Family magic

I saw Brave last weekend.  Opening Day, actually, at a matinee, in a theater full of children with their moms, and sometimes dads.  And that was appropriate, because the movie and the experience afterwards reinforced the importance of family.

I'm not going to give away a secret about the movie, or I'm going to try not.  If you've seen the preview (if not...)

 

then you know that the movie is about a Scottish princess who tries to change her fate because her parents want her to get married to one of three Scottish goofballs.

To get out of this, the princess, Merida, does something that turns out to be horrible for her family. It's an accident, of sorts, but a selfish and horrible one.

Yet the mother's reaction in the movie is just what I'd expect from a mother.  She doesn't hold a grudge, and even though she's justifiably angry, she spends the movie obviously loving her daughter, growing closer to her, and helping solve the problem Merida created.  The film isn't quite as good as some of the best Pixar movies, but the message is.

And then after the movie I went to the restroom.  You should know, at this point, that when guys use urinals we just pull down whatever covers our bottom half just far enough to take care of business.  At least, we learn to do that over time.  When I was in elementary school, I once dropped trou all the way down in the boys' room in sort of a "feast your eyes" moment, though the intention was just to pee.  I got laughed at by enough older boys (one would have been enough) that I never made that mistake again.

Well, there was a wee lad in the men's room at the theater who made the same error, and both halves of the moon were showing as I entered.  But this laddie's older brother, seeing his brother's predicament, went and stood guard behind him, so that his backside was protected from strangers' eyes.  Then after the older brother lifted him up to reach the soap and sink to wash his hands.


Family creates the kind of bond that makes otherwise young and immature people do simple and selfless things.


It's no wonder that life on Earth is a family-centered plan.

Hikes

Utah is just a fantastic place for being close to the city and also close to some of the best mountains in the world.  In a single weekend you can get pictures like this.

This first set is on the way to Red Pine Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Running water may be the best sound Earth makes, and I love to walk along it on gorgeous days like last Saturday.  The snow was melting and running down, though as you'll see below, not quite enough of it had completed its journey.

The first part of this hike is steepish and rocky.  Good news is that there aren't bikers, but the bad news is that it's as hard on knees and ankles as it would be on tires.  After you hit the first creek run, you can go one of two ways.  I went toward Red Pine Lake.  On the way you see the mouth of the canyon opening to the Salt Lake Valley to the west.  

It was too early in June to complete this hike, especially if you didn't know that and wore open toed shoes, like I did.  So did Robin, who I met on the mountain.  Up high at about where I expected the lake to be, the trail and most of the mountain was still hidden by snow.  For a while she and I braved the cold and wet feet to find it, even climbing like monkeys on some rocks that protrude from the mountain and snow above a running stream beneath it.  But whatever that was I knew it wasn't a trail that leads to a lake.  Eventually, Robin and I both decided that the lake would be there in July when the snow wasn't, and we'd be back.

Then I drove to Moab, which conveniently has one charter school that scheduled its board meeting for early in June before it gets unbearably hot there.  My favorite hike there is Negro Bill Canyon, but this time I went for variety over familiarity.  I hiked the Moab Rim Trail.  It's listed as a three-mile one-way hike with 900 feet of altitude gain.  The websites don't mention that the whole gain comes in the first half-mile as you climb a mountain with no trail at all, just rocks.  And even though it's early June, there's still plenty of sweating to be done.  But as you climb, you're rewarded with views like this.

The Colorado River running by the Rim and parts of Canyonlands (I think) in the background.

Looking to the east, the city of Moab fills a valley between the red rock mountains.

If you forget your hat, you're bound to get sunburned, especially up top where the hair isn't as thick as it used to be.  So, you move your hair around to cover the barer spots at different times and end up with a do like this.

This bush was singing "She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes."

  By now it's pretty warm, so I went to hike the Powerhouse Trail along Mill Creek and found this:



You have to cross the creek three times in knee deep water to get here, so remove your phone from your pocket.  This swimming hole was a ton of fun, but it was also great getting here.

Love the contrasting colors.

For some reason you have to tilt your monitor counter clockwise to get the effect of this mini trail between the rocks and the foliage.

