Author: Andy Labis

Eight Below

MPAA Rated – PG
It’s 2:00 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Eight Below
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, and the pie…, I mean, Jason Biggs
MPAA Rated: PG
Released By: Disney Pictures
Release Date: 2006

Here’s a feel good movie for everyone, probably, especially, dog lovers. You get some scientist dudes hanging out in Antarctica, doing their scientist things, when the best way to get somewhere is by sled dogs. They get there, do there exploring, but than an accident happens and people are hurt. The rescue teams come, but there isn’t any room for the dogs, so, yea, the dogs are left to fend for themselves. Then the bad weather comes, and the dogs are really stranded. The movie tells the story of the dog’s survival and those that love them trying to get back to the Antarctic to save them.

It’s a feel good story, really can’t go wrong to make things feel good, but sometimes, that’s all that you want, although I’ve got to guess there will be a tear jerk here and there.

That’s it for this preview! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Will you be filling out March Madness brackets?

It’s March Madness, Baby! Yup, it’s that time of year when millions of men and a lot of women will look at this big bracket of college teams, some they have never heard of, and believe that they have a system for picking the team that will eventually become the National Champion, the best college basketball team in the nation, or at least the team that was somehow able to beat Gonzaga. Others, myself included, will search out the online contests where if you can somehow pick all of the winners of the tournament you will win $1,000,000, believe you have the brackets that will accomplish this task, and then, undoubtedly, but about two hours after the tournaments begin, be out of the running and have your bracket already busted.

Countless numbers of others will join office pools, that bastion of illegal gambling that rears its head for March Madness and the Super Bowl, and waste millions of hours of work staring at their computer screen, waiting for scores to upload, in the hopes of winning about a hundred bucks but more importantly, have office bragging rights because you picked the winning team based on the color of their uniforms and not because you have the ultimate faith in Coach K.

It will be fun, by sometimes Thursday I’m pretty sure I’ll be out of the running, but I plight: Will you be filling out March Madness brackets?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Do you untie your shoes when taking them off?

Yesterday my shoe came untied. I suppose that’s not a monumental revelation but there I was, taking out the garbage this morning, and inside my shoe I felt the lace under my foot and it reminded me that I noticed it was untied the day before when I was walking Milo. That also means that I didn’t re-tie my shoe at the time, and as I was walking back from putting my trash at the curb I also made the conscious decision not to re-tie my shoe until after I got in my car and ended up where I was driving. Alas, I needed gas and at the fill-er-up station, with some time to kill, decided it was finally time to re-tie my shoe. In doing so I thought about shoe tying, about how I struggled as a youngster to learn how to tie my shoes (or at least my perception was that I struggled), and then, one day, my little fingers all worked together, and I could magically tie them. Then, through the years, much to my Mom’s dismay, I turned into a “slip off my shoes without untying them” person, much like many people are nowadays. Granted with my dress shoes and my boots there is tying and untying involved, but for my gym shoes rarely a time will come when I will untie them, and when I do have to re-tie them, as was the case today, I am very careful not to make them too tight so as to make the slipping off of the shoe relatively easy. So, as I was tying my shoe this morning I plighted in my head: Do you untie your shoes when taking them off?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Do you put your car in “Park” when stopped by a train?

The other day I was coming upon a railroad crossing with a few cars ahead of me. This event will usually harken me back to saying in my head “Eighty-eight. Red Ball Freight,” but that’s another plight for another time. This time the crossing lights started flashing, the gates came down, and I whispered to myself, “Shit. Train. Now I’m going to be late.” As the line of cars approached the lowered gates, and the train was ambling by, I took my spot and put my car in “Park.” Sitting back, looking at my iPhone to kill some time, I finally glanced up and noticed that the brake-lights were still glowing a bright red on the car in front of me. There I was, relaxing, foot off the pedals, just waiting for the train to go by, and I tried to think back to when I was taught to put my car in park at a train crossing when waiting for the train. I’m going to guess it was my Mom or Dad who instilled this habit as usually, back in those days when parents had to entertain their kids and not leave them in the back seat with an iPad to play with or video to watch, getting stopped by a train usually meant waving at the engineer out the window, counting how many train cars there were, admiring the various types of train cars, and eagerly waiting for the caboose . It wasn’t like there was any hurry to get back across the crossing, I mean, you still had to wait for the gates to go back up which left plenty of time to put the car back in “Drive,” but for me it also, always, seemed safer to put the car in “Park” while waiting for the train to go by. For whatever reason I just always saw badness happening if you didn’t put your car in “Park,” like your foot would slip off the brake pedal and onto the gas, and if you were the lead car, there you were, smashing through the gates and slamming into the side of the train.

Eventually the train finally made its pass, I observantly watched the car in front of me to see if maybe they just were extra safe with their foot on the brake and car in “Park,” but alas there was no “flash” of the “reverse” lights. I envisioned, one day, that driver screwing up and slamming into the side of a passing train when their foot slipped, and then plighted to myself: Do you put your car in “Park” when stopped by a train?

