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You can dance if you want to

Posted by in entertainment, movies, reviews on Apr 2, 2012 | 0 comments

I watched the new Footloose movie this weekend and I’ve got to say it was far superior than the original.

The original has a soft spot in my heart because, when it came out on video, it was a movie I identified with. My parents had moved us to the suburbs the summer before 6th grade and we also started attending a Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church. It was a strict church and there was no secular music, no movies, no dancing. I’m not sure why video was okay, or if my parents just realized that it was inevitable, but I didn’t get to go to a proper movie in a theater (that didn’t have to do with god – there was some Prodigal Son movie that I got to skip school for) unless I was staying over with a friend and my parents didn’t know or I got my driver’s license. The stuff against the rules didn’t have to actually be the law, it was the law of the house where I lived and that was just as good.

When my mom found a cassette tape of Def Leppard’s Hysteria in my room, you would have thought it was wrapped in pentagrams and soaked in baby’s blood. My parents were nothing if not committed to what the church was doing. I fought for WEEKS to be allowed to go to the 7th grade Halloween Dance – it was the first dance of the school year. I was allowed to go, albeit not in costume, and while it was fun it was SO not worth the month of parental arguing that I’d done to get there.

So seeing a movie – even though my friends thought it was so improbable to be in a place where dancing WASN’T ALLOWED – that reflected part of my crazy life experience and captured my frustration was kind of awesome. Especially since it was part of my life that almost no one else COULD empathize with. In my public school, I didn’t know anyone who went to church regularly and it was pretty much the only social outlet I was allowed. It was outside of the town where I lived so there was zero overlap between school and church. There weren’t a huge number of kids who were in the youth group at my church and, I suspect, almost none who were experiencing MY frustration with the rules. Now let’s be clear, the kids in neither Footloose film are advocating for dancing in the name of the Lord. And Spouse will tell you that a hangnail was better than the first film, so yes it was admittedly not great. For me, it was the novel characterization of something similar to my own experience that I remember resonating strongly with for the first time.

The new film is a pretty loose remake – modernized a bit and some of the over-the-top asshole characters have been changed or improved. There are some funny music callbacks and overall I think they did a better job with the story and setting. Everyone was a bit more believable than in the original and folks even have a southern twang.

All of this is a long way of saying I really enjoyed the new film and would watch it again before the original.

Internet vacation OR random miscellany

Posted by in books, entertainment, internet, miscellany, movies, recommendations, reviews, tv on Feb 19, 2012 | 0 comments

I’ve been largely away from the internet for about a week now. Some had to do with travel and FrankenDog and work and school but more of it was about trying to finish 1Q84 before my library loan expired. I managed to finish it today and get caught up on some of the shows we watch.

Twitter has fallen rather by the wayside these days, as I tend to be busy at work enough not to have time to check it. I miss it as a way of keeping up on things but not enough to have carved out time for it. All things considered, I suspect it means I’m finished with it.

Things I have checked: email and GReader. GReader is my primary way of keeping up with the news.

I’m continuously disheartened by the elected assholes who claim to represent the people. It’s that or admit I’m increasingly disappointed that there continue to be assholes who think they should control my reproductive organs but I can’t have any say-so about theirs.

We rewatched Crazy Stupid Love today and it’s still the best possible things a romantic comedy can be. We watched The Help this week and, while enjoyable, was predictably less nuanced than the book and the result was a bit more insulting.

I had a Ginger Blossom at Ling and Louie’s which is a surprisingly delightful beverage.

I’ve discovered the joys of endless.com and overstock.com respectively, which is hurting my resolution to start sewing more of my own clothes. Not that I’ve PURCHASED much, it’s just the LOOKING.

In unsolicited product endorsements (warning: Ladynerdery Ahead)-

I’ve been hearing for ages from both the internet and my friend Melissa that Clinque’s Black Honey Almost Lipstick is AMAZING and lo, I have found it to be true. I’d tell you to try it first but good luck finding it in-stock at a Sephora location. What I can say, without a doubt, is that it will look fantastic on you and it feels incredible on your lips. Totally worth it. Also, it means I can throw out a half-dozen lipsticks now.

