Movie Review: Aladdin

At the start of the weekend Sal said to me, "hey daddy are you available to see Aladdin on Monday?" I was all like, "Shit I don't know ask my secretary, my schedule does book up early!" Actually not really, My schedule is pretty wide open these days now that I've graduated and that I'm down to the last 14 days of school.  However, that was super cute the way that she asked me if we could go see a movie. I love that she likes to go to the movies, because that is something that Becky and I are really into. Like, we need more friends who are as into movies as we are, it would make the Oscar season so much more interesting.

The disappointing side of things was that Sal wanted to see the new Aladdin.  I had absolutely no interest in seeing this. I'm not really into the whole, "let's make all these old animated movies into live action movies." On that thread, I also don't think that the new Lion King is a live action movie, it's just a CGI animated movie, which is no different than what the original Lion King. It just seems to me that this is a way that Disney can try and squeeze more money out of audiences without having to do much work. I mean, they recycle the entire script and story, do they really need to pay script writers?

As it turns out, this was basically the same movie as the animated one.  They did the thing where they decided to try and update some of the music to make it more modern. They also updated a few of the lines here and there for some reason. For example, in the Prince Ali song they decided to say that the princess was "hot" instead of "a sight lovely to see" and I don't think it really worked well.  There were a few things that I don't think worked well, the biggest being Jafar.  He wasn't really intimidating at all, even when he was this big scary sorcerer. Also, Will Smith was ok as the Genie, however since it wasn't Robin Williams, the character was really toned down, which makes sense. However, a lot of the humor of the original was lost because of that. I mean, there's not much that can be done about that at all. They also had some terrible new additions that didn't really fit, specifically the new songs that they had for Jasmine. I liked the direction that they took Jasmine in, she was like she was in the animated movie, but they had her a little more interested in taking over for her father than before. She had that as her specific goal, which I thought worked well.

There were some other high points of the movie. The movie had some good choreography, which I think really came out the most in the final portion of the movie right before the credits.  A lot of people also probably will be glad that they used unknowns who were culturally matched rather than white washing it. I think the most true to the original was the magic carpet, who basically had the same personality. They also had some nice sweeping shots of deserts and mountains, which were very lovely. So, that was nice.

It was an ok movie. Sal really loved it, and she was super cute during the entire thing. She adjusted the recliner, at a ton of popcorn and smiled and laughed.  She reached over and held my hand for a bit while laying her head down on Becky's arm, then she changed and put her head on me. It was super cute.  She also got a real kick out of the rap song at the end where they mentioned DJ Khaled because yesterday she had Logan help her write her own rap song that started  with DJ Kahled.  When she heard it her eyes got really big and she said, "JUST LIKE IN MY SONG!"

Overall, it wasn't the worst move that I've ever seen, however it was also not anything special. It was entertaining enough, but I wouldn't go out of your way to see it. I give Aladdin a "Wait For Netflix" rating.

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Took a group of my students to the Holocaust center for a guided tour. It was an excellent experience as usual. They got a rail car a few years back for their lobby.

Hibernation

I've been done with classes for a little over a month, but I've had a hard time doing all that much other than just watching the backlog of television on the TiVo.  I have a bunch of stuff that I know that I should get started working on, or that I should do more than just sit around watching tv, but at the same time I also just didn't feel like doing anything else at all.  This happens usually at the end of a semester where I just need some time to decompress.

The problem is that I'm having a hard time starting the engines up again. The fire has gone out because I don't have so much to get done, and now I don't have much to really keep me motivated, and so I've been sitting around watching a bunch of television. Part of me finds that totally boring and a waste of time, but then another part of me doesn't really see much of anything else to do, or anything else worth doing. Like, I could organize my photos, or I could work on some video stuff, but then again who cares? I'm not sure I really care, and I'm not really doing it for anyone else.  So really, is it any better than sitting on the couch watching television?

I guess it's kind of like when you have been sleeping for a while and then your alarm goes off and you hit snooze, but then you finally have to drag yourself out of bed and you end up feeling all groggy.  My hibernation has made me groggy.

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Brought to you by Trump's trade war.

