Countdown begins

We leave for Cambridge in 10 days!

This morning I went and bought chips and cheese and stuff for our farewell party this weekend, and knit on my sweater. Why oh why didn't I finish this in May?

Soon I will have a yoke and two sleeves. Getting there. But don't forget that countdown...

After lunch I headed downtown for another movie. This one was The Kingmaker, about Imelda Marcos. Oh, my. The filmmaker was there -- she started out to make a movie about Calauit Island and the zebras and giraffes Imelda brought there, but things got out of hand -- and she stressed how charming and convincing Imelda was in interviews, so there were also lots of activists and political opponents in the movie to balance her out. Haunting... alarming... scary as heck!

The sweater is too large for lineup knitting, so I started something new. I have some weird cotton, quite fine, and I am just knitting around and around, hoping to have a neck-warmer/cowl thing. Knitting standing up in a line is not optimal, and I somehow twisted the hundred or more stitches, knitting happily on for almost an inch.

Oops, so as we were sitting waiting for the movie to start, I figured it out. On row 8 or 10, I cast off a few stitches, twisted the whole thing till it was straight again, and carried on. That twist is now a decorative element and I won't hear another word about it. Ahem.

It's film festival time again

September means TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival. Last year I think I only saw two movies, but this year I again bought a pack of six tickets and will see five movies. (I do keep entering any contest I see, but I haven't won a dang thing!)

Today I saw Desert One, a documentary about the Iran hostage crisis in 1979-80. It was a piece of history I sorta remember: I was a student living in residence and watched the news sporadically, but we all knew about the Shah and the Ayatollah and the hostages. I learned a lot about the disastrous secret attempt to rescue the hostages; the eight people who were killed; the burned helicopters in the desert, which are still there and where an anniversary celebration occurs every year.

This movie features interviews with so many key players: to start at the top, President Carter and Vice-President Mondale! There are also several hostages, pilots and special operations members and their families, hostage-takers and an Iranian who translated for them.

When the Americans flew in to the Iranian desert on their secret mission, they didn't expect to meet anyone, and certainly not a bus full of a family party! There was even an interview in the film with a man who was an 11-year-old boy on that bus. He said he was terrified, but when they were finally able to drive away, he couldn't wait to tell his friends at school.

I do love a good Q&A after a film! I always try to take a picture, but it is always too dark and I am too far away.

The guy with the mic is Kevin Hermening, one of the hostages;
the woman in black to his right is director Barbara Kopple 

We were very lucky to have Kevin Hermening in the theatre. He was only 20 when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became a hostage. He is very well-spoken and thoughtful -- I guess after almost 40 years he has done a lot of thinking.

This was only the second screening of the film, but I'm sure it will get snapped up for distribution and be widely available soon. A pretty amazing story, all around. Highly recommended.