Well, that took a while...

OK, so I wasn't able to write for a while - but I need to get back to it.

Item 1. We saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Some of it was good and some of it kinda sucked. Note to film-makers: you have computers available, why not use them to keep from having to shoot all of the action scenes of the old man from behind his back to try to cover that it's a stunt man?

Item 2. We went to a cool restaurant later that same week, Amer's Cafe. It's a great American /Mediterranean /Egyptian place (which also has GREAT pasta). Lisa wanted to go because they have belly dancing on Friday and Saturday nights. The belly dancing was fun for her, but I think she could do as well herself on most of the dancing.

Joseph wanted to go because kids get to make their own pizza. They give the kids the dough to roll out and put on a cooking plate, then the sauce to spread, the cheese to put on and finally the pepperoni for topping. He had a lot of fun (and it was a delicious pizza)!

Lisa had a seafood thing that she really liked and I had penne with four cheeses, which was very good. The portions were big for Lisa and I and not overpriced. Next time pizza for me tho!

Item 3. We went to see Iron Man a second time because Lisa liked it so much. It's got to be one of the greatest comic book to movie translations (if not the best). The fight with Iron Monger is too long, but that's the only real weak point in my opinion. I actually like the fact that in the Middle Eastern fight Iron Man doesn't just subdue the bad guys by pulling his punches. Unfortunately, it makes me want to see The Incredible Hulk even more to see if it's a good translation and I'm still worried it will kinda suck.

Item 4. We went to the Virgin Festival on Lisa's tickets. Quick list of some highlights: watched Paramore perform from the "Soundboard Skybox" (built into the third story of a scaffolding thingy), we were on the rail for Taking Back Sunday (Adam is crazy with that "swing-the-microphone-around-your-neck" thing!), wandered the eco-friendly midway, watched the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus (it was super-cheesy, but in a good way), saw some of Iggy Pop and most of Stone Temple Pilots performances from the grass.

But I was blown away by how AMAZING the Nine Inch Nails set was. There was some of the ambient krap from "Ghosts" that I don't really like, but the rest was great. They did my favorite NIN song ("Wish"), which I never would have thought they would perform. They performed all the hits and a couple off the newest album that I hadn't heard, but were mostly good. The light show thing that they had for the stage was also really cool. There's one part where they lower a light frame from above the stage that it reaches all the way from left to right and Trent is walking back and forth in it and it looks like he's surrounded by static. It doesn't sound as cool when I describe it, but it was neat!

We walked over to see a little of the Kanye set while NIN was deep into ambient trance and it looked like it was a good show. I read later that it was supposed to have been amazing, but we had to choose. That's the bad thing about multistage festivals. I wanted to see She & Him as well, but they started during when we had the skyboy passes for the Paramore set and ran into the Taking Back Sunday set, which we didn't want to miss. Maybe I will get to see She & Him another time...

Item 5. Joseph and I went to see Stat Wars: The Clone Wars on opening Friday at a matinee.

They fight robot armies - which we really have seem a lot of already, more if you count the very good Tartakovsky cartoon that we already had on Cartoon Network. They try to rescue a Hutt child and discover the mystery behind who really masterminded the kidnapping. Anakin gets a Padawan named Ahsoka Tano, and Father Knows Best hilarity ensues. It's just such a pilot episode for the "at least 100 episodes" (per George Lucas) next Cartoon Network series.

It looks like it goes after the Tartakovsky series, but obviously before Revenge of the Sith, so we get Commander Cody back with Obi-Wan and we can show some of their relationship being built. There's a new clone side-kick established for Anakin as well, Captain Rex. Not a lot of new named characters, but we get to see ones that we already know and a lot of nameless window dressing (a Star Wars hallmark since the original movie - I'm not complaining).

I almost wish I owned Revenge of the Sith so that I could go and check to see if there's a nameless jedi who could be Ahsoka Tano getting cut down when they give Order 66, or if she will die / leave at some time during the series. But only almost...