Any thoughts about it so far? Who are you going to see? Who do you think we should see? Almost every act has been announced by now, so I won’t list them all. It’s all on the web site. Here are some helpful links:

Main web site:
http://www.bumbershoot.org

Printable PDF artist lineup, schedules, and map, which includes the new venue that is replacing “the pit” (aka the Exhibition Hall)
http://bumbershoot.org/info/pdf/

Online lineup and scheduling tool:
http://sched.bumbershoot.org/

Miscellaneous info:
http://bumbershoot.org/info/about-bumbershoot/

Info about the free 40-years-of-Bumbershoot poster show (thru Sept. 7):
http://bumbershoot.org/40/umbrella-for-the-arts-40-years-of-bumbershoot-artwork/

Downloadable icons, wallpaper, and cellphone stuff:
http://bumbershoot.org/bumberfan/downloads.htm

Platinum/Gold Pass info:
http://bumbershoot.org/tickets/platinum-gold/

Buy tickets and ticket info:
http://bumbershoot.org/tickets/

That’s all for now…

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Well, to start off, I’m full and happy after a lunch at Curry Corner. It’s a great Indian Food lunch buffet here in the Natomas area. All you can eat and all gooooood.

Last night we saw an advance screening of a new movie, City Island (web site, more info, even more info). It’s a very funny comedy with heart. We were laughing out loud and so was everyone else in the theater. Great writing, brisk pace, and funny! Go see it!

And let’s be sure to add some April birthday wishes for my sister Steph, my ex-sister-in-law Connie, and our friend Jared (the big 30).

And talking about Jared, he just started up a food-related blog over at JaredEatsWorld. Go visit and tell him stevenology sent you!

Last Friday night we went to see the Sacramento Rivercats baseball game. It was fun, always is, but they lost. They choked at the end. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

OK, faithful readers, what do you think of all THAT?

And just like last time (read about it) we were lunching on the Indian Food buffet next door at Curry Corner. As we waddled out of the restaurant, we noticed the “4 DVDs for $20″ sign. What could we do? We were powerless to resist!

Here’s what we bought:

Young @ Heart – We saw this one before in a theater and really liked it. Old people performing punk music and rock and roll, a heartwarming and fun movie.

Whatever Works – Very funny Woody Allen film starring Larry David. Read my full review here and then go rent it!

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist – Haven’t seen this one yet but heard it was good.

Barack Obama – The Man and His Journey – he’s not perfect but I am SO glad he won. So VERY glad. Very very VERY glad.

Have you seen any of these? What did you think? Leave me a comment below.

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Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey Jr is just so charismatic. I love him. The rest of the cast was good but he is the star. This version of the venerable tale is a big budget effort and it shows. But there is still attention to the Holmes character. It’s fast-paced and very entertaining.

Up In The Air – The smartest movie of the three for sure. It’s from the director of the wonderful Juno, and like that film has great dialog and sharp, interesting characters. George Clooney is the lead and does a very good job, but both of the main female characters are very good too. It’s very funny at times and moving at other times. This one is for the brain and the heart.

Youth In Revolt – It’s an indie-feeling teen comedy but a little raunchier and more “out there”. The characters are wild stereotypes and the situations are hilariously outrageous but the main thing is that I was laughing out loud over and over during this film. It’s really funny unless you are easily offended. Even then, you will probably laugh a lot.

In short, I would recommend all three movies. If you’ve seen any of them or even if not, let me know what you think!

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“Ghost Town”, “He’s Just Not That Into You”, “Rachel Getting Married”, “Revolutionary Road”, and “New In Town”.

Meanwhile, within a few days of that I won a free copy of “Bruno” and Petra bought “Free Willy”. Yes, really.

Leave me a comment below. Tell me what you think.

