Big Sky 11/25 G-Ville Show!! Part I: The drive THERE!

Here we are... getting ready to embark on our quest to see an amazing rock band.


Jessica drove because it's HER car and she apparently doesn't trust anyone else to drive it. :(


Not that THAT would stop me from "helping" with directions and lane selection!


OR stop Kevin from backstreet driving... taunting... scoffing...


THE HOME STRETCH!!!!

These are just the pics of the trip... I'll write more about the experience AND the show later. I promise. And the other parts are BELOW!!

Big Sky 11/25 G-Ville Show! Part II :We're in G-Ville!

Aw, University Ave. The only street in G-Ville it seems.


Jessica is STILL driving. Greedy woman!


My Favorite sign!!

Big Sky 11/25 G-Ville Show Part III: Walking Around G-Ville

Trying to keep up with Hyper Boy who was on his own, personal quest for what he liked to call "Adult Beverages". We EVENTUALLY found. (see text).


Jessica started to get REALLY pissy about me taking pics... and she says anything I'll post those pics she wouldn't WANT me to post. :)


Hey, now... who WOULDN'T want a simple cremation? Though the name is rather unpleasant... you're worth cremating, sure, but not worth a COMPLICATED one.


This explains so much about the alumni I meet from UF.

Big Sky 11/25 G-Ville Show Part IV: Kevin

SO how drunk DID Kevin get that night? SO drunk...


... that he didn't realize...


... the thing was bending!!!


But he DID sleep like a baby on the way home. Ain't he precious!

Big Sky 11/25 G-Ville Show! Part V: The SHOW!!

That's me towards the right of the pic!!! I'm smiling and wearing a black hat!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYBODY!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!

And now... The RUNT!!

Ok... since people asked about the OTHER kitty... here's the "Runt". This one is mama's fave and will probably end up being kept. He's called "Runt" cause, well, he IS the runt!!
Here I am sneaking up on him... sort of.

Not sure what his expression means, but...

This is right before he jumped up and scratched my face...

JUST KIDDING!!

The Orange Cat... (Cause he was awake.)

The orange one LOVES to play... and since HE was awake, I decided to take some pics of it.

Three down, Two to go

Ok... so the mama cat found a new home with Julie and is apparently slowly assimilating there. The female (the only one, we believe) was taken by a co-worker of Wanda's who needed something to show she could stand up to her dominating husband. I worry we just gave him a new target and additional leverage but they disagreed so she got her. The most aggressive of the males (with a white spot and usually up front in the pics) was taken by another co-worker. So we're down to two.
As you can see, they really DO like each other. The orange one seems really lonely now and tends to bother the runt by suckling into his fur leaving his belly all wet and matted.
But the runt gets back at him by usually pouncing on him while he sleeps. But these were two pics from a rare moment where BOTH were sleeping. Thought they were cute and wanted to share.

Here's something I check at least once a week...

I check it JUST to make absolutely SURE about it. I mean, we have all heard rumors at one time or another or had the thought "Isn't he dead already?" more times than we can count. But, in the interest of never having to wonder again, I give you:
http://www.abevigoda.com/

You're welcome.

