Friday night was the BSG finale. Yuliia and I went to Jody's house, which is an awesome house, to watch the BSG finale. I loved the episode. The episode was full of emotion and feeling. The last 45 minutes weren't that strong, but I feel necessary as it is good to have a big wrap up of 4 seasons of television. This show is quite good and it reinforced that TV can be awesome (I already had seen evidence thanks to Buffy and Angel). Yuliia didn't like it so much and the rest of the people there weren't as happy as me, but I enjoyed it immensely.

On Saturday, Yuliia and I watched the sixth episode of Dollhouse, which has been by far the best episode so far. The episode opens up so many interesting possibilities of what can happen and the overall arc is getting into place. A wonderful episode.

After doing lots of house errands and watching TV, Yuliia and I drove to Boston to meet with Sid and watch the Oscar shorts. The place was sold out, so we ended up getting food at Cafe Pamplona, a place near Harvard. Yuliia tasted tortilla española and loved it, while I had a tasty sandwich. After dinner we went to Michio's place and watched Equilibrium, a movie which has some cult appeal. Of the four people watching it, I was the only one that liked it (although I think all of us were entertained). The movie has a lot of ridiculous scenes and many flaws but I enjoyed the action and I enjoyed the plot.

Sunday, we woke up late (had gone to bed at 4:30am) and went to have breakfast at a famous Portuguese breakfast place in Union square. The meal was big and delicious (I love those pancakes). After that we went in to a pretty big comic bookstore. I bought a comic by Brian Michael Bendis, a guy that writes most of the mainstream comics for Marvel now, but was an indie writer before writing Ultimate Spider-man. I checked out his book Fortune and Glory which details how he wrote a screenplay for a movie and how it got lost in development. The comic was quite good, with lots of humor. I enjoyed it a lot, I didn't know Bendis drew his one stuff and it got me very interested into reading his comic "Torso".

After the comic bookstore we went to the theater again to try to see the animated Oscar shorts to find out it was sold out (third time I have gone to Coolidge theater and it has been sold out, all three times for Oscar shorts, although the first time was a year ago). We bought the tickets for the night showing. In the meantime we walked around and went in a bookstore called "Israel Bookstore" which has a lot of Jewish books. Then we went to Starbucks (to cold to walk outside) and there Asa met us.

With Asa, we went to play candlepin bowling, a New England version of bowling that is quite different. The pins are arranged a bit differently, ate more rectangular and the ball is tiny, like a cannonball (all of the same weight). Instead of two shots per frame, there are three, but other than that the scoring is essentially the same (strike gets the two next shots, a spare gets the next shot and hitting ten after three shots doesn't give you any extra shot). We played two matches and in all of that, there was only one strike (Sid) and two spares (both by me). I think no one did ten pins in three shots. My second spare was awesome as I was losing by 14, I hit the spare and then a 9 to win it. Asa won the first game 64-62-63-51 (Asa, Sid, Yuliia, me) and I won the second game 59-?-?-64 (I don't remember Sid and Yuliia but I they were in the 40s). I had a lot of fun.

After bowling, we went to watch the Animated Oscar Shorts. I loved them. They showed the five Oscar shorts and five runner ups. I like all ten, but I could tell why the five were the ones nominated, there was only one guy in the honorable mentions that I think could have cracked in the top five. I guess I should review each one separately: Lavatory: A Love Story is a cute, funny Russian short (10 minutes) about a woman that works cleaning in a lavatory. After cleaning she returns and in the place where coins should be she finds some flowers. It becomes a story about finding where the flowers came from. Quite good. Oktapodi a two minute French film that just makes one laugh nonstop. Wonderful. The House of Small Cubes a Japanese film (the one that won the Oscar) that is full of emotion. I loved the storytelling in this short, not using a single word (actually neither of the five nominees had any dialogue) and telling the whole life of an old man. Really fantastic movie. This Way Up a hilarious short about two funeral people who have to carry a corpse but they are car has an accident so they have to carry it all the way through hills and many obstacles. Very funny. Presto A funny short by Pixar about a magician that can't get a bunny to come through his hat as the bunny is hungry. Lots of funny things happen. It is a clever short that I enjoyed a lot. Those were the five nominees and then we go to the five honorable mentions: Varmints the longest of the movies (24 minutes) is interesting but kind of hard to understand. I liked it more after Yuliia told me about a thing I had missed (namely that the green alienlike pods grew from seeds that the main character had planted). This was the weakest of the bunch, but it was still pretty good (although Sid and Asa were very bored by it). John and Karen really funny and really short (3 minutes), it is about a polar bear apologizing to a penguin in a romantic setting. Hilarious. Gopher Broke a funny story featuring a hungry gopher. SKHIZEIN a French short that I loved. This is the one I think could have been in the top five, very funny, imaginative and interesting. Loved it. Hot Dog, this one was a bit funny and it had animation that was quite different. I didn't like it that much, but it was okay.

Watching the shorts made me realize, that there is a place where comedy gets critical acclaim and that is in short animated movies (and in full length animated movies). I don't know why comedies don't get so much love, but I was happy that they get love when it comes to short films.

On Monday, we had lunch with Asa at a diner in Brookline, I had a very tasty omelet and the interesting thing was learning what an egg salad was (the waiter was surprised when Yuliia and I asked). After the lunch, we went to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts). We mainly walked around looking at art and discussing project Runway. My favorite part in that museum is the Impressionist part. Yuliia really enjoyed old sculptures from India.

