Weekend

I have, of late, been titling my posts and writing (somewhat) more formally and focused, but today let me just ramble. We did a yard sale Saturday morning, part 2 of one we did a fortnight ago. Both sales were at our friends, since they are getting rid of stuff too, and they have a yard. The first one went well enough, but the 2nd one scared up little interest. Odd. And it was, as we say hereabouts, pissa cold: upper 30s as the day began, and some kind of serious wind. The sky was cloudless and the world was electric with the first strong feel of autumn, but we froze. Selah.

Beth worked that night, and Erin was immersed in a computer problem, so I watched Fantastic Four. I already ‘saw’ the movie, the quotes indicating that portions of the movie were missed due to intrusion of the sleep function. It is not a bad movie, it fulfills what it is, but it is not top of the class for superhero flicks. Let me count the ways…

The cast is okay. Everyone looks and acts like they should, tho Reed Richards comes across as more of a doofus than I remember from the comics. I was not a fan of the comic. Seems to me, among Marvels of the time, I liked Spiderman and Thor more.

Comics, and the resulting movies, spend way too much time explaining the super powers. And Marvel went that one further by applying halfassed psych re the pain of superherodom. Comics did/do not tend to have the tensile strength to support such inflection, so it all comes across as an awkward potpourri.

Plotwise, gotta have plot, our heroes plus their nemesis are in a space station that gets hit by a cosmic storm, and each mutates. Each mutation is different.

The Thing never made much sense. Is he a pile of rocks? How can he move, et cetera? As a challenge for make up artists he’s just a lot of worry.

Sue and Johnny Storm are both lively. Sue is played by Jessica Alba. This may be the only movie I have seen her in but, because she is such a brand name, I feel like I have been watching her movies for years. Read her as a toned down and saner Angelica Jolie. I got seven posters of her on my dorm wall, man.

I forget who plays Johnny Storm, but he has got it down. He’s brash and funny and Johnny Storm to a T. It seems like he should be better known, that I should know of more work by him, but I do not. I am willing to believe he is totally wasted (as I assume every actor in the movie is) in the GI Joe movie.

The movie rattles along well enough. It has all the needed elements, but lacks pizzazz. The Thing as outcast. Yawn. The love of Reed and Sue. Yawn. The terrifying revenge of Doctor Doom. Yawn. By the 3rd yawn, er well, I guess I dozed off. But it turns out our heroes did not need me: they defeated Doc Doom. Altho there is evidence that he will return. I do not really care. I just know that the physics and physiology of all of these heroes and villains needs more backbone, and I really do not buy Reed’s stretchiness. ‘Nuff said!

Today, perfecter than yesterday (less wind), we picked apples. I think we have been doing this for seven years now. I always thought it was one of those tiresome events that people feel they should enjoy but, in sooth, I love it. I love apple trees, I love apples, and autumn is the perfect time to be out and about. I took 250 pictures in the orchard, and ate 3 apples. Beth makes apple sauce, warms it, and puts it on cornbread. I make an apple pie thing. It is either Swedish or Norwegian apple pie (I do not use recipes much anymore) and consists of sliced apples covered with a mixture of flour, lots of sugar, lots of butter, walnuts and cinnamon. It is good stuff. Apples are good.

We got some cheese, Taleggio, and opened a bottle of Nackenheimer Kronenberg Kabinett, a German wine, and Erin had Whole Food’s Pomegranate Italian soda, whatever they call it (delicious). Beth’s birthday was yesterday, so this was part of that. A few pictures on Facebook, but you have to be my friend.