Superman Returns

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So I finally caught Superman Returns the other day. And I saw it on the IMAX in 3-D. Between skiing, work, a 1015 start time and 150 minute run time, it has been difficult to fit into the schedule. But I crammed it in regardless…

Be warned, this review contains spoilers…

Overall, I thought the movie did a good job bringing back Superman to the big screen. Seeing as how this movie has been in development hell for what seems like forever, it was even pretty coherent. I thought they could have tightened up the movie a bit, maybe trim about 15 minutes to make the pacing better, but it wasn’t bad.

I like the fact that they kept some of the cheesiness of Superman in the movie and didn’t make it completely modern. He even says swell. They have the latest cell phones and digital cameras but for some reason still seem to live in a world dominated by newspapers. I loved the whole model train scene. I thought it was actually a double reference. First, to the train scene in one of the original Superman movies and, second, to way the special effects use to be done, using models instead of CGI. It even foreshadowed a little bit.

I thought most of the effects were well done, but there were a couple that were just a little to CGI looking. Nothing major, but it was something I noticed. The plane sequence was very well done. The Daily Planet planet logo falling was also a good sequence.

The new Lois Lane played by Kate Bosworth is great. Definitely an upgrade. Lex Luther played by Kevin Spacey did one hell of a good job pretending to be Gene Hackman, and I mean that as a compliment. Whoever played Jimmy Olson brought the little photographer back to live as well. For Brandon Routh who played Superman, I say good job, but still no Christopher Reeve (its hard to believe that someone from the MTV show Undressed is still doing anything in front of the camera). But given time, he may fit better. It is just hard to replace someone who defined the role. One again, props to the new Lois Lane, Ms. Kate Bosworth (she was great in Blue Crush as well).

The premise of the movie was big enough to be a Superman dilemma and was actually a Superman dilemma instead of some random catastrophe.

Overall, I thought the movie was good. It was fun to see on the giant IMAX screen but the 3D I could take or leave. Don’t think that added anything for me. This is probably a movie I’ll pick up someday. Makes me want to watch the first couple again (which I haven’t seen in forever). From what I’ve heard this movie takes place after 1 & 2 and the others don’t exist.

Still undecided, here’s a trailer…

Finally, the line of the movie…

“I’ve done Superman!”
– Lois Lane

Truly an awesome line!!!

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Show Skiing on TV?

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Yea, that’s how much of a surprise it is… Just a little hard to believe. Well this weekend (it varies, depending on where you live) a show called Discover Wisconsin will be featuring show skiing in an episode called “World Class Waterskiing” and much of it was filmed at the 2005 Wisconsin State Show Ski Tournament.

If you go to the show’s website, it actually has a fair amount of information of water skiing, the upcoming tournaments, show skiing teams, ski clubs, etc. Go give it a look. They even have a picture of Mad-City over there.

Now this episode aired earlier in the year, sometime when it was still cold and I completely missed it, but has been given a second airing and it is this weekend. Check it out.

For the complete schedule of when it is on, you can check out your local guide or click here for more details.

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How to Face Plant Hard

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Face planting in barefooting is inevitable. It is just going to happen. Here is what I did this morning to pretty much cause myself to face plant…

So I get up footing, I’m in the curl and just nail a one foot. Held it half way across the bay, kept my weight balanced over my foot so it just a nice smooth one foot. No obnoxious spray, it was truly a money one foot.

After putting my foot back down, so I’m now back on two feet, I kinda do a “Yea” and bob my head as I do it. Well, my head bob was, well lets just say it was a little too enthusiastic. The momentum of my head bob put my face into the water hard… Completely unprepared for this face plant. Rough water, you kinda anticipate it. Hit some rollers, you know it is probably going to happen. Bob your head as you go Yea to yourself, just don’t expect it.

I did grab the rope and foot 9 more times today, so it didn’t stop me, just slowed me down briefly…

After popping some Tylenol, my headache subsided about 6 hours later.

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Two-a-days, Part 2

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Here I am crossing the bubbles of death. See the nice little rooster tail in front of me.

Hit the lake again right after work with Sandy, Mike, Seven and Lori in tow. Started off with another back-to-back barefoot set in the bay amongst the weeds doing 4 passes. Ended the night with final back-to-back set with 6 passes. That makes for a total of sixteen passes for the day. Meaning 16 deeps as well. Also did a repeat of what I did this morning. Stand up in right curl, lift right foot, cross bubbles of death to left curl, lift left foot.

What do I mean by back-to-back sets? Basically, I foot till the boat needs to stop (because of the shore) and does a power turn and I never need to let go of the rope. Boat idles back out, rope comes tight, and away we go. I timed it in my head tonight and this can take as little as 15 seconds when everything works out alright, but is much easier if they let the rope come tight and let me catch my breath before going. When they do that, it takes about 20 seconds. Still, that is a short break between runs.

Right now, my arms are exhausted. Still want to ski again. Waiting for call backs for tomorrow AM. If that doesn’t come through, I should be able to track down some people for the afternoon. I’ll rest on the next rainy day.

Finally, props to Sandy for joining me in my two-a-day endeavor. She woke up early for the morning set and then came back for the evening set. Here’s a shot of Sandy skiing tonight. Once again, notice the carpet of weeds to her right.

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Two-a-days, Part 1

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Woke up at 530, hit the water at 630 with Sandy and Joey. Good way to start the day. Managed to accomplish a goal I mentioned a couple days ago… Stood up in the right curl, did a one foot on my left foot, crossed the wake to the left curl and then did a one foot on my right foot. More news later, and maybe some pictures too. (Not sure what’s on my camera at this point.)

