Movie spree

In the middle of driving Vincent out or him taking out, Stephanie and I saw six movies in eight nights - in the last couple of weeks - ironically none with Vincent, who was at first working in the evenings and then - in hindsight - getting ready to leave. The first movie we saw Vincent would have seen - "It Might Get Loud" - the rockumentary with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and U2's The Edge. Continuing in that vein the next night was "This Is It," the documentary/concert rehearsal film with an amazing Michael Jackson. Next was the Drew Barrymore rollar derby movie "Whip It," with Ellen Page of "Juno," which was OK. And then Michael Moore's pro-social democracy "Capitalism: A Love Story," a movie he hinted at in "Sicko" but that loses steam as it misses the biggest mass movement of the past year, the right-wing Tea Party movement. It turns out because it was his last night town Vincent missed a movie I thought he'd like, by one of his favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, the ultra-violent World War II fantasy, "Inglorious Bastards," with Oscar-worthy performances by Christopher Walz and even the female leads. Exhausted Friday after Vincent's departure we limped to see Matt Damon in "The Informant!," an odd movie with Central Ohio ties that we perhaps should have skipped in favor of the St. Matthews holiday walk. Ironically, this spree was bookended by two other movie events. 2 1/2 weeks ago on my day off - before Vincent went to work - he and I went to the discount theater to see - for the 2nd time - the Harry Potter 5 movie. Then this past Wednesday - one year after Election Night - I spent a couple of hours with past and present Obama campaign and Organizing for America volunteers (pictured above) watching "By the People," a fascinating dcoumentary about the Obama campaign - particularly about the early days leading up to the crucial Iowa caucuses and a handful of very young (including some Asian American) volunteers/coordinators who helped make everything happen. What a difference a year makes.

-- Perry