By TheCalgaryGuy - Wednesday, August 31, 2005
As requested, here's a review of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
If you haven't seen this movie, you officially suck.
Lucky for you, that can be resolved.
I saw this movie, in French, two or three times when I was a kid. It was playing on TV. To give you a time frame, it was made in 1983. It's a science-fiction comedy, almost parody, that takes itself seriously. Kinda like Spaceballs, but with a more serious feel.
(If you don't know what Spaceballs is, you have reached a level of suckiness that can no longer be described.)
The movie starts with a short text that explains who Buckaroo Banzai is. The son of an American father and Japanese mother (or the other way around?), brilliant neuro-surgeon, got tired of saving lives so he went to Tibet (or wherever) and learned all sorts of martial arts (in which he's a master, of course), then came back and figured he'd get a PhD in nuclear physics (or somesuch). Oh, and he's about 30. And he tours the US in his custom bus because his scientist buddies, also expert marksman and stuff, are all in a hugely successful rock band and they do concerts and stuff.
That's the first five minutes. You meet Buckaroo and his band, there's a small gun fight, and you see the cool Banzai character make it just in time for his trip to the eighth dimension (in a Ford truck) -- he was late because he had to help this guy perform an extremely complex and life-threatening brain surgery.
If you're not laughing yet, this movie ain't for you. Oh! and did I mention you suck?
So that's the setup. The deal of the movie is that going into the eighth dimension has inadvertently opened, for a small period of time, a portal through which some aliens came into our dimension (and our planet) disguised as humans. Of course, they are evil (well, they aren't American, therefore they are evil, right?) and, of course, only Buckaroo Banzai can save the Universe (and, more importantly, the US) from their evil, evil plans.
All of which he does, along with his buddies, in the high-fashion of the early 80s. So white jackets with rolled up sleeves galore. We even have a merry-man named "Perfect Tommy" and a damsel named "Penny Priddy". And, most important of all, John Lithgow as the completely insane evil genius and arch-nemesis.
I ask you: what's not to love?
So stop sucking so much and get that movie!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Some may have noticed that I haven't written anything in over a week.
Yeah, I'm a bad man.
Last week was a bit of a mess. It started off with my boss realizing that I had three days off, that some work I needed to do (and quoted as two weeks effort) needed to be done this week and subtly asking me to work some overtime to get it done. So I worked three days worth in two days to get the thing basically done and wasn't in any mood to look at a computer screen after that. Then my parents got back from Vancouver and we hung out with them and hiked and did a whole lot of stuff until Sunday afternoon when they left. So we had half a day to catch up on groceries and bills and quickly get ready for Monday, Back-To-Work day (for both of us).
So the blog dropped lower in the priority list.
Now we're back at work on a somewhat normal schedule so I can sneak away for ten minutes to write this.
Like I mentioned, my parents left last Sunday. I was a really fun couple of weeks, filled with hiking and visiting and taking pictures. My dad left with a CD containing almost 300 pictures! I added some pictures of them in an album.
Since I last wrote, I also got a couple more birthday presents: three small statues of chinese wise men that bring good fortune to their owner (that's me! yay!) and a really cool quick-dry shirt (which I used in our last hike). Really, really cool stuff. Thanks so much to my folks (on both sides!) for that.
That's about all that's new right now. I hope this covers the 30 cents I owe y'all...
By TheCalgaryGirl - Monday, August 22, 2005
I went hiking on Thursday and Friday, it was great!!! On Thusrday, there was snow on top of the moutains, just beautiful! There was still a little snow when I got at the top of Mount Sulphur! And I forgot my camera...
On Friday, I drove to Lake Louise and I did the Big Beehive trail. It was a beatiful hike!
I just love hiking!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Sunday, August 21, 2005
Recap of my birthday, yesterday.
I woke up and read Vero's card (she WARNED me to only read it on that day, not the night before) which said to get the bike ready to go have breakfast in Canmore. Cool.
We left around 8:30, got there around 9:30. For some reason, which the waitress couldn't explain either, the town was dead. Nobody in the streets, restaurant completely empty. On a Saturday. I guess there was a big party the night before and we weren't invited...
After eating, we rode back home.
Then Vero told me about the next phase of the day: shopping. She had to tell me because she doesn't really know where to shop for iPod Shuffles (the 512Mb version). Woot! I've been asking for this thing for so long but couldn't really justify the expense... this is strickly a gadget, for fun, but I promise I will make good use of it!
