Rango

I think my first exposure to any kind of promotion for this movie called Rango was when I briefly glanced at the above poster on IMDb. I mean, it’s a chameleon holding a wind up bathtub fish. Yeah right, I thought. I won’t be seeing this one anytime soon. Then a few days later I took a closer look and read that the director is Gore Verbinski from Pirates of the Caribbean and that the lead lizard is voiced by Captain Jack Sparrow himself, Johnny Depp. OK now I’m interested.

I figured that this movie would either be completely out in left field and a waste of time or (the more likely scenario considering the talent involved) that it would be an unexpected even if somewhat eccentric highly entertaining breath of fresh air. Well, um… it’s the latter.

Rango is definitely not your typical animated feature. In fact I’d say it sits on the seat opposite Tangled on the movie playground teeter-totter. So different but providing the necessary balance to keep either side from crashing down to the ground.

I could be mistaken but I think Rango is what is often referred to as a character driven movie. Of course it has a story with a beginning, a middle and an end but I felt that all of that was almost secondary and maybe even just a vehicle to expose us to the weird and wonderful characters we meet along the way. The dialogue is thick, quick and sharp. You really need to watch intently or you’ll surely miss a bunch of stuff. I was paying full attention and even without the distracting intracranial crunching sound of $7 popcorn I know I need to see it again to catch a few things I missed.

Like Tangled, Rango pays homage to some classic movies from the past. Some of the references are quite obvious, (two times “Rango” reverts to his only slightly different Capt. Jack Sparrow voice to exclaim “that’s interesting” just like he says in POTC when he finds out what the curse feels like for himself) most are not. You may recognize references to Once Upon a Time in the West, Apocalypse Now, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, LOTR, Star Wars (I swear one of the characters looks exactly like Jabba the Hut), It’s a Wonderful Life and probably several more.

Kids might enjoy Rango on their own level but this is definitely a movie which will be most fully appreciated and enjoyed by adults. It is highly entertaining mostly in a comical way. I and most everyone else in the theatre were LOLing like totally super often!!!!! I think you’ll find most of the laughs come in quick short bursts. Lots of ha-s, (singular form of ha-ha) chuckles, chortles and other proclamations of recognition of a clever or subtle bit.

In the end I’m struggling to explain Rango especially without giving away too much. I love movies that reward you for giving your full attention and Rango does that continually. Now that I think about it, the lack of talking and texting around me was a rare throw back to ancient days when people had manners. Although deep down I know it was only because everyone was just trying to keep up and not miss anything rather than a sudden mass discovery of etiquette.

Finally, just to be clear, this is not Shakespeare (although Rango himself is a big fan of the Bard) and it’s not ALL THAT either. It is a funny, entertaining and unique little picture that I enjoyed very much the first time and plan to watch several more times in the future.

Children of a Greater God

It seemed like everybody who is anybody was going to be attending the Billy Joe concert last night here in Cardston.  I hadn't really planned on going even though I was pretty sure I'd enjoy it. Finally deciding that I couldn't let a chance like this get away (again) I got home from work yesterday and decided to call the theatre in the off chance that by some miracle the tiny room wasn't yet completely sold out... and it wasn't.  I couldn't understand why but counted myself lucky and rushed down to buy one of the last seats available.
I figured I was pretty lucky to get a seat right in the middle of the theatre.  Even though it was in the last row of the center section the place is so small that I would still be very close to the stage relatively speaking.  Upon entering I immediately found out why my seat had lasted until three hours before showtime. Resting on my left armrest and rising up from it like a black monolith from either of the Space Odyssey movies was a big wooden control console of some kind. Lights? Sound? I'm not sure but it was there and wasn't going anywhere. It would be a little extra squishy on my left side but my line of sight was surprisingly good as I had a clear view of all the performers and both of William Joseph's hands, except when they moved so fast my eyes could hardly keep up.

