Friday, May 31, 2002
Tonight we were able to get the babysitter at the right time, so we set out to do what we intended to do the previous Friday, which was to go out to the local pub and then go on to see Spider-Man.
I picked up the tickets on the way home from work, and I made it home early as well, so we had plenty of time to sit down at the pub and relax. Erika agreed to the idea of going to see a play at Stratford this summer. So far, Richard III is at the top of the list, though Three Penny Opera and King Lear come in a close tie for second. After a pleasant and filling meal, we walked across the street to the theatre.
I have to say that Spiderman comes across as perhaps the best-realized story of all of the comic book hero movies that have hit the screen in the past decade or so. The psychology of the characters seems the best-realized of the bunch (though not exactly deep), supported in part by better-than average acting by both the main actor and his foe. For once even the bad-guy seems plausible, both in terms of what drives him to be the way he is, and where he gets all of his whiz-bang gear (he's the insane head of a military research firm -- now there's a pleasant thought). Even the newspaper editor seemed almost plausible -- his character always struck me as being the hardest to believe in the comic book series.
I did see bits of this film before on a pirate CD-R a friend downloaded. I doesn't seem to translate well onto the small screen -- the fight-sequences look too cartoony when seen on the small screen, but is just believable when seen in the large.
Spiderman was never one of my favourite comic book characters when I was a kid -- I was much more into British comics when I was young. I remember that some of my friends were really into him, but I kept wondering when Stan Lee was going to let him grow up (he seemed to be stuck in that timeless netherworld where characters never grow and never change, putting ol' Spider up there with the likes of Family Circus in my mind). I seemed to go for the quirky and off-beat even while young -- I remember that one of my favourite comics was "Howard the Duck", which was about as anti-comic a comic-book hero as you could get at that time.
Anyways, the movie was good -- not deep, but arguably the best of its genre.
Annie is now just shy of 10 months. It's been a lot of fun watching another little baby girl on her way to becoming a toddler. She's not at that stage yet of course, but it's coming.
Right now she's at the crawling stage. In fact she is "hitching", meaning that she pulls herself forward with her arms, as she hasn't get things coordinated between her hands and legs as yet. One of the funniest things is when she gets all excited, and she lifts her arms and legs up at the same time rapidly -- attention-grabbing but it certainly doesn't get her anywhere.
She is a very cheery little soul and has a ready smile for anyone who catches her gaze. She also has the most charming laugh, more of a giggle really. And oh yeah, did I mention that she is ticklish? (More so than her sister, and that's saying something. ;-)
She's passed the 8-month mark, so she'll be keeping her blue eyes, which are slightly darker than Vanessa's. She is slowly gaining a head of hair, which is growing at a much slower rate than Vanessa's at the same age. There is a very distinct reddish tinge to her hair, making her a strawberry blonde for the moment. I think my Uncle John (who once had red hair himself) will be pleased to here about that when I write him next.
She is also babbling up a storm. Annie has plenty to say, and every now and then English-sounding words appear (though seemingly not connected to anything). She has a cute thing where she does a two-tone "uh oh"-like sound. Usually we'll repeat it back to her, and this game can continue for some time.
Annie is definitely taken with her older sister Vanessa, and as Annie begins to interact more with her environment, there seems to be less jealous behaviour from Vanessa (and I mean "less" -- it's certainly not gone). Whenever Vanessa is playing on the floor -- colouring or playing with her dolls -- you can count on Annie charging over to see what he older sister is up to. Vanessa is also far more likely to get a laugh out of Annie than either Erika or myself, though that is more a matter of degree (i.e. she laughs a lot at Vanessa – and Vanessa eggs her on by doing silly things. ;-)
We have to be more vigilant now that she's crawling around. The gate to my downstairs office is now locked into place more often than not, and many objects are beginning to find their way to higher and higher shelves, out of the grasp of little hands. There's little in the way of self-preservation present at the moment in Annie; a good case in point: I had her on the guest bed and Vanessa came over to look at her Mommy's "jewels" in an adjoining desk. Along charged Annie towards her sister. I wondered if she would stop when she noticed the edge of the bed. "What edge?" she seemed to be thinking as she hitched her way over it. I was there to catch her as she was going over. She laughed, thinking that a great game. I put her on the floor after that.
Another interesting characteristic is that she seems to do things more deliberately, with intent than her sister did at her age. For example, when Vanessa was 10 or so months, she always hit several keys at once on the old, 80's-vintage keyboard I have. Annie is usually much more circumspect, hitting individual keys and seemingly studying the cause and effect of what she does. This jibes with Erika's long-standing observation that Annie seems more "mechanically" inclined.
What can I say? Babies are cool. (Spoken like a true, unbiased Dad. ;-)
Watching "The Prisoner" Again
I discovered the other day that the Oakville Public Library has been slowly acquiring the DVDs for the recent A&E release of The Prisoner, arguably my all-time-favourite TV series. I considered getting the series myself, but at the moment the $260-odd for the full DVD set could be better spent on other things, so I am glad they have started appearing at the local library.
I remember being captivated by this series when I was a kid -- it was bizarre, and unlike anything I had seen before. It had chase and fight scenes, which drew in the little boy, but at the same time I recognized how odd, (what I would later think of as "surreal") the series could be, and I also saw that the underlying theme was that of freedom. I remember once convincing a public school teacher to bring in the school’s TV into our classroom in order to see an episode of the show broadcast on TVO. Unfortunately it was one of the odder episodes, and went completely over the heads of my then-classmates. This didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the series.
When a teen I thought about joining the "fan club", Six of One, but I found it's rates exorbidantly high at the time (I think it was about $50 or so, which was pretty stiff for a me back then). They have gone on to produce an interesting tease of a Web site, providing a tantalizing glimpse of what they have to offer their members, but I guess I'm too old to participate in what is essentially an extended form of hero worship (it was just a TV series after all).
It's been years since I last saw the series, and it's been fun watching the show again. The whole concept is pretty ludicrous (why spend all of the time and effort trying to crack one man in what can only be described as indirect means?) Indeed, it's lack of grittiness and a 60's era naivette at the same time dates the series and is what gives it its charm. The series is a constant battle of wits between McGoohan's character and the ever-changing cast of "# 2s". I have got to visit Portmeirion (where the show was shot) one day. I remember my late-Father mentioning that he'd been there on one of his many cycling tours, and saying that it was exactly as depicted on the show (well, minus the ever-watchful statuary, giant people-enveloping weather balloons, etc. ;-)
Turns out the Oakville Library has lots of other interesting DVD titles too, including a bunch of Criterion DVDs. Will have to grab some fresh titles from them later today...
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