Baseball bliss and The Last Kiss

Outside of hanging out with Amy and Joe on Friday night (which is always a good time) and attending the crappie fish fry at Gina's parents on Sunday, there were two noteworthy items for Gina and I this weekend.

Saturday, we went with the Messers to Baseball as America at the Minnesota Historical Society.  The exhibit was well worth the time.  A few other exhibits open on the third floor of the building were very interesting as well.  One of the best exhibits (Open House) follows the 118 year history of a local home on the east side of .  It talks about all of the former tenants and in each room of the house it shows what the place looked like during a specific decade of its existence.

The baseball exhibit was about what I had expected.  I would have preferred to have seen a couple of different items there but overall it didn’t disappoint.  There was even a 1980’s Strat-O-Matic box among the 500+ artifacts (which got a laugh out of Gina and Ann when the box said for ages 10-13).

My favorite item was an incasing of the uniform that Henry Aaron wore when he hit home run #715 in 1974.  Within the case, there were also two pieces of mail that Aaron had received about the event (one positive and one negative).  The negative letter really put in perspective what black ballplayers had to endure even after segregation had ended.

After leaving the exhibit, we made our way to Cosetta’s.  It was wonderful.

The other event of the weekend was watching The Last Kiss.  It was not the easiest movie to watch (in particular at this point in our lives) but was very intriguing.  While Zach Braff did not write or direct the movie, I was reminded a lot of Garden State even though the overall perspective (positive vs negative) of the movies are very different.  It was good but not in the same class as Garden State (which may be my favorite movie this decade).

The movie centers on reflection (specifically on relationships).  The characters are compelling enough that you begin to reflect on your own life even after the movie is over (Zach Braff, Rachel Bilson and Tom Wilkerson were fantastic).

I won’t know the full impact of The Last Kiss for weeks.  These kinds of movies take a while for me to digest.  But, I applaud it for the affect it’s had on me so far.  My guess is that I'll blog about it more specifically down the road. 

I would suggest that if you enjoy Zack Braff and are OK with a fairly pessimistic outlook on relationshps, viewing this movie is likely worth your time.