Friday, June 28, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 06-27-2024: Copper and Covid Isolation, Salmon and Risotto, Wow!! *Beverly Hills Cop*

 1. Debbie has chest congestion and a cough, but says she doesn't feel terrible. She says she's not running a fever. She and Gibbs alternated staying on the patio, where it was often chilly today, and upstairs in the room where she sleeps, where it was warmer. 

I did not experience any Covid symptoms today. As part of my post-transplant self-monitoring, I take my temperature twice a day and my readings have been great, no fever. 

I spent many hours isolated in the room where I sleep. 

So did Copper! 

Copper is very happy with this Covid necessitated isolation I've imposed on myself. So, while I occupied myself reading about current events online and working puzzles, any grouchy feelings I might have had about having to confine myself to one room never happened, largely because Copper is so relaxed and content being able to join me and is not himself isolated any longer in the Vizio room. 

2. I made a quick trip to Walmart today for a curbside pick up of an order of groceries. 

I also wore protection in the kitchen and fixed a fun dinner for Debbie and me. I marinated a couple filets of salmon in a Cuban sauce we had on hand and baked the filets. I also prepared the last of the risotto from a mix that Zoe gave us for Christmas. I rounded out this meal by fixing broccoli. 

I'm sure glad we don't have to let having Covid in the house keep us from eating delicious meals! 

3. The other day a friend, Libby Bagi,  from back in the St. Mary's Episcopal Church days, posted a childhood memory featuring "Axel F", the theme song from Beverly Hills Cop.

Her post moved me to go to YouTube and watch the music video of that theme song and suddenly I realized that that movie looked like just the sort of thing I was in the mood to watch.

So, after Debbie and Gibbs went to bed, I stayed up, fired up the Vizio, went to Netflix, and had a blast watching Beverly Hills Cop -- and I realized I'd never watched it before. 

Beverly Hills Cop turned out to be just the sort of movie I was in the mood for.

For starters, I loved its music soundtrack. In addition to the superb theme song were great songs by Glenn Frye, Patti LaBelle, and The Pointer Sisters. 

I loved how this movie never wavered in its commitment to exaggeration, whether in its outrageous chase/crash scenes, its shootouts, its presentation of characters, and in the con jobs and pranks pulled off by Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy). 

I loved the acting in this movie. Maybe some of the characters were cliched, maybe they were overblown, but this movie fully committed itself to cliches that I found hilarious, entertaining, and great fun. 

Steven Berkoff was superb as the corrupt, cold-blooded villain. John Ashton and Judge Reinhold played the cliched partnership of the grizzled veteran and the young screw up detectives splendidly. Ronnie Cox was the perfect by the book police lieutenant, and I always enjoy it when Stephen Elliot brings his hefty, overbearing, and authoritarian might to a role. I also enjoyed how Lisa Eilbacher played Axel Foley's old friend from a Detroit neighborhood whose career skyrocketed into managing an upscale art gallery in Beverly Hills and who finds herself caught between her loyalty to Foley and her other Detroit friend who was murdered and her boss, Victor Maitland, the movie's villain. 

Last of all, I had a blast watching Eddie Murphy. He was the ideal actor for playing Axel Foley. He's at once a quick talking con man, a man devoted to his neighborhood friends, creative in how he investigates crime, and, along with his verbal virtuosity, he is a superb physical actor in this movie. 

Now I'm wondering if I ought to give another move from the early 1980s featuring Eddie Murphy a look. I never watched him with Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs. and before long I might just change that. 




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