Horsing Around

My nephew Bernie and my niece Jaime horsing around at Jaime's birthday party this summer. Photo galleries just posted of Jaime's birthday party from July and Bernie's birthday party from August.

"King of Kong" not quite a spectator sport

My freelance review:

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I went to see the new documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Dollars."

And after seeing it, I'm not quite sure what to make of what I saw.

"The King of Kong" focuses on an aging sub-culture obsessed with arcade games of yesteryear -- games such as Frogger, Galaga and Donkey Kong. These folks don't play the games on their computers or TV. Instead, they play them on the original arcade machines that made the games popular, either at gaming arcades or in their garages.

Ultimately, the documentary focuses on the world's top two Donkey Kong players (Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe) and their battle for the top score. But first the arcade gaming sub-culture is examined in quite a bit of detail, some it directly relevant to the Donkey Kong top score battle and some of it not.

And throughout the film, there are "spectator-sport" close-ups of various Donkey Kong screens with challenges and near-deaths. Fortunately, director Seth Gordon intermixes light-hearted humor along the way via eccentricities and behaviors of the documentary's subjects.

As the documentary kicks into full gear, most of the background personalities and situations take a back seat to the two main Donkey Kong players. The documentary hones in on their lives, their families and their respective obsessions to be #1.

By this point, the film gets more black-and-white about the two middle-aged challengers, settling into a good-guy vs. not-so-good-guy battle. While I wanted to experience the thrill of competition, I wasn't quite fully engrossed.

Maybe video games aren't quite the ideal spectator sport for this reviewer.

Donkey Kong?

This is my friend Mark's dog Andy shaking his head. I took this with my iPhone camera which doesn't do too well if the subject is moving. I thought this made for an unintentionally funny photo that reminds me of Donkey Kong.

My workplace

Here is a beautiful watercolor of Clayton Corporate Park by my friend and colleague, Steve. The rich colors are stunning! Steve's web site, liquidChroma, offers interesting insight into the process of painting with watercolor.

You know you're getting old when [blank]

You know you're getting old when regulars from game shows you used to watch as a kid are dying off. The latest to go: Brett Somers, who died last Saturday at age 83, shown here in a 1977 photo with fellow Match Game co-stars Richard Dawson (still living), the deceased Charles Nelson Reilly and the deceased Gene Rayburn (host).

Latest iHunch was an iFlop

Fresh off a round of fairly-accurate iHunches, my latest iHunch flopped almost worse than the Microsoft Zune:

• A new iPhone, to be dubbed the "iPhone 3G." It will be virtually identical to the current iPhone, but run on a 3G cellular network instead of the slower EDGE network that the current iPhone model runs on. 3G is much more prevalent in Europe than in the U.S. The same iPhone being offered in the U.S.
• Price: $599 $542, with 8 GB memory.
• Available immediately throughout much of Europe, and in early-October in the U.S. Available Nov. 9 in the UK.
• Apple stock will go up 10% 1.8% on Tuesday due to the European availability of the iPhone being much wider than anticipated. the federal reserve dropping interest rates.

I have another iHunch

In 6 hours, Steve Jobs will be making a major Apple product announcement in London. I predict this will be the announcement:

• A new iPhone, to be dubbed the "iPhone 3G." It will be virtually identical to the current iPhone, but run on a 3G cellular network instead of the slower EDGE network that the current iPhone model runs on. 3G is much more prevalent in Europe than in the U.S.
  
• Price: $599, with 8 GB memory.
• Available immediately throughout much of Europe, and in early-October in the U.S.
• Apple stock will go up 10% on Tuesday due to the European availability of the iPhone being much wider than anticipated.
  

I can't wait to wake up in the morning and see what got announced overnight!

"The Brave One" executes with ease

My freelance review:

Charles Bronson would be proud.

In the new film The Brave One, it's two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster in a story that's quite reminiscent of Bronson's 1974 Death Wish.

Foster's character, Erica Bain, is the personality behind a melancholic talk radio program that depicts the darker aspects of a moody, personified New York City. As the movie begins, we see and hear this program but only in stark contrast to the happiness of Bain, deeply in love with her fiance, David (well-played by Nadeem Andrews of TV's Lost).

Within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film, though, Bain's world is turned upside down when she and her fiance are brutally and viciously attacked by several thugs in Central Park.

How Bain carries on in her world turned upside down is the story being told in The Brave One.

