Prada

Dave and I had a little urban adventure yesterday afternoon. It was a bank holiday, so he had the day off, and we decided to get out of the house and go into town. We went to lunch at Pierre Victoire, a French restaurant in Soho that we both like, and then to see "The Devil Wears Prada 2."

The meal was very good, though I ate more than I would customarily eat in the middle of the day. I had French onion soup and a sage-stuffed pork roll, and Dave had duck confit. We then made our way toward the theater, stopping for coffee and some people-watching on Old Compton Street, aka "the gayborhood," which always offers a parade of interesting characters.

I found the drawing above on the sidewalk. It was very faint but I manipulated the photo to darken it and make it stand out more. I believe it says, "I had 2 lose you 2 eventually find someone worth living 4." Kind of an interesting message to pair with a drawing of two guys who look like Robert Stack playing Elliot Ness.

We saw the movie at the Curzon on Shaftesbury Avenue, and I'm happy to say we really liked it. Dave called it "a love letter to itself," which is true -- it followed the formula of the first movie, and of course most if not all of the major actors and characters came back. I think it gives moviegoers something that we all need right now -- a comforting immersion in fond memories as well as a world of glamor and beauty and luxury, and only hinted-at hardship that is never very clearly shown. Meryl Streep's character could easily have become a pastiche of her famous quips but she gave it depth -- not surprising -- and Hathaway and Tucci and Blunt were all excellent too. It was fun to pick out the cameos by people like Heidi Klum and Donatella Versace, and the scene where Miranda Priestly and Lady Gaga exchange venomous words was a lot of fun. We both agreed we'd see it again, given the opportunity.

This is our azalea bush, looking good at pretty much its peak. I found it last week with wilted blooms and realized the poor thing desperately needed water, and thank goodness the flowers bounced right back. The "Pink Spider" portion of the plant, at upper left with the pink flowers, is so different from the majority of the bush, even though the whole thing was sold as a "Pink Spider" azalea. I am still mystified about whether there are two different plants potted together or one plant with some weird genetic quirk.