So we get a phone call from Kellie this afternoon. She and Andy are in Atlanta on a band trip...apparently their heads must be swimming after a brush with celebrity today.
Below, a transcript of the conversation with her mother.
"Hi there, how's the trip going?"
"We're at 6 Flags in Atlanta. The lines are a couple of hours long, but I had to call you."
"Why?"
"You will not believe who we saw today at the park today!"
"Who?"
(brace yourself)
"Vanilla Ice."
"Uh....wow!" (please note poorly executed enthusiasm from her mother) "That is, uh, really, really cool."
"Isn't that awesome?"
"Um...yeah."
"Don't you know who he is?"
"Yeah."
"And wouldn't it be cool if you saw him?"
"I gotta be honest with you...I probably wouldn't even have recognized him."
"What about Jeff?"
"Uh...yeah, maybe Jeff would have."
How about her mom, throwing me under the bus? Why would I know Vanilla Ice?
Ice Ice Baby.
Later,
Jeff
Saturday, April 26, 2008
4/26/08---Again? I'm here again? Whaaa??
Well if I'm here again its probably about some movie I saw. Okay, so the other day I took the day off because we were getting our house painted (sounds like as good a reason as any to take a day off, no?) and I managed to catch a couple of movies---one I had seen a long time ago, and one I was seeing for the first time. Both are classics.
1) White Heat--I saw this movie years ago, but was watching the DVD. God, what a great movie. James Cagney was nearing the end of his legendary career, and he is one of the alltime CRAZEES here as Cody Jarrett, the homicidal criminal with a severe mother complex. And I mean REALLY severe. If you stop to consider that this film was released in 1949, its amazing how violent this film is. I mean, there are some shocking scenes here, such as the one where Cagney has a guy locked in a car trunk.
He asks the guy through the trunk how he's doing.
"How ya doing in there Parker? You okay?"
"There's not much air in here."
"What's that? You say you need air in there?"
And then he proceeds to shoot the trunk 6 times, obviously killing the guy, and says:
"There...now you got your air."
I can imagine what people watching the film almost 60 years ago must have thought.
Virginia Mayo is very good as Cagney's floozy (a role she mastered), and veteran character actor Edmond O'Brien was never better than here, as the Treasury Department's snitch who's out to bring Cagney to justice. Crime drama just doesn't get much better than this. Great film. *****
2) No Country for Old Men---here's a film that I had waited, and waited and waited to watch. And for some odd reason, the longer I wait to watch certain films, the better they always seem to be. Here's this years winner for Best Film, a western set in 1980, a time when running drugs into Texas from Mexico was just beginning. And with it comes a wave of violence that has never been seen by a weary small town sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones, who must have his picture in the encyclopedia under "weary small town sheriff", because this is a role he was born to play. Josh Brolin had one heck of a year in film, first playing a dirty cop in American Gangster--his was the performance in the film in my opinion---and here he plays a guy who, while out hunting, stumbles upon a horrific crime scene in the middle of nowhere. Its a drugdeal gone bad, and since no one is around, who's going to notice a couple of million dollars missing? This sets the movie and the events in it rolling, and its also what sends Jaiver Bardem, this year's best supporting actor, after Brolin. And trust me....this is not someone you want looking for you. Besides truly great performances by the three leads (and I'm not really sure how Bardem was nominated as a "supporting" actor, since he really has the most important role in the film), there are also terrific performance---I mean really nuanced pieces of work--by veteran character actors like Barry Corbin, Tess Harper, Woody Harrelson and others. A brutal modern day western...very violent, but full of acting tour de forces.
***** Deserving of its award for Best Picture.
Later,
Jeff
1) White Heat--I saw this movie years ago, but was watching the DVD. God, what a great movie. James Cagney was nearing the end of his legendary career, and he is one of the alltime CRAZEES here as Cody Jarrett, the homicidal criminal with a severe mother complex. And I mean REALLY severe. If you stop to consider that this film was released in 1949, its amazing how violent this film is. I mean, there are some shocking scenes here, such as the one where Cagney has a guy locked in a car trunk.
He asks the guy through the trunk how he's doing.
"How ya doing in there Parker? You okay?"
"There's not much air in here."
"What's that? You say you need air in there?"
And then he proceeds to shoot the trunk 6 times, obviously killing the guy, and says:
"There...now you got your air."
I can imagine what people watching the film almost 60 years ago must have thought.
