The Travel Bug

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

This past weekend I finally finished a project I have been working on for about six months.

I know some of you are scoffing because you might have some project that has taken much longer to not be completed. Well, I have done that as well.

Lately, I have wanted to start finishing projects. Last year I finally put the final stitches into a needlecraft scene. Then I began cleaning out various hot spots of clutter in my house. But this project was something special.

It is a post with signs of various destinations. One of my friends said it looked exactly like something I would do. Last fall, I found various reclaimed reclaimed wood. Once they were sanded and cleaned of the dust, each one was painted on one side, and a name was written on top. Each sign has a slightly distressed look to it and I cannot wait to see how any of it stands up to a real winter.

While it reminds me of the sign post from the old TV show, M*A*S*H, the idea came from a craft suggestion pasted on Facebook. I choose places that reflect series that I am reading or my children are reading. Two of the signs are of places we have actually visited or lived.

If I had more money, traveling would be my joy. There is too much of the U.S. I have not seen and a part of me wishes to see Australia and/or the continent of Africa. Another part of my heart wishes to see the city of Petra that was carved into the mountain so many years ago.

Movies help aid my wandering desires.

Image from IMDb com

We recently watched Life of Pi and while I have no desire to share a boat with a tiger, I would like to see India. I would like to visit the set of a Bollywood movie just to see one of the spectacular song and dance scenes actually performed. Until then, I will have to settle for the excellent Bride and Prejudice starring  Aishwarya Rai in the Elizabeth Bennett role.

Movies about New York City increase my curiosity about the Big Apple. There is a part of me that wants to walk the Brooklyn Bridge as Miranda did in Sex and the City. I would love to go to the top of the Empire State building but leave the big ape from King Kong behind in the jungle. I would not mind taking in the Museum of Natural History just like in Night at the Museum or strolling through Central Park as happens in countless movies.

Image from IMDb.com

Until I can go, these movies and so many more will have to be my ticket to see lands far away – be it Taiwan in Eat, Drink, Man, Woman or Paris in Hugo or The Adventures of Tin-Tin. As for Africa, perhaps Humphrey Bogart and Kathrine Hepburn will allow me to join them on The African Queen once more. 

Where would you like to travel?

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle

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His Name is Black

The other day I was watchin iCarly with my kids. It was a longer than usual episode that took place at a webicon.

Spencer was wearing the costume of one video game hero that he had made himself. He looked proud and dashing. That is until he met the hero of a different realm. Suddenly, it was a face-off between the two. What made the scene especially GREAT was that the opponent was Jack Black.

Poster image from IMDb.com

I will admit that Jack Black had to grow on me. His form of acting is really annoying at times. I may have initially rated The School of Rock much lower than I should have because I disliked him that much. The guy in his early days struck me as nothing more than a big ego who  over-acted every chance he got.

You might remember him from High Fidelity or Shallow Hal. Perhaps you are a Tenacious D fan. Maybe you discovered him in Orange County or Saving Silverman. No matter when it was, you cannot deny that Black has a tone of energy and his projects tend to work off of the quirky aspects of his soul.

Take for example his role in King Kong. As movie promoter, Carl Denham, Black takes his overacting and uses it to create this man who wants to be larger than life. Director Peter Jackson reigns in Black’s excesses and works it so that the final scene of his pronouncement is perfect for Black’s delivery of the lines about what really killed the beast when it was his bigger-than-life ambition.

Poster image from IMDb.com

Another director who got a softer performance from him was Nancy Myers in The Holiday. His character is still fun-loving, still music obsessive but he is a more contemplative man, kinder and less of an asshole. I found him much more likable in this movie as a composer who falls in love easily.

My turning point came during the publicity tour for Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. I saw Black and Kyle Gass on one of the late nite talk shows with Gass obviously drunk. Jack had to do most of the talking.  That is when I saw the drive behind the goof, the realistic expectation of getting a personal project to the big screen. I felt a connection and since then have grown to appreciate his work.

That might explain why I loved his performances in Be Kind Rewind and Kung Fu Panda and Gulliver’s Travels. I am seeing a man who is allowing the gentler side of his soul to be seen more often and I like it.

Black and Will Ferrell at the 79th Annual Oscars, Image from IMDb.com

However, my favorite Jack Black moment does not occur in any movie. It was during  79th Annual Oscar Awards in which Black and Will Ferrell sing about their love of Helen Mirren.  And that they were going to take the future Oscar winner home with them that night.

She ended up taking home Oscar along with her husband. But I wonder if she was tempted in the least?