Of Movies and Mars

We went to see the movie John Carter yesterday and it was awesome.

I've been a fan of the book series it's based on since high school, and I've always wanted to see a film version made, but honestly never thought it would happen. It's been attempted many, many times over the years, and in fact could've been the first animated feature film, if the first planned production in 1931 had gone forward.

I thought the translation was excellent, even though it was not a straight adaptation of the source material. It actually was based on elements of the first 3 books, with some parts changed and moved around. But the director is a huge fan of the books and did a great job of making an even better story for the screen than the original.

Unfortunately, at this point the film is mostly being called a "flop", as it cost $300 million to make and only had a $30 million opening weekend. Much of the blame for this poor showing at the box office has been leveled at the management (or lack there-of) of the movie's marketing, with poorly designed trailers and shaky ideas of the intended audience. This article does a great job of breaking down much of what went wrong: The Inside Story of How John Carter Was Doomed by Its First Trailer

I've been thinking about this (probably way more than I should) as I really don't understand how it can be so difficult to find viewers for an incredibly well made, special effects laden, sci-fi spectacular, especially with what I can only assume is a huge staff of well paid "experts" who are supposed to figure these things out for the studio.

So here's what I came up with...

The later advertisements tried to play up how much of an influence the books were on other well known sci-fi staples, like Star Wars and Avatar. But they did this in such an obtuse way that it still didn't explain who this "John Carter" guy was, how he was connected to these other movie properties, or what the movie was even about. They also failed to take advantage of the fact that this year, when the movie is released, marks the 100 year anniversary of the first story's publication.

I realized the "movie trailer voice-over" was a good idea, it just needed to say the right thing, like:

"From the mind of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of the modern fantasy legend Tarzan... comes the original sci-fi action hero - John Carter.

Witness the epic love story of two worlds, 100 years in the making."

So that's what I would've done. Explain who the title character is, why we should care, and at least a hint of what kind of movie it is. Doesn't seem too hard to me...

But regardless, the movie is really great. If everyone would ignore the nay-saying of the "critics" and just go see it, maybe Disney will realize that as well.

Free Comic Book Day Wrap-Up

Free Comic Book Day is always great, as it's kind of "Geek Christmas", but this year's was particularly fun, though a pretty long day...

I was over at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID with my buddies in the Comicsmiths' Guild, where we were drawing free sketches for customers for a little over four hours. There were people lined up and waiting outside before the doors opened, and we kept busy the whole time, with a steady flow of people.

After we were done there, we headed over to the local theater for another 2+ hours of sketching - this time of only Thor (and related characters) as part of a promotion for the new movie. We were only drawing for people who were going to see Thor, and we were still swamped, and stayed longer than planned.

But we had to eventually pack up and leave, as we had a free screening of Thor waiting for us, courtesy of the theater management. I thought the movie was awesome, even with my expectations as high as they were, and being such a fan of the source material.

It was a lot of fun, with a surprising amount of (actually funny) comedic bits and plenty of big super-hero action and fight scenes. Afterwards I was left thinking that the new Superman movie is going to have it's work cut out for it to compete...

But if you do see it, I wouldn't waste your money on the 3D version. I thought it really was unnecessary, and the conversion wasn't the greatest either. Unlike other 3D films I've seen, it seemed like they didn't adjust the brightness or contrast or something, as the glasses actually made things really dim. Which made many of the scenes (like the night-time sequences) a bit hard to see. I'm planning on seeing it again, and going for 2D next time.

And here's the pics I got of sketches I did during the day. These are all from the Lightning Comics session - I unfortunately didn't get any of the Thor pics, but it was kinda crazy at the theatre...

Day to Day

We had our regular monthly Comicsmiths' Guild meeting on Sunday, except this was a BBQ hosted at one of our homes. Not much "business" taken care of, but a lot of fun and really great food.

Myself and my Guild-mates will be drawing free sketches for people at two local comic stores (Lightning Comics and Merlyns) as part of the annual Free Comic Book Day event on May 7th. If you're local, you can drop by and pick up a free sketch and free comics; otherwise, check the FCBD website for a participating comic shop near you!

