Pretty good, Bubba. Anything in particular you want to talk about?

Season 4 is coming. I can't wait until june 17. Does anyone know if Richard is be in season 4? I hope so

Haven't heard anything about Richard either way...

Well Bubba, so far I am doing fine today, Thanks for asking! I hope all is well with you

Well this is sweet! Can't complain, can't complain...way I look at it every day I wake up and have somewhere to go and something to do is a good day, huh? Hope you fine folks are well!

I like classical music, especially Tchaikovsky. I like old style cowboy singing, like The Sons of the Pioneers, and I love that new age instrumental music with nature sounds.

Hiya, I love all types of music. I'm personally partial to Vivaldi & Bach on the classical end but also like Alternative, Rock & Jazz. I also have a soft spot for New Age and Electronica.

What other shows does everyone watch?

I listen to "Southern Gospel" myself. I also like to sing them... but not infront of people But I LOVE to listen to my daughter sing, it touches my heart to hear her attempt at a song Adding her own uniqueness to it in the process!

I watch a few shows... Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Heroes, Smallville, LOST, and Gilmore Girls are the ones I watch regular... I love MONK and SVU but I never seem to catch them

I watch so much Law & Order I sometimes think I could qualify for a law degree! I also like some silly things like Green Acres and Everybody Loves Raymond, and that new show The Dresden Files is very good. Any Shakespeare fans out there? My favorite Hamlet is Mel Gibson, favorite Macbeth Jon Finch, and my favorite play by the immortal bard is The Tempest.

Wow, Bubba, just got around to noticing this thread. Neat idea for sharing. Yeah, Rock, I am a huge fan of the Law & Order series, especially SVU and Criminal Intent. Wonder if the law schools hand out credit for those?? I am a somewhat reality show buff too. On the silly side as Rock put, Andy Griffith, MASH, Leave it to Beaver, or maybe I Love Lucy makeup my summer watching, along with The 4400. As many of you know, I am a lover of dogs...anything that has to do with dogs I am interested. Also, you could say I am a student of anthopology and pre-man history but far from an expert. Just enjoy the subjects. Music...anything from the 50's and 60's and I am a little bit country, along with some classical. I guess that is about it.

But thanks, Bubba. This could turn into something that is fabulously fun.

Thanks Bubba!!!! HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

Shakespeare in Love was a great movie, Elessar! So you liked Mel Gibson's Hamlet too? What did you think of Kenneth Branagh? Usually he's so good with Shakespeare (he was brilliant in Much Ado About Nothing) but his Hamlet was just embarrassing. The scene with the play to "catch the conscience of the king" was so poorly done I wondered if he asked a grade school kid for an interpretation, and what about the end when he threw the great big sword across the room? I figured he must have been doing crack while watching Hercules and thought that looked like fun. Gibson was so much more restrained and subtle (a real departure for him) and the scenery was just marvelous. I really liked Glen Close as Guenivere, and Helena Bonham Carter was perfect as Ophelia-her mad scene was truly poignant.

Oh, Elessar - Shindler's List. What a fabulous movie and such a great tool for teaching and understanding history. It seems that movies with the high tech and special effects are turning us into a high maintenance society (present company excluded). Give it to us quick so we don't have to think. What a shame.

Wow...The Phantom of the Opera! One of my all time goals is to see the broadway production. I do believe I have all of the words and emotions memorized as it takes me to a place a wonderment. A friend of mine brought me a book from New York about the production. Great book. I can't think of any of Andrew Lloyd Webber's productions that I do not enjoy.

By the way, HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE too!

Well, I like plot and character development-that's the part of a movie I like best. I loved Gosford Park. It may SEEM like just another who-done-it, but the complex relations between the upper crust and their servants was so interesting! Now I want to see Upstairs, Downstairs-that's supposed to be a marvelous character study of how different classes interact.

I guess nowadays special effects have taken over and it's just too hard for movie-makers to resist all the flash. I liked the original Star Wars, but then Lucas had to "improve" it, and put in new scenes and creatures and such. I was truly appalled at seeing the ice monster on Hoth. Remember the original scene? Luke hanging upside down in the ice and the terrifying roars? You never did see the monster and your imagination was free. Then Lucas dragged in some dopy special effects and showed the monster, and it wasn't nearly as monstrous as it was before you could see it. Well, that first Star Wars movie, where we see Annakin as a small child, was about what I would expect of Lucas too. I guess he thought he had such terrific special effects he could dispense with casting-the child who played Annakin was such a terrible actor I just couldn't understand how Lucas could justify using him. I'd rather watch Lambchop or Gumby than that kid, and now the poor child will have that performance hanging over his head for the rest of his life.