Who Do You Think You Are

One of my projects for this summer is to do some work on our family history.  My biggest goal is that I want to record some conversations with family members (particularly my grandma) to discuss family history.  I want stories of life as a child in the 1940s, things about my great grandparents, what life was like.  Just basically the stories of the past that either I don't know, or that I've heard in passing, but want to record down so that I have them for the future.  My uncle did this with my great grandma back in the 1970s, however the technology wasn't great so the quality is not every good at all.  It's hard to hear, and I don't have the expertise to try and clean it up so that it's clean and audible.  However, being able to simply hear her voice again after 25 year since she passed is a valuable thing to have. I 'm sure Sal would love to have audio of "gram-gram" when she's my age.

As a historian I have become increasingly interested in recording oral histories before it's too late. I've actually had that tragedy with my grandparents on my father's side.  Part of that had to do with the fact that we were never close to them given the way things turned out with them.  I blame my parents for that one.  Though, at the same time I'm not sure how much they'd really tell of their histories.  They were always cagey about things. I mean, I kind of get that with my grandpa because he was in the war and he was part of a group that had a real rough time in Burma.  In fact, it was such a terrible situation that when it ended they were released from the army and didn't have to ever serve again and were all awarded the Bronze Star.  I recall only once that he talked about it, and even then it was just showing me his medals without any real details.

Either way, with that side of the family gone I don't really have that link anymore so I won't ever be able to investigate the experiences that they had.  The same is true of my grandpa on my mom's side who is also gone.  He told me a few stories, like the time that they were on the ship back from France (this was during Korea) and that they had horse for dinner.  He said it tasted fine.  Though, that's about the only story that I can think of that he ever told me about things. My gran seems to be the one that has all the stories, and will just breakout with some strange story that you've never heard before while you're watching TV and she's doing the dishes.  One time I was watching the Price is Right and she was doing dishes and just says, "You know I could have married a pilot from the RAF, but I married your grandpa instead!"  Or one time after we went to the Grand Canyon and sent her a post card she pulls out this post card some guy sent her from the Grand Canyon that she'd been hanging on to all these years.

These are some crazy stories, and I'd like to get some of them.

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I always love a visit to the greenhouse! 

Giant Squid Of Rage

So, I haven't addressed politics in quite a while because lately it makes me want to burn down the entire world.  The latest in the long line of fuckery is the Mueller Report, Trump trying to exert executive privilege, Barr being an extra dick, and Don Jr. being a total twatwaffle.  I really don't know that I can take it because it physically pisses me off.  It puts me in a terrible mood, and makes me feel like there are no ways to get out of the mess that we are in.  There have been terrible situations like this in the past where we have gone down these terrible paths, where situations were even more polarized, but often when it got so bad the only thing that transformed the situation was a massive upheaval.  For example take the Civil War. The only thing that was able to reset the political situation was to literally tear it down and rebuild it following the war.  I worry that the only way that we'll be able to get to a reasonable place is to go through some sort of similar situation.  The problem is that we don't really want to go through something like that.

Perhaps though the issue is that we just have to get to the point where younger people are able to take over and return reason to the situation.  The problem is will we make it that far?  People think it's hyperbole when we talk about the existential threat of Trump and his administration, however they are working faster than ever at eroding the foundations of democratic liberalism.  Is that something that we can come back from?  I mean, let's say that he is defeated in 2020, however has not been held accountable for his alleged crimes.  If he were charged after being out of office, rather than defending their country and being reasonable the Republicans will use it to score political points against Democrats.  They will not work in a bipartisan way to protect the nation and the constitution. Instead they will put party first, which is what they've been doing for some time now.

I'm a hardcore Democrat.  I'm a progressive who wants major change in the nation to make it more democratic, more fair, and more equitable.  However, I'm an American first.  If there were a credible accusation against a Democratic president, I would support it being investigated, and if found guilty I would support the consequences because maintaining the nation's institutions should come first. I'm not optimistic about where things are going.  The Executive branch seems to have metastasized beyond their constitutional area, and Congress needs to reassert their authority as a check on their COEQUAL branches of government. I hope things work out, but I'm not feeling great about the future, even if Trump is defeated.  Every day he is changing the norm and I don't know if there is going back from the cliff that he has thrown us over.

