JUNO

I originally wanted to post amateur movie reviews on a semi-regular basis here on the blog but I never got around to doing so. Well, I've seen a number of films lately and while I won't provide reviews for all of them, there is one that I think I can recommend without reservation and that's Juno. The plot centers around a teenage girl who is impregnated by her hapless, sweet boyfriend. For those of us who believe strongly that teens should not have sex, the basic situation of the plot raises the eyebrows (or eyebrow depending on...well, you know). I think the film, as a whole, however, portrays this decision as something which brings unneeded complication and tragedy into the lives of the main character, her "friend," and her family. As the plot unfolds, I feel that everything is brought together in a way that demonstrates the emotional sophistication and complexity of this difficult situation in a way that is both realistic and, strangely, entertaining. Indeed, this is a film that can't please people who find themselves too far to the right nor the left, something I personally aspire to in my own political views.

Juno is a film which has some flaws (is there a film that doesn't?) such as contrived dialog and over wrought costuming, not to mention the fact that at times the whole scenario is treated in a crass, vulgar way. These issues, however, are far outweighed by the humor and heartwarming theme. At the core of the story one finds a simple theme about friendship and love and although I don't think many people, especially teenagers, will necessarily walk out of the theater with this in mind, I think it does communicate something more human than most romantic comedies do. Indeed, the few young people I've spoken with about the film came away thinking of it as a sort of Napoleon Dynamite-ish film with silly characters and wacky dialog. Yes, Juno shares some elements with N.D., but it is a very different experience with very different aims. Professional critic Carina Chocano of the L.A. Times wrote, "Juno is hilarious and sweet-tempered, perceptive and surprisingly grounded. It's also a gust of fresh air, perspective-wise." I concur.

To read a plethora of reviews on the film that are far better than mine, CLICK HERE.

PEGGLE!

I kept hearing about this game Peggle which is sort of like a combo between Bust-a-Move and an old pinball machine. If you've ever played Bejeweled or Zuma then you're familiar with the whole put-three-colors-together thing. The game is made by PopCap, a company that's pretty much figured out how to make games with crack cocaine levels of addictiveness. It's primarily pushed on the PC/Mac platform but they've branched to other platforms as well. I just downloaded this for my iPod video for $5 and it was well worth it. This is the first game I've ever purchased from iTunes and it took me a while to figure out how to actually get it from iTunes onto the iPod (the trick is that within the iPod menu in iTunes you have to select "Sync Games" so that iTunes will put the games on the iPod during syncing), but once I got that figured out it was on! In fact, I think the surgeon general should require games of this nature to come with some sort of warning about not installing them on any device after 11PM because I kept saying, "Ok, just one more level!" and "All right, the next time I die..."

You can try a trial version of this for the PC HERE for free. I don't think I'd buy it for my computer necessarily, but if you have an iPod and want something to do while you're riding in the car, waiting, sitting in class, etc. it's perfect.

Injuries Abound

No, we don't beat our children thank you very much, they do it themselves. Ryan and Carter suffered injures in separate incidents. I recently caught up to them and got this short interview:

By the way, in case you don't know, Carter is my son (3), Ryan is my nephew (4), and Ella is my niece (1). Carter once suffered a pretty serious head injury when he was almost two years old so this latest head bump scared us for a second. Fortunately it wasn't serious and he was looking at himself in the mirror after just a few minutes. In fact I think the frozen bag of peas on his head bothered him more than the actual bump.

MY MUSIC Part I

*Note: When I embedded the links to the songs, I thought it would provide a streaming audio "box" which would allow you to play the tracks while remaining on this page. This, however, is not the case. Therefore, if you want to hear an excerpt of the song, click on the song's name. It will then take you to last.fm where you will then have to click on the little play icon after which you will kindly come pack to my page and keep reading (smile)!

Music, music, music...everyone loves it and it's one of the biggest cliche questions out there. You can just hear the awkward teenager asking, "So, like what's your favorite kind of music?" Of course the right answer is, "Well, I like a little bit of everything...except country."

