New photo of Nathan. 

New photo of John, Nathan, and Merranda. 

This is a small ceramic mask my daughter brought back from Italy that I've added to my collection. This is a replica of the type of mask used during Carnival in Italy. We celebrate carnival in the United States as Mardi Gras. 

This is some Italian wine my daughter brought back from her trip to Italy. The most interesting thing is the label is printed sideways and upside down so that when you take it out of your wine rack, you can read it more easily.

When you've been around as long as I have, you accumulate a lot of things. This photo shows something we found while cleaning out some stuff. I have no idea what it is. It obviously plugs into something and has two metal blades. 

New Star Trek Movie

It's been announced that Paramount is going to make a new Star Trek movie with a new director and new actors.

Oh, the horror.

I've been a Star Trek fan all my life, but I'm still ok with it being dead. Didn't we learn anything from the movie "Pet Semetary." That dead things should be left alone and that resurrection often turns out badly.

Didn't we learn anything from the remakes of "Bewitched," "The Out of Towners," and all those other bad remake movies?

And maybe some island people who have never owned a TV could accept new actors playing Spock and Kirk but for most of us, any actor who tries to replace Shatner and Nimoy are probably not going to measure up.

So, Hollywood still hasn't learned its lesson about reviving the dead and the consequences thereof.

Justin: TV Star

Our own Justin is now a TV star. You can see the episode of NASA Sci Files that he's in at this web site:

http://www.knowitall.org/nasa/scifiles/index.html

Justin is in the episode "The Case of the Energy Crunch."

Justin is scheduled to be in more episodes. He and his mom, Deb, went to Seattle to shoot an episode recently.

Congratulations, Justin!!!!!

Kong DVD is King

I've read that the DVD version of King Kong is selling like apes in a banana grove. And of course this makes perfect movie marketing sense.

King Kong was released in the winter instead of during the summer and few people had time or the motivation to go see it (it was 3 hours long). If people buy the DVD, they can relax at home and watch it as long as they want and take breaks as many times at they want.

Hollywood is starting to see a marketing change in the sense that some movies are now making more money in DVD sales than they did in movie theater ticket sales. Also, some studios are allowing customers to download some movies from the internet on the same day the DVD for that movie is released.

I do plan on buying King Kong on DVD myself. (A reminder: this movie is too violent for young children.)

The UW Veterinary school held their blue coat ceremony yesterday. This marks Missy's transition from junior to senior standing and from classroom to clinical experience. We are very proud of her.  

Big Love Big Trouble

HBO has a new series called "Big Love." It stars actor Bill Paxton as polygamist Bill Henrickson. Set in Utah, this show reveals what it's like to have three wives, children of three wives, and three households to run.

How accurate is this show's characterization of polygamy? I don't know. It's hard to tell. I did watch a documentary on polygamy last week to learn more about this and the documentary was as mixed as the show. Some people claim that polygamy is just a cover up for child abuse and other immoral activities. Other people claim that it's the best thing in the world and very healthy. Per the documentary, polygamy is illegal but rarely are the parties involved prosecuted by the police or our government.

What "Big Love" shows is what you would expect. Having three wives and three households makes for a very busy husband and very chaotic lifestyles. There are financial considerations, jealous wives, and the husband's job of constantly putting out fires on the homefront.

I like the actors in this show. They do a good job and are convincing. Bill Paxton can be very good. Some of his films include: "Twister," "Aliens," and "The Terminator." And I like him as the husband in "Big Love." Another favorite is Jeanne Triplehorn who plays first wife, Barbara Dutton. Triplehorn has been in such major films as "The Firm." and "Waterworld." The other new actors, Cloe Sevigny (2nd wife) and Ginnifer Goodwin (3rd wife) are also very good.

Is the series worth a look? Yes. It's somewhat interesting, much like a car wreck. It can be funny at times. But there are few surprises.

Some people would argue that this show makes polygamy glamorous. It didn't have that effect on me. I have no desire to go out and acquire two more wives, two more houses, and raise ten more children and put them through college.