Beef Jergy

and go see it now. NOW! I can’t even talk about it. Just see it and you’ll understand.

Yesterday, I had a landmark day of sorts. I took my daughter to the movie theater. Being that she is 4 1/2 and loves movies I’m a bit disappointed that its taken this long. Unfortunately she had a bad experience at a theater with a blaring sound system a couple of years ago and has been unable to forget it.

After much talking and prodding, I convinced her to go. My reasons were part selfish in that the movie we went to see I REALLY wanted to see. We saw Pixar’s latest effort, Wall-E. Was it Pixar’s best movie? That’s hard to say. I think you can make arguments that they’ve made better movies. BUT as good as all of their films have been I’ve been hard-pressed to describe them as ‘brilliant’.

Wall-E is brilliant. It is a very smart, cute and conscious movie. Disney (and Pixar especially) have always tried to give these movies something for both parents and adults. This is a bit beyond that. It has more than just some funny in-jokes that adults will enjoy. Its overall message is something much grander. Its funny the reaction this movie is getting. I’m hearing things like, “It a very adult movie.” And its not a negative. But its just a shame that intelligent stories are suddenly ‘adult’. To me that’s what makes this movie great. It give children more credit than they’re used to receiving. I’d like to see stories like these become the standard instead of the exception.

There is so much more to say about it, but I need to comment on something else related to the film that has nothing to do with the content.

The decision to see the movie was kinda of a last minute one. We were working in a narrow time frame, plus wanted to pick a theater that was a calming experience for my girl. So we went to a theater I hadn’t been to in maybe 15 years.

When the Towson Commons opened it was THE place to catch a flick. The university I attended was right down street so I spend a lot of time there. It was located in the heart of Towson and seemed a perfect location to built something like this. Unfortunately the timing killed the theater. See at the time, stadium seating, digital projection, DTS sound were all yet to be a common occurrence in movie theaters. So the theater become outdated fast. The opening of a new complex just 10 minutes away in White Marsh put Towson in trouble almost right away.

I knew it was in trouble and am quite surprised that it’s still open. After going there yesterday I’m even more surprised. I knew it was going to be bad when I approached the box office and above the cashier were pieces of plain white paper taped to the light boxes with the name of the movie scrawled with a bic pen and the showtimes written underneath.

The theater itself is two levels and our film was on the second floor. When we reached the top the concession stand looked like it had been abandoned years ago. Everything looked in disarray. When we entered the theater most of the cupholders were missing which mean resting your arm on sharp bare metal. *sigh* It was quite a sad sight.

I don’t know if anyone has any plans to renovate, but if they don’t I can’t see it lasting very long. There are a lot of good memories in that theater. (including my first exposure to the Rocky Horror Picture Show) But as they say, “All good things…”

Work has been busy busy busy. But so I don’t leave you completely in the lurch, here is the greatest commercial in the history of commercials.

Hi friends.

So, I’m now 4 days returned from my week away in *beautiful* South Jersey. I’ve waxed poetic before about my love of Wildwood, New Jersey. So I won’t be doing that now. Honestly I don’t really have any great stories to tell. No big skill crane grabs this year. No particularly funny stories or horrible moments. Its was a pretty comfortable trip overall. I got to see my daughter become a skee ball master in a matter of days (she’s pretty damn good). I got to take her on the Zoom Phloom which also made me happy. (she just barely hit the height requirement).

We made the same general observations we make everytime we walk the boards.

1) People have no shame when it comes to clothing at the beach

2) Setting up a giant chair and charging people $5 a pop to have a picture taken in it, will earn you lots of dough. (Double it if you put giant props like ice cream cones and liquor bottles)
sadly I could not find any pictures of The Big Chair. But use your imagination. Its a big f’n chair.

3) You must have pissed someone off greatly to have to go to work dressed as a giant lime.

4) You can live off of pizza and frozen custard for a week.

5) The exact time simulated on the boardwalk is 1986.

6) There is no funnier way to say ‘bite-sized’ than this:

7) I still miss the castle.

This was worth taking a few seconds to post.

I just got this notice from my ISP.

