Hike – Jordan Pond

Jordan Pond and the Bubbles

There are many trails that start from the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park in Maine.  The Jordan Pond House is a very popular destination for both tourists and hikers.  The food there is good (the popovers are excellent) and there are many trails that can be explored.  This post describes an easy loop hike that will take you around the shores of Jordan Pond itself. 

Hike – The Triad

Day Mountain and Seal Harbor from the Triad

There are many trails that start from the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park in Maine.  Some are more popular than others.  This post describes a loop hike that starts and ends there that will allow you to avoid some of the crowds that take the more popular trails. 

Hike – Compass Harbor Trail

Bald Porcupine Island from Compass Harbor

This post describes an easy hike on the Compass Harbor Trail, which is very near downtown Bar Harbor.  In fact, you could even walk to the trailhead from the downtown area, if you wanted.  This trail leads out to the ocean and makes a loop on the Dorr peninsula.

Hike – Wonderland, Ship Harbor, Bass Harbor Lighthouse

The ocean off Wonderland Trail

The east side of Mount Desert Island gets most of the attention when it comes to hiking in Acadia National Park.  If you want to get away to some quieter hikes try the west side of the island.  Among these more quiet trails are two short hikes that bring you right down to the ocean.  These are the Wonderland and Ship Harbor trails.  I will also discuss the Bass Harbor lighthouse, which is nearby.

2,500 Views!

This blog just passed 2,500 views.  Sure, that’s not a very big number compared to sites that have hot chicks or cute kittens (or both) on them, but it’s pretty good considering that this site gets almost no promotion via social media and has no reciprocal agreements with other websites.  Knowing this, I’d like to thank everyone who takes the time to visit, and especially those who share a post they like with their friends.

Here are some facts on the five months this blog has been around.

Number of posts:  152 (counting this one)

Most viewed post (48 total) – 2011 Oscar Winners

Most viewed humor post (45 total) – Royal Wedding

Most viewed hiking post (43 total) – Mount Battie and Megunticook Mountain

Most viewed book post (20 total) – Heat Wave

Most viewed movie post (19 total) – Black Swan

Both of these humor and hiking posts appear near the top of specific search results on Google, so the traffic on them has been increasing recently.  One of them will soon be the most viewed post overall.  

It’s interesting that most people who urged me to do a blog did this so that they could read my movie recommendations, yet that is the least viewed genre of posts on the blog.  With good weather finally here the hiking posts have actually been getting the most traffic recently.

Where are the people who read this blog located?  Far and away most traffic comes from the U.S., but people in many other countries access it including Canada, The U.K., Malaysia, Germany, France, Denmark, Australia, Russia, The Philippines, Hungary, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, India, Serbia, Turkey, and many others.

Oh, and in the interest of increasing traffic [Note - no nudity]:

Movie – X-Men: First Class (2011)

This movie is a semi-reboot of the X-Men franchise.  It takes place in 1962 when Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) became friends and gathered their first group of mutants to train.  1962’s Cuban missile crisis plays a big part in the climax of the movie.  I’ll explain what I mean by “semi-reboot” a little lower in the post, but the key thing you should know is that you do not have to have seen the prior three X-Men movies, or the Wolverine movie, to understand who people are or what is going on in this movie.

Movie – The Hangover Part II (2011)

This movie is the sequel to the huge 2009 hit The Hangover.  It returns all of the same cast (Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, etc.), except for Heather Graham.  Jamie Chung replaces her in this movie as a new love interest for Ed Helms’ character.

Like many sequels, and most comedy sequels, this movie is not as good as the original.  They repeat a lot of the same jokes, and while some are still funny, they are not as side-splittingly funny as when we saw them in the first movie.  Still, there are enough laughs to recommend the movie.

Movie – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

This is the fourth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC) franchise.  This time around only Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, and Kevin McNally (Master Gibbs) return.  All the other characters, including Keira Knightley’s and Orlando Bloom’s do not appear.  Director Gore Verbinski also did not return for this movie.

