Yes, this is an odd article for me. It struck while I was mowing the lawn in 90 degree heat. Blame it on the baking of my brain while listening to Sting’s album “Dream of the Blue Turtles”.
I’ll state right up front that this is an opinion piece. It’s not related to the entertainment industry other than the fact that it was songs from Sting’s album “Dream of the Blue Turtles” which spurned me to write the article. So if you’re opposed to liberal thinking, stop reading now.
It came to me that there are at least three lessons to be learned from this amazing album of his.
If you love someone, set them free.
Regardless of ideology, we all share the same biology.
There’s no such thing as a winnable war. It’s a lie we can’t believe any more.
Though I consider myself conservative, I know I have some liberal streaks in me. And this album plays those streaks like guitar strings.
But if you consider the messages… If you love someone, set them free. This is a tough lesson to learn when you’re growing up. People are not possessions. You can’t shove the ones you love into cages and keep them for when you need them. People sometimes grow apart. And if you truly love them, let them go. Sometimes they come back (not in a Pet Cemetery kind of way), and the journeys you’ve both taken is worth the risk.
Regardless of ideology, we all share the same biology. Yes, we’re at war with terrorists. But it’s very easy to fall into the trap that all of those who follow the teachings of Islam are terrorists. We can’t just kill all Islamic people. That would be insane. We may not share the same ideology, but they’re people. And rational Islamic people exist. All we can do is hope that eventually the rational people are able to take control. In the United States and elsewhere in the world.
And lastly… No such thing as a winnable war. We won the war in Iraq. Twice. What did we achieve? Stability? Nope. Improved living conditions for the Iraqi people? Nope. Self-governance? Not yet. And still we argue here over what’s the best course of action. We have done what we went in to do. Saddam is out of power. The Iraqis have established a representative government. And still they don’t have the ability to police their own country. It’s a big place. There are a lot of people who want chaos to succeed in the place of rational thinking. But haven’t we paid the price enough already?
McCain doesn’t have a good handle on economic policy IMHO. He also seems to want to do in Iraq what we’ve done in South Korea, Okinawa, and Germany… keep US forces there in perpetuity. Ugh.
Obama has a better handle on economic policy. He wants to bring our troops home responsibly. It’s time to focus on healing the wounds of 9/11 and the looming economic crisis. Let’s focus on finding new ways to combat the energy crisis. Let’s hope for the best — plan for the worst, but keep that hope alive.
It’s time for us to simplify things for our representatives in Congress and the White House. Send the message it’s time to take care of things at home. Then we can refocus our efforts on other worldwide issues such as AIDS, malaria, starvation, and all the things we choose not to focus on. Yes, we entertain ourselves to get away from the world — but maybe it’s time to focus on the problems at hand and pay less attention to what Lindsay Lohan has done or whether Brittney has forgotten to wear underwear this week.
Let’s do what’s right for the people of the United States for a change.
I’m done ranting for now. Listen to the message and apply it to our everyday lives. We have a lot of work to do. Let’s get started.
The book revolves around Simon — a simple kitchen boy, who has great potential. Similar to the story of the Sword in the Stone, where you have a boy with a destiny being groomed for greatness by those who can see the potential. I was sucked in from the very beginning.
The good doctor Morgenes takes Simon under his wing and tutors him in letters, numbers, and history. And when things go wrong, Simon is helped along his path by the troll Binabik.
The mark of a good story is wanting to know more when the book ends. And I was definitely there. At some point, I will need to rejoin the adventures of Simon and Binabik in their quest to stop the destruction of their world.
If you’re looking for some great fantasy to immerse yourself in, this is a good place to look.
David and Goliath fought in the valley of Elah and each day our soldiers in Iraq fight long odds of survival while facing their own fears to do their duty. But war, just or not, changes the men and women who fight it.
In the Valley of Elah is about some of the very real dangers of soldiers coming home from Iraq. To shift from the react or die mentality to a normal peacetime outlook at home is not so easy for a few. And of those few, there are those who don’t survive the transition.
A masterful script from Paul Haggis leads us through discovering the ugly truths behind an AWOL soldier back from Iraq. This soldier is the son of retired MP Sergeant Hank Deerfield (Jones). And Detective Emily Sanders (Theron) helps Deerfield find the truth behind what happened.
This is not a feel good movie. But it makes you think about all the hell our men and women face every day in Iraq. Sometimes you need the truth to snap you out of the dream world we see in the media.
I am not a solider. I respect what they do for our country. And they deserve better than what they’re getting.
This is definitely a movie worth watching. I give it 3/4 just for the vicious content. But it’s worth watching.
Ok, I’ve hit a first. I found a movie that had no redeeming features. None. Well, ok. Maybe that’s a bit harsh. There was acting. But I couldn’t tell you why.
Bug stars Ashley Judd as a waitress in a bar in a small town. She has an ex who beats her (Harry Connick Jr.) and some friends. And a new male friend (Michael Shannon) who is obsessed with bugs.
This movie is one hour and 42 minutes long. We made it through 42 minutes before my wife and I decided to cut our losses. The point of no return was the love scene that ended with an image of a praying mantis. And then a search for bedbugs, which the crazy guy thought were aphids (or plant lice as he put it).
