Here's a bit of a smaller update as I had the time/inclination to write one today. Florida traffic is still as bad as ever but otherwise can't complain about things as of late. One afternoon I picked up someone from the Orlando Sanford Airport and one afternoon had lunch w/ some family members at a hole in the wall BBQ place around The Villages called Artman County Smokehouse; they do serve good food. Another afternoon I was up in Wildwood on my own and ate at another local establishment called The Sunny Pint—they serve decent food.
The highlight was visiting the Magic Kingdom the Monday before Halloween & FINALLY riding TRON Lightcycle/Run, a year and a half after the ride opened. It's not necessary that you've ever seen TRON: Legacy before experiencing the ride. Just note that it has a cool blue aesthetic and cool electronic music (those were the highlights in Legacy; it far surpassed the story, characters, and the de-aging CG at the time that they used to make 2010 Jeff Bridges look like 1982 Jeff Bridges) and you ride stomach-down on unique ride vehicles. Yeah, it's not the longest ride-the most common criticism-but the same can be said about the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Epcot and both are a lot of fun. Due to the ride vehicles, they actually have lockers that you can access w/ your pass or MagicBand to put your items in beforehand. Sadly, it may be a long while before I'm able to get on Tiana's Bayou Adventure but I won't worry about that now. It wasn't that busy at the Magic Kingdom so TRON was ridden twice and it was in fact neat to visit & ride the Haunted Mansion right before Halloween.
One film was seen theatrically. The night of the election-I voted in the afternoon-it was best to go out and not even think of the ballot results as the most important one wouldn't be determined for hours. Thus, Here, the newest movie from Robert Zemeckis. Of course, I have fond memories of his Back to the Future and has some other fine movies but I know his output as of late hasn't been so hot. As I saw only one trailer for it and it is flopping at the box office, a plot explanation is likely needed. It has the wild gimmick of leaving a camera fixed in place the entire time (until literally the final minutes) as a patch of land is looked at through history... mainly since 1900 and mainly focused on the family of Tom Hanks and his wife Robin Wright. They were both de-aged as that technology has improved in the past 15 years so it didn't look quite as phony to see them as they looked in the 1980's. They still sounded like their old selves but that piece of technology to fix this logic flaw apparently isn't around yet.
While it's not without its flaws, it's a nice movie and unlike most modern films, it is not sarcastic or cynical-which is appreciated by me. A shame that the critical opinion is even worse than that of the public opinion. It even addresses the disappointments in life (including death) which probably isn't a shock for a movie made by a senior citizen. Regardless, I don't think it's as bad as you may have heard... if you heard anything at all.
I may not return until sometime in December. At least I know of a few things to write about then—not just my Thanksgiving plans.
