A Zero Dark Thirty Day

If you happened to watch the national news, then you know how cold we had it in California today. I could tell it was cold outside when I woke up, but I really didn't think too much about it.  I had a shower, a cup of coffee, a container of Greek God's yogurt, and I settled in to watch the Sunday morning news shows and spent a nice hour online with T.R., during which I ordered a pair of books for my Kindle - Tenth of December (a collection of short stories) and Sky Above, Great Wind (a collection of zen poetry).

From there, I headed out to meet Tony for breakfast, a few errands, some box shuffling, and then we went to see Kate Bigelow's new movie, the controversial Zero Dark Thirty, starring the immensely talented Jessica Chastain. Now, I will tell you, I think there is a great movie in the hunt for UBL, but, unfortunately, this wasn't it.  There were two problems - first, there was a lack of narrative structure - the movie felt like a series of vignettes strung together.  Then, second, it would have benefited from a far more aggressive hand on the editing machine - it simply ran on too long in many scenes.

I think that is a risk that happens with directors and authors when they become very successful.  They get the ability to successfully resist or disregard the advise of their editors - and we, as the reading or watching public, suffer.  All of that said, I did enjoy the movie, it was good - it just wasn't great.  (I was a huge fan of The Hurt Locker.)

From there, I came home, took a hot soaking bath, and then a short nap and now I've settled in to watch the Golden Globes.  Which I can do while multitasking.

I did watch a surprisingly good little piece of film last night - the SyFy Channel's mini-series "Riverworld".  I'd watched it when it originally aired, but I was not terribly impressed at the time.  Last night I watched it on DVD and I basically watched all three hours continuously.  It was pretty good in that format and I would recommend it as a nice, user friendly, bit of Science Fiction - though of course, the classic novel is a source of constant amazement,

About The Winter Sun

I snapped the previous picture this morning, sitting on the Leigh Avenue, looking toward the south-east. The sun was a diffuse whiteness against the stormy winter sky and I snapped the photo with my Blackberry. It turned out well I think. A lot of times photographs are like that - the subject is only there for a fleeting moment and if you don't have your camera, all that remains is the memory. Memory is, I think, the perfect photograph. All other photography is a pale imitation of memory.

It was a nice day. I started the day with T.R., then went from there to breakfast with my friends T. and B. at the Hickory Pit. My breakfast was a green chile omelet and an almond danish. (Actually, I ate half of the almond danish at breakfast.) After breakfast, we drove down to Summit Uniform on Meridian so T. could replace his work boots, then from there, over to AMC 14 in Saratoga to see "I Am Number Four".

The movie was enjoyable, if a little heavy on the teen angst for me, but it was well done and entertaining. It was a beautifully shot movie, so kudos to the directory of photography. After the movie I went to a shoe store and then a sporting good store looking for a pair of urban hiking boots. My old pair of boots was about a half a size too small for my foot, with the insert. Neither store had my size - 11 Wide. I may try another store, but then I may just resort to ordering a pair via the web.

Following that, I came home and settled in for a lazy and rainy afternoon. I watched an episode of Dateline, I watched an episode of Fringe, and now I am watching an episode of Bones as I write this. Lunch was chicken noodle soup and a ham sandwich and dinner was a cup of Greek God's yogurt and the second half of the almond danish.

Oh, I almost forgot the long hot bath that occupied part of the afternoon. It was excellent. Today was a good day, the very quiet afternoon was exactly what I needed and sliding into the very quiet evening is also very much desired and enjoyed.