What's Out

Hey, hey, it's the weekend here in Shitsboro and we're looking for something to do.  Any suggestions?

Didn't think so.  Since you've got nothing and I've got nothing, we might as well catch up on movies. 
I've been completely out of touch for the last six weeks or so.  I don't know what's out, what's getting good reviews, what's doing well at the box office. 

On the planes from Atlanta to Frankfurt and back, I was able to watch 5 movies: 

- Parker, a generic-and-then-some actioner starring Jason Statham, with Jennifer Lopez the only thing worth a damn in it

- Identity Thief, the very funny box office hit with Jason Bateman's incomparable straight-guy act stealing the show from Melissa McCarthy

- The Last Stand, a surprisingly sturdy and well-made comeback for Arnold Schwarzenegger as a border cop in a small town that finds itself in some Rio Bravo-like trouble 

- Jack Reacher, one of the most forgettable films Tom Cruise has ever been a part of; dumb, dumb, dumb 

- Stand-Up Guys, a decent vehicle for Al Pacino and Christopher Walken (refreshingly vulnerable) as a couple of old criminals; Alan Arkin's in it too. 

But what has been out at the theaters the last month or so?  According to Entertainment Weekly, this is what I've missed:
(I've categorized the movies into what I want to see and what I don't)

Looks Good
Before Midnight  - the best-reviewed American movie of the year so far (along with Mud), it's the final entry in an unforgettable trilogy.  Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are now married and living in France with kids.  That's all I want to say or ever read about.  For intelligent moviegoers, the Before films are priceless and unforgettable. 

Black Rock - a tough, nervy actioner about three women (including Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth) who find themselves stuck on a remote Maine island with some creepy, hyper-sexual guys.  Preview looks good. 

The Hangover III    - all right, one more time won''t kill me...

World War Z    - based off Max Brooks' best-selling humor book, this is anything but a comedy.  Yes, it's blood-thirsty zombies run amok in the future, with Brad Pitt as a humanity's last chance.  I like our odds. 

Now You See Me  - A group of Las Vegas magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson) pull up on-stage bank robberies that confound an FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo).  Looks like it might be a lot of visual, convoluted fun - the cast includes the enchanting French actress Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Common. 

I'll Pass

I'm sorry, but despite Man of Steel's solid reviews, I think I'm just done with Superman.  Though Michael Shannon as the villain, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Clark Kent's parents all make tempting offers. 

Fast & Furious 6 is about five too many of those movies for my taste. 

After Earth, the big-budgeted sci-fi movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Will and Jaden Smith, looks awful.  Critics thought it was awful too. 

The Internship is a comedy that re-teams Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a pair of aging failures who compete with a bunch of brilliant college students for an internship at Google.  Blah. 

This is the End is a loose, self-referential movie about a group of Hollywood actors (Jonah Hill, James Franco, etc, all playing themselves) whose wild night of partying is ruined when... a catastrophe hits L.A.  Got great reviews - critics say it's funny as hell and unpredictable.  Okay, I'll see this one. 

The Bling Ring is Sofia Coppola's newest movie, a based-on-true-events tale about a group of L.A. teens (including Emma Watson) who break into the homes of celebrities.  All style and not much substance, according to reviewers. 


Here's the box office winners so far...

The Great Gatsby, Fast &Furious 6, Hangover III, Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, The Purge (no idea what this is), Monsters University, This is the End

After Earth was a huge flop, and The Internship and The Man of Steel haven't done as well as expected. 

Moving

Well, we have only five more weeks left in Statesboro, Georgia.  On July 31st, the Fischer family moves to their next stop on the Road of Life - Beaumont, Texas! 

We're all excited about the move.  The new (luxury) apartment we're going to be in (for a year or two) looks super-spiffy and the apt. community has a gorgeous-looking pool, seems clean, has a gym, clubhouse, looks well-maintained and energy efficient (as opposed to the heat-and-bug trap we're in now) and is close to a bunch of amenities/stores/restaurants we like.

It'll be fun to "start over" again and it seems like there will be more recreational and career possibilities for everyone - and fine special-needs schooling for Gabriel.  It will be hot as hell there, but, hey, it's hot here - it's not like we're moving from Manitoba.  The pets should like it - there's a dog park for Daisy too!

Seeing Dan and Sally and the kids will be nice - it will be good to have family close, since it now seems almost certain that I won't see my family again for a long, long time.

Overall, it will be a good fit for all and likely our last stop.  

The rest of this summer will be spent getting our ship (or shit) together, Julia working on her dissertation, and us trying to make the most of Georgia - which, at this point, basically entails staying indoors and watching TV, maybe popping up to Augusta to go to 2nd and Charles, walking around historic Savannah one more time, and getting some movies on Redbox. 

The plan is for me to keep this blog up even when we move, though I'm in the process of trying to make changes (for the better!) to it, attempting to drum up some new ideas to make it more interesting in terms of content and visuals. 

