Good times

I spent the early morning Friday entertaining the dogs with a 3 mile walk while I listened to "Gentlemen of the Road" by Michael Chabon. This was followed by fussing over my bonsai trees and repotting for the first time an old, long-armed green leafed house plant that has refused to give up on my in the 10 years I have owned it and moved it from home to home, city to city, job to job.

I then did some actual work at the computer for a couple of hours, afterwhich Amy and I had a good Chicago Friday. We went downtown for lunch at ate in Wicker Park at Piece Brewery and Pizza, which is a New Haven style pizza place owned (or partially owned, I'm not sure) by the lead singer of Cheap Trick--thus there are a few ridiculous multi-necked electric guitars from his famous collection cast about a slightly smug loft environment. Our service was very good. I ate a gigantic amount of pizza and spent the rest of the day nursing ginger tea trying to get over it.

The Pizza is very good and, for Amy, a true relief, as she does not care for Chicago deep dish and apparently never will. The New Haven style is a flat but chewy wheat crust, someone bubbled and with light use of sauce. I personally like it very much, and it's a nice change from the
cheese-bucket-o-heart-attacks you get at Gino's, Giordano's, Milano's, crappy Pizzas Uno and Due, etc. We started with their guacamole and chips and then had a medium pepperoni and mushroom.

Then, we were off to Landmark Cinema in Lincoln Park to see Cyrus, a new sad comedy with John C. Reilly as a lonely guy who finds the perfect girlfriend (Marisa Tomei) only to walk into the buzz saw of her neurotic 22-year-old son (placed so well by Jonah Hill that he's possibly my new favorite actor). The entire cast is awesome, and we loved the movie.

They made very nice use of a technique I see sometimes in movies from the late 60s and early 70s in which you listen to the characters talk to each other while watching film of them doing something else together like laughing or drinking wine. It's effect can be magical. I can't think of an original example but Faye Dunaway comes to mind.

So what can I say? It was a good day ended with a lot of reading and too much sleep. It's now Saturday, and I have nothing pulling me in any particular direction. My dogs are fed. My wife is sleeping in. I have a kindle with great books on it. I did some tai chi and now hope to primarily laze and perhaps read at the Morton Arboretum. It doesn't get much better than this for me. I didn't even mention seeing Winter's Bone the other night. It will surely be nominated for best picture next year.