My Review: Little Miss Sunshine

My wife and I both love going to the movies, so we go as often as we can. She enjoys the whole experience and only seldom is she overly disappointed. She's very good at tempering her expectations. I, on the other hand, often go into films with extremely high expectations, and am very often extremely disappointed. I would say that 6 out of 10 films I see I think are rather awful. 2 out of ten are decent, and 2 out of ten are really, really good. Forgive my math, but occasionally, once in a great while, a film is so exceptional that it reminds me why I love going to the movies. Little Miss Sunshine is not one of those films, but it is really, really good.

Little Miss Sunshine is blessed with a great cast, and a terrific script. Steve Carrell, who we love from The Office and The Daily Show, is very funny, almost as much as Alan Arkin as Grandpa. Greg Kinnear is perfectly cast as a motivational speaker who can't even convince his son (Paul Dano) to speak or his wife (Toni Collette) to not look at him like he's a schmuck. But the real stealer of the show is Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigail Breslin, as Olive. The whole film is great, but the last fifteen minutes of the movie are downright classic.

Yes, there are plot holes in Little Miss Sunshine. But it is a comedy, after all, and you're not supposed to analyze comedies for things like that. But probably the best compliment I can give this comedy is that it is so good that it makes you want to analyze it like an art film.

Grade: A-

Hysterical Ringtones

Most of the time when I listen to my iPod I just leave it on shuffle mode, as kind of my own personal radio station. I can listen for hours and never hear a bad song! It's fun listening to Beastie Boys segue into Tom Petty into Prince into For Squirrels into a mashup I found on Hype Machine. But I still get the biggest kick out of when between songs my iPod picks a mini-track from They Might Be Giants a992 album Apollo 18. In addition to the great songs on the CD are 21 tracks called "fingertips" that are each about 8 or 9 seconds long that can only be described as "random". I can't explain them, just preview the tracks on Amazon and you'll get what I mean.

I was thinking about TMBG this morning and visited their website. They have three hysterical ringtones available for download on the homepage for $1.50 each. The best is "Call Connected Thru The NSA," but "Ring Ring" is also awesome. Even if you don't buy them, they are worth listening to online. If you do decide to buy them you're guaranteed to have the funniest ringtones in the office.

New Music!

Other than Tom Petty's Highway Companion, I don't even remember that last CD I bought. But this month I bought two great ones:

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat. Jenny Lewis, our March 2006 Hero Of The Month is the lead singer of a group called Rilo Kiley, but she's just released her solo album and it is absolutely incredible. If I could pick one word to describe Jenny Lewis's writing style, it would be "sardonic". Don't be frightened by the gospel feel and country style. This music is more edgy than any hard rock band around. The lyrics will have you pondering life while laughing aloud. I have to admit I have developed a crush on this incredible talent. Add this to your collection immediately! Oh, and dont forget to check out her cover of the Travelling Wilbury's "Handle With Care!" Grade: A+

Jackie Greene - American Myth - This CD was made for me, it seems. Some songs sound like outtakes from a Josh Ritter CD, others sound like Tom Petty, or alternative rock. Every song sounds like the work of a gifted songwriter and a talented musician. I discovered Jackie Greene from Internet radio station mvy radio when they played his amazing song Sweet Somewhere Bound. I picked up his latest collection from Amazon.com, and it's an instant fave. Check out his myspace page for free downloads! Grade: A

Mookie Of The Month - August 2006

We went to the Outer Banks this weekend and Mookie got to check out the ocean for the first time. She wasn't too sure. I think she knows she can't swim!

This Is Hilarious - Dogs will Be Dogs

In England, there is a collection valuable teddy bears on display at some park. The display is very popular and they recently added a bear once owned by Elvis Presley worth $85,000. The collection was so valuable that in a stroke of brilliance the museum hired a doberman to guard the display. Big shocker here about what comes next - Like most dogs, Barney The Guard Dog loves to chew on stuffed animals - so he tore the head off Elvis's bear and destroyed a bunch of other bears in the collection.

When it was over, about 100 bears in all had been damaged. "He was pulling arms off, heads off," [the park's general manager Daniel] Medley said, and there was fluffy stuffing everywhere.

Too damned funny. Thanks to Mr. Met for the link.

Mars Won't Be Big As The Moon This Week

I got a couple e-mails that got me all excited to watch the sky this month. The e-mails were titled "Spectacular!" and if you read it quickly they made it seem like Mars would appear as big as the moon to the naked eye on August 16th. I thought that was pretty cool until I looked it up on snopes.

