Today we drove into Dallas to the Angelika art house movie theater. We went to the 11 a.m. showing of "Miss Potter". We loved the movie, which was just the kind of small, charming movie of which they can never make too many. I loved the scenery, as well as the film, and resolved that I'd like to be able to visit both the Lakes District and the Isle of Man someday. I already have Cumbria and Warwickshire on my list, so I suppose I must someday do a sweep of the UK provinces--but perhaps not this year.
After we dined on tilapia at Rockfish Grill, we glanced in the shops at Mockingbird Station. I stopped myself from buying a lomographic camera only by reminding myself how dreadful I am at loading film manually into 35 mm. cameras. I was probably born to use twenty dollar digicams, throwaway cams, and 120 instamatics.
The asynchrony between the merchandise in the shops and the patrons struck me today. The stores were filled with women who looked normal, and yet so many dresses appeared tailored to fit only people under 100 lbs. who prefer outfits whose revelatory nature flatter only a very, very limited population. I have a dream that someday people can shop for clothes that flatter the shopper and not merely make the shopper long to be something the shopper was not intended by nature ever to be.
We drove to Fair Park, just south of downtown. We were bound for the planetarium. Fair Park has a lot of city museums, as well as the local football bowl stadium. It serves as the literal fairground during the Autumn. Usually, a cold January day
features few visitors to its environs, but right now they are having one of those "dead bodies in human poses" plasticene
extravaganzas. I have never attended the exhibition, but some 100,000 locals have, and more streamed in yesterday. The brochure, I must admit, looked interesting, but I'd have to research the matter thoroughly as to its displays' provenance before I'd decide to attend, as I have read of some controversy I have not researched.
When I had come in November, before the corpse-at-play exhibit began, the Science Place had been thinly attended. Today it was like circus day. Even the planetarium show at 3 was sold out, but we got into the 3:45. We went to the small but wonderful Dallas aquarium, which had exhibits about seahorses and scorpionfish. My favorite part,though, is always the livebearers and the other American, Mexican and Carribean fish. The alligator turtle which was the size of a wheelbarrow, with tall grass growing from its shell, did delight a bit.
The planetarium show was about the Secrets of the Sun, and I thought them fine secrets indeed. I love planetarium shows, although I do not retain facts like the secrets of the chromosphere or the photosphere with sufficient detail to permit
more than the most superficial recitation. I watched the show, and also daydreamed about robotic deep sea explorers which take pictures of secrets of the places where the sun is absent.
We went to the Persian restaurant named Giovanni, where I ordered a bayberry topping for my rice which caused me delight, even as my salmon made me happy. Then we returned home, where I read up on Beatrix Potter's life while my wife reviewed a book we got years ago at the "Beatrix Potter House" in Long Melford in Surrey (actually, a house of her relatives, where she often visited), and daydreamed thoughts of rabbits and women who live for life and not for fashion.