CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Holy sacred cow, what a hilarious movie! I’ve never seen Da Ali G Show nor the character of Borat created by Sacha Baron Cohen (other than in all the ads for this film). We went to go see it tonight based on the universally positive reviews, coupled with the hilarity of the clips in the ads and talk shows, and the film definitely lived up to, and even exceeded, our expectations. To put it into context, we walked out of this movie and I immediately got on the phone with my friend Bruce to tell him to go see this film. I can’t remember the last time I did that, if ever, and Bruce is my movie-watching-hermano to whom I would NOT make such a recommendation lightly.

Borat (the film) is smartly dumb and dumbly smart, whereas Borat (the character) is a Frankenstein’s monster amalgamation of Christianity, Islam, Judaism (…NOT!), Eurasian, nomad, disco dancer, sex machine, journalist, pilgrim, and tabula rasa. The parts don’t fit together well, but through the sheer force of his laserlike dumbness, Borat manages to orchestrate his many facets into a compellingly hilarious and sympathetic whole.

I’m struggling in this review not to give away plot points and gags, as they should be experienced without preamble, but suffice it to say that I don’t believe there is a single major taboo that is not broken, nor a single demographic group that is not mocked in this film. And mocked effectively. Borat holds a mirror up to “America”, to our faults and to our greatness, and the dissection is as painful to watch as it is revelatory and uproarious. The theater literally screamed with laughter during the vast majority of the film, and there were times when I had to simply look away as my sensibilities couldn’t take any more, and I’m a pretty jaded, worldly, not-easily-offended movie-goer.

Almost lost in the film is the absolutely pitch-perfect portrayal of Borat by Cohen. Cohen reaches Spinal Tap levels of believability, where you easily forget that what you are seeing is a double fake-out…a mock documentary about a completely fictional character. When Borat and his producer scream heated gibberish at each other, I don’t know what they are saying, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with what’s being portrayed by the English subtitles, and it’s probably some amalgamation of nonsense and Hebrew (Cohen is Jewish), but it sure *sounds* like what I, as an ignorant American, would expect a Kazakstani to sound like.

Just to be clear about this review and film, I’m not the arrested-adolescent type who laughs at crude jokes simply because I find them funny. Borat is the offensive joke as an art form and as social commentary. If you go see this film, and you should, be prepared to be horrified and disgusted and to laugh yourself to tears and to walk out wiping your eyes and having conversations about human nature, bigotry, international relations, and poop.

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We recently moved to Brenham from big, old Houston, and quickly found this place. We’ve gone there for lunch several times in the week or so that we’ve been here, and have found it to always be fresh, friendly, and delicious. One time the line was a bit long for us, but we were time-constrained or we would have stayed and eaten in spite of the wait.

So far I’ve focused on the french dip, and boy do they make it right. Freshly toasted/grilled bread, juicy, tender roast beef, delicious melted cheese…yum! One minor complaint is that they serve only chips, not fries, but that’s just quibbling. We’ve also had pies, soups, salads, and other assorted menu items, and all have been just great. Plus it has a charming ambiance and just a great all-around karma.

We actually hesitated to go there, thinking it might be a tourist-trap type restaurant feeding of the Blue Bell Creamery Tour crowd, but they aren’t. Well, they might certainly be servicing that crowd, but they’re not doing it with sub-standard, over-priced goods – they’re doing it with fresh, delicious, reasonably priced, wonderful offerings. We only wish they were open more often, because we’d go all the time!

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We’re in the process of buying a new house, selling our existing one, and moving. Combine this with our always-hectic work schedules and we’ve been up to our eyeballs in things to do for quite a while. We decided to take a respite from the storm and stopped off at the Alamo Drafthouse at West Oaks Mall to see Beerfest. For those who don’t know the Alamo Drafthouse, it’s a theater where they serve you food and drinks, including alcohol, at your seat before and during the film. A couple of cold beers and a Broken Lizard laugh-fest were just what we needed in the middle of our busy weekend.

Beerfest isn’t quite up the standard set by Super Troopers, but it’s still funny as hell, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The story is about two brothers who help their grandmother run a restaurant in the US. Their grandmother (Cloris Leachman) is a German immigrant, and the boys are of stout, beer-drinking German stock. The boys are charged with taking their dearly departed grandfather’s ashes back to Germany to be laid to rest in the traditional place, which turns out to be a super-secret beer-Oympics called BeerFest, which takes place in Munich during Oktoberfest but is attended only by the kegnoscenti.

