No surprise in the tastes of movie critics

Wow. Out of curiosity, I went to Rotten Tomatoes to see what the reviews were for the new flix opening this weekend… in particular, I wanted to see what was said about the new Kevin Sorbo movie, God's Not Dead. Interestingly, there were THREE critic reviews for it, while Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 had a healthy 135 reviews, Divergent had 136, Muppets Most Wanted had 122, and even the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune had nearly 3 dozen, but ONLY THREE critics could find in themselves the stuff to brave a movie with a positive message examining Christian faith. Again, 135 went to the unrated (read: filthy and/or gratuitously violent) film about the recollections of a nympho…go figure.

Your tax dollars subsidizing Hollywood

Technically, it's a tax cut - no stimulus, no actual help hiring the unemployed -- it's just a gift from the Democrats to the propaganda machine that keeps promoting them against national interests. That is to say, Congress is readying itself to give a quarter of a billion dollars in tax subsidies to one of the richest, most successful industries in the country.

With that "stimulus" or "bailout" in mind, I'm thinking that, since we're all taxpayers, we now become part-owners of the studios, so we should be able to go into the nearest cinema, sit down and watch a show without paying for anything but what we pick up at the concession stand. Maybe not every week, but shouldn't we be able to catch at least one free blockbuster per taxpayer, this year? After all, you've paid for it already.

Of course, the problem with this plan is that we first have to find a flick they've produced which we want to see. So far, those pickings are pretty slim.


Update: Well, that didn't take long. It looks as though this particular little gift has been removed from the Generational Theft Act already. Dang, and I was so hoping to see a crappy blockbuster show this year....

John Palmer (EclectEcon) came to Monmouth

I finally met John Palmer face-to-face (pardon the redundancy).

And he brought a band with him...

Here is the band in concert, at Monmouth's Faith Presbyterian Church, Saturday evening.
(click any image to enlarge it)

If you look just past the director's music stand, you can just glimpse the top of John's head... I think he was hiding from the camera. Because, when you're in the middle of playing music with a fine ensemble, the first thing you always think about is cameras...





(click image to enlarge)

Here in wee Monmouth, there were some logistical... um... challenges, putting some stress on the original plans to have every one of the Goderich Laketown Band stay with members of our own municipal band, so my parents were among the few Monmouth families to be able to accommodate an extra person or two. Jackie & Bill Urban had guests in whom they delighted, and Mom & Dad hosted John and young clarinetist Ryan Bearss.

We didn't have nearly enough time with these two... they were wonderful company, engaging in lively conversation and a little geocaching (if I were able to travel more, I could see myself getting into the game, as well).


Anyway, the John and the rest of the band stayed in Momouth the entire weekend, and only just left here after the little storm (here are pix from a few miles north, in the Quad Cities, where power lines are still down in some neighborhoods) cleared the area, a little after 8 a.m. today. Before they left, we had a photo opp. in front of the off-campus student housing complex where the other half of the band members stayed.

The bus driver was very accommodating about taking group shots with everybody's cameras.

I left my camera in my folks' living room as we packed up Mom's car to get John & Ryan to the bus, so I, this morning, learned to use my new phone to take & send pictures:


I managed to capture John in a more traditional fashion a few seconds later, with Ryan in the near background.


Mom wants to know if she can trade her second-oldest kid for either of these guys...

Update: Pop told Mom that those guys were all right. He'd have them back here any time. Expressed approval from Pop is harder to get than dandelions in January, so John and Ryan certainly did wow the crowd.

Monmouth's Living Windows draws good crowds

Thursday night we in Monmouth were hit with a couple of inches of snow

so conditions were pretty good by Friday evening, when Downtown Monmouth had its Living Windows Festival. I got a call from my friend, Janet, asking me if I'd like to join her in exploring events at the downtown extravaganza, so I agreed to meet her about an hour before things were to start.

I got there just a little early, so I took a few pictures of some of the bigger, better buildings in the downtown area, like the Court House

and the Colonial Bank, in full Christmas regalia

and a shot of the barber shop near the old theater.

My friend Marsha's store window was filled with fun -- Santa and his elf, Eric were getting wild and crazy

On the square, Ronald McDonald greeted cookie-buyers and cocoa-hunters

while, in the Christian book store, sweet songs wafted across the shelves, a cappella

and an electric piano accompanied three members of a barber-shop quartet (with surprisingly good results!), at the Wells Fargo bank.

But the big draw is always the Buchanan Center for the Arts/Warren County Library corner. Crowds outside were, sometimes, ten bodies thick, to see

the kids performing in the windows of the BCA.

From the inside, you could see how much magic was in the air

Ghosts of Degas

Past and present

Back out on the street again -- rides in horse-drawn carriages were available for a small fee.

