Shrek

It's been a busy and Debbi-intensive weekend!

Friday we got together with Debbi's two best friends, Lisa and Michel. Debbi says they've been referred to as The Three Musketeers in the past (which made me think: am I supposed to be D'Artagnan?). Debbi does country line dancing, and in fact the three of them met there, more-or-less independently. Lisa and Michel (pronounced "Michael"; I think I have the spelling correct - it's supposed to be French) became a couple at some point since then. And apparently Lisa has been dying to meet me, since she obviously knew nothing at all about me except whatever Debbi had told her.

We got together at Malibu Grand Prix to play a round of miniature golf, which they apparently play semi-regularly, and which I used to play often when I was younger, but haven't played for years.

Lisa proved to be, well, basically a ball of energy (although not really hyperactive). Michel was quieter, but has a certain wry sense of humor which I appreciated. Actually, Michel reminded me a lot of Michael Walsh in his general demeanor. They're both fun people, and I can see how Debbi became friends with them. They seemed to like me well enough, too (at least, that's what preliminary reports from Deb indicate!)

It was pretty chilly out, and I was the only one dressed in shorts and short sleeves, but it wasn't too bad. My recent inexperience at minigolf was a distinct liability, but I picked it up as I went along - even scoring a hole in one - and finished just two behind Debbi and Lisa, who tied for the lead. None of us came anywhere near par for the course; apparently the average hole takes two-and-a-third strokes to sink. I suspect that was back when the turf wasn't in poor repair, as many holes need to work to be in top condition. Still, I remembered that I really did enjoy minigolf, and we'll have to play again sometime.

Afterwards we drove over to Borrone where we sat around for an hour or so. Amazingly, none of the three of them had ever been there (although Debbi and Michel have good excuses in that they've mostly lived well north of Menlo Park). Michel apparently lives a "dessert-oriented lifestyle" and he (and everyone else) was pretty impressed with Borrone's selection of desserts. So I was pretty happy to introduce them to it, and to Kepler's book store.

The next day, Debbi came down to my place and we went to see Shrek, the new computer-animated film which has largely been getting solid reviews. And the reviews are well-deserved, as it's quite good, starting from that essential element of any worthwhile film: A decent story (apparently only loosely based on the book by William Steig) and script.

Shrek (voice of Mike Myers, with a Scottish brogue) is an ogre who lives in a swamp and mostly just wants to be left alone. However, the usurper Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) has decided to craft the perfect kingdom by eliminating all the "fairy tale" (i.e., magical) beings and objects in the kingdom. A talking Donkey (Eddie Murphy, funnier than he's been in years) escapes from Farquaad's soldiers and is rescued by Shrek, whom he befriends, much to Shrek's annoyance. When other refugees start arriving on Shrek's swamp, he resolved to go talk to Farquaad about it.

Meanwhile, Farquaad has decided he must marry a princess to become King, and he resolves to rescue the enchanted Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the dragon-guarded tower in which she rests. He inveigles Shrek to do the deed for him - a most unlikely knight to save the fair princess - and naturally things don't quite turn out as anyone had planned.

Shrek is a clever film, with many references to both fairy tales and pop culture, plenty of fall-down-funny lines, and fine vocal performances, in particular by Murphy and Myers. The film isn't above stopping to some appropriate gutter humor (Shrek is an ogre, after all!), and makes clever and appropriate use of popular music to punctuate its scenes, much as the TV series Homicide did (the opening sequence is to Smash Mouth's "All Star", and Smash Mouth performs the closing cover of The Monkees' "I'm A Believer", too).

The animation is quite good, certainly on a par with Pixar's films, although the humans in the film still look rather cheesy (more like dolls than like people, as my friend John put it). But Shrek, Donkey, and many others in the film who don't need to look human are very well-done, with a wide range of facial expressions and movement. (For whatever reason, it seems that a donkey's facial structure is easier to render than a human's.) Otherwise, it's easy to suspend your disbelief and take what you're seeing for granted. I think we've finally reached the point that CGI animation is good enough to stand in quietly for real-life filming.

(For a dissenting opinion, see this entry in Laurel Krahn's weblog.)

Thematically, the story focuses on both the old adage that "beauty is more than skin deep", and the Rolling Stones' observation that you might not get what you want, but you might get what you need. It's a story of friendship and love, and has its moments of pure cheesy sentimentality (which I'm a sucker for). It has its rough edges, but it works well enough. Although some moments make it not entirely appropriate for younger kids, if you liked The Iron Giant you should like this one.

It's a fine film. The first great CGI film not produced by Pixar. Check it out.

After the film, we went shopping at Whole Foods with a plan to cook dinner. I wanted to try a recipe for turkey cutlets with white wine and mustard sauce, and planned to make my not-quite-famous rice pilaf as well. (Actually, both recipes come from Cook's Illustrated.) We managed to find everything needed except - the turkey cutlets! So we substituted chicken cutlets, which worked fine from a taste standpoint, but were not quite cut thin or even enough to cook ideally. The sauce was interesting, seeming at first to be not as strong as I'd expected (possibly a stronger dijon mustard would do the trick), but it got better with each bite. Overall we pronounced the meal a success!

Debbi crashed at my place last night, much - I think - to the surprise of the cats, although they're warming up to her pretty quickly! For lunch today we walked down to the nearby A&W Root Beer joint where we picked up burgers, fries and surprisingly yummy shakes, and walked back to the park near my apartment. Wow - for once I'm actually taking advantage of things near my home! We hung out 'til mid-afternoon and then Debbi headed home, as we each had things we wanted to do at our respective homes.

I tried baking another Cook's recipe, for marbled cream cheese brownies, but I cannily forgot to mix the butter with the chocolate while melting it, resulting in a very stiff batter, and I realized this just after putting it in the oven. I smacked my forehead several times, and threw out the batter. Sigh. I'll try again later this week, I think. It's a waste of good chocolate, though!

I also finished reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I believe won the Pulitzer Prize for literature this year. It's an entertaining novel, if a bit too enamored of its own use of the language. Although it's about (nominally) two Jewish kids who create a seminal superhero during the Golden Age of comic books, just about anyone ought to enjoy it (unless the writing style drives them to distraction).

I got a number of other things done around the house, too. So it's been a full and fulfilling weekend all around!