Wednesday

Post book completion, Sunshine has had more free time, of course, and we've been able to see some movies together. Yesterday evening, after a nice Italian Café dinner, we headed to the Zombie Multiplex to see the Simpsons Movie,* which was wonderfully devoid of the knee-jerk grandiosity usually part and parcel of big screen television incarnations. The filmmakers really seemed interested in exploring themes and textures made possible by the larger format, with richer scope, deeper expression, and more natural pacing than would be possible in a similarly lengthy TV three-parter. Additionally, the movie shies away from excessive reliance on the freedoms associated with their PG-13 rating or the blockbuster gimmickry of a heightened budget. Not so with the newest seemingly-made-for-TV Harry Potter installment,* so enslaved to its episodic place in the world that it breezes by in a mostly animated fog of such underdevelopment that it works better as book illustration than as a movie adaptation. If it's got a beating heart, I never saw it on the screen. Last night I had my second* close encounter in the backyard cemetery, which doubles as my gym track. The first leg of the first lap is uphill, and I usually run it. That edge of the lot runs right next to the city street, and at the halfway point there is a traffic light. Last night, a car was stopped there, and just as I jogged by the nearest point, the car reversed to shine its lights at me. Did I mention my new shoes reflect like spotlights? It was three am, I was wearing black, and I imagine those in the car could see disembodied feet coming through the cemetery quite well. I'm a ghoooost!, they yelled at me, in a plausible Shaggy-Doo, as they sped away. [Cavin]