New Feature: Seen at the...

We're starting a new feature here at Ranee Days and Mondays called "Seen at the..." in which I will share what I have seen at different places at which I have been. We'll be starting with the Olympics in Vancouver 2010. I rode the train up from Seattle and spent about 6 hours in Vancouver hanging out with the world. For the next few weeks you'll see some of what I saw. Enjoy!

The Inuksuk

Amelie duex

Dislikes:

Exposed zippers - I understand it's fashion, but lately it seems like laziness

Sinus congestion

Water that has a taste (for example)

Likes:

The Olympics

Swype

My family

Cops?

I'm not sure if I've just missed it all of these years...but it seems that most cops on TV recently need the help of a civilian or multiple civilians to solve crimes.

Bones - Forensic Anthropologist from Smithsonian like place (and staff)

Castle - Crime novel writer

Monk - Former detective

Psych - fake psychic & friend

Mentalist - former fake psychic

Fringe - Former (and currently crazy) scientist & son

Chuck - Super Cute Geek Squad employee

Medium - real psychic (with super cute husband)

Numb3rs - mathematician (that killed Lucy and stabbed Carter in a former life)

The Forgotten - volunteers searching for missing people

White Collar - well-coiffed former criminal & sidekick Stanford

And those are just the TV shows who's premise I'm familiar with. Is this a commentary on our society? Do we find the police so incompetent that the only people capable of helping them are completely untrained individuals? Or are these civilians like the companion in Doctor Who, a surrogate for the audience...someone we can identify with?

Cause I've got to say the only one I actually identify with is Shawn Spencer...not because I've got amazing skills of observation (which I don't)...but because I usually get most of his 80s references and make many...not as well written...80s references myself.

Mullets...Really?

What is with the return of the mullet? I understand that the 80s are making a comeback and that fashions are cyclical, but mullets? Must we really go back there?

It's not just Figure Skating stars...but Cop Show stars:

Panera Mediterranean Veggie w/Turkey

I highly recommend this sandwich as it is one of the best sandwiches I have ever had. Yum.

Open Letter to Ryan Di Lello

Dude...button your shirt.

Mamma Mia!

I'm 50 minutes into the movie version of Mamma Mia! and I'm not sure I can finish it. Oh my goodness it's terrible. Had the film version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat had half the budget of this movie, it would have been fantastic.

First, the singing...TERRIBLE. If I wanted to hear people without vocal training singing, I'd drive around alone in my car singing to the radio more often.

Second, the cast..way TOO many people. How does Donna employ so many people and having 50 hot 20-something women attend a Hen Night on a small island? It's just too much. Not to mention the scene with the guys dancing on the pier. The pier was just lousy with buff young men in flippers.

Third, the green screen...checking imdb.com I can see they actually filmed parts of the movie in Greece, why so much green screen then?

The stage musical isn't the most fantastic thing I've ever seen. The first time I saw it was great fun, the next viewing was not at much fun but still entertaining. The story is just too weak for the music to carry it more than once. And it certainly hasn't translated well to the silver screen. The fun of Mamma Mia!, in my opinion, is you feeling as though you are enveloped by ABBA...because who doesn't have a bit of Muriel in them that wishes their life were an ABBA song?

Oh my...Pierce Brosnan just started sining. It makes all of the other singing not quite so bad.

At 71 minutes it has just gone from being completely unwatchable to so bad I can't stop watching in anticipation of more terribleness.

The good about the movie: The actor that plays Sky is not ugly. And: Colin Firth.