Mike's medicine

It's definitely worth the $14.99 too!

At the hospital

I love this place!

Names and a Date

We are now officially the proud parents of twin boys! Marcus Lee Smith (formerly known as Twin A) weighing in at 5lbs 8oz and Ian Bradley Smith (formerly known as Twin B) at 4lbs 15oz, born on December 29th. Pictures soon!

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holiday cheer

I am stuck in my own personal Hell: standing in a non-moving line at Media Play, listening to Jewel sing Christmas carols. Aaaahh!
-m

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'Up' & 'Out'

We lingered a bit on our way to the doctor the other day... Being up and out is more fun than being down. Sshh, don't tell.

Grey Tuesday

Cory Doctorow explains what Grey Tuesday is at Boing Boing.
To make life much easier (for us), I just changed the Blogger Navigation bar at the head of this blog to grey rather than the entire template and background.
You understand.

... No more Heidi jumping on the bed

Apologies for the belated personal events log.  Life here has been, well, life.  Here we go-

So, Heidi is now on ‘bedrest.’  We went to the doctor the other day for a few tests, and it turns out that she was having more contractions than the girl in the next room, who was in Active Labor.  The thing was, she could hardly feel them so this news came as quite a surprise.  Had she continued without medication to slow the contractions down, she would have undoubtedly gone into labor.  This was especially intense, since she isn’t due until January 25th.  Although, the doctor said that anytime after 36 weeks is pretty much ok to deliver (which puts it right about Christmas! We are trying to find a way to be happy about that).  Other than having to stay down, Heidi and the babies are doing well.

Over the past few weeks we’ve decided that death and pregnancy (both of which we have recently been privileged to experience first-hand) are never convenient, so you just have to deal and ride it out.  Although, in my rule book, it’s ok to cuss a little along the way.  Mix in the season’s cold and flu greetings and it’s not only ok, but imperative that you cuss in order to overcome.  It says that somewhere in the Old Testament.  The Good News is that we no longer have to be Mary and Joseph for the Ward Christmas Experience (Party).  Mysterious ways… mysterious ways…

Enjoy a bit of pop art while you're here!

New York Doll

We went and saw New York Doll last week. What a great movie! It filled all of the purposes of a good documentary by being incredibly interesting, moving and entertaining. It focuses on the bass player for the edgy punk band, the New York Dolls, and what happened to him after the band split after being together for only a few years.

For music and music history lovers, this show will be thoroughly enjoyable. For people who have ever dreamed and prayed for reconciliation with lost friends, you have to see this. If you are, or might be, interested in learning about how an unruly rock star finds God in a touching, yet profound, way then you had better go rent this flick. I am pretty sure that it isn’t showing in many theaters (maybe still at discount cinemas) so you will have to get it on DVD. If you (like many people in this valley) think that documentaries can’t be entertaining or hip and cool, then let me tell you that when we saw it, the theater was filled with groups of young college hipsters, middle-aged boring types, as well as a throng of retired temple-workers. You could say that it’s hip for all ages.

You have to watch ALL of the end credits for the final payoff. I would have paid full admission price just to see the end credits bit. It is that cool.

Peace.

Top Ten Films and Directors

I just posted a list of my ten favorite films and directors on The Cinematheque web site and thought I would torture everyone else by posting them here as well. Mind you this is a very reductive and painful exercise, but I am a list-loving geek. I won’t detail the exact criteria that were used to compile this list, other than to say that both quality and entertainment value were considered (understandably, some might argue that they are one in the same). I’ve also limited the films so that each director is only represented once.

Films
1. L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
2. Close-up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
3. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
4. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
5. Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1961)
6. The Bicycle Thief (Vitoro De Sica, 1948)
7. To Live (Zhang Yimou, 1994)
8. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
9. The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
10. Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)

Might have made the list on another day of the week:
**Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
**2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
**Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
(I am also conscious of the fact that these are all ‘Talkies’… sue me, there are only ten slots and I used one of them with a musical!)

Directors

1. Akira Kurosawa (Japan)
   
2. Jacques Tati (France)
   
3. Alfred Hitchcock (UK)
   
4. Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland)
   
5. Orson Welles (USA)
   
6. Zhang Yimou (China)
   
7. Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)
   
8. Ingmar Bergman (Sweden)
   
9. Woody Allen (USA)
   
10. Federico Fellini (Italy)
    

Might have made the list on another day of the week:
**Stanley Kubrick
**Robert Bresson
**Yasujiro Ozu

I am now open for complaints.
-m

Autumn on the Loop

We went for a drive around the Alpine Loop shortly after we moved back to Utah. The colors were really amazing this year because of the cooler summer and above-average rainfall, which has us a bit worried about the upcoming winter. After enjoying the milder English weather this past year, we're not feeling ready for six feet of snow on our front step. Sheesh!

