I took my mom to see CATS today, and I have to say, that when it started, I hated it, but I turned the corner by the end. I had one big problem with the movie that lasted throughout, and that was the CGI sets. You could tell that the all the sets were CGI by the unnatural placement of the characters feel on it. The shadows were weird, and sometimes they appeared to be floating above it. My eye catches things like that, and it bugs me to no end. That aside, there are a lot of great performers in the movie, but two stood out to me. The first is Jennifer Hudson. Her singing performance is top notch, and her final performance in the film is the most moving that I have ever seen. The emotion in which she sings is out of this world, and for that performance alone, I think you should see it. The second is Sir Ian McKellen. He of course plays an old grizzled cat that is near the end of his days. He plays a performer in the film and does the role true justice. I never saw the actual musical and I'm sure they left some things out for time restrictions of a film, which made the story very disjointed to me, but it was a fun and fantastic film. The lyrics are up and down. They go from really good to awkward. It's that whole musical thing of singing something you should be saying deal. That is my biggest pet peeve about musicals. It makes the songs seem very unfinished. This is also why Jennifer Hudson shines. Memory is a true song, lyrics and all. It's not full of that awkwardness of trying to tell a story through written word that was never truly meant for music. I gained a new found respect for her with this role, and once again her voice is fabulous.
The best part of the movie though, was something that wasn't even in the movie. My mom had seen the musical decades ago, and loved it. When I gave her a choice of movies to see today, she picked that one, not remembering what it was. She just liked that it was about cats. Several times during the movie, she was singing along with it, and that brought a smile to my face each and every time. There are still memories locked inside her head, and from time to time, they sneak out.
I got to show you this picture of one of my seedlings. It's an unusual occurrence, but not necessarily rare. It is when a seedling sprouts with 3 leaves. Some believe that it is going to be a productive plant, or that its going to be very strong. I can't say one way or the other, but I get the idea behind each of them. 3 leaves from the start would denote productivity, since it already has 1 more leaf than the standard seedling. Strength because it has one more leaf for photosynthesis. It all makes sense. I of course hope that both reasons are correct, and that it is a strong very productive plant.
It's still very small, but I can already tell that it's going to be one of the ones that I keep a very close eye on, so that it will be the best it can, like the fish pepper. I will baby this plant until it just won't let me anymore. I still have two pods that haven't sprouted anything, they could still sprout, and to make up for the 3 leaf, I have one that spotted with no leaves, so It's pretty much not going to make it. If it does it will be a miracle. It's a double, so I already have s strong seedling going of that variety. The others that haven't sprouted are doubles as well. The only real problem with them not sprouting is, that I won't be able to give that variety to my buddy. That was the plan. I planted double so that he would have them as well. Some of the pods have multiple sprouts in them so I might still be able to give him those plants. I'll see once they get bigger and stronger.
One more garden paragraph, and then I'll shut up about the garden. I finally picked the cool shaped Scotch Bonnet today. I wanted to wait for more of the bonnets to ripen, but they are taking their sweet time. The one other that has begun to ripen has paused for the last day. There is still a small swath of green at the top of it. It will be ready soon, but I didn't want this pepper to rot on the vine, so I picked it. I'm going to cut it open tomorrow and extract the seeds from it. The idea is, that they peppers that you think have the best shape, are the ones that you save seeds from. The plant that grows from those seeds are more likely to produce fruit that resemble the parent pepper, and this is one cool looking pepper.
I mean, come on, that is one beautiful pepper right there. It has a great shape and I hope to reproduce that shape on the plant I grow from it. I plan on planting the seeds tomorrow right after I pull the seeds from the pod. They don't get any fresher than that.
Ok, before I hit you with Favorite Song of the Week. I have a quick health and fitness update for you. I did weigh in yesterday and hit 148.6. Still haven't hit that goal of 145 yet, but it's coming, and despite only losing a pound in the last few weeks, I've lost another quarter of an inch on my waist. My waist to height ration is at .496. I'm getting closer and closer to that .48 that I want so badly. It's going to happen, despite what people think when they see me, I have a lot of fat left to lose. I'm still losing body fat, and the slow down in weight loss is clearly because I'm putting on muscle, which is outstanding.
Ok, time for Favorite Song of the Week. You really had to see this one coming, since I started out talking about this performer up at the top of this post. It is none other than Easy E. He was gone way to soon, and I was on his side with all the turmoil of his break from NWA. I would mow the lawn and listen to those albums all the time. Yes, I was the lily white kid listening to those "Gangsta Rappers", and I loved every song. Here is Easy E with "Cruisin' In My 64".
The dude was incredible at slinging lyrics. If you haven't listened to any of it before, give it a listen now. They were all pioneers and deserve respect. Peace in and goodnight.
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