Pet Peeves!

Someone posted a comment in response to the "Tiddies" basically saying why they disagree with my choice of "Little Miss Sunshine" as the funniest movie of the year. While I have no problem with someone posting a comment about how their perspective differs, I did have two problems with this post:
1)They ruined the ending of a movie, which may be one of my biggest pet peeves, just because you didn't enjoy the movie, doesn't give you the right to ruin it for others, and;
2)they left the post anonymously.

Please if you wish to comment, either positively or negatively, leave your name. If you can't sign in, just put your name at the end.

Thanks,
The West Coast Tidmores!

Rachel/Rachael

Ok girls...signing your comments "Rach" isn't going to help me. :-) There are TWO of you. I assume the comments on the last post were from rachEL? We always take that many pictures. He He.

Tis the Season...

To be Jolly!!! Went to Salado last weekend with the fam (well, the female half of the fam) and it was a blast as usual. At the end of the post I will put a few pics of the FAB weekend!

We have been listening to alot of Christmas music lately. Some of our favorites have been: "Baby It's Cold Outside" (the Zooey Dechanel version), "All I Want for Christmas is You" (we like the version from Love Actually), and a new song we found this season!! It is "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevans!! It is SOOOO fun!! I even played it in my classroom. You should all find it and listen to it, it has really given us the holiday giggles.

Tonight on the way home from a little shopping we jammed out to an old favorite!! It's not a Christmas song, but we always get that Night at the Roxbury head bob going on when we hear it. "A Little Respect" by Erasure!!! Seriously!! So fun. We like music in general, but today was a fun music day, since we spent a while in the car heading to and from the outlet mall in Camarillo.

In other news...I snagged myself a Dodger Mr. Potato Head!!! HA HA HA. For REAL!! I am going to go play with it now!

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!! :-)

The corn bread sticks at Stagecoach are GRRREAT!!

Me, my mom and my sister

Again.

Rachel, Me, Rachael

Again.

The Best Movies of 2006!

Well I promised these would come soon so here they are, my best of 2006. I couldn't rank them numerically so I decided to hand out awards, which I have dubbed "The Tiddies" (Pronounced Tid - dee's) So without further ado, the award goes to....


Best Romance of the Year
The Holiday
This movie is the Best Romance for one reason and surprisingly it's not the beautiful Kate Winslet or Cameron Diaz, heck it's not even Jack Black, who shows he really can act, or Jude Law. No the best part of this movie is a 91 year old man named Eli Wallach. I'm not saying the rest of the movie isn't good, because it is, but Mr. Wallach pushes it over the top.

Best B Movie of the Year
Slither
I saw this movie twice this year in the theater and once on DVD. Slither is a throw back to the b horror movies on the 80s, its funny, with a good amount of jolts and gallons of over-the-top gore. James Gunn's directorial debut is more fun than it has any right to be, and Nathan Fillion is a big part of that. I met both Fillion and Gunn at the screening I went to in October and they were two very nice guys which makes watching this movie all the better.

Best Guilty Pleasure
Snakes on a Plane
What more can I saw about this movie that the Title doesn't say for me? There's Snakes and they are on a Plane.

Wildest Ride of the Year (Tie)
Crank & Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
This one is a tie, one is a 90 min non-stop thrill a minute ride the other a 2.5 hour Pirate Sequel with thrills on the high seas. Crank is on this list because it knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to be anything else, Crank is one impossible stunt after another, which is no surprise because the directors are to former stunt men, but there are some very cool things they do with various shots and effects. Pirates on the other hand, while not as good as the first movie, is a lot of fun, yes the villains are weird and not nearly as good as the cursed pirates of the first film, but the fights and action sequences made for a bloody good time, especially the Water Wheel fight sequence.

Best Animated Movie of the Year
Monster House
I can't say I saw every animated movie that came out this year, but of the ones I did see this was my favorite. Monster House was by animating actors who had worn motion capture suits. Then end result is a great, if slightly scary (especially for the younger crowd) movie which is both thrilling and funny.

Best “disappointment” of the Year
Lady in the Water
This movie was critically panned (I'm sure the fact that one character is both a movie critic and a jerk didn't help) and didn't seem to get much love from the movie going public either, but I loved it. I have to think that this is another case of bad marketing. Once again a studio chose to market a Shyamalan movie as a horror flick and once again it disappointed that target audience. I believe if they had chosen to market it as the weird Fairy Tale that it was it would have had a more positive reaction and as such the better word of mouth might have helped the boxoffice.