The truth is that way back in August 2003, if you had looked through a 75 power telescope, you could have gotten a great view of Mars. But to the naked eye, the casual observer wouldn't have even noticed. And that was in 2003. This year, the e-mail is completely untrue, with someone having switched out the years. Too bad.

What is true, is that all month you can watch a meteor shower if you can find a high spot on a clear night, away from city lights. Peaking on August 12th, the Perseid meteor shower will allow us earthlings to observe as many as 100 "shooting stars" per hour this month.

Die Hard Part Four Release Date Set

Bruce Willis will star in the fourth installment of the Die Hard movies, titled Live Free or Die Hard, scheduled for release on June 29, 2007. Best news I've heard all week!

A few months ago, news came out that there would be a movie based on Kiefer Sutherland's 24. My reaction was that they already made that movie, and it was called Die Hard. MTV makes the same comparison in this article, which also tells us the new Die Hard movie "centers around an attack on the computer infrastructure of the United States government" on the 4th of July. The article also says that several high-profile cast members will be announced over the next few weeks. The first castmember to be announced may be Justin Long, who you may know as "A Mac" in those funny Apple commercials.

La Jolla, California - Seals and Brown Pelicans

click below to see slide show...

A Tree Split Right Down The Middle

These pictures must be able to be used as a metaphor for something, I just can't figure out what... (click to enlarge).


There was a big storm a couple of weeks ago, and all around the neighborhood trees were literally torn apart. None of us could figure out whether it was lightning, mini tornadoes, or what could do so much damage, but it's hard to imagine anything but lightning splitting this particular tree right down the middle like this.

Short Slideshow of Seal Beach in La Jolla

Here's a few pictures I took after work was done out in San Diego, California!

Almost Home

I've been in San Diego since Wednesday, but I return home on the red-eye tonight, and my travel schedule for the rest of the year is thankfully a lot lighter. Unfortunately I picked the wrong day to read the USA Today left outside my hotel room door. There was an article in Thursday's issue called Fatigue In The Cockpit that examined the issue of pilots having difficulty staying alert during overnight flights. The author is a pilot, and he is advocating the airline industry allowing pilots to take naps during flights so that they are refreshed during landings, the most dangerous part of flying. I'll have to ask my pilot tonight if he or she is feeling okay before we take off...

More Things I Learned From Rolling Stone

Here are some more tidbits I picked up from the July 13 issue of Rolling Stone (with Johnny Depp on the cover):

A cool place to find new music and .mp3s: The Hype Machine (http://hype.non-standard.net/)
Ever since I read about this site I've been addicted. It scours blogs for .mp3 postings and then has a little radio station thing that plays the songs most recently added. YOu can also listen to the most popular .mp3s for teh week, so do a search for an artist or song. An excellent tool to find new music!


A movie called Who Killed The Electric Car?. Remember that movie Tucker, about a guy who invented a car with all kinds of cool features but the Big Three automakers put him out of business? Seems history repeats itself. There's a documentary out that examines what happened to GM's EV-1, an electric car with no emissions and no gas or oil that was leased to Californians in 1996, "only to mash its fleet into scrap metal in the Arizona desert six years later." Check out the trailer at www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com and check out the movie when it's released next month.

You can buy cover reprints of classic Rolling Stone magazine covers at www.rollingstone.com/covers for $25 each. I think I'm going to decorate my office with the August 1991 issue with Tom Petty.













You can watch the R-rated version of Buckcherry's video for Crazy Bitch at www.rollingstone.com/crazybuck. (Not Safe For Work!)

Mookie Of The Month - July 2006

Learning To Fly

For my birthday, my wife arranged for me to take a flying lesson. I flew a Cessna from Air Harbor airport to Shiloh Airport and back again. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Here are some pics:



Cessna 8 Whiskey Mike. You might wonder why I agreed to go up in a plane with a guy named "Whiskey Mike," but I'm pretty sure that's just the way you say "W" over the radio for aviation purposes. I'm pretty sure.



The cockpit.



Scariest sight in the history of aviation: Mike V piloting an airplane.



View out the left wing



Coming in for a landing at Shiloh Airport



Just about to touchdown at Mike Piazza's runway?



A fuel stop. Gas was about $4.00 a gallon



Keep your eyes on the sky!