This waterfall was a bear to climb the first time.  There's another trail to get to the top of the cliffs that surround this pool, but I didn't take it.  So, I climbed up the moss-covered rocks against the water.  There are moss-free sections of the rocks on which your shoes (wear water shoes on this hike--not a good idea to have to take off your shoes and go barefoot here, though some people were that crazy) can get a grip.  But I was paralyzed with fear for about three minutes before I was able to take the last few steps and grips to get above the water.



As you can see, there's a few people there already, all clothed (I found out later that this is a popular place for the teenagers to skinny dip).  The cliffs are probably just under 20 feet on the left and about ten on the right. Braver souls than me made the big jump, doing flips and whatnot. One guy even found a spot to do a wall run for about four steps on the cliffs before jumping in the water.  It's only about six feet, so no diving.

Then on to board meeting, where the locals love to hear how much I love their town.

Then, just to round everything out, I went to Bell Canyon Reservoir a few days later.

Isn't Utah just grand?

Isn't life just grand?

Scots fest

I went to Scotland in 2008.  It was for a wedding, so I give props for the wedding being the best part.  The actual best part was the day of the wedding when the groom and I speed-golfed.

That's very good form.

So it's always fun to go to the Utah Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point each June.

This year for the first time I went on Friday instead of Saturday, so I got to see the strong man competitions.  Very burly men get out and flip tree trunks, throw weights over a high-jump bar, and lift massive stones over their head.  Not their own stones.





For the burly ladies, they also have a rolling pin toss (is that chauvinist?) over the bar.  I didn't watch that because the marching bands were getting started, and its not just the kilts that make that worth watching.  The drummers are not only talented musicians, but also talented stick twirlers.



Food wise, the festival leaves something to be desired.  There's a booth that serves Haggis, but that's only so-so when it's done at its best, so I'm not about to try it at a fair booth.  Instead, I always get a meat pie, which is English more than Scottish, and tastes kind of like English food, which means it's nothing to write on a blog about.

The highlight is always the bands, especially Molly's Revenge, with their way-into-it fiddle and bagpipe player, and the Wicked Tinkers.





Yeah.  That song is called "Wallop the Cat."  Good times.

There should've been more dwarves

If there is a movie that is prettier to look at with a dumber script than Snow White and the Huntsman, I can't think of it.  While the movie will likely be a candidate for several Oscars, including for cinematography, make-up, and some good costumes that Charlize Theron no doubt makes look even better, it will win no praise for writing, acting, or directing.

The movie is often nice to look at, but the dialogue and delivery are so bad, and at key times even so laughable, that the movie would have been better if it just muted the actors and just let us watch the pretty pictures.

Snow White suffers from its obvious attempt to be Lord of the Rings-y.  There's a dark phantom army that turns to lumps of coal when they're stabbed, dwarves (which are the best part of the movie), and a rousing speech before the final battle.  But Kristen Stewart is no Viggo Mortenson, and Snow White is no Aragorn. "Fight like thundering waves," from Bella Swann just doesn't carry the same gusto as, "There my be a day when the strength of men fails, but it is not this day."



As a director, Rupert Sanders, who's mostly done commercial work, has the good sense to pick good cinematographers and very skilled technicians, but direction to his actors couldn't have been more than, "Scream this part really loud."  You'll grow to hate all that screaming by the end of the movie.  Scratch that, by halfway through the movie.

And why does The Huntsman of the title fall for Snow White?  That's a mystery, as is at what point in the movie he developed any feelings for her.  Somehow he does.  Perhaps in the movie's world love is a state of no emotion or connection.

I could complain more about the movie, but I can't do so without spoiling things for anyone who still might want to see it, so I won't.   Instead I'll end positively.  When the dwarves show up, I got hopeful for a minute, hoping that the movie was about to take a turn for the better.  It only lasted a few minutes, but for that few minutes as you recognize the guy from Deadwood, Hot Fuzz, and Sherlock Holmes in fantastic make-up and looking completely integrated with normal-sized folks (the one thing that this movie actually does better than LOTR) it's pretty cool.



If you must go see this movie, bring ear plugs and just enjoy the scenery.