Searching for Airfare

Gives me a headache. And it takes up all my free time. You're on your own today, fellow bloggers. I gots to be lookin' for cheap flights.

Riddle Me This

So what's wrong with the following scenario?

Cost to get teeth fixed in America: $3,300

Cost for one adult, one child and an infant to fly to Slovakia and get teeth fixed: $3,300

Cost for two adults, a child and an infant to fly to Ireland and Slovakia and still get teeth fixed: $3,300

I sort of wonder if I kept looking, maybe I'd find an option that let me go to Asia, Europe and Australia and still only pay $3,300. Because apparently that's how much these things cost these days.

Bottom line is that we're seriously considering making a family European vacation out of this. I mean, as long as we have to pay the money one way or another . . . might as well pay a little more and have some fun.

Weekends

Why are they so short? I mean, from what I've heard, there used to be a time when weekends only lasted a single day. Through the heroics of many people who I'm sure are important, an extra day was added back in the Nineteenth Century. Or something like that. But friends. Comrades. It's been something like two hundred years since we added that day. Don't you think that in the time since then, with all the advances we've made in technology, that we've earned ourselves a third day for the weekend? I mean, come on. We're not all still using horses or churning our own butter.

I'm sure there advanced civilizations somewhere out there in space who are just rolling on the floor with laughter that we're all down here with a five day work week while they're up there lounging through their six day weekend. Are you gonna let some slimy alien make fun of our entire race like that? We're better than this! All it takes is everyone to decide to get by with less. Yeah. That's the ticket. Conservation! In these days of high energy prices and low resources, insisting on a five day work week is just another way of killing the planet. Think of the amount of energy we'd save if, instead of going to work that extra day, we all drove down to the beach, instead? And what a boost to the economy if we'd all have an extra shopping day.

Heck. I'm even willing to just compromise. Make it a smooth transition. Say this year, we have half days every Friday, and we wait until next year before we go to a complete three day weekend system. But we can't wait longer than that.

The planet won't let us.

Weather

What's your idea of the perfect outside temperature? I'm thinking mid to upper 60s, myself. Yesterday was 80--too hot. Today's upper 50s--just a bit too cold. Now, if it's breezy, then you can get by with 70s, I suppose. But for just a normal day, no wind, mid to upper 60s. If you get chilly, put on a jacket.

How's that for a random post? The party went well yesterday. I should post some pictures. But I won't. Maybe if I get time when I'm at home and not on break. Wife and I watched Idol in the evening, and the fact that that dread locked monstrosity of a male elf is still in this competition while Tattoo girl gets the boot is more than a little irritating to me. But somehow, I'll manage to get by.

We also watched Uncle Buck, a flick I DVRed some time ago and kept putting off. It was one of those that I remembered liking but thought that I'd hate if I watched again. You know what? This might lose me some street cred among film buffs, but I actually really enjoyed it--even more than I remembered liking it. But you know what, it's a John Hughes film, the same guy who did Ferris Bueller (the movie that made me feel guilty for saying I was sick. Ever.), Breakfast Club (one of the best portrayals of high school I know), Planes Trains and Automobiles (a film that encapsulates everything I hate about traveling) and Sixteen Candles (a flick I refused to see for years, but now think is great). So maybe it's alright that I liked it as much as I did. John Candy was great, and we had a blast. This might also have to do with my lowered expectations for the film, but even the wife liked it, so maybe not. Go check it out. What do you think?

Birthdays and Dental Bills

First of all, a very happy fourth birthday to my son, who's at home right now having a party with some friends. Hopefully the house isn't trashed when I get back. :-) He's been looking forward to today for the past month or so, and I really hope he has as big of a day as he's been hoping for. Too often it seems to me that "big days" later on in life just don't live up to how I remember them as a child, so I figure he's got to get as many "big days" in while they can still be truly Big Days. If that makes sense.

My wife, not to be outdone, had a Big Day herself yesterday. To the tune of $2,200. Well, technically that Big Day won't happen for a week or five, but that's what her root canal and crown replacement are going to cost. Add to that the $1,100 crown replacement she's already had scheduled . . . Dentists are no longer my friends. We're even contemplating going to Slovakia to get the dental work done. Sigh. So much for home improvement this year.