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Aw, man! Who gave them a convertible??? 

That's A New One

A friend recently posted a picture from 20 years ago at the honors convocation for high school graduation.  It was a photo of the four seniors who were involved in theatre.  We were up on stage in our cap and gowns and we had faces that were not in any way amused.  I have no memory of this event, and I don't know what was being said, but I'm sure that our director was probably talking.  That would certainly explain the face that we all had on.  Up until this photo was posted, I had never seen this picture before, and it was kind of wild to see photos of myself that I didn't own.

I've often wondered how many people have photos of me that I have not ever seen.  I'm sure there are tons of people from Drama who were taking photos of groups, or doing backstage stuff that I have never seen.  I know that my close friends shared photos, but there were people who were not in my main group that I'm sure have photos that I'm in that are just out there sitting in boxes.  I'd really love to see those photos, but I imagine that it's not something that I'll ever see.  However, it also makes me think about all the times that I've been in public spaces and people have been taking photos that I'm in the background of.  For example the ferry to Liberty Island, or walking down Michigan Ave in Chicago, or even the numerous visits to Disney World.  I'm sure I'm probably in the background of hundreds of photos that I'll never see.

I imagine there there are a fair few where I look like total ass and it's probably a family joke about the weird-o in the background of that one good picture they got on their family trip. 

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At first glance I really didn't understand what was going on with this camel, like, does it have eight legs.  Oh wait, I see it, those are just the split in the toes?  Student art is fun.

Get Perspective

It's funny how two people can experience the same thing and have such different perspectives on it from one another.  I was talking with a friend and we were discussing Drama Awards Night from 1999. This was the annual event where those involved in theatre were given awards for their participation. There was literally a participation certificate, which is kind of sad, but hey, it was the 90s.  That's what everyone is always complaining about with "millennials" right? We all just got awards for showing up? (Disclaimer, depending I'm not always included with the millennial generation depending on who is discussing the range of dates that it covers.) I mean there were other awards that were given out, and "scholarships" for the seniors.  I think I got $20, and the top one was maybe a couple hundred.

When talking about it I think I had a neutral or meh kind of feeling about it.  I got dragged onto stage to do this skit with my friend Jeff.  Looking back it was somewhat racially insensitive as we were doing impressions making fun of President Bush (HW not W), and so we decided to do a switch-a-roo and have the Japanese Prime Minister puke on HW instead of the other way around.  Therefor there was a Japanese impression that today would probably frowned upon.  I also didn't love awards night because it was the last event of the year, and so I didn't have the outlet to see my friends, to work on things, and to hang out.  My friend, however, looked back on it and said it was like the best night of the year.  That really surprised me because I didn't think of it that way. I mean, I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was the highlight of the year like my friend did.

It's interesting how there's such a different view of the same event.  In both cases we both liked being with the group, we both had a good time, and neither of us have negative feelings about the experience, and yet we have placed such different assessments of the same thing.  I mean, thinking about this is pretty obvious that people have differences in opinions on things like this.  It's not shocking or anything, but it is interesting to have such a diverging opinion on something like this.  I mean, it's like having massively diverging opinions on a meal at McDonalds.  It's solidly mediocre, so it seems strange that someone might be like, "meh" and someone else be like, "OMG YES!" about it.  Sometimes I think a lot of it is also based on what we choose to focus on.  For me, I look back and feel uncomfortable about being pulled on stage and being in front of everyone to perform like a trained monkey, where as my friend was able to just experience the event and enjoy it.

