mysid

Just saw an ad for Pirates of the Caribbean. Loved hearing Captain Jack saying, "Oh bugger." I'll put Pirates on my "see this movie this summer" list. And it reminded me:

I was talking to my new-ish neighbors the other day. Up until recently, they lived in the Los Angeles area. We were discussing movies, and they mentioned that they had gone to the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. They said that of all the celebrities, Orlando Bloom was the only nice one who talked to the fans, shook hands, etc. I thought some of you'd like to know.

You MUST go, and you MUST bring tissues.

( Trying to go )

I held it together through most of the movie; I didn't start crying until Ennis got the last postcard. Then I just kept crying and crying. I could hear sniffling and sobbing throughout the theater, and I've NEVER heard that before. When the screen faded to black and the credits started to roll, no one moved. We all just sat there stunned. Slowly, some people gathered themselves together and began to leave. A man behind me joked, "I don't think John Wayne would have made that movie." When I finished wiping my eyes and stood to leave, the man in front of me was still crying, and the male couple to my left were just sitting together quietly.

I think I felt the real impact later. I couldn't sleep all night. I lay there thinking about Jack and Ennis, and the hours rolled on until it was dawn.

Liver transplant-- My daughter finally asked about the green ribbon I'm wearing (and the matching magnetic one on my car). I explained (in simple terms) what organ donation/transplantation is. After asking if she would need a new liver, and hearing, "Yes, eventually you will," she said, "OK, can I have dessert now?" We meet with the liver transplant team for more info at the end of the month.

Alexander-- I really, really, really wanted to see the movie. I wanted to be free to drool over Hephaistion/Alexander/Bagoas in all their slashy goodness, and after my dh hated Troy, I didn't think he would apprciate sitting through this movie (especially after the bad reviews), so I made tentative plans to leave him at home and go to the movie with my neighbor. Unfortunately, her schedule and mine didn't coincide, so we kept putting it off another week. Finally, I decided to go alone--only to discover it had been pulled early from all the local movie theaters. I'm so disappointed.

The Charioteer-- This is my latest reading obsession. I simply cannot put this book down. If you aren't familiar with this Mary Renault title, it's the best of her contemporary-era fiction (set in WWII and written just after) and the last book she wrote before switching to writing historical fiction. It's been described by reviewers as, "The best book in the English language to come out of World War II," and "One of the three seminal books on homosexuality written in the 1950's."

( To whet your appetite for more... )

Of course, there is something to be said for rereading a book multiple times; it took until my fourth or fifth reading to realize why Ralph grew a beard--and it wasn't just a plot device so Laurie wouldn't recognize him at Dunkirk.

The Charioteer has infected my brain so throughly, that I've actually started writing a HP/Charioteer crossover. I've made Laurie and Ralph (in their later years) neighbors of young Remus. I'm almost up to the first time they meet Sirius.