First off, let me say that I really enjoyed this book from Aron Ralston.  It was a great read!  The book details Aron’s entrapment in a slot canyon in Utah, his right forearm pinnned against the wall by a half-ton boulder.  There were places where the description of technical skiing or climbing techniques washed over my head, but they weren’t so frequent or long as to detract from the reading.  I especially liked the flashbacks playing out during the documentation of Aron’s entrapment.

Those flashbacks made it soooo easy to see how he got himself trapped by a half-ton boulder.  Reckless is probably an understatement!  Throughout the book, you read about Aron escaping a bear, an avalanche, a drowning…. and mostly because he was doing foolish things about which an experienced mountaineer and outdoorsman should know better.

The fact that he amputated his own arm in a slot canyon in Utah doesn’t make him a hero to me.  Sure, that was brave, although it was either that or die, so I think that’s a fairly obvious choice.  I would simply call him lucky.  Lucky to be alive.  Lucky he hadn’t alienated more friends along the reckless path he’s chosen to take.  Trapped in the canyon, Aron reflects on how much friends and family mean — that’d be a good thing for him to remember, and probably a good lesson for all of us.

Beck rented Walk the Line tonight for a fireside viewing. I’d been wanting to see it for a while, and just didn’t get to it while it was still on the big screen.

Wow. What a film.

First off, I’d no idea that Johnny Cash had been around so many luminaries of the 50s and 60s: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Waylon Jennings and Jerry Lee Lewis among others. For some reason, I never lumped him in that group of early “rockabilly” artists, and always thought of him as an artist that came along after the first wave of that music struck the virtual shores of radio.

Obviously, Cash had a huge dependency on pills — that’s been well documented. How much it affected his life was a surprise. One could say that his addiction to his demons is what brought his salvation at the hands of the Carter family. I loved the scene with Mother Maybelle and family chasing off the pill dealer, shotguns in hand. The real South!

I don’t know why this film didn’t also pick up Oscars for best film and best actor. Joaquin Phoenix was outstanding as Cash. You believed it was him, and even though the voice wasn’t always exactly the way I remembered Johnny Cash’s, the way Phoenix delivered his lines made you believe it was Cash. Simply wonderful.

I also liked the fact that the film closed on the high note of his and June’s engagement. Fitting to end a film with so many low points on such a high one. As Darla will attest, I have problems with films that end “the wrong way” — the guy doesn’t get the girl, etc. This one ended right, and I applaud the folks that made this film for letting it do that! 🙂

So today at lunch, our nutty little minds started talking about Steve Austin — The Six Million Dollar Man, not the wrestler! — and one of our gang waxed on (and waxed off?) about the challenges Steve would’ve really had, as he only had one bionic leg, not two.

Randy’s contention was that while Steve may be able to run 60mph, he would only be able to do it in a circle, as his more human leg wouldn’t be able to keep up. Kinda like a big Curly, just doin’ doughnuts.

Now, I’d always believed that Steve had two bionic legs, thus making him able to not only go straight, but turn in whatever direction was necessary to thwart the bad guys.

So, who’s right?

Well, there seems to be no official answer that we’ve been able to find. There are anecdotal pieces at Nostalgia Central and the Wikipedia supporting my theory of symmetry. The closest thing I can come up with for proof is the opening sequence, which can be found here, and clearly shows that Steve had two bionic legs.

However, Randy was able to find other folks’ websites whose memories were different, and that Steve was not as symmetrical.

In his own defense, Randy found evidence of Mike Power, The Atomic Man, who was constructed with but one mega-leg. In fact the center panel on the comic strip confirms that Mike was not a dazzling marathon runner, but was more a 200mph pogo stick… despite visually appearing to run on a treadmill. Blatant disregard for the laws of physics! 🙂

(BTW, there’s tons of data out there about the show, too many fan stories, lots of speculation on the whole world of bionics and why it would or wouldn’t work. Wow…)

So we have no definitive answer. None. A whole day’s mental cycles spent, and no answer to this glaring question of ’70s pop culture. Oh well. I think I’ll still be able to sleep tonight!

Do you know where you were on December 8th, 1980? That, of course, is the day John Lennon was assassinated in New York City.

I was sitting at home, listening to the radio when the news came across about Lennon’s death. I was mortified. I can remember one of my co-workers coming over to the house after his shift at work to make sure I was dealing with the news. Of course, I was. But I was stunned that someone could be so callas or insane as to snuff out one of the greatest musical writers of the 20th century.

Like so many others, I secretly clung to a hope that one day The Fab Four would mend their differences, and make wonderful music again. However, that opportunity was stolen from all of us.

Even had they not resurrected The Beatles, imagine what music John might’ve done over the last quarter century. Double Fantasy was a terrific album, and there’s no reason to believe there wasn’t more material in his soul. Those words and music were stolen away, though, by a madman’s gun.

