Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Not Working On Paper and Update













The scary pirate needed to be replaced with the real thing.
Molly and I at our "spot."
Making Acorn Delights.
Oh My Osage!
Her favorite tree.
Brown County State Park.
I am seriously putting off finishing my 10 page paper on Ebonics - gots to get going!
Anyway - MN for Thanksgiving and back - saw Dan for a brew and a short, but sweet visit. Shook hands with the Subway guy. This semester has by far been the most difficult - will be glad when it is over - very soon now.
Short post - but needed an update of sorts - enjoy pictures.


Thursday, November 1, 2007

Hallowed Be Thy Ween


Sunday, October 21, 2007

Martin's Brain


It fell out as he was riding his scooter. He slammed into a tree and it rolled right out. They say he is doing better, but I do not know how - I grabbed and kept the brain. Did they put another in? Do we not need brains after all? I keep Martin's brain chilled in my freezer and check up on it twice daily. I am tempted to cut it open and reveal the memories, but I'll save that for when I am especially bored.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Dog Poop and Bread

When we take Mr. T for a walk, some combination of family members will take him nearly every evening after dinner during the week - during the weekend he goes out mid-mornings - anyway one particular night, it was just me to take him for a walk. I went to grab a baggie to pick up the poop. No baggie. Crap! I looked around, I needed something. There are those that do not pick up the poop and those that do.

I am one that will, at least 95% of the time. Let me tell you the times I do not. If, in the winter time, he poops in the middle of the street and there is snow and ice, I have been known to kick snow over the poop and walk on. He often poops in the middle of the road. His way of getting back at us freer humans, or so he thinks. He suddenly stops, hunches up, and knocks 'em down - though not like a Bison, more like a dog. Thighs a quivering, he then scampers quickly away from the scene of the crime, making room for me to come in and clean-up. When the roads are clear I always pick up the poop from the road.

If he poops in a stretch of wooded area that is not a yard belonging to a house, I will leave it. It is a relatively small stretch and I think he has only made a deposit there once or twice. He much prefers the road or a well-manicured lawn. The smoother the surface the less likely his ass will be bothered with.

I always pick up out of yards. In fact, Mr. T will sometimes go through the motions of pooping, but will not actually poop. It is strange and it makes me very guilty. As if under the pressure from a man peering out of his window with a sweaty gun in his hands, I, too, will go through the motions. Making to pick up a pile of poop that isn't there. I try to be as convincing as possible in my performance to keep the bullets off my back. I bend all the way down, swipe at the grass, collect a stick or a leaf that in some ways resembles shit, seal the baggie, scrunch up my noise as if it smells bad, and look around while giving that "look brother, I picked up dog poop, kind of a drag, but ain't that part of having a dog" - again just trying to keep under the radar - trying not to let the others know the depths of my insanity or differences in thought and priorities.

OK - so back to my lack of something to pick up the poop. There on the counter. We recently bought a new loaf of bread - there was the old loaf - down to one heel (I'll usually eat those), but the bag...Mr. T was getting uppity so I quickly grabbed the bag and out of the door I flew.

Within two blocks, Mr. T produced a dark three incher. I paused and considered. The heel of bread would be ruined so I grabbed the heel and like a mouth it grabbed Mr. T's creation. My yeasty tongs held securely my required prize. As my wrist rotated to place it in the bag - I saw that it looked like a sandwich of sorts. A strange little hot dog. Obviously the person ran out of hot dog buns and had to make do with regular bread. I stood there, in the sun, when a tap on the shoulder snapped me out of my spacey considerations.

An old man, homeless and without teeth, leathered after years of meth use, abandoned by humanity and family, asked me for some money. I was shocked, and initially terrified. There have never been homeless persons wandering around here before, plus he kind of surprised me.
I told him that I did not carry any money when I walked the dog, but I did have a delicious beef sandwich, if we would like it. He eagerly accepted and gobbled it down as he turned and disappeared in the glare of the setting sun.

I was hopeful that he would receive a good dose of crude proteins and confident, that at the very least, he would enjoy the bread.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Harry Potter Film Musings and then no more for a while to steal a little from Mixdorf

While Mixdorf took a look at the books, this post will focus on all seven movies. Yes, seven movies, though they are not complete, it is inevitable that they will be.

Year One

The director, appropriately named Chris Columbus, sets out for new territory. Never before has a series of children's fantasy books so quickly been gobbled up and popularised and ALMOST simultaneously made into movies. Never before have actors or producers been this close to the actual writing of the book. Imagine Daniel Radcliffe reading Book Seven...I do not think an actor has ever experienced what he and the other actors and producers must have while awaiting and then reading the final book - absolutely incredible.

