At Cross Roads

My road trips revolve around the movies. They have for several years. Last year I was in Savannah at the spot of the bench in Forrest Gump. This year I maintained the Tom Hanks theme by searching for the location in the final scene of Cast Away, this is in Texas. In this scene, Hanks gets out of the car at a crossroad because he is not sure where he is or where he is going- in life. The scene and the movie ends here with Hanks standing alone on the road and looking into the camera as the movie fades to black.

I am a big fan of Cast Away because of the enormous development that Hanks' character had to go through in the film. Hanks was nominated for best actor for this role but he lost unjustly to Russell Crowe for....Gladiator.



Now Playing The Da Vinci Code by Hans Zimmer

A Sunday Chasing Sports

My Sunday in D.C was a good one. I was able to sit 12 rows behind the dugout at RKF Stadium for the Yankees-Nationals game. The stadium wasn't very impressive. It had no real distictive features and a hasty smell, but the game was very good. The Nationals won in the bottom of the 9th by a score of 3-2.

After the game I headed to an outdoor basketball court in Arlington for a couple of hours. I didn't get to enjoy this as much as I wanted to because it was so hot and I didn't have anything to drink. After two hours I had to leave because my tongue was becoming sticky, which was a bit disturbing.

The night ended with dinner at the Cheesecake factory (bad service) and by watching the Heat win game 5 in the NBA finals. The only thing I missed on my schedule today was the new episode of Deadwood which I missed while we were out at dinner.


Now Playing Hoosiers by Jerry Goldsmith

We Almost Did It

Our losing season is over, but we didn't go out with a whimper. This was our last game of the season, and we were placed against the only team to be undefeated. It was a playoff game and since we were seeded last, we had to play the best team first. The heartbreak of it all was that we lost by one point after being ahead by four points with only forty seconds to go. It was a difficult loss to deal with because we were so close to a win, but it was one of our best games as well because we really came together as a team towards the end, if that makes any sense. Our final game stats for our team the Rounders vs. Dirty Old Men.

Number -Player -Shot attempts -3 point attempts -Free Throws -Total Points
7 DJ --8/12 -- 2/5 --3/5 --25

1 T -- 3/4 --2/4 --1/3 -- 13

3 DG --4/6 --0/3 --n/a -- 8

17 V --2/8 --1/3 -- n/a --7

8 B --3/6 --n/a --2/8 --8


Now Playing Lost by Michael Giacchino

Signs, Stairways, and Omens

I saw The Omen remake last night with S. It was awful, dreadful, and dull. Only two things I found to be redeeming about the film, and trust me this is a stretch. One is that they filmed some of it in Israel. It is a place that I have never been to, and yet I can feel the place calling to me to go. Now, more than ever, do I wish to go there to visit.

The other 'nice' element in it was my recognition of a particular stairwell. I wasn't exactly sure, because the movie is supposed to be set primarily in London, but I did lean over to tell S that I thought that I had seen it in the first Mission: Impossible, which I believed was filmed in Prague. Well, we sat in our seats for the end credits and as they were ending, the evidence I sought about that stairway popped up on the screen in these words: The filmmakers wish to thank the city of Prague.



Now Playing the Seven Soundtrack. Only one track by Howard Shore on the album.

The Half Dome Dilemma

Last Monday I did the unthinkable. After three aborted attempts, I finally climbed up the cables to reach the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. I know, to many people this feat is not a very big deal. Some of my friends will actually travel thousands of miles in order to climb something like Mt. Kilimanjaro with one hand tied behind their backs. But for this little crawler to reach the summit of Half Dome via the cables was a monumental feat. This conquest is perhaps one of my greatest psychological triumphs over myself. I have many, many fears, but I am hardly ever able to test myself against these fears as directly as I was able to on this day. I didn't necessarily conquer my fear of heights per say, but I did manage to alleviate those fears long enough to accomplish something that had been bothering me for a very long time. This triumph was unequivocal.


Now Playing the High Fidelity soundtrack