Cassandra's Dream is the totally unbelievable story of the trouble two brothers living in London find themselves in (although neither actor playing a brother is actually English). Ewan McGregor plays Ian; Colin Farrell plays Terry. Farrell's Terry is the more interesting and complicated of the two, although they both do a good job with a script that seems too wacky to be true. (But what else should we expect from writer/director Woody Allen?) The actors also do a good job together. Even though they don't look or sound like brothers, they know each other so well that you can believe that they are, and you can start to see how, over the course of their lives, their relationship ended up shaped the way it is.
This song came off U2's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. That album is, I daresay, almost - but not quite - as good as Joshua Tree (1987); I'm preempting T by thanking Daniel Lanois for that. Anyway, it's one of those albums I listen to all the way through, with no need to skip songs or look for particular ones, because they're all good. I don't even know what they're all titled, because I just listen straight through with no interruption.
Much like Bruce Springsteen, I could list a million (okay, not a million, but dozens of) U2 songs that are all equally as wonderful as "Stuck In A Moment." I picked this one because, well, because it's my blog, and I get to pick the one I'm loving today. If this whets your appetite for some more U2 videos, you can use this website, or go for the YouTube classic.
The song title links to a studio recording of the song, which includes lyrics; that's the melody that I know and love, but just a series of still shots that someone put together to go along with the song. The video below is from a concert they did in Boston. It's not quite the rhythm I'm used to, but it does have that...you know, that thing that live music has, that draws you in.
I used to listen to this song in college, on my - wait for it - Discman (!), whenever I was having a bad day. Especially at the gym, I would put it on repeat and listen to it over and over. It's awesome for bad days. (As is the Daniel Powter song "Bad Day," which I was talking to J about the other day.) I'd like to give a special shout-out to E here, who likes to remind me that "this too shall pass."
I am not afraid of anything in this world, There's nothing you can throw at me That I haven't already heard. I'm just tryin' to find a decent melody, A song that I can sing In my own company.
I never thought you were a fool, But darlin' look at you, oh. You gotta stand up straight, Carry your own weight, These tears are going nowhere, baby.
You've got to get yourself together, You've got stuck in a moment And now you can't get out of it. Don't say that later will be better, Now you're stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it.
I will not forsake the colors that you bring, The nights you filled with fireworks, they They left you with nothing. I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me, I listen through your ears, Through your eyes I can see.
You are such a fool To worry like you do, oh. I know it's tough, And you can never get enough Of what you don't really need now, my oh my.
You've got to get yourself together, You've got stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it. Oh love, look at you know, You've got yourself stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it.
I was unconscious, half asleep, The water is warm 'til you discover how deep. I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall, It's a long way down to nothing at all, oh.
You've got to get yourself together, You've got stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it. Don't say that later will be better, Now you're stuck in a moment And you can't get out of it.
And if the night runs over, And if the day won't last, And if your way should falter Along the stony pass; And if the night runs over, And if the day won't last, And if your way should falter Along this stony pass, It's just a moment, this time will pass.
Apparently I am a masochist. What better to do when Valentine's Day is creeping up than watch a movie about it to make myself especially miserable? Hm. Can't think of anything better. Except maybe cutting off my own arm, 127 Hours-style. In any case...
Second is Rumi. That's right, Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet. A deejay in the movie, which takes place entirely on that one inauspicious titular day, quotes one of his poems on the air: "all you really want is love's confusing joy." Ouch.
Third is Bradley Cooper, which I realize is kind of a cop-out, because he should be included in #1. But he gets his own special category because he's (a) devilishly good looking, and (b) the quintessential good guy in this movie. I could tell you the rest, but that might spoil it.
And fourth are the outtakes. I love movies with outtakes at the end. Who doesn't need a good laugh?
Bottom line: the only people who should watch this movie are the same people who would have liked The Time Traveler's Wife. And the people who like the randomly inserted Bollywood dance scene. To the other 99% of the population: find something else to waste your time on.
I'm going to say basically the same thing I did for the first movie in this trilogy: the book is better. The movie is still entertaining, but leaves out lots of detail and misses much of the suspense of the prose version of the story.
Noomi Rapace is back as the mysterious Lisbeth Salander, and it's a role that works for her. Her undefined relationship with Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) continues through this film, and it's delightfully satisfying, and at the same time unsatisfying, about that. But, like I said, the movie's telling of the story leaves something to be desired.
Bottom line: if you have the time, read the book instead.