Including William Joseph there were four members of his band.  With the lights still down the Cellist and Violinist entered first to a round of applause. Next and still in the dark a man came in and sat at the piano.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought this was WJ himself because he got even more applause than the ladies did but after hitting a couple of notes on the piano to which the violin and cello replied with just a couple of their own he went back and settled into the drum kit.  Fooled already and it hadn't even started yet.  When WJ finally took the stage you could tell the applause was ever so slightly reserved just until the audience was sure that this wasn't just the tambourine man or piano bench height checker.

I had only watched a couple of YouTube videos to get a taste of what to expect at a William Joseph concert so all of his music was pretty much  brand new to me.  I immediately realized that I was extremely privileged to be seeing and listening to some world class musicians in an unreasonably intimate setting.  It almost seemed wrong that such a small number of us were being touched by so much talent and that there should have been so many more to share in the light only we few were basking in.

After his pretend last song of the night and a standing ovation which I'm sure we were all prepared to continue much much longer William Joseph quickly reappeared to perform two more numbers.  The first was one he said many would recognize but no one I was with did so just in case you didn't either it was Bella's Lullaby from the first twilight movie.  Last and never least was Asturias. Here is a link to a YouTube of it where he plays it in a setting more deserving of his talent.

In the end it was a great night out. So glad I went.  The music was wonderful, beautiful and awe inspiring.  The skills and talents of William Joseph and his band were almost too much to believe.  It almost seemed like I was watching it all on TV because it was just too magnificent to be happening there right in front of me.  Just a little surreal I guess.  Chances are good that I will never again hear the piano, violin, cello and drums played live so well and so close by.

Fix You

Until yesterday I had only heard the song Fix You by Coldplay once.  Actually I had only heard the first verse even at that.  It was on an episode of Ricky Gervais' Extras in which Chris Martin (Gwyneth Paltrow's husband and lead singer of Coldplay guest starred.) This clip shows what I saw and heard then.



Having somehow never heard it before I assumed it was just a little bit they made up to do on the show and that was the end of that... until yesterday.

I don't think I've ever mentioned here that I really like the movie WALL-E and in particular there is one scene that is one of my favourite movie moments ever.  It's the scene where Eve is putting WALL-E back together again.  More on that later but for now I'll just say that I was reviewing some of my YouTube favourites yesterday and a clip of that scene was one that I rewatched.  Following that I just clicked on one of the "related clips" on the side just for fun and this is what I found.



I think this is the best amateur movie clip montage/music video that I have ever seen. It's pretty much perfect in fact.  It really captures the essence of the whole movie and the song fits so well.  As the clip began I first realized that this was the same song that Apple's daddy sang on Extras.  Having not been particularily impressed with the short version at that time I wasn't expecting much but decided to watch to the end anyway. About two and a half minutes into the song the guitar kicks in and I suddenly realized that there was going to be much more to this song than I had imagined.

The entrance and urgency of the guitar expresses so well Eve's sudden change when she discovers the plant and WALL-E's desperate chase as he tries to reach her before she is taken away by the space ship.  The drums join in to bring the music to full force as the ship blasts off with WALL-E barely hanging on.  The song is finally complete and epic when the now multivoice harmony vocals return to compliment WALL-E's sense of wonder as he does the old hand drag through planetary rings vortex trick. (Suddenly sticking your hand out of the car window on the highway seems extra mundane.)  Of course the song must return to it's humble beginnings at the end and this too fits with the end of the movie. 

Finally as promised, the reason that the scene where Eve fixes WALL-E is one of my favourites.  The urgency and speed with which Eve acts is what I love.  It surely wouldn't have made any difference to the outcome if Eve hadn't worked quite so quickly.  But she loved WALL-E and her desperation and unnecessary speed showed it.  The exact moment that still gets me even now when I recall it is when Eve, having finished rebuilding WALL-E whips up her arm and blows a hole in the ceiling to immediately bring in WALL-E's life giving sunlight.  Surely no one would have thought it strange if she had taken the extra half second to move WALL-E back outside herself but to her every millisecond counted.  It was if she was trying to save him from drowning.  That is what I love most about the movie WALL-E and this newly discovered YouTube clip brings it all back to me.

