We got this book as a Christmas gift for our nephew who would turn 13 during the following year (2010).  My wife originally heard about the book.  The author, Alec Greven, was only 8 or 9 when he wrote it a couple of years ago.  It was originally an assignment for school that his teacher thought was so good she suggested trying to have it published.  It went on to become a best seller and Greven appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show or one of those daytime talk shows.  The reviews on Amazon.com were generally favorable and many of the negative reviewers seemed like they were just jealous of Greven.

The book is very short: less than 50 pages.  It is roughly square-shaped and comes in an attractive red cover.  The back says that the book can be helpful to all boys ages 8-80.  Inside, the book has only 4-5 lines of text per page along with illustrations done by someone other than the author.  They’re usually of little boys or girls.  The book has 4-6 chapters covering different aspects of talking to girls including crushes, making a good impression, and giving gifts.  I read the book on evening about a week or two before Christmas and it only took me 15 minutes to finish it.  Since the book was to be a gift I couldn’t keep it with me and reference it while writing this review.

The book is about how to talk to girls who boys “like” as opposed to girls they just want to get to know as friends.  Greven writes that boys should not start seriously dating until middle school or even high school.  Still, he isn’t writing about just being friends.  At one point he says to focus on just one girl.  Personally, I think it’s better to just focus on friendships with both girls and boys at that age and that’s how I think I felt when I was that age.  There’s less pressure.  Greven mentions early on that his research is from his own experiences in elementary school.

Greven’s advice struck me as being very simple, based on some disputable generalizations, and presented a bit haphazardly.  Though it’s organized into chapters there is some repetition of ideas such as “Don’t be a show-off.”  There are many caveats such as “Don’t act wild unless you like a wild girl.”  Much of the book is common sense such as don’t act too desperate, don’t be the class clown, and begin conversations with “hi” followed by questions such as “did you see the episode of (TV show).”  Missing from the book is the equally common advice “be yourself”.  Perhaps even Greven thought this was too obvious, or perhaps he doesn’t think it’s good advice.

Greven seems to categorize girls into groups: pretty girls, wild girls, talkative girls, and “regular” girls.  The best girls in his view seem to be the regular girls who he soon says can also be considered “pretty.”  I’m not sure it’s a good idea to categorize too much.  Something I learned from my own experiences is that girls and women are all different individuals and what you learn about someone doesn’t always apply to someone else.  Still, Greven is only eight when writing this and seems to feel that some superficial categorization is helpful.  I guess a boy doesn’t have much more to go by when meeting a girl for the first time.  That she appears pretty may indicate that she’s overly concerned about her appearance and therefore high-maintenance, though I’ve met pretty girls and women who were also very nice.

The book does contain some good advice.  Crushes often don’t work out and it is better to just move on than to brood over them.  Girls don’t like it when boys publically celebrate getting together with them.  It’s better to celebrate privately and not go bragging to friends.  Greven writes that the average “relationship” between a boy and a girl in elementary school only lasts 30 days.  Some pages have a tip at the bottom of the page that sometimes repeats an earlier point.  The illustrations are cute with many featuring a blond boy who is possibly a caricature of Greven.  They portray the different points written on each page such as giving gifts and the consequences of going after many girls at once.

How to Talk to Girls is pretty good for a book written by an 8-year-old.  I don’t believe, as some Amazon reviewers contend, that it was written by an adult ghostwriter, though I’m sure it went through adult and possibly child editors.  It is good advice for kids in elementary, middle, and high school.  Adult males can benefit a little from the book, though I think they would have to be completely clueless if they didn’t know most of the things already.  I hope Greven’s early success leads to a long successful future and doesn’t ruin him with unreasonable expectations.  From his book he seems fairly well grounded.  I heard that he has written 2-3 other books: How to Talk to Mom, How to Talk to Dad, How to talk to Santa, and that he’s currently working on How to Talk to Grandparents.  (Actual order may differ.)

