Jim Henson's The Frog Prince

Good, clean entertainment for children and adults, this is one of my favorite productions from Jim Henson. It is hilarious. You've gotta love the dim-witted, but well meaning King, who delivers my favorite line, "I don't understand any of this, but it seems to be ending well." This film also introduces the wonderful character with whom you may be familiar from other muppet movies, Sweetums. You will also be treated to many fun songs, one of which has the truly great lyrics, "Sweetums, lay your ugly head down upon your wretched bed...Sweetums is so sweet and cute, go to bed, you stupid brute." And there is also the added bonus of Prince Robin's awesome hair. If you haven't seen this, you need to be enlightened. You can find a copy used on amazon.com.

Cook vs. Archuleta

First, let me apologize for subscribing to this rather horrible phenomenon of the American public allowing the media to shove whatever they want at us and then getting us to vote more avidly for our favorite manufactured pop star than we do for our president. It is sad (but, hey, I guess it may be true that we actually do have more say as to what pop star we choose than we do with the candidates the parties shove at us). However, I have the small point of pride in that I've never actually voted for any manufactured pop star, and I have voted in all presidential elections since I turned 18. (Oh, how embarrassed I am to admit to having voted for Bush in 2000.) Okay, having made my disclaimer, I will now indulge in this rather horrific example of American priorities. Wow, how biased was Simon (isn't it weird how the voters kinda do what Simon tells them---it's almost, but not quite, as bad as how the parties dictate our candidates, at least I often agree with Simon)? I will say it was one of Archuleta's best nights and not Cook's best night. Still, I found Cook far more interesting, as always---I think mediocre Cook is better than Archuleta at his best. I thought Cook did well with "I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For"---Bono's tough competition though. "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" is, in my opinion, a far inferior song, but I thought it was one of Archuleta's better performances. As for the lame Idol songs on the second round, I can't understand the praise for Archuleta over Cook on that one---they were both kinda lame songs, but I thought Cook did better with his and was more entertaining at least. Last songs, Archuleta reuses "Imagine" and does well, though I don't care for how he pops everything up so much. Cook's song was not as amazing as some he's done in the past, but I liked him trying something new, and I found his performance at least as good as Archuleta's. Maybe Cook had already set the bar so much higher than Archuleta, he had more trouble living up to past performances. Anyway, clearly Idol (Simon at least) was stacking the deck in Archuleta's favor, plus he's got all those prepubescent girls voting for him, so I guess he'll likely win, but I think Cook will end up with the better career either way. Cook is the first Idol for whom I've actually been tempted to take the trouble of voting because I enjoy his performances so much. He's the first Idol I'm interested in following beyond the show. All that being said, Archuleta seems like a sweet kid with a lovely voice, though his dorkiness is sometimes extreme, but hey, I like dorks.

Salad Dressing

If you love Bleu Cheese dressing, Kroger all the way. It is the standard to which I hold all other Bleu Cheese dressing, and I haven't found better, which is great because it's cheap.
If it's Caesar you want...Brianna's is the way to go. Unfortunately, it's not as cheap, but it's excellent dressing.

American Idol Top 3

Syesha--Hey, she picked it up with her Andrew Lloyd Webber performance, and yeah, she can sing, but generally, I'm bored. I was bored last night, even with "Fever." I have been liking her hair lately though.
David A.---So cute, such a pretty voice...B O R I N G... No offense, Archulta fans, I've just never actually wanted to listen to anything he's done twice. Last night...same old, same old... I'm even a Billy Joel fan, but Paula should've given him "Uptown Girl" or something that might have made David A. a little less boring. Of course, he probably would've ruined it by getting all croony and putting a bunch of vocal modulation in, but the Billy Joel song was certainly the best of the three.
David C.---Last night wasn't his best (for me that would be between "Hello" and "Eleanor Rigby") but as usual...not boring. I really liked his "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"---Simon was right to give him something out of his general realm---it's always cool to see what he'll do with songs like that (that's why I actually hope to see him sing one of those awful songs written for American Idol). David's own song choice...okay, but nothing special. The Aerosmith song...I thought he sang it very well (and yes, Kelly, the violins were cool), but I guess I missed a thing, because I never caught the vision with that song, and I even like Aerosmith---come on, you gotta love "Love in an Elevator"and "Dude Look Like a Lady"---but seriously, I'm a big fan of "Cryin'" and "Angel," but I guess I do wanna miss a thing. Anyway, you get the idea....I think David Cook was far better than the other two.