Walk the Line Review

Walk the Line
This is not really the story of Johnny Cash but of his music. It’s not the story of Johnny Cash but the story of a man and his obsessions: his music and June. The fact that he ends up being good at both is irrelevant. It’s his journey that holds our attention.
We start at Folsum County Penitentiary, of course, though it’s listed by its full name. We hear the ruckus going on inside and follow the sound in to find the inmates preparing for the music while the band plays. We go behind the stage to see Mr. Phoenix, dressed in black and with the hair styled almost perfectly. In the best tradition of other bio-pics, he may not look like Johnny Cash but he FEELS like him. And we’re with him as he goes back to trace the steps and choices and mistakes that brought him there.
If you only have a passing knowledge of Cash songs, you may miss some brilliant minor details and touches that are peppered throughout the film. My personal fave is the shoeshine guys (father and son, maybe) and the beat they tap out while shining shoes. Johnny Cash hasn’t even STARTED recording yet but those in the know know where it’s going WELL before we even HEAR the song it inspired. We hold witness to the creation of the songs and then get to hear them born. It’s a real treat. Of course, we have to accept that these all may be dramatizations. This is driven home not only by the legalize at the end but by a line in the movie (and trailers) wherein June tells Johnny that he should take credit for things sometimes. We see fate and chance dictating no legendary aspects of the Man in Black and his music.
But don’t go thinking this is Dragon or Great Balls of Fire (though it DOES make me want to watch the latter again). Cash is not portrayed in any real flattering way BEYOND his musical ability. He is a wounded man who has trouble healing. He is a broken man who never really finds his own way back to… well, back to HIMSELF. That part is played by June. She is the salvation and the damnation of Cash. She drives him to be his own devil and then helps him climb back from hell. It may have been the romanticizing of the relationship (the movie is based on his auto-bios) but the performances make you believe it.
The performances. I wanted more Jerry Lee. I wanted more Elvis. I wanted more Johnny and June and everyone. The movie IS over two hours long. It DOES feel like it. But only because of the wealth of information being passed on. You leave feeling like you know these people. Not just the two mains but their families and their friends. They could’ve made the other artists simple cartoony aspects of their true selves but they manage to show their humanity and I appreciated that.
Except for Roy Orbison but that’s no biggie.
And Elvis fans may take issue with certain parts even though it’s pretty much a given. Even from his OWN biographies.
But Phoenix as Cash and Witherspoon as June really fell like hesitant lovers. Hesitant on HER side, of course. Johnny is smitten with her from childhood. He comes off as a Romeo, really. Not in the common usage of that term (a romantic). Romeo was walking hormone who wanted to screw anything pretty. He saw something he truly thought was pretty and OBSESSED over her. The fact that the movie allows this view of Cash AND his feelings for June was impressive to me. We SEE how he is with his FIRST wife. For some, this merely serves to show what he has to overcome. For me, it showed who he WAS. A man searching for love and acceptance and support. A man driven by his music and whose music erupts from his drives.
The songs are all song by the actors playing the parts. Sometimes it almost hinders the movie when you just REALLY want to hear the REAL version but not enough to make me say it was a bad choice. Sure they sound like imitations… they ARE, after all… but this seems to make it easier on the actors to lip synch.
I can recommend this picture to people who enjoy the music. I can recommend it to folks who just like bio-pics. I can recommend it to folks who like good, strong romantic movies that don’t downplay the true difficulties involved in making love work.
My only real issue is that it plays its strongest scenes too soon. I would see this again JUST for the scene where Cash first plays for Sam Phillips. That whole scene deserves to get Phoenix an oscar nod. Not saying he should win but he SHOULD get noticed.
Oh, and special shout out to Robert Patrick. The man has come a LONG way from playing the T-1000 and henchman number 5. This movie makes me want to forgive him for his part in the ruination of X-Files. Not actually FORGIVE… but I WANT to do that now. Anywho, Friday is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire day!! Anyone want to go?

Update!!

First of all, Julie picked up the mama cat last night (thanks again, Julie, I hope you guys all get along!) and the kittens seem so much bigger than when they came... still big, though.
Secondly, we will be getting the kittens to their new, temporary home this weekend... Monday at the latest. I appreciate everyone who said they were cute and who helped spread the word looking for homes. I understand most cat lovers already HAVE cats but still... I'm glad everyone helped out.
Some COMMENTS would've been nice... but eh.
Anywho... more later.

At the Cummer... part II

Nacim really liked holding onto this guy for some reason.... hmmmmm.

I don't think he liked ME much, though... he kept staring at my hand... jealous bastard!

Yeah... Nacim really IS that short... j/k... but that is the pose she chose so.... BABY GOT BACK!!

Now it's time to find NACIM!!!!

The exhibit is a blast, really. And I didn't post ALL the pics from it, certainly. Many thanks to Nacim for agreeing to go with me to this since no one else would. All y'all need to go and make up for it! Oh, and the best thing... it was FREE!!!!

Just saddened that I couldn't be there when Rebecca Zapen performs... but I need to go work.

At the Cummer thru 01/08/06... go see it!!

Ah, yes... nudity! The best part of "art" growing up. :)


Dude! Let me cut in, dammit!


Say what you want about his genius... the man didn't know perspective.


Where's William?


Now THAT was a boring picnic! Except for the nude chick that no one wanted to talk about. I mean... SHE'S NEKKID!!!


Seriously, though. This is an AWESOME exhibit. But to do it justice, you have to BE there... so go. Check out their website ( www.cummer.org ) and find the times and location, if you don't already know it.

Here's and excerpt from the website describing the exhibit:
Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited, The Sculptures of J. Seward Johnson
September 29, 2005 through January 8, 2006
Organized and circulated by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington. D.C.
The Cummer will host the largest exhibition of J. Seward Johnson sculptures in the state of Florida. These whimsical installations are life-scale, three-dimensional representations of some of the most famous paintings from French Impressionism. Viewers will play an interactive role as they are given the opportunity to experience what it would be like to walk through some of the most well-known paintings by artists such as Monet, Renoir, Manet and Van Gogh.