We thus proceeded to walk around a bunch of electronic shops, checking out speakers and TVs and digital cameras and Vero did not complain once about how boring the whole process was. It IS my birthday!
If anyone out there is interested: Apple has a SRP on these things and everybody sells them for the same price, so buy it wherever it's more convenient.
I also got an armband for when I go jogging.
Then we came back home. The day was hot and the "next phase" was in a little over a couple of hours so she offered we go play mini-golf (which was the original plan) or do something else. We watched Buckaroo Banzai, in English, instead. It was cooler in the house anyway.
Then off to diner at -- where else but -- Saltlik. Man I love that restaurant.
After diner we played a round of mini-golf. Evidently I need some time to get used to this old age because Vero, who has been practicing this age for a little while, beat me. By five shots. Though to be fair, we both sucked... but it was a lot of fun and that's all that matters in the end.
Back home, around 9pm, we weren't really in the mood to sleep so we watched Ghostbusters 1, in French. Ah! I forgot how good (and bad!) that movie is.
Today, yet one day older, I get to write it with my iPod Shuffle at my arm (for no other reason than to play with the thing). I managed to fit the entire Barenaked Ladies collection, minus the duplicate songs; all 89 songs in CD quality (which is overkill to begin with).
Thank you Vero for a great day!
And a VERY BIG THANK YOU to everyone that called, most of whom I missed because we weren't in the house. I got your messages! Thank you!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Saturday, August 20, 2005
We checked the mail last night and I got a package with my name on it... and Amazon's. I didn't remember ordering anything, and the timing made it somewhat suspicious... What with TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY and all.
I got me The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension! and Ghostbusters 1 & 2 (box set)!!!
And the best part, which I confirmed by playing the movies about ten seconds after I unwrapped them, is that they include the French track! (Well, except for Ghostbusters 2 that only has French subtitles, but English, Spanish and Portuguese tracks. I can't understand that.) I'm sure this makes a bunch of guys in Quebec quite jealous and rushing over to Amazon to buy them!
Ghostbusters, in French, is such a big part of my childhood. I can't wait to watch it again! And Buckaroo Banzai is this over-the-top movie I only saw a couple of times (in French, of course) while growing up and never been able to find since -- and I've been occasionally looking, too.
So I got two words this morning: Eric RULEZ!!!
Thanks man, you answered "what do you get the guy who doesn't really want anything" brilliantly. You da man!
And, of course, he's the man with a web comic: Zombies? Go read it. Now.
By TheCalgaryGuy - Friday, August 19, 2005
Tomorrow is my birthday. Yay!
For the last... who knows how long, I've lost count, the wife has been asking me what I want to do and get for my birthday. Then my parents showed up and started asking the same thing.
What do you get the guy who wants nothing?
There's plenty I want, very little I really need, but most of it is out of the reach of friends and family. It's either too expensive or the kind of thing I have to pick up myself. In other words, things I will get myself, eventually. And nothing I would dare ask as a gift from anyone. Until I befriend Bill Gates, that is.
I don't need anything for my birthday, at least nothing material. A card, an email, a phone call is more than enough. Seriously.
So what to do? The old wife (this is my last chance to say that, tomorrow we'll be as old!) asked me many, many times: "What would you LOVE to do?"
Anything. Nothing. The thing is, I do what I love every day. Sure, there's the occasional cleaning and grocery shopping and paying bills -- and, well, work -- but otherwise I always do what I feel like, what I like to do. And I hope Véro does the same and I don't force her to do (too many) things she doesn't like.
So how can the day be special? Go hike a mountain, play golf, eat out, see a movie, play pool..? Thing is, that's what we do every day, every week. I guess every day IS special.
So she got tired of my can't-figure-this-out and decided to organize something and not tell me. That's probably best: it will make the day special by the surprise.
I can't wait!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Monday, August 15, 2005
My folks (this time, it's my dad and Manon) have been, so far, the luckiest visitors I've toured with. Friday was rainy until their arrived and sunny for the rest of the day, so our walk around downtown was quite enjoyable. Saturday, as we hiked up Sulphur mountain, we ran into a group of mountain goats, not once, but twice. A small group that included a couple of babies, at that! And Sunday, while we hiked up the Plain of Six Glaciers, so got to see THREE -- not one, not two, but THREE -- avalanches from the glaciers at the top of the mountains. The fourth one we missed, but after seeing three that was pushing it anyway.
