Slim Chickens, Lotus Electre, Pepsi Peach, Sprite Chill & 76 Gas

It's been over a month so inevitably there will be something I plum neglect to mention but there isn't too much to share anyhow. There was some mundane activities such as going to the IKEA in Orlando to pick up a new pillow (the old one was literally falling apart), returning to EPCOT for the afternoon, visiting a Whole Foods and lunch at the Raising Cane's in Kissimmee; otherwise there weren't too many highs... while thankfully there weren't too many lows either.

There thankfully are some limited edition sodas for the summer. Sprite Chill is simply the soda w/ cherry, meaning it was pretty tasty. The same can be said for both Pepsi Peach & Pepsi Lime. There's also Dr. Pepper Creamy Coconut; it was purchased but hasn't been sampled as of now. To mention something completely different, at ironically a gas station I saw the Lotus Electre for the first time. The name signifies that it's the brand's all-electric SUV. It looked rather sharp, especially in British Racing Green. Speaking of gasoline, recently in Davenport I visited a new 76 gas station. It was the first purpose-built 76 around here in many years. Due to its distance, that place will only barely be visited. I wish places like that and Cumberland Farms was closer; alas, there's still plenty of decent places around the area to stop and if need be, purchase something from the convenience store.

The one new restaurant of note was Slim Chickens, located at the south tip of Celebration, meaning another place I wish was closer. There's one in Wichita but I had never been able to visit it. In fact I was impressed by the food; it's a relief that even if some places are relatively far away, there's enough places to visit for dinner when some places this year have either fallen off and are lousy or closed down.

Nothing is planned for Memorial Day Weekend; that is fine w/ me as that's usually the case. By the time I return next month, there are some plans I have in store for the next several weeks.

Spider-Man, The Mummy, Mars Express, The Blue Angels & Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

So, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. In fact, it will be another two-parter, with the second half coming about 24 hours from now. As it is easier to do, this will be devoted to the theatrical movies I've seen since the middle of April. Before that, in fact I was bummed that a few days ago, Dabney Coleman passed away. I remember him mainly as a jerk boss from the likes of The Muppets Take Manhattan (which I revisited on Sunday night as it happened to be on Turner Classic Movies) and Nine to Five, which I finally saw in full this past Saturday. I also remember him from Cloak & Dagger, a childhood favorite Hitchcock for kids pastiche that still works as an adult and is quite violent for its type.

Sony brought all the Spider-Man movies to the big screen so last month I saw the 2002 movie (which beforehand was only watched like 20 years ago because it featured Macho Man Randy Savage for a few minutes) and the 2004 sequel. Both drew big crowds and they were into the films; I was happy to watch both in such a setting, although it doesn't change my ambivalence towards comic book movies in general. Another blast from the past was 1999's The Mummy. I was happy to have finally seen that theatrically as it's still a hoot, a fun time. After that I revisited The Mummy Returns then The Scorpion King at home; bad CG aside, those are fun also.

One night was a random French animated movie & I took a chance on it. Thank heavens then that Mars Express was a very interesting futuristic sci-fi picture involving AI, robots, and a neo-noir style. It was rather rad. A few days ago, I went to an IMAX screen to check out the new documentary The Blue Angels, about the United States Navy demonstration aerial act where a small group of skilled pilots do death-defying maneuvers 12 to 18 inches from each other and it looks impressive visually. Plenty of time is spent with the pilots on the ground and it was all interesting.

In the past I've viewed all the Planet of the Apes movies; the ones from the 60's and 70's are all interesting & usually had rather dark conclusions. The 2001 film... the less said about that, the better! The new timeline that began w/ Rise in 2011, it was surprisingly great given the state of most blockbusters in the past 20 or so years—most of those I don't even bother with. Yet, that trilogy w/ Caesar as the ape leader is tremendous. I had feelings of trepidation about Kingdom as it was a new director plus new characters. Much to my relief-nitpicks aside-it was a very good movie where it was easy to enjoy Noa's Hero's Journey along with seeing the world 300 years after the previous trilogy's setting. Once again the CG was impressive although it was the bold, interesting stories that made me rate that trilogy highly. It did make me want to see the payoffs to the setup that Kingdom created.

To reiterate, I'll return tomorrow evening w/ the rest of the story.