I must have slept wrong and tweaked a nerve or something, as I woke up Monday with my back and shoulder in pain, spreading to my arm. It's better now, but not 100% yet, and has mostly killed my artistic productivity for the week since it was my drawing arm and shoulder that was affected.

It's not the first time this has happened, and I'm sure a lot of it has to do with our bed, which is way too old and lumpy and definitely needs to be replaced. But unfortunately that's just not in the budget right now...

We did replace our monitor today, when we went over to visit Jenny's folks. Her dad is part of a computer club which refurbishes old computers for people in the neighborhood in need, and we picked up one from there. It's certainly not "new", and is still a big CRT screen, but is a lot better than the 10 year old noisy behemoth we had before.

Otherwise today (Wednesday), her dad also took us out for Mexican food, and we caught up on all the taped TV they record for us (since they have cable). Then some shopping, and we watched Skyline, which was a lot more entertaining than I expected. It wasn't very well received at the box office, and I hadn't heard much about it - but it actually surprised me, especially in how it ended. Unfortunately I highly doubt there will be a sequel.

Guess I haven't really done much normal blogging lately. I don't know if this will drastically change, but I thought I'd give it a shot. We've been getting a lot of DVDs from the library lately, so maybe I'll start giving some more commentaries on those, in lieu of anything else important to talk about for now... ;)

Avatar

Yesterday (the 15th) was our 2 1/2 year anniversary, and conveniently also Jenny's day off, so we finally went out to see Avatar. We've actually been attempting to see it with her dad (since he also wants to see it), pretty much since it came out, but every time we try it's been sold out or something else gets in the way.

So today we took it upon ourselves to use some free movie tickets we had received (thanks, Mom & Dad!) and see it... and we loved it! I'd heard all kinds of comments, which mostly said the plot, writing and acting were pretty poor, but it was still worth seeing just for the effects. I had a hard time accepting that'd be the case, and honestly was getting a bit sick of all the hype about how "amazing" the whole thing was.

Maybe it was just because I'd lowered my expectations from the reviews I'd heard, but I ended up enjoying it a lot - way more than I was ever expecting. There was a couple of corny bits, but I'd say the worst bits of dialogue were already in the previews. The acting (for the most part) was good, the background and environments really were amazing, and the 3D really helped to enhance the whole experience.

Jenny's dad apparently doesn't react well to the 3D effects, so he wanted to see the normal version anyway, so we'll probably be going to see it again with him when we get the chance. Oh, and even though it's about 3 hours long, it kept my attention so well, I hardly noticed it'd been that long (that is until it was over and I tried to stand up...).

Nothing else exciting from today. We slept in late, went out to Arbys to eat after the movies, and came home to watch some TV (Smackdown! & Numb3rs) while Jenny organized her beads and I sketched some.

And here's something appropriate from my sketchbook today:

Wednesday Stuff

Jenny has a mandatory library "Staff Day" on Friday (her usual day off), so she took today off from the law firm, which worked out well. We both had haircut appointments this morning, and then headed over to The Comic Book Shop to buy some comics.

We actually didn't get this week's comics, as we got to the shop before they officially opened and they were still sorting through the new books out today. But we left our subscriptions pile up for almost 2 months, so we had quite the sizable stack waiting for us. Maybe we should get back into the habit of actually picking up our comics each week again....

After some time at The Comic Book Shop, it was off to lunch, and then some much needed grocery shopping. Then back to the apartment so we could meet with the office and sign our new lease. We're locked in for another full year - so we've got 12 months to get some more income coming in and find a better place to live, so we don't have to stay here any more.

We eventually got a hold of our friend Jamie, picked him up, grabbed some dinner, and came back here to watch a couple of movies. We saw Meet the Robinsons, which was hilarious and highly recommended; and Illegal, a classic Edward G. Robinson courtroom drama, which was also quite good!

What's Happening...

Yesterday was Jenny's father's birthday, and we spent most of the day over in Coeur d'Alene with her parents. We went to see the Surrogates with him - which was a pretty awesome sci-fi flick (based on an equally cool indy comic). Glad we got to see it in the theatre, though I think it could've been a bit longer.

Then after the movie the four of us went out for Thai food at the local Thai Bamboo (which was, of course, delicious), and then caught up on a bunch of recorded TV from the past week. A very fun and relaxing day!

