I am reminded of one my Great Grandfather's old prayers (One Eyed John) that was passed down to me by mt Father. "Lord, I am amazed at how things have mended. Beef and potatos before do I see, when chicken was intended." It was my intention to get up and get a hair cut (the few that I have) and make a stop at Wally mart, but my leg is hurting from yesterday and I'm not real spry. Because of that I had a nice chat with my adopted nephew through IMing and got an e-mail from a long lost friend Mike.
Met Mike through a friend from college, Walter. With Mike's roomie Martin and his pretty wife Sue ... we use to gather every Monday night to watch movies. Not as easy a thing to do in this day in time. Back then we had to walk to the theatre up hill both ways in the snow with bare feet. No really this was before even VCRs. We actually watched movies. Super 8 gage in Mike's living room. He had a screen as big as a picture window and he would project the movies we bought from a company called Blackhawk. Mike bought from collector's and had even rarer stuff. I learned more from those sessions about film from Mike and Walt than I ever did in college. Maybe it was because they had more of a love for movies than my cinema proffesors did. I think Mike read every book on films that one could get your hands on. And he didn't just believe what he read ... he looked at the film for himself. Mike moved to Southpoint, Ohio for his own sanity and we lost touch. Well now that we have found a link to connect we keep in touch.
Yoko and I had a very cultured weekend. We saw the Cirque Du Soleil show Varekai . Yoko loves Cirque and I am always so jazzed or inspired by them. This one to me was based in the story of Iccaras ... but it picks up after the fall, ignores his death and has the mythological creatures provide a theropy for him. It has inspired me to try a new cartoon feature that's working title is "Hades." I'm still working on the details and lucky enough the Cirques I tivoed has that show so I didn't/don't have to pay the $40 bucks for the DVD. That was one thing that was disapointing about the show they sure gouged at consession prices. $4 for a bottle of water. Even Disney isn't that bad.
We also saw the Peter Jackson's movie King Kong. We went to the Celebration Theatre where it was comfortable and suprisingly uncrowded. The film brought tears to Yoko's eyes. She is very sensative to animals being hurt, even CGI ones. I found it very good and like the use of refrences and the homage to the original. I have heard complaints that the begining was slow but I didn't really have any complaints about that. I thought only to shots were bad, the worst beint the CCI shot of the boat leaving the New York harbor. My only quible is what were they doing with a sound man with crank/silent movie cameras? Highlights, the T Rex fight of course, but also the moment in Central Park and on top of the Empire State Building. Character design was excellent ... I liked his snaggle tooth. Kong was not just the 8th Wonder of the World, he was the Bogart of Behemoths.
On the sad note Jim from work has found out that he has throat cancer and begins kemo today. Jim is a nice guy and very respected by the oldtimers and midshipmen alike. It was a jolt that shook the whole department. On top of that Bruce, me cobber, has left to Ohio to visit his brother who has just been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Christmas is a time of hope and miricales ... all I can do is pray and hope for their sakes and quote Tiny Tim, "God Bless us everyone."
