Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

Mrs. Chickenshorts is not very happy with me right now. You see, I was absentmindedly singing my own twisted variation of the Elton John and Tim Rice song (up there in the title to this post) and I was overheard by my kids. It was completely innocent on my part (can't you just see the halo atop my cranium?), but now there's a disjointed chorus of little voices all over the house singing "Can you smell my butt tonight? Does it really stink?" Mrs. C just glares at me now.

Walk This Way Too

I posted that picture of Rufflebutt walking so I figure I should post a picture of me that shows how she learned to walk so well:

Walk This Way

I haven't talked about Princess Rufflebutt for awhile. She's growing up fast! She has just started walking a couple of weeks ago so I grabbed a camera and took some pictures of her yesterday and put them into this animated gif:

Water War Zone

Five years ago today, just after we bought this house, I was outside enjoying myself in the sunshine. I've said before how the 24th is a holiday around here. So there I was, minding my business, when three or four of my neighbors walked into my yard. I had just met them days before and I would have thought they were there to welcome me to the neighborhood if they hadn't been dripping wet and carrying buckets and water balloons. Suddenly I remembered that there was a tradition around these parts. Every year on Pioneer Day a huge water fight breaks out in the neighborhood. I desperately bolted around the back of the house to the other side only to realize, too late, that they had me surrounded. Once I was drenched, and had spread out my wallet and it's contents on the concrete to dry, there was nothing to do but join them and spread my misery. We succeeded in coaxing another neighbor out of her house on the pretense that she was helping us to get yet another person out of her house.

It's been like that every year since, with me not prolonging the inevitable but just plunging headlong into the fray. But last year, I decided, was my last year. I had plans in the back of my mind to avoid the whole mess by packing up the family and heading out to the park for the day. Except that I forgot. Today I was downstairs playing my guitar and minding my own business once again when I heard a knock at the door. It was those dealers of a watery death, armed with fat, bubble-shaped guns, and buckets waiting for me to come up and face the unavoidable fact of living in this neighborhood. Only this time, I didn't want to. I told my kids to tell them I wasn't coming up. They came back giggling. My 50-something, grown-up neighbor, they said, was calling me a chicken liver. I said, "Tell them I don't want to get wet." I listened as my five-year-old went to the door and said, "My Dad's a chicken." I endured this a while longer, waiting as the ten or twelve aquaterrorists filled up at my hose. At one point I was able to sneak past the opened door and go upstairs to foolishly peer at them from behind the curtain. Finally, and with one last, "Dinky, you're a chicken liver," and a, "Tell your dad he's a coward," they were gone. I breathed a sigh of relief, called the kids together, and said, "Come on. We're going to the park."

A Beautiful Novel

The kids and I just finished reading another book. This time it was North to Freedom by Anne Holm. The book has been around the house for ages and I never paid any attention to it. It belongs to my wife and she recommended it for our little book club the boys and I have had going. So the other night we went for it and I'm so glad we did.

Twelve-year-old David has spent much of his life in a concentration camp. He knows very little about the outside world and almost nothing about his parents. At the beginning of the story, he is given the opportunity to escape, which he does. The only instruction he's given, aside from how to get out of the camp and where to find some meager supplies, is to go North and try to make it to Denmark. He has no idea what is waiting for him there but it's all he has to go on so he makes the attempt. Along the way he makes some important discoveries about himself, about God, and about other people.

The novel was the perfect length but I found myself wanting more. I had become aquainted with this marvelous little boy and I wanted to spend more time with him. The lessons he taught all of us as we followed the tale will stay with me for a long time. It's nice to find a story that delineates the difference between good and evil. The book is intended for children and, as the word "Nazi" is never mentioned, the reader will most likely not equate the mysterious "them," as David refers to his enemies, to Hitler, which is just as well. As one reviewer says, "The ambiguity [tells] the lesson that evil [is] evil, regardless the political justification." The kids seemed to enjoy it, too, though not quite as much as I did. I spent most of the time in tears, hiding my face from the boys. They, on the other hand, when I had read the last sentence, said, "That was good. What's next?"

