Talking to an L.A. friend today who owns a theatre in a mall in Riverside. His theatre is bedevilled by gangs, who scratch their gang names in the bathroom mirrors and shove seats loose from the concrete floor.
He said he thinks commercial real estate could be the next financial bomb in the country, said that if a mall is only 15 % vacant it's doing really well, said boutiques, karate parlors and restaurants are going belly up in a hurry.
Have YOU been to a local mall lately? Is your mall looking a little lonesome?
I was puzzling over what would become of empty malls. And all those gang members. Then it came to me, of course. The new prisons! Just what Arnold's been asking for. It's already hard to get into underground parking lots- just fence them off. (Reminder to self: contact Lou Dobbs in morning.) jk
We saw "Julie and Julia" tonight. I was squirming. I am such an intolerant contemporary film viewer. The cuteness was gagging me. Besides, I have tried to cook from that cookbook and it is not easy and sometimes impossible, with ingredients like goose fat and procedures sure to make you ill. Amy whatever is not someone I enjoy listening to, the blogging delights made me mighty uncomfortable, and though Meryl Streep seemed great and reminded me of old relatives, she was also starting to remind me of Bozo the Clown.
7 comments:
Ive long since abandoned shopping Malls, but I imagine they probably ARE hurting. I buy most stuff online.
Amy Adams, in J&J, made my teeth hurt. But I admit that after I saw the movie, I bought Child's classic cookbook. Then attempted to make a fruit tart from it. It failed miserably. And I consider myself a better than average baker.
Harumpf!
Amy Adams & (her boyfriend) were hard to take. I wasn't crazy about the music, and there were some things that bothered me like ... you know when they sent her the copy of her book at the end? Did they have bubble envelopes then? They wouldn't have sent the book that way anyway. (And the house they moved into at the end in MA--would it have had aluminum screens? / Tom)
I loved Jane Lynch, the woman who played Julia's sister. And of course Meryl--Julia Child probably does have a little Bozo in her. All in all, I enjoyed it; knew it would be Hollywood; ate lots of popcorn; forgot about it pretty fast.
Empty malls=the new prisons=stroke of genius
Just saw The Soloist on the plane and it has stuck in my mind much longer than J&J.
Might this be the Tyler Mall (a.k.a. Galleria at Tyler?)
I shopped there in my college days (when I lived in Riverside). Back then (1980s), when you wanted something- clothes, a small appliance, a frying pan etc... you went to the mall. Now there's Target and Wallmart and specialty shops and the internet....
I don't know if that's Tyler Mall, Namowal. Mars, glad I'm not the only one who failed on the cookbook. I think it was written for a very different time, for women in Scarsdale who may have had servants but not cooks.
Linda, I hear you about the time prop errors.
You know what drives me nuts in movies? When perky ladies are eating and chewing and talking while waving their forks up and down. It's the fork waving part I hate. Amy Adams did that a lot.
No more Amy Adams movies for you, Sally. I did enjoy bits of Enchanted when the rats and roaches came at her call to help clean the apt.
Malls are prisonlike. Haven't seen the movie yet but dislike going to theaters because I'm usually disappointed in the movie after having spent that much time driving and money for the ticket, so usually just watch DVDs at home where it's easier just to stop watching. We saw the Soloist: Robert Downey Jr. is one of our favorites.
Our mall is always lonesome except at Christmas time.
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