So... Avatar?

Most folks inhabiting The Realm have certainly heard tell or scene the previews of the upcoming Avatar movie. I believe it's out in theaters this weekend.

A synopsis (warning: some spoilers) from IMBD is here. A little bit more brief plot summary I pulled off the Web without the spoilers would be: a crippled ex-Marine is chosen to make contact with the mysterious people as a remotely controlled avatar.

James Cameron, writer and director of other sci-fi flicks such as The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Abyss, Aliens -- some of which I'd rate as classics -- writes, produces, and directs this film. And then, of course, he also is an Oscar winner for his efforts on Titanic. Early reviews for Avatar seem positive enough, and as far as special effects, there have been some reviews that are off the charts.

Personally, on one hand, this movie is one I'm somewhat looking forward to and certainly plan to see, but my expectations haven't been that high, for whatever reason. Back in the day, I sort of felt the same way about Aliens going into the movie, and lo and behold I was blown away, as Aliens is one of my all time favorite movies. One of the cool factors in Aliens was the characterizations of the marine outfit involved, and marines are used again in Avatar, so I've got a feeling Cameron will do well there. Also, I give high marks for the appearance of the alien race, the Na'vi, employed in Avatar.

Perhaps, I'm lost in my own world, but I just haven't heard the word of mouth at work, church, in the community, etc. on this film. Of course, I've seen a few promotionals and a trailer, but it's not like Spider-Man IV is coming out.

What about you guys and gals? What's the word you're hearing? And what are your thoughts on Avatar? Anyone dying to be there the first night? Anyone thinking, "I'll just skip this one"? I look forward to hearing anyone's thoughts on this one. I'd like to be psyched up!

Why I Can't Stand Mainstream Radio Anymore

Billboard put out its Top 200 Albums of the Decade. Guess who topped it without looking at the pic. I have to go pretty far down the list to even find a CD I might enjoy.

Really, I have no words.

Favorites: Music

"It's like..it's like ANOTHER favorite, but not as much.not as MUCH favorite.but, they're both good.they're BOTH good." -- Brian Regan

Just like Brian, I have favorites. And least favorites. Unique, I know. Favorites are like opinions, which are like bellybuttons, which are like other various and sundry other unnamed body parts. Everybody has one.

But that's the beauty of the blogosphere. I tell you mine. You tell me yours. And we revel in the sameness or debate the differentness.

And that's what I'll do in this series that I'll call -- wait for it -- wait for it -- "Favorites". In this episode, our hero (The Diabolical Genius) much like Maria Von Trapp will reveal of few of his Favorite Things (BTW, I don't know how the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz became holiday movies, but I digress).

Here are my MOST favorites and LEAST favorites in the world of music. And unlike David Letterman, they are presented in Top 5 format. 5 is the number, not 10, 5. It's 5, I tell you.

Least Favorites

5. The Remix. Dance remixes. Radio remixes. Pop remixes. Hip Hop remixes. Yeech.

4. Voice gymnastics, especially when accompanied by hand gestures (thank you no, Mariah and Christina)

3. Song lyrics that either try to make a word rhyme with another just by pronouncing them strangely (i.e. Flo-rida's show and flo') or lyrics that are even more desperate and unoriginal that they rhyme a word with itself (i.e. "I don't mind if you change your mind)

2. Rod Stewart -- the sound, the look, the lyrics, anything

1. Steel Guitar

Most Favorites

5. The bass clef

4. 60's music

3. Penny whistles and bagpipes

2. Epic movie scores (LOTR, Star Wars, Braveheart, etc, etc)

1. Christmas songs. Hymns, classics, silly ones, new classics. Any of them (except 12 days of Christmas)

Very well. There you have it. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Smoking Cigarettes and Watching Captain (Kaaaaang) Kangaroo

Sorry to offend, if I did, with the old Statler Brothers "Counting Flowers on the Wall" number as a post title that I'm still sometimes subjected to when riding passenger in my dad's car. Actually, that's probably the Statler Bros. tune I enjoy the most, so I shouldn't crack on it. Some of the other artists I'm lucky enough to be exposed to in when in my dad's ride -- or he's cranking his music at our family get-togethers:

Oak Ridge Boys
Anne Murray
Elvis Presley (YES!!!)
Freddie Fender

If I'm lucky, I get some:

Johnny Cash
Emmylou Harris

And my brother has since introduced him to:

Over the Rhine

which he likes, and I can be very,very thankful for that. Dad seems to get annoyed when I put my music in, and I still can't figure that out, but oh well.