That’s it for this plight! I”m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

How is your day going?

I guess, for this plight, I’m just wondering how the readers and visitors to Entertainment Ave! are doing today. I was going to write about my thermostat obsession, farts, or butt-dailing your phone, but I’m going to hold those plights for another day. As I’m typing this my day has been all over the place, kind of grumpy, kind of good, and maybe it’s because my body-clock is still getting used to the change to Daylight Saving Time or the gray day with a damp rain, but I just can’t get into things today. When the plight gets posted, however, things could be totally different so my actual answer might be different.

Here’s hoping your day is going great, or if crappy so far that it turns to great, and if it’s just kind of normal, here’s hoping it at least stays that way and doesn’t get crappy. And so I plight: How is your day going?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Did you remember to Spring your clock forward for daylight saving time?

As much as I like the switch to Daylight Saving Time it’s always that first night and first morning after the time change that are the tough part. First off, I have enough trouble trying to fall asleep, but with the time change, at least until I get used to it a bit, trying to get to bed an hour earlier than I’m used to kind of sucks. Even though I’m falling asleep at the same time that I used to do body-clock wise for a few days, this isn’t a huge problem, I suppose. The real problem is the waking up the next morning because work calls and it doesn’t really care what time you went to bed. Sleep aside I’m usually pretty good at changing all of my clocks (although I am a little less obsessive about all clocks being exactly the same, down to the second, as I was in college), but today I actually forgot to change my watch so when someone asked what time it was, for a few seconds I looked at my watch and was confused. Eventually things clicked, I was able to add the hour the time on my watch, and then thought I would plight: Did you remember to Spring your clock forward for daylight saving time?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Will you be watching “The Bachelor” finale?

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, but I’m a fan of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” series on ABC. There’s just something about the wacky concept of meeting your soul-mate over a TV show, being transported to various romantic locals and falling in love, and then coming back to your normal life and realizing “Why can’t we go to Thailand for a romantic getaway?” “Because we don’t have any money.” “Oh yea. Who are you anyway?”

This season they brought back Sean, whom I still don’t remember that well from his Bachelorette days, and if your name was a version of Ashley (there was an Ashley P., and Ashley H., and an AshLee F.) or a Leslie (or Lesley), you had a pretty good chance of being on the show. As of now there is only Catherine and Lindsay remaining, and my money is on Lindsay as Catherine seems to be the one he kept around for fun on his way to true, found on a TV show love. Of course, in true Bachelor fashion, there is something heart-wrenching going on as we see Sean get a letter from Chris Harrison on the final rose stop in the previews for the finale Monday night, but like all, except for Sean, Chris Harrison, and a bunch of other people sworn to secrecy, we’ll have to wait for the way-too-long finale show, full of thoughtful gazes by our contestants, out into the horizon, wondering if true love for them will be found on a TV show. And yes, I’ll be watching Monday, but I’m also plighting: Will you be watching “The Bachelor” finale?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

The Soft Addictions

Artist: Michael Stanley
Listenability Scale: 95%
Released by: Line Level Music
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

First an intro… When I moved to Chicago in 1985, the Michael Stanley Band was still big in Cleveland, but for the most part no one I met in Chicago heard of them except for one dude who worked at the campus bowling alley and thought they rocked when they opened up, I believe he said, at a Foreigner concert he went to see. As the years have gone on I’ve seen the band break up, a side project of Ghost Poets, and then Michael Stanley sort of going solo yet still working with many of the same bandmates over the years. I would check out his website, www.michaelstanley.com, every now and then just to see if anything new had popped up (buying most of everything new or re-issued, and reviewing of few of them) because much like 1985, Michael doesn’t get many mentions here in Chi-Town. I say "many" because there is a talk radio dude here called Steve Dahl who every now and then likes to play "Midwest Midnight" because he likes the line about "that bandstand girl," and reminisces about the time MSB opened up for his band, and Steve still can’t figure out why because he thought the Michael Stanley Band was so much better than his band was.

In any case, I’ve been lax on checking out Michael Stanley’s website lately, and then I get a comment from some dude nicknamed "SOK" wondering what I thought about Michael Stanley’s latest, "The Soft Addictions." I had to reply back that I didn’t even realize there was a new CD out there, checked the web site, ordered one and yet got two copies (my bonus).

After having listened to "The Soft Addictions" for a while now, much like a lot of musicians that I’ve grown up with listening to, their sound sometimes gets a little bit more reflective, maybe even a little softer, but Michael Stanley shows he still rocks right off the bat with the "The Curves of Bratenahl," and heads right into the reflective, guitar-driven "Lovers Lane" about a couple growing old together, but sadly not that happily, though the bad times might all be worth it if they could get one more shot at that lover’s lane thing.