And while I'm thinking of it, if any of you out there are looking for good flight prices, I've found a lovely site that searches them most spiffily. Kayak.com. Check it out. You can see price history, search a buhzillion fares at once for multiple days and airports. Feel the goodness.

Finally, since I haven't given a writing update in a while (on this blog, which is supposedly a writing blog), I'll fill you in on what's up right now. I've been researching agents to send Ichabod to for the last while, and I have about 15 picked out. Tomorrow there's a couple more I want to look into, and then I'm going to work on my query letter and synopsis (which I've been fiddling around with in the meantime, as well), and then off I go a' querying. Not holding my breath. Ichabod's a strange duck of a story, and it'll likely take a strange duck of an agent to take it on.

As for new writing, I've been thinking and pondering and toying with several ideas. The one I'm most fond of right now is taking Barboy and adapting it into a contemporary fantasy. Those of you who have read Barboy might find this rather strange. But I have plans. Good plans. We'll see how it pans out.

Pennsylvania

Nothing against the state, but I'm really glad I'm not there today. On the other hand, I'm very pleased that Dish just added CNN, USA and the SciFi channel in high def. So I can watch election results and count the pores on Wolf Blitzer's nose. Because hey--those results shows can get pretty boring after a while.

Yesterday I took my son to the local theater to see Horton Hears a Who. I really enjoyed the time with him, and the movie could have been a lot worse. My only gripe is that the conflict between Horton and Carol Burnett--I mean the kangaroo--was really forced. Sure it's a kid's movie, but come on. You're going to say that the only reason there's conflict there at all is because the kangaroo is naturally bossy? And . . . oh never mind.

Also watched Liar Liar with the wife last night--two Jim Carrey movies in one day. What have I come to? And again, aside from the forced "message" ending (lying is bad. I get it already), I enjoyed it. Watching someone go through his day being forced to tell the truth about everything--and making an ass out of himself while doing it--is fun. Normally I'm not a fan of movies where the main character does stupid things. I feel too bad for them. But when the main character is Jim Carrey . . . Well, I must be immune to feeling pity for the man.

And in my third film update, I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind with my wife a few days ago. It's been forever since I saw this movie, and I'm happy to say it held up well. I enjoyed it more this time than the last, probably because the last time I was too young to figure out why Richard Dreyfuss kept playing with his mashed potatoes. In general, I'm a fan of well done space movies, and this one certainly fits the bill.

Patriot's Day

I won't be blogging on Monday. I'll be at home, or on a trip, or . . . something. It's Patriots' Day here in Maine, which means that I don't have to go to work. And if that's not patriotic, I don't know what is. From what I hear, it's to commemorate the battles of Lexington and Concord. This is good, because if it were a day to celebrate the New England Patriots, then that would be kind of strange.

In any case, a happy Patriots' Day to you all.

Colbert Report

I love this show. I've been watching it even more closely the past few days since Colbert's broadcasting from Philadelphia. Good times. And here, for your linking pleasure, is a great fusion of two things I like: Colbert and explaining why Wikipedia isn't always a good thing. I know--you're all saying Wikipedia is the best thing since ftp, but the librarian in me shudders when I find students on campus who use it in "scholarly" papers. Come on, people. The wisdom of the masses is sometimes not worth a whole lot. And there are other electronic resources out there. Just not ones we all know the name of off the tops of our heads.

Anyway.

Personal update: I'm sick. Wife is sick. Baby's sick. Son is sick. If you'd like to be sick, just send me a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE), and I'd be happy to cough into it, lick it, seal it and send it back to you. Then all you have to do is eat that envelope and voila! You'll either get sick or get really blocked up. Maybe even both. Free of charge. Sometimes, I impress even myself with how downright giving I can be.

And as a parting salvo, can someone please explain to me why Clinton is still in the race? I'm serious. I just don't get it. Does she play the lottery every week? Is she aware of this thing called "probability"? If any of you out there are Clinton fans and care to make her case for me, I'd appreciate it. Because I have a hard time believing she's going to lose the popular vote, convince super delegates to vote for her anyway (thereby telling the Black man who won the popular vote, "Sorry. Try again next time."), and then turn around and win the election. It's exactly this sort of muddled mess that Romney helped the Republican Party avoid by dropping out when he did.