Anyone who has ever had or loved a dog, and has been convinced that sometimes their dog understands them, needs to read this book.
It is the very sweet story of a dog named Enzo and his owner Denny. Enzo follows Denny through the many unfortunate trials he is faced with, and we are lucky enough to have Enzo share his wisdom with us. I know I included many quotes in my first post on this book. I tried to limit myself while I finished up, and just have a couple to share:
Page 148-149: "That year we had a cold spell in each winter month, and when the first warm day of spring finally arrived in April, the trees and flowers and grasses burst to life with such intensity that the television news had to proclaim an allergy emergency....So while the rest of the world was focused on the inconvenience of hay fever, the people in my world had other things to do: Eve continued with the inexorable process of dying, Zoe spent too much time with her grandparents, and Denny and I worked at slowing the beating of our hearts so we wouldn't feel so much pain."
Page 198: "Did he despair? Did he silently berate himself for allowing himself to be in that situation? Or did he finally realize what it is like to be me, to be a dog? Did he understand, as those interminable minutes ticked by, that being alone is not the same as being lonely? That being alone is a neutral state; it is like a blind fish at the bottom of the ocean: without eyes, and therefore without judgment. Is it possible? That which is around me does not affect my mood; my mood affects that which is around me. Is it true? Could Denny have possibly appreciated the subjective nature of loneliness, which is something that exists only in the mind, not in the world, and, like a virus, is unable to survive without a willing host?"
Page 282: "I didn't understand it at all. She had attacked him....Why we were speaking with her rather than roasting her on a spit was unfathomable to me....[He said,] 'just because the light is green doesn't mean you shouldn't look both ways before stepping into the street.' Annika screwed up her face in puzzlement and looked to her friend. 'A metaphor,' her friend said. Ha! A metaphor, she said! Fantastic! This one knows how to decode the English language. We will save her for roasting tomorrow!"
Really, the wonder of this story is that, through the patient and observant eyes of a dog, we learn how he sees and understands and appreciates his master. And before you know it, you want to be the master that every dog wishes he had.
Listen to the final segment of the ProcrastiNation episode of To The Best of Our Knowledge and decide for yourself.
As a procrastinator, I'm leaning towards psychic bind. [My second order desire to want to want to do something doesn't match up with my lack of a first order desire to actually want to do that thing. Confused? It's definitely an exercise in philosophical discussion.]
While I was in Boston, J and I watched Thank You For Smoking, mostly because he was astounded I had never seen it.
There's lots of social commentary I could make about this movie, but frankly, I'm not in the mood. All I'll say is that it's interesting that I watched this the same week as the cover story on The Economist is "America's Blame Game." I haven't read the whole issue yet, so I'll reserve comment about the columns therein, but it seems like a perfect ancillary subject to go along with this movie, wherein Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) just changes the game by blaming someone or something else all the time. There are, in fact, a couple of great scenes, especially the one where he's with his son, that he actually deconstructs the nature of his smooth-talking tactics, and it's fascinating. Best part of the movie. Except maybe where he outs the journalist (played by Katie Holmes) who outed him.
Bottom line: All that and more. But, on a totally non-social level, it's funny stuff. Deadpan, witty, amusing.
This is the disgustingly sticky sweet love story of Henry and Clare, and it's made interesting only by the fact that you get the slight enjoyment of trying to figure out what the heck is going on with the time travel. (Unless you've already read the book, in which case, even that fun is gone.)
Okay, I take it back. The movie is kind of interesting, and it's not badly done. I'm just in the 180-degree wrong place in my life to watch a movie like this and enjoy it.
But even having said all that, I can't not comment on how hilariously funny and all-around great Ron Livingston is in his bit part as Gomez, friend of Henry and Clare.
Bottom line: judge this one for yourself. I'm useless.
Remember how I said I was reading this? Well, I never started it. Instead I was inundated with magazines, so I needed to catch up on those. Our mail lady is a little bit unreliable, and it's unfortunate. I subscribe to a few magazines, and sometimes I won't get them for a couple weeks, and then I'll get two or three weeks' worth at once. That happened last week, so I needed to catch up on those before starting a new book.
By the time I finished all the magazines, The Art of Racing in the Rain had come in at the library. I've been wanting to read it for some time, and it just got lost in the pile. Finally, I'm getting to it, and it's great.