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W.C.Fields made a series of comedies in the 30s and 40s. He frequently frustrated the movie censors of the day, who questioned his sarcastic grumpy mean-spririted funny banter and smartass asides and also found his drinking, dislike for children, and comic meanness as, well, less than appropriate material for a leading man in a comedy. But Fields was Fields and trying to make him more likable would have just dimished his character. Luckily, he still kept his crankiness and is remembered so many years later for his classics “The Bank Dick”, You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man:, My Little Chickadee (the censor-pushing comedy with Mae West, and others, including this film.

The plot is never very important in his films. It’s his character and the way he interacts with the rest of the world. And his character doesn’t change much from film to film. He drinks, lies, makes bad choices, and yet still somehow comes out well. His comic timing is perfect, and his sarcasm and verbal asides are funny, so pay attention to the dialog. Remember, the plot does not matter. You either like him or you don’t. If you don’t, you might just be missing the boat.

Here’s what one reviewer on Amazon had to say:

W. C. Fields is at his “man against the world” best in this hilarious comedy. The plot of grocery store operator Harold Bissonette (pronounced Bisso-NAY, please), who yearns for a California orange ranch, is secondary to the frequent moments of classic comedy. For sidesplitting laughter, check out Harold’s encounter with Mr. Muckle, the blind and deaf hotel detective who wreaks havoc in the grocery store. In addition, Harold trying to sleep on the porch swing is one of the greatest comedy scenes ever filmed. Aside from noisy neighbor disruptions, he suffers an assertive insurance salesman looking for Carl LaFong (“Capital ‘L,’ small ‘a,’ capital ‘F,’ small ‘o,’ small ‘n,’ small ‘g.’ LaFong!). Harold’s reaction to these various annoyances keeps the viewer in stitches. Harold’s shrewish wife and her scolding reaction to everything her husband says or does puts the “fun” in dysfunctional. Fields also has a couple of encounters with Baby LeRoy. Obnoxious children and their overbearing mothers are among Fields’ best targets for razor-sharp comedy. Even Harold and the family dog don’t get along. Harold threatens to replace the dog with an “iron” deer lawn ornament. Fields’ comic style stresses physical humor, sight gags, and his trademark asides. The comic side of drinking is part of his standard routine, good taste notwithstanding. Fans of W. C. Fields, classic comedy fans, and everyone who enjoys debunking the guises of stuffy respectability needs this movie for their personal movie collection. Recommended for multiple viewing.

I won’t argue with that. The porch swing scene had me laughing out loud. This one is pretty good for a movie made 75 years ago, but I’d recommend buying the collection pictured at the top of this post. It has four of his other classsics too besides this one. I actually found it at CostCo a while back but haven’t seen it there recently. Heck, you might as well just check it out here. And while I’m at it, here are a few classsic Fields lines:

10 quick quotes from “Bank Dick” and “It’s a Gift”:
1) “Caught him on the first bounce!” (After gently bringing the ailing bank examiner through the hotel lobby up to his room, running back downstairs to the lobby out the front door, and again walking the bank examiner back through the hotel lobby)
2) Egbert: “Was I in here last night, and did I spend a twenty-dollar bill?” Bartender: “Why yes!” Egbert: “What a load that is off my mind! I thought I’d lost it!”
3) “See you got that door closed again” (Mr. Muckle the blind man after sticking his cane through Bissonette’s glass door)
4) “Capital L, small a, capital F, small o, small n, small g; LaFong; Carl LaFong”
5) “I’ll be sober tomorrow; you’ll be crazy the rest of your life”
6) “You’d like to have a nose like that full of nickels, wouldn’t you?” (Mother, to a young brat pointing at Fields’s prominent proboscis)
7) “The resale value of this car is going to be nil after this ride.”
“I’m very fond of children. Girl children, around eighteen, twenty”
9) Mrs. Sousé: “Don’t you dare strike that child!” Egbert Sousé: “She’s not gonna tell ME I don’t love her.”
10) Customer: “What do you have in the way of steaks”? Sousé: “Not a thing, I can get right to ‘em”.

Have you seen this movie? Do you like W.C. Fields? Let me know here, my little chickadees, leave me a comment below.