We hope our nephew likes the book.  His parents and the other relatives had fun watching him open the present.  We also got him the book Hatchet that I had recently read and enjoyed (see earlier review).  That’s a book I would have wanted to read at ages 12-13.  I’m not sure I can say the same about How to Talk to Girls.  As I mentioned in its review, Hatchet is listed as a manly book on the Art of Manliness website.  It probably won’t help as much with talking to girls.

When we first moved to Azusa near Covina we noticed that there was a Ralphs market on the west side of Citrus Avenue just south of Puente Street.  It was one of the closest supermarkets to us and we went there many times.  They had a good selection of stock such as beef stock or chicken stock.  But we also noticed that whenever we went there, it was fairly devoid of other customers.  There is a large Ralphs a few miles away in San Dimas.  In spring 2008 we heard that the Citrus Avenue Ralphs was closing.  They had a going-out-of-business sale lasting about a month.  We got some spices at greatly reduced prices, though their expiration dates were earlier than usual, some within the year.  After the Ralphs finally closed in May 2008, the building remained empty for a while.  They replaced the Ralphs sign along Citrus Avenue with a blank sign.

In late summer or early fall 2009 we saw signs that said a King Ranch Market was moving into the space vacated by Ralphs.  I hadn’t heard of King Ranch Market before though I had heard of other ranch markets such as 99 Ranch Market and others local ones named after the street or neighborhood.  At one of my former workplaces my coworkers at the time and I used to get lunch from a local ranch market.  They had good tacos made with corn tortillas and beef.  This new King Ranch Market in Covina opened in mid-November 2009.  I think they’re a small chain market.  According to their website they have locations in Nevada.  Their mascot is a colorful cartoon lion.

After King Ranch Market opened we starting thinking about when we could visit.  It was hard to find time given our schedules, weekend chores, and tendency to always have something going on during the weekends and even during the week.  Finally, on Saturday, November 28 we got an opportunity.  We had done our food shopping for the week but when we started gathering together the ingredients to make dinner we realized we neglected to get bay leaves needed for the recipe.  Since it was still a bit early for dinner we decided to try getting them at King Ranch Market.  It didn’t take long to get there and when we did we noticed that they served many hot prepared foods in the part of the store that used to be the bakery in the old Ralphs.  They also had baked goods in the aisle nearby including cookies and pan dulce.  With all their prepared foods and tables for dining in we could come there for a meal sometime.  While there we noticed their large selection of meats and sausages, the largest slabs of chicharron we had ever seen, their extensive aisles of both regular and ethnic food, and their produce section with apples for under $1 per pound.  We found the bay leaves and several other things.  They had six different kinds of apple soda including our favorite, Sidral Mundet.  We purchased three including two-liter bottles of Sidral Mundet and Sidral Aga.  The other three kinds we didn’t get were made with HFCS.  We also got some Caprice shampoo (champu?).

We figured we could go to King Ranch Market for dinner during the week because they’re close by, they have an interesting selection of prepared foods, and they’re relatively inexpensive.  We had originally planned to go on Thursday, December 10 but we heard it was going to rain so we went on Tuesday, December 8 instead.  We left home before 7 pm and as we drove through downtown Covina we saw something interesting on the marquee for the Covina Center for the Performing Arts.  Usually we see announcements for current and upcoming shows such as the recent announcement for a Christmas show and an Elvis-themed show in January.  But this time it looked like they were having technical difficulties.  All that appeared on the north side of the marquee was a MS Windows “New Folder” icon and, on the south side, an arrow pointing to a computer mouse.  Well, now we know that the marquee is controlled by a Windows computer.