Considering where we were, that was the luckiest sights you could get.
Oh! and add a coyote on the side of the road, too.
And now the Universe hits us back. Forecast for the next three days: rain. We were hoping to canoe on Moraine Lake, but not in the rain. Darn it.
It's ok, we need a couple of days of down time to recover from the two hikes in a row, so we'll do some indoor stuff like the dinosaur museum. It's just a shame when the weather forces your hand like that...
By TheCalgaryGuy - Thursday, August 11, 2005
... but I just can't write about work, can I?
When you start one of these here blogs, you really have to stop and think about what you will write. And the truth of the matter is that you can't really write down the nasty thoughts you have about your friends or relative (not that I have any, mind you), nor about how your significant other slowly grinds the life out of your ears with her (or his) snoring that isn't-really-snoring-just-loud-breathing (not that my significant other does, of course), nor anything about work.
It's the last part that bothers me now. The first two I made up, obviously (*cough*) but the last one...
I just went through a work day that made me think "I should share this with others". But I can't. At least, not in a public forum. Actually, not in a recorded public forum, 'cause, heck, you can bitch about work in a restaurant all you want, right? And last I checked, a restaurant is a public place, if not a forum. Anyways, it's not that I want to bitch about work or anything but even if I did, or even if I wanted to say how perfect something is at work, I just can't. Only my friends and relatives actually know who I work for, and I would never write it down here, but even then I can't say anything. Well, that's not quite true: I can say that I can't say anything. And we all know that something isn't nothing, by definition. I mean, the absence of anything precludes thought, for thought is something, therefore you can't think about nothing because your thought of nothing is a thought to begin with which is not nothing, as we just explained. And even more so of anything, because anything in the context of saying it means much more than a thought and, though nothingness does not care by what quantity it gets negated, it at least becomes much clearer to multiple parties of a conversation that it definitely is not nothing.
And somewhere that made sense...
By TheCalgaryGuy - Friday, August 5, 2005
Mr. Electrifying had the pleasure of welcoming Rylie Bateman into the world last night! (To be fair, I'm sure he didn't do much: mommy was in charge of that!)
Mother and baby are doing very well.
Congratulations to the whole Bateman family!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Tuesday, August 2, 2005
This weekend was a long one for me (it's always a long one for Véro!) so we decided to get out of the house and take a road trip on the bike.
We packed all our camping gear, some change of clothes and as few things as we could think of and headed out to Revelstoke, a town in the middle of the Revelstoke National Park right at the bottom of Mt Revelstoke. The guy in charge of naming was having a good day when he came up with those...
The trip from Calgary to Revelstoke, the town, is about 400 kilometers. We got there in about five and a half hours, having stopped every hour to stretch our legs and in Lake Louise to get some breakfast at the Chateau. So I say we made good time. But it taught us one thing: we're not quite ready to go any farther in one day! We were really aching when we got there.
Once in town, we found a camping lot at the KoA (never our first choice, but others were full), installed the tent and sleeping bags, took a swim in the pool, had a snack, took a nap and then finally got back on the bike to go into town. After a quick stop to get dinner, we rode up Mt Revelstoke using the very nice 26 km road to the top. Lots of switchbacks along the way, which I rode through about two times too fast; that was really fun.
At the top, we got to walk around a bit and look at the view... through the clouds of mosquitoes. We got there in the evening, before the sun went down, and the lack of tourists making noise and generally being obnoxious was made up by mosquitoes making no noise and generally being obnoxious.
Then down again through the switchbacks.
The next day, after a quick and early breakfast at Denny's, which is not something I recommend unless you don't know where else to go, we came back to Calgary like tourists, taking about eight hours whilst stopping at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, Emerald Lake, Takakkaw Falls and Subway.
The Subway in Golden is quite the busy place, lemme tell ya.
Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls we had already seen, but they are really wonderful places. The lake is correctly named for it's color and the falls are the second biggest in North America. We love going there and go back whenever we can.
The Giant Cedars Boardwalk I had never seen before and Véro, who saw it in her recent trip, took me there. It's an old growth forest of cedars, like the name implies, and these are very large trees. It is an incredible sight that I recommend to every visitor who has the courage to drive that far.
We made it back home Sunday night. The trip was a wonderful experience and taught us that we need to develop some endurance and get some more tailored gear (like some form of storage for the bike) so we can go even farther next time.
Because, trust me, there will be a next time.