Speaking of lipstick- MAC’s Russian Red. Not too blue, not too orange and destined to be the one red lipstick you’ll love. The key is getting used to seeing the intensity of the color. It looks great day OR night and is somehow never “too much.”

In eyeshadow news, I’ve been using the Cover Girl Intense ShadowBlast in Brown Bling. I put it on over my lid and a bit in the crease, then use my finger to blend it in/smooth it out. Super easy and it looks fantastic – one of the few “intense” billed shadows that I can honestly say works great day and night. I put it on with brown liner and it really does last all day without creasing.

As part of my Sephora order, I got a sample of Caudalie’s Fleur de Vigne perfume which is pretty fantastic.

————— end of LadyNerdery

While I’ve been watching the usual TV shows, I find I’m disinclined to talk about them. The Walking Dead is back and feels a bit gorier than previously seen.

Piper is doing well. Staples and stitches are out and the little spot that had reopened is scabbed over and apparently healing. She’ll be out of T-shirts in no time.

Work this week will be another bit of hectic, but I’m hoping to get started on Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow.

 

To all the ships at sea

Posted by in movies, tv on Jan 25, 2012 | 0 comments

If I see one more walleyed lawyer doing a damages commercial about transvaginal mesh patches, I may throw something at my television. Yes, this is related to the subject line because I’m watching Message In a Bottle on TV and apparently only women are watching this movie because all of the commercials have to do with transvaginal mesh damages, household cleaning products, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. I wish this was an exaggeration but literally EVERY single commercial break has consisted of these four commercials.

I’m not a particular fan of Nicholas Sparks and I know we’re all meant to swoon over the very first letter from Garrett but I’ll admit that the letter which really resonates for me is the one from Catherine:

To all the ships at sea, and all the ports of call. To my family and to all friends and strangers. This is a message, and a prayer.

The message is that my travels taught me a great truth. I already had what
everyone is searching for and few ever find. The one person in the world who I was born to love forever.

A person, like me, of the outer banks and the blue Atlantic mystery. A person rich in simple treasures. Self-made. Self-taught. A harbor where I am forever home. And no wind, or trouble or even a little death can knock down this
house.

The prayer is that everyone in the world can know this kind of love and be healed by it. If my prayer is heard, there will be an erasing of all guilt and all regret and an end to all anger.

Please, God. Amen

 

Especially the bit about a little death. If your house can withstand that, you’ve built something good.

Double Feature

Posted by in entertainment, movies, reviews on Jan 20, 2012 | 0 comments

The other night we watched Ides of March and Shark Night. Yes, I know, it’s a PERFECTLY LOGICAL combination.

Ides of March was solid, but I kind of feel like Clooney gets nominated for taking a shit these days. I mean, it was good but I don’t think it was better than State of Play (which got NO love when it came out). Evan Rachel Wood is pretty fantastic in a small part and everyone else is basically exactly as good as you think they’d be.

 

Shark Night. Oh, Shark Night. Where do I even BEGIN. This is the kind of movie that is best enjoyed with a pitcher of alcoholic beverages close at hand and a group of friends intent on shouting at the screen because it can be a drinking game on FIRST VIEWING. Drink when what you think will happen, happens!  It is positively chock full of every terrible movie cliche and stereotype and the two of us alternated predicting the next scene/action and shouting at the tv. It is hilariously awful and I can only assume the actors were playing it that way knowingly, otherwise I am VERY concerned for this Katherine McPhee tv show coming up. Also, when you rent the DVD (and you really should) you MUST watch through the credits for the cast-made RAP VIDEO. NO I AM NOT JOKING. Yes, my soul died just a little bit because Spouse insisted we watch it all the way through. It is a cherry on top of the godawful.

 

We watched The Debt the other day and I don’t think I wrote about it. I heard a review of it at some point that said “It feels like it should be better than it is” which is absolutely and utterly accurate. That is not to say there weren’t some great performances, because there were, or that the story wasn’t interesting (it was) but it was missing a little je ne sais quoi that would have made all the difference.

