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estella hal tetsuro Unlike the past three days the sun wasn't there when I opened the blinds. Even with the wind chill I had grown used to seeing that cold sky blue when I looked out the window. Today offered more of a mottled winter gray that I had not missed. ... In yet another sign that I am getting older or maybe just more and more out of touch with pop culture, I had no idea who Carson Daly was interviewing last night on his show Last Call. She was young, attractive and very talkative. None of this helped take away the mystery for me. Carson said that she had been a synchronized swimmer and then a model, but neither of those clues helped me either. Then she went on to describe how she made the transition to acting and some of the movies that she was in and it was at that point that I knew why she was unknown to me. One of breakthrough roles was in the new version of Planet of the Apes, which I have not seen and probably never will. The original with Heston was pitiful enough for me except for his famous cry at the end, which always makes me laugh. Now having said all of that I still sat through the entire interview with Estella Warren wondering why she couldn't do something worthwhile on the big screen. She seemed bright enough and mentioned that a new film of hers was being shown at Sundance, but I could be wrong. ... After returning the New Zealand guidebook at the library, I checked out two more Shakespeare plays on DVD. This time I went with a history play and a tragedy instead of a comedy and a tragedy. It's been years since I've either read or seen Henry IV Part II, so I was happy to find that I recognized more than a few characters. Obviously I knew Hal and Falstaff, but I also remembered Bardolf and Mistress Quickly and vaguely remembered Poins. So far I've made it through the first three acts, but almost all of what I saw was new to me. I had no memory of Falstaff and Bardolf doing some recruiting and other scenes were just as vague to me. Some of the dialogue was familiar, but many of the scenes weren't but I guess that that isn't that unusual. One can quote something out of context quite easily and I imagine that that happens with Shakespeare all of the time. Falstaff has already uttered his line about the chimes at midnight, but what really caught my attention was the speech by Henry IV at the beginning of Act III. O God! that one might read the book of fate,
I am always a sucker for that kind of melodrama with some truth in it. Besides the two plays, I also took home three books even though I have a stack at home that I have yet to read. One of them was another guidebook about New Zealand so I can excuse that one, but the other two were novels. ... After the library I made a stop at the mall and was surprised again at the number of people that were there in the middle of the day on a Friday. Either a number of schools had off due to the cold weather or there must have been parent teacher conferences. As far as I was concerned there were far too many high school students lingering around. Yes, once again I am starting to sound old. I do and I don't understand the connection between malls and high school students. It gives them a place to hang out and spend money, but even when I was that age it was not something that I ever did. Usually we hung out at a friends place like they do on That 70's Show or we'd be driving around looking for something to do. Maybe I was missing out on something, but I've never know now. The reason that I was at the mall was to get a birthday present for Nicole. I knew what I was going to get and made my way through the small crowds of teens that were gathered at the entrance to the store. Once inside I was convinced that it was mother and teenage daughter shopping day. There were pairs of them everywhere and the line at the cash register was far longer than I had expected. Suddenly I wished that I had got what I wanted when I was there last week spending the gift certificate. After some thought, I decided to stay and took my place in line behind the one of many low rise jeans clad girls in the As I was standing there patiently waiting, I heard what had to be the new Erasure cover of the Peter Gabriel song Solsbury Hill. I didn't mind it except for the fact that it was pulsing through my entire body at a volume that in my opinion was much too loud. No one else seemed to mind and or care. Eventually Michael Nesmith at the counter seemed to realize that maybe he needed someone else to help him with the customer overflow and went to get his sidekick. He had been dealing with one of the mother and daughter teams as they attempted to make a return. On a side note, I can never quite understand the appeal of the knit cap pulled down to the eyebrows. It didn't look good when The Monkees did it years ago and I still don't get it today. Okay, it does look good on certain women, but for men if makes me wonder when they last washed their hair. Once again this may be another sign of old age taking over. ... On the music front I've been dividing my time between Leona Naess and Aimee Mann. |