The story is told from the point of view of a dog named Enzo, and Enzo is awesome. As evidence, witness some of his awesome dog observances:
Page 17-20: "Monkeys have thumbs. Practically the dumbest species on the planet, next tot he duck-billed platypus, who make their dens underwater even though they breathe the air. The platypus is horribly stupid, but is only slightly dumber than a monkey. Yet monkeys have thumbs. Those monkey-thumbs were meant for dogs. Give my my thumbs, you fucking monkeys! (I love the Al Pacino remake of Scarface, very much, though it doesn't compare to the Godfather movies, which are excellent.) . . . I'll give you my theory: Man's closest relative is not the chimpanzee, as the TV people believe, but is, in fact, the dog. Witness my logic: . . . Case-in-Point #2: The Werewolf. The full moon rises. The fog clings to the lowest branches of the spruce trees. The man steps out of the darkest corner of the forest and finds himself transformed into...A monkey? I think not."
Page 24: "I admire the female sex. The life makers. It must be amazing to have a body that can carry an entire creature inside. (I mean, other than a tapeworm, which I've had. That doesn't count as another life, really. That's a parasite that should never have been there in the first place.)"
Page 34: "'I didn't know you were a television dog,' he said. 'I can leave it on for you during the day, if you want.' I want! I want! 'But you have to limit yourself,' he said. 'I don't want to catch you watching TV all day long. I'm counting on you to be responsible.' I am responsible!
Page 43: "But my thoughts turned to what he had just taught me. Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves."
Page 61: "I laid my head on his leg and looked up at him. 'Sometimes I think you actually understand me,' he said. 'It's like there's a person inside there. Like you know everything.' I do, I said to myself. I do."
Page 62: "The intense and arbitrary nature of Eve's affliction was far beyond Denny's grasp. The wailings, the dramatic screaming fits, the falling on the floor in fits of anguish. These are things that only dogs and women understand because we tap into the pain directly, we connect to the pain directly from its source, and so it is at once brilliant and brutal and clear, like white-hot metal spraying out of a fire hose, we can appreciate the aesthetic while taking the worst of it straight in the face."
Page 63-64: "It's frustrating for me to be unable to speak. To feel that I have so much to say, so many ways I can help, but I'm locked in a soundproof box, a game show isolation booth from which I can see out and I can hear what's going on, but they never let me out. It might drive a person mad. It certainly has driven many a dog mad. . . . Myself, I have found ways around the madness. I work at my human gait, for instance. I practice chewing my food slowly like people do. I study the television for clues on behavior and to learn how to react in certain situations. In my next life, when I am born again as a person, I will practically be an adult the moment I am plucked from the womb, with all the preparation I have done."
Page 78: "I couldn't read their body language because I couldn't see them, but there are some things a dog can sense. Tension. Fear. Anxiety. These states of being are the result of a chemical release inside the human body. They are totally physiological, in other words. Involuntary. People like to think they have evolved beyond instinct, but in fact, they still have fight-or-flight responses to stimuli. And when their bodies respond, I can smell the chemical release from their pituitary glands. For instance, adrenaline has a very specific odor, which is not so much smelled but tasted. I know a person can't understand that concept, but that's the best way to describe it: the taste of an alkaline on the back of my tongue. From my position on the kitchen floor, I could taste Eve's adrenaline. Clearly, she had steeled herself for Denny's racing absences; she was not prepared for his impromptu practices in Sonoma, and she was angry and afraid."
I guess maybe the old adage proves true: everything I need to know, I learned from my dog. But I think I've given you enough of the book to read (practically a whole chapter!).
M and I went to see The King's Speech when she was in town last week, and it was great. It was witty, touching, and educational too!
Early in the movie, we get a recap of our high school history class. Prince Albert (Colin Firth) is the younger of King George V's two sons. David (Guy Pearce), the elder, is set to become king, but he has fallen in love with an American divorcee, and that just won't fly with the Church, so he renounces the throne. That leaves his brother Albert to the throne; Albert ascends as King George VI.
Through the whole movie, though, Albert, the Duke of York, has been struggling with a stammer he's had since he was a child. His wife Elizabeth, the Duchess of York/the Queen Mum (played by the super-wacky Helena Bonham Carter), gets Prince Albert to the office of the unorthodox master of speech defects, Lionel Logue (the astounding Geoffrey Rush). He starts out by asking the Prince to talk to him, maybe to tell him a joke. "T... t... t... timing's not my strong suit," the Prince replies. But he's wrong. The comedic timing through the rest of the film is perfect, and irreverent, which I love. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are both great individually, and are even better together. They rule.
