I caught Children of Men last night with the film club… It was really good. Going to make my “Best of 2006” six a bit harder to come up with….
I decided to use a Christmas giftcard to purchase the final two installments in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Previously, I only had Fellowship of the Ring). They arrived today, and I when looking over the packaging, I noticed the notes associated with their ratings. A few years ago the MPAA started including a blurb of text along with the rating to describe the reasons they came to their decision.
Both films are rated PG-13, and most people would probably agree that the films are cut from very similar cloth, but I noticed subtle differences in the notes between the two films:
This led me to wonder where “scary” ends and “frightening” begins. Are they measuring the same value? If so, which term represents a larger value?
I’ll try and be a little less wordy in this half of the story; that last part was about 10x longer than I originally intended. I did go and update part 1, as I unfortunately omitted Amy, Andy, and Colin. My only defense is that I knew I was getting way too long-winded and was trying to stop the bleeding.
We arrived in Newark on time, even though the pilot thought we’d arrive 20 minutes early. Turns out that even though we were ahead of schedule in the air, the ground was congested, so we ended up circling and blowing our lead. The traffic at the arrivals area was pretty bad, but after 10 or so minutes of looking we finally saw Dad, who was there to pick us up. It was smooth sailing on the way back to the house, though, and we arrived in no time flat. Corinna needed some supplies, so we borrowed the truckster after saying hi to Mom and the dogs, and headed out to Rite Aid, which was closed… So we headed over to Byram, where we found the Shop Rite closed… Luckily the CVS came to the rescue. The advantage of going this far out of the way, though, was that we were able to see quite a few light displays.. I even took Corinna past the Sign Art graphics display, which was a little underwhelming this year (more of the same).
Anyway, with our supplies in hand we settled in for the night, poured some egg nog and wine, and vegged out. Stosh and
brought over a bottle of Captain Morgan Tattoo, which is rather tasty. Larissa decided a year or two ago that the only night of the year she was going to drink is Christmas Eve. And she makes up for lost time… We tried to do the typical Christmas Eve night of classic Christmas films ( Christmas Vacation, Christmas Story, and Die Hard), but only made it through the first before everyone was ready to pass out. That Pennsylvania Dutch bottled Egg Nog knocks me out every time.
After a good night’s sleep it was time for Corinna to experience the wonder of a Graham Christmas Morning. Aimee and Ben weren’t scheduled to arrive until late Christmas evening, so we decided to go ahead without them. After everybody wandered out into the living room, and
and Stosh arrived, and was “awake”, I started “playing Santa” and passing out gifts one by one. There was a ridiculous number of gifts this year, to the point where I actually started to think we should tone things down a bit… Anyway, we finished opening gifts and I then got ready to prepare breakfast.
Corinna and her family started asking me while we were still in Michigan what our Christmas Traditions were… I had never really given this much thought, but other than opening presents and stuff, we have never really had too many traditions. For years, the routine was to open presents at our house, drive out to Bernardsville and visit with Grandma and Grandpa (Dad’s folks) for a few hours, then drive to Martinsville to visit with Grammy and Grampy (Mom’s folks). By the time all that visiting was done there really wasn’t much time to do anything else. My dad’s parents passed away, and in recent years we’ve been getting together with Mom’s side on Christmas Eve. So it’s only been in the past few years that we’ve really started to form some semblance of tradition that didn’t involve travel. :) 3 years ago Mom won a gift certificate at Sussex Meat Packers from work and we decided to get a bunch of breakfast meats to have on Christmas Day. I made pancakes from scratch, as well as french toast and eggs at that first breakfast, and everything was a huge hit. So we’ve continued this new breakfast tradition since (sans french toast, I’m afraid). I love cooking, and I love breakfast, so I don’t think it’s that bad that I end up spending a few hours in the kitchen on Christmas morning.. I think next year, however, I’m going to try and get my parents to get an electric skillet to help streamline the process. I simply ran out of range surface area this year while preparing the sausages so I had wait until they were done before I could really start the pancakes. I used some advanced technology (foil and a back heating pad) to keep the stuff that was done warm, though, so everything was still warm when it was time to sit down. Everything was awesome, although I wish I had let the bacon go a bit longer, it wasn’t crispy enough.
Aimee and Ben arrived much earlier than planned, which made me regret not waiting for them to arrive. I think next year I’ll suggest we just eat and wait for them. I feel like I never get to see Aimee, and I hadn’t seen Ben since their Wedding (I think), so it was good seeing both of them, even if it was only for a few days. Chuck eventually came over and we just hung out, ate junk food, drank, and caught up. Corinna and I got Chuck a copy of The Matador for Christmas, so at some point we gave it a spin, and it’s still hilarious.
