What's a Bourse?

"Romance and Cigarettes is lewd and it's lurid and looks to be a lost pop opera, but it has more vitality than anything else out there." - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

I did something today that I haven't done in almost 3 years. I saw a movie in a theater. I don't go, mostly because I find it odd to sit in a theater alone and odder to have no one to talk to about the movie once it's over. Generally, the movies I like are the oddball ones that don't play in a lot of theaters, and chances are when I go to work tomorrow and tell people the name of the movie I saw, they'll look at me in a stranger fashion than usual. It's only playing at one cinema around here, but fortunately for me, I know where it is. It's called Ritz at the Bourse, even though it's really next door to The Bourse. But, The Ritz Next-door to the Bourse is probably too long a name for it.

Romance and Cigarettes is one of those movies that I felt compelled to see. The cast includes Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi and James Gandolfini - and an unbilled cameo by Cady Huffman. If you aren't intrigued by that cast, I guess you really don't like movies all that much.

"Romance & Cigarettes is less a story than a state of mind, and less a musical than a meditation on how we instinctively set our lives to music, if not other musicals; unfortunately, it is just shy of convincing on both counts." - Michael Orange, Village Voice.

Most of you probably won't see it, and I really can't recommend it - unless you're a huge fan of one of the stars. For me, it was more of a venture than anything. I'd like to see more movies, and maybe I just need to start someplace.

I had a nice lunch at a city sports bar, where the bar is huge and the TVs are tiny, which makes for an odd experience. There was a bank of 6 in front, each tuned to a different NFL game. It's good for my short attention span, but bad for my eyes. I fear that spending more time there would have made my eyes begin to work independently like those weird lizards.

I sat at the bar and chatted it up with a couple of guys from Rochester, NY whose kids were in Philly for a ballroom dancing competition. Yep. They break the kids down by age group, and the winners get to go to Ireland for some sort of World Championship. I can't imagine the kids going back to school on Monday and bragging about their big ballroom dancing gig. But, they're from Rochester, so you never know. They were watching the Bills game. I didn't stick around for the end, but I can't imagine that they were happy with the outcome.

One thing that I find a bit odd - and maybe it's just me, but this place has men bartenders. Maybe I'm strange (OK, maybe I am) but I prefer women behind the bar. I figure that a man tending bar is probably working off a gambling debt or something. Maybe in a regular bar a guy is OK, but in a place that caters to sports fans (men) I'd think they would want women back there.

And thus ends my mini-vacation. Five days away from work. I managed to put it out of my head until just now, when I wrote the word "work". That's not too bad, considering. I managed to spend 5 days without going near a shopping center too.

Monday the nonsense resumes.