Category: movies

Tic Tac Toe…

Got up. Got out of bed. ~ The Beatles

I didn’t intend to ski today. Really, I didn’t. But Luke and Nichole rang me up about 8 this morning to see if I could at least meet them so that Nichole would have something to strap to her feet. On Thursday, we stashed the quiver in Holmsey as Luke didn’t really want to have to climb back up on top of Kevin’s rig to tie his skis to the top. In any event, I figured if I was going to Ned anyway, I might as well get in a few runs. So that’s what I did.

Today was cold. And windy. Pretty typical for Eldora. I had a business meeting at 11 so we didn’t stay too long but did manage to get some turns made. Always a good time. This was day 12 for me, so that is a pretty solid start to the season. We are finally getting some snow but between the brutal grooming and Eldora’s reluctance to open much up, it is still pretty slim pickins up there. Pete went to the Basin yesterday and said it was most excellent. At least they are turning Pali now and have opened up some tougher terrain. Which is nice.

Other than that, I am just keeping busy. As you noticed, I picked a new template for the blog. Figured it was time. We have watched several movies in the past couple of days. Here’s the run-down:

Movies:

  • Children of Men: Not great. Not terrible, but nothing to rush out to see. Essentially a chase story about the demise of the human race once something undetermined makes us all sterile.
  • Charlotte’s Web: Cute pigs, not much else going for it. Dakota Fanning is really annoying.
  • Superbad: Crude, but funny.
  • Porco Rosso: Not Miyazaki’s best effort but still pretty amazing.

Okay. Your homework for today is to do something you have never done before. Go!

~stubert.

Pllllltttt…

Too much, too soon. ~ Referee – Slapshot

These past few weeks have been crazy. In the past week alone, I have been over to Gunnison twice, logged day 9 on the slopes, super busy with work. Generally frantic.

So I’ll just jump right in…

Skiing:
We are finally getting some snow. Much needed and appreciated. Rach reminded me of an old Eldora maxim – STBG (Stop the Brutal Grooming) – which was in full effect today. We pulled out Luke’s stash of Big Dogs for a full-frontal assault on some tasty pow but were disappointed to find that Eldora slope-control had groomed the hell out of everything. Good times were still had but damn. Hook a brotha up. We have received another 6-8 inches at my house since getting home around noon today so perhaps a quick run up the hill will be in order tomorrow to see if the heinous grooming continues…

Running:
To be honest, Leadville has been haunting me a bit since the race. I am pretty confident that I gave it everything I had last summer but think I am going to give it another try in ’09. Too much going on right now to take another stab this year but I think that I’ll be able to tackle it again in a couple years. I may do a 50-miler this summer (Collegiate Peaks Ultra) and would still like to pace if I can find a good match. I haven’t been running much at all and now, with the snow, am probably going to have to find different ways of logging miles. I really miss it, though, so think that is a good sign.

Work:
We have been hard at work these past weeks and have continued steady progress on the Quintess site. We launched McLean Forge a couple of weeks ago and have a steady stream of project requests. Good stuff.

Movies:
I have been taking time to watch a lot of film of late. Here is a run-down of some of the titles:

  • Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead: Pretty amazing performances in a severely mediocre film.
  • Blades of Glory: Quite amusing. Watch this one.
  • Three Kings: Fairly straightforward narrative but great execution.
  • Flirting with Disaster: Another David O. Russell vehicle. Funny stuff.
  • End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones: Decent rocumentary about a great band.
  • The Bad Seed: Hilarious. Unintentionally so.
  • Curse of the Golden Flower: Not so good.
  • Waiting for Guffman: Not Guest’s best effort but really amusing nonetheless.
  • Secretary: Pretty awesome.
  • Fargo: It has been awhile since I have seen this one. Still really great.

So that about covers it for now. Peace.

~stubert.

Six of one…

If a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its ass a-hoppin’ – Nathan Arizona

Ok. I have been super lame about updates and for that, I apologize. I have been working a ton, skiing a bit, getting some runs in here and there. Generally doing well. I’ll try to catch you up…

So there are quite a few reasons why I am not the world’s biggest fan of this time of year. Two items jump immediately to mind and, coincidentally, they both involve recently deceased creatures being tied to the roof of some jackass’ car.

Hunting season is the worst. I had the misfortune of driving over to Gunnison during the heart of the season and it seemed like every redneck in the tri-state area was out slaying Bambi. I saw trucks literally filled with freshly slaughtered deer, elk and ATV’s, the redneck triple trifecta. It makes me a little ill.

Quick on the heels of our annual shoot-em-up comes my second least favorite reason to get out the bailing twine and head to the hills – the yearly tree-gathering that prompts idiot city-dwellers to dust off their trusty chainsaws and head to my neck of the woods to chop down the cutest tree they can find, strap it to the roof of their Porche Cayenne and head home to set the damned thing back up again in their living room only to toss it out with several gigantic trashbags full of wrapping paper a mere six weeks later. Wait one year, repeat. Let’s all rush out and kill some trees for Jesus. Hallelujah! Don’t even get me started on the turkeys.

