Even though I’ve been really busy the last few … well … months, I have been watching a lot of movies thanks to NetFlix’s new policy on viewing movies via the web. (It’s virtually free!)

That said, I’m waaay behind on my movie reviews. So here goes.

Now I hope you’ll forgive me for the fact that most of what I’ve watched is older than I am. I’ve enjoyed catching up on the classics. By the way, if you haven’t read about my grin rating system, click to check it out.

Soylent Green
This one is the real thing. Good ol’ cold-war, post-apocalyptic, dystopian entertainment. And Charlton Heston to boot! This one is a must see, right up there with “Planet of the Apes” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

And speaking of…

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Lacks the big name stars but more than makes up for it in importance. There’s something important about this movie. You can feel it when you watch it.

The Omega Man
I’m eager to see “I Am Legend”. When I heard it was a remake (imagine my un-surprise) of yet another Charlton Heston dystopian flick, I had to check it out! It’s no Soylent Green, but it’s worth watching.

Oh God!
I remember this movie from when I was just a kid. I remember thinking how funny it was to have God portrayed as a tiny, little, old man. As an adult, I still think it’s funny, just not “ha ha” funny. More like “how sad” funny.

Harvey
This quirky little show stars Hollywood’s quirkiest leading man in, most likely, his quirkiest role. Jimmy Stewart shows us that some of the most insane people in the world may actually have a better grasp on reality than most of the sane people that ever lived.

Fahrenheit 451
I dabbled in Ray Bradbury’s work (among others) in high school. I remember it gave me that important feeling you get when you think you “get it”. I’m sure thousands of people got that feeling from Bradbury and Orwell and Huxley and Emerson and Whitman and Thoreau. I’m just grateful that kept on going. I grew beyond non-conformity and transcendentalism and all that bull and learned that life is a lot easier to live when you live in reality. (Even if that requires a little bit of nuttiness a la the above mentioned Harvey.)

Being There
We watched this movie in Honors English class my senior year. (Yes, that’s about the same time I thought I “got it” mentioned above.) All I could remember was that it was really weird. I remember right. It’s entertaining, but only if you have as weird a sense of humor as I do. Think of it as the Nixon era’s “Napoleon Dynamite”.

Frankenstein
Yes, the Frankenstein. 1931. When the horror movie genre was just coming of age. What a great show. Sure it’s campy to our 21st century eyes, but if you look at it in its own era, this movie was brilliance defined.

Bride of Frankenstein
Then again, isn’t it funny that no sooner had horror movies been weened that they started making bad sequels? Ah well. Kids will be kids.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Well, if I’m going to go back to the father of the genre, I might as well check out the great-grand-father while I’m there. Not only is this a silent movie (from 1920) it’s a foreign silent movie (from germany). Now tell me I’m not all dripping with culture! I actually enjoyed this more than “Bride of Frankenstein”!!

Believe it or not there are more, but it’s getting late and this post is far too long. I’ll try not to wait so long before my next movie review post. I’ll try.

A wise man once said:

Ask not what your country can do for you.
Ask how much you will be forced to pay (under threat of imprisonment) for the things your country does for other people… lazy people who don’t have enough money to pay taxes.

That might not be exactly what he said, but it’s a rough paraphrase. And, in case you’re wondering, that wise man was a Democrat.

This is going to be another low traffic week for me. Very little surfing which leads to very little blogging. I’m redoubling (quadrupling??) my efforts at work.

This week is our annual distributor conference. Most of our international distribution partners will be here in Texas and the marketing and executive folks will be all tied up talking about sales strategies and quarterly gross differential margin analysis (read as, “stuff I know nothing about”). But for me that means that this week should be fairly uninterrupted by problems with the web site. The “squeaky wheels”, so to speak, will be otherwise occupied.

And all that explains this week’s white board quip.

I can’t because I’m all busy eating a carrot stick.
- Dilbert

Last weekend Tammy and I made the drive to Amarillo. Much of the family was in town and it was good to do some catching up.

We all came to see “Willy Wonka Junior” performed by the Lamplight Youth Theatre on stage at Amarillo’s relatively new theater, the Globe News Center. (The venue is really cool; pretty classy for Amarillo.) But the real attraction was my nephew Caleb Spaw.

Caleb played Augustus Gloop. True, he was the first kid to be consumed by his bad behavior in Wonka’s homicidal factory, but it was still a big honor. He got the part primarily because he was able to pick up the German accent in a snap. Seems he shares some genes with his nutty uncle who also has a knack for accents. (I’m so proud!!)

Caleb sang several songs did a bit of dancing and, most importantly, never dropped his accent! (The girl playing Veruca Salt was only British for two or three of her lines. The rest was decidedly Texan.)

The show was very entertaining and the production was impressive for an all volunteer children’s theater.

In case you’re interested, the rest of the pictures I took can be downloaded in a zip file.

So far this year, I’ve failed miserably at one of my resolutions: to memorize 52 Bible verses in 2008. So far I’m at zero. The good news is our church is testing out a new curriculum that includes scripture memory. Now I can finally start wrestling that particular demon. Which brings us to this weeks white board quip.

I tried to wrestle my demons once, but they used too many illegal holds.
Steven Wright