The Dark Knight - A Movie Review

This is not your father's Batman by any means. No POW or BAM, and no boyish naive Robin to serve as the dumb foil for Batman. Christian Bale does a fine job portraying the caped hero (or caped revenger?), but I have to give it to Heath Ledger on this one.

I had heard the hype before we saw the flick, and thought much of the hero worship for Ledger was just sappy sympathy for the guy who accidentally killed himself. But Heath clearly had a good time playing this role to the comic and tragi-comic hilt. He is dark, and scary, and believable as a mentally deranged man with no moral insides. There are killings galore, and even of those who you cringe at, like lots of cops and relative innocents. The film is so fast paced it does not allow time to ponder what one is seeing before being thrown into the next crash and tumble scene. I definitely recommend this film for anyone over 14 (no little kids), but it won't leave you feeling quite the same.

In fact, Batman may take a hit in this film, not quite up to saving Gotham, but still required to do so, at least this one last time. Of course we know it won't be one last time, but it's certainly not the sappy, syrupy stuff that those of us born in the '50s loved as well as endured. My bath towel cape could change from being Superman's one day, to Batman's the next. And it did.

McCain is Whining - Not a Pretty Picture

Good grief. I am having a hard enough time determining who I will vote for in November. I admit to waffling (but I am not a politician, so I am allowed), but I can't stand what looks like juvenile behavior in Senator McCain. Mr. Obama has returned from his trip and begins talking about issues, mainly the economy. McCain keeps talking about Obama's trip and really sinks low talking about Obama going to the gym instead of visiting our military heroes. Come on, John. That sounds desperate and it's only July.

That comes on the heels of McCain saying that Obama would rather lose the war than lose the presidency. That kind of rhetoric I did not expect from the straight-talking senator. He has moved down a notch or two with this kind of campaigning. In a previous post I noted that while others in his campaign may revert to cheap, political theatre, I said that John McCain would not do so himself. Apparently I was wrong.

So, Mr. McCain, there is plenty to talk about in this campaign. We'd like to hear what you are going to do (in detail) about the wars, the economy, the crumbling infrastructure, the taxes, and on and on. Attacking Obama for looking good (and maybe even Presidential) in the Middle East and Europe sounds like sour grapes.

Only the fanatics will latch on to the kind of mud slinging going on now. The e-mails and spam will fly across the Internet. I have not yet made up my mind, but I wanted to do it myself. Now Mr. McCain, at least for today, is trying to make up my mind for me.

Hancock - A Movie Review

I will go to almost anything Will Smith has done after "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". Well, except maybe a rap concert but I'd even consider that. So when Hancock was released and the previews were prevalent, we decided it might be worth seeing. It was worth matinee prices maybe, but a little steep at evening prices.

Don't get me wrong, Will does a fine job with the script he has, but the story makes little sense. He is sort of the "Accidental Superhero", who rather than revel in his powers to do good, he muddles through taking liberal gulps of whiskey (I think it was whiskey anyway), and with some sense of morality does good works (but at a price). The good thing was that his drinking and swearing didn't come off as something most kids would want to emulate so that message was nearly harmless. But hey, I wanted some entertaining dialogue and maybe a little plot. Not that little, however. It was a comedy but I found myself laughing at the inanity rather than the clever lines.

Jason Bateman and a beautiful, slim Charlize Theron did their jobs fairly well, but both stars should have protested at some of the lame story line. Will should have protested as well and he should, by now, have executive producer status on any new film he does.

The writers, Vince and Vince, probably had a good time writing this. But I am not sure the movie goers could say the same thing. Will, we will look for better from you in the future. Take Control.

United Kingdom Travelogue, Part IV

We leave the quaint town of Chester and travel through Lancashire heading for the much-heralded Lake District. And we were not disappointed as we enjoyed the scenery as always and arrived at Windemere (Some say Lake Windemere, but our guide on the steam train ride pointed out that a "mere" was a lake so saying Lake Windemere was redundant. Sort of like E.R. room and ATM machine).

