Sunday, January 22, 2017

New Beaches

Did you love Beaches?  The old one, from the 80s?

Well there's only one Divine Miss M.
But I gotta admit I loved Idina's version too.  More than I expected to.  And I feel like she and all the everyone involved loved it and wanted to remind us of all the best parts not necessarily by doing them just the same (Otto Titsling, of which I know every word, was entirely missing), but by telling the story and throwing themselves into the characters and sometimes doing all their acting just with their eyes because the story runs deep enough that eyes are all you need.

Twice I said "ooh, I'm adopting that":

the toast after CC's off-Broadway premiere:
To the right group of people
At just the right time.

& Hillary's bedtime affirmation with her daughter, a call-and-response:
Dream big & broad...
...& wide & beautiful!

And I love-love-loved Idina singing Wind Beneath My Wings and I'll Stand By You and The Glory of Love.  If this whole movie was a great big advert for Idina's latest album, it worked on me.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Ice sports


Me (from the other room): What are you watching?
Big Frog: Well, it was curling, but now it's ice skating. 
Me (entering the room, where a purple and spangled skater is gliding across the tv screen):  I know what you mean, and you stated it very clearly, but my version is better.  In my mind, the curler let go the rock and decided, "I think I'm gonna do a triple toe, right now."


photo from Yee-union Calgary, 2011.  "Curling is the lifeblood of our country" ~quoted from the Sports Hall of Fame at Calgary Olympic Park



Similarly, I told another friend recently about road stories: when you see something interesting, everyone has to tell a story about what they're carrying and what they're going to do with it.  There are separate categories for reasonable accuracy ("yeah, that makes sense"/"I suppose you're right") and absurd creativity.  This can be implemented when you see an oddly shaped bundle on the back of a pickup, or a car packed to the gills, or a product placement tractor trailer, but it's most fun when there's something truly unexpected on the roads, like in her particular case, a pair of massive turbines.  Or one time I was followed thru Harrisburg by the Kissmobile.