And because I can't resist: Romney recently gave his top ten reasons for dropping out of the race:

No. 10: There weren't as many Osmonds as he thought.
No. 9: Got tired of the corkscrew landings of his campaign plane while under fire
No. 8: As a lifelong hunter, I didn't want to miss the start of varmint season.
No. 7: There wasn't room for two Christian leaders in the presidential race
No. 6: I was upset that no one bothered to search my passport files.
No. 5: I'd rather get fat, grow a beard and try for the Nobel prize.
No. 4: When my wife realized I couldn't win the GOP nomination, my fundraising dried up.
No. 3: Got tired of wearing a dark suit and tie, and I wanted to kick back in a light colored suit and tie.
No. 2: I took a bad fall at a campaign rally and broke my hair.
And the No. 1 reason Romney dropped out: His campaign relied on a flawed campaign strategy that as Utah goes, so goes the nation.

See the whole article here.

Toodle-oo.

If You Ever

Note to self: If you ever commit to doing something and even put it down on your planner that you're going to do it, you really ought to look at your planner now and then to remind yourself that you committed to doing that thing you committed to doing.

Such is life.

Now, for your reading enjoyment, I discovered today that Jack Handey (Of Deep Thoughts fame) is actually a real person. Not only that, but he's got a website. I used to love Deep Thoughts, and his website's pretty darn funny. So click on over and check it out. I liked this post a lot.

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite deep thoughts:

In weightlifting, I don't think sudden, uncontrolled urination should automatically disqualify you.

Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the person's house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him,is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disney Land, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "Disney Land burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disney Land, but it was getting pretty late.

Contrary by Nature

I've been thinking a lot about myself lately (because hey, who wouldn't want to think about me?), and I've come to a conclusion: I'm contrary by nature. What I mean by this is that I usually do better at something when people are telling me not to do whatever that is. Take English. My eighth grade English teacher didn't want me to go into advanced English, because he said he didn't think I'd cut it. I couldn't write and analyze well enough. Thanks, Mr. Kosmo. I went on to get a Masters in American lit with a side emphasis in creative writing. Another example: when it came time to pick an instrument to play, I chose the oboe. Why? Because it was different than anything else anyone was playing. I switched to bassoon to be even more obscure. Why am I a Yankees fan? Because my brother was a Mets fan, and I lived in New York at the time and wanted to be different. Who cared if the Yankees were lousy back then?

This trend keeps going. Put me in an environment with a ton of Mormons, and I start wanting to do things differently. Put me where there aren't a lot of Mormons, and suddenly I find myself gravitating more toward mainstream Mormonism (though not really extreme Mormonism--I've still got my beard, after all.) Now that I'm in the middle of Red Sox country, I've started following the Yankees more. In Utah I didn't watch much baseball. Now I'm catching games when I can.

So basically, it seems like whenever I have a choice between doing what most people around me are doing, I tend to shy away from that choice and go in the opposite direction. I like being different, and I like doing things that other people wouldn't want to do. Just ask my wife: whenever she tries to tell me to do something, I'm naturally inclined to disagree. The more someone tries to convince me to change, the more likely I am to dig my heels in and stay the same.

The moral of the story? If you'd like to get me to do something, I'm probably pretty darn susceptible to reverse psychology.

Unless I catch on to what you're trying to do to me. In that case, reverse-reverse psychology would be the best approach.

And to end on a related movie quote:

Man in Black: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

Vizzini: Wait til I get going!

If you know that film, and put that quote in context, then the reference should make complete and total sense to you. If you don't know that film and can't put it in context, then you disappoint me, and we can't be friends anymore.

Dentist Date

My wife and I had the most expensive date we've been on together in years today. Better yet, we even managed to convince an insurance company to help us fund this date. Because I care about you my beloved blog readers so deeply, I shall share my wonderful discovery so that you, too, many experience the joys of an insurance funded date with your significant other. See, I had an appointment to go to the dentist's, and then my wife's tooth decided to die, so she got an appointment, too. At the same time. I got my teeth cleaned. She got a tooth pulled. I talked to a Laurie, a very nice Dental Assistant, and my wife talked to the dentist (when she was able to talk, of course), a very nice man. So we went on a date together to go pay to have painful things done to us by people of the opposite sex . . . I'll bet if I phrased it that way to the insurance company they wouldn't want to foot the bill anymore.

And that's all I have to say about that.