Is it still a PotC movie with just these few?  Yes.  It has the same feel as the others, probably because the writers carried over from the other movies.  Overall it is a step down from the first two; about on par with the third one.

Movie – Thor (2011)

Thor is the first of two movies this summer that Marvel is releasing that will eventually lead up to their huge 2012 Avengers movie.  This film introduces the character of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to movie audiences.  Other key characters are Jane Foster, an astrophysicist played by Natalie Portman; Odin, the king of the Asgardians played by Anthony Hopkins; Loki, the brother of Thor played by Tom Hiddleston; Erik Selvig, another astrophysicist played by Stellan Skarsgard; Darcy Lewis, an intern played by Kat Dennings; and Agent Coulson, the continuity character from the other Avengers-related movies played by Clark Gregg. 

2011 Big Summer Movies Schedule and Reviews

"And I can tell you/ my love for you will still be strong/ after/ the boys of/ summer/ have gone" - Don Henley

The purpose of this post is to give you a quick reference for the big films that are coming out this summer movie season.  I will be writing separate posts for the reviews of the movies I see and I will put the links to those posts in this one, so you may want to save this post for future reference.

Note – so many movies come out every summer, and so many of the smaller ones get moved around or even postponed, that I am going to concentrate on the “big” movies.  These are the ones that are heavily advertised, expensive to make, have big names in them, and/or have had their opening dates scheduled for a long time.

First, the list, then a little more about each movie:

Hike – Cadillac Mountain, West Face

West Face of Cadillac over Bubble Pond

Cadillac Mountain is the highest point in Acadia National Park in Maine.  It is also the highest mountain on the Atlantic Ocean anywhere north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  In the Fall and Winter it is the first place in the U.S. that sees the sunrise.  It has a free auto road that allows people to drive right to the top.  It also has multiple hiking trails to the summit.  Some are more challenging than others.  This post describes a hike up the West Face Trail, the hardest and most dangerous way to summit Cadillac.  It also describes a loop down part of the South Ridge trail, down the Canyon Brook trail, and back along a carriage road to the starting point at Bubble Pond.

Hike – Beech Mountain, South Ridge and West Ridge

Beech Mountain rising over Long Pond

Beech Mountain is located in Acadia National Park.  It is on the west side of Mount Desert Island, away from the more heavily populated trails.  The island is almost cut in half by Somes Sound – the only fjord on the Atlantic side of North America.  Since Bar Harbor, the Park Loop Road, Thunder Hole, Cadillac Mountain, etc. are all on the east side, the west side of the island sometimes gets overlooked.  Hiking on the west side of the island is usually quieter.

Beech Mountain is unique in one respect: it is the only mountain on the island with a fire tower on the top.  There are four trails to the top.  This post will describe a loop on the South Ridge and West Ridge Trails and a segment of the Valley Trail.  See my other Beech Mountain post here describing the trails on the other side of the mountain.

Hike – Long Pond and the Great Notch

Long Pond with Mansell Mtn left and Beech Mtn right

Long Pond is located in Acadia National Park.  It is on the west side of Mount Desert Island, away from the more heavily populated trails.  The island is almost cut in half by Somes Sound – the only fjord on the Atlantic side of North America.  Since Bar Harbor, the Park Loop Road, Thunder Hole, Cadillac Mountain, etc. are all on the east side, the west side of the island sometimes gets overlooked.  Hiking on the west side of the island is usually quieter.

This post describes a hike along the shores of Long Pond then a loop back to the starting point via the Great Notch and Cold Brook Trails.

Hike – Great Head

Great Head as seen from Gorham Mountain

Okay, get your minds out of the gutter.  The “Great Head” in the title refers to the name of the peninsula where the trails are, not what you were thinking.  (Not that those two things are mutually exclusive, but this post will only be describing hikes.)