Perspective is a tricky thing, and it's important to remember that others have different perspectives and different reasons for experiencing things differently than other people.  Your world veiw and your life experience is not standardized, and other do not just experience the world exactly as you do. You shouldn't expect others to see thing things the way you do.  You shouldn't expect them to value the same thing at the same way that you do.  Politically we expect a lot of that, especially when discussing the issues of minority segments of the population.  Just because a social majority of people experience something one way, doesn't mean that others do also.  In fact, they may have a more negative view about things that you have no negative view on, and it's important to understand why that is and where they are coming from.  Seeking to understand others and letting them experience things the way they do without being a dick about it is important. You can't make it about you because you feel one way about it and someone has had different experiences and doesn't feel the same. I think a perfect example is kneeling during the national anthem.  I think someone standing probably has reasons why they think it's right. Likewise, someone kneeling has valid reasons for wanting to do this.  However, many make it into a personal issue, which makes no sense and doesn't help anyone understand the situation or the perspective of others.

Perspective is important, and understanding the viewpoint of others is helpful in communication with each other.  We should probably be better about paying attention to that.

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Just enjoying some breakfast.

Is It Dinner Time?

A while back we instituted Sunday night dinners. We started it shortly after the death of my Aunt Dean.  Since my grandma was Aunt Dean's primary care giver, she couldn't really get out of the house too often.  Once she was gone we didn't really want my grandma to be alone all the time, so we figured a regular standing dinner would be a good way to kind of build family expectations. In fact, I read an article about how this was actually a great thing to set up a regular responsibility where everyone was expected to be somewhere, and expected to spend time together as a family. The article went on to say that this sort of thing builds good relationships and a feeling of belonging among families to that do this.  It also coincided with Jasmine moving out and all the way up to Farmington Hills. All in all it was a good idea to start setting up regular times to be together as we were starting to move away from each other.

We're now a bit over a year in and I have to say that I'm very pleased with how it is going.  There are a few too many weeks where people don't show up, and that's disappointing.  However, generally speaking it's been great to have a specific time set aside for us to get together as a family. We get to talk about our weeks, what's going on in life, and just share a meal.  I don't think people realize what a big deal it is to do that.  When Jasmine first moved in we had dinner every single night, and sometimes her friends would stop by to eat with us.  Many of them commented on how we ate dinner together, and were surprised that it was an every night kind of thing.  Dining brings you closer together, and it's an important part of life.  We still do dinner every night with Sal.  The TV has to be off and we talk about our day.  Sal actually loves asking, "How was your day." She then comments on you response, which is adorable.

Well, it seems that our Sunday night dinner is expanding.  Jenna will be joining them since she's making the move from Chicago to Michigan.  Jasmine also has asked to expand and include one of her roommates Tyler, who she feels would enjoy being part of the family.  I guess our plaque "Berry's Home For Wayward Souls" continues to be valid as we expand our family dinner.  I will say that Sunday dinner has become one of my favorite nights of the week. I mean, I love routine, so that's always a plus, but it's nice to have the family together and feel like a larger group rather than just a isolated fractured family.

I highly recommend family dinners, definitely would recommend.  I think we need to do a similar thing with friends like every other month or something where everyone is expected to come and bring a dish and we just all eat together.  Routine makes it easier, and expectations make it more likely to be attended.  If I institute a friend potluck I'll let you know how it goes.

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I don't know who this baby is, we just met.  What I do know is that he's a total douche.

Three Ran

Becky was busy today so we headed over to my Gran's house.  It actually worked out well because today happened to be the running of the Kentucky Derby, something that my Gran is super in to.  She's a fan of the Derby, and I think part of it is because she's from Kentucky originally, though they did move away from Kentucky when she wasn't that old.  However, she loves it, and over the past few years due to coincidence we happened to be visiting her on the days that the Derby was being run.  However, this year I knew it was coming up, and I knew that Becky was going to be gone and decided that we should go and spend the afternoon/evening with my gran and watch the Derby with her.  So we ordered some pizza and headed over. 

There was actually a bit of a hiccup with the pizza because they messed up and looked at the billing address instead of the delivery address and were at my house instead of my Gran knocking on the door with the dog barking at him.  They figured it out and eventually got the pizza to us. The race itself was actually pretty exciting because the favorite to win, in fact won.  However, there was basically a jockey foul, and so the horse was disqualified and did not win the race.  This was actually quite a big deal because that has never happened before in the history of the Kentucky Derby.  So I guess we got to see some history.

