a sidetrack from the garden

OK. I’m taking a trip out of the gardening realm and into the realm of another interest … the movies. I have made it my goal to see as many of the movies up for an Academy Award before March as I can. Last night (and this is my ONLY connection to gardening) I watched the new Wallace and Gromit film. I LOVE Wallace and Gromit … actually I love Gromit, truth be told … those raised eyes speak a thousand words. I’ve been following them for years. This new one is about a giant vegetable contest! What’s not to love? Gromit carefully measures his watermelon they way I measured my tomatoes last summer. This dog and I are soulmates. I’ve been humming the W&G theme music to myself all morning.

But that’s not what I wanted to write about. Having seen Brokeback Mountain, I wanted to read Annie Proulx’s short story. The movie is dead on. Ang Lee does a brilliant job in bringing Annie Proulx’s characters and setting to life. What’s interesting is, that when I found the story (I found it in the New Yorker DVD collection I gave my husband for Christmas … so wise of me) I discovered that in that SAME edition in 1997 was an article by George Plimpton about Truman Capote. If you see Capote you must read this article. It is a haunting complement to the movie. Quite a coincidence that two best picture nominees are foreshadowed in that one issue.

Munich is the only best movie nominee I have not yet seen. That said, I would have to give the best movie nod to Crash. It is so different from any movie I have seen and so provocative in its theme. It changes the way you think. I guess that’s why I like it.