A great song and an inspired video, the two together are much greater than the sum of their parts.  Another in my growing list of YouTube favourites.

So, have you seen it yet?

No, not Harry Potter silly, Tangled of course!

Maybe I'm mistaken but I can't help feeling that this little gem is being passed over by a lot of people for whatever reason.  It kind of seems that everyone will rush out to see the Shreks, the Ice Ages, the Madagascars or any movie with penguins, especially talking ones.  Maybe Tangled just didn't get enough hype. Maybe it suffers from NOT having an "agenda."  Now that I've seen the movie and have gone back to watch the trailers for it I admit I am a little disappointed to see that Disney even tried to target the Shrek demographic with their quite misleading previews. Nearly all of the scenes which would appeal to those who enjoy trendy, sarcastic, parody humour are in the trailers.  In fact I'd say that about half of what is in the trailers isn't even in the actual movie.

As I said in my review, although Tangled is very funny and a lot of fun (not quite the same thing), it is completely sincere and it will make you feel as though you've received an antidote to so many of the animated movies that have come out over the last couple of decades.  You may come out feeling like the fog has lifted, that things had gotten worse so gradually you hadn't really noticed and then the sudden return to a bright ray of sun is almost shocking.  I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt as heart warmed and happy as I did at the end of Tangled. 

In case you're waiting to see it at the cheap theater or on DVD I would urge you not to wait.  This movie needs to been seen in 3D, shown by an expensive projector in a theater where a popcorn and pop will cost you $14 (not saying you have to buy it, just that it needs to cost that much if you do);  not at some sticky smelly theater/homeless shelter where the image is projected onto a (not even 100%) cotton sheet hanging unevenly in front of an unpainted and slightly moldy concrete brick wall.  The animation in Tangled is new and improved and it does look absolutely beautiful. The 3D does make a big difference in a very good way.

I know I've mostly been preaching to the choir here but I just wanted to make sure anyone who is on the fence about seeing this movie will do so.  It's my new favourite Disney film EVER! There, I said it and I meant it.  Maybe the songs aren't quite as good as The Lion King or The Little Mermaid but the story and in particular and couple of specific scenes in Tangled just made it the best to me.

The following YouTube contains the first song which plays as the credits begin to roll at the end of Tangled.  The people in it are many of the crew who made Tangled at Disney Animation Studios.  It's a fun little clip and it may even bring back the happy feeling and warmth you felt or will feel at the end of the movie. Enjoy!
(The first girl who appears in the clip is Grace Potter who is the actual singer of the song.)

Tangled - my review

The still photo in my last post had me a little wary about going to see Tangled.  I was worried that it was going a be a totally modern and PC version of the original story.  Still I had a hunch that this could be a great movie and after finding that it was getting good reviews I decided to go see it.

As I had feared the original story of Rapunzel has been significantly altered, partly due to necessity of turning a very short story into a feature length film and also to make what I consider to be improvements on the original version.  The essence of the story though, remains well intact and yes, this is a true fairy tale in every sense of the word.  It never winks at you nor does it nudge you in the ribs with its elbow.  It is not a parody of a fairy tale and does not stop along the way to try and convince you to believe in its magic.  If you let it, it will make you feel like a kid again.  The story feels fresh and new and although it does have a modern feel it retains enough of the more old school serious elements of the story to be a refreshing change from the sarcastic humour and preachy propaganda cartoons modern Hollywood churns out these days.

In the real story of Rapunzel the girl was a commoner and the boy was a prince.  In Tangled in 2010 the girl is by default a princess and not only is the boy not a prince but he's a ruffian and thief as well.  That in itself is a topic for another day and I won't get into it here but I will admit that it did workout in the end just fine.