It always felt oddly familiar and unfamiliar to park at King Ranch Market.  There were many other people there also ordering prepared foods, though they had carts and ordered their food to go.  We examined everything they had: both in a display case with signs next to the actual menu items and a more organized menu above and behind the counter.  There were so many things to choose from: carnitas, pork ribs, large pork bellies, beef tripe, traditional tamales wrapped in yellow corn husks, larger Central American tamales wrapped in green leaves, beef in red sauce, beef empanadas, pupusas, half chicken meals, fried plantains, chili rellenos, pozole by the bowl.  I’m sure I’m missing some things.  The menus also listed food made to order: many different types of tacos made with small corn tortillas; and tortas or sandwiches made with Mexican bolillo bread.  The tortas could be made with crispy chicken (torta de pollo), pork, ham, breaded steak, head cheese, and avocado.  There was also the torta Cubano that contained multiple fillings.  After spending a long time thinking over all the choices we placed our orders at 7:15 pm.  We paid at the register near the display case and our total was only around $12.

It took about 15 minutes for them to make our orders and it looked like the employees taking the orders were also the ones making them.  They had to prepare at least one other order before ours.  We waited at the high tables near the counter and when they were ready I think an employee just called out that two tortas were ready.  They came on one tray and I grabbed some extra napkins from a box near the cash register.  We then went to sit at the table of more traditional height that was a bit farther away from the counter than the high tables.  I’m glad I got the napkins because our tortas were very messy.  They had toasted the bolillo bread so it was crunchy on the outside.  I had the crispy chicken torta though it was a bit of a misnomer since the chicken was grilled rather than fried to a crisp. But it was still very good and tasted like it was soaked in a tangy, spicy marinade.  There was lots of mayo and guacamole in the torta.  I had told them to hold the sour cream and they complied, though initially I thought the mayo was sour cream.  It contained a slice of tomato and large chunks of spicy jalapeno pepper.  There was spicy salsa that included chunks of carrot.  It was a great combination of flavors, though it would sometimes fall apart.  They had cut it in half and I liked it better than the torta from Super Tortas.

My wife had the torta Cubana that was made with a toasted bolillo and contained breaded steak, ham, pork, head cheese, avocado, cheese, and salsa with carrot.  She enjoyed it very much and it didn’t seem as messy as mine.  Maybe she was just more careful.  The tortas amounted to a lot of food and we didn’t need any dessert or anything else.  Except a sink; I wanted to wash my hands before we left but they didn’t seem to have a public restroom.  Other than that, we were completely satisfied as we drove home.  

I tried doing some food shopping at King Ranch Market on the following Saturday, December 12.  I found everything I needed except the kielbasa sausage.  The only kielbasa they had was Hillshire Farms brand that had MSG.  Their other cooked sausages only came in boxes of 2.5 pounds, much more than we needed.  I ended up just getting Farmer John brand Polish sausage at Fresh & Easy.  King Ranch Market was very crowded that day and I noticed that their shopping carts were wider and longer than those at most other stores.  It was raining hard outside.  When I left I noticed people waiting outside the store with all their shopping bags.  I thought they may have been waiting for the rain to subside but later my wife mentioned that King Ranch offers shuttle service and they may have been waiting for that.  King Ranch had only been open for two months and we had already been there three times.

On Thursday, December 3, 2009 we went to dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant in San Gabriel with our parents (my in-laws), sister, and brother-in-law.  My wife had bought for a few dollars a gift certificate from restaurant.com that gave $25 off a bill of $50 or more.  We had studied the menu online and had actually known of Fisherman’s Wharf for over a year.  It opened around the same time as a similar restaurant in the same commercial complex, Captain Crab.  We had first seen Captain Crab while riding the 487 MTA bus from Downtown L.A. to Mom and Dad’s.  Not long after seeing it we read a review in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that covered both Captain Crab and Fisherman’s Wharf.  They both serve crab, shrimp, and crayfish steamed and marinated in big plastic bags.  The difference between them is that Fisherman’s Wharf serves many other dishes that don’t require messy shelling to eat.  We went to Captain Crab for my birthday (actually the day after my birthday) in 2008 and enjoyed it (see earlier review).  But while Captain Crab’s menu is only a single sheet of paper, Fisherman’s Wharf’s menu goes on for several pages.

