Vegas, Zion, Bryce Canyon Vacation Recap; Day 1-We have liftoff.

June has found me in between jobs and a pre-planned trip to Utah has now become an open ended vacation. I have vowed that I will blog daily about the trip from start to finish unlike the blogging of my maui trip which ended on Day 3 of 7 with the heading “Day 3; I am beaten senseless by the local Shaman.” But new lap top in tow and all of the tools of trade by my side I pledge this time to follow this through.

We left OC only 45 minutes late of our schedule and a trip on the toll road to the 91 saw only mild traffic congestion which by 91 standards may as well have been wide open driving. Making matters better yet; the 15 freeway saw absoulutely no traffic at all which mean the trip has started on a very positive note. As a matter of fact the free flowing traffic actually put us ahead of schedule which meant a mind numbing 30 minutes to kill at the outlet center which I always enjoy, since the prices at the outlet center always seem to be no better then the prices locally which always begets the question-if the prices are the same why battle the 100 degree heat? It also served as a great reminder on why I love my wife with the comment of “I just dont like shopping.” I always knew I had a great lady on my hands but having managed to find the one japanese girl who doesnt like shopping is really the gift that keeps on giving-if only she had ultra wealthy parents she would have been the girl of my dreams.

The real highlight of the opening salvo of our trip was our visit to the legendary Barstow Del Taco. I had heard good things for years but never managed to make the trip either opting for something in Baker or not making it past Big Boy or Tommys off of Linwood Ave. But family in Tow I was eager to see if there was truth to the matter and whether or not the 4.5 Yelp rating was warranted. Yelpers are typically brutal in the harshness of their reviews so to see positive reviews for a fast food place was an eye opener. RinkRat has swore to me about this place for years so I was certainly looking forward to seeing what was in store.

From the outside it looked no different then you cookie cutter Del Taco on anycorner of anytown USA. Even inside it looked the same sans every table sporting condiments packets and napkin dispensers. I could mention how the person taking the order also spoke perfect english, and actually suggested I upgrade the chili fries to the deluxe model since it was only 20 cents more-in 40 plus years of So Cal living I think this is the first time I have ever been upsold by a fast food worker. We settled on a couple of combo meals so the kids could get some fries and a couple of drinks. We ended up with some big fat soft tacos, the aforementioned chili fries, and a couple of bean and cheese burritos. And while the prices were a bit higher then your local Del Taco it was very apparent the portion sizes and the preparation of the food were far different then the Del Tacos I was used to. The Cheese actually seemed like real chedder cheese...as a matter of fact I noticed it was a different size grade then the thin sliced cheese I was accustomed to. The size of the chicken chunks as well as the freshness of the fat taco soft shell/pita was a far cry from what I was accustomed to....it was kind of like of ordering a 99 Cent double Cheeseburger from McDonalds and being served a double double Animal Style. All in all I can agree with the hoopla in spite of the somewhat higher prices. Even the bean and cheese burritos were better with an over abundance of cheese and the temperature of the beans melting the cheese into a 1/2bean 1/2 cheese gooey mess of goodness. I even got 3 year old Dustin to take a couple of bites which speaks volumes.

We made our way back into the minivan and as we approached Baker I encouraged the kids to play the “Guess the Temperature” game on the worlds biggest thermometer. The excitement soon proved anti-climatic as we neared the thermometer it either wasnt functioning or the angle of the sun made getting any type of accurate reading impossible. I will go on record as saying there was something wrong it-Ive been past this thing hundreds of times and dont ever recall it being as dim or faint as it was today. Explaining to the kids why the thermometer didnt work after getting them hyped was like a less brutal version of explaining that Santa Claus had been murdered on Christmas Eve. I had the wife bust out some Capri Suns and Otter Pops from the cooler and the matter was soon resolved.

We made our way to the 1st stop at Buffalo Bills. I dont really care too much about gambling, especially that of the trashy variety that is the Buffalo Bills staple but given the room was $16 bucks I figured it was an easy option and the log rides and other kiddie attractions would give the kids something to do in the evening. We let them do a couple of rides and walk around a bit. The place was deserted to what I was used to and the amount of smoke in the casino was about 1/2 of the normal amount which meant that it only took 45 minutes to acquire Black Lung Disease as opposed to the normal time of 15 minutes. All of the food shops were closed as well which is certainly a sign of the economic times. Overall I didnt care-I wasn’t gambling, wasnt drinking, and only used the casino as a neon version of Motel 6.