Looking back, I do like the first film and I appreciate the touch the director gave it. Wide-eyed, wondrous - youthful adventure, and the first dive into the Potter world on screen. Going to school, friends, and adventure. Though the special effects suffered at times, especially Harry flying on a broom, the sets and lighting were beautiful - I'm just thinking how the tables in the great hall invoked both magic and a certain schoolness.

Through these discussions I am going to briefly track the diminished role of Hagrid and Minerva. Here, in the first movie, DD, Minerva, and Hagrid all seem to have an extra special connection to Harry's beginnings, M and H seem to have an extra deep conection to DD that seems to lighten as the years go by.

I like the first one for its first look at the characters and the world of Harry Potter.


Year Two

Same director but with far lesser results. The directing seemed tired and even sloppy at times, despite a few nice moments of suspense and humor. That combined with a story that, though its implications would be bigger down the road than the first movie, was basically a mirror of book one - the movie had miserable aspirations. Forcing emotion into Hagrid's return at the end was too much for me and though it may have worked better in the books, I still feel the sword and the hat and the phoenix at the end were a bit too convenient. The intensity at times was nice, but it seems the director was already checking out.

M and H still appear to have an important connection to DD, though as mentioned, Hagrid's seemed horribly out of place and forced.

As I've said before, my least favorite of the films so far.


Year Three

Better, bigger book - new director who suddenly makes the grounds of Hogwarts far hillier. Actors becoming better - though I did think Hermione's acting was poorer than Harry and Ron -but mostly this one for me was about DD. At this point it was my favorite Potter film, but this is also when I realized how much I enjoyed the original DD. The original never stood out, but after his death I realized how good he was and how this has become the

greatest tragedy facing this series of films...

The new DD drove me nuts in this film. He seemed to try to distinguish himself so much form the original that he actually distanced himself from the character he was attempting to portray. FOUL!!

M and H defintiely taking a back seat to some of the new arrivals.

Despite the DD issue, I really thought this was a good movie.


Year Four

Hermione's acting much improved and as such, the acting overall among the youngsters was very good all around. It is difficult to compare this movie to the third. I will say that H is doing stuff, but not terribly important stuff and M dances with DD - the last time any real relationship of any depth is noted in the movies.

The Goblet of Fire had some great moments, despite more bad DD. Really fun stuff as well as scary stuff - higher levels of acting that go nicely with the dramatic rise in intensity - that is so quickly undermined right at the very end of the film.

However, this film committs a very great crime. No Dursleys. How could they skip that? Major offense that will forever taint this film.

Year Five

I have only seen it once and everybody and their mother knows the ole longest book, shortest movie equation - as I have said - a very clever film and I cannot wait to see it again. And yes, DD was better.

Without a doubt H and M are dropping out. Sure, in the book Hagrid goes off to the giants and M all along, I suspect keeps the school running, but the DEEP connection that I sensed between those three is disappearing, and fast.

Movie Six

The potential for a "knock your socks off" kind of movie is dangerously high. Fun, high drama, plot development. My concern is, given what we know, I will be interested to witness the death of DD and how Snape is handled. How amazing would it have been, if like The Empire Strikes Back - we as an audience had no clue - anyway - such a great mix of the best Potter Elements in a tighter package should provide for a master film.


Movie Seven

I hope the epilogue is not attempted. There is so much action in this one that I doubt even Bruce Willis could handle it, however, my one concern is the ending. After the book has settled for a bit, and I need to read it again, the ending has to an extent that feel when, for example, all the SImpson characters come out to overthrow the rip - off artist who strode into town to take advantabge of the townsfolk - I hope it doesn't devolve into Death Eaters bumping into each other and tripping while the "townsfolks" are taunting Voldemort at the end, perhaps even a shot of a first year saying, "yeah!" I wonder about a Simpson's moment at the end of the movie. I think the Obi Wan moment could be handled well - though again that'll be up to DD - maybe he will have been recast by then.

By book seven we learn that DD doesn't really talk to too many people, yet M and H never seem hurt by this, as if they have accepted it long ago - I wanted to read a little more about DD M and H - thinking that they had a special connection of sorts - mostly it seems that they were people whom DD trusted, at least to a point.

Anybody like the dementors from Film five better than film three?

Thursday, August 9, 2007


"Go and embrace your liberty and see what wonderful things come of it” - Louisa May Alcott, Little Women