...Later. Man, we walked a lot.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Feh, Mai Ly.
Word pun..."Family", get it?!
So my sister and brother in law came out on Sunday and stayed through Friday. We hung out with them mostly on Sunday and Monday and didn't see them again until Thursday.
They ate expensive food mostly because Jason loves food and now Seana does too.
We went to the zoo, butterfly museum, RJ Grunts where we got a caraf of water with a straw in it, and saw "That's Weird, Grandma" by Barrel of Monkeys.
We met up with them again on Thursday and then Friday. Friday was supposed to be a day for family photos...more on that later.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Family Guy
My family is finally all coming to Chicago! My sister and brother-in-law have been here since Sunday (I have some pics that I'll put up). We hung out a little on Sunday and then for a good portion of the day on Monday. I have had rehearsals or shows on Tuesday and Wednesday so I haven't heard from them.
They've hopefully been off enjoying the city and food.
Tomorrow my parents get here and we'll all go to eat dinner and they'll take in a CSz show. Friday will supposedly be hanging out in Millenium Park...but it is supposed to be a mess o' thunder on that day. We'll see what happens.
In other news, I love my iO team. If you seem them together or individually make sure you say "Rance thinks you're aces!"
They've hopefully been off enjoying the city and food.
Tomorrow my parents get here and we'll all go to eat dinner and they'll take in a CSz show. Friday will supposedly be hanging out in Millenium Park...but it is supposed to be a mess o' thunder on that day. We'll see what happens.
In other news, I love my iO team. If you seem them together or individually make sure you say "Rance thinks you're aces!"
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Spielberg and Lucas: More Bad Movies, Disected
Movies directed by Spielberg that I liked:
Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hook, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal
(there were others on the list that I either didn't care for or didn't see...I didn't see Munich or Amistad(maybe I saw Amistad))
Movies written by Lucas that I liked:
Willow, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars IV-VI, American Graffiti
When you look at Spielberg's work it is pretty diverse and there is a lot of great stuff.
When you look at Lucas' work from the 80s on it is pretty much all Star Wars. He BLEW IT with Star Wars I-III...why are we still letting him try to write sequels to stuff? He gets an idea and milks it too much and with too much space in between.
I have three things to say to lock my case against Lucas' writing and give me the win:
-Jar Jar Binks
-Count Dookoo
-Mutt Williams
Rance wins.
Spielberg? Well...I still like him. Even if he did have crappy lighting...but, c'mon man!
Close Encounters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Hook, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal
(there were others on the list that I either didn't care for or didn't see...I didn't see Munich or Amistad(maybe I saw Amistad))
Movies written by Lucas that I liked:
Willow, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars IV-VI, American Graffiti
When you look at Spielberg's work it is pretty diverse and there is a lot of great stuff.
When you look at Lucas' work from the 80s on it is pretty much all Star Wars. He BLEW IT with Star Wars I-III...why are we still letting him try to write sequels to stuff? He gets an idea and milks it too much and with too much space in between.
I have three things to say to lock my case against Lucas' writing and give me the win:
-Jar Jar Binks
-Count Dookoo
-Mutt Williams
Rance wins.
Spielberg? Well...I still like him. Even if he did have crappy lighting...but, c'mon man!
More Bad Movies
Someone commented lately that Knocked Up, Juno, and Walk Hard are all good movies. I liked Knocked Up, haven't seen Walk Hard, and Juno is still a piece of crap. What movie then is just slightly better than Juno? You may be asking.
Indiana Jones and the This Movie Should Have Come Out 10 Years Ago (or something about a crystal skull). A friend of mine had an extra ticket to see the midnight showing of this on opening night. What does the ghost say? The ghost says "boo." And so do I to this film. On many levels. The lighting...particularly in the beginning...was AWFUL. Although they did come back to have a cool lighting effect in the tent when Indy is hostage...you'll know it if you see it. Mutt Williams is the character name of Shia LeBouf...Mutt. Indiana Jones...Indiana is the dog's name according to his dad, so why would Shia's character be Mutt?
Lucas and Spielberg have lost it...well...Spielberg may still have it. I'll need to see something recent of his to prove it. Lucas wrote Indy 4 and Spielberg directed it. Lucas' writing for this movie is right on parr with Star Wars I-III.