2012 films

Posted by in movies, reviews on Jan 14, 2012 | 0 comments

Moneyball was pretty fantastic and did an amazing job of taking what COULD be the most boring subject (stats)  and crafting a compelling story that it was easy to get invested in. Highly recommended.

Midnight in Paris. I’d heard a lot of great things about this movie, which I would call solidly good. I’m not a huge Allen fan, as every single protag seems to always be him, but Owen Wilson made what could have been a ticky and annoying character mostly charming and affable. Rachel McAdams plays a perfect asshole. Perfect. The supporting cast did what it needed to do to support, but the bottom line is this movie is a love letter to Paris. I’m okay with that. It put me in mind of The Paris Wife (for obvious reasons) though I preferred that book to this film. If you’ve ever been to Paris, or ever wanted to go, you’ll probably enjoy this film.

Oh my fucking GOD you guys

Posted by in books, entertainment, movies, reviews on Jan 10, 2012 | 0 comments

My new scrubs finally arrived. I ordered them on December 29. This was not my favorite online shopping experience ever and let’s just leave it at that.

But the SCRUBS. Dude. I am marginally embarrassed that they say Grey’s Anatomy on them because SERIOUSLY but the tags are small and unobtrusive and HOLY SHIT THEY ARE SO COMFORTABLE that I almost don’t care. Almost. They are fantastic colors and they are so soft but sturdy that it was totally worth it. Not worth the WAIT, maybe but still worth it. Awesome.

This is random because I’m sitting in front of the TV but CBS just interrupted New Hampshire primary coverage for NCIS. I laughed out loud. Because bitchez, we know our old peeples like their NCIS and we are NOT giving up those advertising dollars for an election that doesn’t really COUNT yet!

Unrelated, the 2012 book list is underway! I powered through the first six Harry Dresden books (I’d previously read 1-5) and had forgotten exactly how much I enjoyed them. Now I’ll have to pick up the rest. In the meantime, I’m partway through The Last Werewolf which is – thus far- as interesting as everyone on the internet said it was. I’m reserving judgement until it’s over, though.

We saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol over the weekend. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Tom Cruise may be batshit nuts, but he works his ass off to try and make a good movie. I enjoyed it pretty much EXACTLY as much as I’ve enjoyed the others (which is a good thing) with a bonus of Simon Pegg. Afterwards I got snagged by a studio focus group person to answer some questions about the movie and about the movies we saw previewed. Wow, y’all. There’s about to be some SHIT coming out.

My favorite part: Why wouldn’t you see Ghost Rider?

Me: DID YOU SEE THE FIRST ONE? It was fucking TERRIBLE. (she actually had to type that all out. I was amused.)

Her: What could we change about the trailer to make you more likely to see the movie?
Me: PUT ANYONE BUT NICK CAGE IN IT. He’s been terrible ever since The Rock. In fact, put The Rock in it and I might go see THAT.

This was apropos of The Rock being in the equally terrible looking sequel to GI Joe. My response to that was ALSO Did you see the TERRIBLE FIRST FILM?

I won’t lie, I had a bit of fun with the fact that she was having to type my responses verbatim.

They don’t give you money or anything for doing those surveys but, as I told Spouse, if I’m going to keep bitching about the shit movies Hollywood is putting out this is the LEAST I can do to try and help. As it is, we rarely see films in theaters [response to actual question from survey lady: We like to see shit blow up.] but if you’re going to give me a chance to have input I’ll stop and answer the questions for the common good.

Surprise from the survey: Spouse saying he’d be most likely to see Snow White and the Huntsman (versus other previewed films) because of the people in it. Huh.

 

 

As it turns out

Posted by in movies on Dec 22, 2011 | 0 comments

I don’t give a flying fuck about The Hobbit film.

I AM, however, fired up about the new Mission Impossible and Young Adult.

 

So there.

I’ll admit it

Posted by in books, entertainment, miscellany, movies, recommendations, reviews on Dec 5, 2011 | 0 comments

I spent an embarrassing amount of time this weekend watching cheesy holiday made-for-tv movies on the Hallmark Channel. Ridiculous. Some of them were actually worth it, though.

