Arsenal Highlights Part ?

Holiday Post #1: Robin Hood, Whitey, & Christmas Songs

I watched the Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe Robin Hood the other night. I'd been wanting to see is since it came out, but for one reason or another, I'd put it off a while. Before I go further, it must be known that I'm a fanatic for Robin Hood films. I've posted before about Zorro, Pirates, Sci/Fi, well, here's the obligatory Robin Hood post... because the people asked for it... don't ask which people; those who asked, know who they are.

As far as Robin Hood movies go, the new one is pretty good. I still stand behind the Kevin Costner one though. He does a ridiculous job, but the writing is good, & that cast is fantastic. The worst part of the Costner one is that shit song by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting. Of course, the Errol Flynn one is the best, the Daffy Duck one is good, but let's not forget the Disney one w/ the fox. The BBC did a new series a few years ago which was fun, but no one would ever mistake it for something w/ any semblance of period accuracy. The emo hair was silly & the black leather trench coats made the Columbine shooters more than a tad envious.

*Keira Knightly made a tv Disney one called Princess of Thieves... news flash: it sucks.
*I watched a few scenes from Boobs in the Woods on youtube. It's not bad. It's a fun pantomime stage show w/ some pretty silly bits.
*Men in Tights is funny, but I have to admit, I'm not a huge Mel Brooks fan.
*The same year as the Mel Brooks and the Kevin Costner, there was a version w/ Patrick Bergen & Uma Thurman. Sip it.
*Robin of Sherwood was a period-accurate BBC series in the mid-1980s. My biggest problems w/ it is its picture quality. It needs a nice restoration to brighten up the colors a bit. Maybe it's just the reality of filming in England that makes things look constantly rainy.
*Robin & Marion is a fun little movie w/ Sean Connery & Katherine Hepburn. If you haven't seen it, check it out.
*Robin & the Seven Hoods: You get the Chairman of the Board as a 1930s style gangster version of Robin Hood in Chicago... complete w/ musical numbers. don't check it out.
*A 1950s TV version from the BBC is alright. The sets/budget/acting/writing suck, but that's the fun.
*Ivanhoe w/ Robert Taylor & Elizabeth Taylor is fun. I saw it as a kid & still watch it whenever it's on.
*The Douglass Fairbanks silent one is good, but it's not often that one watches a silent movie.

So there you go. Those are the ones I've seen. There are plenty of other, some that I am putting in my queue tonight. I doubt I'll get to them any time soon, but I'm sure I'll get to them some time.

Moving on, The Whitey Morgan & the 78's show in Ypsi on Saturday has become the Whitey Morgan & the 78's show in Maumee, OH on Saturday. That means we won't be able to make it. They'll be in Detroit in a couple weeks though, so check them out there if you too can't make it south of the border.

what's this all have to do w/ Christmas? I'm glad you asked. We're going out to Matthes Evergreen Farm tomorrow to get a tree. In order to get ready, I brought the decorations up & Stephanie started decorating today. This also mean that we got the holiday CDs out, including Dylan's Christmas in the Heart. This also means that I started writing this year's new tune. keep coming back to see the new song soon. Spoiler alert: it deals w/ guns... lots & lots of guns!I still don't get the wig... weird

Some Local Music (Deep Space & Whitey Morgan)

The other night @ The Elbow Room, I treated myself to a couple scotches & a few PBRs. I think the only other PBR I'd ever had was @ a Whitey Morgan show a few years ago when Jean talked me into a "race." It didn't get any better over the last few years, but it was cheap. I got there just in time to see Mr. Shiz finish their cover of Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life." It's an alright song, but there's something about Toussaint that I just don't get. I know there are people out there (Phish, The band & Jerry Gacia included) who really dig (or dug as the case may be) his stuff... maybe I just need to hear more of it. I don't know.

I do know that a fun Dylan cover is always a good time, & as Deep Space took the stage, it was w/ 1 of those that they started. From there they went into "Jump for Joy," an unfortunately lesser known tune by Kingfish. It rocks. After a few more 1st set standards, Sean played 1 of his originals, "Somewhere." It's a cool song, & it shows they should be writing more originals. "Sugar Mags" morphedd into a cool, spacey jam as the sax player from Mr. Shiz joined for a little impromptu jamming that flowed into a fantastic "Other One." Unfortunately, I've never gotten a proper "Other One" though... @ some point it always seems to end. A proper 1 should go all night & maybe into the next day... just like a proper "Dark Star." I'm afraid the bands always feel they need to play other songs too to make people happy, when we all know 1 long, weird 1 is really all we need. A boy can dream. I couldn't remember if they ever actually played the end of "Sugar Mags" until they came around to it out of a fun "Cumberland Blues." They finaly finishedd around 2:30 which is the latest I've ever seen a band go @ a local bar. That was fun, but it seemed that by that point they should have just kept going... a 20 minute "Slipknot" or a happy little "Eleven" would have been fine. Here's the entire set-list:

Set 1: Masterpiece, Jump For Joy, Watching The Wheels > Big R.R. Blues, Ramble On Rose, Tennessee Jed, Just A Little Light, Somewhere >Sugar Magnolia > The Other One > Goin' Down The Road.
Set 2: Not Fade Away > Touch Of Grey, Standing On The Moon > Bertha > Cumberland Blues, Sunshine Daydream >The Last Time

This coming weekend (Friday @ that roadhouse in Chelsea & Saturday @ The Savoy) whitey Morgan & the 78's will be marking their return to the area w/ a couple smoking gigs. I don't think we'll make it out on Friday (babysitting issues), but Saturday in Ypsi for sure. Join us for some good old country tunes, some whiskey & maybe a few more PBRs.

