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Movie: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring
This is kind of a Buddhist fairy tale. A child raised by a monk on an idyllic lake ventures out into the world and returns in a pattern that recurs eternally. It’s beautifully filmed, which I think is supposed to present the beauty of human experience as its redemption. This beauty is balanced against the…
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Day 136
Jackson Hole, WY We spend the day “preparing” for our Wind River trip. Mostly this involves playing Rummy and watching movies at the house. We don’t leave once during the day. Our self indulgence has reached a peak. Our movies were chosen based on books we’ve read recently. Ann read Cider House Rules. She couldn’t…
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Day 135
Jackson Hole, WY Today we walk six miles of busy street. Three miles to a movie theater and back. It’s actually a nice way to watch a movie. The exercise before helps you relax during the show, and more afterward gives you time to contemplate it. Before the show the popcorn girl at the theatre…
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Movie: Girl With A Pearl Earring
On the surface this film is about the story behind Vermeer’s famous painting. The heart of the story, however, is the difficulty presented in a relationship when the love is genuine but one partner doesn’t understand the other’s passions. The setting is full of Vermeer-inspired light and colors. The stylization may go a little overboard…
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Book/Play: Hamlet
My few prior attempts to read Shakespeare quickly produced glazed eyes and little understanding. At the time I figured I just wasn’t smart enough to understand it. Now I realize that most of it is in a different language. This book showed me the miracle of footnotes that explain strange words and words whose usages…
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Show: Zumanity
We’re nearly late for this show and have to charge three miles through crowds on the strip to make it. Our $65 balcony seats are cabaret stools close to the bar. The performances are amazing, as we’d expect from Cirque du Soleil, and sexy, as we’d expect from the billing. Sometimes the injection of sex…
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Movie: Veronica Guerin
I’m a little conflicted about this movie. The story of a gutsy, naive, headstrong reporter who goes after drug dealers in Northern Ireland is told and acted very well. The fact that it glories in the removal of civil liberties, which gives the righteous government the power to take the property of suspected drug dealers,…
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Movie: The Mists of Avalon
Ann and I, tired after a day of packing supplies, popped this in for some relaxation. We had no idea what we were in for. I think there were half a dozen prophetic visions and sword battles in the first 20 minutes, and it goes on like that for 3 hours. Of course there’s nothing…
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Movie: Chicago
As usual I’ve missed the historical context of this film: 1920’s Chicago, Bob Fosse choreography, the original broadway musical, and the revival. The city is portrayed as a place where vengeful beauties murder their husbands and lovers daily, and the public follows the drama through the press with rapt adoration. I didn’t like this setup…
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Movie: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
This is the Australian film that inspired the American remake, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. It had some things I had never seen before, like a flying blow-up doll, a woman shooting ping pong balls with her genitals, and a “cock in a frock on a rock”. You might say it goes…