I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does

My daughter saw my "I am human..." post on Facebook and made a remark of, to paraphrase, "What's up with that?" I cannot claim this as mine.

Now, for your pop culture minute.

Last year, when I was at Ft. Bliss, TX, I regularly went to the gym very early in the morning. In front of the elliptical machines were TVs on the wall, usually showing reruns of "Charmed" and "Angel."

Along with "Monk," I became rather fond of these shows.

The theme song for "Charmed" is the 1985 hit single "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths, and the catchy phrase "I am human and I need to be loved..." is highlighted in the opening credits of the show. According to Wikipedia, "It has since been voted one of the top ten television theme songs of all time."

So, in honor of the GHS 30 year reunion, for those of you too young to have heard it, or old enough to have forgotten, I recommend adding this song to your 80's playlist!

Things that irritate me #1

• People who start talking by saying "Aah" or "Uumm."
• Bad grammar or bad punctuation in writing.
• People who think the freeway is practice for the Indy 500.
• Religions.
• Condescension.

Sherlock Holmes Goes To Fight Club

Being an long-time fan of the rude, irreverent, intelligent, and egotistical sleuth, I regarded the new Sherlock Holmes film with much anticipation. Along with many other people who had time on their hands yesterday, Christmas Day, the opening day for the new Sherlock Holmes movie, I was able to take my family to see the new film.

While not necessarily less smart than Conan Doyle’s hero, this one spends more time fighting and making assumptions than our original crime-fighting genius. He seems more interested in theory and action than fact and hypothesis.

Instead of destroying his mind and body with a seven percent solution of heroin, our new Robert Downey, Jr.’s Holmes goes to fight club and wagers on himself for Watson. He now has the capability to clearly see the cause and effect of certain fighting moves and strikes, then carries them out with surgical precision.

This Holmes regards his ‘friend’ Watson almost with contempt. And this Holmes comes with the baggage of a past relationship with a woman that is just as apt to react swiftly and violently as the new Holmes, and she has an even more checkered past.

Watson is also changed. In the past, Watson was portrayed as well intentioned but inept, recognizing Holmes’ faults, but at the same time deifying him. This Watson comes across as intelligent and egotistical, less respectful of Holmes, and even derisive of Holmes, whom he claims to be just that: egotistical. In fact, this new Watson reminds me more of portrayals of Holmes by Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett.

The saving grace of the film is that Sherlock Holmes will now be introduced to a new generation, and with that comes the hope that new viewers may want to watch classic portrayals of Sherlock Holmes, or better yet, read the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels.

This is what happens when American screenwriters get hold of Sherlock Holmes.

All That Remains - Metalcore in Des Moines!

I took my daughter, Schatzie, to a memorable concert at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines.
Haste The Day opened up the evening and immediately someone spilled beer in Schatzie's hair. We found ourselves amongst folks who'd rather thrash and 'mosh' than just enjoy the pounding drums and buzz-saw guitar. So we got away from the moshers and basically endured the opening act.
Next up was The Story Of The Year, which I was really looking forward to hearing. They had a good set which was marred only by the fact that half of their performance was from their new, unreleased album.
The Devil Wears Prada stirred the crowd up and put on a good show. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but the only sound I heard from the lead singer while he was "singing" was grunts and barks. These guys definitely had the metalcore/thrash thing down. The way the drums were rigged into the sound system, one could really feel that bass drum thrumming in one's chest.

The highlight of the evening, of course, was All That Remains, who had a great set. These guys (and gal) know how to perform. Yes, the bassist was a gal and she did great: good eye contact, good performance, and screeching backing vocals.
At the end, the lead singer was cleaning up the stage and throwing stuff out into the crowd; Schatzie reached up and caught what appeared to be a ball of wadded up paper. It turned out to be a listing of the songs the band planned to play. Their set was like a compilation of the best of their two most recent albums, The Fall of Ideals and Overcome.

Songs performed:
Before the Damned [This was a great opening song that built anticipation with the first few notes, then blasted out with machine-gun like guitars and drums.]
Not Alone [Track 2 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Air That I Breathe [Track 9 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Indictment [Track 11 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Chiron
Forever In Your Hands [What a geat song, and a fine performance from the band.]
Six [Track 7 from The Fall Of Ideals]
The Weak Willed [Track 6 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Undone
This Calling [Track 1 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Become The Catalyst [Track 8 from The Fall Of Ideals]
Two Weeks [the much anticipated finale]

Lakewood, CO

We are in Lakewood, CO now. Last night we went to the fabulous restaurant, Casa Bonita.
Yesterday, while driving here, I almost got busted for speeding. My GPS thingy told me to keep left on I-25N, so I was in the left lane. I was going 71 in a 65 zone. People behind me were hot on my tail, wanting me to go faster. Then, magically, nobody was in front of me and I found myself leading the pack. Then I saw why: a cop on the edge of the freeway shooting radar. I didn't see red and blue lights, so all's well.
We're on our way to see the Denver museum, then to see cousins in Kansas, and then on toward K.C.

Everyone OK - Windshield Getting Fixed

Here's a follow-up to my previous email. We have been reunited after nearly five months; everyone is OK. I got on the windshield problem with insurance right away and we took the car into a Safelite dealer. It's getting fixed this morning.
I drove everyone around in my new Jetta and they got to see the El Paso Pella Window store, then I took them up Transmountain Highway and they got to see both sides of El Paso after dinner at Famous Dave's. It was a successful evening!
Today I plan to take then up to Franklin Mountain State Park before going to White Sands. The girls are thrilled at being near the place where the first atomic bombs were tested and where "The Hills Have Eyes" is fictionally supposed to be; that's all they want to talk about.
This is my last update as we will be on the road for most of the next week.

Busted Windshield In The Frickin' Desert

Here's the latest: Kathy and the girls are on their way down to El Paso. While on the highway between Alamogordo and El Paso, the wind blew an unsecured orange cooler from the truck Kathy was behind into the windshield right in front of where Schatzie was sitting. They ran down the jackass; at least he stopped. They are OK and the police arrived and finally took their report (in the middle of the frickin' desert) and released everyone. So now they are driving with a busted windshield and I'm trying to get that scheduled to get fixed ASAP.
Graduation is tomorrow, then we are to go to White Sands...we'll see what happens with the windshield.
Will keep you posted...