The next day, everyone got up early to meet Grammy and Grampy in Chester. The rest of the family was able to get together with them before we arrived, but Aimee, Ben, Corinna and Myself didn’t have that chance… Of course, we met at the Park Chester Diner, which is my Grandparents’ favorite halfway point. I was able to scratch my THC (Taylor Ham and Cheese) itch, and Corinna had some disgusting looking oatmeal and “fruit”. That afternoon I was able to watch my dad fly, and subsequently, crash the new plane he got for Christmas. It was a pretty light crash, though, so it was airworthy again with a little TLC.
The next day, Corinna and I met up with my friend Amy at a diner (surprise!) in Parsippany. This was complicated by our lack of a vehicle, fortunately my father offered up his pimp ride. I was able to find the diner thanks to my new GPS Navigation System. It was great to see Amy and hear how well things have been going for her.
I forget which night it was, but Corinna decided it would be good of me to cook dinner for the family. We decided on turkey meatloaf, steamed broccoli and cous cous. It was surprisingly well received, but I doubt my family would tell me it sucked, so… Chuck came over for dinner too, and he was very apprehensive of the meatloaf. It won him over, apparently, as he raved about it quite a bit afterwards (it could have been lowered expectations, though).
Corinna came down with some kind of plague on Thursday, so we just ended up hanging out at the house. I did take a mid-day break with Chuck and his brother at White Castle…. Boy howdy, do I love those little burgers.. That night Larissa and Stosh came over and we watched Little Miss Sunshine, which nobody besides Corinna and I had seen yet. It was still great, although I think I didn’t enjoy it quite as much the second time around.
There was much debate about how we would return to New Jersey. Originally we thought we’d take the Chinatown bus, but I wasn’t so into that as lugging our luggage and Christmas loot by hand to Manhattan and then from South Station in Boston to our house didn’t sound too savory. Many of my family members volunteered to drive, but they all seemed intent on driving here and back in one day. I tried to sell them on staying overnight, but everybody was reluctant. So finally Corinna investigated renting a car and we were able to get a one-way rental for like \$100, which was priced similarly to the bus would be (it would have been \$30 for tickets, plus getting to Chinatown NYC, and getting home from Chinatown Boston, etc.) Dad dropped us off at the rental place in Rockaway (directions, again, courtesy of the nav system), and they gave us a Toyota Matrix. It was an OK car, but I wouldn’t want to drive one on a daily basis… It felt weirdly geared, and constantly seemed to be revving too high. But what do I know?
One thing I do know, is that I have grown addictive to listening to music my way… This car only had a CD player without Aux in, so I couldn’t use my iPod, and we didn’t have any CDs, so we had to resort to Old Fashioned, Boring, Terrestrial Radio(tm). Holy shit did I miss Sirius on this trip with all of the driving we did. All the static, the constant changing of channels as you move from market to market, the never ending commercials, and the total crap they play.. After 260 miles of playing with the radio, we finally landed in Boston, I returned the car, and we crashed hard.
The end. So much for keeping it short.
It’s about time I wrote about the holidays this year… ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
coco_b and I have never been able to celebrate Christmas together because it is such an important holiday for both of our families. This year, however, we figured out a way to be together, even if it did involve quite a bit of hectic traveling. Her family celebrates the Polish tradition of Wigilia on Christmas Eve, while my family does most of it’s celebrating on Christmas Day. So with some help from her family, who decided to celebrate Wigilia a day early on the 23rd, we decided to fly to Michigan on the 19th, fly to NJ on the 24th, and return to Boston via an undecided mode of transportation some day before the new year.
After work on the 19th, the two of us met at Logan airport… I had to wait around for a Silver Line bus for awhile, so I was running a little behind (our very conservative schedule) when I got to the airport and saw hundreds of people in line for security. Fortunately, Corinna was on schedule and saving a place in line for me towards the front. After 15-20 minutes we had made it through security without issue and were waitingfor our flight. Corinna had stopped by Darwin’s for some sandwiches so we didn’t have to subject ourselves to Airport food. After eating, we went to our gate, and Corinna waited on line to talk to a NWA rep. It seems that even though we had bought our tickets 9 months ahead of time, we were still seated apart. After some complex negotiations, Corinna had fixed this situation and we boarded the plane and plopped down in our adjacent seats. Just as the plane was taxing, a woman from the front of the plane got up out of her seat and moved all the way to the back of the plane to use the restroom. The stewardess at the back of the plane tried to tell this woman to return to her seat but she wasn’t understanding. The head stewardess was summoned and she finally convinced the woman to sit in an empty seat at the back of the plane until it was bathroom time on the plane. But this woman, who didn’t seem to understand english, remained in the seat until we began our descent into Detroit. At that point, she got back up out of this seat in the back of the plane and went to the bathroom again. This time, there were no stewardesses to interfere, even though she wasn’t supposed to be up this time either. She finished her business and returned to her assigned seat. Not only was all this suspicious, but I’ve heard stories of planes not taking off or being diverted because of passengers like this, so I was pretty pissed off. Fortunately, none of these doomsday scenarios occurred and we arrived in Detroit on time.
