Classic Film Friday: E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

You know it has been 20+ years since I seen this one. It is the story of Elliot and his discovery of an alien. It is so 80's, but it seems to have worn the journey well. I mean you can watch this movie with your kids today and it still seems relevant.

Elliot (Henry Thomas) is a boy, coming from a broken home and he has his older brother, Michael (Robert MacNaughton)and little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) and he doesn't really fit in with anyone. Then enter "E.T." the extra terrestrial. He (I think it is a he, we don't know for sure) is visiting our planet picking up some plant samples... then some government officials appear and try to catch E.T. as he watches his spaceship and all his little E.T. buddies leave him behind.

E.T. and Elliot meet, and scare the crap out of each other, but there is a bond already and E.T. winds up in Elliot's house. The kids all know, but the adults, i.e. mom does not, and thus begins the game of "keep E.T. away from mom." E.T. learns some very basic English and tells Elliot "E.T. phone home". So E.T. has very limited 1980's electronics to work with, but he does make it work, and a signal is sent but it may be too late. As E.T. has been doing wondrous things, telekinesis, a psychic link with Elliot, bringing a plant back to life. Basically it wore E.T. down. Michael finds E.T. near death near a culvert and Elliot suffers as well, because they are linked.

Federal agents finally catch up to E.T. and quarantine the house, but it is too little too late. E.T. "dies" and they are left with pretty much nothing. We know that E.T. isn't dead, though enough tears have been shed, but anyway. It is a kid revolt as the kids enlist every kid around to meet up and get E.T. home. Ah yes, the bike scene. I know I'm talking like everybody has already seen this movie and I hope you have, if not you should right away.

Nirvana: Live at Reading

Ok this is the band that defined the whole "alternative" music scene, or at least the band that made it ok for others to join in the party. Other bands like Pearl Jam or Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Smashing Pumpkins may have helped, but this is THE band I recall. And the flame burned so bright, it went supernova, and Kurt Cobain killed himself. Heroin does that... or so I hear.

I don't really know of somebody dieing by suicide that was so on top of the world. I know others have died like Micheal Jackson, or countless other drug overdoses, and maybe that has made the mystique of Nirvana all the more, but I think they could have easily doubled the number of records. Alas it was not to be.

So this album encompasses all that Nirvana is and was... live. Which if I remember they had a live performance on Saturday Night Live... and they sucked, but this is not even remotely close to that. Or maybe I have my hindsight out of adjustment, still the album is good nah, great. This is a must have for anyone who likes Nirvana.

There is also a DVD by the same name, I didn't opt for that, as I prefer to just listen, but I'd bet it is pretty nice.




Here's another one on the album, but not live...

The Stoner Fish

A Snake... a Snake!

Alrighty, I'll just say it how I think it happened. Basically there was a snake reported in the parking lot. No big deal right? I gathered from the girl that reported seeing the snake, that it was a Black Racer. Ok I know those snakes are non-venomous so I figure I'll go catch the snake, tell everyone they have nothing to worry about, let them pet the snake and let the snake go on its way.

Well when I catch up to him/her it kind of gathers in a ball and starts shaking its tail like a rattlesnake. I know this is just a bluff and I tell everybody there that it is a bluff. So I bend down and attempt to grab the snake... the snake lunges at me, and I start to have second thoughts about the whole thing. I mean this is a black racer right? I keep telling myself this over and over as I try to muster my confidence back up again.

So I get a mop handle and the snake lunges at me again and again. Now I really do wonder if I got some other kind of snake. He/she/it is not only lunging at me, it is raising it self up and "jumping" at me. And now I am completely in defense mode, backing away, and making the girl who reported the snake rightfully scared. Hell at this point I can't say a blame her.

I back up enough, that the snake no longer feels threatened and he goes his way and I go mine. I take a mental picture and immediately go to the website and see that yes it was a black racer, and they don't much take very kindly to being picked up or handled. I thought they would be just like a garter snake. But in fact I was quite wrong about that.



So a Black Racer, might be ok to look at but otherwise not good to play with, or anything else. I learned my lesson. And everyone who is scared of snakes... well this wasn't the snake to warm them up with... lesson learned.

Captain Woody's... Not so Good

We went to Captain Woody's the other day. We wanted some seafood, and we were unwilling to drive very far, so we thought we would give Captain Woody's a try. Well I stand by my assessment that if you really want good seafood, you either have to make it yourself or pay exorbitant prices. And to be fair, we are all suffering some sort of allergy cold or something... and it is prime season for sand gnats. But still, I paid $18 for 6 shrimp, a handful of oysters, 2 hush puppies, and fries. I could have gone to Long John Silver's and got the same thing for $5. Or got a pound a shrimp and a container of oysters (Bluffton Oysters at that) and cooked it up myself.

The thing was I wanted to go out to eat, I didn't want to deal with clean up and dinner prep. I just wanted to eat, have a beer, sit back and relax. And I really couldn't do that, because the seating was pretty much all outside, and it is prime season for sand gnats. And they were chomping on all of us. Well I don't think anyone wants to pay $70 (3 adults and 1 child) to get chomped on. Just sayin... They say you can get just a sandwich and that it is much better, like cheaper, so i guess I found yet another place to not go. They never really said anything to lead me on, they got good sandwiches (so I hear), but I can find a dozen or more sandwich places in town.

I don't want to give the place a bad review, because it is downtown and I like the layout, but it just has to much going against it. Oh well.

My Fishing Report

So I got me some cane poles (at the evil Wal-Mart) and decided to see what I could catch in my backyard. I start off with a good sized brim. Honestly if I had 3-5 more, I would consider a fish fry. But for reasons that will present themselves later, I didn't catch but the one. But that is not the end of the fishing experience. Later I caught two catfish... and if I would have caught 3-5 more, I would also consider another fish fry.


But more than anything I caught turtles. I was in no way trying to catch them, in fact they are incredibly stupid. I'm almost certain that I caught one turtle twice. And it wasn't like I was out to get the turtles. They basically came up when they saw me coming. I try to shoo them away, to no avail, something else needs to happen. I caught 6 turtles and I nearly caught 6 more. On a cane pole, A $5, from Wal-Mart, cane pole.


A friend of mine that has grown up around here (now in his 60's) says alligators love to eat some turtles. That doesn't make me feel very good. That basically I have a alligator buffet in my backyard. Now I don't want to kill all the turtles but I am worried, and they make it impossible to actually fish. Relocation might be an option, but where do I relocate them too?

Crabfest A No-Go

For the last five years I have always gone to the Soft Shell Crab Fest in Port Royal. I had every intention to go this year. Until rain got in the way. I was bummed. I love me some soft shelled crab. So what to do?

I call the Bluffton Oyster Company and order up some soft shelled crab and shrimp and oysters too... plus some cod for my wife (she doesn't eat shell fish, even though I've tried to convince her otherwise). I fry it up and, for about the same price I get to add oysters and shrimp and some fish into the mix. Sometimes you can't bring the man to the mountain, so you're forced to bring the mountain to the man... or in my case, the festival indoors, to my house.