Started a sort-of-sunny, chilly day with a few remaining football-themed shorts I didn't get to on Saturday. Hello Kitty is "Cinderkitty" in Hello Kitty Furry Tale Theater. This little kitten would rather be catching footballs than doing chores. She gets a chance to prove girls can do anything, even be a penguin prince's wide receiver, when magic allows her to attend the big game.
The Fleischers did two football cartoons featuring Popeye. The first, "You've Gotta Be a Football Hero," is more typical. Popeye gets on the field to take down Bluto's team in order to impress Olive. "The Football Toucher-Downer" has Popeye telling Swee'Pea the story of how he first started eating spinach - during a football game when he was younger. I also snuck in "King of the Mardi Gras," since Mardi Gras is on Wednesday. Popeye and Bluto are once again competing for Olive's affections, this time on the Mardi Gras midway.
Headed out to King's Highway around 10. I wanted to be on time for the bus to Moorestown without rushing for once. Everything went fine. I made it with time to buy a pineapple-coconut sparkling water and get change at CVS and still got across the busy street well before the bus arrived. The bus was surprisingly busy for the Moorestown run. A couple of folks actually went all the way with me.
Explored the mall itself when I arrived. The FYE was a disorganized mess. I didn't see anything I absolutely needed. After a quick bathroom break at the movie theater (and dodging the Starbucks that somehow sprung up across from FYE in the Food Court hallway), I took a quick peek at a toy store, then hit Boscov's. Though I looked at toys, I was mainly there for pants, the only clothes I really need right now. I replaced a pair of work pants with Lee twill trousers, and picked up a pair of brown corduroys as well.
My next stop was the gigantic Barnes and Noble in one of the shopping centers surrounding the Moorestown Mall. I was there for over an hour. I just couldn't decide! I did see a coffee table book on musicals that looked interesting, but in addition to not wanting to haul it home, it was forty bucks. I ended up spending $25 on the Star Wars FAQ (or really more Star Wars Original Trilogy FAQ - it just briefly discusses the Prequels in the last chapters).
Had a very quick lunch next. It was past 2, and I was starving. In honor of today's Chinese New Year (it's the Year of the Monkey), I ate at Pei Wei. Needless to say on an Asian holiday, they were fairly busy, with a long-ish line that thankfully moved fast. I had sweet and sour chicken with brown rice and chai iced tea.
Went in and out of a few stores next. I wanted to get Dad-Bill a birthday card at Hallmark (it's tomorrow). Ended up getting myself three "Itty Bitties," tiny, adorable versions of popular characters. To my amusement, their versions of Han and Leia were packaged together, on cardboard printed to resemble the Millennium Falcon. And of course, since I got Han, I had to get Chewie, too. And yes, I got Dad his card.
(Star Wars isn't the only popular franchise from my childhood that's turned up at Hallmark recently. I was surprised to see Rainbow Brite merchandise there, too, including books. I thought they gave up on her after the last two or three times their attempts at resuscitating the character didn't work out. At the very least, what I saw of toys and books they had looked pretty close to the original. We'll see how this goes.)
A stop at Best Buy took even less time. I wanted to see if they had the Sailor Moon Season 2 sets. After spending 10 minutes just finding the DVDs and Blue Ray section (it was shoved in a corner in the back), I discovered they did have the first Season 2 set...but only on Blu-Ray. I think I'll probably just pick these up on Amazon.com.
I was hot from all that hiking around. A chocolate-covered strawberry water ice from Rita's really hit the spot. I got to enjoy it at the now-completely remodeled food court at the main Mall. The industrial white color scheme had been replaced by slightly mellower hues of dark brown and tan. Charley's was replaced by Bassett's; the sushi place and pizzeria were different, too. The only holdovers from the original Food Court were Subway and Saladworks. A small sit-down restaurant replaced one of the booths. I sat at the island/counter in the very center of the court and watched people go by as I ate.
I took the 4:07 home. It was right on time, and encountered no problems whatsoever getting in. The traffic was pretty heavy in Audubon when I arrived. I had to do a lot of dodging cars riding home, especially on King's Highway and down by Cuthbert.
When I got in, I put on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while having leftovers from the party yesterday for dinner. Everyone's favorite swashbuckling archaeologist (Harrison Ford) is now in India (after a stop in Shanghai), accompanied by a Chinese kid and a fussy singer who would rather be anywhere but outside. They discover that a stone that may have magical powers has been stolen from a starving village...along with the village's children. Indiana and his friends travel to the depths of the Temple of Doom, where they encounter a cult that pulls hearts from chests, a wild mine-train ride, a child ruler, and a lot of Asian Indian stereotypes.
So...yeah, we'll start by talking about the stereotypes. There's a lot of them, and they can get a bit ugly after a while, especially during the dinner and the sequence with the cult. There's also the fact that this is all pure fantasy and has very little to do with real Indian religion. This can also get really, well, gross. Willie's not the only person disgusted by that infamous dinner with bugs and eels on the menu, and that doesn't even go into the whole "ripping the heart out of the chest" thing. And while I do like Short Round, Willie is just annoying as heck and more of a load than anything.
On the other hand, there's some set pieces here that's as famous as anything in the other movies. The opening is Shanghai is a lot of fun, "Anything Goes" musical number and all. So's the intense finale on the bridge. And the mine train ride is probably one of the most imitated and beloved sequences from any of the Indiana Jones movies.
This was my favorite of the Indiana movies when I was a kid. Nowadays, though I like some sequences, it's not even close. (That would be Last Crusade, by the way.) I'd be iffy on showing this one to very young kids, due to the violence and icky imagery. (There's a reason this movie lead to the creation of the PG-13 rating.) This one is for older kids and young teens on up who can handle the violence and understand that the stereotypes date from the time this was set.
Ended the night with a much-needed bath. My feet felt so sore after trooping around Moorestown all day! I read Quiet, a book on introversion and why it's not a bad thing, and listened to one of my Unsung Musicals CDs.
It's been cloudy since mid-afternoon, but it didn't start snowing until just a few hours ago. It's not heavy right now, just an inch or two. It stopped some time ago. We'll see how things look tomorrow.
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