Wii insanity

So Uncle Fester’s Wii was a huge hit today. The oldest, an ardent Sox fan, is into the baseball game, emulating Trot Nixon’s batting stance with a mixture of Ted Williams thrown in for good measure. The youngest is into boxing and takes it waay too seriously, proving why the controller straps break and the thing goes flying through windows and television sets. My wife is into tennis, but plays it sitting down which sort of defeats the purpose. Me, I played three games of golf and made par on the last game. No one is into bowling.
Pretty interesting console — the sheer physicality of it has already smoked the youngest and put him into a full sweat — with all asking for more games already.

Grundens — favorite things

Anyone who watched the Discovery Channels — The Most Dangerous Catch — about the Bering Straits crab fishery has seen Grundens foul weather gear. This isn’t the stuff that yachtsmen wear, this is what the salty guys put on in arctic conditions.

This Xmas was a Grundens Christmas. I went to my favorite chandelry on Cape Cod, Sandwich Ship Supply and bought a set of Grunden Briggs for my youngest son, who has had some miserable clamming expeditions for lack of a good set of foul weather gear. My daughter, who was accompanying me as a shopping advisor for another stop to find something my wife wouldn’t return, was astonished when I declared the Ship Supply to be my favorite store in the world.

Jump Back, Gonna Kiss Myself — RIP James Brown
http://youtube.com/v/51-FcNSDGKw
There was only, and will only be, one James Brown.

Bilious

The amount of overeating the past few days has convinced me that I have gout. Among the feasts:

I’m going on a fast.

Janus – Essential Art House

My son the second-year film student (NYU’s Tisch School), received the mother of all boxed DVD sets this morning for Christmas:

Essential Art House – 50 Years of Janus Films is a 50-disc celebration of international films collected under the auspices of the groundbreaking theatrical distributor. Packaged in a heavy slipcase set (remember, lift with your legs, not your back), one volume contains the DVDs in sturdy cardboard pages; the other volume is a hardback book with introductory essays and essays about each of the films. Janus Films is the precursor to the Criterion Collection, and this set is far and away the most beautiful art object the company has ever created. The substantial and subdued packaging is meant to stand the test of time, as are the films immortalized within. From The Seventh Seal to Jules and Jim to M and Pygmalion and The 39 Steps, this exquisite set is the art house DVD release of 2006, if not the decade. “

This is going to provide some serious couch potato entertainment over the next week. Fifty films. Here’s the list:

ALEXANDER NEVSKY (1938)
ASHES AND DIAMONDS (1958)
L’AVVENTURA (1960)
BALLAD OF A SOLDIER (1959)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946)
BLACK ORPHEUS (1959)
BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)
THE FALLEN IDOL (1948)
FIRES ON THE PLAIN (1959)
FISTS IN THE POCKET (1965)
FLOATING WEEDS (1959)
FORBIDDEN GAMES (1952)
THE 400 BLOWS (1959)
GRAND ILLUSION (1937)
HÄXAN (1922)
IKIRU (1952)
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (1952)
IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART II (1958)
LE JOUR SE LÈVE (1939)
JULES AND JIM (1962)
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949)
KNIFE IN THE WATER (1962)
THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943)
LOVES OF A BLONDE (1965)
M (1931)
M. HULOT’S HOLIDAY (1953)
MISS JULIE (1951)
PANDORA’S BOX (1929)
PÉPÉ LE MOKO (1937)
IL POSTO (1961)
PYGMALION (1938)
RASHOMON (1950) RICHARD III (1955)
THE RULES OF THE GAME (1939)
SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973)
LA STRADA (1954)
SUMMERTIME (1955)
THE THIRD MAN (1949)
THE 39 STEPS (1935)
UGETSU (1953)
UMBERTO D. (1952)
THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960)
VIRIDIANA (1961)
THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953)
THE WHITE SHEIK (1952)
WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957)
THREE DOCUMENTARIES BY SAUL J. TURELL

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