Monday, October 29, 2012

It’s getting colder out there.  There are frost warnings in the interior and here in Valencia the temperature is not expected to go higher than the low 60’s.  Temperatures will moderate later in the week, but I think we are looking at highs in the 60’s for the foreseeable future.

Cold or not, we decided to walk to the Cines Babel to see Woody Allen’s film, “To Rome with Love”.  Our plan was to leave the house a little after 2:30, walk the two miles to the theater, grab some lunch and then catch the 4:30 showing.  We kept up a good pace throughout our walk and we reached our destination in less than a half an hour.  It turned out that restaurant choices were limited, so we ended up going to a small restaurant across the street from the theater.

Lunch was filling, but it was not anything remarkable.  We had some croquetas de bogavante, gambas al ajillo and we shared an entrecot.  Susan had some baked pumpkin for dessert and I chose a brownie.  The brownie was a bit dry and had made a brief journey through the microwave.  When the gates to the theater were opened, we made our way across the street, bought our tickets and entered the theater.

I have been a Woody Allen fan since his early days when he was a stand-up comedian who then made his foray into the movies.  That means I have a predisposition to like his films and this one was no exception.  Is it one of his best films? No!  Did I spend an enjoyable two hours occasionally laughing out loud?  Yes!  Of the four stories told in the film, the tale of the newlyweds was the least interesting for me.  I liked the story that featured Jesse Feinberg, Alec Baldwin and Ellen Page, although it was sort of predictable.  The Roberto Benigni story was a rather cutting commentary about people who are famous for being famous.  I enjoyed the segment that starred Woody Allen the most.  The concept of an opera singer with a golden voice who could only realize his gift if he was in the shower just hit me the right way and I laughed my way through all of his performance scenes.

Given the fact that it was already dark when we left the theater and the temperature had dipped significantly, we took a cab home.  We were in for the evening.  I translated a bit more and Susan read.  A little after 9:00, thanks to Apple TV we watched another episode of “Inspector Lewis”.  Susan went to bed at midnight, but I stayed up until 1:30 hoping that would make me fall asleep when I hit the bed.  Unfortunately the strategy did not work.