Carrie

Some celebrity deaths hit harder than others for a variety of reasons.

Index of Anabelle and Daddy Ad-veeeeen-tures! Yeah! *Jazz Hands*

Because of reasons that I no longer wish to talk about-

and are all stupid-

Up the Lake did not open this past summer with extremely short notice.

Outside of the enormous pile of suck that embodied were some specific issues.

Not a STAR WARS story- A Star Wars STORY

Let’s get the important thing out of the way first.

The movie was fantastic, had interesting characters, and impressive visuals.  The story pulled the audience along with strong drama and edge of the seat action scenes.  The 3D added a sense of movement and immersiveness to the space battles and chases

Christmas Village 2016

A Real American Final Frontier

Or

Knowing Anything that Pleases You Can be Made to Happen is Half the Battle

This year was a major creative issue.

Last year’s celebration of the return of Star Wars to the big screen was amazingly simple in concept, supply and execution.

The idea of celebrating the 50^th Anniversary of another favorite “Star” series didn’t require much thought.

The problem arose due to differences in tones of the two franchises.

Masters of the Movie Arts

Sorry I’m late on this one I was visiting Doctor Strange.

OK, I was in Disney World, but he was there…

Unannounced…

And I didn’t find out until we got home.

Anyway- on to the movie.

Need it be said?

It was awesome, go see it.

Christmas Village 2016- Prelude

Christmas, it’s the Key to Our Evolution

Or

What’s the Matter With Mutants? That’s Where We Fit In

It’s that time of year.

Yeah yeah, Peace on Earth, spirit of giving…

But more importantly, time to dust off the stored action figures and HESS trucks.

And what better way to start off the festivities than a parade provided by Anabelle:

Now Siri Thinks She's a Comedian

I was working on a previously covered hated job...leaf cleaning.

Grandma Treks Season 1

In order to prove the multigenerational Star Trek fandom of my family that I have often referred to, I submit the following.

It’s my Mother’s reaction to each of my daughter’s episode reviews that she’s been sending me along the way.  She didn’t have to borrow the discs to watch the series as a refresher when she read these.

Because she did that after I did My Short Treks write ups.

A Family Rooted Bronx Tale

Those of us who’ve been tracking my Nth cousin Xce removed Bobby Conte-Thornton’s theatrical career figured it wouldn’t be long before he was appearing on Broadway.

But man, does that kid know how to make an entrance.

Treklets Season 1.7

Errand of Mercy - Mom Title: "Klingons and Organians"

Hotheaded Additions and Variations

I got a phone call at work one day from Morgan, my three year old nephew:

Him:  “Unca Jeff! Unca Jeff!”

Me: “What?”

Him:  “I loooooooooooooooooove Ghost Rider!!”

Me:  “Cool! How come?”

Him: “HIS HEAD’S ON FIRE!”

Me: “Congratulations, you figured out all the important nuances of the character.”

Him: “OK BYE!”

Treklets Season 1.6

Space Seed - Mom Title: "Khan"

The Right Moral for This Day

Dad started working with computers back when they filled a climate controlled room, used giant magnetic tape reels for storage, and the smallest user input feature was the typewriter stapled to an anwar sized Keypunch Machine.           


Dad told me a tale of the day when he was in charge of Technical Support and the boss (Tom) got a phone call telling him that a massively important file containing all the financial records of this large financial based company has been lost during an update

Treklets Season 1.5

Arena - Mom Title: "Gorn"

Political Rant

(Image from onesquarelight.wordpress.com)

Most of the time I completely avoid politics in favor of pointless things I enjoy taking far too seriously.

This year, I’ve had enough.

Treklets Season 1.4

Balance of Terror- Mom Title:  "Spock’s Dad Plays a Romulan"

Dracula 1979 part 2

Click here for part one

5) Director John Badham biggest picture before this one was Saturday Night Fever. 

Treklets Season 1.3

The Corbomite Maneuver – Mom Title: "Clint Howard and his Big Head Puppet"

Dracula 1979

Toho’s new Godzilla Resurgence (Shin Gojira for purists) got a recent, week long, limited release in select theaters in the states and I was ready to see it…

At least that’s what the announcement said. What it should have said was, “During this week in the States, in the area you live Godzilla Resurgence will be shown exactly one time when you are otherwise occupied.”

Therefore another classic monster is showing up in this Halloween post (Click here for when I finally saw Godzilla): 

Treklets Season 1.2

The Enemy Within – Mom Title: "Good and Bad Kirk"

Bondlets: Die Another Day

2002

Milestone!!!! Stranger Days! Luke Cage!

Holy Monkeys this is the 600^th post on this adventure in foolishness.

To mark the occasion, a special reversal:

Normally, I write about introducing my daughter to various films and franchises for “Through a Kid’s Eyes” posts.  But recently the information flowed the other way. 

