Part of it was probably the depression over Penn State’s loss to Iowa – I’m still a bit in shock that they allowed their national championship hopes to be dashed like that. It was Minnesota (2001?) all over again. Part of it was probably sheer exhaustion from the endless work I’ve been doing it. Part of it was that my body needed to stop.

I did get out to bird last weekend for a short while, although the birding was less than exciting – the wind and wetness really kept the birds away, for the most part. But I did get a chance to see this young snapping turtle crossing the road at FDR Park (go ahead, make the joke):

I worked around the house some this weekend, too, trying to straighten up with Shari being at a shoot on Sunday (see some of her pix here, here and here), and a photography seminar with Cliff Mautner all week (that is, Cliff Mautner – voted one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world. Not a bad teacher, I must say). With her away, it gave me a chance to catch up on some reading and movies that she wouldn’t sit through.

Watchin’

I watched “Stargate: Continuum” on Sunday, which wasn’t half-bad. It wasn’t great and there wasn’t nearly the action in it that I would have expected but it was a heck of a site better than the really boring and trite “Stargate: Ark of Truth”, which was really an insult to most fans. I also watched M. Night Shamalyan’s “Signs” again, as I had only seen it once. I still like it, despite most people putting it down, although I can definitely see some of the shortcomings of it compared to his opus, “The Sixth Sense”.

Readin’

I started reading “The Kite Runner” after a long traipse in the shallow end with a trio of Star Wars books: the first two books of the Coruscant Nights trilogy (“Jedi Twilight” and “Street of Shadows”), and the new “Millenium Falcon”. Michael Reeves, author of the trilogy, really irks me with his writing style – he tries too hard to prove how smart he is by a) making 1,001 references back to the movies and his other books, and b) creating parallels cliches, metaphors and sayings to our own. Example, “You know what they say, ‘Don’t count the bantha cubs before they’re born’.”. C’mon, really? The stories themselves aren’t that great, either – trapped between being for an adolescent reader and an adult, they fail at the latter level.

“Millenium Falcon”, by James Luceno, was better. The story idea is pretty cool – two owners of the famous ship, one from the past and Han Solo, are tracking the history to find the secret to a lost treasure. Jadak, a former owner is following the trail of who had the ship after he ‘died’ nearly 70 years ago. Han, on the other hand, is investigating the trail backward before he got the ship from Lando Calrissian. Getting the back-story of the ship was very interesting, but the rest of the surrounding story was a bit weaker. The payoff for the ‘treasure’ was really weak and actually brought the whole book down, making it feel like little more than a filler novel that will lead into the upcoming “Fate of the Jedi” series in 2009.

Linkin’

And now, because I’m tired, are some simple links.

• Functioning Form – Web Form Design: Goodreads Review – hey, that’s my review!
• Early Star Wars Storyboards Flickr set – there are some real treasures in here.
• Facebox - a Facebook-style lightbox script
• Haboob Sandstorm – someone took this video with their cellphone.

I finally got out for some birding on Saturday morning at Palmyra Cove. It was a little chilly, and there weren’t any real big migrants there, but I still have a good time. One of the highlights was seeing quite a few Field Sparrows (Spizella pusilla) – a species I had seen before but not yet photgraphed. This little casanova was singing his heart out near the beaver pond.

It was great to be able to get outside with my camera and just look around. There weren’t too many new or different things to be found – although I did see a huge mature bald eagle and a winter wren, which are rarities for Palmyra – but just being out in the sun and walking around the park was great. We were going to try to do it again on Sunday, but real life stepped in and made us do stuff around the house instead.

We put in the screen windows, re-arranged our bedroom (well, Shari did, at least) and planned for some spring projects – repainting the whole bedroom, replacing the back door, our veggie/flower garden, etc. I’m actually looking forward to doing some stuff around the house with the improved weather. That is, after we get back from Atlanta for my nephew’s third birthday.

Cinematics

We also finally got through the 2 movies from Netflix that have been sitting on the table all week. “September Dawn” was an interesting movie about the Mountain Meadows Massacre in which 120 emigrants from Arkansas were slaughtered by a Mormon group. It was really a sad chapter of persecution turning into righteous zealotry in the name of protecting their culture, but a horrific one. Sadly, although the movie was well-acted (Jon Voight is great) and the cinematography great, the story is … well, abrasive. It’s definitely far from a tolerant movie and paints the Mormons as the 19th-century equivalents of Al Queda. And while the general story may be true, much of it is supposition – and nearly all of that supposition points to a very evil Mormon church, which makes it seem like a personal attack more than a balanced film.

To balance that, we also watched “Atonement”, which was fantastic. Great sets, superb cinematography (the 5.5-minute single tracking shot on the beaches of Dunkirk is simply amazing), and a good story – not to mention the beautiful Keira Knightley – made for the best of the ‘Best Movie’ nominees we’ve seen so far (over “No Country for Old Men” and “Michael Clayton”).

