war for the planet and also doughnuts
So I biked home from work yesterday, leaving five minutes earlier than usual to give me extra time at home before needing to leave again. Shobhit made me a grilled cheese sandwich, which I ate rather quickly, in the living room as Ivan sat reading on the love seat. I was surprised to see him. "I thought you were working today?" I said; "No," he replied. "I have the day off." He then asked me, "What are we watching tonight?" Aww. I had to tell him I was going to see a movie with Shobhit.
And, actually, Laney. The movie had come up in conversation with her and her neighbors on Friday evening, and I couldn't quite tell if she was interested in it. I emailed her the other day if she was interested in joining us; Shobhit had already told me he wanted to see it. So, I bought advanced tickets at the Meridian after the movie I saw on Monday, to ensure good seats that were all three together. Shobhit and I left home at 5:10 to walk down and meet Laney -- who wound up being a little late because the train was delayed at Capitol Hill Station due to a broken down bus at Pioneer Square Station.
Hmm. So much for the longstanding argument that Light Rail is preferable because it does not have to yield to traffic. That point gets nullified by traffic issues in the downtown tunnel where the train has to share space with busses. Granted, it's still a valid point most of the time. But on this day, it made Laney late for a movie. Sort of. Shobhit and I went to meet her at the bus she got off, on 9th and Pine, and that was right at 5:40, the published showtime -- but also the time at which trailers actually begin. We still sat through three or four trailers even once we got in there late, and got concessions! And with reserved seats, it hardly mattered, so long as we got in before the movie actually started.
Oh, the actual movie? It was War for the Planet of the Apes. I kind of felt duped into thinking it would be the best of the three of these movies made so far this decade: the MetaCritic score for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) had been 68; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) was 79 -- I still think that was the best one -- and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) is 82 -- officially giving it the label "universal acclaim." Now that I've seen it, though, I'm not sure what was so great about it. It was fine. I was entertained. But it wasn't great. I gave it a B, just as I had the first one.
Honestly, Woody Harrelson did not make the greatest villain in the world. I found him more distracting than deliciously evil the way a great villain should be. Also, Laney made a fair point that Caesar having a wife made little sense, with the suggestion that apes would immediately adopt the same cultural conventions of the very species with whom they are at war. (Shobhit's perfectly logical counterpoint: the film's producers are providing an easy point of reference for audiences to think of the apes as sympathetic characters.) I was pretty indifferent to the concept of marriage being part of ape culture. I just found something slightly lacking in the story, although I was still very impressed that a movie 140 minutes long -- the longest in the franchise to date, even including the old movies -- could hold my attention so easily from beginning to end. To its credit, this movie does not feel that long at all. In fact, when it ended, I wondered if what I'd read had been a misprint.
Shobhit decided finally to add money to his ORCA card and take the train back up to Capitol Hill with Laney, instead of walking to save money like he usually wants to. We wound up walking plenty more anyway: he decided to use my Chinook Book coupon for $2 off a burger at Blue Moon on Broadway, which is only a couple of blocks from Laney's home, so we walked with Laney most of the way there before exchanging goodbye hugs. Shobhit and I then walked home from there, which means we wound up walking 0.1 miles more than we would have if we'd just walked straight home from the theatre. (I actually calculated this on Google Maps. You could argue I have too much time on my hands.)
I proceeded to write my review, and once that was done it was about time to get ready for bed.
You should all be thrilled to know that I finished the half dozen Franz Bakery Old Fashioned Doughnuts this morning -- the sample box Noah plopped on my desk last week. Honestly I'm a little relieved. Now I can finally get back to having cereal for breakfast at home, instead of skipping it because I knew I was going to eat a doughnut when I got to work. My life is so complicated!
Anyway. Another lunch eaten on my own at a table out on the patio at work. Chris J did come and sit on the other side of the table at one point, but aside from him saying, "Getting my daily dose of sun!", we really didn't talk. By then I was done and it was time to come back inside.
I've been thinking recently about what a mild summer this has been so far. No particularly notable heatwaves, at least as of yet. With no extreme heat, I've had no real jonesing for rain, which we haven't had in a few weeks now -- after a whole lot of rain for the previous several months. I wonder how many people look at a summer like this and consider it evidence that climate change is hooey? That's moronic, of course. Climate change is all about averages, the global temperature continues to go up every year, and even I noticed how this past winter in Seattle was also rather mild -- as in, warmer than usual. I often look around myself when I'm outside and just wonder what will be the new normal twenty or thirty years from now. How much visible change I will see in my own lifetime, while the so-called "leader of the free world" literally ignores it as an actual problem.
As always, my objective is simply to keep having as good a time as I can for as long as I can.
