12 New Movies: Shock and Awe (2017)

 Rob Reiner's shocking death late last year had a profound effect on my wife and I.  We had grown up with him  as Michael Stivic on All In The Family and were Young Adults when he began his prolific career as a film director.  We found ourselves rewatching many of his films int he weeks and month after hus and his wife were murdered.  

One film we had not seen or even heard of is my first installment in 12 New Movies to me for 2026.  

Film: Shock And Awe (2017)

Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

Summary: James Marsden and Woody Harrelson play reporters for Knight Ridder and Rob Reiner plays their boss who  report on the aftermath of 911 that led to the War in Iraq.  The problem is that the story they are researching and the narrative coming from the White House, Congress and the Pentagon are vastly different. 

Theme: Who should you listen to?

One Thing I liked about the movie: I got to see Rob Reiner act and direct.  Since he spent so much time and energy the last 40 years of his career in the latter, it is easy to forget what a great actor he was as well.

One Thing I did not like about the movie: This my be picky, but I think there was a deliberate attempt to make viewers think that Aaron Sorking was associated with this movie.  Two of Reiner's finest  films are Sorkin collaborations (The American President and A Few Good Men).  This film has legal, military , political and journalism tie ins so since these are all Sorkin Staples the comparisons make sense initially .  However, I thought that the court room scenes, the casting of Richard Schiff (The West Wing) and some of the speeches in the film were contrived to connect Sorkin to the project without adding to the plot.  

The ideal audience for this film: People who like Newspaper movies and people who enjoy Reiner as a director and an actor should enjoy this film.  

Your A Commie Maybe

 I was subbing at a local middle school on Monday.  I don't sub very much at middle schools or highschools compared to how often I am in K-5  buildings.  This can be explained in a joke or with a more detailed explanation.  I will do both.

The Joke: They don't pay me enough to sub at Middle Schools, and too much to sub at high schools.

The Truth of the joke: Someone told me once that the key to working with middle schoolers is building relationships.  It is very difficult if not impossible, to build relationships with middle schools when you are a sub and you changing classes every 40 minutes.  The reason why I think I'm over paid to teach at High School is that compared to elementary, where you are generally teaching for the majority of the day, and middle school, where you are herding  disinterested and disrespectful cats in 45 minute intervals, you are basically taking attendance, announcing  the assignment and reading a book.  

For the 3 years prior to this school year, I spent the majority of my subbing at middle schools.  This was entirely as a long term sub, or a building sub.  Both of those positions involve getting to know the students and them getting to know me.  As a result, I was able to do far more teaching, far more relationship building and slightly less cat herding.  

Monday, I was subbing for a teacher I used to work with at the middle school I was  working the last 3 school years and I have subbed in her resource room 3 or 4 times already this year.  As a resource teacher, I either co-teach with another teacher or teach smaller classes of 5-8 students.  I also get to teach Math, which is one of my passions.

But that's not why I brought you here today,  (I know 5 paragraphs of intro, and not even my point.  What can I say I'm a professional communicator.) 

Today, I am here to share with you a video from the Social Studies class I co-taught on Monday.  

When Nothing's Sacred

A few weeks ago I saw this song by Billy Sprague on Spotify and was touched by how relevant it still is.  

 Most of the lines of the song start with People need or But. So in the notebook my daughter gave me for Christmas, I made two columns.  On one I wrote "People need ...  " and the other I wrote "but..." I have reprinted it without permission below.  But, I will add that the song was written by Billy Sprague and appears on his 1993 album The Wind and The Wave.  I just like how when laid out like this it looks like a list poem.  Even when you add the music it really is.

Note: There is a chorus in the middle of the song which also repeats at the end.  I will write the chorus at the end and put an * each time the chorus appears in the song.

When Nothing's Sacred

by Billy Sprague

People Need...                                                       But...

True love                                                              Chase infatuation

A hope                                                                  Live on short supply

Wisdom                                                                Get more education

Forgiveness                                                          Settle  things eye for eye

Identity                                                                 Satisfied with titles

A living God                                                         Seem content with idols

Destiny                                                                  Settle for careers*

Faith                                                                       Place their bets on science

A refuge                                                                  Stay out in the rain

Each other                                                              Rely on self reliance

Christmas                                                               Settle for a holiday

Dignity                                                                   Survive on ego

Truth                                                                       Will take an alibi

A savior                                                                   Much prefer a hero

(Most) long for heaven                                           Have settled for the sky*

And the soul remains unsettled and the world a wilderness.

