Dec 20, 2016

Movie Watching

Time to give a little love back (a good old line, in a good old song...) Ok, seriously, time to give a good old movie review or two.  I have always loved escaping to the movies.  My simple movie system is Theater Repeat, Theater, DVD, or Skip.  Ha, yep I am a complicated one.


Arrival


Great cast and I really enjoyed seeing a well thought out alien arrival movie instead of another one about those guys coming to take over.  We have enough orange 'aliens' taking over here this year.   I love how the overall story was told.  This is a 'Theater' movie for me.


Moana



This was the Thanksgiving movie with the niece and nephew + family.  No shame there.  Great movie.  The chicken and the coconut pirates made it for me.  Probably a 'DVD' though for me, if it wasn't for the kiddos.  I would probably look a little weird watching it alone.


Hacksaw Ridge



Wow.   This was one of those stories that had to be told and it so well told.  If you didn't feel a tear well up during a couple scenes, you must like cold hamburgers or something.  There are no telling how many heroic stories from all the wars that haven't been told.  I was a little concerned by the Andrew Garfield casting, but ex-Spidey did very well.  The supporting cast of Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington and Hugo Weaving was superb.  Weaving deserved some award nominations.  'Theater Repeat' is a tough review for me to hand out, but this movie was as close to that as I have seen in awhile.  If you don't know the story, the main character saved 76 lives as a medic during one Pacific Theater battle of WWII, without carrying a gun.  It is all true also.  Makes one wonder what have you really accomplished or stood up for.


Rogue One


I think I officially built this one up too much after the great Star Wars return last year.  It was good don't get me wrong, but you kind of know the story without knowing the characters.  Plus, last Thursday had a couple holiday parties before our 11.00 showing.  Probably not a good idea in hindsight.  I will admit that I did snooze some during it, but I believe I caught the jest of it.  Ha.  It is still Star Wars though.  It may have been gritty and more like the original than the last one, but I still get goosebumps when you have things that make you relive a live of the films.  Theater, easily on that alone.

That's it for my unscientific, lacking specifics movie reviews.  

comments (0)

Dec 11, 2016

Europe Spring 2016 - Wrap-up

So that's that for that trip, ha.  What did I learn?  I went a little too early for the weather.  Belgium didn't have the impact on me as other European countries have.  Amsterdam is as good as it gets and worth more trips.  Trier and that day was the biggest surprise.   And, even when calamity strikes in the fairly, near vicinity (too close for my tastes really), everything will be fine. 

I didn't tell my story of my Chinese exchange student buddy on the day of the attacks.  I met her waiting for the trains.  I guess I looked friendly.  We chatted about getting to where we were heading and travel in general. She told me her mom was really worry and then said hang on, (remember in broken English), and took a selfie of us together.  After a couple minutes, she said her mom was ok now, because she had me by her side.  Oh the people you meet and the stories you have when traveling.

Speaking of 'friends'.  Here were a few of mine that I had dinner with each night....

 
Until the next recap of a trip that I have not documented yet. 


comments (0)

Dec 10, 2016

Europe Spring 2016 - Day 9

Easter Sunday and I had plans for it to be a real busy one for me.  First off, back to the museum areas.  Kind of a gloomy day.
 
 
I got to the Van Gogh Museum early, but still a line ha.  Teaches me not to buy ahead. 

 
I absolutely loved this museum!  I was also doing a very good job of taking pictures until someone finally told me to stop, oops.  I actually never saw a sign that said no pictures.



 
I did not know Van Gogh had a Japanese period or that he loved Japanese block prints.  I love finding out something new at all these museums. 

 
Museums were over though.  Amsterdam's museums are as good as any that I have been to in the world, if not my favorite.

 
The next part of my day started the rabid fire round of travel, ha.  One of the purposes of the trip was to see all the tulip fields outside of Amsterdam.  I knew I was a couple weeks early this year, boo, but I still decided to go to the world famous Keukenhof Gardens.  I was only partially disappointed.



 
It was easy to imagine what this place would look like in all of it's splendor.  I may not have seen it at it's height of bloom, but it was still well worth it.




 
The indoor courts had the full effect going though.


 
Yeah, another few weeks.  Oh well.




 
I did get to see some baby goats though...

 
... and I found Mr. Easter bunny.




 
The gardens were still gorgeous, but I was glad I avoided the serious crowds, because that allowed me a couple other stops in the day.  Rotterdam was a 45 min train trip after I got back to Amsterdam Central.  I am so happy I made the trip.  It was totally different than Amsterdam, but in equal splendor. 








 
Another 20 minutes away was The Hague.  I will admit when I got here, I was on fumes.  Plus a storm quickly moved in.  I didn't do much here besides some ice cream and stomped around in the rain.  I didn't get much of a feel fro the place, but I could tell it wasn't the same as the other cities.






 
Back to Amsterdam for one last night.  The storms had almost caught up to me. 



 
But the storms did allow for a dramatic sunset picture.


 
Then the flood gates opened.  I got absolutely soaked. 

 
What an adventurous day!


comments (0)

Europe Spring 2016 - Day 8

The next day was a day all about Amsterdam.  It was even sunny for once.  I started out with the museums around the corner from the hotel, but the lines were long and I decided to wait.
 


 
I did find me a really nice fossil shop by accident and a nice souvenir for the trip.

 
After piddling around for a lot of the morning with markets and shops I decided to get serious on some site seeing.  My first stop was Rembrandt's house and studio.  I loved seeing how this was back when he lived here.
 



 
I could not get over the beds from the time period.  Most slept sitting up of scrunched up to prevent some sickness or something.  I think I would have been claustrophobic.



 
His studio....





 
He had a room devoted to all his study materials and in that room he had a coin chest.  Haha.  Seeing this made my day.



 
Back outside and here came the gray.  It was a little chilly, but still a good day.



 
My last stop for the day was the Anne Frank house.  They were very specific about cameras here, so I didn't get to take any pics.  Here is half of the line though, ha.  It was well worth the wait though.

 
The rest of these pictures are from the internet.  What a sobering place in the middle of such a great city.  A visit here is a must.  It is such a well done memorial to a young inspiration and horrible events.
 


 


comments (0)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)