1/15/07---Its MLK Day, so that means: Movie & concert reviews! Political commentary-

So before I start, here's my political INCORRECT thought of the day.  I've been watching that stupid new NBC show called "Grease--You're the One that I Want", and the whole premise of the show is to find two unknowns who will appear on Broadway in a production of Grease as Danny & Sandy.  And as I watch the show, I see there are black people applying for the roles....and I can't help thinking to myself....

Does this mean I can audition for The Color Purple during its next Broadway run??
Cuz, I'm just wonderin.....


Anyway, as some of you may know, Kim & I went back in time to our teenage years and hit 3 concerts in 3 nights a few days back.  I gotta tell ya, its not easy getting old and waking up the next day after a concert with your ears ringing and trying to get around on 4 hours of sleep.  Here's some thoughts on the shows:

1) Bob Seger--Thursday night, 1/11/07, in Hollywood, Florida at the Hard Rock Casino.  Seger is on his first concert run in something like 10 years and he's always been one of those guys who I had never seen in concert that I allows wanted too.
The really funny thing is that my buddy Greg can recall seeing him performing on the back of a flatbed truck at the Swap Shop here in Lauderdale in the early to mid 70's.
We started the evening off by getting to the casino about an hour and a half before showtime, and decided to have some dinner at a place called Renegade's BBQ.
You know me--I'm always up for a little bit of BBQ.  So we get there, and they tell us that its about a 30 minute wait for a table--no problem.  I go to use the bathroom and can't help but notice on my walks in & out of the facilities that there are, safe to say, maybe 1/3 of the restaurant is empty.  So I go to the hostess and ask her why its going to take 30 minutes to seat us when there are tables available.  Its because their currently seating everyone and filling those tables---uh, yeah, right.  After we finally get seated, I'm looking at the menu which describes its BBQ as "authentic native American style BBQ".  Huh?  What the hell does that mean?  Native American BBQ?  Well, perhaps against my better judgement I order some baby back ribs and wait.  Another 30 minutes goes by ("their really backed up in the kitchen"--from what?  Boredom?)
and our food finally arrives.  My ribs were just the way I like them---dried out and lukewarm from all the time under a heatlamp.  Just to make things completely miserable, I also managed to drop some of my dinner on my shirt (thank God it was a dark shirt).
Needless to say, I won't be giving a recommendation to Renegade BBQ to any friends.
So we make our way over to the concert hall, lay down some $$ for some shirts and as we're going in, the ticket taker informs me that there's a problem with my seats and that I need to go over and see somebody.  Wow, this evening is really starting off bad.
What's next?  Seger has laryngitis?  Happily, I'm informed that because the seats that I purchased had an obstructed view, that their going to give me better seats!  We ended up one entire section closer to the stage (the better to lose your hearing by) and waited for Bob to hit the stage.  Finally, we get the big announcement over the P.A. that its only 5 minutes to showtime!  The lights go down, and we start hearing "The Boys are back in Town" by Thin Lizzy (great song--odd choice).  A single guy walks out to the stage, starts fiddling with the microphone stand (I'm thinking its a roadie or something) and says:

"Uh, hey...how's everybody doing."

Its Bob!  Just a very unassuming beginning to a great, kick ass concert.  While he played about 7 of the songs from his new CD, he also played about 25 of his old songs, so I'm not going to complain about him pushing his new stuff.  I was happy as hell to hear him play my two personal favorites, "Mainstreet" & "Against the Wind".
I waited 25 years to hear him sing the latter......and it was worth the wait.  So was Bob.
Great, great concert.

2) The next night we went and saw Rod Stewart.  Kim really isn't a huge fan (to say the least), but she was a good wife and went along.  Now here's the interesting sociological
observation of the day.  The crowd the night before at the Seger concert were old school rock concert fans....maybe a little older than me, but the kind of folks who had been known to occasionally have a beverage--if ya know what I mean and I think ya do.  The crowd at Stewart, at least in our section, was between 55-70 and more of a wine-drinking crowd.  They would politely applaude Rod's hit songs and act like they were at the theatre---totally different type of crowd.  The concert was in 2 parts.  The first part--before the intermission--was horrible.  I mean, pretty much one of the worst concerts that I had ever been too.  After intermission, it was like a different performer.
I mean, it was like night and day--the 2nd half was that good (or maybe it was just that good when compared to the first half of the show).  Rod has a new CD of cover songs out, and some of them are good ("I'll Stand By You" by the Pretenders, "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" by Elvin Bishop & "Its a Heartache" by Bonnie Tyler) and some of them are (shudder) realllllly bad ("Still the Same" by Bob Seger & "Lay Down Sally" by Eric Clapton).  Some of my favorite songs by Stewart are cover songs--its not that he does a bad job on them---he just needs to be more selective in his material.
First part of the show--horrible, 2nd part--pretty damn good.  As far as the people in our section, during intermision I turned to Kim and told her that I felt like I was at an AARP convention.  That's not good when your at a rock concert.

