More Friday Family Blogging

This one represents a little PhotoShop magic.  It's Ben in Prague, and I've attempted to make it look like he had entered some kind of storybook land. Did it work?

Friday Family Blogging

Helen, Natalie, Raechelle, and Nik, visiting Gramma's house a couple of years back.

Friday Philosophy

I second this notion expressed by the Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774):

"The first time I read an excellent book, it is to 

me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I 

read a book over I have perused before, it 

resembles the meeting with an old one."

Great Song

The Mekons have long been one of my favorite bands, partly for defying expectations at every turn.  Here's one of their best tunes, sung by the incomparable Sally Timms:

Three Pictures of Bannack

Here are three pictures I took earlier this week in Bannack.  I was going for ghostly effects (since the place is, after all, a ghost town) and think I got pretty close with these three shots.

The subjects may look familiar from previous postings (I find myself drawn to the wreck above every time I visit, for example), but I think my technique is evolving. I hope so anyway.

Toonerville Thursday

As always, fascinating doings round about Toonerville way.  I wish I had been there in person to see these events.

A Thought for Thursday

This is a little dark, but then it does come from a Russian, namely novelist Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883):

"Nature cares nothing for our logic, our human logic; 

she has her own, which we do not recognize and do not 

acknowledge until we are crunched under its wheel."

Cool Song

Something new from some real rock'n'roll veterans, Redd Kross.  Sounds as good to me as their classic stuff of twenty odd years ago...

This Week's Top Five List

I don't think this requires any introduction.  Suffice to say, this is the Top Five List presented this past Sunday on Dr. John's Record Shelf:

A Tuesday Thought

I don't know but that I agree with this idea from Leon Trotsky (1879-1940):

"Life is not an easy matter.... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness." 

Power Pop Classic

Shoes hail from Chicago, and I can hear some strains of the New Colony Six (an earlier Windy City band) in their work, though the former are hardly aping the latter.  Here's one of Shoes' best (to my ears anyway):

Summer Movie Roundup #3

I've fallen so far behind on writing about the movies I've seen in the last six months, that it seems pointless to think I can deliver full posts on each, as had been my habit in the past. So instead I'll just offer a few brief comments on each, and then maybe I can start over with those films that are still fresh in my mind.  Let's start today with the disappointments:

To Rome With Love (Woody Allen)- Very lame, mostly half-developed silly stories about a bunch of folks in the Eternal City for one reason or another.  The only memorable element of this movie is all the great location shots, and the realization that Woody copied a camera movement that I too used when I found myself in the Piazza del Popolo several years back, though I sincerely doubt it was original with me.

Your Sister's Sister (Lynn Shelton)- This was better than To Rome With Love, if only because of the presence of Emily Blunt, who has recently risen to the top of my list of favorite actresses.  But the plot is a bit too obvious, and offers little in the way of suspense or surprises.  It's easy enough to hang out with the three main characters for ninety minutes, but that's hardly enough to make this worth seeing.

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden)- Very disappointing given the stellar cast, which is about all that saves this from being a complete dud.  Once the interesting concept is set up, it becomes a totally by-the-numbers kind of story.

Lawless (John Hillcoat)- This was the biggest disappointment for me among recent releases, as the previews made this look like an exciting historical action film.  Instead it was a pretty but overwrought lead balloon of a movie.   I can't recall the last time I saw something so full of itself (probably Avatar), while delivering so little in the way of intellectual or visceral entertainment.  Maybe I was victimized by high expectations, but regardless I really did feel like I'd wasted my time going to this one.

Next time, some movies I liked (it's actually a much longer list than this one).

Monday's Quote

Words of wisdom from the noted wit Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936):

"A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large."

Song for Sally

As I recall, this guy was one of my sister Sara's favorites back in her days hanging out in Chicago.  I hope this is a song she likes as well...

Saturday Family Blogging

Here's one of Sally's Kids, Ben and Natalie.  Hope you guys spoiled your mom a bit today.

Happy Birthday Sally!

All the best today to my sister Sara (I call her Sally, even if no one else does anymore) .  I hope you had a great day, and that they continue for now and always!

Saturday Philosophy

An interesting observation from the pen of Thomas Merton (1915-1968):

"The fruitfulness of our lives depends in large measure in our ability to doubt our own words and to question the value of our own work. The man who completely trusts his own estimate of himself is doomed to sterility."

Cool Song

Hard to believe this goes all the way back to 1951.  Billy Ward and the Dominoes was one of the most influential rhythm & blues groups in the era just before rock and roll broke, which is another way of saying that they need to be considered among the originators of the latter style.  You can hear it in this song:

Toonerville Thursday

Ah, the sporting life in Toonerville.... just as entertaining as all the other elements of the community.

A Thought for Thursday

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) was a pretty astute observer of human affairs. Here's a good example of that:

"Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable."