I'll need a good rope, a hunting knife, and a soft piece of leather.

Ick. Monday.

I hope everybody had a wonderful 4th of July. We took our annual drive up the Columbia Gorge to Cascade Locks to picnic and watch the fireworks. We shot off a few of our own. No serious burns. Stop, drop and roll and all that.

Liberality reminds us that the Declaration of Independence isn't the only thing we should be thinking about for the holiday. I love the Constitution but have a major crush on the Declaration. Who wouldn't love a document that at it's core is nothing more than a kick in the nuts to the establishment?

The establishment could use a good kick in the nuts once in a while. The tree of liberty has to be refreshed from time to time with a steel-tipped boot to the gotchas. You can quote me on that.

Of course if we elected Wall-E the president all of our troubles would be solved. I'm not sure he'd be that interested. He's already spent quite a bit of time cleaning up other people's trash.

Apologies for the randomness of this post. (Or "randal-ness" if you will, although I'm nowhere near as bright as Mr. Graves.) I've only had two large cups of double-black coffee this morning so I'm nowhere near as caffeinated as usual.

Have a great rest of the week and remember: watch out for bears.

Eevaa?

We went to see Pixar's Wall-E last night. This is one time that the critics are absolutely right. Wall-E is an absolutely wonderful movie that is not only beautiful to look at, but left me trying not to get choked up at several points. It's just that good.

One of the things that amazes me about Pixar films is idea that their films cost over a million dollars a minute to make and yet they never allow that cost to limit the story. One of the more jaw-dropping scenes in Wall-E was a robot ballet in space that must of covered five minutes of screen time. You can just hear some Disney corporate executive upon seeing that seem complaining that it doesn't move quickly enough or advance the narrative.

Tough luck . It was one of the most beautiful things I've seen on screen. Ever. Kudos to the Pixar engineers and artists that choreographed and rendered that sequence.

Reviewers are bringing up the obvious cinematic influences on this movie from Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey. For my part the film evoked comparisons to one of my favorite science fiction films; Silent Running. From it's strong pro-environmental message to it's smart, cute robots it has a lot in common to that earlier film.

While Wall-E's environmental message is timely it's the theme of the film; that we shouldn't lose our sense of connectedness to others or the world we live in, that will really resonate with audiences. Wall-E is the darnright sweetest film I've seen since E.T. How else would you describe a film in which the driving goal of it's hero is just to hold hands with another living creature?

At it's heart is a love for humanity that practically bleeds through the screen. Which is an odd thing for a film in which the protagonist is a robot.

If you have some time this weekend then brave the lines and see the remarkable Wall-E. It doesn't disappoint.