The library is doing sort of an "employee exchange" program, where they're moving some people to different branches so they can see how things might be run differently and meet other co-workers. So now Jenny is working up at the North Spokane branch once a month. Her first day was this last Thursday, and she really enjoyed it, although it does mean a much longer commute (like 45 minutes instead of 15).

Otherwise things are going OK. Jenny had her year review at the library, which went well and got her a raise (yay!). The temperature is dropping, and even dipping to freezing occasionally, but the apartment seems to be holding the heat pretty well. Maybe those new energy-efficient windows they installed actually work.

I've been working on some commissions and tinkering with one of my comic ideas. Doing the 24 Hour Comic Challenge has definitely been an inspiration to get back to work on it - hopefully I'll have more concrete news on that relatively soon...

Jenny's been working on a bunch of cool crocheting projects, which we really need to take some pictures of and post up. It would probably help if we had a decent digital camera, since right now we have 3 old ones that all only work about half the time. 

Local Arts & Crafts People: The next Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is on Sunday the 18th at Merlyns, from 3-6 pm. The next Crafty Club meeting is on Friday the 23rd at the Spokane Valley Library and starts at 7 pm. Feel free to leave a comment if you're interested in more information.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was the 2 year wedding anniversary for Jenny and I, and also marked 6 years since we started dating! Jenny took the day off from work and we slept in for most of the morning.

We'd originally planned on going out for dinner, walking around downtown and seeing the new Harry Potter, but it was back to being stupidly hot again, and neither of us really wanted to go outside. So we cranked up the A/C, cooked a nice big dinner and watched a movie we hadn't seen yet. Not too exciting, but much cooler, more relaxing, and a lot cheaper than going out...

The movie we watched was Defiance, which I'd highly recommend. Set during World War II, it's based on a fascinating true story about Jewish brothers who end up becoming resistance fighters. They protect other Jews from the Nazis and build a secret community for refugees in the forest.

This Sunday is the monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths Guild, 3pm at Merlyns. Friday the 31st is the next Crafty Club, which Jenny organizes through the Spokane County Library. Any locals who are interested in either group, please leave a comment and we can provide more information!

Blogging Catch Up

I haven't blogged (or even Twittered) in a while, so just wanted to start remedying that:

Jenny and I have both been sick off and on the past few days - sinus stuff and head aches, but thankfully no real flu. I also did something to my back last week which I'm still slowly working out. Probably wouldn't have seemed as bad if I hadn't got sick at the same time.

It seems Summer has arrived. It's been blue skies and sunny, and in the 70s the past few days. Still pleasant and not horribly hot yet. Just a matter of time, though...

I might have some temp work lined up at Borders next month. They're apparently doing a big re-organization of the store and will need some people to do overnight work for a while, moving stuff around, which would be perfect. I'd love to get back on with them, if even part-time, but they haven't had any regular hours to spare. I'm friends with the store manager, though, so if something opens up I'm sure I'll hear about it (which is how the temp job came up).

In the meantime, I've been trying to throw myself into art and also starting to write again. I want to get my superhero comic back on track soon, so I can start it up as a web-comic. I'm also working on a second, completely separate, project which I'm hoping to do something similar with.

We're still way behind on TV shows from this season, with the last few episodes of a few of our favorite shows still taped and waiting to be watched. We have been watching a lot more movies than normal, as Jenny's dad has been taking us out to see some of the big summer blockbusters he also wants to see. Besides Wolverine and Star Trek, we saw Angels & Demons last wednesday and are looking forward to the new Terminator movie this week. I wasn't really impressed by The Da Vinci Code, and mainly just wanted to see Angels & Demons for all the art and architecture that's shown, but I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was incredibly rediculous, but entertaining.

Also, both of our birthdays are coming up relatively soon, although we don't really have any plans or ideas for what to do. Probably nothing too exciting, due to lack of money, but I'm sure there will be cake involved. :)

Wolverine Re-Design

Here's my entry for the current contest running over at Project: Rooftop. This one was to design a new costume for Wolverine, to go along with the release of his recent movie.

I tried to make a somewhat "realistic" outfit for him, inspired somewhat by the X-Men movie costumes and those designed by Frank Quitely during his and Grant Morrison's run on the New X-Men comic.

