johnvano.com

On a Magic Carpet Ride: Snapshots from Disney

Madison near the entrance. The carpet behind me... Halle with her new Minnie baby.

Cooper was stoked to get on the race cars. Check him out steering his imaginary car.

Emma with her Dale lid... The twins laughed like hyenas driving me solo in this race car. We banged and banged the track rudder and I'm suing for whiplash. There goes their college fund.

It's uncanny. On the left, Madison and Marshall are torturing me on the Mad Hatter Ride (teacups) in May 2008, on the right, Madison and Marshall in March 2006. Your time will come, little ones.

We Had a Berry Good Time at Lane Packing

Lane Packing is a fifth-generation pecan, strawberry, and peach farm. We stopped by on Saturday on our way to Florida to tour the packing assembly line, country store, and diner.

We also spun on their wheel of nausea and posed on the non-functioning tractors. We came away with some peaches, strawberries, and pecan cinnamon bread. We'll be back.

But we won't be back to Taco Bell, Valdosta. No thank you, ma'm.

I'm President and He's Pardoned

With several of my friends featuring Friday specials on their blogs (games, words, and celebrities), I wondered what kind of special feature I could add. Let's try something called Presidential Pardons, shall we? Here's how I play--if I were President of the United States of Pop Culture, who would I pardon?

Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale

My choice is less than unique as my predecessor, Dennis Miller, has already given Stockdale his due, saying of him, "he's a brilliant, sensitive, courageous man. And yet he committed the one unpardonable sin in our culture: he was bad on television (1993)." But President Miller never pardoned him--officially--so today I am pardoning the 1992 Vice Presidential candidate for the Reform Party. A Vietnam war hero and POW, one of the Navy's most decorated men, and a former philosophy professor at Stanford.

He was given one week's notice before the 1992 VP debate where he famously asked, "Who am I? Why am I here?" before going radio silent when his hearing aid went out on him. A laughable sequence famously mocked by Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live--it unfortunately labeled him a pariah in US Pop Culture. In another cruel twist of fate, he died of Alzheimer's disease in 2005.

So on this day in the year of our Lord, I pardon him of all crimes against the hip and ironic.

Gratuitous Fam Shots

Marshall climbs while Halle looks me over skeptically...


Emma and Madison hug their bunnies (no, we did not buy!)...


Cooper rides hard. The house they're building for us--just in case my novel makes us rich.

Archie and His Gang

First, my congratulations to Chris Carp who has won this year's American Idol Showdown. It was not a banner year for me with predictions--I ignored too many of my gut feelings and became emotionally involved with my prognostications. You expect more from me and I am sorry.

As we know, everyone's a winner on American Idol. Nearly all of the top finalists will score record deals and the any one of them could end up with more long term success than the winner. But why does any of that matter? They've all made friends for life and they wouldn't change a thing. Pleasssseee... it was too much of a lovefest this season--ironic that the closer was done up in a very cheesy boxing motif.


I was looking for David Cook to pop a blood vessel with his vocals last night--instead, he turned in a nice show and allowed David Archuleta's coronation to go off without a hitch. I have Archie besting Cookie on the first two songs, with Cookie bringing a nice touch to the end while Archie mildly fumbled "Imagine." I loved what D.C. said about the contest being a progression and wanting to do something new--that philosophy cost him the prize, but may serve him very well as an artist in the year's to come.

Official Prediction: Archuleta will win the fan vote.

Carp is also predicting Archie will win the title. He scored D.A. the winner on song #1 and #3, with D.C. getting the nod on song #2.

***Seven pounds update: I lost two more pounds by weigh-in on Tuesday and one more pound this morning. Five pounds gone, just two to go by Saturday.

Germs and Jesus

Jesus lived in a pretty dirty time--centuries before the black plague and our modern understanding of germs. Though He lived then as an all-knowing supreme being, He didn't routinely wash His hands or encourage His friends to do the same (see Mark 7). It's remarkable how many sanitary things God embedded within Jewish law--presumably to protect His people while establishing His glory and pointing forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. Yet when Jesus lived among us, He felt free to go outside of these laws and eat food with His grimey hands.

If it were you or me, we'd probably change the course of history by teaching people about germs or by sneaking off a squirt of hand-sanitizer. This is one of the reasons I'm less neurotic than I used to be... I figure I wash my hands enough throughout the day to not worry about it if I eat before I can wash again, or shake a hand, and then eat.

Also, I never went for the five second rule when I was younger, but I'm all over that now. In fact, I dropped my cholesterol pill on the floor this morning--it fell under the overhang of the cupboards no less--and I just blew it off and swallowed. Plus, I've watched my kids for the last 9 years... if those little guys and gals could get away with putting their nasty crawling-on-the-floor hands in their mouth all day and not get sick, who am I to feel all evolved and stuff?

