StumpTown Blog

Just a short post today. I started coaching my oldest son’s basketball league this week. Our first practice was Monday. Our team name is the Hyenas and a more apt team name was never given. I say that because 4 of the players are actual wild dogs, which really surprised me at first since dogs are not known for being good at team sports. Actually, it is because so far the thing the kids are best at is giggling like Hyenas. While that trait makes teaching the finer points of the “triple-threat” position somewhat challenging, I think it is great. My team appears to be made up of kids who are silly and fun-loving which, in my book, is exactly what you should be as a 7 year old. Of course, we could go the entire year having a great time and learning about being nice to your teammates and that playing sports can be fun and never win a single game, but something tells me this team’s fanbase would be alright with that. I know I would be and if you knew me when I was younger (and by “yo...

My blog squatters are back and since I am not confident I can hang with that kind of competition, I’m going to jump in earlier this time. Work picked up and blogging opportunities have escaped me, so here’s some of what you missed: 1. We all saw Jerry Seinfeld’s “The Bee Move”. I have tried to find time to sit down with my boys and write a review with them, but have not yet made that happen. So, before I get around to that and before it leaves the theater, let me say a couple things about the movie. First, go see it. It’s good and well worth seeing. From my family’s experience I would say kids 3-37, at least, would like it. Second, if you like Seinfeld, then you should really have already seen it, I mean, c’mon. Third, there is a line in the movie where the adolescent bee hero of the film is trying in vain to get his parents’ attention and says something to the effect of: “I could say anything right now couldn’t I? I think I’m going to get an ant tattoo. I think I’m going ...

The comedian Steven Wright, best known for his lack of enthusiasm, once said, "You know how it feels when you're leaning back on a chair, and you lean too far back, and you almost fall over backwards, but then you catch yourself at the last second? I feel like that all the time..." That’s how I felt for about 2 hours watching “No Country for Old Men.” The villain in this movie is so mysterious and disturbing, so unpredictable except in his creepy, emotionless, homicidal determination, that this movie keeps you off balance and unsettled from the opening scene to the last. No matter what is happening on screen, there is a sense that at any moment, you may see something you wish you hadn’t, and that's just the villain’s haircut. “No Country for Old Men” is the latest movie from Joel and Ethan Cohen who are without a doubt my favorite film makers. Their credits include Raising Arizona (one of the top 3 funniest movies of all time. I will not argue about this), O Brother W...

What if you could take Scarface, mix it with New Jack City and do it all with the style and thoughtfulness of the Godfather? You would have a transcendent movie. It would take huge stars that can really act to pull that off. You would need people like Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. You would need a story like that of real life drug lord Frank Lucas. You would need American Gangster. Many of my very favorite movies are gangster films like The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Untouchables. From the cast and the previews and what I knew of the real story, I really thought American Gangster had a shot to join these movies in that elite class of organized crime classics. Sadly, it fell well short. It was, by no means, a terrible movie, it just wasn’t anything special and when you consider the potential it was certainly a disappointment. Basically, this movie was the big screen version of HBO’s shamefully ignored series “The Wire.” It copied the characters, the set up and even the basic ...

....is RedBull and Vodka. You should never have that much energy when you are that dizzy. For that matter, I don't think you should ever intentionally be that dizzy, but I know opinions differ on that. RedBull and Vodka narrowly beat out straight gasoline for this year's most dangerous drink prize. The judges said that it was because RB and V tastes like a liquid sweettart thus enticing people to drink more than one, while Gasoline still tastes like gasoline, even if you have it "on the rocks." Just thought you should know. On the other hand. If you have ever thought it would be fun to run a marathon while slamming into things like walls and trees, then I strongly recommend the world's most dangerous drink.

