Saturday, September 27, 2008

Rediscovering "Meet Joe Black"

Have you seen "Meet Joe Black"? I mean recently. Tonight, following a post-presidential-debate conversation with my wife, I began surfing around to see what was on. I saw that MJB was on and commented aloud, "Hey, remember this movie...it was kind of a weird one..." and then promptly commenced watching.

In accordance with the male code of television etiquette, my original intent was to watch until the commercial and then turn to something else. However, the commercials came and went and I found myself intently watching MJB. I was really enjoying the movie.

Sara's attention quickly left her book (Amazon finally delivered "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn", which means I, the kids, and the house are on our own for a couple weeks...Thanks Stephanie Meyer!) and she started watching as well. I'm not sure what the difference was this time through; however we both thought it was a really good movie.

In all fairness, we missed the first fifty minutes, or so, which may have made the difference. The movie is extremely long (3.5 hrs including commercials) and perhaps the shortened viewing brought the movie within my attention span. It could also be the fact that I am now a father and therefore could better identify with Anthony Hopkins' feelings and emotions. Whatever the change, I enjoyed it.

Past experiences of "rediscovering" an old movie have been less favorable. For example, my all-time favorite movie as a child was "Lady Hawk"; a love story set in Medieval times about two lovers who, due to a curse, each live their lives as animals during opposing times of the day. He was a wolf by night, and she was a hawk by day (and by "she" I mean Michelle Pfieffer; an instant and persistent childhood crush). Anywho, when Lady Hawk first came out on DVD I quickly rented it and began watching with high hopes of a nostalgic rebirth. BAD IDEA! That movie stinks! All my precious childhood memories, warm fuzzies, and general good will stemming from that movie were dashed to pieces. I was horribly disappointed. Fortunately I stopped the movie after about 30 minutes, and defeatedly scrapped together my remaining memories and locked them deep inside my broken heart. I guess some things rely on muted and innocent childhood memories to retain their brightness.

If for some reason you decide you would like to rediscover a childhood movie, you may want to ask yourself the following questions first:

1) Did this movie shape your life in any respect?

2) Can you buy this movie in the $5.99 DVD bin at Walmart?

3) Did you last see the movie prior to High School and/or puberty?

4) Was the movie based in fantasy, science fiction, or use "little people" as cast members?

5) Did any of the leading stars go on to have a successful career in something other than acting?

and

6) Are you in a stable, supportive relationship?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

First post...drum roll please

No "Cheer" for laundry detergent all over the basement carpet

Yesterday, on my drive home, I received a phone call from home. Usually the 5:30p call comes to check my ETA. Frequently I can hear the screams of wild, hungry, tired children in the background which largely drowns out the slightly contrived, calm voice of my wife. 5:30p is a difficult time at our house. However, yesterday I was greeted with the following:

"I AM ABOUT TO....AWWWRG!!! OH MY GOSH...IT IS EVERWHERE! WHAT IS GOING ON??? THESE KIDS...DAVID...I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS...

and so on and so on. No kids in the background; kind of an eerie, silent backdrop...

Coming from a long line of worriers (thanks Mom) I immediately had visions of bloody smears, severed limbs, and limp adolescent bodies, no doubt the result of unsupervised experimentation with kitchen machinery or some dangerous, yet curiously fantastic tool in the garage. However, it turns out that kitchen machinery and woodworking tools pale in comparison to laundry detergent. That's right, Ella (3) and Wyatt (1) decided to build sand castles all over the basement carpet with laundry detergent.

At first Ella blamed it all on Wyatt (naturally), however the guilt eventually got to her and she fessed up. Prior to seeing the mess, I assured Sara (my wife, the frantic one mentioned above) that I would take care of the clean up, which I did, with a vacuum in about an hour's time. I am happy to report that all of the detergent came up out of the carpet, and our basement now has a fresh, spring scent which deceptively smells like laundry has been recently done.

I wonder what today's 5:30p call will be...