The boys end up being humiliated by their German kin, and vow to return the following year to exact their revenge. They use the year to assemble and train a team of great beer drinkers, made up of the usual Broken Lizard crew.

As you may imagine, R-rated hilarity ensues. There are a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, and just enough plot to keep things interesting. There’s nothing too deep here, but the whole purpose of this film is to make you laugh and keep you engeged for 90 minutes, and it does that very well. We really liked Super Troopers and The Dukes of Hazzard, and haven’t yet seen Club Dread but plan to very soon, if for no other reason than completism (all are part of the Lizard ouvre).

So, BeerFest is good fun, Broken Lizard continues to get more interesting, and we can’t wait to see what they do next. I’m not sure if the hint about their next movie that appears at the end of BeerFest is on the up-and-up, but if it is it looks to pretty damn funny as well.

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So we went to see The Descent on Friday, after much hemming and hawing on what to see. Also on our radar were Miami Vice, Clerks II, and Talledega Night. We decided on The Descent, and the most convenient showtime was the 7pm at the Cinemark Tinseltown on 290. Note that we almost walked out of the theater, not due to the quality of the film but because since we were last at this particular theater it has decayed into a smelly, frayed, unpleasant venue, and we won’t be returning.

The film, however, was scary, tense, and very good. There’s nothing really deep here, although there are some serious plot developments unrelated to the overarching storyline. The gist of the story is that five women go a-spelunking and discover two things: a) catfighting is always popular with the multiplex masses and b) it sucks to be trapped in an uncharted cave system with beings who:

• Appear to be an evolutionary offshoot of humans.
• Hunt by sonar, like a bat.
• Are blind, supposedly due to evolving in caves, but they also hunt on the surface, so WTF?
• Can dodge swung pickaxes, even though they are blind.
• Can’t sense heat, as they can walk within six inches of a human body (or flaming torch) and not sense it.
• Have no sense of smell or touch, as they can stand on top of a human body, and not feel or smell that it’s not the rock floor of a cave (I guess these women all have 0% body fat and don’t use any personal care products?).
• The survival skills of mutant cave humans are no match for an angry Asian woman, who kicks their ass in a fair fight, presumably using the innate fighting ability that Hollywood imbues into all Asian characters.

But idiotic plot holes don’t matter in a film like this. Please understand that in spite of the above list, this film is actually more intelligent than most Hollywood films I’ve seen in the last few years, which is sad. However, this film isn’t about logical integrity, it’s about claustrophobia, paranoia, compound fractures, puncture wounds, eye-gouging, rock-climbing, chimney-falling, and mutant-fighting.

This film was originally released in the UK in 2005, and I’ve heard that version had a different ending. I’m there will inevitably be a DVD with all the alternate endings, and I’ll probably get it just to see the director’s original ending, which one presumes is different from the ending required by Hollywood before distributing it to the US masses. That last part is conjecture on my part, but please, you know it’s right, don’t you?

Intact, however, is the excellent mood and feeling of tension the film creates. I’ve always known that I would never be a caver, but this film cemented that decision. There are many shots of tight squeezes and near-falls, sheer face climbs and dangling traverses, all of which look and feel completely real, as if they are taking place in a dank, dark cave system. The stuntwork and special effects are completely seamless, and there aren’t any forehead-slapping obvious moments of special-effects-trickery, continuity-lapses, or physics-defying-tricks. The film is not about supernatural events, and keeps things fairly realistic, once you suspend your disbelief enough to accept the basic storyline.

So overall this was a good, tense, scary film, and was worth seeing. I will reiterate that the Tinseltown theater on 290 is now basically a cesspool and we will not be returning to that venue unless there is a dramatic facelift or change in ownership or something.

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Iron Mountain Resort and Marina
134 Iron Mountain Marina Drive
Arkadelphia, Arkansas 71923

For reservations call:
(870) 246-4310 in state
(800) 243-3396 out of state
http://www.iron-mountain.com/

This is the second summer that we’ve vacationed at the Iron Mountain Resort on DeGray Lake just west of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. We discovered Iron Mountain last summer, when we had originally scheduled a vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama, but Hurrican Dennis caused us to change our plans at the very last minute. We were driving from Houston to Indianapolis so needed something that was roughly on the way, and we knew we wanted to swim and spend time in the sun, so figured that a lake would work. Plus, other than the Gulf Coast (threatened Dennis) there isn’t really any other options for swimming between Houston and Indianapolis other than inland lakes/rivers.

