Doings

Cinema  I went on Monday evening to the Cabot Street Cinema to watch "The Way," a movie about a man (played by Martin Sheen) who walks 800 km on the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compostela, along with three other characters he meets as he goes. It's part travelogue, part explanation of the pilgrimage, and part character development. I'm not sure what I think of it. Maybe I'll think some more. Meanwhile, if it comes your way, I recommend watching it.


This was my second time in that theater. The first time was also for a religion-themed movie set in Spain: "There Be Dragons," about St. Jose Maria Escrivá, mostly during the time of the Spanish civil war.


In a couple of weeks they'll be showing "Anonymous," which pushes the thesis that the works of Shakespeare were written by Edward de Vere, the Earl of Essex. I hope to get to see it. The idea that the author of the works of Shakespeare knew too much to have been the actor from Stratford has always made some sense to me.




Taxes  I just mailed my tax return for 2009 to the IRS. It was finished in draft by the deadline, May 11, 2010, but I got busy with other things and never made the final copy to send in. And since I'm owed a refund there was no urgency, since there would be no interest or penalty for late filing. But recently there has been a series of letters asking for the return. The latest threatened to assess me $9,411.30 in taxes, interest, and penalties on top of the $3,384.00 which had been withheld. The prospect of having to pay them $9,400 when in reality they owe me $1,186 got my attention. So I sent in the return to claim my deductions and adjustments.




Not Done  For the first time in several years, I decided to skip the Handel and Haydn Society's annual performance of Handel's "Messiah." I had a bit of a cold and so I decided not to go to Boston on Friday evening or Sunday afternoon. Instead, I took echinacea and stayed home both those times — which gave me the chance, as reported on my other blog, to listen for the third time in four days to John Harbison's fifth symphony.


I think it was the right decision, even though "Messiah" is the better work IMO. My cold is almost gone, and I should be able to go to Boston on Thursday to see the play "Captors," about Adolf Eichmann and the Mossad agents who have just captured him, as they try to get him to agree to go to Israel for trial.




Shades of Torchy and Setboyardee  Today is one of my two lottery days, so I went to the store where I usually get the tickets. The regular clerk was there. I think he's from India. Anyway, at the end of the usual transaction he wished me good luck and a good evening, smiling, and leaned slightly over the counter toward me. It actually felt, in that instant, as if he were leaning in to kiss me. Absurd, I suppose, and no doubt it says more about me than about him.