Reviews

I sit here in office 249, staring down the last work week of the year, the Meghan McCain tome Dirty Sexy Money winking at me. Outside, the temperature hovers at 17 F, as arctic air chills most of America. Yes, I blinked, and the weekend was over. So, what happened? First, I saw Despicable Me with Maria Thursday night (yes, a little Daddy/Daughter time). Wonderful film, even if the tickets cost us $3 and the concessions cost $19. I laughed a lot, and Steve Carell is a genius. I’ve subjected Whitney to my (bad) Gru impression since Friday. ...

I’ve been pulling lots of OT at work lately (as has my whole team) and this past week, the walls started closing in on me. That’s appropriate–I work in a windowless lab surrounded by high-walled cubicles and machines that wouldn’t pass FCC Class B certification with a bribe and a reactor radiation shield. Our lab has a sign with fake (?) blood on it that says: “Stress relief: Bang head here.” ...

Since March 22nd, my family’s been tooling around in a Nissan Cube. Let’s be honest: We hate it. We miss our Honda Odyssey and look forward to its return. Heck, this thing makes me yearn for the consistent handling, quiet competence of my 10 year old Toyota Camry. Yep. This brick is Hello Kitty with wheels, and yikes has it overstayed its welcome. For those who don’t know, a Nissan Cube is a Nissan Versa with a different body. A Nissan Versa is the smallest Nissan automobile sold in America, featuring a coarse 122 hp 1.8L engine and a Continuously Variable Transmission. Pic of the versa: ...

Finished reading this book Saturday night It was an interesting tale of an entitled, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) whose life completely unravelled in his late 50’s. This true story follows Michael Gates Gill, son of Brendan Gill of The New Yorker magazine fame, graduate of Yale, member of Skull & Bones. Gill’s never worked a real job in his life–he moved from Yale to a prestigious Madison Avenue ad agency, living a jet-set life and leaving his kids behind. As he entered his 50’s, he got downsized and went home (for the first time, really) to a wife he didn’t know and children who grew up without him. He descended further, carrying-on an affair with a younger woman and fathering a child at 60 years old. Then his wife left him. Then his ad clients stopped calling him back. ...

I’ll get some pics up soon…just some thoughts from attending the 2010 Louisville Auto show It’s much better going with your 3 year old daughter than with your 1 year old daughter. Maria was my wingman…er…wingdaughter. Awesome! The Ford display triumphed. They had position right in front of the entrance, and the cars were great. They (understandably) didn’t have the 2011 5.0 Mustang GT on display–who would by the 2010 4.6? The new Taurus is incredible. Great styling. Sumptuous interior. I can’t believe this platform began as the VW Passat-derivative Five Hundred. It’s a completely different car just when America’s ready to return to cars after gorging on SUV’s for 20 years. That being said, the new Fiesta’s too small. Unless they can make money on this car at $14k or less, forget it. People will buy the redesigned Focus instead. Toyota’s display, right next to the entrance as well, was a ghost town. I felt sorry for these guys as there are some superb cars in the lineup. Maria loved the Scion xD, and I thought the the new Prius to be the perfect replacement for my 2000 Camry–only it gets double the mileage. BMW has lost its way, big time. I though things were bad when Bangle took over, but $100,000 UGLY, IRRELEVANT cars (X6? 5 series GT?). Those posers snatching-up the Beamers are BROKE, you Bavarian Dullards. Those who remain are the hardcore faithful, and you’ve given them nothing but complicated, overpriced, ugly cars that break with British regularity. ::sigh:: Still want an E39 530i Sport. Probably a 2001 model. :-) Honda: WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING?! The Oddysey withers on the vine, the Civic is a disaster, and the Accord remains ugly (as it has since 1998). Meanwhile, we get the Accord Crosstour. Meanwhile, the Fit remains a joy. Pity it’s overpriced and lacks taller gearing for the highway. Still, play with those folding rear seats, work that snick/snick shifter, and feel the quality of the controls–this is Honda Motor we-can-engineer-better-than-you Company at its best. Jump in a Mazda 6, then into a Hyundai Sonata, and tell me why Mazda’s still in business. The Mazda 2 won’t sell. It’s an uglier Fiesta, with less space. GM is still the “too many divisions, too many nameplates” company. And the new Regal (a rebadged Opel offering only a 4-cylinder engine) is too small. Finally got in a Camaro. Maria liked it because it’s red. It has so little headroom and such bad outward visibility, I felt like I was in a coffin. I don’t see that car having even the legs of the 4th Gen Camaro/Firebird. GM has a talent for useless styling exercised (SSR, anyone?) This feels exactly like that. Acuras make BMWs seem attractive. Yikes. So yeah, I feel like an old fart–I like reasonable cars, with good styling, interior appointments, and room. I dislike gimmicks and needless complexity–they seem like sleight-of-hand to hide bad engineering. ...