I personally am not invested in horse races, and I know that there are issues with the "sport" because many horses are pushed too hard and they end up injured and dead because of it.  However, it is a nice thing that Sal and I can share with my gran, and that she doesn't have to just watch it alone. It sucks having an interest that you can't really share with anyone. I have that issue with Anime, where I don't really have any friends that are into it so I'm pretty much on my own without anyone to share the experience with.

It also makes me a little annoyed with my family because they know how much she likes it and they offered to take her to the Derby for Christmas one year, but it never happened. I know part of that is my Gran being weird about going anywhere, but also I don't feel like there was much follow through on it because it was really expensive. There are a few things that my gran is into, basically the Derby and the Grand Canyon. I wish that I could convince her to go do those two things. I mean, you only live once, so why not do things that you love? Go see the race. Go see the canyon.  It's actually kind of frustrating because she would be all into it until it actually got down to planning it then she'd back out at the last minute.  I mean, ultimately it's her loss, but still it's sad.

The upside is that we got to watch the Derby together and had some quality family time.

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Sal loves cheese bread, and Gram-Gram's house, so cheese bread at Gram-Gram's was a big win.

Talk About A Shit Show!

As I've finished up my photo project, and I'm starting to organize and tag photos for cataloging purposes there is one thing that generally jumps out at me, and that is what a bunch a shitty sets we had. We did so many shows, but so many of the sets were just so crappy.  Like there were a few the first few years of the program that were pretty good, but I think Mr. Manning started to be less involved, and as his involvement decreased the quality of the sets went down.  He was a great teacher and also an excellent artists, and a few days ago he passed away.  I never had him for class, but he was always nice when he was working on sets. He also did a lot to try and get my sister to go to school for art, sadly it didn't work out that way.

The problem with sets I think mostly was that most people don't have all the skills they need to construct as well as paint sets.  Though, part of the problem was also the design by lieutenant Ass Hat, but paint was also an issue.  I mean, The Music Man and 1984 had decent sets.  Cinderella was rather sad, mostly due to a flawed an unattainable concept, but then David and Lisa is just a nightmare of nonsense.

Now, sets are a hard thing to figure out and execute, especially when you don't have the expertise to get things down.  However, we always had the situation of being too damn literal.  I mean, we once had to build a stage on the stage because the actors had to put on a play.  At the same time it's remarkable that the concept for 1984 was so solid and well executed.  It was eerie, it was unsettling, the idea of always being watched was fantastic.  The platforms out into the auditorium was not good, and I wonder how it wasn't shut down other than the 1900s were a different time. But, with such a great concept, it almost is like that it was probably lifted from somewhere else.

The shows I've done we've been limited in sets, but I feel like we did a decent job.  The Odd Couple had a single set, and I feel like it was well done.  Earnest we were limited so we didn't bother with much set, just hints for things like a patio. Our Shakespeare in the park was probably the weakest of them because they heavily relied on paint, and sometimes it was difficult, but even so we didn't try to over do it.  We didn't build a stage to haul around, we didn't take it too literally and again just hinted at what we were going for (and mostly we just needed to create an off stage area for entrances and exits.

Sets are hard, but these pictures are just sad.

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We went out for dinner in Depot Town, and I just want to know why people are leaving their cocks out in the windows for all to see?!?

Punch It, Chewy!

Today as I was headed off to record the Pod cast, I saw on Twitter that it was announced that Peter Mayhew had passed away. The post stated that he'd actually died on Tuesday, but they were just now announcing it today. For those who aren't quite sure, Mayhew was the actor who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars films.  We actually got a chance to see him live in 2013. For Jasmine's graduation trip we took her to Disney World, and we happened to be down there during the Star Wars weekends.  There were a lot of extra fun things, including storm troopers patrolling all over Hollywood Studios. Around midday they had their parade, and it included actors from the films, and the day we happened to be there they had Peter Mayhew and Billie Dee Williams as their parade guests. I remember Mayhew was using a cane, and Williams was wearing this awful hat and hideous Bermuda shirt, but I digress.  Another interesting thing was that at the end of the day they had this Star Wars dance off, where actors in full costumes came out for a big dance party.  Apparently they'd been doing it for years, and the year we were there was actually the last year that they were going to do one, so it was cool that we got to see it.  Actually, everyone though it was going to be lame, so Tori and I stayed to watch, while it was a bit goofy, it was also a lot of fun.




