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We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie last night. I think I would’ve been happier if they’d gone out with Last Crusade.

I should’ve known when I first listened to the soundtrack earlier in the day; lots of nostalgia there, but I didn’t feel as if there was much new or interesting. The best parts were recycled from Raiders.

The worst part was the relentless action. It was as if they were afraid if any of the characters slowed down for a second they’d realize their only plot function was to get the skull to the lost city, where everything was wrapped up in the most predictable and hackneyed way possible (and the heroes ceased to be useful well before the conclusion). Believe me, you’ll see it coming, and probably be wondering, like I was, how many more Rube Goldberg-machine-like action setpieces it would take before the evil communist villianess’s face was going to melt off (not literally; I mean it felt that much like a rehash of Raiders).

While I’m willing to suspend some disbelief about these characters being able to make it out of any scrape (think the inflatable raft-jump in Temple of Doom), it was unbelievably cartoonish here. You just wanted to laugh because it was so incredibly stupid–from Indy’s nuclear test site escape to the triple waterfall scene.

And aliens? C’mon. My least favorite theory about various ancient civilizations–that the only way they could’ve done it was by copying the answers off someone else’s test paper. I know this is an Indy movie and the supernatural is expected, but jeez. (Incidentally, there’s an article in Archaeology this month about the crystal skulls. Guess what, not elongated, and they’re also fakes. :)

A few of the jokes and reveals worked (Indy’s age, and who didn’t like seeing that little corner of the Ark during the Area 51 scene? And the Marcus Brody references were a nice touch.) but it was mostly just hokey. The Marion character ceased to be interesting just about instantaneously, when the ‘big secret’ (like nobody saw that coming) was revealed and during the subsequent love-fest (conducted on the run, of course, because they couldn’t possibly give up ONE action scene apparently). I felt like the best scenes (like the one where Indy’s packing to leave and discussing the current political environment with the dean of the college) were just rewrites of scenes from Raiders or Last Crusade (with Marcus). The backstabbing colleague seemed a bit too much like Benny from ‘The Mummy’–especially in the treasure scene. Between him and the giant ants (read ‘carnivorous scarab beetles’) you realize that this was Indy ripping off every movie that came after, and ripped off, the previous Indy films. The Mummy was better at it, unfortunately. Maybe the genre is just played out.

Silly, lacking in dramatic suspense, and a tacked-on ending that felt too little too late. Gee, when does it come to blu-ray?

The Spore folks reconsidered after a lot of bad press and complaints. So, our pre-orders are back on!

The new John Williams score for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is out. How can an 80’s kid possibly resist?

Not to mention a Richard Cheese-ified version of the Indiana Jones theme on Itunes (Plus, so no DRM, if I read the fine print properly).

Baby chicks–Ameraucanas– (and keets–pied) should be here by June 27th or 28th. With any luck the coop will be mostly done, if we can find someone who can blow in insulation before then. If we’re super super lucky, we will get Squeak and the silkies to raise them.

Icky’s on chemo. So far so good, but he can’t have any doggie visitors for awhile. We still aren’t exactly sure what’s wrong with Cupcake’s liver and lipomas, but she goes in for more work on Thursday.

-epe

Coop II work continues. I feel queasy thinking about all the inside work that has to be done before we can get chickens in (insulation, wallboard, plastic sheeting, nestboxes, chicken dooors…) We’re hoping for more Ameraucanas and some pied Guineas this year.

Icky starts chemotherapy this week. He’ll be on Chlorambucil and Prednisone.

We used to worry that we didn’t have enough space in the chicken coop for 18 chickens. Apparently there isn’t (64 sq feet), and the way they’ve chosen to remedy the situation is by having chicken cage match fights every night.

First one Rhode Island Red turned up with a bare, bleeding rear. We put her in a cage in the barn. Next day we noticed another one, so we set up a little pen in a kiddie pool in the barn. Not a big deal; last year every one of our hens and the rooster ended up with bare spots. At least there are two so they can snuggle together when it’s cold.

Next one of the silkie hens turned up with bloody peck marks and tears all over her back. She was starting to moult anyway, so we moved her into a large guinea pig cage in the house. She is VERY quiet for a chicken and managed not to stink up the house like Squeak’s been known to. We were ready to let her stick it out another month until her feathers came in.

But then, yesterday, Squeak was making weird neck motions as if she’d been injured. We figured the silkie hen was healed at least, so we swapped them.

This afternoon we went out to check and as we opened the coop door, only 4 silkies hopped out. The moulting hen was nowhere to be found. We feared that the others had killed her and covered her with litter (not intentionally; they do a lot of digging and scratching during the day). Then we heard some plaintive ‘buck, buck buck’ing coming from somewhere inside the coop. We have the waterer on 4 hollow cinder blocks set tall-wise…this little chicken had managed to wedge her way INTO one. When we extracted her from the block, we saw why, or perhaps saw a result of her wedging in head-first…her entire tail and back end feathers were picked almost completely off and most of her back end was torn skin! Paul had to make a quick run to Country Max to buy another cage…we now have a chicken duplex in the kitchen. Now get this. While I’m home waiting for the cage, I put the silkie in with Squeak. That ‘poor’ silkie pecked Squeak 2 or 3 times! There is no empathy in avian society.

At this rate we’re going to blow our coop budget on 18 individual cages or pens. WTF?

Islamic car…sales pitch: ‘and the Jihad model comes pre-wired for explosives!’ -pee
(and why doesn’t anyone ever buy the extended warranty or service plans?)

My mom’s observation of chickens running: faster than a speeding pullet

Native Alaskan’s favorite spreadable substitute…I Can’t Believe It’s Not Blubber -me