The Obligatory
"Play safe. Ski only in clockwise direction. Let's all have fun together."
Sunday, June 11, 2006
A Prairie Home Companion
Just caught the Robert Altman / Garrison Keillor film version of "A Prairie Home Companion."
Excellent.
Excellent, excellent, excellent.
It's subtle, dry, sad, slapstick, and beautiful to look at. The characters wash over you in waves of overlapping dialogue and buried jokes, the script is brilliant, and it's got lots of folk and bluegrass music ... which is always a plus in my book.
If you're in the mood for some slower summer cinema, it's definitely worth the ticket price. And if you really dug "A Mighty Wind" and "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" you really owe it to yourself to see this.
Excellent.
Excellent, excellent, excellent.
It's subtle, dry, sad, slapstick, and beautiful to look at. The characters wash over you in waves of overlapping dialogue and buried jokes, the script is brilliant, and it's got lots of folk and bluegrass music ... which is always a plus in my book.
If you're in the mood for some slower summer cinema, it's definitely worth the ticket price. And if you really dug "A Mighty Wind" and "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" you really owe it to yourself to see this.
that one guy you know, 12:15 AM
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|
| | | | | | | | |
6 Comments:
Kat had to explain to me what it's origins were, she grew up on NPR, so I imagine we'll go see it.
Yes indeed. If you have never heard the radio show, I strongly suggest you check your local NPR station listings for it. Radio the way it was meant to be.
There are also two good articles on Salon regarding the movie, here and here.
There are also two good articles on Salon regarding the movie, here and here.
Welcome back, Pete. How was Death Valley?
With a high temperature of 125, a daytime low temperature of 112 and a nighttime low temperature of 91; nine days, 45 gallons of water, 2 blown tires, a broken bike rack, a broken BIKE, A BROKEN TENT (!!), one nasty sunburn and several hundred photos later, I can honestly say... it was the BEST vacation I have ever taken.
Don't get me wrong, everything that went "wrong" was fairly well anticipated and well prepared for, so at no point was the trip delayed, but I am sad to say that after all of that, I spent my final day at the Furnace Creek Ranch drinking Indian Wells' Mojave Gold beer at 11am, instead of driving down to Joshua Tree. Next year, though.
I had to settle for hiking Wildrose Peak (9,064ft with an elevation gain of ~2000 over 4.2mi) instead of Telescope Peak, as the latter was surprisingly still snow bound at 11,049ft, and I had no crampons or other equipment. But no worries, the views were still spectacular.
Some other highlights included:
The Eureka Dunes (highest sand dunes in California) where I ran into a National Geographic film crew filming footage for some sort of sand-centric story. I got to see all the cheats and tricks they employ to get those awesome shots.
From there I visited the Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed with it's mysterious moving rocks.
I then descended into Death Valley proper to experience some of the most painful heat you can ever imagine. I had to flee the valley at night and camp in the hills, as the ground temperature at midnight at Furnace Creek was 180F and did NOT make for good sleeping.
From there, I drove out Warm Springs Canyon to Butte Valley to see the spectacular Striped Butte, and on my return trip through the canyon I slept in the old Warm Spring Camp, a collection of abandoned, but camper maintained buildings set amongst a lush oasis that made up a mining camp in the 1800's. There was a spring fed swimming pool, but I was too chicken to swim in it, as the water was quite dark and I couldn't see the bottom.
In between all that, I did as much hiking and biking as possible. Random canyons, abandoned mines, that sort of thing.
The heat was unbelievable. Sadly, while I was hiking up Mosaic Canyon, a lady from Germany succumbed to the 115F heat and passed away. She was found with only a half liter bottle of water. I believe the park service people I talked to said she is the first victim of the elements so far, this year. But, they said, she will not be the last. It's a shame.
Anyways, I should get me one of these blog thingies, and do a proper write up rather than take up all your comment space. So, I'll cut it short and just say I'm already planning for next year. I could have taken any one large region of the park I visited and spent the entire week there alone, which is exactly what I plan to do next time.
But, I think I'll choose a little bit of a cooler time of the year...
(I'll let you know when I have all the pictures up on flickr)
Don't get me wrong, everything that went "wrong" was fairly well anticipated and well prepared for, so at no point was the trip delayed, but I am sad to say that after all of that, I spent my final day at the Furnace Creek Ranch drinking Indian Wells' Mojave Gold beer at 11am, instead of driving down to Joshua Tree. Next year, though.
I had to settle for hiking Wildrose Peak (9,064ft with an elevation gain of ~2000 over 4.2mi) instead of Telescope Peak, as the latter was surprisingly still snow bound at 11,049ft, and I had no crampons or other equipment. But no worries, the views were still spectacular.
Some other highlights included:
The Eureka Dunes (highest sand dunes in California) where I ran into a National Geographic film crew filming footage for some sort of sand-centric story. I got to see all the cheats and tricks they employ to get those awesome shots.
From there I visited the Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed with it's mysterious moving rocks.
I then descended into Death Valley proper to experience some of the most painful heat you can ever imagine. I had to flee the valley at night and camp in the hills, as the ground temperature at midnight at Furnace Creek was 180F and did NOT make for good sleeping.
From there, I drove out Warm Springs Canyon to Butte Valley to see the spectacular Striped Butte, and on my return trip through the canyon I slept in the old Warm Spring Camp, a collection of abandoned, but camper maintained buildings set amongst a lush oasis that made up a mining camp in the 1800's. There was a spring fed swimming pool, but I was too chicken to swim in it, as the water was quite dark and I couldn't see the bottom.
In between all that, I did as much hiking and biking as possible. Random canyons, abandoned mines, that sort of thing.
The heat was unbelievable. Sadly, while I was hiking up Mosaic Canyon, a lady from Germany succumbed to the 115F heat and passed away. She was found with only a half liter bottle of water. I believe the park service people I talked to said she is the first victim of the elements so far, this year. But, they said, she will not be the last. It's a shame.
Anyways, I should get me one of these blog thingies, and do a proper write up rather than take up all your comment space. So, I'll cut it short and just say I'm already planning for next year. I could have taken any one large region of the park I visited and spent the entire week there alone, which is exactly what I plan to do next time.
But, I think I'll choose a little bit of a cooler time of the year...
(I'll let you know when I have all the pictures up on flickr)
You should absolutely get yourself a blog. And put yourself on the Flickr, so I can add you as a contact.
Your trip sounds awesome. AND you got to see a National Geographic crew?
Color me jealous.
Your trip sounds awesome. AND you got to see a National Geographic crew?
Color me jealous.
I will see what I can do on the whole blog dealy.
But tangential to the original topic, have you had a chance to check out Al Gore's movie, The Inconvenient Truth? It's not playing everywhere, yet, but I had a chance to see it here in Chicago over the weekend, and I know the topic is of interest to you.
Depending on how well read you are on the topic of global warming, you may not learn much new, but I think if enough people were to see it, a good percentage of them might start thinking "hmm, maybe I should start paying more attention."
I suggest it to you and your readership. Be sure to watch the credits :)
But tangential to the original topic, have you had a chance to check out Al Gore's movie, The Inconvenient Truth? It's not playing everywhere, yet, but I had a chance to see it here in Chicago over the weekend, and I know the topic is of interest to you.
Depending on how well read you are on the topic of global warming, you may not learn much new, but I think if enough people were to see it, a good percentage of them might start thinking "hmm, maybe I should start paying more attention."
I suggest it to you and your readership. Be sure to watch the credits :)
