at the end of the day i went down to park street to catch a screening of v for vendetta courtesy of joel and sara at the boston common theatre. to be honest, this movie wasn't even on my radar, but i knew there was a lot of buzz about, because it's based on a famous graphic novel and because it's the wachowski brothers latest movie after the matrix debacle. surprisingly the film is short on special effects (other than a few spectacular explosions) but big on story. it's also a very topical movie, tackling subjects such as concentration camps, secret prisons, pedophile priests, train bombing, homophobia, bird flu, unsanctioned wiretaps, government corruption, torture, military-industrial complex, and conservative media acting as the mouthpiece of the fascist government (name one other movie that has as talking points as v for vendetta!). it reminded me a lot of battlestar galactica in its choice of very heavy and politically-charged subject matters. did i like the movie? the answer is yes but it's hard for me to articulate the reasons. it's dazzling, the story is absorbing, and the finale was very moving. it's good enough to see a second time, a single view somehow doesn't seem enough.

after the movie, while joel and sara left with her brother and his friends, i waited for julie to show up at the theatre so we could grab some dinner in chinatown. i've been dreaming about pho hoa for weeks now, been salivating over the hue noodles i had the last time. i got the same thing, although maybe i hype it up too much in my mind because it didn't taste as good the second time around. we thought the place closes at 11pm but apparently monday is the exception, closing at 10pm instead. the wait staff was patient with us though, and we only realized they were closing when we noticed there wasn't anybody else in the restaurant and some of the workers were putting on their jackets to go home.

julie drove into the city but parked by government center. we walked to her car and i got a ride back to cambridge. soon afterwards there was a strong thunderstorm outside. it was violent enough that i thought about maybe unplugging some electronic devices. i watched tonight's episode of 24 that i taped earlier: rudy bites the dust! all hobbits are essentially good. jack, when asked if he was okay after his daughter basically told him she never wanted to see him again, answers with a classic, "no." and chloe, as much as you just want to hate her, says the funniest things - that girl tells it like it is! by episode's end, jack is crying over tony and robocop escapes.

earlier in the day i was trying to book some appointments to go salamander hunting. the one at drumlin farm scheduled for tomorrow night ended up being cancelled because not enough people were signed up (conditions would've been perfect for salamander spawning, rainy and warmish). the new date was friday the 24th, and originally that was booked but i told the woman i was coming solo (it's actually a family event) so she made room for me on their roster. there's no guarantee we'll see anything though (and by anything i mean salamanders, i could care less about frogs and toads). i also tried to get my name on the hotline list for the blue hills salamander migration event, but nobody was in the office this past weekend and they're closed on mondays as well. seeing a spotted salamander this spring would be the holy grail of my naturing for the rest of the year!

before i left the house, my father came over with suhan and his friend, coming over to borrow my monocular. suhan wanted to use them for the basketball game he wanted to go to tonight. before they arrived, my mother had called me, said my great uncle (who's an avid basketball fan) told her there wasn't any game tonight; sure enough, when i checked the online schedule, the celtics are actually on the road all this week. when they arrived, i told them the bad news.