Atticus

But I'm not complaining. This is the Star Wars movie I needed. I think the fans who were burned by the prequels needed a straight-up nostalgia trip to restore faith, and Star Wars has always relied on recurring themes, images, and motifs (especially those involving fathers/sons and lost hands). Abrams has certainly pressed all the right pleasure centers, managed to stay true to the personalities of Han, Luke, and Leia, and managed to skillfully introduce new characters that we care about and will learn to love as much as that original trio. Perhaps a nostalgia trip, despite its limitations, is the perfect way to transition into a new cycle. And now that we've put the transition behind us, we have all the right pieces in place for the next entry, which can operate freely and hopefully innovate beyond simply recycling memories to re-assure fans that Star Wars doesn't suck anymore.

Very much agree with all of this.  I teared up more than once in this movie, and it's because I just left all my grown-up stuff at the door and sat in that theater like a kid and enjoyed the ride.  It was fantastic.  

 

Those echoes are fun, but it also prevents the movie from soaring as its own new story that can surprise and thrill on its own terms.

I'm grateful I didn't have this perspective while watching the movie (and it seems to be a fairly wide-shared opinion/view).  I thought the familiar plot devices were cleverly done and sort of homage-ish, and I felt like I was seeing a new story at the same time.

Because of how unengaging I found the prequels, I was fully expecting to struggle with adapting to new characters, but I became invested in all the new people.  That was a huge hurdle for Abrams and I think he excelled.  

Yeah

Exceeded every expectation I had and was brilliant in every way. Abrams is a cod damn hero.

I don't know that this was ever resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Any fun trips planned for summer break?

All good stuff. My only advice on parenting a baby, take it or leave it, is don't be afraid to spank her. You need to show who's in charge right out of the gate. Especially those first few months. Crucial.

"The gate"

I've also started wearing my bi-focals more regularly because it improves my vision, apparently.

 

I totally forgot to response to this part of your post, my apologies.  I started wearing glasses sometime earlier this year while at work and it really seems to help, what with all the time reading docs and looking at screens and doing lawyer things.  I guess we're getting older.  

good luck on the shrink hunt. 

I had a rib injury in December of 2008 which landed me in the hospital (it was slightly exacerbated by my having a .38 blood alcohol level upon arrival).  No fun. Be careful with those stairs, dude/bro.  

I have been mostly working on compartmentalizing my god-forsaken job so that I can maximize the brilliance of every available second with my baby girl.  I've learned that everyone seems to have an opinion about parenting and that I am free to ignore them instead of reacting to them, so that's an improvement.  Gram continues to wow and entertain me on a consistent basis, which is fantastic.  Other than that I just try to steal some guitar time when it's available (typically when Ellie is asleep or actively playing with another devotee in the house).  

You going to see this new Star Wars thing?

How's it going?

--Poon

Rudy's has a great sauce. Love that place. Good sausage.

As someone with 2,404 days sober, I would just throw in the ideas that addiction is a progressive disease and addicts are brilliant liars and manipulators by necessity. I don't think it's fair to second guess a person's motive for entering a marriage and/or what that person knew or should have known about the horrendous potential of her future spouse's spiritual and mental illness(es).

Watched second season of Broadchurch Sunday and Monday nights. Pretty excellent but it's still hard for me to understand some of the dialogue at times.

A while back we turned on closed captioning for everything we watch, and it's been particularly helpful for shows like that. Also allows us to play shows at non-deafening levels.

If Ted Cruz is elected president we need to have another civil war.

Agreed

Man, you guys are quick to kill.

1. Not sure what group you've decided to throw me in with "you guys"

2. Don't have a gun in the house, haven't lived in a home with a gun in it since leaving for college in 1990.

3. Have spent zero time thinking about killing an intruder in my home until reading this thread and considering how I'd feel under several different hypotheticals.

4. Have no desire to kill anyone.

5. Have no gun "fetish," spend zero time thinking about guns. Too busy thinking about guitar pedals.

6. I have no problem with someone risking death as a part of the social contract if he or she decides to put the lives of children at risk by breaking into a home with a weapon in tow.

That's easier to say than to live with. Good news is you won't have to. This terrible story about intruders and your loved children is exactly the same one gun advocates keep imagining over and over.

I don't keep a gun in our house but I would live with myself just fine if I killed an intruder in order to protect my baby. This is not an intellectual exercise, it is a genetic, evolutionary impulse.

"Whom"

If you come into my house with a weapon and my baby girl is there, I have no moral or ethical issue with you getting dead.

Why should they be different?

I can't really blame the audience. This was an unadvertised set by an unrecognizable artist whose gears was dicked over to the side of Jeff's set up (which was odd)) and they played really snoozy material in my opinion.

I guess there are two mindsets on this issue. I would absolutely blame the audience, taking into account all of the factors you mentioned. It's just bad manners.

I have never understood the idea of going to a musical performance and ignoring the performer in favor of talking. Based on decades of attending shows I'm clearly in the minority and I do my best to ignore it, but the girl who rushed the stage during Tweedy's set--based on the descriptions above--should have been thrown out. In a perfect world, literally.

Two Guys Named Jay: The Jeff Tweedy Story

How I Crawled Out Of The Ashes of Uncle Tupelo: Jeff Tweedy's Life and Times

I Will Never Let Jeff Lynne Ruin My Band: My Life In Music

9.9

Yikes

No one mentioned censorship until you brought it up.

That's true. I agree with you.

You had made a point about a Wilco message board and Wilco recording Woody Guthrie songs and irony and fascists (it went: "(ironic that we're on a Wilco message board - Wilco having recorded songs by Woody Guthrie - Woody wasn't a big friend of fascists.)"), and I was making a whole new, somewhat parallel point about a Wilco message board and Wilco recording Woody Guthrie songs and irony and censorship (it would have gone something like this if I had phrased it differently: "(ironic that we're on a Wilco message board - Wilco having recorded songs by Woody Guthrie - Woody wasn't a big fan of censorship.)")

I'm sorry for causing any confusion. I will bow out now.

i am not sure what other message boards you participate in, but it sounds like fantasy land if those bolded parts are true. message boards are not democracies.

As my notice stated, my comment was not a judgment on the moderation of this site. I thought it was an interesting point in juxtaposition to the citation to Guthrie, who had some strong feelings about censorship.

(ironic that we're on a Wilco message board - Wilco having recorded songs by Woody Guthrie - Woody wasn't a big friend of fascists.)

Notice: The following post is in no way a criticism of the moderation of this forum, only a reminder of its terms of use:

A Wilco message board that censors content, prohibits by rule any criticism of the moderation of the site, provides the members no input on who moderates the site and bans members permanently without recourse and without input or approval from the membership.