double feature

January 12, 2002

Adopt these cats at Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society

Today's Reading
The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen

This Year's Reading
2002 Book List

Photos

Emmie

Moose

Nikki

Shadow

Tippi and Tinka

I have no idea how long the power had been off before I woke up this morning, but it was darn cold in here so I figure it must have been quite some time. The phone is ringing. I go to answer it on the portable one and realize it doesn't work because the base station needs power. By the time I get downstairs to the other phone it has stopped ringing. Grrr. I was so looking forward to lingering over toast and coffee in my pajamas this morning. No toast without the toaster oven. No coffee without the coffee maker. Brrr, it's cold. Boy do I want to just sit here in my flannel pj's with a hot cup of Fowle's coffee.

I call Nancy to see if she's the source of the ringing phone, and also to whine about the lack of toast and coffee. She is not the source of the ringing phone but she listens to me whine quite sympathetically and advises me to go out for coffee and seek out Tom or other coffee buddies at Starbucks. No Tom at Starbucks but I do find Dan & Geri, M&M and Marco.

Geri tells a soap-operatic story of her stay with her daughter and the grand kids up in the wilds of New Hampshire. Maria tells about her experiences with Tibetan dream yoga and lucid dreaming. Man, I never turn anybody into toads in my dreams. Marco, who is reading a book about the Dark Ages he got from the library, tells me he's writing a screenplay. His Dad tells him not to tell us what it's about because there are so many professional writers in the Andover coffee crowd and we might accidentally grab his idea. Man, I never wrote a screenplay at age 12 1/2. Add that to the lack of lucid toad dreams and I feel like I have a pretty dull life.

Well, there are the cats. They're not dull. Never a dull moment at MRFRS. Sandy has stayed adopted, as has Priscilla. Ringo is sneezing again. I hope he hasn't got another URI. The new cats are all adorable. Tippi and Tinka curl up together looking cozy. Shadow purrs and rubs against me. Moose rolls over on his back and flops right out of that big cat bed. He's the lucky big guy who got the double size cage where Sandy used to live. It's hot in the cat shelter so at least I finally warm up.

Still feeling coffee-deprived and wanting to confirm for myself that the coffee formerly known as Fowle's is indeed still available and still the same, I head over to Middle Street Foods. A woman in line in front of me complains of too much change. Middle Street Foods is too crowded and the coffee not self service any more. She tells me this in great detail (I've summarized here) and with great vehemence. "It's just too much change," says she. I tell her I miss Fowle's terribly. She seems less sympathetic to my experience of the change than I am trying to be for her. I gather Middle Street Foods used to give her free refills. I finally get my coffee and it tastes and costs the same.

Back home the power has finally come back on. My clock radio is flashing 5:30 AM. I wonder if that's what time the power went out?

Reassured that all is well on the home front, I head for Providence. After an excellent dinner at the Garden Grille, the fabulous vegetarian restaurant in Pawtucket, we descend on Acme Video in search of Agnes Varda's Vagabond, which is actually in this time. But Nancy spots Shadow Magic, a Chinese movie about the first moving pictures to come to China. That would be the Lumiere brothers' films as Nancy points out, and we have to see this. I try to hold out for Vagabond, but finally decide I too would rather see a movie about movies. Then in the documentary section I spot Whaler out of New Bedford, a 24 minute video of the panorama A Whaling Voyage Round the World painted by Benjamin Russell, which is on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. We rent both of them for a double feature.

Shadow Magic is wonderful. Not only does it showcase the Lumiere brothers' films, but it tells a cute love story, and has breathtaking scenes of the Great Wall and some good footage of Peking Opera. And A Whaling Voyage Round the World is so good we watch it twice. It has music by Peggy Seeger and Ewan McCall and many clever lighting effects. This is another one that might cause me to reconsider my resistance to getting a VCR and/or DVD player.