The Third Anniversary Of The Day On Which Hannah Was Born...

We had a pretty simple get together.

We appreciated our family members travelling our way for this gathering. Everybody that came travelled at least 2 hours (one way).

Here are a few pictures:
(click any picture to enlarge)







Cake from Concannon's.



The devices you see my nephews using below are nose flutes. That's right, nose flutes. It takes some practice to figure out how they work, but after just a couple of hours, they were both flute tooting away (not exactly Handel's Messiah, yet, but perhaps someday, boys, someday...).







Films Recently Watched:

Napoleon Dynamite (2004) dir. by Jared Hess

This one was recommended to me by more than one friend who thought I would enjoy it. If there was need to define "offbeat" using a film, Napoleon Dynamite would do the trick. A journey through the title character's school and home life, you never know what's coming next.

The Notebook (2004) dir. by Nick Cassavetes

Picked this up as a Valentine's Day gift for Christy. It was nicely done. All four of the lead actors carry their characters well. I was happy to see the scope (2.35:1) aspect ratio used for this Romance/Drama as they often get a 1.85 treatment. The 2.35 image works for this film and the director did a good job filling the frame with the beautiful South where the story is set.

The Nick Sparks (author of the novel) commentary on the DVD is also well done. He tells some background on where the story came from, differences between the mediums of film and literature, his experiences with being on set for this film, etc. There is also a director's commentary on the DVD to which I haven't yet listened.

Excalibur (1981) dir. by John Boorman

Got this one from the library due to Prink's recent post. I thought that it had been a long time since I'd seen this. Turns out I never had. There were moments from the film that I remembered, but most of it was new to me. To be honest, I'm not up on my Arthonian legends to know what's what here, but the film is entertaining nonetheless.

Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985) dir. by Ken Kwapis

Sick of "Tickle Me Elmo?" "Hokey Pokey Elmo?" "Limbo Elmo?" "Potty Training Elmo?" or Elmo, Elmo, Elmo, in general, but think Sesame Street is OK? Then this is the film for you! Though Elmo is seen briefly near the end of this film, he has no speaking lines whatsoever! Basically, Big Bird gets placed with a family of DoDo Birds and decides he wants to return to Sesame Street, but more than one group sets out to find him, some with more sinister motives than others. With cameos by SCTV stars, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Dave Thomas, there is something here for everybody.