Blades of Glory (Widescreen Edition)

Drake and I are never up on the latest movies--and we have a hard time getting the full value from our rock-bottom Netflix plan (the one they offered us when we tried to quit). We go to so much music (symphony, opera, ballet) that it pretty much fills our leisure hours.

Last night we finally watched Blades of Glory, which had Drake laughing so hard his face looked oddly sunburned by the end of it (we assumed, anyway, his red face was from laughing). I was a semi-serious figure skater growing up... though that was in the Peggy Fleming era--not quite so flamboyant as it is now.  (In fact, I remember reading that her mother made the skating outfit she wore at the 1968 Olympics.)

My mom would have loved Blades of Glory (she was a big figure skating fan and had a great sense of humor).

For a look back at figure skating, here is a beautiful performance by Peggy Fleming in the 1968 World Championships:

Peggy Fleming 1968 world Championships

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Tristan and Isolde

We watched this last night - very moving interpretation of the Tristan and Isolde legend. We know this story from the Wagner opera of course, but also recently we've been listening to the Teaching Company's lecture set on Arthurian legend (I'd link to it, but I can't seem to find it on the Teaching Company site - we check these lectures out of our library.)

I've had the DVD for the movie from Netflix for quite a while, but we wanted to wait to see it until after we heard the Teaching Company lecture on Tristan.

The movie seems true to the medieval period and the story is told in a realistic fashion (minus the love potion). Here is the review from Kenneth Turan.

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Joshua Bell ~ Bernstein - West Side Story Suite

My absolute favorite movie in high school was West Side Story. I saw it originally for some class (I can't remember which now - maybe English when we were studying Romeo and Juliet). I subsequently watched it on at least two other occasions at school by arranging viewings in our school library (this was pre-VCR). I also kept a keen eye out for any television broadcasts of it.

The music, the drama, the dancing - I loved every second of this movie!

Last night, Drake and I watched it - amazingly, Drake had never seen it. Racial stereotyping aside, it is just a masterpiece of American musical theater.

Though I love the original soundtrack, for pure listening pleasure apart from the movie, William David Brohn's West Side Story Suite for violin and orchestra can't be beat. Three cheers for Joshua Bell going into "crossover" territory with this. It's too bad Bernstein had regrets of being best-known for this music. I think it's one of the greatest 20th century works and I love Brohn's arrangement of it.

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Who killed?

We are trying to make lemonade from lemons this weekend - so yesterday's little luxury was catching a matinee of Who Killed the Electric Car? followed by a couple of butter-pecan ice cream cones. Mmmmm.

Who Killed the Electric Car? is clearly selling a point of view and my first impulse after seeing it was to search out some alternative perspectives on what happened. Still, it was interesting, entertaining, and timely. It got me thinking about plug-in hybrids. As city dwellers, Drake and I are perfect candidates for an electric vehicle. The only reason we don't own a hybrid is that we have a perfectly good (paid-for) 1994 SAAB with very low miles (less than 40K). I hope by the time we do need to replace the SAAB, a plug-in hybrid will be an option.

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The Poseidon Adventure

I am just finishing up a project for a major cruise line. As a result, for the past few weeks I have been immersed in all things cruise. I've never been on a cruise, so I spent a fair amount of time researching what the cruise experience is like.

On Friday, The Poseidon Adventure arrived from Netflix (not the recent remake, the original 1972 version). This was another random arrival from our queue. So we watched it Friday night. The scenes prior to the capsize are uber-corny and dated, but the bulk of the movie (10 survivors making their way through the upside-down ship) is exciting, sometimes touching, and sometimes funny. Surprisingly good really - I saw it when it first came out but remembered nothing about it. Today I was preparing my final report for the cruise company and kept thinking... (singing) There's got to be a morning after...

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Chariots of Fire

We aren't very attentive to our Netflix queue. Both Drake and I add things to it, but we almost never go in and organize it. So, movies pop-up with a kind of randomness. On Thursday, Chariots of Fire landed in our mailbox - a funny coincidence given my race tomorrow. So we watched it last night. We've been running in slow motion (humming the theme song) every since. OK, well not quite. Still that theme song seems to have real sticking power.

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An Inconvenient Truth

We saw this over the weekend. Loved it, though I suspect some fine points regarding the data presented were overlooked. It's true, for example, that China has higher mileage standards than the US, but it's also true that they have had almost no emission controls on vehicles until very recently.

Unfortunately, the inconvenient truth is that the folks that really need to hear the message about global warming will never go see this movie. Like our neighbor - a single guy who drives a GMC Yukon. Our car looks like a go-cart next to it.

Still, I think the movie is bringing attention to the issue. And, where the heck was this Al Gore in the 2000 campaign? There is no fighting here to overcome a stiff presence - he's naturally relaxed, enthusiastic and compelling.

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Grey Gardens - Criterion Collection

We watched this last night. I'm not sure what to think of it.  While I was watching it, it gave me a slight headache - too much yelling and simultaneous dialog (more like simultaneous monologue). It seem exploitive, as well, of two vulnerable people with some real mental health issues. Yet, today, the movie is still on my mind. I guess it's made me think about how life can have such unexpected outcomes. And how grateful we should be for the present.

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