(copy from journal - haircut, superman, weekend recap & 4th)
It's A Bird, It's a Plane, It's an Entry!
Here it is almost Tuesday and I haven't eve gotten around to recapping my weekend. Jeez. It's too easy for several days to go by without realizing it and just not update.
Friday of course I was busy getting the car's alternator repaired.
Saturday we were going to go see Superman Returns but I wanted desperately to get my hair cut. It's been months and months and months since it's been cut and I'd been seriously depressed at how bad it was and how sick I was of it just looking like absolute crap. One thing after another kept me from getting it done and, dammit, I just couldn't take it anymore. Hit the mall thinking I'd get it done quickly and then we'd head to the movies, but the "15 minute" wait turned into about 45 minutes then the cut itself. Jeez. Needless to say, it took the whole afternoon basically, but it's so much healthier, even and manageable now. He took a few inches off and I'm so happy it's actually looking like hair now and not some small rodent's den.
After that, we ended up picking up foodstuff for my famous lasagne which I was planning on making for Sunday. (Since, by that point, dinner wouldn't be ready until closer to 8pm.) We watched Ultraviolet on dvd. Boy, that was a stinker! We sat through it all, but it just was all special effects and no plot. Really just bad. It's a quasi-vampire movie (which I didn't know from the previews) but that really didn't save it. Blah. Unless you're bored at 3am and it comes on HBO, really, don't bother.
Late Saturday night, I went ahead and made the lasagne so it'd be ready for us to eat Sunday after the movie. Came out delicious as usual!
Sunday we finally made it out to our wonderful Theater of Hidden Gold to see Superman Returns. I call it such because while it's $10 a ticket, it's a 21+ only theater with big, oversized leather seats that recline, oversized padded armrests and free popcorn. Best of all, we arrived there 30 minutes before showtime and were the second group in the theater. If I hit the AMC down the road, I'd have to line up one to two hours in advance to get a decent seat AND deal with crappy, noisy kids. By showtime, the theater was 30% full and no one talked or was loud and as always, it was a GREAT theater experience.
So anyway, I liked the movie. It wasn't, you know, Saving Private Ryan or something, but then, jeez....I wasn't expecting it to be. It's a comic book superhero movie. I think some people need to keep things in perspective. It moved along nicely, had great special effects, the sound kicked fucking ass (it was intense, feel-the-booms-and-thumps kind of sound that really helped be part of the experience) and overall, it was very Superman. It felt in the same vein to me as the classic movie and I felt Brandon Routh did a good job in the role. Clark wasn't around much, but the movie isn't called "Clark Kent Returns" afterall, so that wasn't a big issue. Kevin Spacey played a good Luthor as well. I was entertained throughout it all and I never felt it got too camp or too serious. It strode both, giving you moments to chuckle. It knew when it was being a silly for the sake of being silly and wasn't trying to hide that. I mean, the bullet crushing as it hit his eye was clearly a purposfully over-the-top moment, but Superman gives a funny arched eyebrown look and you laugh with it, knowing it was meant to be campy.
The problems I kept reading in negative reviews, I'm going to be honest, seemed just nit-picky for the sake of being nit-picky. Finding little things and focusing so much on them when they were nothing. And the whole Superman-as-Jesus thing..? Again, it felt like people were really pushing to force a comparasion. Where there a few moments that could be taken that way? Sure, I suppose. But - and maybe it's just because I'm not Christian and I don't see Jesus in everything (nor honestly, does Jesus come to mind pretty much ever) - I thought a lot of it was pushing it. For example, at the end, Superman says something to the effect of "The father becomes the son and the son becomes the father." Yeah...Ok. But, from my Paganistic perspective, that just sounds like the whole Circle of Life thing. You know, the whole turning of the Wheel? Why people think that makes it xtian specifically, I don't know. (Besides perhaps the fact that xtians seem to forget they're not the only religon in the world.
)
Anyway, I thought it was good on the big screen and if your theater has a good dts sound system, it's even better. Have some popcorn and just go with it. No serious thinking needed, but that's what it's supposed to be. Fun, summer, high action flick.
Monday Poor Love had to work. No four day weekend for him. So I went to Costco with my friend Rand instead to get some food for a BBQ Tuesday. We picked up some ribs and corn on the cob and some super yummy pie, etc. We had some more lasagne for dinner and planned on renting a movie, but there wasn't anything we wanted to see in stock.
Tuesday - the 4th We'll just hang locally. Neither Love nor I really like the 4th. I'm going to be honest, it's just not my thing. It just means dealing for hours and hours and hours on end with drunken idiots shooting off fireworks, being loud and obnoxious and generally irritaing everyone nonstop. And going to see a professional show? Ugh. It means going out in the blistering heat of the day (this IS Florida in July afterall!) and sitting around, holding a spot, doing nothing for hours crowded in with thousands of people doing the same waiting for dark. It usually also rains in the afternoon and you end up getting soaked. Or you leave and turns out they launch anyway.
And if you do stay until the fireworks, it's a nothing special show followed by thousands of people leaving, pushing and shoving to get to their cars, making a mess and dealing with traffic jams trying to get home. Bleck. No thanks.
So, we'll be lazy. Stroll over to our friend's house (a whopping handful of miles away) and have some food then head back home and veg. I rather lounge around and not do much then deal with heat, drunks and crowds personally.
Anyway, that's the recap for now. In less brevity then I planned, but there you go.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend and for those of you in the States, a safe 4th of July.