Santa's helpers were following in Hermey's footsteps

To cap off our evening, Janet and I made our way to Turnbull Funeral Home, where, each year, the Monmouth College bagpipers have come to perform in the main parlor...

Following a rousing performance of Scotland the Brave, Janet and I went to the Maple City Baptist Church a block away, where members of the congregation were serving a hot supper -- coffee, cocoa, choice of chili or hot dog, and a variety of deserts. We ended our evening at the door, after having our fill. We said our farewells, I drove home and collapsed, falling almost instantly to sleep, with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head (or, maybe it was sugar-Clydesdales?).

Fish eyes make me nervous

Is it just me, or does the placement of the eyes on the costumes of the Disney On Ice Finding Nemo fish seem a little .... provocative?

Week in the Desert, part 4

By the dawn of Day two (or, should I count the 30% day Monday, and call this day three?), I was still not impressed with my room, because (a) this was my view -- and the interior was even less scenic --
and (b) we couldn't make our cell phones work inside the rooms.

Still, we managed to get ourselves together, and after another great steak-and-eggs breakfast, we made our way to the Sands Expo Center, for AAPEX.

I had a lot of fun collecting pelf and ideas, but by noon, my seester and I had pretty much reached saturation looking at tools and car parts, and were discussing where to go next. The decision was made... the Liberace Museum. It took a little digging around on her "brick," the handheld government-issue blackberry equivalent, but we found directions, and ended up at the first of the two buildings which make up the museum proper.
That front part housed Liberace's collection of cars

(I posted a pic of one, already, didn't I?)

and Pianos, fortepianos, and other keyboard-and-string instruments,

including this spiffy little feller:

which we were hoping to convince my brother-in-law my seester had ordered for delivery at their home for Christmas. Because everybody needs a little night music.

The second part of the museum is at the back end of the parking lot, and is the recognizable landmark piece of architecture shown at their website. That's the part that shows the more...personal stuff.

Like his costumes,

some of the furnishings he lived/worked with, and


some of the gifts he received from his fans

For all the camp Liberace presented on stage, he had a conscience, as well, establishing the Liberace Foundation to fund music education for others. This I had not known until I was preparing for my trip.

But, besides all that, I got the impression he really wanted to see that everybody had a good time... and he seemed not at all unwilling to get silly to make that happen. I can not imagine anybody else, especially in this day and age, who would be willing to wear a rhinestone-and-sequin affair weighing 200 pounds, above platform shoes, while playing a mirror-bedecked piano night after night...

And he was genuinely, sweetly funny.

Maybe that's why the young couple, who arrived at the museum a few minutes after my seester and I did, were so respectful, even though they were far too young to have seen him perform.

Anyway, the museum visit doesn't have to take very long, if your legs are going all wobbly from walking around a trade show, and you can still take in an awful lot of smiles.

We had plenty of time, that afternoon, to pick up my BIL and go see another wonder Nevada has to offer: the Valley of Fire.

I'll post on that, I hope, tomorrow.

Week in the desert, part 2

Tuesday, 30 October. My first full day there. We were up and out of our rooms for breakfast by 6 a.m.

Breakfast in the casino cafe was inexpensive, tasty and filling. One of the things I've missed, here in IL, when I eat out, is freedom from nanny-statism. I hadn't been able to order a rare steak or sunny-side-up eggs since... I can't remember. But I got them both on one plate (as the New York steak and eggs platter -- with hash browns and toast -- for under $8), and nobody said, "I'm sorry, due to risk of bacteria, we can't fix it that way." Ecstasy! So I ate like food was going out of fashion (and knowing there was a good chance I wasn't going to eat again until after sunset, too).

When we were sated, we made our way to the Las Vegas Convention Center, for the SEMA show. Knowing that there would be no parking at the Convention Center, my BIL parked the car in the garage of the Sahara (pronounced Sah-huh-RAH by the Garmin tracking toy) Hotel and Casino, and we rode the monorail down to the show (they'd had a six-ride tik in their packet from the show, so we used it all up in one day).

I won't try to show everything we saw in chronological order -- impressions are best, at this point. But click on any image for a larger view.


Red

white

or blue,

it was all about details.

(On the next afternoon, my seester and I left the scene of the next show (AAPEX) around 1 p.m., and went for a visit to a place where we think we found the inspiration for the "Million Dollar Car" above: The Liberace Museum. What do you think?

Even the tool box is covered with rhinestones.)

But Tuesday, we looked at tons of cool cars and motorcycles, as well as what was the primary purpose of the show -- parts, services, and new technologies.

After we'd seen enough of that show for the day (and there is a saturation point, even when you're loving every second of the sensory input -- and my legs were not being obliging), we left, around one-ish or two-ish, for points south.