They're also planning a massive concert tour. Lisa, "Weird" Ed, my sister Anita, and I saw The Eagles when they came to the Greensboro Coliseum in 2003 for their Farewell I Tour. It was easily one of the finest shows that I've ever seen, and worth every penny of the cost of tickets. Hope they'll come back around the area again this next go-round.
Quite an interesting year this has been, for sure :-)
This is one write-up that I've been wanting the opportunity to do for quite awhile now. The very first time that I heard about Mildred Council AKA "Mama Dip" and her restaurant, it was when I spotted her cookbook Mama Dip's Cookbook eight years ago. Something about this woman's beaming smile on the book's cover screamed out to me that one way or another, I had to try her cooking sometime. And then I happened to notice that UNC-TV, the statewide PBS network, had her live in the studio every so often to demonstrate real southern-style cooking. I'm telling you here and now: I felt dire hunger pangs just from watching this lady make biscuits.Well yesterday evening after Lisa and I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX at Exploris in Raleigh, we made a stop in Chapel Hill. And at long last, I got to eat at Mama Dip's Country Cooking Restaurant. And this was, without a doubt, one of the best dining experiences that I've ever had! Everything about it was just darned perfect. Completely blew away my expectations. And even though it's an hour away from where we live in Reidsville, I can definitely see going back to Mama Dip's restaurant and bringing along more people who'll be new to the experience: as much to get a kick out of seeing them enjoy the place as much as I want to try more from Mama Dip's menu!
We got to Mama Dip's restaurant a little after 5 p.m. Here's the pic that Lisa took of me next to the sign outside the place...
Then we went inside. We found a wonderfully welcoming place with great country decor and a very friendly wait staff. And we had a terrific waitress named Persis who really did go all out to make our first time at Mama Dip's a memorable one...
Persis took our order for drink and I couldn't resist asking: "Is she here?" Persis said that "she's not here right now" but that Mama Dip would probably be in pretty soon.
So far as drinks go, they have a good variety at Mama Dip's and Persis recommended the peach/mango lemonade: a lil' home-grown concoction that she said was really good. So that's what Lisa and I ordered. The first sip of it was overwhelming. I can't think of anything else that I've ever drank, apart from a few alcoholic beverages, that has this kind of strong kick to it. Can't stress this enough people: the peach/mango lemonade is powerful stuff! We're talking tangy to the extreme. Here's a pic of Lisa after trying it...
I knew yesterday morning that if we went to Mama Dip's that evening, that I wanted to try the fried chicken and biscuits. I didn't know that this place had barbecue pork ribs also. I wound up ordering a combo plate of fried chicken, barbecue ribs, fried okra, and apple sauce...
And Lisa got the chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and macaroni. This pic also shows the biscuits...
Oh, and the biscuits? Heck, those alone would keep me coming back!
As we were winding down our main course, Persis came to the table and told me that Mama Dip had arrived a few minutes before. Persis led me to the foyer and there she was, Mama Dip herself: Mildred Council!
In case you're wondering why she's known as "Mama Dip", it came from when she was a child - the youngest of seven siblings - growing up in rural Chatham County, North Carolina. Mildred Council was called "Dip" by her brothers and sisters because she was tall and had long arms enough that she could dip all the way down to the bottom of the rain barrel to get a full scoop when the water level was low. We got to talk for a few minutes and I told Mrs. Council how much I had been looking forward to eating at her restaurant, and how much my Mom really enjoyed her cookbooks and how I couldn't wait to come again sometime. If I could describe Mrs. Council in just a few words, I would have to say that she is very "effervescent" and that her smile is as infectious as her personality and good cheer. Getting to meet Mama Dip, on top of the terrific food and service at her restaurant, is definitely one of the best experiences that I've been able to share on this blog.
After we finished talking, I went back to our table for dessert. Lisa and I had the pecan pie, which was warm and moist and extremely satisfying, coming on top of an already great meal. Then we left, after thanking Persis for the great job she did as our waitress and after Lisa got to tell Mama Dip as we were checking out that she really enjoyed eating there, too.
I will definitely be going back to Mama Dip's Country Cooking Restaurant, and hopefully sooner than later. And I'm going to recommend Mama Dip's to everyone that I possibly can, too. This is one place that not only deserves its terrific reputation, but that I think it could accurately be said that its reputation doesn't reflect on the place nearly well enough! It's very worth your while to visit the place, even if you have to drive a bit to get there (like we did).
