Day 364: 12/31/13- Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb

Day 364: 12/31/13- Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb 
New Thing: Bad Movie Night and Yesterday's Tree Climb
Inspiration: A cool tree in Valley Forge Park, Fireproof, Travis, Trish, Ken
Time: Several hours 
Bottom Line: Good times will be had by all. 

Reflection: I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that I found a really great climbing tree yesterday on my run in Valley Forge Park. I climbed pretty far and had an excellent view. Noteworthy enough to get a mention.

For today's new thing, we are having a New Year's Even celebration with our friend's Travis and Trish. We will be viewing (and riffing on) Fireproof for a revival of our "bad movie night." This delightful tradition (which was started before Ken and I were married) is where we watch bad movies and, well, make fun of them. I have never actually seen Fireproof, but it has the most important quality for a bad movie candidate: it takes itself really seriously and thus becomes unintentionally funny.  Perfect way to spend New Year's Eve!

Day 363: 12/30/13- Last Ever Live Mystery Science Theater Show (Cinematic Titanic)

Day 363: 12/30/13- Last Ever Live Mystery Science Theater Show (Cinematic Titanic)
New Thing: Attend the last ever live MST3K show  
Inspiration: Ken, MST3K 
Time: Several hours    
Bottom Line: Plenty of Torgo jokes. 

The lighting wasn't great which is to be expected.

Reflection: Tonight, Ken, Morgan, Brooke and I headed down to the Keswick Theater for the last ever live performance of Cinematic Titanic which is made up of the original MST3K crew. Here is the group's description from their website:  
 
CINEMATIC TITANIC is the new feature-length movie riffing show from the creator and original cast of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. Like MST3K, the show was created by JOEL HODGSON and features the same team that first brought the Peabody award winning cult-classic series to life: TRACE BEAULIEU (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. ELVIS WEINSTEIN (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), FRANK CONNIFF (TV's Frank), and MARY JO PEHL (Pearl Forrester). Cinematic Titanic continues the tradition of riffing on 'the unfathomable', 'the horribly great', and the just plain 'cheesy' movies from the past.

Ken and I are HUGE MST3K fans, so this was an absolute delight. They cracked wise on two full films: The Wasp Woman and The Doll Squad. They were both terrible, but the jokes were outstanding. We were literally laughing for hours. Nice! 

Day 362: 12/29/13- Monsters University

Day 362: 12/29/13- Monsters University
New Thing: Watch Monsters University
Inspiration: Ken and D.          
Time: A little over an hour  
Bottom Line: We scare because we know how. 

Reflection: We watched Monsters University today and it was really fun. Good pic. 

Day 354: 12/21/13- Elf Party

Day 354: 12/21/13- Elf Party
New Thing: Matt and Alicia's Elf Party
Inspiration: Matt and Alicia, Elf
Time: A few hours
Bottom Line: Hello my name is Buddy! What's your favorite color? 

So, this picture of Matt was taken at a totally separate time, but it just seemed to perfect to pass up.

Reflection: Matt and Alicia had an awesome Elf themed party. We had a blast and watched one of the best Christmas movies of all time.  

Day 345: 12/12/13- Frozen

Day 345: 12/12/13- Frozen 
New Thing: Frozen
Inspiration: D.
Time: About an hour   
Bottom Line: Let it go! 

Reflection: Full disclosure: I may have gotten today and yesterday's new thing mixed up. My list is a little all over the place since I got so backed up. Sorry about that! Anyway, we saw Frozen and D. loved it. I think that the costumes were great, but it was pretty good. 

Day 339: 12/6/13- "Gravity"

Day 339: 12/6/13- Gravity
New Thing: Gravity
Inspiration: Date night with Ken 
Time: Almost two hours    
Bottom Line: Don't let go.

Reflection: We saw Gravity tonight. Really great! I would highly recommend it. 

