Be My Valentine

We had a nice Valentine's Day, even if it rained miserably all day. We started out the day with lunch--or rather dinner, since we had the dinner portion--at Olive Garden. We went for broke: appetizers, entree and dessert (the black tie mousse cake, of course). We bought substantial parts of each of the first two home with us.

We also "did presents": I had a copy of PhotoImpact 7 and part of the price of the Lost in Space season 1 DVD set. I had bought James X-15 and The Princess Bride DVDs.

We watched X-15 after we got home from doing errands (errands still must be done on Valentine's Day). There's a domestic plot with Mary Tyler Moore, but for James the attraction is all the aircraft shots--and I think he was a bit disappointed. The movie is on DVD in widescreen, but all the shots of the aircraft in the air are distorted, as if they took a full-frame picture and stretched it sideways. As X-15 was originally made in widescreen, neither of us can figure out why this is.

X-15 is memorable to me simply because of the music. The first time James ever turned the movie on, I listened intently. "That sounds like Nathan Scott," I said, about a second before his name showed up in the credits. Nathan Scott did the music for Lassie from 1963 through 1973, and it's very distinctive; lots of violins and trumpets, and much of his score for X-15 sounds a lot like his Lassie motifs.

After that we put on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which we'd also picked up at Costco (along with LIS). I didn't realize it was out already and picked it up in delight. It's been a long wait between Trek DVDs as I wasn't about to pick up The Final Frontier. I might grab it if it turns up used on discount somewhere; I do like the park scene, and a couple of the quips, and of course Shatner finally getting to ask the most damn obvious question that no one ever seems to ask the so-called omnipotent being that captures their craft: "What does God need with a starship?" Unfortunately the rest of Final Frontier ain't worth the price.