Our mission continues

Dec. 27 started with us making progress on the movie list the easy way. After reading a review of one of the films, it fell off the list. Later we saw a trailer for the film that confirmed that decision.

Then the trip to Pasadena commenced. It's strange, Pasadena is just about the same distance for us to travel as going to Irvine, but we go to Irvine for movies all the time, and view a trip to Pasadena as a special excursion.

We started by having lunch at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. I know, if you haven't been to Roscoe's you're shaking your head, but it has great fried chicken, wonderful waffles and what Jane says are the best greens anywhere. And chicken and waffles go together quite well.

After lunch we headed over to the Pasadena Museum of California Art, which had a photography exhibit that interested us. The photos were good, but the real prize at PMCA was the exhibit of watercolors -- absolutely wonderful. There was also a small collection of H. D. Puthuff's plein air paintings.

By the time we finished here, the rain had come (we thought it was done for the day, but it fooled us.) En route to the next venue, we finally made our way to Colorado Boulevard where things are being made ready for the Rose Parade. Bleachers are going up wherever they can fit in a few rows. It interesting to see how they fit them in around buildings. Still raining when we parked and made our way to the next two events.

The next stop was Vroman's bookstore, which is next door to the Laemmle Playhouse theater. Any time we see a movie here, it means a trip to Vromans. This trip was a bit of an anomaly for us, because we didn't buy anything. Christmas filled our bookshelves for a while, so we just looked this time.

Then it was time to get down to business. There are movies to be watched. So Notes on a Scandal got our attention. They can still nominate other actresses for awards, but just give them all to Judy Dench now.

Time for another trip down Colorado, but going the opposite direction as the Parade will be traveling, to the Norton Simon Museum where there was a companion photo exhibit to the one at PMCA. We also went through the impressionist section visiting all our old friends. The Norton Simon is certainly the place to go if you are a Degas fan. Because of the rain, the garden was closed, so we didn't get to visit some of our favorite sculptures.

Still more movies to get to, but it's suppertime now, so we head over to One Colorado and have dinner at Il Fornaio. After dinner we go around to corner to Laemmle's One Colorado theater to see the next movie of the mission: The Secret Life of Words. First a bit about the theater: this is a subterranean multiplex. You take escalators down under the shopping and restaurants of One Colorado to see your movie. The various theaters are relatively small. Ours sat 200.

The film was just the kind of indie film we love to see. It was almost as good as Sweet Land, which we fell in love with several weeks ago. The unfortunate part of this experience is that it has no following. There were only five of us in this theater for this gem of a film.

Then home to feed hungry pets and crawl into bed to rest up for today's activities, which will be a bit less full. I need to get started on some reviews. Still the mission goes on.

So far: 6 movies, 3 museums.

The mission continues here.