Corinna’s folks picked us up at the airport, and we returned to their home. I hadn’t been in Michigan for 2.5 years, so this was the first I had seen of their renovations. The house is 3 times the size of the “old” house, which was a small cottage they had purchased. The size of the house came in handy with all the visitors it was going to house over the next few weeks. Corinna and I stayed in the basement, but her parents went out of their way to make it cozy, and in our opinions, the best guest accommodations. With some curtains, they made us a little “room” complete with end tables, lamps, and a queen size bed. While it was somewhat chilly down there, the blankets they provided compensated plenty (too warm for my tastes, actually). There actually was heat available to us down there, but since we didn’t plan on ‘hanging out’ down there, and the blankets did their job, we never turned it on.
Friday morning we got up rather early to drive out to Chicago to visit Corinna’s cousin and grandfather. It was a relatively painless drive, about 5 hours with little-to-no traffic, and I drove the majority of it (Corinna took over for the last 50 miles or so). It was great visiting with them, Corinna’s grandfather is a very nice man with some great stories. Her cousin Wendy recently had a baby, Chloe, and it seemed like Grandpa really enjoyed spending time with the baby, even if it was taxing for him. After a few hours it was time for Grandpa to take a nap and for us to turn around and return to Detroit. Corinna took the first shift, and I took a nap. I woke up 2.5 hours later and we were just entering Indiana. I have been told that we hit a ton of traffic in Chicago, and that Corinna was happy I slept through it because I would have bitched and moaned if I was awake. We stopped for dinner at a Denny’s in Gary, Indiana (Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana) and I took over driving. On a side-note, when we walked into the Denny’s we were confronted with a question we hadn’t heard in years: “Smoking or Non?”. It’s so easy to forget how awesome it is to have smoke-free restaurants until you go to a state which doesn’t. I appreciated that law plenty before, but I really appreciate it now.
The next day, half of the Atlanta (formerly of Albuquerque) contingent arrived. Lori (Corinna’s Sister-in-Law) arrived in the afternoon with Meggan, Max, Emily, and Evelyn. The kids had really grown up since we saw them a 1.5 years ago, which I guess is to be expected. I believe their car trip was something like 14 hours, so everyone was pretty pooped by the time they arrived. We just kinda hung out until midnight or so when the second part of the caravan arrived, with Corinna’s brother Frodak and the rest of the kids, Miranda and Matteo. We tried to stay up as late as we could, but it had been a hectic couple of days and Corinna and I were shredded.
On the 22nd we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out at the house, but in the middle of the day we cut out to visit with Corinna’s friend Michelle in Ann Arbor. When we returned from Ann Arbor, we arrived just in time for dinner. Corinna’s other two brothers, Tomak and Paul came over for dinner, and Corinna pointed out that this was the first time in 4 years that the whole family was in the same room. We ate, drank, and caught up, which rocked, because my last visit to Michigan was so short I really didn’t have the opportunity to really get to know her brothers.
The next day was Wigilia, but early in the day we snuck out to visit Tomak’s new house and studio closer to Detroit. It’s a great piece of property, and he’s built a great studio on it as well. After visiting Tom, we drove over to Corinna’s Great Aunt and Uncle, who are like grandparents to her. Her great uncle made some pizza, which I was surprised to like (as a total pizza snob), and we talked and looked at lots of photos. I even had the opportunity to provide some tech support. :)
We returned to the house just as the “Kids’ Table” was sitting down for dinner. The “Adults’ Table” feast was out of control. Most everything was delicious, although I learned I prefer pickled herring over creamed herring. There were so many courses, the main course being some delicious fish. There were poppy seeds all over the place, fortunately my new job doesn’t require any opiate screenings scheduled, so I was able to indulge… :)
On Christmas Eve we had to pack up and get to the airport… We gave ourselves 2.5 hours to get through security after the lines in Boston when we left. Of course, there were only 4 people in front of us, so we ended up there way too early… Corinna ventured off from the gate to find some beverages, and while I waited for her to return, I decided to fire up the Powerbook and look for some wireless. Unfortunately, Detroit charges for access, but I was bored and figured I could use some petty cash without the CFO noticing. She eventually returned, and asked me “Oh, they have wireless?”, to which I answered yes (truthfully). A few minutes later this kid sits down next to me and asks me about wireless and if I paid or if there was a free option and I was totally busted. But Corinna must have been in the Christmas spirit because she didn’t prosecute me. Every plane I’ve travelled on has been nearly packed for the past few years, so when we not only got exit row seating, but also boarded a half-full plane, it was a nice holiday surprise.