3) The final concert we went to was on Saturday night, 1/13/07, we took the kids (and it was their request, lest anyone think I was being really cruel) to see the Notre Dame Symphony, which was performing at Assumption Catholic Church in Lauderdale by the Sea.  Now, I'm the first one to say that I'm not a big "symphony guy"....but ya know, for a once in a lifetime event--I gotta tell ya, it was a heck of a performance.  There were some absolutely incredible musicianship--and the kids were really amazed.  Now, I didn't win the raffle for the Notre Dame tickets....but it was still a good time.

Now...I also finally finished up with my holiday movie viewing....here are some reviews:
1) Talladega Nights---I've heard Will Ferrell on different radio & t.v. shows, and its fairly remarkable how NOT funny he comes off to me.  Which is really strange, because when the guy becomes one of his movie characters, he's hilarious.  While he's funny in this movie about NASCAR, the real gems in this movie are the two actors who play his incredibly profane and poorly behaved sons, Houston Tomlin & Graylin Russell, and by the always underrated Gary Cole as Ferrell's no-count-redneck daddy.  Its tasteless and profane--but its hilarious and there are worse ways to kill a couple of hours.  ***3/4
2) An Inconvenient Truth--how about me?  First I go to the see the symphony one night and then I'm watching a documentary about global warming the next.  Am I Mr. Culture or what?  Former vice-president Al Gore presents an incredibly compelling case for the damage we have wrought upon our planet--and are continuing to do.  What is really amazing is for all the bad press he received as VP for being "boring" and a monotonous
speaker---here is not only interesting, he is compelling.  He is self-deprecating.  He is fascinating.  And as I watched this important film, one that everyone should see, I couldn't help but think help but think of one of the first comments that Gore said in introducing himself to an audience:
"Hi, I'm Al Gore...I'm the guy that was supposed to be your President."
Indeed.  *****
3) Miami Vice--ya know, sometimes when you have absolutely no expectations for a film, other than to kill a couple of hours with popcorn-esque entertainment, you end up being pleasantly surprised.  When I first heard they were remaking the Don Johnson mid-80's television show, I had some pretty low expectation---sort of along the line of Bad Boys 1 or 2.  Instead, the movie delivered a solid 2 hours plus of gripping, dark police action.  The only real difference in the original television plot is that Tubbs, played on the t.v. show by Philip Michael Thomas, has gone from basically being the buddy of the star, to being one of the two stars.  Not surprisingly though, an actor as good as Jamie Foxx pulls off the role--I mean, he's not exactly playing Ray Charles here.
Colin Ferrell is okay as Crockett, but the real star of the movie is the location, and the mood--director Michael Mann, much like he did in Collateral, makes what is happening in the background almost as interesting as the foreground.  And, as in his classic crime epic "Heat", this film finishes with a gripping and brutal shootout that is filmed with an almost poetic grace.  This is good stuff, much better than you'd think.  ****

Later,
Jeff

1/14/07--The Adventures of Babs the Squirrel

You ever have one of those days at work when something comes up that just seems so, I dunno....borderline ridiculous that it takes on a life of its own?
Well...such a day happened recently...leading us to the story of:

Babs the Squirrel.

So my neighbor at work, Debbie is a big animal lover.  That's really nice, except she's more of a (shiver) CAT lover than I am.  (Cats...UGH)  Anyway, we usually tell each other about the various adventures of our pets and the other day she told us of a rather unusual "rescue".  Debbie had some workers coming to her house and while she was waiting, her parents came over.  Her mom walks in and tells Debbie that there is a squirrel in the middle of the road that appears to have been hit by a car, but is still alive.
Being the good hearted person she is, Debbie goes out to check on the little critter.
She finds it laying there, not bleeding but apparently still injured in some way.  She moves it out of the way of traffic and calls the local wildlife rescue center to ask them what she should do.  They tell her that unfortunately their rescue ambulance is not available and they inquire as to whether or not Debbie can bring the animal to them.
This lead to the first of my questions:

1) Rescue ambulance?  For a squirrel?  I couldn't help wonder if maybe they would also have a little stretcher for the squirrel.

So Debbie says that while she can't bring the animal because of the workers coming to her house, that her parents could bring it in.  So the squirrel is transported (in a box--naturally) to the wildlife rescue center.

