Sideways

A wonderful new film about two guys traveling up to the Santa Barbara wine country, the last week before one of them is getting married, to wine taste, play golf, and more. In the flavor of such understated brilliance - touching, funny, self-deprecating - found in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count on Me, and American Splendor (the last also starring Mr. Giamatti). What hits the spot is the great story. And characters.

After Roger gave a kick-ass presentation today, and after I missed my shuttle bus to pick up my car (because I was mad-Homesiting the CDS web pages, trying to clean up every graphic and table construction, making them look more consistent), we decided to stay in Hanover for the evening, pick up dinner at The Wrap and catch a movie at The Nugget.

The movie, which follows its characters from San Diego to Solvang (ah, Grace, do you remember your trip to Solvang?), was just the exhale-and-laugh that we needed to cap three weeks of frenzy - six hour flights, family gatherings, thrown back into the spotlight at work. I'm sure the 24+ hours we spent in a car driving up and down California made us sympathetic to the characters' meanderings, and not a little nostalgic for the coast we just left behind.

Check out the SIDEWAYS website for great clips, and great drawings by Slate.com illustrator Robert Neubecker. His drawings kind of remind me of a scruffier Peter Sis. He has a new children's book out called Wow City.