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The State of Televised Sports

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I saw a couple of articles on the internet that piqued my interest. The first article is by Bill Simons over at ESPN.com. He talks of his love of World Cup Soccer. Not soccer, just World Cup Soccer. He makes some interesting points. I found myself watching the end of the semifinal game between Italy and Germany on Tuesday, just waiting for something to happen. Saw a couple good parts with a lot of action, but there is a lot of waiting in soccer.

The second article, also over at ESPN.com, is by Jason Whitlock. He talks about some new possibilities for sports that should be televised now since that in addition to poker, we have dominos and competitive eating. Truth be told, I watched the hot dog eating contest on the 4th. It is actually the third year in a row that I’ve watched this contest. I wake up to ESPN on TV and this contest comes on at 11am. Once it starts, it is just hard to turn off. I did like his ideas for some new sports, especially the Scoring Number in Bars and the Beer Bonging competition.

Seriously, go check out both articles and then keep reading… I found them both informative and funny… Here are the links again:

Both articles point out the fact that we’re televising soccer (which is a very popular sport, just not in the USA yet) and poker, dominos and hot dog eating contests which with at least three of those, you sit and wait for something to happen (an actual play, someone to win big or lose even bigger, regurgitation), truth be told, I’m not really sure why people watch dominos, unless it is to see someone that looks like Ice-Cube slam down a domino and yell “Domino!” (I think that is from a movie or something, not sure, let me know if you know).

It makes me wonder why a sport that I love, waterskiing, doesn’t get more air time. 3 event skiing (jumping, slalom and tricking) hardly gets any air time, wakeboarding get just a tiny bit more, barefooting gets pretty close to zero air time.

Show skiing’s national tournament, an event that takes 2 days to complete with 14 hours of competition gets 42 minutes of air time, and in reality gets maybe 30 after taking out the promo time given to the sponsors. Show skiing, for those who don’t’ know, consists of jumping, ballet, barefooting, and human pyramids. Probably close to a thousand people compete (14 teams) taking many thousands of runs. They collapse this into 30 minutes of highlights. Just doesn’t do it justice. To do it right, they should show an hour long summary of the bottom teams and edit the top 4 teams’ shows so they’d each fit into an hour of TV. Make it a five night event and show it. And then, keeping it in line with how the scoring actually occurs, don’t announce the scores after each show. Obviously, the bottom 10 teams will be known, but the top four should be shown in the order they compete and just let the drama build. Tack on an extra half hour to do the awards justice and to announce the winners.

Just imagine if they took the Tour de France and editted it down to a 60 minute show. Here’s Lance starting, here he is going up a hill, here he’s passing someone, this is him finishing this stage, and look, he won the whole thing. That’s what they do to show skiing.

Meanwhile, I’ll need to go check the schedule to find out when they are televising dominos next.

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Breaking News: Microsoft Patents Ones and Zeroes

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News Summary:

As a result of the Microsoft patent, many other companies have begun radically revising their product lines: Database manufacturer Oracle has embarked on a crash program to develop “an abacus for the next millennium.” Novell, whose communications and networking systems are also subject to Microsoft licensing fees, is working with top animal trainers on a chimpanzee-based message-transmission system. Hewlett-Packard is developing a revolutionary new steam-powered printer.

Get the full text of the news story here.

Ok, so maybe it isn’t breaking news anymore (it’s from 1998) or really not even news (it’s from The Onion) but it was damn funny at the time. Hope you enjoy it.

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Footin’ Sets

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So Monday I was out skiing (I know, big surprise). For my sets, we ducked into the bay because I wanted to do some footin (another surprise) and didn’t want to deal with Wally World out on the main lake.

Now I’ve written about the bay before and as you may now know, it is full of weeds. Now, mid summer, it kinda looks like a large field. Luckily, their is a nice path across the diagonal of the bay that is ski-able. The weeds do have two good qualities. One, they keep everyone else out of the bay. No one else wants to ski in there. Two, no waves. Damn near glass calm.

The weeds are so nasty now that in order to really good a good footin’ run in, we need a quick way to stop at the end of the run. Enter the power turn. Boat is going 40+ MPH and basically washes out to come to a stop. They are fun to drive and fun to ride in the boat while they are occurring. I’ve decided it is also fun to foot while they are doing it.

First off, you get an ever so slightly longer run. An extra 75 to 100 yards. Don’t need to leave space for the boat to decelerate.

Next, as the boat spins out, I just dropped to my butt and slid. This, too, is fun.

Third, I never even had to let go of the rope. I’m sliding, handle in hand.

Lastly, the boat is now turned to go back the way we just came, I have the handle ready, rope comes tight, we take off. Elapsed time from my slide ending to being ready to go, 30 to 40 seconds I’m guessing (I’ll need to actually time this).

Do this six times quickly and you become very tired. 6 deeps, 6 runs, 6 slides. Lots of fun and makes for a quick set. Then did it again about an hour later. Only 4 the second time (also did a slalom set in between the foot sets).

While doing this, I even nailed some one foots on my “goofy” foot. Next goal, do a one foot on both feet in the same run. Easy one would say, but to do this the way I want to, I’ll need to cross the wake and my boat has, what I affectionately call, the bubbles of death. They’re nasty.

Another goal to start working on, tumbles. I’ll need to throw on the boom to work on those.

I’ll try to get some pics of the power turn and slides. The photographer will really need to hold onto the camera though.

Some final observations… Footing with a weed stuck between your toes feels a little funny… Doing a deep, feeling a pile of weeds form under your feet and then having that pile go splat into your face as your still doing the deep equals not fun. Still made it though… Doing one foots and feeling your pinky toe catch in the water and not falling because you caught a toe makes for interesting one foots.

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