Saturday, July 18, 2026

The One With The Odyssey

 

 

 


Last night, we went to AMC for opening night of The Odyssey. Kiff had been ardently waiting for this to arrive movie for nearly a year...so much so that he refused to watch any clips or hear to much about the original story.

Overall, it was quite an experience. Because it was filmed in IMAX, Kiff wanted to make sure we saw it in IMAX (although the seat numbers in that particular theater are confusing). However, we made sure to arrive a few minutes before preview time to find our way to the seat.

The movie did not disappoint. It has a cast of brilliant actors who performed well (Kiff and Bri were more mesmerized by them than Emmie and me). The story had to be edited slightly because IMAX movies cannot run longer than three hours...so instead of having many cyclopes...there is only one. But, those edits did little to ruin the spectacle on the screen.

While I found the acting enticing, I have to admit that the use of sound was amazing. For example, when they are sailing past the Sirens, the crew puts wax in their ears...and we get to experience what they did with muffled sound. During times of high tension, different loud noises are heard...often as if the Olympian gods, who manipulated the affair in Homer's tale, were involved. There were also several jump moments which were effectively woven in.

All and all, a great movie experience. 

 

Saturday, July 4, 2026

The One With the 250th Birthday of the U.S.

 

 

Today is July 4, 2026. In essence, the 250th anniversary of the United States. Throughout the year, leading up to this anniversary, I tried to make sure students I had were aware of this. We tried to impress upon them the importance of the Declaration of Independence, studying several times and even participating in the Icivics competition to have students at as many middle schools as possible read the Declaration of Independence to commemorate the occasion.

Our video is here.


 

Along with that, we have spent the past three days trying to remember the 250th anniversary. We went to the movie Young Washington on July 2 (the actual day of independence).  We watched the Disney 250th celebration of America on July 3 and 4th. We saw the Horribles parade this morning - which had a huge flag and the Danvers Minutemen. We watched Jonny Tremain earlier today. We are currently watching Ken Burn's American Revolution documentary (episode 1) as I type this!!!

Happy 250th Birthday America