Alistair Kimble's Blog, page 3

Enjoying Life - Social Media Edition

I've posted quite a few photos (a lot for me, at least) on a few social media sites the past couple of months. One of my cousins commented on one of those photos--a typical photo of me enjoying scotch and cigars on a weekend, the one below, actually:

A lovely afternoon in the mountains of Colorado enjoying single malt scotch and a cigar.

My cousin's comment was: "You always look like you're enjoying life."

I thought about the comment and for the most part I think I do enjoy life, however, I a...

The King of Cool

Dean Martin. So cool and talented. I'm a huge Frank Sinatra fan, but Dean Martin is right up there with Frank as one of the top entertainers of not only the 20th century, but of all-time. Another favorite of mine, Steve McQueen, was also nicknamed the "King of Cool", but Martin got there first.

Martin in an unguarded moment recommending a drink for breakfast!

Today would have been Martin's 99th birthday, but he passed away on Christmas day in 1995 at the age of 78. I'm always shocked at the...

The Cure

This Sunday I'll be seeing The Cure in concert at Fiddler's Green Amphitheater. I prefer Red Rocks (who wouldn't, that venue is amazing, and if you're ever in the Denver area go there and check it out!), but the chance to see The Cure was one I couldn't pass up.

The Cure Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

For those in the know regarding The Cure, you can skip this paragraph, but for the uninitiated, read on. The Cure have been around since 1976 and are known for gloomy, gothic rock, but in reality de...

American Cemetery and Memorial

Memorial Day has occupied a place in my heart for as long as I can remember. My family used to attend the Memorial Day Parade in Hackettstown, NJ every year. I remember seeing both of my grandfathers in the parade, as well as my mom's uncle--all World War II veterans. For a child, the parade was thrilling, since there were uniforms and trucks and tanks and so forth, but I couldn't grasp the true meaning of Memorial Day. I also didn't realize how significant the day was given the timeframe--I...

Consider Adopting A Shelter Pet

My wife and I always think of animal shelters as the Island of Misfit Toys, if you've seen the Christmas special, "Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer", you already know what this means, but the island was a place where all the defective toys were sent and were waiting to be loved by a child. Whenever we pass a shelter, we always think of the scene where the toys are sad because no one wants them.

Misfit toys around a campfire

The toys are later rescued and they're happy that they'll be i...

Upstream Color: Art-House Science Fiction

Upstream Color is a 2013 science fiction film directed by Shane Carruth, who also plays a major part in the film. The film is one part con artist/thief and two parts science fiction. Here is the description from Amazon: A woman is abducted and hypnotized with an organic material harvested from a specific flower. When she falls for a man the two come to realized he may also have been subjected to the same process.

What was left out of the description (and this is minor spoiler territory) is th...

5 Kickass Kung Fu Flicks from the 1970s

A couple of things right off: these are just five of the many kickass martial arts films from the 1970s and I left off the Bruce Lee films on purpose since they're well-known and they all kick ass (Game of Death being the weakest, but was released five years after Lee's death). Also, these films aren't all necessarily kung fu films, but kung fu worked with the title I wanted for this post so cut me some slack!

The '70s gave us horrible fashion and some horrible music and weird films. I grew up...

Gateway or: A Science Fiction Classic Invaded My Dreams

I first read Frederik Pohl's Gateway(novel published in 1977 from a 1976 serial)in the early 1990s when I was in the Navy. I did a lot of reading during my off duty hours and while on liberty, mostly the classics of science fiction and fantasy, with a smattering of mystery and horror. I was writing a lot back then, too, and looking back on that time in my life, I must have been trying to escape from the daily hazards my military duty posed as well as my personal life which was a mess at that...

Casual Friday Should Be Suit Up Friday!

As if every other day of the week isn't casual enough. I can almost understand casual Friday when the other days of the work week required people to dress in a business-like manner, but now? Even where I work there are some people who take it too far. Ripped jeans and tennis shoes? Flip flops?

Casual, shouldn't that mean business casual? Like this photo of George Clooney. To me that's casual, business casual. Does he look uncomfortable? Nope. I'll tell you why in a bit.

If you work in a profe...

Frank Sinatra - Five of My Favorites

It's difficult to pick only five, since Frank is one of my all-time favorites (no matter the genre of music--and I like a wide range of music). Of course, you could pick one of the many boxsets or compilations available, but you'll be cheating yourself. These albums were meant to be listened to side one and side two and in order (I know, heresy in this age of digital music and the option to buy single tracks--oh, by the way, we had that too when I was a kid (yeah, yeah, back in the 1970s), th...