Now, growing up, the kids in my family heard more than our share of Anne Murray, who seemed to be his favorite, but we also had a lot of this:

Vicki Carr
Tom Jones
Bobby Gentry (one album I remember with Glenn Campbell)
Crystal Gayle
The Kingston Trio (who were his favs)
The Brothers Four (was that the Kingston Trio plus one?)
Roger Miller (whom I still look fondly upon)
Roy Clark
Waylon Jennings
Barbara Steisand

Let me just say for the record, the Vicki Carr lounge lizard stuff:

You're just too good to be true,
Can't take my eyes off of you,
You're like heaven to touch,
I just want to hold you so much,
You're just to be good to be true,
Can't take my eyes off of you.

(Music: BA DAM BA DAM BAM BAM BAMP BAM, BAM BAMP BA DAM BAM!)

I LOVE YOU BAAAAAAAAABY...

Yeah, that stuff. That stuff was merciless. So, too, was Babs, for the most part.

But my questions to The Realm at large are these:

1) What was the music your parents listened to?

and, more importantly (relatively speaking)

2) How do you look back on it?

As major or minor influences in your life or music appreciation? As those silly folks of mine? As in "Please, please no, not that... THE HORRRR-RRRRRRAH!!!"? As in thank you Mom and/or Dad for this or that but NOT THAT?! As in you never give it a second thought? As in "My parents were cool"?

And then the reciprocal question for those that might have children:

What do you think your kids think of your musical tastes now and what will they think when they're older?

Because, despite what I'm saying about my dad, I'm just sure, sure, sure, SURE, SURE... that my kids will think"

"My dad is COOL!!!"

Well, they better.

Joseph's Lament

Traveled too far for the girl to end up like this,
bent in pain, tears mixed with sweat, and totally spent.
The cries of the child, this child not mine, in such darkness,
echoing against the stone walls, rising above the lows and bleats.
Cries that rend my soul.

For a dream did I stake this union, sure that I had heard from the Most High.
Yet, the house filled above, while she and I outcast with beast,
lying in straw and dung, searching desperately for cloths to cover the infant,
speak to the lucidity of my vision.
I am undone.

The arguing in halls overhead stirs the ass beside us.
Handing her the strips I find, she wraps the babe.
Sets him in the swine trough after I clear the refuse.
Footsteps descend from the stairs above, and slurred voices rise.
Who now, at this time of night?

She pulls her garment across her body just as they step into the lower room.
The stench betrays these men as herders, nomads.
I go to stop them when one grasps my arm.
Another trods past and falls to the flooring before the boy.
More follow, speaking of the sign.

Fit near rage, I break from the man's grip,
but then I stop.
These sheepherders, these outcasts, they groan praises.
Praises to the child. To this King. Praises to the Lord God of Hosts.
In this moment I am struck.
Who am I to do this?

Good News Update...

...to the Here's Another Little Something post about one of my co-workers, albeit living in a different state than I do, that I wrote a couple days ago.

Bob Sumrall was found! After seven days!!! Here's an article regarding him being found by a couple of ranchers, and here's another how he managed to stay alive. Apparently, he was lying face down fifteen miles from where his car had been found, and his dog, Zulu, a black labrador retriever, was sitting atop him, and that warmth saved his life. When the ranchers approached, the dog ran away, which is an ongoing story in this whole episode. As the matter of fact, a $2,600 reward has been posted for anyone that finds the dog. Hopefully, they find Zulu!!!

