These Are a Few of My Favorite Movies: The Empire Strikes Back

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - I love this movie a little more every time I watch it. As a kid, maybe I didn't enjoy it as much because it's darker and a little more nuanced than the other two films in the original trilogy. But my appreciation has really grown to the point that I can't help but pin superlatives on it such as "spectacular" or "masterpiece".

I love that it portrays the Empire as serious business, not just a bunch of bumbling fools who will eventually be outsmarted by the good guys. Darth Vader was perhaps his most villainous in this film . Tracking down the rebels on Hoth. Force-choking two Imperial officers. Hiring a crew of sketchy bounty hunters. Forcing Lando Calrissian to betray his friend. Kicking the crap out of an overconfident Luke. Altering the terms of the deal.

I love that it uses some creative locales. Let's face it. . . Star Wars is in kind of a rut with the desert scenery. Tatooine features prominently in Ep. I, Ep. IV, and Ep. VI, and makes cameos in the other two prequels. The Force Awakens takes place partially on Jakku, another desert planet, albeit not Tatooine. But in The Empire Strikes back, we see an ice planet, a swamp planet, an asteroid, and a city in the clouds. No deserts anywhere.

I love that there's still a little romantic tension. Although the momentum swings in the direction of Han + Leia during the course of this film, as it ends, Han is temporarily out of the picture and Luke has his arm around Leia. The fact of Luke and Leia's familial relationship hasn't yet been revealed (or created, depending on how cynical you are).

I love Leia in this movie. She gets more attention for the hair buns of Ep. IV and the metal bikini of Ep. VI, but she really dazzles as the female presence throughout Empire, whether she's wearing the snowsuit or the Bespin gown.

I love that the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher is palpable. Every interaction between them throughout the film is fantastic, culminating with the classic "I love you/I know" exchange before Han enters the carbon freeze.

I love when Luke insists that he's not afraid, and Yoda stares at him and says, "You will be. You. . . will. . . be."

I love that it's the least screwed-with of the "special editions". Not really anything major added other than the full-body Wampa monster.

I love this deleted scene. Trilogy-making is dynamic. One sequel a crush, the next sequel  your twin sister.

I love "Stop that, my hands are dirty/My hands are dirty too, what are you afraid of?"

I love "Your tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker/Then I'll see you in hell!"

I love Bossk and all three seconds of his screen time. I love C-3PO with his head on backwards. I love tauntauns.

I love Yoda and his bits of wisdom. "Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter."

I love that we briefly see Yoda's sense of humor before he morphs into ultra-serious mode. "How do you get so big eating food of this kind?"

I love, "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee."

Not My Fantasy

My quest for a fantasy football championship died last night, with a humbling 141-61 defeat in the playoff semifinals. The odds were against me, but I was hoping for a couple of miraculous 30-point efforts to help me pull off an upset.

Instead, what I got was my lowest point total of the season with 61 (previous low: 85). That's an average of less than 7 points per player. My high point man was Steelers TE Ladarius Green (12), who I picked up off waivers a couple of weeks ago. The three wide receivers I left on the bench outscored the three I had in my lineup by a total of 39-14, although that wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome. I get a chance next week to still secure third place, which would be quite an accomplishment considering my total points rank for the season is seventh out of eight teams.

You might be thinking, I don't care to hear about your stupid fantasy football team. But you aren't thinking that because you aren't reading this post. If a tree falls down in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound?

As usual, I didn't catch many breaks in the draft. I had the #7 pick in the first round and opted to use it on Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins, who had 111 catches a year ago with an unstable quarterback situation. Maybe I figured with Brock Osweiler coming on board this season in Houston, it could only improve the situation. Instead, I was burned by Brock, as Hopkins was a pretty disappointing fantasy player this year, only topping 20 points once (in week 2) in our PPR league. The next two players selected in our draft? David Johnson went #8 and will wind up as the top scoring fantasy player this season. Le'Veon Bell went #9 and despite missing the first three games is currently #6 in terms of total points.

I went for Rob Gronkowski with the #10 pick, thinking that being able to pencil in 15 points weekly at tight end would be a good move. I can't really fault myself for that logic, but he was only healthy for about four games this year. It hasn't affected the Patriots, who are inexplicably still the best team in the NFL even without him, but it sure didn't help my fantasy team.