Mama Dip's Country Cooking Restaurant is located at 408 W. Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. If you're coming in from I-40 it's a very easy place to get to: just get off at Exit 266 onto NC-86 going toward Chapel Hill. This quickly becomes Martin Luther King Boulevard and after about 3 miles becomes Columbia street. You'll want to turn right onto west Rosemary Street not long after this, and Mama Dip's will be a little less than a half-mile on your right. Just look for the sign that's in the above photos and you can't miss it :-)
The first installment has a lot of local interest because it originated with a professor at North Carolina State University. John Kessel's short story "A Clean Escape" will star Sam Waterston and Judy Davis in a post-Apocalyptic tale of the near future about a psychiatrist who's trying to help a man with curious lapses in memory.
I haven't read the original short story yet, but my friend Chad Austin - who works at N.C. State's press office and who wrote an article about John Kessel and his story being used for Masters of Science Fiction - has told me to expect quite an excellent tale! The News & Observer also has an article about Kessel's story. And Mr. Kessel has drawn up a list of what he considers to be among the best film adaptations of science-fiction work.
Masters of Science Fiction premieres with "A Clean Escape" at 10 p.m. EST on August 4th on the ABC Network.
Yesterday, Lisa and I had a fun lil' trip to Raleigh, where we went to the IMAX Theater at the Exploris Museum to catch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX. This was the second time that we'd seen the movie and the third time that I've seen a feature film in IMAX: click here for my report from seeing Superman Returns at the same theater a year ago.
The first time that I saw the movie of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I said that I had liked it but that I hadn't been completely satisfied with the movie. At the time I was right in the middle of the book, trying to finish re-reading the entire series before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. This is still the densest novel in the entire series and there's no way that a 2-hour movie can be done that adequately reflects everything in the book. I've no doubt that my reading it just then, on top of this being my favorite book of the series, affected my take on the movie. But, I was willing to give it another shot.
So what do I think of the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now, having seen it twice and this latest time in IMAX?
It's definitely starting to grow on me. I think that director David Yates and his crew have done a remarkable job in faithfully portraying the spirit of the book, given the time constraint they had to work within. The last time I saw the movie, I think that down on some level I was preparing to be disappointed 'cuz like I said, this is my favorite "regular" book in the saga (Deathly Hallows stands on its own as much as the Book of John stands apart from the "synoptic" gospels in the Bible). This time, I was a lot more relaxed going and willing to forgive any reasonable inconsistencies with the book.
The unforeseen consequence of that is that this time, I noticed much more detail from the book that made its way into the movie. The one that I can't stop thinking about is how this time, I did happen to notice that Percy Weasley was working as an underling to Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. If you've read the books you know how this is a big deal. Granted it wasn't given any verbal mention but seeing how that was Percy who was holding Harry in custody in Dumbledore's office, made me respect the movie much more. No one needed to actually say anything more after that. We know he's in tight with the Minister's office. It's already a perfect setup for what we know is going to happen later. I don't know how I missed seeing him before but maybe since this go-round we watched the movie on an IMAX screen, there really was no excuse to miss him this time.
There's not much more than I can say about the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie that I could say that wasn't already articulated in my initial review. But there is one thing that seeing it this time had that watching the movie in a regular theater doesn't have: the amazing thrill of watching the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in full IMAX 3D! Everything from the moment Harry and his team leave Hogwarts, to when they return to the school is given the 3D treatment. I thought it looked even more beautiful and jaw-dropping than when we saw Superman Returns in IMAX 3D last year. It's only about 20 minute toward the end of the movie, but it's astounding enough to warrant the few extra bucks to see the movie in IMAX.
I'm glad that we did this. I feel like I can finally appreciate and enjoy this movie, and it was a really great experience made all the more fun by listening to the reactions from the kids in the audience, many of whom it was obvious had never seen an IMAX movie before at all. And I'm still chuckling at the little girl who said aloud "that woman's creepy!" during the scene where Dolores Umbridge is making Harry serve detention.
Go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX if you can. It's an absolutely amazing spectacle for the eyes.
