So Josie graduated and summer vacation started and the sky immediately turned gray, temperatures plummeted into the 50s and while I wouldn't say it rained for ten straight days, it's certainly been soggy.
Not much to write about. I've been painting a lot but it doesn't seem like it. I've gone to a lot of movies. Three in two weeks is more than I usually see all summer long. I liked them all.
Star Trek. Zack and I saw this one evening when there was nothing else to do and no one around. It was the middle of the week so tickets were only $5. Totally worth it. Loved every minute of it so much that when I was in Sam's club a few days later and saw a dvd of "best of" episode's from the original show, I bought it. Only four eps on the disk, but all good. Here's what I was struck by, as someone who hasn't really seen the original show since I was eight years old; it's funnier than I remember. The banter between Spock and the rest of the crew is very dry and really hilarious. I may have to add Star Trek to my netflix list. I also noticed that while the new movie makes no attempt at re-creating Shatner's Kirk, the kid who plays Kirk nails the essence of the character. He avoids doing a lame imitation but he totally gets who Kirk is; an alpha male with complete confidence in his own ability and no hesitation whatsoever at assuming command. I never found Kirk particularly attractive but I admit I love a guy who isn't afraid to be a Man.
Angels and Demons. This was far more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I found Dan Brown's books to be unreadable due to his lack of talent as a writer, not because his stories were bad. In fact, I find the stories to be fun, intricately detailed action adventures that
had to be better on screen than on the page. Plus, Tom Hanks and Ewan MacGregor! This one could've been subtitled "How Indiana Jones almost became Pope"...but turned out to be the bad guy, instead. Jay saw the end coming. He didn't read the book, he just leaned over and whispered his prediction in my ear half way through the movie and he was on the money.
Up. I loved it. Josie liked it a lot but said she didn't love it because it was sad. Parts of it are sad. I had huge tears rolling down my face in the first ten minutes and then was shrieking with laughter ten minutes later. The "little mail man", Russell, was the cutest kid I've seen in a movie since Boo in Monster's Inc. Like the Incredibles, this movie is incredibly pro-family and old fashioned family values, without bashing you over the head with it. There's just one short, poignant scene that tells you the way to break a kid's heart is divorce. "It's the boring stuff I think I miss the most" is one of the saddest lines ever uttered on film. And then I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. Great movie.
At home, Josie and I finished watching Firefly. She's a total convert. What does that mean? We were watching the original Star Wars and I pointed out how Mal equates to Han, River and Simon are like Leia and Luke, Shepard Book is Obi Wan, Inara and Kaylee are C3PO and R2D2 and Jayne is Chewbacca, but no one is as cool and tough as Zoe. She said "Is it wrong for me to like Mal better than Han? And no one is as cool as the crew of Serenity." She loved Star Trek, too, because everyone in it was cute, but she said "It was no Serenity."
That's a total convert.
Now I'm watching the first season of Las Vegas. It's Katie's favorite show and she brought me the first season. I'm enjoying it. I like the characters and the dialog is entertaining. When it comes to tv, I don't believe in moderation. If I can't see the whole season at one, I'm not interested. Everything is better in large doses.
I've also managed to read about six books in the last ten days. A lot of Janet Evanovich. She's perfect summer reading; light, funny and occasionally sexy. I'm mixing her up with Mark Levin and Thomas Sowell. still want to read the Next 100 years, by George Friedman but haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet. Oh, and I'm reading James Herriot again, because I bought All things Bright and Beautiful in hardcover at an estate sale. You just have to re read his stuff every few decades. I don't understand people who never read a book twice. That's as stupid as only listening to a piece of music once.
Finally, the sun's back! Maybe now we can have some actual summer.
I can't get the quote "He killed me, Mal. Killed me with a sword. How weird is that?" out of my head.
