The best movie of 2019? OK we watched the movie industry’s annual tribute to itself ten days ago on television, maybe like you did. Many of us who watched the show were surprised by the big awards won by the movie “Parasite”, a movie from South Korea set in South Korea that was spoken in South Korean. The movie used English subtitles since most of us who went to school in the 1960s only had Spanish, German and Latin as the foreign language courses available.
Actually, if I went to a movie today in German I would still need subtitles because “ich bin ein dummkopf.” In any case, BJ and I decided to see if we could find the movie to view, and it was in fact being presented at the Rose Theater for the senior price of $9 per ticket or on Amazon Prime for $6. Well, it was Valentine’s Day so we went out to the Rose. We admit, the plot of the movie was not something we had seen before, but it was exhausting for us. For two hours we had to read the subtitles and follow the action at the same time and for us it took an extraordinary effort to make that happen.
The movie did have a social message concerning economic class levels and conflicts underlining the story, but even that was harder to follow given the language. Finally, we can stand a little action, even violence, in a movie, but a couple of the wrong people got hurt along with some of the right ones. We ran into Tom Satterlee and Patty Patterson after the movie and after a short conversation I think we were in general agreement. All that being said, the real problem is that I wasn’t able to get my usual nap! Another problem is that I am not really a movie critic.
Like many of you, I bought the person I love a nice remembrance for Valentine’s Day. Holly’s Floral Shop in Port Townsend was the source of some nice flowers for BJ. I was motivated to stop in there by the sign indicating an early Valentine’s Day order would get a discount. It turns out the discount was 14%, a number somewhat related to the date of Valentine’s Day. I ordered a great movie, “Ford versus Ferrari,” on DVD for BJ to give to me for Valentine’s Day. Hey, not only was the movie nominated for an Oscar for best movie, it won an Oscar for film editing. And I don’t mean to wander into areas in which I have absolutely no expertise, but what about the movie “Two Popes”? We like that one also.
I spend way too much time down at Active Life Physical Therapy but it is fun to greet all my local friends, particurly when I can get a haircut at Sonja’s on the same trip. The last time I was at Active Life I saw a friend, (I shouldn’t tell you who it was given “HIPPA” laws), and we were commiserating on our ailments. He told me that his problem was too many birthdays. Sing it brother!
Given the weather forecast for last weekend, I was sure we would be unable to put up all those U.S. flags around town. In fact I lobbied my friend, Ed Davis, the Rotarian in charge of the project, to substitute Flag Day this year for Presidents Day so that the odds of better weather were higher. Alas, he was right to stick to last weekend. The weather cooperated and about 20 of us put up the flags in the area early in the weekend and took them down after the celebrations (?) ended.
Did you notice the new installation at the Jefferson Healthcare Clinic? I thought they looked pretty nice. After we put the flags up on Saturday morning, several of us took advantage of Carlos opening Molcajete for us at 10 a.m. instead of 11 a.m. and got a little Mexican breakfast. Carlos suggested we all start the day with a little tequila but nobody thought it would go well with the coffee we really needed.
Finally, since a movie about class inequality won the “Best Picture,” it would be timely to remember a quote from Billy Crystal. “Nothing can take the sting out of the world’s economic problems like watching millionaires give each other golden statues.”
Love a curmudgeon and have a great week!
(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive and loves all things ludlow)
