Charlie’s Cousin Adam reviews the new sci-fi/western hybrid Cowboys & Aliens.

Rated PG-13 – 1h59

I gotta admit. After Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I was worried that we had lost Harrison Ford into the fray. No. It was just a bad idea to make another Indy movie. He delivers once again with his role as a grizzly old cowboy in Cowboys & Aliens.

I must admit, with that title, the bar is set pretty high. Cowboys and aliens are two great movie ideas. It’s like peanut butter & chocolate. Riggs & Murtaugh. Rocky & Apollo. Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. I could go on. The casting also puts James Bond alongside Indiana Jones. Maybe this is going a little over the top?

In this case, the setting is the Arizona Old West in 1873. A lone man (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert with a weapon of some sorts strapped to his wrist. He can’t remember who he is or how he got there. He slowly starts putting the pieces together as he bands together with a posse of Cowboys and Native Americans to fight off a horde of alien abductors.

Craig plays outlaw Jake Lonergan and needs to do nothing but deliver that icy stare of his to impress. He is a rough and tough hombre and is a lot of the glue that keeps this movie together. Ford plays the brilliantly named Woodrow Dolarhyde who provides the role of mean guy with a good heart. Think his portrayal of policeman John Book from 1985’s Witness.

While you could argue that there isn’t a ton of intriguing dialogue, or that the story doesn’t quite embrace the feel of a true western, I still enjoyed it. Cowboys & Aliens is a silly idea. I expected some campiness. I expect to trade depth for a little more action.

Director Jon Favreau also gets credit for relying less heavily on special effects and more on his characters to drive the movie. The supporting cast (Sam Rockwell, Keith Carridine, Olivia Wilde and Paul Dano) also gives this push in a positive direction. Another toast to Favreau, no 3D. Its a fun movie that doesn’t need it. Well done.

I think Conan O’Brien does a decent job summing up the debt ceiling situation.

OK Go is known for creating SUPER FANTASTIC videos almost as much as their music.  They’re out with a new one called “All Is Not Lost.“

Avoiding the human centipede idea, they instead went for a human kaleidoscope theme.  It’s pretty cool, but I could have done with fewer butt cheeks pressed up against the glass.

Check out the video below, but if you really want a good head trip, head to their website.  The thing is, you need to use the Google Chrome web browser for it to work.

There is a new report out today that says kids aren’t getting as much money from the Tooth Fairy as they used to.

The Tooth Fairy has been hit by the recession. A new survey by Visa says kids are getting an average of 40 cents less under their pillows this year compared to last year. The new going rate: $2.60, though the amount varies according to region. Children in the West get a whopping $2.80 on average, while those in the East must make do with $2.10.

To this I say BOO HOO!!! Please note the sarcasm. I was happy to get a quarter, maybe a dollar if it was a front tooth. One time I didn’t tell my parents that a tooth had come out, put it under my pillow and I got NOTHING.

That was about the time that I gave up on the whole notion of the Tooth Fairy. That is, until I saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the 2010 movie Tooth Fairy. After watching that, I nearly gave up on everything. I still am surprised that I sat through that one.

Beastie Boys vs Sesame Street.

Just a quick safety note. When you head outside to mow the lawn, weed the garden, trim the hedges…do not take this man’s advice.

As one of my favorite comments on the video says: This is why idiots should not reproduce.

This video doesn’t need much explanation.

This woman is just an oddball. You’d think on a place where people go to shop, she would think about selling her stuff.

Nope.  Let’s just chat about nothing.

I must be out of my mind, because all the time I’ve lived in Madison, I have not visited Quivey’s Grove. The restaurant has always had a Madison-original and feel-good vibe to it, so I am thankful for Restaurant Week.

Located just minutes from the Beltline, Quivey’s Grove location is far enough out that you get the rustic, yet classic country feel of what is almost guaranteed to be a fine meal. It would be easy to mistake the grounds of the restaurant for a quaint farmhouse or stable. Mostly because the buildings date back to 1855 and in fact there are two restaurants at Quivey’s Grove.

