The Mind's I



Perspective...

Mike and Cheshire

A classic picture of Mike and his Valentine's Day gift to me, Cheshire. Actually, that's not the name that he was born with. See, I forgot what his name was. I named him eagerly right after I got him, looking at the large United Kingdom poster that my old college roommate, Wei wei gave me. She knows that I'm a bit of an anglophile (that is the term, right?) and got me the map. All of my stuffed animals have received names that are towns in the United Kingdom. The first stuffed animal Mike gave me is a black dog that I named Cardiff. On my computer at work is Reading (pronounced red-ing). I named this creature but I have since forgotten its name. It was something long, but not pompous like Paddington or Winchester but even looking at the map, it wasn't coming to me. So, I had to rename it and this time, I chose Cheshire.


Genera Plantarum

The fig isn't a fruit. It's an inflorescence, a flower cluster. Same thing with a sunflower. Each petal of a sunflower is an individual flower while the entire "sunflower" is an inflorescence.



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June 3, 1999
Electioneering

No matter how well one plans, there are some days when things just don't turn out the wayone expects. Well, that's whathappened to today with this evening's plans... however, everything turned out okay in the end.

I haven't seen Christine in a while, so I wanted to see her and do our typical "moviethang". However, there wasn't anything that I really wanted to see in the theaters (except for The Loss of Sexual Innocence but even then it isn'ta film that I really wanted to go out of my way to see). So, I was hunting around to see what I wanted to see and I thought that it has been a while since I've seen an IMAX film. I asked Christine if she's ever seen an IMAX film and it turns out... nope! Never been to one. Never even heard of it. Cool beans! So, I suggested that we see an IMAX film. Early inthe week, I checked movelink.com and nothing other than Adventures in the Third Dimension was being shown at around the time I wanted to see a movie (around 7 or 8pm). So we planned on seeing that. (Ideally,I wanted to see Everest or one of those aamazingly scenic IMAX films... but I was willing to see this 3D ones. It's been a long time since I've seen a 3D film.)

Mike's contract ended earlier this week and I asked him if he was interested in seeing a film. "Free meal and movie!" I tempted him. Well, he said sure! He was up for it. No needed to pull his leg. No need to twist his arm. Yay! I had a nice little outing.

Early today at work, I hopped on over to movielink.com to check the time for the movie to plan, in my mind, the logistics of the entire evening.

Alas! To my surprise the film was no longer showing at the time it indicated earlier that week. I could have torn my hair out, I couldn't believe it! I checked the theater for other IMAX films we couldwatch but nothing was around the timethat we needed to see afilm to get home at a reasonable hour. So we needed to see something else.

Something else.

hunt
hunt
hunt
hunt

I found it.
I've heard some pretty good things about Election.. plus it had Matthew Broderick whom I've had an immense crush on since I saw War Games. So, if the film wasn't any good, atleast I had some great eye candy. So, I opted to see that film. It was playing ata theater relatively close to Port Authority at a reasonable time... so I hoped that the evening wouldn't be a complete failure.

Once Christine and Mike met me at work, we walked over to Naples 45, an Italian restaurant that is a short walk from my workplace. My old manager treated a few coworkers and I to it and I found the food delicious. I took Christine there and she seemed to really enjoy it the last time I went there. I talked to Mike about it and he seemed very intrigued by the restaurant and was eager to go. We tried going there one weekend, but it turns out it is one of those places that is only open during the weekdays.

Mike seemed to really enjoy the place. Good bread. His steak was delicious (according to him since I didn't get a piece). My chicken was great and I couldn't believe that I finished it. The best thing that they have there that I've had is their mozzarella balls with cherry tomatoes. YUM! I don't think I could ever become a vegetarian, butI know that vegetarians do eat *well*, contrary to some belief.

---

Well, we wentto the theater that was playing Election. It looked very shiney and new. And empty. I settled in to watch the movie with not too many expectations.

I couldn't stop laughing in this film. It is hilarious. I was weeping! Not only did I enjoy it, but Mike and Christine were both laughing heartily. This was such a delightfully clever and witty film. Reese Witherspoon (an actress that I haven't cared much for and still don't but was very impressed with her performance in thisfilm) plays the classic overachiever, Tracy Flick. She decides, in classic overachiever fashion, to run for class president despite her many other organization obligations. Looking at the pictures of her in her yearbook at the beginning of the movie made a flood of memories of my own yearbook come to me. I was a member of a number of different clubs, ranging from Human Relations club to the Chess club to the Math club.

She is envied and hated by Mr. McAllister, played by Matthew Broderick, a greatly loved history teacher whose best friend had an inappropriate relationship with Tracy Flick. So, when he discovers that she is running uncontested for the position, he convinces a dumb but charmingly sweet jock to run against her. The contest gets heated up when the jock's sister decides to run for class president as well when her girlfriend starts dating her brother.

Lots of fun tension!

The suggestive imagery is hilarious. The movie is full of symbolism and meaning. The timing is perfect of all the actors... many of them quite green but giving off wonderful performances. I discovered that the diretor/writer Alexander Payne also did Citizen Ruth and I'm very interested in seeing that. In the same manner that I'm interested in seeing Bound because of The Matrix. Mike couldn't stop laughing throughout the movie. Something to make Mike laugh that hard is a rare thing indeed.

So, Election. Two very big thumbs up from Mike and me. Oh, and Christine enjoyed it too.

© Copyright 1999, Eileene Coscolluela
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