As for me, I LIKE black and white movies. I like watching movies back when people knew how to write a story and have a plot. Here's an exercise-go rent The Desperate Hours, both versions. Even Anthony Hopkins couldn't salvage the remake, but the original with Frederic March is not to be missed. What I dread is that some idiot in Hollywood will get the notion to remake Casablanca. It's bad enough that they colorize the old movies-I never did get to see Miracle on 34th Street this year, because they colorized it.

Rock, you remind of the old Alfred Hitchcock movies where the plot and characters played out in suspense. Oh my...the shower scene in Psycho or The Rear Window and the apartment scenes! I recently watched an interview with Steven Spielberg about the making of Jaws (one). They had huge difficulties in developing the shark that at the beginning of the movie through the middle of the movie, they really didn't introduce the actual shark because they couldn't get it right. He was disappointed when the animated shark appeared but was stumped how to turn it into a real life like animal. It was high suspense up until that introduction.

Elessar, am I allowed to be envious? I have always felt that seeing it in live production, regardless of the few changes, would be a life turning event. One of these days....one of these days....I will make it up north. My son sent me the DVD of the movie version for my birthday and I too like the movie. It is amazing in that they did a fabulous job with the lyrics and the music, which I was amazed. Glad they didn't chop it up like the movies sometimes do. Do you like the production, CATS? Everytime I listen to the soundtrack, I come back with a different analysis, much like the Phathom. It keeps me returning to listen again and again. Is that obsessive behavior or not????

Have you heard the rumor that Webber is going to write a sequel to the Phantom story? That should be interesting but, I don't know, sort of like a sequel to Gone with the Wind in that it does something to lessen the original. Can't explain it.

Thinking about The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy creating great movies, it could be that Robert Ludlum wrote both books with following the same story of Jason Bourne or whatever name he chose at the time....Webb? Anyway, the structure was there by the author for sequels in the books and thereby good development for movies. I wasn't a fan of The Matrix even though I love the sci-fi stuff. My brother loved it and like you, didn't care much for the sequels.

Tee hee..GWTW, sometimes when I watch it, Scarlett gets her man and then sometimes I watch it and, well....she doesn't deserve him. I read the Scarlett book and was so disappointed. Disappointed because the author tried to solve that very mystery at the end of the original. And it just didn't work. I like having my imagination soar.

Okay, now I got to jump in and say I thought Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler were just perfect for each other. Neither one of them deserved anything better. Sure, Rhett stood by Scarlett and he almost never let her down. There is the little matter of him marching off to join the army and leaving her alone on the road. He said later he knew she would be all right, and as it happened she was all right, but there really was no excuse for him leaving at that point. He could at least have seen that they reached Tara safely. I always took Rhett's attitude as something he used to salve his conscience, such as it was, because he knew perfectly well the chances of Scarlett reaching safety with Melanie and that baby, not to mention Prissy the addle-pated, were very slim, and he was ashamed of running off. I also figured, based on the way he acted later, that he just didn't cotton to the notion of actual hard labor on a farm.

As to Scarlett, she was a horrible person in so many ways, yet she WAS the only one to stay with Melanie when all the nice people were too busy elsewhere, and she kept Melanie and the baby and cared for her sisters and held things together, even to the point of marrying a man she didn't want so she could pay the taxes on Tara. Like Rhett, Scarlett was an appalling person, yet somehow she was always there for the people she cared about, even though she didn't always realize how much they meant to her. I've read Gone With The Wind many times, and I've seen the movie several times, and the person I dislike the most is Ashley. I just thought he was pathetic and Melanie could have done so much better.

Yeah, and Rock, all of the twists and turns and undercurrents you described about the relationship between Rhett and Scarlett, plus the civil war history...that is what made it such a blockbuster book and movie in the late l930's, plus winning a Pulitzer Prize. The film is still rated some almost 70 years later and we are talking about it again. Sure wish there were more movies of that quality today. But like I said earlier, sometimes when I re-read the book or see the movie again, I take a different stance. Sometimes they are together in the end as it should be or sometimes, they aren't as it should be. Just like the Phantom character, sometimes I feel so very sorry for him and sometimes I believe he gets what he deserves. Just excellent story writing.

