Well, I have backed off the ledge some since my post about the dangers of milk. Not that I am less concerned about it, but I did find out a few things:

• It turns out the milk we had been drinking was labeled rBST-Free already (Kroger, Meijer and Wal-Mart have all been selling milk that has not been growth-hormone enhanced for several years)
• There are a lot of sources out there saying the evidence of the harmful dangers of rBST or rBGH have been blown out of proportion, such as this article from the New York times.
• We recently tried Almond milk, and I really like it. Erin found it a little too thick (It’s more consistent with Whole or 2% than our usual 1%.), but she just waters her down a little.

Ok, now for trying to go Organic all together we have made some real progress.

• We found an organic grocery store downtown that we like. Pricey but fun.
• We realized Meijer has a pretty decent selection of organic foods.
• We joined an organic produce co-op and get a box of produce every Wednesday, so our vegetable intake will likely go up, which is a nice healthy move. It also has the added bonus of making us eat vegetables that we normally would not buy – such as beets. Yum. (see more about this co-op on mommatimes)
• We found an organic meat source, Seven Sons Meat Company. I can’t wait to fill our freezer with healthy, organic, natural chicken, beef and pork.
• Erin found this article showing the Dirty Dozen vegetables that you should get organic to avoid pesticides as well as 15 clean ones, so this can help with the budget if you can’t afford to go all organic.
• My garden has started delivering amazing veggies – once we get our camera back I will post a pic my first veggie (giant zucchini)

So far,  so good – and I am already feeling healthier!

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One of my very last movies of 2009 I had left to see. (I think only Julie and Julia remains).

A Single Man starring Colin Firth is a truly wonderful film. Firth deserves all the accolades he received for the role, including Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Firth shows an amazingly compelling ability of facial expression and subtlety. But I think the film itself should have garnered more attention for Best Picture, Best Director, and Cinematography – it was that good across the board. The truly amazing thing is the man behind this film, first-time director, screenwriter (adapted a book of the same name by author Christopher Isherwood) and producer of the film, Tom Ford.

Tom Ford is a world famous fashion designer, best known for turning around Gucci as their creative director for more than a decade. He is also the creator of the Tom Ford label. I am in awe of his first attempt at filmmaking, he clearly has an eye for it and I am excited to see what else he does in his new career.

There are a lot of things I liked about this film, but here are a few that stood out the most:

• The movie is a wonderful love story, and the fact that it’s two men is almost completely irrelevant, which is rare that homosexuality be treated so realistically and not over-the-top or out of the ordinary, or as victims of prejudice/ignorance.
• The main character is experiencing life from a new perspective and the film’s color brightens and saturates whenever he is engrossed with awareness of the beauty in the world and is truly living in the moment. What a wonderful and subtle technique.

• Ford has an astonishing visual sense and the film is very experimental in the cinematography and it rarely misses the mark. Even the background and inanimate meaningless objects in the film suddenly are beautiful.
• The title A Single Man clearly has more to do with the isolation we each experience in the world then any romantic status. There is one conversation in the film that clearly gets to the heart of the story:

KENNY
Yeah. I’ve always felt this way (alone). I mean we’re born alone, we die alone. And while we’re here we are absolutely, completely sealed in our own bodies. … We can only experience the outside world through our own slanted perception of it. Who knows what you’re really like. I just see what I think you’re like.
GEORGE
I’m exactly what I seem to be, if you look closely. You know the only thing that has made the whole thing worthwhile has been those few times that I was able to truly connect with another person.

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Jonah Hex

I didn’t plan to see this movie, but there wasn’t a lot of options and I wanted to go see a film. I don’t know the source material, but found the namesake character intriguing. Overall the movie ended up feeling too much like the 1999 Wild Wild West just replace Will Smith and Kevin Kline with Josh Brolin. Kenneth Branagh with John Malkovich. And Selma Hayek with Megan Fox. There you go. While I didn’t have high expectations for this film, it was obvious that it could have been a much better film. Besides the fine actors mentioned there were also smaller roles for guys like Michael Shannon, Tom Wopat (Dukes of Hazzard) and Will Arnett. The entire casts acting skills were wasted, save Megan Fox who I am not sure can act but she does wear a mean corset. The film clearly lacked vision and was edited to death. One of the rare times I would say a longer more developed movie would have been better. Also, I have a hard time believing a giant cannon ship was the best storyline they could find from the comic series.