On an unrelated side note, I watched Legend the other day. The one with Tim Curry as Hellboy and Tom Cruise as Peter Pan. Oh--and Ferris Bueller's girlfriend played a princess. I'm sure I'm going to stomp on some fangirl or fanboy toes about this, but that movie was just about as awful as you can get. Yes, I can see that it played a role in developing the modern fantasy film I know and love today. But as far as character development, plot and acting go . . . fuhgeddabowddit. That said, I think the movie deserves a remake. There was some cool stuff to be found hidden among the tripe--and that's probably what frustrated me the most.

Do any of you care to disagree with me and show me the error of my ways?

Financial Planning

Thanks to my brother, I now have some sort of a clue when it comes to how I should be investing my money, what sort of insurance I should have--you name it. He talked with me for two hours last night and went over anything and everything. If any of you are looking for some good financial advice, I'd be happy to get you in touch with him. I don't know about you, but with me, the whole "retirement plans" thing just never made a lot of sense to me. Now, it does. Or at least I feel like it does, which is something right there. Thanks, bro.

And to make sure this post isn't just about dry business stuff, here's a link for all you classic video game lovers. Or lovers of StrongBad. That means everybody.

OUTATIME

Bonus points for any of you who can say the make and model of the car that license plate is found on in the movies.

Today ran away from me. Busy at work. But I wanted to take a sec and blog about the movie I watched last night: Children of Men. If any of you are looking for a fantastic sci-fi film that takes its sci-fi seriously, look no further. Of course, if you have issues with brutal dystopian societies rife with violence and profanity, then maybe you ought to look further. Still, the film is superb, and I can't believe it took me this long to get around to it. It was so much more real than most of the sci-fi flicks you see these days. It really focused on "what if," then took that "what if" scenario to the extreme, exploring the implications of a situation and then presenting a fully fleshed out world based on those implications. Fantabulous.

How about you? What are some of your favorite realistic sci-fi movies. None of this Star Wars/Star Trek stuff. Gritty. Real. Do tell--I'd like to see how many I've seen, and if I'm missing out on any.

I Don't Mean to Brag, But . . .

I think bragging's okay when it comes to my children. Can I just say that Baby Girl slept seven hours straight last night? That means from feeding to feeding, she went eight hours. Not so bad for a little person who's not yet two months old. And during the day, she rarely cries. So to all the naysayers of Babywise, all I can say is we're now two for two on getting our kids to sleep through the night before they're two months old. Both my children were already doing six hour stretches at night before they were six weeks.

The trouble with this is that I'm not one to promote my childrearing approaches to other people unless they ask for advice, even though I'm all for people telling me what tricks they know--that's how we found out about Babywise. In any case, if any of you readers out there are ever in the situation where you'd like some input on babies and sleeping, you know where you can find me.

NCAA Defeat

It's official. I lost. But since my bracket challenge to the world was wide open, and I only had one taker, I have to assume that the rest of the world was too cowed by me to even hope to be able to beat me in a head to head bracket duel. This means that I'm better than all people in the world.

Except one.

Kevin Albert, I salute you.

Spring is in the Air

Beautiful day out today. Had a lovely weekend. To lift my spirits after the rejection of last week, I broke out a new computer game. Bioshock. Talk about an intense game. It taught me that there are worse things in life than having someone not like your book. For example, you might be involved in a plane crash in the 1950s and then find yourself in an underwater dystopian society where people with knives and scissors are trying to kill you. My life isn't nearly that bad. :-)

Also finished a fun book: Somebody Owes Me Money. A nice first person thriller/mystery where an average guy discovers himself in the middle of a very above average plot. Good times.

As for writing, I'm now in the process of looking at publishers to send Ichabod. That'll take some time, as well as getting the submission packets ready. After that, I'm not sure what I'll work on. I was talking to my friend Brandon Sanderson over the weekend, and he pointed out something I'd never really thought of before: if/when I sell Ichabod, the publisher who buys it is going to expect me to write more books like it. Build a career and all that. Now, up to this point, I've just been writing whatever my little heart felt like. I'd done quite a bit of YA, so I decided to mix it up with some adult. But if I had to chose, I'd write YA any day of the week. I enjoy it more. Ichabod was something I wrote because I wanted to read something like that. I'm not sure how much more of stuff like Ichabod I've got in me. Is this making sense? So the bottom line is that I've decided I need to be more picky when it comes to what I decide to write. You know. Because I might have to write some more of it someday.

