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Wow! What a year for movies and now this weekend I get the one-two punch. What two are you talking about, you may ask and besides the obvious release of The Dark Knight (see it on Imax if you can!), there’s the trailer for the Watchmen. You might even ask “Is that the movie you keep mentioning on your little blog here?” and to that I would say “Of course silly! It’s the greatest graphic novel of all time and turned the super hero world upside down and was wonderfully stolen (sort of) by Pixar in the form of The Incredibles and now it is presented in HD by our friends over at apple. Click on the smiley face to hyperjump your butt over there and watch this thrilling trailer.

UPDATE: Click on the pics for more photos!

July is nearing warp speed for the Evanskeys. I just caught my breath and realized the month is half over (or only halfway begun) and I have posted not one single thing. Well shame on me. Get ready to pause that DVR cause I’m hold down the fast-forward button and just running with it.

We spent the fourth of July with our friends, the Barrera’s and much to their credit through a rip roarin’ block party that probably exceeded 200 people and include 3 house on the street. It was hot (fireworks and temperature) and the kids enjoyed jumpin’ in their pool and playing many of the fun games set up for them (tether ball and a electronic scoring basketball game). Later the kids and adults went to town shooting of tons of fireworks of all shapes and sizes, mostly sparklers for the kids though. Along with the good company, tons of food and drinks, fireworks, games, etc. it was an exciting celebration.

J’s been getting together with a bunch of his friends from his school at the park, at their houses, at our house, and a kids day out on the Evanskey boat where we spent the day cruising up and down the California coast and stopping for some fun sand time to build castle and what not.

The backyard is still under construction and will hopefully be done in a week. The majority of the work is finished including the stucco, decorative tiles, removal of trees and garden concrete slabs, new east gate. Most of the plants have been relocated to the south west corner along with the lemon tree so hopefully it will survive but right now it’s not looking so good.

School started back up for me and because I love to torture myself so much I’ve decided to go full blown into this math thing and tackle “The Fundamentals of Math and Physics for Game Programmers.” I figure since 2 + 2 is 4 and if an apple hits me on the head after falling from a tree I’ve pretty much got this one covered…

We did take J to go see Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D and while the movie is pure sugar coated summer fare, the 3D is AMAZING. This new Real D the studios are using is shocking and on an extra good note, the glasses make everyone in the theater look like Buddy Holly.

Well signing off for now but will do my best to post again before the end of the month.

This past weekend the Evanskey crew headed out to the desert, more specifically Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs to do some vacationing. We stayed at this groovy little resort just outside of Palm Springs with a huge pool and day spa called Miracle Springs. It got to be a tad bit hot, roughly in the ballpark of 111 degrees so we did a lot of swimming and indoorsy type of things. I took J to the Palm Springs Air Museum to see the World War I and II planes and we had a blast. J got to tour through the inside of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and we got to see my all time favorite plane the F4U Corsair. Later that night we walked around the strip and had dinner at a killer Mexican restaurant in downtown then spent awhile in the jacuzzi at the end of the night. We also stopped to see the dinosaurs at the Wheel Inn Restaurant at Cabazon and took a tour of the Joshua Tree National Park. Unfortunately, we got to the park towards the end of the day and J fell alseep halfway through it but with the sunset setting mixed in with the beautiful desert scenery, the park was an otherworldly sight. Saturday night we went back into town to see WALL-E and man did that movie ROCK! Pixar has not let me down yet and now they are batting nine for nine. The first 30-40 minutes of this movie has barely any dialogue and kept me totally absorbed in everything that Wall-E experienced. This movie should be in the running for best picture and not just animated picture because it’s just that good. So to cap off the vacation we headed up the Palm Springs Aerial Tram on Sunday and hiked around the San Jacinto State Park at the top to try and spot some cool wildlife. The tram has the new swiss made 360 degree turning cars so you really get a good view anywhere you stand and you the top is around 8800 feet. When we left the station it was 110 degrees and when we got to the top it was a pleasant 66 degrees. The view was spectacular and even though it was a bit hazy we could see a lot. On a clear day, you can see across the valley to Joshua Tree National Park, the Salton Sea, San Diego and Mexico! Anyway here are a couple pics and if you click on them you can visit our Flickr set. Enjoy.