300 easily ties along with Transformers as my favorite movie so far of 2007. I've seen it twice now (click here for my thoughts when I first caught it) and it's sort of taking hold with me just as The Matrix did some years ago. So I've been looking forward to the release of 300 on DVD this week. It also came out on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray but since I'm still waiting to see which way the market tilts before investing in a player for either of those formats, I'm still using standard DVD. Besides, we've got a nifty lil' "upscaling" DVD player that does a great job outputting regular DVD to our high-def set, and we're probably going to be more than happy with that for awhile to come. As I've said before, when it comes to new technology I'm very much like the Amish: I have to completely trust it before adopting it.I've actually watched the 2-disc DVD set once now, but this is such an awesome movie that I've had it playing about twice more while I've been working on some things (George Lucas writes to music, and I often write and do video editing with movies playing in the room behind me :-). As a consequence some of the more memorable lines have been stuck in my head for the past day or so. Lisa can tell you that I'm already doing a terrific impersonation of that Persian emissary dude when he rasps out "A THOUSAND nations of the Persian Empire descend upon you! Our arrows will blot out the sun!"
Okay, 'bout the DVD ...
I like it a lot! The one problem - that may or may not even be a real issue - is that even for standard DVD upscaled for high-def output, the image quality looks pretty grainy. But then, 300 on the theater's screen it's rather grainy anyway: all part of the unique look of this film. But in comparison to most other standard DVDs lately, 300 still appears to have less-than-ideal image quality. A few times I wondered if Warner Bros. is encoding its regular DVDs as well as they could: I thought that the DVD of Superman Returns likewise could have used better encoding of the video. But having seen 300 twice in theaters, I'll still say that for this particular movie, if you're getting it already knowing what to expect, it should still satisfy well. The audio is also very good.
Disc 1 is the movie, in widescreen format (you can also buy this as a single disc or in full-screen, if that's what you prefer). You can watch the movie "bare-bones" or with audio commentary from director Zack Snyder. Disc 2 is the special bonus features, including 3 deleted scenes. Two of those feature the traitorous Ephialtes and the other is of this huge (we're talking bigger than Goliath) Persian warrior with this midget archer riding on his back and shooting arrow at the Spartans. There is also a terrific documentary about the historical background of 300: what we know of the real-life Leonidas and his stand at Thermopylae against Xerxes's Persian army. Other features on Disc 2 include a look at 300's creator: comic book legend Frank Miller. A few more are various takes on 300's revolutionary production, which involved using bluescreen on a massive scale and the lengths that Zack Snyder and his crew went to in order to faithfully adapt the 300 graphic novel for the big screen.
300 is an amazing movie, and one that I think is going to have quite an inspirational impact over the long run. It gets a great treatment on DVD and I'll definitely recommend it for your personal collection.
Here's the full video...
While looking for that video on YouTube I also found this clip, featuring (now deceased) televangelist Gene Scott. You can find more videos with him on YouTube - most of them more than a bit on the odd side - but this was the first one that I came across...
That said, such words must be used carefully. And I'm definitely going to impress upon my children - if and when God blesses us with any - that it's not a good thing to just go around using these words (yes I am quite aware that this is going to call for some changes of behavior on my part, but I'm ready for that). Peppering an essay with "damned" is okay. But profanity for the sake of profanity's shock value is not only a major turn-off, it shows a lot of shallowness and lack of self-control. Guys like this aren't doing the Christian faith any favors by carrying on like this.
"Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined."All the same though, I must confess: I was laughing so hard watching these videos, that it literally hurt!-- Titus 1:8
When was the last time we had the opportunity to elect a man with an intellect on par with that of the Founding Fathers?
You'll never see this kind of thought and eloquence from Hillary Clinton, Rudolph Giuliani, Fred Thompson, or any other empty suit that the party bigwigs and the mainstream press would rather you vote for. You certainly can't say that you've ever seen this level of articulation from George W. Bush.
Just one more reason why in 2008 I'm voting for Ron Paul, or I'm voting for nobody.
Bridge to Terabithia - Sort of like "Pan's Labyrinth meets Terry Gilliam's Brazil". With special effects by WETA. Confused the heck out of me at first, but I think I've come to enjoy it since watching it Sunday night.
Little Miss Sunshine - Has a great message at the end. Unfortunately this comes after some of the most vulgar dysfunctionality that I've ever seen in any movie. I groaned more than I laughed. This got wiped off the DVR immediately.
Yes, this is for real. Here's a story from the BBC about it, which is part of the exercise regimen that a security consultant came up with for the prisoners.
Thanks to Marc at Bmovies - who never fails to amaze me at the stuff he locates on the Internets - for finding this :-)
My sister Anita and I went to the Brassfield Cinema to see Speed during its first week in theaters. It so happened that we saw it on June 17, 1994.
Does that date ring a bell?
