Big Daddy

(It is with regrets that I did not do a similar post like this to honor my mother and mothers everywhere, but please know that you, Mom, are also in my heart always.)

You kids are great hanging with Thinking Hard through the delays this spring. Though Andy and Blaine hope to be more diligent in posting new blogs (since we know you love to read them),... let's face it: we post 'em when we feel like it. This way, you're exposed to enjoyable, often funny material and not random bullshit that we feel like we HAVE to post because we're on a deadline. We work in news... every day is a deadline. We might take a while, but we never forget you. :)

Speaking of never forgetting (for better, for worse), "The Incredible Hulk" was finally released to theaters over the weekend. Many of us fans of the jolly green giant will never forget the abortion that Ang Lee spawned for Marvel studios a few years ago with Eric Bana in the starring role of "The Hulk." I imagine the word "Incredible" was left off the title because Stan Lee saw the film and was not really left... um... incrediblized. (hey, Stephen Colbert can have "truthiness," Thinking Hard can have "incrediblized") Seriously, the story in the last film strayed from the comics and even tossed in Bruce Banner's DAD as a villain. I'm sorry..what? I guess that's why I was glad to see this new film utilize one of the greatest Hulk villains of all time, the Abomination. Long story short: Edward Norton does his best (and fairly credible) imitation of Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner, exposed in an experiment to gamma rays that turn him into a giant, hulking green monster whenever his heart rate jumps. Monster creates destruction, hurts love interest Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), pisses off love interest's father and Army General (William Hurt), Bruce feels guilty and realizes Army wants to create/control more dangerous creatures like the Hulk, Bruce wanders from town to town trying to avoid incidents that make him, well... angry. After a brief recap of "Our story so far..." (with a helpful "What OTHER Hulk movie???" feel to it), we catch up to Bruce in South America, working in a bottling plant and learning portuguese using a dictionary and daytime programming. An accident alerts the military to Bruce's presence and General Ross calls in a special ops force, as well as an "ace in the hole," agent Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, who, after watching in "Pulp Fiction," I expected to shoot up a diner with his psychotic girlfriend before going after Banner). Military finds Banner, Banner's heart rate amps up, chaos and hilarity ensue. Bottom line: Hulk escapes, Banner reunites with Betty Ross, Blonsky becomes obsessed with beating the Hulk and turns into a giant abomination to do it, big creatures have big fight in Big Apple. (seriously, does Marvel HATE New York City? It's almost like every superhero movie I see has heroes & villains beating the piss out of the city. Haven't the people there been through enough?) I left the movie with a better feeling than I had in the first Hulk outing on the big screen and actually looking forward to another appearance. I also enjoyed a cameo from the star of the OTHER big Marvel blockbuster already in theaters. Three-and-a-half stars out of five.

I took my buddy Martin because it was Father's Day and his kids are in Texas without him. That, and I couldn't be with my own dad because he's in Chicago and, well, I'm not. So I figured we'd make a day of it.

Also, NBC newsman Tim Russert died Friday. He had just gotten back from Italy after a family trip celebrating the college graduation of his son, Kyle. Russert collapsed in the NBC Washington Bureau getting things ready for "Meet the Press." I've been watching coverage of his passing all weekend, and his colleagues at NBC have done a great job eulogizing him. You might remember Russert wrote "Big Russ and Me", a book of memoirs about his own father, who is still living and in a care facility. I suppose Russert expected to outlive his father... as most of us expect to.

I have some memories about my own dad (again, still living... doing fine in Chicago), though probably not enough to put into a book. There are a few that stick out: graduation from high school and college, the disappointed look on his face as I apologized profusely for totalling the family minivan, and an anecdote I'd like to share with you now. My father and I were golfing in Minnesota. Just the two of us, not many people on the course. The course was short, more a par 32 than a par 72. We got up to a par-3 and I had a horrendous tee shot that only got halfway down the fairway. Now, I should point out that I love to golf...I just don't do it very much. So every time I go out, it's almost like I'm re-learning the game over and over again. Which makes a very challenging situation for those stuck golfing with me. That day, it was my dad. So he reminded me to keep my shoulders straight and focus on the ball. Take a nice, easy swing. I kept his voice in my head as I reached back and brought the club down onto the ball. That ball landed on the green, rolled... and dropped out of sight, into the hole. I screamed. Loud. And yet, above my voice, I heard something else: laughter. I heard the excited laughter of my father. And I turned around, jumped up and leapt into a giant hug. And the man who had lifted me off the ground and onto his shoulders for my first several years of life again lifted me off the ground in a big bear hug of celebration. My pop: player, coach, supporter through good times and bad. I wouldn't trade him for anything.

Love you, big guy!
-B-