You'll probably go see it, but it is advised to at least wait for video. I don't know if there was anything after the credits because at that point I didn't care.
"But wait, Rance. You said 'slightly better than Juno' right?" Yes. I could at least sit through the awfulness. Juno made me want to shut it off so many times.
If you like shots of Indy's hat and of him putting it on then you will LOVE Indy IV.
I'm going to get on IMDB.com and find out what Lucas and Spielberg movies are recent.
Indiana Jones and the This Movie Should Have Come Out 10 Years Ago (or something about a crystal skull). A friend of mine had an extra ticket to see the midnight showing of this on opening night. What does the ghost say? The ghost says "boo." And so do I to this film. On many levels. The lighting...particularly in the beginning...was AWFUL. Although they did come back to have a cool lighting effect in the tent when Indy is hostage...you'll know it if you see it. Mutt Williams is the character name of Shia LeBouf...Mutt. Indiana Jones...Indiana is the dog's name according to his dad, so why would Shia's character be Mutt?
Lucas and Spielberg have lost it...well...Spielberg may still have it. I'll need to see something recent of his to prove it. Lucas wrote Indy 4 and Spielberg directed it. Lucas' writing for this movie is right on parr with Star Wars I-III.
You'll probably go see it, but it is advised to at least wait for video. I don't know if there was anything after the credits because at that point I didn't care.
"But wait, Rance. You said 'slightly better than Juno' right?" Yes. I could at least sit through the awfulness. Juno made me want to shut it off so many times.
If you like shots of Indy's hat and of him putting it on then you will LOVE Indy IV.
I'm going to get on IMDB.com and find out what Lucas and Spielberg movies are recent.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Birthdays and Terrible Movies
Two major developments. First, I had a Johnny Roast Beef show tonight at iO. Our team has a group email that we use to communicate to each other, but Jim's birthday was today! I had reminded everyone last week that my calendar said Jim's birthday was today and that we should do something. Brendan made cupcakes and we planned to not say anything to him at all until we got on stage. Once we got on stage the plan was for none of us to step up to get a suggestion, know that he would. As soon as he did we all sang happy birthday.
However, while we were singing he was turning to us and saying "it's not my birthday." We figured he was lying. He wasn't. After our show we had a chance to check the facts. I said "I don't know what's up! My calendar said it was today...see? Oh." My calendar ACTUALLY said 5/28. So, I had been instrumental in organizing a birthday surprise...that was two weeks away from the actual date. It was funny though and we decided it would be fun to do in the future. So, any show could end up being a "birthday."
In other news, I've been waiting to see the movie Juno. We kind of missed it while we were on the ship and all the buzz was happening. I had heard it was great. I like Michael Cera and Jason Bateman a lot. It won an oscar for original screenplay, so...I waited. It finally was released on DVD so I put it in my netflix queue.
Michael Cera is the ONLY reason I watched this all the way through. The worst thing about this movie was...oddly enough...THE SCREENPLAY. The writing was awful! It started off with teens saying stuff I've heard NO ONE IN MY LIFE every say. Not dirty, just "this is how I imagine the kids talk today" stuff. Boo. Then the adults ended up having weird dialogue as well. It tapered off a bit as the movie progressed, but every time it came back it was like a slap to the face.
And it wasn't just the language...this sixteen year old girl is an expert in music knowledge AND classic horror films AND ancient pop-culture references? No way. Deanna was wayyyyyy less forgiving than I was. I gave it a chance, but I had my breaking moment where I was only watching the movie for Michael Cera moments, or the end. There is this other girl that Michael Cera's character would never date because she and her house smells like soup. BUT, he ends up inviting her to the prom. As Juno goes off on him she reffers to his date as Soupy Sales.
.
.
.
Soupy Sales. If you are a high school student who knows who Soupy Sales is AND knew who he was before Juno came out, please let me know. But I'm pretty sure that there is NO WAY IN HELL she should know that.
