Hitchcock

Although I have long enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock movies, one of his major films that I had never seen was "The Trouble With Harry." This was one that most libraries didn't carry. However, when I discovered that my "new" library had a copy, I signed out a copy and promptly watched it. What a treat!

TTWH is a black comedy starring John Forsythe, Shirley MacClaine, Edmund Gwenn, and a very young Jerry Mathers ("Leave it to Beaver"). The movie is set in New England (Vermont). The movie revolves around a dead body and how the local folk react. I found it charming, romantic, and witty. Supposedly TTWH was one of Hitchcock's favorite films. If you are in the mood for something different, light, and humorous, I recommend "The Trouble With Harry."

As I was moving, I bought ($5!) a set of Hitchcock's old public domain works on DVD: "Alfred Hitchcock A Legacy of Suspense (20 Films)." Many of them I have already seen but I wanted something to watch while my stuff was still in boxes. My favorite so far has been "Rich and Strange". This is also not your typical Hitchcock film. It's about marriage, money, desire. It showed a marriage breaking apart but in the end they stayed together.

I tried watching "The Farmer's Wife", "Juno and the Paycock", "The Skin Game". The Farmer's Wife is a silent movie that seemed way too long. I could see where it was going and got bored. Juno was set in Ireland and based on a play. It was kind of interesting but without subtitles or captions it is virtually impossible to follow. I got through the Skin Game but had to suffer through terrible sound. Apparently, because these old movies were in the public domain, they have not been restored.

I also watched "Secret_Agent". This is a more "typical" Hitchcock film from 1936. Again, it was something of a challenge due to the lack of captions/subtitles.

The "Legacy" DVD also contains several more recognizable early Hitchcock: "The Lady Vanishes," The Thirty-Nine Steps," and "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Also several other early Hitchcock films that I have previously seen but will watch again one of these days: "Young and Innocent" and "Sabotage."

Father's Day

Appropriately, I spent most of the day with my son, Richard.

The day started with me stopping at the local Bruegger's Bagels. This has become something of a tradition since I moved here and I drive Richard to an early morning roller hockey game. I pick him up ~7 a.m. to get to an 8 a.m. game. I get him a plain bagel with a bit of butter and an apple juice box; I get a cup of coffee.

The roller hockey game was the first of the summer session. The good news was that at the end of the game, Richard was the leading scorer on his team. On the down side, his team lost 9-1.

After the game, I was looking forward to having a nice breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out. There is really no place for us to go. Oh sure, there are two nearby places that serve breakfast but we've had poor experience with them. The local Friendly's closed not long ago. We tried going to another one this morning but Richard was in the mood for lunch and the place looked grimey. So we ended up at our local Panera Bread.

Richard had a Chicken Caesar salad and I had a coffee and bagel with walnut cream cheese. The cream cheese was something of a splurge for me. Happy Father's Day.

Richard is a big fan of Cirque du Soleil; Lynn has taken him to many of their shows when they come through the area. She bought tickets for their current production not realizing the show was on Father's Day. But she graciously offered to let me go with Richard to the show. This was something of a treat for me since I had never been to a Cirque du Soleil show and I got to see it with Richard.

The show was in our old stomping grounds at the Webster Bank Arena (Home of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers), about an hour drive from us. The show we saw was Dralion.

According to the web site:

Fusing the 3000 year-old tradition of Chinese acrobatic arts with the multidisciplinary approach of Cirque du Soleil, Dralion draws its inspiration from Eastern philosophy and its never-ending quest for harmony between humans and nature. The show's name is derived from its two emblematic creatures: the dragon, symbolizing the East, and the lion, symbolizing the West.

In Dralion, the four elements that govern the natural order take on a human form. Thus embodied, each element is represented by its own evocative colour: air is blue; water is green; fire is red; earth is ochre. In the world of Dralion, cultures blend, Man and Nature are one, and balance is achieved.

Our seats were in Section 103 near the top but we had a pretty good view. I was surprised at how many people brought small children (i.e., toddlers) especially since tickets were pretty expensive (~$50). While the show was spectacular, I had trouble keeping awake. I could not keep my eyes open during the first half. It was not the fault of the show. But once the lights went down and the hypnotic music began, my body seemed to welcome the opportunity to doze despite Richard's frequent nudgings and ongoing technical commentary. After intermission, we moved a few rows down to an empty section were I was able to stretch my feet out. I was more awake. Overall, the show was like an airplane trip: overpriced, tight seats (no leg room) surrounded by loud kids, and spectacular views. I have no idea what the plot was (if any).