We climbed aboard the previously mentioned steam train that would take us through the countryside to the boat dock at Windemere. The fragrance of fresh air was co-opted by the memory jarring smell of burning coal. We detrained at the dock to take the Swan lake cruiser; alas it was under repair so Phil found us another quaint boat to take us along the lake that inspired Wordsworth and many others. We met our bus and then went a little farther to Lake Grasmere (now why doesn't the rule apply here?) This small village with its shops and small churches was a pleasant backdrop to William Wordsworth's life. Indeed, he is buried in the churchyard in the family plot with his ever-present sister nearby. Oh, his wife as well made the cut it seems.

We now were eagerly anticipating our drive across the border to Scotland where our first stop was Gretna Green. I probably would never have heard of Gretna Green before arriving here save for the sensational Simpson murder trial, where we all were privy to Nicole's residence at 825 Gretna Green Way in L.A. Now this Scottish Gretna Green does not have the bloody history, but does have the somewhat interesting distinction of being the British version of Las Vegas. It seems that the English passed a law in 1753 that no one could get married under 21 unless with parents' consent. Scotland did not abide that rule and allowed boys of 14 and girls of 12 to marry on their own, and Gretna Green, being on the border, and the blacksmith shop being the closest thing to a church (?), became the place to elope and has been a tourist attraction since 1887. In fact we witnessed the results of a wedding of a soldier and his lass as we gawked around the place.

I also saw my first Belted Galloway cow in Gretna Green. Sort of the Oreo cookie cow, which are now being raised in Wisconsin by the Ho-Chunk Nation (formerly the Winnebago Indians).

We moved on after visiting the Scottish shops where one could buy an number of Scots coats-of-arms, tartans, kilts, sporns, and other regalia. Diana, being of the McLeod clan (Lewis branch, Isle of Skye) by way of her maternal grandfather found one of each item to buy, nearly. I found some fudge (Scottish fudge, I am sure).

Before we went to our hotel in Glasgow we dined at the Corinthian, an elegant restaurant in an ornate, high-ceilinged former bank. The food was good, complete with haggis (the Scottish treat) and we happily shuffled on the bus to our hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we will see a few sights in Glasgow and then head to the Scottish highlands, the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, and Glencoe.

The U.S. Needs Oil Now and Will Need it Later

As gas prices climb even higher, one must really wonder what is driving this almost daily ramp up. Many speculate that it is the old "supply and demand" theory but a growing number are looking at the rise in investors' speculation on crude oil futures. If that is the cause, then I am waiting for the bubble to eventually burst and the oil market to crash. Certainly the market cannot keep up with this continuous rise in West Texas light sweet crude. Similar to the housing bubble where prices rose to almost ridiculous levels, and where it surprised almost no economist when the housing market slid precipitously, the oil run-up may well be headed for a crash.

I don't know if a similar burst bubble in oil will hurt the country as the mortgage debacle has or if it will just hurt those who took advantage of the artificial (my opinion) upswing. I suspect the latter so I, for one, am patiently waiting for those speculators to finally get their due.

But what if it is supply and demand? What if the U.S. cannot keep up with demand except by sending our money to foreign soil to feed our oil addiction? Some say demand is actually down with these high prices. The liberals may be not so secretly tittering about how we should have listened over the past years and worked harder to develop wind, solar and other green technologies. Now that the crunch is on, we can speculate that research has been redoubled to find a car battery that will power the nation's fleet economically. I do see more wind turbines going up around the country and certainly solar panels sales must be up.

But that is not enough. We may be a nation "addicted" to oil - no, we ARE a nation addicted to oil and that is not going to change anytime soon. There are millions of cars and trucks on the road that will continue to need gasoline for some time. And not many airplanes will be able to fly on solar or wind energy. Not many of our freight trains and our trucking fleet will be able to convert to electric motors any time soon.

So we must begin searching for more oil in our own country. If the oil drilling technologies have been improved to not let the environment be savaged as was once thought, then we need to begin offshore drilling for those millions, if not billions, of untapped oil. We must at least reconsider ANWR drilling to tap that vast reserve. Mr. Obama and others spout that even if we started today, it would be five or seven years before the first barrel was in the pipeline. Well, it may be five or seven years from whenever we start, so why delay the start? Why not start to free ourselves from the hold that our enemies think they have on us?