*** Seven pounds update: Lost 2 today; 5 to go.

This Week I Lose 7 Pounds

I checked the calendar and it seems our little family vacation is this Saturday. Recently I got my weight down to pre-marriage levels, but I"ve had an eensy setback with the lure of convenience foods. Six pounds have somehow returned.

I gotta get rid of those punks plus one before we head to the beach next week. Game on.

Top 20 Movies--Year 2007

Here at long last are my Top Twenty Movies of 2007. All movies viewed by johnvano for the very first time in the previous calendar year qualify for consideration. See my rankings of #21-57.

1. Reign Over Me (A) -- Humor, heart, and hope. Featuring winning performances (yes, from Adam Sandler too).
2. Ratatouille (A) -- Made you fall in love with food. 2007 was the year I discovered the art of food--and a rodent took the lead!
3. Waitress (A) -- Wildly original, fully engaging, funny.
4. Little Children (A) -- A layered tale filled with bad choices and their consequences.
5. Proof (A) -- The apple (Gwyneth Paltrow) doesn't fall far from the tree (Anthony Hopkins).

6. The Departed (A-) -- It's a turf war Scorsese-style!
7. The Nanny Diaries (A-) -- Better than advertised. See it as a tentative, but tender coming of age story. Laura Linney and Paul Giamatti are brilliant.
8. The Queen (A-) -- They should make more films like this--that capture a moment in time from the not too distant past.
9. Come Early Morning (B+) -- Gritty reality from the other side of the tracks. The grittier side of Waitress.
10. A Good Year (B+) -- Surprised? I like feel-good love stories, too! Great locations.
11. Miss Potter (B+) -- Not a brilliant movie, but I graded it favorably.
12. Spider-Man 3 (B+) -- Yes, it's campy but that's what made it so fun. I've always loved the Sandman.
13. The Pursuit of Happyness (B+) -- Made me cry so hard my throat hurt.
14. Evening (B+) -- How the moments of our youth often bind our future.
15. Enchanted (B+) -- Turn those fairy tales on their heads! Well-done fun.
16. The Prestige (B+) -- A well-paced story of rival magicians.
17. Invincible (B+) -- Satisfying on all fronts. True story of a Philadelphia Eagles fan who makes the team.
18. Dreamgirls (B+) -- Fell short of my expectations, but solidly top 20.
19. The Painted Veil (B+) -- Artsy film you have to be in the mood for, but solid all the way.
20. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (B+) -- Way better than the book.

Even When I'm Bad

Just when you thought you knew your child--you find out they go a lot deeper. Emma, one of our five-year-old twins, is apparently a future singer-songwriter. But even better, she seems to have an amazing grasp on the Gospel--check out the words to her song. Who knew?

Syesha: A Star is Incubating (But She's Not Ready Yet)

John Vano: The pressure is getting to me... that, and just about all of our kids were in and out of the living room during the performances last night, so I didn't take notes as I usually do. That said, let me give you some "impressions" from last night on American Idol.

Syesha had a chance to make the finals, but she needed to define herself in a big way. I believe that her "Fever" performance was a calculated risk to remind us that she's the remaining woman. It was an attempt to rally the men to her side... not bad, but most men don't vote so you need to successfully show who you are to America in another way as well. I think this is where she failed. She's been a very good performer of late--different looks, entertaining moves, strong vocals... but who is she? She's not Syesha, but a chameleon, so I can't see her moving on.

The Davids have established themselves as a brand--long ago. Cook is the innovator/rocker with the subtle shrug to tell you he heard you, but maybe he doesn't care. The Marionette (Archuleta) is the young worker bee who keeps popping us with ballads. Who will America choose? Based on the demographics and season-long consistency, it looks like Archuleta will carry the day in the end. Cook was building momentum and I thought he could topple Archie, but unless Cook goes bongo next week--it should be a D.A. victory.

That said, I was most entertained last night by Syesha. Most enjoyed Cook's vocals (though even he fell short of his usual standard), and I felt that Archie put together another solid week (doesn't he always?) ... though he's coming back around on me these past two weeks and making me feel it.

PREDICTION: Syesha ends her journey. Cook and Archuleta go mano-y-mano in the finals.

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Carp was saving Narnia this week, so his commentary is limited. Though he also wore the Rastafarian wig and went 7-for-7 in softball.

1. David Cook
2. David Archuleta
3. Syesha Mercado

PREDICTION: It will be Archie the Puppet Boy vs. Cookie the Song Choreographer in the finals.