</rant>

On the lighter side of my brain, I have now logged a half dozen ski days with my latest hop/skip/jump to the newly opened Eldora Mountain Resort. Only one real run open but it was fun to be able to be out the door and skiing within 20 minutes. I am planning to make regular visits to our local area and am hoping the new snow we have received over the past couple of days continues.

I have also been running a bit and am feeling pretty spry, which is nice. I have a loop I do on a fairly regular basis that is probably about 7 miles (not sure). I managed to crank it out in an hour six the other day, which was pretty cool. That pretty much matches my record for the loop. It was fun to just go out, get in a rhythm and be able to keep it up for an hour plus.

We also are set to launch another site within the next couple of days. As soon as it is live, I’ll post the link for you.

Movies:
I have been watching and listening to a ton of movies of late and have started going back through our collection and playing them in the background while I work. We also went to see two fantastic films in the theater: The Darjeeling Limited and No Country for Old Men. I highly recommend both but would caution that Country is not for the squeamish.

Darjeeling is Wes Anderson’s latest effort and was just splendid. I am sure that the average movie-goer wouldn’t like it as Anderson is never afraid to leave storylines unresolved or to leave much of the backstory to be supplied by the viewer’s own imagination but I find this refreshing in the era of film spelling everything out. Darjeeling is a visual masterpiece and features apt work from all three principals: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and co-writer, Jason Schwartzman. This is a must-see in my book.

Country is the long awaited return of the Coen Brothers being the Coen Brothers. Their last two efforts (Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers) were both extremely sub-standard fare from the duo who brought Miller’s Crossing, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and other classics to the screen. Country is a return to their heyday with amazing dialog; slow, brooding pacing; and quirky characters. Javier Bardem is outstanding and Josh Brolin turns out a solid performance as well in this highly violent film set in rural Texas. Really one of the best films I have seen in some time.

Here is a brief run-down of other flicks that have been in circulation these past weeks:

  • What ever happened to Baby Jane? – Selected to see just how bad it really was. Bad. Really bad. This thing won awards.
  • Boogie Nights
  • Miller’s Crossing
  • The Big Lebowski
  • Raising Arizona
  • Blood Simple
  • The Hudsucker Proxy
  • The Man Who Wasn’t There (we went on a Coen Brothers bender after seeing Country)
  • Bullet in a Bible
  • Westway to the World
  • The Essential Clash
  • Trainspotting
  • Being There
  • American Beauty
  • Best in Show
  • Stop Making Sense
  • etc. etc. etc.

Aaaaaaand today marks our first (of probably many) vicinity guest forays into the creek. Seems that several times every year some dipshit decides it would be a good idea to test the depth of the creek that runs past our house. Usually this involves hooking a left when a right is recommended, or, as tonight’s hero demonstrated, simply continuing straight. For the past hour and a half our driveway has been occupied by any number of emergency vehicles, gapers etc. and we have endured a steady pulse of red/blue, red/blue, red/blue. Hopefully no one was injured but damn, people…. if you are unfamiliar with a road and/or it is covered with a solid layer of snow and ice, how about trying to keep it at or below the speed limit, okay? Just another helpful reminder from your friendly neighborhood…

~stubert.

Nada mucho…

Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to fool around with him if I were alone. ~ Townsman

Things are moving right along in Stuville without much change. I did get out for another run last week and have been trying to focus on improving my pace, stride and efficiency. Not sure that I am making tons of gains but it was a fun, exploratory run in the woods near my house during which I found the remnants of an old trail that may hook up with a newer section of unfinished singletrack to make a nice, alternate loop. Good stuff.

It has been unseasonably warm here and Eldora is supposed to open in 10 days. I am thinking that isn’t going to happen since it was nearly 60 up here over the weekend. Not good. It cooled off a bit yesterday and I froze my butt off riding down to Boulder to see Dr. Dave and to meet with a contractor about doing some work. I definitely didn’t dress right for the nighttime ride back up the canyon but kept telling myself on the way home, “Only 12 more minutes.” “You have been colder than this before.” etc. to keep from being a total pansy. Funny thing about pushing your limits, it gives you a totally different perspective when you approach them during subsequent trials and/or tribulations.

This past weekend was pretty relaxed. I built a storage shed for our snowblower and chopped down some more trees. Getting pretty close to having that project completed for the year, which is nice. My chainsaw is acting up now so I need to take it to the shop to see what’s up. That may cramp my ability to finish up. We’ll see.

And a special shout out goes to my buddy, Caleb. He ran the NYC marathon over the weekend and finished in 3:02:46 (or something). That put him in the top 2000 finishers out of over 34000! Super cool.