The Room itself was surprisingly nice. It was much much cleaner then I had expected and the bathroom was a far cry from the vegas trip I stayed at the Four Queens or even the Tropicana back in the Frozen Fury Pre-Season Hockey Games of years past pre-wife pre-kids. I literally had expected the worse and while the carpet has certainly seen better days for $16 bucks I wasn’t expecting crushed velvet.

I was hoping to get a good sleep as tomorrow would see us driving through Nevada, a blip of Arizona, towards Springdale Arizona. It would only be about 4 or 5 hours in real time but counting the amount of pee breaks, “Im Bored” comments, begging for snacks, arguing, bickering, motiong sickness-I would say the over/under would be more like 6 hours or the entire DVD Box Set of Planet Earth(the UK version, not the Sigourney Weaver version.) Was almost enough to have me seeking an online divorce the first moment I was able to pull into a wifi hot spot.

And alas as I finish typing this I am lucky to catch a weather report and good news is on the way! Tomorrows high is only expected to hit 105 degrees! I guess I should have brought a parka and stocking cap. The first day come and gone though has me summating with a so far so good attitude....I have yet to have a Clark Griswold style emotional outburst, I still have money in my wallet, ice and a few cold ichibans still in the cooler. This beats me old record of my trip to Walt Disney World which saw me penniless and using an asian travelers cell phones to call American Express Customer Service line begging for a raise in my credit limits-all before reaching El Segundo.....much less LAX. To be fair though-downtown Linwood seemed like a natural shortcut and the locals in town seemed friendly enough in spite of the name of the favorite band they all had tattooed on their back-I have never heard of the pop act known as the “19th St Crazy Boyz”, but I am pretty sure they must be the hispanic version of the Jonas brothers only instead of joe, nick, and paul there is Lil’ Chewie, Wolfie & Joker. Anyhow tomorrow sees us hitting up Zion National Monument and should also be the first blog entry with some pics.

Day Late, Dollar Short Movie Reviews; Downey, Burton, Gilliam & Strange Animals

Had a chance to redbox a couple of movies in recent weeks and now have a few moments for another edition of the day late dollar short movie reviews.



Movies like this always reminds me of the sage words on an ex girlfriends sister. Whenever asked about a recent movie she saw would always respond with "ehh, it was ok" in about as neutral tone as one could ever find. It used to amuse me that no movie was ever great or outright sucked. Years later, I debated whether she was brilliant or the wisdom of her words was mere coincidence. When someone says a movie is great the hopes and expectations get built to a point where reality can never live up to expectations. On the other side of the ledger-when you say a movie sucked big time; actually seeing the movie and finding some redeeming qualities can raise the bar. With that in mind and based on some reviews for Holmes maybe I expected less and received more.


Sherlock Holmes- As of right now Robert Downey Jr can do no wrong...this guy is on one heck of an amazing roll. When was the last time an actor has been in so many big name movies and done well in such a short period of time? Between Sherlock Holmes, Ironman, Tropic Thunder, The Soloist-this guy is hollywood gold.

That said I really enjoyed this movie in spite of the fact the hollywood-ization of one of literatures most beloved characters was off the chart. While I admittedly have never read one, count ‘em not a one, of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books I cant help but think that not a one of the featured Sherlock Holmes participating in mixed Martial Arts Events and being adept at applying a rear naked choke hold that would make George St Pierre Proud. Same with Watson, I always envisioned him as a portly cherubic side kick-not a tall lanky stud who also happened to me a 5 time junior welterweight boxing champion. That Said-

This was an entertaining movie and Guy Ritchie was a very good choice to direct the film. I am sure there some purists are bemoaning Ritchie’s mainstream work, but he is very good and adept at setting mood and feel and using this time period is a perfect choice for him to show his wares.

Wont go into trivial things like plot and amusing anecdotes; but for a few hours of fun and interest Sherlock Holmes did well to hold my interest and I would not mind at all if this became a series of films as Downey and Law played well off of each other and had good chemistry. As a matter of fact-I would much rather see and trust the continuing quality of a Sherlock Holmes Series of Films then anything coming out of the Indiana Jones or Star Wars Series. And once again when we speak of conjecture my waxing poetic and lamenting of hollywood bastardization of fictional characters is purely speculatory as I have never read any of the works of Conan Doyle-nor Carroll which leads me to.......

