Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok is a lot of fun. If you’ve watched any of the previous Marvel’s Avengers series of films you recall the love-hate relationship that developed between Thor and The Hulk. Everyone remembers the scene where Thor is smugly gloating about how well the two fought a group of aliens in New York before Hulk “smashes” Thor in the head (out of spite?).

Ragnarok expands on their relationship further after a series of unexpected family drama events leads Thor to a garbage planet (let’s call it New Jersey) where he must fight their champion, roman gladiator style. On first blush the film is all romp, humor and action with a tiny bit of plot. I have seen it described as a farce of a film, and that is a fair assessment. It is nice to see the two fighters of the Avengers doing what they do best without the smug Tony Stark or super-pure Steve Rogers involved.

This actually feels more like a summer blockbuster film than fall lead-in to Thanksgiving. But that’s not bad thing! The overall arc of the Marvel Cinematic Universe story is advanced a bit in the bonus scene post-trailer, and I enjoyed watching the CGI fighting. It’s like a 21st century comic book!

#nerdGoals

Yes, I ordered the iPhone X this morning at 1 AM Mountain time. Ugh, need more coffee.

iPhone X order
iPhone X order

And although I ordered just as soon as possible I still will have to wait until 10 November for it to be delivered, at the earliest. At least my LTE Apple Watch arrived ten days ago, so I have one shiny new geeky thing in the house… oh, and my employer purchased a new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar for me.

New MacBook Pro
New MacBook Pro

UPDATE: At some point today my delivery status updated to next Friday!

delivery update
delivery update

Resolute Brewing Company

I took my dogs to a new-to-me brewery in Centennial on Sunday, Resolute Brewing Company. They have been open almost exactly a year so far and feature a medium-size tap room with both a patio and extra tables in the grassy area next to the patio. It’s a nice setup and very dog friendly. There were already three other dogs when we arrived.

The beers were solid and the bartender was friendly enough, in fact he forgot to ring in my purchases initially so I had to inform his replacement what I consumed when I tabbed out!

Resolute is a bit of drive through busy areas of Denver and the DTC so I don’t know how often I will visit (have to navigate back home afterwards) but I will keep it in mind when looking for a change of pace.

Lucy On The Patio At Resolute Brewing
Lucy On The Patio At Resolute Brewing
The girls on the patio at Resolute Brewing
The girls on the patio at Resolute Brewing

Brawl In Cell Block 99

Brawl In Cell Block 99
Brawl In Cell Block 99

I watched Brawl In Cell Block 99 last Friday night at Alamo Drafthouse’s satellite Fantastic Fest event in Denver. The short plot summary for the film is “A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.” The summary leaves out the best part of the film, though: gruesome violence.

Vince Vaughn departs from his comic roles here as a former boxer who takes a job delivering drugs for a buddy. When a deal goes badly he ends up in prison and must make choices that are not that great. Any more details might spoil the plot. If you are squeamish or can’t handle gore and violence this film is not for you… the film was released unrated for a reason.

I was impressed by Vaughn’s acting abilities here and hope to see more of this type of role for him in the future.

Mother!

Mother! poster
Mother!

So. This film is not for everyone. Its symbolism will lose a lot of viewers and the allegorical references to the Bible and Christianity will put others off. It’s a wild ride and one of the few films I’ve seen in a long time that made me think about it over the ensuing few days.

Some of the characters are nuanced and others are clear-cut. Only Darren Aronofsky knows for sure who each of them represent — the audience is left to (hopefully) interpret his creation and decide for themselves.

Ingrid Goes West

Ingrid Goes West poster
Ingrid Goes West

Another great, quirky film starring Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen exploring the cult of online personality. Aubrey really conveys the zealous fervor of following an online persona and wanting to become friends in real life… until it all crashes down on her.

Highly recommended.

The Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017


Lindsay, Brad, dogs
Lindsay, Brad, dogs

Eclipse crescents

Anjia practiced safe eclipse viewing
Anjia practiced safe eclipse viewing
I had originally ordered a small “eclipse kit” from Amazon about a month ago. Other, smaller items, were listed as arriving after the eclipse on 21 August so I ended up with the package with four pair of eclipse glasses and a cheesy book.

I originally had planned to drive up to western Nebraska to be in the path of totality; unfortunately, a co-worker had already requested the day off so I needed to stay close to home/work.

Since I was going to be local for the eclipse I offered spare pairs of glasses to some of my neighborhood friends, Brandi and Lindsay. We ended up with an impromptu party at the park with our dogs, a fruit tray, cupcakes and iced coffee.

The dogs were bored, the people had a good time.

Georgia Pass 2017

I took the dogs hiking in Georgia Pass today.  The pass is about ninety minutes west of Denver on US 285.  We have hiked the area before but it is close enough to home to be an easy drive, especially with good weather.

Our target today was a ridge opposite Mt. Guyot that I have been unable to ascend in the past — a sprained ankle and impending thunderstorm prevented climbing it in the past.

At the top of the ridge we were at about 12,400 feet elevation.  Sadly the wildfires in the Pacific northwest were sending a large amount of smoke our direction which prevented the glorious views we would normally see.

I didn’t intend to hike more than five miles but once back at the truck my GPS app registered 7.6 miles.  Surprisingly both dogs handled the distance well, at least until Sunday morning when Lucy was sore and unable to walk more than a couple blocks.  She recovered by Monday, though.

 

Unfortunately on the drive back down the hill from the pass I hit a sharp rock on the gravel road and ended up with a flat tire.  The flat was complicated by the fact that Discount Tire decided to over-torque the lug nuts to the point where I literally twisted my lug wrench ninety degrees.  I was worried I would snap the top of it off and not have a means of tightening the lugs on the spare.

Needless to say on Monday morning I had a conversation with the guys at the tire shop about not torquing the lug so tightly.  I also picked up a heavy-duty lug wrench at AutoZone… hopefully I won’t have to test it out any time soon.

Break time
Break time

Colorado Trail marker shield
Colorado Trail marker shield
The ridge that we climbed
Near the top of the ridge
The view to the east
The view to the east
The last remaining snow
Mt. Guyot
Mt. Guyot
Exactly what you want to see after hiking for hours

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower

 

I loved Stephen King’s Dark Tower series of novels when I was younger.  I was excited to see an attempt at adapting them to the big screen and hoped that big-name actors such as Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey would end up presenting a good, if not great, film.

Unfortunately the studio, director and writers decided to cram as much of several of the books into a single 98 minute film.  Time was spent on details that would only please the hardcore book nerds at the expense of the overall story.  For example, there is a reference to the Crimson King but nothing is made of it.

I think the biggest mistake was trying to make the film the story of Jake, probably for the YA audience demographic, instead of focusing on Roland.  Other characters were missing (Oy, the billy-bummer) yet still alluded to.

If you had not read any of the Dark Tower series the film is not bad in itself.  It’s just not the story I grew up reading and that’s a difficult thing to ignore.

I’ll get over it.