- No songs
- No happy village song
- No love story
- No villain
- No “I want” moment / song
OK, so those were only RULES for Toy Story. And I’m not really sure anyone could say that they’d followed #4. Plus, the whole thing seems a bit too anti-Beauty and the Beastish, and that’s one of the last Disney films I’d pick on. Still, yet another example of how limits can make for good/great art.
My first experience with Brian Regan happened shortly after I graduated from college. A couple of friends brought one of his CDs by, and we nearly died laughing. Years later - more years than I’d care to think about at the moment - he can still make me laugh uproarously pretty much every time he reaches a punch-line. (In fact, the whole “driving through the California desert with a van that needed to have its heat running to keep from overheating” experience was made possible by a bit of Regan.)
Here’s a CLIP of him does what he does best. Also makes one realize how much one might be missing if one only listens to his routines. There’s a lot of physical humor in his stuff that can’t possibly come through on CD.
Please note: other than the double hockey sticks, he’s amazingly clean. I wish more modern stand-up comics would come to realize that one does not need to be either crude or heavily adult-themed to be funny
Take luck.
Again, the new lens. (And from a completely objective perspective, that kid is almost disturbingly cute.)
This is what Mark looks like half the time.
The other half, I can’t get the camera to capture any images, because he moves too fast. A “man” of many extremes, it would seem. (Plus, I have an awesome new lens; my first-ever “fixed length.” Still getting used to it, but it sure has a nice, soft quality to it.)
Wouldn’t want anyone to think that Dominic wasn’t photogenic just because I haven’t posted any pictures of him yet, so…
Look at that technique - shielding his eyes from the sun with his glove. I’m thinking I should give the Blue Crew a call; he’d probably be a significant offensive upgrade over Gonzo right now, and he’s got a “high ceiling.”
Don’t want this to get overlooked in the accounts of yesterday’s GAME:
Tadahito Iguchi hit a solo homer in the eighth off Jonathan Broxton. It was the first homer allowed by Broxton in 96 2/3 innings. That was the longest streak in team history and fifth-longest in the majors since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958.
OK, so maybe “broken” is too strong a word. In fact, way too strong. He’s been pretty close to the best non-Martin thing about this team. The Broxton-Saito combo is deadly when we get to the late innings with a lead.
Course, the whole Tomko/Hendrickson/Wells situation makes that last part more than a little bit tricky.
OK, so THIS is really old. (I’m kicking myself for not getting to it sooner…and for not getting to any of the other cool Moose stuff. Can’t believe he out-blogged me over the last couple of months, and by a significant amount. Sad. Trying to make up for lost ground now.)
But the word’s meaning is not what makes “freakin’” interesting. What sets it apart is its grammatical placement: American slang usage prefers that “freakin’” be inserted within the word or phrase it modifies. We’re all familiar with “co” and “pre” and so on, which attach at the beginning off words like “coworker” and “presale”; we know about “ful” and “ment”, which attach at the end of words like “helpful” and “wonderment”; but one can only marvel at “Dude, he’s a megalofreakinmaniac!”, or “That is absofreakinlutely hysterical!” The possibilities are endless: “technofreakinlogical”, “superfreakinstitious”, “Vatican freakin’ II”.
David has discovered a fourth word to go along with his small-but-frequently-and-emphatically-used vocabulary. Up until now, he’s used “Mama” with significant regularity, “Papa” with slightly less (but devastatingly effective) regularity, and “Uh-Oh” almost constantly.
Now, he also says “Football” - and says it very, very clearly. (I blame Dominic.)
Oh, that reminds me that he’s actually up to five, with the most recent one coming in last night around 9:30pm. He also says “Popsicle” - and says it very, very clearly. (I blame “Papa.”)
Tommy More passed THIS on to me. It seemed like an appropriate piece for my return, for some reason. But I’m not quite sure why.
Maybe it was the combination of baseball with “real life.” That sort of thing always strikes me, a die-hard baseball fan, as deeply true.
Maybe it was the “heart-strings” part of the piece, the fact that I have a boy about that age who loves baseball and athletes, and the fact that the young mother was courageous in a very real (and too easily overlooked) way.
Maybe it was because Hayhurst overcame something I struggle with all the time; it’s far, far easier to ignore someone than it is to pay attention to them.
They made their way directly to us, eyes trained on us, hoping to catch our attention. Soon they had closed the distance and were standing right in front of us, staring expectantly through the fencing with wide eyes and nervous smiles.
“Hello,” said the mother. We said nothing in return and continued to act as if we couldn’t see or hear her. She stumbled at our coldness, and cast hear eyes around sadly. She looked at her son, who never took his eyes off us, smiled, and then mustered enough courage to try again.
I can’t explain to you what its like to avoid someone on purpose. When I write about the concept it just seems too rude and heartless. Maybe it is, but I still do it all the time.
I think that’s probably the real reason it moved me so much. Well, that and its fundamental optimism.
