Free Experience

The Intern (2015)  —  movie review
Last night I watched a very entertaining little comedy from last year – “The Intern”.  The movie stars Robert DeNiro in the title role and Anne Hathaway as the young, entrepreneurial business founder who learns:  “Experience never gets old”.  Yeah, that’s the movie’s tag line.  But, believe it or not, for what seems like a over-produced “Hallmark” movie, it works.
DeNiro plays a 70-something, retired widower who is just trying to stay active and feel like he is contributing something with his life.  He applies for and gets a senior (citizen) intern position at an internet company so he can find out what this technology stuff is all about.  Hathaway is youthfully offensive, but like everyone else in the company, warms to “the old guy” who just wants to help any way he can.  In the end, they (of course) become best friends.
The movie is very cleanly shot with a light comedic touch and there is actually a great deal of adult – if uncle / niece – ish  – chemistry between the two actors.  In a moment which almost breaks the fourth wall, Jules (Hathaway’s character) says to Ben (DeNiro’s character) that it was nice spending a few minutes with a male having an adult conversation which wasn’t about her business.  The movie could have very easily gone in a different direction, which would have been predictable (but creepy-ish), but instead adds Rene Russo as the age-appropriate romantic interest for DeNiro.  (One question:  When did Russo become an attractive older woman?)  I am obviously dating myself, but my mind’s eye still sees her in “Tin Cup” and “Lethal Weapon” —  and, ok, maybe “Thor“, too.  LOL.  Their “relationship” is the basis for the two best sight gags in the movie.  Hint – suggested sexuality.
Is the movie believable?  As a business movie, no, not really, but really, who cares?  It is what it is…  a light comedy about relationships which mildly pokes fun at the young and hip as well as at the elderly (without being mean-spirited to either).  I thoroughly enjoyed it and my final recommendation is:  highly recommended!
On a side note, back in 2000, I interviewed for a senior manager position at a dot-com and I showed up on-time, dressed in a dark blue, three-piece, pin-striped suit, white buttoned-down shirt with a striped tie and wearing black wing-tips.  I was interviewed by five or six different managers and executives over a two-day process / series of meetings.  Everyone was in jeans or shorts.  It was in July and warm.  I could soooo relate to this similar scene in the movie!  LOL.  Talk about producing flashbacks…  And, yes, I too got the job.  Unfortunately, the company was short-lived;  and my job, even shorter.
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On This Day In:
2023	Who Do You See?
2022	Spring Colors
	Decisions, Decisions
2021	In Pursuit
	The Music Of Her Laughter (Lemon Tree)
2020	Close, Sustained And Careful
2019	#45: Spread The Fear
	Fear The Beards
2018	Slice, Nick, Cut, Bled
2017	Like Most Blogs
2016	The Window Left Open
	Free Experience
2015	Reality == Perception / (Times Reported * 10)
2014	Tear Da Roof Off Da Sucka
2013	Exposed Spirits
2012	Ow-ow
2011	Focused Relatives