We went to dinner fairly late on that Thursday.  I know it was after 7:30 pm, closer to L.A. Dinner time than to Covina dinner time.  When we got to the commercial complex on Valley Blvd a mile or so east of New Ave, the street level parking lot was full.  In the middle of the lot was a ramp going down to underground parking.  The first level below also looked full but the next was completely empty.  We parked there and took the stairs back up.  When we opened the door at the top of the staircase we weren’t sure where we were exactly.  It turned out we were to the west and a bit south of the main commercial complex.  We soon found our way to the restaurant that was further inside the complex and not as visible from Valley Blvd as Captain Crab.  It had lit signs both in English that said “Fisherman’s Wharf” and Asian characters.

The interior of the restaurant was very large and had a pervading nautical theme with ship’s rigging ropes separating the sections, wooden picnic-style tables, miniature barrels with “Fisherman’s Wharf” logo on them to use as seats, and even a poster for the movie Jaws.  There were at least two flatscreen TV’s both showing the NBA Nuggets-Heat game, the latter team coached by the Filipino-American coach Eric Spoelstra.  Over speakers they played the Holiday music on KOST 103.1.  We were seated right away and they gave us menus that were even more extensive than the ones posted online.  They had more sections such as Jasmine’s Favorites and Fried Specialties in addition to appetizers, soups/salads, Bay State favorites that included the cooked crab and shrimp shell-your-own options, pastas, and beverages.  Two of the Bay State favorites, the crab and shrimp, could be ordered cooked with lemon pepper, Cajun-style, fried, or with garlic butter.  On the front of the menu was a limited-time deal where if your order was $25 or more you could get 1-2 pounds of crab or shrimp for $1 per pound.  This was much lower than the regular price of $7-$9 per pound.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get that deal because we used our $25 gift certificate.  The dessert section included a waffle option we hadn’t seen before.  The beverage section was a list of Asian teas, mostly green teas.  Like the online one, the menu had a little cartoon fisherman next to each of the recommended orders.

Our orders came fairly quickly.  First came the pound of lemon-pepper shrimp in a plastic bag.  The shrimp were large and tasted very fresh.  They actually didn’t require much shelling and the lemon pepper sauce was very good in its own right.  Later our brother-in-law got some more sauce to have with his and our sister’s rice and other dishes.  Next came our individual entrees.  Our brother-in-law got the shrimp risotto that our server recommended.  Our sister got the orange roughy that I believe had a cartoon fisherman next to it on the menu.  Mom got the shrimp fruit salad that included honeydew, cantaloupe, grapes, apples, and kiwi in addition to the shrimp.  She felt that the kiwi was a bit sour and that the shrimp wasn’t as fresh as the lemon pepper shrimp we had ordered.

My wife enjoyed her curried fish cutlet with rice.  The fish was in two large pieces that were breaded, fried, and coated in green curry sauce.  In addition to rice it came with cooked vegetables including broccoli, carrots, and zucchini.  It was a lot of food.  My beef and onion rice was also from the “Jasmine’s Favorites” section of the menu.  It looked very impressive.  The beef was in strips mixed with the onion and green (spring?) onion.  The white rice was arranged in a circular mound and had a fried egg on top.  My wife thought the dish looked like the Lomo Saltado she had at Dos Burritos in September 2009.  But the beef in my dish wasn’t like that in Lomo Saltado.  It was spicy and had a strong flavor of ginger.  It was still very good and also a lot of food.

After we finished eating we went to check out the back section of the restaurant.  It was a large room decorated very differently from the main restaurant.  Part of it seemed like a dance floor.  It had sleek modern furniture in white and other primary colors.  They kept it dark inside with colored lights shining on the walls.  One wall had outlines of buildings depicted on it.  At least one of the “buildings” had what looked like a small prop balcony sticking out from the wall.  Along another side were rooms for singing karaoke.  They had black and white zebra pattern on the walls and one of them had a giant armchair that made anyone who sat on it look like a kid.  I speculate that it was big enough for basketball player Yao Ming.  We learned from a sign on the wall that this room was called the DNA Lounge.

