Climbing Banyan Trees in Hawaii

7/20/08
I joined some of my guide friends yesterday for some tree climbing. Banyan climbing is more like it. It was my first time and I am stoked. What a great hobby to pick up. A better work out than the gym, for sure. Below is a pic of me on my way up Tree Beard (82′ to the anchor) and another pic from my phone of Rodolph on belay.

Now…on to part two of this post. I just watched The Dark Knight. I went with low expectations and as a result, I enjoyed it. Honestly, I think I would have been happy to have it end where the joker gets caught the first time though. The second part could have been a great sequal or released on the web and/or DVD as ‘the rest of the story’.

Heath Ledger was great as the Joker. I didn’t think there was a chance that I would like him better than Jack Nicholson, but he managed to be just sane enough and insane enough at the same time, sort of dancing on Occams Razor. Bummer we won’t be able to see him in more movies. Did anyone else though feel like maybe the line “I can’t quit you!” could have been thrown in there somewhere between him and the Batman? And that scene of him in the nurse’s dress.. I almost peed my pants laughing (and because of the large iced tea and longish movie).

Christian Bale actually got me over the fact that Michael Keaton was the best Batman ever and although I think Bale could do a whop up job as Mister Mom, he could never be Beetlejuice (and I still think Keaton was the best…especially when you think about Clooney or Kilmer…lol). As for the directing…I’m a big fan of Nolan’s Memento and I think he did a pretty good job of bringing that edginess and gritt to the Dark Knight series. I admit it, my body was tense through most of it.

I give it 3.9 stars out of 5.