If Only I Could Write Like That

This is beautiful writing. Like when you really like something, like a flower, maybe, because it's so beautiful and smells good. . . Oh hell. I can't even write badly. I'd be no match even for this contest.

Actually, I think the runner-up should have won.

Local Boy Makes it Big--Hmmph!

Jealousy is a strange thing. This guy, Ken Jennings, didn't even exist a few weeks ago, and now I hate him. Just kidding. I'm happy for him. I really am. I've been close to the story because I do the promos for the show, which is on our station, so every week I'm reminded of how he's doing. I even know in advance of the general viewing public. I guess that makes me sort of special, eh? Nah. No one I know cares much. It is fun to watch someone from the area do so well, though. I don't even wish it was me up there. I couldn't handle the pressure. Unless every category had something to do with classic or alternative rock or Shakespeare (yes, you read it right, I'm a Shakespeare nut) I would absolutely suck. You could ask me what my name is and I'd flub it. So keep going Ken! We're rooting for you... you little jerk!

Cool by Association

Wow. I post a few pictures of my new "friends", Tears for Fears, and suddenly I have 75 hits in one day. I'm used to about 25. Apparently someone has posted a link to my site on a Tears for Fears Yahoo group. Now I'm getting emails and comments from lots of people and I can't even go to the Yahoo group because I'm not a member. All I did was meet the band and now I'm famous...well, for a minute or so at least. Here's another picture of my good buddies, Roland and Curt, in case it prolongs my good fortune.

The Magic Kingdom? Not Quite.

For those of you not from Utah or Idaho, we have our own amusement park here called Lagoon. Actually, I'm not sure who gets amused by it. I surely don't. It's a hack job of a Disneyland rip off; an immobile traveling carnival that doesn't go anywhere, only the barkers are not hardened criminal types, they're 16 to 18 year old kids whose purpose in life is to squeeze a little more cash out of people who were already robbed for parking money and the entrance fee. A family in my income bracket has to take out a loan to go to this park. Now that's amusing. One obnoxious young woman was shouting at us to pay her two bucks for her to guess our weight or age for a chance to win something worth about twenty cents. She kept on and on about it until someone behind us said, "We don't have any money," to which she replied, "Why do you come to Lagoon without any money?" I wanted to say, "We had some until you raped us at the gate!"

Then there are the rides. Every day we have to endure commercials about the new attractions like "The Spider and the Fly," "Cliffhanger," and "Samurai." The ads make them sound like they're worth the arm and a leg you'll be handing over to ride them. But take it from me, they're not. I love a great ride. I'll do anything--drop straight down sixty feet, for instance--but I guess I've been spoiled by the real parks. Since my grandparents lived in L.A., we'd go to Disneyland every year. Also, I was a child then and everything was bigger and more exciting. I want that experience everytime I go to Lagoon and I don't get it. I might be getting old, but if I have to mortgage everything I own to ride on some contraption, it better be the equivalent of a base jump!

When my mother called a couple of days ago and said she was getting our family tickets to Lagoon, the kids went nuts, of course. And that is one way in which I can enjoy Lagoon. My children are young enough that they haven't been on a real rollercoaster yet. I coaxed my eight-year-old on the Spider and, though he didn't want to go on it at first, it became his favorite ride. The kids had a lot of fun. They love Lagoon. But then, they aren't the targets of the greedy barkers and they don't understand the implications of an 8 ounce bottle of water costing six bucks. So Lagoon is 150 acres of magic to them. To me it's a vacation from which I need to take a vacation.

I Feel so Fresh...And Frolicky

Scott got me the pictures at last! There's one of Dr. Covey signing my copy of his book, and one of our soundstage after a production. They painted it to look like a jungle. It was so life-like I just had to frolick in it. There's a closer shot of me doing just that. There's also another picture of the "Rockstar" and her guitarists and one of me running camera with some of the crew during her show.

