The 4th, Public Enemies, and Ephemera...

(If I wait long enough, I accumulate enough to blog about.....)

Last Friday, braving the torrential downpours, J10X & I went to see Public Enemies. For those who don't know, it's a movie about John Dillinger's 14-month crime spree. I love gangster movies; I love gangster movies with stylish stars; this had both. And I'm pretty sure I can now predict the men's fall fashion line for 2009.
This movie was beautifully shot, some scenes evoking the feel of 1930's newspaper photos and it was a welcome respite from the usual direction of movies of late. The pacing was a little slower than I thought it would be, but it was a relief to see the action, not have it shoved in your face with nearly-undecipherable CGI magic.
It's really hard to describe the movie as a whole, and I'm hard put to explain any of the plot devices. There were no decent female roles, not even Dillinger's moll, played by Marie Cotillard, who had more of a 'character' than the other women. Johnny Depp was cool as Dillinger, Christian Bale [The Most Tensest Actor Since Clint Eastwood (tm)] was serviceable as Melvin Purvis, the very intense G-man who was chasing Dillinger, but again, the characters & story were very broad strokes. There was a good deal of sub-plot involving J. Edgar Hoover and the beginnings of the FBI, and Baby-Face Nelson's psychotic self was skin-crawlingly represented as well. Plenty of familiar faces in this movie, most of whom I couldn't name if I had to. This was a really enjoyable movie and beautiful to watch: I recommend it as an afternoon's diversion.
Rating: 3.5 crowns out of 5, 5 crowns for Johnny Depp 'cuz I'm sweet on him.

On the 4th, J10X and I were fortunate enough to party down with the Boojums and their Big L'il Bash for the Fourth. It was so glorious outside (finally), good food was to be had, good people to talk to, just a nice, relaxed vibe. Later that night, J10X & I went to Norwich to see the fireworks - it was insane. There wasn't a single place to park, the town was just packed full of people. We managed to get to a spot behind a bank, under some trees, through a culvert and on a grassy knoll and joined an older couple to watch the fabulous fireworks.

Sunday was another glorious day, so off we went to the beach! It was a bit chilly on the beach itself, but really nice walking around. Oh, yeah, we scored some more tiki goodness at the flea market as well, this time in the form of ephemera. One piece, which is marginally Polynesian Pop, is a brochure from 1931 on the SS Mauritania and its cruises to South America and islands. That has a big fold out section of the schematic of the ship, too. We also scored a travel booklet from Hawaii and several pamphlets from Silver Springs, ca. 1940s-1950s.

So, all-in-all, it was a rare relaxed holiday weekend- yay!