It’s funny that even with Ashley Judd, who I think is a good actress and enjoyable to watch on screen, this movie didn’t do anything for me.
This movie gets 0 out of 4. It was even worse than Superbad. I have to come up with a whole new category for 0/4 movies. I’m thinking “Fertilizer” or “Manure” or just plain “Dirt”.
However, the movie did force me to consider the various elements of a movie that I look at to determine if it’s worth watching or worth continuing to watch. That will be a new post I write up very soon.
I recently had the great opportunity to read a new children’s book from Joanne L. McGonagle. The Tiniest Tiger documents a lost kitten’s journey through the zoo, talking with the other big cats there and attempting to find a place to call home.
As the author and illustrator of this book, McGonagle has created an amazing story that not only entertains, but educates young ones about some of the endangered big cat species around the world. Each time the kitten visits a new cage or habitat in the zoo, she sees a sign that documents the average size and weight of the animal, their status on the endangered species list, life span (in the wild and in captivity), and where the animal is originally from on a map.
Animals included are:
Tigers
Lions
Cheetahs
Clouded Leopards
Puma
Jaguar
Bobcats
and Ocelots
This captivating tale had my two daughters (ages 7 and 3) and my wife (a veterinarian) listening intently as the kitten tried to find a home. (Spoiler Alert: She does eventually find a home! )
To be honest, I felt there were a couple of language issues in the book where the text didn’t quite flow, but overall the writing was great. And the illustrations were amazing.
This is a book that should find its way into homes with children, school libraries, and your public library without batting an eye.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you find any great books!
Finally… A Quantum of Solace has a trailer… It releases November 7, 2008. And it looks magnificent.
With Casino Royale in 2006, I fell back in love with the world of James Bond. It intersected with the world of Jason Bourne for a time, and that gritty realism grabbed me in a way that I hadn’t been grabbed by a Bond film in a very long time.
Daniel Craig’s Bond is vicious. Hard. Violent. And damn good. This trailer gives us a taste. We’ll have to wait a few months to see if it’s as good as Casino Royale, but I have some hope that’s the case.
I had a chance to get away this weekend to one of my “happy” places in the world… Taylor Park, Colorado. Roughly 38 miles west of Buena Vista, Colorado, and at approximately 9400 feet above sea level, the Taylor Reservoir is a place I spent many happy days during my childhood. Hopefully I will get a chance to share this beautiful area more and more with my own children in the years to come.
Growing up, my family and I spent many summers (between Memorial Day and Labor Day) at a cabin not far from this beautiful lake. We would fish and hike, and when the weather turned bad, just sit and watch the weather.
Now that I have a family of my own (as does my sister), we decided it was a good weekend to get away with our kids. We rented a cabin from the Taylor Park Trading Post and rented an ATV from Colorado ATV Rentals, which is also right there at the trading post. We bounced all around Taylor as well as up to Tincup, Colorado, a beautiful little town (you can see some pictures here), on our way to Mirror Lake. Mirror Lake is this gorgeous little lake a bit of a bouncy ride above TIncup. Pure clear water and views to die for in this serene lake on the way up to the top of Tincup Pass.
I’ll try and post some pictures of our trip. We just got back today, but we took many great pictures!
I recently had a chance to see the movie Jumper on DVD. I have to admit I was expecting a train wreck after all the negative press this movie got. However, I actually enjoyed the movie (to a point). Does that make me a bad person? Or just indicate I have bad taste? There were of course things I thought could’ve been done better, but overall I didn’t hate the film.
(I’m not rushing out to buy it right away, but if I find it on sale sometime down the line I might pick it up.)
David Goyer wrote the script, which is based on a series of young adult novels by Steven Gould. I’ve liked Goyer’s work in the past - he’s done scripts for lots of movies I’ve enjoyed such as Ghost Rider, Blade: Trinity, Blade 2, Batman Begins, and so on. I haven’t read the books, but from what I could tell from the extras on the DVD, they diverged a bit from the books to get a more Hollywood-type script anyway.
That said… Let’s talk about the cast. Hayden Christensen was the main Jumper in the film, David “Rice Bowl” Rice. Most famous for playing Annakin Skywalker, I can’t say that he’s ever really done much for me as an actor. I did like him in Life as a House with Kevin Kline. If you get a chance to see that, I recommend it. But he didn’t do much for me in this film.
Then you have Jamie Bell as Griffin, another Jumper. I honestly liked his character more than Hayden’s.
Diane Lane sleep walks through the film as David Rice’s mother.
Sam Jackson goes overboard (in an ok way) as Roland, a Paladin determined to wipe out all Jumpers. His white hair was a bit over the top, but I’m guessing there’s a story there we never found out.
And then there’s Rachel Bilso, who played Millie Harris, David Rice’s crush in high school and damsel in distress through most of the movie. Bilson is cute. And I think she did what she could with the character.
So overall, the cast didn’t really thrill me much.
The special effects however were pretty cool. The locations were awesome.
Was this a great movie? Heck no. But I’ll give it 2/4. It had its moments. Maybe a whole movie based around the Griffin character would be more interesting? Who knows.
It’s going to be a busy few weeks coming up as far as movies go. We’ll be out of town this weekend, so we’ll miss the Wall-E opening weekend, but I’m looking forward to:
Hi all…
