Traveling Ph.D.

In for the night, but not by choice
Darned conference presentation anyways!

It’s a damn shame that I had to come all the way to New Orleans to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I’ll admit that it has only been recently that I’ve picked up anything by John le Carré to read and that was only because The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was on a list of books that I was trying to complete. Yet, somewhere along the way, I’ve developed this interest in Cold War espionage – around the time I went to Berlin, perhaps? – so I thought I’d give the movie a whirl.

That is, before I actually read the book.

In the past, I’ve read many a book before I went to see the movie and, quite frankly, I end up annoyed – and I end up annoying The Coach because I complain about the liberties that the director has taken with the source material. You know, Eat Pray Love was a lovely movie – but the details were different enough to tick me off. I don’t think I’m the only person who gets upset by this – I remember having a conversation with TQE about one of the Harry Potter movies – but maybe, just maybe, I am too much of a film and book geek for my own good.

So, anyway, after consuming copious amounts of muffuletta, I took a nap. But, I made sure to set the alarm on my cellphone because I really wanted to see this flick. It has been a dog’s age since I’ve actually gone to the movies all by myself, which is something I like to do when I want to think deep thoughts about what I am viewing. I’ll admit that when I woke up, I was still a little footsore from this morning’s grocery shopping fiasco – why didn’t I pack my sneakers? – but I pried myself out of bed and shoved my feet back into my clogs. Fortunately, the movie theatre was only three or four blocks from the hotel.

Let me tell you, the movie theatre in Canal Place is pretty freakin’ fancy. One kid escorted me to my assigned seat. Another kid gave me a menu and instructed me to hit the red button if I wanted food. Seriously, if I didn’t have another chunk of muffuletta waiting for me, I would have ordered one of the yummy looking salads on the menus. Instead, I settled for a Diet Coke and some designer popcorn coated in garlic salt and paprika. I suspect I am channeling my inner Rachael Ray when I say that popcorn was Delish! And, frankly, I was dying for a Diet Coke because the vending machine in my hotel is out of everything except Barq’s root beer – and you can only drink so much real soda before you feel like your teeth are rotting out. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I had a sugared soda.

As for the movie: Focus Features never fails to disappoint. I’ll admit that the flick was rather complicated, but then, shouldn’t a film about spies be complicated? I know that Chris Krapek over at the Huffington Post warned that you’d “better think twice before that large popcorn and soda” and that his teenage cousins would “compar[e] it to doing homework.” To those people I say cast off your intellectual laziness and pull up a theatre seat. In addition to being physically satisfied by the smoky garlicy goodness of my popcorn, I was also mentally satisfied by the end of the flick even though I sorta’ figured out who the spy was about 30 minutes into the movie – and I was right, yo!

Now that I’m in for the night – after a stop to buy overpriced bottled water from a really rude chickie in a Canal Street store – I suspect I should probably get around to making my Power Point slides for tomorrow’s presentation. That could be amusing, seeing how my Netbook is, well, a Netbook. Great for portability, terrible for productivity.