The Rest of Last Weekend

In addition to being screwed by the Oakland Athletics on Sunday, I did so some other things over last weekend.

Saturday was the final tournament for our Ultimate frisbee league. The tournament was basically a series of games played by four makeshift teams assembled prior to the tourney. The day started off chilly and cloudy, but soon became bright and sunny.

Debbi joined me to watch us play, as I'm not sure she'd ever seen Ultimate played before. We brought my two director's chairs and she spent the morning camped in one. Unfortunately, she didn't bring any sun screen, and her fair skin got pretty badly burned by the time we left! Ack! I hadn't quite lost my tan from last year yet, so I got a little burned but not really at all badly.

My foot was still bothering me, and I'd developed some transient pain in my leg (the same one as my foot) the day before. I'm not sure what that was all about, as it was all gone by Sunday and hasn't recurred. On top of that, I also had sore calves and shins from playing Ultimate last Thursday night. I think I've mentioned that I sometimes have shin splint problems, and that was the case here, I think.

So I spent a while hobbling around until someone suggested that I take some ibuprofen, so one Advil later all my aches except for my foot were just about gone, and I was able to make a good run for the second game.

I actually had a mid-air collision during the first game. I was on defense, and my guy was trying to receive a medium-distance throw in the end zone. Problem is, the disc was coming in high and at a sharp angle, and I was between him and it. I was running down the field focused on the disc, and I heard him yelp - which I later realized was because he'd realized the disc was coming down shorter than he'd expected - and then I leapt to knock away the disc. Just after I did so, the toe of my cleat hit something (his thigh, it turned out), and I went head-over-heels. I was fine, but I'd give him a deep bruise on his thigh. I felt badly about it, but he said not to worry about it. We should probably be glad we didn't collide head-on!

Of course, my punishment for this was he subbed out with his injury and I got to cover a rested guy. Sheesh!

We also got to play a zone defense for a while, which worked pretty well all-in-all. I don't remember playing wing to be quite so tiring, though.

By 1:00 my foot was telling me it had had enough, so we bailed after the second game and grabbed some lunch and gelato. I was completely exhausted and Debbi was suffering through her sunburn, so we spent the afternoon quietly sitting around, until I got up to rearrange the drip tubes in my garden planter. (I think they're working really well, but I can't tell if the job they're doing is the job I need them to be doing, i.e. if I'm getting enough coverage of the plants from the drippers.) After that we had a small dinner and went to bed early. Man, we were tired!

Sunday, after the abortive attempt at seeing the A's, we decided to go see the Cary Grant films at the Stanford Theatre. I wanted to see Only Angels Have Wings (1939) again, and I enjoyed it about as much this time around as the first time. The way the characters are introduced and used to set up the situations is rather clever (one character is built up early, and then dies, mainly to set the stage for a more powerful scene later on), and the sincerity of Grant's performance is striking when contrasted with his other films around this time.

I think that struck me the most is how the film plays against the cliches of the adventure genre. The relationship between Carter and Dutchy is more complex than boss-and-hireling. Bat McPherson is anything but the shifty, suspicious character he at first seems like. Bonnie Lee falls short of being the damsel in distress. The characters all seem more complex and vibrant than a lesser script and director (Howard Hawks) might have generated.

In Name Only (1939) is another very serious film; apparently Grant was moving away from his earlier light films at this point - or maybe that's just the way Hollywood was going in this era of Casablanca and Gone With the Wind.

Grant plays Alec Walker, heir to the fortune of his rich father's business. Riding in the woods one day, he meets and is smitten by Julie Eden (Carole Lombard), a fashion artist, widow, and mother. They go on a couple of dates, before we learn that Grant is married - very unhappily married. His wife, Maida (Kay Francis), married him for his money and position, and they don't like each other. Alec hasn't exactly had any affairs, but he's distanced himself from Maida, and other women - including Maida's best friend Suzanne (Helen Vincent) - have thrown themselves at him.

When Julie learns of Alec's situation, she tries to break things off, but Alex isn't so easily dissuaded, and is determined to get a divorce from Maida, but Maida isn't one to give up easily herself, resulting in a contest of wills, with Julie and Alec's parents caught in the middle.

The film takes an interesting approach to setting up its scenario: Alec initially meets Julie when she's frustrated and working off steam. What's she frustrated about? Turns out it doesn't matter, since we soon learn Alec is married. The cad! And he hasn't even told her! But wait - he's unhappily married. Or is he? Will he really go through with getting a divorce, or is he leading Julie on? And that's just the first half-hour.

The film is admirable for not giving in to a cheap blackmail angle. Alec and Julie are mostly honest with each other and don't cower before Maida's threats or actions. And Maida doesn't pull any punches, manipulating Alex's parents shamelessly and stringing Alec along as much as she's able.

Despite this - or maybe because of it - In Name Only feels like a rather cold film. Its emotional underpinnings seem lost amidst the clever setup and handling of the characters. It's an admirable film rather than a powerful one, although Carole Lombard acts her heart out as Julie. Certainly unusual for its time - and also in Grant's career - it's not a great film.