Olive Garden Disappoints

One could only hope that after a bad, bad cimematic experience that the dinner could save the evening. Not to be.

As a preface, the local Olive Garden has been a favorite feeding spot for me and family and even a few business meals over the years. In most cases the experience has been good. Last night was BAD.

Let's walk through the ordeal. First the parking was excellent with a spot very near the entrance door. Warm greeting by hostesses. No wait and a quick walk to non-smoking section. Planted right next to table with two large gals who had apparently arrived just before us. We might have just as well been seated at the same table. We walked right by a couple of more private booths but we must have looked like we wanted dining company. I ordinarily would have requested a nore private table but opted out this evening. We were seated and waitor was soon upon us. After a brief chat we ordered drinks and our meals. The salad showed up, what there was of it. Olive Garden serves their salads in a large bowl and the diners serve themselves from it. We must not have very looked hungry because our bowl wouldn't have fed a pigmy couple. Still no drinks. The breadsticks arrive. I love Olive Garden's breadsticks. I used to love Olive Garden's breadsticks. The four we got were cold, and had dried out on the ends. The drinks finally arrive. I had a direct view to the bar from my chair and there were no patrons in the bar so I am clueless why a Corona and red wine would take 15 minutes to serve. It got worse. No glass for the beer. Now this will seem very picky to most people but I like my beer in a glass, preferrably in a frosted glass even if the brew is already in a cold bottle. Not to be. BTW, I have rarely been in a resturant where they will serve the second beer in a new frosted glass even though the first one was frosted. Do the servers and proprietors think only the first serving needs all the frivilities. Apparently I looked like a college frat hack who will gladly take their swill directly from the keg spout this evening. In the meantime the waitor is back to inform my date that the meal she ordered couldn't have the chicken portion because they were out. How can a resturant be out of chicken on a Saturday evening at 9:00! She asked him to just add more beef. The meals eventually arrive and it turns out that the shish ca bobs she ordered were not shewered because they also ran out of shewers. WTF. Five minutes later her side vegetable arrived after she's well into her meal. I had the spagetti with sausage. The sausage was good, but the spagetti was already drying out on the edges of the plate. By this time I realize why we were seated next to Dawn and Donna. The other sections were already empty and the staff was cleaning them up. Apparently it is more important that the resturant be promptly readied for the next day than for today's diners to have a quiet spot to enjoy their dining.

I pay Jason and give him an overly generous tip for the service. Actually any tip would have been overly generous. Now one could put all the blame on Jason and he certainly deserves a good share. But the managemet owns most of it. They should not allow dried bread sticks. They should not tolerate depleted inventories. They own the quality of the full experience.

On a "I will definitely go back" to "I gotta barf" scale of 10 to 1 this experience was a 4. It will be awhile before you see me at the Olive Garden again. Oh, Jason get another job you suck at waiting.

Firewall Flop

Two movies in two weeks!! Holy cimematic freakout Robin. After the Brokeback experience my longing for widescreen entertainment drew me and my date to a more traditional movie storyline. What a disappointment.

I wasn't into this flop 10 minutes and I was starting the let's blow this joint countdown. This was soooooooooooo boooooooooooring and so like 100's of other hero action storylines. Let's recap. Hero action dude and family get's put into situation where action dude must save himself, his family and the world(in this case some money)from master villain and villain helper dudes. Hero dude tries various attempts of twarting the bad act and ends up getting son nearly dead and a villain helper shot by master villain. Of course, in today's digital world there's the need for banks of computers, an unimpregnable security system, hence the name firewall, and obviously a way around the umimpregnable. There was absolutely nothing new or stimualting in this flick. Let's see we had the usual near escape by the family and the recapture just as they we starting the car. Wow, so original. Then we have the action hero stumbling across all the right clues and a helper to put the villian on the defense. Then we had the family pooch wearing a GPS collar so action hero can find villains and family. And to top it off and played out so many times the action hero goes fist to fist with master villian. After a few broken windows, tables and walls action hero happens upon a pick and ends the villian dude. The only cliche not played was the final resurrection of the villain with the pick in his back to taunt the hero or family member one last time before we're all put out of our misery.

Man, this thing was bad. In the wise words of my oldest daughter that's two hours of my life that I'll never get back.

Brokeback Moment

I don't see many movies on the big screen but Brokeback Mountain dug it's claws into my sensibilities and won't let go. I don't pay much heed to professional movie critics as art is pure subjectivity and a critic is merely providing their opinion from their own context and prejudices and happen to get paid for it. My simple gage of a movie is how quickly the two hours passes, whether I merge with the characters, and to the degree that the movie haunts me afterwards. Well, score 10 on all 3 accounts. I didn't want it to end. I felt a deep connection with all three of the main characters and I can't stop thinking about it.

BTW. My sexual orientation runs as straight as a Kansas highway.

This is not a gay cowboy flick. Think Love Story between 2 people who happen to be Wyoming cowboys and not Boston preppies. Think Romeo and Juliet in a 1960's western setting riding horses, herding sheep and speaking in western drawl rather than Shakespearean English. This is a movie of human passion. It's a depiction of a raw deep connection between two humans in an environment of social and emotional conflicts and taboos. This movie hurts and fulfills on so many levels. One feels depressed at the ending but soon realizes that the characters experienced something to be cherished forever. I doubt many will ever be so fortunate to feel something as strong as this in their lives but I would argue that one hasn't truly lived unless they do.

To shun or be afraid of this story line is a lost opportunity of witnessing one of life's true passions play out in the cinematic art form.