So tonight I reflect quietly and privately on John Lennon, his music, his impact, and the wonderful color his music has added to my life. No earth-shattering revelations here — but if you make someone’s day just a little nicer with your art, then you’ve had an impact.

John definitely made an impact.

Only last night, I learned of the death of Peter Jennings from inoperable lung cancer this past Sunday. For most of my adult life, he — along with Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather — brought the news to my doorstep. Anyone that knows me knows that the news has been the background tune of my life. As long as I can remember, I’ve been watching the news, and for a good deal of that, I got that heartbeat of the world from Peter Jennings.

(Of course, it’s not lost on me that the disease that took him is the very same one that took my father from me, inside of two weeks of the third anniversary of that loss.)

ABC has tonight run a two hour reflection of Peter Jennings and his career and persona. Impressive to me is that ABC opted to run that program with no commercials. None. In this day and age of commercial interests and influence — especially on a network owned by Disney — the solemnity and respect that the lack of commerical material shows to his memory is really amazing. Of course, Disney got their name out there throughout the broadcast in memorializing soundbites spaced throughout the tribute, but, hey, it’s Disney.

I think the thing that hit me the closest from this program is this sense of exploring the world that he had, and I think we all should be a part of. He showed us the world through the eyes of the smallest, frailest, most helpless people of the world. That’s another good lesson.

For me, this was an inspirational program, and I can only hope to accomplish a thousandth of what he did.

Rest in peace Peter.

$2.149

This afternoon, Beck, Sio and I piled in the car to go see a film I’ve mentioned here before: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I’d seen the previews, and really was expecting quite a film — Johnny Depp and Tim Burton I was sure would wow me. And they did.

Now, this version was nothing like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory — Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp portrayed the goofy chocolate-maker completely differently. Not sure which I like better, as they were both terrific. While Wilder’s was more scatterbrained, Depp’s was much darker, and the film did a great job of explaining how he got that way.

The oompa loompas really stole the show for me with huge production numbers, and a great job of showing off their diminutive size. And, of course, all oompa loompas have the same face and build, something that only added to my enjoyment of them.

One very cool thing that this version did was show the bad kids leaving the factory, some with a few modifications as a result of their mishaps. Unbelievable, yes, but at least you know what happened to Augustus, Veruca, Mike and Violet.

I thought the sets were great, and the music fantastic. There were a few too many lines lifted from the original film, but that could’ve been the way the book was written. I’ve not read it, although Sio tells me this version was quite close to the novel.

It was well worth the “heat advisory” prices that Wehrenberg charges when the temperature is so high (near 100 today, heat index over 110), and would’ve easily been worth full price.

$2.199

This weekend, I saw in the Best Buy sale ad an advert for a TV series being released on DVD. Anymore, that’s not news — it happens every week, and I ignore the vast majority of ’em. I mean, who needs the whole series of Dukes of Hazard? 🙂

This time though, it was Earth 2.

Don’t remember it? Well, I don’t think many folks do. Earth 2 was on NBC around 1994, and was an Amblin Productions joint. To me, it was the best of what TV science fiction could be, and really outshone most anything that’s come along since (although some of the Sci-Fi Channel original stuff lately has been awfully good). Nice effects, but not so effects-centric. Where it shone for me was the writing.

The series surrounded an ill-fated colony that crash lands on a world 22 LY distant. This world is inhabited with a peculiar range of indiginous species, as well as some prisoners from Earth. Of course, no one in the colony knows any of this.

Tonight, I watched the two hour premiere episode, and remembered far more of it than I would’ve believed. I did say I liked it, didn’t I? Seeing this again is like seeing a long-lost friend from long ago. It’s familiar, it’s comfortable, and it makes me ache for space travel for our species. That’s one of the constant aches I’ve had since childhood, and I’ve written about it here before.

Anyway, nice to see it available, all 21 episodes. I’m sure I’ll be having some fun over the next couple of weeks revisiting this favorite of mine.

Beck and I went to see War of the Worlds tonight. I’d been harping to see it since it opened. It’s one of my favorite stories, and I’ve enjoyed the old radio program as well the film from the 50s. This, however, was quite a bit different.

I’m not a fan of horror films, and don’t like the “in your face” gore and suspense too much. This film had far too much of it for my taste — surprising for a Spielberg joint. Beck and I both left after about 45 minutes of the film, neither of us particularly caring for it.

Now, I’m sure it got cool, and I know how it should have ended — bad guys killed by germs. However, the scenes of individual people being singled out and torched bothered me. The scenes of the folks running toward the river like rats escaping bothered me. The scenes of bodies floating down the river bothered me.

I guess this film bothered me, eh? 🙂

So, not my cup of tea, and I guess I’m ok with that. I can watch the world be destroyed a la Hitchhikers Guide, Independence Day or The Day After Tomorrow, but one at a time annihilation is too much for me.

So sue me.