So we furiously researched lakes located in the states between TX and IN, and we started with the overly optimistic goal of finding one in which we could snorkel. Searching for snorkeling in Arkansas is what lead us to DeGray Lake, based on an article about some club that snorkeled there to observe wildlife. Note: although we found DeGray Lake by searching on snorkeling, we found that it was too opaque and weedy to be any fun snorkel-wise, so we do not recommend it as a snorkeling destination, but we loved it anyway!

Once we started focusing on DeGray Lake we then started looking for accomodations. The only place with any availability was Iron Mountain, so although I’d love to say that our careful research discovered this gem, it was simply fate playing a hand.

So that’s how we found Iron Mountain last year, and we enjoyed it so much we went back this year, too. Both years we stayed in a two-bedroom, two-bath cabin, but calling it a “cabin” isn’t really accurate. One bedroom has a king size bed, the other has two full-size beds. Both bedrooms have private bathrooms/showers, as well as sliding glass doors that open to the back deck. The back deck is private and includes a hot tub and spans the length of the cabin. There’s also an open living room/dining area/full kitchen in the cabin, with pots, pans, dishes, silverware, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc, so you can stock up on food and cook for yourself if you want.

There’s also TVs with satellite channels in the master bedroom and living room, and the living room also has a DVD player and VCR. So all in all, not exactly “roughing it” as you might infer from calling it a “cabin”.

And as nice as the cabin is, our focus is the lake and boat. We rent a 29′, hard-topped pontoon boat when we’re there, which has an amazing amount of room, a stereo, and the hard top roof is load-bearing with a ladder, so you can climb up on it to sun yourself or to jump the 8′ or so down into the lake. That’s basically what we did. All day. Every day. Jump off the roof of the boat into the lake. And, damn, was that fun. The console also has a standard 12v cigarette lighter socket, which allowed us to plug in our radio adapter for our iPod and listen to our own tunes the whole time. Sweeet!

The Jumping Family!

Also, the folks that run the Iron Mountain lodge, and the folks that work there, are just about as nice as you could ask for. They remembered us from last year, and were always pleasant, helpful, friendly, and efficient. So, we love Iron Mountain and DeGray lake, and highly recommend it as a family destination. Many of the cabins are adjoining, with doors that can be opened, so it would be perfect for a family gathering, too, and we’re thinking about trying to arrange one. Also, they have conference facilities for business off-sites, as well. And, the biggest bonus of all, no cell/BlackBerry coverage, and no Internet connectivity, so while we’re there we are *completely* unplugged from work. And that makes for a *perfect* vacation!

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So we went to see The Devil Wears Prada and it was really good. Meryl Streep gives yet another amazing performance as the head of the world’s most influential fashion magazine. She plays the character as a cross between Cruella de Ville, Vito Corleone, and Margaret Thatcher. The movie is very biting and very funny. I’m not sure I’m 100% on board with the message, but I’m at least 75% there.

The movie tells the tale of a young, earnest, pretty, smart, normal-sized girl (Size 6, maybe?…normal-sized by Hollywood standards is what I mean). She shows up for an interview for a low-on-the-totem-pole clerical opening at the world’s leading fashion magazine, specifically the assistant to the assistant to the editor in chief. The girl is very well played by Anne Hathaway (who?), and she holds her own on-screen with heavyweights La Streep and Stanley Tucci. Her character knows nothing about the fashion world and is confused by the seriousness and reverence with which the fripperies of style are looked upon by the priestesshood.

Of course, that’s where the movie starts. By the middle she has moved up to be Streep’s characters right hand gal, and becomes a starry-eyed true believer, hypnotized by the power and beauty of being in the upper echelons of the fashion world.

This being Hollywood, of course, she comes to her senses by the end and goes back to her standard-Jetta-commercial-issue boyfriend, leaves the fashion world behind, and seems to content to be an earthbound girlfriend of a wannabe-chef.

The part I’m on board with is leaving the cutthroat world of high fashion behind. But the part I’m not on board with is going right back to her starter-life with her zero boyfriend. It doesn’t help that the film doesn’t really capture any chemistry between the two.