This was actually the second design I came up with. My first attempt can be seen over at my deviantArt page: Discarded Wolverine Design

Speaking of Wolverine, I did see his new movie last week and it was... OK. Not great, but still entertaining. Some good action scenes, with a couple of CGI bits that could have been improved. But I did like it more than the last X-Men movie, so I guess that's something.

We also saw the new Star Trek, and it was excellent! JJ Abrams did a great job of re-starting the series for a new generation, while not erasing or stepping on any of the stories that came before. Well worth seeing in the theatre - I hope the inevitable sequels will be just as good.

Misc. - health, Watchmen, social networking

I've been cleaning the apartment over the last couple of days, which was dearly needed, although I've been dragging due to still getting over this cold thing, so it's taking longer than planned. But apparently there's some nasty flu going around, so we're just happy we haven't come down with that.

My wisdom teeth have been in bad shape for years, but I've never really been able to afford to do anything about them. But now that Jenny's got health/dental/vision insurance through the library, we're going to try to get me in and see what all they'll cover. One of the teeth is obviously cracked, and needs to get pulled - though I'd really like to have all 4 of them out. I should also go ahead and get a new pair of glasses while I'm at it, as I got my current pair while I was at Borders, so about 4 years ago.

The Watchmen movie came out today, which I do want to see, but don't know if I really want to sit in a theatre for 3 hours. May just wait for the 4 hour DVD version to come out and watch it at home, where I can pause it whenever I want (really, I'm all for getting my money's worth, but I still would like them to bring back intermissions at the cinema for anything over 2 1/2 hours). And I've read the book enough times (and have heard about the changed ending), so it's not like I'm worried about the movie being spoiled if I wait.

Oh, and I also deleted my Facebook account. There were a variety of reasons for this, which I'm not going to bother going into. Anybody I was friends with on there I'm also in contact with through other channels, so no great loss.

Christmas Sketch Cards, etc.

I always enjoy Christmas more when I'm actually able to give people presents.This year, due to my serious lack of cash and desire to still give something to my friends, I decided to include original sketch cards with my Christmas cards. Unfortunately I waited too long to get started, and didn't get near as many done as I'd like, but was still able to get a fair amount out (relatively) on time.

Most of these should have reached their recipients by now, so it should be safe to post them. One card needs to get re-sent due to an address error, and one didn't get sent out till after Christmas. Hopefully I'll be a little more organized next year and get more done, and out in the mail earlier.

This was my first time doing more than a couple of sketch cards at a time, and I think it was a good learning experience for me. Some cards definitely came out better than others, but overall I'm pretty happy with them. I also got an opportunity to draw some subjects I probably wouldn't normally draw, and that's always good.

Each card is 2.5" x 3.5", and all art was done with markers, colored pencils and water color.




The apartment is now in it's Christmas Clutter stage - decorations need to come down and be re-boxed and the whole place needs a serious cleaning. So I guess that'll have to be done in the next few days (because if I don't do it now, who knows how long I'll wait...).

We went over to CdA today (Friday) to visit Jenny's folks. Finally watched Wall-E, which was hilarious (of course) and Wanted, which was kinda just "OK" story-wise but had some amazing effects. Will probably watch both of them again, though.

Another Way To Die

Quantum of Solace rocked - in fact I think I even liked it better than Casino Royale (but I'll have to see it a couple more times to be sure...). It definately had a Bourne feel to it sometimes, but that's fine; the Bourne films were better Bond movies than most of the last few pre-Craig films anyway (though I did enjoy Goldeneye).

And I've also had the new theme song stuck in my head since we left the theatre (hence the post title). I've got to be honest, I wasn't crazy about it when I first heard it, but it grew on me quickly. I'm just glad they went with Jack White and Alicia Keys (two real musicians), instead of who was supposedly their first choice - Amy Winehouse.... yeesh.

Not much to the video (and barely any Bond), but here's the song:

Some Movies & Other Stuff

The job hunt continues, but it's getting frustrating. Especially when I don't even get called for an interview for jobs I know I'm qualified (or over qualified) for. Yeah, frustrating.... but I'm still looking. I don't want to go back to retail, though. Specifically now, since the holiday shopping season is starting, and I don't want to have deal with that if I can help it.