Ok, so I think I've found a suitable tag for the genre of music you're most likely to find in my favorite playlist on my iPod:

“pseudo-indie contemporary alternative rock”

At least that's what LastFM (last.fm) said about my musical taste. In other words, soft alt-rock that's likely not cool enough for the innest of the in crowds, but that's the thing about me, I don't care about being the hippest anymore and besides I was never that hip in the first place. As a matter of fact, I want to go down in history as coining the phrase, "Being cool means not knowing what 'cool' means," or something along those lines. Perhaps, "Being cool means not caring what 'cool' means" but I don't mean you should go so far against the tide of "cool" that you are going "counter culture" because then you've gotten caught up in the fight against cool which is just as bad as trying too hard to be cool. Did I lose you there?

Of course fancy algorithms are not match for the subjective nature of musical taste and my tastes range far and wide with everything from straight up hard rock to soft jazz. A sophisticated musical palette I do not possess, but at least it's unique.

Anyhow, below I'm going to do my best to present clips of some of the music I have spinnin' in my car (Tech geek alert: remember, just like record players spin, so does the little hard-disk in the iPod, so we can say that again...unless you have a solid state HD like those found in the Nano).

The Postal Service: This Place is a Prison
For me, this song reflects the empty nature of living as a socialite with endless, meaningless parties:
The Postal Service – This Place Is a Prison

Feist: I Feel it All
The song I really love by Feist right now, however, is "Mushaboom."
Feist – I Feel It All

The Barenaked Ladies: Pinch Me
I love the down-to-earth, care free philosophizing in this song. It is both elated and melancholy, one of my favorite combinations:
Barenaked Ladies – Pinch Me (album version)

Band of Horses: The First Song
Go ahead and take a bath in the sound, it's layered on that thick. Lushes, abundant, plentiful sound.
Band of Horses – The First Song

The Police (Sting): Englishman In New York
There's just something undeniably cool about this song. I love the way Sting's older stuff is jazzy pop melt.
Sting – Englishman in New York

Steel Pulse: Chant a Pslam a Day
A reggae song that straight up fills me with a positive spirit:
Steel Pulse – Chant A Psalm (LP Version)

311

The Postal Service: Nothing Better
I hesitate to put another Postal Service track in here, but if you don't know this song and you like alt-rock, this is a must.
The Postal Service – Nothing Better



Other songs in my choice playlist:
Katmandu- Cat Stevens
When I listen to this song I'm next to Walden pond in a dark dreamscape. It's early morning and the sky is gray. The fire at my feet is barely burning and I just returned from a dangerous spiritual journey during which I found extreme resolve in my efforts to walk on the straight and narrow path.
311-Taiyed
This song resides in a special, secret compartment of my heart. It became my own during the tumultuous and often dark years of teenagehood. The lyrics are truly poetic and, I daresay, esoteric and psychedelic.
Matisyahu: King Without a Crown
One again, a positive, upbeat reggae song about spirituality and the fight against the dark side. An orthodox Jewish reggae artist, yep. By the way, the live versions of his songs are generally far superior than the LP versions.

I could go on and on. Of course these songs do not reflect any sort of "all time favorites" because then I would include songs like "Turn on Your Heart Light" by Neil Diamond, Disney songs, etc. and someday perhaps I should make that post and save it for my children to read someday so they can pipe those tunes into my cryogenic chamber.

The night is late and I must retire since I have both "bambinos" tomorrow while Sarah works. She's right, taking care of two kids all day and trying to get much of anything done is a full-time job and one that makes the impending return to work and school seem, well, not so bad.

If you enjoy this post let me know because I'd love to share more music and maybe even do some lyrical analysis of some of your and my favorite songs.

-Danny

Art...

This just popped into my mind today while relaxing in a hot, post nap bath (yes, real men bathe...believe it!):

If art is the "imitation of life," then no wonder so much of it centers around the extremes: namely pleasure and pain, and not so much on what is found in between.

Christmas morning...

Happy New Year everybody! I don't have much time to write at the moment since Sarah went to work and I have both kids (this is a lot harder than I thought). She likes to pick up some shifts when I'm off and I usually take Carter and Claire over to my folks' place anyway which is fun.