The stage sets and costumes were great, and the slow-paced drama worked like a charm.
Bottom line: see it. Otherwise you won't know what everyone is talking about.
...was great. It was fun and frustrating and enlightening and educational and entertaining and sad and funny. Oh, and cold. It was cold. All in all it was a good trip, if somewhat short. Thanks for the delicious garlic bread, J!
It would be a lie to say this movie didn't take a little while to get into. The first half is about a band of Irish Republicans trying to fight off English rule using guerrilla tactics in the years following WWI. (Don't worry, I didn't just ruin it.) This seems to be an oft-overlooked historical subject, but I'm not sure as much of it was necessary to lay the groundwork for the second half. All you need to know is that Damien O'Donovan, the younger of the O'Donovan boys, gives up his promising future as a doctor in London to join the guerrillas, who are led by his elder brother Teddy.
And the second half, let me say, is heartbreaking. Things don't go as well for the brothers O'Donovan during the fighting and negotiations with the Brits - who have no redeeming qualities whatsoever in this film - as one might hope.
The movie does offer some interesting, and relevant, lessons concerning that happens to the people left behind when an occupying force withdraws. Maybe someone whose pay grade is above mine should watch this.
Bottom line: slow to build, but worth the investment, especially since it leaves you with things to ponder. Cillian Murphy steals the show as Damien. (You might know him as the love interest in Girl with the Pearl Earring, or as the badly behaving doctor at the asylum in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.)
Client: "We were wondering, how old are you? You don't look old enough to be doing this." Me: "I'm older than I look. I'm 28." Client: "28? Wow! I would have guessed 18." Me: "I get that a lot. Actually, no. I forgot that I just had a birthday. I'm 29." Client: "Oh, 29. Hm. Twenty-nine and still not married?"
Remember how K and I joined the circus last June? Well, we've rejoined! For my birthday (again), K took me to see Circus Flora. This was a special production that they did with the St. Louis Symphony to celebrate the circus's 25th anniversary.
Other than the fact that it was freezing cold (18 degrees, according to K's car thermometer), the whole thing was amazing! They had a lot of the same acts as the Ingenioso show we saw last summer, but it was all still breathtaking. The scale of the show was somewhat limited this time, by the size of Powell Hall, but in some ways that made it even more intense. The tightrope act, for example, was set up right between the first row of seats and the stage. K got us really good tickets (probably the 8th row or thereabouts?), and they were right in the middle. I think it's because she didn't want to be picked as a volunteer, but she swears it's only because they were the best seats. As a consequence of our great seats, we were both pretty certain that the tightrope walkers would fall in our laps. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The theme of this winter circus was "The Floating Palace." It was based on a real-life circus showboat that used to run up and down the Mississippi river before the Civil War. The story was that the boat, toting a few stowaways, left from St. Louis, but the true love of one of the passengers didn't get on. For the first half of the show, he's longing for her. Then she gets on the boat at one of its stops, and for the second half, they're enjoying their new-found love. Aww, isn't that sweet?
Anyway, the performances were pretty cool. There was one lady who could twirl a dozen hula hoops at a time, most of them somewhere between her neck and her knees, but also on her wrists and hands as well. Some members of the St. Louis Arches were there. It's kind of a tumbling/gymnastic group, I guess, for kids aged probably 5 through 18 20? There were the boyfriend and girlfriend of the story, who do some amazing things hanging from pieces of cloth attached to the ceiling. We saw the Duo Voltart, the Elliaire Duet, Vince Bruce (a Brit!), ADAMO (the boyfriend and girlfriend of the story), and more!. There were dog tricks too, although I think they weren't allowed to bring horses into Powell Hall. And of course there were the tightrope walkers, the Wallenda Family.
We had to do a little investigation to get the full story of the Flying Wallendas. The playbill had this blurb about them: K and I re-read this business a few times, but despite the reference to "the scene of the Wallendas' greatest tragedy," we couldn't figure out what the tragedy was. Wikipedia + Blackberry to the rescue. What I learned is this: when the Wallendas were performing their seven-person chair pyramid at the Shrine Circus in Detroit in 1962, one of the walkers faltered causing the pyramid to collapse, and three members of the troupe fell to the ground. Two were killed. One was paralyzed from the waist down.