Alice in Wonderland



I will preface this with the widespread announcement and proclimation that I am by no means a fan of Tim Burton. The 1st Batman film is widely overrated and would haven been a monumental bust if not for the casting of Jack Nicholson. Batman 2 made Batman 1 look like the Godfather and probably my choice for worst movie of all time being that at least “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and “Troll2“ have comedic value. Edward Scissorhands has not aged well at all and the Planet of the Apes remake was saved by the fact it didnt reach the horrid scale of the Rollerball remake. Dont even get me started on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That said I enjoyed his work in Ed Wood, Big Fish, and Peewees Big Adventure so please dont start a facebook page of “Hipcheck hates Tim Burton” as did enjoy some of his movies.

As for this flick....I can pencil then is as one of Burtons movies I liked. Ironic that this was the one Disney film that bored my kids but the wife and I enjoyed. I had never heard of Mia Wasikowska before this flick but she is beautiful and charming, Depp is as bizarre and extravagant as can be, visually the film is stunning, and my only regret is that I wasn’t able to catch this at the Imax, in 3D, after taking one semi large inhalation of something of the high quality hallucinogenic variety. Watching this movie made we want to re-explore the works of Lewis Carroll much the same way as Holmes made me want to read at least one Sherlock Holmes book. Considering I fancy myself an amateur writer does never having read anything by the two aforementioned authors besmirch the most basic and low level of my credentials? I must ponder this fact.

Burton’s characters are always so over the top that it borders on the grotesque. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. But the one character in this film that was perfectly cast was Leo Bill as Hamish-the prim English Lord Alice is set to marry. He did more in 10 minutes to stereotype English Upper Class Twits then Monty Python did in 20 years. Seriously funny stuff from this guy. The shape of his nose alone is worthy of mention almost more so then Helena Bonham-Carters head.




As with Holmes I wont get into plot and what not but this is one of Burton’s Better Works in that he controls himself enough to keep it inline without going into bizarro world territory. Thats not to say going into bizarro world territory is always a bad thing but Burton tends to go to the well one too often with unsatisfactory resorts. Once again I do not mind going mad on film-but for that genre I prefer Terry Gilliam over Burton.

I would be remiss as well if I did not mention the work and revitalization of Crispin Glover’s career. While I do not think he will go down in history as the world’s greatest actor; he has done enough quality work where he can be known for his body of work as opposed to the guy known for his erratic borderline emotionally disturbed Letterman appearance. Odd to think 20 or so years later and without having any inside info whatsoever I would almost trust Glovers opinion and morale compass over that of Letterman. The March of Time in conjunction with age and opinion truly creates strange animals.

First Ribs of the Summer

Picked up some Farmer John Spare Ribs from Smart n Final and figured I would post the results here. I was mid way through making a new batch of dry rub or what my wife refers to as the "annual cleaning of the spice cabinet" when upon completion-she actually found the bag of last years dry rub. And with that a new tradition was born; the merging of last years rub into this years rub. Much like using the strain of yeast over and over again for bread-my rub will be continually be changing, evolving, and mixing the old and new into a mesh of collangual flavoring. And yes, I will admit that I just made up the word "collangual" so no need to bust out the thesaurus.

Here is a picture of the ribs rubbed and ready to go. There was an exterior strip of meat that I removed and decided to use some Chef Paul Pork seasoning on. You will notice the Chef Pauls is much redder in appearance then my rub-probably due to more paprika and no brown sugar. I will say the Farmer John ribs were the meatiest I have ever used and 2 large racks came to about 12 bucks.



Once prepped I tried my best to do a low and slow at about 200 degrees with indirect heat. I put the ribs on the bottom rack and used the top rack for the rib tips with the Chef Paul.



After that I wrapped in foil and finished the ribs over at my cousins. Have to apologize for the pic quality as I didnt have my normal camera and had to use my phone camera.

All in all a great way to start the season. People loved the ribs, the ribs tips were fantastic, and a good time was had by all.

Fun with Weather Pt2

My OC readers are probably well familiar with the surf spot known as the Wedge but for my international readers let me give a bit of a back story.

The wedge was a normal stretch of beach at one point until someone decided it would be a fine place to dig an enormous harbor. Newport Harbor was born and separating the mouth of the harbor and the regular beach was accomplished by laying out 1/4 mile or so of large boulders referred to as a jetty.

The wedge is known because as waves form and hit the end of the jetty as the wall of water rebounds it creates a much larger wave then what Mother Nature created. Even when other spots are typically 2-3 feet high as far as wave height is concerned the Wedge can be generally counted on to be twice as high. The caveat being the waves at the Wedge break much closer to the shore so while the wave size is impressive it is certainly a surf at your own risk type environment.