I finished book 57 over the weekend – The Postmistress. It was similar in tone to The Distant Hours (though I felt The Distant Hours had a more compelling story) and is set in the same time period. While I enjoyed it, I had the sense throughout the entire book of WAITING for something to HAPPEN. And then when something happened, it felt like I went back to waiting another several chapters. Hrm. Of the two, The Distant Hours is to be preferred.

Enlighten Up, Yoga Bitch

Posted by in asana, books, classes, movies, philosophy, teaching, yoga on Oct 21, 2011 | 0 comments

I’m sick and my husband is going out of town so I’m writing a post for your Friday enjoyment.

Earlier this week I wrote a post about the book Yoga Bitch and a friend commented to ask if I’d watched the film Enlighten Up. I have and there are some striking similarities between the two. They aren’t the same story by any means but I think they both begin with a flawed premise.

In life, if you go looking for A Thing to give your existence meaning I suspect you will inevitably be let down. It’s too much pressure, both on the Thing and on yourself. You’re attaching expectations to an Unknown Thing and it’s also putting pressure on yourself to 1) identify with and 2) attach oneself to that Thing. It’s a bit like hearing from everyone you know that The Alchemist is an amazing and lifechanging book and then reading it and finding it only mildly interesting and/or a little pedantic and thinking that maybe there’s something you’re missing out on. Why no, I’m not speaking from personal experience at all.

I got to yoga by being lazy. It’s a story I tell with some regularity, especially as almost everyone says “I can’t do yoga.” I don’t enjoy running. While I have been known to engage in running as a form of exercise, it’s not fun. In point of fact, I think running should be reserved almost exclusively for eluding a weapon-wielding psychopath although that rather undercuts my argument since without practice you wouldn’t get all that far but I digress.

So I don’t enjoy running. I also don’t enjoy aerobics classes. That’s why, in 2001, I picked up a yoga book on the clearance shelf at the local Barnes and Noble. I was 26,  married just over a year, had settled into our house after moving twice within 12 months and working a stressful job in outside sales. The odd hours of my job were not conducive to taking regular classes and I thought I’d see what this yoga thing was all about. I took the book home, tried some of the stretches and thought ‘Hey, this isn’t so hard.’ Some of the stretches were familiar from when I played sports in school. When I looked at the suggested routines at the end of the book, I thought perhaps I’d benefit from some live instruction.

Let me be clear: I was not looking for salvation. I wasn’t looking for enlightenment. I wasn’t looking for inner peace. Mostly I was looking for a way to work out that didn’t involve a gym (I’d tried that unsuccessfully) or rollerblading with my dog (epic disaster). I’d heard yoga was good for you and helped with relaxation. I’ve always had issues with quieting my brain and figured this couldn’t hurt, right? I was nervous though because I’ve always been a fidgeter. Ask anyone who ever sat in a meeting next to me or watch any of my sales videos. FIDGETER. I was not hopeful about my ability to fit into a zen environment.

My first class was at the only yoga studio in my city. It was the basement of a dentist’s office, complete with industrial carpeting  and cleaning crew noises overhead. The class was taught by the woman I found out later owned the studio and it was like a reintroduction to my body. It was stringing together movements and muscle actions that I’d never used before and I loved it. It was physical and I could see how it could be made more aerobic if I practiced on my own. WIN.

As I practiced more often and took more classes, yoga seemed more logical. My studio didn’t partake in chanting, which suited me just fine – not even an Om. Then I had the magical class – the class which, once having had it, means you never look back. During the class I was so focused on every single thing that I was doing – each muscle motion and the depth of each breath – that I literally didn’t notice the passage of time. I came out of savasana not just refreshed but energized and motivated. NOW I understood why people do this. It’s moving meditation.

I, who was never able to sit and meditate, suddenly understood the point of TRYING. That’s not to say I started a meditation practice – I didn’t – but I got the idea of focusing inward with practice. Truthfully, in all these years I’ve never been in a class where people are looking around at their classmates (though I guess it probably happens) because virtually everyone is trying so hard to be balanced and graceful that they can’t spare a glance for the person who is UTTERLY CONVINCED that they are the most clumsy yogi ever and replete with the knowledge that they will somehow knock down the entire room domino-style. That said, I now fully understood the concept of using yoga to still the mind – its primary purpose according to Patanjali.