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A friend had given us a copy of the DVD for “Go” quite a while back but we had never found the free time to watch it. Well, I finally watched it today and I wish I had watched it sooner. I really enjoyed it! “Go” is a fast-paced, wild ride of a comedy, edgy and fun and full of surprises. It’s from 1999 and features a great cast, with Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf, and many more. Everyone does a good job, the script is tight and funny in a darkishly wild way. And I mean that in the best sense.

The film is told from a few different angles but that only takes a little getting used to. The characters are interesting and they easily draw you in to the story (the evening’s adventures) so that in miinutes you are both laughing and thinking, uh-oh, at the same time. But go along, it’s a great time and besides, you are comfy and safe. Some reviews compare this to a more teen-oriented, slacker-filled Pulp Fiction. I wouldn’t call it that, although maybe I just did. But that doesn’t do it justice. No offense to Pulp Fiction, I like that one a lot too. But “Go” is it’s own movie with young and engaging characters. You’ll see. Rent it or buy it and watch it. Simple.

The film is rated R and deals with drugs, language, and sexual references. But there’s nothing too graphic or bad here for us grown-ups, it’s just not for the kiddies. This film gets a stunningly high 92% rating on the film site Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s the description from Amazon.com, this might give you an idea but I think you would really have to see it. And I certainly recommend it.

Director Doug Liman’s follow-up to the winning Swingers is a rollicking adventure that, while lacking in any substantial plot, speeds along with nonstop adrenaline and style to burn. Taking a cue from Pulp Fiction, Liman plays tricks with time and overlapping plots, all of which play out in L.A. and Las Vegas in a 24-hour period sometime between Christmas and New Year’s. Slacker grocery-store clerk Ronna (Sarah Polley) is trying to score rent money by selling hits of Ecstasy at a rave party, but winds up inadvertently double-crossing a ruthless dealer (sexy and scary Timothy Olyphant). She’s also invading the dealing turf of her coworker Simon (Desmond Askew), a Brit on his first trip to Vegas, which turns nightmarish after a jaunt with pal Marcus (Taye Diggs) to a “gentleman’s club” turns violent. And then there’s the two soap-opera actors (Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf) who cross paths with Ronna more than once in their attempts to divest themselves of a drug-related charge by participating in a sting.

The way Liman and writer John August layer these stories owes a huge debt to Quentin Tarantino, but the comedy and action sequences rocket like a bat out of hell with energy, humor, and genuine surprise. In addition to some hilarious dialogue exchanges–including a classic scene between Ronna’s stoned friend (Nathan Bexton) and a Zen cat–Liman works wonders with one the most winning ensembles in recent memory, a cast that includes both established actors and TV cuties. Mohr, Diggs, and especially Polley (doing a 180 from her turn in The Sweet Hereafter) are as excellent as you’d expect, but it’s Wolf (of Party of Five) and Dawson’s Creek‘s Katie Holmes (as Polley’s best bud) who turn in revelatory work; Holmes especially seems poised to be a breakout star. An amazing cinematic ride–like a roller coaster, you’ll want to go back again and again. –Mark Englehart

Both Rotten Tomatoes and Amazon have plenty of critic and user reviews if you want more of those. But take my word for it. It’s a sharp, adventurous, clever, wild, dark, funny, fast comedy that is for the open-minded among us.

Have you already seen it? Did you give me the DVD? have you watched it more than once? Whatever, tell me all about it! Leave me a comment below…

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We recently went to Seattle for a week, as we have done over Labor Day for the last nine or so years. The big attraction is the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. It’s a three day festival with entertainment on about 15 stages, plus a variety of other stuff going on too. You can find out more at www.bumbershoot.org. Anyway, between that and some side events, most of the week in Seattle is taken up, and in a great way. But we managed to fit in some other fun things too. Here’s what we did…

Tuesday September 1
We caught the plane to Seattle in the morning. A nice quick flight. Then we took the Seattle city bus from the airport to the hotel. Lucky us, the bus stops right across the street from our hotel, The Camlin. It was before check-in time but the hotel stashed our luggage so we could explore the city for a while. We walked a bit and then took the monorail to the Seattle Center area. Ninety seconds of zipping above the traffic, nice concept! We walked through the center, looking at the preparations for the upcomong Bumbershoot Festival, and walked over to Kidd Valley burgers for a lunch of gardenburgers and onion rings dipped in tartar sauce. Next stop was down the street to Easy Street Records, a nice new-and-used music store where we always find things we need want.