Did A Missle Down Flight 800? Is The Government Concealing Evidence

Even before September 11th, 2001, for years I often had an eerie feeling everytime I saw a plane in the sky. That's because in 1996, a plane mysteriously exploded off the coast of Long Island. It was TWA Flight 800, headed for Paris, and for months, no explanation could be attributed to the explosion. Was it bomb, a missle, or some mechanical failure? Because of teh mystery, I sometimes would wonder if any particular plane I was looking at in the sky at any given time might suddenly and inexplicably explode.

But I remember most people initially thought it was a missle that downed Flight 800, especially when eyewitnesses reprted seeing something that resembled a missle hit the plane. These eyewitness reports were eventually squashed by the idea that it was actually an optical illusion these people were seeing. "Experts" said that the people actually saw the aftermath of the explosion, and fireballs shooting out of the plane somehow just looked like they were heading towards the plane for a reason I've never grasped.

The official conclusion by the NTSB was that the explosion was caused a by a spark in the fuel tank.

Now, ten years later, a group in Massachussets has filed a lawsuit to force federal officials to release information about a piece of debris from Flight 800 that it hopes will show that a missile downed the plane.

Tom Stalcup, who heads the East Falmouth, Mass.-based Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, which filed the suit, said he is "very certain" that federal investigators found the piece of debris and are now concealing evidence of its existence.

Radar data show the piece of debris falling at high speed from the plane and a Navy salvage map shows it was later recovered, said Stalcup, 36, a physicist and owner of a West Falmouth, Mass., company that makes wireless weather stations. Despite this evidence, federal officials won't explain what happened to the debris once it was recovered from the ocean off Long Island, he said.

"All of the data requested is of great importance to the public understanding of the crash of TWA Flight 800," Stalcup's lawsuit says.

"One piece in particular landed closer to JFK Airport than any of the other thousands of recovered items ... after exiting the airframe at apparent supersonic speeds," the suit says.

We'll have to stay tuned to this one...

Things I Learned This Weekend From Rolling Stone Magazine (Part One)

Because I spend a lot of time on airplanes, I read a lot of magazines. Lately I've tried to save some money by borrowing books from the library, but I owe them a few bucks for some overdues so I need to go in and settle up before I can borrow some more. In the meantime, I'v ebeen spending quality plane times with my magazines of choice, namely Esquire, Popular Science, Newsweek, and occassionally The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Spin, and GQ. It's funny that I read two mens fashion magazines even though I am far from a clothes horse. The articles and interviews just happen to be really good in those mags.

This past weekend we were on the beach, another great place to read a magazine, so on the way to the beach we stopped at a drugstore and picked up some. I grabbed the latest Rolling Stone and it was a great pick-up. It's sometimes hit-or-miss with Rolling Stone, but this issue happens to be great. It has Johnny Depp on the cover if you're looking for it. So anyway I was going to list all the interesting stuff I found in the magazine in this one posting, but I thought many of them deserved their own post so I'm going to spread them out over the course of the week.

For this post I'll write about who else but Tom Petty, who is featured all overthe magazine, including a full length interview by Neil Strauss. On a side note, a big deal is made of the fact that Tom says in teh interview that "This is the last interview I am doing for a long time." Well, apparently Neil got a little carried away, because Petty clarified on his website this week that by "a long time" he meant a few weeks, while he was touring but that he would definitely be doing some interviews later this month as his new solo album Highway Companion is released on July 25th. Misunderstanding aside, the interview did include quite a few gems:

-Tom does not care one bit about this whole Dani California/Mary Jane's Last Dance hoopla:

"I serously doubt there is any intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took American Girl [for their song "Last Nite"], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it, That made me laugh out loud...I think there are enough frivilous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs."

-Tom's new solo album, Highway Companion, is his much more truly a solo album than Full Moon Fever or Wildflowers were. Tom actually plays drums and piano on this record, whereas his previous "solo" efforts were really more like Heartbreakers records sans Stan Lynch.

-In addition to the solo record, Tom has " a good sixty percent" of a Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers album "just sitting there waiting to be finished." It should come out next year and it "is going to be a big one." Tom's bandmate Mike Campbell is also producing a live Heartbreakers album.

-Tom also wants to get his original band "Mudcrutch" back together at some point for a project.

You can listen to the interview at www.rollingstone.com/pettytalk

Dog Days Of Summer

Posting has been light lately because of various summertime activities that interfere with blogging. Here's a bonus shot of Mookie with her "cousin" Sodja to hold you over while I get my act together.

My Review: Superman Returns

I saw Superman Returns on opening weekend but took a while to write this review. I had had a lot of anticipation for this movie, which usually for me means I'll be disappointed. I was never a real huge comic book geek, but I did read quite a few Superman comics, and as a kid I loved the Superman movies.

