16 posts from August 2007

Sean says...

Senator Larry Craig's (R-Idaho) situation has led me to create a new word (with credit to our friend Nathan for definition option #3):

Sean and Stefan say...

We'll everyone we are off on our first official trip together tomorrow!  Las Vegas bound!  Our friends Joe and Matt (aka Gobear) will be joining us for a fun filled week of fun in the Sin City!  We are staying at the MGM Grand. Be prepared for all the pictures and stories about our trip! We are seeing Cirque du Soliel's Mystere at Treasure Island and Spamalot (90 minute version) at Wynn for our show selections. Who knows what other mischief in Vegas we'll get into!? Well some of it will have to stay there of course... like the slogan says!

Here are some interesting sites that you can look at while we are gone:

Official Las Vegas Tourism Site

Las Vegas Casino Death Watch - Your guide to what's up with today's and tomorrow's Las Vegas casinos.

Vegas Tripping - A cool article and video of old casinos being imploded!

History of Las Vegas Hotels/Casinos - A very detailed text site with a lot of details on every hotel/casino since the first El Rancho in 1941.

Sean says...

My long time college roommate (3 years!) and great buddy Tim (known each other GASP! since 1989!)  sent me some fun news today. His brother Peter is in a new film!

Peter Tuinstra

Peter Tunistra Poolside

Peter Tuinstra is a huge soap opera star in Thailand extending from his days in the Air Force stationed there and his fluent knowledge of the language. He now has made a creature feature, CROC (not to be confused with the shoe sensation), with Michael Madsen of all people about a giant crocodile terrorizing a coastline! Look for Peter (as Jack McQuade) and it On Demand or on Sci Fi Channel!  

Sean says...

Well my 15 minutes was extended by 15 seconds yesterday!  Stefan's brother Andy (who is listening right now shhh!) paid me a big honor by giving me a shout out during his and his radio partner Dave's call of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays - (my beloved) Boston Red Sox Game #3 this week! 

I know I "harrassed" him about Boston's Mike Lowell being the best thing in the world but I didn't expect a reward for it!  Thanks Andy!   It meant a ton! Now if Tampa could have just lost that game instead of winning 6 - 5 than I would have been even happier!

Mike Powell out of Red Sox Uniform

Sean says...

On my power walk with Jim today, I noticed for a brief moment two men walking toward us holding hands comfortably as they chatted. I caught their eyes and smiled as they came nearer. I hope they knew I was approving. The funny thing is noone batted an eye at them except my gleeful smile and slight double take. Who knew gay romance was in the air and unashamed to show itself quietly today on D.C.'s National Mall?

Men Holding hands

Sean says...

As an added history lesson check this out...

The Enchanted Forest in Ellicott City, Maryland was the first Theme Park in Maryland and the East Coast, and the second oldest Theme Park in the USA, Disneyland being the oldest. It opened Monday, August 15, 1955. Admission was $1 for adults and 50¢ for children

The park began on 20 acres, later expanded to 52 acres and then it reduced to 32 acres after Bethany Woods was built. It featured no mechanical rides or spectacular special effects, and in its heyday it hosted some 300,000 visitors annually. Opened in 1955, it thrilled and delighted generations of families from far and wide throughout the next three decades. It closed in 1988, reopened at various times in the 1990s only to be permanently closed and either disassembled and placed on a nearby farm aimed at restoration or crumbling away at its original location.

How old were you when you had your very first boyfriend/girlfriend? Do you still know them now? 
Submitted by KIM. 

Sean says...

Her name was Leslie. She was a girl who I knew either in the neighborhood or at pre-school who I apparantly "showered affection" on for the time I was living with my family in Fort Ord, CA. My Dad was stationed there with the Navy. We moved after about 2 or so years and I only saw her again when we learned her family had moved to Baltimore and we lived in Reston, VA.  Funny thing is her memory came up again because I found that Stefan's parents live just near the old Enchanted Forest (Some recent photos of the place now) near Ellicott City, MD (not to be confused with Story Book Land which was near where my sisters and I went to school in Woodbridge, VA) where I saw Leslie for the last time. All I have is an audio tape of me saying "I love Leslie!"  If she only knew it was never to be... wink!

Stefan said...

Wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your profile (on Match.com).

You did a really nice job with it - warm, concise, light-hearted, candid, and wonderfully romantic. I think we have some things in common (another Hitchcock fan!), and perhaps share some similar philosophies and approaches to life...

Would definitely enjoy hearing back from you. If not, I wish you good luck and great success in finding what you are looking for---

:-)

Stefan

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sean said...

Dear Stefan –

Thanks for the compliment on my profile! Yours is excellent as well! 

A few things jumped out at me so bear with me! I liked how you can show "great enthusiasm" for things...  (and blabbed on about things)

Well I probably have said too much! But that is me and I am living up to one of my friend's labels for me, a personality. You seem to have a great personality and a lot of things in common with me. And to me personality is a very important component in any attraction I have for someone. Sure you have really dreamy eyes and a awww shucks smile but that isn't going to entertain me when I am 80... :-)... (and continued to blab)

Anyways… I hope we can talk and get to know each other sometime soon. I am very unassuming and enjoy meeting new people. All we have to risk is finding a new friend, right?   I have put my cell phone below for your amusement. 

Sean

And that ladies and gentleman, one year ago today was our first contact with each other.  It ain't exactly poetry but... Who knew it would turn out this well!  

Sean says...

Today I saw the movie of the 2007 so far: The Bourne Ultimatum!

Bourne Ultimatum

Wow! WOW! WOW!!

