2008-03-30

Sunday! It was truly a day of rest for Mick, Melissa and me. Jim brought us back goodies for breakfast, Sausage McMuffins for Mel and me and a sweet treat of cinnamon buns for the Mick. We indulged in the delicious fast food, our weekly ritual, while we devoured the big Sunday paper. Then we shared Morning Offering, after which Mick cleaned house while I had chapel time and wrote my journals and Mel worked in the office.

Melissa found a DVD in German, the English translation to the title of which is Base: New Berlin. Someone at the International UFO Congress must have given us this. If you did, please write me so I can give you proper credit as a donor to the L/L Special Library.

With lunch came our first film, an excellent directorial debut by Casey Affleck titled Gone Baby Gone. Affleck also played the protagonist, a complex and well-nuanced private investigator who seeks to do the right thing in a world gone terribly wrong. It is an oft-played theme, but this rendering of it was fresh and compelling. Amy Ryan’s performance as a drug-soaked mother was absolutely fascinating, endlessly subtle and at the same time daringly brash. Michelle Monaghan was very good as Affleck’s business partner and wife and Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris were beautifully cast and likewise excellent as policemen with secrets.

Our second film was a cute and slight romantic comedy, I Could Never be Your Woman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd as the older woman/younger man couple. It was a good contrast to the tense and mysterious atmosphere of the previous film, and very enjoyable. Tracey Ullman was just perfect as Mother Nature.

Melissa left for Avalon after the second film, and I went upstairs to play with recipes while Jim did some chores which were on his mind, getting equipment ready for tomorrow and re-doing his list of handy telephone numbers for his truck. Then we started to watch Beowulf, but its computer-generated look and the constant, over-the-top gore let us know that we were many generations away from being the target audience for this film! So we spent the rest of our Sunday evening enjoying a CSI block which, while equally gory in its way, had the redeeming features of good and well developed characters, intelligent interaction and wit.

I offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.