MANUFACTURER: SCHMIDT
PIECES: 1000
MOVIES: A KILLER IN THE FAMILY, SMOOTH TALK
TV: TALES FROM THE CRYPT
April 17, 2018
Hold on a second, my last puzzle was from November 2016, and now this one is April of 2018, did I give up on puzzles for a year and a half? No, absolutely not. I've just decided to switch up the format up a bit and do away with the chronological progression and now I will skip around at my whim. Why? Because it's new, that's why, and everything I will do now is new (well, new to me). I just moved into a new apartment, doing puzzles on a new coffee table under new lights, new housemate, taking a new way to work, writing this at a new coffee shop. Everything new!
Ok, obviously not everything is new, but it has been a big change. Precipitating this big change was a lovely 40% rent increase at the apartment I lived at for 8 years by the new owners (gotta love living in Seattle). It's never ideal having to move when you are not prepared for it, and the first few weeks of searching for a new place quickly dashed my hopes of ever finding anything that was even close to being comparable to my place in either price or square footage. But being a Bergman, it often feels like we just have a knack at turning lemons into lemonade, and it just so happened that my sister Jolie was juggling a handful of lemons herself and we came up with the idea of getting a two bedroom apartment to share.
So far, it's been an absolutely great decision. The apartment is amazing, the view is amazing, the elevator is amazing, the actually having a fan over the stove is amazing. For the first time in my adult life, I'm actually living in a place that I truly love. It's a place that I feel like I can call my castle.
Oh wow, what an unexpected and totally unintentional segue into talking about the puzzle. This here is Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. A very popular castle, not only for tourists, but also apparently puzzle makers too because this is 1 of 5 (yes 5!) puzzles I've done of this place. Each one is surprisingly different though, so the deja vu feelings are not triggered too much while working on them. I like this one a lot because its taking at an odd high angle so that there is no sky in the puzzle. This messes up my usual method of starting from the sky, but everything is new!, so thats ok. There's also a lot of green, which I've already explained is problematic. Overall, a pretty challenging puzzle but I remember it fondly.
Something that's not new? Robert Mitchum in A Killer in the Family. It fact, he was pretty old (ok, not that old, but actors from the 40s and 50s always seem really old when I see them in movies in the 80's but when I think about it they were not much older than someone like George Clooney or Tom Cruise is now). Mitchum plays the violent inmate who convinces his kids (including some actual new fresh faces in James Spader and Eric Stoltz), to break him out of jail and go on the lamb together. It was a TV movie from 1983 (gotta love those scenes that end in an obvious commercial break), and I found the movie to be quite enjoyable. Robert Mitchum is...Robert Mitchum, which I do like, but it's still just the same old laconic Robert Mitchum. Also of note, much like Neuschwanstein Castle, this will not the last you see of James Spader. Fun movie, if you can find it. B
Super Old
Next movie is Smooth Talk, a movie that was new to me when I picked up the box and looked at it and decided to rent it. This was a really interesting find. Part coming of age drama, part suspense film staring a young Laura Dern as a rebellious teenager, and Treat Williams as an older guy who likes hanging around the younger people a little too much. Laura Dern does a great job of playing a realistic teenager, where you are caught in between living the nurtured life at home but also feeling the urge to break out into the free world outside. The movie is a real treat (umm...) and highly recommended. A-
Speaking of being a teenager, a blast from my teenage past: Tales from the Crypt. Here's a show that both me and my sister remember fondly from our teenage years. I own most of the seasons on DVD so they are something I pop in from time to time to enjoy. I don't remember exactly what episode I watched here, so I'll leave it without a grade, but if I recall it I'll come back and edit this part.
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