Tartan Day & 2 Woody Allen Movies

Tartan Day, the little known Scottish cousin of St. Patrick's Day, is today. It seems like St. Andrew's Day would be more apropos for this type of holiday than today, but April 6th is the anniversary of The Declaration of Arbroath, the date of Scottish Independence in 1320. A strange date to celebrate considering Scottish independence came & went more times than I could ever count since then, but it's the day none-the-less. To celebrate, I wore my McPherson tie to class this morning... & you should do that too. And then maybe eat some Haggis or have a wee nip of the single malt. In other celebratory news, Braveheart was on last night so we watched a few battles w/ Aiden before he went to bed. He claimed he was going to be bored to death, but as soon as limbs went a'flyin' he perked up & realized it might be a sweet movie. After they went to bed, we watched Vicky Christina Barcelona, the newest of the Woody Allen films. I don't think it was quite as good as his previous film, Cassandra's Dream, but it was good none-the-less, & neither the presence of Scarlet Johansson nor the presence of Penelope Cruz ruined it the way I feared. I don't know if Cruz deserved the Oscar, but it's definitely the best film I've ever seen her in. The other thing about the film is that it returns to a traditional Woody Allen feel that Cassandra's Dream lacks, namely the basic Woody Allen dialogue. Cassandra's Dream focuses instead on a darker weirdness that he uses less frequently (but is seen in Match Point, Interiors & September). And Woody Allen... WTF??? The dude has written & directed a film a year for going on 40 years. He's a prolific mother fucker.