Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I've been off-line for a week, while I'm vacationing (a.k.a. "sponging off my friends in other states who have guest rooms and are still foolish or fond enough to invite me every year"), but the time has not been wasted.

To make up for having seen almost no movies this Spring semester, I've seen three first-run films in the past few days [no spoilers]:

"The Day After Tomorrow" -- excellent and non-cliched disaster film, which was so good I didn't mind seeing it again last night with a legally blind friend who'd been wanting to see it and didn't think anyone else would be willing to go with her. Even second time around, it was STILL interesting and entertaining, as well as edge-of-the-seat suspenseful. Go, see, and enjoy 'the end of the world as we know it' (...and I feel fine).

"Touching the Void" -- I hadn't heard much about this one, and probably wouldn't have gone to see it if my friends hadn't been eager to see it, but this docu-drama was superbly done and quite thought-provoking. I groaned sympathetically with every agonizing bump along the road from the depths of a crevasse in the Andes to the climbers' base camp, but it wasn't JUST agony and angst. The "Void" turned out to have MANY layers of meaning in this film, including the devout atheism of the injured climber, Joe. Really interesting, though not exactly a PLEASANT or carefree movie to sit through, if you have a shred of empathy or imagination.

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" -- saw it opening night, sitting about three rows back from the movie screen, because of course there weren't any seats together anywhere further back by the time we got into the theater, and I loved it. I still haven't read any of the Harry Potter books, but I've had no trouble following and enjoying any of the movies, and this one was my favorite to date (perhaps because as Harry and his friends get closer to adulthood, I find it easier to identify with them and their problems, or maybe I just like the darker moods and increasing complexity of the plots).

Btw, I heartily concur with the recommendation of many others: cleolinda's parody is respectful and hilarious, a true delight for anyone who's already seen the movie and is no longer worried about spoilers.

Meanwhile, I've been observing my yearly vacation rituals: checking out the merchandise in out-of-state T.J. Maxx stores (so much more intriguing than my local T.J.'s, and with the advantage of less-outrageous sales tax), eating in restaurants that you don't drive through, and baking and eating rhubarb desserts as if they were about to be outlawed (to my taste, rhubarb pie is so good it almost ought to be illegal, and rhubarb itself is so hard-to-come-by and outrageously over-priced in Nashville that I almost never indulge in it at home).

Brain no longer working, so I'll sign off. After more than a week of vacation lazing around, I'm ALMOST able to get a good night's sleep again. It hasn't been easy to do (after subsisting on 3 hours a night for a couple of weeks, when I actually NEED more like 8 or 9 hours a night to stay healthy, I'm having to re-learn basic skills like going to bed at a reasonable hour and not obsessing over every wrong and frustration in the world).

Time to be unconscious, now.