Coincidentally, while I was watching Luke Cage* and his adventures in Marvel Harlem on Netflix, my daughter was in the real Harlem discovering a different Netflix series.

The Circle of Traffic

After several mistakes, mishaps and misadventures I made sure we had the address of the garage we use in Hoboken logged, and the methodology of the metrocard memorized for this year’s trip to Broadway.

Then I found out - with only three days’ notice - that the Path Trains were under maintenance and not running on the 33^rd Street line any weekends this fall.

Treklets Season 1.1

“The Man Trap” - Mom Title:  "Salt Vampire"

Quality All Ages Horror Movies Can Exist!

Though mentally fighting it every step of the way, my daughter is slowly coming to accept she is a major fan of the fun style of horror movies.

Amazingly, wanting to see Van Helsing again as soon as the credits rolled did not tip her off.

Treklets: Where This Man Has Gone Before

Wait a minute!

Just because it’s Golden Celebration, and I’m watching the entire Original Series yet again, but with my family this time, do I really think I can get away with doing another episode list of every adventure of the greatest crew of the Starship Enterprise when it isn’t even the first time my child is seeing this show?

You’re darn tootin’ I do!

Star Trek  has been an important part of my life for a LOOOOOOONG time.  
Since it's been part of my birthdays, I should honor it's.

Thanx for all the cakes over the years mom! 

Even the mini ones were cool!

Bondlets: The World is Not Enough

1999

Up the Lake: Childhood Fair Years- Part 3

Click Here for Part 1

Click Here for Part 2 

The game in question was trout fishing.  

There was a shallow swimming pool type area heavily overstocked with heavily overfed trout.  Snagging was not allowed, and none of the fish being kept in the piscine concentration camp ever looked interested in eating anything.  The tackle and bait supplied probably didn’t help matters.  Fishing poles were given out, but they were reelless. At the end of the tied on string was a small hook featuring an eraser sized piece of either raw calamari…or dry caulking.

The sum total of our fish winnings was far less than the number of Rambo knives we took home.

Bondlets: Tomorrow Never Dies

1997 

 

A pre announced snow day allowed the viewing of another James Bond adventure when God intended them to be seen, on a Sunday evening.

Up the Lake: Childhood Fair Years- Part 2

Click Here for Part 1

Aside from crowding together to laugh at each other at that old time picture booth, once we hit our teen years, our folks let us wander the Fair on our own with set check in and return times and locations. Note to modern parents: we pulled this off successfully year after year without the use of cell phones.

Yes, Up the Lake people do have a limited form of telepathy.

Also known as: “Fear of the wrath of a worried and angered Italian Mother after a missed check in.”

Bondlets: Goldeneye

1995

Up the Lake: Childhood Fair Years- Part 1

Click Here for Modern Fair Adventures

(With an update added today! Vocal Trash returning next year! YAY!)

Click Here for Transitional Fair Years 

Heading up to the Duchess County Fair was an annual excursion from Up the Lake for an insanely large number of us (or a number of us large insane people) during a great many years in my youth. I’m not sure how it began, but one thing is for certain:

Our parents were far better at getting children suffering from Up the Lake levels of exhaustion out of bed in the wee hours of the morning than we ever were. 

A Mix Up of My Fandoms I Never Imagined

Happy 50th Anniversary Star Trek!!!

Unfortunately, I got overexcited and watched them alone last year and wrote them all up instead of stretching them out...

And I started watching them again, with my family this time, but haven't gotten far enough through them to start posting my daughter's reactions.

So here's stuff about two other franchises:

Up the Lake: Transitional Fair Days Part 2

ClickHere for Part 1

When everyone tried to go through the “Haunted Pirate” dark ride, Kim’s car started shooting sparks and flames out the back like an old zip cord motorcycle.  Lauren and Ashley screamed (a lot) and told Kim to move her hair.
Then Lauren turned to me, wisely stationed on the ground, and shrieked, “I survived the friggin’ Wheel of Death, now I’m gonna die in this crappy haunted house.”

Ash Vs. Evil Dead Season One- Groovy!

Since the first season is now available on Blu-Ray instead of airing on a network I wasn’t prepared to subscribe to for only a ten episode half hour series, I can acknowledge the existence of something I was looking forward to for quite a while.  

Wow…that introduction sucked.

Up the Lake: Transitional Fair Days Part 1

Click Here for Modern Fair Adventures

We often went to the Fair as kids, but then high school activities and early college startups blocked that part of our schedule.  The normal amounts of chaos Up the Lake should have kept focused on the mountain for a while once we graduated...but we liked to expand our horizons.

Bad Music Confessions Part 2

Click here for part one

With the Hot in the Shade live performance before it, and the Revenge release in 1992, it looked like KISS had settled on a new and kick-ass image and sound and Gene was focusing on the group again.  The looks came together staring on Crazy Nights in 1987, but the sound wasn’t there yet.  Paul was always the ringmaster on stage with a powerful yet theatrical quality voice.  (I would have liked to see him in Phantom of the Opera.) However, the band lost a lot of its hardness and edge with Gene’s influence lessened.

