Only One Superman

Last night was the new Superman Returns opening. I bought my Imax tickets a week in advance and was pretty excited. Lana bailed on me at the last minute when she found out I wanted to get there two hours early to get a good seat. She acts like this is something new. Every premiere I go to, it's always the same. Anyway, she gave her ticket to Micah. We got there just as I planned to an already long line of people waiting to get seated. We killed the time bullshitting about this Halloween, a new game Micah wants to gm, and other random stuff. I was really excited about seeing Superman in the theaters again. I remember watching the originals, from two on, at the theater with my brother when we were kids. I had the t-shirt, the VHS movies, and the now highly collectible big action figure. He came with a string setup so you could fly him around the room. I used to take that thing everywhere with me.
When those opening credits started rolling I couldn't help but grin. It was just like the originals, music and whoosh sound effects. Then the story started. I was pretty into the movie until they had Superman doing some very un-Superman things. Then things just got worse. I've gotta bitch so here goes.
Superman Spoiling Rant - Go!
Superman goes away for five years to return and find Lois Lane married and with a son. So what does he do? He continues to try and win her back and even spies on her family with his x-ray vision, despite her being married. This is a character who wouldn't even peak under the masks of his fellow crime fighters out of respect for their privacy in the comics. His personal sense of right and wrong wouldn't allow him to do something as underhanded as trying to cock block a married man.
Then, they go and turn Lex into a cackling henchmen set on killing Superman. Yes, Gene Hackman's version wasn't much better, but at least he had a little more depth back then. Here's a villain that ranks up there with Magneto as far as depth and motivation. They get an Oscar-winning actor to play him then turn him into a two dimensional thug with money that wants to kill Superman with fewer lines then Jimmy. What a waste of talent.
The fatal blow is when they made Superman do the one thing he'd never do. He had sex with Lois and left her for five years. We're talking about the Big Boyscout here. We're supposed to believe that a man like Superman would leave Lois (much less have sex with her) knowing he could never be able to dedicate himself to her the way he should so long as he was Superman? No way. I groaned in my seat wanting to look away when they revealed Lois had his love child while he was away.
The last part of the movie I was just waiting for it to be over. Superman lifts an Island of Kryponite and carries it into space. He can't even be near the stuff when it's fist-sized, but he lift an island made of it??? Oh, I forgot. He had a supercharge from the sun first so that explains it....
Movie Spoiling rant over...
There, I feel better. I was really looking forward to this movie and it sucks to be let down so badly like this. I liked Brandon Routh as the new Superman even if he does look like he's sixteen and I could even accept the younger, less tenacious Lois Lane. But why get my hopes up of presenting an awesome Lex by getting someone like Kevin Spacey and not use his talent? There was a lot of respect paid to the original movies though if you're a Superman fan you'll catch em throughout the movie. The most obvious one being the "It's a bird..." bit.
After the movie Micah and I bitched the whole way back. We had to watch a good super hero movie to get the taste out of our mouths when we got back so I put on Batman Begins.