Anyhow, a big swell moved into the area and while some areas had 4-6 foot waves this afternoon at the Wedge had some waves I would think close to 15 ft or so. Keep in mind I am no surfer and certainly no expert on measuring wave height. But hopefully the pics and videos speak for themselves. Much like Fun with Weather pt1 these were taken with my camera phone and I apologize for not bringing a real camera.

Enjoy!

On this picture below if you blow it up you can see a bit of a blur on the wave-that was actually the lone surfer out in the ocean. Gives you a pretty good idea about the size of the wave.








Believe it or not these were not the biggest waves I have ever seen at the wedge. If memory serves roughly 10 or so years ago there was another storm that brought in bigger much more powerful waves. The waves crashing the shore were powerful to the point where you could feel the break of the waves under your feet and the crash of the wave sounded like a clap of thunder. Todays wave were not of the ilk, but under these conditions its always a treat to visit the Wedge. Props to my friends at McClain Concepts, an awesome orange county marketing company for helping out!

Day Late Dollar Short Movie Reviews-I bring thee these movies three

Some quick takes from my "Day Late Dollar Short" movie reviews.

Where the Wild Things Are- A very dark depressing movie. It was like Tim Burton without the quirk or Terry Gilliam without the brilliance. After watching I can only imagine the millions of parents who took their kids to the theater expecting a fun lovable kids movie. I can only imagine how many kids left the theater emotionally scarred. There was supposed to be some type of message somewhere along the way however it was fully lost on me. This movie was like a bad acid trip.

Zombieland- Everything it was cracked up to be. Sometimes when multiple people tell you how great a movie is and you finally see it; its only going to be a let down by high expectations-this was not one of them. As others mentioned Woody Harrelson is great. He should have played Brad Pitts role in Inglorious Basturds. As a matter of fact he could have played that same character in Inglorious Basturds and it wouldnt have made a lick of difference if not only to improve it. Bill Murray is always amazing.

Up In the Air- Enjoyed it as well. Clooney is Clooney and the female lead Anna Kendrick was good but I could not get past the fact she looked very much like a younger female version of Tom Cruise.



Jason Reitman really knows how to set a good feel and vibe for his movies that can make an above average idea more compelling then it really is. He really should have directed "Lost in Translation" as then it probably might have been deserving of the acclaim it didn't deserve in its actual form. George Clooney will be deserving of an academy award when he can successfully play the role of a man who isn't charming and is not constantly saying clever things.

Fun with Weather

Had a flash flood out front of my new office....Snapped some Camera Pics for your viewing pleasure.

Day Late Dollar Short Movie Review-Inglorious Basterds

Happy New Year to all me readers and followers of the blog. I am none too sorry to see 2009 in the history books and 2010 has already started in a much better fashion.

That said-this is a new feature I will try to post from time to time. Most of you know my story that with a 6 year old and a 3 year along with a very tight budget it is a rarity for me to get to the movie theater to see the hot new movies. However, being an ex netflix'er mainly due to the convenience of Redbox I will generally watch the newer DVD releases. Hence the title, Day Late(referring to the time lapse at which the movie takes to go from theaters to DVD and Dollar Short(referring to either the crazy price to see a movie leaving you in a debt or the 1 buck for Redbox....take your pick and select the answer that works best for you). Truth be told I think its an old Nebraska saying that was taught to me by an old Nebraskan. Anyhow, I will try to post one of these every couple of weeks and always, feel free to comment.

To the movie, and I wont bore with the plot details because you have probably already read some other reviews if not probably having seen the movie outright but I have to say if there were any question that the Quentin Tarantino is over...this movie should bring down the gavel once and for all as this movie is barely a shade over being outright horrible. It's amazing given the press about this movie that some would have the temerity to declare "Tarantino is Back" or "one of his best" as I came out with quite the opposite conclusion that Tarantino deserves to direct another movie like the Indiana Jones franchise needs another space alien ending.

Much like the classic Tarantino movies that have merit-this is biggest, hackneyed, cliche filled POS in recent memory. From tired directorial tricks to the myriad of WTF moments, this movie was 150 minutes of waiting for something interesting to happen and instead we're treated to over the top scenes of outright gratuitous violence along with sullen moments of attempted preachy-ness and clever banter that is really not all that clever. Yes, thank you very much Quentin for letting the viewers know that Nazis were bad. As if it wasn't bad enough that the Nazi's perpetuated the greatest human atrocity of the 20th century-they also hated Black people too! Ooooh, now Im really steamed...go get 'em Brad Pitt make those Nazi's Pay!

