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Showing posts from July, 2010

Just Watched: Grizzly Man

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Grizzly Man    Ostensibly this is a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, a man who lived among wild bears in Alaska and who in the end was killed by the bears.  It is a visually beautiful but tragic tale told with compassion and respect for both the bears and Treadwell.  But ultimately this is a documentary about an obsessive filmmaker by a an obsessive filmmaker.  If you know anything about Herzog's previous films like  Aguirre, the Wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo it's hard not draw parallels and to see Timothy Treadwell as both a Kinski-esque madman and Herzog himself. Timothy Treadwell shot much of the footage seen in the film and it's breathtaking stuff.   The intimacy he shares with the bears and other animals around him is amazing.   It's impossible to not describe his actions as reckless and borderline insane but at the same time he gets such joy from the animals that you grow to understand him; he was a man living on the true edge both physically and metapho

Julio's Liquors in Westborough

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I spent the weekend getting ready for my annual Hermit Island camping trip.  Yesterday I needed to stock up on beer and pick up a couple of bottles of good tequila for our traditional tequila alter (pictured above).   There are a couple of very good liquor stores near my home (Harrington Wine and Spirits in Chelmsford and Acton Liquors) and I'm familiar with both their selections but I was looking to find something special and different so I decided to go on a little field trip to Julios.  I'd seen Julio's mentioned on a couple of blogs as having a great beer selection and I recalled I'd actually been there a few times 15 years or so ago when my parents where living at the Willows senior care facility in Westborough.  I figured I'd take a trip out that way and check the place out again. It was well worth the trip.   The beer selection was superior to either of my local places and I'd venture to say the best I've seen.  There were many Belgiu

Just Watched: The Red Baron

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The Red Baron I'm sure there's a good film to be made about Manfred von Richthofen but this isn't it.  It's pretty enough and Richthofen seems like an affable guy but the film spends too much time trying to build a fictional love story and repeating its anti-war mantra. The lead actor, Matthias Schweighöfer brought the right level of elitism and bravado to the role of the Baron and his love interest was equally well played by Lena Headey who brought a frayed earthiness to her role as Nurse Käte Otersdorf,  Their personalities balanced well but Headey is considerably older than Schweighöfer and they made an odd screen couple. The fact is their whole romance could have been skipped and the film would not have suffered.  (While researching this post noticed Headey's playing the vain and incestuous Cersei Lannister in the upcoming HBO series Game of Thrones.  She has a cold steeliness to her that I think will serve that role well. )  I wasn't a fan of Joseph