On the way home, we encountered a distinct plume of black smoke at the intersection of CT8 and I84 (Waterbury). It looked like an old factory was on fire. Richard tried to take some pictures with my cell phone camera as we drove past (see above) but we were too far to get a good picture. We could see the flames but smoke quickly turned from black to gray and then white (indicating that it was being extinguished). There was nothing in the news or in the papers. After a few days, I did an internet search which turned up a small blurb that it a trash fire outside an abandoned factory which the fire department fortunately quickly put out.

On the way home, we stopped at Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen (aka Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits). It is located in a Travel Centers of America off I-84. We both had the chicken tenders combo which includes a biscuit (yum). He got Cajun fries while I got red beans and rice. With the leftovers, Richard had enough for another meal (which he wrapped up and took home).

All in all it turned out to be a nice Father's Day with my son, Richard.

3B

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy for the past several weeks (months?) that I have not had much chance to do this blog. I am going to try to do a bit of catch up the next few days so check to see what has been added. I will be backdating items to the time period when they happened.

I am kind of frustrated because Blogger "updated" its format and made it incompatible with IE9. Therefore, I had to install Google Chrome in order to continue this blog.

Chaos to Creation

During this past week, I have had to drive nearly 2-1/2 hours (each way) to get to the project I am working on. After my morning rosary, that leaves a lot of time. This past week I listened to a series of 12 programs (~hour each) regarding Paul McCartney's 2005 album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

I do not have this album; didn't buy it at the time and have never heard it. Although I was once a "Beatles-aholic", the pressure of trying to collect all the songs wore me down and I stopped. This became easier to do as McCartney's work became more and more sappier.

However, I found this series of documentaries on a music blog and figured I'd explore it. I can't say that I listened to every minute. I skipped past some interviews. There are only so many times you can listen to the same story about a lousy song. Macca has fallen into the trap of so many old pop stars: pursuit of interesting chords rather than focusing on song and lyric development.

A couple of items I found interesting:

• This album was released about a year before Macca's marriage to Heather Mills went sour. Since he spent so much time touring, I wonder how that affected his marriage. And since he is still touring (at 70 years old!) I wonder how that will affect his 3rd marriage.
• While most of the programs dealt with the album, the last few programs shifted toward his touring. Most of the songs he played on tour were old Beatles tunes; he only played four (4) from the new album. Somehow this doesn't set right with me. I think it dilutes the significance of those songs. Something is off kilter about a 60-something man performing songs he did in his 20s.
• Several of the songs seemed to be rewrites of Beatles songs. He explained that "Jenny Wren" is an attempt to duplicate the style of his Beatles-era song, "Blackbird." And it sounds it. Very derivative.
• Overall, Macca comes off as very decent person during these interviews. That is also his reputation. But again, I find it odd for someone so old to be acting so young. Several persons mentioned Dorian Gray when talking about McCartney. On the other hand, perhaps it is his vegetarian diet.

By the end of these 12 programs, I had had my fill of this album and am looking forward to a break from OLD Paul.

A Jubilee Celebration

Lynn's aunt, Sr. Pat, recently marked 50 years as a Roman Catholic nun in the Daughters of the Holy Spirit order. We were invited and made the trek to Putnam to support Sr. Pat.

The Mass was kind of interesting. First, I think the last time I attended a mass was Judy's funeral a couple years ago. The Jubilee mass was a formal mass (in the old days it would have been considered a "high" mass) and lasted nearly an hour and a half. This was also the first mass I attended since the RC church "updated" the liturgy. "And with your Spirit." The opening hymn was in Latin (with no English translation) and the closing hymn was in French (again, with no English translation) since the DHS main HQ is in France.

Because it was a rather formal occasion, decent clothes were required. Lynn had a quandary because she had to find a dress to wear. Clothes shopping is not an easy task these days. Sr. Pat also had the same dilemma of purchasing a dress (no habits for the modern nuns). In the end, I think we looked rather presentable (note how tall Richard is!).

I was rather anxious about the whole affair because we knew we were going to encounter Lynn's two sisters who have been estranged from us since Judy's funeral. The estate is still not completely settled. I was concerned that a scene might occur but everyone kept their cool and it turned out good for Sr. Pat.