Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Vacation, What Vacation?

Memorial Day Weekend was one event after another. We were invited to two birthday parties, one "great to see you in L.A. for the weekend" party, and went to one touring Broadway show and one blockbuster film showing. Exhaustion canceled out one of the birthday parties, but we managed everything else.

"The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" was an absolute delight. There was a bit of me in most of the characters on stage (except for the spelling part--I can spot misspelled words but I've always had a unique approach to spelling, as one of my college profs put it), so I was hard pressed to side with only one character to win. My husband had his Broadway debut last year as one of the guest spellers, but I wasn't on that trip. If you live in Southern California, it is definitely worth seeing with the original Broadway cast at the Wadsworth Theatre on the VA hospital grounds during the next month while it is here.

We finally got to see "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" on Monday morning at a 10 a.m. show. We figured we could get there and get good seats and then still have the rest of the day for other important things (like taking care of the Arabian Prince.) Our friends Ted and Terry have written an action-packed and entertaining film with one of the most heroic women characters since they put a sword in the hands of Catherine Zeta Jones in the first of the recent Zorro films. Ted and Terry pointed out that it isn't Will Turner on the hero's journey in Pirates, it's Elizabeth Swan.

I've been a fan of Keira Knightly's since "Bend it Like Beckham." I'm told she's also a Padme body double in the first/fourth "Star Wars" film, but she made no impression. (Let's face it, only Liam Niesson and Ewen MacGreggor did because they were able to transcend George Lucas' inability to direct live actors.) I even liked her in the ill-reviewed "King Arthur." She does know how to handle a sword, which is a good skill for most women.

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