Wowee

The forecast is for rain today - spotty, on and off, a shower here and a shower there, with a high of around 69 (F).  Good thing I wasn't planing any yard work.  There was a short break and Biggie went out for his morning pee.  He doesn't like the rain.  Lily has no problem.  She also likes to be toweled dry.
Breakfast with my brother was interesting.  We talked about a wide range of subjects.  His favorite is: who'll be the Democratic candidate for president.  I told him "it doesn't make a difference, whomever gets nominated is going to beat the Idiot Jerk."  I suspect he was expecting me to cite the impeachment.  Not me.  I pulled two other ingredients from the Idiot Jerks shit salad.  He promised to make coal mining rosy again - that ain't happening.  And those subsidies he's handing out to farmers financially hurt by his tariffs?  Well, they're going to the large, corporate farms, not the Mom and Pop farms, yet it was all those Mom and Pops who voted for him and now they're pissed.  Don't believe they're going to vote for a Democrat, they're not.  In fact, voting is not what they're going to do... at all.  They're going to sit this one out.
I completed the "ride to Blue Lagoon" yesterday, all 15.07 miles... in 56 minutes.  Interestingly enough, there's no Blue Lagoon anywhere on the ride.  You do see a lot of lava fields and steam vents but no beach, no lagoon.  In fact, the ride ends in a parking lot. 
And I went to see "Judy" last evening.  It was very, very good.  Zellweger is outstanding.  I had some trepidation on going in because biographies on a whole can be rather manipulative.  Take "Bohemian Rhapsody," in which Freddie Mercury's gayness was seriously chintzed out in order to appeal to straight audiences.  Not so with "Judy."  The warts are there for all to see.  More important, you see why the warts are there.  I don't believe your average film-goer can understand how brutal the studio system was with young stars, and how easily they were tossed side when their box office appeal died.
As for today, the second day of my weekend, I have some really excitement planned:  I'm getting my car inspected at 0800, and then I'm going to get my hair cut!  Wowee!  How can I contain myself?

Vertigo = Number 1

Since 1962 (a long time ago) Citizen Kane has been considered the best movie of all time.  In this classic, Orson Welles made cinematic history with innovative camera shots, unconventional story telling, and set a precedent by thinly veiling an unauthorized biography of William Randolph Hearst.  Over the years, however, other films have slowly inched their way either up or down that ladder; time always tells.  Now, Citizen Kane has been knocked down a rung and finds itself in the number two position.  What replaced it?  Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.

I have to say I am in full agreement.  While I've liked Citizen Kane and have seen it 3 or 4 times I have always seen it as a demonstration of innovative genius rather then cinematic genius.  Vertigo, on the other hand, has fascinated me ever since I saw it on TV as a child.  Back then I thought it was just "wow" without any understanding of the psychology involved.  In my twenties, I watched it again and realized it was not just about one man's fear of heights.  I began understanding the psychology involved.  The word "obsession" began entering my vocabulary when I talked about it with friends, while we postulated the differences between obsession and mental illness since this film is about both.  I watched it again a few years ago and must say there are times in it when I felt truly uncomfortable most especially the scene where James Stewart dresses up Kim Novak as the dead Madeleine.  

This scene creeped me out so badly I almost got up and walked out the room because at that moment  I realized just how crazy James Stewart's Scottie had become and like the police officer who falls to his death in the beginning, Scottie has stepped off the roof of reality.