Tomorrow is Jenny's day off, so we'll be heading over to CdA to go see the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, with her Dad. Should be fun. With money tight as it is, we don't see many films in the theatre anymore. I think the last one was The Dark Knight.

I do want to see the new Star Trek movie when it comes out. It's kind of a re-boot, but also a sequel (since Nimoy is playing an older Spock from the future and they're supposedly keeping the timeline of the movies intact), so it'll be interesting to see how much they'll end up changing. Still, I'm hesitantly optimistic. The trailer is available by clicking here.

I also just watched Beowulf & Grendel today, after borrowing it from Jenny's dad. I really liked it (other than Sarah Polley's surprisingly wooden acting), and it was sooooo much better than that horrible CGI Beowulf movie that came out last year.

Otherwise, we're trying to get in the holiday cheer, even if we don't have much in the way of money. But we did already put our tree up and decorate, so that's something. Still need to get out our Christmas cards. Just as long as we get them out a little earlier than the last couple of years....

Science Fiction

We caught the new X-Files flick ("I Want To Believe") on Sunday, thanks to Jenny's dad who took us to see it. Jenny and I both consider ourselves pretty big fans of the series, so we definately wanted to see this one in the theatre - gotta support it, in hopes of a sequel. Good thing we went when we did, as it's already down to one showing in the local cinema, and will probably be gone by the weekend....

I really enjoyed it - it was closer in tone to the early "mystery-of-the-week" episodes, and had none of the grand alien conspiracy overtones of the later seasons. The first movie was all about the aliens, and I did enjoy it (more than a lot of those later episodes), but the new movie really stood up on it's own as a solid mystery/suspense/thriller.

Unfortunately, I think they made a mistake releasing it when they did, as there was no way it was going to compete with some of the big summer blockbusters in the theatre right now (e.g. Dark Knight, Mummy 3), especially since it really could be watched on the small screen without losing anything from the experience. All in all though, it was still a great film which was definately worth my money - which is getting harder and harder to say nowadays.

In other sci-fi entertainment news, we've been watching the DVDs of the Sci-Fi channel's Eureka TV series. Jenny borrowed the first season from her parents, just to give it a shot (since we don't have cable, we'd only seen ads, but no episodes), and it ended up being really funny. The special effects can be a bit iffy at times (that's the Sci-Fi channel for you), but the wacky storylines and great cast chemistry more than makes up for it. Season 2 just came out, and luckily Jenny's dad bought it and watched the whole thing already. So now we're borrowing it and quickly burning through the discs.

Miscellania - weather, movies

It's warmed back up again, but there's a possibility of thundershowers this weekend, so my fingers are crossed for that. Just have to make it to the end of the week without dying from heat stroke. I've been trying to avoid turning the A/C back on (it's been over a week now), since our electric bill doubled last month (most likely) from having it on 24/7.

Since we've been trying to cut down on our spending, we've been checking out a lot of books from the library (convenient, since Jenny works there), and also DVDs. Just watched Little Miss Sunshine, which had been on our to-see list for a while. It was... OK. Parts were really funny, and then it would flip flop to more of a so-serious-it's-painful type of film. I'm glad I saw it, but I'm also glad it was free.

We checked out 3:10 to Yuma as well, but haven't got a chance to watch it.

Geeks In Love + Movies

Tuesday was Jenny and I's 1 year wedding anniversary. It's been a great year - unfortunately we didn't really do anything exciting on the day, since she worked pretty much all day and got home late. We cooked up some yummy Mexican food and watched some TV and that was about it...

However, today is the premiere of the Dark Knight! So we'll be hopefully going to see that tonight after she gets off work (assuming we can get tickets - may need to see the late show). From all reports, this one looks like it surpasses Batman Begins in awesomeness. :D

In addition, there's a good chance we'll be able to see (on the big screen) the trailer for what is probably the most anticipated comic-geek movie ever: Watchmen! The trailer was leaked online yesterday, so I've already watched it a few times... I still don't know if they'll be able to capture all of the subtle storytelling nuances of the comic, but at this point the trailer looks great and my hopes are raised.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can check it out here: Watchmen Trailer in HD

Weekend Update

We headed over to Jenny's folks' place yesterday for a Memorial Day family barbeque. Mostly just sat around and ate and relaxed. Jenny's dad had just come back from a rock hunting trip to Oregon and had lots of stuff to show off, and Aunt Joan came over so we got to see her as well. Then Jamie came over in the evening and we rented the new Beowulf movie, which could have been pretty good, but the CGI animation looked too much like Shrek, so I couldn't really take it seriously.

