Tam's Think Tank

We had a great day yesterday.  Time spent hanging out with great friends, eating together, and going to see a couple of Academy Award winners we hadn’t seen.  I’m going to talk about that a little…

Black Swan…  Natalie Portman did do a fantastic job.  The whole film relies on her acting.  You have to be drawn in, wondering what is real, what isn’t, believing like she does that what’s happening is real.  Shocked to learn it isn’t, then still not sure, wondering.  It’s uncomfortable, disturbing, and at times horrific.  Three of us saw it together and were all covering up our eyes during certain scenes, peeking through our hands and fingers as grotesque and hard to watch things were happening on the screen.  I can’t decide if I liked this movie.  As I said, Natalie Portman’s performance was magnetic, compelling, and very very good.  I can see why she won.  It’s just that I don’t know if I liked the movie as a whole.  I’ve heard from others they thought it was depressing.  I didn’t get that.  Not depressing.  To me it was, I guess I’ll say it again, disturbing.  One of those films I’m glad I saw, but would never want to watch again.

Dragonfish…  A restaurant downtown we’d wanted to try for quite some time.  In between films we met up with the POD, as we call ourselves, to enjoy a nice late lunch.  The day’s plan was that whoever wanted to join for the first movie would join, we would then all go to lunch with whoever wanted to show up for lunch, and then whoever wanted to go to the second movie would go to that.  A sort of choose your participation day.  So, Dragonfish…  first, the service was terrible.  We couldn’t really figure out who our waiter was and whoever it was didn’t come over often.  S-L-O-W.  We weren’t too put out as we had tons of time, but still… it’s annoying.  Then the food… not terrible… just not great.  We had high expectations, had heard good things, but seriously… not stellar.  The company, fantastic as always, the food and the service… not so much.  We won’t be back.  None of us.

The King’s Speech…  Really really good.  It’s one of those films that’s both interesting and feel good.  Colin Firth was awesome in it, I don’t know how he got the stammer down the way he did, and the pain behind it.  Great acting.  And it was obvious to me why both the film and he won the Academy Awards.  It was also quite beautiful.  Loved the perspective in some of the scenes.  It was anything but slow and boring, as some people thought it might be.  Keeping our attention from beginning to end.  Just a fascinating film.  Who knew?

We said goodbye to the friends who’d seen the King’s Speech with us and then walked back up the couple blocks to the streetcar stop, just catching the train as we rounded the corner and ran up to it.  Nice timing.  It was a great day.  Any time you can spend several hours with people you love, respect, and enjoy it’s lovely.  Thanks guys for a wonderful day.