Don Winslow’s Crime 101 with Mark Ruffalo, Halle Barre and Jennifier Jason Leigh

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Son, Logan, and I went to the theater and saw Crime 101. A heist caper movie set in present day Los Angeles about a jewelry thief, who never hurt or killed anyone on his robberies, and who worked exclusively along “The 101” in southern California.

You got a varied cast here. A good bad, and a bad bad guy, who doesn’t mind killing or hurting people. A good bad woman by Halle Berre playing an insurance executive peeved about not making partner in her firm. A good, good woman who makes it her mission to redeem the good bad guy. And an old cop, played by Mark Ruffalo, giving off great Columbo vibes in his role who gets a little mouthy and gets suspended. (Suspended cops make for the best movie detectives.)

So I am not going to give you the plot. Check out IMDB and Wikipedia for that along with the whole cast and all that. My job is to tell you if it was a good movie or not.

And heck yeah it’s a great movie. These kind of movies need to have beautiful women, men that guys can identify with, complicated plots and schemes, cynical cops, and greedy rich people. Also necessary are great car chases, fierce gun battles, glamorous restaurants, and romances without cringey sex scenes. This movie fits the bill.

I give it five stars out of five. Keep the kids home. It should be out on Prime soon.

Saturday’s Critters – The Bison Herd at Lafortune Park

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There is a bronze bison herd at Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. They added on to it a few months ago and I finally went over to see it.

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Bison make for great sculptures because they look so powerful and they have this sense of movement even when they are standing still.

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Sorry for the bad focus!

So these new additions look great and complement the others already there.

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And everyone loves the “Red Dogs” the bison calves who play and cavort just like their real life counterparts do.

I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out.

Skywatch Friday – More Lafortune Park

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A meandering stream good for a reflection

Golf course trees good for shadows

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The duck pond is for ducks and other waterfowl.

Some pine trees at the Pony League baseball stadium is good for silhouettes

A meandering path is good for three miles.

A High School baseball field is waiting for the season to start.

A jigsaw puzzle looking kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Another jigsaw puzzle with a spectacular bridge and a passenger cruise ship.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Warm, Shadowy, February Days

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A bicycle shadows at the start of a bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. 15 miles and it was all good. Most bicyclists I know don’t think 15 miles is even a decent warmup. I love 15 miles myself.

Out on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain I found me a shadow selfie.

It’s a plastic ammo box laying on its side.

I’m a geocacher. Turkey Mountain has a geocache hidden in a hole in a cliff that I can see but cannot get to it. I’m a purist. If I can’t hold the cache, open it, and sign the log then I am not going to claim a find. They need to have another category such as “seen but couldn’t get to.” I got lots of those. Caches up in trees and such that I can’t reach. If I had somebody with me, then sure I’d try using ropes. The cache above is in a pretty remote area. If I fell and broke something and if I couldn’t get cell phone signal then I’d be in tough shape. Of course if I fell and was able to get help, my wife might kill me for being so dumb. So its kind of a lose/lose proposition. Meanwhile I’ll keep on checking on it. Maybe some critter will knock it out to the ground and then I could sign the log.

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.

Critters found on Turkey Mountain and More

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I went on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness the other day. I found this deer back in the brush. By the time I turned manual focus on, this deer and their two companions were gone.

Got a mile or so further and came up on some birds. I think they were tufted titmice. They were also hard to focus on but I got a few shots. They are extremely grainy because the birds are extremely small and even with my 300 mm lens I had to crop them a lot.

Merlin told me that it heard a northern flicker and a cardinal in the area as well. I spotted a northern cardinal and its mate but they were moving around too much for me.

And later at the far northern end of Turkey Mountain at Pepsi Lake I found these mallard ducks. It looks like two males were romancing a female. Today is Valentines day so I wonder what they got her.

I also saw a great blue heron.

At home a male cardinal visited the efeeder.

A dark eyed junco. I love these guys.

A house finch. Such loud voices from very small birds.

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A squirrel caught on the trailcam.

Inside the house, Lizzy the cat was snoozing.

Kodi the Pomeranian was being his cute self.

Sadie was cuddling up in a throw.

That’s all folks. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Warming up to Icy Reflections

The weather is warming up fast these days. Just ten days ago we had snow everywhere, now it is almost all gone and we have balmy temps. These pics are from a hike about a week ago around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park on their 3 mile path.

My favorite tree at Lafortune Park. It makes for a great photo all four season. I love the reflections as well. We have a little ice in this photo.

And a little bit more ice near the playgrounds.

And at the duck pond.

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And a decent sunrise from our backyard. Our little terrier Sadie gets me up every morning for the sunrise.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Shadows – Cause and Effect

We had a warm sunny day in Tulsa last week so I went for a walk at Lafortune Park.

I found this shadow at the public swimming pool. A shadow of a tree up against a cool midcentury modern style brick screen.

I love chain link fence shadows.

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And some tree trunk tree shadows at the baseball field.

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I like this also. The rough edged shadow from the wall right near the smooth lines of the concrete walkway edge.

So that was my photowalk on a nice sunny day. I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.

Something to Crow About

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The other day I was outside with the dogs and I noticed this squirrel frozen in place on a branch.

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I think it was worried about these crows who were on a wire in the green space behind our backyard. I had never thought of crows being a threat to squirrels, but what I read on the interwebs is that they sometimes will attack young squirrels but are hesitant about taking on grown squirrels because apparently grown squirrels will fight back.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – On the Move Edition

Me and a friend continue to hike on Turkey Mountain and other places. This is a moon gate leading into The Sanctuary section of Turkey Mountain. I go right through it, my friend goes around it. I don’t know why.

Turkey mountain has maybe nine lakes on it, plus two or three more in The Sanctuary. Anywhere else they would be called ponds. Three interesting things about the lakes (at least they are interesting to me) is, first, that the Wildlife Department stocks the lakes for fishing. Second there is a big colony of beavers on the mountain and they move as a group from lake to lake cleaning out all the fish in each pond. I think that is hilarious. Third, the beavers move up and down the Arkansas River and migrate to and from Turkey Mountain via Mooser Creek which is the northern border of Turkey Mountain. They know this because the wildlife has tagged a bunch of beavers so they can track their movements. I have a feeling that beavers are going to outlive humans.

This is a pipeline for one of my former employers running through Turkey Mountain. Last year another former employer of mine laid a pipeline adjacent to this one but they drilled the little swale you see instead of putting in a span like the one above. Drilling pipelines across tough spots has been all the rage for years. Contractors can now drill across the Mississippi River for large pipelines and hit the other side a mile away within a few feet of their target. They also do it in culturally sensitive areas like ruins and such. They can stand off a few hundred yards and drill way underneath the ruins instead of having to go around. The problem with going around is that you often run into more ruins.

The tree house in The Sanctuary. If you look close you can see a couple of swinging porch benches underneath. A nice place to wait out a rainstorm.

Anyway on this hike, it was almost exactly five miles. That’s my sweetspot.

Switching gears to the backyard. Sunrise!

Mid-day from my front yard looking east.

And a late sunset, looking west.

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Later that night, the Full Snow Moon. I love full moons on a clear night.

And a shot from the neighborhood green belt.

I’ve continued working on jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I love beach scenes.

And a windmill jigsaw puzzle. The windmill is cool and I love the house. except not many windows upstairs. I like the lightning rods though. Random thought, I am sure that windmills get hit with lightning. Do they burn down?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and Galleria Himmelsblick