New Hobbies

I’ve been pretty scarce online of late. As I mentioned last week, I’m becoming interested in “Bollywood” films, and have been reading and trying to research a little bit. As if there weren’t enough films to watch already! Another thing that’s been taking a lot of my time lately is my growing interest in wine. I’ve just finished reading an excellent introduction, entitled The Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, by Kevin Zraly. It’s hard to believe that Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the now vaporized World Trade Center, used to sell more than 10,000 bottles of wine per month. Brooke and I begin a four week “course” in wine appreciation this week at one of our friendly neighbourhood LCBO stores. This is to prepare us for a weekend to some Niagara wineries in August, and eventually for our Sonoma trip in October.

We did, of course, watch some movies this weekend. Men in Black II (2002) was completely disposable. It felt like they put the de-neuralyzer on the audience at the end, that’s how much of the film I remember. We did rent Ocean’s Eleven (2002), which was much more enjoyable. Though it was purely entertainment, at least it was smartly-written entertainment. I love the sort of movie where at least there’s some cleverness used. They didn’t just shoot up the place. Great music, great costumes, and lots of other cinematic flourishes made this a winner for me. It’s Steven Soderbergh, after all. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with Solaris. I’ve seen the original Solaris (1972), and it’s hard to imagine George Clooney in this film. The older film was long, meditative, and creepy. A bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in fact. I hope Soderbergh can make a sci-fi film without too many explosions.