Day 325: 11/22/13- "Dark Shadows"

Day 325: 11/22/13- Dark Shadows New Thing: Watch Dark Shadows       
Inspiration: The Holy Land Pilgrimage, Flight Home            
Time: About an hour            
Bottom Line: Surprisingly not great. 

Reflection: OK- I honestly cannot remember if I watched this on the way to or from Israel -- such is the nature of jet-lag-- but we will use it for today since getting home was big enough. Now, I normally love anything that matches Johnny Depp and Tim Burton up, and this one had all the makings of something fun and dark (their specialties). I even have a soft spot in my heart for the original Dark Shadows (a kitschy soap opera with vampires) since my old piano teacher used to love it and would tape it and pay me to catalog her collection for her. But this was not good. Not good at all. Such a bummer.

Day 313: 11/10/13- Black Swan

Day 313: 11/10/13- Black Swan 
New Thing: Black Swan   
Inspiration: Ken  
Time: Over an hour   
Bottom Line: Dark. 

Reflection: Well, it was dark. Didn't make me want to be a ballerina.  Still good though. 

Day 292: 10/20/13- Watch "Bernie"

Day 292: 10/20/13- Watch Bernie  New Thing: Watch Bernie
Inspiration: Ken 
Time: Over an hour 
Bottom Line: Two thumbs up 

Reflection: Great dark comedy movie and Jack Black is excellent. 

Day 274: 10/2/13- Watch Damsels in Distress

Day 274: 10/2/13- Watch Damsels in Distress 
New Thing: Damsels in Distress   
Inspiration: Ken           
Time: Almost 2 hours     
Bottom Line: "I have always wanted to start a dance craze." 

Reflection: Ken and I watched a fun Woody Allen-esk movie tonight called Damsels in Distress. Here is the description: 

Newly transferred college student Lily becomes friends with Violet, Heather and Rose, who run the campus' suicide prevention centre. They date less attractive men in order to help their confidence; they want to close down the "elitist" Roman numerals fraternity and clean up the "unhygenic" Doar Dorm; they clash with the editor of the campus newspaper The Daily Complainer; and they try and start a new dance craze, The Sambola!

It was a fun flick! 

Day 236: 8/24/13- Watch Anna Karenina

Day 236: 8/24/13-  Watch Anna Karenina  
New Thing: Watch Anna Karenina  Inspiration: Ken
Time: Several hours
Bottom Line: “I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 

Reflection: Today, we watched Anna Karenina which I have been waiting to see since I just read the book last year. It was visually stunning with the whole thing taking place on an imaginary stage. But, it lacked he depth that the novel has, especially in contrasting Kitty's rise to Holy living and beautify from youthful silliness as opposed to Anna's fall from grace and rationality. Not to mention almost ignoring Levin and his turn to faith which is the most satisfying part of the book in my opinion.

Day 222: 8/10/13- Star Wars Storm-troopers

Day 222: 8/10/13- Star Wars Storm-troopers   
New Thing- Storm-trooper Visit   
Inspiration: Ken  
Time: Hour  
Bottom Line: Who knew that the empire cared about literacy so much? 

"I had friends on that death star"

Reflection:  D. and I again joined Ken at the library for a family event today--the local cast of star war storm troopers (accompanied by Darth Vader himself) came to talk about helping kids in need and literacy. I didn't know the Empire was so caring! D. had a chance to sport her new kicking Princess Leia hat that one of Ken's coworkers knit for her. How cute/cool is that?!

Day 211: 7/30/13- All the President's Men

Day 211: 7/30/13- All the President's Men
New Thing- Watch All the President's Men              
Inspiration: Ken                       
Time: Almost two hours      
Bottom Line: Follow the money. 

Reflection: Another classic film that I have never seen. Ken and I watched All the President's Men tonight and it is just astounding to think about this time in American history. And to think, it all almost went undetected. Its journalism like this that just does not happen any more.  