On June 24, 2008, we will be modifying our Newsgroup offerings to only offer groups in the Big-8 Newsgroup hierarchies, which are listed below. The 0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy will also continue to be available. Users will not be able to post or download from any other newsgroups using our Newsgroup service.

comp.*
humanities.*
misc.*
news.*
rec.*
sci.*
soc.*
talk.*

This means that the entire *alt. hierarchy will disappear. Music, movies, TV, apps, all gone……

They say the reason is in response to political strong-arming by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Ya see Cuomo claimed that his office found child porn on 88 newsgroups………..out of over 100,000.

Of course there is also massive amounts of copyrighted data there (as well as lots of honest discussion).

But, who’s gonna argue with getting rid of child porn?

*sigh* Now back to work.

Sorry for the lack of updates. We are frantically trying to get this Math Fact product out the door. And considering I am going on vacation in 10 days I have much to do.

Because work has gotten away from me, be so kind as to use this post as your Fun Friday Moment.

Viral videos are those sometimes funny, often stupid but mostly both, videos that are send to you by a friend or family member. They normally come in the form of a email Fwd that has the subject “OMG This is soooooo funny!” This person forwards it to that person and next thing you know these people have become famous for embarrassing themselves.

Recently South Park paid homage to a small collection of these internet celebs in a pretty funny episode. A word of warning: the South Park clip has some NSFW language. (A great thing about them posting on the internet)

And then right on top of this, Weezer released their newest single. A very similar love is given to our favorite internet celebs.

Big nerd points to those that had previously seen every reference from both clips. You can trade these points in for a collectible statue of Darth Vader battling a Hobbit.

Sorry gang, lots going so I’ve been absent. Some I can talk about now some I can’t. So lets get to the first order of business.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

If the Star Wars prequels were more like this, we’d have been alright. Granted the movie was not perfect. But then again how rare is that? How often is a single film perfect much less a third sequel? I had basically said to myself that if I left the theater with a smile on my face then Spielberg did his job. And I did.

Its tough revisiting these childhood heroes. You were at a much different place in your life when you were first introduced to them. The world was a lot more mysterious. There were many things you were willing to believe as fact simply because you didn’t know any better. You get attached to these things at a time when it is so easy to become attached. And then the years pass and the reality of the world sets it. You become a bit more cynical and apprehensive about what the world has to offer. We all have things from our past that we hold in a higher regard that possibly we should. And that is a god thing. It brings us comfort and joy and reminds us of a time when we were much more innocent and a lot less grouchy.

Indiana Jones is one of those things from that childhood long ago. When I just had my basement finished and new big screen mounted on the wall, what was the first movie I watched from start to finish? Not Star Wars but Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Star Wars would have been tops ten years ago. But the ‘Special Editions’ and prequels have place a small dark spot on that trilogy of movies that turn me into an 8 year old again. When I see Hayden Christensen pop up at the end of Jedi, it rips me out of the spell I am put in watching Luke and the gang.

The Indy trilogy however is just as I remembered it when I saw it in the theater many years ago. And I like that. Its what is supposed to be great about films. The only differences should be in preserving the film so that many more generations can enjoy what you saw those times before. Even though they aren’t touching the old, there is tremendous pressure on Lucas and Spielberg by adding a new chapter to the series. It will forever be attached to the originals. Will it be the ‘black sheep’ of the family you keep locked in the attic and feed a bucket of fish heads every week? Or will it bring back those feelings again and be a movie you will revisit and show to your children along side the other great adventure flicks?

I’m glad to say in my opinion it fits in the later category. Like I said I don’t think it is perfect. And most all of the criticisms that I hear from people whose opinions I respect I agree with. But none of them kept me from enjoying the film. Last night I went to my favorite movie theater to see it a second time. I wasn’t feeling particularly good and planned on only seeing maybe half the film. Well I stayed for the whole thing and left again with that smile on my face.

Thats really all I have in me for right now. I have a ton of work piling up and the cold ain’t getting any better.

Another old friend from summers past returns this weekend when world-renown archaeologist, Indiana Jones, is thrust into another adventure. And I, for one, am excited. I can’t help it. Even in today’s world of dragging out character’s from my youth in an attempt to pull at the strings of nostalgia only to be somewhat disappointed (Phantom Menace?), I am STILL excited. I like everything about these movies. I love the characters, the settings, the story, the hint of the supernatural, EVERYTHING.

Everyone had their own thoughts on ranking the films. In general though it is widely accepted that Temple of Doom is the worst of the three. That is not to say that a lot of people hate Temple. On the contrary, it has a certain charm to it, plus it is an Indy film. The other night I did finally notice why perhaps *I* consider this to be the worst of the three.

