Prescott Park^3, War of the Worlds!

It was a fairly eventful weekend for me...notice the clarifier "for me," because no, I don't go to awesome parties in the mountainous regions of Texas with my hot girlfriend. Gosh.

What I did do was check out Prescott Park in my very own town of Portsmouth. I've always heard about it and what not, but never really knew exactly where it was. Turns out it's, like, right there in Portsmouth. Doi. Anyway, it's too bad I didn't take Lisa here last weekend because she would've loved it. It's a very scenic park that overlooks the river, with rows of flowers (marked like in a Conservatory) and tons of space to stretch out and do your own thing. A great place for couples and families, and even on this busy holiday weekend it wasn't even that crowded. I went there twice on Saturday, once to check it out for myself and get some sun (aka farmer's tan), and then again later in the evening to see the community theater perform "Into the Woods" on the outdoor stage. The play is similar to "Shrek" in that it is an irreverent take on well-known fairy tales; in fact, I think "Shrek" owes a lot to "Woods," which debuted in 1987, for some of its humor. Anyway, for a free, outdoor play, it was nicely executed; the singing could've been better, but the acting was spot on, at least in the first hour. I skipped out of the second hour because I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. They love my creamy white skin. And the fact that my veins are so visible they look like strings glued to my arm.

Then on Sunday I drove to my parent's house for an early start to July 4th activities. You see, July 4th is a family holiday for us because it's also my parent's anniversary (this year, their 35th). I find it kinda ironic that two people would choose to get married on INDEPENDENCE Day, but hey, who am I to judge? After a little mulling about, we caught an early showing of "War of the Worlds." Which was awesome.

Why Tom Cruise's offscreen antics are even mentioned in reviews of "Worlds", or why they should affect your viewing of this movie, I can't fully understand. Celebrities do stupid things all the time, and I don't see how/why Cruise's latest dementias are any more annoying than the romantic shit we hear about Pitt, Jolie, Aniston, Affleck and every other hot piece of ass in Hollywood. The only difference is how much the media has been harping on the Cruise stuff, and that's because the networks always need a light, fluffy story to counter all the bad news it reports on a half-hour basis. And yes I realize I'm being hippocritical by talking about it my little review, but I don't blame Cruise for how much we're hearing about his shit. When Cruise was on Letterman it was a perfectly fine interview because Dave didn't bother asking him about his religion because NO ONE CARES. But since every other talk show producer is hoping to see him explode again, they're egging him on. And, for the record, it's not like Cruise doesn't have a point about how dependent we are on drugs, and eventhough Cruise seems to know jack-shit about psychiatry himself, I doubt Matt Lauer does either, yet he's of the mainstream opinion that it's completely ok.

Blah...sorry, back to the movie. I pretty much loved it. With a more memorable score and the elimination of the entire Tim Robbins character (and all that comes with it), you have a near-perfect alien invasion movie. Not an incredibly thoughtful one, but as a special FX extravaganza of destruction and death, combined with heightened melodrama and familial conflict that I really dug, especially the relationship b/w Ray and his son Robbie. I recognized the anger and will to fight that was on Robbie's face when he sees the aliens slaughtering the countryside. I loved it when he climbed up the ferry gate to help people come over. And how he just has to see/participate in the fight against the invaders. I'm sorry, but yes, I thought of 9-11 and what I felt when the towers were struck. I'm not gonna pretend that I didn't, even though Spielberg's more obvious 9-11 references (ex. the ash) were just that: obvious, and kind of exploitive. With few exceptions, Spielberg is right on the money most of the time in this film, from the way he shoots the evaporations to the iconic shots of the tripods on the hillside. And even though I thought the Robbins-basement sequence was a massive diversion and drawdown in the tension -- the "snake" scene was repetitive and not suspenseful -- I still liked the shot of Ray coming through the doorway to "take care" of Robbins. Shit, isn't that just like Spielberg? He's willing to go down that very dark path even with his main characters, but he'll never leave us there -- see the ending of this film and every film he's ever made. And I thought the narrated bookends of the film about the earth's micro-organisms was a lazy way to explain what happened to the aliens. Maybe it was an homage to the original "Worlds," but I haven't seen it, so to me it fell flat. But who can forget that ominous horn? And the spraying? Heck, even just the sound design. What a ride. 4/5.

As for July 4th itself (wow, that's still today), after a little procrastinating around the house with my mom's Photo Printer and a little laundry, my parents and I headed back to my place for some burgers, pasta, and veggies, and to enjoy my deck and the absolutely gorgeous day: 77 degrees, sunny, no humidity. And not a single bee flew by. After we ate I took them to Prescott Park (yes, I went again) because I thought it'd be a relaxing way for my dad to get his mind off work, which he always does the day before he goes back to work. We walked around, looked at all the flowers, then grabbed some ice cream. All in all, it was a pleasant, relaxing day with the fam. You'll never hear me complain about that.