First I set up a “Disney Enchanted Call” for 8 in the morning. I had her favorite Disney character, Ariel, call her and wish her a very happy Valentine’s Day. Then I showed up in the afternoon (I hate having class on special days…) with flowers and gifts. Then we headed to Downtown Disney for a movie, dinner and Build-A-Bear (thanks for the great idea mom!)! She picked out the limited edition Luck-O-The-Irish teddy and gave him St. Patrick’s Day boxers and a special Valentine’s Day beating heart (appropriately named Patrick Valentine). Then we went and saw Music and Lyrics, the new romantic comedy with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Great film with lots of really fun modern music and really fun 80’s music. A short note: there were about 8 trailers playing before the movie. A lot of them look like a lot of fun, but … 8 …. Trailers. I started to think the movie was nothing BUT trailers. Anyways.
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Music and Lyrics (2007)
Hugh Grant plays Alex Fletcher, an 80’s pop star Has-Been who suddenly get the opportunity to write a new song for Cora (Haley Bennett), who’s basically competing with Shakira and worships Buddha. Problem is, Alex could never write the lyrics…just the melody. So he needs a new lyricist (his old one was his girlfriend and they broke up and he started REALLY being a has-been…either that or it was his old band mate who stole the last 3 songs they ever wrote to go solo…I wasn’t too clear on that bit). His manager (wonderfully played by Mr. Easter Island Head, Brad Garrett) hooks him up with Greg Antonsky (Jason Antoon) who is basically a hard rock death lover, whom Alex isn’t very impressed with. Suddenly his temporary plant lady, Sophie Fischer walks in and starts watering the plants and fixing Mr. Death Lover’s lyrics to be a little nicer. Alex loves it and convinces her to be his new lyricist even though she’s a hypochondriac (very funny scene where she waters the cactus). They eventually fall in and out and back in to love throughout the course of an enjoyable movie, following the boilerplate for….gee every romantic comedy every made. But that’s not the reason you go to see the movie.
My goodness does Hugh Grant work out! He’s 47 years old and he looks great with his shirt off. Um….can’t a guy admire another guy keeping in shape for so long? The great fun about this movie is that everyone sings their own songs. AND it was filmed in the U.S. AND it was written and directed by one person. If you didn’t know that about me, I applaud writer-directors who get their work out there because there is no screwing with THEIR vision…the film is theirs and theirs alone….so I applaud Marc Lawrence for getting this film out there for Valentine’s Day. Just lots of fun.
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So after the movie, we discover that we don’t have enough time to go to Rainforest Café for dinner like we had planned (it’s 7:40 and her rehearsal starts at 8:30). So we walk over to the Disneyland Hotel and grab a quick bite at Croc’s Bit and Bites, a snack shack near the Peter Pan themed bar. I then regale her with the highlights of my life, including previous girlfriends, the elementary school 2 year change-over, the middle school betrayed at 13 story and the really tasteless April Fools Day joke that wasn’t intended. Then I drop her off at rehearsal and head home. Now here’s where it gets wonky. So I’m at home and I do the work I said I would do (setting up my mother’s new printer), when she calls and says rehearsal JUST GOT OUT! IT’S BEEN LESS THAN AN HOUR! So I finish setting up the printer and head back out to Disneyland. Yes it’s a drive, but that injustice of tearing us apart on Valentine’s Day NEEDED to be fixed. So I get there and wander about The Lost Bar (right near Croc’s Bits and Bites) until I see her. She’s inside the bar and I’m outside, wearing a hooded sweatshirt. She hasn’t noticed me yet. So I fix my shoe (darn orthodics!) and then pull the hood up and stand and stare at her through the window. I also occasionally glance at her co-workers and then back at her. The desired effect is achieved (I learn this after the fact) because her co-workers notice me staring at her and say, “don’t look now but there’s a creepy guy staring at you.” Then she turns around sees who it is and runs out to meet me. So we hang out at The Lost Bar with her co-workers. Robyn (one of her good friends) comes in with a Tinkerbell mask at one point which I promptly put on. Then we watch her co-worker do a couple of tarot readings. Very interesting stuff.
You shuffle the deck thinking about a question in regards to your near future (6 months). Then the reader lays out 10 cards in this pattern.
Then reads them to you, explaining what each card represents in each position. Very interesting stuff. So then I take the mask off and we start our goodbyes. Eventually we get to my car, get her home and tucked in and then get me home. All in all a fantastic Valentine’s Day for the first time in like 4 years. Yay!