In addition to covering all of the trails on Great Head I will also go over two additional connecting trails to Great Head from Sand Beach in Acadia National Park.

Hike – Bar Island

Bar Island and sandbar at low tide

Why is Bar Harbor called Bar Harbor (or Bah Hahbah as we say here in Maine)?  Because there’s a bar in the harbor – a sandbar that is.  It is covered at high tide, but when the tide is out it connects the mainland to Bar Island.  This allows for a hike over to the island and up to its highest point with views back to the town.

Humor – Royal Wedding Revisited

When I did my original post on the recent wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (you can find it here) I threw some water on the whole “fairy tale” wedding theory.  Well, I might have been wrong about that.  Check this out:

In my original post I also mentioned that a Facebook page titled The Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society had been made and that in one day it already had 10,000 members.  Well, a month later the count now stands at over 228,000 and they are selling merchandise related to it.

Finally, someone with way too much time on their hands (and a bit of a dirty mind) figured out that if you rearrange the letters in “Kate Middleton” you get “naked tit model”.

Movie – Titan A.E. (2000)

This is an animated movie with characters voiced by Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, Ron Perlman, Tone Loc, and others.  Joss Whedon is one of the credited writers for the screenplay.

The “A.E.” in the title stands for “After Earth”.  The movie opens with the destruction of the Earth by an alien race.  It’s a thousand years in the future and that race fears humankind’s new Titan technology.  They destroy the entire Earth to try to destroy the tech, but the main scientist escapes with it in a ship.  Hundreds of other ships manage to escape the destruction, too, including one that holds the young son of the scientist. 

Movie – Twister (1996)

Twister stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as a pair of tornado scientists who also happen to be a separated husband and wife.  It also stars Cary Elwes as a rival scientist and Jami Gertz as Paxton’s character’s fiancée.  Look for early appearances by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alexa Vega, too.

The movie was director Jan de Bont’s follow-up to Speed.  These two films seemed to set him on a career as a great action movie director, but he killed that by doing Speed 2: Cruise Control. 

Movie – Speed (1994)

Speed is, quite simply, one of the best action movies ever made.  It also made Sandra Bullock a star and cemented Keanu Reeves as an action hero.  Part of what made the movie so great was that the concept was so simple.  There’s a bomb on a bus.  Once the bus reaches 50 miles per hour the bomb arms.  When the bus drops below 50 miles per hour the bomb explodes.  They even put this in the trailers and it immediately grabbed people’s attention – because the bus is in Los Angeles, famous for its traffic jams.  How can you possibly keep a bus going 50 miles an hour in and around L.A.?

Movie – Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story from Pixar studios was the first movie to be completely computer generated.  At the time this was a landmark in movie making history.  There are so many computer generated movies nowadays that most people don’t remember just how big the impact was from this film.

If you go back and look at it you can see just how far cgi animation has come, too.  The most notable difference is the humans.  In Toy Story they are obviously not real and their time on screen was minimized.  By the time Toy Story 3 was done, the animation had advanced greatly and Pixar gave more screen time to human characters.

I’m Back

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t had many updates for the last couple of weeks.  I’ve been away on vacation for part of it, and I was trying to take care of other things before starting the vacation.  I’m back now and I intend to start making regular posts again.

I still have a set of movies to post to complete the All Things Joss Whedon set. 

My vacation consisted of a lot of hiking in Acadia National Park, including the difficult West Face Trail up Cadillac Mountain.  Once I organize my pictures I will be writing that up, along with Great Head, The Triad, Thuya Gardens, Bar Island, Schooner Head, two more trails up Beech Mountain, Long Pond trail, and the Great Notch trail. 

I still have hikes up East Royce in Maine, two hikes up Pleasant Mountain in Maine, two hikes in and around Arethusa Falls, Ripley Falls, and Frankenstein Cliffs in New Hampshire, a recent hike on Mount Cutler in Maine, past Acadia National Park hikes, and others that I will eventually post.  If you have any priority preference among these, let me know.

