Message 967

I am late today because I just got back from filling my antibiotic prescription at PAMF. This morning I met Helen and Jim, Joan and David, and Vanessa at Starbucks. Afterward I did my weekly Safeway shopping. Last night after the Friday night PBS shows I watched a DVD of the movie The Last Picture Show. I had seen it before in about 1970 when it first came out, but I had forgotten almost all of it. It was the movie that made Peter Bogdanovich famous. It had an all star cast, virtually all of which were unknown at the time, including Jeff Bridges, Tim Bottoms and his brother, Cybil Shepard, Ellen Burstyn, Randy Quaid, and Ben Johnson, among others. None of these people were known to me when I first saw it. Also it was based on a book by Larry McMurtry, whom I also had not heard of at the time. I agree with the opinion that it is now a classic. I give it five stars.

Message 966

Yesterday I went to PAMF and met with my urologist. It was nice to see him again, and he reassured me that I was doing as well as could be expected given all I have been through. He thought I looked good and said he thought I would continue to manage to get along. I finished reading The Shock Doctrine; The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein on my Kindle. The last quarter of the book was references and footnotes, so I finished sooner than I expected.

In the evening I watched a DVD of the old black and white movie The Night of the Hunter. I had never seen the whole thing but when I lived in Alaska it was shown often on TV. I did not have a TV, but I occasionally saw parts of it at other peoples houses. It was directed by Charles Laughton in 1956, and it had a great cast, including Robert Mitchum as the mass murdering preacher who marries Shelly Winters, the widow of a man who was hung for murder and robbery. He kills her and tries to get her two kids to tell him where their father hid the money he stole. The boy and girl escape down the river in their father’s old boat, where Lillian Gish eventually takes them in to join the other orphaned and abandoned children she cares for. Mitchum shows up in relentless pursuit and tries to get the children, but she calls the police, so he eventually get lynched by the enraged townspeople. It is a quaint and old-fashioned movie by modern standards, but it is very powerful. I give it five stars.

Message 965

I just got back from Heidi’s Pies having breakfast with Annie, Reggie, and Henry. Vanessa and I switched cars so she could take more kids from Beech’s class on a field trip in my bigger car (van). I dropped Annie at Maureen’s afterward. Last night we had a great birthday dinner for Beech at Ten Fu. We had 18 people, including Jason, Caroline, and Ellie, Jamie, Chelsea, Audrey, and Jack, Julian, Vanessa, Annie, and Beech, Vanessa’s brother’s wife Liz and her two kids (Vivian and Jessie), Maureen and Gary, and Joshua. Maureen brought a cake for everyone with trick candles that would not blow out so Julian eventually had to dunk them in a glass of water. Beech was thrilled with all of his presents. After dinner I got home in time to watch the third period of the Sharks game against LA. The Sharks were ahead 2-1 at the start of period 3, but the ended up losing in an overtime shootout.

Message 964

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s message that I watched a PBS documentary about building the Panama Canal. It was very interesting. Yesterday I watched Obama’s State of the Union speech. As usual, I thought he did a great job. Afterward I watched a DVD of the movie Inception. Julian had watched this movie on his flight to Tokyo a few weeks ago and asked what I thought about it. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page (of Juno fame), and was well made. It was a very complex thriller, but it mostly was about dreams and the question of what is reality and how do you tell the difference between dreams (or fantasies) and reality. It gets so convoluted that it is hard to follow at times, but it is entertaining. I give it three stars. I also read Science yesterday. It had an interesting article about analyzing all the words in the millions of books that Google has scanned to give a quantitative measure of cultural trends.

Message 963

Last night I watched a DVD of the movie Quicksand. It was a thriller set in southern France. It was a little different because it did not have much violence, and it had a good cast, including Michael Keaton and Michael Caine. I give it three stars. I also read a lot on my Kindle.

Message 962

Yesterday I watched the two NFL Conference Championship games. They were both good games. I was glad to see Green Bay win over Chicago, but I would rather have seen the Jets win over the Steelers. Joshua watched the games with me. He brought in a pizza and salad and a burger for lunch. In the evening I watched PBS, including the third episode of Downton Abbey. I also read some more on my Kindle.

Message 961

Helen and Jim could not make it, so I did not go to Starbucks yesterday. I did my Safeway shopping though and finished reading The Economist. In the evening I watched the Sharks beat Minnesota 4-3. It was a good game, and Setoguchi scored two goals. This is the Sharks fourth win in a row, so they are starting to climb out of the hole they dug when the lost six in a row. It’s a tough league this year.