Harry's Ruminations

Yes, it's over-the-top. Yes, it has plot holes you could drive a pumpkin carriage through. Yes, it's not IMPORTANT CINEMA. So what? This is a fun romp through fairy tale land (and into modern-day New York), complete with a wayward princess, overblown prince, and evil stepmother/witch. It's a mashup of every cliche from the Golden Age of Dinsey, right down to the poison apples. The premise is...er...complicated: Giselle is about to have her happily-ever-after in Fairy Tale Land (Andalasia), but the Prince's evil mother casts her down a well, delivering her to Times Square in New York. Our hapless ingenue stumbles about and manages to run into Robert, a divorce attorney and his 6-year-old daughter, Morgan. Over the next 24 hours, many other characters from Andalasia follow, from Prince Edward, to the bungling Nathaniel, and finally the Queen herself (Susan Sarandon, chewing the scenery like she's having a good time). I should really hate this film. It's a ...

Article Those of us who have been prudent, lived within our means, and didn't overborrow are paying a huge price for this. Income on our Treasury bills, money market funds, and CDs has dropped sharply, thanks to the Fed's rate cuts, and our wealth has eroded relative to foreign currencies and commodities Sloan's article (or commentary, take your pick) is clear, concise, and scary as hell. My intiuition tells me there's another Bear Stearns out there, and that the Fed can't bail out everyone--trillions upon trillions of dollars of "bad money". Hoo boy. As a personal aside, count me as one of those who wish some people would feel the mess they got themselves into. These proverbial Grasshoppers annoy me. People making $50k with $500k houses and $100k in CC debt are about to be bailed-out, and now we see the macroeconomic counterpart. As Sloan says, it's "Private profits, socialized losses." Your tax dollars at work. Granted, if you have ...

Jeff's back . Update your RSS Readers accordingly.

In October, my Mom had nearly inoperable Liver Cancer throughout her torso--liver, right lung, and diaphragm. As of Friday, March 7th, after radical resection surgery and 2 months of treatment, her PET scan showed she was fine. To the prayer warriors from Ashland to Louisville, for the thousands who heard mom's story on WLJC TV from Beattyville, and to those who sent encouragement through this blog, email, and in person, my thanks. The best moment for me was when Maria stayed with Mom for 5 straight days and nights, getting to know one of the most awesome women out there--Grandma Dottie. Mom's drive, love, and life shall go on for another season, at least. And she's ready to undertake those challenges, for however long God wishes she remain on this earth. Through it all, she's ready to meet Him whenever, but promised me she'd enjoy things until then. I don't think you can ask more from life than that. God bless and keep you all.

Easter Pageant?! What is this, amateur hour? Who cares about some piddly church passion play? What's next, "Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever"? How's this for Piddly: Two professional composers, a 9000 seat auditorium, 75,000 tickets over a month-long run, a 300 person chorous, two IMAX-size video screens. Traditionally, Southeast's Easter Pageant has been the biggest theatrical production in Louisville. They took a year off to retool and rework it, comissioning a rework from the ground up. Whereas the previous iteration had been a "cast of thousands" broadway-style production, they wanted something...different. Hoo-boy, it was different. Let's talk about "theatre" that is 1/2 movie, 1/2 live action. Apparently, they shot it at a quarry during last year's drought, and it looks pretty good. Still, I didn't like it...distracting and interrupts the flow. Likes It's not the same program they've put on for...

So, Chinatown . "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." Iconic stuff. Nicholson back when was an awesome actor, not just paid to play himself (see "Witches of Eastwick", et al.). Faye Dunnaway's cheekbones. John Huston as the creepy dad. Umm...I hated it. Lined-up against L.A. Confidential , Chinatown is darker, more mysterious, but at the same time, distant. We learn about the characters bit-by-bit, but once we learn everything, we just want to forget them. There's a twist at the end, and much goes unexplained--perhaps it's a snapshot of 1970's America, when nothing seemed certain, disinformation was the norm, and hope seemed a distant memory. Then again, perhaps it's just an overwrought tale that made me numb. I respect the filmmaking, performances, and cinematography. I'd just rather watch "The Godfather" 10 times than watch this again.

No, not that awful sitcom , I mean I'm carpooling. Apparently, a 4-cylinder Camry has more uses than sucking the joy out of the driving experience. It's also an efficient appliance for transporting up to 4 adults on the twice-daily jaunt to and from work. Currently, we're leaving ~6:45am and heading home around 4:30ish; Whitney's now taken over drill sargeant duties for getting Joey to school.

* Whitney's starting to regain her voice, though it's still hurting her. * New Automotive Segment: Cheap and Cheerful . Contenders would be the Smart Car, Scion xD (nee xA), Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris. This will be the hot market in the coming 5 years. * Flooding rains throughout the area last night. Really, the last 28 days have been awful here in KY: The Super Tuesday tornado outbreak, Snow, Ice, Storms. Very, very violent stuff, really. * Can't compliment enough the job the Chris Bailey's doing over at his Weather bog for WKYT here in Lex. Yes, he's a weather nerd, but it's good to love one's job! Kentuckians are obsessed about weather, and he sort of "feeds the need" as it were. * "Shower Thought" of the day: To start a successful enterprise, you need something with a high barrier-to-entry, yet easy marketing. Your clientele should be upscale, or people reaching to be upscale. The prototype here is BMW--it's incredibly ha...

The Fence fairy showed up at my house this weekend: New Fence We're pretty pumped about it, because it'll let us send the inmates...er...children to the back yard. :-)