I have also been reading a series of books that I will be posting about.  The first book – The Game of Thrones – has been adapted as an HBO series.  At 820 pages that book is the thinnest of the four currently published.  The fifth is coming in July and will be the thickest yet.

I may also do a set of posts on the big summer movies that have come out.  It depends on whether I see enough of them or not.  I have only seen Thor so far.  (Short review – 3 stars out of 5 – not great, but decent summer action flick – watch for extra scene after the credits.)

Video – Marriage proposal in a movie theater

Movie theaters show a lot of trailers.  Here’s one that’s different – a man proposes to his girlfriend who is in the theater.  I wonder what the other people in the audience thought about all of this.  (Ladies - some of you may want to have a tissue nearby.)

TV – Veronica Mars (2004 - 2007)

Veronica Mars was a great TV show that unfortunately only lasted three seasons.  It debuted on UPN, and then shifted to The CW network when UPN merged with The WB network.  Even though it had a relatively short run, it had a lot of fans.  Among those fans was Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.  He even appeared in a second season episode both because he liked it so much, and to draw the attention of his fans to the show.  Whedon alumnus Charisma Carpenter also appeared as a recurring character in Season 2 because she was a fan.

TV – Dollhouse (2009 - 2010)

Dollhouse is the most recent TV show that Joss Whedon has had on the air.  His prior shows were Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.  Please see my separate posts on those.

Dollhouse had a curious history.  It appeared on FOX, of all places.  This was the network that had destroyed Whedon’s last show – Firefly.  The network took control of Dollhouse away from Whedon for a while in the first season, until they had to admit that their monkeying with it was not giving the results they wanted.  They turned control back over to Whedon and he spent the rest of the first season’s thirteen episodes trying to get the show back on track.  By then the ratings were so low that everyone expected FOX to cancel it.  They actually renewed it for thirteen more episodes, let Whedon run it the way he wanted, and the result was a great season of television.  By then it was too late, though.  The ratings never recovered and the show was cancelled.

Video – Dr. Horrible at the Emmys

The 2009 Emmys were hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.  His internet serial Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (see my post here) was nominated for an Emmy that year, so it was only natural for him to appear at some point as that character.

Here is the video of Dr. Horrible “hijacking” the Emmys broadcast.  (Hey, who knew accountants could be funny?)  You can tell from the audience’s reaction that most have no idea who he and Nathan Fillion are supposed to be.  They have their personal assistants deal with that “internet thingy.”

Movie – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (2008)

So, you’re Joss Whedon, a prolific writer.  It’s 2008 and there is a Hollywood writers’ strike going on.  This means that you can’t work on that new show Dollhouse that you are developing.  It also means that you can’t do any script-doctoring for movies.  Other than a comic that you are writing each month, you’re pretty much at a standstill.  Your actor/actress friends are also sitting around without a lot to do because with no writers there are no new TV episodes.  How do you write and produce something new without violating the strike, and at the same time give your friends something to do?  You write and produce an internet serial.

Movie – Done the Impossible: The Fan’s Tale of Firefly and Serenity (2006)

Done the Impossible is a documentary about the fans and fandom of the Firefly TV show and the 2005 Serenity movie.  These people call themselves “Browncoats”.  It includes excerpts from extensive interviews the filmmakers did with pretty much the entire cast and creators of the show.  Its appeal would be for those people who are themselves fans (which is tens of millions of people.)  If you have not seen the show or the movie, or have seen them but didn’t like them, then this movie would not be for you.

The documentary is hosted by Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb on the show and in the movie.  It takes its title from a line Joss Whedon uttered during his introduction of the movie Serenity.  Please see my video post here for that intro.