So we went to Greensboro and saw Speed and we got back later that night a little before 10 p.m. local time. Anita was telling Mom and Dad how great a movie it was. I thought it was terrific too. While Anita was talking about it I turned on the TV in our living room to see what was on.
Not ten minutes after we got back home, CBS interrupted regular programming with a breaking news report. The very next thing we saw was a closeup shot from a helicopter of a white Ford Bronco driving down some highway in California.
That's always made me laugh: that we went right from watching Speed at the theater, to watching the O.J. Simpson slow-moving car chase on television.
I wonder if I'll get a "cease and desist" from the U.S. government for posting this amazingly detailed cutaway diagram of the Saturn V rocket. Slashdot is reporting that NASA is censoring information about the Saturn V launch vehicle.How much information? Well, there are reports that NASA is ordering the confiscation and destruction of Saturn V posters that were purchased at gift shops at Kennedy Space Center and other NASA facilities. And now UpShip.com, a website that's loaded with technical specs and blueprints of various air and spacecraft, has been sent a warning from officials at NASA's Export Control Office that files pertaining to the Saturn V the site has on this page are in violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). That's the list of things that the federal government doesn't allow to be disseminated because it classifies them as "weapons".
So of course, I couldn't resist posting the biggest, most detailed picture of the Saturn V's internal structure that I could find.
Some are wondering if the appointment of one of Karl Rove's cronies to the position of White House liaison to NASA has anything to do with this ridiculous move to ban images of the Saturn V.
I'm expecting jack-booted thugs to bust through the door at any moment now to confiscate my 10th Anniversary Edition DVD of Apollo 13.
Does this mean that the Bush Administration will soon move to ban the sale or purchase of Estes model rocket engines because they could conceivably be used by "terrists" to deliver armed payloads? Seriously, I have to wonder if this government would actually consider doing that.
This is one of the loonier things that I've seen the federal government do in the past several years. If it sends me a sternly-worded e-mail or some other communique about the placing of the above image, I'll make sure to share it with y'all.
So I thought it was a good a time as any to call Sony Music, since everything is indicating that they are the ones who would be releasing this thing. And my intention was only to ask about when approximately we could be seeing this in stores. My e-mail box has been flooded with inquiries in the past several days from people about this: there was the feeling that I owed them some kind of substantive update with info straight from the source.
Well, I called up Sony BMG Music at (212)833-8000. A woman's recorded voice gave me a list of options to choose from. I hit "4", to speak to an operator at Sony BMG Music.
That put me through to a fella who asked me "how may I direct your call". I told him that I was calling to ask about the status of the Transformers score CD. He told me in a rather tired voice that there is no plan to release it at this time and that "I believe that I've spoken to you before about this." Now this was the very first time in my life that I've called Sony Music, and so far as I know it's only the second call I've ever made to any recording label (the first was several years ago when I was working to set up an interview with a musical artist). I told this guy that it couldn't have been me that he had spoken to, that this was my first time calling Sony Music. I don't know who it was but I can't help but have the sense that they have been contacted quite a bit about this.
Like I said, I only called to try and get an estimated release date. I wasn't expected to hear, again, that there are "no plans at this time" to release the orchestral score from the Transformers movie.
In the past week we've heard from a number of sources that an album is coming and "soon", and then we've heard from the music studio itself that an album is not coming anytime soon. So which is right?
If I hear anything else about this, I'll let y'all know.
Sports Illustrated has a feature on its website showing athletes who have been on The Simpsons and comparing their cartoon caricatures with their real-life photos. Among those from the world of sports who have made their way to Springfield at some point are Tony Hawk, LeBron James and Wade Boggs (pictured above from the legendary 1992 episode "Homer at the Bat").
Thanks to Chad "Ironman" Austin for passing along the link!
But ever since reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, my mind has been reeling with wonder. J.K. Rowling tied up all the threads throughout seven novels by the end of that book. But whether she wanted to or not, she also sowed the seeds for a lot of further stories from the Potter-verse. She's been doing that from the very beginning but Deathly Hallows somehow maddened the lust to know more about the world that Harry lives in.
Well, Rowling has said something about eventually writing a comprehensive Harry Potter "encyclopedia" that will go a long way to fleshing-out the Wizarding world and its history. And maybe a book about Neville Longbottom that would be sold for charitable causes. But I think there are some fascinating possibilities for more narrative fiction from the world of Harry Potter, with stories that are begging to be told at some point...