But, this is really Ms. Streep’s film. She doesn’t chew up the scenery, she simply gives it withering looks until it self-destructs in self-defense. Her character is fully realized and completely unredeemable. She sacrifices everything (family, love, happiness) to maintain her iron grip on the helm of the fashion world, and it is her example that first dazzles Hathaway’s character, and then ultimately educates her into the true cost of “success”. That is a point with which I am very much on board – sacrificing everything for professional success is like making sure you have the largest, most impressive bucket of air. It doesn’t matter how big or fancy or jewel-encrusted or rare it is, it’s still just a container filled with nothing.

I’ll take a houseplant in a terra cotta planter, made with happiness and love, any day of the week.

That’s all.

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Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro

1221 W 11th St

Houston, TX 77008

(713) 426-2750

http://www.dragonbowlbistro.com/

Dragon Bowl Asian Bistro is a new restaurant at the edge of the Heights, at the intersection of N. Shepherd and 11th. We’ve been watching them build out the space for it in the strip center and have been anxiously awaiting the opening of another nearby food choice. It finally opened recently and today we finally made it in to try it out.

All three of us got bowls, and they were pretty good. Mine was shrimp, vermicelli, assorted veggies in a citrus sauce and it was quite tasty. I had steamed dumplings as an appetizer and they were okay. The rest of the group liked their food as well, but there were no raves.

There were two issues that detracted from the dining experience. The first is that we waited over 30 minutes from the time of our order until the food was ready. I can understand that a new kitchen won’t operate at peak efficiency for a while, but that seemed a bit overlong for the simplicity of what we ordered.

The second issue was that the menu had been pared down quite a bit to match what the new kitchen was capable of producing, but even the reduced menu was overstating what they could deliver. I first ordered the tempura shrimp appetizer, and was told they weren’t currently making that. I then ordered the fried dumplings and was told they could do steamed but not fried, which didn’t make any sense to me as the obviously had the dumplings to steam and their open kitchen showed plenty of woks with oil for frying.

There were also a lot of grumbling, unhappy patrons waiting around for their food. The place is pretty small so some of them tried to engage us in the camaraderie of their shared conversation about how slow the place was, but we were giving the kitchen the benefit of the doubt seeing that it was so new, and demurred from joining into the dis-fest.

However, I will say that I agreed with their opinions, even if I felt it impolite to blather them about a small restaurant within earshot of the busy crew working in the open kitchen. Having been peripherally involved in the restaurant business I can say that their kitchen is both overstaffed and overslow, and a single well-trained chef with maybe one assistant could have produced all the food much faster than the 4-5 people they had bouncing around back there like pinballs.

The bottom line was that the food and prices were at just about the right place for us to keep Dragon Bowl on our radar, so we plan to check back after they’ve had time to work out the kinks. But for now we’re not paitent enough to beta-test this new restaurant.

Update 8/22/2006

We went back to DBAB today for lunch, and there was much improved efficiency in the preparation and delivery of the food. The menu is still quite sparse, and while the ingredients are very fresh and plentiful, they still don’t quite have the….pizzaz…to put this place higher up in our rotation. We’re rooting for them, because they’re convenient and use good ingredients, and we’re crossing our fingers that they get it all together and become successful before the money runs out.

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4/6/2006

Today is the first day of our quest to install HardiPlank siding on our house. We aren’t going to actually do the installation, but we will be identifying local contractors, putting out for bid, hiring someone, managing the process, and posting the progress here along the way. Currently I’m looking for recommendations for a local HardiPlank contractor in Houston, so if you’ve had some work done by somebody you’d like to recommend, please drop me a line at [email protected]!

Our current siding is in sad disrepair. There are several rotten places and several places with loose boards, and it just looks crappy in general. We’ve wavered at the cost of HardiPlank, but have determined that it’s a worthwhile investment. We don’t want to simply replace with wood siding, as we’d still have all the potential rot/termite problems of wood, and vinyl is just…well…vinyl. It seems like the high-end vinyl isn’t bad, but it’s still just…vinyl siding.

Today marks the first day of our quest because we have made all the necessary decisions and lined up the means to do so. We have been pondering it for quite some time, but today is the day we really start the process of getting new siding. Keep tuned here for updates!