At night, we took advantage of restaurant week and went to a restaurant called T W Many things were tasty, the bread was tasty, the free appetizer was tasty. I had an endive salad which was pretty good as an appetizer, then Cous Cous which wasn't very good as an entre and a tasty Tiramisu as dessert. Yuliia had a much better appetizer, delicious meat, good thing she couldn't eat it all, as I was quite sad with my entree.

On Tuesday, we woke up late again and went to have lunch at Zoe's a Greek diner near Harvard. I had eaten there before with Iuli and Mike and liked it a lot. I had a club sandwich this time with home fries, but I wished I had ordered some breakfast, as their breakfasts are really good. After that, we went to a Russian grocery store so that Yuliia could get Russian cheese and other kinds of food that are not usually found in normal grocery stores. She was quite happy with it.

We then went to do normal bowling with Asa. We played three games. I bowled an awful 48 in the first game to be in last place. In the second game I played great (for our standards) and bowled 126. Yuliia was second place with 107. In the third game, it seemed like no one would reach 100, but Asa hit a spare in the last frame to get to 105. I got 90. It was very fun.
After bowling it was time to drive home. Part of the drive Yuliia watched Lord of the Rings in the car, so when we got home we watched Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I hadn't seen it in about four years (maybe more) and I enjoyed it a lot. This time, I was mainly enjoying the beautiful landscapes and amazing cinematography. This movie is of the highest quality, all the money that was spend was well spent. Yuliia hadn't seen the movie before and was super happy with it. When it was over she wanted to watch more, but I didn't as it was 2am and watching Two Towers would mean ending the day after 6am (the extended editions are quite long).

On Wednesday, we watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I loved watching it again, specially since Yuliia enjoys it so much too. I can't believe how real everything seems. Peter Jackson really created a believable Middle Earth. I also really love how well they made this movie to feel even though the book seems unadaptable (with its storytelling way of one story and then the next, instead of marching through both stories at the same time as the movie does). It seems to have the perfect rhythm, a perfect synchrony between both storylines (Frodo-Sam, Aragorn-Gandalf). Just a jewel of filmmaking. After watching it I went to buy Return of the King (which I'll watch tonight) which I have never seen in its extended edition. I am looking forward to it. I wonder if Yuliia is missing out by not seeing the originals, but I think the extended editions are better, so she probably isn't missing out.

After the movie, I went to play soccer. We were supposed to play the Dartmouth Women this week, but because of Spring Break we won by default. We played a pick up game instead, which was very fun. It is interesting to see how when the game is not part of the tournament we all play with less intensity. The tournament doesn't mean much, but in some ways the games are much better as everyone tries harder. I did enjoy being able to get out of the goal more often as I was unafraid of being scored upon. We won 10-3, I played poorly the first 15 minutes, but then played better.

A really fun week full of activities. Life is good.

Besides the daily Milagrito run the day consisted of watching BSG, two movies, a short movie and then hanging out with the REU students. It was pretty fun, here are the reviews:

BSG The episode was fantastic, my faith in the fourth season has been restored. The last five episodes have been very good (except for last week's which wasn't at the level of the other four). I am happy to see the interaction between Roslin-Adama, the rebirth of Diana (number 3), the funniness of Baltar. We didn't get to see stuff with Starbuck or Apollo, but it made sense since last week focused on the actions of the Galactica, this week we get the base star and probably next week we'll get them together.

Indiana Jones 4. I have heard mix reviews on this, but I was looking forward to it anyway because it is directed by Spielberg with a story by Lucas (but not the screenplay which is better that way, since Lucas is not good at dialogue) and acting by Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett. The movie was funny and very fun. It started a little too over the top with Indy surviving a nuclear bomb, but it was funny. The movie kept with the Indy formula of connecting action scenes with action scenes, making the whole movie a thrill ride. It felt like the previous movies and although it is not as strong as 1 and 3, I think it is as good as the second one (maybe we will remember the Indy Jones movies as being in the odd numbers and not so good in the even ones, opposite of what is remembered of Star Trek movies). It was definitely worth the watch. In an extra note in Indiana Jones, when Indy is asked about how he knows "quechua" he says it was because he was kidnapped by Pancho Villa to fight Victoriano Huerta. While Pancho Villa did have his differences with Victoriano Huerta, both of them are in Mexico, which is very far from Peru, which is were quechua is spoken. At the end of the movie Paul and I burst out laughing at some of the cheesy lines like "it is not going to space, it is going to the space between spaces" or "Well, the word for 'gold' translates as 'treasure.' But their treasure wasn't gold, it was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.". So funny.

Night of the Living Dead George Romero's first movie. The movie before "Dawn of the Dead" which is the ultimate zombie movie. Night of the Living Dead was very good and it was enjoyable to watch. The main character in the movie (and only kind of good guy) is black, which is interesting for a movie in 1968. Something that surprised me about the zombies was that they were able to use some thinking, like picking up rocks to destroy windows. Usually my idea of zombies does not permit them to use any sorts of tools. I don't remember if Romero changed this for the subsequent movies or if it is just that other zombie tales (like "World War Z") have just made that point to make them an extra primitive foe. I think Romero did a very good job of creating suspense by having the human interactions and their fear the main driver of the story and not the zombie attacks themselves.

De Düva: The Dove a 11 minute parody of Ingmar Bergman. The short is very funny. One of the funny things is that they speak gibberish that can be understood if you speak English but it sounds like Swedish (and it has subtitles in English). It is really funny. It also parodies several Bergman stylistic things like close ups, but specially the themes (incest, depression). I think the parody is based on Wild Strawberries with a touch of Seventh Seal. It was hilarious.