Uploaded - 5\17\09

Scooter Haiku for a warm Sunday Afternoon

Trapped in my Office
Can artificial light kill?
Scooter! Set me free !

A few thoughts about Angels & Demons ...

I received a free pass for 2 to Regal Entertainment , refreshments included. So we decided to see Ron Howard's Angels & Demons. Now before I get into the movie let me say a couple of things about "Regal Entertainment Theaters"; in my opinion, they are neither "Regal" nor "Entertaining" and the less said about them the better.

Ok - I have read and enjoyed each of Dan Browns' books "Angels & Demons" and "The Da Vinci Code". Both books have their strong points and their weak ones. I always liked Angels & Demons better than Code because to me Angels was more of a political thriller with a minor in religious art history, while Code was more of an experiment in "what if" that seemed to strike a nerve in certain segments of the population. ( methinks they doth protest too much ? ...)

Now, I never really liked the movie version of The Da Vinci Code, it actually took me three tries and a couple of years to get through it. It seemed to me to a big screen version of the TV show Numb3rs. You know the part where the brother Charlie tries to explain how the bad-guys will react by extrapolating patterns in a lawn sprinkler while CGI calculations fly around his head?? Same thing about the Da Vinci Code. The novels are very interior-thinking. The lead character Robert Langdon either solves problems by inner dialogue or basically stops the plot entirely for brief, but enlightening history lessons. For me this did not translate to film well at all. I also felt that they really soft-pedaled the more controversial aspects of the book. Look - if your going to make a movie from a book that has everyone up in arms about whether or not Jesus had a wife , then you need to all out balls-to-the-walls and and make that movie. The book didn't sell a bazillion copies by being wishy-washy .... agreed?

As for Angels & Demons ? What is basically a very tightly written ( going back to my TV references once again ) episode of 24 or "12" as this case may be, turns almost entirely on one big gigantic MacGuffin. Once you realize that , you realize that you have spent the last 2 3/4 hours watching a movie about one idea or philosophy ( good as it may be) that could have easily been printed on the back of your movie ticket. A movie where if one person zagged instead of zigged the whole plot would have come crashing down like a house of cards. It's not that i didn't enjoy the movie, the directing was great, cinematography was fantastic, the cast was exceptional, it was just that the story ......meh .

I guess some things are better off read than seen

Until next time -

Disney/Pixar's UP

I recieved a "txt msg" yesterday that said - " win 4 tickets up a special advanced screening of Disney / Pixar's Up - txt (whatever it was) back and you will be entered in a drawing". I did. I was selected. YAY !!

So today was the screening , I have to say that this is probably my favorite Pixar movie of all time ! For me, better than Toy Story , better than The Incerdibles , better than Monsters Inc., even better than Finding Nemo ( which I think has the same sort of feel to it ). I'm not going to go into a plot-by-plot review of the picture, I'll just give you a few brief thoughts on the film.
What surprised me only about five minutes into the movie was the feeling of longing and wistfullness that ran throughout the entire film. It's not a straight-ahead comedy , although there are laugh-out-loud moments ( i love Dug ). This, to me, is the most sentimental movie Pixar has released. I had not read a great deal about the movie before I went although I had a general idea of the plot, I was not really sure about what to expect. What i got was a movie that wears it's heart on it's sleeve, a combination of Cocoon & Indiana Jones. A movie that deals with Life , Death, Friendship and Adventure in a way that totally won me over.
I think this will be another big hit for the Disney/Pixar brand, and it should be. The characters are fully developed ( one character in particular is given a full chance to deveolp with only minimal dialogue and only about 10 minutes of screen time). The action scenes are done better than 90% of the live-action movies realeased today; and the humor comes the characters. Not some product placement, current events, hipster, see-how-cute/fun-we-can-be ( i'm talking to you Shrek).
One final thought: if you are a dog person , or even if you're not, the dogs will win you over ...

until next time -


p.s. - my five favorite Pixar movies are : Up
The Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Wall-E
Toy Story

LOST Season Finale ...

Ok - so I just finished watching the season finale of LOST. I even stayed late a work so I wouldn't miss the end.
I have to say that while there were some great aspects to the show , I was left feeling a bit -meh- about it.
What I liked : the whole Fates dueling thingy ( at least I think that is what it was suppse to be )
What I didn't : almost everything else, I guess I'm over the whole Jaxk-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet-whoever drama ...
Will I watch next year , *sigh* I guess so. I was there at the beginning, so I might as well be there for the end. I'm just more entertained by Fringe now than either LOST or Heroes ..

Banana Flasher

Something my nubby showed me that I thought was high-larious !! 

I know ...

Yeas - I know that I haven't been updating this like I should have been . For that I apologize. But I will try my best to start doing this regularly !

As my blog is called Scootn' N DenverI guess that I should start out with a little bit about me; I purchased my first scooter a year ago last April ( the 20th I believe ) it was a Genuine Scooter Company Buddy International Pamplona 150 ( a mouthful to say the least ) and I love it !

In just under a year I have put over 2700 miles on it - using it as my main mode of transportation in good weather , year-round. I'm getting ready to take her in for a major tune-up later this week; using, as always, Sportique Scooters Downtown location. The staff at Sportique is fantastic and always welcoming to you whether or not you show up with an appointment .

Sportique has a great community of scooter enthusiasts, people who like all different kinds of of scooters from vintage to top-of-the-line modern. Sportique formed a scooter club last year called the Misfit Toys , we get together to ride for fun and charity all year long. Our first charity ride that we participated in was the Scoot for Toys last November, i can't remember exactly, but i know we riaseda good chunk of money for the Ronald McDonald house ( and froze our little butts off in the process ).

All year long the Misfit Toys do an un-official scavenger hunt called Scooter Tag. One person ( or a group of Scoots) take thier picture at a location or landmark in the city and then it's up to everyone else to be the first to find it. If you are the first to publish a picture of you scooter at the location and then you get to decide what the next location is ! I was lucky , this week I found the latest Scooter Tag and was able to get a picture of my scoot along with my partner Marck and out roommate Lee :

This location was on Leetsdale at a place called Priddy's Auction House .

The next location that we chose is this -

So , we'll see how long it takes the group to figure out this spot !

As for me - I've een fighting a migraine (again) for the past three days , it finally seems to be going away. I need to get my workout gear together so I can start working out again.

I have also decided I would like to try my hand at photography. I decided to get my rather nice Canon EOS Rebel 300D out of mothballs and see what I could manage to do with it. I found a site online called Momentile

that allows you to post a single picture a day, no comments , no captions ( are allowed to be made by you ) but everyone else can comment away. I thought that this would be a great way for me make myself take pictures. I mena, if I don't have my DSLR with me I always have my iPhone or my small point-and-shoot. if you want to look me up you can at

I would appreciate any feedback , good or bad, that you can give me.

I'm going to try and write a bit each day about my life and scooter and Denver - I hope you will check back and I hope that this turns into a lesson for me about writing for the web!

Until next time -

namaste