Watching "Transformers" with the only other female fan I know of

It's been real nice seeing more of VanTan lately. We had dinner with D one evening last month; Van came over to have pizza another night, after which we had a three-way phone conversation with DSD calling from London; that same week, I went over to her place for Indonesian food and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" on her Mac. Two weekends ago, I got to see her perform at her school concert, where I was treated to a jivin' jazz piece composed by the talented lass herself - "Riding'". It's been long years since I first knew Van to be a whiz at music (among other things), and I remember well the song she wrote for well, me. Or perhaps not the music itself (it's a little fuzzy in my memory; Van, where's my long promised recording of it?), but that she wrote one at all for her namesake.

Last night, we felt like kids again (or I did, anyway) as we watched the Transformers movie. My memories of Transformers are linked invariably to my brother who started his fanboy days with the series when we were small. He has always been more into it than I am, and so is Van (who has named some of her koi after Autobots), but I distinctly recall being impressed by Optimus Prime's noble leadership and heroic qualities, Bumblebee's courage and zest, and the awesomeness of the Dinobots. I never had any Transformer toys of my own, but recently, I bought myself a Convoy (what Prime's known as in Japan) Revoltech figure, and have on temporary loan my brother's extra WST (World's Smallest Transformers) version of Grimlock, complete with movable jaw and little swingy arms (I like Grimlock in his dino mode).

The toys helped fan anticipation for the movie, and soon after Van said she'd save Wednesday for it, I booked us tickets to the digital 4k version of the film. She's written a review, which you can refer to if you don't mind spoilers. It wasn't a superb movie, but it wasn't all bad either. Watching Prime transform for the first time was amazing, and I can't say I didn't laugh out loud when the Autobots attempted to conceal themselves about the Witwicky residence. Prime, of course, chided them for the lousy job, though he wasn't too great at it himself. I wished for more fighting between the Transformers that wasn't visually and aurally interrupted with explosions and ensuing smoke. The only "clean" fight was between Prime and Bonecrusher along a highway. More of that (Prime kicking ass) in the sequel, please, and some Dinobot action too.