Irene's visit was a success. We did a lot of things I wouldn't normally do and it was kinda exhausting. We went to an artist open house, toured the National Cathedral, and I saw Eastern Market for the first time. Kate R has made fun of me for years for having lived in DC without seeing Eastern Market, but I gotta say, it's not very spectacular. It's just a large market of homemade whatnots. Maybe Kate sees a different side of it.

I ran into Lindsey at Safeway. She's moving out of DC in a couple weeks, headed for Indiana. Bummer. We never really hung out, but I'd run into her occasionally at Courthouse or around Adams Morgan and would always be happy to stop and chat with her. But everybody leaves DC eventually. From facebook I gather that Kate W is moving to New Orleans this summer for school. I wonder if it's possible to reach a point where you don't actually know anybody in a city.

(The rest of this entry is about St Elmo's Fire, you can skip it if you want.)

I watched St Elmo's Fire today. Mehrnaz is a big fan and once tried to get me to watch the movie, but I only caught a tiny bit of it with her and was never interested enough to go out and see the rest of it. I spotted it on the cable schedule and on a whim I recorded it on my dvr. Verdit: it is better than I thought.

I don't remember any of the characters' names, but I really enjoyed Emilio Estavez's character who finds a woman he likes and proceeds to stalk her with the single-minded fury of a middle schooler. He was a high point of the movie. Judd Nelson plays a hill worker who bullies his friends and cheats on his fiance. (I'm not sure I believe that a lingerie saleswoman would ever offer to model something for a customer, but I've never been lingerie shopping so I guess it's possible.) Rob Lowe was a very unconvincing sax player, but sorta convincing as a fratboy loser who hits on every woman he sees and is incapable of holding a job. That seems like how Rob Lowe would be if he wasn't an actor. Demi Moore sorta played the same character, but the female version, and with a little more subtlety. Their stories were not as interesting.

Andrew McCarthy plays an annoying passive listless writer who is so casual with the local prostitute that he lets her flirtatiously stick her fingers into his mouth. Gross! I guess nobody worried about anything in the 80s. That's another one of the movie's themes. Nobody worries about anything, be it jobs or relationships or their friends. A lot of the movie is pretty predictable because we've all seen how these things end. Various bad moves include: stalking a girl through the rain on your bicycle, being secretly in love with your best friend's girlfriend and then confessing it all the night they've broken up, cheating on your fiance until she accepts your proposal... it's a long list.

Anyway it was an interesting movie. Not my favorite, but better than the 47% rotten tomatoes has given it. And I enjoyed some of the shots of DC. The Tombs looks similar in some scenes, though it's totally different from the outside. And the Georgetown shots look pretty accurate. The only weird sets are the various apartments. Two of the characters live in some kind of expansive loft. Something you might find in NYC but not in DC. Though DC was definitely different in the 80s. So maybe if you went to a sketchy neighborhood you could get a gigantic loft back then.

Just reading a rotten tomatoes review. Apparently there's a Demi Moore sex scene that my cable tv version didn't have! Screwed by basic cable!

Sheldon: I've written a new and improved roommate agreement that benefits me greatly. I'd like you to sign it.