Some movies should be seen on the big screen. Others, it doesn’t matter as much. I’ve seen Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring twice on the ultra-megaplex big screen before today. “Ahh…” you’re thinking, “They bought the DVD set!” Psych! No, we did not. We walked over the the Elmwood theater and saw it there – much bigger than your average TV, but 1/4 the size of the megaplex screen. At first, I was a little worried that it would suck that way, but actually I really liked it. On the huge screen, it’s too big to see everything going on at once. Something subtle in the background might be missed because it literally takes up your entire field of vision just to see the “important” parts. It was quite something to see the entire expanse of landscape, the blackened grounds as the camera plunges down the side of Orthanc into the orc-laden pits, the wild expanse of the battlescenes in Moria. In fact, I got a much better look at the balrog this time, just because I could see both it and Gandalf at the same time. And then, the preview for The Two Towers. It rocked! I was thrilled to get glimpses of Helm’s Deep, Treebeard, and characters introduced in the next book / film. Lovely, really. I highly recommend seeing the “preview” release of the film, just for that.

Something I’ve just noticed that I do when writing these things, or email, or anything in an “advanced” text editor such as a word processor. I try to use vi shortcuts. I just typed “dw5d” to delete part of a sentence above, looked at what I typed, realized that it was completely weird and remedied the situation. WTF is that all about? I even forget to use the delete key? I use “j” and “h” to move around, and “G” to try to shortcut to the end.

She’s got a problem. But she’s not going to do something dumb… (Thanks, Fountains of Wayne!)

Now, here’s a snapshot from earlier in my day:

We were in an Elmwood coffee shop near the theater. From where I sat, there were so many people, and they were all so different from each other. A Buddhist nun sharing San Pelligrino with a friend. The pretty young Korean woman with a great haircut, a stack of religious books on her table – a well-used “Book of Prayer”, a Bible peppered with bookmarks. She cried surreptitiously under her hair while poring over a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Was it the part where Aslan dies? There was the lovely young ultra-hip lesbian couple, appropriately pierced and tattooed and attired, having an animated chat while an animated session of “footsie” went on under the table. The older professorly husband and wife, trading sections of the paper without making eye contact, absent-mindedly breaking pieces from a muffin between them on the table. The blonde co-ed who balanced a binder of papers, three books, a latte, and a biscotti back to the corner table by the window. There was the heavy scent of espresso shots and the hissing gurgle of steaming milk. The taste of tangy vinagrette and organic greens in my mouth. And Stephen, gazing at me with such love and adoration and a hint of worry. Why was I suddenly so contemplative? Was I sad again? Did I have a wish unfulfilled that he could remedy? Those sweet brown eyes just watched, and he waited for me to have a want. And then it was time to leave, and we walked to the theater, pinkie fingers intertwined.