Old Movies...

I have spend many lazy Sunday mornings this rainy spring watching old movies on AMC and TMC. Some great, some forgettable. A few I have seen recently that I totally recommend you rent:

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, the plot is bizarre and horrific and fascinating. A wealthy Southern matriarch, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), attempts to bribe a young psycho-surgeon (Montgomery Clift) from a New Orleans mental hospital into lobotomizing her niece, Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor). Violet wants the operation performed in order to prevent Catherine from defiling the memory of Violet's son Sebastian, who died in Spain the previous summer. Catherine witnessed Sebastian's mysterious death and it caused her to have a breakdown. Elizabeth Taylor is beautiful and intense and her breakdown scenes are amazing. The homosexual subtext is so well hidden (due to the censors of the time) that it look me a while to catch on to what Violet wants hidden.

Notorious (1946)
Spies! Nazis! Intrigue! Notorious woman of affairs... Adventurous man of the world!
Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious stars Ingrid Bergman as a party girl from Miami blackmailed into going undercover as a spy in Rio de Janeiro. Cary Grant plays the CIA agent working with her and Claude Rains as the Nazi she has to get close to. It has romance, drama and a champagne-fueled party so full of spy drama it's like an episode of Alias.

Gaslight (1944)
More drama with the wonderful Ingrid Bergman as she plays a newlywed returning home to London after 10 years away in Europe. Charles Boyer plays her manipulative husband who is trying to convince her she is going mad. It's like "Sleeping With the Enemy" without Julia Roberts' big hair. One fun bonus is a teenaged Angela Lansbury (in her first film!) playing a cockney housemaid.


From Here to Eternity (1953)
It won eight Oscars, and the acting is fabulous, but man the story is a downer! It follows the intertwining lives of Army men and their wives and girlfriends in Hawaii in the weeks leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. There is of course the famous love scene with Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr rolling around in the surf. Donna Reed was interesting to watch as a bitter prostitute looking for an escape. It is Montgomery Clift that makes the film worth watching - he is total hottie!

Starbucks addiction

While ordering my becoming-too-frequent-a-habit tall cafe latte from the starbucks near my grey cubicle, I asked the barista about the iced tea drinks, and apparently distracted her to the point of forgetting to put my order in the queue. After waiting 15 minutes and reading three pages of the NY Times I can't afford to purchase, I decide to ask what has become of my coffee. Ooops. So I got my latte for free and got a free drink ticket for my next visit. It has now become my plan to try to distract the barista every visit.

Road Trip - Denver, CO to Ohio

States driven through: Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
Miles driven: 1,400

The view for 1,000 miles.


We saw so many of these signs in Kansas it made me wonder how many hitchhiking escapes have been made.


We made it to St. Louis, MO to see the arch - and then there was a tornado and we had to take shelter in a Super 8 Motel for the night.



Oh, the heartland...

Road Trip - Denver, CO

States driven through: Colorado
Miles driven: 75
Drove North to Denver to spend a couple days with our friend Brad. We had an incredible meal at his parents house, with amazing wine. It was great to catch up. We also went bowling, of course...



White Russians and bowling.

Road Trip - Colorado Springs

G and I spent two days in Colorado Springs, visiting one of my friends from college. We enjoyed catching up over huge amounts of BBQ and a few beers. We went to the Garden of the Gods park, which was amazing. These pics don't do it justice. It's a must-see if you're ever in the area.





"Look! More Rocks!"

Road Trip - Omaha, NE to Colorado Springs, CO

States driven through: Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado
Miles driven: 613



Driving across the entirety of Nebraska and Kansas is a total immersion into rural America. It is miles upon miles of farmland. Not the small farms of the past, but huge spreads of agribusiness, growing things like HB-175 GB 12. Whatever that is.
I kept my eyes peeled for yummy Skeet Ulrich types a la Jericho, but sadly the real Kansas seemed thick with the same tubby midwesterners as the rest of middle america.

Road Trip - Omaha, NE

We arrived in Omaha around midnight, having left the Hillary rally in Iowa far too late. We were spending a few days with my aunt and uncle, relaxing in the mellow city of Omaha. My mother lived here for the last decade of her life, so I spent many summers here and I enjoyed rambling through the city again.


We were forced to pose like this!