So the more I practiced, the stronger I got and while not every class was in that zen brainspace I still enjoyed it. I didn’t get enlightened, I didn’t find god but I got what I needed. In fact I loved it so much that I wanted to be able to share it with people and I got certified to teach.

Yoga helped me get through a hellacious year where my dad was ill with terminal cancer. It helped me get through the year after his death which turned out to be almost worse than the year he was sick. Most importantly, it’s a space I can always go back to – in a hotel room, in a park, in my house and virtually anywhere I can stretch my legs. With music (I’m a fan) or without. Props or not. Decidedly not in matching designer yoga clothing. Because yoga isn’t about what it looks like or what you THINK it’s going to be, it’s only about what you do.

That old adage from schoolteachers about ‘getting out of it what you put in’ is entirely true of yoga. If you put in more muscle work, you will get more muscle strength. If you put in more concentration, your concentration will improve. In classes geared for 80 year olds, I manage to work up a sweat because yoga taught me how to change the way my body works and how I utilize my muscles. Through yoga, I was able to help 80 year old ladies better understand the geography of their muscles and how to use them.

That is what I love about yoga. No one can tell how much or how little you’re working just by looking at you. You can adjust your workout in mid-workout or in mid-pose. No one is looking at you. We all have our own shit to sort out and work through and sometimes it happens in Warrior II. Sometimes it happens in a class where you infuse your breath with intention.

I once took a Tibetan Yoga class and while much of it was forgettable, the thing which was transformative was the breath. We were to breathe in imagining we were taking in something that we needed. Our exhale was to think of someone we knew who needed something and send the exhale of that thing out to that person. Chock full of woo woo? Hell yeah. But I left that class FEELING like I did something. I was lighter and felt brighter. Do I know that it’s woo woo? Hell yeah. Was some of my euphoria probably from increased oxygen intake? Hell yeah. But in that class I did not cheat on a single breath. I didn’t shorten an inhale or exhale by trying too hard or reaching too far. And sometimes, imagery is what gets it done. Look at sports psychology, for fuck’s sake. It’s SCIENCE. It works.

Some people bring their religious practice into yoga. It can absolutely be done and pretty much any yoga instructor can help you do it. I’ve had students dedicate their practice to Christ or use a prayer mantra to maintain their breath. Yoga is a tool that can be used in a multitude of ways.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you’re looking for a global panacea, you are destined to fail. This may be a newsflash but we’re more complicated than that. I can’t say that this works for me so it will DEFINITELY work for you. The problem of Yoga Bitch was that she was looking for something that no one thing could give her. The protag in Enlighten Up got sold a bill of goods that ‘yoga will do X, Y, Z for you.” We’re individuals. We’re thinking individuals. What thinking individuals should instinctively know is shit’s not that easy.

I’m not trying to convert you to the cult of yoga because there isn’t ONE yoga. I push back EVERY time I hear an instructor say “this is the right way to do x.” We are all different structurally and there are things that my body will never be able to do. I embrace that and don’t stop trying, I just stop expecting a magical yoga fairy to loosen my ligaments or change the shape of my pelvic girdle. For me, yoga is about accepting where you are and just trying to be better. At what is up to each individual.

Ideally everyone picks and chooses the things that the want or need or like to use and everyone has a different result – with one caveat. I’ve never seen anyone leave a yoga class that wasn’t smiling. The key is not to expect a revelation, otherwise you’ll always be disappointed. I felt bad for the narrators of the book and the film because they had this idea that yoga could change their lives. The only thing that can change your life is you. Yoga is just a tool that can help you do it.

 

Sunday update

Posted by in cooking, food, movies, reviews, television, tv on Oct 2, 2011 | 0 comments

Watching SNL’s weekend update and the Tyler Perry portion is reminding me of conversations with my friend Fatima. Funny.

I’m making chili today because it’s a perfect day for chili, football and beer. One of our friends is going to join us so I’m making an effort to get some homework done. We attended a beer tasting last night and let me say there are worse things to do on your weekend. In fact I may have to make a run to pick up some 1554.

