Sunshine Day

We got the documentary Dear Zachary from Netflix a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to watching it last night, and while I don't want to ruin it for any of you, I feel like I must warn the public at large that this is not a film for the faint of heart.  Or even the stalwart of heart.  In fact, perhaps you should only watch it if you are, in fact, made of stone.

I expected it to be poignant and sad given the premise, which is that a filmmaker wanted to make a movie about his childhood best friend, who had been murdered, in order to teach the son he left behind about his father (that was a very tortured sentence, but I think you know what I mean).  Well, it went far, far beyond poignant and sad; just when I thought it was going to resolve in a melancholy but ultimately palatable way, it ran over me like a steamroller, then backed up and ran over me a few more times. 

I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about it for a LONG, long time.  It's really one of those things that makes you wonder why in the hell certain things happen, how humans can be subjected to such senseless horrors and suffering and why we as a society haven't figured out ways to prevent things of this magnitude of awfulness from happening. 

Man.  For real.  MAN. 

On a brighter note, we checked out the High Line this weekend, which is this new park built on an abandoned elevated train track.  It's really cool; there are spiffy wooden lounge chairs that roll along the old tracks so you can pull them together or move them apart as you like, and there's a lot of lush greenery and wildflowers plus cool views of the river and the streetscapes below, including this whole wooden amphitheater area with windows overlooking the avenue below as if it were on a giant television screen. 

This is one of the things that New York has done exceptionally well over the past few years; since I moved here, the amount of green space and public park land has grown by leaps and bounds, and there are so many more seasonal outdoorsy things than there were when I first arrived, like movies in various parks and bars on water taxi beaches and bike paths going every which way (with free bikes available, too!) for summer and about 50 ice skating rinks in the winter.  Of course, I only use or attend a handful of these things each year, but just knowing they're THERE is pleasant and somehow comforting.

Other weekend highlights included a karaoke birthday party with some of the best party food evar (mini-bacon cheeseburgers, pigs in a blanket, spring rolls with some kind of creamy, spicy sauce, and Ring Dings and Mallomars for dessert -- afterward, I wished we had had that kind of food at our wedding, because who needs the same old wedding filet mignon when you could have sliders and Ring Dings?  Dang it!); a trip to the local branch library where I saw Julie Kent, who is one of my favorite dancers and who many of you will know from "Center Stage" (she's the one who quips to Cooper Nielson, "She's a heartbeat away from having your name tattooed on her ass" -- awesome); and an evening viewing of "The Hangover", which had some funny moments but could have been a bit quicker paced for me.

Perhaps most notably, it only rained a couple of times, and mostly during the evening hours, which makes these the first two consecutive nice days in what feels like at least a month.  I tried to soak up as much sun as I could without getting burnt, since I feel certain that rickets was beginning to set in.  Now I can go back to work reinvigorated and with the promise of at least two exciting things this week:  the arrival of my new laptop from Dell (ours is a good five years old and is so slow you could make a five course meal while waiting for it to boot up) and on Friday, our long weekend jaunt to Chicago.  Good deal. 

Comments

[terriwc]

now THAT sounds like a terrific birthday party! Love the food choices. May have to steal the idea, except for the karaoke! Sun, glorious sun and it is to be sunny in Chicago as well. ;

[ErinP]

Just watched Dear Zachary on the Netflix site. I don't even know what to say. Being hit by a steamroller is a great way to describe. What amazing people.

[Melissa]

Seriously. His parents are incredible.

But the replaying of the phone messages from the crazy lady? Oh em gee.

For some reason the herky jerky format of the narration got to me and I had to watch it a few times in order to actually see the whole thing. Oy.

[Sharon Jorgenson]

I watched this alone on a rainy gray spring day and just sat there with my mouth wide open and my hands at my side. I cried for a long time afterwards and I don't cry very easily.

Are you aware of instant Netflix?

[Mauigirl]

I haven't seen Zachary, don't know if I could handle it! Love the High Line idea, will have to check it out now that it's done. Have been reading about it for a long time as they were working on it. We've been on the equivalent version that they did in Paris and it's fantastic so I'm so excited New York has done this as well.

[Craig]

It's been two months since I saw "Dear Zachary" and I'm still trying to recover. As much as I agree with how emotionally brutal the documentary is (and make no mistake, it is frankly beyond anything I had experienced from a movie previously in that department), I still think it is an amazing and worthwhile movie to watch.