1. Byrdman and I took on the heat dome today. We sprang into Steph's Sube, cranked up the a/c, and Byrdman took as on a scenic, windy drive looking down on Hayden Lake. When we returned to Coeur d'Alene we roamed for foam. We struck out at Mad Bomber and Jeremiah Johnson's (neither opened until 2 today), but happily landed at Growler Guys.
With it being so hot outside, I was in the mood for a cold Kolsch or a pilsner or a lager. I almost ordered a Kolsch, but my right eye caught a German lager on the tap list, the Vollbier Hell from Klosterbrauerei Andechs in Andechs, Germany.
What a perfect choice. If I were a full blown hedonist, I would have sat at our table with Byrdman for hours drinking pints of Vollbier Hell and shot the breeze all afternoon about all the great topics we yak about. The beer was remarkably smooth (maybe velvety!) and just slightly sweet with a most enjoyable subtle hint of bitterness. Next time I go to a bottle shop or to Total Wine, I'll be on the lookout for this beer. I'd love to have a few bottles around the house.
After a couple of pints, we returned to Jeremiah Johnson's where we'd never been. The brewery is updating their beer system, so they were selling cans of beer for just two bucks.
I ordered the Blonde Ale -- keeping things on the lighter side -- and a Caesar salad with chicken.
Lunch and another beer brought our session to an end. We had an awesome time. Our bs was of the highest quality and the beers, especially the Vollbier Hell, were refreshing and tasty.
2. Back home, after a nap, I finished putting together the pasta salad I'll be taking to the June 30th birthday dinner for Carol -- we are having her dinner early -- her birthday is on July 3rd. By the way, I don't know why we are doing it early, but I'm all in and figure it has to do with Carol's way of celebrating her birthday for at least (ahem 😀) a week.
I dished out a bowl of Mudslide ice cream and retreated to the Vizio room and watched the next episode of The Hour. I'm going to stick with this program -- mostly because I'm intrigued by the character Freddie Lyon's side project of investigating a couple of recent murders. The first was ruled a robbery/murder and the second a suicide, but Freddie doesn't believe either report and is digging into things on his own.
So far, the behind the scenes drama of the emerging news hour show dramatized in this series hasn't grabbed me yet, but I'm going to give it more time. The growing sexual attraction between the producer and the show's host isn't doing much for me either -- but, possibly, in time, I'll find this part of the story more compelling.
3. When I finished watching this episode, it was getting a little late, but I wanted the house to cool off a bit more before going to bed.
I decided to watch a movie I hadn't seen for almost thirty years and that has been at the center of our last couple of Zoom meetings about literary comedy. I rented Enchanted April.
It's a perfect pastoral comedy, a perfect green world story. It is, if one surrenders to it, totally enchanting.
Four lonely, even miserable, women who feel trapped in different ways in their lives rent a castle in Italy for a month and before long the April sunshine, the blooming wisteria (and other flowers), the restorative waters of the coastline, and the friendship that emerges between these women transforms them, awakens the happiness that has lay latent within them, and a sweet story emerges.
I remembered how back in the early 1990s, when I saw this movie at the Bijou in Eugene, Enchanted April broadened and deepened my understanding of and experience with the transformative power of the Green World. The thrill I felt then returned this evening.
I loved all the performances in this movie and felt special affection for how Joan Plowright portrayed her the slow blossoming of Mrs. Fisher, for how Josie Lawrence played the sweet and open-hearted, and to me, mystic, Lottie, and for how Michael Kitchen played the dim sighted, oboe playing owner of the castle, George Briggs.
When Enchanted April ended, I had a tiny bit of energy left and, when I saw that My Dinner with Andre is an offering on the Criterion Channel, I watched its opening sequences. I'd forgotten all about them. I'd forgotten that Wally has a monologue to open the movie. We hear his voice played over scenes of him in his Manhattan neighborhood, boarding a graffiti marred subway train, and walking to the restaurant for his dinner with Andre, all the time reflecting on his life as a playwright and actor and money and confessing his anxiety about agreeing to this dinner get together with Andre. I will watch this sequence again on Wednesday and then watch the entire movie -- but it intrigued me tonight that in my (faulty) memory, the movie took place entirely in the restaurant. I'd completely forgotten about this terrific opening.
It might be off the wall, but as I watched the opening sequence of Wallace Shawn making his way to the restaurant, I was reminded of the scenes of Fran Lebowitz walking the streets of Manhattan in Pretend It's a City and Public Speaking.
Why?
Well, <chuckle> I simply enjoy film footage of people walking in Manhattan.
It's that simple.
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