July 21

Carol Frank correctly identified "We walk away from our dreams afraid we may fail, or worse yet, afraid we may succeed." from Finding Forester.

Try this one:

"You're a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity."

On Netflix:

 

Broken City - This film involves a private detective, Mark Wahlberg, a crooked mayor, Russel Crowe and assorted twists and turns that has Wahlberg intent on bring the mayor down.  At times it was difficult to understand the actors especially Crowe, but that is the beauty of the DVD, you can simply rewind or put on the captions.  Co-starring Catherine Zeta Jones, Jeffrey Wright and Kyle Chandler the film can be a bit confusing, but engaging.  

In Theaters (The pickings are slim, but here goes):

The Way, Way Back - This is a lovely coming of age film starring Liam James as a teen who is figuring out his life during the summer at a beach town.  His recently divorced mother is in a relationship with a man he does not like.. He finds who he is  and a safe place to go at the local water park whose manager takes him under his wing.   Steve Carell, plays the overbearing boyfriend and Sam Rockwell the manager of the water park.  It also co-stars Toni Collette, Maya Rudolph and  Allsion Janney who is a hoot!  For a sweet film, see this one.  

At Signature:

Spin - This new musical is part of siglab which is a program developed to provide writers of new musicals a chance to see their work in a workshop form in front of an audience before it receives a full production.  Spin had four weeks of rehearsals to work, change and develop the piece.   It is based on a Korean movie and will be rewritten for Korean audiences.  There was nothing pre about this performance.  The performers were wonderful with the leads being performed by James Gardiner and Carolyn Cole.  Can't leave out Erin Driscoll, Betsy's daughter and Sarah's voice teacher as she did a lovely job with the role of the teacher.  Bobby Smith was terrific as the sleazy gossip reporter and a young boy, Holden Browne ably  played the son/grandson.  The story involves a washed up boy band singer who finds he is not only a father but grandfather.  Tickets are only $30 and are a bit less on Goldstar.  The productions runs through July 27,.

Another great restaurant:

Present - If you are looking for good Vietnamese food, look no further than Falls Church VA and this restaurant in an unassuming strip shopping center.  (Don't be frightened off by the sketchy area!)  The food  is divine and the presentation a work of art.  This restaurant was ranked the best Vietnamese restaurant by Tom S. the food critic of the Washington Post and he was not wrong.  We started with lettuce rolls  that were  hearty, but light with a wonderful touch of mint.  (Lisa once made spring rolls for us like this and it reminded us of her rolls!)  Next I had a shrimp dish that was served on a half of a pineapple.  The  shrimp were succulent and there were plenty of them.  Sy had a crab dish that he liked as well.  The price was reasonable and the restaurant decor is nice.  The only surprise was when Sy asked for more rice,  we were charged for it which surprised us. A nice change of pace and we thank the Lummers for taking us there.