New additions to the Ipe Media Library – the latest X-Men films

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Joel

I resisted for a while, but when I found out both of these films were on sale this week, it was too hard to pass up. Amazon was selling First Class for $8, and Target had Days of Future Past for only $16.99. The kids and I have been catching up on the Bryan Singer / Brett Ratner films from the 2000s — X-Men (2000), X-Men 2: (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). The kids liked the first two films, and thought the 3rd film was so-so. I’d agree with their assessments so far. Both films look great, and sound great. Further more, X-Men: Days of Future Past features DTS-HD MA 7.1 surround sound.

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Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Joel

On a quiet Saturday evening, the Ipes watched Singin’ in the Rain (1952), the old 1950’s musical starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. If you haven’t seen it, it takes place in the late 1920’s in Hollywood. Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (played by Jean Hagen) are two big silent film stars. Unfortunately, The Jazz Singer has just been released, the first “talkie”, and audiences are raging for more films with audio. The movie studio that owns the contracts for Lockwood and Lamont now begins to push for only talkies going forward. Unfortunately, Jean Hagen’s Lina Lamont character has a….. less than refined speaking voice, and has no talent for singing. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to Debbie Reynolds’ sweet and talented Kathy Selden character, who might just break into Hollywood.

The plot is rather thin, but there are a helluva lot of song and dance numbers. I got a little tired of the musicals towards the end, including the last big number. But Lily enjoyed it. Josh doesn’t seem to be big into musicals either, but he laughed and seemed to enjoy himself at times. Nums, of course, liked the film. Scamper, our big dumb sweet cat, enjoyed sitting with us during the film. I can only assume the other cat was off sulking somewhere.

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

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It has been a crazy few months

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Joel

Sometimes I look around the house, and I am struck by conflicting thoughts.
1. How much we have accomplished since July.

2. How much we have not accomplished since July.

The last time we moved, I was back at work fairly immediately, and we let the house develop its own organization. We spent months without unpacking many boxes. Tasks like decorating took nearly a decade. This time around, I took a week off to handle the move, including a few days later to unpack.

While I would say we got a lot done that week, there is always more to do! We have a patio (sans umbrella.) Most rooms have furniture. We have been decorating. We’ve put in new carpeting and closets. We’ve painted and filled in the blanks. We still have many boxes in both the garage and storage rooms to unpack. We are still working out exactly where to put things.

Life is a work in progress, so we are doing what we can, with what little free time we can. Between our work schedules, catching up on work, trying to sell the townhouse, micromanaging the kids, and their extracurricular activities (karate, girl scouts, cub scouts), and church stuff, we have a full plate at a buffet.

This weekend, I made real progress on setting up the home theater in the basement. I mention this, because the home theater is important to me, and it has taken until October to get even this far. So… think about THAT.

It is all a work in progress, and we can’t do everything. I know it. It’s hard to see unpacked boxes week after week, or home projects sitting unstarted, and not get frustrated.

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Working Girl (1988)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Joel

It took me about 26 years, but I watched Working Girl this weekend. It’s a somewhat famous film from the 1980’s, starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, and Sigourney Weaver.

The film features Melanie Griffith as the likable Tess McGill, a secretary / administrative assistant who is attempting to work her way up the corporate ladder, but no one can seem to get past the fact that she’s (1) a woman and (2) an administrative assistant. She finally get a position working for Katherine Parker [Sigourney Weaver], a new hire to the Mergers & Acquisitions group. Katherine Parker seems to initially be a good manager, but you start to get a sense that looks can be deceiving. Through the magic of Hollywood plot devices, Katherine Parker is injured and kept away from work for an extended period. In that time, Tess pretends to be the manager, and begins to show off her business acumen. Of course, much hilarity, Joan Cusack, and big 80’s hair ensues.

Directed by famed director Mike Nichols, there were a lot of former and future stars that I recognized. In no particular order, the film either stars or features:

  • Melanie Griffith (1st film that I ever saw her in)
  • Harrison Ford (Come on, it’s Harrison Freakin’ Ford)
  • Sigourney Weaver (Oh lots of stuff)
  • Alec Baldwin (Alec Baldwin)
  • Joan Cusack (she played the big hair who was best friends with Tess.)
  • Nora Dun
  • Oliver Platt
  • Kevin Spacey (cameo as a pig)
  • Olympia Dukakis
  • Timothy Carhart (I recognized him as Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hobson from a class episode of ST: TNG.)
  • David Duchovny (Blink and you’ll miss it scene from Tess’ birthday party)

Yeah, yeah, it’s an 80’s movie. It’s not gonna be the most realistic film that you ever watched. I still found it entertaining. I also loved the look-back at the 80’s itself — the big hair, the office equipment, just everything.