Although Tangled does contain elements of the ordinary modern animated movie (the obligatory miniature sidekick doing comic relief, this one's called Pascal) and a couple of nods to other movies (The Sound of Music and Raiders of the Lost Ark) I only heard one single extraneous "like" and zero pop culture references so this film should stand the test of time quite well I think.

I will admit to one disappointment I had along the way in Tangled.  Although there were several instances where Rapunzel was truly sad and her eyes did seem to moisten she never shed a single tear.  I was just thinking that it was too bad that our modern culture is in such a state that a girl can't be shown actually sobbing over a boy anymore, part of that whole fish and bicycle thing I guess.  Finally though, she does shed a tear and I realized that it was much better that she hadn't until that moment and my previous disappointment was suddenly silly and then forgotten.  In fact, I believe that there are exactly two tears shed in the entire movie.  Their impact was made much greater by their rarity.

There are of course several songs in this Disney movie and I found some of them to be just adequate, a couple were good and one in particular was just perfect. The main song, the one that Rapunzel sings a few times throughout the film is quite simple but is by far the best. Not necessarily because it might sound good on the radio but because of the context it has in the movie.  The very same song one time may be funny, another time just kind of nice and finally it becomes the climax of the whole movie when the lyrics take on a whole new meaning and purpose than what they signified earlier in the story. That is what made it so wonderful to me.

At its core the story of Rapunzel is about love and real sacrifice. This is what makes it great and what raises it above the level of so many other pretenders. In the original story both Rapunzel and the Prince suffer greatly for their love of each other. Although the circumstances are somewhat different in Tangled the demonstrations of love and sacrifice are well demonstrated once again.

To sum up, Tangled is funny, original and a straight up sincere fairy tale.  It's magical and moving in the most pure and non manipulative way. It's gorgeous to look at and most importantly it's a great story which is very well told.

I thought that after How To Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3 this year, there would be no other serious contender for best animated feature at the Oscars but it wouldn't surprise me at all if Tangled beat them both.  I do love both those movies but I must say that Tangled is not only the best animated film I've seen this year, it's the best movie I've seen this year period!

By the way, be sure to see the 3D version.  This is Disney's 50th animated feature film and it's obvious they put their full effort into it. The whole movie is just beautiful to look at and one scene in particular is just gorgeous and heart warming. The 3D is really well done!

Finally and for ONLY those of you who have already seen Tangled here is a little something that will take you back to the best moment of the the movie. It's just audio except for the still photo which will remain unchanged until the end.  Enjoy! (and seriously if you haven't seen it yet this will be a huge spoiler even without video so only push play after you've watched the movie or at least consider yourself warned.)

Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin all Tangled

Now that I've got the obligatory title photo attached I find myself trying to remember just exactly where the idea for this post started and in fact where it is heading. Not a good sign I admit but anyway, off we go.

Lately I've being seeing ads for an upcoming Disney movie called Tangled.  Now maybe I'm wrong but isn't the fairy tale about the pretty girl with the long long blonde hair called Rapunzel?  Why didn't they just call it that?  Anyway, I'm thinking that I'll probably go see this one when it comes out in about three weeks but before I do I wanted to refresh my memory with the original story.  I found a website which contains many (possibly all I'm not sure) of the Grimm brother's fairy tales and Rapunzel of course is among them.

There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: ’What ails you, dear wife?’ ’Ah,’ she replied, ’if I can’t eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.’ The man, who loved her, thought: ’Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.’ At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her–so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. ’How can you dare,’ said she with angry look, ’descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!’ ’Ah,’ answered he, ’let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.’ Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: ’If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.’ The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.

After a year or two, it came to pass that the king’s son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. ’If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,’ said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

Immediately the hair fell down and the king’s son climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king’s son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: ’He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does’; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: ’I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.’ They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: ’Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king’s son–he is with me in a moment.’ ’Ah! you wicked child,’ cried the enchantress. ’What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!’ In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king’s son came and cried:

’Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.’

she let the hair down. The king’s son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. ’Aha!’ she cried mockingly, ’you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.’ The king’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.