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Movies And Juicing

Last weekend I wrote my review (Nerd Heard – And Good-Bye) of the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead“.  I mentioned at the end of the blog that I’d gone out and purchased a blender and was now (then) off to buy some fruits and vegetables.
Well, today I’m finishing day seven of my juicing fast / diet.
Observations and comments:
To start off with I’m definitely thinner.  I’ve been having 64oz of fruit juice, 64oz of vegetables juice and at least 48oz of water each day.  The fruit juice is mostly apples (red and green), a lemon, carrots, grapes, strawberries and cherries.  I tried using bananas, but I used two giant bananas and got about four drops of juice.  The rest just ended up as cast off in the pulp.  (More on this later.)  The juice isn’t what I would normally call “sweet”, but it is “fruity” tasting.
The vegetable juice is just that – greens, greens and more greens (at least it looks that way).  Basically, various kinds of kale, spinach, red lettuce, beetroot, mushrooms, ginger, onions (red and white), radishes, a couple of apples (red) and some whole lemons.  This is surprising filling, but does not seem to provide an energy boost (as I expected). Instead, I’m feeling a sense of heat flush on my skin – mostly my arms – after drinking some.
For both types I’m tending to drink about four or five swallows and then a little water as a chaser to clean the palate a bit.
Yesterday, after work Hil and I went to a new grocery in the area which has a tremendous turnover of fruits and veg and we stocked up.  Probably too much as I made three jars – one juice and two veg – and I’m on my second jar now.  I also made a change to the straight forward juicing by making a smoothie with the fruit.  I bought a large hand of bananas and switched to the blender instead of the juicer for the fruit jar.
Weight-loss wise I’m doing fine.  Not outrageous, just fine.  I estimate I’ve dropped between 8 and 12 pounds.  I’m not entirely accurate because I started with a clothes off weight of 339lbs the Friday before the fast and now I’m a clothes on weight of 334lbs.  I had a “big” drop of three pounds during the week when I developed the runs on Tuesday.  My understanding is that is a normal experience of combining fruit and vegetable fasting.  I don’t recall the experience in my other earlier fasts, but that’s probably because they were so long ago.
This is my fourth fast.  I did it three other times for 30 days each when I was in my mid 20’s and 30’s, so it’s been over 25 years since my last time.  Back then I did fruit smoothies and vegetable broth.  This current version is much more fiber free on the fruit and uncooked on the vegs.  As I said, each time was for 30 days and each time I lost at least 30 pounds.  This fast is only partly about losing weight.  Mostly, it’s about cleansing out my system and any weight loss is an added benefit.
My ultimate goal is to get to a “flesh” meal not more than twice a week.  Other than that, I’ll be trying to stick to as much raw fruits and vegs as possible.
I haven’t been doing any working out for the past week.  My gall stones have been pretty bad and I’ve had to start work early so I’ve not been going to the gym (at work).  I’ve got three doctors appointments this coming week, so I will probably get only two days in at the gym.  I’m mostly a high-energy morning person and between that and the juicing, I don’t feel like I have much energy to even go for walks at the end of the day.  I will say my gall stone pain is a lot better this week than is was last week, so hopefully the juicing has been helping that as well.
One final comment:  I’m struck by the large volume of waste at the end of the juicing process.  Even though it feels mostly dry, it seems as if it’s immoral to discard that much roughage.  I think when I ultimately come off of the juicing mode, I’ll feel a lot better (“hippy conscious” wise) about eating (and enjoying) the whole fruit / plant.
Movie Review Time:
This week started off with “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” made in 1961.  Not much to say, really.  It’s a classic, old-Hollywood style, romantic comedy (lite-comedy, not HA HA comedy).  The movie stars Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard.  The movie is a feast for those with an eye to 60’s style – particularly the narrow black ties, which would now be a fashion statement.  One thing I found amusing is how much the young Peppard resembles Dan Stevens – the Matthew Crawley character in the British series “Downton Abbey“.  They’re doppelgängers!!  Truly one of those few movies you can say (at the end): “Wow!  That was a classic!!”
The second movie I watched this weekend was the DVD of “Deliverance” from 1972.  This is another “classic” movie.  This one stars Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as four “city folk” who decide to go on a river canoeing adventure over a weekend.  The adventure quickly devolves into a survival movie and morality play.  The movie is still (after 40 years) too intense for children due to its “famous” male rape scene and its fairly graphic death scenes – so it’s also not for the squeamish.  To my mind, the closest comparison to any film I’ve seen recently and remember as a classic is “The Deer Hunter” which was made in 1978.  I’m not sure why “Deliverance” reminded me of “The Deer Hunter“, but it did.  Yes, they both had a “hunting of deer” scene in each, but it was more than that.  I think it was that each tried (with varying degrees of success) to capture a moment in American history.  As a movie, I enjoyed “Deliverance” much more than “The Deer Hunter“, but neither were particularly believable.
The third movie was “Shoot ‘Em Up” with Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci.  I like Owen.  I’ve never liked Giamatti.  And, I’ve never heard of Monica Bellucci.  This is really a terrible movie!  The title is the plot.  I think I was hoping for something a little like one of the “Die Hard” series, but nope, just a bad action movie.  Completely unbelievable characters.  The ONLY redeeming factor was the occasional one liner from Owen.  But, they are not enough to save this movie.  Now that I own it, I’d probably watch it again to see if there’s anything of value I didn’t notice in the first viewing, but I would not watch it if it was on TV and I had to sit through commercials too.
Finally, there’s “Righteous Kill” starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pachino.  This is kind of a geezer-buddy-cop movie.  It’s two NYC cops trying to catch a serial killer.  Anything more pretty much gives away the movie.  A lot of (mostly) unnecessary “effing and blinding” (as we say used to say in England), but all in all, a pretty good movie.  I wouldn’t say it was in either of the lead actors great roles lists, but it was interesting seeing them together.
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On This Day In:
2023	Simpler Is Better
2022	Modern Republicans Have Long Since Concluded…
2021	Do Senate Republicans Believe In The Constitution And The Rule Of Law (Or Not)?
	With Your Red Dress On (Sherry)
2020	Morally Treasonable
2019	Lost Again Or Still?
2018	Why #LazyDonald Starts Work At 11AM
2017	At Least Most Of The Time
2016	But Doctor, I Never Learned How To Read
2015	Punch The Keys, For God’s Sake!
2014	Ouch!
2013	Revelations
2012	Movies And Juicing
	Brady Gets #4 (Prediction)
	Happy To Get Up
2011	What About Good Blogs?
2010	Slowly, Slowly…

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