Company!

This evening, Valerie and Patrick arrived and the holiday began. After initial greetings and dropping off of bags and such, we took a little tour of some of the places I've been hanging out of late and wound up at one of our favorite pizza places, Felix and Oscar's. While I don't get there as often as I used to, Valerie likes to go about anytime she's in town... and I'm certainly not going to stop her!

After dinner, we went to see Babel at the Fleur Cinema, an interesting theatre on the south side of Des Moines that tends to feature the uncommon. Babel was recognized at the Cannes Film Festival with four nominations, winning three categories. The Gotham Awards nominated the film in two categories. Complicated and not upbeat, this story is set in motion by two boys in Morocco and involves people from Tokyo to California and Mexico. As each of the four main stories turn on their independent axis, each in their own tongue, we're allowed to see very distinct individuals deal with circumstances often well beyond their normal lives. Not what I'd call a tragedy, you're not likely to be very chatty on your way to the car after this show.