Bert and Ernie

I was watching TV and heard that good ol' bit about Bert and Ernie being gay again. You know the bit... that just cause they're male and live together and share a bedroom (but not a BED!!) and argue like and old married couple, they MUST be gay.

It always amazes me how adults try so hard to ascribe sexuality to things that don't NEED it. And why is it we only REALLY focus on if they are homosexual? Why can't characters, especially ones intended for children, just BE? Why do they have to be straight or gay or whatever? No one cares about whether Big Bird is male or female since you never see HIM snuggling up to anything. He SEES Snuffy, he doesn't SLEEP with Snuffy. Oscar is a "confirmed bachelor" but no one says it's cause he's a flamer. Hell, Kermit wasn't seen as straight until the Muppet Show with the introduction of Miss Piggy (a show meant for adults, btw). Until then, you only saw him hanging out with Rowlf. Gonzo loves chickens but he was never on Sesame Street so it's ok. Plus, they finally "outed" him as an alien so all's well, I guess. And I guess we don't find it odd that Grover likes to dress up in a cape and knight's helmet and NOTHING ELSE and fly over town. He and Cookie Monster are both MONSTERS so they CAN'T be gay. Not human. Not even close. The Count? Vampires are sexually ambiguous anyway (damn you, Anne Rice!) but also notoriously sexually drawn to females so he can't be gay. No one questions Mumford or Elmo or the rest. Oh, no.. you have to go to OTHER shows to see the gay-dar of the masses in full effect.

Teletubbies. Ok, yeah... the purple MIGHT be gay.. but hard to decide since I can't REALLY tell the orientation of the others.

Mr. Rogers with his imaginary world with queens and fairies and a fascination with watching a trolley go into a tight hole. Not to mention his shoe fetish.

Capt'n Kangaroo and all his MALE friends and the image of a lot of BALLS dropping onto his head.

Scooby Doo... I mean, REALLY? Fred is banging Daphne, most would agree. Velma is a bull dyke, no question. So that leaves Shaggy and his best bud Scooby... well, SHAGGING! After smoking pot, of course.

The Smurfs... they wear their blue balls on the outside!! And a whole village with just ONE chick? And she came up LATER. They started with NO WOMEN! Nice side note: Smurfette was created by Gargamel to infiltrate and destroy the Smurf village. Hmmmm... women are EVIL according to the Smurfs. But what I always questioned, even back then, was that none of the Smurfs questioned what a female was... even though they didn't HAVE any already. How come? If they HAD a female before, what happened to her? Death by blue-kake?

All these wonderful theories abound even though they were never intended and certainly aren't relevant to enjoying the shows. Hell, Smurfs are asexual, it was later revealed. One is born on a blue moon and they find the child on a mushroom in a certain spot. Daphne would be seen WITHOUT Fred and Shaggy and Daphne were often shown dating in later eps (AND the movie). Mr. Rogers was a minister and Capt'n Kangaroo was just lonely. The Teletubbies I don't understand but never watched them so... eh.

But Bert and Ernie just bug some people. They HAVE to know about them! Yes, Bert HAS appeared in some scenes where Ernie is in the tub with rubber ducky... but not IN the tub with him. They sleep in seperate beds and get along like they do cause they are old roommates and have learned to hate each other JUST as much as they care for one another. Anyone else understand that concept? But I know people like to talk about it... and not just those people on various VH1 specials who like to pretend they are 'celebrities'.

So, in the interest of putting this to rest... always remember:

Bert and Ernie are BOTH gay! How do I know? Cause they both have felt penises.

Hope that helps. I'm off to host Trivia.. everyone have a blast!

Jarhead and Chicken Little

Jarhead

First of all, I pretty much got dragged to this one. I wanted to see Saw II or Doom or something else. Actually, we were SUPPOSED to start with Chicken Little but the timing sucked. Not that I was AGAINST this movie... not at all... I am just not a war movie fan. I don't really get into war movies or westerns or gangster flicks (or gangstah, either!). Don't know why, but I don't. Anywho, I didn't HATE this movie at all. I laughed and was drawn into some of the character bits. I liked that it showed the slow dive into madness that can come with war and a really great juxtaposition of the Vietnam and Gulf wars. Three times, actually. The acting was pretty spot on and kept me involved for much of it. But see... just like Full Metal Jacket and Stripes, the film does suffer AFTER basic training is over. The benefit THIS film has is that basic is not even half the movie. It has TIME to make you get back into the characters. But then it has a new problem... the wrap up at the end. I mean, I would've preferred the classic white text wrap up instead of the voice-over bs that it has and I really didn't care enough to see "Where are they now" for these soldiers. It's not hard to figure out what was going to happen to them. It basically just SHOWS those folks who couldn't figure it out for themselves. Shame.. would've respected this movie a helluva lot more if it just ended with the end of the war. So, not a terrible movie... but nothing all that special. Certainly not one of the top ten for this year. Or top 20.