Plum No More

Jean told me yesterday that I nee to post more on here, which was nice to hear because I was beginning to fear that the blog might be dying. Which is also the subject of a panel-discussion on which I'm taking part in a few months @ Purdue... that should be fun. After my talk w/ my brother, I decided to add a tracker to the side-bar to see who is reading & a couple links on bigger blog sites to see if the traffic increases. Time will tell. We don't have to wait for time to tell about the end of my time @ Plum Market though... just read on.I've worked my last shift @ Plum Market. The hours just weren't working out for us so I had to call it a day @ that place. I was almost laid off a few weeks ago, but I talked the assistant manager out of it by thinking quickly & talking even more quickly. As it turns out though, the only thing I could come up w/ was always-already doomed to fail. My plan was that I would work closing shifts on Saturdays, but Saturdays are my only day off. I need some time w/ the wife & kids. I spoke w/ Nicola about it @ the bookstore & she said she could bump me up a little before the holidays, & it looks like I'll be running some sort of writing lab @ EMU-Detroit in the winter. That's still in the planning stages, but it sounds pretty good. If it doesn't pan out, I'll just keep the extra hours @ Nicola's I guess.

When I started @ Plum, I hated it, bu over time, I realized it was a fine, mindless job. The little discount on groceries almost made it affordable, & the food quality is always top-notch. I actually kind of wish it'd worked out for me to stay on, but this will be fine too. Plus, I get to have a story about talking someone out of firing me. That doesn't happen very often. Then again, I thought I was going to be let-go a few times over the course of my 2 year tenure there, so even if I hadn't quit now, the writing was definitely on the wall. And... I got to leave on good terms which was a nice bonus. I wanted to do the storming out thing, but there was really no one on whom to storm out. Aside from the possible mafia ties w/ the owners, they're actually pretty decent people to work for, & it's locally owned. Even though I'm not there any more, y'all should still support the local grocery stores. If not Plum, then Hiller's, Bushe's or Von's.

I've been shopping @ Von's lately. It's a shady-ass place, they have no high-end stuff, but the prices are fantastic. I highly recommend it. Plus, rather than some fancy new-fangled sale/membership card, they have the old-school stamp cards. You literally get stamps to place on a card & when the card is full, you can use it to get extra discounts like this week w/ the 10cents Faygo 2 liter or the 95cents apple juice. Pretty sweet!

Movies w/ the kids

We've given up on Kevin Spacey. After watching 25 of his 47 of his films, we realized we just couldn't watch any more. We'd had enough. We even had Working Girl for a few weeks but never watched it. It was just no longer fun. Once we realized it was more of a chore than a silly pass-time, we found a new movie game to play: watching music bio-pics w/ the kids (perhaps we could have just gotten hooked on Sarah Palin's new reality show instead... we'll see).So far, we've watched Coal Miner's Daughter, La Bamaba, & Walk the Line (plus a doc. about The Highwaymen, a Waylon Jennings Austin City Limits video, & Footloose [not a bio-pic but a music movie none-the-less]). Aiden is only 1/2 watching them, but Solstice seems to really be liking them. She said, "it's like you're trying to coerce me into liking this old music... & it's working." I'd never seen Coal Miner's Daughter before. It's fantastic. In fact, I'm kind of embarassed about the fact that I'd never seen it. Walk the Line is obviously good, but I always have a hard time w/ the circular saw/dead brother issues. It seems so forced, like they're trying to play w/ our emotions.

Of course, Footloose is 1 of the few films that always, w/o question, makes me squeeze out a few tears (the others being Casablanca... the French National Anthem scene, The Sound of Music... the Edelwise scene @ the end, & Toy Story 2... the Jessie song about her pevious owner). The scene that does it for me in Footloose comes @ the end as Dianne Wiest's & John Lithgow's characters are outside of the dance. I guess it's the whole "child growing up & finally being allowed to find her own way in the world" thing. That's also the issue w/ Toy Story 2. Of course, I've also been known to get a tad verklempt during the Footloose book burning scene. I'm pretty sure I didn't cry during the other movies though. We've got Honeysuckle Rose for this week & I just put the new Jeff Bridges movie, Crazy Heart, in the queue. I don't think Sid & Nancy or The Doors will go over well yet though. I may need to give it a couple more years on those.What about Ray? Is that ok for the kids? Maybe Beyond the Sea would be alright too. The problem w/ that one is that it's a Spacey so I might needd to hold off on it for a while. That said, if you can think of any other good music related films to watch w/ the kids, leave 'em in the comments.

