I talked to Haitch, who reminded me that I love Blake even when he's a footboy. We had a shower together--Blake and I, not Haitch and I--and the post-shower preening distracted him. I watched him fuss in a spatch of sun on a corner of the dining table, shaking off clouds of dust, and talked to CLH, who might come to Denver again.
I told her CoolBoss's latest two lines: Friday when I, dressed in a suit and wearing makeup for the executive committee's presence, bared my teeth at her, she said, "They look really good, except you've got lipstick on them." Later, talking about the next Big Top, which will be held in Salt Lake City this summer, she said, "Lisa, you have to go--you're the only one who won't mind no drinking." CLH has met CoolBoss a couple of times and likes her; now she likes her more.
Before the phone calls I smeared joint compound on the water closet walls so tomorrow I can sand them. Unlike scrubbing, smearing isn't so loud that I can't listen to American Pastoral. So that got done.
Then I walked out to feed some friends' cats. It was a lovely walk, and I sat on their couch with a glass of water and Beryl Bainbridge's Every Man for Himself prepared to cuddle some lonely kitties. They were having none of that, but two in turn (I swear the third is invisible) drank from my glass--after they had eaten their disgusting cat food. At the end I did get some Charley-love. Maybe by tomorrow they'll appreciate me more.
I stopped into the Park Hill Co-operative Bookstore and came away with some treats: Because of Winn-Dixie, which I've read but did want to own; What's Bred in the Bone, which had been my goal at the library (my next stop); a Newbery Honor that I haven't read, Dragon Wings by Laurence Yep; and a great Twinkie treat, A Royal Pain by Ellen Conford.
The library yielded two Douglas Couplands (Hey Nostradamus and All Families Are Psychotic) and A Great and Terrible Beauty, which I think Melissa recommended. Or not: I find no mention of it in The Usual Suspects. Well, I heard about it somewhere.
And now after a satisfying though dogless walk I am home with Blake, reading cheesy YA fiction and watching "The Sea of Grass," one of the few Hepburn & Tracy movies I haven't seen and supposedly one of the best.
I love them all, some in spite of themselves, some more than others.
Adam's Rib
I don't love this as much as it might deserve. I have a hard time not resenting Spencer Tracy sometimes, and I can only wish their relationship was as equitable in real live as on screen.
The African Queen
My earliest favorite. Adventure and romance and victory against the bad guys!
Alice Adams
I haven't read the Booth Tarkington book and I understand the movie's happy ending is not at all that of the book, just as Magnificent Ambersons got butchered. Screen filler.
A Bill of Divorcement
"You mean, there's insanity in the family?"
Break of Hearts
I just recently tried to watch this, but the print was so terrible I couldn't bear it.
Bringing Up Baby
Cary Grant, so what could go wrong?
Christopher Strong
The eventual fate of either of the heroines in The Girl Aviators' Motor Butterfly?
The Corn Is Green
A Delicate Balance
Despite Paul Scofield, I didn't like this. Maybe it was just too painful, maybe it didn't translate well from stage to screen.
Desk Set
Prescient and charming and she's not under Tracy's thumb.
Dragon Seed
Wow. Despite the same problems of Caucasians playing Asians that plague a contemporary viewer's experience of this and the cinematization of another Pearl S. Buck novel, quite a powerful movie. And because I hadn't read it first, I didn't find it as fraught with inadequacies as the mangling of my beloved Good Earth.
The Glass Menagerie
Grace Quigley
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
The Technicolor glares, and I can't quite separate it from knowing she never could bear to see it.
Holiday
I love it. They're both like Dinah Lord all the way through instead of only at the end.
The Iron Petticoat
Keeper of the Flame
This one's Plot Twist was obvious a mile away. I am a later generation of movie-viewer.
Laura Lansing Slept Here
The Lion in Winter
Although it's impossible to say for certain, certainly among my very favorites.
The Little Minister
It's waiting for me on TiVo right now. I think it's the sort of thing I should proof during.
Little Women
She's a great Jo.
Long Day's Journey Into Night
I haven't seen it in many years, since before the love really blossomed.
Love Affair
Love Among the Ruins
The Madwoman of Chaillot
The Man Upstairs
Mary of Scotland
Katharine Hepburn playing Mary Stuart Valois Darnley Hepburn. What could be better?
Morning Glory
Is it in this or in "Stage Door" that she speaks of carrying calla lilies on her wedding day? That was one of the captions in my wedding album.
Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry
Olly, Olly, Oxen Free
On Golden Pond
I haven't seen this since its cinematic release, I think. It might have started the Kate love. I'm not sure I connected this woman with Rosie Sayer though.
One Christmas
Pat and Mike
My least favorite Tracy pairing. It's not just that it's about sports, or even mostly. It's just cheesy.
The Philadelphia Story
I can't give this anything but love, baby.
Quality Street
One of those that I have watched out of sheer determinedness to see all of them.
The Rainmaker
I tried to watch this once. I'll try again.
Rooster Cogburn
The Sea of Grass
This was good for a while.
Song of Love
Just as "Casablanca" freaked me out because it paired Charlie Allnut with someone other than Rosie, Victor Laszlo with Rosie was weird. But it was good.
Spitfire
I didn't pay much attention to this, which I just saw last week, because Kate's Pennsyltucky accent was so atrociously bad.
Stage Door
I confuse this with "Morning Glory." One of the several I saw at the Wadsworth the summer of 1992 with ABW and RDC, when the only one I remember is "Bill of Divorcement."
State of the Union
A great movie
Suddenly, Last Summer
Elizabeth Taylor can act. Between this and the O'Neill, I figure Kate had enough Freud.
Summertime
Sylvia Scarlett
Cary Grant, so what could go wrong? They could wind up not together, that's what.
This Can't Be Love
The Trojan Women
True Love
Undercurrent
This could have been so much better, with such a concept and cast. Ah well.
Without Love
Better than I expected.
Woman of the Year
I suppose when the movie came out Tracy's character was more sympathetic. No more.
A Woman Rebels
Much better than I expected, though that iceberg thing, or the production code, meant I rewound a couple of times, not having picked up cues its original audience would have parsed correctly and been shocked by.