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"RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN" ROCKS!

The other night, I flipped through the selections on Apple TV and couldn't find anything I wanted to watch until, by process of elimination, I settled upon "Race to Witch Mountain." Since the usual result of any process of elimination is crap, I didn't expect much.

"Race to Witch Mountain," however, is really enjoyable. Indeed, its spiritual mentors are more "Starman" and "Wavelength" than the original Disney versions of the story filmed in the late 1970s. If you liked either of those excellent movies, you'll love "Race to Witch Mountain's" wild ride.

The tightly constructed story includes a number of cameo appearances, including "Communion" author Whitley Strieber, "UFO Hunters" host William J. Birnes -- and Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who appeared in the original films.

I especially enjoyed the percussive music by Trevor Rabin.

 

JEFFERSON PARK IN CINEMASCOPE

via www.flickr.com

On Saturday, I mounted an anamorphic lens on a Nikon Pronea S APS camera and shot a few casual snaps of my neighborhood. The results were better than I expected. Because this anamorphic lens squishes the horizontal field of view by a factor of 1.5, I stretched the image back to normal proportions using Photoshop. This photo now has an aspect ratio of 2.58:1 -- or just a little more than the original CinemaScope ratio of 2.55:1. Sad to say, the Advanced Photo System negative exhibits a fair amount of grain even though it's only rated at ISO 200.

DOES JEWELS TECHNOLOGY SUCK OR WHAT?

I've mentioned before that when I buy a "pound" of ground beef at the Jefferson Park Jewels, it's seldom close to exactly one pound. Most of the time, I get 1.14 pounds or 1.22 pounds or something like that.

Employees in the meat department have confirmed to me that the Jewels ground beef arrives from a central location already weighed and packaged. True, if you select a cut of beef, they can and will grind it for you. I've done this a couple of times, but the meat department isn't staffed at all hours.

Anyway, today I received a order from Peapod and guess what? My one-pound of ground sirloin is exactly one pound.

My theory is that it would cost extra money for the Jewels High Command to reach Peapod's level of accuracy and they just don't want to bother with the expense.

Of course, there's always the opinion voiced by a Jefferson Park lady whom I engaged in a meat-counter convo not too long ago.

"I think they give you a little more so that when you cook away the fat, it comes out to a pound," she said.

"Yeah, right," said her companion. "I'll bet they just do it to make you to buy more."

SOYLENT FUCHSIA

via soylentfuchsia.com

It's really too bad that The Soylent Fuchsia Project didn't stick around for very long. It sounded like an intriguing idea. I wonder if this guy had Furniture Girls on site, too?

(Thanks to Leah Zeldes and DiningChicago.com for the linkage.)

DES PLAINES THEATER

Sent from my iPhone

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Podcasting Tonight

After work tonight, I'll be taking the Metra train out to Des Plaines (or, "Dog Patch," as the Park Ridge elite like to call it) to meet up with Leah and Dick so we can visit a restaurant. Not saying which one, since we always endeavor to venture forth anonymously.

Much of the fun is taking the train farther out than I usually do. I enjoy rail travel, no matter the distance.

 

 

Posted via web from lthanlon's posterous

LADIES, CONTROL YOUR HAIR!

Control Your Hair!, originally uploaded by chi_cowboy.

What is it with women and their hair on public transportation? This makes me want to take up bubble gum.

GPS ISSUES?

Using this iPhone app, I've never seen the accuracy any closer than 56 feet. Am wondering if there's something I'm doing wrong.

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from lthanlon's posterous