Another cinematic day

A week or two ago, I told you about how, for years and years, I had been thinking of watching The Battleship Potemkin, but, until then, had never quite been able to bring myself to actually endure it. Well, similarly, for years and years I have been thinking of watching Gone with the Wind! But I couldn’t quit muster up the requisite enthusiasm. “What!!!” you gasp! “You haven’t seen Gone with the Wind?” Well, yes, actually I have. It was when I was in high school and it was a miserable experience. It was my very first date – ever - and was with a very creepy boy. I was terrified, and to this day, can’t imagine why I agreed to go to a movie with him. I seem to recall that there was social pressure from my friends and that the whole ordeal was not entirely voluntary. I remember sitting in agony in the dark theater for about six hours at least, finally, in relief, watching Scarlett grasping her handful of earth, and saying that she would never be hungry again, the majestic inspirational music, the sunset, me thinking, “Thank God this movie is over!” and then the appalling word, “Intermission,” coming onto the screen. I nearly died. Now, I had loved the book. In fact it is the only book in the history of me, that – immediately after reading the last page, I turned back to page one and read the whole thing again. More recently, I decided to read it in German in order to practice up (for what, I don’t know.) However when the translator referred to the original’s “poor white trash” as “Das Proletariat,” I realized that a certain essential flavor was missing. I switched to English. I loved it just as much as when I was in high school. But the movie was another matter…. It would be so long, so boring, so reminiscent of teenage angst and ickiness. I had previously had myriad opportunities to watch it again, but always managed to avoid it. Until now. I was suddenly seized by an urge to see it, so Ana, Rachael, Dakki and I had a little Gone with the Wind and garlic ice cream party. That’s right! We had a nice vegetable barley soup for dinner, and Garlic Ice Cream, made by Ana, for dessert. Dakki has rather severely conventional tastes in food, so we didn’t mention in advance the ice cream's specifics. She said, “This ice cream is good, but I detect an unusual flavor. I can’t quite place it.” Who would think of garlic. It was very tasty. And Gone with the Wind was about twelve hours shorter this time. And about a thousand times more fun to watch. Sometimes the company is everything.
Here we are during a much more pleasant intermission, enjoying the ice cream.