Entertain Me

I’m told the temperature was over 100 today, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. Funny, when you don’t know how hot it is, it doesn’t seem as hot.

We watched The Phantom of the Opera on DVD the other night (Wednesday? Thursday? One of those) while eating hamburgers and a lovely caesar salad with lots of garlic. I love the music. I loved the show on stage. I thought the sets in the movie were gorgeous. The movie itself did nothing for me – I felt the entire cast lacked depth, and it annoyed me when they spoke lyrics that were originally sung, because first, when people speak in rhyme, but don’t change the phrasing it sounds really stupid, and second, because it just made it obvious that these actors needed far more experience. Yeah, I’m picky. Sue me.

Tonight, we went to the Cinemark in Cedar Hill to see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which is the only Star Wars film I’ve managed to stay awake through since the three I grew up with. Not only that, but I actually enjoyed it. Also, I liked the theater itself – rocking chairs, liftable armrests, and comfy chairs – it’s not the Century 22 (0r 23, 24 or 25) from San Jose, but for a modern theater it’ll do.

The nice thing about having eight million movie theater complexes within a twelve mile radius: No lines. We showed up at 6:30 for the seven pm show, had no waiting, and got good seats. Yay, suburbia.

(In truth, we could have seen it in the theater on our street, but it’s one of those that was built in the old style, with arm rests that don’t lift, and not much rake in the rows of chairs, so it’s fine for a sleeper film in the middle of the afternoon, but not for something that you really want to enjoy).

Fuzzy is on call for the next ten days, but after that we’ll be visiting another sort of movie theater, the Angelika in Dallas, because it’s been over a year since I’ve seen an art film on a big screen, and I’m suffering from withdrawl. I mean, blockbusters are all very well and good, but I like the stuff from the Sundance festival, too. You know, the kind with subtitles, or at least lots of subtext. The movie I want to see, Winter Solstice, may not still be playing in ten days, but I’m sure something else will strike my fancy.

In other news, I’ve expanded my cd collection a bit more, with the purchase of yet another disc I found at Starbucks: From the Ground Up by Antigone Rising, an all-female band with a folk-fusion sound that sort of combines vintage 10,000 Maniacs with Blues Traveler. Lovely stuff. I highly recommend it.