Some quick reviews and other stuff
Been spending the late nights watching stuff on DVD. This is not only due to the girft from tancred, which is going to last a while, but because we actually bought some stuff through the mail. Anyway, we watched "Thank You For Smoking." It was pretty good, if not quite as savage a satire as I expected. ("Cold Turkey" is a funnier satire on smoking, in my opinion.) The best part was the protagonist's visit to Hollywood, and Rob Lowe's performance as the agent. The whole theme of "guy has to connect with his son" wasn't particularly interesting or unusual. Kudos also to the always reliable Robert Duvall as "the Captain." We also recorded "Brokeback Mountain" off the tube. It was pretty decent, if not great. Spectacular outdoor scenes, good acting, convincing recreation of the time (1963 to 1975 or so.) The story was a little slow at times, and (like almost any mainstream Hollywood production dealing with homosexuality) a little too "polite." I liked it, well enough, but I didn't love it or hate it, as many people do. Back in the universe of low budget, we watched a few episodes of the old TV series "Tales of Tomorrow." Very primitive television, and not very interesting stories; sort of a very tepid version of "The Twilight Zone." The best episode of the three we saw was probably "Appointment on Mars" (despite being set on a Mars where humans can walk around in shirt sleeves.) It was somewhat similar to the TZ episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," if not as profound or as well done. It generated a decent amount of tension as the first three men on Mars wind up fighting each other. We also watched a documentary DVD on the making of the classic Pink Floyd album "Dark Side of the Moon" which was quite informative.
But I don't spend 100% of my time in front of the tube. We took a hike at a place called Savage Gulf (a big, deep ravine, shaped kind of like a crow's foot.) We walked a little over four miles, on an easy loop that took us to a place where we got a great view of the ravine, and of one of its waterfalls. The day was perfect for hiking; cool and cloudy, but with superb visibility. We met a very friendly, fluffy black and white cat at the ranger station.
The next day was mostly shopping, but we did get a chance to see what was perhaps the most dramatic cloudscape I've ever seen in my life. It was not long before dusk, and the setting sun shone behind and through multiple layers of clouds, creating an extraordinary variety of colors and patterns.