Most Painful to Watch
Borat
Borat was painful to watch in several different ways. First it was painful to see how unintelligent people in America can be, and I'm sure Baron Cohen encountered quite a few people that didn't make fools of themselves, but that doesn't make for a good movie. As a social commentary it is amazing, making you feel in turns ashamed and angry at how ignorant people can be. This movie was also painful to watch because there are several cringe inducing scenes that you want to turn away from, but just can't force yourself to do so. But the main reason this movie was painful was because it literally hurt to watch. I laughed so hard in several scenes that I ha a hard time breathing, and one scene had me laughing so hard I was literally choking. Simple put it was awful, disgusting, and hilarious.

Funniest Movie of the Year
Little Miss Sunshine
This one is a gem. The only thing bad I can say about this movie is the language. But if you can get past that you'll find a Hilariously heartwarming film. One minute it will have you crying with laughter the next it will have you crying because it's touched you. Everyone in this cast is phenomenal, but the two best are probably Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin, whose chemistry as grandchild and grandfather is amazing.

Best Movie Going Experience of the Year
Superman Returns at Grauman’s Theater Opening Night
Alright, everyone knows I loved this movie, it was Superman for cry out loud, but the experience of standing in line for several hours on opening night at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood with thousands of other Superman fans, talking about comics, movies, televisions shows and any number of other topics is enough to put this experience at the top, but the simple fact that the director Bryan Singer was there and that, although I didn't get the chance to talk to him, he was inches away from me made this an amazing moment in my movie going history, and that's all before the movie even started! Hearing the cheers for the Spiderman 3 trailer, listening to the fans reactions to everything from the opening music to the standing ovation at the end of the movie made this movie more than just a movie, but as the name of this award suggests, an EXPERIENCE, and one that I'm proud to have been a part of.

Best Action Movie of the Year
Casino Royale
Daniel Craig is the new Bond and this is the way a Bond movie should be done, forget the naysayers that complain that, this being a prequel, there shouldn't be any cell phones, etc, because this isn't a prequel, it's a new beginning and a relaunch of the Bond franchise. And really is that a bad thing, there's not a lot of franchises that last 22 movie and span over 4 decades, so I welcome this "relaunch" and pray that they keep on this course. But Seriously in a year full of Action movies this one pulled ahead of the pack and lead with such ferocity that the others didn't stand a chance.

Best Movie of the Year: Runner-Up (Tie)
The Departed & Hollywoodland
Looking back I have to say that my favorite movies of the year are not what I though they'd be. I'm usually more of a Action or Comedy type guy but I'd classify all of the top 3 as Dramas. Although they couldn't be any different.
The Departed is a movie that I honestly had no desire in seeing. It was a Scorsese flick, and he does a good job, but I've never been a huge fan that had to run out and see his new movie, and honestly the preview looked to me like it gave away the entire movie, through in Leonardo and you've got a nice combination for a movie I didn't care about at all. But I kept hearing good things about it, so one day while Jeri was studying I went to see it, and a funny thing happened, I Loved It. Not only was it an enthralling plot, but the acting was magnificent. I didn't want it to end, and once again Leo proved why he's constantly employed, even if he was played out after Titanic, he truly is a gifted young man. But he's not the only one, everyone does a fantastic job in this movie, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Jack Nicholson, every one of them is fantastic. All in all a great movie, but even better it was a great Film.
Hollywoodland is quite possibly the best performance of Ben Affleck's career, no I take that back it is no doubt the best of his carrier. Ben does a fantastic job of playing George Reeves, a man whose death is still considered a mystery and is the basis for this film. There's really nothing bad to say about this film, it has an amazing cast that includes big names like Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, and Bob Hoskins, but it also has some of my favorite smaller names such as Caroline Dhavernas and Kathleen Robertson. The story is wonderful and doesn't try to shove one theory down your throat. Unfortunately I fear it won't get the recognition it deserves come award season.

Best Movie Of The Year

The Prestige

This is my favorite movie of the year. I have been waiting on this one since before last Christmas. Back then all I knew was that it was directed by Christopher Nolan (he of Batman Begins and Memento Fame) and starred Batman (Christian Bale) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) as dueling magicians. Then I got the novel for Christmas and read it in 3 days. The book was fantastic, but I was unsure how'd they take so much material and fit it onto the screen. But Nolan along with his brother Jonathan adapted the book in a fantastic way, changing a lot of the details and dropping one major subplot and making the material their own. The book and the film are completely different entities and I have to say I think I may have loved the movie even more than the book. Jackman and Bale do fantastic jobs bringing the characters to life and filling the screen with their presence. Scarlet Johansson is wonderful as the girl torn between the two men, but David Bowie steals the show as Nikola Tesla, the master of lightning whose own feud with Thomas Edison parallels the main story, but enough to distract us. The mystery of what has happened and the very creative way in which the Nolans have twisted the timeline so that we only see what they want us to see is until it's time for the final reveal is astonishing. In fact, as I said I'd read the book and it took my over halfway through the film to figure out what was going to happen (apparently I had forgotten) All in all my favorite of the year, and one that should win many awards come Oscar Season, but probably won't since some will see it as a "genre" film, which is to bad, because if more movies were as delightful as this one, there might be more people going to the movies these days.