Foster carries the movie with ease. She brings a depth to the role of Bain that easily solicits empathy from the viewer. Bain is pretty much walking through life unsettled throughout most of the film -- and this unsettledness triggers a lot of suspense and more than a few jolts and surprises.

Another big plus for the movie is Terrance Howard (2006 Academy Award nominee for Hustle & Flow) as a detective investigating a rash of recent vigilante-style killings.

At the end of the day, The Brave One is clearly big-budget Hollywood entertainment. While it may not get strong marks for originality, it does get strong marks for execution -- in more ways than one.

Balloon Glow

This photo from the Balloon Glow held last night in Forest Park. More Balloon Glow photos here.

Later today is the Balloon Race. Photos from last year's Balloon Race here.

"That dog is that guy's best friend"

Kudos to Matt Smolenski of Grand Haven, Michigan.

On Wednesday afternoon while surfing in Lake Michigan, Smolenski noticed that an especially big wave had swept a man's brown and black mixed-breed dog off Grand Haven pier and into Lake Michigan.

As the dog's owner was screaming for the dog, Smolenski grabbed the struggling dog's collar and got the dog onto his surfboard. The dog rode the surfboard in to shore. Smolenski later commented:

I've watched the dog about a million times. He barks at the waves and then jumps back when they wash up on the pier... When I got to the dog, it wasn't dog-paddling anymore... I realized I was not going in (to shore) without that dog... That dog is that guy's best friend.

Full story here.

The simple grandeur

My friend Casey, who will be exhibiting his photography this weekend at MOsaics -- Missouri Festival for the Arts, expresses the following on his web site:

As technology grows and our world shrinks we often become overwhelmed with all of the information and activity around us. In my photos I strive to slow things down and emphasize the simple grandeur of the world in which we live.

A special thanks to Casey for allowing me to share several of his photos, below.

Art and sunshine

Rain seriously dampened this past weekend's St. Louis Art Fair and Schlafly's Art Outside, but art fair season continues. This coming weekend is the 13th annual MOsaics -- Missouri Festival for the Arts in old-town St. Charles. Over 100 artists will be featured, including a friend of mine who will be exhibiting his photography. And the best part of all: the forecast calls for sunny skies and 73 beautiful degrees!

"History Boys" doesn't quite pass the test

My freelance review:

As the opening play of the 41st season of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alan Bennett's multiply-honored "The History Boys" doesn't quite rise to the top of the class.

And that's really disappointing, given a fundamentally good story with underlying messages that were evidently heard and appreciated as the Broadway production earned a 2006 Tony Award for Best Play.

"The History Boys" is the story of eight unruly, bright, talented and funny working class students in the north of Thatcher-era England hoping to pass their exams and secure undergraduate places for themselves at prestigious schools.

Along the way, they deal with faculty members possessing differing styles -- mainly Hector, a rambunctious, fervent teacher of language and poetry who attempts to ignite the boys' passion for knowledge and for life, and Irwin, a new teacher intent on helping the boys test well.

While the cast members offer strong individual performances, there are some distracting issues with the direction and staging of the production.

The eight classmates are presented as too much of an ensemble for the audience to be able to appreciate the individual characters. And this escalates into more of an issue as the story advances in the second act.

The rich story and dialog would have been complemented by rich, detailed sets -- or contrasted by minimalistic sets -- but the middle-of-the-road sets used give the production an inadequate feeling.

The show is presented in a very episodic -- and distracting -- style, with loud early-80's music interjected in an uncreative 'blackout/set change' manner that makes the play seem all the more episodic.

Overall, "The History Boys" doesn't quite pass the test.

"The History Boys" plays through September 30 at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in Webster Groves.

iSaltine

Stopped by the Apple Store yesterday. The new iPod nano is even smaller in person than it appears in photos, including this one. This thing seems just barely bigger than a saltine cracker. Even in thickness.

If you get one, be careful using it while eating soup.

I had an iHunch about this...

...but I neglected to blog about it:

Grading my iHunches

With Apple having made their product announcements today, it's time for me to grade my iHunches from Monday.

Overall, I did quite good. Each hunch was generally correct, and I even guessed the name of the new "iPod touch" product line correctly. (I should work for Apple marketing!) Some of the details were a bit off, but not terribly so... corrections noted below. The only place I blew it was not having the hunch that Apple would drop the 4 GB iPhone model and reduce the price of the 8 GB iPhone model from $599 to $399.