In preparation of the 4th film, I have started rewatching the originals. I have absolutely nothing bad at all to say about Raiders. I love everything about it from start to finish. It has my favorite babe (Marian), my favorite object (The Ark) and my favorite villains (Toht and Belloq).

Then I got to Temple of Doom. I have to say the movie starts great. I love the opening sequence with Dr. Jones bargaining for the diamond with Lao Che.

Start at the 2:40 mark

It was then that things start to take a turn for the worse and mainly it deals with Willie. Everything out of her mouth seemed to be some lame attempt at forced comedy. as Lao would say “SIT DOWN!” The movie continues to bring in these ‘comedic’ moments throughout. Now I am not suggesting that these movie should be devoid of humor. There were plenty of laughs in Raiders. Its just that the comedy came from situations, not in people. And Kate Capshaw is not the least bit funny. Then pile on top of that funny man number 2. Short Round.

Let’s forget the fact that most of his humor came from the fact that he talked funny. But the fact that we had to team Indy with a kid. *sigh* Exactly.

But all of that aside, I think the thing that stuck out most to me was when the comedy actually got in the way of the story. All of the exposition in Raiders was uninterrupted. In this scene, Indy explains the legend of the Ark of the Covenant. By the end of this scene we know what it is, why the Nazis want it and why Indy must beat them to it. Its a wonderful scene with Indy and Marcus playing off one another in gleefully telling the two government agents the story the the lost Ark. Its made increasingly creepy by the wonderful John Williams score.

Note: This YouTube clip is a ‘re-imagining’ of Raiders done in parts like a serial and redone in black and white. A neat idea.

Now fast forward to Temple of Doom. Indy, Willie and Shorty and sitting down to dinner at Pankot Palace. Dr. Jones is in discussion with Prime Minister Chattar Lal and Captain Blumburtt. It is during this conversation that you learn of the mysterious Thugee Cult and what they were responsible for. The is a cult that did horrifying, unspeakable things. This conversation should bring shivers to your spine as you learn more about what this group did and the hold they had. However you can’t follow the damn conversation because they thought it would be funnier to cut every two seconds to Willie passing out, saying she is going to throw up and being all out obnoxious by seeing people eat snakes, bugs, monkey brains and eyeballs.

Its almost as if the story is second fiddle to the laughs. And I think this is mainly why this movie fails as a whole. Lucas always likes to put the blame on the McGuffin. For those that don’t know, McGuffin is a film term made famous by Hitchcock that describes the goal of our hero. The object he is searching for. He felt the Sankara Stones weren’t a solid enough object to hold the audiences attention. But I say, if the writing is solid enough to MAKE the audience care, then the hero could be looking for a pile of mystical dino turds! Just tell me why I should care.

It also has one of my least favorite plot devices which is turning the good guy ‘bad’ because he is under some sort of spell for a short period of time. LAME!

I think what makes it all the more distressing is that there is tremendous potential in this film for it to be great. I blame Lawrence Kasdan really. He is the screenwriter responsible for Raiders as well as Empire Strikes Back. I know if he weren’t busy writing the Big Chill, he would have fixed all my issues with Temple of Doom.

Mola Ram is a tremendous villain played by Bollywood vet Amrish Puri. He was so good I wish he had more to do. The mine cart chase, the suspension bridge and the opening sequence were all wonderful action pieces. And I actually was interested in hearing a legend I might not have been as familiar with.

All in all its still and Indy film and I still had fun. But I’m actually looking to get through this quickly so that I can get to Last Crusade. The third movie I feel still inserts a bit too much forced humor, but never at the cost of the story. And they make Sallah and Brody fools when there was no indication that they were fools in the first film. But the tone and feel are much more in line with Raiders and it ranks high in my opinion.

I’ll let you know what my thoughts on part 4 are when I see it. I hope we get more 1 and 3 and less 2. Only time will tell.

this movie does have Mrs. Jergy’s favorite part of all three:

I’m feeling rather musical today. Today I offer the first single off of the new Flight of the Conchords album. For those that haven’t caught them, they are a New Zealand comedy music duo. I know music and comedy tend to come off rather, ahem, cheesy. But these gents are both talented in both music and comedy. I suggest you rent the first season at your local video store to see what I mean.

Ladies love the feel of the wheel.