this morning we got up early for the weekend in order to see "the lord of the rings: the return of the king" on not the big screen but the giant screen, AKA imax in dublin. but first, i had to de-ice my car. yes, i know i live in a california beach town, but some mornings it's so cold that the dew on my car is frozen. this morning was the worst. using the wipers and fluid would not get rid of the frozen mass. so we broke out a squeegee in order to scrape off the ice.

de-iced enough to see out of the back window

"the return of the king" was good but i felt like it was missing a certain punch. i think my problem with "lord of the rings", and all good trilogies for that matter, is this: if the first film is strong and grabs you, then all of your initial reactions can never be recaptured. you watch the sequels and hope that you will relive your initial reactions, the very reason why you bothered to see the sequels. it is almost like a junkie's explanation. that is why i am more fond of the first "lord of the rings" and first "matrix", etc. there was quite a sense of relief in finishing out "lord of the rings" because waiting this long to finish the story was like watching a soap opera--it takes a long time and i just don't have the patience for it.

after that we went to the san francisco museum of modern art. it was huge compared to moca in LA. it was the size a museum should be. usually when i go to a modern art museum, there is one piece that really touches me. whether it's for aesthetics or admiration of technique or simply because it is a novel idea. what disappointed me about moca is that i never had that moment. i didn't quite have that moment at moma either but it was closer. there was a piece that intrigued me: "aerial gyrations" by charles sheeler. also there were 2 dali pieces and i got to see in person one of the "fountain" pieces by duchamp.