Working Girl (1988)

Working Girl (1988)

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Celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Joel

Namita and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this year. Time flies when you are real estate moguls with two houses, two children, and two cats. As per tradition, we got all pretty, and went to our local Ruth’s Chris steakhouse for lots of steak and drinks, and abandoned all restraints. Well, we used some restraint, but I did have two fine glasses of wine.

No one ever said marriage is easy. And whoever did say it was easy is a fool. 11 years flew by, and these days I have to say that I am still very much in love with this girl. Beautiful, funny, quick as a whip, and always keeps me on my toes. You can’t ask for more than someone like that.

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Hanging up some artwork and the cats weren’t helping

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Joel

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m always proud when:

  1. Whatever I cook actually turns out decent, e.g. grilling a meal doesn’t turn into a sad disaster.
  2. Whenever I hang up something, big or small.

To help decorate the house, my wife Namita ordered some very tall artwork to hang in the family room above the fireplace. For many weeks, the large box containing the tall artwork sat in our dining room taking up space, because we didn’t have the time to bring over the Little Giant ladder. Finally, we got the ladder over. As soon as I set up the ladder, first one cat, then the other, ran up to the top of the ladder. And proceeded to fight with each other.

I swear, they are like the dumbest cats I have ever met.

After two attempts, I got this tall painting up, level, and at the correct height.

I like it.

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My nephew Ben’s baptism

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Joel

This Sunday, we drove on down to South Jersey for the baptism of my nephew Benjamin. The service was at 11am at their church, and we were running late. Fear of being late to our own nephew’s big day, I had to hit the Flux Capacity, take the car to 88 MPH, and I got us to the church before the service started. And right when my sister and her family were walking to the church. That’s how I do it around here, folks.

The baptism went as expected. We later drove to the restaurant for lunch, an Italian place that is a favorite with my sister and brother-in-law. I took a number of pictures, but my wife got the bright idea to take photos of some of the children while they were eating. Brilliant. I rather think they came out well.

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Purchased Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Joel

Oh,  how could I not pick up Winter Soldier on blu-ray? It’s an excellent film. Great video, and DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. Win win.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) on blu-ray

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) on blu-ray

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First day of the 2014-2015 school year

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Joel

Yea! The kids finally went back to school! No more paying for summer camp! Or trying to figure out who will watch them!

Josh is now heading to 4th grade, and Lily is now a 1st grader. And since we moved to a new neighborhood, the kids are now official “busers.” We were pleased that the kids were able to continue at their same elementary school this year. Same friends, same school building, same sets of teachers.

All ready for school
Riding the bus for the first time
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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Joel

With the kids staying overnight with their grandparents this week, Namita and I went out on a Thursday night to the Menlo Park Mall to see The Hundred-Foot Journey. We could have seen it closer to our home, but Menlo has the nearby AMC Dine-In Theaters Menlo Park 12 theater. It’s bar food quality, but one can eat, drink, and watch a movie at the same time. Also, one can also reserve your seats ahead of time. It’s win-win. The theater wasn’t packed for this film, so seating wasn’t a problem anyway. I took a cab from Metropark Station to the mall, met my wife, sat in our seats, ordered our food, and waited for the film to begin.

The Hundred-Foot Journey stars Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, and Charlotte Le Bon. The Kadam family escaped from political upheaval in India, makes their way to Europe, until finally crashing their way into a sleepy French town. The patriarch, played by the fantastic Om Puri, decides they will end their nomadic lifestyle, and settle down in this little town. Furthermore, they will open their own Indian restaurant (“Maison Mumbai”) within the town. Unfortunately, the town is well known for being the home of a famous high-class French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren.) There is a competition for the hearts, minds, and stomachs of the townspeople. Meanwhile, an illicit romance brews between members of both restaurants.

This was a decent film, but it’s light fare. There’s no hard hitting story, the plot is somewhat predictable, and I thought the story was a bit corny in a few places. Lastly, I found the 3rd and final act a little trite, in that it seemed both predictable in story and resolution. How trite? Well, during some portions of the film, at times, I noted similarities to Pixar’s 2007 animated film Ratatouille. Yeah, no kidding.

Does this make it a bad film? No, as I said, it’s a decent but light film. It’s a simple and easy way to pass the time, with some nice performances from Helen Mirren and Om Puri, and also the supporting cast. Eat your dinner, drink a little, sit next to your pretty wife (or husband), and enjoy your date night, I say.

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

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