antidote II

Last night we went to see Roll Bounce, which I totally loved.

The whole visual feast of seventies style was as absorbing and entrancing as any fantasy about elves or Jedi, and I'm always a sucker for a heartwarming story.

What I think I liked best about it was how it seemed to recall (maybe not accurately) a certain moment of childhood—a sort of "last carefree summer" kind of thing—right before you really start to get a clue about life, but just when you're starting to pay attention & the whole world seems wide open with possibilities.

As I laughed hysterically at all the silly jokes, Loopy kept leaning over and saying to me, "This is right up your alley!" I meant to ask her afterward what exactly she meant by that—because they were silly jokes? kids' jokes? "it's a Black thing" jokes?—but anyway I had a great time & to my surprise, so did everyone else.

Afterward we went to the Sow's Ear in Verona, a wonderful cafe & knitting store that has late-night Friday knitting nights 'til 11 pm once or twice a month. More incentive for our out-of-town knitting friends to visit! (Franklin? Faustus?) It has a great selection of yarn & books, a cozy cafe area downstairs with nice big tables, and an upstairs seating area that's more like a living room with big soft couches (and of course, bright reading/knitting lamps).

Non-knitters like me enjoy the books (bought two!) and the delicious smoothies, coffee drinks, sandwiches and baked goods. Check out their website, which has the cute name www.knitandsip.com, for more pix & directions etc.

Loopy worked on the second of the cute baby hats we're making for the cousins this year ("we," ha ha). Meanwhile Ang started a top-down hat in a lovely soft lavender yarn; it was kicking her butt in the beginning but then she got going and it really looked good. (I'm certain that my judicious quotation of key lines from Roll Bounce ("unless you fall, you don't know how great it feels to get back up again") is what inspired her to persevere and succeed.)

Anyway, what inspired me to post today (as if I need any inspiration to screw around and procrastinate) is that in the car we were talking about U2 (inspired by a random iPod selection of "An Cat Dubh," from their very first album, Boy), and then today I came across a whole article about their first visit to Minneapolis, back in 1981.

It's a fun read—great to remember the old U2 when they were "just kids" as the article says about fifty times. Read it here. No, seriously—it's really enjoyable, takes ya back.

(The caption to the picture at right is, "After posing for this photo at [the Minneapolis venue], U2 returned home to play at their junior high graduation ceremony." *sigh* I really miss the city. Any city. Madisonian humor is a lot more of a blunt instrument).

All of this was so much fun that I totally forgot about the three upsetting things that happened yesterday. *sigh* Back to life, back to reality...in other words, time to call Mom...