Eyes Shut Movie Is A Mess

A bored doctor freaks out at a kinky Halloween party and it’s not even Halloween while his wife has a nightmare in "Eyes Wide Shut" 1999.  Almost three hours are consumed until we reach this happy conclusion.  Kubrick should have quit while he was ahead with “Clockwork Orange.”  Thumbs down on this Cruise-Kidman mess.  Britain's Pinewood Studio is where it was filmed, not Manhattan.  Kubrick quit making films in the USA many years ago.

OLLI Tours Streetcar Museum 2016

MINNEAPOLIS — Some of the OLLI seniors actually rode on one of these street cars when they were kids, from Lake Harriet to Como Park before street cars gave way to busesin 1954.  Motor men from the Streetcar Museum have fond street car memories.

MINNEAPOLIS — U of M OLLI scholars gathered at Lake Harriet’s restaurant on the beach for lunch after the Street Car event, now an annual OLLI summer get together.  One of the students was born in The Hague and lived with her parents in South Africa during apartheid and free times.

"South Pacific" --Memorable Summer 2016 event

BROADWAY AT THE GUTHRIE

Sending shivers up my spine with his wonderful baritone rendering of “Some Enchanted Evening” was Broadway actor Edward Staudenmayer as Emile de Becque in the 1940s musical “South Pacific.”

Another show stopper was the ensemble’s gusto performance of “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” so well done with the vocals and choreography and making it most memorable for the final preview performance at Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater.  Kudos to director Joseph Haj, but the Guthrie’s steep stairway is much too challenging for seniors and parking/driving in downtown is more nerve racking then ever.

“South Pacific” was the season’s big money maker and next summer “Sunday in the Park with George” is being offered which I saw in Houston.  George is not my cup of tea.  www.guthrietheater.org

CAMP RIPLEY JUNE 2016

 

VIETNAM REMEMBERED

CAMP RIPLEY — Over a thousand Minnesotans died in Vietnam while 68,000 Gopher State residents served in that war.  Here I am in my “Navy Whites” in front of a Huey helicopter, the kind used in Vietnam.  The Military Museum is at this Minnesota National Guard training center, not far from St. Cloud.

GOVERNOR’S RETREAT

CAMP RIPLEY — This cabin may have been imported from Norway and is infrequently used by the governor, although I doubt that Mark Dayton has retreated here although the horse fancier Al Quie favored this “Valhalla.” 

MILITARY MUSEUM

CAMP RIPLEY — A very cramped little museum on the base tries to pay honor to those who served in several wars.  The Viking Battalion’s story lends itself to a movie with soldiers on skis sabotaging a Nazi German facility in Norway experimenting with nuclear warfare. We toured this military base as part of a U of M OLLI class.  Ain’t education great?