Movie – Serenity (2005)

Serenity was a movie Joss Whedon wrote and directed based on his TV show Firefly.  Please see my post on the TV series here.  It was a hugely satisfying movie, not just for fans, but also for people who had never seen the TV show.  One reviewer said that this was the kind of movie that Star Wars fans wished George Lucas was making when he was doing the prequels.  I consider this movie to be the best science fiction film released since The Matrix had come out six years earlier.

Video – Joss Whedon introducing Serenity

Joss Whedon recorded an introduction for the Firefly movie Serenity that was a thank you to the fans that had made it possible.  It was shown during some of the early screenings, which is why he made reference to the movie not quite being done yet. 

Note the line at the end about having done the impossible.  A documentary on the whole Firefly/Serenity happenings took that as its title.  Please see my separate posts on Firefly, Serenity, and Done the Impossible for more on them.

TV – Firefly (2002 - 2003)

While he had two successful shows already on the air (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel), Joss Whedon decided to try his hand at science fiction.  The result was Firefly.  The FOX network quickly picked up the show and almost as quickly cancelled it.  This was shown to be a stunningly bad decision when the story was turned into a major theatrical movie – Serenity (2005.)

The best description I heard for the show was that it was Star Wars, but with Han Solo as the main character, and with him shooting first.  Who wouldn’t want to ride around space with Han Solo on adventures?  Apparently a lot of people would.  Firefly now enjoys what I would consider to be the third largest collection of adult fans (aka “Browncoats”) in the world, only behind Star Trek and Star Wars fans in their numbers.

TV – Angel (1999 - 2004)

Angel was a spin-off series from the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (aka BtVS.)  After the third season of that show ended, Joss Whedon transplanted the characters of Angel, played by David Boreanaz (Bones) and Cordelia, played by Charisma Carpenter, to Los Angeles.  Where BtVS was about fighting evil, this show was primarily about redemption.

Its concept was that Angel, Cordelia, and another character set up an agency where people could come when they had non-human issues that needed to be dealt with.  By helping these people Angel could continue his redemption for all the wrong he had done in his life.

Book – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8

So, you’re Joss Whedon, a prolific writer.  It’s 2007 and it’s been a few years since your TV shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) have ended and your theatrical movie (Serenity) has been out for two years.  You’re developing a few things, but nothing is hot at the moment.  Fans keep asking if you are going to do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer (aka BtVS) movie, like Serenity was a movie of the TV show Firefly.  You know that a movie is unlikely and that if it ever did happen it would be years in the future.  Building all the sets and getting all the actors and actresses back together, even if possible, would take a lot of money.  How do you bypass the costs and delays?  Simple – write the continuing story in graphic form (comic books.)

TV – Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003)

What is the main thing that keeps some people from watching one of the best shows to ever appear on television?  The title.  People will be interested in the show when I start talking it up, but when I tell them the title is Buffy the Vampire Slayer they get these funny looks on their faces and you can see them rejecting it. 

Entertainment Weekly named this show the best one on television when it completed its third season.  In my opinion it is one of the very best I have ever watched.  I would put the year and a half stretch from midway through its second season, to the end of its third season, up against any season and a half from any other show that has ever been on television – MASH, ER, Friends, anybody.  It was that good.

All Things Joss Whedon

“If somebody comes up to me, it's because they're moved by something I'm moved by. I've never taken a job I didn't love ... So when somebody's coming up to me, or they're writing, they're in the same space I am in. I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want to. So the intensity of the fan response is enormously gratifying. It means I hit a nerve.” – Joss Whedon being serious

“Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck.” – Joss Whedon being funny

So who is Joss Whedon and why should you care about anything he has done?  Well, he is a writer, director, producer, composer, lyricist, script doctor, humorist, and even occasional actor, among other things.  He has worked in all the major media, including movies, television, stage, music, comics, and even the internet.

Joss is known for his strong female characters, witty dialogue, characters that grow and change, and for not shying away from taking risks with his plots.

