Melinda and Melinda

After a shout out on John's blog and an extremely favorable review on Ebert and Roeper's Podcast, I decided it was time to stop passing up this latest Woody Allen pic and just see it already.

I've seen a great deal of Woody Allen's movies, and though his work has never been able to match the brilliance of Annie Hall (best picture 1977, gotta love Christopher Walken as the (surprise) creepy brother), most of his films have been good -- entertaining at least. Sleeper is another one of my favorites, and Crimes and Misdemeanors and Deconstructing Harry are very well written.

Allen's films all carry with them his worldview, something that makes them indisputably HIS. You will never mistake a Woody Allen pic for the work of another director.

I've always felt that I'm watching the work of a brilliant storyteller/filmmaker, even if his subject matter often leaves a bad taste. After each movie I feel a little disappointed that Allen did all that great writing and didn't actually say anything worthwhile. It's a little like reading Palahniuk.

Anyway, the premise of this movie is whether life at it's core is more fully a tragedy or a comedy. Melinda is the constant in both stories told by different storytellers -- one telling a comedic tale and the other a tragic tale. Remember Sliding Doors? Yeah, same premise...

It turns out that life is actually tragic, because neither story ends up being funny...But Will Ferrell is the male lead in the comedic, so that helps us keep the stories straight. It is a very amusing movie, even with the flawed premise -- Allen's writing is as strong as ever. The movie is worth the rental fee just to see Ferrell in a somewhat serious "comedic" role. Plus his Woody Allen impression is spot on.

I love this pic because you can see the great "footprints"

Photo Binge.

So we've driven past this stretch of beach about fifty times and wondered why there were always parked across the street. There doesn't seem to be anything special about this section of North Shore, actually it's a small section with more rocks than sand...nothing to look at.

But as we were following directions to "the beach where you can see the turtles" we slowly realized that this was where we were going..."Oh, that's why there's always people crowded around there." I say...everything falling into place.

I was relieved that there was one turtle there...wouldn't want to disappoint Lucas and hear him say, "Turtle, find 'em" for the next three days. We sat on the rocks and observed this quiet creature "basking" (as they say), and then we see a big rock in the water that looks like it's moving. It slowly creeps onto shore the waves sorta tossing it about and then uses the front flippers to edge up the beach (the way we've all seen on Discovery Channel, hazards of turtle egg hatching special). It was quite a treat.

Apparently, there is usually at least one turtle on this particular stretch of beach.

Turtles on North Shore

Just in case you were wondering

Close-up of turtle

Hmmm....why does everyone keep saying, "TURTLE?"

smile.

Big smile.

He is the Night Rider

Playground at night....Twinkle, Twinkle.

He's growing up...isn't he?

IT'S A BOY!!! AGAIN!

JoAnna, Lucas, and I piled into the car early this morning to drive into Honolulu to get our first ultrasound for this baby. We were both delighted to see our offspring (most importantly) was healthy (counting fingers/toes, watching heartbeat, looking into brain, checking face structure), but then wait, what was that between it's legs? I noticed before the tech said anything and looked at JoAnna, she didn't catch the glimpse. The tech looked at all three of us and said, "Well, it's definitely another boy!" High fives all around.

I guess this makes it sound like we wouldn't have been happy to hear we were having a girl, but that's not really the case. I've always wanted Lucas to have a brother...and I'm excited about having two boys under three. This means as the boys grow up they will be (depending on the state) they will be two years apart (1st/3rd, 4/6th) I like that division...close but not too close.

Can you tell I'm excited?