Whoa! You switched your avatar from Beau Bridges to the Miami Vice guy. I'm okay, bub.

Well, even though I have read the book, I did so only once many years ago and my recollection of it is not so great. I've seen the movie a couple of times but on one thing I agree...I didn't like Ashley. But Scarlett didn't deserve him either. Rhett was selfish and a scoundrel but I disliked Scarlett so much more. She was deceptive and I abhore that in people. He at least was flat out honest about his lack of integrity and selfish attitudes. I guess in a way they were perfect for each other, but I think he really loved her despite her faults and she used him like she used everybody. Either way, I agree that the book was well written and the movie was captivating. It's not a favorite story of mine though and I don't go out of my way to watch or read it.

Elessar, I agree that in the movie Rhett was far more likeable than in the book. In the book he was just as despicable as Scarlett, and I just don't know why they presented her in her true colors and whitewashed Rhett. Clark Gable was one of the original 800 pound gorillas and maybe he insisted on Rhett cleaning up a little.

Sometimes strange things happen when books are transferred to the big screen. Anatomy of a Murder was a marvelous book, just absolutely spell-binding, and when it was made into a movie it became a marvelous movie. Great cast-James Stewart, Arthur O'Connell, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick, even a real Supreme Court judge playing the trial judge, and Otto Preminger directed. Wonderful movie, with one glaring error. In the book, Lee Remick's character was very alluring to men, but she didn't go out of her way to attract men. They just found her very sexy and appealing without any real effort on her part. She was presented as a woman who understood and downplayed her attraction to men. Yet in the movie, where every other character was faithfully portrayed, this woman was turned into a real slut. Lee Remick did a very good job-oh, she was so sleazy with her shoes in one hand and a drink in the other and men hanging over her, but that's not how the character was in the book. It was strange to see each character faithfully portrayed, and this one character completely twisted out of recognition. I suppose the producer's imagination failed them when it came to portraying this person.

Thanks Bubba, my Easter was a good one, I hope that yours was as well!

So I was curious what kind of pets everyone might have...

Ahhh, yes kittens can be quite the handful!! But they are SO cute!! I am glad to read you had a nice Easter and I hope that everyone else did as well.

I have a cat that stays outside, one of my kids is allergic to him They love each other though! He used to stay in the house and he would sleep in the playpen with her and everything!! The kids pull his tail and pick him up all the time trying to carry him and he has NEVER scratched them or anything!! He is absolutely wonderful with them except for the allergy thing. The cat has been doing very well outside, even seems to have gotten heavier. I think he's got more of the spirit that should be outside anyway.
We also have a bunny and a few fish, the bunny stays inside. The kids ensure she gets her exercise!! Poor thing is constantly getting chased around.... Anyway I guess that's enough from me for now!!

...I know what you mean about characters being portrayed differently on screen from how they were written. Just because I can't help myself, I'll use the LOTR as an example. In some characters the directer hit the nail right on the head and I couldn't be more pleased. I thought Gollum, Sam, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Boromir, and Eowyn were perfect. But what a mess he made with Frodo, Aragorn, Faramir, and Theoden. I could have killed Peter Jackson. What I found so strange was the fact that the directer went through great lengths to match the books -- sometimes word for word-- and in other areas you were left thinking "Where the hell did that come from?"
On some occasions, few mind you, I actually enjoy the movie better. I happen to love the movie The Count of Monte Cristo so much more than the book. I found that the book was much more depressing. The book was far more fixated on revenge and Edward Dantes never really grew from the whole experience. In the movie they made Mercedes' son Edward's son and they all became a family in the end and the movie had Dantes realize that healing and peace only comes through forgiveness. I actually started to become sickened at the heart of Dantes in the book that I no longer felt sorry for him for being wrongfully accused and imprisoned and I didn't enjoy all the suffering he caused in his vengeful scheme.

Elessar, I agree with you that Aragorn was very different than in the book, but I actually thought that was an improvement. In the book, I saw Aragorn as a man you could count on but not one who would be much fun to be around, and the only scenes where I found him really likeable were when he caught up with Pippin and Merry at Orthanc, and when he was making fun of the healer at Gondor. Aside from those times he seemed very stiff. But what about Arwen? She was altered all out of recognition, and I thought that was a total improvement, because in the book I just could never make out why Aragorn would give her the time of day.

