Futile Horn

11.20.2003 - 9:35 pm (I still think Sally is a squirrel not a gopher)

So I got home from Minnesota yesterday. Who’d have thought that a museum for the history of Minnesota could have been any fun? I had a bit of a bad feeling when the first exhibit we saw was dedicated to state windows, but I had a good time. They had a chair made of steer horns, the accordion ornamented vestments for the priest of polka mass, and I got to play one of those organs that play by themselves when you push the pedals and… the plaques on display items had quotes from demented old documents. For instance: “Every axe is a missionary, civilizing savage wilds, and letting the sunshine in upon the bosom of the cold earth…. Every plow is a prophet, telling us of independence in the present and wealth in the future.”

Maegan did a review of the restaurants we went to. I suppose I could do one of the movies we saw.

A Mighty Wind – A surprisingly touching story. What was perhaps even more surprising was how good the Folkmen actually sounded.

Best in Show – We had this on in the background while we played drunken trivial pursuit. We only watched the tail end after I finished trouncing her. Trivially.

Lost In Translation – We’re sure if we bothered to think about the plot we’d find massive holes, but it doesn’t take much away from this fantastic film. Bill Murray isn’t his usual over the top self but still manages to be charming. We thought we’d learn Japanese after watching this one so it could never happen to us, but we never quite found the library.

Thesis (Tesis) – An absolutely loathsome horror movie about the making of snuff films at a Spanish university. It contained a ten minute would-be suspenseful sequence where a professor visits a library. Seriously folks, if you are terrified by rows and rows of shelves, professor is not the right career path for you. The murderer turns out to be who you thought it was from the beginning, and it is full of people being afraid in completely inexplicable scenarios. Comic book guy says: Worst. Movie. Ever.

Labyrinth – Despite the appearance of David Bowie in tight leather pants, we actually didn’t see any of this movie. So we put it on again once it was over and watched about fifteen minutes of it before Maegan stumbled drunkenly into the dvd player and neither of us could figure out how to get it going again.

Snatch – This movie was a lot funnier the first two or three times.

The Matrix: Revolutions – Better than the second one at least. And it had the fish from the Phaedo. It was full of spiritual gumbo that didn’t seem quite coherent, but it was sort of fun to sift through for an hour or two. Keanu Reaves dead at last.

Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto – Someone slept through all but ten minutes of this. I don’t see how. Toshiro is in it!

Shadowlands – A romantic story involving the writer of children’s stories and other works, C.S. Lewis. This one time atheist made the step toward intellectual and emotional acceptance of Catholic-like Christianity. Perhaps because I was drunk and sobbing already, perhaps because I’ve always admired and been sympathetic to Lewis (despite our difference of opinion on a few key issues), but I liked this one a lot. I’m not sure where God fits into any of this, but it’s a very human story.

Born to play the funky céilí,
Futile Horn