Up the Lake: Modern Fair Days

All’s Love at Fairs and Wars

Or

Agricultural Adventures

It’s Duchess County Fair season in Rhinebeck New York.  Normally, we’d plan our vacations and/or Up the Lake stays around it.  This year, however, we aren’t going.  While my family’s absence may not be the largest protest in history, we’re demanding action.

Bad Music Confessions Part 1

I must apologize to all of my readers.  Granted given my limited reach that might be quicker if I did it in person, but I have space to fill.

I lied when stating that the only two major acts I actively sought out all new album releases for were Weird Al, and Alice Cooper.  There was another band I was an equal or greater fan of for a large portion of my life in the past.

Up The Lake: Parental Hike Part 2

Click here for Part 1

Extended swims had already thrown my allergies into crisis mode.  With the addition of the historic dust blowing into my face, I was blind from combinations of muddy tears and Olympic class eye boogers.  To add to the fun, my nose produced volumes of fluid normally only seen in the economy size beverages of a multiplex cinema.  One sharp corner that, once again in the grand tradition of Up the Lake nomenclature, had been referred to as the “turn by the yellow house” for generations, was summarily redubbed based on its proximity to “The Nose Blowing Tree.” 

DC Finds the Right Tone With a Wrong Crowd

After two dark and dismal showings of their icon of hope, DC finally found proof that the classic Superhero ideology extolling:

Every life is worthwhile

Most criminals have some redeeming values that make rehabilitation a possibility

Is viable by using some of its lesser known characters.

Granted, they found it using some of the nastiest, deadliest, most sociopathic, super villains of the DCU.

But hey, they found the fun that comics are supposed to have too, so …yay!

Up the Lake: Parental Hike Part 1

The Longish Walk

Or

The Dusty and Winding Road

Walking to the Three Mile Stand was an important and regular part of our childhoods Up the Lake.  Similar to most key memory making moments, it eventually and with some regularity turned into a way to force exercise on our children.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes through a Kid’s Eyes

Since I’ve been talking about mutants and apes recently, I should really get to the last Blu-ray available entry about these mutated apes before the next film comes out and I get behind on another franchise.

Up the Lake: Bugs Part 3

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 2

Other insect related adventures were also connected to a club.  This time, the location of the rocks was directly behind Nick’s kitchen.  For anyone wondering, how this qualified as “far from being viewed by wherever the parents are hanging out?”

We spent most of our time there during the day while everyone else was down the Lake.

The first order of business was deciding that this was going to be a club focused on nature…

No, I take that back.

Star Trek Beyond Expectations!

The training wheels are well and truly off the warp nacelles now.

Perhaps I better clarify before I mangle another metaphor.

Up the Lake: Bugs Part 2

Click Here for Part 1

Crickets heralded the coming of August.  Virtually no noise in July, then the tree tops sang for the whole next month, fading out when September dawned.  I wonder where they got tiny little calendars?

The August noisemakers were of the small black variety of that species.  Although there were even smaller black ones.

Who You Gonna Call...Now?

My daughter was more excited about seeing the new Ghostbusters than I was.   With other things going on at home, and “important” films being released before and after it, I wasn’t pushing for an opening weekend viewing. 

However, the idea of an all-female main cast in the traditionally male dominated realm of supernatural / superhero/ action movies appealed to my daughter enough that she pushed to see a “scary movie” in 3D as soon as it came out. Since the Horror/Comedy is my favorite genre, no nagging beyond the initial request was needed.

Up the Lake: Bugs Part 1

Insects Inside

or

Carloads of Creepy Crawly Critters

There were a great many of bugs with us Up the Lake.

Correction:  since we were in the woods without electricity, running water, or land clearing and gutting structures, there were a bunch of campers in the territory of a great many bugs Up the Lake.

While some could be a nuisance, due to bites, posse size, or general ickiness, most of us found a way to get used to them.  That isn’t to say our six legged co-habitants did not contribute to a near continuous stream of those “moments” which led to dinner conversations for years to come.  These are the conversations that reduce Up the Lake folks to hysterical laughter, and outsiders to nervous stares hiding the question, “You all really are insane, aren’t you?”

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Through a Kid’s Eyes

My daughter and I are in full agreement at not understanding why viewers are having a problem with this outing.

It has too many characters? 

Really?

Have you ever seen an X-men comic book?

Up the Lake: Animals Part 3

Click here to go back to Part 2

Or to start at Part 1

Another creature of the night that caused a few surprises was the raccoon.  Although usually content with hanging around just out of sight, ready to go for the garbage once the lights went out, raccoons have caused some stunning encounters, due almost entirely to bad timing.