Here and There Blog

The water is still churning against the sand, the sea anything but calm  The foam dots the beach like litter  Shells have appeared to tempt collectors  And birds search for an easy meal It's good to be outside

Sun and beach at last if only for a short time before the next storm arrives.

The King's Speech does a nice job of mixing a serious top (stuttering, not good in a King) with humor. I found myself laughing more in this movie than any other movie this week and in a good way.  Since I'm not much up on royal history I was worried I'd be bored. Not to worry, the story and the acting are so entertaining that this is was almost a relief to see a good movie. Turns out that Queen Elizabeth's father had a stuttering problem and when faced with the prospect of becoming King (his brother ran off and married Wallis Simpson and abdicated the throne) a new speech therapist is brought in. Through unconventional methods, the speech therapist and the king to be find a way to work together and become friends. Turns out that kings-to-be don't have many friends. I can see why the three stars (Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter) have all been nominated for awards. Guy Pearce made for a believable King Edward VIII who was so in love with a woman ...

Three decades later and Tron: Legacy is the same non-event as the original. If you never saw the original Tron , it's about real people getting trapped inside a video game. Then lots of visual effects happen, video game fights happen, and we as the audience get bored and don't really care if the people escape the game. For those of you who saw the original, you'll like the continuity of having Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner in the sequel. Boxleitner only has a small role but it is appreciated.  For those of you who never the original, you don't need to. Tron is visually watchable and the music and sound are the best things going for the movie. Unfortunately the music and visuals together with the boring plot are really relaxing and you might find yourself on the verge of a little theater nap.  If you have to go see Tron: Legacy , I recommend the regular 2D screen. Don't pay more for IMAX or 3D unless it's the only choice.  No one will really hate the m...

Black Swan is a movie about mental illness set against the back drop of ballet. Natalie Portman's portrayal of perfectionist obsessed ballet star is at times hard to watch and a disturbing to step into a world of self doubt and loathing.  We follow Nina as she gets cast in the lead of Swan Lake and has to find her inner vixen to become the Black Swan .  Having to deal with a mother with control issues (Barbara Hershey, as the creepiest show mom ever), a ballet director with his own issues, and the jealousy of the other dancers, Nina doesn't stand a chance. Rarely has mental illness on screen been so hard to watch. When I wasn't closing my eyes, I found myself unable to look away. The movie blends music, visuals, sound, and good acting together in a way that I didn't realize how tense I was until the end when I could breath. I think the entire audience felt the same way. Black Swan is uneven at times and could have been a bit shorter. Visually the movie is stunning ...

Kudos to True Grit for being a watchable, mostly good movie!  While not quite best picture quality, the movie has a couple of great performances and is fun to watch. True Grit is unusual for a western in that the lead is female and the character is 14.  Luckily for us Hailee Steinfeld doesn't suck and is fully able to carry the movie. I've never seen the original so we'll toss that out now and take this True Grit at face value. Jeff Bridges makes a great Rooster Cogburn and the best thing is that Rooster stays a bad-ass throughout the movie. Josh Brolin is only in the movie for a short time as the bad guy but he nails it. Matt Damon as the #3 in the partnership of Rooster, the girl, and Matt Damon kind of plays himself in the west. So you have the girl who sets out to hire a US Marshall to bring in the man who killed her father.  Circumstance puts the 3 leads out on the reservation in the wild west to complete the task. It's gritty, people get shot, animals get s...

Hello sun! Good to see you even if it's only a for a moment!

Sometime this afternoon the tree behind me had enough of the rain and tried to end it all by breaking in half. I'm glad the city cut down the trees on my fence line because otherwise, I would have had a yard full of the branches. I can't hear anything over the constant pounding of the palm trying to get in the window.  Who knew palm trees could be so loud?  Thump, thump. At first I thought it was the kids next door playing basketball against my garage but after 3 hours I realized that it was the wind smacking the trees around. 24 hours later and it hasn't let up. At least the windows are getting clean.

