Harry Potter, plum jam, and a few movies

Things are pretty quiet around here these days, which is why I have maintained radio silence for the past week or so. All my time seems to be taken up with either Harry Potter -- both at home and at work -- or making plum jam. In both cases, there is an end in sight, but there's a shitload of stuff to wade through before I get there.

Last week I caught two classics on the big screen: Bridge on the River Kwai at the Egyptian and Forbidden Planet at the Alex. I mentioned to Lucy that I was going to see Bridge that evening, and she said, "Great, now I've got that goddamn whistling stuck in my head." Hee hee -- I couldn't remember the melody, so I was spared the misery of an endless music loop in my brain. If you've never seen it, Bridge on the River Kwai is a great film, with enough plot and well-developed characters for two or three movies made to today's standards. Actually, character-wise, it far surpasses any big action film you'd see these days. Alec Guinness is superb as the stiff upper lip British officer who insists on playing by the rules set forth by the Geneva Convention; he's very funny, too, in a low-key way. William Holden is pretty darn great, too, as the American seaman who becomes a hero despite his best efforts to avoid doing anything that might be construed as valiant. The Egyptian is my favorite of L.A.'s old theatres, and it's the perfect place to see a David Lean epic.

As we all know, Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet. So do Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon and Robby the Robot. Just so you know, this poster is a terrible lie: Robby the Robot only carries one person around in his arms, and it ain't Anne Francis. It's the guy playing the doctor, and the scene hasn't nearly the titillating robot-on-woman action suggested by the artwork. Overall, this movie is surprisingly delightful; not only was it shot in CinemaScope, but it also clearly had a big budget for special effects and a uniformly talented cast. I say it's surprising because it could far more easily have been shot as a cheapie B picture, and it pleases me that some powers that be chose to elevate it and make it into really good, A picture fare. (The fact that it's based on Shakespeare's The Tempest may have had something to do with it, now that I think about it.) Just don't believe the poster. The Alex is a wonderful refurbished theatre in Glendale whose only drawback is that their film society shows far too few films every year. Next year, though, they're planning to screen Lawrence of Arabia, so I'll finally get to see that on the big screen. The Alex is also a nice place to see a David Lean epic.

Also last week, Sean, Curtis, Norman and I took my 7-year-old niece Cameron to see Ratatouille at the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena. If you've seen The Player or Scream II, you've seen the Rialto. Inside, it's dark and cavernous, with a creaky old balcony and uncomfortable seats that are probably stuffed with horsehair or something equally decrepit. Cameron had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to see a movie in a theatre so old; its charms were completely lost on her, particularly when I scared her by telling her the theatrical mask with glowing green eyes that hangs over the movie screen was a demon. C'mon, can't she take a little joke? Ratatouille was fine, although definitely not as wonderful as some of director Brad Bird's other films (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant).

All this movie talk, and no mention of Harry Potter or plum jam. Well, let me mention them. Right now I'm feverishly trying to finish rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before I see the movie tomorrow, and with nearly 300 pages left to go, I'm thinking that ain't gonna happen. It's astonishing how much of the book I've forgotten, so it's practically like reading it for the first time. Plus I want to reread The Half-Blood Prince before HP7 is unleashed on the world a week from Saturday. Ten more days, people! Since I am employed by a bookstore, work has become all Harry, all the time and will remain so for the next couple of weeks. It's all about hanging signs everywhere and planning our big midnight celebration and moving merchandise to more prominent locations so nobody can overlook the fact that we're selling Gryffindor scarves and chocolate frogs and a startling array of magic wands. *Yawn* I love Harry, but all the hoopla is wearing me down. I'll be glad to settle into the big armchair with my book and some tasty snacks the weekend of the 21st, to emerge blinking in the glaring SoCal sunlight only when I've turned the last page.

Jam: I've made lots of it. It's hard to say how much, exactly, since I keep making it, then giving some away, then making more, but I'd guess I've put up around 45 jars or so. I gave Lucy a couple of jars on Sunday, and today I emailed her, asking if she and her folks had tried it yet. She wrote back, "Have we tried the jam?! Are you kidding? My dad has already mowed through one jar. He seems to think mom and I are helping but it's all him. It's my new favorite jam but I've been avoiding because I'm doing the whole core thing. HOWEVER, I think I've got a few points to splurge on some toast and jam tonight and some popcorn tomorrow. Mom is trying to be good as well so that empty jar is almost entirely Dad's doing. Last night I wandered in to the kitchen to pack up lunch for work, Dad was standing at the butcher block spreading your jam on a plain untoasted slice of bread and about swallowed it whole. Once he could speak again he asked 'When's Shandon teaching you how to make this?' I told him 'soon' but that it might be a dangerous hobby. He seemed willing to take that chance." I couldn't have asked for a better compliment! For the moment, though, I'm sick of making jam. Everything in the kitchen seems slightly sticky, and outside, the plums that have fallen from the tree are starting to rot. There's a faint, sickly sweet miasma of dying plums permeating the backyard, and I'm thinking the rest of the fruit needs to be preserved (either as jam or prunes) or gotten rid of by this weekend. Next kitchen project: making cheese!