Haines His Way

The source of his only solo hit song.

He may have had a solo hit song, but that doesn't quite make one a teen idol, does it?

Mr Smith may have had a New York fan base of course. His older brother was lead singer of a New York rock band.

It's time for me to leave work, go home and try out my new DVR!  I'm sure that if anything's wrong with it, I won't find out for quite some time. But, I can just exchange it again, if I need to.  Until later!

And now...

My niece, Alyssa, and her grandmother - a.k.a. The Birthday Girl!



And now Emily and her grandfather...

Here's the cake... Oh, and the grandkids with their grandparents...



My brother, Don, took some more shots of the festivities yesterday, but I'm still waiting for those.

Like uncle, like niece... or is that the other way around?

Oh.. Iki is the chihuahua, and Manchita is the dalmation.

Iki was born in Hawaii, and "Iki" means "small" in Hawaiian.  Manchita was born in Puerto Rico.  "Mancha" is "spot", so "manchita" is "small spot".  

I had a full evening of viewing.

I began with PRIMEVAL, a very minor league JAWS-clone only with a crocodile instead of a great white. And with it being set in Burundi, it gave the writer a chance to get in his licks about the genocide and civil wars going on there and Rwanda.

But it's pretty lame stuff with a creature that's a total CGI creation. It's done well enough for believability (can crocs really move that quickly?) but the scares are all predictable and telegraphed badly.

I also watched the 9 minute documentary on the creation of the creature in PRIMEVAL and also the three deleted scenes on the disc.

Next I put in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, the 1977 film version which just came out on DVD.

It does look sharper with better color than it's ever looked before on home video, and the 1.66:1 aspect ratio is presented on video for the first time, too.

Sad to say, it's NOT an anamorphic transfer, and the print they used for the transfer has lots of debris and black scratches. During "Now/Later/Soon," at one point there are three black scratches running down the image, all clearly visible because the scene is taking place in a bed with cream colored sheets.

The sound is Dolby Prologic 2.0 mono, and it doesn't have much body to it, especially on the low end.

A shame, but it's likely the only one we'll ever get.

Next I watched last night's ENTOURAGE. It is the third season finale episode with Vince finally getting his movie financed. Looks like next season (which starts in two weeks) will at least at first be about the making of this lifelong dream project of his.

Next I began the movie FROM THE TERRACE. I've never seen this movie before. It's available on DVD, but I thought before I spent the money I'd get it off the Fox Movie Channel and watch it before investing (though admittedly, a new copy is less than $10). I onl;y got about 10 minutes into it, but since it's over 2 hours, I've saved most of it to watch tomorrow.

Ah, I see, said the blind man.

And just what is the ratio for those with widescreen TVs (since it's not 4:3)?

Same ratio as those with a 4:3 set. For A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, 1.66:1 across the width of whatever screen you're dooing the measuring with. With the anamorphic enhancement on a widescreen TV, the letterbox bars go away due to the added resolution.

Remember that you're measuring PICTURE AREA, not size of TV screen.

Speaking of these actors who appeal to the young people, exactly when was Rex Smith a teen idol, as reported in his bio?

He's an Atlanta boy, so I remember when he was big with the teeny boppers---he had that beautiful mane of hair back when there were manes!