The Stone House is a turn of the century mansion, converted into eating space that offers fine dining. The Stable Grill has the look of a…stable, with stone and brick, offering a more casual menu. Both buildings are on the National Register Of Historic Places. The tree covered grounds, from which the name comes from, are impeccable and impressive.

After guessing-navigating our way into the hostess room of the Stone House, we were pleasantly greeted and allowed to poke our heads around the various rooms and into the kitchen area. We sat in the Grandmother’s Garden. Each room has name and historical significance. I did not realize that the cupboard that our dining ware and fresh butter was waiting on dated back to 1850. The first impression was just the start of a classy meal.

The Restaurant Week menu is at the right. I sampled a variety of items, some of which are on the special menu this week. Our first course was a Duck Salad for my girlfriend and a Romaine Blue salad for myself. We traded samples. The Romaine comes with blue cheese chunks that were plentiful and large enough that you can add it to each bite. The Duck Salad was topped with walnuts and a vinaigrette. Duck bacon and a duck ham are often too gamey for me, but a small sample proved tasty.

After the salad and before the meal, fresh and hot blueberry muffins were delivered. Extra butter on mine. They were to die for.

My girlfriend had the Lake Perch crusted with pretzel crumbs. I had the Pork Dewey, a double bone in pork chop, smoke roasted, served with an apple-butter barbeque sauce. Each choice was so we could share the others. A wise choice on our part. Portion sizes were just right and so was the a pairing with Wollersheim Pinot Noir. For desert, we shared a Blueberry Buckle. The moist coffee cake filled with fresh blueberries, butter streusel topping, served with sweetened whip cream delights.

Our server Rebecca could not have been more pleasant. The Grandmother’s Garden is limited to about 10 tables, so we felt the service was neither overbearing or lacking.

Quivey’s Grove Stone House is an ideal location for a elegant night out, or impressing out of town guests. It’s a real Madison treat.

Restaurant Week is a semi-annual event for food lovers to sample some of Madison’s finest local offerings. For $25 participating restaurants offer a prix-fixed menu with 3 courses and 3 options of each course. Some restaurants offer a reduced menu for $15 for lunch.

Quiveys’ Grove Stone house offers a dinner menu. The Stable House offers both a lunch and dinner menu.

For all the witty plays that Amy Winehouse had on rehab, the realities of alcohol and drug abuse and addiction are just sad.

On Saturday, Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment at the age of 27.  Her struggles with addiction were well played out in the public’s eye, but in the end she was human after all.   At this point there is no evidence that drugs were in her apartment, or even that they had anything to do with her death.  It is clear that they took a toll on her.

Fellow Brit Adele, who Winehouse paved the way for, released a statement today saying Amy was ‘brilliant” and “fearlessly hilarious.”

M.I.A., known for her hard hitting track Paper Planes released the tribute track “27” on her Twitter feed.  Have a listen:

27 by _M_I_A_

Winehouse’s 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys,^[3][4] including three of the “Big Four“: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album.

She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me“, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab“, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game“, among other distinctions. The album was the third biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom – Source: Wikipedia

When it comes to her hit song “Rehab, ” Winehouse was asked by The Daily Mail on August 3, 2007 how she writes songs. Said Winehouse: “With ‘Rehab’ I was walking down the street with Mark Ronson, who produced my last album. I just sang the hook out loud. It was quite silly really.” She was then asked, “Did you sing the ‘no no no’ bit as well?’” “Yeah, I sang the whole line exactly as it turned out on the record! Mark laughed and asked me who wrote it because he liked it. I told him that I’d just made it up but that it was true and he encouraged me to turn it into a song, which took me 5 minutes. It wasn’t hard. It was about what my old management company (run by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller) wanted me to do. – Source : Artistfacts

The “27 Club,” notorious for aritists who have died at the age of 27 now contains the names; Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and now Winehouse.