The Incredible Hulk
25 June 2003, 10:47 PM

Yup. We went to see it tonight.

*sigh* It was extremely disappointing. Like I've said before, I've always *LOVED* the Hulk, for the Frankenstein-esque way they gave the big beast humanity and compassion despite his origins in rage and fear. The original stories deal with complex issues: childhood witness of domestic abuse and the trauma of repressed memories, schizophrenia and split-personality, loneliness, emotional repression and people's ugly fear of things they don't understand. But they never just stopped at the angst - they touched too the deep healing effects of compassion, acceptance and peace and calm.

But the movie-makers ruined the movie. The CGI Hulk was great - spectacular in fact. Very *real* too. But by comparison, the actor they chose to play Bruce Banner was wooden and seemed unreal! He's supposed to be reserved and angstful, not stiff as a board!

But that wasn't really the worst of it. I can deal with the actor, and they didn't muck up the story TOO bad in updating it for the 21st century. But I guess the producers were too afraid to tell the story as it was - more cerebral and dark - and they figured that since the Hulk was as well known as Spiderman they needed to give it more of a popular appeal face by getting all comic book artsy with it. AIIIIIIIIGH. The whole movie had the CONSTANT feel of a teenager let loose with FinalCut Pro and the transition effects. Or Homer Simpson when he's making a movie with Lisa Simpson, "And we star-wipe to this and star-wipe to that, and star-wipe to this other thing..." Please! Enough already with the funky camera angles and double viewpoints and boxes and wipes and transitions. It's supposed to look like comic book pages, yes, we GET IT already! It was highly distracting.

And they took too long to tell parts of the story. Really, they tried to be too linear, when they should have told the Hulk's story through flashbacks when Bruce Banner was already wandering, trying to stay unknown.

Oh well. It's hit or miss when there's different studios involved in producing Marvell's comics as movies. I worry about the upcoming Superman. It could be as good as Spiderman or a dismal failure. And while I hope for the production of Wonder Woman, that too could either be *spectacular* or a completely disaster. We'll just have to see.

But I have to admit that Medley's arguments for Howard Dean in her formal endorsement of him were logical, clear *and* convincing. This is the first run-down of why he's an excellent choice that I've heard from *anyone* that sounds ... well *convincing*. I could actually get excited about this guy if he wins the primaries. That's both cool, and scary since it means I'll have even MORE invested in the outcome of the next Presidential election when I just didn't want Bush.

It's easy to sit on the edge of your seat during a movie or to have your emotions manipulated with. In the end, it's OVER, and you go back to your life, no worse for wear. It extremely rare that something like that can affect the rest of your life. It's another thing entirely when your sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting for the fate of your country to be decided, knowing that the path of social progress and your very life could be drastically affected. For that reason I consider it my solemn duty to participate in the political process - but I HATE every minute of it. I don't like the suspense, because the consequences are all too real.

That was Friday. Saturday we shopped the length of Houston. :-) Actually, I had a list of places I really wanted to get specific things from, so we just started with the stores that were on our side of town and headed toward the other. We finished early enough that we were able to check in to our hotel in Clear Lake, rest a bit and then stroll around the Kemah boardwalk.

We weren't too pleased with the particular Best Western we chose, so we called around and ended up reserving a room for the next day at Hampton Inn. (Otherwise we would have parked it in the same place for the rest of the weekend.) That turned out to be a MUCH nicer place. I know where we're staying next time we go to Galveston.

We bypassed NASA this time around. Both of us are old enough to remember the days before "Space Center Houston", the expensive Disney-esque place to go now for space exploration tourism. I remember the old tours past NASA offices, through the aging museums and exploratory exhibits and the tours up to Mission Control.

This time we were on a budget, and were looking for some sand and sea, but with as few people as possible. (At least, as few people as we could manage on a sunny summer weekend.) We'd decided on some fishing and reading at the beach.

The best day by far was Sunday. We checked out of the crappy hotel, futzed around a craft store and a bookstore and then had lunch at La Madeline until our room at the better hotel was ready. Then we checked in and rested and read books for a while. (We were waiting for the worst of the afternoon heat to disappear. Houston's heat is made ten times worse by the humidity. It's best to try to avoid going outside at all between noon and 4pm.) By 5pm we were ready for some sand and surf - and we headed out to Galveston. I wanted a *quiet* area to fish, so we drove out the length of the island to Jamaica beach and picked a spot.

Things are so different from when I was a kid. Back then there were only a smattering of flimsy beach houses on stilts and most of the oceanside was grassy dunes and wide swaths of sandy beaches that you could drive right onto. I have tons of family photos of me and my sister sitting on the hood of those old 1974 Cadillacs, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches in hand and handkerchiefs on our head to keep our hair from blowing about.

Those days are over. As I drove and drove, looking for wilder peopleless beaches, we passed masses of enormous, ostentatious beach homes - most of which will probably see a lot of damage in the next hurricane induced storm surge because they don't have enough clearance under them. The sea of homes NEVER ENDED. There was not a single stretch of wild, nothing-in-sight beach left.

At least it was all still public access - we just had to park at the end of the sandy "street" and walk onto the beach with our gear. It was much cooler and very comfortable by this time. The sun wouldn't set until almost 9pm so we had plenty of time. We set out our chairs in the shade of a beach house and I gathered my bag of dead shrimp, box of tackle, fishing pole and trotted to the water. It took a little while to get my cast right (I'm more than a bit rusty at this) but I finally got some nice throws that sent the line out into deeper water.

Unfortunately all I caught was seaweed. :-) The beach was just FULL of it, and it was still rolling in on the waves in masses. It kept getting wrapped around my feet while I stood knee deep in the surf. After a while I gave up there and we decided to head back in toward the center of the island and the seawall. From the jetties there I could fish in deeper water, and maybe catch something before I got too much seaweed on my line.

In the end I didn't catch anything, though I got LOTS of nibbles that took all my bait. (Nothing took my hook.) And I did lose a lot of tackle in the rocks. Still, it didn't matter because we got to see the NIFTIEST sight.

Some kind of predator - I'm guessing hammerhead shark or porpoise - was out in the water scaring mullet enough that they bunched up in schools that we could see. I mean REALLY see. It was awesome to stand on the edge of the jetty and watch this MASS of golden fish, sometimes as wide across as as a bedroom, just float by the jetty. Occasionally one would jump, head first, into the air. Wow. They did that all evening.

All-in-all I spent about 3 hours fishing and Jeff read almost all of What Einstein told his Cook and tried his hand at casting a few times. (How's that for role reversal. I was the one picking a rod and reel, bait and tackel and fishing all day while he sat and read. :-) We drove back, took showers and went out to eat at a local Italian restaurant. Great food. And we got a good night's rest.

It was perfect. I felt so relaxed.

It's back to work now. I have two quizzes this week and a final exam next week. Eek! But it's gotten off to a good start. And I'm hoping to make a weekend trip to Fredricksburg and Port Lavaca sometime soon.

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