Oh! Mr. Tilney, how frightful! — This is just like a book!

Saturday morning we followed excellent directions given to us by a native New Yorker and fellow Pemberlian, and set out for the morning. On the way, we located the restaurant and the Park Avenue Christian Church, home of Theater Ten Ten. To our delight, the church was a Gothic edifice! Perhaps more Blaize Castle than Otranto, but still, very exciting.

We arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before the crowds and spent most of the day exploring its long passages and galleries, as our passion for ancient edifices and artifacts was next in degree to our passion for — well, you know. While we weren’t able to see all the exhibits, we chose favorites to linger over and briskly worked our way through several others. I was thrilled to find a collection of red figure vases by the Berlin and Achilles painters in the Greek and Roman galleries; Kelley’s must-see was George Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. We especially enjoyed the special exhibit titled Americans in Paris, 1860-1900.

By mid-afternoon the museum was getting crowded, so we left, walking several blocks south along Fifth Avenue, then turning around to walk back to 86^th Street through Central Park. We saw the viewing station for Pale Male, the Model Boat Pond, and took in the vast array of families, dog walkers, pedestrians, and cyclists. We took another loving look at the church — it was on the way, I promise — and hurried back to the hotel to meet the other Pemberlians and (hopefully) the Virtue Queen, who was making her way north from Times Square. | …continue reading NA fangirls geek out in GOTHam

Today was a holiday from school, so I went to the office with my dad for lunch. We had was fish fillets and onion rings. The fish was good but I didn’t like the onion rings. Then, we walked to the movies and watched Flushed Away. It is about a pet mouse named Roddy with dolls he’s living with. A sewer rat comes up the sink and flushes him down the toilet. While he’s falling down the drain, he sees Nemo. Then, he falls and finds another rat named Rita. Some other rats are looking for her ruby, which Roddy proves that it is a fake by hitting it on the boat. The Toad tries to freeze Roddy and Rita, but they escape and the other rats are frozen. Everywhere, there are singing slugs, and the little ones sing bass. The frog tries to repopulate the sewer with his children because he hates rodents. He will flood the sewer at halftime in the world cup. Roddy and Rita stop them and the sewer rat that flushed him stays at Roddy’s house watching the world cup.

I liked the movie, but I think it is a bit scary for little children. There were some funny things in it, and it is adventurous. Some parts of it were scary.

In this part of the world, Halloween is usually the week of our first frost, so the Things wear the warmest costumes we can find. Team Gimlet attends the annual Trunk or Treat in the church parking lot, where the adults guzzle hot cider to stay warm while the kids run from car to car (some elaborately decorated, some not), collecting about one ton of candy each (You think I’m exaggerating?). The Trunk or Treat is always a fun way to socialize, catch up with old friends and contract hypothermia at the same time.

Thing One usually requests a homemade costume (once he wanted to be Spaceman Spiff; another year, StrongBad) but this time he wanted to use a previous year’s knight costume, perhaps in homage to the computer game he plays with his uncles. Thing Two was a frog, in heavily insulated polar fleece. Stranger anxiety is always an issue with Thing Two, and the strangers were especially strange Halloween night, so he spent the evening on the verge of tears. Truly it’s not easy being green.

After the Trunk or Treat, we put Thing Two to bed and let Thing One stay up a little later than usual to watch F.W. Murnau’s classic film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922). This unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is justifiably praised for its use of imagery and unique portrayal of the vampire, Count Orlok. Werner Herzog’s very faithful 1979 remake is also one of my favorite films. Thing One was very interested in the special effects Murnau used to make the Count seem otherworldly.

Several editions are available; ours is distributed by Image Entertainment and features color tinting (blue for night scenes, sepia for day), a choice of two scores (organ or the eclectic Silent Orchestra), and a fascinating collection of production images and commentary by Lokke Heiss. A quick search turned up countless reviews and commentaries, and these two, by Jerry Saravia and the Silents are Golden web site respectively, are worth perusing.

Last, to finish off the holiday evening, I received a little treat in my email.

Trapped by the Mormons, a 1922 anti-Mormon/exploitation film now better appreciated for its unintentional campiness, is now available on DVD. Grapevine Video and Hale Video are selling the film accompanied by a new organ score and some interesting featurettes. (Aside: check out Grapevine’s collection of restored silent and other early films!)

