So the old Roxy Theatre in Hinton burned down. Or I should say, sustained heavy damages due to fire- I don't know if it's salvageable or not. I kind of hope so, and kind of hope not. At 50 years old or so, it represents one of the most historic buildings in Hinton. On the other hand, a little two or four screen multiplex would be nice there. Preferably in that little area of the Valley- in recent years it has slummified to an alarming degree. On weekend nights the RCMP pretty much just park there by the bar to try and keep a lid on the chaos.
I saw so many movies at that old theatre- Star Wars! Return of the Jedi! (Empire I saw for the first time at the Paramount here in Edmonton- my parents took me without saying what movie we were going to see, and since I was only 5 I had no idea there was another Star Wars film! I think my mind is still recovering from the mind-blowing explosion of holycow!). Tron. The Dark Crystal. Batman! Oh yeah, Batman with Jon, how could I ever forget that? Jon likes to remind me of the time I went and saw Karate Kid rather than make mythical creatures puppets for our class presentation the next day. His were amazing creations with three-dimensional wings and bodies while mine were not as impressive. Apparently Mr. Miyagi's lessons on discipline were lost on me.

Anyways. Have you seen the handmade Star Wars Mighty Muggs LucasArts commissioned for charity? Amazing works of art in the same vein as Jon's Pegasus puppets. The Empire Muggs Back auction starts today- lots of deviantArtists I follow are involved. Pretty cool. Grant Gould is one, and he also celebrates the launch of his Wolves of Odin webcomic today- a sequel to his graphic novel that you all should get. I did!

In the last week we've watched more movies than in the first 6 months of Pallas' life. Since we only watched two movies in that time I guess it wasn't that hard to surpass.
Watchmen: I really liked it. Never read the graphic novel so I dunno how it compares. Michelle and I drove home from our friends' place doing our best Rorschach imitation. "Rorschach's Journal, October 12th 1985." Cough cough.
Slumdog Millionaire: I really liked it a lot. My brother-in-law told me what the last question was and I still got it wrong. At least the slumdog didn't.
Gran Torino: I really really liked it a lot. Clint Eastwood at nearly 80 is still way more badass than you or me.
Coraline: I loved this movie. Just beautiful and scary and creepy and funny. Pure Neil Gaiman, even though they changed the book somewhat. Not that much, really. Coraline was the first book I ever read aloud to Michelle, so we really wanted them to get this one right. Our expectations were a little low since there has been a long string of book-to-movie adaptations of books we love that have been terrible. Actually, not terrible, just boring. And really, isn't that worse? Golden Compass- boring. Spiderwick Chronicles- boring. A Series of Unfortunate Events was pretty bad, come to think of it, though the soundtrack is one of the best ever. Don't even get me started on most of the CG movies the past few years (Pixar excepted though I didn't like Cars at all). Most of them we shut off halfway through they were so unwatchable.
So why did Coraline succeed? And why did it fail at the box office? Coraline only made $75 million domestically, and another 40 internationally. So it recouped just a little under double its cost. Not too bad I guess. But Madagascar, a movie that was (to me) so terrible I couldn't even sit through it made a half billion dollars worldwide, not to mention its sequels and DVD sales. Sales ain't everything, of course, but they determine what kind of movies keep getting made. Banal and insanely profitable wins over whimsical and mildly profitable in the eyes of most Hollywood executives.
Thank god for Pixar and Tim Burton, who is doing his part as always- 9 is coming out in a couple of months and then Alice in Wonderland. Who knows, maybe he'll make a movie of The Graveyard Book.

Today is Star Wars day at SDCC. Obviously I am not there but I have been following along at home. I knew it was time to turn the page when I heard R2-D2 beep like this. Star Wars Blog, Clubjade and Rebelscum have all been great sources of info. Flickr too for that matter, just search SDCC.
This is what I want to know more about- is it a coffeetable book of concept art?

So I'm on a huge holiday right now! Sweet! In an alternate timeline the three of us would be in San Diego right now for the Comic Con but in this timeline we couldn't get tickets. So we took a little daytrip to Jasper instead. Try doing that while wearing a wookie costume!

Go see the Lion King because it's fantastic! Even if you live in Calgary this mission can be accomplished since they are headed that way soon. And I think you know who I'm talking to!
The only thing that sucked about it- Pallas is too young to go.

This one time I was hitch-hiking home from BC. Somewhere on the Yellowhead. Anyways this guy picks me up and we're driving. Right away he shows me a picture of his daughter that he's going to visit and we talk about her for a while. After a while he asks me where I'm headed.
"To Edmonton."
"You're going the wrong way!"
For a second, just a split second my heart kind of skipped but of course I wasn't going the wrong way. "No man, this is the way to Edmonton."
"No, because I'm headed to Williams Lake and that's this way."
We argued about this for a few minutes and finally I pull out a map and show him. "Look, here's where you picked me up, this is the highway we're on, here's Edmonton, and Williams Lake is the other way. See?"
"Ah shit! I'm going the wrong way! I gotta let you off, sorry man."
He pulls over, lets me out, does a u-turn and screeches away.
It was lucky for him that I came along, so that he wasted minimal gas and time going the wrong way. Not so lucky for me as I was now stuck in the middle of nowhere and spent the next 8 hours waiting for my next ride. Which only got me a few clicks down the road where there were already other hitch-hikers going nowhere. I wound up tenting in the bush that night, and was woken up by the silhouette of one of the other hitchers breaking a branch off a tree just outside the tent. That was kind of freaky.
Anyways.
I remembered this story because yesterday I picked up this kid whose car had broken down, just outside of Edson. He was headed for Saskatchewan. But he had started in Edmonton. So he drove 2 hours the wrong way.

So we have a tornado watch going on right now. Nothing too serious, it's hardly even windy and it definitely isn't very hot, so anything that does develop is likely to be very mild. Still, here are some photos of the ominous looking clouds we were looking at a few hours ago.

This month's National Geographic has an article on Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. If your Mother-in-law doesn't supply you with a subscription (membership in NG parlance) like mine does you can check it out here. Just a short text and then the photos are pretty great. Almost as great as mine!