Last night, we delved into a movie my cousins recommended, “The Good German”. It was one of those movies which was both great and mediocre at the same time. The story involves a reporter heading to the Potsdam Conference after the fall of Nazi Germany in WWII. It is shot in a near-perfect imitation of 1940′s/1950′s style black-and-white – it looks exactly like a film that was originally filmed in that time period, in part because they used real film and fixed-focus lenses from that time period. The score to it is great, and also very authentic to movies of that time period and the way they were used to clue the audience into the mood of the moment. From an artistic perspective, it was a great film. However, despite some big names – George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and a completely different side of Tobey MacGuire, the story is slow and uneven. It’s a shame, because it had some potential, too.

Film Ratings (out of 5?)

September Dawn – ♦ ♦ ½
Atonement – ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
The Good German – ♦ ♦ ♦

To that end, her illness did allow for us to watch a few more movies this past weekend, we were able to get some movies in. I’d DVR’d “The Pursuit of Happyness” since I’ve been wanting to see that for a while (Shari and Blair had seen it in theaters while I was away). It was a heck of a movie – Will Smith put in a great performance as a man who might be down and nearly out, but never gave in to the pressures and poverty that threatened him. His ability to show a man who has been pushed to the edge, and teeters on the line but never steps over, is great. Working with his own son made for a very real performance, I think. Definitely worth seeing.

We also got to see a rather interesting and disturbing movie – “Rendition“. A movie that is a not-so-thinly veiled attack on the current administration’s actions during the ‘War on Terror’, it covers how a number of people are drawn together when an Egyptian national married to a U.S. citizen is abducted by the U.S. and tortured on suspicion of being in contact with a known terrorist. There are some good performances in it, and it’s thought-provoking, but just seemed a little too neatly put together – almost a propaganda piece. Of course, considering what the Bush administration has done, it might be a documentary.

We also got to watch a comedy to lighten the mood. We didn’t expect much out of “Good Luck Chuck“, but it was surprisingly funny. The basic plot – “Chuck” has become what the local women think of as a lucky charm – if he sleeps with you, the next man you’re with will be your soul mate. Naturally, he becomes a hot item when this gets out on a local dating site. Problem? That makes it a lot harder to go after the girl he really wants, Jessica Alba. It was good to see the always-hot Alba getting some comedy chops as a super klutz penguin expert, and co-star Dane Cook did a great job as the relatively level-headed (if sarcastic) main character.

Speaking of comedies, we did see “The Simpson’s Movie” recently, too. It was funny, but not as great as I had hoped. I think Blair nailed it when he told us, “Well, it was good but it was really funny only because of all of us being there to laugh at it together.” Basically, anything can be funny if you’re a bunch of college kids sitting in the theater together.

This weekend, we splurged and watched two OnDemand movies – we really need to get that $8.99/month Netflix deal or start going to the library. Last night, I was not in the mood for anything too intense (like “September Dawn” or “In the Valley of Elah”), so we went with a the happy-go-lucky “Hollywoodland“. I had actually heard talk that Ben Affleck gave a possible Oscar-worthy performance when I first heard about this movie, which tackles the events around the death of George Reeves, the original Superman from TV. I’m not sure who thought his performance was that good, but they were on something. The movie was pretty good, though – although Adrien Brody had a much better performance in it.

Tonight, after a long day of chopping wood (damn, I never realized how heavy and tough oak was), we watched “Michael Clayton“, the thriller starring George Clooney and Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton. To be honest, I thought the movie was very good and Clooney also did a good job (not as good as his turns in “Syriana” or “Good Night and Good Luck” but still better than 96% of the performances out there); I’m not sure how Swinton was best supporting actress. Granted, I haven’t seen most of the other actresses who were nominated, but I thought her performance lackluster. But maybe it’s just me.

But for now, it’s time for bed. Tomorrow, hopefully a trip to The Pole Farm to see some owls – if I’m not too sore from all of that wood chopping, that is.

And I got to go out birding on Sunday, which I desperately needed to do – it’s been too long since I had gone out on a good all-day trip, especially to someplace different. I’ve been wanting to go to Sandy Hook for a long time to see some rarities, and I’ve also wanted to visit Great Swamp NWR and a place called affectionately “The Pole Farm” in north-central New Jersey. Unfortunately, Shari wasn’t able to go, but the day out birding and walking around was especially therapeutic for me. Not only did I get to see some pretty cool birds (including 6 species of birds of prey at the Pole Farm alone, 8 for the day), but in spite of the weather, I enjoyed just sitting outside and relaxing while watching the birds.

Back at the Ranch

Back at home, Shari and I settled in for a couple of movies this weekend – soemthing we have been doing a lot of with the writer’s strike that has sapped what little good programming remained on the schedule. Lately, we have been opting to do more and more ‘free’ movies – that is, those that are already included in the cost of our FIOS service via OnDemand or the movie channels (see below). But the downside of looking for the free movies is that they run out fairly quickly, so we had to turn to a couple of newer movies this weekend – paid for by my parents generous Valentine’s Day gift. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford wasn’t my first choice on Friday night, as I thought it might be a little … slow; Shari disagreed. Turns out I was right – the film is a slower-paced movie meant to bring you into the characters. Aside from being a slower movie, which isn’t a bad thing just a little tough when you’re tired, it was really good. Brad Pitt did an exceptional job as Jesse James, and the whole cast made the film – a period piece about the killing of Jesse James – well worth watching, even if just for the amazing cinematography.