In a time when nothings sacred and souls settle for less.

I really wanted to share a live performance of this song and could not find one of Billy Sprague performing it but did find this video of Gary Hall Peck covering it. I think this is a very good rendition of it.

 

A Packers & Bears Fan Reaction to the Wild Card Round

I absolute this video. When you get to the 1:42 mark, that was definitely me the entire first half.

Dave’s Eulogy For His Mom

Today, it has been 1 month since the passing of my Mom.  This is the first time I have mentioned here on the blog.  It is still too raw for me to process, but I thought this might be a good place to post the brief comments I made at her visitation service the day before her funeral.

    

Should Mark Buehrle be Elected into the Hall of Fame?

Today is the 5th of January and the first day of the second semester.  As good of time as any to get the discussion going about who should be elected into Baseballs Hall of Fame as the announcement as to whether and who the Baseball Writer's Association of America (BBWAA) elected to that August group will be made later this month.  

Here is some analysis as to whether Mark Buehrle should be enshrined in Cooperstown.  I'll be back later this month to share my feelings on Buerhle and the others who are appearing  the BBWAA ballot.

A Comment About Comments

 If uoi are a fellow blogger and you have been listed recently in one of the various blog rolls that appear here on Leap of Dave, you may have seen or be seeina in the future a comment on one of your posts that looks like thei:

Happy New Year! Each year at this time, I clean up my blog to prepare for the upcoming year.  I consolidate all of my blog rolls to one entitled something like These blogs are so last year. Then at the beginning of the year when people post on their blogs for the first time.  I read that post in it's entirety and usually read or reread the last post of the previous year.  This year I decided to then write a comment on the first post which is why you are reading this. 

The comment then will say specific things about their blog and post.  In a few days I'll stop adding a comment after the first post, but for the rest of the year I'll continue to prune the last year blog list and transfer most of them to the current blogroll.

I follow this procedure for multiple reasons: 1) It's a quick glance for me to keep up with  which blogs may have stopped posting over the previous year.  2)I helps me evaluate whether I want to keep blogs on my blog roll that I'm no longer reading or interested in.  3) In a bizarre way this process id fun and comforting me. 

 My blogging has evolved since 2008 when this blog began as Home School Dad.  Other blogs like Dave Out Loud, and Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports blog soon followed.  Eventually this blog changed names and incorporated some of the other blogs in a one stop shop/ multiplex of my many and varied interests.  

As my blog has changed so have my blogrolls, this yearly changing of the blog guard helps facilitate that change.

Two Thoughts on Life

Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were two of my favorite actors turned directors.  They both passed away in the last 4 months of  2025 and as a result I've been thinking about them and their work.  Yesterday, quite by accident, a movie quote popped into my mind.  I could not place the movie at first, so I googled it and soon this scene was on my phone.

 

 

This quote from The Natural, although said to Redford's Roy Hobbs rather than by him,   informs and leads  the protagonist to the decisions that makes up the film's climax.

Thinking of Redford naturally made me think of Reiner. Thinking of Reiner led to thinking of the Princess Bride, which led me to this brief scene.  

In reviewing the context of both of these scenes, the hard fact that life is painful cannot be denied.   Both characters were denied (albeit temporarily)  true love due to circumstances beyond their control. The quotes are both delivered to their respective true loves when at each point of the film a happily ever after doesn't seem to be in the cards.  

Hope and bitterness both carry transformative powers.  The concept of hope in the line "the life you learn with, and the life you live with" says to me, yes life is pain, but much like pain you endure in a fire swamp you can learn from that pain.  Thinking that life is only pain can create a bitterness that is hard to overcome.  I am glad  that the 4 characters depicted in these scenes found their happy endings.  When I think of Redford and Reiner and all the stories they told through their acting and directing, it makes me sad that their lives have ended (especially in the tragic way Reiner's ended ) but glad that I am still learning about life through their work.