Category Archives: Book

BELLE: Bonjour Gaston. Gaston, may I have my book, please?
GASTON: How can you read this? There’s no pictures!
BELLE: Well, some people use their imaginations.
GASTON: Belle, it’s about time you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more important things…like me! The whole town’s talking about it. It’s not right for a woman to read–soon she starts getting ideas…and thinking.
BELLE: Gaston, you are positively primeval.
GASTON: Why thank you, Belle.
—
Source: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991)
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Disney/Scripts/BeautyAndTheBeast.txt

1776 by David McCullough

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This book was an enjoyable read…even if it took me 6 months to finish. It’s not because I was reading other books, but because his writing style was rather strange to me. It takes a little while for me to really get into the book when I crack it open and I kept cracking it open for short moments and getting lost on the same page. But I finally finished it! It was most interesting to read this book after finishing the George Washington biography, His Excellency as the book follows the Continental Army from July 1775 to January 1777. The one thing I would have appreciated was battlefield maps. McCullough did an incredible amount of research (a third of the book’s length is sources and bibliography) and includes nearly all of it, especially personal letters from many of the participants regarding the actions of the war. “But those of … Continue reading →

Memorial Day Trifecta

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So I should have spent Memorial Day Weekend cleaning the house with my family and hanging out at Disneyland on Monday, but due to emotional troubles, I ended up seeing X-Men 3, The Da Vinci Code and reading all 500 pages of L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy. X-Men 3 was very exciting. I loved that they used Wolverine’s speed-ball technique (Colossus picks Wolverine up and hurls him at the enemy), especially since the first incidence is inside the danger room and he targets a sentinel. I guess they got tired of overtly throwing in bits for comic lovers. Of course Stan Lee makes another homage in the first part of the movie (man with garden hose that Jean Grey manipulates with her dormant telekinesis). They finally show Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, who played Jake in the Animorphs TV show) completely covered in ice, but what most frustrates me is their choice … Continue reading →

Changing Over The Hedge

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What an interesting subversive campaign I’ve discovered in the world of Over the Hedge. I don’t know the details, but for whatever reason, Sammy the Squirrel is gone forever. Why? The new movie. In the movie, Hammy the squirrel is the resident crazy. So just to keep reader confusion to the minimum (I’m guessing), the writers created a very plausible reason for Hammy the squirrel to be the crazy squirrel character. During the week of December 12-17, 2005 they switched Sammy for Hammy using mirror universes. (Scroll through strips to continue)… The only reason I bring it up now is that this week they’re doing a series called “The World According to Hammy” and it’s fairly apparent that they have no intention of bringing Sammy back. Not that I’m upset or anything, I just think it’s very interesting to point out the way things turn out. Another random thought (however … Continue reading →

His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis

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Quite interesting to break down the mythology that covers George Washington “like ivy covers a statue” and get a look at the real man. More than anything, this book reignited my interest in the Revolutionary War which had slightly waned since I read Hornet’s Nest (the only book Jimmy Carter should ever have written…the last thing we need is ex-Presidents commenting on media frenzies) which is a fantastic factional book about the Revolutionary War in the South and how it affected two individuals on opposite sides. This biography begins with the first time Washington was publicly recognized…after he published his adventures mapping out the Allegheny mountains. From there to his death some 60 years later, we don’t see some super-human who was so intelligent and so wise and so powerful as to see the effect his actions had on the future, but a man. Washington was all too aware of … Continue reading →

Disney War by James Stewart

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This book was a fascinating analysis into the course the Disney Company chartered after Walt’s death and tries to discover the reason Michael Eisner became so defiled within the Disneyana community.                   The Dearth and Decline of Michael D. Eisner (Chairman/CEO of the Walt Disney Company) Moved from President/CEO of Paramount Pictures to Chairman/CEO of the Walt Disney Company in September 1984 Company was suffering from lack of direction Eisner was able to re-vitalize feature animation with: The Little Mermaid (November 15, 1989) Beauty and the Beast (November 22, 1991) Aladdin (November 25, 1992) The Lion King (June 15, 1994) and the parks with: Splash Mountain (July 17, 1989) Star Tours (January 9, 1987) The death of Frank Wells (Disney Company President) was the death blow for Eisner Frank knew how to spend money to make money While Eisner may have liked … Continue reading →