Groundbreaking and clever come to mind and then pure milkshake ecstasy engulfs you when suck down the new Carl’s Jr. Cap’n Crunch milkshake. That’s right… you heard correct… some brilliant mind sat in a think tank meeting room at the Carl’s Jr. headquarters and listened to all the stupid ideas spewing out (like an Orange Chicken Burger… yes that’s real too!) and said what any kid might have have said in a group of their peers, “what if they made a shake outta of Cap’n Crunch? and BAM I’m now drinking/eating one of the greatest inventions to mankind (next to the internet of course)… a full blown Cap’n Crunch Milkshake… and guess what? Those damn Cap’n Crunch crunchies are STILL crunchy!!! Brilliant marketing person you are tops when it comes to ideas.

Wow this month is flying by! I just realized I haven’t posted since the 3rd. Oops. So much has been happening that I feel like a twister picked us all up and hasn’t set us back down yet. So here’s a quick list of things that have been keeping us busy.

Construction and renovation in the backyard (and some front yard stuff too). We decided to “clean up” the backyard by removing or replanting many of the trees and shrubbery and then adding stucco to our old school block wall. The new walls will most likely be a sea foam green/gray with an iron gray capella cap that will runalong the perimeter of the back and two side walls. A new gate is being added to the east side of the property.

We’ve taken the boat out a couple of times and J got to bring some friends out on two occasions so he was pretty happy about that. About a month ago a helicopter was taking some ariel shots of our little minow motor boat and I got some copies of us jumping the waves down past Huntington towards Newport and will get those up on Flickr soon.

J ’s last week of school was jam-packed with events so that kept us pretty busy up until his actual graduation day and even a big party event the next day at our nearby park with all the kindergarten classes.

Last week J and I got to finally see Kung Fu Panda and that movie just plain ROCKS!! I haven’t laughed that hard since last years Knocked Up and Superbad! Okay and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jack Black is pure comedy gold in this thing and all the supporting characters blend so wonderful together. Another good movie to add to the list of really good movies this year and hopefully more to come.

We also attended a Prosoft reunion dinner at Alcatraz Brewing Co. in Orange and got to see most of my old friends and cohorts from one the best jobs I have ever worked. How often do people show up at your place of employment with guitars and basses and start a jam session on and off all day long or play some mean nerf basketball or better yet keep a running Top 5 list for more than a year straight? One guys Prosoft the Movie will happen!

Oh and I finally got J to the Natural History Museum in LA and that place is Sweeeeet! A friend from his class hooked up with us and we spent a good chunk of last Friday checking out the dinosaur bones, African Mammals, the Butterfly Exhibit, Tommy the T-Rex, and a live (animatronic) walking dino!

Somewhere in the midst of all this stuff the Lakers lost to the Celtics in the finals and although it was heartwrenching to see it happen most of the games were pretty exciting except for the last one where they just got butchered on the court. Oh well there’s always next year, right

This past weekend was a parent-couples-date-night thing-a-ma-jiggy where some of our friends rounded up like minded couples and invited us all out for dinner and a show at the Vault 350 in downtown Long Beach. The ring leaders of this shindig were friends of the guitar player in the opening band, Angus Khan which put our group in the special guests of Angus Khan category and it was an honor to be on that list.

Anyway, after acquiring the babysitting duties of grandma, K and I set out for the night knowing full well what we were in for… oh, did I mention they were the opening act to Green Jello!! Yes that Green Jello of the yester-years, mid-90s with their great big hit, Three Little Pigs. Anyway the show was everything mind-numbingly, jaw-droppingly, bizarre with giant foam core head masks, and props and just weirdness all around and yet unbelievably it was good show. A huge chunk of the crowd was invited up on stage to sing the Little Pigs song and the singer jumped down into the crowd with mic still in hand and joined the pit while continuing to sing the song. Overall, I have to say that it was an odd yet fun night.

One more post about Indiana Jones and then I am done. So not only did we watch Raiders on Friday night but we ended up watching the whole trilogy (minus the last 45 minutes of Last Crusade) on Saturday and Sunday in preparation for our Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull experience on Monday. I have to say my spidey senses are tingling with summer fun people! I had such a good time watching the 3 movies over the course of three days and plopped down in an actual theater to see a brand spanking new Indy flick was just what the popcorn-eating, jumbo gallon sized soda drinking doctors ordered! The theater was loud and the excitement was high (along with a row of teens somewhere behind us… hehe). Although the script was a little spotty at times, it definitely had the feeling of all three of the other films thrown in to the mix along with some new surprises. I don’t think I have to recommend this movie to anyone since a gazillion people saw it over the weekend but in case you haven’t checked it out yet or were feeling a little skeptical about Harrison Ford being 65 and not being able to pull it off well I have some good news for you… he most certainly pull it off and then some. Everyone in the movie is convincing and fun to watch and overall it’s just a fun movie to sit through.

side note: J just came into the office and asked “what’s a VCR?” While switching the inputs on our old Sony television one of the input names is VCR and he didn’t understand what that was. After showing him Wikipedia’s page about the VCR, he then told he just wanted to watch a DVD. Man I feel old.