Even with the $25 gift certificate, the bill including tax and tip came out to just over $50.  But the culinary and overall experiences were worth it.  We took the elevator back to our cars.  It was right outside the restaurant and went to the northwest corner of the underground parking.  Fisherman’s Wharf seems to have something for everyone: freshly cooked crab and shrimp, both surf and turf Asian dishes, pastas, nautical-themed restaurant and trendy modern lounge, karaoke and oversized armchair included.

We saw the film Ramona and Beezus on Sunday, July 25, 2010 at the Rave movie theatres at the Town Square shopping destination in Las Vegas.  This was the second film we saw in theatres in two days after seeing Inception at the Brenden theatres the day before (see earlier review).  We went to Las Vegas to see a Keane concert on the preceding Friday, eat at some restaurants, and take a vacation (see later reviews).  My wife had read the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary as a child and also saw and enjoyed the 1980s Ramona TV series starring Sarah Polley as Ramona.  I hadn't read the books but had heard of them.  I guess I thought they were for girls.  I did read at least one book by Beverly Cleary, though.  In the fifth grade I participated in the Battle of the Books competition where teams of three answer questions about books from a book list.  One book on the list was Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary.  Much later, at the L.A. Times Festival of Books in 2007, my wife, her sister, and I saw Sarah Polley discuss her new film Away From Her.  My wife's sister got to say some words to Sarah Polley, complimenting her much earlier performance as Ramona.  Polley said she was a fan of the Ramona books and gave our sister her autograph.

I had looked up theatres showing Ramona and Beezus and the locations and times were more limited than other major motion pictures.  This surprised me because the move came out for wide release on July 23. We had originally planned to see the film at the same place we saw Inception, the Brenden Theatres at the Palms.  But for variety we decided to go to the Rave Theatres.  They are located at the Las Vegas Town Square, a shopping destination similar to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and The Shoppes at Chino Hills.  After going to mass at Guardian Angel Cathedral, we drove to the 15 freeway, took it south and exited at Russell Avenue.  We then turned right onto Las Vegas Boulevard.  We passed where the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is located in the median.  There's a place for cars to pull over and people to take photos in front of the sign.  The Town Square was located on the west (right) side of the road just past the airport grounds on the left and between Sunset Road and Loop Road.  It has three parking garages and parking lots in front and back.  We turned right from Las Vegas Boulevard onto Town Square Blvd., drove through the interior streets and ended up parking at the back south lot fairly close to the Rave Theatres building.

We walked around the Town Square looking for a place to eat lunch.  There were several bars, most of them on the second floor of buildings, and a Churrascaria called Texas de Brazil that only offered a Prix Fixe menu.  We ended up eating at Tommy Bahamas (see later review).  In the middle of the Town Square they have a small park with a footbridge over a clear pond.

After lunch we found the Rave Theatres that are in the second level of the building farthest west.  We had never been to the Rave brand of theatres before since they didn't have any in L.A. that we knew of.  The Rave Theaters building is fairly prominent with a festive blue, red, and green color scheme.  The main sign actually says "Rave Motion Pictures".  We climbed the stairs to the second level, bought our $8 matinee tickets for the 1:50 showing at the outdoor counter, and entered.  Like Brenden the day before, Rave charges matinee prices for all showings before 6 PM.  The theatre showing Ramona and Beezus seemed very small.  It had stadium seating and a sign just inside the door said it had a capacity of 105.  The theatre filled up nearly completely, mostly with young girls and their parents.  I did notice a group of older women in one of the closer rows.  Perhaps they read the original editions of Cleary's books that came out in the 1950s and 1960s.  The screen and motion ads they played were similar to the ones we saw at the Terra 6 theatre when we saw Toy Story 3 on June 28.  They were put on by the same company, Screenvision.  We again saw the ad for the mobile phone preview of Inception.  There was also one for K12.com, an online public school.

At 1:50 the previews began.  The first was for the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, the first of three previews to show a rodent.  The next was for another animated film, Rango, with Johnny Depp providing the voice of the title chameleon and this time the film had a talking rodent character.  Next was Nanny McPhee Returns with Emma Thompson in the title role and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a supporting role.  The next preview was a modern day retelling of Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black.  The last preview, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader featured another talking rodent character.