Thankfully, none of the Wallendas fell into our laps, although if they had lost their balance, they probably would have - we were that close. But let me tell you: it is incredible what these people do while standing on a wire. They rode bikes. Two of them rode bikes suspending a bar between them, which had a chair on it, which had a girl on it! Another two of them were on foot with that same bar suspended between them, and the pater familias was standing on said bar. Then they stop. And right before my very eyes, the guy standing on the bar (which, let me remind you, was being supported by two guys standing on a wire - a wire!) crouches down and does a head stand. No sh**. I couldn't believe my eyes. And then he came out of it too! Without falling to his death! I watched the whole thing mouth agape.
And I guess what makes it so breathtaking is that he, or any of them, really could have died. Every night these people perform their acts, they are literally taking their lives into their hands - or in the case of tightrope walkers, feet. (Okay, maybe not the guy who trains the dogs, but you get my point.) All this suspense was heightened, of course, by the presence of the live music. Live music, even if you don't know or aren't crazy about the particular song or piece being performed, is so much more powerful than recorded music. You can feel it in a way that you miss when you're listening to a CD of a studio version. So to have these people walking or twirling in the air above our heads, with the live symphony setting the scene, was really pretty cool.
[PSA: In fact, this show (the President of SLSO informed us), was part of a series called Live at Powell Hall, so there are opportunities to see other events with the backing of live music.]
Another thing that was neat about seeing them at Powell was that, since the building is much more acoustically proportioned than, say, a circus tent, you can hear the performers talking to each other during the routine, which we couldn't last summer in the tent. Kind of neat to get another detail of what's going on.
Then, to cap off the evening, we got back into the car right as our current favorite Pink song was on the radio! So we totally rocked out all the way to the highway.
Thanks, K!
[In researching for this post, I discovered ADAMO on Circopedia. Circopedia? Really? I guess there's a website out there for everyone!]
This was a fantastically touching book, but the movie doesn't quite live up to it. For some reason, couldn't stop watching it. Even though it was after midnight and I knew I was getting up at six, I just had to keep going.
It was directed by Peter Jackson (yes, that Peter Jackson), and I think his brilliant success with this movie was telling a story that is good and upright in many ways - a happy family; a father's undying love for his daughter; and a girl who goes to heaven but loves her family too much to leave them behind just yet - without being the least bit didactic or preachy about it. Brilliantly done.
The story changed a little bit from the book to the movie, but the overall points are there.
I love Mark Wahlberg. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe it's because he comes to the rescue of the gorgeous Charlize Theron in The Italian Job. Maybe it's because he stars in his latest movie with Christian Bale, whom I also adore, especially as Laurie and the brooding-but-always-coming-to-the-rescue Bruce Wayne. Maybe I've liked him ever since Basketball Diaries. Probably all of the above, but I digress. Even with 70s hair which not many people can pull off, I adore Mark Wahlberg, maybe in this movie just because he's such a good husband and father.
Bottom line: it's an odd combination of suspense and feel-good movie. Not great, but not a bad way to pass a couple of hours, if the super-creepy character played by Stanley Tucci doesn't weird you out too much.
As with many movies made from books, I have to say that this one is not as good as the paper version, but it's not terrible, and it manages to be rather entertaining.
I watched it the night after I finished the second book, and I'm glad I did, because it gives away a few details that you don't learn until later. Although maybe if I hadn't already read the second book, I wouldn't understand the significance of those details. Since I've read it, I can't say.
Details from books always get left out, due to the condensed format, and some of the story was lost because of it, but it's still a good whodunnit.
The version of the movie I saw was the original Swedish one (it's all that's out right now). It's subtitled in English, so you have to be paying attention. There's an American version due out this year, and I'll be interested to see how that turns out.
Bottom line: watch it if you're into mysteries. Otherwise read the book, which is both more detailed and more engrossing.
It's true. K and E have worked their magic on me, and now I am a qualified fan of Beyonce and Rihanna. I already knew I had some secret Beyonce adoration, but Rihanna is a new one, and I'm totally in love with some of her songs now! I say qualified, though, because they have a fair number of songs that I still don't like, but I now need two hands to count their songs that I do like. So. Yay?
Anyway, since this all sort of happened in a batch, I thought I'd put up my current loves, along with a favorite section of the lyrics. So, here goes, in no particular order other than what is stated:
Russian Roulette (Rihanna) - my current Rihanna fave, followed closely by Take a Bow
And then I get a scary thought
That he's here means he's never lost.
And you can see my heart beating
Oh, you can see it through my chest,
That I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving
Know that I must pass this test.
