I had fun at John Carter

I had so much fun at this movie! My sister and I went to see it yesterday afternoon. It reminded me of a hybrid Indiana Jones/ Star Wars experience - thrilling, funny, lots of fighting, sand and dust.  It's not as good as the best of either series, nor is it as bad as the worst of either series. I found it to be solidly entertaining.  Should the other two movies of this proposed franchise be made, I will go see them. Yes, it was silly in parts, but it's Adventure Movie silly, which is the nature of the beast. If you can't wrap your suspension of disbelief around a a civil war veteran traveling to Mars via a magic widget, you probably weren't much tempted by this story in the first place.  Besides, there's something almost cozy about an other-planet adventure that happens in our own solar system.

The cast is great - I especially enjoyed Bryan Cranston in his small part as Powell; Dominic West was delightfully weaselly as the baddie prince of Zodanga (ZODANGA!); Mark Strong was evil and bald in the way he has perfected; I was happy (as always) to see James Purefoy. As the titular John Carter, Taylor Kitsch was broody and believable - I thought he pulled off both the fish out of water comedy and man out of time pathos of his role, all while performing nonstop action, mostly naked. Not everyone can do that!  Lynn Collins was tough, beautiful and smart as my new favorite character Dejah Thoris,  princess of Helium. She's an orange badass scientist princess -  how many of those do you meet in a year?  Having never read the book (although I've just downloaded the free ebook), I didn't realize how much Star Wars borrowed from this story. Princess Dejah is the obvious ass-kicking loyal-to-her-people predecessor of Princess Leia.

 I laughed, the guys behind me laughed and at the end they both said it was better than they thought it would be. The showing I went to - middle of a Saturday afternoon, 2-D -  was a little over half full, and appeared to be a mix age and gender-wise. (although overall there were probably more dudes than ladies.)

The reviews for John Carter have been mixed but much of the discussion has been less about the story on screen and more about domestic gross and how expensive it was to make.  These reviews almost uniformly have a very discouraging title, but some eventually come through and say "if you like this sort of thing (you know who you are) you will probably have a good time at this movie." I do, and I did!

Now I will cherry pick quotes that reflect my views:

A word on costuming and awfully wonderfulness, from the Salon Review titled "Will John Carter Rank Among the All-Time Bombs" (a review that seems mainly concerned with the perceived universal badness of movies about Mars):

Playing the ruler of Helium and father of Dejah Thoris, Irish actor Ciarán Hinds gets to wear the most awesome military uniform I’ve ever seen, which appears to have been jointly designed by Julius Caesar, George Washington, Idi Amin and Karl Lagerfeld. (Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional Arab dictator can eat his heart out.) At its best, “John Carter” is a mightily impressive spectacle, cleanly photographed in dusty reds and brilliant blues by Daniel Mindel, which dares to straddle that elusive boundary between awfulness and wonderfulness. It’s awfully wonderful, or wonderfully awful.

The NYT review has a more neutral title -  'John Carter' with Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins:

Messy and chaotic, in other words, but also colorful and kind of fun. The movie begins in an atmosphere of Victorian spookiness: an old manse with dark paneling, a sealed tomb out back and many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore piled up in the study. In the blink of an eye we’re in Arizona Territory just after the Civil War, which is to say classic western territory, with monumental rock formations, beleaguered cavalrymen, bellicose Apaches and a dark saloon into which a taciturn stranger comes a-moseying.
...
Carter, stripped of his shirt and endowed with extraordinary leaping ability (something to do with gravity), befriends some noble Tharks (voiced by Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton), acquires a loyal Martian “monster dog” and falls in love with a Heliumese (Heliumian?) princess named Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins), who is both a fierce sword fighter and a big shot at the Helium Academy of Science. 

There is more. There is nothing but more: a huge cast, soaring digital architecture, creatures both adorable and fearsome, lines of dialogue (“Thurns are a myth!”) made even more ridiculous by being uttered in earnest. The silliness — much of which is clearly intentional — is blended with some genuine grandeur.

I had fun. Normally, it would be enough for me to just tell my friends in person if I thought they might enjoy this movie - but since John Carter is getting piled on from every direction, I wanted to say that I liked it publicly. 

movie movie movie the word has lost all meaning

My Oscar Summary:

Billy Crystal - terrible in ways I would not have predicted.
Angelina's leg -  I think she was goofing on everyone and I kind of love her for it. LEG OUT
Bret Mackenzie - BRET! That he won for work with Muppets makes it even better.
Emma Stone's  dress - she loved it so much that I LOVE IT TOO. 95% of all other gowns looked like Barbie Prom, why not have a little fun with a beautiful color and a giant neck bow?
The Rest: I was crocheting, but I did love Captain Von Trapp winning his award with his dashing mustache and generous thanks. I'm also curious what they bleeped out of Christian Bale's speech.

