1. A small area of swelling stubbornly remains on my big toe, but when the Deke called to see if I wanted to meet at Cornucopia, I not only said I would like to, I walked there. It's the longest walk I've taken in about four weeks and nothing bad happened. My toe didn't protest. I didn't make it mad. Minimal pain still lingers, but I'm getting close to being back to my old strolling self again.
2. The movie The Apartment played at the Bijou Metro over a week ago and I didn't make it over to see it, to my disappointment. I watched it tonight, though. I loved it. It made me want to watch every movie Jack Lemmon made for starters. I marveled at his physical talent, his movements, whether dancing, taking a TV dinner out of the oven, straining spaghetti with a tennis racket -- everything he did in this movie with his body was perfect, and made the inner life of the schmuck become mensch C. C. Baxter come alive. Even more, I loved Shirley MacLaine's world weary, distrustful, longing for love portrayal of Fran Kubilek. Shirley MacLaine hit every note of disillusionment and yearning perfectly. I'm at a loss to describe how beautifully she brought to life Fran's naivete, her false hope, her despair and suffering, and, at the same time, her unsentimental strength, her unsentimental desire to believe in goodness, her unsentimental acceptance that she had to continue, and maybe complete, that game of gin rummy.
3. Back in 1981/82, the movie Cutter's Way came to Cinema 7 and the Bijou at two different times and I saw it two or three times. For a long time, it was one of my very favorite movies and it was the movie that woke me up to the genius of Jeff Bridges and I've enjoyed his genius now for over thirty years. So after watching The Apartment, I found and watched PBS's American Masters' biography of Jeff Bridges (disappointingly entitled "The Dude Abides") and enjoyed experiencing the span of his acting career and his many artistic interests in addition to acting.
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