WeatherGirl’s Station

Enjoyable. A great family movie with wonderful scenery and intelligent, well-trained dogs. The plot may have been a little predictable but I enjoyed being along for the emotional ride. You’ll need to have your hankie with you when you watch this. The dogs rocked!

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… Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was the last event in the current season of the performing arts series.

This production was performed by the Aquila Theatre and was based on the book by
Robert Louis Stevenson and the life of American actor, Richard Mansfield. The production was stunning. The choreography of lighting, music, set design, and skillful acting was superb and it has got to be one of my favourite performing arts events. A great combination of hunour and drama.

If you get a chance to see this production, or the Aquila Theatre company, I highly recommend it.

Sub-evil Boy had the great good fortune to attend the Aquila Theatre company’s masterclass at the U earlier in the day and had a fantastic time. Many thanks to Jay Painter for making it such a great experience for our son!

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Gromit rules! Great romp and loved watching out for all the great visual jokes and puns. I think their full length features need to be 70 rather than 90 minutes as they get a little stretched in places. So glad to see them win their Oscar, loved the bow ties.

As for JK baulking at use of the word marrow, PA-LEEEZE. Does he really think American’s are so dumb they can’t work out what one is from the visual clue?

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Enjoyable. A fun family movie with my favourite Mr Darcy! You know it’s all going to come right in the end but it’s great to go along for the ride to see how it all works out. I feel rather sad for Nanny McPhee though.

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Given that I’ve only lived this side of the pond 16 years, I’m not doing so bad on my state tally. 70% and counting. Of the main land 48 I’ve really only missed the east coast.

create your own visited states map

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Brilliant. Everything a good movie should be; visually stunning, emotionally complex and has a great narrative drive. I expected the Capote mannerisms to bug me. They didn’t.

There is an image, at the beginning of this movie, that sums up the landscape, and perhaps the character, of the American mid-west. It was worth seeing this movie for that single image. Just blew me away.

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Disappointing. Flawed epic. I don’t understand why they even made this movie. Liked Kong. Wanted him to win. He was a much more interesting character than anyone else on the screen. As for his love interest, she needs a good smacking. Just how many seconds did she last till she ended up in the arms of another?

For a more in depth discussion of the movie check out Pharyngula’s blog and the comments of his readers in the article In which I Dwell on the flaws in King Kong

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Brilliant. You must see this movie. It is stunningly beautiful and emotionally complex. Who knew Heath Ledger was capable of such a sophisticated piece of work! Not just a pretty face after all. Jake Gyllenhaal was his usual great self. This film takes a long hard look at masculinity, what it is and how it it passed on (or one could say inflicted on) to the next generation. Heartbreakingly honest, it makes you want to shake society by the shoulders and scream, ‘what the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?’

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Attended the latest Cafe Scientifique in Morris last night,which has now moved to its new location at the Stevens County Museum. The speaker was Prof PZ Myers on “Why all the fuss about evolution?” The event was well attended and as well as learning more about science we raised money for local arts activities as Morris Area Art Boosters sold yummy homemade desserts.

PZ gave us a brief history of evolution and the creationist movement, plus an introduction to Intelligent Design. He took apart the main arguments in support of ID and used real world examples to illustrate why ID’s challenge to evolution just doesn’t cut the mustard. I especially liked the example of blood clotting. This is a process that IDers say is irreducibly complex and illustrates the existence of a ‘designer’. Very deftly, PZ demonstrated how it isn’t.

Congrats to PZ for such a great talk! Next up on the Cafe Scientifique schedule is a certain fellow unhinderbytalent blogger talking on, “Privacy, security, and cryptography: What happens to your credit card number on-line, and is that e-mail really from your boss?” The date for Phi’s talk is Tuesday 28th March, 6pm-8pm at the museum.

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I was startled to hear the news reports yesterday that Linda Smith had died. She was way to young and I shall miss the insightful way she talked about the world in which we live.

You’re probably thinking, who the heck is Linda Smith? Well, she was one of the funniest people in the universe. So amusing, in fact that she was voted the wittiest person by Radio 4 listeners in 2002. She’s one of the few comedians who would make me laugh so hard I cried. If you check out the BBC7 web site for past editions of The News Quiz, Just a Minute and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue perhaps you’ll get to hear her too.

Listen live this Friday at 12.30pm CST to BBC Radio 4 and you’ll hear a special tribute version of the News Quiz. If you can’t listen then it’ll be available via the Beeb’s listen again service after the Saturday repeat at 6.30am CST.

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