I am alone. Totally alone. All I hear is the water cooler and the occasional muted yell of a child coming to me from three floors below and through two pairs of doors. The membership department is eerie, yet serene when there is no one else in it. I'm supposed to be working site sales, and indeed, I am, or was and will be again soon, but because today is so quiet in the museum, I decided to come upstairs and get a little work done to ease my burden tomorrow. There is a large stack of e-sales for me to process, so I'm getting some of the preliminary work done. Anyway, it's strangely peaceful.

Last night, Rick and I were supposed to go see Chicago at the Varsity, but we dawdled and ended up missing it by only a few places in line. It was sold out. We deliberated, but I did want to see a movie very much, and the idea of going home with a rented flick did not blow my skirt up. We found ourselves a Now Magazine and checked to see what else was playing in the area and, as it turned out, The Gangs of New York was playing at the nearby Cumberland 4. We shopped for some books at Chapters, and I ended up with a book on Maya 4 that will help me relearn what I've forgotten. It wasn't the book I wanted to buy, but it was an exercise in intelligent spending.

Now, onto the movie. Well. I knew it was going to be violent. I had no idea just how violent it was. It was brutal, and brutally honest. The images in the minds of people when they think of old New York usually stops around the turn of the century 20th Century as film became a new and powerful medium. This takes us further back to a rather disturbing time in New York's history. It was a good film, I think, and while I can't say that I enjoyed it, I did like it. It was pretty honest, though how true the specifics are, I don't know. Daniel Day Lewis, someone that seemed to have fallen off the map for a few years, gave a knockout performance as Bill the Butcher, and somewhat frighteningly, he reminded me of my father. The other surprise was Cameron Diaz, an actress not known for taking on challenging or interesting roles. My goodness, the girl can actually act. Of course, Leo DiCaprio was as he usually is, which is nothing particularly exciting, but steadfast and not actually bad. It was good. Gruesome, but good. I would recommend it, regardless of the violence, simply because of its honesty.