Christmas was a blast. We tried our best to keep the focus on the Savior especially for Carter who is really beginning to become more and more perceptive as each day passes. As you'll see below, he received a bicycle from Santa along with many other thoughtful gifts from family and friends.

Sarah and I tend not to spend a lot on ourselves at Christmas but this year we indulged a little and bought an in car GPS system which has us both excited. It's one of those gadgets that's both fun and practical. We picked ours up on eCost.com.

Well, we hope everyone is well. Here are a few photos I took with the new digital camera my parent's gave us:


Carter has loved to draw and paint from very early on and he's getting better every day. He's now at the stage in which people's legs grow directly out of their heads. You'll note that Carter has enhanced his mother's appearance by adding a coal train smokestack. Hey, why not?









Claire with Uncle "E." She's been into the 19th century look as of late.





Cater getting his bike for Christmas. He's already had a few crashes, but he keeps getting back on! Excuse the poor lighting, it was still rather early in the morning.

My favorite sites

I don't know how many of you have certain websites that you visit regularly, but I do. When I say "regularly" I mean daily, or almost daily. I think the sites one visits says a lot about your personality. In a way I am a bit embarrassed when I look at the list. Below you'll find a few lists, the first being THE list. Here I go:

Sites I visit daily or almost daily.

1. Gmail.com
The reason why I visit this site is obvious. I use email for work, school, and to keep in touch with friends and family. I think Gmail is by far the best email program because it keeps conversations in "threads" and provides tons of space so you can archive messages and go back to them using a built in search engine whenever you need to.

2. digg.com
Digg allows users to submit content (websites, etc.) and then the other users "digg" the story thus dictating which articles and stories "rise to the top." It divides content into various categories such as technology, science, gaming, videos, etc. so there's a little something for everyone. Digg is full of geeks and "progressives," for better or worse, and comments are cruel and witty all at the same time.

3. google.com/news
I have customized my news page so I see all the world news, etc. as well as news related to particular key terms I chose to have google aggregate news on. It's a great way to catch up on news in general as well as on topics of particular interest.

4. Joystiq.com
A blog dedicated to gaming. I keep up as much on the trends in the industry as I do on the games themselves.

5. mmajunkie.com
This is a blog about mixed martial arts which is by far my favorite sport. I love to watch it and I am going to join a jiu-jitsu gym when I have more time. I know a lot of people dislike the sport, but once you're educated in the various aspects of it I think it becomes clear that it's not that much different than other combat sports. It becomes the most interesting once you get to know the various martial arts involved, the rules, and the individual fighters.

6. mmamania.com
MMA blog


Sites I visit at least once a week:

1. wikipedia.org
2. xbox360fanboy.com
3. cnn.com
4. sherdog.com and sherdog.net (forums)
5. redlands.edu
6. costco.com
7. cnet.com
8. blogger.com
9. facebook.com
10. astralpulse.com
11. bungie.net

I need to go be a dad right now, so here's where this cataloging ends. I'd love to hear which sites you visit regularly.

A photo blog? Yes...

Since I haven't been very consistent about writing and posting here, I've decided to make this more of a photo blog. So to kick things off, I'm going to post some of the photos I found on the particular notebook computer I'm using (I say that because I have two "work" notebooks and one personal machine I use, so my files are spread out between them). So enjoy and check back for more photos which I plan on posting weekly.

-Danny

Ok, I just went through the My Pics folder on this machine and the only photos I have on here are some we recently took at the Los Angeles county fair which, if you haven't been, is a crazy, fun, strange place. Everything from fine art to deep fried Twinkies to demolition derbies are featured for the four weeks or so that it runs.


Jeff Carter, aka "Pappa" (Sarah's dad) with Carter and Ryan at the cow milking station where they demonstrate how cow milking works.

Sarah, Claire, me, Carter, Hayley, and my dad at the demo derby (Sarah left with Claire soon after this shot because of the deafening exhaust notes from the insane, Mad Maxesque cars).

Carter, me, Hayley and Ryan