At first, Bob was unconscious, in critical condition, and treated for hypothermia. from another co-worker that he might lose some toes because of the frostbite he endured. He's since come around, and I think is in somewhat better condition.

So praises for that. Thanks to everyone who prayed. And we'll keep our fingers crossed for Zulu!

Bests and Worsts # 1

Name your best and worst of the following:

The Best Kevin Costner Movie:

The Worst Kevin Costner Movie:

The Best Stephen King Novel/Story:

The Best Worst Stephen King Novel/Story:

The Best Seinfeld Episode:

The Worst Seinfeld Episode:

The Best Rolling Stones Song:

The Worst Rolling Stones Song:

The Best Saturday Morning Cartoon Character:

The Worst Saturday Morning Cartoon Character:

The Best Holiday Dessert:

The Worst Holiday Dessert:

The Best Movie/TV Cowboy:

The Worst Movie/TV Cowboy:

The Best of the Newspaper Comic Strips:

The Worst of the Newspaper Comic Strips:

The Best of Superman's foes:

The Worst of Superman's foes:

The Best Christmas Gift You Ever Received:

The Worst Christmas Gift You Ever Received:

That's ten and enough for this round. Feel free, if you want, to add the whys and whatfors regarding your choices. Those tidbits are generally fun to hear.

Go Ode Yourself

Let's see if I have this correctly. The last post crafted up by the Diabolical Genius sounded something a little, a little something, almost exactamentally, close to word-for-word, and something a lot like this. It reads similarly to this:

Where, O where, has my little Rich gone,
Where, O where, can he be,
Not in the parlor, not on the lawn,
Not in the loo to wee.
Poor Richard does not an almanac write,
Young Dick, he nevermore posts,
No clacking of keys and no scrawl of the pen.
The virus has swallowed his byte,
The Trojan has given the Realm up to ghosts,
But the worm cannot shut up ol’ Ken.

Is anyone else catching the irony here? "Irony" is a big word and sometimes misunderstood. Let me e'splain. By my count, since this frolicking, self-serving little poetic injustice here, sixteen posts, including this one, have been penned by the the selfsame victim of this verse. The sum total written at the hand of the author of this "Ode to a Madman" post is a grand, whopping total of negative one (plus one). Zero.

Again, back to the irony. The DG scribes: But the worm cannot shut up ol' Ken.

Apparently, something other than a worm has busted ol' Ken in the proverbial chops. And just on a little bit different tack, all the "Young Dick", "wee" and "Trojan" references...

...please Kenneth. This is a family blog. And we're children's book writers.

Back on point, where is this Lord-O'-Limerick now? Where can be found the Viceroy of Verse? The Sultan of the Sonnet? Or should I say, the Queen of the Quatraine?

Anyhow, I love the irony. Don't you?

Here's Another Little Something

Over the years, on news telecasts and such, I've heard about people getting lost in mountains or when volcanoes blow or in rockslides, etc. I've heard about them. Heard. On the other hand, I've never really known or spoken with those people.

Well, for an unwelcome change, that's not the case anymore. Here's a news clipping on someone that works for one of my business' sister companies that went hiking with his dog out in the mountains of New Mexico. He didn't make it home on time, and then a blizzard hit dropping over ten inches of snow. His wife called him missing the morning after the evening he should have returned home, and the search teams started Sunday afternoon. To this point, no luck. In fact, the latest article here states that the search has failed.

Now, I don't know Bob very well, really don't know him-know him at all, but I have spoken to him on occasion for business-related subjects. I met him when he came to Huntsville once. Now, he's been missing for five days.

Just an odd, odd story. Familiar by other stories of this nature, but nontheless weird. Because it hits a little closer to home, I feel for the family. Prayers for him and his family would be welcome, I'm pretty sure.

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia Chorus

Let's start off the Advent Season here at the blog with this YouTube. A good friend sent it to me, and it's worth a look:



Whattaya think?

Christmas is coming!!!