Animal Farm

I finished George Orwell’s Animal Farm a few nights ago. When I remarked to Maren that I liked it, she said they read it in 9th grade. Apparently, I have found my appropriate reading level.

My interest in Animal Farm was very similar to my interest in The Wizard of Oz. While I didn’t quite see how Wizard related to the Populist Movement, I clearly saw how Animal Farm is an allegory for the rise of communism in the U.S.S.R. If you know anything about Stalin, I think you’ll enjoy the book. If you haven’t read it, the last two chapters are powerful illustrations of how communism can fall short of its ideals.

Coming up next is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. That one may take me a while. I’ll be teaching again soon and probably won’t have much reading time. I’m thinking I may give Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness another go. I was supposed to read it before my senior? year of high school, but…ran out of time? interest? I remember it was short, though. Or I may just rent “Apocalypse Now”.

Good-bye beard.

But first, the funniest picture/caption I’ve seen in a long time.

Since January-ish, I’ve gone without shaving.  I’ve gotten a few compliments on my beard, but I think they were from people who were just being nice.  When I really look in a mirror, all I can see is Boxcar Willy.  Plus, “beard” doesn’t fit in my self-image.  Because my self-image is a skinny 14 year old boy who can’t grow facial hair, and we all know I’m not 14.

So, I think I’m going to shave for June and July so when I let it grow back in August, it will be thicker than ever.  I hope.

Hall of Fame

My friends and I often debate who belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame and who doesn’t deserve such merit. Being something of a numbers guy, I always thought if a player met certain benchmarks, he should get in without serious consideration. For example, 3,000 hits should be a guaranteed ticket punched, but 400 homeruns would not. But if that 400 HR guy also had a .300 career batting average, then he probably should. I’ve always allowed exceptions on both sides. Rafael Palmeiro’s 3,000 hits and 500 homeruns don’t get him in because of the steroids scandal. Conversely, Ozzie Smith was not a standout offensively, but unquestionably belongs in the Hall of Fame. Why? A great many defensive wizards will never get Hall of Fame consideration.

I’ve heard the arguments but have felt little sway. All that has changed. Thanks to Netflix, I’ve watched an episode of Ken Burns’ “Baseball” each Saturday morning for the past 6 weeks. Yesterday, I watched the disc about the 1940’s that focuses on two things: Jackie Robinson and the integration of MLB in 1947 and the 1941 season featuring Ted Williams’ .406 BA and Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak. DiMaggio’s streak captivated the nation and is a source of inspiration for many people. It even inspired Les Brown’s song “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio”. Here’s the sample of lyrics that shifted my view:

He’ll live in baseball’s Hall of Fame

He got there blow by blow

Our kids will tell their kids his name

Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio

A friend asks me about Andre Dawson. Is he a great player? Yes. Does he have benchmark achievements? Check. Is he a Hall of Famer? Am I going to tell Sophia stories about Andre Dawson? Will she pass those stories on to her kids? Probably not. I’ll tell her about Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Greg Maddux, a whole host of players I don’t feel like listing. Who are the players my dad talked about? Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle. Is Andre Dawson in that echelon of player? It breaks my heart, but my gut says no.

Top 10 Re-watchable Movies

I present to you a list of the 10 most re-watchable movies. To be clear, I do not pretend that these are the best movies (“Saving Private Ryan” is a great movie that I will never be able to rewatch because of one scene), nor are they even my favorite movies necessarily (though some are). Simply these are the movies I watch whenever they are on TV even though I’ve seen them some 20 times before.

10. “Boys and Girls”/”When Harry Met Sally”

I’m hoping most of you have seen “When Harry Met Sally” and know of its standard romantic comedy plot. It’s one of the first movies I watched with Maren, and it takes me back to those first exciting puppy-love days with her. “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” However, I’m willing to bet most of you haven’t seen “Boys and Girls” because it’s not really a good movie, and it stars Freddie Prinze, Jr. opposite Claire Forlani (who makes an appearance later on this list). I’m pretty turned off by most Freddie Prinze, Jr. movies, but I adore Forlani’s character. The best way to condense the plot is this: (SPOILER) It’s identical to “When Harry Met Sally” except the role of the boy and the girl are switched.