In comedysportz we do buyout shows for high school groups sometimes. Something I find hilarious is when someone drops a reference from before the kids were born. Usually it involves the high school audience giving the suggestion of "the 80s" and then not understanding any references to the 80s except "rubik's cube." But once in a show...I think last year...someone on stage actually said Soupy Sales (or maybe it was Nipsy Russell) and got ZERO reaction. Zero. Which is as it should be.
Like watching movies that seem pretentiously written? Watch the first 5 minutes of Juno and decide to carry on or not. You realllllllly need to like Arrested Development or Super Bad to go further than that.
However, while we were singing he was turning to us and saying "it's not my birthday." We figured he was lying. He wasn't. After our show we had a chance to check the facts. I said "I don't know what's up! My calendar said it was today...see? Oh." My calendar ACTUALLY said 5/28. So, I had been instrumental in organizing a birthday surprise...that was two weeks away from the actual date. It was funny though and we decided it would be fun to do in the future. So, any show could end up being a "birthday."
In other news, I've been waiting to see the movie Juno. We kind of missed it while we were on the ship and all the buzz was happening. I had heard it was great. I like Michael Cera and Jason Bateman a lot. It won an oscar for original screenplay, so...I waited. It finally was released on DVD so I put it in my netflix queue.
Michael Cera is the ONLY reason I watched this all the way through. The worst thing about this movie was...oddly enough...THE SCREENPLAY. The writing was awful! It started off with teens saying stuff I've heard NO ONE IN MY LIFE every say. Not dirty, just "this is how I imagine the kids talk today" stuff. Boo. Then the adults ended up having weird dialogue as well. It tapered off a bit as the movie progressed, but every time it came back it was like a slap to the face.
And it wasn't just the language...this sixteen year old girl is an expert in music knowledge AND classic horror films AND ancient pop-culture references? No way. Deanna was wayyyyyy less forgiving than I was. I gave it a chance, but I had my breaking moment where I was only watching the movie for Michael Cera moments, or the end. There is this other girl that Michael Cera's character would never date because she and her house smells like soup. BUT, he ends up inviting her to the prom. As Juno goes off on him she reffers to his date as Soupy Sales.
.
.
.
Soupy Sales. If you are a high school student who knows who Soupy Sales is AND knew who he was before Juno came out, please let me know. But I'm pretty sure that there is NO WAY IN HELL she should know that.
In comedysportz we do buyout shows for high school groups sometimes. Something I find hilarious is when someone drops a reference from before the kids were born. Usually it involves the high school audience giving the suggestion of "the 80s" and then not understanding any references to the 80s except "rubik's cube." But once in a show...I think last year...someone on stage actually said Soupy Sales (or maybe it was Nipsy Russell) and got ZERO reaction. Zero. Which is as it should be.
Like watching movies that seem pretentiously written? Watch the first 5 minutes of Juno and decide to carry on or not. You realllllllly need to like Arrested Development or Super Bad to go further than that.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
SPACE TULIPS!
I've never seen a tulip like this...until now of course. A majority of the yards in our neighborhood have tulips. One yard in particular has this one pointy tulip just hanging out with other normal tulips. It's from space.
Going to the Chapel...
Our friends Shad and Kate got married today. It was a grand gathering of improvisors from all over the town. AND it was on a Saturday. I'm not sure how any shows actually happened.
It was a great time and great to see everyone there.
Congrats to Shad and Kate!
It was a great time and great to see everyone there.
Congrats to Shad and Kate!
Friday, May 09, 2008
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Christmas Bonus
I had a little bonus when I went to Starbucks. You know how sometimes you get coffee and you're like "this is good and everything, but I really want to be able to chew on something or feel like I was at the beach swimming with my eyes shut and my mouth open when a wave pushes me face first into the sand"? Well, Starbucks gave me that sensation we all dream of. A big mouthful of grounds.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Memories
So, before we left for our ship adventure we had to pack up everything and put it into storage. During this packing process we sold a lot of stuff as well as throwing away junk.
I went through all of my cassettes and kept one. A cassette that has been with me for 2/3 of my life at least. I got it as a Christmas present with my first walkman when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure we were even having Christmas at Grandpa Vernie's in Bend. It was the year I started listening to the radio. Music started being more important.
Start trying to guess. What cassette do you think is important to a kid that has some song he heard on the radio?
