Postcards from the Funny Farm

As you may have read, I have revived and re-launched my online diary, Damien at the Speed of Life. Tonight after seeing Mamma Mia with Sarah I was driven to write a review. I have been a huge ABBA fan since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. The acting and music in Mamma Mia is great and you just plain feel good the whole time. You’ll start to see less reviews here as I will be trying to be true to the psychology niche here as time marches on. I hope you get a chance to see Mamma Mia, Sarah is definitely going to buy the DVD when it comes out. (She’s seen it 3 times so far) You can read my review and see a cool YouTube video at this link: Damien’s Mama Mia Review. Thanks for reading. Tip: Get more use out of your home exercise equipment, play the Mamma Mia soundtrack repeatedly.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe via -or-

Movies are a great way to keep you out of a straight-jacket. They are therapy big time for me here in the Funny Farm. The following is a review of a movie I recently saw.

2008’s interpretation of the 70’s cartoon “Speed Racer” was put on screen by Andy and Larry Wachowski. Their previous cinematic endeavors, as many may already know, include the Matrix trilogy. The Wachowski brothers were just the ones to bring this action/fantasy film to life: they have a proven record of being visually stunning. If nothing else, Speed Racer is that … on steroids! In the final analysis, it is the visual effects, the screenplay, and the moral to its story that make it a light-hearted movie worth seeing. I saw it tonight after Sarah and I signed our final escrow papers, we’re moving in a couple days. She was gracious enough to let me lose myself in a blog review after a long day, so here are a few notes I made about the film:

First, the visual effects. It’s kind of a cross between the Matrix and a flamboyant Tony the Tiger/Frosted Flakes commercial. It is an alternate reality where people live in homes from the 1950’s (sort of like the motif in The Incredibles and the retro homes there). The “track” Speed races on (Speed is played by Emile Hirsch) is the psychedelic translation of “Mario Kart” to the silver screen. I couldn’t help but wonder in the early parts of the film about how many kids might be in the theater on drugs “tripping out” on this movie and whether that might have been a target audience on some level. The colors and textures against an incredible soundtrack make the movie a “trip” whether you are on drugs or not. If you have a fun-loving attitude, the visuals alone will be worth the price of a ticket for you.

In addition to visual effects, the screenplay makes the movie memorable and entertaining. I really liked the story. John Goodman does a great job as the father/mentor figure. There are some really funny lines between the little brother and “Speed,” and again is reminiscent of the Incredibles the way the family interacts. I didn’t like Susan Sarandon as the mom. I think she was too old for the role. I kept thinking of Thelma and Louise when she came onscreen. Besides that, her emotional scenes, 2 or 3 as I recall, were totally overacted. Goodman looked as old as the hills but managed to pull off the dad role much better. Christina Ricci, by the way, plays a great Trixie (Speed’s love interest).

The screenplay makes the movie truly good because of its moral. After all the jokes and the interplay between characters that really works, it is the final moral that makes this movie worth watching multiple times and maybe even owning: “Don’t Cheat!” Being a teacher now going on 10 years, I can attest that this is the kind of moral we should be promoting to the kids of today.

To wrap it all up: I hated this movie until about halfway through. At that point I threw away my pre-judgments and started having fun. By the end I was a believer. I can say that if these three aspects appeal to you: visual effects, good screenplay, and a positive moral, then you will like this movie. Go see it with a lighthearted air and you will find it entertaining. Anybody else seen it? Interested in seeing it?

When Sarah and I went to the movies this week we were struck by how many cars were in the parking lot. “Ahhh it’s Spring Break.” I said to her. Kids are out in full force this week. Although I was the teacher of some of them, I wasn’t. I chose to teach “Spring School” for a week, which always has its agonies with ecstasies. I get paid 27 dollars an hour to teach hand-picked students whatever I and the Principal decide is worth the time. My class did test prep in English Language Arts and also a bit of mathematics. Traditionally the kids at my school do better on the Standardized math test than they do on the Language arts, so my minutes followed suit. I saw great growth even in just the four days. I had 13 students who came every day (I didn’t have even one absence which is a record for me!). It was very helpful I thought and I know the test scores will show the results of this agony, its not easy getting up for this when you know you could be on break.

Now for the ecstasy:

Since tomorrow is Good Friday and there are no classes then, Spring School has ended for the week! I am thrilled for the chance to play with my kids on the carpet and have a nice family Easter. We were supposed to drive down to my folks’ house but I am thinking that is going to be a little tough for us. Both the girls (9 mo. and 3 yrs) are coughing with runny noses and quite frankly: my wife and I are spent! Hopefully they will understand. We are looking forward then to a nice Easter at home, maybe an egg hunt in the backyard … sky’s the limit! I remember when I was a kid my parents used to put the Snack Pack puddings that came in little aluminum cans in my easter basket. Vanilla, chocolate, tapioca, butterscotch … those things were so good, and for breakfast nonetheless LOL.

What kind of work are you done with? Did you get pudding as a kid like I did?

Sarah and I went to the movies on a matinée date yesterday after Spring School let out. She’d been filling out birthday invitations in her head for our son and I figured we could both use the break and get out of the house. We saw a great new movie called Vantage Point. It has a very clever plot structure that, to my knowledge, the likes of which has never been done before. It also has an all star cast including Dennis Quaid and Forrest Whittaker. If you are interested in more details in reading my review, you can find it at the url below:

blogcritics.org/archives/2008/03/19/071043.php

When it comes to most things, I am really not a stickler for anything. This is especially true when it comes to staying in hotels. I would rather spend the extra money, for example, that one of the ritzy Las Vegas hotels would cost me on gambling and fun money and stay in a cheaper place. Some people are different. They prefer the nicest they can afford. I prefer the cheapest that exists. Let’s face it, for the most part they all have their new soap, fresh towels, and the usual amenities. Is it worth 50 bucks more just for the prestige of a name?