Virginia Mayo is very good as Cagney's floozy (a role she mastered), and veteran character actor Edmond O'Brien was never better than here, as the Treasury Department's snitch who's out to bring Cagney to justice. Crime drama just doesn't get much better than this. Great film. *****
2) No Country for Old Men---here's a film that I had waited, and waited and waited to watch. And for some odd reason, the longer I wait to watch certain films, the better they always seem to be. Here's this years winner for Best Film, a western set in 1980, a time when running drugs into Texas from Mexico was just beginning. And with it comes a wave of violence that has never been seen by a weary small town sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones, who must have his picture in the encyclopedia under "weary small town sheriff", because this is a role he was born to play. Josh Brolin had one heck of a year in film, first playing a dirty cop in American Gangster--his was the performance in the film in my opinion---and here he plays a guy who, while out hunting, stumbles upon a horrific crime scene in the middle of nowhere. Its a drugdeal gone bad, and since no one is around, who's going to notice a couple of million dollars missing? This sets the movie and the events in it rolling, and its also what sends Jaiver Bardem, this year's best supporting actor, after Brolin. And trust me....this is not someone you want looking for you. Besides truly great performances by the three leads (and I'm not really sure how Bardem was nominated as a "supporting" actor, since he really has the most important role in the film), there are also terrific performance---I mean really nuanced pieces of work--by veteran character actors like Barry Corbin, Tess Harper, Woody Harrelson and others. A brutal modern day western...very violent, but full of acting tour de forces.
***** Deserving of its award for Best Picture.
Later,
Jeff
Friday, April 25, 2008
4/26/08---Where in the blue hell have I been?
Well, your question is a valid one...for someone as nosey as you that is. Maybe this is my early spring lull, who knows? Quite frankly, I just haven't been in the mood to write, displaying what can only be described as an admittedly lazy streak (one of my true curses) and just sort of avoiding writing or commenting on pretty much anything.
Hey, I guess its a good thing that I'm so damn talented at this blogging thing, because otherwise no one would give two hoots about what I'm writing about!!
So last weekend Andy went up to Orlando for the dreaded Florida "grad night", which for those of you not-in-the-know is the one evening that Disney puts aside for those that are graduating from high school that year--the park is closed around midnight to the public, and then re-opened only for high school seniors. It stays open all night and I'm sure nothing even remotely suspicious happens.....3,000 kids with raging hormones up all night (and not a spot of alcohol, I'm positive) and the relentessly happy & peppy folk from Disney. There's a weird combination. Anyway, Andy was NOT one of those kids who got to stay the whole night, since he was also in Orlando for a math team tournament and could only stay for a few hours, before getting back and preparing for the tournament. Kim & I guessed that over the course of about a 36 to 48 hour period, Andy might have slept.....5 hours....maybe. Hey, it prepares him for college.
What, you've never crammed for an exam???
Meanwhile, back here in south F.L.A., we went out with our friends Amanda & Will, while Kellie happily (?!!?) did babysitting chores. The four of us decided to try something new for dinner, since it was their wedding anniversary. I followed the recommendation of a couple of friends from work and we traveled down to the extremely exclusive (translated: "expensive") Las Olas Blvd area and decided to eat at "Chima", which is a Brazilian steakhouse. For those of you, much like I was until that night, who have never visited a Brazilian or Argentinian steakhouse...here's the deal:
You will eat, and eat, and eat...until you feel like a tick and can no longer move. That's pretty much what happens.
By that I mean, we got out of our car and walked up to a lovely, almost island-type setting with lit torches lining the entryway, an outside bar with a guy strumming a guitar.
We walk inside and are greeted by three women who share certain similarities.
First of all, they all look sort of like Penelope Cruz, the actress. High cheekbones, a very sophisticated accent...and your thinking...if I was single, there is no way on God's earth this woman would even THINK about dating me. Ahem. So we're escorted to our table and our waitress informs us---that there are not any menu's. They give you a button--one side black, one side orange. When you are ready to be served, you flip the button to the orange side. Fair enough. We head over to the salad bar. One word: HUGE. But, ah...beware fine customer. If thou doth eat too much of the vegation, you wilst not haveth room for the real star of the show. In a word:
Meat.
And by meat, I mean: Lots of freakin meat. We get to our table, and take a chance by flipping the button over. Literally, within five seconds we are approached by a waiter, dressed like a GAUCHO by the way (In Brazil?), who has a huge skewer of chicken, right off of the grill. We each take a sample. Not bad. But ah...remember, we still have the button overturned and on "orange". Soon afterwards, we are approached by another guy:
"Filet mignon?"
Well I don't mind if I do! And he cuts you off a nice hunk of filet. This continues for a few minutes, as we are approached by waiters offering rib-eye steak, flank steak, chicken wrapped with bacon, sausage and a delicious cut of pork loin with a parmasean crust. I felt like a viking or something.
"Mead! And wenches! Where are the wenches!"
Meanwhile, we're also....dare I say....have a drink or two. And sooner rather than later we are completely stuffed. Well, until we took a look at the dessert selections.
(Truthfully, are you surprised I need to lose weight? I didn't think so) And it was at that point that they brought out the deliciously light and flakey apple turnover with the cinammon ice cream. Good Lord....it was beyond good.
