The brain cannot function on 45 minutes of sleep

My last movie night before I leave! Next Saturday I'll be camping in the Sierras, the Saturday after that is my going-away party, and then the Saturday after that I leave for New York! No more MPMs for me for 9 long months! Of course spending that time in Italy studying the classics is worth the sacrifice, but still... I'll miss my friends! I don't know, though, if this last MPM could have been more wonderful or memorable (wink, wink). A spectacular last movie night!

We watched four movies (not a lot for us!): the two more memorable ones were Straight Jacket and The Frisco Kid. The former is a brilliant satire about a gay actor in the '50s. It was refreshing to watch, because with all this Republican anti-gay crap these days, it's nice to know that not only are people speaking out for gay rights, but there are movies mocking such intolerance. It also makes fun of the Communist scare and of the movie biz. In general satires are great, this one especially so.

The latter was a pretty bad movie. It was on at about 3:00, and it's one of those movies where it's infinitely clear why they play it in the wee hours when most sane people will be asleep. However even as you have that thought it's impossible to turn the movie off for several reasons. One, it's 3:00, and that's simply no time to go to sleep! A movie, no matter how bad, will help keep you awake. Two, by 3:00 in the morning, when you've just gotten out of the pool and you've had a bag and a half of tootsie rolls, everything is a lot funnier than usual. Even the worst of movies is quality cinema, and good for a hell of a lot of great laughs. And three, this movie has both Han (Harrison Ford - droooool) and Gene Wilder (you can't really drool for Gene Wilder, but still.... basically, he's awesome). The film is a "wild west" comedy set in the 1800s, which automatically makes it bad. Only a brilliant script could save it at this point, and I'm sorry to say, a brilliant script was not in the cards for this film. Gene Wilder plays a rabbi who has come to America from Poland and must venture to San Francisco (which he knows is somewhere "near New York") where he will be married. However he is robbed at the start of the movie and has to make his way across the country penniless and hopelessly lost. Eventually he encounters a bank robber (sexy Han!) who decides to help him on his way to California. The two go on to have great adventures and form a great friendship so that whenever they are almost parted they manage to stay together through all odds. Quite frankly, I have to say that this is the worst movie I've ever seen. Sorry, Gene and Han.

The Frisco Kid ended at 5:30, but I didn't go to sleep till about 7:30, and then only during the parts of Pirates of the Caribbean that didn't have Johnny Depp. When I got home I immediately crashed, and when my mom woke me up it almost 7:00. Monday already, the day we're leaving on our camping trip! I got up, went through my morning routine, got packed, and was ready to go when I realized that even as the morning grew later, it was getting darker and cooler outside. Perplexed, I went outside to look for the sun (I really did - I though maybe we were having highly irregular weather - a thunderstorm, perhaps? Ah, we would not be so lucky). No clouds, but a lovely sky full of stars greeted me. I had fully believed that I'd slept for about 18 hours and that it was Monday morning. I had been a bit surprised that my mom would wake me up at 6:45 in the morning, but I figured we still had a lot of packing to do and that she needed my help. I just hope I didn't say too many stupid things that would only make sense if it really were tomorrow morning...

All this talk about sleep is wearing me out, so I'd best hit the sack (yet again). Ta,

Holly