Spring Things
It just hasn’t gotten warm this year, so spring has been slow to… spring.
It just hasn’t gotten warm this year, so spring has been slow to… spring.
It’s a sad weekend at the movies when we’ve got the formulaic What Happens in Vegas (40 at Metacritic) and what is apparently the really shiny turd of Speed Racer (36 at Metacritic)… and not much else. I wouldn’t condemn either of these films before seeing them, but things are not looking up. For those looking to see a good film, here are some I’ve been hoping to catch (all on limited release):
Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of the precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane that we see a people’s hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power—forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, Marjane outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk, ABBA, and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.
The Savages is an irreverent look at family, love and mortality as seen through the lens of one of modern life’s most bewildering and challenging experiences: when adult siblings find themselves plucked from their everyday, self-centered lives to care for an estranged elderly parent.
In China, it is simply known as ‘The River.’ But the Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing an astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang returns to the gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that traverses the gargantuan waterway.
Plus, there are some wide release movies on the horizon that could be good…
For $8, the Super Soaker Bottle Shot by Hasbro is one of the neatest toys I’ve seen in a while.
The Super Soaker Bottle Shot is a pump-action water blaster that allows you to choose how much ammo you want. Nearly any standard water or soft drink bottle attaches with a twist to the blaster!
If I purchase one of these, I’ll be sure to review it here at tumbledry, your summer fun source. Incidentally, during the summer of 2006 Dan and I picked up the Super Soaker Max Infusion, a gun which can shoot in one of two ways. You get the standard water stream, which is respectably thick. But then you get the truly ridiculous “Flash Flood” option which, at short range, absolutely drenches your opponent. I’ve still got mine, I’ll have to pull it out. I still remember the first time I tried the Flash Flood feature; I aimed the gun at the shower stall in Selby Hall (I was living there for the summer doing chemistry research… free housing woo!), and I pulled the lever. ABSOLUTE SOAKAGE. I mean the entire back wall of the shower was covered in water. Whoever thought of this feature was brilliant.
Anyhow, I can highly recommend the Max Infusion (oh glorious Flash Flood), and we’ll see about this Bottle Shot model.
Neo: “I can publish content to the internet.”
Morpheus: “Show me.”
This video of an insanely detailed replica of R2-D2 dancing with little kids makes me happy to be able to spread the joy of things like this over the internet. If you’d like to know more about this amazing remote-controlled R2, check out Chris James’ website, artoo-detoo.net.
My Mom listening to her card on Mother’s Day.
This is Mykala’s new bike! We will go for wonderful rides.
In what is probably my favorite news story this year, we learn about The world’s first bionic sea creature: Winter. Early in life, this wild dolphin was injured in a crab trap and found floating with no tail. She healed up in captivity, but was in need of a prosthetic. So, after over a year of prosthetic fitting and work to restore functionality, she got a new tail!
In the creative parlance of headlines, here’s what I’ve come up with: Tursiops truncatus Treated to Technologically Terrific Tegumental Tail.
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