I should probably update you folks as spring break comes to a close, since I did do some exciting things. Mostly, I went to San Francisco and Oakland, to hang out with Ashley (friend from college). During the week, I:
(1) Played Ashley's Wii and managed to not embarrass myself through several songs on Rock Band. I'm a natural drummer, didn't you know? I have been waiting for years to play a Wii, but I was never good enough friends with anyone who had one, so this was a very special thing for me.

(2) Went to the Muir Woods, which is where there are some very large Redwoods. See?:

Me with tree.

Ashley with tree.

(3) Ate a lot of different foods, including excellent sushi (twice!), and, with Becky R. (formerly of Palo Alto, now of San Francisco), Nicauraguan (for the first time!). I have no pictures of these meals; you will have to trust that they happened.

(4) Got sick, because Ashley has two cats, and I'm allergic to cats. And even though I didn't stay at her house to that I wouldn't get sick, my allergies still hate me. And/or cat dander.

(5) Saw two films at the Castro Theatere, and old-fashioned one-screen movie palace that now runs films in repertory -- that is, they show old movies and new movies and host film festivals and things. It is in the original gayborhood, the Castro, which you may remember from Milk, if you hadn't before heard of it. This is the Castro theater:

This is Ashley's favorite movie theater, which is why we went once (and saw Diamond Head, 1963, w/ Charlton Heston, great 60s epic soap-style drama). Also, because I like movies, too. I went by myself the second time because I have to write an ethnographic paper on a film theater for one of my classes. (On St. Patrick's Day, saw the very silly Darby O'Gill and the Little People, 1959, Disney live-action feature with a very young Sean Connery.) I took the above picture to include in the paper, which is the paper I am decidedly not writing right now, even though it's due in four days. Four days over which I also have to read two whole books. Because I didn't read them while I was in San Francisco, because of course I wasn't ever going to and why I even made that plan is still a mystery to me.

Off to read Gay New York for G. Chaunc on Monday. I'm reading carefully because it was also, by the way, written by G. Chaunc.

Entering week three of break, which means that I'm beginning to get tired of doing nothing. I like coming back to Houston and hanging out with family and friends, but Old Home Week should last not much longer than that. I have been grateful to be able to spend time with friends from high school, and I've been impressed by how much we get better and better, as we grow more and more into ourselves. In a few minutes, I'm off to see a friend from elementary school (that's you, Angela), and both of us have changed quite a bit since first grade. I'm much taller, for example.

What's been really exciting about this break is that the Game Show Network has returned to cable! (Last time I was here, GSN had moved to some stupid super-extended package.) So I've been able to watch What's My Line and To Tell the Truth, which come on from 2-3am, because GSN has no respect for 50s and 60s game shows. And maybe also because I'm the only person in the world who watches this ridiculousness.

Movie-watching has been the primary activity, and I've seen a few I would recommend. Penelope (2007) was released under the radar -- a fairy-tale romantic comedy with Christina Ricci and that adorable James McAvoy. The film, like McAvoy, is adorable. I enjoyed Sex and the City (2008), not because it's great, but because it felt good to spend more time in the world of the characters. So if you like the series, it's a good investment of 2(+) hours. I kind of recommend Australia (2008), which I saw in theaters a couple of days ago. Admittedly, it's racist in the way that Westerns are racist, and it's kind of long. So as I type this, I realize that, really, what I recommend is watching Hugh Jackman in any context, and especially on a very big screen.

Most astounding film of the break: King of the Newsboys (1938), which had an average Netflix rating of about 1.0 stars. I thought, it can't be that bad -- after all, it's got my favorite, Lew Ayres! He's so awesome! And you know what? It was that bad. I've never before seen a movie that made absolutely no sense. I've seen movies in which plot machinations aren't totally believable, but they make sense within the story the movie is trying to tell. It may be a really stupid story, but the actions do connect in a logical fashion. This movie managed to be constantly surprising in that each scene seemed to have nothing to do with the next one. In the film's favor: it was not predicatble. Against the film: Everything else. I have to include Lew Ayres in that, and it breaks my Dr. Kildare-loving heart.

Speaking of Lew Ayres: I bet you didn't know that he was a conscientious objector during World War II. Man of principle, that one. He's great in Holiday (1938), in which he has a supporting part -- the stars are Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant. It's set around the New Year, so it's seasonally appropriate. (By the way, that's not the holiday the title refers to.) It's one of my favorite movies. And it's available through Netflix -- so queue it up!