We took a slight roadtrip to get lunch yesterday and I stumbled into an excellent hair cut. A lovely woman named Beverly gave me a spectacular cut for the rock-bottom price of $15. I may have found a new favorite place. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have an excuse to visit BV once a month for lunch with some friends. Accidental awesome is some of the best kind. She was also tickled to find out someone had left her a nice review on the internet so I made sure to leave her another on both Yelp and Google Places.

In TV news, I saw the Haven finale and HOLY SHIT that show impressed me ALL SEASON. It doesn’t hurt to have smoking hot leads but the writing has been tight and is continuing to make the overarcing mystery interesting rather than tired or played out. It’s one of my summer surprise favorites. If you want info on where to catch the episodes online, leave me a comment.

Sons of Anarchy is also kicking a lot of ass, as expected. It’s making me even more eager for the return of Justified and what I can only hope will be a season 2 marathon (as I haven’t seen it) before the Season 3 premier.

I’m stoked, by the way, that my Defying Gravity love posts inspired my friend mesoterica to check it out and that she loves it too. I may have to rewatch them AGAIN this week. Never have I been so tempted to write fanfic.

Books: The Night Circus is great so far and while I’ve stalled a bit on Wildwood, I have been enjoying it.

In movie news, watched Hanna and fucking loved it. Loved it.  Eric Bana is incredible and the whole movie is far better than the trailer.

Rants and Raves – Country Strong

Posted by in movies, music, recommendations, reviews on Sep 6, 2011 | 0 comments

First let me say that I CANNOT BELIEVE I am going to write a post about this movie. I had zero interest in seeing this film. It might have even been LESS than zero interest. The only thing worse than a cornball country music movie is a cornball country music movie starring someone who doesn’t even have a southern accent (I’ll admit there is a soft spot in my heart for Pure Country, despite its epically shitty nature). It was on cable last week and since there was nothing else on, all my DVR viewing was caught up and all the summer shows have reached finale-time, I decided to watch.

1. This is not a great movie. Probably it is not a good movie. It is an OKAY movie.

2. Garrett Hedlund makes the entire film worth watching, if only because he has the best songs in the whole damn thing.

3. Gwyneth Paltrow is fucking amazing. They gave her a bunch of shit songs and bad costumes but she does this AMAZING performance of a woman hanging on by the thinnest thread possible. She’s got about zero chemistry with Hedlund but she is so incredible in this role that it’s kind of a shame that she won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love since this performance is so much more worthy. (Not that this film should be nominated in any way other than her performance.) Whether you love her or hate her, this is a phenomenal performance.

4. The filmmakers made the brilliant choice of releasing a secondary soundtrack including all the tracks sung by the actual actors. I actually purchased all of Hedlund’s songs individually and it was completely worth it.

5. Leighton Meester was sort of wooden and not especially memorable, except that she was the only one with wardrobe worse than Gwyneth’s.

6. What the fuck is with that shit-ass title? FUCKING AWFUL.

Worth watching if you’re not paying more than $2 for it, for Hedlund’s songs and Paltrow’s performance.

Oh SNAP

Posted by in movies on Jul 5, 2011 | 0 comments

Three Musketeers trailer

I suspect I should be mildly to moderately embarrassed to admit that I’m going to go see this in the theater, but I have a sneaking suspicion it will be my favorite Alexandre Dumas adaptation OF ALL TIME.

And let’s be real: it can’t be any worse than any of the other Three Musketeers adaptations I’ve seen.

This is it

Posted by in books, movies, music on Jun 25, 2011 | 0 comments

I’ve been engrossed in Little, Big virtually all day. All day, people. We’ve had a lovely Saturday up here in the mountains: grilled Bleu Cheese and Bacon burgers, made sweet tea and spent the entire afternoon reading on the deck. Spouse saw my paperback and asked, “Why’d you buy an OLD FASHIONED book?”

