Saturday George, Casey & I went to Medford to see Avatar. The noon show was sold out so we bought tickets for the 3:30 and repaired to the RoxyAnn winery for wine* tasting and cheese plate, then to Barnes and Noble. Barnes & Noble had a buy 2 get one free on paperbacks and I went away with a volume of Portrait of The Artist as an etc etc and The Dubliners in one volume; a collection of Emily Dickinson and a Willa Cather novel "My Antonia". I've never read any Willa Cather so I considered that my free mystery book**. And I have wanted the Joyce books. Cool. Great afternoon! I liked Avatar, but did not love it. WAAAY too long for a cliched and predictable plot. But I loved the visuals and liked the way the 3-D was used to enhance rather than scream boo like the 3d movies we saw as kids. It is, as Casey's friend said, an "archetypical" story line (which amused my sister and me). You might want to see it as I don't think it is going to be worth so much on the small screen (you know, the one in your house). Had a very nice dinner in Ashland.
* Our favorite was a Red Lily Tempranillo. (The winery makes its own Tempranillo but it was sold out. They didn't make very much.) I'd never heard of this Spanish varietal have you?
**But am now slogging my way through Claire Messud's "The Emperor's Children" --Have you read any of her novels? I read an article (of hers) in the NY Review of Books on an Iranian woman activist who had been imprisoned; it was a good article. But this book of fiction --I find her sentence structure exhausting -- precise (I think) , not convoluted, but certainly more complex than her (self absorbed rescue-seeking) characters deserve.
1 comment:
Re: Tempranillo - a Santa Barbara winery we used to go to made a tempranillo, and I hated it. I suppose I should give the varietal a chance, given that I think I've only tried that one winery's version.
My Antonia is one of my favorite books of all time. Good job with the mystery selection. I'm off to see if I can get it for my kindle.
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