though wasn't really expecting too much when I put it on our NetFlix queue. I was just really taken with Mark Harmon as CJ's CIA agent in a couple of episodes of 'The West Wing' and wanted to see something else he'd been in. The fact that it also stars Matthew 'swoon' Goode was but a happy coincidence!
It's really very awful and Mandy Moore is INCREDIBLY annoying, but I listened to a bit of the commentary afterwards and it would seem that Matthew Goode's quite fun and Mandy Moore draws extensively on her own personality when portraying annoyingly lame people on film.
This afternoon, I made yet another picnic (yes, mostly consisting of nuggets) in our cute little picnic cooler, as this evening we went to watch an outdoor screening of the Robert Redford movie 'The Candidate' on the Mall.
We were invited by Max's colleague Zoe, who I'd met at our housewarming party and is really fun. We'd mentioned it when we went for drinks with Tennis Jean last week, so she came along too, as did Zoe's brother who's married to Sarah Smith - More4 newsreader and daughter of the late John Smith, head of the Labour party (she came to the movie, to
o). Max's Guardian friend Oliver turned up as well, so I was scoffing nuggets surrounded by the cream of DC's expat media crop!
It was kind of weird though, because Sarah and Simon have not been married very long and they were all over each other, doing really tonguey kissing, which I only found strange because I'm used to Sarah being all earnest and professional fronting More4 News.
It turns out that Jean is really fun! We had a really nice time chatting and eating, having met a few hours before the movie began (good thing we got there early too, as there were loads of people there already, creating a sea of rugs).
When the film finally began, at sundown, we found our view precariously contingent on the minute movements of a man with a massive afro, a bit like in a cartoon of someone who's really unlucky in the cinema. However, we gave in in the end and just enjoyed sitting out on a beautiful warm night, watching a film with the Capitol in the background and fireflies darting about in front of us. I ended up lying on Max for most of it (well I could kind of see...), just marvelling at how lucky we are.
I found the film a little slow and not much happens. But it was eery to spot the similarities with the Obama campaign - relatively inexperienced idealist runs for Senate against an established Republican - and it felt like a two hour episode of the West Wing! (but with people talking much more slowly.)
Today was not so different from yesterday, in that I watched a film this morning - 'Grey Gardens', the extraordinary Maysles brothers' documentary about Edie Beale and her daughter Edie (aunt and cousin respectively of Jackie O) and the eccentric life they lead in their house in the Hamptons.
It really is extraordinary and I only wish I hadn't been distracted by a phone call and dropped off for a mini-nap in the middle, as it was really well-made and I was dying to work out whether the filmmakers were poking fun at the two strange characters, or whether it was a sympathetic account.
I had lunch with Max in an extremely hot Dupont Circle and then tonight, we went for more balmy evening outdoor fun, this time at Wolf Trap, in Virginia. It's a DC summertime institution and we were invited by Michael and Marie to see Mark Knopfler in concert there.
We're not massive fans of aging members of Dire Straits (in fact Max issued a 'no photos' 
edict, for fear of evidence of us at a Mark Knopfler concert getting out. Sorrryyy, Max!), but we liked the idea of spending a warm summer's evening listening to music outside with Michael and Marie, whose company we enjoy. So we drove out there with them and once again found a sea of blankets. There was hardly any room for us to squeeze in, but we managed it (much to the chagrin of the party next to us) and had a nice picnic (no nuggets this time - just fancy grownup food, like barbecued prawns, from Michael and Marie) as the sun went down.
The Wolf Trap building is an extraordinary structure and reminded me of an ark (because I've seen a lot of those...). It's all wooden and angular, with spindly wooden walkways leading off from it, set against a backdrop of a forest, as if it's emerged from the natural world. There are fancy expensive seats under cover near the stage, then a big slope looking down, where the less fancy people (or people less interested in the music and more interested in the whole Wolf Trap experience) sit on rugs and risk getting rained on.
It was a gorgeous evening and we spent most of the concert lying down, looking at the sky and listening to Mark Knopfler and his band wig out in a very controlled way for 10 mins at the end of every song. It was actually a pretty fun gig and the band were really tight. It rained a little bit towards the end of the mammoth 90min set, but the big sploshy drops were actually quite welcome after such a hot day and we just let them plop on our heads.
I feel sure that there were some disappointed connoisseurs of the more obscure bits of the Knopfler oeuvre, but we were relieved that he stuck to the hits and recognised 'Romeo & Juliet', 'So Far Away From Me' and 'Brothers In Arms'. The best bit was that everyone was expecting him to encore with 'Money For Nothing' (my least favourite song in all the world), but he went for the theme tune from 'Local Hero'! It was great!
The crowd was very conservative and middle class, so listened in polite silence. Which caused the banshee behind us to stick out like a sore thumb! She was this really fun lady who was very friendly to us when we were having our picnic and who was obviously just the most enormous fan of Mark Knopfler, so kept whooping and cheering and jigging about. People around us were fuuuurious and kept shouting at her to be quiet, but she carried on regardless, which I think is quite right - it's a concert, after all. Loosen up, daddio!
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