Well finally we got up and waddled our way back to our car, and then proceeded to take a nice drive along Ft Lauderdale Beach and made our way back to Las Olas Blvd, which is loaded with high end shops and lots of things and people to look at in the evening.
It was just a really nice evening...and too top it off, when we got back to their house, Kellie informed us that both of Amanda & Will's two boys....had gone to sleep about 15 minutes after we left. What an easy evening for her!!! I mean, c'mon....don't you think she should've gotten at least ONE poopy diaper or something? What a ripoff!
Later,
Jeff
Hey, I guess its a good thing that I'm so damn talented at this blogging thing, because otherwise no one would give two hoots about what I'm writing about!!
So last weekend Andy went up to Orlando for the dreaded Florida "grad night", which for those of you not-in-the-know is the one evening that Disney puts aside for those that are graduating from high school that year--the park is closed around midnight to the public, and then re-opened only for high school seniors. It stays open all night and I'm sure nothing even remotely suspicious happens.....3,000 kids with raging hormones up all night (and not a spot of alcohol, I'm positive) and the relentessly happy & peppy folk from Disney. There's a weird combination. Anyway, Andy was NOT one of those kids who got to stay the whole night, since he was also in Orlando for a math team tournament and could only stay for a few hours, before getting back and preparing for the tournament. Kim & I guessed that over the course of about a 36 to 48 hour period, Andy might have slept.....5 hours....maybe. Hey, it prepares him for college.
What, you've never crammed for an exam???
Meanwhile, back here in south F.L.A., we went out with our friends Amanda & Will, while Kellie happily (?!!?) did babysitting chores. The four of us decided to try something new for dinner, since it was their wedding anniversary. I followed the recommendation of a couple of friends from work and we traveled down to the extremely exclusive (translated: "expensive") Las Olas Blvd area and decided to eat at "Chima", which is a Brazilian steakhouse. For those of you, much like I was until that night, who have never visited a Brazilian or Argentinian steakhouse...here's the deal:
You will eat, and eat, and eat...until you feel like a tick and can no longer move. That's pretty much what happens.
By that I mean, we got out of our car and walked up to a lovely, almost island-type setting with lit torches lining the entryway, an outside bar with a guy strumming a guitar.
We walk inside and are greeted by three women who share certain similarities.
First of all, they all look sort of like Penelope Cruz, the actress. High cheekbones, a very sophisticated accent...and your thinking...if I was single, there is no way on God's earth this woman would even THINK about dating me. Ahem. So we're escorted to our table and our waitress informs us---that there are not any menu's. They give you a button--one side black, one side orange. When you are ready to be served, you flip the button to the orange side. Fair enough. We head over to the salad bar. One word: HUGE. But, ah...beware fine customer. If thou doth eat too much of the vegation, you wilst not haveth room for the real star of the show. In a word:
Meat.
And by meat, I mean: Lots of freakin meat. We get to our table, and take a chance by flipping the button over. Literally, within five seconds we are approached by a waiter, dressed like a GAUCHO by the way (In Brazil?), who has a huge skewer of chicken, right off of the grill. We each take a sample. Not bad. But ah...remember, we still have the button overturned and on "orange". Soon afterwards, we are approached by another guy:
"Filet mignon?"
Well I don't mind if I do! And he cuts you off a nice hunk of filet. This continues for a few minutes, as we are approached by waiters offering rib-eye steak, flank steak, chicken wrapped with bacon, sausage and a delicious cut of pork loin with a parmasean crust. I felt like a viking or something.
"Mead! And wenches! Where are the wenches!"
Meanwhile, we're also....dare I say....have a drink or two. And sooner rather than later we are completely stuffed. Well, until we took a look at the dessert selections.
(Truthfully, are you surprised I need to lose weight? I didn't think so) And it was at that point that they brought out the deliciously light and flakey apple turnover with the cinammon ice cream. Good Lord....it was beyond good.
Well finally we got up and waddled our way back to our car, and then proceeded to take a nice drive along Ft Lauderdale Beach and made our way back to Las Olas Blvd, which is loaded with high end shops and lots of things and people to look at in the evening.
It was just a really nice evening...and too top it off, when we got back to their house, Kellie informed us that both of Amanda & Will's two boys....had gone to sleep about 15 minutes after we left. What an easy evening for her!!! I mean, c'mon....don't you think she should've gotten at least ONE poopy diaper or something? What a ripoff!
Later,
Jeff
Saturday, April 5, 2008
4/5/08---Quick movie reviews
Okay so I got a chance to watch a handful of movies this past weekend. The wife goes to Blockbuster (literally a once a year type of thing for her) and comes home with 6 movies....that are due back in 2 days. (!!!!)
So here we go, from best to worst:
1) Beowulf--I mean to tell you, zero expectations sometimes lead to the best results.
