The Lost Room
This 6-episode series (sadly, no more were made, although a comic is apparently in the works) is a fun bit of television that appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel (the former name of Syfy). Based on the premise of a mysterious set of objects that have "super" powers ranging from the mundane to the incredible, this is a well-done series with a bunch of character actors that I've seen before in various other series/movies: Chris Bauer (The Wire), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Dennis Christopher (Deadwood), April Grace (Magnolia), Margaret Cho (yes, the comedian) to name the obvious ones. I enjoyed it for the unpredictability and the eerie sense of drama.
Eat Pray Love
An ultimately boring movie about finding oneself (and love) by traveling to exotic places and hanging out with beautiful people. The movie had some nice moments, but overall it was painfully predictable. I hope the book that the movie was based on is not as dully self-congratulatory as the movie.
La Cage aux Folles
This revival with Kelsey Grammar is entertaining, but doesn't blow you away. (Although I think I'm getting maudlin' in my old/middle age: some of the songs did move me.) Kelsey Grammar does a passable job, although he is so well-known as Frazier Crane that it felt like Frazier was playing the part. The understudy for the Albin role, Chris Hoch, was great, modulo some microphone trouble during his solo at the end of Act One. Overall, it's good entertainment, but there is probably better stuff on Broadway if you're a connoisseur.
Tao
We had lunch at this fancy Asian-fusion restaurant. Peking-duck spring rolls, yum! Truly excellent food: expensive, but not overly so (although I would not go very frequently: I'm still pretty cheap when it comes to food). Worth an occasional splurge, though. And the restaurant itself is spectacular: we were seated on the second floor with a view overlooking the giant Buddha statue.
Love and Other Disasters
A cute but predictable movie. Good enough to watch on streaming Netflix while winding down after a long day of childcare...but I wouldn't have wanted to pay to watch this movie in the theater. Some cheesy, if amusing, movie-within-a-movie scenes.
Harry Potter 7
The other part of taking the day off was seeing a movie (how easy is that these days)? I think the New Yorker review summed up the movie the best: it was dull. The only reason to see the movie is if you read all of the books and want to see how it was adapted. This movie was not as bad as the first 2: the creative team did a passable job of shortening the text into an action movie. If you've read the books, it all makes sense: I suspect that if have not, it is just like any other nonsensical string of action sequences. I wish I had seen something else for my day off, and I'm surprised that it got decent reviews anywhere (except The New Yorker). If this hadn't been a special outing for my day off I would have walked out...
Sage Bistro
Sage Bistro is a fancy little restaurant near where we live. I took the day off and had a nice lunch there: the food was elegantly served, and pretty substantial fare: I had a crepe with shrimp, cheese, and artichokes. Yummy, if not particularly inexpensive.
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