6/12/2006

We’ve narrowed down the potential contractors and this week they’re coming out to measure and provide estimates. We’re looking at the following potential contractors:

• All-Tex Exteriors
• Allied Siding and Windows
• Houston Siding

These seem to be the most well-recommended in the Houston area. Several years ago we got a quote from All-Tex but at the time it was cost-prohibitive, we’re hoping for better pricing this time around!

6/20/2006

Well, we’ve made our choice, and it’s Allied Siding and Windows. The price was very competitive, and we also asked them to quote alternatives of vinyl or wood, both of which were cheaper but not by much. We also asked Allied to provide a quote for replacing all of our existing windows, which are older insulated glass models that have leaked and so have a smokey or mildewy appearance between the sheets of glass, some to the point where you can’t see through them.

The bottom line for the whole project came in within our budget, so we’re having Allied do everything, as follows:

• Remove and haul away the old siding and trim (which is wood and is basically disintegrating at this point)
• Replace any bad/rotten studs (their quote includes up to 32 feet of stud replacement)
• Wrap the house in Tyvek
• Install Hardiplank siding and trim
• Replace all the windows with new Simonton Reflections vinyl windows
• Paint the Hardiplank, trim, existing cedar scallops, and miscellaneous remaining wood with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Superpaint

6/23/2006

We signed the paperwork and put down a deposit. Allied did not specifically require a deposit but we put one down anyway for a variety of reasons, namely that we had it available and also that if a business has some of your money it’s easier to get their attention, if needed. We don’t anticipate any issues but we do want to be in the position of approaching any issues from the standpoint of having paid for some of the work already.

7/2/2006

We haven’t heard from Allied about start dates, but we’re still within the two week start window explained to us, and it’s been a bit rainy lately.

7/4/2006

Today Julio came out to do the final measuring (note that he’s out on the fourth of July). He let us know that Allied was running behind due to the weather but that they’d be starting this week.

7/5/2006

Today the distributor delivered the Hardplank and Harditrim, in the pouring rain. It’s now sitting in our driveway. We’re getting closer!

7/7/2006

Here we go! The crew is here today getting started, and siding is coming down, baby! They’re starting on the south wall (no windows) and after removing the wood siding found there was a layer of sheetrock beneath the siding. Very strange. Studs look good even though the siding was mostly rotten, good news.

7/9/2006

Progress continues, siding is up on the south wall, siding is down on the east wall and Tyvek is up, crew went home mid-day due to torrential rains (also it’s Sunday).

7/11/2006

Crew continues to make good progress, back wall and both side walls planked, from has been stripped and Tyvek’ed. Also time for some pictures:

The Before Picture (house on the right)

7/11/2006 View of Front

7/11/2006 Old Front vs New Side

Note that the front was completely Tyveked before they left for the day, but pulling into the driveway to a bald house front was shocking (and exciting)!

We’re also narrowing down the paint color choices, and right now we’re leaning towards a terra cotta color with white trim and a green door, as shown in this mock-up from the Sherwin-Williams site:

Possible House Colors

We’re not absolutely positive on the colors, but we’re pretty sure that’s the way we’re going to go.

7/15/2006

Well, no crew today. I’m not complaining about them taking the day off, but knowing they wouldn’t be here today would have been convenient as we made plans to stay home to let them in to the house for window replacement. However, they have really been working hard and we have no complaints about the progress or quality of the work. The last of the hardiplank and trim is up, the seams and nails have been caulked, and they finished up last night by power washing the unpainted outside of the house.

Here are some pictures of the current state:

Sided But Not Painted Front and Side

Windows Delivered and Also Unreplaced Window in Front

Now we’re waiting for the window replacement and the painting!

7/16/2006

No crew again today (Sunday). Again, not working Sunday is a-okay with me, but we’d sure appreciate a little proactive communication from the crew about when they’re going to be working, particularly now that we’re approaching the window replacement phase and we’ll need to do a lot of pet management, including our rottie cross that really doesn’t like all this hubbub going on around her domain.

7/17/2006

Contacted Allied today to get an update on when the crews would be back as we were planning an out of town trip. The person at Allied called back and said they’d be out tomorrow, but we asked that they not come back until Thursday, as we were going out of town and need to be here to unlock the gates, corral the dogs, etc. The person at Allied said she’d have the crew chief call me to coordinate. He did not call.

7/18/2006

Well, we didn’t hear back from Allied so went out of town. I hope they didn’t show up and find out they were unable to make progress.