The extra features include a documentary about the scoring of the film (and the Wurlitzer theater organ’s renovation); a discussion with Deseret Morning News and Salt Lake Tribune film critics about the history of the film; a full-length commentary by film historian James D’Arc; Thomas Edison’s 1905 short film, A Trip to Salt Lake City, also with new organ score; and the novel text for Winifred Graham’s The Love Story of a Mormon, the 1911 Mills & Boon novel from which Trapped was adapted.

So, what’s all the fuss about? | …continue reading Eek! Trapped … by the Mormons!

Editor’s note: Every summer, a local patent law firm hosts a “client appreciation” movie day. The firm, clients, and their friends and family are treated to an all-expenses-paid summer blockbuster matinee at Seattle’s landmark Cinerama Theatre — the tickets and all concessions are free of charge, plus attendees get goodie bags and other treats. Are patent lawyers just the coolest, or what? The Gimlet, Thing One, and Uncle B attended this year’s showing of Superman Returns.

The movie Superman Returns was a good movie. At the Cinerama Theatre, I got free treats, like a lunchbox with treats inside and also a Superman hat. The movie had scary and sad parts, but I would recommend it to my older cousins. The movie also has some funny parts. It was really cool when the bullet hit Superman’s eye and I also liked it when he pushed a big rock into space.

The movie Cars I watched today was great. Everything in the movie is a car, even the bugs. They’re Volkswagen bugs. My favorite part was when the army truck in Radiator Springs set up the flag with army bugle music and the Volkswagen bus, which was in his peace house, started Jimi Hendrix’s version of The Star Spangled Banner, and the army truck said, “Stop that disrespectful music!” I liked when the tow truck found and lost his hood in the end, and also in the end, when some cars were in jail. I’m soon going to see Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties!

Recommendations: I’d recommend this movie to my cousins. It’s a very good story and funny, too.

The Gimlet’s recommendations: Everyone in the family will love Cars, especially someone who is an old car buff. Paul Newman plays a Hudson. As with all Pixar films, you must stay through the credits for some great extra treats. However, I cannot share Thing One’s cheerful optimism about the Garfield sequel.

Last night we watched Kandukondain Kandukondain (aka I Have Found It), a Bollywood adaptation/modernization of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.

Technically KK is a Kollywood film because it was made in South India in the Tamil language (Bollywood being the Mumbai-based, Hindi language films). However, the DVD case identifies it as “Bollywood” no doubt for those of us who aren’t as familiar with the finer distinctions.

The Wikipedia entries linked above provide a nice summary of genre conventions, etc. so I’ll just add that KK is a lively, exotic approach to Austen’s classic story. The lavish song and dance numbers are fun. While the plot has been altered to accommodate Indian culture and a 21^st-century setting, KK stays true to the spirit of the original novel. The cast is excellent (and as the Gimlet notes, all the Bollywood actresses are beautiful).

The DVD may be available at a specialty rental store. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, the two biggies, don’t carry it. Netflix does, but without English subtitles. Scarecrow, of course, has it (gloat). We purchased our copy (distributed by Kino Video) through Amazon. It features optional English subtitles if your Tamil is rusty, song clips and music video montages.

A newer Austen/Bollywood hybrid is Bride and Prejudice, also starring Aishwarya Rai. It’s available at the major rental chains and, with the exception of the opening song/dance number, is entirely in English. This film, considered to be a Bollywood-lite movie targeting Western audiences, is good, frothy fun as well and more exuberant in tone than KK (much as Pride and Prejudice is a livelier, more sparkling read than Sense and Sensibility). Fans of Lost will enjoy seeing Naveen Andrews play a singing, dancing Mr. Bingley — and, as the Gimlet keeps pointing out, the actresses are all very pretty! Pre-blog, I reviewed B&P in detail and highly recommend it.

In short, Kandukondain Kandukondain is worth finding — as the titular song suggests, you’ll be glad you did.

P.S.: Thing One has several summer films on his wish list so he and the Gimlet will share their comments on those. They will see Pixar’s Cars later this afternoon.