When did Christmas week get to be such a bummer for movies? In a pack of bad openings, it was hard to choose which lame movie to see. So The Fighter got moved up on the list due to the movie's award nominations. The boxing movie centers around two real boxing brothers, their career rise and fall, personal highs (of the crack kind) and lows (of the same) and realization of the goal.  If that sounds long and rambling, then it matches the movie.  The storyline seemed to take place over either 1 year or 15 years. Since everyone always looked the same and dates were never given with the exception of jail time, I couldn't even track time. Doesn't matter. Synopsis for those of you, like me, who don't know or want to know the boxing world:  Young Micky (Wahlberg) idolizes his big brother Dicky (Bale). Dicky was a boxer of some fame and then turned to the world of crack. Their mother is also their manager and turns a blind eye to reason and drug addiction. A fascinating sides...

Money in, money out. The universal law of karma. I received the annual IRA from my dad's trust a couple weeks ago. Fixed the toilet - $136. Took my dad's old Toyota pickup in for repair today - it's the Catalytic Converter - estimate $1063. Check gone. Truck out till Tuesday. Good or bad? I'm going to have to go with good because at least I wasn't having to budget out of my paycheck. Bad? Well I would have ended up spending that money on travel and we all know it's not like I don't have plenty of travel! I'm going to have to call this one a draw. I'm relieved to have the repairs done and thankful to have the money to do so. It's Christmas where even my work slightly slows down so bargain hour morning movies and happy hours are in my budget savings future! Not too bad karma after all.

Taking advantage of a full weekend at home, I had to make time for Harry Potter.  Since most of the world has seen the latest installment, this is a belated review and more to compare notes. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)  has a faster pace than the previous movies and if you don't pay attention, you will be lost in teleportation.  I read the book and knew what was going on but my mind had to fill in a lot of the blanks of the story that didn't make it into the movie. Even with making the one book into two movies, a lot of the details are gone. So if you haven't read the book, good luck. Maybe hold off on seeing this movie until the last one comes out and you can do a marathon. For fans - the kids grown up are still believable as their characters and as friends. The focus stays with the three and other warlocks, wizards, and muggles seem to be lost in the shuffle. I think this is okay since the focus is on reaching adulthood and challenges that have to ...

Tijuana isn't all about tequila and crazy life. Cerveza Tijuana is a local microbrewery that makes pretty darn goo beer! First up, a nice dark beer. Then it was time to switch to a Christmas beer, Noche Buena. A little bit heavier and almost put me to sleep! No wait, that was the jet lag! So next time you find yourself in Tijuana, escape the Corona and Dos XX and try something different.

We'll say good-bye to Samoa with the photo that you were waiting to see. Palms, palms, and palms on the mountains going right down to the shore.  Palms!

Got tired of the phone lines. Instead, a sampling of the flowers in Samoa.

This really is a good reason for underground cables and wire systems. Palms and the ever present electrical lines.

From the balcony, looking towards the airport. Palms, electrical lines, and a peek view of the South Pacific ocean.  Tradewinds Hotel, Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Four countries and four different Christmas markets. Since we were at Frankfurt on a Friday night, I think that this one was the most happening of all the markets we visited. The markets always seem to be in the square, next to the clock.  We spotted the market from the top of the Dom.  It looked better up close like this.  Another view of the city from the top. We crossed the river to get to the pubs.

Frankfurt, Germany. After 23 transits through that airport it was finally time to step outside and see what the city has to offer. First up - snow. This looks like rain but it's rapidly falling snow.  A warm bar with wheat beer.  Christmas beer.  A good dark beer. Forgot it's name. Something about Christmas.  Keith at the top of the Dom. It wasn't sunny at all but snowing. And sunset. Not sure why the photo looks like we are in daylight.  We climbed as far to the top as the gates allowed.