We also rented Shoot 'Em Up and War and watched those on Saturday. Shoot 'Em Up was entertaining but rediculously silly and over the top (which I guess was the point - I suppose it was as much a parody of action movies as it was one itself). War was good, but not really what I was expecting. I assumed it was just going to be a typical martial arts action movie, and it ended up trying too hard to be a serious cop drama. Still pretty good, but not my favorite Jet Li movie by a long shot.

Dragged myself out of bed later than I wanted today, but the plan is to get some (much needed) cleaning done on the apartment, or atleast started. Probably do some job hunting in the paper and on-line, and hopefully some art in there somewhere as well.

Update - Been a While...

Hmm.... apparently I haven't blogged yet this month. Time flies when, well, we haven't really been doing much actually. Just working for the most part. Jenny's job is great. even if it's only (very) part-time. I've started taking a different bus up to her job some nights, so I can meet her when she gets off work. It's a lot more convenient - I don't have to rush to catch the bus after work, and I don't have to switch lines three times. And the ride's shorter too. The library she works at is little, and really cute, and it seems like all the people she works with are really nice. I hope she can get some more hours there and maybe move up the ladder a bit. Seems like a keeper of a job.

We haven't got a good chance to really look around the area where the library is; but what we've seen of it and the surrounding neighborhoods seems really promising. If she sticks with this job, we might try to find a place up there (on the South Hill). We did do some looking through the classifieds this week to see what the range of prices are for the area. We haven't gone and looked at any places yet, but we really can't move until June anyway...

Our new-ish neighbors are definately gone now (hooray?). Seems they didn't even tell the management they were leaving either - they might have been here a month and then just up and left on the 1st. So no pounding bass (or anything else) on that side of the apartment, which is a nice change. Now if we could just get rid of the neighbors below us who are always slamming their door hard enough to make the building shake. Also, since we've rearranged the apartment, our "living room" is now above their master bedroom, so we try to be considerate and not be too noisy (no watching TV loud up late, that sort of thing). It'd sure be nice if they would return the favor.

I took Monday and Tuesday off from work - I just needed some down time to relax and also so Jenny and I could actually spend some time hanging out together. We went out to see the new monster movie Cloverfield on Monday. It was... good, however it was shot in a "real world" handi-cam style, from the perspective of the people trying to escape New York while a giant Godzilla type monster is destroying the city. So between the shaky camera, the heat in the theatre being turned up way too high and possibly being still a bit sick, both Jenny and I were actually nauseous by the time the film was over. I'm glad it was a short movie, because I don't think I could have taken much more. I think I'd like to see it again, but not until it's out on DVD and I can pause it whenever I want.

Started deep-cleaning the apartment on Tuesday night, and it's about half done right now. My hope/plan is to have the whole apartment thoroughly cleaned by the end of the week so I can have the weekend free to work on other stuff: art, catching up on TV, various work I need to do on the computer, maybe even break out my miniatures and do some painting.

Jenny's sister's birthday is tomorrow, and I think the plan is for Jenny to go over tomorrow for cake and presents. I'll probably stay home - I'm not really sure when she's even heading over. And then she's got another jewelry making class on Saturday and Sunday, although she'll have to skip out early on Saturday since she's got to work that afternoon. Should be fun!

So yeah, not a whole lot going on, but still more than enough to keep us busy. Hope everyone else out there is doing well, and maybe the next blog post won't be such a long time coming....