If I Were A Boy (Beyonce) - a great slightly mind-bending video
If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl,
I swear I'd be a better man.
I'd listen to her
'Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you wanted
'Cause he's taking you for granted
And everything you had got destroyed.
...
But you're just a boy,
You don't understand,
Yeah, you don't understand, oh
How it feels to love a girl
Someday you'll wish you were a better man.
You don't listen to her,
You don't care how it hurts
Until you lose the one you wanted
'Cause you'd taken her for granted
And everything you had got destroyed.
But you're just a boy.
Take a Bow (Rihanna)
But you put on quite a show,
Really had me going.
Now it's time to go,
Curtain's finally closing.
That was quite a show,
Very entertaining.
But it's over now (but it's over now),
Go on and take a bow.
Irreplaceable (Beyonce) - yes, still.
So since I'm not your everything,
How about I'll be nothing, nothing at all to you?
Baby, I won't shed a tear for you.
I won't lose a wink of sleep,
Because the truth of the matter is
Replacing you is so easy.
To the left, to the left,
To the left, to the left,
To the left, to the left,
Everything you own in a box to the left,
To the left, to the left,
Don't you ever for a second get to thinking you're irreplaceable.
Run This Town (Rihanna)
Life's a game but it's not fair,
I break the rules so I don't care.
So I keep doing my own thing, Walkin' tall against the rain.
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) (Beyonce)
Let's face it, there are really no earth-shattering lyrics in this song. The title says it all. But that in no way should be interpreted as a fact that diminishes the song's overall fabulousness. But if I had to pick one phrase it would be this, from the bridge:
Say I'm the one you want.
If you don't, you'll be alone,
And like a ghost, I'll be gone.
Unfaithful (Rihanna)
Story of my life
Searching for the right
But it keeps avoiding me.
Sorrow in my soul
'Cause it seems that wrong
Really loves my company.
Flaws and All (Beyonce) - I'm not a huge fan of the musical qualities of this song, but I love the idea of it.
I'm a puzzle, yes indeed,
Ever complex in every way,
All the pieces aren't even in the box,
And yet you see the picture clear as day.
I don't know why you love me,
And that's why I love you.
You catch me when I fall,
Accept me flaws and all,
And that's why I love you.
I neglect you when I'm working,
When I need attention, I tend to nag,
I'm a host of imperfection,
And you see past all that.
I'm a peasant by some standards,
But in your eyes I'm a queen.
You see potential in all my flaws,
And that's exactly what I need.
I'm sure I've omitted some of their other good songs, because this is all new to me. K and E will help fill in the gaps, I'm sure.
I stopped by my friends' house one night a few weeks back to pick up a book and ended up with two, neither of which was the one I went for. Regardless, they're both ones I'll check out. I have such a long list of books I want to read that sometimes it's nice just to have someone say, "here, read this."
Since that's what she said to me, I really know nothing about this book. I did work as an intern at the Cook County Public Defender's Office one summer though, so it should be interesting to read about some of the places I've been.
Hopefully I can get it finished in less than the 3 months which is probably my average for a book of this size!
It took me way longer to finish this book than it should have (as with most books). But in fairness, I wasn't actually reading it most of the time. I tore through the first half at the tail end of the Thanksgiving holiday, mostly on the plane on the way home. Then I stumbled through about 30 pages off and on, in between doing other things. Then the Christmas craziness started, and I've been toting it around without reading a single page for about a month.
Finally - FINALLY! - I finished it! I had one of those great nights where you lose yourself in a book for four hours, all other necessities and obligations be damned. I didn't even get up to go to the bathroom. Although I did stop for ice cream. (Remember that thing I said about eating ice cream three times a day?) My life tends to border on hectic, and I don't often run across days where I have a free block of time and nothing particularly pressing to do. Let me tell you, it is fantastic when it happens. I can do things like read books!
I guess I should get to the book itself. Slightly better written than the first one, I thought. But definitely not enduring-for-centuries type literature. In fact, I'm struggling a little bit about why these books are classed as "Fiction/Literature" in bookstores, rather than in the genre fiction category of "Mystery." The best I can come up with is that they're immensely popular, and genre fiction is often considered second-class stuff. Actually, I listened to an episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge a while back on the topic of genre fiction, if anyone's interested.
I digress. Not great writing. But immensely engrossing. One of those great, suspenseful stories that you can lose yourself in, if you find the time. On the whole, quite enjoyable. I will definitely read the final (?) installment.
