It's a nice day for a white wedding

Scott and Betty made it official today. They had a lovely wedding at the Sedgefield Country Club and reception afterwards where three-fourths of Stratocruiser played. Jack had a gig with his other band, so Mike, Clay and Matt did an accoustic set. The weather was perfect and the food was great. What more could you ask for?! Scott is an old friend of Mike's from way back in high school. He's also been very helpful to the band. Betty is just an incredibly sweet person. They're such a nice couple! Best wishes you guys!

Support your local artist

The family got together again last weekend at Broad Street Cafe in Durham. Kellin, besides being Malcolm's best friend since kindergarten, is a talented artist and all around nice guy. Bertie drove in from college with some of her friends. It was fun hanging out with the kids. I started watching "The Astro-Zombies" but fell asleep about a half hour into it...that should be some indication of how fascinating it was. I only attempted a viewing because Tura Satana was in it and she was so great in the Russ Meyer classic "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" But, alas, even her presence couldn't liven up this dud. I think we've about exhausted the decent zombie movies and are moving on to 50s Sci-Fi..."The Time Machine" and "Forbidden Planet." Congratulations are in order for Mike's drummer Matt. He and his wife had a baby this weekend...a little girl. Also early congratulations to Mike's bass player Jack. He and Emily are expecting their first baby in March. And while I'm at it, congratulations to Tim and Celeste...expecting in February.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Miguel!

The FAMILY got together to celebrate Mikey's 45th. The pictures were taken in front of Udupi, an Indian vegetarian place in Cary on Sept 13. Excellent food. For Indian food fans, I can also recommend Bombay Grill in Durham. So, back to the movies... for the discriminating afficianado of fine zombie films, I must mention "28 Days Later." It's intelligent. Me and Mikey watched "The Plague of the Zombies" (1966) last night...it's a Hammer film, which means it's British and the blood is extra red. And speaking of blood, "Dead Alive" is billed as the bloodiest movie ever made, and they are talking about shear volume. It's actually almost a comedy. It is from New Zealand; the original title was "Braindead" and it was made by Peter Jackson...you might remember him from a little trilogy of films called "Lord of the Rings." If you need to kill a couple of hours and don't care how you do it, you can give a viewing to "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies" (1964). Seriously, that's the title. This is probably the 2nd worst movie ever made. I liked the costar with the thick Eastern European accent and the speech impediment. Without subtitles he was utterly unintelligible. I'm so happy that movies this bad actually get made. * * * A shout out to my nieces...Arrianne and Allanna who are 15 and 13. Happy birthday, girls!!!!

Down at the river

Hey, ya'll. I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the Haw River so you could see the effects of the drought. Normally, this river would be full of kayakers, but right now you can walk across it. I was climbing down to the canoe launch, which is no easy task for a lazy woman of my advanced age, and it occurred to me how quiet and isolated it was. I suddenly felt sort of uneasy stumbling around in the underbrush all alone. Maybe it's because I watched this ridiculous movie last night "The Hills Have Eyes." I am a great fan of zombie movies and this movie was really your basic zombie movie only with nuclear mutants instead of the undead. I've seen about a half dozen movies with the standard plot of the family (or group of teenagers) who get lost off the mainroad and end up being stalked and eaten by zombies, mutants, assorted freaks and/or psychopaths. After a sufficient quantity of blood has been spilled, the survivor(s) finally break free, only to find out they were tricked by someone they trusted and end up dead anyway. If you want to see a good zombie movie, here are my recommendations: Night of the Living Dead (the original, a true classic), Dawn of the Dead (the remake is completely superior to the original) and Shawn of the Dead (a fantastic spoof of the genre). I personally really liked the "Planet Terror" segment of "Grindhouse" but even I realize it's not for everyone. I hate light romantic comedies. I throw that out there in case anyone was thinking about buying me some DVDs for Christmas.

Something weird growing in my yard

I think Jon planted this. I believe it is some variety of angel's trumpet, but I would not swear to that in a court of law. I thought it was pretty in a sort of freaky, alien kind of way.