
I should be driving right now. Really. Instead it's 2 AM and I'm in the Best Western hotel in Beaver, Utah which is the birthplace of Butch Cassidy. There is a strange dog howling outside my door and the room is hotter than hell.
Let me back up a bit. Back during the ASA meetings I was taking a stroll with Joel and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Delta Center sign flash "Rolling Stones, Nov. 22nd" in big light-bulb letters. This, I thought, was an exceptionally good idea so I called up Joemamma and said, "Hey, you wanna go to the Stones concert with me?" That was the genesis of this whole mad-cap scheme.
My original plan was to leave right after my Plant Nutrition class this Tuesday, drive through the night (I'm a night owl damnit, stop treating me like I"m not everyone who does!) and arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house sometime on Wednesday morning. Flash forward to reality and we have Joemamma arriving this past Thursday and subsequently spending all of her time from then 'till the Stones cleaning my house and buying food. This is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand I'm offended that she feels she needs to clean everything up since I work to try and keep my house orderly and I thought I wasn't doing half-bad at all. I can accept a difference between boy vs. girl clean but come on, really. On the other hand, she saves me from expending a lot of $$ I don't have because she's willing to get the supplies I don't really care about (read, Soft-soap re-fills, dishwashing detergent and the like). So, now the plan was changed to "we'll go to the Stones concert and drive for a bit and stop at a hotel somewhere." This, I admit, is not a half-bad idea but let's at least get a hotel that's out of this state! Grrrr! So frustrating.
Ok, on to the reviews:
Joemamma and I went to see Harry Potter at the 3:30 PM show at my local movie-plex (think 1980's style 5 screen movie theatre). We almost didn't make it to the show because, just as we were buying tickets the pressure relief valve on the LBV's radiator blew and spewed coolant all over the parking lot. This was not a good thing and definitely didn't give a positive contribution to Joemamma's stress levels about the impending CA drive. So, I had to "borrow" the lab-truck to go get coolant at Wal-mart and then head up to the movie theatre to dump into the LBV and then escort mom and car to the MasterMechanic. After that there ensued a bit of weirdness where I went back to the lab for a little bit and mom went for lunch and the car was being fixed. Unfortunately they didn't have the car fixed in time for the movie so we ended up taking the truck, ahem, "borrowing" the truck to go see the movie. Ok, so we got back to the theatre around 3:10 or so, went in, and OMG was there a TON of teeny-boppers all skipping school / work with their parents. After standing in the long-ass line for the concessions (I've big issues with how that theatre is managed) I finally joined Joemamma at our seats way the hell up in the back of the movie theatre.
I liked the movie. From beginning to end it was well-acted and well-scored. I am, however, horribly disappointed that so much was cut from the book and the way the plot was mangled around to suit the "action scenes." No shots of the Quidditch World Cup match. Hell, they didn't even say who won and why. No Dobby the elf giving Harry gillyweed. The action for the first task was poorly choreographed and I think it took away from the drama in the book when they had the dragon leave the stadium instead of Harry cleverly dodging it to get the egg like in the book. Moody's eye, although a great effect, is nowhere near as slick as it could have been done and there was no hint about his backstory or anything at all in the movie that might have suggested how and who was really there. The yule ball scene was pretty cool but none of the romantic interludes were really there and they definitely dropped the ball on setting the stage for Hagrid's character to be a half-blood giant. The grave-yard scene was mostly well done but there was very little suspense in that either and it was all horribly rushed. There was no true "battle of wills" as shown in the book and the intricate meaning of the "priori incantato" was totally lost. I'm also a bit peeved that there was no "gleam of triumph" in Dumbledore's eye at the mention of Harry's blood in Voldemort's veins. Ginny Weasly and Neville made a great couple but I'm still a big fan of Ginny / Harry. That is all.
Saturday was passed getting Joemamma brand new ski-boots at Daleboot in SLC. We also went to the London Market and got many British goods such as pinhead oatmeal, black currant juice, and various other sweets and teas.
Sunday was a lazy recovery day from all that but I did make sure to put house numbers up. I'm finally marked! Yay! We also went shopping at Sam's and various other places.
Monday was a work day. I'm happy to note, however, that my stupid columns are finally working about right so I'm hoping to plant in them sometime soon.
Tuesday, yay! After spending the morning frantically packing I made it on time to Plant Nutrition. Standard lecture and I got my literature review returned. I earned a 17/ 20 which, although an 85%, Bruce is calling an A- which seems to be what I've been headed for all along in this class. After class Joemamma picked me up and I drove us down to SLC for the ROLLING STONES! Whooo!