And as a little added boost, I just picked up the DVD of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from the library, so I'll be watching that soon!
Geez, I had a championship movie-watching weekend, didn't I? I sort of stumbled my way to Paris, Je T'aime on accident, but I'm glad I did. I had read a review of a movie with "Paris" in the title; I couldn't remember the full name, so I took a random stab in the dark. The first movie I came up with compliments of the St. Louis County Library was From Paris With Love. Definitely not what I was looking for; I didn't even watch it. The next flick I found was this one. I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually the one I was on the hunt for, but it looked interesting, so I gave it a shot.
The idea behind this movie, if you can even call it that, is interesting. It is a collection of "postcard" views of Paris, probably about 20 of them, little short films about people falling in love, falling out of love, looking for love, finding love, losing love...you get the picture. It's a little bit disjointed, but there is a really sweet scene at the end that ties a couple of things together. Not Love Actually-type total inter-linkage of characters, but just a little connection, which leaves you with the sense that no one is really alone.
Because of the "fiction shorts" style of the film, it's great for watching one or two stories in the morning while you're having your cereal, or when you're reading to leave 10 minutes before you need to go. I watched the first 10 or 12 stories all in a row, then split up some of the later ones into smaller snippets. Each of the stories has a totally different feel, because each was written and directed by someone different. Credits include the following famous dudes: Joel and Ethan Cohen: Fargo, No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski; Gus Van Sant: Good Will Hunting, Milk, Finding Forrester; Gérard Depardieu: Green Card and more other movies than I can list here (188, according to imdb!, most of them French; Wes Craven: known mostly for horror movies, of which I am not a fan, but I loved his short for this movie!; Alfonoso Cuarón: long, unprolific, but varied career includes The Little Princess, Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Y Tu Mama Tambien.
Bottom line: a little odd, but a lot fascinating. The theme of every story is love in some form, but each one is so different that it doesn't feel repetitive or overdone at all. It isn't all romantic love (though most of it is), and even the stuff that is isn't sticky sweet, so it's okay to watch no matter what stage of a relationship you find yourself in. Bonus: if you're experiencing a little bit of cabin fever, you will be transported, TSA-free, to Paris for 120 minutes!
Would you believe it if I told you that the first time I saw this movie, I was actually at a movie theater? I hardly ever see movies at the theater anymore, but this was way back when, and I was in Cincinnati for a few days. What better to do than see a movie?
I have seen High Fidelity, based on a book of the same name by Nick Hornby, a handful of times since, and watched it the other night with K. What a good idea that was on our part. (Thanks to T for having the DVD readily accessible. K borrowed that, by the way.)
High Fidelity is the story of Rob, a sad sack record store owner who spends the film counting down his top five all-time breakups, along with many other mostly-music-related top fives. If you're into music, the movie speaks for itself. It's as though Rob, the "professional appreciator," and his two hapless employees are having a love affair with it.
Even if you're not that into music, though, it's still a sweet story. Rob, as I mentioned, is pretty hopeless in love. Laura, his now ex-girlfriend, isn't much better, although she puts on a prettier face about it. Through the course of the film, you learn the history of their relationship, and the problems they had: Rob cheated, Laura kept secrets, Rob lacked ambition, Laura wanted to get serious, etc. Nothing extraordinary, which is what makes them relatable. In the end, their story is an honest, a-little-bit-depressing, but-also-a-little-bit-romantic look at how we find our partner, and whether the act of finding is all we thought it would be.
Bottom line: thoroughly enjoyable, even after all this time. It's sort of a grown-up version of Empire Records, for those who will get that reference. Good soundtrack, too.
Whoa, is there ever a lot going on in this movie. It starts out with a phone call to a father, who learns that his son Mike has gone AWOL days after his unit's return from Iraq. The former military man sets out to find Mike, and succeeds - certainly not in the way he hoped, but perhaps in a way that wasn't too surprising.
Tommy Lee Jones is fantastic as Hank Deerfield. He plays his role with conviction, sincerity, and purpose, but not in such a way as to make the whole thing seem too hokey or emotional. Charlize Theron plays Detective Emily Sanders; she gets involved in the case after a jurisdictional dispute with the military police on the local base. Unlike Jones, she unfortunately didn't get any award nods for her performance, which I thoroughly enjoyed. She plays a straight cop who has some history, though you never quite get the full story; she's sick of taking crap from the men in her unit and she wants a chance to do some real work and to do it right. Susan Sarandon plays Hank's wife; she plays the part with appropriate parts restraint and anguish, although she is only in a few scenes.