- The First War: We've always heard about how bad it was, but we know hardly anything about what happened in the Wizarding world between 1970 and 1981, when Voldemort and his army was tearing everything apart. It's been said that World War II was just a continuation of World War I, with a period of time in between to rest and reload. That's partly why this would be a fascinating read because it was while reading the third Harry Potter book, Prisoner of Azkaban, that I realized that Harry and his generation were being used to fight a proxy war by those that came before, until the young ones grew into their own. Maybe with a rich account of the First War, we can finally get to see a place that I've always wanted to see depicted in the Harry Potter books: the wizard prison of Azkaban. This book should end just when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone begins: in the aftermath of October 31st, 1981.
- Full-length novel about Dumbledore and Grindelwald: The "Obi-Wan Versus Anakin Duel" of the Harry Potter saga, that until we get to "see" it is going to become just as legendary an exercise in imagination. This story deserves a book all to itself as much as the First War does. We know from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald were once friends in youth, who came to share (for the Dumbledore we came to know and love anyway) some very disturbing dreams. The two eventually split, before Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore in 1945 (ever since this was mentioned in the first book, some have wondered if this date implies that Grindelwald had something to do with Nazi Germany). A book about Dumbledore and Grindelwald might not only give us a close look at the early years between the two wizards, but also what happened in the World War II years at Hogwarts when Dumbledore was at first reluctant to confront his former friend.
- Hogwarts: The Early Years: Sometime in the late 900s A.D., four of the greatest sorcerers of that age established an academy of magic somewhere north on the isle of Britain. The alliance between Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin – and their eventual falling-out – would carry ramifications that would rock the Wizarding world for the next one thousand years. I'd love to see this story laid out somehow, especially how Slytherin ended up creating the Chamber of Secrets.
- How the magic and non-magic worlds separated: At some point, those who could work real magic decided the time had come to live apart from the Muggles (non-magic folk in the Harry Potter books). The result, in my mind anyway, was that there were two very real realms that grew and evolved in parallel to each other, but with radically different underpinnings: the Muggles rely on technology and science, while the Wizarding people use magic and other forces of nature that mystify us Muggles as much as Arthur Weasley is captivated by ordinary batteries and electrical plugs. This splitting-away might be a fun thing to see, especially with how the Wizarding community ended up with a government so much like Muggle bureaucracy.
- The story of Dean Thomas: J.K. Rowling has hinted a number of times that Harry's fellow Gryffindor classmate Dean Thomas has a much more interesting background than we've yet be let in on. I will admit that he hasn't felt to be much more than a secondary character but his role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows did pique my curiosity about him quite a bit.
- A Marvels-style glimpse of the Wizard world from the viewpoint of a Muggle: In 1993, Kurt Busiek wrote a graphic novel for Marvel Comics called Marvels. Beautifully and realistically illustrated by Alex Ross, it was the story of the events of the Marvel Universe as witnessed by an average "man on the street". Well, what if a British Muggle had managed to witness every major event of the Wizarding world that had happened between World War II and 1998 – from Grindelwald's possible involvement with the Nazis to the destruction wrecked by Voldemort's forces throughout England. And what if that Muggle had somehow been "missed" by the Ministry of Magic's squad of Obliviators, so that he/she not only saw these things... but remembered it all as well?
- Hagrid's biography: Hagrid is, shall we say, one of the more interesting characters in the Harry Potter saga. I'd love to see more about him, especially his life after getting expelled from Hogwarts.
Those are just the ones that came most immediately to mind during the past week. What else could we see turned into more stories from the world of Harry Potter? :-)
The Blade Runner 5-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition. Comes out on December 18th. Suggested retail price of $78.92. It will include director Ridley Scott's 2007 "final cut" of Blade Runner, plus the 1982 original theatrical version and the 1992 "director's cut". Plus another DVD packed with bonus material. That's stuff that's coming with the 4-disc set but this set also includes the ultra rare "workprint" version of Blade Runner ...
This rare version of the film is considered by some to be the most radically different of all the Blade Runner cuts. It includes an altered opening scene, no Deckard narration until the final scenes, no "unicorn" sequence, no Deckard/Rachel "happy ending," altered lines between Batty (Rutger Hauer) and his creator Tyrell (Joe Turkell), alternate music and much more.The set comes in an individually numbered stylized briefcase like the one Deckard carries in the movie. Also packed in with the DVDs are a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, collector's photographs as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.
Find loads more info about the Blade Runner DVD releases at The Digital Bits.
I'm putting this on my Christmas wish list pronto!
