May 2010
This is a list of posts published in May 2010.
Aria at Five
Five years old sort of makes it all official. They’re not babies any more.
If that was a bitter pill to swallow when Colin turned the page two years ago; it makes today even more bittersweet – as I look to my Little Princess, Daddy’s Little Girl, growing in leaps and bounds with every day. With the end of her preschool career mere weeks away, and the knowledge that after that increasingly shorter spell of Summer that looms ahead will likely be consumed before we know it, Aria is headed to kindergarten and hence a full day session of schooling, five days a week – there is the inescapable fact that another chapter in her own personal storybook is shuttered for good.
Daddy’s Little Girl is growing up and despite the fact that I can vanquish the mightiest of bedtime beasties wh... Continue reading »
My Favorite Things – ‘Top 5 Summer Movie Memories’
[Editor's Note - This piece was originally published on May 30, 2007. I am reposting it as my annual kick-off to the Summer Movie Season which technically started about 3 months ago.]
With summer movie season officially kicked off… wait, who am I kidding. With Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End all released prior to Memorial Day, we may already be onto the Autumn Oscar season by the time I finish scribing this list.
Oh well, once upon a time the summer movie season started at Memorial Day and played until we doffed the white apparel and headed over to Chess King for our new fall fashions. So it is with a tinking of the ivories (yup, I busted out the vintage piano tie for this latest waltz down memory lane) that I dust off some of my fondest summer movie memories.
For my frequent readers, you know the drill. I ... Continue reading »
My Favorite Things – ‘Poetry in Motion – Top 5 Perfect Scenes’
Editor’s Note – In honor of Dennis Hopper’s passing, I’m reposting this piece – originally published on July 14, 2006. Enjoy – and let me know some of your faves in the Comments below.
The late Gene Siskel once applied this logic to determine what makes a good movie. Five good scenes and no bad ones.
I’ll up the ante and say – throw in one great scene and you have a classic.
Today I’ve decided to focus on those scenes that are so picture perfect in execution. I’m talking about those scenes that just make you lose all sense of time and place and completely sell the illusion – that you’re no longer watching actors spitball lines or marveling at excellent production values – that what you’re viewing has happened and is so vital ... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘The End’ – Episode 6.17
Early this season, when the episode titles were announced, my eyes fixed on ‘The End’. A title so simple, so bold and so perfect. It told us absolutely nothing except the one unwavering fact – All Good Things Must Come to an End.
After all, we are the rare breed. The fans of a show who knew the exact end date two years ago. There would be no more aimless wandering and wondering once Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse secured the ‘all clear’ to plant their flag on a finale and then begin a 2 & 1/2 year journey to that final destination. And fans knew that the show would never run on until the ad revenue petered out and ABC half-heartedly pulled the plug. Also, we wouldn’t feel the sling of an abrupt cancellation – with five billion story threads left tattered and dangli... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘What They Died For’ – 6.16
This is a bittersweet week.
When we turned the page to Monday, it hit me. In one week’s time, we’d get the final three and half hours of this epic tale, and then we’re done. A tough pill to swallow especially after receiving last week’s information download regarding the true nature of the island that almost unanimously fell like a 10-ton crocodile statue. I’ve scoured the web and aside from the blind faithful (every cult has them and in the case of Twilight, that’s all they’ve got) – anyway, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who really, truly appreciated the episode.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to that and I think I finally hit upon the reason why.
It’s not so much what the island is – so much as how we ... Continue reading »
Jacked and Pumped
Starting in the Spring, my household jumps aboard a rolling birthday rally.
In late April, our beloved yellow lab Abby hits her birthday. As we turn the page to May, Colin celebrates his Cinco de Mayo birth with a celebratory Corona or two of the virgin variety and begins etching plans for a month-long celebration. A couple weeks after Colin, our black lab Chatham hits her mark before leaving the stage open for Aria to close the month out properly with her special day. And then one week after her May 31st milestone, I bring up the rear and continue my descent to the underworld.
With two young children sharing opposite ends of the same month, my wife and I have been fortunate to plan one mega-party covering both events – inviting all of their friends (of which there is significant overlap) for a mid-May shind... Continue reading »
Pan Handler
“The show’s major drawback is Humphries’ straightjacketed performance as Jon. He huffs and puffs from one scene to the next with unvarying gesture and intonation, unable to take his character beyond a blandly drawn portrait of frustrated agitation, even though one senses he’s grasping to do so. “
That’s the review I woke up to on Wednesday morning – the hump day standing tall between dual weekend performances of the show I’m costarring in - “Love, Sex & the IRS” which is currently being performed at the Gateway Players Theater in Southbridge, MA (with two dates remaining this coming Friday and Saturday evenings).
And those slings and arrows weren’t fired by some wet-behind-the-ears cub reporter on the Southbridge Middle ... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘Across the Sea’ – 6.15
When I was in college – way back in the flannel-decked intro to the Nineties – I found that one semester, I glommed onto The Doors’ “The End” something fierce. As a raging Pearl Jam fan, I think I spied a kissing cousin in Morrison’s moody evocative lyricism and that song bridged worlds to PJ’s heralded disc Ten – which felt more like an anthem of my soul than Nevermind ever did. Maybe it’s because I was a year or two off from really giving off that Teen Spirit scent. Who knows?
Anyway, back then, as I chased down my Journalism degree at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, I found myself ‘hired on’ as a scribe for the University’s daily newspaper, The Collegian, where I quickly made the jump from hard news stories to the Arts & Li... Continue reading »
Colin at Seven
Seven years ago today, I was so sure I had it all figured out.
When Andi and I first discovered she was pregnant – after being awoken in the middle of the night in the middle of the deep, dark woods in the middle of the only real wilderness we’d ever truly ventured into (i.e. the comfy campgrounds of Acadia State Park in Northeastern Maine) with what Andi could only describe as the first stages in an alien infestation, we went through all the normal preparations that seemingly normal, first time parents go through.
We vetted our suspicions through an actual practicing doc and not just the baker’s dozen of EPT that the local CVS dropped on us (Hey – we were in Northeastern Maine where the local yokels have barely mastered fire, we weren’t taking any chances). We excitedly told our friend... Continue reading »
Lost – ‘The Candidate’ – 6.14
First off – I know some of you had to hunt a little bit for today’s post. That’s what happens when the Lost recap shares twin billing with my Cinco de Mayo Nino Colin’s birthday. Since I’ve been running this site, I’ve made it an annual event to post a piece recounting my thoughts on my son Colin and daughter Aria as they crest that latest milestone. Sure I would have loved to have started this tradition at birth but I’ve got to play with the hand I was dealt, so starting at Colin’s Age 4 and Aria’s Age 1, I’ve made a point to give y’all a glimpse into their lives. Today Colin turns seven and if you’re so inclined, you can read all about it in his special little tribute.
That said, I couldn’t leave my fellow Lostralians... Continue reading »
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