Thing 128: The 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival

So, here's the thing when you open yourself up to new cultural experiences and your only criteria is that it be free:  sometimes, those experiences suck.

It was truly with an open mind and fairly high hopes that Good Friend David and I headed to the Freer Gallery on Friday night to take in Banana Skin, the film that would kick off the 13th Annual Iranian Film Festival.  Despite a degree in Middle Eastern Studies, I admit to being fairly ignorant about Iranian culture though I've heard rumors that it's vibrant, critical and exciting.

Unfortunately, the movie was none of those things.  It was an unfunny comedy, poorly acted and lacking a plot that -- how do I put this delicately -- made any sense.  The rough story is much like It's A Wonderful Life, except the opposite.  A business man so focused on making money that he has no personal life to speak of gets hit by a car and falls into a coma (are we laughing yet?).  While 'dead,' he falls in love with a beautiful woman in the afterlife.  When he wakes from the coma, he decides that the only way he can be happy is to be reunited with his love.  Which means he has to die.  Except that suicide is a sin.  So he has to die 'accidentally.'  So he hires a hit man to murder him, but the hit man is a heroin addict who forgets to kill him.  

Never have I been so nostalgic for George Bailey's rosy-cheeked children and their glee at bell-ringing.

I'd love to expound about how the different viewpoints (better off dead v. better off alive) is a metaphor for the hopeless situation in Iran whereas the American dream allows for hope and optimism.  I am sure that that would be woefully misguided.  Sometimes a bad movie is just a bad movie, and I'd sure hate for all of American culture to be judged on Sweet Home Alabama.  

I should also mention that it was pretty obvious that the subtitling was terrible.  If I spoke Farsi, this may have been an adequate movie rather than a poor one, but I can't imagine it transcending higher than that.  I'm puzzled by its inclusion in a festival designed to highlight the films of Iran, which have to get better than this.

The festival continues through February with five other films, all of which are shown free of charge at the Freer.  While I can't in good conscience recommend Banana Skin, I do urge you to cast the dice and check out one of the remaining films.  If you do, please report back in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

Thing 127: Mr. Yogato

I can't find my camera's battery charger, so allow me to lead you through a guided visualization.

A small white paper cup holds a swirl of palest pink frozen yogurt, leading up to a small, perky peak.  Shining red cut strawberries and enormous dark red raspberries fill the white cup to the brim.  A small sprinkling of chocolate jimmies freckle the light pink, shining and dark reds.  The whole thing begs to be eaten, immediately.

That was my reward for filling my Mr. Yogato card -- the tenth is free!  And I have loved every bite of it.

In the tradition of pinkberry or tangysweet, Mr. Yogato serves less-sweet frozen yogurt, Greek-style, tangy frozen yogurt.  They always carry two flavors: orginal tangy and original soft, the soft being slightly sweeter.  Then they carry two flavors that rotate through -- they currently have blizcherry and duffacino.  And why not just cherry and coffee flavored you might ask?  Well, this hints at the unique Yogato world view.

Yogato's owner, Steve, who is always in the store either behind the register or studying for his doctorate in economics, has posted a list of rules that account in part for Yogato's appeal.  Among them -- if you get a Mr. Yogato stamp on your forehead, you get a discount.  If you elect to answer a trivia question at the register, you get a 10% discount if you get it right -- but an additional 10% tacked on if you get the answer wrong.  If you suggest a topping that is adopted, you get a 5% discount for life.  And if you come to Yogato every day for thirty days, you get to pick a flavor and name it after you -- hence Duffy's Duffacino and Liz's Blizcherry.

Adding to the fun and atmosphere of the experience is an old-school 8 bit Nintendo (yesterday we played Super Mario Brothers for about an hour), various board games including boggle and and memory, and customer participation such as the 100% discount for standing on the toes of one foot with your eyes closed for 15 seconds, and the Tim Tam Slam, which I still don't fully understand but encourage everyone to try nonetheless.

Yogato is about two blocks from my front door, which makes it a frequent dessert stop for me, but it's worth going out of the way to seek out, too.  The yogurt is delicious, the toppings are fresh and in some cases (basil leaves? balsamic vinegar?) bizarre, and the entire experience is always fun.  And for those of you with new year's resolutions to keep, Yogato is only 30 calories and ounce (150 calories for a small) with tons of fresh fruits and berries as toppings options.  Now that I've earned my free yogurt, I'll be back to start my new card.  Only ten to go before I get another free one.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy 2009! I don't know about you, but I woke up with a pretty great champagne hangover, chocolate on the light switch, and every surface of my house in need of a cleaning -- in other words, a pretty great ending to 2008.

Now is the time to face the new year with great hopes and resolutions. Here are a few of mine:

• I resolve to save more money. This coincides nicely with the credit crunch and the total collapse of our economy, but I also have some plans and some dreams I'd like to finance in the future, so I'll be tightening the ol' belt this year. What this means is that this blog will be shifting focus ever so slightly -- I'm still on a quest to do 365 things that make DC unique and wonderful, but there is going to be greater emphasis on things that are free or cheap. This means there will be fewer fancy meals to report, but more museums, festivals and taco trucks.
  
  
• I resolve to blog more. Yay! I know I was pretty quiet in the last half of 2008, but I'll be back to posting once or twice a week in 2009.
  
  
• I resolve to tweet. You can now follow me on Twitter by searching for DC365! I'll tweet upcoming plans and locations, and ask for suggestions and feedback.

May you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!