Steve Martin, Martin Short, Chevy Chase

I worked in a video store when I was 18. One day a 10 year-old hispanic child walked in with his grandmother. They walked up to the counter. He translated:

Excuse me, sir, do you have The Three Friends?

You mean The Three Amigos?

Yes, The Three Friends. Do you have it?

The Three Amigos? Yes, we have it.

Right, The Three Friends. You have it?

Yes. It's called The Three Amigos.

The Three Friends?

(Pause)

Yes, we have The Three Friends. It's in the comedy section.

ItBroke

Mostofmyblogging isdone from a littlelaptopthatIkeep in thelivingroom. Mysonpulled offthespacebar. Iputit back, butit only workspart of thetime.

Frustrating.

Yes, That Is A Plane In His Yard

I have a blog-friend who goes by the handle "Misfit in Paradise". She has a couple of blogs, one of which is a photo blog of the area around where she lives. I find it very cool and interesting. As I am driving around delivering pizza, I notice all the things I would like to take pictures of and share in the same way. Usually I don't have the time...pizzas to deliver and all!! Tonight, though, there was one photo op I couldn't pass up. Below is the story...

-----

I knocked on the door of the house. A gentlemen answered and asked for the total. I told him. We exchanged money for pizza. Then I asked the question.

"Did you know that your neighbor had a plane in his front yard?"

"Yeah...nice guy...a little eccentric...but nice."

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Three Movies

In the past month or so, I've seen three movies at the theater. That's unusual because I typically see one, or maybe two movies a year in the theater. So for your enjoyment, and my amusement, I thought I would give you the rundown on them.

-----

Watchmen (R)

Starring:
A bunch of people that you've probably never heard of. Except for the guy that plays Rorsach. He's played by the same guy that played Kelly, the cigarette smoking, trash talking, long-ball hitting, punk kid from The Bad News Bears.

Based upon what is arguably the best comic ever written/drawn, Watchmen was an interesting movie. It's got costumed heroes, a gratuitous sex scene, and multiple compound fractures. What's not to like? (Please note the sarcasm.) Visually, it's a very powerful movie. The acting is good, and the story holds pretty true to the original. However, it almost feels more like a crime noir than a superhero movie.

Final Verdict: If you like superheroes or are a fan of the comic, you ought to check it out. Otherwise, not so much.

-----

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (PG-13)

Starring:
Wolverine/Logan - Hugh Jackman
Deadpool/Wade Wilson - Ryan Reynolds, the guy from Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place
Victor Creed/Sabretooth - Liev Schreiber, the Manchurian Candidate, etc.
Chris Bradley/Bolt - Dominic Monaghan, Merry from the Lord of the Rings; Charlie from Lost
Some other mutants/some other actors

If you are a die-hard comic fan, be aware that it does stray some from the original storyline. If you're not, then you are probably saying to yourself, "Comics have 'storylines'? Weird."

Final Verdict: Did you like the X-Men movies? Then you'll probably like this. Just remember, if you are thinking of taking a youngster, more Wolverine = more stabbing.

-----

Star Trek (PG-13)

Starring:
James T. Kirk - some guy I've never heard of...he does a good job though
Leonard "Bones" McCoy - Eomer, the young horse dude from the Lord of the Rings
Scotty - Shaun of the Dead
Spock - Siler from Heroes
Uhuru - the Voodoo lady from Pirates of the Caribbean
Sulu - Harold and Kumar...he's Harold
Chekov - never seen him
the Villain - Black Hawk Down, the Hulk in the first Hulk
Captain Pike - President Kennedy in 13 Days
Spock's mom - Wynona Rider
Kirk's mom - the girl on House that just married the Australian guy

A "red shirt" dies. All the catch phrases are worked in. F/X done by ILM. As my friend Jeff said, Star Trek brought to you by Star Wars. On top of creating a pretty good ride of a movie, they also manage to reboot the entire Star Trek universe, which opens up all kinds of future movies.

I think this movie would appeal to anyone that even somewhat likes sci-fi. My friend Tom said, "I really liked it, but there was just something..." After thinking about it, I decided that it was the fact that in all the other Star Trek movies, I came into the movie knowing the actors as the characters. This time I had to adjust to seeing each person in their new role. Not bad, just different.

Final Verdict: A really good movie. I got to see it at an IMAX, which was cool. If you have the opportunity and you like sci-fi, give it a try. I think you'll like it.

-----

If you're still with me at this point, thanks! One final (somewhat obvious) observation. All three of these movies have strong sci-fi elements. I guess this is the age when geeks do rule. Coming up this summer: Transformers and Terminator. More sci-fi!