Writing is definitely in his blood.  He is the grandson of John Whedon, who wrote in the 1950s and 1960s for The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, and the son of Tom Whedon, who wrote in the 1960s and 1970s for The Dick Cavett Show, Alice, and Benson.  His brothers Jed and Zack are also writers, although not as prolific.

Joss started out writing for the TV shows Roseanne and Parenthood.  Since then he has gathered a large fan following as the creator of such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse.  He also created the internet serial Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. 

He was one of the writers of the original Toy Story (1995) and was nominated for an Academy Award because of it.  He has written the screenplays for Serenity (2005), Titan A.E. (2000), and Alien: Resurrection (1997.)  As a script doctor he has provided uncredited re-writes for Speed (1994), Twister (1996), and many other movies. 

As a composer he wrote an entire musical episode (all original songs) for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was later turned into a stage production and a hit album.  He also wrote the opening song for his show Firefly, and has songs in other TV episodes, as well as in the movie Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride (1998.)  He co-wrote the songs for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well as Commentary: the Musical on the Dr. Horrible DVD release.

In the comic book arena he has written many different books, most notably Astonishing X-Men and Buffy Season 8 – the official continuation of the seven season TV show.

He first acted on his show Angel.  There was a new comical character that was supposed to do a funny dance.  Joss’ vision was very particular and his partner on the show told him that if it was that important then he should play the part himself.  He did.  He spent hours in makeup in order to do a comical dance for several seconds on that episode.  Years later he was a huge fan of the TV show Veronica Mars (so was I) and he appeared in an episode to bring his fans’ attention to the series.

As a director, he has done many episodes of his own shows, of course, but he has also directed episodes of other shows that he likes a lot, such as Glee and The Office.  He directed the theatrical movie Serenity (2005), which was based on his TV show Firefly.

Finally, he was chosen to be the writer and director of the Avengers movie, which is coming in 2012.  It will combine all the Marvel characters from Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America, as well as some new characters.  This is the major culmination of what Marvel Studios has been working towards since the first Iron Man movie came out and there is a lot riding on it.

Joss Whedon has had a hand in many things, most of which are ones that I would recommend.  In the coming days I will be making many posts on those.

You can find my posts for his works here:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Angel
Firefly
Joss Introducing Serenity
Serenity
Done the Impossible
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
Dr. Horrible at the Emmy's
Dollhouse
Veronica Mars
Toy Story
Speed
Twister
Titan A.E.
The Avengers (2012)
Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Much Ado About Nothing (2013)

On to the reviews…

Humor – Royal Wedding

If you were to ask me if I watched the royal wedding the answer would be “sort of.”  I turned on the TV to get the news Friday morning and all the coverage was of the wedding, which was already over.  I flipped to an entertainment channel and sure enough, they were already re-running their coverage.  I left it on while doing other stuff around the house, watching it now and then when it got interesting, and leaving it when it got boring.  I have to say, the most entertaining part of the whole thing was not the wedding itself, but the ridiculous heights of hyperbole the “news people” covering it achieved.  I just had to write something about the best examples.

Humor – Easter

Just a quick post to bring you some pictures of cute bunnies for Easter:

And one for the guys...

Happy Easter everyone.

Movie – Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

I could try to sum this movie up in one sentence by saying that it’s “Elvis and JFK vs. an ancient Egyptian mummy in an old folks’ home”, but that would convey only a small part of what the movie is about.  It does convey that it’s a comedy, but it doesn’t let you know that it’s also a bittersweet look at how old folks are marginalized both by their infirmities and by the people around them.  It also doesn’t let you know that it’s a reasonably respectful portrayal of Elvis, rather than a roast or parody of him.  Finally, it doesn’t let you know that it is a sometimes touching look of what it means to be a hero.

