My Friday, By Delia

[deliasherman]

After the Great Avatar-Betsey Johnson blowout on Thursday, I don't have it in me to do a full-dress review of the two (!) things we saw last night.  But since one of them was a science fiction film that made very little logical sense and was full of eye candy (although of a very different sort), it would be remiss of me to pass over the evening

Comments

[deliasherman]

Um. After Avatar, we went to a little Chinese restaurant on Columbus Avenue to eat chicken noodle soup and dumplings and thrash it all out. And after we did that, we discovered that China Fun is right next door to a Betsey Johnson store, which was having a Big Valentine's Weekend Sale. And, um, there was this jacket (http://www.betseyjohnson.com/store/productdetails2.aspx?productid=8429&np=-1). And Ellen made me try it on, and it ambushed me and would not let me go.

Reader, we bought it. Bustle and all. Steamy punk, oh, yeah. It is to die. And Ellen tweeted about it, and now everybody knows what a clothes slut I am. And that's the story.

[nohwhere_man]

"And we're having company for dinner." In a cream sauce with capers? That's always good.

[deliasherman]

Poached, actually. In fish stock with herbs, and wild rice and snap peas on the side. With blood orange (see the theme?) pannacotta for dessert.

[nohwhere_man]

oooow, that sounds tasty, too. (must get blood oranges)

Comments on the way home from "Man who Fell to Earth":

[ellen_kushner]

EK: Please tell me I don't ever have to sit through all that ever again.

DS: The most horrifying thing? The way the seventies went on forever . . . polyester suits for decades.

EK: Dear Nicolas Roeg: you coulda cut the last 20 minutes. We got it already. Honest. Yeah, we know you can do lots of cool stuff. But really. We got it.

Sad thing is, I've wanted to see that movie for years! But it's good that I finally did, and I can put it to rest. I did enjoy bits of it. Esp. Bowie, and the general weirdness, and no idea what was going to happen next. But it's definitely an artefact, not a great and lasting work of art.

[kristine_smith]

and the fact that it was really a remake of Stranger in a Strange Land, except Heinlein wouldn't sell Roeg the rights, so he stole the parts he liked best (the sex and the alien, at a guess)

I saw the move when it first came out. It was based on the novel by Walter Tevis, and from what I recall followed it pretty closely. But it's been years.

[deliasherman]

Well, according to whatsit on the subway, Tevis wrote the novel so Roeg could make it into a movie. Knowing zipola about any of this, I smiled and nodded.

Great icon, btw. Love the goatee. I should be half so decorative at his age. Wait. I am his age, very nearly. And I do my level best. It will have to do.

[kristine_smith]

I would have had fun with whatsit. Tevis wrote the novel in 1963.

I saw Bowie in concert in 2004, and he looked incredible.

[elswhere1]

Wait-- who is this Maida? I didn't even know our grandpa had a brother! I thought he just had a wicked stepmother who more or less kicked him out...

[deliasherman]

You'll have to apply to your first cousin for details. I can't even remember all the ins and outs of my own family tree, and I've only heard the story of yours the once. Granted, it was last night, but, as you see, it was a full evening.

[ellen_kushner]

No, the wicked stepmother's was Grandpa's father's. He was the tavernkeeper (?) who could carry barrels on his shoulder. Grandpa's mother was a baker. She had at least 3 kids - Tante Chaya, Grandpa Boris, and, well, Max who was Maida's dad, but Grandma quarrelled with him & his wife (surprise!) . . . they lived in the Bronx quite close to our family, and her mom still lives there at 96! Your dad's in touch wtih them all.