IN SHORT: Hugh Jackman, please come back! (it won't embed, which makes me sad.) Notice that by the end of his performance that the audience loves him - he's really bringing it and they respond with surprise and delight -  not the grim gutting it out of 2012's audience. Oh, Hugh. (siiiigh.)

These two videos below made me laugh - first the star-studded trailer for Movie: The Movie, put together by Jimmy Kimmell and some people willing to be very silly.  Gary Oldman should be in everything. After that, Making the Movie: The Making of Movie: The Movie. ha ha ha!

hey hey in the hayloft

Today I watched Sullivan's Travels again and it was delightful as always. I forget how funny these screwball era movies are if I haven't seen one in a while. Sullivan's Travels was on my mind because I pressed it on a co-worker who hadn't seen it in years  -  she took it on holiday for thanksgiving and her whole family loved it. It's not a classic just because it was funny back in 1942, but because it's TIMELESS.

 One of my favorite bits from early in the movie is director Sullivan - known for his light comedies - trying to convince two studio bosses to let him make O Brother Where Art Thou, his movie vision that's "a true canvas of the suffering of humanity." I love the bosses trying to bargain for "a little sex in it" and I really love the titles of his early films: Hey Hey in the Hayloft; So long, Sarong; Ants in Your Plants of 1939. (ANTS IN YOUR PLANTS OF 1939!!!!) Ha ha ha! These titles are perfect parodies of a certain kind of movie (Gold Diggers of 1933/1935/1937, anyone?) but I would happily watch any one of them if they really existed.

But my luck is even better, because I have the rest of the Preston Sturges box set waiting by the television.  (I think maybe Palm Beach Story next - that one has Joel McCrae and Claudette Colbert and, of course,  hilarious misunderstandings.)

Or maybe I should watch this one again and follow it up with the Coen brothers O Brother Where Art Thou...

how go your plans?

Today was funny.  I was at work minding my business when a person who is not my direct boss but in a position of authority was taking her leave from a meeting. I know her, but not really well. She was chatting with people as she left, and stopped by my workstation to ask "how go your plans for world domination?" My first thought was WHAT?? my second thought was how did you know? What I said aloud was non-commital but generally positive. (the gist: I have no idea what you're talking about, but if I did, I would say Very Well.) (this was an exaggeration, but I've found - thank you Ghostbusters - that if someone asks about your plans for world domination, it's good to at least pretend to be prepared.)  The best thing about her question is that I spent the rest of the day feeling like a benign Doctor Evil with plans to make One Meeellion Dollars and maybe get some fricking laser beams on some fricking sharks. Time well spent!

*****

Below is the official trailer for the Jane Eyre movie coming out in the spring. It seems like they've got a lot of appropriate gothic spooky atmosphere, but as always Mr. Rochester is too handsome  and Jane too pretty. But they're making an effort to be more homely, I can tell! It's Hollywood Homely, bless their hearts. But anyway - I'm excited to see it! It's got Judi Dench (love her!) as Mrs. Fairfax and I believe Sally Hawkins (love her too!) as the evil Mrs. Reed... Excellent. They spared no expense on the fog machine, which is as it should be.

I am ALMOST done with the book. I'm going to quit the internet right now and go read some more - but before I go, I ask you: How go YOUR plans for world domination?

three things about monday

1. I ate a miniature cupcake in honor of Beverly Cleary's 94th birthday. The library I worked at is in Ramona Quimby's neighborhood, so naturally there was a party. There were mini cupcakes, stickers, many rounds of Happy Birthday, and some sugared up but smiling parents and children.

2. April is national poetry month - I signed up to get a poem a day for the month and today's was lovely: a dream language adventure that spans continents and seasons in one short prose poem. Read it here: Postcard to I. Kaminsky from a Dream at the Edge of the Sea by Cecilia Woloch. "My own bags were full of salt, which made them shifty, hard to lift."

