Just for Funsies

AFI

I've seen this a couple times both on DVDs and at the AFI Silver Theater and I have to say, I love this commercial. Can anyone guess which clip is my favorite? I'll give you a hint, I love Joel McCrea (I think he was a totally underrated actor who was able to seamlessly move from comedy (The More the Merrier) to drama (Foreign Correspondent)).

Thoughts on Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train was the Hitchcock movies this weekend at the AFI Silver Theater, so naturally I went to see it. I've seen the movie once, so I sort of remembered what happened (although apparently I only really remembered the first 30-40 mins). So as I was watching, I started looking at other elements beside the great cinematography. One thing I noticed was that throughout the movie Guy was almost always dressed with a white jacket and Bruno was in a black jacket, like a subtle reminder that Guy is good. And I didn't realize that a lot of the movie is genuinely funny. I never ranked this movie high on my favorite Hitchcock movies, but it improves on repeat viewing. And this made me think of when I got introduced to Hitchcock movies. I'm pretty sure the first one I saw was Psycho, which again is not my favorite Hitchcock movie, but there are definitely elements that are classic Hitchcock (like the excellent use of music and the creative shots like a character being pushed down the stairs). I'm pretty sure the next Hitchcock movie I saw was Rebecca followed by Spellbound and then I was hooked. A few years back (in grad school), I watched every Hitchcock movie available on DVD (except The Birds). I've really enjoyed going to the AFI Silver for the retrospective, and I thought that only people who enjoy Hitchcock were attending the screening. But I was proven wrong when I overheard someone saw "What's this movie? Strangers on a Train? I've never heard of it."

Silver Theater

It's starting to warm up a little here, so I thought I would escape the heat by seeing a movie. So I went to Imdb to see what the movies are showing near me and to my suprise Notorious popped up under the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Springs. Turns out, the theater is doing a Hitchcock retrospective until the end of August. Silver Springs is a relatively short (about 40 min) Metro ride from here, so I decided to go to the screening last night. It short, it was great. Firstly, the main theater (there are 3 screen altogether) is beautiful with an old-fashioned look to it. And the seats are really nice with really wide aisle (so it's really easy for people to get through to the seats in middle). I've never seen a Hitchcock movie with an audience before, so it was a little weird to start out but in the end enjoyable because made for a great atmosphere (including someone doing an audible gasp during Hitchcock's cameo). Since I didn't know when the retrospective started, I missed some of my favorites specifically Rebecca and Spellbound, I still can see Stage Fright and two short propaganda films Hitchcock made during the war. So I found yet another really interesting place to take people if/when they come visit me (even people with kids because they have special screenings for childcare givers with kids)!

Advantage: Osprey

Last weekend, one of my coworkers invited me to go with her to visit osprey nests in southern Maryland. For her research, she finds osprey nests and records number of eggs in the nest as well as watch the osprey hunt for fish (and takes pictures so she can determine what the species of fish the osprey are eating). We went to a state park near Mattawomen Creek (a tributary of the Anacostia and Potomic rivers) to observe the osprey. It was a beautiful day (not too sunny and not too warm) and the osprey were out in force. Now, I've never seen a life osprey before, so I was super excited to see them. They are really amazing to watch because the kind of hover in the air above the water and then dive down to catch a fish. And on top of that, I saw 2 bald eagles but multiple great blue herons. We were just about to leave when this happened:



So one of the ospreys attacked a great blue heron. It was really amazing to watch. And the state park was beautiful so if/when anyone comes to visit, I can take them there for some great bird watching.

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