Movie – The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

This movie title is sometimes shortened to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, or even just Buckaroo Banzai.  No matter what you call it, it is just plain demented.  This film is the very definition of a cult movie.  Watch this to see the kind of movie that could never be made today.

It has a large cast of characters, many of whom are early roles for actors like Peter Weller (Robocop), John Lithgow (Third Rock from the Sun), Ellen Barkin (The Big Easy), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), and Carl Lumbly (Alias.)  The movie also has comedian Yakov Smirnoff and character actors Clancy Brown, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, and Jonathan Banks.

Movie – This is Spinal Tap (1984)

This is Spinal Tap is a fake documentary about a British rock band’s ill-fated tour of the United States.  It is often credited with creating the mockumentary genre.  It is eminently quotable (“These go to 11”), has a number of scenes that have become part of pop culture (i.e. getting lost backstage), and is a favorite among the very musicians that it is making fun of.

Movies with Commentaries Done in Character

“Man, I don’t drop character ‘till I done the DVD commentary.” – Kirk Lazarus, Tropic Thunder

Some of you may not care about the extras that come on DVDs and Blu-rays.  You may just watch the movie and be done with it.  When you do this you are only getting half of the experience from buying/renting one of these disks.  Most of them usually have some extra content on them and these extras can be quite entertaining.

One of the more common extras is a commentary track.  This is an alternate soundtrack where you can listen to people telling you things about the movie that you might not pick up on yourself.  Sometimes these are really boring tracks done by Important Hollywood Directors that go on and on about what camera lens they used and what the weather was the day they shot a particular scene.  Some, like Roger Ebert’s commentary for Citizen Kane, can be both very informative and very interesting.  Some, like the original five children in Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory doing the commentary for their movie, are hilarious.

Every now and then, some people decide to get creative with the commentary tracks, too.  One I shut off had a couple people pretend to get into a fight with each other and quit.  Another for a musical (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog) actually had “Commentary: The Musical” where they sang songs about the movie in the commentary.

And there have been three movies I have encountered where the commentaries were done in character.  By this, I mean that we are supposedly listening to the characters from the movie, commenting on their own movie as if they were real world people.  The three movies that have done this are This is Spinal Tap, which is narrated by the band members; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which is narrated by one of Banzai’s crew members/band members; and Bubba Ho-Tep, which is narrated by “The King” (Elvis.)

You can find my posts for these movies here:

This is Spinal Tap

Buckaroo Banzai

Bubba Ho-Tep

On to the reviews…

Humor – Historically Hardcore

A while back artist Jenny Burrows did three posters for a student project.  She titled them “Historically Hardcore” and they were supposedly advertising an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian that was designed to make history more relevant and interesting for today’s youths.

People liked them, they got shared, and eventually the fact that they were not real got lost.  All of a sudden people were calling the Smithsonian to find out when the exhibit would be opening because they loved the concept.  In fact, pretty much everybody loved the concept, except for the Smithsonian.  Somebody there who was wound way too tight threatened Burrows with legal action if she did not remove these posters.

Since the posters had now been shared all across the internet that was pretty much impossible for her to do.  What she did do was remove any references to the Smithsonian on the posters and put them back up on her website again.

Here is my favorite:

Book – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

There aren’t too many seventy year old first-time novelists, but Alan Bradley is one of them.  In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie he has created a very entertaining character.  Her name is Flavia de Luce and she is an eleven year old girl living in England in the summer of 1950.  Her mother was an adventurer who died, so she lives with her father and two older sisters in a huge old family house.  Flavia spends her days reading through the house’s massive library, tormenting her sisters, being tormented by them, and experimenting in her great uncle’s abandoned chemistry lab.  She finds that she “has a particular passion for poisons.” 

One morning she stumbles over a dead body in the garden outside her house.  Instead of being frightened she feels that it’s the most interesting thing that has ever happened in her life.  Like a miniature Sherlock Holmes she decides to figure out who he was and what happened to him.  As you can tell, she is not your ordinary little girl.