Why not move toward oil self-sufficiency on a parallel path with renewable energies? With proper government incentives, the "big oil" companies can start to drill, start to build new refineries, and start to move to the next generation of energy production. Most oil companies are looking ahead and seeing the day when oil will not be king; when more and more vehicles will use less oil-based fuel. But that day is not close enough to wait it out, to let our people pay these terribly high gas prices for decades before there is some relief.

I, and others who know far more than I do, predict that once the road is cleared to offshore and ANWR drilling, then we will see prices begin to fall. It will not take five or seven years for oil futures to begin to recede if not plummet. They will drop the day the congress approves, as the President did, the drilling for oil off our coasts.

I don't relish seeing oil platforms in pristine waters or drill rigs in the Arctic. But few people would ever see those things (ANWR is so pristine because no one is there to see anything). Does anyone really think that these wind farms with their humming turbines are things of beauty?

Green folk are, of course, worried that if the pressure is off once oil flows more freely, the efforts for wind, solar, and the like will ease off. I don't think so. I think the die is cast and the U.S. need for oil will slowly lessen. I am less sure of the new China and India who will need oil many years beyond us as they begin their own "industrial revolution". All the more reason to tap our vast stores of oil now while at the same time working to decrease the need for those fossil fuels that we know will eventually run out. I hope we win the race before they do.

United Kingdom, Part III (finally)

It was good to see the site of King Arthur's tomb (of Excalibur fame) at Glastonbury Abbey but because he supposedly never really existed it was a curious site. But like the Loch Ness monster, we never really know, do we?

We drove on to Wells glimpsing the cathedral as we headed to Bath where we viewed the excavated Roman baths in unusually good condition. The water was a little green (deadly algae), but the natural thermal spa was still flowing through original lead pipes bringing in the warm water. The Romans devised a system of channels and aqueducts that still work today. Truly amazing accomplishments.

We headed next for the Severn Bridge that brought us to Wales and eventually their capital of Cardiff. We toured Cardiff Castle, the site of which was a fort in about 50 A.D. The castle keep near the center of the complex dates from the Norman conquest (circa 1100) while the lodging itself was more recently renovated in the 1860-1900s by the Marquesses of Bute.

Tired after the day of travelling we head to our hotel, a beautiful site on the edge of Cardiff. We had an early dinner and retired for the night.

We arise for the Full English Breakfast where Diana and I still ponder the beans and some of the meats. I stick with eggs, bacon, and toast. After we drive through the beautiful Wye Valley we come to Tintern Abbey, the ruins of which stand in accent to the exquisite countryside. This abbey, another victim of Henry VIIs "dissolution", was built in the 13th century for the Cisterician or White Monks, followers of St. Benedict.

From there we travel through Herefordshire, the Welsh Marches, and stop in the Tudor town of Ludlow. We were again pulled back to medieval times seeing the old buildings and marketplace of the former administrative capital of Wales. Ludlow Castle stood guard on one end, and we stopped there for a spot of tea in their tea room, a disappointingly modern restaurant plopped into the ruins. We would have preferred to sit on ruined walls or stone seats than see the almost reverse anachronisticism.

When our time is up in Ludlow we are all promptly on the bus again, kudos from Phil, and head to our final stop for the day in Chester. Phil takes us on a romp through the marketplace to see the Roman walls, or what is left, and then we are free to roam the "Rows", a collective of Tudor era multi-level shops. Diana passes on the wall tour and finds a salon to have to hair done. I find a fudge shop.

Tomorrow we motor back to England to the Lake District and Windemere, Wordsworth country.

McCain's New Staff

They are right. Senator McCain's message is just not getting out and he needed another staff shakeup. But they still have not dealt with my pet peeve. Mr. McCain still whistles through his teeth when he talks and that is distracting and not attractive. It makes him sound old (Oh no, not old!)

I just wish one of his handler's would schedule a short dentist appointment to have the poor old man's teeth filed just a teensy bit to stop all the dogs from tilting their heads when he talks. It is a simple request...please.