Money Monster

Good morning, y’all. Another scrumpdillyicious, beautiful day in the mountains. I noticed that the wildflowers are in full bloom on our trip to the Walmart in Blairsville. It’s very restful to the soul to be living with the beauty of nature all around. I don’t know how those folks trapped in concrete cities can get along.

Well, the trip to Walmart was relatively uneventful this week. I did my dumpster dive into the discount movie bins to see what I could see, but I really wasn’t trying. Today is Mulva’s birthday, so we’ll go out to dinner and see a proper movie in a theater. I don’t mean to infer that if I found a real bargain that I would ignore it. It’s just that my motivation for diving to the bottom of the barrel in search of a “gem” was not as acute as usual. If I saw an Oscar winner for $2.99, I’d still bring it home, I just wasn’t going to break my neck trying to find it. I did stock up on Milk Duds and Malted Milk Balls, though. They don’t have to be eaten just on Date night. We got checked out, at counter Number Two of course, and made our way back to TackyToo.

The balance of my day was spent putzing around and not trying to work up a big sweat. Before you knew it, it was 5 o’clock and time to get ready to go on our date. I had made dinner reservations for The Embers in Gainesville. It’s supposed to be a high end steakhouse, and that’s one thing you can’t get enough of, steak. It’s also supposed to be on the pricey side of things. I thought it would be fun for Mulva to get to hang out with the 1% for her birthday. It’s rumored that the Governor has frequented the place. Who knows, we might get the opportunity to watch a sinister deal being consummated over shrimp cocktails.

Speaking of sinister deals, we saw a corker of a movie that was filled with intrigue and shady dealing. The movie was “Money Monster”, and it starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts. It was playing at the Hollywood 15 Cinemas. The theater has those stadium seats that make you feel like you’re looking eyeball to eyeball with the actors. I felt like it would be a special treat for Mulva to feel like she was looking directly into George Clooney‘s deep blue eyes. I am a thoughtful son of a gun, if I do say so myself.

Well, there were plenty of shots into Mr. Clooney’s deep blue eyes, but mostly those eyes were filled with terror. Clooney’s character played a TV stock prognosticator, ala Jim Cramer in real life, who was kidnapped during a broadcast by a disgruntled investor. Clooney’s character did a great job of lampooning the silliness that Cramer’s show trades on. I guess we can thank director, Jodie Foster, for exposing Cramer as the buffoon that he is. As much fun as the silliness of the parody provides, the fun stops when the young investor takes the studio hostage.

The investor is played by Jack O’Connell, who will be remembered by folks who watch way too much TV, as Cook from “Skins”. He brings the same intensity to his role as he did in “Skins”. It’s hard to say what kind of future O’Connell might have playing something other than a misfit, but he certainly is well cast in the misfit role. His character of “Kyle” was not only the catalyst for the movie, but the glue that held it together. I won’t give away any plot points to detail how “Kyle” became the “glue”, but the script was handled very credibly.

Mulva talked about the movie all the way back to TackyToo, so I’m guessing she enjoyed it. I think she appreciated the time away from our everyday, and I was happy she enjoyed her birthday. She even laughed when I gave her her customary garden gnome for her birthday. It’s a tradition, maybe we’ll talk about it more another time. Anyhow, I got her the “Garden Peeker”, which is a garden gnome that looks like he’s peeking at you from behind a tree. I thought in light of our problems last year with a peeper she might think it was funny. She did.

Bud hit this birthday out of the park!