Last year's Batman Begins was an excellent film, and I hoped to be as satisfied with this movie. Brandon Routh plays a good Superman, and he looks a bit like Christopher Reeve, so I can't complain about him. Kevin Spacey did a great job as Lex Luthor, but unfortunately Luthor's plot in this film is pretty damn lame. Surely in all the comics that have been written about Superman, a better scheme has been written that could have been lifted for this movie? But from a character standpoint, the major disappointment for me was that Kate Bosworth was a pretty lousy Lois lane. There was barely any palpable chemistry between her and Supes. Plus, her giant forehead was distracting.

Otherwise, this movie was waaay too long and had too many quiet, "dramatic," moments that were supposed to be awe-inspiring but were more like sleep inspiring. All in all, it could have been a lot worse of a movie, but it could have been a lot better too. Hopefully the next movie will have more action and less of the sleepy stuff. Honestly, the best part about going to see this movie was that the preview for Spiderman III looked REALLY good.

Now, some reviews of this film will tell you Superman Returns is a sequel to the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie, while others will tell you that it's a sequel to Superman II. Why is there confusion, even though Director Brian Singer has explicitly said in interviews that this is is a sequel to Superman II? My theory is that the confusion stems from the unstated fact that Superman Returns is truly a sequel to Superman II, but not the movie we all know. I believe Superman Returns is actually a sequel to the Superman II movie that was mostly filmed, but never finished, by the original director Richard Donner. The original idea for the Christopher Reeve film was a two part movie. Richard Donner filmed Superman and Superman II basically at the same time. But the studio got nervous about having the first film end in a cliffhanger and instead had Donner have more of a resolution for the first movie. Then, once the film was a success Donner continued to work on the sequel but got into some arguments with the studio and was then replaced by Richard Lester who, many movie fans feel, screwed everything up. When you watch Superman II, some scenes were shot and edited by Donner, and some by Lester. A lot of the original Donner material was cut altogether. For example, the Donner version of the film has an R-rated love scene between Supes and Lois Lane that never made it to the final version. Most people don't know this, but as a big Superman fan, Superman Returns director Brian Singer does. I think he had this unfinished movie in mind when he made this new movie. At some point this year a new DVD box set will come out that will supposedly include for the first time, the Richard Donner version of Superman II. I believe at that point my theory will be confirmed. You read it here first.

Oh yeah, my grade for Superman Returns is B-.

Why Mets Fans Can't Stand Yankees Fans (And It's Not What You Think)

The Mets lost last night. They got swept in a three game series by the Red Sox and I couldn't be happier. Why? Because it messes with the Yankees chances of making the playoffs. And with the Mets maintaining a healthy lead on the wife beaters, the only thing sweeter than the Mets making it to the World Series would be having the Yankees not meeting them there because they couldn't even sniff October.

Do you want to know why Mets fans can't stand Yankees fans? It's not because of their arrogance. Every team has arrogant fans, and there are many arrogant fans who wear orange and blue. Maybe I'm arrogant.

The real reason Mets fans don't like Yankees fans is because we don't respect them. When you see a person wearing a Yankees hat or shirt, they are most likely:

A) A fourteen year old girl who never watches games but thinks Derek Jeter is cute

B) An out of towner who never watches games but wants to glam on to New York in some way

C) A bandwagon jumper who couldn't tell you the starting rotation or who played 1st base before Tino Martinez (or Jason Giambi for that matter).

Are there real Yankees fans out there? I mean real fans, who can actually recite the 25 man roster and wax poetic about the Jesse Barfield days? Yes, of course. But even most of those fans are in complete denial about their scarcity. Yankees fans think everyone should be Yankees fans. They look around and see a sea of pinstripes and think everyone else must be crazy. They'll welcome any clown and accept him or her as a "true" Yankees fan, just like George Steinbrenner will accept any enemy (Roger Clemens, Johnny Damon, Wade Friggin' Boggs) into pinstripes and annoint him a "true" Yankee. Well, except for A-Rod. Gotta love that.

Mets fans are different. We feel very confident that when we see a dude with an orange and blue cap that he's a real fan. That he can cry with us about The Worst Team Money Can Buy, about Juan Samuel or Gregg Jeffries or Generation K. That he'll agree that Keith Hernandez should be in The Hall and that Mex was the best first baseman in New York. When it comes to real baseball fans, the Mets own New York. We don't crave quantity. Yes, the Yankees have won more World Series and sell more hats, but the Mets lead the world in Grand Slam Singles, losing last place, and balls that Get By Buckner!