As to The Count of Monte Cristo, I totally agree with you. The movie was so much better than the book-having Fernand and Edmond grow up together and be best friends added such a dimension to Fernand's later betrayal. In the book, he barely knew Edmond and there were no ties between them. I also thought that the boy actually being Edmond's son was so much better than the book. But what can you expect of Dumas? The man was no romantic-read The Three Musketeers sometime. On screen they're dashing and heroic and romantic, but in the book they're opportunistic and living off their mistresses. They have very little honor and no compassion for anyone other than themselves. Dumas was a man who could come up with a great idea, but to see his stories at their best, you should watch the movies, not read the books.

We did too!!! When I was real young we had chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, my older siblings even had a cow! We had a rooster that didn't like one of my sisters, it would chase her around and she would have to play dead to get it to leave her alone Momma said she always wondered why she would run across the yard and just fall over!!! There is a picture somewhere of a duck we had that hatched a chicken egg and taught the chick how to swim! It definitely is enough to start a farm, that's for sure!! I don't remember the ducks much but I do remember the chickens and we always had cats and dogs running around. But I do believe this is the first pet rabbit. I think my siblings used to have a hamster or something at one point as well... until my sister accidentally fed them to one of the cats

I had nice easter. My family came over yesterday and my brother and his gf and his dog. I got a dog and cat. I want to change my screen name to bmxgirl, but I don't know how to.

I enjoy talking to you too, Elessar! Well, you're right-in improving Aragorn's personality, the movie did lose track of what made him a great man. Funny, I hadn't even thought about the palantir or the King of the Dead or the healing. I really liked the healing-that's one of the scenes where Aragorn shows his lighter side, as well as his compassion. After reading your response, I would say I have to agree now that in some respects the writers really did drop the ball on Aragorn.

As to Sam, I thought Sean Astin did a marvelous job portraying him. The surly, "I'm his gardener," response to Faramir was just priceless. And he was so protective of Frodo, and I just loved that. Sean is a good actor and he really ran the gamut of emotion, from a fun-loving hobbit to a grim warrior.

I thought that Admin had said they would change it for you if you told them what you wanted it changed to. It's been a while though, what does bmx stand for? If you don't mind my asking.

That's nice that you got to spend Easter with your family, my faily got together last Saturday and had a lunch together. Yesterday I just went to the sunrise and afternoon service at church and afterward came back home it was a nice peaceful day ... Pretty much

I love bmx. Bmx stands for people do tricks on a bike, like park, street, dirt. Where I live we have 15 or more bmx pro here. I met like 8 or 9 bmx pro. I became a veg last nov soo i eat no meats but I eat grilled fish.

I knew that!! I forgot, but I did know that! Thanks for the reminder... That's pretty cool you got "celebs" near by.
Vegetarian huh? That's pretty cool, I go through spells like that That's quite a change in lifestyle. There are some things that I just couldn't give up though, some meats I just gotta have! I hope that you get the support you need from family though, cause that can make a big difference

yeah. I been working at doctor office since nov of 05 and veg is healthy for you. I am the only one is my family decide to became a veg. I eat healthy like no fried food and weat, and the only eggs i eat is bolied. Two years ago I stopped drinking soft drinks. I have will power soo I can be a veg.

Yeah, will power is a good thing, I wish I had more! Ever since I got pregnant with my first child I actually don't eat much meat! The only meat I would eat was chicken, I completely lost desire for everything else. I have to say my biggest weakness is sweets though.

I'm a veggie for about 35 years and I've never touched meat.

I have also completely lost interest in everything else.

I can't have sweets. I wish though.

Wow, you know I don't think I could survive without sweets!! I could go without meat if I really wanted to but sweets are one of those unnecessary necessities in my life Its funny though, my oldest child (the one I would only eat chicken with) doesn't seem to like meat very much! She likes chicken and fish sticks but most anything else she won't eat. My second child on the other hand will eat just about anything, but then again I wasn't as picky of an eater during that pregnancy either

I love sweets too. I can't give that up. I love it too much.

Thanks for asking, Bubba. My students are working a community health fair, so I will be working with them. Other than that.....sleeping and reading this board...tee hee.

Hey Bubba!! Not much going on here, need to work on things around the house and I might do something with my sister later... not sure yet though. Other than that my only plan is to go to church on Sunday!

Yeah. No plans for me. I go to sat night service at my church. At the end of April 29 through May 6. I be in Seattle Washington. I can't wait go there.