Anything Goes

I awoke to a heavy shower around 9:30. By the time I was finishing my journal entry at quarter of 11, the rain was gone, but it remained cloudy, damp, and cool. Made Banana Pancakes for breakfast while listening to patriotic-themed records. Yankee Doodle Mickey features a very young Molly Ringwauld and the Disney characters and chorus performing American standards. My favorites include the chorus' rousing rendition of "The Liberty Tree" from the Disney version of Johnny Tremain and the Armed Services Medley with Mickey representing the Air Force and Marines, Goofy the Army, and of course, Donald representing the Navy. Also did the first side of the two-disc Reader's Digest set America the Beautiful, a collection of all-American classical pieces and instrumental numbers put out in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986.

Worked on writing for an hour after breakfast. Wedge and his boys offer to give Leia a ride to Solo Castle while the others start a brawl to distract the soldiers and Unkar Plutt and his men. Wicket the Ewok tugs on Leia's trouser leg. He, his clan, and Cyril and Artello want to help, too. Wedge agrees to take Leia, the servants, and some of the Ewoks with them to help defend her in the castle.

Got off at 12:30, then dressed and headed to work. Work was surprisingly still not as busy as I thought it would be. It was steady, but not as bad as it usually is on a Sunday or a holiday weekend. Either everyone was avoiding the continually humid and dreary day, or they'd all gone to the Shore. (If they did, they faced even worse weather than we did here. The Shore got some nasty thunderstorms and pretty bad flooding.) I did get stuck in the registers at one point about 40 minutes before break. Otherwise, I was mostly gathering carts, cleaning the bathrooms, and doing returns.

Jodie called me when I was writing and invited me over for dinner tonight and tomorrow. I brought a t-shirt to work with me to change into, then rode right to Dad and Jodie's house from there. Apparently, most people were coming tomorrow night. It was just Dad, Jodie, Jesse, Dana, and me enjoying cheeseburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and macaroni salad while watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the Paramount Network with Dad. (Evidently, Paramount is having a Memorial Day Weekend Indiana Jones marathon.)

Stayed with Indy, this time in Lego form, when I got home. "The Temple of Kali" and "Free the Slaves" were far easier in Free Play than they had been in Story Mode. Once again, it turns out I'd already gotten half the pieces in both. The only problem I had was getting the parcel in "Free the Slaves." You have to whip it across the ledges along with the lift piece. Doing the lift piece was enough of a pain, but you have to get the parcel onto the lift and then into the mailbox, too.

Oh, and Princess Leia can be found in "Free the Slaves." She's actually on a ledge under the slave pen, which has to be opened by one of the bazooka troopers or someone with explosives.

Moved to the live-action Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as I went online. After he picks up spoiled singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and his kid buddy Short Round (Key Hu Quan) during a tussle in a nightclub in Shanghai, Indy (Harrison Ford) and the others end up in a destitute village in India. The villagers' children and their magical "Shankara Stone" were stolen by the Thuggee cult, who want to use them to drive out the village and take over the world. Indy and the others travel to Pangkok Palace, where a new young maharajah has taken control. There's a lot more going on underneath that palace than it seems...and Indy now has to find those stones and free the slave kids, before the evil cult tries to get their hands on their minds and hearts.

This was my first Indiana Jones movie. It was one of the first movies we ever recorded, I believe around 1986-1987. I loved it as a kid Short Round's age, but I have a lot more problems with it now. I actually like Shorty, but Willie is annoying, whiny, and a bit useless. There's also the Indian stereotypes, which were troublesome in the 80's and are probably just in bad taste nowadays. On the other hand, there's several iconic scenes, including the opening "Anything Goes" musical number, the mine train ride, and the finale on the bridge, that are as good as anything in the series.

If you love the Indiana Jones series, check this one out, too...but I recommend you come here after you've seen either Raiders or Last Crusade, both of which are better introductions to Indy than this one.