Day Three In Fairbanks

On Sunday we went to Alaska Land to see if anything was different, and to go into the Air Museum there, which niether of us had been in in many, many years. It was cool. Lots of neat planes and helicopters, pieces of wrecks, and old clothes and other articles. Yes, I was allowed to sit in that helicopter, and put that helmet on. :) It was the only thing there that was touchable. In the Native Village, the gift shop that no one had ever really liked has been turned into a little museum. Also, the path into the "village" has been moved so that you have to go through the museum to get to the path, instead of walking by the antler sculpture. Almost all of the buildings have been taken down for some reason, and the "path" sort of petered out to nothing instead of leading near the back exit, which no longer exists. So, that was disapointing. I got the impression that the plays that occasionaly were held there no longer are. On the other hand, the old "train station" has been shut down and a nice new one has been built next to it. I think it might have had a gift shop or a itty bitty museum, but I didn't go over there. We looked through another museum, this one in the "town" area, while it rained cats and dogs outside. We bypassed most of the shops, but stopped in one and I ended up buying a pretty green amber ring. They had regular yellow amber, green, and a dark red amber too. I had had no idea that amber came in different colors. Apparently the dark red is the rarest. But I liked the green the best. And the rings were very reasonably priced. While I had been in the helicopter, Alex had called and asked if we'd go to see the Simpson's Movie with him and Ellie.

After we left Alaska Land, we went to the Fair. It looked about the same as it usually does. We dropped by a booth that's run by a friend of Peter's, but she was off having lunch, so we went to look at the Forestry booth and go to the art and photography building near it. There wasn't anyone I knew at the Forestry booth, but the booth itself was still in good condition. I sort of helped build it, and my sister and I would sometimes go to the fair with Dad when it was his turn to man the booth, so it holds good memories for me. At the art exhibit, there were some really great pieces. A little girl had entered several paintings and drawings, Happy Dong, I swear that's her name, and she was very talented. Then we went back to Peter's friend, Ellen's booth and found her there. They talked for quite a while and I looked at the artistic stationary and other cool things that she was selling, and joined in the conversation a little too. Somewhere in there we ate some fair food, and it was delicious.

Then, we headed to the movies. Well, we might have stopped back by Josh's place to rest or something, but I don't remember. We got to the theater before Alex and Ellie, and briefly saw Rob again as he was leaving. I think he saw Harry Potter, but I could be completley wrong. The Simpsons Movie was awesome! It was so funny, I couldn't even believe it. At one point, one guy threw binoculars at the dome over the town in frustration and they unexpectedly bounced back and hit him in the head. I actually shrieked out loud in laughter, which embarassed me a little, but it didn't stop me from continuing to enjoy the movie. After the movie, we talked outside for a while, Alex had just quit his job that weekend and the story was very funny. We didn't end up going to Denny's though, so maybe Ellie had to work the next morning or something. Then back to Josh's to sleep. It was really hot in Josh's condo, and the fan was barely helping, but it wasn't too bad while it was raining outside. Once it started getting warmer out though, it was a sauna!

Day Two In Fairbanks

In the morning, we used our new Tracfone to call just about everyone to let them know we were in town and that we had a week to see them. Chris and Sabrina invited us to lunch and Peter and I suggested Food Factory. We had missed it so much! Alex called us to also ask us to go to lunch with him and Ellie, but we had to put it off for another day as we had just made plans. Peter and I ordered our favorite food, but were having so much fun talking and catching up, we forgot to order the brocolli chedder poppers. :( Mmmm, poppers. Chris, Peter and I really wanted to see Bourne Ultimatum, so we decided to go that evening, and that Chris would get Darrin to join us. Then Peter and I drove over to Fishtopia to see Rob. Peter knows Rob from when they were in the same dorm together at UAF. And I know Rob from fencing class, he was one of the TAs. We talked for several hours about his business, about people we all know, and other stuff. Then after he closed shop for the night, we followed him to his new beautiful house and got the tour. His house is made from thick concrete, and we made lots of jokes about how defensible it would be from a zombie invasion. Then we headed back into town to get to the movies. Sabrina didn't want to see the Bourne movie, so she didn't go, but I thought it was very good. A little too much "action camera" even when they were just standing and talking. Afterwards, Peter and I were hungry, so we drove over to Dennys for a bite. While we were waiting for our food, I overheard our waiter tell someone at a different table that his biological mother was married to James Brown. He said something after that that I didn't hear, so I have no idea if he meant the singer or not, but I thought it was interesting. Then, after food, it was back to Josh's place to sleep.