I just started going to a new place for breakfast occasionally:
Eli's Place
267 Merrimack St
Lawrence, MA 01843
(978) 687-7986
ElisPlace@verizon.net
This wasn't a random discovery; the owners are the parents of one of my son's classmates. Still, I wouldn't mention it if I didn't think it was a great place. We've been back several times since.
I think our favorite menu item is the Reese's pancakes. You think chocolate chip pancakes are good? Add some peanut butter to them. Wowza! My daughter loves the Eggs Benedict, my son loves the Belgian Waffles and the French Toast, too. I've had the Coconut & Banana French Toast, which was on special one fine Saturday, and it was out of this world. My wife favors the omelets, including Marcia's Favorite, made with egg beaters, Canadian bacon, low fat cheese, tomato, peppers and onions. Tasty, tasty stuff.
The place is immaculately clean and the folks there are very friendly. The prices are quite resonable. Sometimes it's busy, sometimes not. Parking can be a challenge, but I've always found a spot. I like it when it's not too busy, not because I get my food faster, but because I get a chance to chat with Eli, who's always busy cooking.
I give Eli's Place top marks. I think I'll be exploring the menu much more closely in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Percy Jackson and the Wolfman of Shutter Island
As the title suggests, my first movie review posting actually covers three movies that I’ve recently seen.
*** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
This is one movie where my kids & I disagreed. I liked it quite a lot. I was entertained, and it fired my imagination. You’ve got your classic Good vs. Evil, Man vs. God, and Teenager vs. Adult confrontations; You’ve got your friendship, duty, loyalty, and self-sacrifice angles; Our heroes have to fight their way put of some situations, and think their way out of others; You even have hot women (Persephone, not Medusa!). What’s not to like? My kids have read the book; I haven’t. They like the book much better. I intend to read the book (soon), but I feel the same way I do about the Harry Potter movies, or the Lord of the Rings movies: You’ll never capture all of the nuances of a good book in a movie of finite length. You’ve got to treat them as completely independent works.
For the record, we’ve seen the movie in the theaters twice. Maybe I’ll buy it on video, maybe I won’t. If I had “half stars” in my rating system, then this movie might have scored 3 and a half stars. But I don’t. So it didn’t.
** Wolfman
Wolfman is not a bad remake of a classic story. The special effects are first rate and the story is compelling, if disturbing. The problem I had with it is the level of gratuitous violence and extreme gore. I’m not squeamish at all – I used to be a New York AEMT and have worn my fair share of a variety of bodily fluids, most of which are intended to remain IN the body. I just think that the excessive mayhem is an unnecessary distraction in a movie that would be just fine without it. I felt the same way about Total Recall; the reality-within-reality angle was solid enough by itself that it didn’t need the elevated body count.
** Shutter Island
Like Wolfman, my rating for this is a little bit misleading. It’s actually an excellent movie, with great action, and a twisted story. The ending caught me totally off guard; I thought I had picked up on a twist with Leonardo DiCaprio’s “partner” and was totally fooled, as I’m sure was intended. While there’s a fair bit of violence, it isn’t gratuitous or especially gory.
Why the low rating? While pivotal to the story, the murder of children never never NEVER sits well with me. That doesn’t make it a bad movie; it just makes it one that I won’t see again. I must say that I especially liked the end of the movie, despite the twist, where Leonardo asks, “Is it better to die a good man, or to live as a monster?” I may not have gotten the quote quite right, but the meaning is correct. Certainly food for thought!
*** Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
This is one movie where my kids & I disagreed. I liked it quite a lot. I was entertained, and it fired my imagination. You’ve got your classic Good vs. Evil, Man vs. God, and Teenager vs. Adult confrontations; You’ve got your friendship, duty, loyalty, and self-sacrifice angles; Our heroes have to fight their way put of some situations, and think their way out of others; You even have hot women (Persephone, not Medusa!). What’s not to like? My kids have read the book; I haven’t. They like the book much better. I intend to read the book (soon), but I feel the same way I do about the Harry Potter movies, or the Lord of the Rings movies: You’ll never capture all of the nuances of a good book in a movie of finite length. You’ve got to treat them as completely independent works.
For the record, we’ve seen the movie in the theaters twice. Maybe I’ll buy it on video, maybe I won’t. If I had “half stars” in my rating system, then this movie might have scored 3 and a half stars. But I don’t. So it didn’t.
** Wolfman
Wolfman is not a bad remake of a classic story. The special effects are first rate and the story is compelling, if disturbing. The problem I had with it is the level of gratuitous violence and extreme gore. I’m not squeamish at all – I used to be a New York AEMT and have worn my fair share of a variety of bodily fluids, most of which are intended to remain IN the body. I just think that the excessive mayhem is an unnecessary distraction in a movie that would be just fine without it. I felt the same way about Total Recall; the reality-within-reality angle was solid enough by itself that it didn’t need the elevated body count.
