i have just one thing to say....

seriously, did you believe the title? c'mon here, it's me talking. let's start with the easy things to say:

so i have finally broken through the wall at work. my new paramedic (who i'll be picking up shifts with when i'm not on my normal schedule) took me out to the ol' Pink...a.k.a. what used to be the Pink Flamingo, and now is functionally nameless except for the wonderful moniker "the old Pink Flamingo."

this medic, who moonlights as a seasonal forest ranger in the 'Dacks and is the only person at work who doesn't think i'm crazy for riding around on my bike in this weather, figured immediately that the Pink was the place for me--it's sort of the last holdout, for people who dance, drink, mingle, or chill for no other reason than a sheer desire to enjoy themselves. it's tucked away nameless in Allentown, and anyone remotely resembling trendy would immediately generate laughs and be shooed out the door. o.k., the first word in the association game running through my head was "dive"...but i'm amending it ex post facto to "family dive", if "family" are the people who drink and laugh and cheer and are completely comfortable with each other's oddities. kind of the first bar i've ever seen with gay couples making out right next to straight ones, and nobody cares even to trumpet their own diversity because the entire place isn't about being impressive...it's about fun in the no-pretense zone. me and my new alpaca wool hat with the pigtailed earflaps fit in just fine.

the medic was right...it's my kind of place. which made me ever happier to turn around to the tap on my right shoulder into the grinning face of Greg Tedesco.

in any other bar, we would have made a scene, whooping and hollering and hugging and spinning around. in the Pink, it's like family Thanksgiving: same spirit, random people. a place of miracles. we hugged and laughed and looked at each other and hugged again. i guess a few Guinesses helped (did i mention they serve Guiness? how perfect can it be?) but it was pure, unadulterated heart-joy to see Greg almost three years after he left Houghton without contact information. we spent little time together there, but what we did is live together on opposite ends of 3rd Shen and always manage to brush our teeth at the same time most nights. sometimes we'd brush our teeth for an hour or two in that beautiful old 3rd Shen bathroom, Plato and Socrates in pajamas waving teethbrushes for effect. He had a voice and an experience that spoke of depth and exacting joy--the meticulous concern for the beautiful in life that marks the steps of a dancer and the pen of a poet. He had eyes that glowed and original, unborrowed dreams.

yeah. Greg Tedesco. in the only bar in Buffalo where three random people like us could all feel at home. i feel the movement of that unseen glorious mischief.

it only makes it better that it all followed a few good solid Guinesses and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. i could write on all night in praise--it's that good. in every way that the Lord of the Rings was something of a disappointment, a departure from the spirit of the original, Narnia the movie was spot on in the spirit of the greatest children's story ever. i really could go on for a long time, but it was beautiful, moving, joyous, British, innocent, childlike, and excellently done. and in sheer sheepish joy, i cannot get over the animals--i kept getting excited. people were teasing me, i got so pumped everytime i saw a new one. the unicorn, the satyrs, the leopards, the cheetahs, and i won't spoil the surprise on my favorites (the African animals!!!! oh the African animals!!!) and most glorious of all: the centaurs. i want to be a centaur now. wow.

and that's just the effects, the battle. the story itself is excellently well done. perhaps a little weak on really introducing and allowing you to love Aslan and understand his death--but that's for the better, i think, considering that Aslan as Christ-figure is only really understandable on screen to those who have read the books or who already have fallen in love with the Christ-story. the children are gorgeous--you want to adopt Lucy, and love her for her open-heartedness.

oh...and most important of all--they put in the mice! it's simply excellent. i'm going to go watch it again as soon as i can. i think it'll probably be better the second time around. that could be the Guiness talking, but i doubt it. by far, Narnia is an excellent, excellent movie for all who watch it. do yourself a favor--go sit in a movie theater and let your heart remember what it was like to be a child, to see the world with a child's eyes and imagination and spirit and now the thrill and fear and courage of a childlike soul.