Proof: My Review

I saw the movie Proof last weekend and here is my review. I had been wanting to see this movie since last year when I found out it was coming out.

I had two main concerns going into the movie.

1. Gwenyth Paltrow as Kathryn. (The movie does not actually specify that this is the way her name is spelled, so since it is unknown to me I will spell it like my middle name.) I just was unsure how Paltrow would be in this role. I really didn't want her to fuck it up; and in the back of my mind it was a concern.

2. The lead male role was being played by The Bubble Boy. I know he has been in other movies, but he was still 'The Bubble Boy' to me.
I knew Hope Davis would be fabulous in her role; before seeing the movie, I thought she would have made a good Kathryn.

I had seen the play Proof so I had some expectations for the movie. At first the movie seemed like a play that hadn't been rehearsed enough. The characters seemed really awkward with themselves as well as with one another. It seemed as though they didn't know where to stand and it seemed they were over-expressing themselves as though they were onstage in front of a live audience. I hoped the entire movie would not have this vibe. Sure enough, about a third of the way into the movie it changed. The characters no longer seemed awkward towards one another; it was quite the opposite, they seemed to gel. The story and lives of the characters came together and it worked... perfectly. You can check out the Proof link above if you want a synopsis of the story.

I was wrong to worry about Gwenyth Paltrow as Kathryn... the role was made for her. And 'the bubble boy' stole my heart as Hal the inquisitive, go-getting, romantic, extraordinarily appealing graduate math student. Even when he made a disappointing mistake and you were supposed to be mad at him; I still had sympathy. I was right about Hope Davis too; she nailed her part.

Should you see this movie? Well, you be the judge, but I highly recommend it. It has heartwarming intelligent characters who seem real and you can't help but feel for them, witty jokes, relationships that might make you cry, and the most sensual, most romantic, and most believable love scene that I have seen in a long time; I'd see it again just for that moment.

Welcome to Wellfleet... Please Drive Gently

Mmmmmmmmmm Mmmmmmmmmm Good

What do you know?

I like my chaos wheat free too. 

New Features

Blogger now has a new feature that let’s you publish right in Microsoft word.  I –let’s see how some of the formatting works here –will test a bit of it out.  Will it keep my new font settings: Size 14 Chiller Bold?

          How about if I indent with a tab?  How is this working?

One other thing that usually bothers blogger is Word’s “quotation marks.”  How are these looking?

What if I add in a table?  
















What if I change color?  Can it see this red??

Alright, more tests later…

Wait, does this mean I can publish when not connected to internet?  Nope.

Mmmmm.... Food....

Congratulations to Boston and Bristol for having a restaurant named "Best New Restaurant for 2005" in Esquire Magazine.

DeWolf Tavern
BRISTOL, RHODE ISLAND
The lovable idea of New England being dotted with darling little inns with good New England cooking is largely a myth. New England's got plenty of fine inns, but most are creaky places with good pancakes but otherwise mostly mediocre food. A welcome exception is DeWolf Tavern, set in a lovingly restored 1818 warehouse overlooking Bristol Harbor in Rhode Island's best-maintained historic town. The tavern's walls are granite, the wooden beams are exposed, and the floors quaintly sag. A fireplace roars in winter.

What makes DeWolf Tavern unique is chef Sai Viswanath's canny understanding of New England's long tradition of absorbing other food cultures. Indian-born Viswanath and his wife, Melicia Phillips, bring Eastern spices to bear on the finest New England provender in dishes like tandoori-fired baby chicken with brussels-sprout hash and sweet-potato gratin; roast quail filled with mushroom-and-rice biryani and black truffles; roast trout with chorizo-and-corn-bread stuffing and a thick creamed spinach derived from Indian saag; and mussels gently steamed with coconut milk, chiles, and curry-leaf sauce. Then there's the fabulous lobster popover - a paean to American wholesomeness - ethereally puffed up and crisp, teeming with big chunks of lobster in thick New England cream.
259 Thames Street; 401-254-2005; dewolftavern.com.