There you go the Tiddies! If you or someone you know worked on one of these Award Winning films and would like to pick up the statue for the cast and crew please contact me so we can get it out to you. I hope everyone enjoyed the Awards show this year, even if we ran a little long and we look forward to seeing you next year.*

*The Tiddies are not real awards and no statue will actually be given out, because one doesn't exist, but you should feel honored anyway because I said so.

Movies I saw in 2006!!!

Yes I realize the year is not yet over, but I decided to take a gander at the release date calendar and figure out every movie I saw in 2006 (that was released this year). The number was a bit under my estimate, but quite a bit none the less. I have four lists
1) Movies Released in 2006 that I saw Theatrically
2) Movies Not Released in 2006 that I saw Theatrically (read free screenings)
3) Movies I plan to see before the year is over (Hopefully!!!)
4) Movies released in 2006 that I saw on DVD.


Movies Released in 2006 that I saw Theatrically
1. Underworld: Evolution
2. Failure to Launch (Free Screening)
3. V for Vendetta
4. Inside Man
5. Brick (Free Screening)
6. Slither (Twice, 2nd time was a free Screening in October)
7. American Dreamz
8. Art School Confidential
9. Mission Impossible 3
10. The Da Vinci Code
11. X-Men: The Last Stand
12. The Break Up
13. The Omen
14. The Lake House
15. Nacho Libre (Free Screening)
16. Click
17. Superman Returns
18. Superman Returns in IMAX 3-D
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (twice)
20. A Scanner Darkly
21. You, Me and Dupree
22. Clerks II
23. Lady in the Water
24. Monster House
25. Little Miss Sunshine
26. John Tucker Must Die
27. Scoop
28. The Night Listener
29. Talladega Nights
30. Pulse
31. Step Up
32. Accepted (free screening)
33. The Illusionist
34. Snakes on a Plane (twice)
35. Beerfest
36. Crank
37. Hollywoodland
38. The Last Kiss (free Screening)
39. Feast
40. The Departed
41. The Prestige (free Screening)
42. Borat
43. Casino Royale
44. Happy Feet
45. The Holiday
46. Night at the Museum (Free Screening Not Yet Released but coming in the next few weeks)

Movies Not Released in 2006 that I saw Theatrically
47. Knocked Up (Free Screening Not Yet Out - Summer 2007)
48. In the Land of Women (Free Screening Not yet out - sometimes in 2007)
49. Skinwalkers (free Screening Not Yet Out - sometime in 2007)

Movies I plan to see before the year is over
50. Apocalypto (Tentative - hopefully this weekend)
51. Eragon (Tenative - hopefully this weekend)
52. Dreamgirls (Tenative)
53. The Pursuit of Happiness (Tenative)
54. Rocky Balboa (Tenative)
55. We Are Marshall (Tenative - hopefully a free screening this Thursday Night)
56. Pan’s Labyrinth (Tenative)

Movies released in 2006 that I saw on DVD.
57. Casanova
58. Brokeback Mountain*
59. Tristan & Isolde
60. When a Stranger Calls
61. Date Movie
62. 16 Blocks
63. She’s The Man
64. Thank You For Smoking
65. Stay Alive
66. Lucky Number Slevin
67. Just My Luck
68. Over The Hedge

So hopefully after my last final tomorrow (Open note!!!!) I will be able to sit down and try to make some sort of Top Ten List of 2006. But knowing me it will turn into a top 20 or something, but I'll try.

*Yes, I saw Brokeback Mountain, and yes it was technically released in 2005, but only in a limited capacity and it didn't open wide until early January, so it's on the list. And I have to admit, it was actually a good movie, although in my own opinion, and maybe this is because I'm a Christian, but the movie didn't have the pro-homosexual message that Hollywood and everyone seemed to claim it did. In fact it was quite depressing, and to me it showed the downward spiral of two men who fall into temptation and how it devours and ruins their lives.