Well, that's all for today.  I leave you with this image... 

...the Piccolimini Library in Siena's Duomo - one of Julia's favorite stops on our Italy stay - and a discovery for her as well. 






Image courtesy of: 

http://www.wga.hu/art/p/pinturic/siena/003siena.jpg

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Poussin's Martyrdom of St. Erasmus

Well, this is my first blog in over a month and a half. 

Where do I start? 

Okay, so we were in Montepulciano, Italy for five weeks.  Monte-P (as I heard students calling it) is a gorgeous Tuscan hill town with panoramic, sweeping views.  Alas, it's also boring and out of the way, without a train station but with a rather crappy, unreliable local bus system.  Needless to say, we were often bored.  Field trips, thankfully, took us to Rome (twice for Gabriel and I, three for Julia), Florence (twice), Assisi, Perugia, Pisa, and Siena.  Nearby towns also visited include Chiusi, Pienza, Cortona, Orvieto, and San Quirico. 

Rather than going in to detail about every single day and event, I'll provide an overview of the experience.

Worst moment:  The final day(s).  Try this one on for size: Get two hours of sleep, wake up at midnight, trudge down with all your luggage to the bus stop, take a three hour group bus jaunt to Rome's Fiumicino Airport, wait a couple hours in the earrrr-ly morning, take a two-hour flight to Frankfurt, wait another two hours there, take a sleepless, student-filled 10-hour trip to Atlanta, wait at customs, be one of the last to retrieve your suitcases from baggage claim, take a cab ride over to a local hotel to retrieve your car, drive three hours home to Statesboro, and get to bed by 10:30.  Yuck. 

Food:  Well, the pizza was good.  The bread (which the Italians don't salt or apparently flavor) was horrible.  Rome had tremendous, unforgettable gelato,  Other than that, I wasn't too impressed by any one thing.  I'm sure if we were in Rome more, I would have had more memorable culinary experiences. 

Favorite sights:  Pisa's Camposanto Cemetery, St. Peter's (and its square), the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Orvieto's dome, San Marco Museum in Florence, Pantheon, San Ignacio Church and San Popolo in Rome. 

The apartment:  Undesirable.  Dank and poorly planned.  I got tired of spending time in it, honestly. 

Gabriel:  Loved Italy.  Didn't want to leave.  Loved the "staples" from the grocery store: shortbread cookies, pasta, pretzel sticks, farfalini (sp?) soup, yogurt, bananas.  He thoroughly enjoyed the various means of travel - bus, train, plane, shuttle, car, stroller... Fantastic in museums and churches and about town.  Never less than 100% happy. 

Julia:  The program really pushed her to the limit.  We were both ready to go fairly early on, but she had so much work to do and the field trip days were so hectic, that it was more of a job than a vacation or pleasure trip for her.  We had our moments, though.  We came to - not to sound too corny - some wonderful, tender, bonding realizations that we can't imagine spending our lives with any one other than the three of us. 

Works of art seen:  Well, I had a lofty goal of trying to see 103 works of art - if you remember me posting a list before I went.  Well, because of impracticalities of traveling to and fro Montepulciano, we didn't get up to Padua, Ravenna, and Venice, I obviously fell short of my goal.  I think I saw about 44, give or take.  Here are 10, in particular, that I loved:
- Giotto's fresco cycle of the life of St. Francis in Assisi's Basilica
- anything I saw by Michelangelo: the David, the Sistine Chapel, the Prisoners, Moses, the Risen Christ, Saint Paul
- Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government in Siena
- Signorelli's end-of-days fresco cycle in Orvieto
- Caravaggio's paintings in San Popolo and San Luigi Francesi in Rome
- Pozzo's marvelous ceiling and fake dome at San Ignacio 
- Fra Angelico's Annunication and frescoed cells in San Marco in Florence 
- Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch in the Uffizi 
- Parmigianino's Madonna With the Long Neck in the Uffizi
- Buffalmacco's Triumpf of Death and Last Judgment in Pisa

Artists I'm now more interested in:  Giotto, Pinturrichio, Cimabue, Pozzo, Martini, Perugino, Fra Angelico.  

Do I ever want to go back to Montepulciano: No. 

Well, where do I want to go if we go back to Italy:  Florence and Rome, obviously.  Venice, Ravenna, Verona, and Padua.  Maybe Milan and the Lake Como district.  (Inside joke alert...) Not the Dolomites. 

Favorite part of the trip:  Just being with the family during a weekend in Rome.  We walked ourselves ragged.  What a day.  Our calves and arms got buff, we got plenty of sun, and it was just great to be in the city Julia loves so much, being shown around.  If only the program were there instead of Monte-P.... We took plenty of pictures and saw a lot - a lot, really, in terms of the big picture.  I wish we could have got up to Ravenna or Venice, but it was nice to all be together, a little out of comfort zone.  And, no, our travel bug is not yet quenched.  Not remotely. 

Overall, it was a good experience.