Buffington Family Reunion `06

I traveled up north for my family reunion this last weekend. It was a pretty good time. We camped at Belfair state park on Saturday night with my sister Brandi, her son Aiden, and my Mom. This made it a lot easier for us to get up early and stake out a section for our family's picnic on Sunday. On Sunday a decent sized group of my family showed up for the picnic, some had driven all the way from Great Falls, MT for the event. I had a chance to visit with my older relatives (aunts, uncles, great aunts, 2nd cousins, etc). There was also lots of good foods to eat! I was a bit disappointed that many of my cousins, who live local to the event, weren't able to make it. Seems this is a continuing occurrence. Making me think that this tradition might end someday down the road when it's left to our generation to organize it. I can remember a long time back attendance to the family reunion was enormous. There would be around 100 people there, all of which we share blood with. Softball games, potato sack races, water balloon toss', BINGO, raffles, and a myriad of other corny fun kid games were organized. It was a fun event to look forward to every year. Lately the event is a shriveled shadow of what it once was. Usually it's just the older folks that make the effort to come to the event, and their numbers are quickly diminishing due to the reality of mortality. This is pretty saddening to me, especially after seeing the dedication of folks attending Darci's family reunion. Her family travels hundreds of miles from all over the country to attend their annual family reunion campout over Labor Day weekend. Folks driving RV's up from Arizona, taking flights in from Texas, even using their military leave (from serving in IRAQ) to attend the event. For some it's the highlight of their year. They all camp out on a stretch of family property west of Eugene, OR. The field looks like a mini Woodstock some years. Everyone pitching in to cook for the group meals each day, coordinating to play a round of golf on one of the days, bringing their music instruments to entertain, etc. You can really feel the love they share. Especially when people leave on the last day. Whenever a family leaves, everyone else runs out to the far stretch of field by the road, lines up in a long line, and does a celebratory bow with arms out stretched (much like the "We're not Worthy" bow from Wayne's World). I feel it's important that we try to organized something like this for my family. The majority of the youngest cousins are now grown adults, and the older cousins are now married and having children of their own. It's really time to draw the family closer and ensure the events survival for the next generation. Since my father has been the one to take on organizing the event for so many years, it only seems fitting that I lend a hand and try to help. After all this isn't anything new to me, as I've had plenty of experience organizing our stubborn group of friends for parties and campouts. Next year I'm going to try to organize the family (primarily the younger folks) into dedicating the whole weekend to the reunion. Doing a group campout from Fri-Sun, ending the event with the reunion picnic Sunday afternoon. I think it would be a great experience. We can get the little kids together to play, while the rest of us share good conversation and really get to know each other better. 361 days until next year, sounds like I have plenty of time to get the ball rolling on this. Wish me luck!

Apocalyptic Gas Fill-up

On a hot sunny Friday you expect the gas station to be busy, especially starting at 4pm as the evening commute collides with folks leaving town for the weekend. Busy was an understatement for the swarm of activity that was occurring today at lunch. It was like watching ten piglets fight over six teats. There was absolutely no organization to it. People were cutting others off to get to the pump, some pulled up to the wrong side of the pump, other's were backing in at weird angles, some just stopped in the middle of the parking lot staring in confusion, and the whole while tons of vulgarities were being exchanged. Add the confusion of the drive-thru car wash on top of that. It looked like salmon spawning, expect with blonde housewives in their SUVs. Two lanes of vehicles fighting over the one lane car wash. They almost needed to bring in a couple airport traffic controllers to sort it all out. From a third party view, you'd think a natural disaster was immanent and there was a shortage of gas. I somehow managed to pull into the parking lot and straight up to the next free pump, no problems. I just stared in shock at the stupidity of everyone. Good thing this gas station was in a nicer area of town, there were probably murders occurring at gas stations by the ghetto apartments across town. While we're on the subject of gas station annoyances, what's up with dipshits that insist on keeping their car stereo's booming rap music while filling up. Are they trying to impress folks? People seriously need to chill, put on some jazz music, and try smiling. That's going to be my philosophy tonight as I have to battle the crazy commute traffic on my journey out of town for the weekend.

Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Let me first tell you a tale of the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood, his love Elaine Marley, his nemesis the evil undead pirate LeChuck, and the notorious secrets of Monkey Island. Sound familiar? If you were a video game enthusiast of the early 90's it should. The Monkey Island game series was one of the main influences that sparked my fascination for Pirates (the other influence being the original C64 game "Pirates!"). I loved Monkey Island because not only did it include traditional real world pirate themes (ships, treasure, sword fighting, exotic local, etc.) it also included more of the romantic themes such as those of the legendary Sinbad (epic adventure, super natural creatures, mystic treasure, etc). And on top of all that they threw in an extra large serving of humor. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies have recreated that model, and added a load of special effects eye candy. This might be as close to a film adaptation of Monkey Island as we'll ever get (especially considering how bad game->film adaptations have been done lately). I'm not the only person who sees the similarities, even Ron Gilbert. However I enjoy the irony of the situation (as MI was reputed to be semi inspired by the PotC ride, and now fanatics are up in arms about PotC being a rip of MI. I see it as being more of a homage. Darci and I went to see PotC2 last night at Cinetopia. I've been anxiously awaiting the release of this movie and would have loved to see it at the midnight showing on premiere night. However since this movie is somewhat of a family film, I decided it would be best to wait and see it in a 21+ environment so the kiddies didn't ruin my theatre experience. Overall I was very happy with the film, and strongly recommend it. A little long with a run time of 150mins, but I barely even noticed as they make good use of that time and suck you in. Go see the film and then come back and read my detailed thoughts below.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***