We arrived in SLC at 6 PM and parked 2 rows back from the lot exit and right across the street from the Delta Center. Prime positioning. I'm glad I got to scope the place out during the ASA meetings. Since we were both hungry we decided to go down the street and try out the Crown Burger restaurant across from the HoJo express Joel and I stayed at during ASA. Crown Burger proved to be a fast-food place with pretty standard run-of-the mill selections. I ordered a cheeseburger and chili-fries with strawberry shake and Joemamma ordered a chicken souvlaki. I thought my meal was good but nothing special. Joemamma's meal made her puke 30 minutes into the Stones concert. Needless to say we will not be taking her there again.
"Dinner" was over right around 6:45 and we walked the block back to the Delta Center and arrived at our door and seats in time for the warm-up band. First thing I learned: the acoustics at the Delta Center totally suck-ass. Nothing made any sense at all from all the reverb and interference and the damn loud-ass speakers for such a small arena. Joemamma went to the usher and got us some earplugs and, suddenly, everything made sense! Whoa! what a difference! Too bad the warm-up band still sucked ass. Hell, they didn't even tell us who they were. I wouldn't either if I were that bad. The Stones came on at 8:30 and boy did they ROCK! I don't care if they've been around for over 40 years. I don't care if tickets were $160 a seat. IT WAS WORTH IT ALL. Mick can still put on one hell of a show. Also, two of the songs were broadcast live to the American Music Awards. This was really cool 'cause Mick said "Ok everyone, the next two songs are going to be on live TV so everyone scream your brains out and carry on like crazy!" What a blast. They played classics from 40 years ago and songs "Watch the Rain" from their new material. All of them awesome. I'm still jazzed by the great seats we had. I also thought it was really awesome when they had the entire group on one portion of the stage that lifted up, pulled forward into the center of the arena, and settled down to form a "B" stage. They played there for like 20-30 minutes before pulling back to the main stage. It reminded me of the time I was at the U2 Popmart concert in Foxboro back in '97 and we were 8 rows back from their "B" stage. Our seats were just off-axis to stage left and we were 13 rows up from the floor. Very very cool. Anyone, anywhere, should do what they can to get tickets to see these guys play. There's a reason they've been around for forty years and it's energetic, rockin' shows with 3 encores (yes, they did 3!) that keep the fans lovin' it and coming back for more. Booyah! The Stones had finally wrapped everything up around 10:30 P.M. 2hrs or so after taking the stage. Very well done.
Ok, after the final encore Joemamma and I booked it back to the parking lot which, by now, had completely filled and we were the FIRST CAR OUT BABY! Yeah, no traffic, no waiting, just instant road to the freeway. From then 'till we got here at this hotel we've been heading south towards Cali. We'll be passing through Vegas (I've never been!) and I hope to stop and wander through the Star Trek hotel. I hope I make it out of there in time for Thanksgiving.
Let me back up a bit. Back during the ASA meetings I was taking a stroll with Joel and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Delta Center sign flash "Rolling Stones, Nov. 22nd" in big light-bulb letters. This, I thought, was an exceptionally good idea so I called up Joemamma and said, "Hey, you wanna go to the Stones concert with me?" That was the genesis of this whole mad-cap scheme.
My original plan was to leave right after my Plant Nutrition class this Tuesday, drive through the night (I'm a night owl damnit, stop treating me like I"m not everyone who does!) and arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house sometime on Wednesday morning. Flash forward to reality and we have Joemamma arriving this past Thursday and subsequently spending all of her time from then 'till the Stones cleaning my house and buying food. This is both a good and bad thing. On the one hand I'm offended that she feels she needs to clean everything up since I work to try and keep my house orderly and I thought I wasn't doing half-bad at all. I can accept a difference between boy vs. girl clean but come on, really. On the other hand, she saves me from expending a lot of $$ I don't have because she's willing to get the supplies I don't really care about (read, Soft-soap re-fills, dishwashing detergent and the like). So, now the plan was changed to "we'll go to the Stones concert and drive for a bit and stop at a hotel somewhere." This, I admit, is not a half-bad idea but let's at least get a hotel that's out of this state! Grrrr! So frustrating.
Ok, on to the reviews:
Joemamma and I went to see Harry Potter at the 3:30 PM show at my local movie-plex (think 1980's style 5 screen movie theatre). We almost didn't make it to the show because, just as we were buying tickets the pressure relief valve on the LBV's radiator blew and spewed coolant all over the parking lot. This was not a good thing and definitely didn't give a positive contribution to Joemamma's stress levels about the impending CA drive. So, I had to "borrow" the lab-truck to go get coolant at Wal-mart and then head up to the movie theatre to dump into the LBV and then escort mom and car to the MasterMechanic. After that there ensued a bit of weirdness where I went back to the lab for a little bit and mom went for lunch and the car was being fixed. Unfortunately they didn't have the car fixed in time for the movie so we ended up taking the truck, ahem, "borrowing" the truck to go see the movie. Ok, so we got back to the theatre around 3:10 or so, went in, and OMG was there a TON of teeny-boppers all skipping school / work with their parents. After standing in the long-ass line for the concessions (I've big issues with how that theatre is managed) I finally joined Joemamma at our seats way the hell up in the back of the movie theatre.
