Does Keith realize he's supposed to blog about SPORTS?!

Thank you to the Stout family, Alan, Jen and all the other people who sent nice comments about this stream of consciousness. I appreciate you stopping by here now and again.

Can you believe Lance Armstrong will ride in RAGBRAI?! The same week a little something called the Tour de France is going on. Unbelievable. What a circus that will be as Armstrong rides across Iowa on his bike. Nice to see he'll try to plan his visit around the big party in Newton. That town has had some bad breaks and deserves some cool news, like this---and the Iowa Speedway. Plus, Newton has the only drive-in movie theater around anymore. If you haven't been in awhile, check it out. It's a bargain and you feel like you're going back a few decades to a simpler time. This week they're playing "Click" and "RV", two movies perfect for a drive-in because the plots are so simple the kids playing Wiffle Ball in front of the screen won't bother you.

Staying with movies, AMC got into the original film business and started strong with Broken Trail. It's a two-part western starring Robert Duvall. It's no Lonesome Dove---what is---but it's very good. I'm sure AMC will repeat it more than TNT shows the "Shawshank Redemption", and much to my relief, AMC showed limited commercial interruption, which is a drastic change for that network. A- for Broken Trail. Takes its time, but well worth the journey.

I was disappointed in "Nacho Libre". I love Jack Black. Who can forget him in "High Fidelity" when the middle aged dad shows up to buy a copy of "I just called to say I love you" for his daughter: "There's no way she likes that song... oops, is she in a coma?"... priceless. And Black was brilliant in "School of Rock", a movie parents love as much as their kids. Heck, he even makes a bad movie like "Saving Silverman" seem funny, which leads me back to Nacho Libre. It just tries too hard. It's missing the effortless humor of the director's previous movie, "Napoleon Dynamite". I saw a review in Cityview calling Nacho Libre a comedy classic and one in Juice rating it a complete dud. I'd say somewhere in the middle. I'll rate it "C" because Black has his moments, and he sure is trying hard to make it funnier than it is.

I haven't seen "Superman" but I'm already rooting for Brandon Routh. He did a great thing by holding a premier in Des Moines for kids who could use a superhero. The showing also helped out the Variety Club, and Routh signed autographs for hours. Norwalk should be proud of Brandon just for being a good guy, good looking movie star is a bonus.

It's rerun season, for the most part, but FX brings it strong with "Rescue Me". Should be rated "R", but what a show.

10:15... need to run and do the sports. I'll continue later.