Friday night was one of those nights where all those super cool moments you think can happen with your kid really does happen. In preparation for the new Indiana Jones movie, J, K, and I sat down to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark which just happen to be J’s first time viewing it. Within minutes of starting the movie, the typical questions you would expect from a 5-6 year old were flying out of his mouth faster than Indy could crack a whip: What’s going to happen? Is that Indiana Jones, daddy? Are those bad guys? Is Indy going to make it to the plane? It was just this wonderful moment that washed over me that here I was not just watching a movie that thrilled me to the bone when I was a kid but was now introducing it to my wide-eyed, curious son who was literally begging me to tell him everything that was about to happen. It was just one of those great endearing moments between father and son that made me think “how cool it was to give tidbits of running commentary just keep him from exploding from too much tension and excitement.” The look on his face was priceless and imaging the world’s of adventure that were opening up or unlocking in his mind was just the coolest thing. Sappy be damned, because it is just so damn cool to be a dad. Looks like me and J are going to be searching for lost treasure and dodging poisons darts while wearing our dusty fedoras. Cue the John Williams score cause me and him are just making this as we go along.

Tuesday was my last day in English at Long Beach City and I wrapped it up by turning in a 5 page essay on the illusions of the American Dream as portrayed in the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle. A frustratingly and sometimes agitating effort but overall a good portrayal of these very interesting people. It’s the story of two Southern California families whose lives collide when Delaney, the husband of the upper middle class family, hits Candido, the husband of the struggling illegal family, with his car. Their lives cross paths on a few occasions but it’s the initial event that sets off a chain reaction of racial tension that forever changes the lives of these people. It really is a good book and I would suggest it but maybe with a little caution. Its themes have a more than a pinch of satire which piggybacks on some very politically heated issues. Considering that the book was written in the mid nineties and has definite relevance to today’s issues of immigration I can see this one becoming a much bigger target for the politically charged. I do find it funny that the political alliance of the target family in T.C. Boyle’s novel has flip-flopped so drastically since the 90s just because of the change of administrations from Clinton to Bush. I won’t spoil any of the meaty stuff but if you are up for a frustrating rollercoaster ride into the lives of these people then by all means check this one out.

Anyway, on the penultimate day of class, Professor Rose rounded up the class out front of the English Department building and took a class photo. There were a few wonderful people in this class that really spoke up and voiced some opinions Click on the picture for a larger version.

Well I haven’t posted on movies in awhile so I might as well jump right in. Although technically not a summer movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is pure genius. Everything that made up the 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up mashed together with the crass and crudely funny humor of Superbad makes this movie a must see. Jason Segel is great as well as the rest of the crew, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, and Jonah Hill work this thing to top notch performances. There’s even an ending that had me nearly chocking on my own laughter and tears. The Judd Apatow gang delivers again and looks like another one is coming down the line this summer with the Pineapple Express… Awesomeness!

Next up is Iron Man… WOW! This movie is the comic book movie all of us comic nerds have been salivating for. Spider Man 2… Great, X-Men 2… pretty awesome… but this just speaks right from the pages of Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. is a dead ringer for Tony Stark. Even now I get the shivers thinking that it was supposed to be Tom Cruise not even six years ago… just frightening! Jeff Bridges rocks as Tony’s nemesis and Gwyneth Paltrow is impeccably a smarter and almost cloned Miss Moneypenny as Pepper Potts. This is such a fun summer movie that I can’t help but tell you over and over again to go see it right now! And if you do go see Iron Man, please stay through the end credits!

The last movie on my little list here is Speed Racer. Although probably my least favorite of these three that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun and fulfilling movie. In actuality, it is a good old fashioned summer romp filled with the latest techno-seisure-inducing-fx that make it so much like the original cartoon that I was actually getting goose bumps on my arm during the last two races. Don’t go in expecting top notch dialogue but do go in for the adrenaline rush that it will rip from your inner kid and make your heart race faster than it probably has in a long, it did for anyway. The characters are either dead on like the show or so over-the-top evil you can’t help but get lost in it’s whirlwind of fantascical imagery and magic. The best part is that this is done by the Wachowski Brothers (of the Matrix fame) and it is all that and geared for the kiddies. I swear I should have shot video of Jaden dancing to the music in the aisles and standing up cheering for the sensory overloaded race sequences along with their hero Speed Racer and the mysterious Racer X. Go Speed Racer Go!

Okay, so this weekend is Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Very Long Names and next weekend Sex and the City movie.

