Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The CB's went to see Woody Allen's new movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona this week and loved it! It's about the adventures of two young, beautiful American women who spend a summer in Barcelona. One (Rebecca Hall) is very buttoned up and engaged to be married when she returns to the States. The other (Scarlett Johansonn) is a highly sexually-charged free spirit. They both become entangled with a smooth-talking, sexy artist (Javier Bardem) and his over-the-top and slightly insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz), and the movie takes off from there. The movie is well made, the performances are outstanding (especially Bardem and Johansonn's), and the filming of Barcelona is so beautiful, it makes you want to get on a plane and go . . . not a bad idea at all!

Update From Leslie

It's been a month now since my surgery, and I'm starting to feel human again. I'll be running around NYC in no time! We added tickets to Equus this morning for our October trip. This is the first production of the play on Broadway for 30 years, and it follows a very successful run in London last year. Daniel Radcliffe (the young actor who plays Harry Potter) is the lead, and Richard Griffiths, who won a Tony Award last year for a CB favorite drama, History Boys, plays the second lead. Should be a happening in the theatre world, so of course, the CB's must experience it!

I'm looking forward to getting out and about. While I've been home, I've been watching the first season of Mad Men -- a great series set in 1960's New York that follows the lives of the rather decadent men and women at the start of Madison Avenue advertising. The writing is smart, the characters are flawed, but compelling, and the costumes and production values are outstanding for a television series. It's amazing to think that this was only 40 years ago--everyone smokes everywhere (even a gynocologist who examines one of the characters), sexual harrassment in the workplace is accepted (and expected), and the psychologist who counsels the lead's wife calls the husband after each session to report in about everything she said!

I've managed to read a couple of books (now that I've cleared the Percocet haze). The best one was The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. This novel has been getting lots of press, and seems to be the new word-of-mouth "buzz" book. Although I was not blown away by it, I did enjoy it very much. The basic plot is that, after 15 years away, a Towner Whitney returns to Salem, MA from California after the drowning death of her great aunt Eva. We slowly learn why she has been avoiding this trip--she has had a traumatic upbringing and is considered unstable by the community. As the story unfolds, Barry overlaps supernatural and psychological themes, and she paints an interesting historical picture of Salem as a prosperous shipping town, the site of the infamous witch trials, and a modern-day tourist attraction. In addition, Barry weaves in a surprising plot twist at the end that will throw you for a loop. Worth reading.

That's it for now--more later!

October in the City

CB Leslie is definitely on the mend and we are planning our next trip to the city. So far we have tickets to Tale of Two Cities, The Seagull, Billy Elliot, All My Sons and Speed the Plow. I am thrilled to say that ever resourceful CB Leslie got us bargain or specially priced tickets to every show. That girl is good!!