Re-Awakenings

My good buddy, Scotty Ice mentioned to me at work last week that I needed to get back to blogging.  “You have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about right now, ” he added with a wry grin.  I knew what he was implying and flattering as it was, I replied, “Nah, not really.”  Turns out that I was telling the truth too.  And with all due apologies for being so coy and not very forthcoming at all, I’ll just leave it at that. 

I do however, have other stuff to talk about.  And I want to get started with the movies.  What a great summer for movie fans.  Vacations were greatly curtailed this season due to the outrageous gas prices (which will now drop until the upcoming election…don’t get me started), so Americans, being the absolute greatest people on the planet when it comes to making the most of a very bad situation, said “Screw it….let’s go see a movie”.  And for the most part, Hollywood really delivered.  They might be the biggest winners of all in this gas crunch (other than oil companies).  There was “Iron Man” and “The Hulk”, “Sex and the City”, “Get Smart” (best comedy of the summer, by the way),  “Wall-E”and “Kung Fu Panda” (for the kids…big and small),  ”Journey to the Center of the Earth”, and on and on.  Johnny Depp was nowhere to be found!  And then came “The Dark Knight”.  On pace to become one of the biggest movies of all time, this movie has already captivated a generation.  Often dark and disturbing, it made a point of showing just how low mankind can sink.  But in the end, it also gave us hope for who we are and what we can become.  And “who wudda thunk it?” we actually cried for “The Joker”, and the brilliance and promise that was the late Heath Ledger.  If you haven’t seen “The Dark Knight”, it is definitely worth the price of a ticket and a bucket of popcorn.  And then some.  I’m sure it will also be out on DVD just in time for Christmas.  Funny how those things work. 

Speaking of just in time for Christmas, the new James Bond trailer has been released and it looks awesome!  Following on the footsteps of “Casino Royale”, this second Bond installment featuring Daniel Craig as 007, looks very promising indeed.  My one complaint is the movie title…Quantum of Solace.  I know they extracted this title from one of Ian Flemming’s short stories, but come on!  As one writer put it, Quantum means piece.  Solace mean peace.  So the title literally means “Piece of Peace”.  That’s kinda out there…even for a Bond flick.  Still can’t wait to see it. 

One other movie I’m looking forward to this holiday season is a DVD release.  I saw this movie at the theatre and only went to see it because all the other movies that were playing had already started.  You couldn’t have dragged me kicking and screaming to this movie had I known that is what we were going to see.  But as it turns out, like so many other things in life, you don’t know what you might like unless you try it.  So what movie am I talking about?  Fred Clause.            Trying to give you a minute or two to get the laughter under control.        Yes, I said it….Fred Clause.  I never would have dreamed it, but this movie was great.  I’m not a big fan of the holiday movie anyway, (hasn’t been a good one since “Scrooged” with Bill Murray…and that ain’t exactly a classic), but this movie definitely caught me off guard and grabbed me.  It was funny and well done.  Just fine for the entire family.  And if the ending doesn’t grab you, then you really are a Scrooge.  So later this fall, give “Fred Clause” a try.  You may be as happily surprised as I was. 

On to Sports…

Are you as sick of hearing about Brett Favre as I am?  Enough said.

Finally, being the huge Atlanta Braves fan that I am, this season has been an unmitigated disaster.  That’s what you get when you try to field a team of old timers.  I don’t care how great they were.  The Braves single handedly proved the over-the-hill theory, “the mind is willing, but the flesh is weak”.   And to top everything else off, we lost the great Skip Caray, the announcer for the Braves for 33 years.  I can’t tell you what that man has meant to me as we both cheered for our beloved Braves.  Often called a “homer”, he never ducked the label admitting that the Braves were “his” team.  And he was often just as critical of “his” team as he was a cheerleader.   But in those golden years of the 90’s, I’ll never forget his calls of “Braves WIN!  Braves WIN!” on many a sweltering summer night.  The master of dry humor and sarcastic wit, Skip Caray will be sorely missed. 

Are you ready for some football?  I know I am….

Later,