To My Mom

If you've read my blog before, you've probably seen some posts about my dad and the influence he has had in my life. But, of course, Dad was only half the equation while I was growing up.

I've mentioned my mom in a few posts, but without further ado, here's some additional thoughts and comments about my mom.

• The last time I was home for Thanksgiving there were 40 people at my Mom's house for lunch. I'm only related to 12 of them.
  
• My Mom once dressed up as a werewolf for my childhood Halloween party.
• My Mom and her friend spent hours creating handmade outfits for my sister's Barbie dolls. My sister found the box before Christmas.
• Mom made me a Ultraman costume out of paper-mache when I was a kid.
• She kept me out of school one day just to take me fishing.
• Likes to listen to Willie Nelson, Freddie Fender, and Metallica.
  
• Still likes to hear me play Greensleeves on the trumpet.
• Has her concealed handgun permit.
  
• She's an award winning cook.
• She has a HUGE Santa Claus collection that takes over the house every year at Christmas.
• She loves her family (and friends that she treats like family).
• Everyone is welcome in her house. My mother has never met a stranger, and really taught me how to love people.

I could go on and on, but for now I'm just going to say Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

Labels? Schmabels!

Just to clarify, this is not the same post my good friend Jeff wrote entitled "Label Schmabel". I mean, it's obviously not exactly the same. My title is plural and has punctation. You ought to take a few minutes and read his when you have a chance.

My thoughts aren't crystal clear on this subject yet, but I thought writing about it might help. So, here goes.

If you've ever watched The Breakfast Club, a movie about a group of high school kids that spend a day in Saturday detention, you know it deals with stereotypes. At the start of the movie, their judgemental supervising teacher gives them an assignment to write an essay about who they think they are. At the end of the movie, you hear the essay read as a voice over.

Dear Mr. Vernon,

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...

In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...

...and an athlete...
...and a basket case...
...a princess...
...and a criminal...

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

Very interesting, huh? Like Mr. Vernon in the movie, we all, in general, define people by the "groups" that they belong to. A few examples immediately come to mind:

teacher
Texan
musician
liberal
adult
environmentalist
biker
geek
Christian
professional
father

Whether it is because of a person's profession, gender, political leaning, age, or socioeconomic class, we all tend to view people through those stereotypes/labels/paradigms. But, also like in the movie, the reality is that no one is only one of those things, or a perfect representation of any particular group.

You might ask, "Aaron, if a movie from the 80's has already explored all this, why are you re-hashing it?"

I might answer, "I don't know." But I won't. Instead I'll answer by saying that the thing I wanted to remind myself (and you, if you are reading this) is that when we let labels define people, we ascribe faults and strengths to people that they may or may not have. I have one friend who always says (only half-jokingly) that anybody with dreadlocks smokes dope.

When I met my wife in college, I volunteered to tutor her in trigonometry. I'm a big guy, and in college I was in (much) better shape. My (future) wife's response internally to my offer was, "How can he tutor me in trig? He's just a big dumb jock."

You know what they say...don't judge a book by its cover. (But you may not know what I say...don't judge a book by its movie. )

Though I may have looked it, I, of course, am not a big dumb jock.

What do you think people might assume about you? Who do you tend to "pre-judge"? It's worth thinking about.

There you have it...told you I didn't have my thoughts organized very well on this.

I've Said It Before

Kiefer Sutherland is possibly in a little bit of trouble.

The bizarre case took place at a costume gala afterparty at New York's SubMercer bar, where Sutherland reportedly saw fashion designer Jack McCollough knock over Brooke Shields. When Sutherland asked the Proenza Schouler designer to apologize and was pushed instead, Sutherland reportedly headbutted McCollough, breaking his nose.

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times:

Don't mess with Jack Bauer.

A Fun Little Task

My son loves the movie Cars, so the other day when I was at Kroger picking up a few things I bought a Cars book for him. It was a very cool book. It was a pop-up book that had pop-up cars that popped out. AND, more importantly, it had a fold out racetrack in the back.

I knew the pop-up pop-out cars wouldn't last long, but I wasn't too worried. He has Hot Wheels that he prefers to play with anyway. But the racetrack was a different story. I didn't want that to get destroyed because he was having such fun with it.

I like to build stuff. I think it's fun. So I got the bright idea of making the racetrack into a table. My mom has a little table that's less than a foot high that she always pulls out for kids to play blocks on, etc. I thought that something along those lines would be perfect for this.

So I built a little table, took the map out of the back of the book, and mounted it on the table under plexiglass. Thanks Home Depot. It sits about 6 inches tall and measures about 18" X 30".

Cheryl tells me he played with it all day!

Fun for me and for him.