Entertainment
Eight Below
Last night we saw Walt Disney’s Eight Below. Inspired by a true story, this Antarctic adventure is about sled dogs, rescue, survival and more rescue. The movie has beautiful scenery, dramatic and exciting sequences and is mostly about these wonderful dogs. This movie was so good that we had to add a new rating level to my on-line DVD database — “excellent” didn’t quite get it, so “sensational” has been added.
Above: “Max” and “Maya”
If you enjoyed “Snow Dogs” and “March of the Penguins” then “Eight Below” is for you. If you haven’t seen them yet, then I highly recommend seeing all three!
Things That Go Trump in the Night
“The Donald” wants to put his own name on a Rancho Palos Verdes road now called “Ocean Trails Drive” and call it “Trump National Drive.” Other than immense ego, why would anyone want to change a poetic name like that to something that rhymes with “rump” or “frump?” I don’t get it. It should be enough to merely have a big, gaudy stone and brass monument at the entrance — like this one . . .
Buck Owens 1929-2006
I have to admit to having been a Buck Owens fan at one time. I still have a Buck Owens and the Buckaroos CD which replaced my scratched up and worn out LP album. One of my favorites was “I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail” in 1962 when I was an air crew radioman in the U.S. Navy. Rest well, Buck.
Here’s an excerpt from Owens’ bio from WikiPedia.
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr., (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American country music singer widely credited with helping to create the gritty “Bakersfield sound”.
Image: Buck Owens and the Buckaroos — circa 1962 Album Photo
Owens was named the most promising country and western singer of 1960 by Billboard, and his top-10 duets with Rose Maddox in 1961 earned them a nod as vocal team of the year in DJ polls. But it was in 1963, after updating his sound again, that Owens’ career went ballistic. He moved away from the traditional country shuffle to a more upbeat, driving style (“…like a freight train coming through your livingroom,” as Buck said) with the single “You’re For Me” in late 1962. A few months later, “Act Naturally” became his first No. 1 hit. It was rock ‘n’ roll with a country feel. The Beatles later covered it without changing much of anything. It crossed over to the pop charts, and it began an astonishing run: for the next four years, every Buck Owens single went to No. 1. Fifteen in a row. At one point, he had a B-side, “My Heart Skips a Beat,” alternating in the top spot with its A-side, “Together Again.” “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” the follow-up to “Act Naturally,” was No. 1 for 16 weeks. He even sent an instrumental — the signature “Buckaroo” — to No. 1. The streak finally ended in October 1967 when his tribute to his fans, “It Takes People Like You (To Make People Like Me),” underachieved, stopping at No. 2. The next single, “How Long Will My Baby Be Gone,” went to No. 1, as did three more songs in 1969.
Rainy Day and a Ride on the Red Car
Yesterday, the Damsel and I went to San Pedro and enjoyed the local attractions. We took a walk through the Ports O’ Call Village – a touristy collection of shops and restaurants along the waterfront of the main channel of the Port of Los Angeles. Nearby are other attractions such as the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, the Merchant Marine Memorial, the S.S. Lane Victory, the Cabrillo Aquarium and my favorite, the Red Car. Actually there are a couple of Red Cars – restored from early-twentieth century electric streetcars that ran throughout the Los Angeles area. Damsel took these photos on an off-and-on rainy morning in the harbor:
I took some video as well: Red Car arriving at the 22nd Street Station and inside the Red Car on a rainy day.
The Grand Narcissathon
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has degenerated into a politically-charged dynamo of progressive bulls**t ever since Bob Hope retired as Master of Ceremonies at the annual award presentations. Motion pictures like “Syriana” and “Buttf**k Brokeback Mountain” are in contention to win big, but, sadly, neither can be considered entertainment as much as attempts at public indoctrination to far-left political ideology.
And the ceremony itself is mostly a gathering of exhibitionists and narcissistic Celebridiots® seeking only to parade themselves as though they are the essence of the world. Moreover, the preparations leading up to the ceremonies takes their toll on the community. Streets are blocked off in the area about a week before the event which disrupts traffic for miles around. We’re fortunate that we don’t have to go through that area during the week leading up to the awards.
I refer to the pomp and circumstances of the Academy Awards where the Celebridiots® gather as the “Grand Narcissathon” – in which exhibitionists and self-important Star Whores parade their vanity before their groupies.
UPDATE: Crash won best picture much to everyone’s surprise. IMDB‘s preview poll had Crash in a distant second place to Brokeback Mountain, 46% to 25%. Given the total surprise to everyone, one might wonder if the Academy may have manipulated the results based upon negative vibes they were getting from middle America with regard to a gay cowboy flick.
Space Scientist Reviews King Kong
Imagine my surprise when I found an article on Space.com that was, in effect, a movie review. The article was entertaining, humorous and was written from a scientific perspective:
SPACE.com — Big Apes and Bad Biology
[ . . . ]
Skull Island’s a happening place. Sauropods stampede to a booming death, insect carnivores the size of phone booths writhe out of the swamps, and Kong – stricken by the sight of blonde hair – develops an inappropriate interest in the one woman who’s aboard ship. Eventually, the entrepreneurs who have initiated this less-than-idyllic odyssey capture Kong and take him back to Manhattan as an E-coupon sideshow attraction.
Let me give that a bit of emphasis: these guys find an island filled with living, prehistoric dinosaurs. And they bring back the mammal.
Now some will see this classic cinema tale as a touching love story between two primates who share their affections but only 98% of their genes. A recent opinion piece in the New York Times suggested that this film was motivated by Soviet experiments in the 1920s designed to produce a human-chimpanzee hybrid (in an attempt to discredit religion, while simultaneously offending chimp family values). Then there’s the now-forgotten prewar habit of bringing back wild beasts and natives from distant lands to exhibit as living exotica. As recently as 1931, you could observe caged humans (Africans and Inuit were favorites) on display in Europe.
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Yep, long after slavery was abolished in this country, enlightened Europeans kept people of color in cages – and these days they preach to America about our so-called injustices – but I digress – that’s not the point of the article. I just thought it was yet another good example of Euro-hypocrisy.