"Always Reasons"

Yes, I know that this year is flying right on by and my posts seem less frequent, but there are these reasons...

Foremost is the health of both my wife's father as well as my own father, both of who are currently in nursing homes and neither it would seem with any chance of ever coming back home.

My father-in-law, of course, has cancer and it has progressed to the point that he needs around the clock care. In fact, at the moment he's been moved from the nursing home and into a hospital and his doctors give him no more than a month to live.

My father, at 87, has Alzheimer's Disease and has had recent strokes and can't walk. Sometimes he knows my mother and myself and sometimes no. At times he's coherent and other times he's living in a world somewhere else. My mother is 84 and fragile, and both my wife and I work all the time, and he finally got to the point that we couldn't take care of him. Fortunately he's in a nursing home only 2 miles from our houses (my parent's house is located in the same town and street as I) so we get to see him with great frequency. Piled upon this now as I, being the only child in my family, have certain responcibilities that take up about any time in which I'm not at my full time job. I have to keep their large yard mowed (as well as my own), run errands, keep track of my parent's health, legal matters, etc.,etc. I know I don't post much regarding my family and personal matters, but most of these are just that,i.e., personal, and I'm sure everyone has their problems and obligations, but I just wanted to let everyone know why I don't have that "extra time" these days as I used to when I first started this blog site.

Another reason you haven't seen me here for a while is due to problems I've had logging into this blog to post. For no real reason and just all of a sudden, Google wouldn't accept my password! In fact, I finally had to sign up for a "G-Mail" account before I could post this blog tonight. Maybe things are okay with it now...we'll "see". But thinking perhaps I'd never be back here (here at almost the 3rd. Anniversary of "Elmo's Junction" and with right at 10,000 unique hits) I eliminated my photos. So...okay, we'll just have some new ones and maybe a little different look to this whole blog soon.

Anyway...

While I'm here, I'll post a few opinions of recent acquisitions and movies that I've squeezed in some time to watch.

Movies I've viewed in the past few months include: the latest version of "King Kong", "TMNT", "Smokin Aces", "Bridge to Terabithia", and "My Super Ex-girlfriend".

KONG is a movie that should never have been remade to begin with, as there as certain movies that were done perfectly the first time around. Such flicks as "The Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938), or "The Bride of Frankenstein"(1935) are prime examples of movies that just could not have ever been made any better than they were...so..."why" do people always seem to think they can improve on perfection? Alright, so the answer is money (just plain ol' merchandising). It's not that the actors didn't do as good of a job as they could or that the special effects could have been better. It's just that you don't try to rewrite The Bible when it comes to a classic film. The best thing I could say about this remake is that it's better than the sad attempt made in the mid 1970's.

Okay. So I'll watch just about anything with Uma in it. "MSEGF" is one of those "watch-it-and-forget-it" type of flicks. Good for a few chuckles in a single viewing. Sorta neat seeing her as a super-heroine.

"TMNT" is exactly what one would expect. It's all about the Eastman/Laird creations started in 1983 which boomed to being on everything from lunchboxes to shoelaces. Can't say that I have ever been a huge fan of "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Thought that TMNT #1 should have been a one-shot only as it was a great parady and tribute to comic book creators such as Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Stan Lee and Bill Everett, but anyone who was "into' comics back in the 1980's certainly knows what this book led into: a brazillion imitations and a flood of alternate press releases of which only maybe 10% were any good (and less of that percentage which has survived to this day). But as a Turtles' flick, it's perfection for what it is, and the computerized animation couldn't be much better; a good flick to watch with your kids as long as you know it's on a PG-13 type rating, and it beats the heck out of any previous movie adaptation of the characters.

"Bridge to Terebithia" is the winner of all of these flicks. A combination of fantasy, tragedy and adventure for two pre-teen children, and not just a kiddie flick but something as an adult you'd want to watch probably more than once, or even share with someone just because it is that good. My highest recommendation.

I couldn't even finish viewing "Smokin' Aces". It was boring, erratic, and looked like some combination of "Pulp Fiction-The Godfather-& David Copperfield".


In current comic books, DC's 52 #50 (geez, it it already up to #50!?!) has the defeat of "Black Adam" and the beginnings of DC's "WWIII" storylines, plus a one panel cameo of my fave DC team, "The Doom Patrol". As usual, a great book no matter who says otherwise.

Justice League of America(DC) #8 begins a new "JLA/JSA" team-up and has an appearance of The Legion of Super-Heroes' member, "The Karate Kid". This book just keeps on pluggin' nicely along and this issue has a Mike Turner cover.

Otherwise for the LOSHs, The Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st. Century(DC) #1 is nothing more than what it's supposed to be and that being an adaptation of the animated series, which I like, but not this comic in particular.