A movie, a play, a lecture, and assorted chores, a.k.a. I'm not doing much better at titles than fic

In a twist of fate, or something, I only stayed for the first movie Friday night, Bes Vakit, and came home before Se, Jie (Lust, Caution)—"twist" because Se, Jie was the movie that made me want to sign up for the series to begin with. Even as I was walking from the center to the parking garage, part of me wanted to turn around and head back in. But I was really tired, and it was starting to snow, and it's a 40-minute drive home (not much in the grand scheme of things, but it's an unusual hike on Long Island to see a movie 25 miles away when you have everything you need in each town), and the movie wouldn't have ended until at least midnight, so I left. I'll just have to rent it, if I can find the uncut version. I watched SGA bleary-eyed when I got home and then slept 10 hours.

I enjoyed Bes Vakit (Times and Winds, Turkey, 2006, writ./dir. Reha Erdem), a.k.a. In Which Everyone Is Depressed Even Though The Country Around Them Is Beautiful. ( Read more... )

Saturday was the last astronomy lecture of the season, this time on the life cycles and classifications of the sun and stars. I remembered most of it from college—oh, fond memories of the 11-year butterfly sunspot cycle and main sequence diagram—but the lecturer was the best we'd had all "semester," and it was a pleasure listening to his presentation, which went along at a fine clip (for a change). Afterwards, it was clear and dark enough out to really focus on Saturn in the 14-inch telescope upstairs; that may have been the sharpest image of Saturn I've ever seen, even though it still looked like someone cut out a planet-and-ring shape in a piece of black cardboard and back-lit it. Two of the moons were visible, too. It was an especially nice treat after the bizarre cloud cover we'd seen on our way over a couple of hours earlier, when the sky had been clear to the south, brown to the north, and slate gray-blue straight ahead. When we parked, we had a sudden burst of snow in 39-degree weather with the sun shining brightly.


On Sunday, we went to see The Seafarer in the city. Much fun! We somehow landed front-row seats with same-day tickets, and so we found ourselves an arm's length from David Morse on many occasions, since the tiny coal stove was situated at stage right directly in front of us and it was his character's job to kneel down and keep it stoked. On several occasions, I could have reached out and poked him in the butt. Fortunately, I have well-developed impulse control.

( Spoilers for a play? )

Dropped out of sga_genficathon, sigh. Still on board for wilson_fest, in theory, though Monday's deadline is looking highly unlikely. Then it's get_house_laid and remixredux08 in April. I think I've settled on the story I want to remix. Next step, deciding what to do with it.

Great Performances: James Taylor is on PBS. I think this was on in a Starbucks I went to with moonlash_cc in December, and I'm glad to have the chance to listen to it. He's showing a home video of the boy behind "Sweet Baby James" and making jokes about not liking kids.

Waiting for tomato-barley soup to cool and laundry to dry. Need to pack for Atlanta (which I just mistyped "Atlantis") tomorrow evening, since Thursday's Rock 'n' Roll and I'm leaving from work for the airport on Friday. Thank goodness for a half-day that day. It's like being hung with lead weights every day there lately.