Back to the Future

This past Sunday Em and I saw the Cleveland Orchestra, which is generally regarded as one of the best, if not the best, orchestra in the country, perform Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. It was part of my Christmas gift, and it was wonderful – I love seeing classical music performed lived, and as a Sunday afternoon show it was amusingly accentuated by the falling head of old men falling asleep. Afterward, we grabbed dinner and spent an hour exploring a used book store connected to the restaurant. Scrounging around in a basement with a painfully low ceiling, we made some amazing finds.

Out of a stack of 40-year-old National Geographics, I found issues highlighting, among other articles, global cooling, population problems, energy worries and the Apollo program. I also managed to pick up first editions of The Population Bomb by Ehrlich and Gaia by Lovelock, which along with Silent Spring are probably two of the more influential environmental books of the past century. I’m exciting to read them – my bookshelves are dominated by very recent non-fiction and pre-depression fiction, with very little crossover.

While renting a DVD, we also found a big collection of VHS movies for a buck…a melee of grabbing titles ensued. Now if only I had some free time…

Going to the mattresses

Last night, for the first time, I saw The Godfather. I had anticipated that viewing the movie would have acted as some sort of rite of passage, checking off one more box on that long list of things guys must do before we become “All that is man”. And while I did enjoy the movie, I was left feeling somewhat hollow after it ended. I didn’t feel any more manly, if anything less so, as the realization struck me that the biggest impact the movie had on me was that I finally understood a couple of comments that Tom Hanks made to Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail.

I thought Marlon Brando was impressive, but I’m not sure if that was because I actually thought he did a good job or because I’ve always heard he was amazing in the movie and adjusted my expectations accordingly. I refuse to believe everything the man did was magical…I saw The Island of Dr. Moreau. Al Pacino was better – he used to look good back when he was eating things. Didn’t realize until afterward that Robert De Niro was in the movie.

On one level, the movie did speak a lot about loyalty, respect, violence, and to a lesser degree, love. Al Pacino seemed to get over his first wife getting blown up rather quickly, but then again he stated his intention of marrying her after seeing her herding a group of kids wearing a purple dress, so who knows? I’m sure my understanding will be furthered when I get around to Part II.

(I realize that its possible to add imdb links to all of the actors and movies above. I just don’t care enough to do so.)