Here it is almost Tuesday and I haven't eve gotten around to recapping my weekend. Jeez. It's too easy for several days to go by without realizing it and just not update.
Friday of course I was busy getting the car's alternator repaired.
Saturday we were going to go see Superman Returns but I wanted desperately to get my hair cut. It's been months and months and months since it's been cut and I'd been seriously depressed at how bad it was and how sick I was of it just looking like absolute crap. One thing after another kept me from getting it done and, dammit, I just couldn't take it anymore. Hit the mall thinking I'd get it done quickly and then we'd head to the movies, but the "15 minute" wait turned into about 45 minutes then the cut itself. Jeez. Needless to say, it took the whole afternoon basically, but it's so much healthier, even and manageable now. He took a few inches off and I'm so happy it's actually looking like hair now and not some small rodent's den.
After that, we ended up picking up foodstuff for my famous lasagne which I was planning on making for Sunday. (Since, by that point, dinner wouldn't be ready until closer to 8pm.) We watched Ultraviolet on dvd. Boy, that was a stinker! We sat through it all, but it just was all special effects and no plot. Really just bad. It's a quasi-vampire movie (which I didn't know from the previews) but that really didn't save it. Blah. Unless you're bored at 3am and it comes on HBO, really, don't bother.
Late Saturday night, I went ahead and made the lasagne so it'd be ready for us to eat Sunday after the movie. Came out delicious as usual!
Sunday we finally made it out to our wonderful Theater of Hidden Gold to see Superman Returns. I call it such because while it's $10 a ticket, it's a 21+ only theater with big, oversized leather seats that recline, oversized padded armrests and free popcorn. Best of all, we arrived there 30 minutes before showtime and were the second group in the theater. If I hit the AMC down the road, I'd have to line up one to two hours in advance to get a decent seat AND deal with crappy, noisy kids. By showtime, the theater was 30% full and no one talked or was loud and as always, it was a GREAT theater experience.
So anyway, I liked the movie. It wasn't, you know, Saving Private Ryan or something, but then, jeez....I wasn't expecting it to be. It's a comic book superhero movie. I think some people need to keep things in perspective. It moved along nicely, had great special effects, the sound kicked fucking ass (it was intense, feel-the-booms-and-thumps kind of sound that really helped be part of the experience) and overall, it was very Superman. It felt in the same vein to me as the classic movie and I felt Brandon Routh did a good job in the role. Clark wasn't around much, but the movie isn't called "Clark Kent Returns" afterall, so that wasn't a big issue. Kevin Spacey played a good Luthor as well. I was entertained throughout it all and I never felt it got too camp or too serious. It strode both, giving you moments to chuckle. It knew when it was being a silly for the sake of being silly and wasn't trying to hide that. I mean, the bullet crushing as it hit his eye was clearly a purposfully over-the-top moment, but Superman gives a funny arched eyebrown look and you laugh with it, knowing it was meant to be campy.
The problems I kept reading in negative reviews, I'm going to be honest, seemed just nit-picky for the sake of being nit-picky. Finding little things and focusing so much on them when they were nothing. And the whole Superman-as-Jesus thing..? Again, it felt like people were really pushing to force a comparasion. Where there a few moments that could be taken that way? Sure, I suppose. But - and maybe it's just because I'm not Christian and I don't see Jesus in everything (nor honestly, does Jesus come to mind pretty much ever) - I thought a lot of it was pushing it. For example, at the end, Superman says something to the effect of "The father becomes the son and the son becomes the father." Yeah...Ok. But, from my Paganistic perspective, that just sounds like the whole Circle of Life thing. You know, the whole turning of the Wheel? Why people think that makes it xtian specifically, I don't know. (Besides perhaps the fact that xtians seem to forget they're not the only religon in the world.
)
Anyway, I thought it was good on the big screen and if your theater has a good dts sound system, it's even better. Have some popcorn and just go with it. No serious thinking needed, but that's what it's supposed to be. Fun, summer, high action flick.
Monday Poor Love had to work. No four day weekend for him. So I went to Costco with my friend Rand instead to get some food for a BBQ Tuesday. We picked up some ribs and corn on the cob and some super yummy pie, etc. We had some more lasagne for dinner and planned on renting a movie, but there wasn't anything we wanted to see in stock.
Tuesday - the 4th We'll just hang locally. Neither Love nor I really like the 4th. I'm going to be honest, it's just not my thing. It just means dealing for hours and hours and hours on end with drunken idiots shooting off fireworks, being loud and obnoxious and generally irritaing everyone nonstop. And going to see a professional show? Ugh. It means going out in the blistering heat of the day (this IS Florida in July afterall!) and sitting around, holding a spot, doing nothing for hours crowded in with thousands of people doing the same waiting for dark. It usually also rains in the afternoon and you end up getting soaked. Or you leave and turns out they launch anyway.
And if you do stay until the fireworks, it's a nothing special show followed by thousands of people leaving, pushing and shoving to get to their cars, making a mess and dealing with traffic jams trying to get home. Bleck. No thanks.
So, we'll be lazy. Stroll over to our friend's house (a whopping handful of miles away) and have some food then head back home and veg. I rather lounge around and not do much then deal with heat, drunks and crowds personally.
Anyway, that's the recap for now. In less brevity then I planned, but there you go.
Hope everyone had a nice weekend and for those of you in the States, a safe 4th of July.