On the Road and Back Again

Wow, the past couple days just flew by. We're finally unpacked and laundry is caught up again from our Tusla trip. I drove Marcel and me out to Tulsa to pick Lana up from her horse show thing and figured we could do some stuff up there as a family. So we hung out at the show a little longer and watched the ponies showing. Lana says we could easily train Remmy to pull a buggy. I have to admit it was pretty cool and I'm more than a little interested. I can deal with a pony I think. It's big dumb animals that make me nervous. Anything that's got the brain the size of a walnut and has me by over a thousand pounds makes me a little nervous. I could take down a pony if I had to I think.
Turns out, there isn't a whole lot to do in Tulsa. We stayed at an awesome hotel, went swimming before we checked out, then hit the road. We made our way back home and stopped out in Dallas and enjoyed the day there before stopping for the night in Ennis. We visited Half Price Books, we browsed and drooled at Hobbytown USA, Lana browsed through some western wear shop, and we ate some really great barbecue. It was a pretty good day to do nothing in particular. Once it started to get dark, we made our way to Galaxy Drive In. I had been counting down to it all day and wanted to get there as early as possible.
The last time I went to a Drive in had to be when we were still living in Hawaii and I was a year or two older than Marcel is now. We got there pretty early so we parked to get a good spot. Lana didn't want to watch from the back of the truck so Marcel and I climbed on top of the truck when the movie started. We used to always back up and open the back of the van so we could lay down and watch the movie at the same time. Sometimes I would fall asleep in a bundle of blankets and pillows and not wake up until we were slowly driving off. I vaguely recall us going with one of my dad's army buddies once and we were in a small car. My dad rigged up a mosquito net. It had to be when we were in Louisiana but I could be wrong. Talk about a lot of memories coming back. We didn't stay for the second movie since it would get us back much later than we wanted so we left during the intermission. I can remember trying to watch as much of the second feature as I could from the back window of our car as a kid as my dad drove off, wanting so badly to stay. This time I watched through my rearview mirror. Wow, I can't wait to go back.
Turns out, there's a big revival of Drive ins all over Texas. There's even an adults only one. I like porn but I think that might be a little traumatizing.

Father's Day

Another Father's day in the books. I hadn't really planned on doing much really. Lana's out of town so it's been just Marcel and me. My dad was in town for a few days but he left on Saturday so there went any plans my brother and I had with him. I even bought him a card and all, thinking I could give it to him. Anyway, like I said, I hadn't planned on doing much but I couldn't stand just staying in on Father's Day. I could hang curtains or clean my garage but instead I decided to take Marcel out to eat. Fuck it, we've been good right? It's been almost a whole week and we hadn't been out to eat once. So Marcel and I went to try out Asian City Chinese & Japanese restaurant over by Deerbrook Mall. I ate until I was full than I ate a few more bites it was so good. The sushi was pretty good but the scallops were amazing. I was a little worried Marcel wouldn't like any of the food there once I saw the menu. He was in a steak kinda mood and I was craving seafood so it worked out. So we ordered up some sushi, soup, and salad while we chatted about Mario, Yoshi, the difference between a standard mount and epic mount, our favorite cartoon episodes, and our plans for this Halloween. Marcel's been a real chatter box these days and it's not always easy to give him my full attention when he seems to want it every given moment. Here lately he seems to be everywhere I turn asking me questions and talking but I try to remember how I looked up to my dad at that age. I keep reminding myself there's going to come a day when he won't want my attention like that and I'm going to miss it horribly. So I basked in the attention of my son while I still have it. It was nice, just him and me.
Afterward we hobbled our way out to the car and drove to the movies where we numbed our brains with Garfield and laughed until our stomachs ached at Cars. If you haven't seen Cars, you need to. I haven't laughed that hard in a movie theatre in a while. Hopefully we'll see it again at the drive-in on the way back from getting Lana from Oklahoma. Lana spotted one showing Cars on the way up there. I didn't even know there were any drive-ins left in Texas anymore. Last time I went to a drive-in Grimlins was still in the theaters, my dad was driving a VW Vanagon (one with a camper pop top!), and I still thought Santa was real. Marcel and Lana have never been. I'm really looking forward to it.
Oh, Happy Belated Father's day to all you lucky dads!