Pros:

• Boot Strap Bill: From the last movie, I was aware that they could bring back Will Turner's father, Boot Strap Bill, as he was also part of the Aztec Gold curse, and would simply have been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for years in an undead state. And the mention of his father to Will Turner added a sense of history, that I was hoping would be brought back.
• Davey Jones: Adding the menace of Davey Jones helps provide a tangible entity to the mythology of Davey Jones's Locker. I think it made for a great plot point.
• Voodoo Priestess: I loved that they included her character. Her scenes helped to add to the supernatural feeling of the film, and sort of bridged the gap between reality and mysticism that occurs in the film. Plus it seems that she has a long history with Capt.. Jack Sparrow, so hopefully there is more explained about that in the 3rd film. (Note: Although it seems she has the same heart shaped music locket as Davey Jones, is she is heart broking love interest?
• Captain Jack Sparrow: once again Johnny Depp makes the movie, his character really develops in this film and ties everything together. I don't think any other actor could have played that role and been so successful.
• Special Effects: Overall the effects were great. Especially on Dave Jones and some of the key members of his crew. However I think that the CGI became overwhelming during shots of the crew all together. They repeated textures of the coral/barnacle skin and the darkness of the shots made all the crew members and the ship blend together too much. A few times it looked like a wash of grey & black, with Will Turner standing out amongst it. I think they could have used more hands on makeup for a few members of the crew like used on Boot Strap Bill. And since it's shown that Davey Jones is constantly gaining fresh crewmen, they might have varied the degree of sea life decay a bit more.
• Good Vs. Bad: I was happy to see them show the internal struggle within all the characters. Each developed either rising to new heights, or sinking to new lows. It truly shows the romanticism of piracy, that even a bad guy can be good at times, and the purest of us can be evil when our lives are on the line.
• Midgets: I was delighted to see the midget pirate. Midgets crack me up. In every scene the midget is in, he is constantly doing something funny. It's sort of like a "Where's Waldo" Book. In every scene I'm looking for the midget to see what he's doing LOL

Cons:

• The Cliff Hanger: While cliff hangers just seem more of a copout to make a long movie into two parts so it can make more money, I wasn't too pissed about this one. They tell enough of a story, and wrap things up in a way that you feel satisfied. Although the setup at the end really makes me want more. I was glad to hear that they filmed PC2 & PC3 simultaneously so that we only have to wait a year to pick things back up, and complete the adventure. I just hope that they don't tie off all the loose ends in part 3, so that there is enough to elaborate or spin-off of for a part 4.
• Special Effects: See comment above
• The Cracken, Attack #2: Well I guess it's officially attack #3 because there was the scene he ate the East Indian Trading vessel early in the film when they fish Jack's hat out of the ocean. Anyhow, I don't get why then loaded up the black powder & Rum, hoisted it in the air, and blew it up? Okay, I see that it managed to blow up a couple of the tentacles, but it just wasn't apparent to me the mind set behind that. Wouldn't a better plot be to put it on a raft, get it to follow the raft somehow, and blow it up entirely? Maybe I need to see the film again to understand it, but at the moment I'm perplexed.

Review: Cinetopia

I finally made it to Cinetopia for a movie viewing. Cinetopia is a new luxury theatre in Vancouver that opened up a while back. They have luxury seating, a 5 star restaurant, art viewing, live music, etc. It's supposed to be a great deal better then the traditional style theatre. I watched a movie in one of Cinetopia's Living Room Theaters. For about $1.00 more per ticket then a viewing at Regal Cinemas you get a 21+ environment (no kiddies, no disrespecting teens, or loud families), a nice high back leather seat (leather arm rests, and optional leather ataman), and an option for in theatre dinner/alcohol (additional charge). I showed up a bit late (20 mins before showing) and ended up having to sit in the front row, which really wasn't too bad. However I think I would have enjoy sitting a bit further back from the screen. Turns out you really need to get there about 45 mins early to get a select seat, as many people get there early to eat dinner in their seat before the show. While this is nice, I really think the cinema should handle it differently. Sell reserved seats for the middle 3 rows during dinner time showings (6pm or later) and sell the rest as general admission. That way you can eat dinner in the restaurant and then walk in 5-10 mins before the show starts and sit in your reserved seat. The only other issue was the lighting, they had little lights illuminating the armrests so you can see your food while the show is playing. It wasn't too annoying, I just like it perfectly dark when I'm watching a movie in the theatre. One thing I didn't really understand was the "pillow pit". There is a one foot deep rectangle hole cut out of the cement floor at the bottom of the screen. It's carpeted and lined with pillows. It's advertised as an alternative seat for movie viewing. While the idea is good, the pits are just too close to the screen. Even lying on your back I don't think you could see the movie correctly due to the severe angle. Overall it was a great experience, I'm glad to see someone else respects the theatre experience and wants to offer a bit more luxury. I'll likely start seeing a lot more movies there. Next time I think I'll try their grand auditoriums and see how that is. More to come ...