Sunday, January 16, 2011 East Oregonian Page 3CLIFESTYLES

Participants in this program have experienced: • Improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels • Weight Loss • Increased strength and balance • Better fitting clothing (due to changing fat to muscle!) • Weight Loss • Reduced cravings for “junk food” • Discovered great new flavors in foods • Learned new cooking skills and techniques • Gained positive self image and enjoyment of life • People with Diabetes have improved glucose control.

Classes run for 6 weeks. They are fun, excitingand the atmosphere is supportive.

The fee is just $45. We want you to be successful!Individual nutrition counseling is available.

A registered dietitian has significant academic education and professional training to work with people who have health concerns related to nutrition and food. Dietitian West dietitian Valerie Conner, MS RD has worked with people with all types of lifestyles, health conditions, attitudes, learning abilities, and needs. She will communicate with your physicians and health care providers (if you like). Mrs. Conner is familiar with medications, conditions and treatments as clinical nutrition manager of an acute care hospital. She studies nutraceuticals, herbal remedies, native plants, and various traditional medicines and treatments.

Call to reserve a place in class. Daytime and evening sessions are available. Call 541-276-0759 or 541-276-2522www.oregondiabetesclinic.com

43293CM

43293CM

Dietitian West is Pleased to Offer

PENDLETONBELLY BUSTERS

FREE INTRODUCTORYCLASS JANUARY 27TH!

Informational meeting January 27th in the Jesse Vert Room at Pendleton First Presbyterian Church (201 SW Dorion). Learn about the classes, meet the instructors, see what you think. You can register for Belly Busters at these meetings. Daytime meeting at 2:00 p.m., evening meeting at 5:30 p.m.

HEALTHY EATING CLASSES

walking dogs to adminis-tering theirmedicinewhenneeded.

“I probably will neverleave,”Hutchison said. “It’sgreat. I like just knowing Ican help someone out.Even if I get a full-time job,I’ll still be down here.”

As for Harsin, the othervolunteer that recentlystarted, there’s a certain

sense of responsibility thatdrew him to the job.

“Animals arekindof likebabies — they can’t takecare of themselves,” hesaid. “If volunteersdon’t doit, no onewill. I love spend-ing time with the animals,give them exercise andclean their kennels thewayI’d want to live.”

Harsin said he got in-volved when he took a dogdown to the shelter andno-

ticed there wasn’t muchhelp. Now he spendsaround 20 hours a week atPAWS.

“I came down here andcleanedup, and I just likedhow it felt,” he said. “Youcan never have too manyvolunteers. At the end oftheday you feel goodaboutyourself. You’ve done yourgood deed for the day andtheanimals really appreci-ate it.”

Continued From 1A

comedy, though, alwaysbears a quality of warmth.He typically admires thosehe parodies — he’s a hugePrince fan, for example.

“He’s probably oneof theleast jadedpeople I know,”Brownstein says. “He actu-ally gleams trueenjoymentfrom what he does. Heloves working. Sometimes,I feel like a rain cloud nextto him.”

Neither of the two quiteremember how they met(“sadly a hazy memory forboth of us,” says Brown-stein). They had severalmutual friends, andhadof-ten traveled in the samecircles. Armisen was an“obsessed” fan of Sleater-Kinney. Brownstein, aPortland resident, knewArmisenonly forhismusic,not his comedy. They be-came friends in the early2000s.

SinceSleater-Kinneyam-icably disbanded in 2006,Brownstein’s career, shesays, has been one of ex-ploration and growth. Shehas dabbled in acting,spent timevolunteering forthe Humane Society andbeen a popular blogger forNPR.

When Brownstein and

Armisen first beganmakingvideos in 2005, they didn’thave a website and justpassed the videos outamong friends.

“I don’t even know whywe started; it was just kindof an activity,” Armisensays. “I thought itwasabet-ter alternative thanplayingmusic. I didn’t want to belike, ‘Hey, let’s start a band’because I’m a comedian.”

Their first video was inthe style of a public accessshowwithArmisenplayingSaddam Hussein being in-terviewed by Brownstein.At the time, Armisenthought Hussein lookedlikeanaging rock star, soheplayed him that way.

“He was so angry and sowell dressed,” saysArmisen.

Armisen quickly recog-nized that Brownstein hada talent for comedy.

“It was something thatwas immediately clear tome and I don’t know why,”he says. “She’s exactly theright temperament. Shedoesn’t take herself too se-riously. She just made melaugh.”

Brownstein says that thatmusic-related beginningspeaks to the old adage ofstart with what you know.

“It’s hard for Fred and I

ever to divorce ourselvesfrom our affections for mu-sic and the way it’s reallyruled our lives,” she says.“We both came of age at atimewherepunkmusicandindie and DIY were veryrevered.

“Ifwehada series of out-takes from ‘Portlandia,’they would be every singlecharacter having an insaneamountof knowledgeaboutobscure punk: ‘Wait, howdoes this hippie personknow about the Minute-men?’”

The two hope “Port-landia” gets pickedup for asecond season. Theirschedulesmight be slightlyharder to make overlap,though, since Brownsteinhas returned to music,forming the band WildFlag. Armisen and Brown-stein don’t discount thepossibility of taking theirshow on the road, andbringing “Portlandia” torock audiences.