9. “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”

Not to be confused with Johnny Depp’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, I delight in every scene (except “Cheer Up, Charlie”…gag) of Gene Wilder’s interpretation. Who doesn’t feel like a kid in the candy store during “The Candy Man Can” song? Whose mouth doesn’t water up every time someone unwraps a Wonka Bar? I somewhere find inner peace during “Pure Imagination”. But, above all, I rewatch for the climax of the film. When Charlie returns his Everlasting Gobstopper after being rejected by Wonka, Wonka delivers the line “So shines a good deed in a weary world.” that makes me believe I’ve just watched the tale of something more than a kid who just inherited a candy empire.

8. “Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2″

There’s a certain color (you might say timbre, if you’re into music) to Quentin Tarantino’s storytelling that I find interesting. The Kill Bill’s are so over the top, I don’t think I can call them Great Movies, unlike “Pulp Fiction” which, honestly, belongs on this list but I’ve selectively left off.

7. “Best in Show”/”A Mighty Wind”/etc.

If you don’t appreciate a good mockumentary now and then, you are a philistine.

6. “10 Things I Hate About You”

I have to admit, on the whole, it’s a pretty bad movie even if it’s a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. But it’s the time machine that takes me back to my first years of college and going out to my sister’s house to do laundry and get away from Harding. I miss my sister often, but this movie fills the hole just a little.

5. “True Lies”

Action. Comedy. A genre that makes fun of itself. Arnold Schwarzenegger shows he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and it’s Tom Arnold’s finest moment (in case you were looking for it). If you haven’t seen it yet, your only two options are Watch It or Suicide. You must pick one.

4. “Meet Joe Black”

I can understand how some think it is long and slow. However, I love how the themes of Love and Death are juxtaposed and that each character presents a different idealized take on Love, and the movie would be incomplete without all of them. Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Claire Forlani, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jake Weber are all immaculate in there performances. Additionally, there’s something that wholly captivates me in a quick speech given by Hopkins at the end of the film. “65 years…don’t they go by in a blink.” I don’t know what it is, but it’s made me an instant fan of Anthony Hopkins. I even half-tried watching “Instinct” a few weeks ago, the movie he made with Cuba Gooding, Jr. years ago. (Needless to say, it didn’t capture my attention.) “Meet Joe Black” is one of just a handful of movies that makes me wish I was super-rich, though I can imagine living a satisfied life as Hopkins in the film does without all the dough. It’s probably a Top 10 favorite film.

3. “Bull Durham”/”Field of Dreams”

Let’s not pretend these are the same movie because they are both baseball movies. The truth is they are the last movies I came up with, but they both deserve this high placement, and I don’t want to knock off any of the other movies. So, “Bull Durham” is great for laughs and capturing the spirit of baseball characters. “Field of Dreams” is kind of cheesy, but I cry like a baby at the end when he plays catch with his dad. I’m crying right now thinking about. It is the silliest thing, but even if I only catch the last 3 minutes, the waterworks turn on.

2. “The Thomas Crown Affair”

It doesn’t get much TV play, but we owned it on VHS back in the day, and it was my go-to when nothing else sounded good. It’s very playful, and it’s another movie that makes me wish I was super-rich. I’ve seen the original starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Pierce Brosnan/Rene Russo remake.

1. “High Fidelity”

I love this movie for two reasons. i) I love lists (hence the format of this post), and a running motif of the movie is top five lists. In fact, it’s the main vehicle for driving the plot along. ii) It’s take on Love resonates with me in the most realistic way I can remember, though it certainly does not have the market cornered in that respect. It’s probably a Top 10 favorite movie, as well.

Re-watchable Movies Emeritus:

This section is dedicated to a few movies who historically belong on this list, but are perhaps now past their prime due to my over-watching.
“A Christmas Story”

A classic with a very high watch count, but I’ve gone the past 2 Christmases(?) without seeing them despite high play on TBS.

“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

I wish I could watch with fresh eyes and relive all things I found funny when I was 16 years old. Alas, this movie and the next suffer a terrible, terrible fate. I fall asleep when I watch them. Perhaps, it’s so I can dream of them.