The Unbearable Lightness of Not Buying Records

An old photo of Heidi and me at Randy’s

The other week we made a trip to Randy’s Records in SLC with Angie and Aaron. Despite our excitement and an almost unbearable desire to buy LOADS of records… we left empty-handed. We made a trip to Randy’s and had nothing new to spin when we got home (and nothing to spin on because all of our equipment is still in storage!). As hopeless as this all sounds, we still had a great time (and a good laugh at ourselves for defying the odds); just being in a record shop with a soul gave me great cause to rejoice.
On the other hand…I came across this article the other day and it gave me a feeling of hope; a hope that is threatening to blink out when I read things like Ashlee Simpson held a #1 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 last week. The article focuses on the legendary John Peel who is a brilliant reminder that there are people in the world who love music… well, he’s not currently a reminder, because he died last year… hmmm… now I’m depressed.
*blink*

-m

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

I wrote the last post in an attempt to encourage people to support a first-time feature length filmmaker (Joss Whedon), and am now plugging the debut of author, Susanna Clarke. While these works have been critically accepted as being high in quality, it must be remembered that these two mediums are, first and foremost, industries. That is to say, these artists (and possibly the future of quality art/entertainment) rely on people paying money to see the film or read the book. While I don’t imagine that their careers are even remotely in danger of dwindling (Whedon is currently directing the upcoming big screen revision of Wonder Woman and Clarke is helping to produce the film adaptation of her novel), I feel it important to support that which is ‘virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy’.

I managed to pick Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell up at W.H. Smith while waiting for the train in the Norwich station. To put it simply: I loved it. Mind you, I started reading it at the beginning of our trip to Edinburgh, Shropshire and Wales, so it was both rather startling and enjoyable to be reading along about a group of magicians gathering at the York Minster only to look up and see none other than said Minster out of the train window. Although this experience made reading the book that much more enjoyable for me, it obviously isn’t necessary (that would make it a really expensive read if it were). If you love books, history, moral struggles, intrigue, mystery, England, magic, Faeries, humour, tragedy, creepiness, ravens, Scotland, or faux-19th century English literature, then Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is for you. If you don’t like any of these things then I hope you enjoy your boring miserable existence (but you should still buy the book).

Here’s a review (skip the tiresome first five paragraphs of plot synopsis)

Here’s another one (this is NOT meant to be an endorsement for Orson Scott Card; I just happened to like what he said about Serenity and Jonathan Strange). This review is a bit more detailed than I generally like before I read something for the first time, but I think his overall analysis helps to illustrate the relevance and depth of the story. Keep that in mind.

-m

A Call to Arms: Go See 'Serenity'

This is going to be a rather shameless plug for a movie. If any of you people ever thought that Star Wars was even a decent film, I say to you now, Go Watch Serenity. Then I ask you to repent for having wasted money on anything George Lucas has touched in the last 20 years, and then go watch Serenity again. You will NOT be disappointed.

Rather than blowing time and money on current Box Office rubbish like Flightplan, Waiting, and Two for the money, go and see a film that actually has a great story, characters worth caring about and the integrity to withstand compromise between the two.

Click here to read what Orson Scott Card has to say about this film.

Here is another review from Manohla Dargis of The New York Times.

This isn't just Sci-fi geekery; it's just plain good filmmaking.

Catching up...

Here is another ‘pictastic’ post since the last one was kind of more on the wordy and less on the visual side of things. We still seem to be playing catch-up with the picture posting.

While still in Norwich we made some more trips to the castle to climb the battlements and go down in the dungeon. This particular tour costs somewhere around £2.50 and is well worth it. The view from the battlements is incredible! Unfortunately, the sky was kind of grey and so the pictures we took are rather ‘Ho-hum.’ However, if you have an hour to spare (and are in Norwich), check it out – especially if the day is clear.

If you happen to be visiting Blickling Hall it is worth a stop in at St. Andrews Parish Church right next to the front entrance. If you are into it, there are some pretty cool sculptures and carvings, but mind the bat mess – it’s everywhere.

The Big Move

Our move from Norwich to Utah went remarkably well. In fact, I think this was one of the smoothest moves that we have done – not necessarily the least stressful, but with the least number of crises.

There were a few scary moments however; the first being that the coach we were taking from Norwich to London Heathrow never came. By this time of the year Norwich is getting pretty dang chilly at 7:30am and there was a North Sea breeze bearing down on us as we stalwartly waited for a bus that was never going to arrive. Around an hour later (and after being given various excuses as to why we were all still waiting in the cold), the bus station people told us that the bus was broke down and that National Express was sending taxis to carry everyone to the airports (lest anyone mistakenly assume that National Express did this out of good-natured customer service it should be noted that they had to be violently persuaded with around 20 angry phone calls). At this point they also told us that we could no longer wait in the bus terminal and had to go stand down on Surrey Street to wait for the mini bus, which failed to arrive anywhere near the promised 'ten minutes' time.

Fortunately, the minibus was significantly faster than the coach so we made it to Heathrow only 20 minutes later than we would have if traveling by bus. Everything else went fairly well... although we got into Chicago with just over an hour to make our connecting flight to Salt Lake (bit of a mad rush there, claiming our bags, customs, queues, security, recheck bags, queues, catching the train to the other terminal, security, have I mentioned queues? Then run to the gate).