Movies:
I have been watching a lot of movies of late. Here is the Cliffsnotes recap:

Naked States: This is a documentary about a photographer, Spencer Tunick, who shoots nudes in public settings. He is most famous for his shots of large groups of nudes (18000 in Mexico City). I actually like his work and it can be seen here (NSFW). This film focused on a project during which he captured at least one shot in each of the 50 states. The documentary itself was interesting. Not great, but worth a watch if you are interested in this sort of stuff.

The Outlaw: This is a terrible western directed by Howard Hughes that ran up against Hayes Codes in the 40s. What was interesting about this movie is a) how tame it is by today’s standards and b) how thoroughly gay it was and how this didn’t set off the censors more than
Jane Russell’s ample bosom. So funny. We watched the whole thing even though it was really, really bad. In any event, you really don’t need to go out of your way for this one.

Hmmm. I guess I haven’t watched as many movies as I thought. Gotta get on that. I am psyched for the new Coen Brothers vehicle, No Country for Old Men, possibly American Gangster (I can’t decide on this one… Denzel Washington almost always just seems to be playing Denzel Washington these days) and the Darjeeling Limited. I have also heard good things about Lars and the Real Girl so I’ll probably throw that on the list too. Rach and I are going to try to hook up a double feature next week.

Okay blog readerinos, that’s all for today.

~stubert.

Getting back out there…


Look at me, I’m Peter Pantsless! ~ Homer Simpson

Let’s see… where to start? I suppose I’ll lead off with Sunday’s run — the infamous Double Mesa. ‘

Bob decided it was time to get out there and grind out a half marathon on some of Boulder’s finest terrain. The Mesa Trail (for those unfamiliar with the more popular area runs) rolls along the foot of the Flatirons and spans about 7 miles from central Boulder to Eldorado Springs (almost). This is a great run and often times one can take on a large chunk of the course without seeing any other runners or hikers. The middle section is particularly devoid of the crowds that can plague other Boulder-area trails. Good stuff.

Bob put together a great group of guys for this outing and a total of six of us headed out from the Ranger Station at shortly after 10 in the morning. The group was fairly well balanced with everyone from seasoned marathon runners to “longest evers”. We maintained a solid pace throughout and it was good to be back on Mesa. Still one of my favorites. This was my longest run since the event and we finished in about 2:40. Not blazing, by any stretch of the imagination, but not too shabby (actually on par with the last time I ran the Double Mesa). (Check out the full album.)

I was pretty sore the following day. Given my activity levels of late (or lack thereof), I wasn’t surprised but recovered quickly. All in all, this was a good run for me and it reminded me why I do this stuff. I need to set aside time to get out in the wilderness more often. Put that on my list.

So I took it easy the next couple of days. Back to the grind. Today I waffled about whether or not to go up to A-Basin for some more early season turns and finally decided to give it a shot about 9:00. I needed to get to the bank anyway and this was a good excuse to get out. We got about 3 inches of snow last night which also helped to motivate me for the drive. I was hoping to drag Luke or Pete into the fray but neither was able to make it up so I headed out solo.

Everything was splendid until about 5 miles from Eisenhower Tunnel when traffic came to a standstill. Unfortunately there is a dead zone right there so I was unable to get a signal to check to see what the hell was going on up the road. After about 30 minutes of sitting at a virtual standstill punctuated with periodic 1-2 mile and hour surges up the hill, I got a signal and discovered that the tunnel was closed due to wrecks on the West side. Super. I stuck with things until the next exit then bailed back to Golden, a quick jaunt to the bank and grocery store then back home. Took the skis for a drive. Always a joy. Oh well…. Can’t win every day.

Oh yeah. I also lost a toenail. Two more are looking suspicious. My feet are still just hammered from Leadville.

Movie time:
We have been spending a lot of time with Robot Chicken of late. Great show if you have never seen it. Seth Green cracks me up. Essentially, this is stop-action animation with action figures and dolls and whatnot. Very funny.

We also watched Spiderman 3 and Harsh Times. Neither is worth the effort, really. S3 had some great special effects but for some reason Sam Raimi decided it would be a good idea to show the softer side of Spidey in the third installment. Um… no one wants to watch a super-hero bawl all the time. Trust me. Plus, it just wasn’t that great. There was this space goo that was never really explained and just seemed like an afterthought. “Well, we have to get Spiderman to get infected by this gunk to show his alter-ego. Ah hell, I’m lazy, let’s just send it in on a meteor and call it good.” In any event, I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Harsh Times was a Christian Bale/Freddy Rodriguez vehicle that just didn’t draw me in at all. Both characters were just not sympathetic. Being what I like to call a “Steve” (Straight To Video), I am not sure what I expected. Don’t rush out to put this one on you list.

Okay… that’s all I have for now.

~stubert.