Hike and Golf – Mount Kineo

Mount Kineo from the Rockwood Boat Landing

Mount Kineo is located on an island in Moosehead Lake in Maine.  It is about halfway up the 27 mile lake, a mile across the water from the town of Rockwood.  It is a very interesting sight when it comes into view.  It juts up 800 feet from a flat peninsula and towers over its surroundings.  Many photos have been taken of it, and it’s not uncommon to find a painter also capturing its image.  It is a good hike for the whole family because it combines a little bit of an adventure for the kids and there are options for reaching the tower at the summit that can be handled by small children.

Movie – Paul (2011)

After doing the movies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz together, Edgar Wright moved on to direct Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Simon Pegg went on to play Scotty in the reboot of Star Trek.  When it came time to do another movie, Wright and Pegg could not coordinate their schedules, so Pegg worked with Nick Frost to co-write the next movie they would star in.  That movie is Paul, which is still in theaters as I write this.

After doing comedies in the zombie horror and buddy cop action movie genres, Pegg and Frost decided they would tackle the sci-fi alien genre, but also in a comedic way.  It was a natural for them since they are big fans of these movies. 

Movie – Hot Fuzz (2007)

This movie was directed by Edgar Wright.  It stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  Pegg and Wright co-wrote the movie.

All three of these guys loved action movies, especially the “buddy cop” action movies like Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, Point Break, and others.  They decided to combine their love for these movies and make an action comedy of their own.  The result is both a loving tribute to the genre, as well as a good movie that can stand on its own.

Movie – Shaun of the Dead (2004)

This movie was directed by Edgar Wright.  It stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  Pegg and Wright co-wrote the movie.

All three of these guys loved zombie movies and there had been a bit of a revival in interest in them with 2002’s 28 Days Later and the upcoming (in 2004) remake of Dawn of the Dead.  As you can tell from the title being a play on words on Dawn of the Dead, this movie is a comedy.  In fact, they claimed they had created a new genre, the “rom-zom-com.”  A “rom-com” is a romantic comedy, so a “rom-zom-com” is a romantic comedy with zombies.  You might not think the combination would work, but it does.

Simon Pegg/Nick Frost Movies

"Both me and Edgar are firm believers in never underestimating or talking down to an audience, and giving an audience something to do, to give them something which is entirely up to them to enter into the film and find these hidden things and whatever." – Simon Pegg

You may be asking yourself, “Who are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?  Or even Edgar, for that matter?”

Pegg and Frost are British actors who have collaborated on a number of projects.  They are best friends in real life and this comes across on the screen.  In fact, Nick Frost was Simon Pegg’s flatmate when Pegg was an up and coming actor.  He actually got Frost into acting.

The two of them became known in the U.K. after working together on a cult TV show titled Spaced that aired from 1999 to 2001.  Edgar Wright directed all fourteen of the episodes.  In 2004 Pegg, Frost, and Wright would team up to make a zombie horror comedy titled Shaun of the Dead.  This movie was very well received and brought the three of them to the attention of American audiences and filmmakers. 

They followed this up in 2007 with a buddy cop action comedy titled Hot Fuzz.  The trailer said it was “brought to you by the guys who have seen every action movie ever made” and it showed.

Pegg and Wright co-wrote those two movies.  Edgar Wright went on to adapt and direct the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, one of the ten best movies of 2010.  (See my review here.)  Pegg and Frost co-wrote their next movie, Paul, which has been in theaters the last several weeks.  It is a comedy about an extraterrestrial alien trying to get home.

Outside of these movies, Simon Pegg is probably best known to general audiences for playing Scotty in the Star Trek reboot that hit theaters in 2009.

I have not seen the TV show Spaced (if someone has, please let me know what you thought of it), but I have seen those three movies and will be recommending all of them.

You can find my posts for these movies here:

Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
Paul

On to the reviews…