Heros

I've been putting this off because I've been waiting for the photo, but I can't wait any longer. Since I don't have my own camera, I'm always at the mercy of my friend, Scott, whose new, really expensive, digital camera always seems to be around. Unfortunately, this particular event wasn't as cool as, say, Ala*nis or Tears for Fears, so the photo's taking an inordinate amount of time to materialize in my inbox.

To me, though, June 22 was a great day. I was a cameraman on a satellite-broadcast of a leadership seminar. The series is broadcast from all over the country--wherever the leadership expert happens to be. I saw that Mikhail Gorbachev and General Tommy Franks are soon to be presenters on the program. In this case it was one of my personal heros, Dr. Stephen Covey. I've been reading his books for years. He was very engaging with us. He smiled a lot, made us feel at ease. After the program, he started pounding the floor with a staff he'd brought, saying that in the British Parliment that's what they do to tell other's they've done a great job, so he was applauding our performance as a tv crew. I took my copy of his 7 Habits book to him and he signed, "Leave a legacy!" on the inside cover.

Wow!

This summer's movie line up looks like it's really shaping up. I just saw a trailer for the remake of my number one movie (if I had to pick a number one.) I had no idea The Manchurian Candidate was even in production. The trailer makes it look great. They had to change the story, obviously, and they don't try to hide the fact that Meryl Streep is the evil mastermind, as they did with Angela Lansbury in the original, because we've all seen it and it wouldn't work, right? So this means there's probably some huge twist ending. A better replacement for Frank Sinatra couldn't have been found. Denzel looks absoulutely terrific in the role.

Then there's the follow up to what might be my second favorite movie. I just hope the The Bourne Supremacy is as good as its prequel.

God Bless America

Happy Fourth! No big fireworks. Around here when the holiday falls on a Sunday, they do all that stuff on Saturday. We lit our meager supply in front of the house tonight. Little fountains called "Junebugs" and "Glittering Jewels" and other awe-inspiring names. They didn't inspire much awe in me, though the kids were plenty excited. Fortunately, no one on our street obeys the restrictions on fireworks so we got to see some pretty cool stuff smuggled in from Wyoming. I felt like the whole valley was sounding off, trying to be heard celebrating freedom with explosions. After our tiny display was over I went in and watched the Boston Pops fireworks show on CBS. It was amazing. They put a lot of money into that. I wish I could have been there.

In ten days we get to do this all over again. We celebrate the 24th of July with almost more zeal than we do the 4th around these parts. That's when the pioneers allegedly came into this valley and settled it. Salt Lake City doesn't have a parade for the 4th but it has a huge one for the 24th. I've only gone to it once and that was when I had to shoot it for the tv station. I got yelled at for being in front of people who'd camped all night for their seats. I'll never forget that.

I have updated my drawings page. There are no new drawings there, just a new way to display them. It's pretty simple. I'm still in preschool when it comes to html. But I'm trying.

Napoleon Who?

A few months ago my friend Matt took off from his job here at the station to work on a small independant film in Preston Idaho for a few weeks. He's done this before and we don't think much of it, but now it seems that he was working on a gold mine. The film, called Napoleon Dynamite, is taken from a short by the same director that I just watched a couple of weeks ago. It was funny but it didn't strike me as a film that might go anywhere. I just watched some clips of the feature from the electronic press kit (EPK) and it's hilarious. Matt's in the b-roll on the EPK and every scene in the movie contains a landmark that I recognize. And now I'm seeing the lead, Jon Heder--just a guy from BYU--everywhere. He was just on Letterman and the movie's getting a lot of press. I haven't seen the whole thing yet, but I'm excited about it.

For the Lack of Anything to Post Today

Here's a picture of me editing with a client: