Home Again

At home, well, I was home for thirty seconds and then I came to work. Am in one piece. No worries. More later.

Stupid Rain

Well, hitting the road with the bike tomorrow AM and of course its pissing down at the moment, got my fingers crossed for it to clear up tomorrow.

South? No!

I got a new NZ driver's license last week. It's a really horrible picture, but, I transferred my California Motorcycle endorsement to my NZ license. Yay! Which means I'm 100% legal for next weekend. What's that you say? What's happening next weekend? Well, I'll tell you. It's the second semi-whenever motorcycle weekend getaway for men warily eyeing that thing sneaking up on them in the rearview mirror that looks suspiciously like middle age. That thing. We're ditching the South Island and it's crap weather and heading North for a couple days. We're going to head up to Taranaki, where, at the end of a little road called State Highway 43, there's a little town called Whangamomona (Wh is 'f' in Maori). Doesn't sound too exciting? What if I tell you that SH43 is about 150km long, and usually takes three to five hours to drive it and when I say that Whangamomona is small, I mean small.




So traffic? Not so much. And one more thing, what if I told you that no one calls it SH43, it's the "Forgotten World Highway". How does this sound?

"Built on colonial bridle paths formed in the late 19th century, the highway is remote and mysterious to the extreme. "A bit upsy downsy" is how one local resident puts it - a classic New Zealand understatement to describe a road that hugs the rugged contours of the land to provide a natural roller coaster experience"

Sounds like Oh .. Hell .. Yeah. Only 4 bikes this time and one of them is a fully restored Indian so I'm not sure that really counts. Since Shawn can't ride since his accident, he's going to drive, so we have a chase car for gear and luggage. I'll have a camera this time and I'm gong to try to rig something up to get some 'bike's-eye' footage. Also, since we do have a chase car, I'm going to take my Powerbook and jot down my thoughts as I go, so I'm not trying to remember what happened months later. Shoud be fun. I get to keep going as long as I keep coming home in one piece so keep yer fingers crossed.

Review: Body of Lies

As much as I hate to say it, I think DiCaprio has turned into one of the better actors in Hollywood today. He stars with Russel Crowe in this political action flick based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’ 2007 novel about a CIA operative who's working official cover in the middle east. Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors and he delivers again here, deftly managing a complex plot. Crowe and DiCaprio both give excellent performences. Quite unlike a Bond movie, it's a very gritty look into what I imagine the world of "spies" is actually like. My problem with this film is that the story is a little flat. While somewhat interesting, it certainly isn't new and considering the subject matter, not nearly as compelling as it could have been. A good movie for the most part, but, come on, it couldn't even beat a Talking Animal Movie at the box office it's opening week, so I imagine that most people will see it from their couch. Worth watching.


Six out of Ten

Review: Babylon AD

I'm a sucker for Action/Sci-Fi, and I wouldn't say that I'm a Vin Diesel fan, but he can be all right in the right movie. This is not that movie. I honestly don't know how this movie even got to the point where they put images on film. The story is dumb. I could go on and on about all the things that are wrong with this movie, but I'm going to sum it up in two words. Don't fucking bother.


Three out of Ten.

Walk

The weather has been really great the last few days, especially nice since the kids are all on break for a couple of weeks. We went with Sean and Lynette and their kids and dogs with our dogs down to Seatoun beach.


the kids can't stop climbing up stuff


or climbing down stuff

and the doggies love to play in the ocean


There's lots cool stuff to see

When we got back, we had some knackered doggies

The kids still had so much energy, some of them reached critical mass

BBQ followed


and to make sure the day wasn't a total loss, I lost the car keys at the beach, but it was OK since the spare set was in the truck ... the locked truck that I could unlock ... if I only had some keys.

Cool Shit

Tom Rothman (Head of Fox) talks Avatar

IESB: So, potentially, this is a franchise?

TR: If it does well, yes, absolutely, in terms of an arena a whole new world. But for us, it isn't any of that, it isn't even the technology, it isn't even the look and the world all of which is the coolest shit I've ever seen, it isn't even any of that, it's that it's a great story. It's just a great story ...

Review: Taken

I've been seeing the trailers for this for a while and it seemed like a pretty decent action flick, but Liam Neeson, as an ass-kicking ex-spy? I wasn't quite sure I was going to buy that one. It turns out that he's pretty good, and a pretty good fit for the role. A role that included some serious ass-kicking. Neeson was pretty good as the ex-agent, ex-husband, ex-father.

This is what a spy movie should be like, And Neeson what what a spy on a mission should be. No questions, no prisoners. People that don't get shot in regular spy movies? In this movie, they get shot. The whole thing is pretty visceral. Unfortunately, it's also the problem with this movie. The premise is simple, but effective. The action is great. The dialogue? Horrendous. The director knows how to direct an action sequence, but either doesn't recognize bad acting, can't be bothered to ask his actors to act well, doesn't know how or just doesn't care. We're talking groan worthy dialogue, just awful.

This one hasn't had too much success at the box office, but I really liked it. I can forgive the bad dialogue and acting since the action was great. You might not want to spend $11.00 to see it in the theater if you're not a big action buff, but it's a definite rental. One that I give


Seven Stars

Review: Wall-E

It must get boring for the guys at Pixar, everything they do is awesome. Not only that, but they really are getting better and better and better at making movies. Wall-E is not only the best movie that Pixar has ever made, it's the best movie that I've seen this year, and it's quite possibly one of the best movies I have seen, ever. There's not a single negative thing I have to say about this movie. It doesn't make for much of a review. Awesome this. Beautiful that. Kids liked it. Funny. Timely. Blah, blah, blah. Go see it so Pixar makes some more money, so they keep making movies like this one.




Ten Stars

Bailout

So the House and Congress let the White House bully them into rushing the most important financial decision, if not since 1929, then ever, passing some god forsaken disaster of a bail out for Wall Street. Private Hudson, what do you have to say about that?