My oldest starts in his first official hoops league next month. They had evaluations last week. It was a great Dad moment that I feel like sharing in the off chance I haven’t already told you this story. ( WARNING : this post contains obnoxious parental bragging. Some content may not be suitable for nonrelatives). A friend at work recommended that we try the “Upwards” basketball league for my 7 year old son. (Warnings about using the names of young children on the internet have led me to decide not to refer to my kids by name anymore so I’m going with G1 and G2 from now on.). Upwards is apparently a national Christian basketball league. It was described as very positive and well organized and for kids sports leagues, that is music to parents’ ears. Last week I took G1 in to get measured for a uniform and to do evaluations. Every kid in the league goes through an evaluation and then the coaches hold a secret draft in an attempt to get the teams as even as possible. The evaluation was ne...

Thank you for blogsitting. My response to your comments can be found in the comments section that you guys have been running back and forth like your own ping-pong match of wackiness. Very enjoyable read. Thank you.

Quick post today. My Dad went to see his oncologist today after his latest CT scan. Because things looked good before, he has not had a scan in 3 months which seemed like a long time to be honest. Well, it is all good news. The doctor reports that there are no new spots or lesions and that the existing tumors are shrinking. My Dad will not have to increase his dosage of the drug he is taking which would bring with it new and unwelcomed side effects, so this was the best possible news. He will have another ct in 3 months. Over all, he continues to deal with some side effects from taking the drug, but they are relatively minor and in general, my Dad is doing quite well. Thank you to all who have been keeping him in your prayers. I know it has made a difference. God is good all the time.

• There is a new smoking tax on the ballot for voters under Oregon’s awful (don’t get me started) ballot initiative process which was created by people who apparently believe that people with no legal training, no way of understanding context, no conceivable way to become informed, who are astonishingly responsive to mainstream advertising and mostly apathetic about social policy are the best people to craft legislation for the state. (Oops, I guess I got started….) Anyway, there is a new tobacco tax up for vote and the campaign against it absolutely kills me (not like smoking would kill me, but still…). I mean the PR firm charged with defeating that initiative is fighting an uphill battle to be sure, but what they’ve come up with defines “lame.” Basically, the only people on their side is a diminishing pool of smokers, many of whom don’t actually vote. Everyone else will likely fall into two camps: (1) I’m not sure why we should be taxing the bejeezus out of cigarettes, but hey m...

My lovely wife and I had a rare date night at the movies with some friends of ours Friday night and we decided to see Michael Clayton. I’m sure the fact that we encouraged our wives to choose the movie and this one happened to star George Clooney is a complete coincidence….. MC was written and directed by Tony Gilroy who wrote the 3 Bourne movies and a few others before, but that resume piece alone was enough for me to be interested in this movie. Plus, I like Clooney. He’s a good actor and, as one of my blog buddies mentioned in a comment on this blog, he seems like the kind of guy who would be fun to hang out with even if he was much, much cooler than everyone else. The movie stars Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack. I have to say first that I think the title was an inspired choice. You don’t name a movie someone’s mundane first and last name unless you are making a movie about a real person. There are exceptions, but the movie-going public is trained to expect a movie ...

This past Sunday’s guys’ night out movie was “We Own the Night” written and directed by James Grey who is best known for having an exceedingly common name. Soon he will be known as they guy who made this movie, but to date I can’t really think of much that he’s done. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Marky Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall. My favorite thing about the cast in this movie is the preview where it says “Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg, Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix, Academy Award winner Robert Duvall and….Eva Mendes” Too bad for her. You have to hate it when you’re cast with a bunch of great actors and you find out marketing is going with the whole “look how many academy award winners we have” and you’re the only one without a nod. I think Eva should fire her agent immediately. I doubt it is at all his fault, but I think that’s how things like that get handled in Hollywood. Before we continue with our regularly scheduled review, I have to ask, what’s w...

