Weblog 143
November 02, 2008~ 12:15am
Halloween is now over....
and we're rounding the bend toward the holiday season of 2008. (Yes, that's the cheapo little camera again, with a snapshot of a metal quarter-moon set against the dining room drapes. I thought it looked creepy and perfect for the season.) Halloween itself was spent in the woods around Fort Necessity, where many of the leaves have fallen since our trip there two weeks ago, but it gave the eye a good lay of the land.
The ones that still held on, however, were breathtaking to be sure.
We ate at the SUN PORCH restaurant, and loaded up on their late luncheon salad bar. Delicious freshly made tuna salad, chicken salad, homemade soups-- and wonder of wonders for me-- a chilled bowl of crumbled bleu cheese with which to smother the lettuce and mushrooms, and little cherry tomatoes and sweet onions. (I don't think I've ever seen that anywhere else.) Wonderful!
Early evening found Wayne and I joining the grandkids in their Halloweeny fun. Bill chose to be a Star Wars Clone Trooper this year, and Kay was Snow White-- and even the dog, Johnny Bananas, a chocolate brown standard poodle, was decked out like a 'doggie devil'.
By the time the two hour trick-or-treating was over, the kitchen table was OVERFLOWING with goodies. (Johnny Bananas got his own bag of treats from the neighbors, and just like a little kid, he ran around-- sequiny red horns still on his head, red costume still tied around his middle-- squeaking his new toys and wagging his tail like mad. LOL!!)
It was an enjoyable day in a nice 3 day weekend. Tonight Wayne and I watched 'Gone Baby Gone', and it's a terrific film-- but I still need time to process my thoughts about it.
Good movie....good food.....beautiful weather with lovely autumn scenery....
I'd say this weekend was 'a keeper'. I'll press this into my memory book with a big star beside it for those gloomy times in the future when I need to be reminded that days like these do roll around now and again, they truly do.
November 02, 2008~ 8:00am
After some sleep, and still thinking about the movie 'Gone Baby Gone'- I have to say that I marvel at the way this movie makes me question so many things: it's the murky, ambiguous moral territory that's so very difficult to hash-out or put into words when the movie is done.
It's the unrelenting honesty and ugliness in this film, captured through Ben Affleck's absolute commitment to portraying the lower-class Boston neighborhood, that makes the film feel overwhelming in its effect. The people are ugly. Each domicile is uglier than the one before. Their actions are ugly, the language profane-- and at the center of this, two absolutes: the innocence of a 4 year old child and the blind faith of the young private detective (Casey Affleck) in his struggle to do the right thing.
A child is abducted- (a scene too painfully familiar to anyone watching news or reading print or internet stories these days) and the home she's taken from is god-awful in its bleakness-- her mother is a crack whore who's stolen a LOT of money from a local Haitian drug lord; there are riveting performances in every single role, and it's not often that happens in a film. The impact of bleak realities coupled with totally gifted performances, make this a film to shake the viewer in its teeth for a long time afterward.
I don't want to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it-- but for those who have, just let me say that at the end, I know what the young detective did was 'by the book' and 'right' in a conventional sense, but I lean toward King Solomon in his final decision-- with this caveat: the true parent is the one who would first spare and protect the life of the child and my view, the natural mother does not automatically claim that title. The ending left me as distanced from Casey Affleck's moral certitude as the two parties on the couch in the closing scene.
But the fact that this film made me think so deeply, and examine my feelings, is testimony to its impact. This is a good one, folks. For the gritty, not-easily-written-off realities of everyday life, this is one of the finest examples of movies that challenge the moral comfort zone of the viewer, and in that, it has no peer.
November 04, 2008~ 7:30am
It's HERE, People!
I feel a mandate rising... I feel a Day of Jubilee. Vote!
November 05, 2008~ 7:30am
Fait accompli
'First Family'!
***
(Return To Weekly Archives)
Halloween is now over....
and we're rounding the bend toward the holiday season of 2008. (Yes, that's the cheapo little camera again, with a snapshot of a metal quarter-moon set against the dining room drapes. I thought it looked creepy and perfect for the season.) Halloween itself was spent in the woods around Fort Necessity, where many of the leaves have fallen since our trip there two weeks ago, but it gave the eye a good lay of the land.
The ones that still held on, however, were breathtaking to be sure.
We ate at the SUN PORCH restaurant, and loaded up on their late luncheon salad bar. Delicious freshly made tuna salad, chicken salad, homemade soups-- and wonder of wonders for me-- a chilled bowl of crumbled bleu cheese with which to smother the lettuce and mushrooms, and little cherry tomatoes and sweet onions. (I don't think I've ever seen that anywhere else.) Wonderful!
Early evening found Wayne and I joining the grandkids in their Halloweeny fun. Bill chose to be a Star Wars Clone Trooper this year, and Kay was Snow White-- and even the dog, Johnny Bananas, a chocolate brown standard poodle, was decked out like a 'doggie devil'.
By the time the two hour trick-or-treating was over, the kitchen table was OVERFLOWING with goodies. (Johnny Bananas got his own bag of treats from the neighbors, and just like a little kid, he ran around-- sequiny red horns still on his head, red costume still tied around his middle-- squeaking his new toys and wagging his tail like mad. LOL!!)
It was an enjoyable day in a nice 3 day weekend. Tonight Wayne and I watched 'Gone Baby Gone', and it's a terrific film-- but I still need time to process my thoughts about it.
Good movie....good food.....beautiful weather with lovely autumn scenery....
I'd say this weekend was 'a keeper'. I'll press this into my memory book with a big star beside it for those gloomy times in the future when I need to be reminded that days like these do roll around now and again, they truly do.
November 02, 2008~ 8:00am
After some sleep, and still thinking about the movie 'Gone Baby Gone'- I have to say that I marvel at the way this movie makes me question so many things: it's the murky, ambiguous moral territory that's so very difficult to hash-out or put into words when the movie is done.
It's the unrelenting honesty and ugliness in this film, captured through Ben Affleck's absolute commitment to portraying the lower-class Boston neighborhood, that makes the film feel overwhelming in its effect. The people are ugly. Each domicile is uglier than the one before. Their actions are ugly, the language profane-- and at the center of this, two absolutes: the innocence of a 4 year old child and the blind faith of the young private detective (Casey Affleck) in his struggle to do the right thing.
A child is abducted- (a scene too painfully familiar to anyone watching news or reading print or internet stories these days) and the home she's taken from is god-awful in its bleakness-- her mother is a crack whore who's stolen a LOT of money from a local Haitian drug lord; there are riveting performances in every single role, and it's not often that happens in a film. The impact of bleak realities coupled with totally gifted performances, make this a film to shake the viewer in its teeth for a long time afterward.
I don't want to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it-- but for those who have, just let me say that at the end, I know what the young detective did was 'by the book' and 'right' in a conventional sense, but I lean toward King Solomon in his final decision-- with this caveat: the true parent is the one who would first spare and protect the life of the child and my view, the natural mother does not automatically claim that title. The ending left me as distanced from Casey Affleck's moral certitude as the two parties on the couch in the closing scene.
But the fact that this film made me think so deeply, and examine my feelings, is testimony to its impact. This is a good one, folks. For the gritty, not-easily-written-off realities of everyday life, this is one of the finest examples of movies that challenge the moral comfort zone of the viewer, and in that, it has no peer.
November 04, 2008~ 7:30am
It's HERE, People!
I feel a mandate rising... I feel a Day of Jubilee. Vote!
November 05, 2008~ 7:30am
'First Family'!
(Return To Weekly Archives)
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