After the previews, the feature presentation began.  I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it but I ended up liking it very much.  It stars newcomer Joey King as 9-year-old Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus.  The supporting cast includes John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh, and Josh Duhamel.  This makes the second time Sandra Oh has been cast with an actress who played Ramona.  She was in the 1999 film Guinevere that starred Sarah Polley.  Josh Duhamel also starred in the TV show Las Vegas.  Selena Gomez also sings.  She and her band, the Scene released a song for the movie, "Live Like there's no Tomorrow", that my wife downloaded after we saw the movie.  The actors all do a great job, especially King and Gomez.  They seem like real sisters.

The film takes place on the real Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon, the same setting as the Ramona books.  It also seems to take place during the time period of the books since there are no references to modern popular technologies such as smart phones, e-mail, social networks, the Internet, and texting.  It's actually hard to pinpoint the exact time period, though music from the 1980s is referenced as the period when some of the adults were in high school.  But the time period really doesn't matter since the situations are timeless.  Many are also hilarious, and, at times, heartwarming.  My wife cried at parts and I nearly did.  The characters are all very likeable, though imperfect and there are no real villains.  The plot is told in small vignettes some of which are connected and all are settled by the end.  There's much we could relate to including job instability and a character mentioning Alaska.  I've also lived in Oregon and have heard of Grant High School that Beezus attends.

I actually liked this film better than Inception, the film we had seen the day before.  Ramona and Beezus was rated G rather than PG-13 but still had many complex elements.  It easily could have but did not get cheesy or have too many cliches.  Everything seemed fresh and real rather than recycled plots from Cleary's books.  My wife was reminded of many things such as the cat's name and Ramona's baby sister Roberta.

The audience enjoyed the movie and all the little children were fairly well behaved.  Only once did one of them sneak up behind me and tap me on the head.  Ramona and Beezus is a film about and for both adults and children.

We saw the film Inception on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at the Brenden movie theatre at the Palms hotel and casino in Las Vegas, NV.  We had driven to Vegas the day before and attended a Keane concert at the House of Blues Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, eaten at several restaurants, and we would see another movie at a different theatre the next day (see future reviews).  Before going to Vegas I looked up what theatres were near our parents' condo where we would stay.  All theatres were showing Inception at many different times.  It had come out the previous weekend.  We decided to go to the Brenden theatre because we didn't have that brand of theatre in the L.A. area and I had also never been to the Palms.  It was built in 2001 and owned by the Maloof brothers who also own the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team.  It's not on Las Vegas Boulevard (a.k.a. "The Strip"), but further west on Flamingo.  After having a big brunch at Hash House a Go Go (see later review), we drove to the Palms and parked in the west parking garage.

We arrived at the Palms well before the next showing of Inception at 4:30 PM.  We had just missed the prior showing.  They were also showing it in 3D Imax format for around $15 per ticket.  But we just wanted to see the matinee showing in the regular format for $7.75 per ticket.  Matinee tickets were available for showings before 6 PM.  In our spare time we walked around the Palms a bit.  They have a very good New Mexican restaurant called Gardunos where my wife had eaten when she visited the Palms for the first time many years before.  Their menu listed fajitas (chicken, steak, and shrimp), a chicken stir-fry that sounded good, and sopaipillas.   We thought about eating there the next day, but ultimately didn't because we went to a different theatre.  Near the Brenden Theatres at Palms there's a food court that has a counter for Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, the company that puts on the famous hot dog eating contest on Coney Island, NYC on the Fourth of July.  At the food court Nathan's they served their famous hot dogs for $3.95 along with several other items including hot dog nuggets.