Rejection

Those of you holding your breath to find out the first response to Ichabod may now resume your normal breathing activities. It's a no. A very polite and well-phrased no, but a no nonetheless. I'm not really sure if I trust myself to blog too much right now. Rejection can be a dicey thing to handle, and while I'm getting better at it, it's still difficult for me to separate myself from my writing enough to look at things objectively. In any case, I can't say it's not disappointing, but I know it's important to pick the novel up and send it out again. I have a couple of avenues available for this one in particular, and I'll take some time today to explore a few more before I decide where Ichabod shall bravely traipse off to next.

I'm also reevaluating what I'm working on right now and whether I want to continue that project or go in a different direction. I'm not sure if adult conflicts appeal to me as much as young adult stories do, if that makes sense. It's taken me a bit of writing in this setting to begin to see that.

Rest assured that today will probably end up getting more than its fair share of self reflection.

Mashups

And because I just came across a wicked cool mashup, I'll now link it for your listening pleasure. If you don't know what mashups are, it's when a person takes two songs and mixes them together. This is a great example, done by one of my favorite mashers, Party Ben:

Every Car You Chase, a mash of the Police and Snow Patrol. It's one of the best done mashups I've heard. Love it love it love it.

Foolish Dreams

Do you ever have something that pops into your head and sticks around for a while, even though you know it's silly? I'm not talking about the lyrics to Real 2 Reel's I Like to Move It. (Although that certainly qualifies as silly. I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it. Ahhh!!!!!)

No, I'm talking about wishful thinking. Dreams that you know have pretty much a 0% chance of ever coming true, and yet you toy with them in your head, just because it's fun. The one that's been kicking around my brain for the last while is that I'd like to have one of my books adapted into a successful Broadway musical, along the lines of Wicked. See what I mean? I'm not just dreaming small here. No--none of this "I'd like to have a book published" junk. Skip all those preliminary steps and jump right into the big time. I think Ichabod would make a really cool musical. Sort of Kiss Me Kate meets Wicked. Of course, my other Ichabod dream is that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp would read it after it's published and decide they like it so much that they want to do another stab at Sleepy Hollow, with Depp returning as Ichabod. That would be cool.

What's the worst, of course, is when these silly notions affect me enough that I start to actually dream about them coming true at night. It's a peculiar sort of let down, when you're lying there sleeping, convinced for a moment that Depp and Burton were making a great flick based on your writing, only to wake up when the alarm rings and ONE-TWO! You're hit with the double blow of knowing not only that you have to get ready to go to work, but also that Depp and Burton will almost certainly never do a sequel to Sleepy Hollow, let alone base it on your book.

Oh well.

Less Time

After yesterday's gargantuan Bill Murray post, I have less time to post today. And not so much content, really. I'm sick of my writing yo-yoing all over the place, with sometimes me feeling very confident and sometimes not confident at all. Right now I'm in between. Not sure about what I'm doing, but doing it anyway. I came up with a really cool weather-based magic system this morning, though. I think a middle grade book with groundhogs as the protagonists using this system could be purdy cool. So I guess the trick is to take my victories where I can.

Even better, it's getting kind of spring-ish here, with the weather gradually warming up. This makes me excited for Christmas, for some odd reason. Because if winter's over, then that means spring's here, and after that comes summer and fall.

And then Christmas again.

That'll be nice.

New Favorite Quote

My wife and I watched What about Bob? last night--I love that movie. Bill Murray movies in general are fantastic. In fact, after I post this, maybe I'll give a run down of the Bill Murray movies I've seen and what I think about them. Sure. Why not?

But first, the quote:

"There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't. My ex-wife loves him."

I think you could take this one quote and alter it to fit just about any occasion. Perfect.

And now, without further ado, my Bill Murray experience, or rather, all the movies I've seen with Bill Murray in them.

Meatballs (1979)--Bill Murray film debut. I know this one because it was a favorite of my best friend in high school, Nikki Spiers (who, if she should somehow find this post, I want to know that I really wish we'd kept in better touch. I fail at being a friend.) It's also known to me as being the one Bill Murray movie whose name I could never remember.  It's one of those summer camp comedies, and I'd like to watch it again to remember what I liked about it, although it does have the wonderful quote, "It just doesn't matter," repeated louder and louder until you get sick of it.