Hello All!

So It's been almost a month since my last post, but I promise, there's a reason for that, several in fact. Since my last post I've been very busy, whether it's getting up at 4:15 (in the morning) to get in line to get my Wii on the first day (Yes, I got one!!!) or flying back to Texas for Thanksgiving, Seeing a couple of movies, one a Political Propaganda Film disguised as a Kids movie, the other the best action movie not only of the year, but possibly of the decade. or celebrating Jeri's Birthday, or studying for finals, as I've been doing, for what seems like every waking moment for the past 2 weeks.
But finally I'm back, (I'm taking a break from studying for a few minutes, since I've just finished my outline for tomorrow's test and need a few minutes before I start committing 12 pages of legal material to memory), and this one might be a bit long.

Well first off let me just say that the Wii is a blast, although I haven't been able to play it much recently with finals, I did get some great play time in the week before finals started and I love Wii Sports, Bowling and Tennis are my favorites, which is funny because I have Tennis in real life. Also I downloaded the original Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog, Nintendo 64's Mario 64, and Super Bomberman for the Turbographix 16 and they are a blast, all of them are at least a decade old, and still fun to play, I'm looking forward to when Nintendo releases the original Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario 3 for NES, because those were two of my favorite games ever. Thursday after finals are over I'm going to rent a few games one's a racing game the other's the only fighting game out so far (Tony Hawk and Dragonball Z, respectively) and spend the weekend trying out some new genres on the Wii!

Just before Thanksgiving Jeri and I went to see Happy Feet and loved the first hour or so of the movie, and then we were completely pulled out of the movie, to talk about it I'm reposting a comment I made to a guy who was complaining about all the "conservative" media bashing the movie because it's really an environmentalist propaganda film disguised as a kids movie, he said that the environmentalist angle was only "An undercurrent" of the film and this was my response:

"Happy Feet only has "Undercurrent" of Environmentalism????
I must have seen a different cut of the film, because the instant that it cut to the "Humans arguing about commercial fishing montage" I was pulled, no, YANKED right out of the film. When a movie is supposed to be about finding yourself and being an individual about Penguins and then suddenly has a series of scenes one of which features a guy in a UN type forum saying "WE'RE STEALING THEIR FOOD SUPPLY!!!" it doesn't go with the rest of the film, it doesn't make since in the movie and it's there solely to shove a political agenda down the throats of everyone who went to see the movie.
I have no problems with movies that carry a political agenda as long as they say so upfront, or are aimed at adults. But when you make a Film for CHILDREN, aim the entire marketing campaign at CHILDREN, and make the movie appear to be a simple CHILDREN'S Movie, and then 3/4th of the way through the movie you suddenly switch gears and beat people over the head with your message it's disgusting.

This movie was made in one of two ways. Either someone said "How can we force our environmental message onto unsuspecting kids and parents?" and they built an entire movie around the idea that we need to save the food supply of the penguins in the arctic, OR the writers wrote a movie that was to short and they had to find something to fill it out, and they forced this "arc" that in no way fits into the movie to make it longer.

Either way this movie infuriated me and was a waste of my time and money, which is sad because I enjoyed the first hour or so so much. But to say that the message is an undertone to the film, is an out and out lie and anyone who saw this movie should recognize it as such.

The Next night I went to see Casino Royale, the newest Bond film, and was pleasantly surprised. Now I like the Bond films, I don't love them and normally I don't care if I see them opening weekend or not. I used to really love them, I can remember being very young and trying to stay up to watch Goldfinger one night when it started at like 11 and falling asleep, but I just wanted to see another Bond movie. But I think my love of Bond was stifled because of a serious of ridiculous movie starring Pierce Brosnan. Now don't get me wrong, I like Pierce, and I think he was a good Bond, but after Goldeneye, each movie got more and more ridiculous and the gadgets got more and more over the top, until an invisible car just angered me (I mean how dumb can you get)
But Casino Royale looked like a better movie, and it promised to reboot the franchise and get rid of the over the top gadgets and villains. And Boy did it ever. Not only was this the best Bond movie in Decades (I'd say it's as good as some of the Connery Films), but it's also the best Action Movie I've seen this year, if not in the last Decade. This movie has it all, action, suspense, drama, even a love story! And Daniel Craig is James Bond. Craig, who is known only for an independent movie and a small role in Munich, does a fantastic job capturing a young, rough Bond whose only just earned his License to Kill.
If you are looking for an action movie this is the one you have to go see, Casino Royale is one of the Best Movie I've seen all year, and since I've seen somewhere over the 60 range so far this year that saying something (to put that in perspective I read yesterday the average number of movies for a white male in 2005 was around the 7.5 mark)

When then flew to Texas and spent Thanksgiving with Jeri's family, which is our yearly tradition. T-Giving is THE BIG HOLIDAY in Jeri's family so we do that every year and spend X-Mas with my Fam. We had a good time, flew there on Monday and came back on Friday. It was a much needed break, and then when we got back we had another 2 days to relax before having to go back to school and work.