And speaking of Brad Pitt, Tarantino chooses this stupid accent for his lead character when it was completely unnecessary. Really, if Pitt just spoke in regular English would it have made one lick of difference in the overall film? Christ-he could have reprised his role as Stoner roomate Floyd from True Romance and the payoff would have been the same. You are asked to suspend belief on so many accounts on this film that Pitt could have did an impression of Richard Nixon and it wouldn't have made any difference what so ever.

And back to my assertion that if you felt Tarantino was done as a director-this is really the smoking gun. At this point Tarantino carries about as much directorial credibility as M Night Shamalamadingdong. I actually prefer Tim Burton to Tarantino these days and I am no fan of Tim Burton which speaks volumes.

Another example of cliche and maybe a potential spoiler here but; when the black guy goes to light the pile of film in the theater-he flicks his cigarette onto the pile and the director decides to go with the most tires of all director tricks with the slow motion close up of the lit cig spinning through the air-Is this same cinematic effect not been beaten to death on almost any film and tv show for that matter that uses it mainly these days as a comedic device given that no director worth his weight in dr pepper would think it was a good idea to use such a tired cliche. If I see any flame inducing object doing a slo motion journey into a flammable substance it will be too soon. I am sure if you scour Reruns of the Brady Bunch or Gilligans Island odds are you will find this same gimmick used.

Back in the day of the aforementioned True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction Tarantino was doing some semi innovative things and making films that were very different and compelling from other films of the time. Remember these were the days long before the internet, netflix, or redbox and getting movies meant hoping Blockbuster or your local video store had the movie in stock. Some have argued that Tarantino was already liberally borrowing or outright stealing from others but at that point access to movies was so limited that it may have been new to mainstream america. And while I am not so sure those three films hold up well the dialogue is well written and there is enough in the story and the quality of the acting to make them worthy watches, but after that Tarantino's resume has slowly fallen and disintegrated into a vast pool of "look how talented and clever I am." If I had to choose a one sentence line to describe this movie I would go with "Tarantino has directed a lot of movie....this is one of them."

Delving further, I couldn't wait to see Jackie Brown when it came out as at that point I felt Tarantino still had something to offer. But after watching the 3 hour movie thats sole dialgue consisted of M F'er every second sentence and outright banal dialogue that failed miserably at trying to recreate the magic and chemistry that Travolta and Jackson had in Pulp Fiction-I was left with a simply mediocre if not semi exasperated take on what was really a long winded lukewarm film that if not for the performances of Pam Grier and having Jackson and Deniro in the cast would have surely been savaged by critics.

From there Tarantino goes into the Kill Bill territory which I found simply unwatchable. Shock does not equal quality. I couldn't make it through the first half on Kill Bill Vol.1 in spite of the fact I was on a 10 hour plane trip to Japan. I didn't even bother to watch any of volume 2 simply based on the aforementioned idea of Tarantino's diminishing returns. If Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds are considered "Instant Classics" as bandied about on Amazon reviews then I guess the ultra lameness of Seth Rogan in "Observe and Report" must have been a performance and movie for the Ages. Call me an old fart but all of those films just mentioned are pure unadulterated crap. Really. Crap.

Tarantinos catalog of Crap actually makes the works of Brian Depalma and John Carpenter look like Stanley Kubrick. Really, if Tarantino is a great director then Jim Jaramusch may as well be Akira Kurosawa. Hell, I will go on a limb and say the guy who shot James Cameron's Wedding video is a better director. Ill put more faith in the guy who held the camcorder at Spielberg's kids Bar Mitzvah.

Not to say the movie in entirely without merits, Mike Myers as well as Christoph Waltz were both good in their roles. As a matter of fact, I thought the first Chapter of the movie was very, very good which maybe let me down the rest of the movie as after the first scene I expected a continuance of quality that I simply didn't get. And while I respect Tarantino's use of music in his films-the choice of music in this film are simply cliched and overused as are most of Tarantinos self indulgent tripe. I like Bowie, I really do. I like the song "Putting out the Fire" and really enjoyed listening to it in high quality 5.1, but for this movie its just a tired, cliche. Its not there to add anything as much as it is a trick or a gimmick if you will.

All I can say in summary is is a few handpicked lyrics from Paul Westerberg that still ring as true today as when he wrote them nearly 20 years ago.

Hollywood cops
shoot each other in bed
and I wouldn't go to see 'em
they put the checkbook to my head

The fifth gripping week
an absolute must
one of the years
best ain't say'in much