Random Brain Dump

I don’t watch Nova religiously anymore, so it’s nice to find that some episodes are now available on the web.

The coming episode (airing 1/3) is an investigation of a mummy (pictured here) in a museum in Niagara Falls, whether it could be the remains of an ancient Egyptian king. Sounds awefully intriguing…

I had yet another case of insomnia last nite so I stayed up channel surfing and caught a few HBO documentaries. One of them, Unknown Soldier, is particularly powerful. It’s a story of a son’s quest to re-assemble the life and death of the soldier father he has never known.

In 1969, Lieutenant Jack Hulme was blown to pieces in Vietnam, just days short of ending of a tour that’d bring him home to his wife and his newborn son. 30 years later, John Hulme pieced together the life of a father he’s never known through personal accounts. Particular touching was the interviews of Jack’s father, a normally stoic 80+ year old man. It was clear Jack was the apple in his eyes and his death was a huge loss for the old man. Through the process, the son came to terms with the life and death of his soldier father. Very powerful stuff…

Watching that reminds me of my parents’ generation and the trying times they had to endure through the war. My dad and my uncles were soldiers in the Vietnam conflict. My uncle Ty went MIA in the early 70’s. I was too young to retain any meaningful memories of him. Like John Hulmes, I only remember him through pictures. One thing I do remember however was a blue/gray sweater with a large print of a racing car in the front. It was, according to my mom, my uncle’s gift to me after a trip abroad. That was probably the only thing that represents any real connections between him & I.

I imagine that it’d be very interesting for me to find out more about my uncle through the personal accounts of my mom & my other uncles. And one of these days, I might just do it!

First there was Wensleydale, now it’s Stinking Bishop! More about these cheeses later…

So who are the dynamic duo pictured here? Wallace & Gromit are 2 characters in a series of claymation shorts from Britain. They are the creation from the same guy who made “Chicken Run.” Wallace is a basically a dimwit inventor; Gromit is his dog and also the real brain of the duo. Wallace likes cheese (a lot) and often gets himself in trouble only to be rescued by clever Gromit. Gromit doesn’t talk and only communicate with his facial expressions.

I first saw W&G shorts on PBS on one of their pledge drives in the ’90’s and I was rolling with laughter, hadn’t seen anything so hilarious! The fact that they were claymation was pretty bizarre then. It takes over a decade but a feature length W&G movie finally are hitting the big screen– it opens today. In these days of computer generated animation from Pixar & Disney, it’s refreshing to see animation made with good ol’ chunks of clay.

So now back to the references of the cheeses… So Wallace is really a big fan of cheese and his choice of cheese has been Wensleydale. The popularity of the film shorts propelled the cheese to be the best selling cheese in Britain for a number of years. In fact, Wensleydale Creamery claimed that W&G saved it from bankruptcy.

In the new movie, Wallace’s new cheese obsession is called Stinking Bishop. Being mentioned in a W&G movie makes Charles Mattell both happy and very nervous because he doesn’t think his small creamery will be able to cope with the surge of demand. His orders are already up 1200% even before the movie was released. He has a refreshing take on the whole thing:

“I’m quite happy with what I’ve got at the moment. I don’t need more money. I can only wear one suit at a time, or drive one car. And I certainly don’t want fame, ” said the cheese maker.

This movie will be a big hit. How can it not with a cheese named Stinking Bishop?!?! 😉 I can’t wait to take Katelyn to go see it with us this Sunday!

I caught Scent of A Woman on cable this weekend, one of Pacino’s best work. The film climaxed with the scene where Frank Slade unexpectedly came to represent his young friend Charlie and gave his speech to Charlie’s entire school. It’s one the most memorable scenes in cinema for me and it gets me riled up everytime I see it. I thought it’d be fun to write down the entire dialog of the scene.

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For those part of the Asteroids and Space Invaders generation, check this cool Futurama clip my co-worker sent me (Thanks Steve!).

It’s full of references to old, ehhh classic (that’s what I meant), arcade games!