Okay, I’d better stop trying to analyze all of the songs on the CD right now, because, well, lots of people interpret lyrics differently, and I’m sure I’ll get something wrong, so lets just say "The Soft Addictions" continues showing Michael Stanley still has a great knack for using his lyrics to tell stories, paint pictures, and he uses it all by mixing up the music with things a little softer like "My Side of the Moment," getting bluesy on "Cadillac Man," almost gospelish on "When It’s Time to Dance Alone," and he doesn’t forget the guitar-rock sound that makes all of us, the instant we hear it, remember back a few years to when we were younger.

I always say I really don’t like doing CD reviews because it is so hard to tell someone if the music is any good because so many people listen to music in different ways, and even though I like Michael Stanley getting a little more reflective here, you just might wish he would put out another "North Coast." Concerts are easier to review because whether I like the show or not, in the end a concert is about pleasing the fans that paid to see it, even though, much to my continued dismay, somehow I keep missing covering Michael Stanley whenever I visit the old homestead. He usually puts on a show around Christmas-time in Cleveland, so maybe he’ll do the same and this year will be the time I finally see him on stage. Sorry, I digress.

In the end I really liked "The Soft Addictions," especially after a couple of plays (I have to admit the first go around I wasn’t paying total attention to the music and when the CD was done at first I thought "I guess it was okay"). Then I took it along for one of my weekend walks and listened to some of the lines in the songs (I loved the concept and thoughts of "Same Blood (Different Vein)"), caught a subtle nuance (like the beer can opening which made me chuckle) during "Drinkin’ In the Driveway" complete with lyrics perfectly painting the picture of the dude "Wearin’ an old Skynard Tank Top Two Sizes Small" and a great line of "Proud that he ain’t bought one damn thing since Floyd did The Wall," and found that my favorite song from the CD is the last official track, "No Rules When You Dream."

There is a bonus track on the CD, simply titled "Michael Stanley," and I’m assuming someone out there in internet land can help me out on exactly what it is because as I’m writing this on a Saturday, well, I can’t call Michael’s radio show, my Google searches only helped me find out what "Otto’s Grotto" is but not the identities of Loopy nor Crispy, and my final investigative avenue is a pending registration on the Michael Stanley message board where it might have been discussed. I thought it might be a portion of a track off of Michael’s first record, simply titled "Michael Stanley," except the commentary mentioned 40 years since Otto’s Grotto and the "Michael Stanley" record came out in 1973 when, sadly, I was only 6 and didn’t have the allowance to go record shopping yet!

Anyway, if you’ve grown up with Michael Stanley through the years, have purchased any of his later CD’s and liked them, I suggest you get yourself a copy of "The Soft Addictions." It’s got some rockin’, it’s got some rollin’, it’s got some reflectin’, and it has one of my new favoritist songs, "No Rules When You Dream." On the Entertainment Ave! listenability scale "The Soft Addictions" gets a solid 95%.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Dude Note: And the internet comes through! The bonus track portion, I have come to find out (Thanks Ann via e-mail and Dave from Akron via the Michael Stanley Message Forum), is from Michael’s first album in a band called "Silk" called "Walk in My Mind," and thanks to my getting approved to peruse the Message Forum (Thanks Shea!), I was even able to find out who Loopy and Crispy are. P.S. Go Tribe!

Have you watched a Harlem Shake video?

I won’t drag on and on about the Harlem Shake, much has been reported about this phenomenon and the assorted videos found on You Tube. Instead, the only thing I find fascinating is that as goofy as we all found Gangnam Style, more of us seem fascinated with the Harlem Shake, so much so that when Gangham Style hit a billion views on You Tube, people wondered if that would ever be surpassed. Enter the Harlem Shake, on its way to beat Psy, who now needs a new song to regain the You Tube crown as an internet giant.

I haven’t watched a video yet, just seen the news blurbs, but I do plight: Have you watched a Harlem Shake video?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

When was the last time you built a snowman?

We are in the midst of a pretty decent snowstorm as I type this, one of those that is bad enough to close a lot of schools, bad enough to screw up a lot of traffic, but not bad enough to cause utter mayhem nor get headlines like “Snowpocalypse,” “Snowmageddon,” nor something boring like “Blizzard.” It’s been a relatively calm couple of winters here in the Chicago area, but the end of February and now early March are seeming to make up for things at least in being persistently a pain in the butt.

My sister shot me a text earlier today saying “Build a snowman for me!”, and I probably should, but instead of trodding out in the snow, I’m deciding to let it be a calm day, working a lot on some website updates here at Entertainment Ave!, and trying to catch up on some 2013 projects I’ve been blowing off. Yet there is still a part of me that says, “Come on, go build that snowman! You know you want to!” The thing is my wife is out in the snowstorm as I type this, and building a snowman right now would mean doing it by myself, which when I was eight year’s old probably wouldn’t seem odd, I built plenty of snowmen and snow forts by myself in my younger days, but as an adult it just seems like it would be a little weird, envisioning the neighbors looking out of their windows saying “Wow, that’s a little sad. Mr. Dude building a snowman by himself.”

There’s still time, I suppose, for me to head outside and heed my sister’s advice, but I’ll probably just keep working, waiting for Mrs. Dude to get home safe, and keep plighting: When was the last time you built a snowman?

That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!