We saw a Bobcat foraging a few houses down in the alley. The Bobcat did not see us.We finished putting out the furniture by 6:40 a.m. I thought about driving down the road to Connemara Meadow for the first Saturday bird walk. But I decided to take Beatrice for a walk instead. First I ate some Kix cereal, and watched some episodes of the HGTV show about tiny houses.
Beatrice had been on restricted walking under doctor's orders due to a sensitive paw. But that time period elapsed. She is back in fine fettle. She enjoyed a walk in the relative cool of the morning, though in point of fact we did not go until 8 a.m., when the air was not too warm but was a bit humid.
After a somewhat longer Bea walk than usual, when she insisted on walking to Twin Creeks Boulevard, we got back home. I decided to go to the Plano Angelika movie theater. Before the film, I got some exercise walking around the pond created next to this shopping area.
This theater has been holding a weekly Studio Ghibli film festival, featuring one animated film by this Japanese studio each week. I like the Ghibli films I had seen,so I thought it would be a fine thing to do to attend the 11 a.m. showing of Yoshifumi Kondō's "Whisper of the Heart" from 1995. I had not seen that film before. I loved its story--simultaneously a coming-of-age film about a junior high girl in Tokyo and a series of metaphors about the creative process. I was delighted with the film in every respect. Originally, I wondered if its plot would wear thin, but in fact it gained steam in midstream.
I was surprised that of the 20something audience members, virtually all were my age or older. I had thought Ghibli had a young following, but it was not in evidence today. As attendance was light, I originally chose a seat in the middle of the theater in an ideal row. Fellow patrons sat one row behind me and continued chatting after the movie began, so I quietly and quickly relocated to the end of the row. This is why I usually sit away from people on the edge of theaters.
I drove to a Subway in nearby Frisco, where I enjoyed baked chips and a turkey sandwich on wheat. I really liked my meal and the young man and woman who assembled my sandwich.
Though the afternoon heat was high, I walked at Limestone Quarry Park in Frisco, Green Park in Allen and Suncreek Park in Allen. None yielded a huge bird count,. but all were fun in their own way.
My wife and I drove to Plano to the Gordon Biersch on Legacy to meet our friends Scott and Donna. We had a great meal and chat together. I liked my 7" sirloin steak with grilled asparagus and apple cider slaw.
We crossed Legacy to go to Plano Angelika--my second visit of the day to that theater. We were bound to see Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster". I thought this movie the worst I have seen in years. Every plot line, every metaphor,and almost every sight gag and absurdity in this dystopian would-be dark comedy hit the ground for me with a thud. I see that most critics give it a high rating on "Rotten Tomatoes", but I found myself completely unimpressed by this film's effort at being some kind of early 1970s-cinema-style "provocative art". The film was well-acted, and had some ideas, but its ideas and its somewhat appealing weirdness failed to make up for its appalling awfulness and un-funny effort to repeatedly illustrate that things can always get worse.
We drove home. We are watching an old Doctor Who and recovering nicely,
