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Movie: The Door in the Floor
As rich with symbolism, loss, and irony as I’ve come to expect from John Irving adaptations. Once again I haven’t read the book, and I can sense that I’ve glimpsed only a piece of a broader tapestry woven into A Widow for One Year. As always there is some humor to help you along here,…
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Movie: La Femme Nikita (1990)
A strange movie for both Ann and I to choose to watch again. Maybe it’s the appeal of the unique combination of punk girl, hit man, and My Fair Lady-style transformation. Ann remarked that this is the first muscular female gun-toting heroine character she remembers. It was probably the prototype for many more to come.…
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The Gutbuster
It seems that the gutbuster was not my fate today, but that of my esteemed colleague Matt. I was curious to see how a gutbuster is made. The recipe appears to be two 12″ steamed tortillas overlapped a bit and stuffed with about four pounds of rice, beans, potatoes, carnitas, cheese, and salsa. Matt made…
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Ski Up Chief Mountain
Once again we head up Squaw Pass road to explore the ski trails near Evergreen. It’s a foggy, cold day, and we don’t expect much. We stop at small pullout by the road. Ann checks out the trail and gives it “snowshoes up”. After an hour and half of pretty, groomed trail, Ann turns around…
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Bouldering in Morrison
Morrison is a small but appealing spot proposed by our friends Dave and Lisa when the foothills look a little snowy for Eldorado Canyon. The south facing, overhanging sandstone faces catch the sun, turning a cold morning into a hot day. The spot is a little crowded, but the locals are so laid back and…
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My Bet
This will be the first superbowl ever that means something to me. If the sum of the scores of the game end in ‘3’ or ‘6’, I’ll have to attempt to eat a ‘gutbuster’ burrito from Big City Burritos, but I won’t have to pay for it. If not, I have to pitch in for…
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Book: The Loop / Joe Coomer
This is one of those books that inspires you to write a book. A couple of simple ideas, artfully combined, shed light on countless facets of life. Uncovering the history of a parrot, and patrolling the loop of highway around Ft. Worth. Of course there’s more, much more. Like all great books, much more than…
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Movie: Gorky Park
I found this to be a pretty cheesy melodrama. I wonder how much I was influenced by the dated 80’s soundtrack. The movie uses a format that may have inspired today’s CSI TV shows, rebuilding the crime as the investigators learn more. Maybe today’s higher gore tolerance and flashy special effects reduce some of the…
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Book: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse / Louise Erdrich
For me this book was like entering the state of waking up, when dreams and reality can mix, making the transition uncertain for a moment. This story looks at one side of something like that, then another, and then the strange place where the two mix. Man and woman, Indian and Catholic, love and pragmatism…
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Movie: Striptease
This is a really great, deep movie if only you decode the hidden meaning! Ha ha, just kidding. Despite some funny political satire and a gem of a performance by Burt Reynolds, this movie showcasing Demi Moore as a virtuous stripper is pretty darn bad.