Our House in Order

Lana and I decided we need a little order in our life. Again. What makes this time different is that we actually sat down to make a game plan with a schedule and everything. Every now and then we get frustrated with our bad habits and talk about changing them into more productive habits. Sometimes we even form a half-ass plan. Usually, after a few days of talking about it we end up postponing the execution of said plan because of X (Halloween, Christmas, birthday party, etc.) This time we actually decided to just do it. Once we had the list (we made a list together!) it all seems so much easier. This time it's going to happen.
I'm just so fed up with my daily grind holding me back from doing so much. I sleep in until around eleven or twelve (an improvement over our old schedule up-in-the-afternoon schedule I'll add), I feed Marcel and me, then I spend most of the day catching up on laundry, dishes, and picking up after everyone that by the time I get time for myself it's one in the morning. The first thing on our list was getting our house organized.
In just a few days we tore through most of the house making piles for Goodwill and the curb. Marcel's room alone wielded three large bags of trash and two boxes for Goodwill. It was pretty amazing cleaning his room. I didn't know a kid could have so much junk. Lana was stunned how much of his stuff had accessories. It never really occurred to me just how much toys for boys have extras.Backpacks and rifles for G.I.Joe, Power Ranger Armor, swords, Megaman Blasters and boots, Ninja Turtle rocket boots, dozens of missiles for dozens of different launchers, helmets, etc. I could go on and on. Every few seconds Lana would ask, "What's this?" Marcel and I would respond at a glance and she would shake her head. She mumbled something about never wanting to hear us complain about not remembering stuff anymore. Plus she kept trying to throw away damaged action figures. The G.I. Joe missing an arm, the Wolverine missing the foot, the hulk missing a face, etc. Those pieces have more playability than even the undamaged toys. They're injured, casualties, and just plan bad mofo's. I got to keep a few toys for myself that were destined for the curb. Just a few more toys to go on my bookshelves when I finally do those built-ins like I plan. I think the next few months are going to see us a little more together. :)
I should get to bed I guess. I just got back from Mike's poker game. I didn't do too bad. I made a pretty good comeback and took second place plus I got a new 17" flat screen I bought from a friend at the game. I'll probably be up all night though since Lana is out in Oklahoma on a horse show. I sleep like shit when she's not in bed with me. I always sleep better knowing she's there. I think I'll catch up on my Sopranos. I'm on disk two of season five. ;)
'Night!

Dusty Dice

I actually had to find my dice today. It's sad really, that I wasn't sure where they were considering how much I really enjoy roleplaying. Oscar called me up sometime in the middle of the week wanting to roleplay. I'll admit I didn't think it would happen considering how many times we've tried in the past to get a game together. So I found my dice bag buried under a pile of flash cards and Marcel's reading books, loaded up my books and made the long trek to the other side of town. It took me almost an hour to get to Anthony's new place but it worked out. We ended up gaming until nearly eleven in the evening. It feels good to be gaming again even if it probably won't happen for another few months. Hopefully we'll get another game together soon. We sat around bullshitting for a few hours while they finished their characters, made gay jokes about Oscar (as usual), then got down to business of rolling the dice. Lemme tell you, I was rolling crits like a madman. I think I honestly came really close to accidentally killing Oscar's character. Maybe GM dice charge like powerstones... It was good to hang out with Oscar and Anthony again for something other than on poker night.
My poker hiatus is over and it's back to the dealer chair. This Friday is our regular game again so sometime this week I need to send out the reminder emails. I'm kinda looking forward to it. I really needed the break, but it'll be good to see everyone at the game again. I even skipped Mike's game last Thursday although I did plan on making it. I ended up making a plaster mold of Tracy and Abbey's foot. Something about them wanting a Fiberglas casting of their feet to make boots. It did get me to thinking about Halloween. It's really not all that far away and I should start thinking about making headstones, cemetery gates, and stone statues. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Tomorrow I'm making a priority list. I've become a list person somehow. Not sure when it happened but I find myself making lists for everything. It's a bit like office supply stores, libraries, and organizing my magic cards. Just the act of writing one is soothing and makes me happy. I don't get a stiffy or nothin but I like making lists lately. I think I'm safe from true nerdism so long I don't start carrying a small notebook to jot new lists down as I think of them. Maybe a digital recorder though...
I should really get off here and get some sleep. It's three in the morning and I'm exhausted. I ended up not going to bed until around six in the morning. Lana and I stayed up watching The Skeleton Key. I had seen in the theatre but I never could get Lana to go with me. So I tivo'd it as soon as it premiered on cable. She actually liked it and wanted to watch it again right afterwards. We'll probably end up watching it again tonight. Such a cool movie if you haven't seen it. One of the best movies I've seen in a awhile. Anyway, I'm rambling. 'Night.
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