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Evening of Felicitous Bliss
Apr. 8th, 2002 01:15 pmMe, not much for the daily minutia of life. ("Got home. Watched Smackdown, played some Asheron's Call. Slept. Woke. Looked for work.") Except actually I'm off Asheron's Call... but this is really a movie review, so it's OK. Informational, and all.
Thus: last night I toddled up to San Francisco, to meet Jamie for an undetermined movie. I arrived at Gamescape post-Warhammer 40K CCG tournament, which Joe Ganis unsurprisingly had won. They had Hero 5th! So I bought that. Joe, Jamie, and I then took ourselves to an Ethiopian wine bar for beers. Um. That last may require some explanation; it's a club that serves just wine and beer and looks a lot like a bar, with occasional art shows and I guess music. But they were told it would help them get a liquor license to serve food, and the owner is Ethiopian, so you can also get food there.
Much to our surprise, a political rally started about half an hour after we arrived. The owner would like to be able to stay open till after midnight, and the city is jerking him around. So we listened to some conversation about supporting his effort to get his license extended, and got free food and beer for our efforts. I will now feel obligated to show up at the hearing -- small price to pay for free dinner.
There was a movie review promised somewhere in here, right? Right. Post-dinner Jamie and I set off to the wilds of Oakland and the Parkway Theater, a nice little two-screen theater which serves beer and pizza. It's awesome. Our tickets were five bucks, they have couches to sit on while you're watching the movie, and the owners do a little "here's what's playing this week" reel before the previews. If they were the kind of film geeks who show tons of cool movies instead of second run Hollywood flicks, it'd be perfect. But they aren't.
Still, we did get to see Halle Berry and Billy-Bob Thornton turn in awesome performances. It's a little bit like the evergreen Hollywood classic, Emotional Cripples Make Good, but enough not like it to please me greatly. The pacing is very slow, very deliberate, and the plot is overadorned with coincidence. But the acting is excellent. Recommended.
Thus: last night I toddled up to San Francisco, to meet Jamie for an undetermined movie. I arrived at Gamescape post-Warhammer 40K CCG tournament, which Joe Ganis unsurprisingly had won. They had Hero 5th! So I bought that. Joe, Jamie, and I then took ourselves to an Ethiopian wine bar for beers. Um. That last may require some explanation; it's a club that serves just wine and beer and looks a lot like a bar, with occasional art shows and I guess music. But they were told it would help them get a liquor license to serve food, and the owner is Ethiopian, so you can also get food there.
Much to our surprise, a political rally started about half an hour after we arrived. The owner would like to be able to stay open till after midnight, and the city is jerking him around. So we listened to some conversation about supporting his effort to get his license extended, and got free food and beer for our efforts. I will now feel obligated to show up at the hearing -- small price to pay for free dinner.
There was a movie review promised somewhere in here, right? Right. Post-dinner Jamie and I set off to the wilds of Oakland and the Parkway Theater, a nice little two-screen theater which serves beer and pizza. It's awesome. Our tickets were five bucks, they have couches to sit on while you're watching the movie, and the owners do a little "here's what's playing this week" reel before the previews. If they were the kind of film geeks who show tons of cool movies instead of second run Hollywood flicks, it'd be perfect. But they aren't.
Still, we did get to see Halle Berry and Billy-Bob Thornton turn in awesome performances. It's a little bit like the evergreen Hollywood classic, Emotional Cripples Make Good, but enough not like it to please me greatly. The pacing is very slow, very deliberate, and the plot is overadorned with coincidence. But the acting is excellent. Recommended.