Truthfully, I purchased this book in our pre-Kindle days and had forgotten about it. When cleaning a couple weeks ago, I re-discovered it (as well as two others) forgotten in a drawer. Little, Big is one of those books I’ve heard many people rave about, including authors I respect. It’s been a while since I read anything this lyrically dense – sentences packed to overflowing – and it took a bit to adjust but then I just fell in. It’s been a lovely read and I’m already sad that the end is near.

As the sun began to drop and the air chilled, I came inside and dropped onto the couch in the basement. We’d had some musical accompaniment upstairs and I clicked on the TV for background noise. It just happened that Michael Jackson popped on the screen. Other than previews, I never saw anything of This Is It so imagine how surprised I was that it pulled me directly out of my novel and captured my attention just as intently.

Part of it is Michael’s final performance but the rest of it is just FASCINATING. Logically you know the guy had to be a perfectionist, but the extent to which he’s involved in every aspect – and seeing HOW MUCH of his project vision they were able to execute – is stunning. MJ holds a special place in my heart and the musical memory of my childhood. Probably I should be more embarrassed that my best friend Ruby and I designed and performed a tumbling routine for school set to Beat It, but I can’t muster it.

So yeah. Completely unexpected, I’m sitting here watching the making of a concert video and can’t tear myself away.

X-men: First Class, No Strings Attached

Posted by in movies, recommendations, reviews on Jun 6, 2011 | 0 comments

I was a fan of the X-men comics when I was younger, reading them regularly through the first part of college. Therefore I attend every film iteration with a certain amount of apprehension. First rule of Comic Book Movies: this shit ain’t the comic books.

If you go in expecting a literal translation, you’re going to be disappointed. Sometimes it’s for the better (Watchmen) and sometimes it’s horrible (X-men Origins: Wolverine, Elektra, Daredevil, almost everything not Batman) and sometimes it hits the middleground.

Here’s what makes First Class great: McAvoy and Fassbender CLEARLY enjoying the shit out of their roles and playing the subtext (and the 60s) for all it’s worth and writing good enough that you feel free to ignore the shit that isn’t great. *cough*JanuaryJones*cough* Seriously, Fassbender was great. It was excellent to see Magneto precisely as bad ass as you always knew he was. And McAvoy’s Xavier is awesomely smarmy and elitest until he has to re-evaluate things.

I loved what they did with Mystique, I loved that they blurred the good/evil lines between Xavier’s school and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Kevin Bacon was kind of fantastic and yeah, January Jones played Emma Frost stony vs. icy (though to be fair, I think she played the only role she’s ever played) which was my least favorite part. In all, though, it was a FUN watch. I haven’t had that much fun in a reboot since Star Trek.

I can’t wait for Disco mutants, that’s all I’m saying.

We rented No Strings Attached from RedBox and I’m not going to lie, I wanted to hate it. I saw all the gross previews AND it’s got Ashton Kutcher but holy shit, I laughed out loud. It wasn’t just that, either. If you’re tired of the comedies where the dudes are emotionally crippled and the wives/girlfriends/love interests are naggy bitches you want to see this film. Portman does an admirable job as a commitment-phobic med student, making her character sympathetic and funny. Kutcher’s character is more dimensional than the previews would lead you to believe and we enjoyed it, despite all predictions.

Also in the rental queue was The American, a beautifully shot and incredibly boring film. Spouse made the mistake of getting up to get pizza in the last 10 minutes – where neither of us expected that all of the action would take place. To illustrate how boring it was, he was perfectly happy to have me recap it rather than skipping back to re-play it.

I boxed up a bunch of donation items today and with any luck will drop them off tomorrow. Then I get to start looking for more stuff to give away.

You should see Bridesmaids

Posted by in movies, reviews on May 15, 2011 | 0 comments

Yeah, yeah there’s been a lot of talk about the film and frankly, it’s good.

Is it as funny as The Hangover? If you’re a chick, hell yes. If you’re a dude, probably not (but it’s still damn funny).

Kristin Wiig is brilliant and the film combines slapstick with cringe-inducing hilarity, balanced by seriously nice female relationships. Don’t get me wrong, it’s also got all the bad parts of female relationships, albeit played for the laughs, but overall it’s the best female comedy I’ve seen in years and doesn’t rely on stereotypes for jokes.

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