In my hometown of Salem, New York, July 4th has been celebrated the same way for years and years — a parade and then the firemen’s carnival that ends after dark with fireworks.  The small town of under 1000 people swells to twice its size and more as bands, firetrucks, livestock, and floats come down Main Street to enthusiastic applause.  It’s a special tradition that never grows old.

Here are some photos from the parade:

And the day ends with:

Finally saw this movie last night.  Okay, I was picking nits at the beginning…until I quickly realized how JJ Abrams and company were rebooting the franchise.  I do have one question — was the baddie’s spaceship intentionally made to resemble the baddie’s spaceship in Galaxy Quest, that wonderful satire of the original Star Trek series?  I was the only one who laughed in the theater when the spaceship first appeared. Of course, my husband suggested that Kirk should have been represented at his disciplinary hearing by Denny Crane…

One moment stays with me from the movie which had lots of great moments — including how the “new” Dr. McCoy seemed to be channeling DeForest Kelley right down to the exact inflection of his voice — and that was what I call a “writerly moment”.  I get them at various places in movies.  Two in recent movies.  The first was in “Seven Pounds” which I recently saw on a plane.  The black moment when Will Smith’s character realizes he can’t do as he must and still have what he wants is a classic black moment — and Will Smith is such an excellent actor no words are necessary.  The searing decision and his acceptance of it is visible on his face and in his body language.

But the moment in Star Trek was not a black moment, but a motivational moment that sets the James T. Kirk’s motivation for this movie (and all the rest to come) as well as the original series and the movies.  Captain Pike says to a young Kirk (and I’m paraphrasing here because I’ve only seen the movie once…so far), “Your father was a captain for only 12 minutes but saved 800 lives.  Do you think you can do better?”  Wow!  What great writing — encapsulating a character’s motivation in a single question that is a dare because that is what would motivate Kirk more than suggesting his father’s courage and concern for his ship and crew might be his greatest legacies.

It’s always a treat to see fabulous writing mixed with great acting and exciting CGI.  Can’t wait for the next one!

This weekend, I was a doggie delivery service.  My sisters and I wanted to get my dad a pug because his previous one — the remarkable Polly — had died last March.  We were aiming at Father’s Day for him, because we figured it would take us months to find the right dog and be approved to adopt it.  Then I found a black 8 month old female pug on petfinder.com  Her name was Annie M, and she was adorable!  We applied — and were approved to pick her up in Parsippany, NJ on Saturday.  From beginning to end, the search had taken under 10 days.  We know we were lucky, especially when we met the puppy (now renamed Mei Mei) and brought her to my folks’ house.  Here are a couple of photos of my dad getting his first sight of her and the two of them about 45 minutes later.

Homecoming:

A bit later:

A very happy day!!!!