So last week J’s class had their Nature Center Field Trip hike and I got wrangled into volunteering in keeping the little munchkins somewhat organized, constantly moving forward, and otherwise out of trouble. It was a blast. The kids were led through a “backstage” area or off-trail area of the Nature Center and were able to really get to the real grit and grime of nature by interacting with the bugs and plants by acting like little scientists. A sort of hands on approach that almost all of them really got a kick out of. I think the favorite bug of choice was the Assassin Beetle, a red and black insect that likes eating the mulch on the ground and look quite spooky when you see thousands of them swarming around your feet. Here’s a link to some of the pics:

This past Friday was J’s musical performance of the Little Red Hen. He played neal the cat and had one line. He did excellent and even had to memorize another kids line in case the kid forgot his line. So overall a good time was had by all with the exception of it breaking a 100 degrees. Click on the pic for more photos.

Saturday was J’s school Carnival and it was hot… the temperature, not the carnival although it was pretty fun. Grandpa came along for about an hour and J got to ride plenty of rides. After Grandpa left, J and I headed over to the Tiki Snowcone maker and got a couple of refreshing chunks of flavored ice. J’s was a mix of bubblegum and lime (interesting) and mine was a concoction called Tiger’s Blood (just fruit punch people). I snapped a few cell pix and threw them up on Flickr.

This coming Friday is the class field trip to the Long Beach Aquarium! WooHoo

Because the internets (a series of tubes) aren’t filled up enough with bickering and rants I thought I throw a couple more out there. This is more of an observation than a rant really but whatever it’s something I think needs to be addressed. And, although they might be a small issues I believe they are stepping stone issues that would help us all get along much better… I’ll get to the politics another time.

1. Shopping Cart Etiquette - There is a nasty group out there that will fight blood, sweat and tears for that one spot in line at the check out aisles that puts them one spot ahead of you. Really people it’s like you are back in elementary school fighting for cuts in line… GROW UP! This lady the other day literally raced to 10 Items or Less line when she saw me walking to the same line and why I ask since I was ony carrying a bottle of bleach and the cash in hand!! Once there she in her glorious spot ahead of me she then proceeds to unload her cart and lo and behold she is way over the 10 item limit… figures. But wait dear readers there is more oh yes there is more. This line is also a cash only line and she somehow convinces the clerk to let her use her Amex card which doesn’t work on repeat swipes. Evil shopping cart lady wherever you are I hope the rest of your day was filled with cars and people cutting you off and those 3 minutes you saved by racing to get in front of me was eaten up by miserable LA traffic. Love, Scott.

2. Parking Lot Drivers - You may not know this but bad drivers are at the top of my list of worst kind of people and there are plenty of avenues of could go down in ranting about them but this time it’s the ones in the parking lots. While pulling into one of the many fast food chains near my house one of these wonder-kinds was attempting something that was just ludicrous. The entrance to this establishment is a one way, very narrow driveway with the restaurant one one side and very tiny slanted parking stalls on the other. In other words you need a small vehicle to maneuver in this area. So as I was pulling into the driveway this person was trying to pull off a 3-point turn about (much like Austin powers did with the little electric cart in first Austin Powers movie) and drive the wrong way out where I currently was waiting. He finally pulls of the turn and then stares at me like I’m supposed to move for him. It was a wonderful fulfilling moment where I felt like Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Ennio Morricone’s theme whistling in my ear while we stared each other down. He finally retreated and turned his vehicle around and headed out the proper direction. I beg and plead with all pilots of these new fangled horseless carriage… learn the ways of the road or figure it out or something but please stop being stupid your just hurting America.

If you stuck around through the end of this post, thank you for reading. A regular post will follow soon.

Update: Now with video!

This weekend for Mother’s Day, the Evanskey crew packed its bags and boards and headed up to Mammoth Mountain for a two day getaway. We also we’re heading up for little J to partake in his first snowboarding lesson. The lessons went great and plenty of digital film was used up in capturing all the glorious triumphs and even a few of the tumbles and spills. Here are a couple of shots from Saturday’s events and you can link over to the Flickr set by clicking on any one of the pics. I’ll try to incorporate the new video features of Flickr for some cool videos we took while we were up there.

Whew… I almost forgot my April update on the Watchmen movie but realized the error of my way just in the nick of time.

Okay, so it’s a quick one this time but here are a few more characters from the movie.

The first one is in my opinion one of the greatest characters and antiheroes ever put to paper… Rorschach. The guy after him plays a pretty important role only second to Rorschach in the unraveling of the mystery of the story and his name is Nite Owl II.