This film is a weird sort of animation. I mean, its like animation in real life--that's how amazing it is. Its a classic epic poem from the old English. Beowulf is essentially a soldier of fortune who comes to rescue of an old friend, who's kingdom is tormented by a giant and then other creatures. I had never heard of the story, which doesn't reflect terribly well on my early education--but I digress. Among the stars doing voices are Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich & Ray Winstone in the title role.
This is a spectacular adventure, and trust me--don't let the term "animated" make you think this is a cartoon. This is not just an epic tale, its an epic movie...I loved it. ****1/2
2) American Gangster--here's the story of the real-life guy who managed to essentially swipe the drug trade during the late 60's & early 70's from the Mafia. Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe (playing the cop chasing Denzel) are in fine form, but I thought the real star of the film in a supporting role is Josh Brolin, playing a dirty cop.
So what did I think? Hmm....good movie--solid movie. Is it the Godfather? Nope.
Goodfellas? Nope. Miller's Crossing? Nope. It is what it is.....good solid 70's-esque cop film ala Serpico or the 7-Up's. But not great. ***3/4
3) I Am Legend--actually i was fairly disappointed here. Will Smith plays a bio-chemist (??) who is the lone survivor of a biological holocaust (for lack of a better way of putting it) who roams the empty streets of NYC during the day (very effectively done by the way) and hides in his bunker-like house at night to avoid the "seekers", who are ravenously hunger mutants who can't come into the light. First of all, way way way too much CGI. 2nd of all, this story was done a couple of years ago, and much better I might add, in the movie 28 Days Later. A disappointing effort. **1/2
4) Mr. Woodcock---okay, here's the quick story. Young kid in a small town is ruthlessly tortured during P.E. by hard ass gym teacher, grows up and writes a best selling book about getting past his childhood pain. This leads to his being honored by his hometown...he comes home to accept award and see his mom, who still lives there...only to discover Mom is now dating hard ass gym teacher---Mr. Woodcock.
And here's more: Billy Bob Thornton plays the title role, and i loved him in Bad Santa.
Susan Sarandon, apparently looking for some quick cash, is wasted as the mom and Sean William Scott, so amusing in the American Pie movies is completely unfunny as the guy trying to move past the teacher of his nightmares. I kept waiting for the movie to start being funny. I'm still waiting. * (as in ONE STAR)
Later,
Jeff
So here we go, from best to worst:
1) Beowulf--I mean to tell you, zero expectations sometimes lead to the best results.
This film is a weird sort of animation. I mean, its like animation in real life--that's how amazing it is. Its a classic epic poem from the old English. Beowulf is essentially a soldier of fortune who comes to rescue of an old friend, who's kingdom is tormented by a giant and then other creatures. I had never heard of the story, which doesn't reflect terribly well on my early education--but I digress. Among the stars doing voices are Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich & Ray Winstone in the title role.
This is a spectacular adventure, and trust me--don't let the term "animated" make you think this is a cartoon. This is not just an epic tale, its an epic movie...I loved it. ****1/2
2) American Gangster--here's the story of the real-life guy who managed to essentially swipe the drug trade during the late 60's & early 70's from the Mafia. Denzel Washington & Russell Crowe (playing the cop chasing Denzel) are in fine form, but I thought the real star of the film in a supporting role is Josh Brolin, playing a dirty cop.
So what did I think? Hmm....good movie--solid movie. Is it the Godfather? Nope.
Goodfellas? Nope. Miller's Crossing? Nope. It is what it is.....good solid 70's-esque cop film ala Serpico or the 7-Up's. But not great. ***3/4
3) I Am Legend--actually i was fairly disappointed here. Will Smith plays a bio-chemist (??) who is the lone survivor of a biological holocaust (for lack of a better way of putting it) who roams the empty streets of NYC during the day (very effectively done by the way) and hides in his bunker-like house at night to avoid the "seekers", who are ravenously hunger mutants who can't come into the light. First of all, way way way too much CGI. 2nd of all, this story was done a couple of years ago, and much better I might add, in the movie 28 Days Later. A disappointing effort. **1/2
4) Mr. Woodcock---okay, here's the quick story. Young kid in a small town is ruthlessly tortured during P.E. by hard ass gym teacher, grows up and writes a best selling book about getting past his childhood pain. This leads to his being honored by his hometown...he comes home to accept award and see his mom, who still lives there...only to discover Mom is now dating hard ass gym teacher---Mr. Woodcock.
And here's more: Billy Bob Thornton plays the title role, and i loved him in Bad Santa.
Susan Sarandon, apparently looking for some quick cash, is wasted as the mom and Sean William Scott, so amusing in the American Pie movies is completely unfunny as the guy trying to move past the teacher of his nightmares. I kept waiting for the movie to start being funny. I'm still waiting. * (as in ONE STAR)
Later,
Jeff
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