The next night, I got to pick, and we ended up watching The Kingdom, a Michael Mann shoot-em-up about a terrorist attack on an American compound in Saudi Arabia and the FBI investigation that goes on to find the killers. It was exactly as I expected it to be – fairly formulaic with a lot of explosions and Jamie Foxx being the hero with a crack shot with his gun AND his wit. The cast was chock full of people you know – Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Kyle Chandler and a much under-utilized Jennifer Garner. It was interesting to show the dichotomy in how the U.S. is viewed with respect and hstred in the same country – and sometimes by the same people. It wasn’t Schindler’s List, but it wasn’t bad. I will say that the opening sequence was frickin’ awesome.

Recently

Like I said, lately, we’ve been watching a lot of movies, and some have been surprisingly good. Of course, if I was better at updating this blog I would have had these up a while back, but … well, you know how it is.

• Loggerheads – A surprisingly good film about three sets of people whose lives intersect in interesting ways from the Sundance channel. As the tagline says, “One son. Two mothers. Three endangered lives. A bit said, but well written and acted. Grade: B+
• Eragon – this was not very good. I liked the book, although I found it a little adolescent (but considering the author was 15 when he wrote it, what would you expect), but they never really helped it out when they made a movie from it. If this was the first I’d heard of this story, I would have never read the book. Grade: C
• Ghost Rider – Nicholas Cage should be ashamed of himself. As a comic fan, it’s hard to believe that he turned out this dreck – and his normally wooden acting was even more so here. Grade: F
• Ocean’s Thirteen – Not bad, really, but a disappointment – another movie franchise that has jumped the shark. With the cast they had, you would figure that they couldn’t make a bad movie, but they certainly tried. Grade: C
• Mr. Brooks – Kevin Costner is another actor who has slowly become a joke regarding his craft. However, I actually found him to be pretty darn good in this thriller as the ‘guy next door’ who seems to have the perfect life – except for that annoying voice in his head (played very, very well by William Hurt) who wants him to kill. And things get more interesting when someone sees him – and wants to learn the craft. Grade: B+
• Flightplan – Jodie Foster as a mother who ISN’T going crazy when she says that she has lost her daughter aboard a new jumbo jet – even though there is no record of her daughter ever coming aboard the plane. It’s got paranoia, hijackers, terrorists and a plot to steal millions of dollars. And Jodie Foster as the passive-agressive hero, of course. Shari liked this one better than I did. Grade: B-
• Flags of Our Fathers – the first half of the Clint Eastwood epic duology, this WWII tale tells of the heros who took Iwo Jima and raised the flag (at least the ones that made the famous photograph). It then shows how the three surviving men are thrown to the American public as heros that they don’t want to be, in order to help America win the war. It was very good, but not as good as the critics made it out to be. The battle sequences were pretty strong, though I think that Saving Private Ryan did them better. Grade: A-

More saved up links

Here you go – the latest and greatest batch of links…

• Best sports prank EVER – Kyle Kendrick gets punked.
• Pixish – designing new imagery on demand. Another cool idea from Derek Powazek.
• John McCain is no Obama – funny satire video based on the now-famous “Yes We Can” video.
• Indexed Does Politics - Jessica Hagy’s take on the current events (funny, as usual).
• Issuu – You’ll never look at PDFs the same way.
• Japanese Bug Fights – really cruel … but I can’t stop watching. But wait until PETA sees this…

So true but still funny.

• #1 “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” – GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
• #3 “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” – ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
• #4 “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” – THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
• #5 “Here’s looking at you, kid.” – CASABLANCA (1942)
• #6 “Go ahead, make my day.” – SUDDEN IMPACT (1983)

Some are a bit more odd (such as “E.T. Phone Home” – E.T. (1982). But they missed a LOT of classics. Some that we came up with today…

• “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” – Animal House
• “The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.” – Fight Club
• “I have a bad feeling about this.” – Star Wars
• “See, it’s social. Demented and sad, but social…” – Breakfast Club
• “Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days” – Bull Durham
• “I know you don’t smoke weed, I know this; but I’m gonna get you high today, ’cause it’s Friday; you ain’t got no job… and you ain’t got sh!t to do.” – Friday
• “The Price is Wrong … bitch” – Happy Gilmore
• Elwood: “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.”
  Jake: “Hit it.” – Blues Brothers
• “I see dead people” – Sixth Sense
• “Yeah, I mean aside from the cheating, we were a great couple. I mean that’s what high school was about, algebra, bad lunch, and infidelity.” – Clerks (a second kudos to “37!?!?” … but I kind of understand that one).
• “It looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue.” – Airplane

I mean, how did they miss these classics?