Edge of Darkness

I saw this before Mel Gibson’s latest crazy public outburst, so I won’t comment on that. But the guy is simply a shell of the actor he once was. Of course it didn’t help that the movie was a pretty lame attempt all around. I am guessing the film was trying to be similar to Taken but add in a deeper conspiracy, but it failed on both counts. First it had none of the emotional gravity of Taken, mostly because Gibson is not Liam Neeson. But also Gibson’s character was out for revenge whereas Neeson was a father out to do whatever it took to save his daughter – two very different motives. Protecting your daughter at all costs resonates, while vengeance doesn’t (or at least didn’t in this film). As far as the conspiracy – it was stupid and full of holes. The evidence seems to just fall out of the sky and could have been exposed a million times over without Gibson’s character getting involved at all. I wonder if this will be the last Mel Gibson movie I ever see? I sort of hope so.

Shutter Island (revisited)

I know I have already reviewed Shutter Island, but I watched it again. And on second viewing I was much more impressed with the film in its entirety. I had none of the apprehensions of heavy-handedness the second time around. Also, I am even more clear that the story can only have one definitive meaning to the end – I will spare the spoilers, but if you doubt the ending, watch it again.

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CAKE is officially my favorite band until further notice! The Vogue show yesterday was great – Kevo and I found a great spot right off the left side of the stage, about 8 feet from the band and we rocked out to the decidedly unique rockpopfunkabilly sounds of the tree-loving, anti-establishment, lets all sing-a-long band CAKE.

By the way, Ella thought it was funny the band was named CAKE and asked if the band would actually give out cake at the concert. Shes so brilliant. For the record they did not serve cake, but did give a way a tree.

Listen to some CAKE now!

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When I told some friends I was going camping and would not have internet access they did not understand what I was talking about. They quickly offered several technical solutions to my “problem”, but of course I knew I COULD get internet if I really wanted to, but I was CHOOSING to unplug. Again, they did not understand why I want to do such a crazy thing.

So for 5 days I did not go online – except once I was sitting in the car waiting on Erin and popped on my phone to check email for like 2 minutes. But for the most part I was offline and it was a nice change of pace. Not only was I not connected to the internet in the technical sense, but I also let myself not think about work at all – something I really never do, not even for a few hours usually.

My point? I guess my point is that it’s good to take a break once in a while. I feel refreshed and relaxed and ready to return to long days and nights working online.

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Now comes the mystery.
~~ Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist, d. March 8, 1887

Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.
~~ Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827

I’d rather be fishing.
Executed in electric chair, Louisiana.
~~ Jimmy Glass, d. June 12, 1987

Is it the Fourth?
~~ Thomas Jefferson, US President, d. July 4, 1826

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
~~ Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957

Damn it . . . Don’t you dare ask God to help me.
To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.
~~ Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977

Am I dying or is this my birthday?
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside.
~~ Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

Yes, it’s tough, but not as tough as doing comedy.
When asked if he thought dying was tough.
~~ Edmund Gwenn, actor, d. September 6, 1959

Let’s cool it brothers . . .
Spoken to his assassins, 3 men who shot him 16 times.
~~ Malcolm X, Black leader, d. 1966

Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.
~~ Oscar Wilde, writer, d. November 30, 1900

They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist. . . .
Killed in battle during US Civil War.
~~ General John Sedgwick, Union Commander, d. 1864

I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.
~~ Leonardo da Vinci, artist, d. 1519

Woe is me. Me thinks I’m turning into a god.
~~ Vespasian, Roman Emperor, d. 79 AD

Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
~~ Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, d. 1923

Go on, get out – last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.
To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down for posterity.
~~ Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883

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See more adorable “Sister Love” photos on my wife’s blog »

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Erin got me a sweet little video camera for Father’s day, here is the first video I tried:

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

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The other day I was in the living room with Ella and noticed outside the window a 2 foot tall dandelion and mentioned to Ella, “Look, there is a giant dandelion in our yard.”

She ran to the window and to see, but kept saying “where?” and I would say “right there in front of that bush”. She kept not seeing it, which happens with her sometimes she simply cannot see something right in front of her. (Yes, something Erin would say she got from me.)

It was raining outside so i just dropped it and figured i would take her outside to see it when the sun came back out.

A few minutes later she climbed in my lap and started asking me questions about lions. I am sure you see where I am going with this, but I did not make the connection at all!

“Daddy, are lions friendly?”

“Daddy, if we pet the lion real nice will he bite us?”

I decided it was best to answer these in the least scary way, so I said lions are friendly, they do have pointy teeth and are dangerous, but they are not mad at us so they won’t eat us.

Apparently that calmed her fears and she excitedly said “OK, lets go outside and pet that giant lion in the backyard then. Does that sound like a plan?” (Yes, she says “Does that sound like a plan?”)

So then it all made sense to me, she thought I was talking about a lion in the backyard, so she was very disappointed when I took her out to see the weed I was actually referring to. What a sweet child.

I did mention to her, just for the sake of better-safe-than-sorry, that she should never ever pet a lion!

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