OK but where was the part about the gold and stuff. Then I remembered that there was another story about a locked up pretty girl which is called Rumpelstiltskin.  I must have confused them because of the mention of Rapunzel having "magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold."  Seems like there were lots of girls locked up in towers in the olden days doesn't it?
 
I think that J.K. Rowling must be a fan of The Grimm brothers too.  I wonder if she got the idea of healing tears (the pheonix in Chamber of Secrets) and Hermione's cat's name Crookshanks (one of the names guessed in Rumpelstiltskin) from them?
 
In addition to Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin I also read The Fisherman and His Wife and plan to refamiliarize myself with many more of the Grimm's stories.  They are so refreshingly unpolitically correct its almost shocking.  It makes me glad that I was part of the last generation to have vague memories of actually growing up with these tales. I'm sure the only exposure to old fashioned fairy tales most kids might have these days is when they are assigned to google them for a school project on how intolerant, uninclusive, racist and sexist people were in the olden days. They really put into stark contrast the socially engineered PC brainwashing goo and ever present fake smiley faces that children have to endure these days. 
 
It will be interesting to see what Disney has done to the story of Rapunzel here in 2010. I wouldn't be surprised if the extra long hair is the only part that has suvived the modernization.  I'm looking forward to finding out though.  If Tangled is disappointing at least there will be part one of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows coming out at around the same time.  Maybe I'll see you there.

Have You Ever Heard Wilhelm Scream?

No? I bet you have, many times in fact. You just don't realize it. I didn't either until a few months ago. Now that I know about it I can't believe I never clued in to the whole thing but now I do know and everything has changed, forever. (Well at least as far as movie screams are concerned.)

I had heard the name "Wilhelm Scream" now and then over the years. Sometimes a movie critic would mention it or I would see it written in a review. I always assumed it was just a type of scream that was popular and many actors learned how to do it or something like that. What I never realized was that it is not just a type of scream, but it is the same scream, screamed by the same person in all of these movies over the years. It is a sound bite, first recorded for a film called Distant Drums in 1951.



Since then it has been inserted into many other movies and in fact become somewhat of a running gag in the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and other franchises. Sort of a sound editor's inside joke if you will.
Here is one of the better compilations I've found.



There was even one in Twilight (New Moon) although we never actually see the person who screams. Can you guess where it was?



So now, even though I'd heard it so many times without knowing it in the past, from now on I'm pretty sure I'll recognize it whenever I hear it.

Oh, and by the way, so will you! Sorry.

Geocache Just For You

Are you up for a treasure hunt?  I knew you were.

Unlike previous versions, this one is not virtual.  It is real and you'll need to be here to do it.  Hopefully it will survive for a few years at least so anyone who is interested will eventually have the chance to find it.  It will not be listed anywhere but here so it is basically just for those who read this.

It is a two part adventure (well maybe adventure is an extreme exaggeration) diversion.  The first part will take you to the temple grounds where you will find the answers to questions which will give you the complete coordinates of the treasure's hiding place which is out at the second location, Woolford Provincial Park.

Here are the coordinates of the hiding place with letters representing the single digit answers to the questions.  (You will need a GPS to find the treasure, you can borrow mine if you like.)

N 49°AB.CDE'
W 113°FG.HIJ'

Now for the questions.

A. How many spheres sit on the top of the temple?

B. How many "historic sites" plaques are there on the SOUTH visitor's center building?

C. How many long strips of dark stone are there just inside the entrance gates? (just count across where there are the most)

D. Walk around to the north side of the temple and count the layers of stone in the outer wall from top to bottom including the thinner layer on top.

E. On the northeast corner of the grounds there is a plaque telling about the Alberta Stake Tabernacle. On the plaque there is a logo. How many letters are in the first word inside that logo?