Twilight

Everywhere I go, someone's talking about how much they love these Twilight books, so I'll go ahead and post a review of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer that I wrote for a family website a couple of years ago:

I really enjoyed reading Twilight, and it was a page turner. I'd say it was a better than average teeny bopper-vampire-romance novel. The back cover compares Twilight to Anne Rice's stuff, and that comparison is way out in left field. We do not have Anne Rice's signature elevation of evil, or maybe you would say disregard for morality (which has driven me to go on the wagon where Anne Rice is concerned---yeah, I heard, she converted to Christianity and has written a novel about Jesus---scary thought--not the conversion, the novel), nor do we have her beautiful mastery of using language to involve the senses (which I did enjoy). Even the vampires are vastly dissimilar. I will try not to give plot stuff away here. I think Twilight was better than L.J. Smith, but not as good as "Buffy" at its best (unfortunately, as I believe most of you would agree, "Buffy" and "Angel" weren't as good after their first few seasons). Twilight lacks that wonderful, poking fun at teeny-bopper/vampire melodrama humor that "Buffy" has. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book a great deal, but there were some annoyances for me. I prefer it when staples of vampire lore are observed. I don't mind messing with a few things, but it really bugs me when sunlight doesn't hurt the vampire. (Often teeny-bopper-vampire romance novels need to fudge this so that the centuries-old vampires can attend high school---yes, cheesy. But at least in Twilight the sun is problematic for them.) I like the wooden stake thing, but I'm not horribly offended if it's taken out (the wooden stake is not mentioned in Twilight). I think allowing the vampire to be in sunlight makes it far too easy for the vampire. Humans would have no chance if not for that. Also, since in Twilight vampires don't lose their souls, can go out in sunlight, and are virtually indestructible, everyone would want to be one. That always bothers me too. I like it when being a vampire is somehow undesirable. In this novel our dark, dashing hero thinks he shouldn't turn his ingenue into a vampire, and we wonder why. I prefer something "Buffy"-like here. Vampire is tortured. In Angel's case, cursed with a soul he will lose should he become truly happy. Spike, though a fun character (we loved him watching "Passions" with Buffy's mom), I thought was handled poorly. They lost Angel and wanted another vampire for Buffy (well, Riley sure didn't work), but Spike developing his own morality didn't really fit in the "Buffy" universe. Sorry. Back to Twilight. Back to the ingenue. As is typical in romance novels (the better to make her everywoman), the heroine is rather dull. Her token character flaw is clumsiness that is somewhat unbelievable and gets annoying. Also, she sometimes seems kinda dumb, and we do wonder what Mr. Vampire finds so fascinating. For that matter (don't stone me, ladies), he's not really very original either, but he makes up for it by being a dashing, moody vampire, so who can resist him anyway? Despite the fact that I've spent a lot of time ripping, the book was a lot of fun.

Some Quick, Somewhat Random Reviews

Gone With the Wind (book) - Excellent Gone With the Wind (movie) - Excellent A Tale of Two Cities -Excellent Hop on Pop - Good for target audience, redundant for reader, but full of good rhymes Dr. Seuss's ABC - Wonderful intro to literature The Sneetches - Enjoyable to target audience with benefit of good social commentary Guernica - overrated The Exploration of the Colorado River - Dull, but Dan likes it Hamlet - Excellent All's Well that Ends Well - Not Will's best work Huckleberry Finn - Excellent Tom Sawyer- Pretty Good Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Excellent Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey - Bogus, but for one redeeming moment involving the Grim Reaper and Battleship Starry Night - Excellent Father and Son (Cat Stevens) - Excellent Dog is Doughnut (Cat Stevens) - Not Cat's finest Our Town - Waste of Time Cyrano - Excellent Cyrano, the musical on the old record - Excellent The Ballad of Davy Crocket - Excellent The Swamp Fox - Excellent Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban - Excellent Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Okay Where the Red Fern Grows -Excellent Return of the Native - Poopy Wuthering Heights - Excellent Dracula - Disappointing The Brothers Karamozov - Excellent The Phantom Menace - A Travesty Hellboy -Surprisingly Enjoyable The Day After Tomorrow - You get what you expect The Raven -Excellent One Hundred Years of Solitude - A strange experience Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire - Excellent Barney's Sand Castle - So-so The Pop-up Book of Phobias - Excellent The Green Mile (book, not movie) - Excellent It - Don't Waste Your Time Raising Arizona - Excellent Dr. Strangelove - Excellent First Knight - Oh. That was horrible. Sommersby (sp?) - Speaking of Richard Gere, that was awful too The Original Large Painting of a Rainy City I got at the D.I. -Excellent Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun - You will be reborn. Obviously, this list neglects many important works, good and bad. It is just a sampling.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

WARNING: This may give something away. Begad, this book rocks! I don't think I'd read it since high school, and it was like falling in love again for the first time. Come on, he kissed every spot on the stairs her foot had touched! Odds fish, m'dear! That's demmed good melodrama. I took a long time reading it because I had to reread everything Percy said about six times for the pure joy of it. Lud, I have such a crush on Sir Percy. I admit it. I don't think Dan minds. I suspect he's got a man crush too. If you haven't read it, you are in for a smashing good time. Maybe I should embark upon the sequels.