The Brenden Theatres are at the west end of the casino to the right after entering the main entrance and just passed the food court.  Above and across from the indoor ticket counter is a large neon sign that shines "Brenden" in red letters and "Theatres" in blue.  The ceiling above is an oval-shaped model of a night sky with many twinkling stars.  We bought our tickets and entered the theatres proper.  Just inside on the floor in front of the concession stand is the Brenden Theatres version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only cleaner since it's indoors.  It had stars for Michael Jackson, Dennis Hopper, Nicholas Cage, Shaquille O'Neal, Hugh Hefner, Toni Braxton, Joseph Jackson and Family, and the Maloof Brothers.  Usually there was a special message to or about the recipient below the star from Jeremy Brenden.  We followed the hall to the right of the concession stand and found theatre #9 showing Inception.  The number for each theatre was in large red font on a shiny silver disco ball.

We were glad to find that theatre # 9 had stadium seating as I believe they all did.  The seats were red with high backs and armrests with cup holders.  It wasn't very crowded initially but did mostly fill up by the time the film started.  The screen showed still ads for the Palms, local business such as Pole Position go carts and a gun range that gave patrons the opportunity to fire automatic weapons.  There were also ads for Brenden theatres in other locations such as Vacaville, CA and Modesto, CA.  At 4:30 PM the recurring still ads ended and the show began with an animated ad for Brenden theatres.  Next came the previews: The Town starring Ben Affleck, The American starring George Clooney, the Paul Rudd/Steve Carell comedy Dinner for Schmucks that my wife learned from our brother-in-law was a remake of a French film, Wall Street: Money Never Dies, Tron Legacy that comes out in December, and finally, the road comedy Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis.  The Tron sequel looked the most interesting because of its "throwback" status.

Next came the feature presentation.  Earlier we had learned that it was directed by Christopher Nolan who had previously directed Momento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight.  He also wrote Inception and my wife read that he had originally come up with the idea when he was a teenager.  I had seen the DVD's of Momento and Insomnia and enjoyed them.  I had also seen parts of the two Batman films.  Inception stars Leonard DiCaprio and the main cast includes several other established stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, Tom Berenger, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine.  The poster also listed Tom Hardy though I hadn't heard of him.  The posters also seemed to give some of the main characters their own titles: the Extractor, the Point Man, the Forger, the Architect, the Tourist, etc.  We had seen the previews available on mobile phones as an ad before seeing the movie Toy Story on June 28.  It looked surreal.

The film does involve some outside reality concepts that are interesting.  Most are explained, though not right away.  Not everything is explained, but just enough for the viewer to follow.  The film is fairly action-packed from the beginning and doesn't let up much.  That's a good thing because it's a fairly long movie at two and a half hours.  The fast pace makes it seem a bit shorter.  However I also found all the action to be a bit exhausting by the end.  All these things happening so quickly and all at once nearly gave me a headache.  By then I did get bit lost and had to think about it later to figure it all out.  There's a bit of humor, but mostly, everyone is serious.

The actors did well in their roles.  DiCaprio brought his usual charming intensity.  I wonder if he could ever just play a laid back goofball.  Well, not this time, it's another charismatic leading man.  But the others still held their own opposite him especially Tom Hardy and Ellen Page.  The characters' relationships to each other were complex and it was hard to tell whether they were friends or just forced to work together.  Cillian Murphy seemed like a completely different person from the scheming villain in Batman Begins.  Pete Postlethwaite had a cameo.

Overall, I couldn't get into the film completely.  Some concepts seemed just a little bit far-fetched and difficult to take seriously.  Despite the A-list cast and acting, the primary focus was DiCaprio's character, Dominic Cobb.  I was never sure about the motivations of the others on his team.  Some things we could relate to included a scene that looked like it was filled in Downtown L.A., possibly on Hope Street or Wilshire Blvd.  It hadd Famima!! in the shot.  The characters also refer to a type of limbo.  A while back, my wife and her sister obtained an autograph from Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  They've also seen Johnny Marr live and he helped compose the music for Inception.  Finally, the film was fairly free of computers, e-mail, smart phones, texting, social networks, and other popular technologies, just like our Vegas vacation.

After the movie ended we couldn't help joking about it and relating it to our own lives.  I'm glad we didn't spend the $15 for the 3D Imax.