F. How many fire hydrants are on the east lawn near the baptistry sign?

G. How many benches are there on the southeast corner of the grounds?

H. Back at the main entrance again, in the sidewalk concrete around the temple there are many "tiles" which contain a pattern. Subtract 5 from the number of shapes inside each square tile. (They are all the same but check a few to make sure you have the correct total number as some of them are less clear than others.)

I. How many flagpoles stand just across the street from the main entrance?

J. The manhole cover in the sidewalk near the main entrance has the year 198_ on it.

After answering each of the questions you now have the complete coordinates for the treasure.  A fifteen minute drive will get you to Woolford park and then about a ten minute stroll will have you at the hiding place.  When you're there the nearby surroundings will look something like this.

The treasure chest is a clear plastic bottle (about 4L) with a 4 inch diameter lid.  Unfortunately my gold brick supply is running a little low right now so I filled it with dollar store junk treasure instead (sigh).  Please have each person choose an item of swag and replace it with something else for the next hunters to find.  In order to protect the treasure from animals, bugs and freezing temperatures please don't put any food, liquid or odorous things into the container. 

There is a log book inside the container as well so if you'd like to you can leave a short note  about when you found it, what you took and left, any animals you saw etc.

Also, I would welcome any comments here as well from anyone who finds it.
Happy hunting!

***************************************************

Starting this year Woolford Provincial Park has become "day use only". I guess that basically means they figured it wasn't worth keeping up anymore and instead of just letting people camp for free they decided that no one can camp at all.  The place is definitely looking even more abandoned and overgrown than it did before and THAT is saying something. There is such a ghost towny, Blair Witchy feel to the place now. You can almost hear the lonely playground equipment crying to be played on as the surrounding vegetation creeps in closer and closer.

I also made a stop at the nearby Woolford Cemetery.

I hadn't really noticed before and the location did seem quite random but once I actually stopped, got out and looked around the reason why that spot was chosen became clear.  It is subtly but definitely the highest spot around in all directions for miles and miles.  The section of Rocky mountains (length) which can be viewed from there may be unsurpassed.  It's just a bit farther away than Cardston is but it seems like you can see a much longer section of the mountains from there.  It is a wonderful place indeed.  Despite it's now ghost town origins I was not surprised to find a few fairly recent additions.  It is just a great spot and I can completely understand why people still choose to be buried there.

Of course most of the graves were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  It was sad to see that many of them were for babies and small children.  Anyway, I'm glad I stopped and got a new perspective.

P.S. When you head out to Woolford from Cardston there is no need to go all the way to the Woolford turnoff sign on Hwy 5.  Just take your first right after you cross the St. Mary river onto road 503 and it will take you straight there. It's a much shorter route.

The Town

It’s fairly easy to write a review about a movie that I liked, it’s even easier to write one about one that I didn’t. (Is that wrong?) I now find myself, possibly for the first time, trying to write a little blurb about a movie that I’m quite sure I will soon forget about completely. (Great Lorin, that’ll have them eager for more…) No wait! Don’t go yet. You’re probably the only one who is still reading this and we’ve got to get through this together, just you and me okay?

I guess the thing that made me decide to go see The Town was reading something to the effect of “after a summer filled with the usual kids movies about talking animals and princesses, fan boy fueled block busters, super hero sequels and awkward teen wins the hot girl fantasies, we finally have a movie made for grown ups.” I immediately went into denial about loving many movies in all of the aforementioned categories, averted my eyes from my How to Train Your Dragon poster and determined that I too was ready for a serious and grumpy grown up “Film”.

I love to see a movie knowing as little as possible about the story beforehand. All I knew about The Town was that it involved some thieves, possibly bank robbers. I’m not positive but I think I can still remember a time in the ancient days of my youth when shootouts and car chases were somewhat exciting to me but seriously, at this point they just make me look at my watch - which, by the way, compliments of its having a white face and classic design is perfectly readable, even in a dark theater, by the light of a death star, space ship, airplane, tank, Escalade or even a wee Prius exploding.