Which brings us to the Grandfather of this list. The Archetype. The O-G.

“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”

I’ve never left a movie theater so enthralled and so inspired by a movie like this one when I was 11. You have to know that I watched this movie (I have to check myself here because my family is prone to exaggeration) over 75 times. Some people quote Hamlet, I quote “Robin Hood”. Start to finish. Subtitles. Accents. All of it. At least, I used to be able to. But it has been 10 years since I could stay awake through a sitting, despite repeated efforts. Perhaps, this movie cannot be rewatched by me because it has joined the Pantheon of the Gods of Movies. It sits up on Mt. Olympus and may only visit from time to time. But perhaps this is the loftiest goal for any movie, and so I salute it.

The Wizard of Oz

I finished reading L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz a few nights ago.  After being disappointed by Through the Looking Glass, I thought about taking a break from my reading list, but I already had the book bought and was interested in reading a good 10 years ago.

Regarding the book itself, it was a quick read.  The movie embellished some parts, but left out major plot points (as movie renditions tend to do).  My primary interest in the book was how it supposedly was an allegory for the populist movement of the late 1800’s.  I can’t pretend to be an expert on that part of history, but it feels like a stretch to definitively connect some of the dots.  I can see how one might consider the green standard vs. the gold standard (the Yellow Brick road that leads to the Emerald City, the Golden Cap that summons the Flying Monkeys, etc.), but I don’t think the characters in the story relate to actual people or events surrounding the movement, and there aren’t enough connectives in the story to support a metaphor for Populists.

That being said, it’s worth reading for yourself for the sake of ingesting a piece of Americana, and perhaps you’ll disagree with my assessment.  It did, however, cause me to do a little research about the Populist Movement, and so I assume I grew a little.

Dear Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse,

and the other writers of LOST,

Thank you for making me really intrigued about Claire’s story line for the first time ever. All season, I have had the same wish for her that I had for Charlie for the past two seasons: Just kill her already. She had no real tantalizing story line that I could imagine, so get her off the show so she doesn’t take up valuable air time. Then, either ironically or coincidentally (I can’t decide which is appropriate), the writers throw us such an interesting development that revolves around the fate of Claire. Is she still alive? Or has she been dead? Creepy either way.

My new favorite Astros Club

In the mid-90’s, the Astros had a rash of good to great players whose names all began with B:  Biggio, Bagwell, Bell, Berry, and later Berkman and others.  Accordingly, people began referring to these players as the Killer B’s.  Since then, only Berkman really remains (I’m not including Brandon Backe), so it doesn’t especially make sense to keep referring to the Killer B’s.

However, I saw a fan sign on TV that I now love:  The Killer BLT’s.  Berkman, Lee, Tejada.  Sounds like a keeper to me.

Sophie’s words

For all of you who are anxiously seeking progress on Sophia’s development, I’ve decided to list her working vocabulary. I’ve divided them into 3 categories: Clarity, Animal Noises, and Sophie’s Secret Language Words.

Clarity:

1. Doggie

2. Ball

3. Papa (my dad)

4. Thank You (sometimes Tain Chu)

5. Hi!

6. Shoes (sometimes Chues)

7. Bubble

8. Baby

9. Down

10. Two (at least she sang it in a song…)

Animal Noises:

1. ruff ruff/wuff wuff (dog)

2. boo/roo (cow)

3. ssssss (snake)

4. hoo (owl)

5. raow (cat)

6. oo oo ah ah (monkey) The oo oo is silent.

7. (indistinguishable noise, but with arm raised above her head) (elephant)

Sophie’s Secret Language:

1. Ti (Lucy, the kitTY cat)

2. Baba (bottle)

3. Belbu/Behbeh (belly button)

4. Ou–i-e?/Ou–i-es? (outside?) (And, yes, the “?” is part of her intonation.)

5. Ba/Bar (Bear. Or Lamb. They’re stuffed animals.)

6. Baba (Mama) As you can see, she’s getting her “b” words down cold.

7. Bock (Block)

8. Ock (Sock)

I’m sure there are others, but I can’t think of them at the moment. I’ll update as they come to me.