Message 508

Yesterday I met Helen and Jim at Starbucks. In the late afternoon Joshua came by to watch the Sharks game with me. They beat the New York Islanders 4-1, so we were glad about that, although again, the Sharks did not come alive until they were down 0-1 in the second period. After the game we went to El Cerrito for dinner.

In yesterday's e-mail a typo gave a rating for The Unknown Woman of 2.8 when it should have been 3.8 stars, in other words it was a pretty good movie in spite of being hard to understand. I corrected this typo in the version posted on my blog, but I could not correct the e-mail. Last night I watched a DVD of the Movie Anne of the Thousand Days. Even though it is a true story that I was very familiar with, I thought this was an outstanding movie. It was made in 1969 and Richard Burton was at his best as Henry the Eighth. I give it five stars.

Message 507

Yesterday I got a new refrigerator. My old one had been making a big clunking noise every time the compressor shut off. I had been told that this happens in old units when one of the compressor mounts gives way, and that it is not worth fixing it because everything else is old and near the end of its life too. I have been thinking about this for a few months, and yesterday I called a local store and had them deliver and install a new one and haul the old one away. Thus, I now have one less thing to think about, and all for a little less than $900.

In the evening, after the Friday night PBS shows were over, I watched a DVD of the movie The Unknown Woman. This is the translation of the title from Italian. It is a complex story that is revealed in a mixture of flashbacks mixed in with the present day in Italy where a woman from Ukraine tries to start a new life. It is hard to make out what the story is until it is all over, but it is worth the wait. There is a lot of sex and violence, but it is mostly about tender feelings. I give it 3.8 stars.

Message 506

Yesterday afternoon I picked Beech up at school and took him to his Kung Fu class. Afterward we went next door to the Round Table Pizza and he ate three slices, which is a new record for him. He also pulled another animal from the crane machine, but he forgot to bring it home with him. I told him we can ask if they kept it for him when we go back next week. I then picked up Eddy Solomon at his house and took him to Sultana's for dinner. Mary is out of town and had asked me to do this. He had the lamb chops that were on special, and he ate most of them. His Parkinson's disease has advanced so far that he has to mostly lie down when he eats, but he manages. His mind is still good, but his body is in pretty bad shape.

When I got home I watched a DVD of the movie Watchmen. It is another one of those movies based on what they call a graphic novel, or I would call a comic book. As a result, the plot was absurd, the action was stylized, and the characters were costumed heroes. I almost did not even finish watching it, but I managed finally to stick it out until the end. I give it 2 stars. The best thing about the movie was the music that was all from the 1980s.

Message 505

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Vanessa. I overslept this morning, so I did not have time to take Annie to her day care, so Vanessa had to deal with that herself. This morning our usual tables were full so we sat with Henry and Reggie, two of the regulars that are there every week. It was a pleasure to talk to them in greater depth than our usual exchange of Helos. Last night I watched a DVD of the movie Henry and June. It is based on the true life story of Henry Miller and his wife June as derived from the diary of Anais Nin. Because I have been such a Fan of Henry Miller's writing for decades, and because I actually heard Anais Nin speak at one of the lectures arranged by my father at The Library of Congress, I found the story very interesting. However, because the impressions of the writing and the speech are so intense, I found the representation by the movie a little flat and boring. It is probably impossible to achieve this same level of intensity to the medium of film, so I hesitate to lower my rating of the movie because of its shortcomings. Nevertheless, I only give it 3.6 stars.

Message 504

Yesterday we had our big rainstorm. I think we got about two inches, and in the hills they got ten inches. It is the first big rain of the season and at least a month earlier than usual. Maybe this year we will break out of our drought pattern. I watched Annie for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon while Vanessa took Beech to the doctor for his earache. In the evening I watched a DVD of the movie The Life of David Gale. It was about opposition to the death penalty in Texas. It had a very good cast and was played as a mystery thriller, but I found the plot absurd and too contrived. I give it 2.3 stars.

Message 503

Yesterday I took Annie to Nealon Park for a couple of hours while Vanessa did her grocery shopping. Annie is a pleasure to be with, and she is learning to do more of the park things each time we go. People still mistake her for a boy though if she does not have a ribbon in her hair. In the evening Joshua brought in burgers and fries from The Dutch Goose and watched the Sharks game with me. It was a 0-0 tie after overtime, so they lost to Phoenix in a shootout. Phoenix has a new style of defense, so the Sharks will have to figure out how to counter it. Charlie Rose had a very good show last night.

Message 502

Yesterday I watched the local NFL teams disgrace themselves on TV. In the morning it was the Raiders. In the afternoon Julian invited me to watch the 49ers with him on his big TV. Vanessa was out with her girlfriends, and Julian was cooking the dinner and watching Beech and Annie. We could not believe that the same team that had come within 2 seconds of beating the Vikings could look as bad as they did against the Falcons. The dinner of pulled pork BBQed in the crock-pot was delicious though. In the evening I finished reading The Economist and watched another Inspector Lewis episode on PBS.