I liked the movie. From beginning to end it was well-acted and well-scored. I am, however, horribly disappointed that so much was cut from the book and the way the plot was mangled around to suit the "action scenes." No shots of the Quidditch World Cup match. Hell, they didn't even say who won and why. No Dobby the elf giving Harry gillyweed. The action for the first task was poorly choreographed and I think it took away from the drama in the book when they had the dragon leave the stadium instead of Harry cleverly dodging it to get the egg like in the book. Moody's eye, although a great effect, is nowhere near as slick as it could have been done and there was no hint about his backstory or anything at all in the movie that might have suggested how and who was really there. The yule ball scene was pretty cool but none of the romantic interludes were really there and they definitely dropped the ball on setting the stage for Hagrid's character to be a half-blood giant. The grave-yard scene was mostly well done but there was very little suspense in that either and it was all horribly rushed. There was no true "battle of wills" as shown in the book and the intricate meaning of the "priori incantato" was totally lost. I'm also a bit peeved that there was no "gleam of triumph" in Dumbledore's eye at the mention of Harry's blood in Voldemort's veins. Ginny Weasly and Neville made a great couple but I'm still a big fan of Ginny / Harry. That is all.
Saturday was passed getting Joemamma brand new ski-boots at Daleboot in SLC. We also went to the London Market and got many British goods such as pinhead oatmeal, black currant juice, and various other sweets and teas.
Sunday was a lazy recovery day from all that but I did make sure to put house numbers up. I'm finally marked! Yay! We also went shopping at Sam's and various other places.
Monday was a work day. I'm happy to note, however, that my stupid columns are finally working about right so I'm hoping to plant in them sometime soon.
Tuesday, yay! After spending the morning frantically packing I made it on time to Plant Nutrition. Standard lecture and I got my literature review returned. I earned a 17/ 20 which, although an 85%, Bruce is calling an A- which seems to be what I've been headed for all along in this class. After class Joemamma picked me up and I drove us down to SLC for the ROLLING STONES! Whooo!
We arrived in SLC at 6 PM and parked 2 rows back from the lot exit and right across the street from the Delta Center. Prime positioning. I'm glad I got to scope the place out during the ASA meetings. Since we were both hungry we decided to go down the street and try out the Crown Burger restaurant across from the HoJo express Joel and I stayed at during ASA. Crown Burger proved to be a fast-food place with pretty standard run-of-the mill selections. I ordered a cheeseburger and chili-fries with strawberry shake and Joemamma ordered a chicken souvlaki. I thought my meal was good but nothing special. Joemamma's meal made her puke 30 minutes into the Stones concert. Needless to say we will not be taking her there again.
"Dinner" was over right around 6:45 and we walked the block back to the Delta Center and arrived at our door and seats in time for the warm-up band. First thing I learned: the acoustics at the Delta Center totally suck-ass. Nothing made any sense at all from all the reverb and interference and the damn loud-ass speakers for such a small arena. Joemamma went to the usher and got us some earplugs and, suddenly, everything made sense! Whoa! what a difference! Too bad the warm-up band still sucked ass. Hell, they didn't even tell us who they were. I wouldn't either if I were that bad. The Stones came on at 8:30 and boy did they ROCK! I don't care if they've been around for over 40 years. I don't care if tickets were $160 a seat. IT WAS WORTH IT ALL. Mick can still put on one hell of a show. Also, two of the songs were broadcast live to the American Music Awards. This was really cool 'cause Mick said "Ok everyone, the next two songs are going to be on live TV so everyone scream your brains out and carry on like crazy!" What a blast. They played classics from 40 years ago and songs "Watch the Rain" from their new material. All of them awesome. I'm still jazzed by the great seats we had. I also thought it was really awesome when they had the entire group on one portion of the stage that lifted up, pulled forward into the center of the arena, and settled down to form a "B" stage. They played there for like 20-30 minutes before pulling back to the main stage. It reminded me of the time I was at the U2 Popmart concert in Foxboro back in '97 and we were 8 rows back from their "B" stage. Our seats were just off-axis to stage left and we were 13 rows up from the floor. Very very cool. Anyone, anywhere, should do what they can to get tickets to see these guys play. There's a reason they've been around for forty years and it's energetic, rockin' shows with 3 encores (yes, they did 3!) that keep the fans lovin' it and coming back for more. Booyah! The Stones had finally wrapped everything up around 10:30 P.M. 2hrs or so after taking the stage. Very well done.
Ok, after the final encore Joemamma and I booked it back to the parking lot which, by now, had completely filled and we were the FIRST CAR OUT BABY! Yeah, no traffic, no waiting, just instant road to the freeway. From then 'till we got here at this hotel we've been heading south towards Cali. We'll be passing through Vegas (I've never been!) and I hope to stop and wander through the Star Trek hotel. I hope I make it out of there in time for Thanksgiving.