It was sprinkling off and on but we stayed pretty dry and walked over to the State Liquor Store to pick up some supplies for the week. Washington State has some weird liquor laws. A state employee sold us some booze! Between the CDs we bought and the necessary liquid supplies, the old backpack was getting pretty darned heavy. But we bravely traveled on, walking a bit to Silver Platters record store. Of course we found a few items there too. Really, we are just trying to stimulate the economy. If you’ll believe that.

We took the thousand pound backpack and hopped on the monorail back toward the hotel. Once there, we got our luggage and unpacked. Then we took a walk down to the Seattle waterfront. That’s alway pretty and pleasant. From there it was just a short walk to Mama’s Mexican Food and, hey, you gotta eat! So we had a tasty meal and since it was still happy hour we had a couple margaritas. We hung out there for a while and decided, that since we were not driving, we would have one more margarita. We had to change tables due to a party coming in, but because we did that, they gave us the margarita free! I was ready to change tables all night! Then we wandered out into the evening. We walked to a grocery store and bought a little fruit, cheese, and crackers to get us through at least part of the week. Then we walked back to the hotel and took a beverage up to the 11th floor “Cloud Room“, with glass on three sides and a nice view and a great place to relax at the end of a fun day.

Wednesday September 2
We had some fruit in the room for breakfast and then headed out into our second-favorite city of Seattle. Down near the waterfront, across the street from Pike Place Market, we had a snack at Piroshky Piroshky. Great filled dough with lots of options for the filling. Then we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, about 35 or so minutes each way. It’s such a peaceful and pretty ride on the water. We walked around on the island for a while, perusing the tourist shops. Eventually we ended up at the end of the area and, lo and behold, we came across a little place called Emmy’s Vegehouse. Yow! A totally vegetarian shack with some tables, we were all over that. Pretty good food, too. Good thing we were going to walk off all the food on this trip. Then we took the ferry back to downtown Seattle. Surprise, right near Pike’s market was another record store. What could we do? Then we walked around the huge Pike Place Market a bit and headed back. A quick stop at the Old Navy for a scarf for Petra and then back to the hotel.

We taste-tested some of that cheese and crackers and determined they we really good. So we tasted some more! Then we headed down the block to see Wicked, the big hit play. I had read the book and we’d heard good things about the play. The theater there, the Paramount, is really nice too. Long story short, the play was great, we both really liked it. The book was dificult in spots but the play was great, clever, fun, and really well done. By then it was getting late but we were hungry. Lucky for us, a block away is Cyber-Dogs, a really good vegetarian hot dog place. This place is so cool and so small. But the topping combinations she puts on the dogs and unique and delicious. I love this place. Then, after a long day, and nicely stuffed, we went back to the hotel.

Thursday September 3
We started the day again with some fruit in the room to get us started. Then we monorailed to the Experience Music Project, the world’s coolest music museum. We spent a little while there and saw the new exhibit and also played a little on some instruments in their Sound Lab. After that, we met up with our friends Larry and Robin, who had flow into Seattle that morning. Our friend Mama O and her various posse members were due to arrrive later today and over the next couple days also. Anyway, the four of us checked out the Bumbershoot Festival preparations and walked a block or two to the Bamboo Garden vegetarian chinese food. Hundreds of menu items and no meat at all. Wish the whole world was like that

Full again, we monorailed back to the hotel and walked a while to the Pioneer Square area. Today was the First Thursday Art Walk so we looked at a bunch of art in a bunch of galleries. There were vendors too, of course. And lots of people. We were hoping to meet up with Mama O but it didn’t happen that day. We did, however walk a while and hooked up with a different Mama. Yep, we were back at Mama’s Mexican Food! Ole indeed! More food, a few drinks, and a nice walk back to the hotel. The four of us headed up to the cloud room to relax and talk. A nice end to another fine day.

