The Holtonian

Updates and Walking the line

Well I haven't blogged in a while, heck I haven't even been to my blog itself in a while. I've been out and about for a good week or so. I went up to my company mother ship up north for a good week last week. It was ok, training for my new job as an Underwriter.

I'm looking forward to the job but the training's rather a drag. A lot of it is sort of ho hum boring but some of it is good at setting the proper mindset and to get me thinking about things from a different perspective. And eating on the company dollar isn't half bad either.

I had lobster twice, one at a steak and lobster joint, that was ok, just strait from the tank, to the pot, to my belly. Nothing fancy just dead crustacean. But then I also went to an upscale Oysterbar with Root (Who was also up on business). Think of this place as Northshore or the Boat house but only good and snobbier. There i had possibly the most expensive and best lobster i've ever had. It was a stuffed lobster but man it was fantastic. I also ate a nice rack of lamb at my hotel's restaurant and a few other delightful meals. Nevertheless and needless to say, I'm much heavier for the trip and kind of tired of eating out.

It was hard also being away from the wife for so long. That was the kicker, its not as fun enjoying fancy meals if I'm the only one eating them.

But luckily she'll join me for this next trip up for training and we plan to make a little vacation of it, as much as we can at least.

I got home late friday and was very tired. I had just seen this 60 minutes special on how hotels are usually invested with bed bugs so as soon as i walked in the door i through all my clothes in the washer on hot and jumped in the shower. I don't think the hotel had bed bugs, but i did get a nasty bug bite some how, it might be from the down feather bed i slept on, as i may be allergic or one of the feathers might have pricked me while i slept.

Saturday we just sort of slept in and then went out and saw Walk the Line. Overall the movie was good and the music was really well done. Jauquin Phoenix was pretty darn near a spitting image of Cash and had all the manerisms and songs down perfectly. Reese Witherspoon wasn't the greatest June Carter impersonator, but I feel she took the role and made it her own. When she sang I didn't nessesarily think June Carter, but I got a taste of who June Carter was. In some ways Reese might actually have a better signing voice too, its not necessarily better, but it sounds a little sweeter, but then again the one june carter cd i have is a later one of her and Johnny. But I think Reese did a great job of acting, in the sense of taking a character and bringing it to life and not just doing an impersonation.

That's the hard part with Biopics like Ray and Walk the Line. With Ray and Cash you have these iconic characters that are vivid in people's minds and to not portray them in an impersonational way would hinder the story. THe actor has to portray them in a manner that is pretty much an impersonation otherwise we as the audience wouldn't believe the story. With the side characters, or supporting cast, there's more wiggle room. June can be played with some liberalities because frankly Cash is the one that sticks out in people's minds. I did like Shooter Jennings playing Waylon Jennings, that was kind of cool. Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, it was cool to see all these somewhat mythical rock legends and how they all came to be connected. Wifey and i thought how cool it would have been to see Cash, Carter, Waylon Jennings, Elvis, and Jerry Lee lewis all in the same night.

So it was a good movie with great music. Not my favorite movie yet, in fact I think I still like Cinderella man the most of the somewhat oscar caliber movies i've seen this year. Granted I haven't seen any of the indie far out there flicks or the contraversial flicks that will inevitbly win the oscar.