Saturday, June 19, 2004
In the spirit of this Monday's coming Summer Solstice, a few random notes...- I finally saw Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban last Thursday, and do I think it is the best of the three HP films so far. Director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tú Mama Tambien) has done well by the story; the protagonists are in that poltergeist-perfect awkward rebellious teen stage, and the visuals are beautiful (I loved a scene in the Hogwarts dorm hall where the cathedral ceiling is magically projected with images of galaxies and stars - I'd love a room like that). This story is more complex and "adult" (we got a laugh out of Cuarón's masturbatory metaphor an early scene where Harry is practicing with his magic wand under the covers at night- "lumo maxima!" he incants (if I recall correctly) and the wand lights up the whole bedsheet. When his mean foster father checks up on him he pretends to so to sleep. Repeat three times.) focusing more on magic and human emotions than the monsters of the previous two installments, and the time-twist ending is superb. Good movie!
- After hearing on NPR about the recent accolades won by Trader Joe's "Two Buck Chuck" Charles Shaw vineyards Napa Valley wine, I decided to drive down to one of the stores at Lincoln and Grace to try a bottle...here in Illinois, it's $2.99, so they call it "Three Buck Chuck." I opened a bottle of Charles Shaw 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, let it breathe a few minutes, and sampled with a some rice crackers for palate clearing. The Cab is very pleasant, light-to-medium bodied (a swirl in the glass doesn't leave the rich "tears of strong wine" effect, but who's complaining?) with balanced tartness and tannin. A fruity light sweetness suggests itself, with elements of jammy berries, blackcurrant, sweet pea, smoky leather, vanilla and a hint of fennel. The Three Buck Chuck was pleasingly free of the metallic, "canny" undertone that often spoils one's enjoyment of inexpensive wine, and this 2001 bottle was a winner - definitely the nicest red I've tasted in its price range, which usually involves a metal twist top. I think it would pair wonderfully with a charcoal-broiled burger or Italian food.
- I finally picked up a couple of bottles of Method™ Cucumber Dish Soap at Target™ (they were out of stock the last few times I tried to get some. It's pretty popular.) The bottle design is simply gorgeous, which is a pretty housenerdy thing - but I'm serious. It's a sexy bottle. and the cucumber scent is crisp and food-compatible. Who wants their dishes to smell like perfume, anyway? Normally, I don't like to just plug products - but this stuff is nice.
- I also stopped by the Brown Elephant resale store on Western Avenue, and found 4 old paperback books on UFO's by J. Allen Hynek, Edward J. Ruppelt and George Adamski for 50 cents each - sweet. Also a 1975 novel I'd never heard of, about a spectacular nuclear meltdown scenario, by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson called The Prometheus Crisis, which predates Three Mile Island, The China Syndrone and Chernobyl. So don't tell me people didn't know this kind of disaster was a possibility - from the few pages I read it describes the meltdown process fairly accurately (albeit on an much more massive scale than even Chernobyl, which hasn't happened yet, inshallah.). If we had pulpy fiction from mass market paperback writers about meltdowns in 1975, what does that say about what scientists knew about the dangers of nuclear power? Hm?
Double, Double Toil and Trouble
