It’s been a full summer so far and it’s only the beginning of July! We’ve done a lot already – from concerts and movies to traveling, brewery visits, fireworks, and fitness. There’s a lot more to come, too, with our trip to Chicago right around the corner. Still, it’s always hard to shake that feeling that the summer is slipping away. You look forward to nice weather and the beach all winter and the spring cold spells and then when it gets here – poof – it flies by. I haven’t even been surfing yet this year. The older I get, the later it seems I get out there. This summer there just haven’t been any waves yet, though. Hopefully I can get out there soon, so I can see just how old I am now. And how out of shape…
It’s been a summer of movies so far. Boy, we have watched a lot. Now that the kid is old enough to watch so many of the great classic movies, we’ve been putting her through a film appreciation class of sorts. We have finally been able to get through some of our favorite movies that we have told her about for so long. Add to that her recent fascination with horror films, and we’ve have quite the eclectic film festival. First there have been the visits out to the theater. Guardians of the Galaxy V2, Wonder Woman, and Cars 3. All a good time. Guardians – so funny and so perfectly a summer flick. Tracy finally getting to see her childhood favorite Wonder Woman in a movie. And the required Pixar fix going back to the Cars world.
Now for the Summer Film Festival. So far.
Carrie. The kid got to see what bullying was really like in high school back in the day. The mixture of horror, religious craziness, the 70’s, bullying, revenge, and a dash of John Travolta made this a great summer kick off.
Pulp Fiction. We’ve been wanting to watch one of our favorite movies with the kid for years. Mostly for all the often repeated references in our house, but also because of the movie making magic. It was all the obvious stuff in it that obviously kept it on the shelf. Obviously. But the teenager was ready – even though we had her close her eyes once or twice. It was so great getting to watch it, though, and she loved it. The music and humor, intensity and craziness, dancing and watches and choppers, and two cups of John Travolta. Oh, and Zed’s dead baby. Zed’s dead.
Rosemary’s Baby. The kid learned about this movie online and wanted to see it, so we jumped. None of us had ever seen it before. It was not the kind of thing my family watched when I was growing up and it always had this taboo cloud hanging over it in my mind. What an interesting experience. The ending wasn’t the greatest, but the getting there was fascinating. I’d always been interested in The Dakota in NYC since reading Time and Again and, of course, from John Lennon’s death. I had no idea it played such a huge part in this movie, too. And Ruth Gordon was amazing as the crazy neighbor. Just mesmerizing. The whole 60’s style and politeness contrasting with all the weirdness of what was happening to Mia Farrow made it easy to see why it is such a classic.
The Exorcist. Well, after watching Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist had to be next, right? Another movie of polar contrasts. And the haunting score. The crazy scenes. And pea soup. And tumbling priests. That should be a band name. The Tumbling Priests.
There’s Something About Mary. After the last two movies it was time for something funny. This has always been one of the funniest movies we’ve ever seen. It was definitely the funniest we had never let the kid watch, so we added it to the list – even though we had to close her eyes again a couple of times. Or, I should say, she didn’t want to look a couple of times. Understandable. Even though there wasn’t even a smidgen of John Travolta in this one.
The Descent. This was a request by the kid. She had found out about it from somewhere and it fit into her horror theme. It also got a high rotten tomato score and was streaming for free, so it was next on our long march into insanity. It’s a girl power film! Even though they all pretty much die. Caving, and underground redneck creatures, and British badass females. What’s not to like?
Braveheart. The epic! We’ve been threatening the kid for months that we need to watch the hair and kilt fest together. Even the boy she likes told her she needed to see it. That put it next in the fest. Even though all these primitive Scots had perfectly straight, white teeth, and even though we learned that when shot with an arrow all you need to do is break the end part off to recover fully, Braveheart remains a top favorite guilty pleasure. Kind of like Titanic in kilts.
Psycho. Back to the horror. But at least it’s the all-time classic of horror, and a great study of where all these movies came from. We were watching a show the other day that referenced Psycho and that piqued the kid’s curiosity. The next day she announced that she wanted to watch it that night. We figured, how often is she going to ask us to watch a classic black and white movie? Again, an amazing ride. From the opening story of theft and running away to the epic pulling up to the Bates Hotel and meeting Norman. The what-must-have-been-extremely-shocking scene in 1960. The mother and Norman’s eyes. The kid guessed what was happening about 10 minutes before we found out and then was taking bows all night for her smartness.
Scream. Well, after all the scary movies on the list this summer we decided to check out the one that kind of ties them all together. Scream is scary, but also funny – with reference after reference to the movies above and all the others we have watched before. While being a horror movie, it also pokes fun at horror movies, and now has ended up as a classic itself.
Well, that’s it for now. There’ll be more the rest of the summer, of course. The kid wants to watch Bring It On tonight. Her and the mom have watched it a couple times, but I never have and they are excited to share. Before we go to Chicago in a week we want to watch The Untouchables with the kid – for that movie magic history lesson. There are a number of movies coming up at the theater that we might want to check out, along with continuing the Rocky series with Rocky 3. Who’s making the popcorn?
Simple changes.
Have you ever noticed how they can sometimes still make a big impact? We made a few little changes around the house recently of an inexpensive nature that have really made a difference in the home life. Silly little things. We got this absorbent mat for the counter next to the sink. No dish trying tray, just a soft mat for the counter that sucks the water into it and gives us a place to put cups and small items to dry after hand washing them. We have never had a rack or anything, so if we did hand wash something we dried it and put it away – which meant we usually put it in the sink to pile up for the dishwasher!
We’ve had this shower caddy hanging over our shower head for a million years. One the the suction cups got lost a while back so it would keep leaning to one side. It was caked with soup and rusting in places. We finally went out and got a new one. We wanted one that was a color, like red or blue, in order to spruce up the bathroom, but they don’t seem to exist. So we got a real nice new normal metal one. It has both suction cups, is sturdy and new, and actually makes the shower seem fresher. Like we are traveling and at a cool hotel or something. Omg. I need help…
The bathroom got another new item too! A colorful new floor mat! Exciting right? Well, this one has some kind of memory foam cushion, so it’s a comfy change from the hard tile floor when getting out of the shower.
Maybe we need more excitement in our lives…
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