3. I want to see this Edwardian lady adventurer movie right now - she definitely looks capable of thwapping someone (be they man, mummy, or flying dinosaur) with a parasol. After I watched this trailer the first time I thought "hey! this reminds me of The Professor's Daughter," but then saw that Adèle Blanc-Sec has her own comics of extraordinary adventures. Wikipedia describes her as "A cynical heroine, she is initially a novelist of popular fiction, who turns to investigative journalism as her research and subsequent adventures reveal further details of the mystical world of crime." Subsequent adventures! Mystical world of crime! Must learn more. (do you think they'll reissue because of the movie?) This looks to fill an Indiana Jones shaped hole in summer movie viewing.

so much it hurts

I know this is last week's news, but I'm so excited for the Scott Pilgrim movie - I wasn't sure about it until I saw the trailer (below):


...and now I can't wait! I guess the good thing is it gives me time to reread all the books. You should check them out if this clip looks at all funny/awesome/both to you - the tone is very similar. Go here or here (or both if your clicky finger is itchy) to find out more about the series. Go here to see who's in the movie. (Anna Kendrick as Stacy Pilgrim seems perfect, if the 2 seconds she's in the trailer are any indication.) All that, plus Beck wrote the songs for Sex Bob-Omb. (!!)

movie list

Here are some movies I’ve seen recently. Well, some of them are recent, some of them are from when I decided to start keeping a list a couple of months ago. My plan is to clear out the backlog (this post and maybe another) and then just sort of keep up to date in a weekly-ish fashion. WHO KNOWS! I don’t exactly have the best plan to action record these days. These are just little descriptions - I may come back to some of them for longer, later.

Ball of Fire: 1941, Howard Hawks (library) (written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder) I love Barbara Stanwyck. LOVE HER. You know what else I love? I love Barbara Stanwyck playing a slang-slinging burlesque-singing dame named Sugarpuss O’Shea, a woman with a gangster boyfriend problem, which leads to a hot nerd problem. Gary Cooper is handsome but hopelessly square Bertram Potts (good old Pottsie), a linguist trying to compile an encyclopedia entry on slang. He lives in a house with 7 other eccentric encyclopedia authors who each live up to different egghead stereotypes with great enthusiasm. Potts is convinced he must conduct interviews with Ms.O’Shea (and others) in order to fix his entry and save the encyclopedia. Complications, as you might imagine, ensue. Cops, the Conga, stockings, spangles, a grouchy housekeeper, cheesy wise-guy lingo, smooching, a car chase, self-taught pugilism and much, much more. Dana Andrews is gangster-boyfriend Joe Lilac. JOE LILAC!

Twilight: 2008, Catherine Hardwicke (netflix) - they filmed a lot of this in Oregon, and some of it in Portland (I drove by some of the high school stuff on the way to work one time) - so I love seeing the misty grey thickness of the rainforest represented so faithfully. I learned previously unknown to me things, like that when vampires sparkle in the sunlight (!!), they also make a noise not unlike a flourescent lightbulb. This movie was overcooked in a lot of ways (why not make up a new monster if you want to have a vegetarian vampire who can go out in the sun???), but I also know that I would have been desperately, irrationally in love with this whole franchise between the ages of 12 -14. (including a dramatic “you just don’t understand” door slamming fight about it with my dad, who was a big Dracula fan.) fun fact/ annoying weather pedantry: If the Cullens really lived in Forks, Washington they’d never get to play baseball (!) because while it does rain a lot, thunder and lightning are rare.

The Hangover: 2009, Todd Phillips (netflix) isn’t this just a raunchy version of Dude, Where’s My Car? (which itself is a goofy version of Memento?) Is that too reductive? I know there are only so many ways to tell a story, but I kept thinking “DUDE” while I was watching The Hangover. That said, I laughed a lot. Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis are very funny. Bradley Cooper is funny too, and maybe he has the harder job since he always plays such an asshole.

Where the Wild Things Are: 2009, Spike Jonze (movies) I enjoyed this! The first bit (before Max runs off) is crooked and ragged and vital and the kingdom of the Wild Things is primal forest/beach strange, but also natural and beautiful. I thought most of the dialogue was too therapy-speak, but the visuals were magical and spoke to the 8 year old wild-jen within. (be warned: she is queen of the alligators.) Max Records has a very expressive face and I love the Karen O/Carter Burwell score.

Julie & Julia: 2009, Nora Ephron (netflix) I wanted to love the Julie parts of this story too, if only so I could be the one person on the planet who didn’t say “I wish it was Julia & More Julia.” But I didn’t so I can’t! I will say that I do normally really like Amy Adams. (did you know she was in an episode of Buffy? She was!)

