Kindness of Strangers

The gas station was packed this morning, because for some odd reason, in the heart of McKinney, a single gas station was a dime less per gallon than anyone else. And it was packed with industrial trucks. So getting my cute super-crew-cab F-150 in place at a pump was quite an exercise in manuevering. I just about couldn't make it, because there was a big trash can in my way beside the pump, but before I had time to even think about it, a young hispanic guy on the other side of the pump cheerfully moved it out of my way. I was kinda shocked--I can't remember the last time a stranger did something genuinely nice for me--and thanked him. Then I noticed that one of his friends picked up some trash in the area--not his own trash--and put it in the can. And when I left, easing my big fat vehicle out of the space, his friend also kindly held the cable of the gas pump away from my truck, so that it didn't bang into my cab.

It's the little things that matter.

That's Us, All Right

Hardin-Simmons generously provided Rangers tickets and dinner for Alex, two friends, and myself to meet with new-this-fall HSU students. Alex and I hit it off particularly well with a baseball-loving family; their older daughter is starting HSU this summer, will be playing softball, and is staying in the dorm and on the same floor where I was an RA my senior year (which I'm pretty sure most people there thought must have been seven months ago, not seven years ago).

So, as I attempted to keep score--an activity that I dearly love but am only passing decent at--I realized that here Alex and I were, supporting the university at which we met, in the very place we got engaged. I think the only aspect of our marriage that was missing was somebody in Star Wars costume--perhaps that was covered, though, since one of our friends there is a SW/HSU buddy.

In any case, the day was absolutely gorgeous--clear sky, 87 degrees--and for once, I attended a Rangers game that they actually one. By a lot. Woohoo!

The Blind Leading the Editor

Don't let the trailors/reviews for Ultraviolet deceive you. Oh, it's bad, all right, but not in that usual cheesy-sci-fi-movie way of predictably lame plot, hollow lines, and action-focus. Those can still be enjoyed on some level. This movie is more like a collection of those cheesy scenes with badly, slowly filmed action sequences and a jumble of great and subpar CG--that is, a collection of those scenes that the editor chopped up, threw in the air, and then assembled willy-nilly. If the plot originally made sense on paper, it's lost now. It's not just bad--it literally makes so little sense that in a number of scenes, we weren't even sure what was going on.

If you want to watch a gorgeous girl run around in pretty effects and sweet action sequences, there are a lot better choices--cheesy or not--and several even feature Milla Jovovich.

Good to Know

Today at work, I learned that tongue splitting was prohibited by Texas Law in 2003.

Geeky Genius: broken image shirt.

Bryan Singer is Forgiven

...for his absence on X-men 3.

To be honest, I think I could have seen just the opening credits and gone home happy. To hear John Williams's score and then see the unbelievably awesome 80's-style credits flash past, I felt like I was 8 years old. (Not that I was 8 years old in 1978, mind you, but then again I don't think my parents took their infant daughter to see Supes that year.)

**spoiler alert**

My biggest complaints?

• The kid needed a haircut. I thought he was a girl in the trailers. A really unkempt girl.
• Most predictably cheesy moment: Lois in the hospital talking to Superman, saying, "I don't know if you can hear me..."
• Superman's affected enough by kryptonite to get beat up by Lex & Co., but later "overcomes" his weakness enough to hurtle the crystal island into space. The kryptonite-infested crystal island. ...How?
• And Alex has a point about how on earth did Lex get stranded on a tropical island when he was right off New York. Not that I thought about it at the time (unlike the dramatic day/night shift in X-men 3 that drove me crazy).

The biggest potential for disaster?

• In my mind, the kid. Just two days before, a relative spilled the beans on the kid's father to Alex and myself. But they handled it fairly well--he wasn't instantly all-powerful, you didn't actually hear Lois tell Supes (thank goodness), and at first I thought Supes was just going to strongly hint it at the end--but then he had to go and say "son," which I thought was a shame. They were handling it so elegantly--but then again, I'm sure they didn't want 35% of the audience to leave the theater saying, "So what was that about? Why was Richard White's kid so strong?" Sadly, the writers' lack of faith in the audience is probably justified.
• I was also skeptical because beautiful, gorgeous, as those trailers were, Jor-El's voiceover had a distinctly Messiah-like flavor. However, the voiceover being used in a different context in the actual movie, I didn't get that feeling while watching it.
• And I was distinctly unhappy--pre-movie--with Kevin Spacey's casting as Lex--but I take it all back now. He might be old enough to be Superman's dad, but he's so delightfully good. Er, at being evil. (And Parker Posey, as usual, is genius.)

So, favorite things?

• Did I mention the opening credits? What a beautiful ode to the original, and that nostalgia struck a cord in our GenX hearts last night.
• Beauty. Um, did you see the costumes, the sets, the colors, the cinematography? Classic. Gorgeous. I could watch it with no dialogue and be immensely happy.
• Restraint. They almost made it on the kid point, but they really shone through on the romance. Not a lot of mush, and in the end, Superman doesn't get the girl (really). And related to this: Lois didn't find out Clark = Supes. It was elegant instead of eye-rolling.
• The spirit of Christopher Reeve. I was also skeptical of their casting here, and maybe some people won't like his attempt at channeling Reeve's performance, but I thought it was spot-on. His Clark was enjoyable, and his Superman was classic.
• The moment where the kid looks at Superman on the TV, then looks at Clark with that "hmmm" look.

Good to Know

Today at work, I learned that tongue splitting was prohibited by Texas Law in 2003.

Geeky Genius: broken image shirt.

"Supes" of the Day

I will take this tour of the Daily Planet tomorrow, after I’ve seen Superman Returns.

And I have to agree: “Look, Up in the Sky” is a truly spectacular documentary on Superman and all his incarnations. Forgive me, diehard-comic-fanboys, but I have loved Superboy, I buy Smallville on DVD, and I inherently think of Christopher Reeve as Superman and Dean Cain as Clark Kent. Yes, my Superman is a small-and-silver-screen version. Just like my Batman is Bruce Timm’s animated vision.

PartyPartyParty!

And the sun shines on yet another Morning-After-Party.


I very much enjoyed having my pal Auntie K over, and the yummy chow she brought. We played a mean couple of rounds of Mafia--of course, we found out in the first round that it doesn't work out so well when the narrator accidentally kills of one of the Mafia. Oops. But Seth's "Happy 1st of July" cake was fairly funny. I think we'll forgive the narrator flub for that.



Well, for the second party in a row, we had no fireworks--don't you love Drought Stage 3?--but we still had glow sticks! We had glow stick wars outside for awhile, came in for a breather, and--lights out! The whole block was black for quite some time--so we trooped out again and had another round of running around in the dark, throwing little glowing sticks at each other.



Like my neon-lit glasses?



Aside from the fireworks, we missed our Jaime--I think this is the first party in our five years that she's missed--and since we had it on Saturday, it was the first party in awhile where no one stayed overnight (aside from the usual Hardcore Four who are staying longer anyway). But good fun was had by all.



And yes, that's a new hole in my ear.