Sister Time

posted by Helen

Dave is spending the weekend with his sister in Delaware. I spent yesterday afternoon with my own unique sister. We went to a concert of music from Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil by the Dartmouth College Glee Club.

The concert was held in the Rollins Chapel of the college at 3 PM. The light streamed through the stained glass, slowly fading as the sun set and the music floated from Vespers to Matins to First Hour. The performance was marvelous.

We had supper at the Hanover Inn, a warm finish to a day well-spent. Afterward we parted on the steps of the Inn, steeling ourselves to turn and face the winter wind.

Movies movies and more movies

posted by Helen

I've been on a bit of a movie kick lately. We had another movie night with my folks last Saturday. We watched the Dutch film "Antonia's Line." It wasn't a comedy, but we all liked it. I found the narration just a tiny bit annoying. It seems weak when a movie resorts to voiceover narration.

This past Monday, we went to see "The Jane Austen Book Club" at the Woodstock Town Hall Theater. It was a total chick flick, but Dave was good-humored about being one of only 3 men in the audience. I liked the movie better than the book, which I read last year.

I recently discovered that my Netflix subscription includes 5 hours of instant movie viewing on the internet per month. So far I've watched "Two for the Road" with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney and "The Hours," a triptych riff on themes from Virginia Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway."

I had never seen "Two for the Road" before and loved it (even if Audrey Hepburn is impossibly thin in it). I'm considering renting the DVD to watch with Mom and Dad because the scenery is so lovely as they drive around Europe. My only hesitation is that there's a lot of flashing forward and backward and then forward and partway back again, which will be hard for my dad.

I did see "The Hours" when it first came out, but I saw so much more in it this time. I hadn't read "Mrs. Dalloway" before seeing it the first time so I wonder if that made the difference. Or maybe I just go through periods when I can concentrate better on what I'm watching than at other times.

There have been times I've tried to watch a movie and it might as well have been in Swahili without subtitles for all I was able to comprehend. It's nice to know I haven't completely lost my mind, even if I have no idea what I've done with my set of keys right now.