Colorado

I may never go into a movie theater again.

First New Experience of 20Milleven

1. Watching a movie in a theater wearing glasses.  Review: no headache!  And my SIL said (intended kindly) "Those don't make you look old at all!"
2. Watching True Grit.  Review:  meh.  The dialogue style held me at arms length.  I didn't really care if they were successful in their quest.

From FilmoFilia

HP7

I'm writing this from the mall parking lot waiting for my cousin and her friends to join me for the midnight 3D showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. I am so unholy tired that I will be lucky to make it through the opening credits. Today is my cousins 21st birthday (that's her with me in the photo on the sidebar). I asked all my friends what they did for their 21st bday. Not a one among them, myself included, celebrated without booze. Is my cousin the greatest lady or what?!

Turn to the Right!

Great movie idea #32:  Alien risk-takers

We had a lovely dinner with my folks this weekend to celebrate my mom's bday (see previous post).  After dinner, as we sat enjoying hot tea and carrot cake (mom's favorite, prepared by her favorite daughter, of course!) we discussed the evolution of risk tolerance in humans.  I'm sure you're familiar with the studies: a passer-by will choose not to risk what she has in hand in lieu of bigger gains, even if the odds of getting more are in her favor.  As a species, we select risks that minimize loss and protect existing assets, not that maximize gain.  We enjoyed a discourse as to why, speaking in terms of evolution, this would be so.  After all, the adage "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" originated somewhere.

It got me thinking that this would be an interesting premise for a movie (or novel [I'm thinking of you, my Ursala-wannabe Sister]): the interaction between our conservative-risk human race and an alien race which survived an evolutionary pressure that favor risks for maximum gain.  Think about it.  Financial markets, for sure, would be differently driven. Career choices, too, might be more "outlandish" b/c students wouldn't feel compelled to hedge their bets on a degree that would make them employable (i.e. more History majors and MFAs in the alien race than the human race).  Egad, consider the repercussions of more MFAs running lose!  Assume all other factors are equal: physical fitness, natural resource limitations, etc.  Would the spectrum of poverty, for example, be broader in the alien race?  Bigger gamble = bigger winners and bigger losers.

It may be more successful as an independent "thought" film, but I think the concept is solid.

I HEART PATRICK STONER

Saturday nights are movie nights on WHYY, our local public television station. Patrick Stoner is the movie critic and each night he introduces the film and provides some context and hints at a spoiler that he reveals at the end of the flick. He's the one who turned me onto Hitchcock and Mrs. Minivier. Tonight's movie, which I'm watching as I write this, is some Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers concoction. Now, I am not a fan of Fred Astaire -- too scrawny -- but you can't knock the guys talent. He and Ginger just danced this duet and I swear to g*d Ms. Rogers is wearing an entire ostrich on her dress, the downy fragile under feathers. I expect the feathers to rip off with every turn. I can't believe costume picked this material! She deserves an Oscar just for carrying the dress off. The plot is too stupid for words. It's basically an episode of Three's Company ("Jack is....gay?!"). Ginger meets a man she mistakes for her friend's husband - who she's never met - ...oh, blurg, I can't summarize it well it's so dumb. Let me see if I can find an IMDB summary.

Couldn't find a summary but found this instead about the dress!

For the "Cheek to Cheek" number, Ginger Rogers wanted to wear an elaborate blue dress heavily decked out with ostrich feathers. When director Mark Sandrich and Fred Astaire saw the dress, they knew it would be impractical for the dance. Sandrich suggested that Rogers wear the white gown she had worn performing "Night and Day" in The Gay Divorcee (1934). Rogers walked off the set, finally returning when Sandrich agreed to let her wear the offending blue dress. As there was no time for rehearsals, Ginger Rogers wore the blue feathered dress for the first time during filming, and as Astaire and Sandrich had feared, feathers started coming off the dress. Astaire later claimed it was like "a chicken being attacked by a coyote". In the final film, some stray feathers can be seen drifting off it. To patch up the rift between them, Astaire presented Rogers with a locket of a gold feather. This was the origin of Rogers' nickname "Feathers". The shedding feathers episode was recreated to hilarious results in a scene from Easter Parade (1948) in which Fred Astaire danced with a clumsy, comical dancer played by Judy Garland.

Skip to 3:20 to watch the feathers fly!