Is like a week almost anywhere else. Which is probably why I needed a nap yesterday afternoon.

Friday-- Liz hosted poker in our living room and I stayed to play. Buy-in was $25 and no one was more surprised than me when I walked away with $28! Apparently I was ridiculous to see a $2 raise with only a 5 and a 6 in my hand, but it turned into a full house. Woo-hoo!

Saturday-- Spent the daylight hours playing games at a church. Fun and frolic put together by songlian.



Looked at my watch and realized I was 17 minutes late leaving for movies! Rush rush rush!



Was still there well before the movies. Due to strict nonLA upbringing, late for me is arriving less than 10 minutes before the movie starts. Noir Festival at Graumann's featuring one film set in NY and another in LA every night to contrast the two cities. Cool.

9. The Big Knife-- bugsy_siegel and I both wanted this on DVD by the time the credits were running. Jack Palance did much more than one armed push-ups, but it's Rod Steiger in a white wig who steals the show (though Shelley Winters gives him a run for his bleached blonde psychotic money.) I highly recommend this noir gem. Our favorite quote from the movie: A woman with six martinis in her can ruin this city.
4.5 wags

10. The Sweet Smell of Success-- jdekay couldn't believe that neither of us had seen this before. I loved it, despite my having to fight to stay awake due to the late hour and the meandering (too long!) Q&A session with one of the stars just before it. I loved it and want to see it again. The host seemed intent to discount everything else Tony Curtis did and elevate this as his only "art" pic (Boston Strangler, ahem. Some Like it Hot, said by many to be the finest comedy ever made, excuse me.) which maybe accounts for why I didn't enjoy his Q&A or care to give credence to anything else he said. At any rate Curtis is magnificent here as a "cookie laced with arsenic," and so is everyone else. I really want to see this again. Or just own it. I should probably just own it.
5 wags

Sunday-- Dim Sum in Chinatown with Liz and her friends. I'm always happy to visit Empress Pavilion. We wandered and browsed and shopped for a bit, then rushed home to go our separate ways for the afternoon.



My first visit to opera at the movie theatre! I loved Eugene Onegin and can't wait for the next one, Il Trittico with playmayt a week from Saturday. Unfortunately I was again fighting to stay awake through the second half. Maybe it's a new trend for me in darkened theatres? I hope not. Hurried home and took a three hour nap.

Awoke when it was dark, nuked myself some dinner, and watched:

11. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby-- I kinda want to do this whole review in quotes from the movie. I almost could, too. I loved this movie. Almost as much as Anchorman. Can you deal with that? That just happened! Hee. Glad to finally see Leslie Bibb in something else, and everyone else in it, too. I'm going to stop now, cause if I don't this will deteriorate into nothing but a string of quotes due to my insistance that you see this movie.
4 wags

I was in quite a mood all day yesterday, so even though I put up more Charleston pictures at Flickr, I didn't post about it here. I was afraid I'd say something untoward. Instead I said many untoward things about a TV show which unfortunately deserved them. So here:



Two days worth of pictures. We're still on the battery, still looking at houses. I told you I liked the houses. Especially the pink ones.

We're walking along the Battery this afternoon. We came all the way down Rainbow Row (see yesterday's pictures) and are strolling the raised waterwalk. I haven't seen the Atlantic Ocean in years, but it's pretty similar to the Pacific, just on the wrong side.

I took a lot of pictures of houses that day. A LOT. Perhaps two or three days worth. And enough of one house alone to fill a whole day, maybe. We'll see.



There are a remarkable number of flags on the houses along the Battery.