In the third round I went for Chargers WR Keenan Allen at #23 overall. He was lost for the season with an injury in Week 1. Ouch. Then I went for Buccaneer Doug Martin as my first RB at #26. He was injured and missed about six games in a row and somewhere along the line I dumped him. If only I had instead snagged RB LeSean McCoy who went #30 or WR Mike Evans who went #32. Both players averaged 18+ fantasy points per week this year.

 

I took Raiders WR Amari Cooper in the fifth round. He was pretty good early on, but hasn't done much lately. I shouldn't be too frustrated with him - he was supposed to be my WR3. For some reason I decided to take Russell Wilson in the sixth round, as the fourth quarterback taken in our draft. Instead, I dumped him midway through the season. Why didn't I grab Drew Brees, who was the fifth quarterback taken in our draft, #50 overall. He's currently #2 among quarterbacks in fantasy points behind only Aaron Rodgers. Wilson is #17.

So you get the picutre. It's easy to draft after the season when you know how everything turned out. My point is that I didn't catch many breaks. Three of my top four picks made basically irrelevant by injuries, and the other never developed any chemistry with the new quarterback.

So I slogged through to the end with waiver pickups such as Jay Ajayi, Marcus Mariota, Martellus Bennett, Theo Riddick and Jamison Crowder doing just enough to help me get the #3 seed for the playoffs. It just wasn't enough to make me a viable championship contender.

Better luck next year, as they say.

The Quarterback Transition

I'm okay with the Broncos quarterback situation. It was time for Peyton Manning to retire. I'm glad he chose to retire a Super Bowl champion rather than try and last another year in the NFL at age 40.

And I'm glad Brock Osweiler is gone. Although I think he proved himself a capable professional quarterback over the course of his seven starts last year, he showed us his true stripes. Rather than humbly accept his role on the team and enjoy the ride to the pinnacle of professional football and be grateful for the opportunity to help a first-class organization defend their title in 2016, he chose to essentially extend his middle finger to the team that drafted and developed him for four years and take a big fat check and move down to Houston. Maybe he'll help tranform the Texans into an NFL power. Or maybe he'll fail to even surpass the modest accomplishments of Matt Schaub. No one really knows. But it's better that he's not here if he feels that entitled. Millennials.

The Broncos traded for Mark Sanchez, who was a high draft pick of the New York Jets all the way back in 2009. He won four playoff games in his first two NFL seasons, but the Jets lost in the AFC championship both years.  His career fell on hard times afterwards, and he is somewhat unfairly judged by a single play in a game against the Patriots in 2012. He ran into the back of his offensive lineman and the resulting fumble was returned for a touchdown. Unfortunately, the play took place on national television on Thanksgiving night. I wonder if the "butt fumble" would have gained such notoriety if it had occurred on a Sunday afternoon in mid-October. He spent the past two years playing for the Eagles and after they signed Sam Bradford to a big contract, he was traded to Denver for a conditional draft pick.

He has a fun nickname - "The Sanchise" - which doesn't really fit him anymore. He's brought a good attitude to Denver and seems genuinely excited to be here. I hope it works out for him - something along the lines of a Jake Plummer-ish renaissance. Perhaps a change of scenery is all that he needs - he's spent the past seven years playing in New York and Philadelphia in front of a bunch of angry, ungrateful jerks.

I was going to say that the New York and Philadelphia fans were also "hard to please" but unfortunately for him, that is no different than being here in Denver. We're just wrapping up a season in which the Broncos won 15 of 19 contests yet a lot of folks were unhappy with the caliber of quarterback play. Some of that is carryover from the championship teams which featured three current Hall of Famers on offense (John Elway, Gary Zimmerman, and Shannon Sharpe) and a couple of potential Hall of Famers in Terrell Davis and Rod Smith. Broncos fans got used to seeing a lot of points on the board and what Peyton Manning did in 2013 didn't help.

Another thing that doesn't help Sanchez is the fact that the Broncos spent a first-round pick on Paxton Lynch. Now, I don't know much about Lynch. I've never seen him play as I don't watch college football. I have no idea if he'll end up being the guy.

