she's so refined...

it's fun to go on a fun date.
an evening with buster keaton helps.

i must say, part of me was sad when neither jack nor aaron nor mark could come along with us, but if things go well, it can be fun to be just the two of you.
byu was doing a 'silent film night', something i had never heard of before but which seemed to be regular occurance; i suppose it's possible that things have changed since i was at school two years ago, but not likely. i bought two tickets to the gala--buster keaton's 'college' in the dejong concert hall, with live accompaniment--and regretted not getting a byu friend to buy them for me at the student price. meh.

wanting to have fun, i called kristin and suggested we dress up for the outing; i wore one of my shiny silver shirts and a black hat. i really do wish men wore hats again. her mom opened the door and invited me in. i seem to end up talking girls' moms a lot more than dads, for various reasons. while i've been in the dating scene for a while and really don't get nervous, i can't help but wondering about those few moments while the girl is getting ready. is her mom looking at me, wondering 'so this is the guy taking out my daughter?' is it some secret interview, asking subtle questions to judge my character in five minutes? in reality, i think she's being friendly and hospitable. but that doesn't make for good blog-pondering.

i'd never really talked with kristin outside of f.h.e. and church, but anyone who can go through my ipod and sing along with the songs wins with me. i'm really not sure why, if you can sing along, you've got my first vote.

the event itself was great. while i believe all movies should be seen in a crowded theater, comedies are especially enhanced by the populated environment. the organist was a different guy that i'd seen at previous silent movie events, but still did a very good job. we were encouraged to clap, cheer, boo, hiss, and have a gay old time, and we did. before the movie was a sing-a-long to old timey tunes like 'my bonnie lies over the ocean'. it was also the first time i'd heard humans sing 'daisy'.

'the general' may always be the great buster keaton movie, although 'sherlock jr.' gives it a run for the money, yet 'college' lived up to everything i had promised. the plot is tried and true, the nice but downtrodden hero is ignored by the girl for the jerk she hangs around only because she can't see anyone else, yet with determination he wins her in the end. all good and well, what makes a keaton movie is the physical stunts, leaving you not only asking 'how did he do that?' but also 'how did he survive that?' that these were made 80 years ago, obviously long before any sort of cg effects, and also before modern safety and padding had been devised [the high jumpers in the movie's track team landed on a pile hay]. along with the rest of theater, we booed, cheered, stood up and applauded, and laughed until it hurt.

with the evening still relatively young afterward, we went off to what has become one of my favorite places in town, 'the happy sumo'. yes, their standard plates of sushi are four times what you can pay for in downtown tokyo, but that's not why one frequents this trendy restaurant. far and away, the tastiest [and most economical] items are the rolls--a full page of different styles, augmented with everything from crab to avacado to spicy sauce to those nasty fish eggs are available. we opted to sit at the bar, because there was less of a wait, plus we got to hang out with the sushi chefs [and i found that having a pretty girl as you date helps with the service].
stories, jokes, and a couple plates of good sushi, coupled with a great cultured movie and a fun girl makes for a great date.