Kids away
What do we do when the kids are away for an entire night (other than forget that we don’t have to whisper when we go to bed)? We go out to watch a hyperviolent movie and then come home and listen to music real loud. In other words, act like kids. (Well, teenagers, anyway.)
Both were invited to yet another birthday party sleepover (and this sleepover insanity must be stopped — it ruins the entire weekend and leaves everyone cranky the next day). So we were able to run over to the Spectrum to see “Sin City.” I’m a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez and every review pointed to this being done right, lifting storyboards straight from the comic frames and creating a hyper-real, illustrated world. I was not disappointed. Lee asked some of her students what they thought of it, and they were apparently quite concerned that she be prepared for the graphic violence. Afraid the old teacher couldn’t take it. Please. We were there when they invented graphic violence, you little whippersnappers. And it was, in the most literal sense, graphic. It appeared drawn, illustrated, and as in Kill Bill, that really takes away the shock and the horror and leaves you able to look at the thing itself. Bruce Willis was amazing and, as Lee said, Rodriguez knows what to do with Mickey Rourke. That’s saying something.
Then we came home, completely visually fulfilled but with a couple of hours left in the night, so I popped in Aimee Mann’s live DVD and turned the music up real loud. Okay, not REAL loud, but much louder than I could have if I had had two sleeping munchkins upstairs. It’s starting to look like her upcoming show at the Egg is just impossible — it’s midweek, on a dance lesson night, and the logistics look unmanageable. But the DVD is a nice substitute, and hopefully she’ll do another one for this tour — it was really well-done, with excellent camera work and lighting, and really really good concert sound.
That all came after a delightful morning spent with my two girls, out running errands and having a sweet spring morning together. Had to get Hannah new glasses — prescription is the same, but she’s had the same pair since third grade, and they’re just getting too small for her face. The new ones she picked out are tres chic, and will no doubt lead to a lot of broken sixth-grade hearts.