March Penguins, March

I've seen March of the Penguins twice now.  One at AFI
silver before it was in wide release and once in (of all places) Dubuque,
Iowa
at a brand spanking new theatre only a few minutes drive from the field of
dreams (yes, that field of dreams).  Both times I was
left wondering how the hell those cute emperor penguins make it.  The
second thing I wondered about was their necks.  I mean, who knew that
penguins
has necks that could stretch like that?

Even if the penguins are not motivated by "love" as Morgan Freeman
posits at the beginning of the film, their survival instinct is
incredible. 
Although at times the narrative is a little heavy on personification, the
story of the penguins is still amazing.   And I am forever greatful to
whomever decided
assigning voices to the penguins (as they did in the original French
version of the film) would not play well to American audiences.  I'm not
sure that they could
have chosen a better narrator than Morgan Freeman. 

If you have not seen this film yet, you need to go see it.  After all,
I found it in Dubuque, Iowa, so I am sure it has made it's way to a
theatre near you
by now.  Please do not take Richard Roeper's advice to wait to see it on
tv.  It is really awesome on the big screen, and I promise you it's worth
the $9. 

 

Last
5 songs played on my iPod:
Requiem for O.m.m.2 -
Of
Montreal

I Was Never Young - Of
Montreal

Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games - Of
Montreal

Forecast Fascist Future - Of
Montreal

So Begins Our Alabee - Of
Montreal

Roots

This seems to be the summer for roadtrips.  I generally
try to fit in a few each summer,
but it seems like this summer I've been in a car more than out of one. 
And I just got back from my big trip of the summer:
one week of driving around Illinois doing genealogy research.

When I first started talking about this trip, my mom and my aunt said
that they wanted to tag along.  As anyone who has ever done
genealogy research knows - it can be boring unless you are really into it. 
You have to be really into it, for example, to sit in an old historical
society
back room and hand crank rolls of microfilm, scanning every single issue
of the local paper published in the year 1947 trying to find an obituary. 
So I was skeptical
when they said they wanted to come.  But we had a great time and I know I
wouldn't have had half the fun without them along.

We spent some time in Chicago looking for graves and checking out the
Museum of Lithuanian culture before heading out to Jo Daviess County in
Northeastern Illinois. 
There, we spent a few days in the town where my grandma grew up.  While
the town itself was sort of depressing because most stores on Main Street
were empty, we did find some
pictures of my grandma in the local antique store, which was sort of
strange.  Can you imagine finding your third grade school photo for sale
in an antique store somewhere? In addition to the genealogy research I
wanted to get done, we spent some time in Galena, which has to be the
living embodiment of
Disneyland's Main Street USA, and a ski resort (complete with Alpine
Slide!) overlooking the Mississippi River.  From there we ended up driving
down to Peoria where we spent a few days doing research, and then back to
Chicago, where we spent our last day window shopping on the
Magnificent Mile. We ended up eating dinner at the ultra-touristy but
good Gino's.  BTW, whoever selects their music has great taste.  I
almost asked the waitress who picked all of it out.

All in all, it was a great trip.  Not only did I find a lot of the
things I wanted to find genealogy-wise, but it was really great getting to
spend some time with my
mom and aunt, who I don't get to see that often.  We ended up finding the
past and making new memories at the same time.

 

Last
5 songs played on my iPod:
Baby You're Not in Love-
22-20's

Yesterday Threw Everything At Me - Athlete

One of These Things First - Nick
Drake

For Lovin' Me - Peter,
Paul, and Mary

Fortress - Pinback