RIP: Dino de Laurentis

We here @ Drifting have a love/hate relationship w/ shitty movies. We love them, but we know we should hate them. At least that's the case w/ old ones. We have little time for the newer ones, but the older ones are often top-notch. One of the people responsible for many of these films, Dino de Laurentis, died today. It turns out, I haven't seen nearly as many of his films as I thought, or in other words, he got his grubby paws into a shit-ton of b-flicks (& a few really good ones). As far as his good films are concerned, I'd say La Strada & Serpico are his best, but let's focus on the less-the-good ones. In honor of his long, illustrious career, here's my top 5 Dino de Laurentis films (then you can go over his career & let us know how Army of Darkness & Dune are actually the better films):
5) King Kong (1976)
4) Conan the Barbarian (1982)
3) Mandingo (1975)
2) Conan the Destroyer (1984)
1) Flash Gordon (1980)

Arsenal Highlights on the New Blog... Enjoy

Dream Journal #1

I think I have more than the common number of strange dreams, & I love talking about them. These 2 points got me thinking that they would make for a nice change of pace on the blog & get us away from the regularly scheduled soccer posts (except for the fact that one of these dreams is oddly soccer related.

To set up the first one, you must understand that we've been talking about moving next spring to save some cash & get a bit of a more rural lifestyle. W/ that in mind, here's dream #1.

I found a cheap apartment in a complex near campus devoted solely to hardcore Arsenal fans. It had a weird floorplan, but had 3 bedrooms & wasn't too expensive. I moved our stuff in & Stephanie & the kids were going to join me the next day. I'd had a hard time meeting the credentials, but we got the apartment none-the-less. It was then that I was laying in bed (right near the front door) w/ Nick Hornby all snuggled under the covers and looking @ old family photos. Arsene Wenger came in & demanded I fill out extra paperwork for the apartment. I was kind of surprised by his close involvement, but Hornby & I accepted it & I filled out the forms. He read them over & flipped out about the fact that I have kids. He said kids weren't allowed in the complex (equal housing codes aside). I explained that we'd already been approved & that he couldn't make me move out. He also seemed rather interested in the homoerotic moment I shared w/ Nick Hornby (which didn't surprise me as much as the news that broke yesterday linking him w/ a 39 year old female French hip-hop artist).

Most of this dream is pretty weird, but Stephanie has a nice little analysis that suggests Hornby is symbolic of Dan, as we were sharing a blanket & looking @ maps while watching a soccer game a few months ago. Not a bad reading of the dream, it must be said.

In dream #2, we find our fearless hero shopping for a bathing suit while preparing to go on a family vacation. Here we go.

I walk into Sun & Snow, the sporting good store next to Nicola's look for some new trunks. All I could find were Speedos, & the salesperson claimed that's all they carried. I was shocked, but the store was totally void of regular bathing suits. He claimed that no one was wearing them anymore & that Speedos were now all the rage. W/o any other options, I started trying them on.

I woke up before I made any purchases, so I don't know if a Speedo purchase was ever really in the cards, but the more I think about it, the more I think getting a Speedo would be pretty sweet. If it happens, you can be sure there will be plenty of pics.

More to Come

So here's the 2nd post on the new blog. I've been contemplating this for a couple days; the idea of creating & maintaining this seems a little silly since the readership has gone down lately, but w/ the European Championships are just 2 short years away, plus we have the Celebrity MILF of the Year contest coming up soon so it seems like I need to suck it up & push forward. With the holidays right around the corner, you can also expect the newly penned holiday song so keep on checking back & we here @ Drifting will keep updating.

Stay strong, true believer.

Meet the New Blog... Same as the Old Blog

Blogger updated the log-in page so I can no longer access Vision of Ypsi. You, faithful reader, can still read the old posts, but there will be no more updates there. I'd been using that blog for about 4 years, & when I created it, I was working @ Jackson Community College. I used my JCC email as the log-in, but it was never associated w/ a Google account. As of today, Blogger needs a google account so I went to update it, but since I don't work there anymore, I can't access it to verify the account. That means a whole new blog is in order.

My very 1st blog, you may remember, was called "Leshlush," a nice little Phil Lesh reference. When I created a new 1, we went w/ a Dylan reference (which is in turn a Kerouac reference). In keeping w/ the musical references, I decided on a nice Bob Wills tune. Who was Bob Wills? Come now! He's still the king of Western Swing! check out this footage of him doing "Deep Water" w/ His Texas Playboys:
As we move forward w/ this new blog, we'll be getting many of the same things you've come to expect from the old blog, but we'll add a few new bells & whistles to keep everyone on his or her toes. If you have a site that should be linked, let me know... if you have suggestions to help this one... let me know. Keep the comments coming & be sure to watch Arsenal & see Whitey Morgan & the 78's when you get the chance.