movies galore
I actually got back to a bit of socializing over the weekend, virtually in two cases and in-person in one case. I'll get to that momentarily.
Perhaps more significantly, I watched three different movies for review over the weekend, all titles that would have been in theaters were seeing them in theaters an option. And, I quite liked them all: on Friday I watched The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix (B+); on Saturday I actually paid $5.99 to watch the documentary Totally Under Control VOD (B+); and yesterday I watched the utterly delightful concert film of David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO Max (A-).
And, after a 13-day break in watching movies for review, this was the start of a pretty massive streak of streaming movies for review that I will be watching. I've got another documentary on Prime Video to watch after work today; another movie to watch on Netflix on Wednesday and yet another on HBO Max Thursday. It's only because I have other plans Friday and Saturday that the next film I intend to watch for review is not until Sunday next week, although I'll have to sign up for the one-week free trial of Apple TV+ to watch it. But, it's the new Sofia Coppola film and I don't want to miss it. So, that's seven films to watch for review in a span of 10 days. It's making me feel about as busy as I did before Lockdown Times, I just don't have to leave home nearly as much.
Those weren't even all the movies I watched over the weekend. This would be the second social thing I did, which was to watch Sister Act 2 virtually together with Laney on Saturday afternoon. We have a system pretty well down now, as we keep each other connected via Skype on our smaller devices (she on her phone, me on my iPad), while watching our movies started "on three" to sync them as best we can on our respective computers, and we both wear headphones to listen to the audio because otherwise hearing the playback from each other's computers is never quite in sync and it's distracting and annoying. The headphones eliminate that problem.
The movie is contrived and dumb, and also very enjoyable. Just as when we watched the first one virtually-together last month, we had a great time. We then made plans for our next virtual movie watch, which will be Sunday November 1. It's going to be Girls Trip, and we're going to have to pay a few bucks each to rent it on Prime Video, but that's okay. I've been waiting three fucking years for that movie to be available on one of the subscription streaming platforms, and it just isn't happening for some reason, and I've wanted to get her to watch it because I think she'd really enjoy it. Now, she's gearing up to start traveling full time after the start of the year, and we want to get this in before that shift happens. Although, we are for the first time also talking about doing virtual movie watches even then, in addition to the monthly Happy Hours we already planned to do virtually at that time—a plan we've had since long before the pandemic forced us to make practice runs. Well, we already know we can easily do Happy Hour virtually and have a good time.
Before the movie on Saturday, though—even before I watched and reviewed the documentary—Alexia joined me for a walk to the Central Library and back, so I could return a DVD and check out two CDs at their curbside pickup, CDs that I had once ripped from library copies already but whose files in my iTunes library have since disappeared, in my inept attempts at moving the entire library to my external hard drive. I think there may be protections of some kind on the files preventing them from being duplicated or something, but whatever, I have them ripped yet again now (I do also have this issue with nearly the entire Beatles library, but I almost never listened to them anyway so it's not the greatest loss, honestly) and my Rihanna and Cranberries playlists of favorite tracks have now been restored to their original glory.
The curbside pickup being done by the Seattle Public Library is still only happening noon to six on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays—and the Capitol Hill branch is not doing it, so downtown is currently my best option—so Saturday was the day to get it done. I may return the CDs after work tomorrow; Shobhit and I will be going out to go grocery shopping anyway.
It was my first time walking anywhere with Alexia in a while, since her knee issues preclude her joining me for walks as far as the office currently, and she is often unavailable on Saturdays. She happened to be available this time, so we took a walk together for the first time since our walk to Boren Park and back on Sunday October 4, two weekends prior. It was nice, and since it was our first time walking together down Madison Street, she commented on a bakery we passed just beyond Boren that she really likes. I suggested we pass by there and stop in on our way back.
We actually took a slight detour to Target after the library, so I could get hand soap refill and she could get ibuprofen, and for a few blocks we started walking back home via Pike. Then I remembered we were going to stop by the bakery on Madison, so we cut back up Madison via Fourth Avenue, in the process walking right past Rainier Square Tower, set to open with a downtown PCC at its base sometime in 2021.
We waited a few minutes to go inside the bakery, which had a sign asking for only three customers at a time to be inside. Then Alexia said "It's my treat," since I had bought her a pint of the delicious Salted Caramel Cupcake Ice Cream from Cupcake Royale a month or two ago. I got a peanut butter cookie, which I ate with my lunch while watching the documentary after I got home. I probably should have saved it; between that and having a cocktail later in the afternoon and having chai that evening, it should have come as no surprise when my weight was up the next morning. Dammit! I need to start spacing out my junk consumption better. No desserts on days when I drink! (Never mind the fact that I put three shots of tequila in my margarita. We're not talking about that!)
And then yesterday evening, shortly after Shobhit got home from work, I got on FaceTime with Gabriel and Lea—who, by the way, were inside a kitchen so delightfully spacious it consumed me with envy, and I told them so—and we did our second Movie Draft. This time, from 1984.
It was a really fun exercise. They prepared and consumed a Hello Fresh dinner during the 69 minutes we were on the call, and since this time I had Evan as a reliable person to send my list of movies to, we all texted out our lists to the people we'd have vote for us either during the call or right after. We have our "voters" rank the three lists from best to worst, giving three points to the best, two points to the second best, and one point for the worst. Then we tally all points for each of us. For the second time in a row, my list came in last. Had my randomized place in the order of turns we took were different and I could have chosen Amadeus for the Drama category, I almost certainly would have won. Gabriel got that movie though and I already knew Evan would vote for his list for that reason alone—Amadeus is literally her favorite movie ever.
I still get a little bummed out every time I hang out with Gabriel virtually and he's at that amazing new house. Actually, enough time has passed now that they must be pretty comfortably settled into it; when Shobhit and I stopped by and hung out for an hour in their backyard on our way back from the coast, it was June—four months ago. I can easily see a scenario in which they've been there a year or more before we can actually visit and go inside. For now, though, FaceTime is the next-best thing. I really am grateful that, if we must have a global pandemic, it's happening in the time of easy video chats instead of, say, in 1995. Everything about the isolation would have been so much more difficult to take. Granted, it would just mean a hell of a lot more phone calls, a thing most of us don't even really like doing anymore. I do still enjoy phone calls with my parents, but they're about the only people I still have substantive conversations with over the phone. Well, just dad, really. Sherri never wants to stay on the phone more than a few minutes, and Mom's dead.
[posted 12:18 pm]