Movie of the Day: Damages
A few TV series actually can work as the material for a good movie (without episodes on different days and interrupting ads so one can follow a complex story). We had already enjoyed both seasons of "Carnivale" and now are going through Season 1 of "Damages". Damages is a complex legal drama with Glenn Close as steely litigator Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne as Ellen Parsons who is a young successful 'runner up' in Patty's law firm which finds herself in jail with a murder charge. The story is told in time 'flips' back an forth and so comes together with increasing numbers of episodes. Each episode, though, is an interesting piece in itself and the characters as well as the story are interesting, complex, and good material to think about. Family values, business drive, betrayal and loyalty, money & power, and many other important concepts in life are being portrayed, challenged, lost and found with actors who represent the complexities in an excellent way. If you get started and like it as much as we do, you will spend a lot of hours in front of the screen, because it sucks you in and doe not let you go. (Our score: 9/10)

Birdfeeder extension

We have now extended our birdfeeder on the deck from two to four 'arms', each carrying a different feeder. The 'design' of the feeder comes from a book that Gabriele gave me as a Christmas present. We have now a finch feeder, a berry feeder, a peanut feeder, and a sunflower seed feeder. In addition a wirebox with suet for woodpeckers is attached to the 4x4 pole. We hope that this variety will increase the variety of bird species coming to our deck. Our yard is the home to at least 32 species of birds. In accordance with the expected ranking of frequency of feeder visits in Virginia, House finches, Slate-colored juncos, Cardinals, Northern mockingbirds, White-breasted nuthatches and Carolina chickadees are the most frequent guests. We also saw Carolina wrens, Red-breasted woodpeckers, Tufted titmice, Mourning doves, European starlings, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers join the party. A few days ago a Yellow-rumped Myrtle warbler showed up. I took photos of these birds and can share them with you, if you are interested.

Learning about life from a dying man

"Tuesdays with Morrie", a relatively short book (or audio CD if you listen rather than read) by Mitch Albom, a journalist hearing 16 years after graduation that his former sociology professor or 'coach' is terminally ill and preparing a thesis about life from taped conversations with the ill on Tuesdays. An important book. Touching - not primarily because of the disease consuming and then killing the old man, but because its about all of us who live, about what is important and what is not. Its about the value of people, family, loved ones, friends, time, about essential vs superficial things and behaviors. I cannot imagine that anyone is not learing something from this dying man. His messages are honest because he has nothing to loose, his messages are simple but still surprising and disturbing. I wished I could convince my mother now and my child when he is a man to read or hear it. The audio CD adds to the book the voice of the teacher and the student, making it even more authentic and emotional. Yes, it made me cry and I am not ashamed of it. For those in Chesterfield: The audio book is at the public library.

Heard of 'Witricity'?

Wow, this looks like a really important innovation: Charging all our gadgets like cell phones, laptops etc without wires and plugs - using 'Witricity'. That this is for real can be deducted from the fact that MIT is involved. Marin Soljacic, an MIT Assistant Professor, is at the forefront of the research moving this technology towards commercial application. Check it out at http://www.witricpower.com/introduction-witricity.htm

Movie of the Day: Man on Fire
A standard story directed well: Ex US federal agent (or mercenary?) with a drinking problem takes on the job of a body guard for a girl of a rich young couple in Mexico city, where kidnapping is a daily event. The girl grows on him, becomes kidnapped while he is gunned down and she is reported killed after the transfer of the ransom went bad. Now a complex story of corrupt cops, ruthless gangsters, lawyers and business men unfolds being embedded in the colorful and chaotic scenario of Mexico city. The story takes twists and turns with constant action that keeps you on you tiptoes. Believable characters played convincingly by Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning (the girl) and the others on cast, a believable and almost realistic story (except for the end when melodrama takes over and washes over the otherwise professional criminals and 'good guys'), and a realistic amount of violence and brutality push the movie to its climax. Great action with a meaningful plot - worth 2.5-h watching. (Our score: 8/10)

The movie of the day: Class Action. Not many movies have an excellent cast across the bord - this one has. Its not just the lead actors Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who excel as father and his estranged daughter representing opposing parties' counsel in court, its also the supporting roles such as the wife and mother of the two lawyers (Joanna Merlin), but also the bartender at their favorite hangout and the associates (e.g. Laurence Fishburne) and other members of their law firms who pulled us into their fascinating story, dialogs and emotions. Nothing is 'out-of-date' in this 1991 movie about family conflict, professional ethics, suppressed emotions and outbursts of passion. This movie is smart, entertaining, and made us smile and cry. What a treat. Highly recommended (Score: 9/10).

Punkin Chunkin 2008

If you have no plans for Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2008, jet - why don't you join us when we go for the first time to the annual Punkin Chunkin World Championship in Bridgeville, Delaware. What this is all about? Pumkin shooting with sophisticated, powerful machines. The goal for the contestants and engineers of those monstrous machines is to shoot/fly undamaged pumkins as far as possible through the air into a target field. The machines fall into several technical categories such as Air Cannon, Centrifugal, Catapult, Trebuchet, Human Power, and Torsion. If you want to see how they look like and how they work (if they work), have a look at the action in the video clips on the left hand side. The challenge is to apply maximum power on the naturally grown pumkins without smashing them to puree before the travel through the skies. What a wonderful and relatively harmless way to be creative with mechanics.
See pumpkin cannons from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIf0zLIlDbM or 'sling machine' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhtFXB-3XHk

As a start ....

Gabriele started her blog in German some time ago and she and her friends like it a lot. So I will give it a try too. Bear with me: There is a lot to come.

If you like what you see, let me know, if you don't, let me know too. Feedback will help to make this a useful form of 'staying in touch' with friends, which I would like to accomplish with this.



The English 'word of the day' (its a new one for me) is: Adobe - not just the name of a software product line, but "a sundried brick" used to build walls for buildings in arid areas such as the American West.



The movie of today: Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake 'The man who knew too much' with Doris Day and James Stewart. We liked the first half of the mystery plot, but then it became a bit too melodramatic with Doris Day singing 'Que sera, sera' in an English embassy setting and crying while standing without a ticket in the aisle of a balcony box of the Royal Albert Hall expecting the villain to assassin the English Primeminister. Well, our expectations of 'action movies' have obviously changed since the 60s.