I paid $4.00 at a matinee to watch Avatar, now 3 weeks after its worldwide release. The 2.5 hour video game movie amazed me, and at the same time, its overarching vanity and irony haunts me. Let’s talk. The movie itself tells the story of former marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)’s journey the new world Pandora, where he’s embedded with a corporate mining operation of ‘Unobtainium’, a mineral essential to old Terra. Jake takes over for his Ph.D. identical twin, who’s killed months before he’s supposed to ship out to be an Avatar driver. In return, they’ll fix his paraplegic legs after his 6 year hitch on Pandora. ...

you post a link on ur fb. BTW, Joey and I just ha… Whitney - Jan 1, 2010 you post a link on ur fb. BTW, Joey and I just had the misfortune to watch this movie that was released in 2007, titled “Terra”. Same story, right down to brother being killed, humans looking for mineral to run their habitat, etc. comp gen’d animation of course. im actually surprised cameron and crew hasn’t been sued over this adult adaptation. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0858486/ ...

Linky Oh, Jim Carrey, how far and hard you’ve fallen. Last night, Whitney and I RedBox’d Yes Man, a movie completely devoid of plot. Plot: A progression of a story through introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution (denoument). Yeah, this story has none. It has a terrific *premise*, that of a man who is stuck in a rut until he magically transforms into a guy who can’t lie and hilarity ensues (wait, that’s that other movie by the same guy). No, this time, he’s a guy who can’t say ‘Yes,’ until he goes to a life-changing “Say Yes” seminar taught by General Zod. ...

yeah he has to say that to get away with the crush… Whitney - Apr 5, 2009 yeah he has to say that to get away with the crush. which is why the tyra crush stopped talking so much. so how many ppl out there really think ZD and I are similar….in….anything? ;)

As I sit here at 5:15 am, drinking coffee and eating Raisin Bran, this is pretty much the first time in 2 weeks I’ve felt like myself. A head cold turned into bronchitis, then back into a severe head cold. I had fever & chills 3 out of 4 days last week. Finally, the doctor prescribed a course of antibiotics and two days later I couldn’t hear out of my right ear. ...

Once you have been tagged, you are supposed to write down 25 movies you cannot live without. You know, the ones you can watch over and over and never get tired of. They don’t have to be in any particular order. These are the movies that make you laugh, cry, think of an old friend, whatever the reason. Please note that these are not in any particular order, these are just the 25 films I feel are my favorites, and ones I return to often. ...

Linky City of Ember is a gripping, family-friendly tale of perserverence and survival. It stars some no-name child actors amid a cast of recognizable adult faces (Bill Murray, Tim Robbins) as the residents of an underground city called “Ember”. As the story opens, we see a group of scientists in a “doomsday” scenario: Huddled around a time capsule device, they discern that 200 years is “enough” time to wait for…something. Life to be sustainable on Earth again? The planet to give itself an enema? Memories of “Hannah Montana” to fade? Who knows. ...