But I do know this: the very fact that Lynch will presumably be the backup means that Bronco fans will have no patience with Sanchez. Unless he goes out and passes for 3,500 yards and 30 touchdowns and puts up 30 points a game on a fairly regular basis, the Bronco faithful will be hollering for Lynch by the end of September. We can learn this from history. Back in 2006, the Broncos drafted Jay Cutler in the first round. Even though Jake Plummer won nearly 70% of his starts during his four seasons in Denver and nearly got them to the Super Bowl in 2005, the Denver media and fans could not wait to get Cutler on the field as soon as possible. Because they didn't think the offense was productive enough even though the Broncos were 7-4 when Plummer was benched. Cutler's "big arm" and ability to "make all the throws" were going to solve everything. It didn't, and Cutler was gone within three years.

So that's what you have to look forward to, Mr. Sanchez. I wish you all the luck, but history tends to repeat itself. Unless you play at a Pro Bowl level, you won't make it to the end of the season as the Denver quarterback.

A Rewatching of God's Army

Today we watched the film "God's Army" with the kids. They'd never seen it because - VHS. I hadn't seen it in years. However, I had much the experience I did when I saw it in the theater in Provo 16 years ago. I actually really like it and find that it relates very much to my own experiences as a missionary. Not all of it is realistic - the newest elder being picked up at the airport in a VW bus or the mission president without a suit jacket reaming out the brand new elder in a cluttered office or the baptisms in the ocean - but a lot of the characters and scenes in the movie ring true. It gets a little over the top towards the end but I guess you need some of that for drama's sake.

I did a little reading about Richard Dutcher afterwards. Much of the movie was autobiographical, from the troubled family life of the young elder to the spiritual experience in Carthage Jail of the black elder. He put everything he had into producing a movie depicting a story unique to the Mormon faith. I was aware that he had become disenchanted with the direction the Mormon film genre took in the years following the release of God's Army, and that his planned biopic of the prophet Joseph Smith never got off the ground.

Apparently he left the church in 2007 amidst doubts about the truthfulness of the LDS church. It seems ironic that God's Army became autobiographical in another sense for Dutcher after he lost his faith. One of the elders in the movie struggles with doubts as he becomes consumed with anti-Mormon literature. Some of the most powerful scenes in the film are when Dutcher's character confronts this elder about his behavior. He yells at him in a diner about trusting in the works of those who devote their time and energy to destroying the faith of other people and exhorts him to spend more time studying the church's material. Later he topples over a table in their apartment in a fit of rage after discovering that the elder finally gave in and deserted his mission.

So while many of the aspects of Dutcher's early life were portrayed in the more heroic characters in the movie, isn't it interesting that ultimately he became most like the faithless missionary in the film?

Guess The Location

These were taken February 2014 - what was about to be built here?

An Evening with Billy

I've only recently become a concert-goer. I didn't attend my first "rock concert" until two years ago, when at the age of 37, I attended the Bon Jovi show at the Pepsi Center in April of 2013. I followed that up with a Heart concert at Fiddler's Green later that summer.

My concert bucket list isn't very long - I haven't actually put pen to paper and produced an actual list - but I think I have a pretty good idea of artists I'd actually pay my hard-earned money to see live and in person. One of them made an appearance in Denver earlier this month (No, I'm not talking about Taylor Swift) and so I actually coughed up the cash for a couple of nosebleed seats in the Pepsi Center.



Billy Joel. I went to see Billy Joel. The real guy.

I gained an appreciation for Billy Joel mainly through my ownership of a cassette tape containing his Greatest Hits Volume I & II, which remains as one of the best-selling albums of all time. He certainly made his name in the 1970s, before I was of music-listening age, but his eleventh album, Storm Front, came out when I was in junior high school. It featured his third and final Billboard #1 song, "We Didn't Start the Fire", so he also had some pop culture relevance during my teen years.

We got pretty much the cheapest seats in the house, because while I like Billy Joel I guess I don't like him several hundred dollars worth. As you're buying the tickets they really caution you - WARNING! THESE TICKETS ARE BEHIND THE STAGE! - but I didn't think they were that bad.