7/19/2006

We returned from out of town last night (a day early) and this morning the crew showed up to paint, even though today is Wednesday and we had requested they not return until Thursday. Again, not a huge deal but we sure would love to see better communication about the crew schedule. That’s still our only real complaint, so overall we’re very happy with Allied.

And by the end of today the crew had the first coat of paint on the house. Here are a couple of pictures:

First Coat on Siding, Trim Not Yet Painted

So far we’re very happy with the way the paint looks, and can’t wait for the second coat and the trim work. After that comes the replacement of the windows, and that’ll be it.

The Last Few Miles

Well, the house is finally done. The windows have been replaced, the trim up and painted, and the punch list complete for the most part. There was the inevitable chasing things down with Allied to get things finished, but nothing too difficult or unexpected. Overall we are very satisfied with the job that they did and the price that we paid. I’ve gotten that question a lot – how much did it cost? Well, I don’t want to put Allied in a difficult position of having to match our price, but I also want to let you all know the rough cost of a job like this. I’ll put it this way, Allied did all of this:

• Remove and haul away the old siding and trim (which is wood and is basically disintegrating at this point)
• Replace any bad/rotten studs (their quote includes up to 32 feet of stud replacement)
• Wrap the house in Tyvek
• Install Hardiplank siding and trim
• Replace all the windows with new Simonton Reflections lowE, argon filled vinyl windows
• Paint the Hardiplank, trim, existing cedar scallops, and miscellaneous remaining wood with two coats of Sherwin-Williams Superpaint

For roughly $20,000. Our house is two stories and approximately 1900 square feet. And here’s the finished product:

All Finished!

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Unfortunately for a film like The Break-Up, the marketing dweebs in Hollywood feel compelled to over-publicize the film and let many cats out of many bags. As such, many of the best parts of this film were reruns due to their placement in the vast number of trailers and commercials for this film. Even so, the film is *still* funny, Aniston and Vaughn have the actual chemistry of an actual couple (and I don’t mean that as a reference to their supposed involvment, I mean it from a script+acting+directing perspective), and the story is fresher than it has any right to be.

For those living under a rock, the story is that Aniston’s and Vaughn’s characters meet (cute), fall in love, buy a condo together, spend a few years together, then break up during a wicked fight about pent up resentments. However, neither will leave the condo, and thereby hangs the tale. This isn’t a film as dark as something like The War of the Roses, but it’s also not When Harry Met Sally or (insert title of any Hugh Grant film). My gut feeling is that anybody who has been both in and out of love will find something to relate to in this movie.

For example, there’s a scene where the couple prepare for having both their families over for dinner. Vaughn’s sole job was to bring home 12 lemons. He brings three. When Aniston asks why he didn’t bring the 12 lemons she asked for, he wonders why she would need 12 lemons. They were for a centerpiece, and when he realizes they were “show lemons” that nobody would eat, he cares even less that he got the wrong number and suggests practical (for a man) alternatives like making the centerpiece in something smaller, like a glass, or not having a centerpiece at all and instead putting the lemons on the chicken that he tasted, implying it needs a little something.

After the dinner party, he proceeds to crash on the couch playing video games while Aniston is left with the cleanup.

Most of this information has been related in trailers, clips, and commercials, so I don’t feel bad about repeating them here, and they present the crux of the ensuing argument that causes the eponymous break-up.

There is an interesting point to this film, as with almost all films about relationships, which is that the man’s viewpoint, due to its lack of emotional sensitivity, is “wrong” and must be changed, while the women’s is “right” and long suffering. This film doesn’t paint it quite that black-and-white, but in the end it does tend in that same direction. I’ve always disliked that viewpoint, as it discounts the thoughts and feelings of men out-of-hand.

For example, *his* job involves owning a business with his three brothers, while *her* job involves working in an art gallery selling art. Having been both a business-owner and an employee, I can tell you that owning a business is orders-of-magnitude more stressful, and at the end of the day when they’ve both worked 10 hours, *he* has every right to be more spent than she does. And that’s not about gender, that’s about responsibility, risk, and stress. Now, men generally tend to hold the more stressful positions, and one may see that as gender-bias in the workplace. One might also see that as women being smart enough to *not* sell their souls to a job, or being sensitive enough to let the job rank second to the family, or simply being the one that fate decided needed to bear the children for humanity.