Another way I’m not picky is with movie theaters. There are so many fancy schmancy ones popping up over here lately you would think they were government subsidized. We went to see 10,000 BC the other night at one and it was a ghetto theatre (to put it bluntly). I didn’t care. The movie was good and I was glad to be with my wife, what more could I ask for? Do I need the state-of-the-art stuff to be entertained? Not hardly. Some of the greatest memories I have of going to the movie involve a humble theater.

What are you just not picky about?

Be Kind, Rewind to Nacho Libre

If all Jack Black’s movies were on VHS, I’d want to rewind his latest,
Be Kind, Rewind to the Nacho Libre mark.

Read my full review of this film published on on BlogCriti....

When boats aim at a destination, they need a rudder to correct their course again and again to reach the goal. This starts at the departure and continues to the end of the journey. Since I started writing articles in this blog, my goal has always been to reach people with my writing. Connecting with people has been a passion of mine through writing, music, teaching, and relationships as long as I can remember. I study people like Walt Disney and M. Scott Peck who are experts at doing this and I try to get better each day. Through teaching I make my living and believe me, that job is 100% about connecting with people. I’ve made a minimal amount of money with my music and of course relationships don’t need to earn you monetary rewards. Writing has made me some money but not as much as the music. I am determined in 2008 to merge my passion for connection with making money online.

So what does this mean Damien? Are we going to see a bunch of ads and pay per posts on this blog now?

Some, but I’m writing them all to this blog audience. I promise that any pay per posts will be directed at the stuff that affects my demographic of readers: intelligent, entertainment lovers, family people, cyberculture folks … just to name a few attributes. For example, right now I am hosting an ad for “Fandango” in my sidebar. If you are going to movies and you buy your tickets through clicking that ad, I get a few cents of the purchase. And Fandango is a cool way to pre-buy you tickets. Sarah and I always use it.

There is another benefit to my mmol (making money online) course with this blog: I’m very transparent about what is going on with earnings. This will enable YOU to learn what works out there and what is a scam so you can monetize your online writing. I’m a 38 year old with a Master’s Degree in Writing and certainly not new to the online writing scene. What is new is my course correction toward making money online. Up to now, that has never been a priority. Remember that a blog is only one way to make money at writing online. Helium, for example, is writing website that gives you topics to write on and they can make $20-$200 per assignment. And then of course there are online magazines which I intend to explore this year as well. I’ve been practicing by publishing on BlogCritics since last July.

Not all my posts will be pay for hire. In fact, expect to see only about 3/10 posts that way. The rest will be anecdotes about my teaching, family, music, and life as I see it. There will be the occasionally heavily researched article with sources linked and then there will be the intermittent “quote” or “link” with nothing more than a few words in the spirit of a true tumblelog. If you’re new to my blog, check out my sitemap and read some posts of the past year in the various categories. I hope you will subscribe so we can make a connection in the coming year. I am very loyal to my frequent commenters and I pay back any way I can. The fact is, the more readers I have and the more people link to this site, the better I look to prospective clients and that helps me make more money. This in turn encourages me to take more time developing powerful posts with great links that will impact my readers even more.

Subscribe to Postcards from the Funny Farm:

Via email:

Via RSS feed:

Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) is from Springberry, Alabama. As a youth he lived in the shadow of his younger brother, until that fateful day when a playful machete fight resulting in “a serious case of being cut in half” leaves their father telling Dewey that “the wrong son died,” repeatedly throughout the film.

-BlogCritics Movie Review

Okay, this is now officially cool. I usually wait awhile before I recommend things here on the blog and this ones time has come. On Yahoo! TV (linked below) you can set up your favorite stations and select quickly the shows to TIVO on any given day (so far I just do the current day but you can do it weeks in advance). There is also a feature I haven’t signed up for yet (emphasize ‘yet’) that allows you to program your TIVO directly from the Yahoo! site. Wow. Yahoo keeps coming up with cool stuff.

If Philip Pullman had any valid points to persuade our youth, he has some more marketing leg-work to do. This past weekend the $250 Million plus fantasy children’s film scraped only $27million. It was estimated to make $30-40m and many are saying in the blogosphere and on internet news sources that the president of New Line Cinema will be job hunting soon. While I saw it Saturday and liked it a lot, something in me is glad it did poorly. The books are decidedly anti God and I am sure the upcoming sequel “The Subtle Knife” will not be able to hold back on it’s climax scene where children kill Pullman’s senile and evil Christian God. I want artists to succeed when their art seeks to enhance humanity. There are messages in Pullman’s book that serve that end, but so much of it smacks of flailing out of bitterness against a church or church movement. Maybe the low numbers will cause the sequels to be the equivalent of: “More cool graphics, less anti God stuff.” I have hope this will be the case. Let’s see how far Pullman and the studio are willing to go to kill God. More importantly, I’m over it and getting excited about the new Narnia movie coming out this Summer!

Sources for the data in this post are below:

• Golden Compass disappoints at box office
• Golden Compass loses its way at the box office
• The Golden Compass Crashes and Burns — Is B...
• The Golden Compass: a wildly expensive flop
• 27m Opening Weekend Won’t Cut it for a seque...
• For more blog stories on the Golden Compass, follo...