Billy Joel  is old. And kind of large. In case you didn't know. One of the first cracks he made was, "I'm Billy's dad. . . Billy couldn't make it tonight." But physical appearances aside, he's still got it. He's an amazing musician. So many different styles of music, from the more tender piano-based "love" songs to the harder-edged "rock-and-roll" numbers to his "doo-wop" influenced the 1983 album An Innocent Man, which was a tribute to the music of the fifties and sixties. He also has his share of socially themed music and whatever category "We Didn't Start the Fire" fits into. Heck, Garth Brooks covered his song "Shameless", which reached number one on the country charts.

His last pop album, River of Dreams, was released 22 years ago, but he has such a huge catalog of beloved numbers that there were several he didn't even do during the 2 1/2 hour concert. He didn't sing "Just the Way You Are", which won a couple of Grammys back in the day, nor did he use "Tell Her About It", which is one of the three Billboard number one hits he has to his credit.  (Although I just read that he hates playing those songs in concert so I guess that explains it.)

He played pretty much all his best loved and adored songs. I don't need to tell you what they are but here is the setlist if you want to see it. I enjoyed yelling "JFK/blown away/what else do I have to say" along with everyone else during We Didn't Start the Fire. Piano Man, of course, was the last number (before the encore) and of course everyone knows all the words. I don't necessarily have a favorite, but let's just say he played all my favorites. The photo below was taken during his performance of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood."



One of the great things about live concerts is how they "customize" the music for the evening. We heard stuff from The Four Seasons, The Lion King, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and John Denver. Also many others that I didn't pick up on.

My favorite part of concert-going aside from the music might be watching the other people. We were sitting about five rows behind a group of guys. One showed up wearing a white shirt and a tie and another had a ponytail. The first hour they were rocking it pretty hard, totally into the concert. The second hour, still rocking, but in between a lot of trips for more beer and probably trips to the restroom. And then the last hour they were nowhere to be seen. Not in their seats. So I'm not sure where they went, although we did see the white shirt guy reappear after the concert ended to retrieve something. I observed a similar phenomena of people starting off strong and then burning out when we went to Bon Jovi.

There was someone nearby who wasn't getting sufficient enjoyment from the music and so had to participate in some recreational drug use, which was really annoying, but legal, right? Actually, no, it seems like it would fall under the clean air act and is expressly forbidden per Pepsi Center policy. Otherwise it was a great evening.

Here's a link to the Denver Post's account of the concert, along with photos much better than what I had to share.

How Do They Stay in Business?

I don't have a lot of money for clothes shopping, but I do like to keep my duds somewhat fresh. I recently tossed a polo shirt I'd been wearing for 8 years. It was time. Usually I turn to Kohl's for help with my clothing needs. I recently bought three new polo shirts. They were on sale for $10 each and then I had a 20% off coupon. So $8 each.

Whenever I'm in Kohl's, I always head for the clearance rack where they have stuff marked down 70-80%. That's my price point.

The clearance rack is tough because you have to not only find something that you would wear but also something that fits. It's not always easy as I'm a pretty traditional male size so there aren't a lot of 36x30 pants available at clearance prices. The discounted merch includes a lot of stuff from the Big n' Tall section like 48x32 pants and XXL shirts. I've been looking for some dress pants in clearance for awhile and have been struggling. If I do find some, they are almost always pleated, which I kind of hate. . .

However, I scored big this past Saturday. I was just going to get a clearance item or two so that I could use my $10 Kohl's cash, even if it was just a pair of shorts or a t-shirt. But on this beautiful morning, they had all the clearance items marked down an additional 20%. And they had a pair of washable wool gray dress pants on the clearance rack for $21. I also found a patriotic T, which I kind of need for 4th of July festivities, on clearance for $4, and a pair of shorts for $8. With the additional 20% off and my $10 Kohl's cash, I was planning to pay $16-$18 for my items - a little more than I had planned, sure, but I finally got my pants!

Imagine my surprise when the cashier rang my up and gave me my total - $5.88. Apparently there was a $10 additional bonus cash reward and then a 15% off promotion. Not bad at all. I guess Kohl's has plenty of people who pay the full price for stuff (I never do), otherwise how do they afford it?