At the (cheap) movies

Took The Wife and Littledoo to see Wall-E at the cheap movie theater by our house yesterday. I’m generally a fan of the Pixar movies, and this one wasn’t bad. Not as good as The Incredibles or anything, but it was fun taking the big guy to the movies. Here’s one of those things that you don’t know unless you have kids: they have booster seats at the movie theater. Even the cheap movie theater. I got a huge kick out of watching him perched atop his seat, happily stuffing popcorn into his face as fast as I would let him.

If you’ve never had the experience, I highly recommend going to see a little kids’ movie in a theater packed with the under-6 crowd. Their responses, gasps, laughter, and running commentary are infinitely more entertaining than even the best MST3K episode. Well, except maybe the one with Gamera.

The best part of the movie was right at the end. Wall-E has been badly damaged, and his robot girlfriend Eve has to rebuild him out of spare parts. Wall-E reawakens, but does not recognize her, or have any memory of his former quirky personality. He methodically rolls out of his home, and in the process crushes his cockroach sidekick beneath his treads without so much as a pause. It is a very sad scene, and the whole theater was silent, except for the Littledoo, who burst out laughing at tremendous volume. He thought it was hilarious.

I love having a boy.

Papers no more

Ladies and gents, I present to you my second son.

Say hello to Henry.

Early 80’s Cartoons

I love that so many of my favorite childhood cartoons have found their way onto cable TV. Me and Littledoo have been enjoying watching one of them in particular – my all-time favorite, Spider-man and his Amazing Friends.

I could not have been more obsessed with this show, which originally aired when I was five years old. I’m pretty sure it is what turned me on to the whole superhero thing in the first place.

I am sure that the whole reason that they are re-airing these chestnuts is in the hope that guys of my generation will watch them with their kids. Or, barring kids, watch them alone with a box of ding dongs and a six-pack. Whatever. I’m enjoying myself, and so is my three-year-old. He especially likes the part where Peter Parker gets bit by the spider.

Now if only I could manage to record that episode of the Smurfs where they are all biting each other in the butt… nobody else seems to remember this, and I am starting to think I made it up.

As I remember it, some weird fly or something bites one of the smurfs, which turns him purple and stupid. He then runs around yelling “Nyub! Nyub!” or something like that, and then passes along the condition by biting other smurfs in the butt, who in turn bite others, etc. etc. Actually, now that I think of it, it is basically a smurf zombie story. No wonder I liked it.

*****

Ha! I love the internet. I just found proof the episode exists.

Purple Zombie Smurfs - Click to see the whole episode!

Apparently I remembered it pretty much correctly, and it is from an episode in 1981 called “The Purple Smurfs.”

Anyway, I am about to watch Thundarr the Barbarian for the first time since 1984 or so. Can’t wait.

*****

Okay, Thundarr just started. Awesome post-apocalyptic mish-mash of Star Wars and Conan, with absolutely no effort made to hide the blatant ripoff of both. Thundarr looks exactly like He-Man, but he is basically Conan with a lightsaber. It is actually kind of dark for a kid’s show – post-apocalyptic sword and sorcery, kind of like Gene Wolfe. It actually reminds me a lot of The Book of the New Sun.

Watching this now, and rereading the first part of this post, I have come to the realization that Saturday morning cartoons totally shaped my adult interests. Everything I think is cool now, I was watching at age five (including Cubbie games on WGN all summer long) with a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Weird. Either that stuff was super powerful, or I am seriously stunted. Or both.

Election 2008

I feel like I ought be able to muster more interest in the presidential elections, but I just can’t manage it. I feel like I should care more about The Sarah Palin Experience, but mostly I am just befuddled by it. I think maybe McCain has gone dotty in his advanced age. I mean, c’mon, Sarah Palin? Really? I guess Admiral Stockdale wasn’t available.

[NOTE: I too am clearly an old man. Jokes about a failed third party VP candidate from 16 years ago? Yikes. For some reason I watched part of the VMA's on MTV the other night. Not only did I not like any of the music, but I didn't even know who most of the people onscreen were. I am a relic.]

I would like to think that this means the Republicans can start with the first draft of their concession speech, but every time I give a little credit to the voting public, they let me down.

Just in case anybody reading this is still on the fence, though, I do have one thing I would like to say. John McCain is really old. He’s 72, and not looking so hot these days. He reminds me a lot of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election: an aging warhorse who is well past his prime and has clearly lost a step. Point being, he could go at any time. Septuagenarians get sick and die, for no apparent reason other than just being old, all the time. The average life expectancy for white American males is just under 76 years old. If McCain has a stroke or heart attack, or a resurgence of cancer, Sarah Palin would be the President of the United States. Are you ready for that? I don’t think she is.

Otra Vez

Here we go again. We got another offer accepted, on the very best house we have seen yet. Escrow is set to close by the end of October.

The sequence of events required to get us into this house has been pretty intense, and interesting. We put our bid in on this house the first day it was on the market. Turns out that by the time we bid on it, the county First Time Homebuyer program we are using for our down payment was out of money. The only reason that we are able to get the money is that we already had an application in for another property, which subsequently fell out of escrow. So it seems that the only way that we could have got this house, which incidentally is superior in every way to the last one, was to have gone through what we did on the last one. Far out. To my way of thinking, this is a pretty clear case of God’s plan, wisdom, and timeline being infinitely better than my own.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted, but for the time being, all systems are go.

Last Man Standing

2:06 AM. Still no house. Submitting another offer. I will not be defeated.

The Dark Knight

Finally saw The Dark Knight yesterday. Wow. Quite possibly my favorite comic book movie ever. I am sure that the world doesn’t need another blog entry covered with geek drool about it, but I wanted to go on record saying how much I liked it.