When an impartial observer is around, a typical Yankees fan will tell him or her "You gotta be a Yankees fan. You gotta be. Look at all the rings and look at all of us!" Meanwhile, a typical Mets fan will say to the fan on the fence "I don't care what team you pick. If you don't care, you might as well pick the Yankees. It's a good time to jump on their bandwagon because it's moving real slow right now. You should only be a Mets fan if You Gotta Believe"

Note: Of course this applies to anyone besides the Mets fan's girlfriend or wife because we don't need no stinkin Yankees games playing in our house. So if your girl is on the fence it just makes life easier if she develops a crush on David Wright.

So there you go. The Mets did their job of screwing over the Yankees by laying down for the Red Sox. If we have to, we'll beat the Sox in the Series. Surely fans remember how that went last time? Now, it's time to turn it on. It's the back end of our rotation (El Duque, Trachsel, Soler) head to head with the back, I mean front, I mean is this seriously the Yankees rotation?

Lets Go Mets!

Minnesota Envy

My two favorite bands are on tour together. I have never before in my life wished I could be in Minnesota...

6/29/6 - Tom performs with Eddie Vedder and more from St. Paul

By Doug Miller / excerpt of full-length article on TomPetty.com

... the tour moved into overdrive June 26 with the first of two nights of non-stop music and fun from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Pearl Jam. It's tough to put all the backstage sights, sounds and experiences into words, but here's a rundown of some of the highlights:

Tom and Eddie together: This evolved over the course of the two-night stand at the Xcel Energy Center and eventually paid off hugely for everyone in the building.

Tom and Heartbreakers manager Tony Dimitriades confirmed to me that Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder and Heartbreakers lead guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench met in the corridor outside the Heartbreakers' dressing room 15 minutes before the Heartbreakers were due on stage Monday night.

They went into the dressing room, where they did a quick run-through of "American Girl." It seems that Eddie, who already knew all the words, was invited to join Tom and the Heartbreakers on stage for the encore to sing the lead vocal of the second verse, and a quick run-through was obviously all that was needed.

The show featured incredible sets by both Pearl Jam and Tom and the Heartbreakers and both bands were accepted by the other's fans as if they were their own. But when Tom brought Eddie on stage for "American Girl," which was to be the last song of the evening, the place erupted.

Most people probably thought Eddie would sing the choruses with Tom, so when he took the lead on the second verse and nailed it, everyone -- the audience, the musicians on stage and the road crews of both bands -- was beaming in the presence of something unique and special.

More Tom and Eddie: It got even better Wednesday night. The seeds were planted in the wee hours of that morning at the hotel bar. Still adrenalized from the collaboration during "American Girl," Vedder shared a nightcap or two with Tom, Ben Tench, and Heartbreakers multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston and drummer Steve Ferrone.

Somewhere in the early hours of the morning, all agreed that Eddie could sing on a second song in the set, "The Waiting," which the Heartbreakers had not performed live for some time.

This led to an acoustic rehearsal session in the Heartbreakers' dressing room Wednesday night about 10 minutes before Pearl Jam began their opening set.

You could tell Vedder loved the song because he sang out all the words without hesitation while the signature finger-picked intro riff to the song rang through the hallway.

A few hours later, right after the ninth song of the set, the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," Tom introduced the band and then brought Vedder back on stage for what seemed to me to be a rousing rendition of "The Waiting."

I was standing at the side of the stage and I could hear Eddie's strong vocals through the stage monitors, which is how the musicians on stage hear themselves. What I and the musicians did not know until later was that there had been a microphone/computer malfunction and Eddie's vocals were not coming through the PA.

It was a bitter disappointment to everyone, I am sure, but I am also sure they will do this again and I am looking forward to the Milwaukee and Denver shows, when the audience will get to hear it the way they should...

But redemption came when it was time for the encores.

Vedder came back out and stood at the side of the stage, dancing and singing during "You Wreck Me" and "Mystic Eyes."

Right before the final number, Vedder came back on stage and seemed overwhelmed to be in Petty's presence. He clasped his hands together to greet Tom and nailed the second verse and the harmonies once again.

But that wasn't all. When Campbell blistered through the solo at the end of "American Girl," Vedder ran from the back of the stage, did a knee slide right next to the guitarist, and saluted Campbell with a repeated "We're not worthy" bow.

The song ended and Tench grabbed Vedder to join the Heartbreakers in their bow to end the evening. Fantastic stuff.