This movie, as I said, covers a lot of territory: the relationships between parents and children, and between husbands and wives; military secrecy; reactions to guilt; police politics; gender roles; responsibility for ourselves and each other; military/civilian conflict. By virtue of its limited time scale, some of these topics are only alluded to, but for some reason that doesn't make them feel unexplored. One of the beauties of the acting in this film is that it isn't overdone; the characters are just people, doing whatever it is they do, for whatever reason. Sometimes you find out their reasons, sometimes not. But because they're just plodding forward, the issues they face or brush past feel totally natural, like they belong there. It doesn't seem like any conflict or comment was stuck into the screenplay just to make a point.
Perhaps even more brilliantly, it doesn't feel political. If you'll remember back to my post about Green Zone, and how irritating I find that, you'll also know why I appreciate the lack of it so much in this movie. It easily could have become an Iraq-is-destroying-our-boys-with-PTSD movie, but it didn't quite get there. Almost, but not quite. Somehow. There are a few shots of Mike's unit in Iraq, and one or two guys spill the beans about what happened there, but luckily nothing is terribly Iraq-specific. Their stories are more about men just trying to stay alive in a tough situation, and the unfortunate consequence that sometimes has.
In the Valley of Elah starts out feeling patriotic, but that fades a bit when the truth starts to come out. It all comes to a close when Hank asks for help in the final scene. What is delightfully unclear from the way he asks is who needs the help. Maybe everybody.
Bottom line: totally worth it to see. And you get a little history lesson about King David to boot, if you're interested. As a bonus, James Franco (whom I love right now because it seems like there is nothing he can't do) plays Mike's unit CO.
Did I really watch these movies? Yes I did. Why? Because I wanted to fry my brain. And it worked! The acting is, for the most part, awful. Except Anna Kendrick, who is surprisingly and annoyingly fantastic. The story is irritating. But somehow I couldn't look away. Neither could K, who was supposed to be doing her reading. In fact, we picked these movies to watch specifically because she wouldn't be interested in them, hence wouldn't be distracted by them, hence would do her reading. Fail. We even discussed seeing the next one. Yikes.
These are so bad they don't even deserve a bottom line.
Happy new year, folks. Those who know me know that, for reasons we have probably already discussed, I am not a fan of this holiday, but far be it for me to rain on anyone else's alcoholic parade, so here are some fireworks for you: Everyone good now? OK. On the bright side, because K and I only finished three bottles of wine last night in opposition, we were totally un-hungover and were able to make it to yoga this morning. We were the only people under the age of 55 in the room. (Notice that I said we "finished" three bottles of wine, not that we "started and finished" three bottles of wine. And technically speaking, only two of them were actually wine. So don't get excited thinking I might have been celebrating.)
On to my next, um, issue? complaint? comment? subject of conversation? Whatever it is. New year's resolutions. I usually don't make hard and fast resolutions ("I will only eat ice cream once per day.") because I inevitably will disappoint myself. (Sometimes you just need to eat ice cream at every meal.) Instead, I like to pick something that will be a general improvement in my life if I succeed, but is hard enough to measure that it won't be a major disappointment if I fail. Yes, it is brilliant to do it that way. Yes, you can copy my idea.
Last year, my goal was to be on time more often. Did I succeed? I have no bloody clue. But it was a good goal. I am still by no means on time all the time, so I might renew that goal this year, as well as add an additional guideline: read more.
This one actually might be kinda measurable, since I write about most of the books I read on this here blog. But honestly, I'm not going to go back and count, so I'll only know how I did if one of you guys with nothing else to do goes back and counts for me. Although that will not include other reading I do, such as magazines. Right now I have about 17,000 magazine subscriptions, so I'm not sure how anyone would keep track of that, since I certainly don't. Therefore, this is the perfect new year's resolution/guideline.
Cassandra's Dream is the totally unbelievable story of the trouble two brothers living in London find themselves in (although neither actor playing a brother is actually English). Ewan McGregor plays Ian; Colin Farrell plays Terry. Farrell's Terry is the more interesting and complicated of the two, although they both do a good job with a script that seems too wacky to be true. (But what else should we expect from writer/director Woody Allen?) The actors also do a good job together. Even though they don't look or sound like brothers, they know each other so well that you can believe that they are, and you can start to see how, over the course of their lives, their relationship ended up shaped the way it is.