So about a week had gone by and Debbie is telling us the story at work, and mentions that she had not called to find out how the animal had been doing.  She calls in and speaks to one of the employees to get the info.  She gets off the phone and tells us:

"Well, apparently the squirrelis fine.  Apparently their computers aren't really up to date so they told me that they couldn't give me an up to the minute report."  (on a squirrel?)

Now, here's where it just started to get a little bit ridiculous.  Debbie tells us that the rescue center had advised her that the squirrel was an adult female that seemed to be doing better but hadn't been released yet.  I felt like the squirrel needed to have a name, and for some reason completely unknown to me, the name "Babs" popped into my mind.  Which should tell you where my mind is on certain days.  So our little group at work began talking about what sort of life "Babs" had as an everyday squirrel.  Debbie tells us that she had noticed Babs across the street from her house, in a tree, apparently building a nest.

"Maybe," I wondered, "Babs was trying to lure a young male squirrel up to her tree for a little romance.  You know, get him up there, maybe put some Journey on the stereo, and who knows WHAT would have happened!"

We wondered whether we should take a photo of our little group at work and send it to the wildlife center, so Babs could have some pictures next to her hospital bed.  You know, sort of a "get well soon" sort of thing.  The rescue center told Debbie that when Babs was recovered, that she would returned to the area where she had been found.  Debbie hoped that she would be told, so she could keep an eye out for her.

Babs the Squirrel.....I smell a Disney cartoon.

Later,
Jeff

1/6/07--More movies from my vacation

So I got a chance to watch five more movies.....here's my reviews:

1) Superman Returns:  Well the new guy (Brandon Routh) is always going to be compared to Christopher Reeve, and the good news is....he does a pretty damn good job.  He certainly looks the part and in his biggest role so far, proves himself worthy to "wear the cape".  He's assisted quite ably by Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, chewing up the scenery every chance he gets.  There's also a nice touch as director Bryan Singer throws a couple of cameo roles to former Superman (television version) co-stars
Noel Neill and Jack Larson, plus screen legend Eva Marie Saint has a nice moment as Clark Kent's mother---and of course, even though he's dead, the spectre of Marlon Brando still looms in his original role as Jor-El, father of Superman  (you'll understand when you see the movie).  Overall, I liked it.  Its not Spiderman 2 or Batman Begins, but its pretty good.  ***1/2

2) Pirates of the Caribbean 2--This movie made more money than anyone expected and was an absolute summer blockbuster.  My question is....wasn't there anything else out there at the time?  Don't get me wrong....its a fun movie.  Johnny Depp is having big fun morphing Keith Richard, and Keira Knightley looks stunning but there's nothing happening here that we haven't seen before.  It just all seems like leftover dinner.  ***

3) The Seven-Ups--now here is a terrifically underrated movie from the 70's.  Roy Scheider, truly one of those great actors that seemingly has been forgotten about (hello?
Jaws?  All That Jazz?), is terrific here as an undercover detective in charge of a special squad of police officers (they only go after criminals who are going to face "seven years and up"--get it?).  There's just a terrific, gritty feel to the movie which leads to a real authentic feel.  The movie also costars the legendary Richard Lynch, one of my favorite "bad guy" actors ever....and it has one of the greatest car chases in movie history.  Add all this up.....and what you got is....   ****....terrific stuff.

4) Munich--Very well regarded movie (it was up for best picture) about the murder of the Olympic athletes at the '72 Munich Games and Israel's subsequent search for those responsible.  Its a little long...and generally, I got the feeling that it was moments that were absolutely stunning (the reenactment of the killing of the athletes is very graphic but done incredibly well) followed by moments where there was a lot of talking and some political commentary--perhaps by director Steven Spielberg.  Eric Bana, previously known for absolute crap like "The Incredible Hulk" is very effective here and is assisted very nicely by a largely unknown cast (made up mainly of Israeli's)--with the notable exception of Daniel Craig (the new James Bond) who has somehow been cast as an Israeli.  Sorry Spielberg, that's one bit of casting I ain't buying.  Good movie--***3/4

5) Wolf Creek--don't get me wrong....I like horror movies.  I detailed in a previous column what it was I liked about a seeming slasher film like Saw 2.  Now comes this little item from Australia...and I gotta tell you....after the last two films I've seen about Australia--this one and The Proposition---I don't think I'll be going "down under" anytime real soon.  Wolf Creek does a nice job of setting up a creepy situation, car with three kids breaks down in the middle of no where and the seemingly "nice guy" comes along to help them out...at which point all hell literally breaks loose.  Its supposedly based on a true story.  And while there are some scenes that are good and scary....there are also scenes that are just disturbing.  Nasty torture scenes that the movie could have easily done without--stuff that had to have been thrown in for sheer shock value that could have easily been changed or done without....and they ruined the whole movie for me....because they just weren't necessary.  *1/2

Later,
Jeff

1/5/07--Turning my kids into slave labor---no, not me

So on Tuesday, my kids decided to participate in a band activity to help the school raise money for new band uniforms.  Now, before I even get started, this is interesting to me in the sense that, as a private school.....their school is not exactly hurt cash flow wise.
Lots of rich kids who's parents are from Venzuela---if ya get my drift.