When we were going through one of the security checks there was a slight hitch and Heidi about threw down on this thick black woman, but my Jedi powers made a peaceful resolution to an otherwise violent situation.

Security Woman: You have too many bags
M: No we don’t
SW: You’re only allowed two carry-ons
M: (referring to the eight carry-ons that we had) We only have two
SW: (looking at us, then our bags, then at us again) OK

I felt like Obi-Wan Kenobi, ‘You don’t need to see our identification… These aren’t the droids you’re looking for… Move along.’
After that, the rest of the trip was fine. The airline didn’t even lose our bags!
Now we are tired.
Peace.

**Slightly unrelated, but entirely justified, rant**
The airline didn’t lose our bags because we flew with American Airlines. Had we flown Delta (like our family has 3 times in the past year), at least one of our bags would have undoubtedly been lost. So far this year, my family has flown with Delta Airlines 3 different times and every time at least one bag was lost. Those odds aren’t bad if you’re going to Vegas, but flying? My advice is, if you fly, don’t go with Delta. Or, if you decide to go with Delta, pack all of your valuables in your carry-on luggage (Jedi powers might be handy here) and check two empty bags for Delta to lose. That way you can complain later and get your allotted $75 per-day-per-person refund. Just a thought.

Aberystwyth mon amour

While in Wales we spent a day cruising the lovely sites of the coastal town of Aberystwyth. This basically consisted of wandering through the ruins of Aberystwyth castle and looking for sweet fridge magnets. The weather, despite being kind of windy, was spectacular and hopefully you can get a general sense of this from Mike’s hack-job photography. The stones sticking out of the ground in the header image are similar to those found at Stonehenge and Avesbury. Everyone should have large stones randomly sticking out of the ground. For the kids, of course.

Bore da Cymru!

We left Shrewsbury and travelled to Aberystwyth by train and then on to Lampeter by bus. Tiff’s friends at the University reception desk had us each hooked up in our own little en suites on campus. Lampeter is a lovely little town about an hour away from Aberystwyth and the coast (unless you take the scenic 585 service which pretty much travels the Lampeter/Aber route via Inverness and Moscow). For the next few days we pretty much just took it easy – not that it was really an option in the little village – hiking around the hills, strolling through the sprawling city landscape, etc. It was nice to relax a bit after spending so much time worrying about catching the next train or bus to wherever.

One of the highlights was watching mom while we were riding the bus through the country. In (many) places the road narrows down to nothing more than the exact width of a vehicle, with large hedgerows and trees scraping the sides of the bus. One would wonder (not for the first time) what might happen if we are blazing along at the standard UK bus speed of 88.8 mph and meet an oncoming vehicle (most likely a tractor pulling a large trailer of sheep… there’s a pun in there somewhere). Well, we can tell you that this situation would then provoke a polite little standoff, where the driver of each vehicle is positive that the other is nearer the last turnout. The most exciting bit is when the road widens just enough (six and a half feet rather than the standard six) that both the driver of the bus and the driver of the oncoming 2005 Audi S8 think that there is room for both of them to pass side by side. This is the part when it’s best to see what kind of face mom is making (probably the same expression that people were giving the CADMAN). It gets really disconcerting when you see the bus driver shake his head and actually check his wing mirror to see if the Audi made it. Let the good times roll!
Wales was beautiful. The word is: Green.

Shrewsbury for a day, a night, and a day

From Edinburgh we stopped over in Shrewsbury for a night. If you make it to Shrewsbury, I recommend the Shalimar for a wonderful Indian meal; the food is excellent, the staff is wonderful and, if you get there early, you can sit next to the window with a pretty sweet view of the Abbey just across the street. We also wandered through a church that had the monument for the soldiers of the 85th King’s Light Infantry who died in Afghanistan between 1879-80. This is somewhat interesting because it was the 85th infantry from Shrewsbury that burned the White House down during the War of 1812. On the outside of the church was also a little monument to the CADMAN. I’m not sure which stream he’s ‘flying’ to or what kind of shape he was in, but either way, no one on this planet was going to make that jump.

Chocolate

We interrupt the regularly scheduled travel log for a brief but self-indulging advert about the virtues of chocolate. Feel free to stand up and stretch your legs, go to the loo, fetch a snack, etc.

-m

Our hasty conquering of Edinburgh

The short time we spent in Scotland (Edinburgh, two nights) was just enough to confirm all of the heinous weather reports we hear (minus the ‘blizzard-like conditions’) on the radio and, at the same time, give us an excuse to do a more thorough tour later. Upon the reference of the lively Scottish fella in the castle queue, this later tour will most definitely include a visit to Sterling.
The wind was blowing like mad pretty much the whole time, which made for some really interesting pictures, and drove us from the castle after only a couple of hours. It made me wonder (not for the first time) why anyone would want to sack that place (not just the first time) if the weather is always so rubbish. But, then I would turn around and look out over the city and think, ‘That. Is. Beautiful.’ Then, with all political/historical contexts and reasons aside, I would wish to sack the place myself.
Wonderful place. Thumbs up.