Many of you have me pegged I am sure for a lover of all things old in movies sometimes. Many of you think that I am always off to see a movie pretty much twice a week or buying dvds willy nilly. But I am really persnickety about the films I spend money to see (or buy on dvd). I don't see Michael Bay action movies because they are crap. I don't have an actor or actress that makes me run to see movies at the moment unless they are dead ones of the golden age. But when I see a GREAT and ENTERTAINING film I try and shout from the roof tops about it for a long time. The Bourne Ultimatum is one of those films.

I settled in by myself (Stefan had no interest in the film) at my local multiplex expecting at least the ride I got from the previous films in the Jason Bourne series penned by Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy. But wow what a ride!  What makes these films great is that they have intelligence and grit behind them. They are not hung up on fancy gadgets and clever banter. They work under realities and the fear that one's individuality will become smothered by the interest of the state. Matt Damon becomes what James Bond and the Universal Soldier (yes a mindless Jean Claude Van Damme film but superhuman ability is what I am getting at here) fantasize to be. The chases, the car wrecks, the suspense, the office CIA intrigue!  The film grabs you by the lapels and doesn't let go. I found myself strapped in and loving the roller coaster.

We know that Matt Damon will at least meet a fate at the end of these films, but Ludlum's literary creation in the hands of screenwriters Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi makes us fear for the people who end up in Bourne's path to help him and their survival. This adds to the suspense and also makes for some great chase. David Strathairn, Joan Allen and Albert Finney (each is way overdue for an Oscar) add their lofty acting talents as Bourne's foes (or are they friends?) bringing us earnest commitment as villains (or are they benefactors?). They also have a stature that makes us believe that they could be these people. Julia Stiles (who makes it into all three Bourne films) and Paddy Considine (both actors who deserve stronger parts in the future) also drop in to add the fear Bourne is supposed to have but has been trained not too.

Applause to director Paul Greengrass, his editor Christopher Rouse, and the entire stunt coordinator team deserve some recognition though for making this a wild ride that just makes you love it all!  Why does this work though and make it different from a Michael Bay piece of crap? The action makes sense. Sure a car chase in NYC is a little too much but in terms of the stakes and how the plotting is laid across the evilness of the War on Terror, the film holds up. Things happen for a reason, not some silly piece of scenery flying into place or classic film being remade with louder explosions. This film gave me a memory of the intensity of The French Connection and the fear of the flawed but visually purposed thrillers The Parallax View and Three Days of The Condor.  You never knew who was going to win and you never knew who was the true enemy. You understood the purpose of the government intelligence agency in the film but you always question the intensity of their verve. The loyalty of who to trust and who to fear makes me think of other films such as The Guns of Navarone (#64 on my Top 100 films) and the more recent Casino Royale, where what is right supplants the emotion of our inner selves no matter good or bad in nature.  Wrapped with the search of identity this film just blows our minds and leaves us feeling we paid for a good seat at the Colosseum.

So go see this great film and catch its prequels. I am already preparing a space on my DVD shelf for it.  

Sean says...

It's Saturday at the McFreed household and you know we have something planned!  Stef and I decided to take in another film in the noir series at Baltimore's Charles Theatre with a friend, the de-lovely and stunning Julie...you would never know that she was the mother of three growing boys!  The film this week? Double Indemnity! Number 23 on my Top 100 Films list!  This was the first time Stefan had seen the film, so I was excited for him to see it! 

A brief plotting of Double Indemnity: An insurance man, Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), meets Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) while on a sales call concerning some expired automobile policies. Flirting ensues and soon enough an affair begins and murder is being plotted concerning Phyllis' husband. Will the lovers succeed or will Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), Neff's boss, catch them at a game planned specifically to foil his own inquiries?

One of if not the best film noir films ever made. Billy Wilder writes a top notch script that pulled no punches and gave us great innuendo to enjoy with a smirk. And it is the writing that makes this film survive. Film noir language can be laughable considering the acting style of many films prior to The Method acting style of Marlon Brando and James Dean entrance in the 1950s. Today's audiences have a hard time with this type of dialogue because it feels unorganic to the way people talk. For me it is this old style that makes me smile at its artistry of the written pulp novel. This film recognizes the manner of its patter and pokes fun at itself while keeping its bite. You really don't get that though unless you see it with an audience; the humor is great and more self aware when you hear others laugh at the hidden jokes within Wilder's great script. 

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck deliver Wilder's sharp, direct, and poison-filled dialogue effectively.  Double Indemnity lives because MacMurray and Stanwyck carry it "straight down the line." MacMurray is a cad with a conscience very unlike the My Three Sons reputation he created later. Stanwyck creates the film noir bad girl template to be followed by later actresses here. She is the bottle blonde tramp with a brain who knows how to turn on the drama and sex to advance her own cause. I can't look at a woman with an ankle bracelet without thinking about her Phyllis and her greedy nature represented by the curl of her red lipsticked lips in a cruel pose.

But did Stef and Julie love it?  Of course! But I wouldn't dare speak for them... ;-)

Cafe Hon

Later the three of us took a jaunt over to Cafe Hon for brunch! What a treat! And beyond the syrup catastrophe that involved all the help staff "off stage," we had a great time talking about manners, the McFreed Summer Shindig, and the movie we just saw!  We talked and visited so long and wandered into a few stores that we ended up spending noon to 430pm enjoying the day!

But after the movie today and the "announcement" of Stef and Julie's engagement (um, Julie is already married with three stapping young sons in tow in case you all didn't know) at the Summer Shindig, should I be on the look out for any accident policies being taken out in my name????