The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Saturday, December 26th
Today (despite the rain), I ventured out for a bit of scouting. I organized a social networking event for tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't plan well by putting the event so close to Christmas. I just knew I wouldn't be doing anything, and thought there would be others like me. Well, at this moment, there will probably two others who will be joining me to see the circus.

Anyway, my goal today was to scout around the neighborhood for planning purposes. Since I'm not good with directions, I wanted to look around the neighborhood. I also wanted to try finding a place for dinner that wasn't too expensive. The circus is set up behind Lincoln Center. When I did an online search, I kept getting expensive places. Well, with the walk around, I was able to find a couple of nice places.

After scouting out the neighborhood in the rain, I stepped into Barnes & Nobles. I didn't buy anything because I have another social networking event planned for Jan. 2nd. It involves a book club/ book selection in B&N (more details at another time). After B&N, I went to the movies.

I saw "The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus". I don't know why, but I thought the movie would be empty. But, maybe due to the rain, and/or this movie being Heath Ledger's last movie, the theater was PACKED!!! PACKED!!! I really don't like going to crowded movie theaters, and today's was one of the reason.
1. There was just too many people in that theater.
2. The theater was poorly designed. This was a disappointment I was not expecting. I just assumed that a theater about two blocks from Lincoln Center would have been better. I think in order to pay for the rent, the theater tried to cram as many seats in as physically possible. How small? I'm 5'8" tall. Sitting, my knees just touch the seats in front of me. Unfortunately, when someone sat in front of me (as usual it was someone very tall), the seat kept banging my knees. I don't believe I've ever been in a theater where the seat in front touched my knees. Halfway through the movie, I had to sit sideways to stop my knees from getting banged by the guy who kept trying to get comfortable in small seats.

So how was the movie? I thought it was going to be much better. Visually, the movie really looked nice. The premise was also an interesting one, but the execution was poorly done. Since Heath Ledger died before the movie was finished, other actors were brought in to finish his role. Nice idea, but having other actors play one character was a bit unsettling. For me, it was difficult to get a sense of the Ledger character, because different actors were playing the character at different times during different character moods. Since Ledger didn't end the movie, the character who ended the movie didn't feel like the character who started the movie. I know about character growth and development in a movie, but when there are different (in this case three different) actors, playing that character, there was (for me) a certain "disconnection" from the character. There was also plot points that were distracting. The character discovers there is magic (to a certain extent) involved in the mirror, although the actor is written to be initially surprised, but quickly starts acting as if he is hired to wait tables in a restaurant.

After the movie, I headed over the Staples to buy a calendar. For Christmas, I received a cover for personal planner. Yep, just the cover($10). I should have been a bit annoyed having spent about $60 on a gift. However, I liked the gift. It was something that reminded me about needing to get organized. Since I will be returning to college to finish up my Master's Degree, having a personal planner would be very useful. So the positive of the gift was that it was something that I could really use. I also liked the idea that the color was black.

I better go. Once again, this was much longer than I was planning to write. And to think I got online just to send a quick email to those who RSVPed "Yes" my contact information for the circus. Here it is 8AM. Now, I'm tempted to buy the phone (see previous blog entry) just to feel like I accomplished something this morning.

Bye for now. Today, is the circus. I get to try out my new binoculars.

Post Date - Sunday, December 27, 2009 8:09AM