Every time I hear Norah Jones, I’m hear Joey snoring softly in the back on my MINI, dusk falling around us as we drive back from Somernites Cruise on US 127 from Danville. The sun’s gone down on a perfect day, and Whitney’s looking at me every so often with so much love in her eyes, I just want to cry. She doesn’t know I see her looking. And that’s okay. ...

WOW! Whitney and I attended the Georgetown College’s production of Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage last night, and I was blown away. Understand, this is a college of ~1500 persons. The curriculum’s “Opera” class hasn’t been taught in recent memory. The college has no orchestra, only a concert band. So here, amid the rolling bluegrass, they staged a full, 2-Act Italian opera. Was it perfect? Of course not…all performers could sing, but only two stood out operatically: The rich-voiced Count, and the delicate soprano playing Carolina. I could’ve listened to Carolina sing all night long–her arias delighted, and her acting was properly melodramatic. ...

Ah, Bond is back! Whitney and I watched this at the Stoneybrook Cinemas de Lux (in assigned seats no less!) last night. Some thoughts: * I now have epilepsy from watching 27 cuts per seconds during each action scene * Like the other good Bond, Daniel Craig is going bald. * The “Bond Girl” is awesome. * The homage to Goldfinger (dead girl, prone on the bed) * Judi Dench reprises as M, and she’s fabulous. ...

TV Cancellations thrill me. Stinker shows go circling the drain, and we all get to cheer. First big one to go: My Own Worst Enemy. Terrible show, poorly executed–just painful to watch, really. Sad thing is, most things on network TV these days aren’t that much better. Grey’s Anatomy jumped the shark years ago, as has every single reality show. Overall, TV’s just ceasing to exist for me–I like House, though its formulaic nature and current shark sighting (House and Cuddy?! Hello Moonlighting!)

IMDB Link My father-in-law surprised Whitney and I last night by offering to watch the kids while we went to the 6:30 showing of Fireproof in Lexington. Fireproof is another Christian-centered offering from Sherwood pictures, the same folks who made Facing the Giants. In this film, Kirk Cameron stars as Caleb Holt, a fireman in Albany, Georgia with a darling house, a very attractive young wife, and aspirations of buying a boat. He seems to have the perfect life until you peel back the surface–underneath it all, he and his wife are virtual strangers, with enough resentment and hurt feelings to split apart Minneapolis and St. Paul. He’s hurt (yet unsurprised) when she starts talking of a divorce. ...

To paraphrase a wise imaginary character: Last night’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever! Rest assured I was on the internet within minutes voicing my disgust throughout the world. Yeah, yeah…Comic Book Guy FTW. * * * Well, that was special. Two hours of shoddy camera work, confusing storylines and bad acting later, I yearn for season two and three. As this episode opens, we find our favorite band of 237 interns gathered around Miranda Bailey, awaiting their new rankings as a teaching hospital. Apparently, their ratings have fallen significantly since their glory days… ...

…or “Whitney gets car fever” So Saturday, before Ike started tearing through our area, our intrepid family went a-Cincinatti’ing. Yep, swimming pools, movie stars, and the best MINI dealership in the world. I hadn’t been to Cincy MINI since last August, when a mishap with my radiator drain plug had me driving 120 miles roundtrip for a $2 part. Whitney hadn’t been there since spring of 05, when we had the Pup in for its last dealer service. ...

Now this is a movie. It’s 1968; hipster counter-culture is ablaze in Europe. Somewhere, Austin Powers is out there in his Shag-u-ar telling the birds, “Oh Behave.” And, as our story opens, Charlie Croker (Michael Caine), the world’s best thief, has just been let of of prison…. Actually, as our story opens, a Lamborghini Miura is tearing up the Alps out of Turin on its way to Switzerland, driving up roads that look 2 feet wide at something like 120 mph. I got car-sick just watching it. ...