Dinner with friends

Just back from Fuzio's, where I had dinner (and at least one too many glasses of wine) with JC and Teeb, my former UComm colleagues and dear friends. All told, we worked together more than 15 years, and when I think about work and what the best thing about it was, I always think JC and Teeb. Good minds, good hearts, good people, witty and smart and committed to doing the best job they could. In truth, this was true of nearly all of the people I worked with. But for whatever reason—the fact that we worked so closely together for so long, that our senses of humor meshed so well, that our astrological signs were compatible, or something equally intangible—JC and Teeb and I became friends as well as co-workers. And even though we don't work together any more, that friendship has lasted and still feels solid, reliable, steady. Dinner was tons of laughs and good conversation and connection. I needed that. It felt good. And we will do it again. Soon.

I see blue people.

Went to see "Avatar" yesterday afternoon, and a better antidote for a gray, fogged-in day (just like the previous umpty-ump days) would be hard to find. Never mind that the script is really bad and the acting over the top (even Sigourney Weaver struggles with it), and that the action is so slow the first hour that I began to wish I'd bought popcorn just to have something to keep me occupied. Because the visuals make up for everything. Everything. The color is so vibrant, so rich, the detail is so splendid, the graphics so amazing—and all of this is squared and trined and ratcheted-up-to-the-nth-degree by being in 3-D. It took a few minutes for me to get used to the 3-D sensation—a bit of motion-sickness effect, though not at all severe—but it didn't take long to get my sea legs, so to speak, and by the time the film was rocketing toward its conclusion, I'd forgotten I was seeing something different, effects-wise. It simply was gorgeous. Worth the premium price the theater charges for 3-D action ($11.75) because I can't imaging seeing "Avatar" in anything other than 3-D. So, even if you don't like science fiction or animation or outer space or clunky storytelling or James Cameron, see this movie. You will like it. Really.