Then we celebrated Jeri's birthday. We had a dinner party and our friend Allison's house, which is a beautiful, amazing house with a view that overlooks the ocean. We had about 13 people come over and celebrate with a few Drinks, Strawberry Margaritas and Mai Tais (which were AMAZING!), made by a fabulous Bar Tender (me). When sat around a talked for a while and then had a Mexican Fiesta featuring Tacos, Burritos, and Fajitas. Then the ones of us that could stay went outside and sat around the Fire Pit. All in all it was a great time.

And other than that I've been studying my butt off trying to memorize 10 to 15 pages of material for every test. Tomorrow is test number 4 (of 5) and the last one is open note, so I can relax a bit tomorrow at about 4:30.
This weekend Jeri leaves to go on her family's annual Ladies Weekend, so I'm gonna try to make a time of it, seeing a few movies (with Apacalypto and Eragon at the top of my list), playing as much Wii as humanly possible, and matching some DVDs too (I'm going to try to finish the Back to the Future Trilogy and watch the Indiana Jones Trilogy, I have the scores to both of those trilogies and listen to them as I study so I've been really wanting to watch them, last week after my first test I watched BTTF and later in the week watched about half of part 2, so I've got about half of that one left to watch)

Hope everyone else has had a good month and hopefully during my month off from school I can keep you guys updated a bit more regularly. Have a Great Week!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Seriously...it is coming down y'all!! It hasn't rained since about May here...so it is kind of nice. While I don't really like big thunderstorms, and especially not tornadoes (me and my Xanax become great pals in Amarillo) I like that it is raining right now. It might be nice to hear a little thunder tonight, to remind me of Texas.

A Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks is calling my name. MM MM good!!!!!!!! Anyone else like those holiday coffee drinks?? I could drink it all day. Delicious.

Kids are cool, seriously

This is a picture a little girl drew at school this morning.

It is a drawing of the Nativity Scene. You can see the stable there in the middle with the star that guided the wise men on top of it. To the right of the stable is Joseph. To the left is baby Jesus in the manger, and Mary next to him. The squiggley line across the page is the road that they traveled to get to the stable (there is a moon to the left of the road), and the wise men are above the stable. The little girl that drew this picture is barely 4 years old. I hope it makes your day like it made mine.

is it April yet?

I need baseball season. I'm bored. I miss Dodger Stadium and Chavez Ravine. I know this might be blasphemy to some of you...but I do NOT like football. I'd rather poke my eyes out than watch that. Please...hurry up. I need baseball.

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Well, not really today, but it has been cold here lately.

To update...our next door neighboors had their baby last Wednesday. She was smaller than they thought she was going to be and she is so cute!! Anyway, things are good next door!

Question: What in the world is the difference between jam, jelly, preserves and marmalade????? At the market today Travis and I got so confused just trying to get some jelly for a sandwich. I know I could google this, but it would take too long and I don't want to put that much effort into uncovering this mystery. SOOO...you tell me. PLEASE. What in the WORLD is the difference between jam, jelly, preserves and marmalade?? I know my sister will have something to say on this, as she knows many trivial things and something tells me she knows all about jams, and jellies and what not. So, Kay, what is it?? For the love of Pete, someone tell us.

Yesterday was my birthday! I am now closer to 30 than I am to 20 (at 26). Oh well, it doesn't feel any different. So Friday my good friend Alison threw me a fun party at her parent's awesome house. I wish I got pictures of all of the rooms that she decorated, but I didn't so you will have to settle for a description. The bar was set up so fancy with wine glasses and pretty decorations. There were Mai Tais and Strawberry Margaritas and wine and pretty much anything anyone wanted. We had yummy appetizers and sipped our drinks by the fire place (it was cold outside that night). Then we moved into the awesome dining room for our yummy mexican fiesta. After dinner we moved out to the fire pit in the backyard to roast marshmallows and make smores. YUMMY!!! It was so fun!! Here are some pictures from the dinner portion:

Chrissy, Kari and me...with my silly birthday hat.

A toast!!

Cake!

The group (minus a couple that had already left.)

The view from the backyard.