Here is my posting from Monday with corrections noted:

Hunch #1 -- The iPod touch. Apple expands the capabilities of the iPod but very carefully so -- to not step on the iPhone product line. A new iPod borrows the touch screen interface from the iPhone and has the capability to purchase songs directly from the iTunes Store wirelessly (with an available wi-fi connection). The wi-fi capability is specifically for purchasing songs and for web browsing. Want e-mail or web browsing? Get an iPhone. This new iPod runs OS X, the same operating system Apple runs on Mac computers, the Apple TV device and the iPhone. As with the iPhone, Apple uses flash memory for durability. Apple calls this new iPod line the "iPod touch" and releases it in two models -- 16 8 GB or 32 16 GB, selling for $349 $299 or $449 $399, respectively.

Hunch #2 -- The hard drive iPod lives on. While larger amounts of flash memory are relatively expensive and since some customers (such as DJs) need a lot of storage, Apple keeps the current hard drive iPod product line for now, reducing the price of the 80 GB model from $349 to $299 $249 and adding a 120 160 GB model for $399 $349.

Hunch #3 -- The larger-screen but "even thinner" iPod nano. The larger screen means that photos are now bigger than a postage stamp and also that videos can now be played on the nano. The resultant product line looks like a shrunken-down version of the current hard drive iPod. No OS X, wi-fi or touch interface. Some new colors in the mix. Same storage capacities and prices as before -- 2/4/8 GB at $149/$199/$249, respectively. The 2 GB model is gone but the 4 and 8 GB models remain available at reduced price points of $149 and $199, respectively.

Hunch #4 -- The iPod shuffle stays about the same. It adds some new colors, stays at $79, but goes from 1 GB to 2 GB and stays at 1 GB.

The resultant product line looks like this:

$79 - 2 1 GB iPod shuffle
$149 - 2 GB iPod nano
$199 $149 - 4 GB iPod nano
$249 $199 - 8 GB iPod nano
$299 $249 - 80 GB iPod
$349 $299 - 16 8 GB iPod touch
$399 $349 - 120 160 GB iPod
$449 $399 - 32 16 GB iPod touch
$499 - 4 GB iPhone
$599 $399 - 8 GB iPhone

Some iHunches

Apple announces new iPods this Wednesday. So what can we expect? Based on rumors I've read from here and there and some gut feel, here we go:

Hunch #1 -- The iPod touch. Apple expands the capabilities of the iPod but very carefully so -- to not step on the iPhone product line. A new iPod borrows the touch screen interface from the iPhone and has the capability to purchase songs directly from the iTunes Store wirelessly (with an available wi-fi connection). The wi-fi capability is specifically for purchasing songs. Want e-mail or web browsing? Get an iPhone. This new iPod runs OS X, the same operating system Apple runs on Mac computers, the Apple TV device and the iPhone. As with the iPhone, Apple uses flash memory for durability. Apple calls this new iPod line the "iPod touch" and releases it in two models -- 16 GB or 32 GB, selling for $349 or $449, respectively.

Hunch #2 -- The hard drive iPod lives on. While larger amounts of flash memory are relatively expensive and since some customers (such as DJs) need a lot of storage, Apple keeps the current hard drive iPod product line for now, reducing the price of the 80 GB model from $349 to $299 and adding a 120 GB model for $399.

Hunch #3 -- The larger-screen but "even thinner" iPod nano. The larger screen means that photos are now bigger than a postage stamp and also that videos can now be played on the nano. The resultant product line looks like a shrunken-down version of the current hard drive iPod. No OS X, wi-fi or touch interface. Some new colors in the mix. Same storage capacities and prices as before -- 2/4/8 GB at $149/$199/$249, respectively.

Hunch #4 -- The iPod shuffle stays about the same. It adds some new colors, stays at $79, but goes from 1 GB to 2 GB.

The resultant product line looks like this:

$79 - 2 GB iPod shuffle
$149 - 2 GB iPod nano
$199 - 4 GB iPod nano
$249 - 8 GB iPod nano
$299 - 80 GB iPod
$349 - 16 GB iPod touch
$399 - 120 GB iPod
$449 - 32 GB iPod touch
$499 - 4 GB iPhone
$599 - 8 GB iPhone

I'll be grading my hunches after the actual announcements on Wednesday.