Anyway, what they were going to be doing was to go with other kids in the band, with the band director there, and participate in selling different memorabilia for the Orange Bowl.  Shirts, hats....that sort of thing.  Their mother dropped them off around 6:45am
at the school.  They were joined by a bunch of other kids from the band, along with the band director.  They headed for the stadium for an orientation on what they would be selling, etc.  They were supposed to be home around midnight.

I picked up my two kids...including my 14 yr old daughter...at 2:15am.  I was not happy.  I told Kellie that she should be very thankful that I did not yell and scream at the band director for keeping my kids out for 20 hours.  The kids were credited with some community service hours (which they didn't need as both of them has already completed the number they need for high school), and helped raise quite a bit of money for the school (almost $2,000)....the school made sure they had sandwiches at lunch.  How nice.

I called my daughter around 12:30am to find out if they were at the school yet---she told me that they were still at the stadium, selling souvenirs.  The game was now over, and the kids were still having to sell items.  She finally called me around 1:25am to tell me that they were getting on the bus.  When I got to the school, after 2am, the kids were their with two security guards and the band director.  The kids got in the car and I drove off, with the director looking at me.  I couldn't help but wonder if she was waiting for me to thank her for waiting there with the kids (uh, that would be her job).

It was the next day when I was speaking to the kids about the previous evening when I learned of other things that went on.  I asked my son if he had any trouble with one of the kids in the band who sometimes acts a little like a bully.  His response:

"No, not with him....only with the drunks."

When he explained, he told me that an obviously intoxicated man came up and tried to steal some of the items he was selling. 

Then I asked my daughter if she had run into any problems.  Her response?

"Well, I had a drunk guy up and he asked a friend of mine if he could buy me."
"Excuse me?  Buy you?"
"Yeah...he asked my friend if I was for sale."

When we relayed these stories to my wife...she asked who the parent chaperones were for the day.  She was told that there were no chaperones, that the band director was the only adult there with them.

Over 20 kids, some as young as 14 (if not younger)...and there is one adult there.
 
20 hours.  No community service credit (no needed).  No extra credit for their participation.  One adult supervising them as they are accosted by drunken fans.

I am not happy.

Later,
Jeff

1/2/07---I didn't forget about my Vikings

Well the Vikings finished the season at 6-10, which was a -3 compared to last season.
Brad "Mr. Discipline" Childress really did nothing for me, although I admit that the team's 4-2 start had me stunned---especially considering we had no offense at the beginning, middle or end of the season.  Maybe I should be more specific and say we had not PASSING OFFENSE.  Brad "Mr. 5 yard throw" Johnson was just beyond horrible the entire season, although in his defense.....we may have had the worst set of wide receivers not just in the NFL, but in the history of the franchise.  We get rid of Randy Moss for a #1 pick that turns into Troy "Whoops, dropped another one" Williamson, Koren Robinson decides to have a rehab lapse and is facing time in the joint for a V.O.P. violation--until we shipped him off to Green Bay.  Finally, Nate Burleson, who was a really nice # 2 receiver, gets signed pretty much out of spite by the Seahawks in revenge for the Steve Hutchinson contract--and then promptly had a season so bad that I think he may have been inactive a couple of games--choke on that contract Seahawks.  There are even rumors that the Vikes may be looking to reaquire the suddenly much-more-available Mr. Moss from the Raiders---and our receivers are so bad, it makes a lot of sense.  Anyway, here's some more of my thoughts on the Vikes after this past weekend's Rams game---where the defense, which had not only a terrific season against the run, but one of the ALLTIME seasons against the run---and then, needing to hold the Rams to under 142 yds rushing (and the average game this season the average was around 60 yds rushing per game), the Vikings rush defense gives up....157 yds.  Missed the NFL record by 15 freakin yards.  Can you say...phoned it in?  Yeah, obviously we had a few guys not really showing up to play.
I also said:

Well, as a Vikings fan, I was happy about a few things in our loss to the Rams today.
1) When the season is over, you don't want to win. I'm sorry but its true. Look at the goofy Lions--yeah, its great that they beat the Cowboys today--and no one likes seeing the Pokes & T.O. lose more than me, but--there goes that #1 pick in the NFL draft for the Lions. Anyway, the Vikings managed to lose and keep themselves in the running for an worst #8 pick in the draft.
Foxsports did their first mock draft yesterday and projected the Vikingsto take a DB. I got news for you, after this season, if the Vikings draft any player who's position doesn't begin with an "O" (as in OFFENSIVE player), the fans in Minnesota might burn down team headquarters. Personally I'd like to see them draft someone like Dwayne Jarrett from USC or Calvin Johnson from Ga Tech if he drops down to around pick 8.
Keep in mind, its ridiculous for anyone to do a mock draft at this point, especially since once these "surefire" number one draft picks go to the scouting combines and run a tenth of a second slower than their supposed too, or end up being a 1/2 an inch shorter than their supposed too---and the guy ends up dropping 10 freakin spots.
2) After looking about as bad as a QB can look last Thursday vs. the Packers, Tarvarious Jackson showed us a glimpse of what he can do today.
It's imperative that Brad "Mr. Discipline" Childress and the offensive coaches establish an offensive gameplan that allows Jackson to use his athletic ability the way that the Titans did with Vince Young and the Falcons try to do with Michael "I'm a QB--not an athlete" Vick.

1/2/07--Bad parenting in retrospect

So my daughter Kellie is going thru this little phase---she's not alone in this, its something a lot of teenagers do these days--its called "horror movie junkie".  When I say this, I'm not talking about old school Frankenstein or Dracula....I'm talking about stuff like Saw & Wolf Creek.  Now, I watched Saw II a few days ago, and I thought, as an adult that it was a pretty rough movie--but it had an interesting and thought provoking plot involving making people examine their own personal faults and misdeeds.
Today, I got around to watching Wolf Creek.  Kellie had already watched the movie, and I asked her if she liked it, she said she did.  I started watching the movie.....

And about halfway into it....I felt like a bad parent.  I felt that I had done a bad job because I didn't watch this movie first...that I let my daughter watch it without looking at it and seeing if it was inappropriate for her or someone her age.

One of the things that bothers me about this new wave of horror movies is that---knowing that a horror movie is always based on the old "good vs. evil" thing, and the whole purpose is for good to EVENTUALLY conquer evil (unless there is the now inevitable five sequels)....I mean, its what pro wrestling has been based on for the last 50 years---but this latest batch of horror movies has the bad guy getting away with it.
Its sort of a chilling trend.  This movie has a couple scenes of pretty graphic tortue, including one where the bad guy shows a potential victim the skin of a woman he had previously skinned, while telling her "that one lasted about 3 mos before I finally killed her", and another particularly lovely scene where the killer tells a victim that he has to prevent her from running away again, so he wants to "show her a trick that they used to do in Vietnam during the war".  He called it "head on a stick" and then proceeded to "sever her spine"---which, in his words, essentially made her...."a head on a stick".

Yeah....isn't that just lovely?  So tonight.....young Kellie and I will have a little discussion about horror films....and when the next time she'll be allowed to view one.

Which should be......2015 ish.

Later,
Jeff

January 1, 2007---Happy New Year!!

Well, its the first day of the year.  Last night Kim & I, along with the kids and brother-in-law Jorge, went a couple of houses down the street to our friends Jimmy & Mary for a New Year's party.  It started off relatively quietly, until Kim remembered that she had Pina Colada & Daiquiri mix at home.  Party time, Italian style!

After that, the party started swinging.  No, not cuz of the alki-hol, but because of the fact that we were drinking, and Kellie kept waiting for us to do something that would embarrass her.  So I obliged, and pretended that I was going to take my clothes off while I was dancing.

Man, there is nothing as fun as mortifying your children.  Big fun!

Later, and I mention this only because I really can be a terrible person, Jimmy was setting off some fireworks across the street and there was smoke everywhere, and I said:

"Hey, how come it smells the way it does after Kellie has been in the bathroom?"

Wow.  Even I felt guilty after that one.  Well, maybe a little bit.

Kellie wasn't too mortified, don't worry.  She was too busy being the only teenage girl in the midst of about 5 teenage boys.  Good lord, she was the Queen and they were her court.  So one kid approaches me and tells me that he's a Vikings fan (more on them later).  I congratulate him on his good sense and then discover...that he's a wrestler for his high school.  22-1 record for the j.v. team last year and going varsity this year.

I may have met my future son-in-law.


Happy New Year to everyone and here's a wish for a safe and healthy new year.

Later,
Jeff