Also in question is the need to cleanup right away after the party. *She* has the compulsion that doesn’t allow her to sleep with a dirty kitchen, and his offer to help in the morning is seen as work-dodging (which, honestly, it probably is, but that’s not true until the next morning when he tries to get out of helping!). Aniston’s character also rejects Vaughn’s suggestion of having a pool table in the house. It doesn’t matter that it’s been a dream of his his whole life, it just doesn’t fit with her idea of their house so, poof, no pool table.

In any case, it would be nice to see Hollywood take a more balanced view of male/female relationships, but I guess there isn’t a lot of comic fodder in a balanced viewpoint. Well, one notable exception to that is Billy Crystal’s film Forget Paris, which is a wonderful and funny film that doesn’t show just a courtship or a breakup, but shows a courtship, marriage, troubles, separation, reconciliation, and all the other stuff of life. Like The Break-Up it has some serious moments as well.

In any case, in spite of all of that, The Break-Up is a solid, funny, serious/funny film about relationships. Also notable are the supporting cast, with John Favreau and Jason Bateman as friends of the couple, Vincent D’Onofrio (nearly unrecognizable and uncredited) as one of Vaughn’s brothers, and Judy Davis as the scarifying owner of the art gallery where Aniston’s character works. The bottom line is that this film was far better, to me, than most of the reviews I have seen, which I attribute at least in part to the fact that the film has much more serious content than one would be led to expect by the trailers and commercials. For me, that was a good thing.

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Today the world derives the vast majority of its energy from non-renewable resources like oil, coal, and natural gas. There is a finite amount of these fuels, and at the current growth rate of usage they will all be used up within 100 years. That means that some of the young babies of today will live to see the end of the age of hydrocarbon fuels. What will they use to fulfill their energy needs?

There is a strong push to replace hydrocarbons with “green” energy sources, using so-called renewable resources such as sunlight, wind, or thermal energy. While I can see that these resources could be considered renewable given their current levels of usage, I fear the impact on our environment if we scale usage up to the point where they could provide most of the world’s energy needs.

Consider wind power, which today consists of a few wind farms in a few places, and which have no discernable impact on weather patterns (or the energy supply, for that matter). However, if you scale up wind power so that it is ubiquitous, and you remove all of that wind energy from the meteorological realm, what would be the resulting long-term impact? I have been unable to find any estimates of this, nor do I see a logical way to predict such an impact, even if one were to attempt to figure it out. Today we see huge, wild shifts in the world’s weather with each degree of temperature change — what would be the impact of reducing wind energy by one mile per hour around the globe?

The same with sunlight. Today people have solar cells or solar water heaters on the rooftops of their homes, and there are a few large-scale commercial solar energy farms, but again nothing noteworthy in relation to the overall world energy supply. And these few solar installations really have no impact on global weather, as they are so small as to be inconsequential. But, again, imaging scaling up the production of energy from sunlight, with vast farms of solar cells or solar water heaters absorbing energy from sunlight, energy that would previously have hit the ground and contributed to the natural forces of our biosphere. What if large-scale solar energy farms reduced the global temperature by one or two degrees?

The same can be said for geothermal energy, as well as other “renewables” such as biomass or flowing water. These may seem to be potentially endless reserves of energy, but when one uses one’s imagination to extrapolate usage up to providing any significant portion of the worlds energy needs it becomes much less clear as to the long-term effects and actual “renewability” of these resources. Keep in mind that if you take a long enough view of the world, oil is a renewable resource, we just have to wait a few geologic millenia for natural forces to replenish the oil supply naturally (just like it was created in the first place). An energy source is “renewable” only if it can be replenished faster than it is used, and no one can yet say that this is true for sunlight, wind, biomass, or thermal energy sources.

In my opinion there are two realistic, long-term energy resources available to mankind today. The first is nuclear energy, and the second is hydrogen energy, and they actually represent pretty much one energy source. You see, hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe and is also an efficient energy source. The trick is that it takes a great deal of energy to extract hydrogen from its primary sources, such as water. So we need nuclear plants in remote places producing hydrogen to be used everywhere else. And while both hydrogen and nuclear fuel are both finite resources, the known quantities would provide for mankind’s energy needs for an uncountable number of millenia.

We are at the end of the Hydrocarbon Age and at beginning of the Hydrogen Age. Let’s climb on board.

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