Tuesday, June 05, 2018

Every Picture Tells a Story

Began the morning with my Alice In Wonderland Peter Pan LP while eating a quick breakfast. There's some fun songs in this record and book take on the famous fantasy novel. I like "The Queen Has Commanded" during the flamingo and hedgehog croquet game in the garden and the dreamy title song.

Worked on writing for the next few hours. It's Wicket who manages to save Leia from being carried off by Palpatine. Wedge and his men are about to arrest him when he sends his monsters after the crowd, then turns into a rat and vanishes. Now Leia and her new friends are going to need a lot more help if they want to rescue the captured prince and senators and stop Palpatine from taking all magic for himself!

Broke for an early lunch at 11. Did a Backyardigans episode while having a quick lunch. Professor Pablo is out in the Wild West, chasing a golden butterfly. Stagecoach drivers Uniqua and Tyrone figure it'll be a snap to find his tiny quarry. How hard can it be? Much harder than they think as the beautiful insect continues to elude them, and they all end up yelling "Catch That Butterfly!"

Work wasn't anywhere near as busy or as problematic as it was over the weekend. There was a brief spurt during the noon rush hour, and was starting to pick up when I left. Otherwise, most of the day was dead. I spent the first half of my shift shelving items, bagging, and gathering baskets and the trash, and the second half rounding up carts.

Though it had been sunny, warm, and windy for most of the afternoon, dark clouds were moving in as I headed home. They weren't close enough for me to rush. I took the long way to Oaklyn down Nicholson Road. It was 6 PM by then, and there was some traffic around Wal-Mart and on Nicholson. The wind was starting to pick up even more, and it got a bit more humid.

Once again, I got lucky with the weather. It started pouring 20 minutes after I made it in the door. There was a small thunderstorm about an hour or two later, but I don't think it's rained since. It remains windy and a bit chilly, though.

Had a tomato and pepper omelet while watching more Backyardigans. Harbor rescue patrol cops Uniqua, Tyrone, and Pablo "Save the Day!" when they catch Tasha taking her little boat into increasingly dangerous spots. All Tasha wants to do is catch a "whopper."

Moved onto Lego Indiana Jones after dinner. Got the remaining pieces in "Pursuing the Ark" and "The Hunt for Sir Richard," the latter of which fully finished Last Crusade. Tried "The Desert Temple," but I just can't seem to outrun that boulder and get the last piece.

After you complete a series of puzzles in Indy's Office, you find a key that opens three Bonus Rounds in the Artifact Room. The first is "Young Indy," based after the prologue from Last Crusade. You get to play as Boy Scout Indy or his plump friend Herman, digging up keys in a cavern and making your way across snake cars and past lions in the circus train. Finishing the round gives you Young Indy and Herman (listed as "Boy Scout") as playable characters and allows you to buy the thief who gave Indy his fedora (listed as "Fedora").

Ended the night with Almost Famous. William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is a teenage rock n' roll writer in 1973 who convinces his editor to let him write about the band Stillwater. Their lead guitarist Russell (Billy Crudup) and primary groupie (she prefers "Band-Aid") Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) took a shine to him after they got him into a Black Sabbath concert for a review. William just wants to get away from his strict mother (Frances MacDormand). He goes on the road with the band to get an in-depth look at them, but not all of them are happy to have him there at first. Even after they take him under their wing, there's trouble with Penny and the other groupies, including losing them to a band in a poker game. William is disappointed when there's no room on their new charter plane for her; she shows up in New York anyway, hoping to get Russell's attention. William keeps her from overdosing on drugs when she can't. Matters come to a head in the plane during a storm, when they all think they're going to die and William finally calls them out about how they treated Penny. But Russell isn't sure that the article is a good thing...or that he really wants the truth about their rock-star lifestyle to get out...

Cameron Crowe based this movie on his experiences as a real-life teen writer for Rolling Stone, and his knowledge of and experience with the setting does show. This feels about as close as we're going to get at this point to being on tour with a classic hard rock band like the Who or Led Zeppelin. Hoffman and Hudson come off especially well as William's mentor and muse respectively; the latter got a Best Supporting Actress nod. The movie did win for Best Original Screenplay.

I will add that this is very much an ensemble movie, and not the fastest-moving film. Not a lot happens besides a lot of talking about sex, drugs, and rock and roll, at least until the storm in the third act. This isn't for action junkies or for people who aren't into classic rock, but for those of you who love the music as much as William and me, this is absolutely worth looking around for.

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