Caddyshack (1980)--If you don't know this movie, then you and I can't be friends anymore. Classic Bill Murray, and well-known for being his "other movie" with a groundhog in it. Golfing, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield. Does it get better? And it also has a lovely quote: "So I got that going for me, which is nice."

Stripes (1981)--Bill Murray does the army. It was originally supposed to be a Cheech and Chong flick, but I think we can all agree it's for the better that one less Cheech and Chong movie was made. Not one of my favorite Murray movies, but worth a few laughs, especially the ESL bit at the beginning with him and Egon.

Tootsie (1982)--Fantastic movie, even if it's not really known for being a Bill Murray one. Dustin Hoffman plays a man who plays a woman so he can get an acting job, only to fall in love with a woman who only knows him as a woman. Talk about an interesting premise. Murray agreed to let his name be omitted from the opening credits so that people didn't think it would be another Caddyshack or Meatballs. That's a standup guy, right there.

Ghostbusters (1984)--I could watch this movie until my eyes bleed. Except that would be silly, and likely painful. Did you hear they're making a video game third installment, voiced by all the original actors? Yeah. That's cool. This movie also has a treasure trove of quotes, from "Are you the Gatekeeper?" to "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" AND, to top it all off, it has a cool library scene. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)--Bill Murray has a brief role in this great musical (with music done by the Disney Ashman and Menken duo). He plays a masochistic patient of Steve Martin the Dentist. Interestingly, this movie is an adaptation of a musical that's an adaptation of a movie that was shot in two days. It was also directed by Frank Oz, voice of Miss Piggy, Bert, Yoda and Cookie Monster. He also directed What about Bob?

Scrooged (1988)--Bill Murray does Dickens. Many people hate this adaptation of Christmas Carol. I don't. This is likely an indication of how much I like Murray, not how good the film is. It's twisted and fun. Any movie where they suggest stapling antlers to mice must be a good thing.

Ghostbusters II (1989)--Because how can you have a movie as good as Ghostbusters and not try to milk it for more moola? Not nearly as good as the first, but I'll take anything where I can see Venkman, Spengler and Stantz back in action.

What about Bob? (1991)--Already posted about this in my main post for today.

Groundhog Day (1993)--If you don't know my love for this film, then you don't know me. I'll officially go on record. This is my favorite movie. No, it's not life altering. Yes, there are more "important" movies out there, but none is such a perfect mix of viewing pleasure, and this is the one movie that actually gets better for me every time I see it. It's like I'm living the experience with Murray each time.

Ed Wood (1994)--One of Tim Burton's best films. Not for everyone, although I enjoyed it. Murray has a small part in this.

Kingpin (1996)--When you get down to it, this is a really dirty film. At least that's what I remember it as. It's one of the few movies I actually felt uncomfortable watching in high school. But it's got Bill Murray in it (as a villainous bowler), and I've seen it, so . . . there you go.

The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)--Bill Murray does spy movies. A favorite of mine. Bill Murray thinks he's in the middle of a "real life theater" production, when actually he's in the middle of real espionage. Good times.

Cradle Will Rock (1999)--Real life story taken from the 1930s. It's got Murray, John Cusak, John Turturro, and Jack Black, plus a mess of other stars. Didn't love it, but found it diverting, all things considered.

Charlie's Angels (2000)--This is one of those movies I really enjoyed in the theaters, but it's really died for me since then. Probably because they didn't use Bill Murray nearly enough. Sill McG.

The Royal Tennenbaums (2001)--Love this movie. Complex and intriguing, with some great actors and actresses doing their thing. Quirky portrayal of a rich family. I'd like to rewatch it sometime soon here.

Lost in Translation (2003)--Bill Murray was robbed. Robbed, I say! Should have won the Oscar for best actor. Lousy Sean Penn. Grrr. Fantastic movie--definitely one of the "departure" movies of Murray over the years. When you take a step back and look at where he started and where he is now, it's a big contrast. In this one, he plays a famous actor doing ads in Japan, feeling disconnected from life and all that jazz. Great film.

So as you can see, I'm much better honed on my early Bill Murray years than I am on the later stuff. I just don't get to theaters as much as I'd like to these days. But that will change. Someday. When I live in a town where the theater only charges $5 for first run movies--I must go more often. Must.