Update: I definitely did a sprint through the last part of the story… I was getting pretty tired, it took several distracted hours, while convalescing, to write this and I just kinda wanted to get it out of the way. I didn’t mean to omit Amy, Andy, and their cute-as-hell son Colin. Unfortunately, we only got to see them on Wigilia, even though we were hoping to pop over to their place at some point. Hopefully we’ll be able to see them more next time!
To be continued….
Keeping up the tradition of the past few years, here is the list of flicks I watched in 2006. This was a strange year for me, I saw more movies in the theatre, but (relatively) few on video. I can only attribute that to all the home improvement stuff coco_b and I had to deal with this year… Our plan is to move to a new home in 2007, so it’s possible that this trend could continue for another year. In a few weeks I will put together my “best of 2006” list, but I want to give myself an opportunity to catch some of the things from 2006 I haven’t seen yet.
Tonight,
and I are jumping on a plane and heading out to Michigan to spend time with her family for Christmas. Tomorrow, we are borrowing a car from her folks, driving out to a suburb of Chicago to visit some of her family living out there, and returning to Michigan that same night. It should be a fun, but hectic, time. We are celebrating Wigilia a day early, on the 23rd, so that we can fly to NJ the evening of the 24th to celebrate with my family. It is going to be some hectic traveling, but it will be nice to spend Christmas together for the first time.. I also don’t know much about Wigilia, so it will be interesting to participate in that tradition too.
and I took a trip down to Foxwoods to play some poker this weekend. I hadn’t played in about a year, and it showed, although I held my own… Rory seemed fairly satisfied with my play, and he knows what he’s doing, so I guess I didn’t do that bad of a job… Anyway, while we were there we saw a poster for a promotion the casino was having. Each day everyone had the opportunity to play Tic Tac Toe versus a chicken. If you beat the chicken, you get \$10k.
A few hours later, on a break from the table, we were walking around the casino, and came across a mob of people waiting to have their turn with the chicken. The chicken is in a little glass booth, and it’s selection panel is obscured from view. I don’t know what the gimmick is, I figure there are a few possibilities:
I’m not sure about the 3rd option, there are all kinds of laws about contests and honesty within them…
Anyway, so I pretty much expected people to tie the chicken most of the time, since the only way to win is not to play. There were three “big checks” mounted to the wall, and the promotion had been going on for a few weeks….
But just as we were getting ready to leave, we saw a woman actually LOSE to the chicken. I had to run away because I was laughing so hard… I know I am prone to hyperbole, but I believe this is the funniest event I’ve ever seen in my life.
Last night I watched Episode 1 with commentary from RiffTrax. RiffTrax is the brainchild of Mike Nelson, formerly of Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you were a fan of MST3K, you already understand the basic premise behind RiffTrax: Mike (and friends) record a snarky commentary track to a film and release it as an mp3 file. Simply load the file into whatever media player you choose, press play and follow the audio directions. I understood this all in principal (especially since I beta-tested the same concept a few years ago when
was experimenting with DVDTracks), and I loved MST when it was on the air, but I couldn’t tell if this would work or not.
When I saw that they had done Episode 1, I couldn’t resist.. The first thing you notice is that the commentary is delivered in a zip file containing an unprotected mp3 and a text file. The text file contains some basic information and also a guide to mapping “movie time” to “audio time” with some dialog snippets to help you in case you pause or stop the film for whatever reason and lose sync between the two. My biggest concern was the issue of sync, but the RiffTrax guys handled it very well… At the start of the audio file there is some introductory matter, and then there were instructions to pause the audio track after a countdown and to un-pause it after “A long time ago…” faded off the screen. In addition, they have a “robot” named DisembAudio which occasionally recites a line of dialog so you can tell if they were in sync. In practice, I found that it didn’t really matter if they were out of sync, even if it was by a second or two, but also that unless you were pausing or whatever, you didn’t have to worry about sync at all.
As far as content goes, Mike has Kevin Murphy at his side for this one, who you may recognize better as the voice of Tom Servo on MST. Other tracks feature Bill Corbett, who voiced Crow and was also a writer on the old show. While the commentary for Episode 1 started off a little slow (just like the movie!), once they got into a groove it was like old times again. It was a great experience, and if you are an MSTie, you owe it to yourself to grab one of their tracks and give it a go. Obviously with my small sample size, I don’t know how much the quality varies, but for 2-3 bucks, it’s a pretty good deal. I might even consider renting some REAL stinkers and just buying the RiffTrax that go along with them to make them watchable. :)
9/19/98 Clark Gym, Rochester Inst of Tech, Rochester, NY w/ Anthony Clark