Mare
BOSTON
From the outside, Mare looks like yet another storefront Italian eatery of which Boston's North End has dozens. But inside, you'll find a very cool, minimalist design with a wall of changing colored light. In a whoosh, two hyper Abruzzese women—chef Marisa Iocco and manager Rita D'Angelo - swoop to your table to tell you what you must not miss tonight! And that will be largely extraordinary Italian seafood.

Antipasti range from crudi (raw seafood) to a decadent potato creme brulee with crayfish and chive oil. I never order seafood pastas this side of the Atlantic because they are almost always overcooked, soupy, and second rate. Iocco's are pristine, like the wondrous swordfish with casoncelli pasta dressed in brown butter, sage, and crispy pancetta, or paccheri of jumbo crab with fava beans and black summer truffles. For a main course, share a sweet branzino cooked in a salt crust with a garlicky bagna cauda ("hot bath"), a Piedmontese casserole of olive oil, garlic, and anchovies.
135 Richmond Street; 617-723-6273; mareorganic.com.


And a big you suck to Atlantic City for having the most expensive desert:

Most Expensive Dessert The chocolate-hazelnut brownie topped with gold and served with a 1996 Quinta do Noval Nacional port in a Baccarat crystal atomizer: $1,000 at Brulee at the Quarter at theTropicana, Atlantic City.

A Capitol Story

Hartford was alright. I really like the city! I'd never been to Hartford before; it really is quite nice. My mom was worried about me, to her, Hartford is just about the worst city in the country. I don't know why. She told me to not wander around the city by myself, and to stick close to SH, and of course wanted to know where I was staying and whatnot. Don't fear mom, all rules were obeyed. But SH and I both really liked Hartford and we joked about moving there. Luckily we could see the hotel from the highway because SH does not like google maps (I know!) and so he tossed my directions for Mapquest directions where he had only mapped it to the center of Hartford rather than the specific address of the hotel.

We arrived at the hotel and our luggage was taken in while the valet parked the car. SH had no problem getting his room, but unfortunetley for me, there were 2 Sara Dalton's staying at the hotel and attending the conference. They had her room and they had my confirmation number, but for some reason, they had trouble finding my room. It's always good to have SH with you: "well, there's always the presidential suite!" he piped in. They insisted they were completely booked but managed to find me a room. What the hell's up with the hassle? Anyway, while I was dealing with front desk, SH had sent his stuff and equipment to his room. I finished up and instead of waiting for a bellhop, I went up to my room myself, dropped off my belongings, used the restroom, and washed my face and went back downstairs; we still had not eaten. When I returned to the lobby, I found that SH had already made friends.

Silly me for thinking we would just eat in the hotel restaurant; SH says to me: "Okay, now Simone says we should go to dinner at Hot Tomotoes and ask for James. He will set us up with excellent Mojitos." And off we went. Again, Hartford is a cool city. They have a free shuttle system called the "star shuttle" which makes numerous stops throughout the city. We waited outside the Marriott for about 10 minutes, during which McCabe was called because apparently he was also worried about us, and then the shuttle picked us up and we were off. The driver seemed nice enough; he was giving us a short tour and some facts about the city. We saw the rock garden, ohh lala jealous ain't ya? ;) We couldn't get over the free shuttle; Good Ole Beantown needs to take a lesson. We were dropped off right in front of Hot Tomatoes and went in looking for James. I liked James, he was witty and I appreciated that. We sat ourselves outside and took a gander at the drink menu just because. Our waiter came over and when we told him we wanted Mojitos, he said we really came to the wrong place for Mojitos. He would bring us some, but he told us in all honesty Hot Tomatoes just didn't do the sugar properly for a Mojito. Hmmm. SH told him about Kelly and Joes. We ordered Mojitos anyway since that was the reason we were there. Kelly makes them better.

Good thing I am going to get $60 for 2 days for food because SH and I rang up a $120 bill with just that 1 meal. I got the half rack of lamb with goat cheese mashed potatoes and oh my goodness was it heavenly. The waiter talked me into an espresso martini which was also fabulous. Anyway, I'm getting tired of this post. We ate, lounged around, drank, talked (apparently I wicked open up like no one's business when I'm drinking) and we missed the last shuttle back. We took a cab. I went up to my room and laid down in my beautiful king size bed. I made myself a little nest with all the pillows and slept. One can get used to a king size bed very easily. I didn't sleep that well though because I woke up at 5:30 and the entire night I dreamt about Navigator crashing.