Day 196: 7/15/13- Moonrise Kingdom

Day 196: 7/15/13- Moonrise Kingdom     
New Thing- Watch Moonrise Kingdom               
Inspiration: Ken                       
Time: A few hours            
Bottom Line: If you like Wes Anderson movies, then this will be your cup of idiosyncratic tea! 

Reflection: Ken and I watched the new Wes Anderson film Moonrise Kingdom which had all his favorite players, nostalgic costumes, sets and props, and his trade mark punchy dialogue and deep characters. The film followed a pair of young lovers who flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them. Personally, I love his work and though this was great. 

Day 193: 7/12/13- Watch Safety Not Guaranteed

Day 193: 7/12/13- Watch Safety Not Guaranteed    
New Thing- Watch Safety Not Guaranteed               
Inspiration: Ken                      
Time: A few Hours           
Bottom Line: Cute 

Reflection: This was a cute movie about a person who thinks he can time travel and the girl who falls in love with him.

Day 183: 7/2/13- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Day 183: 7/2/13- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark  
New Thing- Watch Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark            
Inspiration: Ken                    
Time: Almost 2hrs.       
Bottom Line: Snakes? Why did it have to be snakes? 

 

Reflection: I know, I know. I have never seen this movie?! For real? Honestly, I have seen parts, but never in full. Very cool film.  

Day 164: 6/13/13- The Wrath of Khan

Day 164: 6/13/13- The Wrath of Khan   
New Thing- Watch Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan    
Inspiration: Ken, The new Star Trek movie       
Time: About two hours       
Bottom Line: Khhhhaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn!!!

KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!!!
—James T. Kirk

Captain's Log: Star Date 6/3/13 After watching the new Star Trek movie last week, Ken convinced me to watch the one that it payed homage to, The Wrath of Khan. The plot was good but the costumes were crazy dated. 

Day 160: 6/9/13- NOOMA App

Day 160: 6/9/13- NOOMA App 
New Thing- Watch a videos on the NOOMA App  
Inspiration: eFormation 2013    
Time: About 10 mins.    
Bottom Line: Tomato 

Reflection: While I was at the eFormation 2013 workshop, I learned about the NOOMA app which has several 10 minuet devotional videos for everyday living. The one I watched today was called Tomato and talked about livening authentically as creations of God. It was really good and was a huge part of my prayer time this morning. I also have to say that it really stuck with me through the day and I kept coming back to it as a reference point.

Day 157: 6/6/13- Star Trek "Into Darkness"

Day 157: 6/6/13- Star Trek "Into Darkness"  
New Thing- Go to see the new Star Trek movie. 
Inspiration: This week  
Time: Almost 2 hours  
Bottom Line: So-so 

Reflection: So after yesterday, I needed to turn off my brain so we went to see the new Star Trek movie. I don’t know if it was my mental state or the movie, but I wasn’t overly impressed.

Day 135: 5/15/13- Watch "The Great Gatsby"

Day 135: 5/15/13- Watch The Great Gatsby  
New Thing- Watch The Great Gatsby  
Inspiration: The need to clear my head  
Time: Over an hour                   
Bottom Line: Not as bad as I feared in the hands of this director

Reflection: The Great Gatsby is one of my all time favorite books. I find Gatsby's love of Daisy and the lengths that he is willing to go to win her heart (despite her vapid and destructive ways) to be both sympathetic and pathetic. It is a subitle study of human nature set against uproarious backdrop of the 1920's in a fantastic contrast of spirit and tone. So, I was very nervous when I saw that Baz Lurhmann (of Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge! fame) was going to be putting his stamp on this American literary classic. To my mind, his version of story telling is all flash and very little substance to the point that the story gets lost in all the showy visual and musical effects. You end up losing the story in a sea of glitz (which, granted, may not be a bad fit for the roaring 20's). After seeing the film, I still think that he uses to grand a gesture for the story, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. It started out louder than it ended. I though Leonardo DiCaprio was a great Gatsby and made up for a lot of the rest of it. Also, the costumes were excellent.