(continue once you have a guess)
.
.
.
.
.
.
NOPE! The album is Meco Ewok Celebration. Yes, Meco...the group(? guy?) who did the disco versions of the initial Star Wars songs.
Why keep that, Rance? Because it was the first song I memorized (no English) and I STILL remember all of the words of the weird C3PO rap part...I just don't know if I have them in the right order.
So you kept it for one song? No, there's more! There were only so many songs from Return of the Jedi that were repeats of songs from the earlier movies (Imperial March, etc.) so the first side of the tape has Ewok Celebration and Lapti-Nek (a song from Jabba's Palace/Saloon) from RotJ and Main Title, The Land of the Sand People, Princess Leia's Theme, The Last Battle, and End Theme...all from Star Wars. That's just side one.
The other side, just as you would imagine would come with Star Wars songs, has the following:
Nights Are Forever from Twilight Zone: The Movie
Theme from Simon and Simon
Maniac from Flashdance
Love Theme from Superman III
and Themes from Wargames
It is a crazy mix up jubalee that makes no sense...and I'm keeping it. I don't have a cassette player, but I have this cassette.
And, as I typed this, I cannot shake the saxaphone solo from the Simon & Simon theme. It will be in my head for a while.
I went through all of my cassettes and kept one. A cassette that has been with me for 2/3 of my life at least. I got it as a Christmas present with my first walkman when I was a kid. I'm pretty sure we were even having Christmas at Grandpa Vernie's in Bend. It was the year I started listening to the radio. Music started being more important.
Start trying to guess. What cassette do you think is important to a kid that has some song he heard on the radio?
(continue once you have a guess)
.
.
.
.
.
.
NOPE! The album is Meco Ewok Celebration. Yes, Meco...the group(? guy?) who did the disco versions of the initial Star Wars songs.
Why keep that, Rance? Because it was the first song I memorized (no English) and I STILL remember all of the words of the weird C3PO rap part...I just don't know if I have them in the right order.
So you kept it for one song? No, there's more! There were only so many songs from Return of the Jedi that were repeats of songs from the earlier movies (Imperial March, etc.) so the first side of the tape has Ewok Celebration and Lapti-Nek (a song from Jabba's Palace/Saloon) from RotJ and Main Title, The Land of the Sand People, Princess Leia's Theme, The Last Battle, and End Theme...all from Star Wars. That's just side one.
The other side, just as you would imagine would come with Star Wars songs, has the following:
Nights Are Forever from Twilight Zone: The Movie
Theme from Simon and Simon
Maniac from Flashdance
Love Theme from Superman III
and Themes from Wargames
It is a crazy mix up jubalee that makes no sense...and I'm keeping it. I don't have a cassette player, but I have this cassette.
And, as I typed this, I cannot shake the saxaphone solo from the Simon & Simon theme. It will be in my head for a while.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Finally, Right?
So, I've been slacking on the blog. Not like Jen does, but enough.
Things have fallen into a steady pace here. Not a steady pace like the ship where its "I eat, go to gym, eat, go to snorkel in beautiful water, eat, go to show, eat." But more boring stuff.
I added a bunch of posts (5 or 6) below dating as far back as 4/11/08. Mostly just little blurbs with some photos, but they're there.
We're still working on moving in. Almost have everything accounted for. We have everything unpacked, but a lot of crap that we don't want is lying around. Which means craigslist and Brown Elephant (like Goodwill, for you non-Chicagoans) are a heavy part of our routine.
Um, I guess that is it.
I'm going to go have some popcorn that I love to eat.
Things have fallen into a steady pace here. Not a steady pace like the ship where its "I eat, go to gym, eat, go to snorkel in beautiful water, eat, go to show, eat." But more boring stuff.
I added a bunch of posts (5 or 6) below dating as far back as 4/11/08. Mostly just little blurbs with some photos, but they're there.
We're still working on moving in. Almost have everything accounted for. We have everything unpacked, but a lot of crap that we don't want is lying around. Which means craigslist and Brown Elephant (like Goodwill, for you non-Chicagoans) are a heavy part of our routine.
Um, I guess that is it.
I'm going to go have some popcorn that I love to eat.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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