I don't really want to talk about the actual reason we were there other than I had to fight back the tears when SH showed a picture of Jim. He talked briefly about him, and mentioned this was his first conference without him and then he dedicated the presentation to him. The people sat there with their puppy-dog faces on. But they really had no idea what losing Jim meant.

I didn't eat until pizza at Joe's for dinner that evening. Kelly came in and made us Mojitos the right way. I was disappointed and exhausted and so I headed home.

Because I said I would

So I told someone I would make a list of things I am looking forward to. I think my list is supposed to pertain to my current living situation. So then I thought of making 2 lists of what I am looking forward too (living situation and life in general), then I said forget it, I'm just making 1 list.

And so here it is, in no particular order. Care if you want to.

• My finger healing
• Pumpkin Carving
• Another new Ryan Adams album
• March
• Brattleboro in January and cross country skiing
• My heart not being broken
• Halloween & Halloween party
  
• More movie nights
• Trying more October themed beer with Doug
• Doing more baking
• More steak tip dinners... That was so yummy
• Going to the movies once again & especially seeing Proof. I've been waiting for this movie since last winter, why haven't I gone to see it yet???
• More walks to No Problemo
• Walking to various things in downtown New Bedford
• More apartment parties!!!!
  

Salad anyone?

Think you're eating healthy? Think again.

I just remembered I had a very bizarre dream last night... All I remember is the Rolling Stones were in my dream and it has something to do with huge patterns of Domino's.

Hmmm... I'll try to remember anything else I can.

I think summer is now really over...

I went home this weekend. It was pretty nice. Jack and I carpooled home on Saturday. In the afternoon we went for a walk on the beach. In the evening we went out to dinner with my aunt at a new place in town for my brother’s birthday –it was a nice place but definitely not as good as The Wicked Oyster. When we got home, we caught most of the last of the PBS special on Bob Dylan. I want to see it all, the portion we did see was magnificent.

Sunday we went swimming. It was chilly, but we braved it because it was probably the last day of the year we would be swimming. It really refreshed my body all over. I felt alive and awake and ready for life. After we changed we headed out to Provincetown. Provincetown seemed a little odd Sunday, even for P-town. But once my dad told me it was “Leather Weekend,” it all made sense, hehe. {Damn, I forgot to wear my leather pants.} Per my request, we hit up StrangeWays and bought the Dylan Soundtrack of the PBS special. We ate at Mojo’s for the last time this season and did a bit of walking around.

We went back home and had some homemade apple pie and watched last week’s Arrested Development before Jack and I went to Dad’s. My little brother had just gotten back from Disney World. Apparently he went to Disney for 3 days with a friend of his whose parents took their kid and my little brother to Disney for the kid’s birthday! WTF?? Who does that?

Anyway, I heard all about England from my dad. He got back last Tuesday and was very apologetic about not making it to dinner on my brother's bday. Apparently he's only back for 2 weeks before he heads over to Bali. He says the recent suicide bombing and raise in oil prices will make things really cheap for him when he goes over there. Hmmm, I wonder why? At least he is not taking any kids with him. I then helped my little sister write a grocery list for my dad. I told her she should use it as a template for future grocery store visits, hehe. We then sent him off to the store to retrieve the items, who wants to bet he lost the list before he made it to the store some .2 miles away? Jack and I then departed back to Dartmouth and NB. We had a productive discussion on spherical geometry for most of the drive home! Go us! I kept shouting at him to get out his computer and type what he and I were saying, my memory is pitiful, but he didn’t. He said he would remember it all.

When I got home, I did the usual. I blew up my bed, shook all my covers and rug outside, made my bed, hung my clothes up, hand washed some items that were delicates, vacuumed my floor, organized all miscellaneous items, shaved, showered, gave myself a facial and did a little computer stuff. All while listening to some new music that I picked up on my way home, Lori McKenna’s album “Bittertown”. I am loving it. I didn’t get to do what I had wanted to do, i.e. homework and some work stuff, but I got some Sara stuff done.