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Nov. 10, 2007 Today is a day I've been longing for, for quite sometime. A day when I found a place I wanted to be. A space. A familiarity. A worth of knowing I was in the right place. Yesterday, Sophie and walked by the Odyssee Cinema . She tried to hide her excitement seeing that Tarantino's DeathProof was playing. She probably figured we wouldn't be able to see it so she didn't want to get her hopes too high, which was a fair assessment since there hasn't been a movie theatre worth spending much time at in the past few towns where we've lived. But instead of just passing it by, I suggested she see when the movie was playing. The last show had started about three minutes prior - which would have been find if Jeffrey hadn't been with us. I suggested she remind me about it and that we should see it. I noticed an adjacent a cafe, stuck my head in and decided it might be worth a try. This evening we trotted over to the market to stock up on anything we might need over the weekend since nothing practical is open on Sundays. Then we decided to drop by the local video store where we rented Joel Schumacher's The Number 23 and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, the 1995 version to which Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and which stars Hugh Grant. It was 8:03pm when we arrived at the video store. The ever-friendly clerk informed us that he had been closed for three minutes. I gestured that we should leave. He gestured that we should feel free to make our selection but perhaps not in the most lackadaisical manner. Just then, a bell went off in Sophie's head. "Deathproof started at 8:00pm." "Damn. Are you sure? Go check." She darted off around the corner to check the movie's start time at the cinema. It started at 8:30am. We rushed home, quickly put the perishables in the fridge, told Jeffrey to stay and jetted off to our new found, super cool cinema, second run and art films cinema. The cinema also has year round mini festivals which focus on different directors or countries. Such as a Ingmar Bergman Fest or a Turkish Film Fest. We arrived back at the theatre having missed only the first 10 minutes of the film. We sat upstairs in big, new cushiony red velvet chairs, in the balcony. It was a typical old two-level cinema from times past. There's one like it on or near 57th St in New York City. When I lived there back in '86, you could smoke in the balcony section. The cinema reminds me of LA's New Beverly Cinema on Beverly Blvd. and a cinema near Lincoln Center, next to Sushi a Go Go, which plays independent and foreign films. It felt like home. A place to watch art. A place where others came who weren't just looking for the next new film on the market. Finally, a place I wanted to be. A place where I might want to spend time. A deep breathe. A sense of warmth. A sense of peaceful ease. After the film, Sophie and I decided to check out the attached cafe. Boy, is it attached. There is a long, darkened window butting up to the larger of the two screening rooms which spans the length of the cafe. You can watch films playing in the background as you sip your tea or enjoy your whiskey.< BR> For the moment, I've become a tea-totaler. The same could not be true of the woman sitting at the table to the left to us. She was quite pleased to have the company and more than interested in sparking conversation. Lucky for me, she spoke English. Otherwise, it would have been a conversation just between Sophie and herself with Sophie translating the important stuff. The lady who told us she had no name spent time in London during the '80s - a time of bizarre and often bad hair (think Flock of Seagulls or Cindy Lauper). I believe Sophie's dreadlocks inspired this train of thought from our triple shot neighbor. She loved Sophie's 'originality' although when I expressed the distain Sophie's principal had for the hair our less than conservative, possible lady of the night expressed understanding at the importance that all children must look the same at lycee (high school). Please explain how one teaches tolerance through intolerance? I simply don't believe it's a positive or constructive mindset. She basically said the same thing Sophie's principal said. "How would it be if all the students looked like that?" "Fabulous!" I'd love to see a school filled with individuals, self-thinkers - kids who expressed themselves - as long as it was in a way that didn't hurt themselves or others. The woman, who loved Sophie's originality yet didn't think it was appropriate, kept trying to convince Sophie to have some whiskey - apparently, she was much pushier once I had hit the restroom... The conservatively liberal lady with no name kept apologizing for being drunk and said it wasn't a problem but rather the cigarettes were the problem. She didn't feel I could relate to her situation at all but somehow knew Sophie would understand. I smoked for years. I love smoking. Love everything about it. That being said, when Sophie's father and I decided to conceive, I stopped smoking and since I still have Sophie, I still don't smoke. As for booze, the lovely lady acted as though I've never had a drink in my life. Interesting how people see others. So off I went to scour the leaflets, pamphlets and flyers in search of interesting things to do around the city leaving Sophie to fend for herself with the French lady who had taken to calling herself a 'froggy' while making random nonsensical comments about street walkers. By the time I got back a man, about my age, had arrived at the table to the left of our lady friend. She introduced us. He is a professor of Greek Archeology at the local university. I felt at home. This cafe had interesting and varying types... characters. It was a welcome surprise. A needed reprieve. A lot of the time I feel a bit out of touch. I'm not the kind of person who wants to hang out with the yuppies of tomorrowland all dressed in Banana Republic or Zara's racing with the other rats to become and beat the Jones'. Often, it seems like so many people are caught up in things I find unimportant that I just can't relate and feel as though I'm on a bit of an island. My island of isolation. But not this evening. This evening, I was at home in a world of odd and interesting people. A world of comfort, unpredictability and intrigue. A world I will return to for another experience. please consider leaving a tip in my virtual tip jar! Thanks! 
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