** Shutter Island
Like Wolfman, my rating for this is a little bit misleading. It’s actually an excellent movie, with great action, and a twisted story. The ending caught me totally off guard; I thought I had picked up on a twist with Leonardo DiCaprio’s “partner” and was totally fooled, as I’m sure was intended. While there’s a fair bit of violence, it isn’t gratuitous or especially gory.
Why the low rating? While pivotal to the story, the murder of children never never NEVER sits well with me. That doesn’t make it a bad movie; it just makes it one that I won’t see again. I must say that I especially liked the end of the movie, despite the twist, where Leonardo asks, “Is it better to die a good man, or to live as a monster?” I may not have gotten the quote quite right, but the meaning is correct. Certainly food for thought!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Movie Reviews
I suppose that if I'm going to post what I think about movies, I ought to come up with some kind of clever rating system. Nahhh! My system is pretty basic:
**** (four stars)
Loved the movie! I'll see it again in the theater, and buy it when it comes out on video.
*** (three stars)
Liked the movie! I might see it again in the theater, and might buy it when it comes out.
** (two stars)
Didn't like the movie. I won't see it again in the theater and won't buy it when it comes out. I wish I had rented it instead.
* (one star)
Hated the movie! I wish that I hadn't wasted my money on it, and I wish that I had those hours of my life back.
To be fair, there are some very good movies that I just don't like for some reason. "Mr. Holland's Opus" was a great movie that I hated for reasons that maybe I'll explain here some day. Likewise, "Bridge to Terabithia." I was waiting in line at Chunky's to buy tickets for that one, when my son asked, "I wonder if the girl will die in the movie like she did in the book?" What? What??? I go to the movies to be entertained; I don't go to see kids dying. I'll read the paper if I want that.
As I said, I go to the movies to be entertained for a couple of hours. In the case of Sci-Fi / Fantasy flicks, I want my imagination to be tickled. I'm not trying to figure out where the Academy Awards are going. I don't care how much money they're raking in at the box office. Just make me believe that my time and money were well spent.
Some examples:
**** Shorts, Iron Man, Star Trek
*** Couples' Retreat, Legion
** Minority Report, Firewall
* Watchmen, The Birdcage
Chunky's Cinema Restaurant
**** (four stars)
Loved the movie! I'll see it again in the theater, and buy it when it comes out on video.
*** (three stars)
Liked the movie! I might see it again in the theater, and might buy it when it comes out.
** (two stars)
Didn't like the movie. I won't see it again in the theater and won't buy it when it comes out. I wish I had rented it instead.
* (one star)
Hated the movie! I wish that I hadn't wasted my money on it, and I wish that I had those hours of my life back.
To be fair, there are some very good movies that I just don't like for some reason. "Mr. Holland's Opus" was a great movie that I hated for reasons that maybe I'll explain here some day. Likewise, "Bridge to Terabithia." I was waiting in line at Chunky's to buy tickets for that one, when my son asked, "I wonder if the girl will die in the movie like she did in the book?" What? What??? I go to the movies to be entertained; I don't go to see kids dying. I'll read the paper if I want that.
As I said, I go to the movies to be entertained for a couple of hours. In the case of Sci-Fi / Fantasy flicks, I want my imagination to be tickled. I'm not trying to figure out where the Academy Awards are going. I don't care how much money they're raking in at the box office. Just make me believe that my time and money were well spent.
Some examples:
**** Shorts, Iron Man, Star Trek
*** Couples' Retreat, Legion
** Minority Report, Firewall
* Watchmen, The Birdcage
Chunky's Cinema Restaurant
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Welcome!
Welcome to Mark's Infinite Blog!
As I mentioned in my description, the term "infinite" refers not to the anticipated length of it, but rather the wildly assorted topics that I'll be blogging about. Here's a list of some of the topics rattling around my brain:
- karate
- model rocketry
- assistive technology
- movies & music
- robotics
- paranormal investigation (I consider myself an open-minded skeptic)
- causes I believe in (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, St. Jude's, The Jimmy Fund, ...)
If any of these interest you more - or less - than others, let me know and I'll accommodate you if I can. I think that my next post will be my opinions of several new movies I've seen recently. Not that I consider myself some great film critic or anything, but while they're fresh in my mind....
I'm going to try to post regularly, but like most of you, I've got a "real" life. I've got a wife and kids, a job, and lots of things that keep me busy. Always have to keep those priorities in proper order. We'll see how I do!!!
As I mentioned in my description, the term "infinite" refers not to the anticipated length of it, but rather the wildly assorted topics that I'll be blogging about. Here's a list of some of the topics rattling around my brain:
- karate
- model rocketry
- assistive technology
- movies & music
- robotics
- paranormal investigation (I consider myself an open-minded skeptic)
- causes I believe in (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, St. Jude's, The Jimmy Fund, ...)
If any of these interest you more - or less - than others, let me know and I'll accommodate you if I can. I think that my next post will be my opinions of several new movies I've seen recently. Not that I consider myself some great film critic or anything, but while they're fresh in my mind....
I'm going to try to post regularly, but like most of you, I've got a "real" life. I've got a wife and kids, a job, and lots of things that keep me busy. Always have to keep those priorities in proper order. We'll see how I do!!!
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