Friday September 4
The four of us headed out into Seatlle, first taking a walk to a downtown jewelry store that Robin had read about. We looked around there for a few minutes and then went on to the grocery store for some supplies. Soon after that we were on the monorail to the Seattle Center once again. We had a gardenburger lunch at Kidd Valley and then went back through the Seattle Center and first thing, picked up our Gold Passes for the upcoming (tomorrow) Festival. We touched base with John, the Gold Pass leader. What a nice guy, he remembered us and said he thought he saw us earlier in the year in Palm Springs! Small world and sure enough, that would have been on our Indio trip. Anyway, he was great the whole time this year, as always, making sure everything went fine for us.

Then we headed to the Bumbershoot Visual Arts exhibits. They open them up a day early and it is MUCH less crowded so we always go see them on Friday. And as always they had a variety of interesting art. Some if it was strange but in a very good way, so that’s cool. Four, five, or was it six large rooms of visual art, that’s a nice way to spend an afternoon. After that, we walked a bit and ended up at a nearby coffee shop where we had some liquid refreshment and a needed caffeine boost. And then it was back to the Seattle Center for the advance preview of the Film Festival. During the Bumbershoot Festival, there are three days of short films, but the preview is a less-crowded and more relaxing way to get a taste of it. Usually the Bumbershoot festival has so much else going on, that we don’t get to the film portion. With the Friday preview, though, we do see some of the films! Then it was back to the hotel, another nice day. And Bumbershoot starts tomorrow!!

Stay tuned for part 2 – including the actual festival! In the meantime…

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 I won free passes to see a preview of a new movie called (500) Days Of Summer. I had read a couple pretty positive reviews and was hoping that it would be as good as I was hoping. Well, stevenology, hope no more because it was really, really good. This was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen in a while.

The stars are Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and they are both very good here. The other stars may be the writing and the directing. The lines are a combination of clever, witty, charming, sarcastic, romantic, jaded, warm, and well, you get the idea. It’s just really well-written. And the director is more than willing to be innovative and clever too. It’s visually cool and smart and you’ll find yourself laughing and smiling knowingly at many of the lines. And the way it’s filmed, with innovative techniques, is a pleasure too. It’s a sort of romantic comedy that’s not a conventional romantic comedy.

I was never bored and had no trouble following the sometimes non-linear plot. I’d say if you like smart, modern, innovative, funny, witty, romantic, sad, and happy, then you should like this film. I liked it a lot. A big thumbs up. I saw it for free but it’s well worth full price or more. This will be one of the best movies of the year, I predict.

At the time of this post, it had a stunningly high 88% rating from the awesome Rotten Tomatoes site. The film’s official web site is here. Have you seen this movie? Yes, no, either way, leave me a comment below!

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First up was “Small Time Crooks” (2000, about). He stars in this one with Tracy Ullman (who is great) and Hugh Grant, among others. Watching it again, I liked it more than I remembered. The first part with the plan for a bank robbery was very funny. Then the story leaves that to follow Woody and Tracy on their road to “success”, and it gets even more entertaining. All through the film the Woody and Tracy characters are funny as they grow (or not grow). There’s an overall warmth to this move plus lots of laughs.

Next was Scoop (2006, about), with Woody, Hugh Jackman, and Scarlett Johannson. It was lighter than I remembered, quite a bit. More fluff but still plenty of humor. Not his best but enjoyable. And Scarlett in those glasses is quite something too. It’s escapist fun with some laughs.

So I liked them both, of course, but I like almost everything he does. Neither of these made my top 11 Woody Allen films, but after watching both of them together I’d say to see Small Time Crooks first, if you want a recommendation. It was better than I remembered, Scoop was not quite as good as I remembered. What, you didn’t ask? You were going to. Really.

Have you seen either or both of these? What did YOU think? Leave me a comment.