I was just reading a rant from the wife of one of the sports writers I read regularly. The writer is the Sports Guy who writes for ESPN.com and his wife writes a weekly rant in his football picks column. Anyway, she was going off this week about how she is sick of the show Grey’s Anatomy. Lost in her diatribe about various celebrity couples was a really underrated point about the entertainment world and celebrity worship. She explained that since finding out about the actors’ personal lives in the tabloids, she finds their performances less believable or is distracted by what she knows about the actors. I think we can officially call this “Tom Cruise Syndrome.” Cruise had, for years I’m sure, been a complete whackjob. I’m sure that years before he was jumping on Oprah’s couch, he believed crazy things and had mixed up values and everything that he gets demonized for now. The only difference is that we didn’t know it about him. He had carefully protected his private life and so ...

Here is my younger son's reaction to his first official school field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Horrified onlookers report that just prior to this picture, you could hear him mumbling angrily "don't make me angry, you won't like me when I'm angry." Also, for anyone reading this that might care, there is a new sports post about the Blazer game Gibson and I attended last night over on my sports blog.

My wife and are planning to attend the Zoe conference in Fresno in January. Anyone else who reads this thinking about going? I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to get to meet some of you in person. Why is it that whenever I get injured playing sports, people always tell me I should stop playing sports? I bruised my ribs playing basketball last night and today people at the office keep saying things like “time to give up contact sports” or “aren’t you getting too old for that?” or “you play basketball? Really? You? Hahahahahahahaha” Other than that last response, I don’t get it. I love basketball. I love the pushing and shoving and grabbing and biting and that’s just at the drinking fountain between games. I hurt in some way every time I play and that’s just part of it. Why would I give this up? I mean, people may wish I would so they wouldn’t have to play with me, but I’ve never been that big on granting other people’s wishes. Portland decided it needed another par...

I will confess that I like watching TV. For fiction, I prefer TV and Movies to books. I know that makes me shallow and brainless and so on, but I felt it better to just come clean from the outset. That said, my schedule doesn’t really allow me to watch a ton of TV (though my wife begs to differ), especially if you don’t count sports, but I’m sure this post will have you thinking otherwise. One more qualifier. TV, Movies and Music are creative, artistic endeavors (mostly) and like all of them, their quality or value is to some degree (not as much as people think, but some) subjective. So, I know that it is very likely that I will hate something that you love. I also know that this offends people. So, please understand that I mean no offense and in spite of my forceful opinions, we can still be friends if we disagree about whether a movie like Fever Pitch is worth watching. Anyway, enough qualifiers. I plan to watch more than I ever end up watching at least in part because fr...

Just got a very good question from faithful blog reader and cherished StumpTown friend Peggy in the comments to my post about movies. She asked for advice in selecting music for a road trip so I thought I would offer the following. I try to follow these simple rules when preparing road trip music. I hope they help. 1. The Radio station rule – try to find as many songs or artists that grab your ear when you are surfing through the radio. There are always those songs that, no matter how many times you’ve heard them, just click with you to the point that it is physically impossible to change the radio station when you hear this song playing. Those songs are like 3 minutes of your musical soul mate. The more of those songs the better. I just compiled a CD of such songs which include: a. I love Rock ‘n Roll – Joan Jett (that’s right, so what?) b. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen c. Kodachrome (sp?) – Paul Simon d. Me and Julio down by the school yard (not the real name) – Paul Simon e. ...

If you have been thinking recently that you are in desperate need of someone to tell you which movies and new TV shows you should like, this is the blog post for you. I’m going to basically dump my thoughts on some of the movies I have seen most recently and then add a brief review of the new shows I’ve managed to see this year thanks to the beauty and power of the DVR. Movies I basically see three categories of movies. 85% of the movies I see are with a group of my guy friends on Sunday nights. We have sort of a men’s movie night where we see movies that likely appeal mostly to men. That means we see a lot of shooting, explosions and slow-motion action shots and are kept current on all the latest and best fart jokes. It also means we don’t see any movie with a woman’s name in the title, no Drew Barrymore or Julia Roberts (is she still alive?) and we also avoid movies that would be better suited for dates with our wives or nights out with the whole family. Roughly 10% of the movi...