Mr. the Toad
Jul. 18th, 2001 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupMrs. Sanpaku and I went to Elm Bend park in Wellesley tonight. It's a spooky ole place-- home to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. It has a huge 18th century mansion that's inexplicably all boarded up. And a beautiful formal garden, next to enormous statues lying on the ground. As my mother in law says, good dream material. Anyway, Mrs. S. caught a toad the size of a dime and brought him home. We are slowly going through the entire animal kingdom: so far we've had praying mantids, mice, butterflies, turtles, a fish, cats, and the dog.
We went to see Legally Blonde last night. Argh. Reminded me again why I do not go to movies that I don't think I'll like based on the snooty reviews I read. It was so predictable and manipulative and unfunny and awful... with movies, they're so unbelievably and shamelessly manipulative. When a movie is good otherwise, you let it go, but when it's not any good at all... I felt literally nauseous by the end. After about 20 minutes I just kept praying for the thing to be over with.
The whole concept of situation comedy is mind-boggling, when you think about it. "Okay, these two black kids live with a rich white guy in his apartment..." "Well, you have this robot, and it's like a kid, but it lives with a normal family..." "There's this guy and he lives with two girls, but they DON'T sleep together..." Watching this movie just reminded me of that Saturday Night Live sketch, something like "Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer," which was itself a parody of the whole concept of situation comedy: "I'm just a cave man, but even I know my client is innocent!" That was the whole film, again and again. She's blonde! And in law school! And even at that films like that can sometimes be entertaining if they are willing to take a risk or two, but every damn moment thudded to the ground.
I am not doing much with myself except playing a lot of bridge and working a great deal. But I will be going to see my old school chum Richie in Oregon in a few weeks, which is good.
We went to see Legally Blonde last night. Argh. Reminded me again why I do not go to movies that I don't think I'll like based on the snooty reviews I read. It was so predictable and manipulative and unfunny and awful... with movies, they're so unbelievably and shamelessly manipulative. When a movie is good otherwise, you let it go, but when it's not any good at all... I felt literally nauseous by the end. After about 20 minutes I just kept praying for the thing to be over with.
The whole concept of situation comedy is mind-boggling, when you think about it. "Okay, these two black kids live with a rich white guy in his apartment..." "Well, you have this robot, and it's like a kid, but it lives with a normal family..." "There's this guy and he lives with two girls, but they DON'T sleep together..." Watching this movie just reminded me of that Saturday Night Live sketch, something like "Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer," which was itself a parody of the whole concept of situation comedy: "I'm just a cave man, but even I know my client is innocent!" That was the whole film, again and again. She's blonde! And in law school! And even at that films like that can sometimes be entertaining if they are willing to take a risk or two, but every damn moment thudded to the ground.
I am not doing much with myself except playing a lot of bridge and working a great deal. But I will be going to see my old school chum Richie in Oregon in a few weeks, which is good.
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I love those Mr. The Toads!
Date: 2001-07-19 11:39 am (UTC)Also: Oregon is excellent. What part? The Oregon coast is the best place I've ever been. So so beautiful, and the whole coast is Public land. (!) No sir, you may not own (and fence off) the beach in Oregon!
Lucky you.