Regardless, the show is aculmination for a uniquefriendship that developeddespite bicoastal lives, thetwo drawn together by thecommon bonds of musicand goofing around.

SaysBrownstein: “I guesswe were able to marry ourtwo loves.”

Continued From 1ATV: ‘I guess we were able to marry our two loves’

PAWS: ‘I just like knowing I can help someone out’

Staff photo by E.J. HarrisVolunteer Jenifer Groves plays with Sable and Jake Friday after exercising thedogs Friday at the Pendleton Animal Welfare Shelter.

‘Green Hornet’leaves youwondering,‘Where have Iseen this before?’

There is no justice.”What started asKato’s drunkenlyslurred,mournful

epiphany in theback of apimped-out car quicklyturned into a fitting epi-taph for the long-awaitedsilver screen version of“TheGreenHornet.”For all thejaw-drop-pingstop-and-startediting,witty one-liners andhumorousmale-bondingmoments, “TheGreenHornet’s” sumsadly is lessthan thewhole of its parts.

Directed by MichelGondry (“Be KindRewind” and “EternalSunshine of the SpotlessMind”), “The Green Hor-net’s” biggest flaw lies inits predictability (some-thing Gondry is not knownfor). The movie openswith a young Britt Reidbeing sent to his newspa-per publisher father (TomWilkinson) after getting ina fight at school. Here, hisfather berates him for be-ing a failure who can’tlook after himself, andthat emotional scarringnever abetted. (Daddy is-sues run rampant in thesuperhero genre, itseems.) Twenty years lat-er, Britt (Seth Rogen, whoco-wrote the screenplay)has become a carefreetrust-fund man-child, allbut useless to society anda total disgrace to his fa-ther.

Well, that all turnsaround when Britt discov-ers his father has died,leaving his newspaperempire for him to run. Atfirst, Britt could not careless, but after meeting theengineering genius, mar-tial arts master Kato (JayChou) — who also makes

the perfect latte — Brittconjures up the notionthat the pair can be acrime-fighting duo, usinghis father’s bullet-proof,flamethrower-ready cars.However, in order to pre-vent falling prey to theclassic villain-threatens-innocents-so-you-must-surrender scenario, Brittreasons that if they act ascriminals while actuallybeing the good guys, theywon’t be cornered intoplaying heroics. Katoagrees, and so begins thebirth of the Green Hornetand his nameless side-kick. A cache ofenvy-inducing cars anddestructive weapons (allcreated by Kato) aid thepair in their endeavors.

However, the plot itselfis hard to imagine as be-ing any type of plausible.Without giving too muchaway, the biggest sceneinvolves trying to uploadinformation from a flashdrive to the Internet. Andinstead of tweeting orposting the incriminatingdetails on Facebook fromhis phone, Britt and Katotravel across town in or-der to upload the data tohis computer at the news-paper office.

Admittedly, it’s hard toyet again recreate a se-ries that was on radio inthe 1930s, film serials inthe ’40s, television in the’60s and comic bookseverywhere in between.In fact, this film versionhas been in flux since the’90s, with actors and di-rections constantlychanging. It’s not that thestory’s protagonist lackscharacter; it’s that we’veall seen this character be-fore. Combine Batman,Iron Man, a spoiled 5-year-old and a greenmask, and you get theGreen Hornet. However,this may have less to dowith Rogen’s perform-ance and more with theinundation of superherofilms as of late. Whileevery once in a while a“Dark Knight” is re-leased, it’s far more oftenfor an “Iron Man 2” to

supply our comic-turned-movie fix. There can beonly so many types of he-roes, and it seems thewell is finally runningdry.

And the 3-D didn’t helpmatters. (The Pendletontheater is only playing itin 2-D at the moment, buthave you noticed that,while watching a 3-Dmovie in 2-D, it’s becom-ing easier to discernwhat’s meant to be 3-D?One can only hope thatthe motion sickness-in-ducing gimmick willreturn to theme parksand science fairs beforelong.) For someone withsuch an artistic eye, it’s apity to see Gondry re-duced to obvious tricks.

But it’s not all badnews. The budding bro-mance between Britt andKato is something to see.Rogen and Chou have aninfectious energy, and youjust want them to becomebest friends. The banteris clever and organic, ifsometimes juvenile andcoarse. The chemistrygoes a long way to makingthe movie palatable. Andit’s slightly humorous tosee how cocky Britt be-comes, despite the factthat Kato is the one kick-ing butt and takingnames. (Kato visionwould be an awesome su-perpower.) And CameronDiaz (who plays LenoreCase, the love interest)provides just enough san-ity to balance out thevigilante-wannabes (if on-ly slightly). The villains,however, leave much tobe desired. NeitherChristoph Waltz (“Inglou-rious Basterds”) norDavid Harbour (“Quan-tum of Solace”)impressionable perform-ances.

While attempting topulverize some thugs,Britt, using his one-offcatch phrase, shouts,“You’ve just been stung!”And by the time the cred-its start rolling (in slightlynauseating colors), youjust may feel the sameway. Let’s just hope you’renot allergic to bee stings.

3 out of 5 stars�

Dominic Baez is the copyeditor/paginator for theEast Oregonian.

At the Movies

DOMINICBAEZ

MMOOVVIIEE RREEVVIIEEWW

‘You’ve just been stung!’“Green Hornet”

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