THE ONCE & FUTURE KING * IT'S COMPLICATED * A SINGLE MAN

The Once and Future King - by T.H. White This is the book that Peter has to read over summer vacation for Freshman English. Actually, he only has to read the first part, The Sword in the Stone. So that's all I read. It's the story of Art, known as Wart, a young boy who lives with a rich family. Of course, Art is the smart one. He gets lost in the woods one day and comes upon a wizard named Merlin, who goes home with him and takes the job of tutor to Art and his "brother" Kay. Merlin teaches Art by experience, and therefore Art's education happens as Art is transformed into a fish, a bird, an ant, and other creatures. I love how Merlin lives backwards. He's experienced the future and is going toward the past. Merlin. Wow. I don't know if I'll finish the entire book because the print in this one is really really small. Modern books seem to be printed in larger font sizes or the lines are slightly more open.

It's Complicated - On the advice of my brother (rather than all the many people who'd previously recommended this movie), I finally rented it, and of course, loved it. Meryl Streep is great in light-hearted roles, and if you add Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin to a movie, you can hardly go wrong. The story is good, the evil second wife and step-kid are super, the grown kids are creepy, and the dialog is fun. So yeah, rent this one when you want a few laughs.

A Single Man - Finally, this movie came out on dvd. Colin Furth is amazing as George, a man living his life in Southern California in 1962. It seemed that Colin would have won the best actor award for this, but Jeff Bridges got it for Crazy Heart. What a tough choice that would have been, had I seen A Single Man before the Oscars. This movie will make you smile and cry and feel and want to live in a glass house and want to connect and want to feel and want to swim in the ocean at night. Really amazing and really good. This was Tom Ford's directorial debut, and he also wrote the screenplay. In case you don't know, Tom Ford led Gucci out of the hole and back to life some years back, and is considered a fashion and business wunderkind. He is obviously a man of many talents.