Despite the car chase genre being probably my very least favorite I still had faith in my hunch and the high ratings I’d seen so I made the special trip into town to see the show.

Being Tuesday the regular admission price also included a free popcorn and soda. That, plus the fact that I had obviously not been the only one to catch the positive buzz about the movie, resulted in a pretty much sold out show. Even those seats on the low side of the “oh no, everybody’s watching me cross to the other side” aisle were filled with the tardy crowd even before the pre commercial commercials had ended.

The Town, as it turns out, is very much a bank robbers, shoot outs and car chases movie. A close knit group of thugs who grew up together on the wrong side of the tracks feel justified in their life of crime. But hang on, these aren’t destitute Somali pirates we’re talking about here but I guess growing up in a blue collar Boston neighborhood justifies turning to the dark side. The crew consists of a few guys, the leader/mastermind (of course deep down he’s really a good guy who all the ladies will fall for) the number two guy who’s kind of a loose canon and even meaner than the main guy (this helps make the main guy look not so bad in comparison). There’s the jovial fat dude (oh no he’s dead for sure) and then a couple of other generic red shirt ensigns who will obviously not be beaming back up to the Enterprise, if you know what I mean.

It begins with a spectacular shock and awe type heist to show us just how cool and awesome this bunch really is. Lot’s of bullets, potty mouth and of course the ever so trendy shaky cam so you can’t really tell what’s happening but you’re pretty sure it’s extra awesome.

Next, in comes the unlikely and spectacularly inconvenient love interest who starts our lovable bad guy back towards the good side of the force. The hero begins to be torn between his buddies and continued life of crime and his desire to run away with the girl to a new life and fresh beginning. Meanwhile a few more jobs are pulled off to ensure that the echoes of machine gun fire and screeching tire rubber never completely leave the theater.

As you can probably guess, talk of the inevitable and completely unavoidable one last heist appears about the time you start getting nothing but air up your drinking straw and you wonder if you’ll ever see Bubba alive on the screen again after this. So much of this film is so familiar yet it is different enough to keep you interested. The ending may be or may not be what you’d expect and I do give it credit for that particular aspect. At times it reminded me of Point Break, Good Will Hunting and even The Shawshank Redemption. The cast is great and I though it was well acted. It probably is better than most of the movies that came out this summer.

After I got home I went to The Town’s IMDb page and rated it a nice lukewarm 7 out of 10.

Three Degrees of Palbasha

A few days ago I stumbled across this video on YouTube. It really needs no introduction or explanation and is just plain awesome. My favourite bit is between 1:33 and 1:51.



I really loved and you might even say I was a little haunted by the song that played during it and found myself listening to it over and over again. In the description of the video it says the song is called Praan by Garry Schyman. Thinking that it didn't really sound like Garry, I began my search for a video of the actual singer performing it. This led me to another great video. This one has already been viewed over 31 million times so there is a good chance you are familiar with it already and I'm just the last one to know about it but...



It turns out that "Praan" was actually created for this video and the name of the singer is in the end credits. Her name is Palbasha Siddique. Finally now I'll be able to watch her perform it I thought. I figured she was probably some famous veteran singer from somewhere that I couldn't quite guess for sure but it turns out she lives in Minnesota and was only a teenager when she was hired and payed just $1000 to record the song. Considering how many people have now heard and loved it it seems she deserves much more.

I did find a video of Palbasha performing Praan but it isn't at some big concert or on a TV show. It's just her singing in front of a camera in her home with the smoke detector chirping periodically in the background because the battery is low. The sound quality is of course not nearly as good as the professional recording and whoever was running the camera is way too trigger happy with the zoom button but despite all that is does feel like she is singing just for you, for anyone who took the time to search for and find her. And here she is.