Chicken Little

I wanted this movie to be good. Disney doing Pixar's job. I mean... you take what Disney does best and get them doing computer animation. This should've been a no-brainer. Ok, so it IS a no-brainer. That's the problem. What Pixar knew right off the bat and what OTHER companies are learning over time... just because you CAN do that thing doesn't mean you SHOULD do that thing. Even the guys making Shrek stated that no shot would be used that could NOT be done with a real camera. But CL has all these distracting shots that can be done because it is CG. They look fascinating and all but they don't have a damn thing to do with the story. A quick zoom out for no other reason than to do a quick zoom out.. that sort of thing. Sure, the characters look awesome, for the most part. The MAIN characters, anyhow. You can see all the individual feathers and hairs and all that. The threads on the clothing is visible. The fact that they area already DOING decent clothing and such puts them ahead of the game. But the cuteness of the story gets lost. It's like they so wanted to show they could do really swell computer animation that they neglected the story. (cough*matrix*cough) So what does this all mean? It means it's fine if you want to just sit there for 80 minutes and not give it too much thought. But if you are hoping for a Finding Nemo or a Shrek or, hell, even a Lion King... you ain't gonna find it. But it DOES have some good trailers for some OTHER CG movies coming out (Open Season and Over the Hedge) and other Disney movies... and it IS harmless and Gary MArshall DOES use his real voice as the pop so all in all, I still managerd to have some laughs and a smile or two. Just left feeling rather empty, is all.

Not used to that with a Disney movie.

One down... four to go!

Since Julie has claimed the mama, that just leaves the four babies... and look how well they get along!!!


So, please.. if you or someone you know could make a good home for these young'uns (solo or together), please let us know ASAP! They are about a week away from being free to go!
Thanks!

Thanks, Julie!

Julie came by and saw the mama cat and they got along VERY well and both seem to like each other. Julie has agreed to adopt the mama cat and we have agreed that Julie would make a good mama to the mama cat! So I just wanted to acknowledge Julie for being such a swell person!

To learn MORE about Julie, visit one of the following links... or visit your local library. Reading IS fundamental.

Anyone need a new kitty?

Ok, here's the story... the mama cat was an abandoned cat my mom and sis found at Applebee's... along with her four kittens. They are all in great health (per the vet) though one kit DOES have an eye infection. We're just wanting to find them good homes, really. Since no shelter will take the mama cat, we will probably end up having her fixed and then return her to where she came from. The kittens are all currently being weened off their mama and are approx. 6 weeks old.
We would hope some of you would like to have VERY playful and friendly kitties... and would appreciate a small donation of say, $20, to help us recoup our expenses at the vet.
So... anyone interested?

Halloween 2005 Cartoon

Sorry it's so late but I've been having scanner troubles. And I had trouble with last year's Xmas one in color so I didn't scan the color one. Beyond that, it turned out pretty much as I pictured it.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Yes, I bought a copy... of COURSE I did. I enjoyed the flick well enough. Not my FAVE movie of the summer or year but still a fine ending to the new trilogy. I have friends who thought it was complete shit and others who thought it the best of the new trilogy... I'm in the middle. Wasn't how I would've done it, certainly but still... had some really great, exciting moments.

But I ain't hear to 'review' the DVD... I mean, you will either buy it or not... or someone will buy it FOR you or not. Regardless, fans will own it. Hell, my friend who TRULY hated the movie will buy it just for completist reasons.

No, what I am hear to mention is the spiffy easter egg on the first disc. Not as cool as the blooper reels on the other 3 discs (eps 1 & 2 and the bonus disc from the other set) but still fun. And you access it in much the same way.

On the first disc, got to "Options" and move the cursor around until it highlights the THX logo. Once that is highlighted, press '1', '1', '3', and '8'. (Or '11', '3', and '8' depending on your remote). Then enjoy the clip.

I still prefer the blooper reel but at least we get SOMETHING.

Oh, and watch on the "Chosen One" documentary for the clip showing they WILL be replacing the puppet Yoda in a future rerelease of Episode I.

Have a great All Saint's Day and I DID finish the Halloween cartoon but had scanner issues so I hope to get that fixed tomorrow.