Religion Matters or The House Of Sand And Fog

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“[The Hawaiian people] brought with them drums … and while they awaited the coming of the contestants all frolicked as if they were children—frolicked as was their way before the white man came to tell them they were nearly naked, and that life was too serious a thing to be frittered away in enjoyment” (pg 505). “The fact that the biosphere responds unpredictably to our actions is not an argument for inaction. It is, however, a powerful argument for caution, and for adopting a tentative attitude toward all we believe, and all we do. Unfortunately, our species has demonstrated a striking lack of caution in the past. It is hard to imagine that we will behave differently in the future”(10). The first quote is from “The Legends and Myths of Hawaii” by His Hawaiian Majesty David Kalakaua, first published in 1888 while Kalakaua was king of the Hawaiian Islands. The … Continue reading →

A Lifetime Of Memories A Moment Of Life

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“Whenever FNO Loh was around Japanese sailors, military or otherwise, she felt as though she was on high alert. Even tourists made her uneasy. They seemed to be collecting memories instead of enjoying them” (Sea of Fire Tom Clancy). This is just one example of something I have understood for a long time: technology has altered our society in such a way that we spend more time gathering good times then having good times. When we should be outside, children are glued to their computer screens, chatting and instant messaging, their “too cool” phrases bleeding into their everyday speech. J/K. LOL. ROTFLMAO is one of my favorites. My friend Mike Frazier taught me that one. It stands for “Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A$$ Off”. But as I was saying. Kids used to go outside and play with their neighbors. Now they’re holed up in their rooms surfing and … Continue reading →

Dead Zone

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Here I am, sitting at my computer, eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (mind your P’s and Q’s damn it) and I just realized (I think for the second time) that I can’t tell the difference. Between Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring’s widescreen edition and extended edition, that is. I can’t tell how they inserted an additional 45 minutes and I don’t notice it, which is strange for me. I’m such an anal-retentive bastard that details should matter. Even so, I’m able to ignore these thoughts and enjoy one hell of a good movie which gives name recognition to some of the coolest action heroes now in existence (who else do you think I’m talking about but Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen). It makes a hell of a good story, these novels that I read in junior high and can’t read ever again. Yeah I’ve always … Continue reading →

Your Voice

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After seeing Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, I was struck with the overly simplistic message that was layered beneath the perfume and bubbly-ness of Reese Witherspoon . . . our nation has lost it’s voice. Now a lot of you may be scratching your heads and saying “How could we have lost our voice if we’re saying this?” but I mean political voice. In LB2RWB, Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods is planning her wedding to Luke Wilson (whatever his character name was) and she ABSOLUTELY has to invite her male Chihuahua’s mother. Unfortunately she discovers that Bruiser’s mom is a test subject at Versace labs (like omigawd!) which isn’t the fancy Versace, but this really horrible evil company that tests products on helpless animals. So Elle decides to go to Congress and get legislation passed that prevents the torture of poor helpless animals (damned bleeding-heart Liberals!). So, just … Continue reading →

Comic Book Conundrums

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The space-time continuum never really makes sense to anybody . . . but then again, it’s not supposed to. I mean who are we, a bunch of Neanderthal-like creatures trying to comprehend something that’s so far over our head, an airplane 2 miles in the air is a comparative breeze? I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’ve read some theories that I’d like to share with you today. Mainly theories coming from comic books, but they’re still worthwhile and put some things in perspective. First off, the space-time continuum. The fourth dimension is the space-time continuum. If we were able to traverse the fourth dimension, we might see a straight line of, literally, time that we might refer to as the “time-stream.” This view that I have taken with the fourth dimension is inspired by issue #152-153 of THE FLASH where the Flash battles Folded Man, a Rogue … Continue reading →