Actor deaths don't usually bother me too much, it's sad and a shame, but it's just part of life.  I think the only actor that really hit me was when Robin Williams committed suicide. I remember I actually cried because it was just so sad that someone so brilliant and who brought joy to so many was suffering so badly that he took his life. At the same time it's as you get older you start seeing more and more of these iconic figures pass on and are no longer with us, and parts of childhood are lost. I'm sure younger people will have the same feelings when friggin' Justin Beiber dies, but since I'm old I can complain about how kids these days like a bunch of dipshits. 


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Luna just wants to cuddle. The problem is that she never feels like she is close enough to you no matter how close she is to you.  I think she'd be totally happy to like climb up your butt with only her head sticking out. Even that may not be close enough.

Movie Review: Avengers Endgame

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

Ok, so if you are one that is not into hearing spoilers about the movie then I suggest stopping right now and going elsewhere. I will discuss plot points in the movie and if that's not something you want to hear about because you haven't seen it yet then go see the movie and come back. Or just skip this one and don't read it. You may be saying: this is getting repetitive, why is this so repetitive, I get it I don't want to hear spoilers so I'm going to go away. Or maybe you don't want to go away and you're just waiting for me to get to the point. Well to be honest, the thing is that I'm just typing a bunch so that you don't accidentally get spoiled because at this point you'd probably have to scroll down to see the text so I don't imagine you can be accidentally spoiled.

Ok, so Avenger Endgame is the second part that started with Infinity War. As I've mentioned before, I didn't really love Infinity War. Something about the story line made it seem to messy. Perhaps it was trying to do too much by attempting to unify so many different story lines. Also leading into it the Avengers are fractured they are at odds with each other, so like I said it really is a messy situation going into it. They also have this insanely powerful enemy who seems nearly impossible to beat. I mean, even Dr. Strange seems to feel that out of millions of possible futures there is only one way that they win. So first of all, that seems mathematically wrong because surely there's more than one way for them to win. So going into this, I wasn't overly enthusiastic to see it. Like, I was happy to get to the movies, and I wanted to see how it ended, and I wanted to get to it before I got spoiled (though one of my dick students and NPR kind of spilled the beans on the whole Black Widow and Tony Stark ending).

In terms of a movie, it was rather predictable. Obviously, you expect the good guys to win, but how they win and plot points along the way were very predictable.  There were a few times that I turned to Becky and made a comment that turned out to be accurate. I also had issues with the time travel aspect of the movie, which seems to me opened far more plot holes than the problems that it solved. For example, if Black Widow and Hawkeye went to get the Soul stone, then that means Gamora didn't die when Thanos got it.  Though even more specifically, when Thanos from the past goes to the future and is killed there, then he was never in the past to get the Soul Stone, thus wouldn't there be two Gamoras? Also, how could Steve Rogers go to the past and lived his entire life knowing that Hydra had infiltrated shield, and done nothing about it? Now, I know they try to make this make sense by claiming that if they put the stones back all these alternative timelines never happened, but that doesn't make sense either, because if that was the case then Thanos and crew arriving would be a an alternate timeline, thus by returning the stones then they would never have happened, and then why would Avengers headquarters still be destroyed. Shouldn't that have never happened? Thus, wouldn't Tony Stark still be alive. The rule here are convoluted and really don't make sense.

So, overall, I think the movie was solidly meh.  I'd give it a "matinee" rating, because it's a big Hollywood movie, which are usually better in large screen formats. But overall, I wasn't blown away by any of it and mostly that rating is for graphics rather than plot.  The one thing that did amuse me the entire time was every time Thor was on screen with his absurd body.  Hilarious.

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Luna just wants to cuddle. The problem is that she never feels like she is close enough to you no matter how close she is to you.  I think she'd be totally happy to like climb up your butt with only her head sticking out. Even that may not be close enough.