The Wizard of Oz: 1939, Victor Fleming (library)The new digital technicolor restoration is AMAZING! I watched the old DVD version last year and the restored 70th anniversary edition this year - the difference is astounding. I thought the old one looked pretty good, but the new one is incredible.


The Harvey Girls: 1946, George Sidney (library) Judy Garland is a sassy mail-order bride/ railroad singing waitress in a wild west town. The guy with a lot of teeth and shiny black hair who runs the town is at war with her… or is he?! Will they resolve their differences? Will Judy sing songs by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer? Also starring Ray Bolger (“Scarecrow, I’ll miss you most of all”) , Cyd Charisse, and let’s not forget Angela Landsbury in sequins and feathers, hiding her pining heart of gold if you know what I mean and I think that you do.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: 2009, Wes Anderson (movies) FANTASTIC! I loved this. Review from the 6 year old sitting behind us: Booo-ring. (of course that tiny critic thought the tooth fairy movie with The Rock looked good, so I’m not looking for any movie advice from him.) I loved every little individually placed piece of animal fur and cuss graffiti in this movie. It was a good year for stop-motion animation! It’s funny how these kind of raggedy puppets dressed in human style clothes get to the essential parts of their wild animal nature in ways that the big monsters of WtWTA never quite do.

how many nickels?

Easy Living is a 1937 film written by Preston Sturges, directed by Mitchell Leisen, starring Jean Arthur and billed as 'high society slapstick.' I liked it quite a bit but did not love it, although I would certainly recommend it if you like Preston Sturges or Jean Arthur or high society slapstick. The story begins with working girl Mary Smith riding to work on top of a double decker bus, only to have her view obscured by the very expensive fur coat that falls on her out of nowhere. (Nowhere turns out to be the window of a penthouse apartment, but she doesn't know that yet.) She puts it on, and suddenly everyone assumes she's a rich man's mistress. (She does try to find the rightful owner.)

On the coat throwing end of things, there's a husband in hot water; misunderstandings abound! Husband in Hot Water and Angry Wife have an Accused of Fecklessness (but handsome and intrepid) Son who stomps out of the penthouse to make it on his own (I'll show you!), while Mary Smith tries to figure out what the hell is going on and why everyone thinks she's sleeping with the rich old guy who let her keep the coat and bought her an expensive hat. (I like the way this was handled, surprisingly -- she's a nice girl, but not without a practical and sweetly mercenary streak. Rent is due and she lost her job because of all this and if he wants to buy her something, she'll let him.) Meanwhile, there's a cute boy working at the automat. You can probably guess what happens, but a surprise ending is not the pleasure in a film like this. There's a lot of barbed humor at the expense of Wall Street and bankers (everything old is new again!), but to counter that more cerebral fast talking there's a lot of double taking and slapstick falling down. I like it both ways in screwball comedies and this doesn't disappoint.

But let's talk about the automat! There is a fantastic automat scene in this movie -- Mary is all kitted out in her fancy coat and hat, but she's starving. Despite being installed in the Hotel Louis (by proprietor Louis Louis who thinks she's the old guy's mistress and is hoping to curry favor), despite her fetching hat, she is HONGRY and has very little money -- only the change in her pocket -- so she goes to the automat, which conveniently is open late and takes change.

I'm in love with the idea of the old fashioned automat; all that marble and frill for what's essentially a cross between a cafeteria and a vending machine. My first encounter with an automat was, no joking, in a Trixie Belden girl detective novel: the Mystery of the Blinking Eye. (Trixie and Honey stay at the Wheeler's fancy apartment and solve a NYC crime, I think something to do with smugglers and they end up getting chased through the U.N. --ANYWAY, the important part is they eat at an automat.)

I couldn't find any movie stills featuring the automat, so I had to make my own.


Mary's supervisor, about to rat her out to the boss for having a fancy coat. (this has nothing to do with automats, but I love the "you tramp" expression on her face, and of course the large Mr. Higginbottom on the door.)



This gives a general sense of the layout of the room -- lots of marble, lots of tiny little doors with categorized food behind. Some tables for sitting down, some tables for standing up. It looks like basic condiments are on every table. (salt/pepper, sugar, etc.)


hungry, but stylish.


dig the checkerboard floor and attractive waitstaff!


he recommends the pot pie, but Mary doesn't have enough nickels. (at this point, he thinks he knows her from some fancy society event. She thinks he's either crazy or just plain mean.)


but he persists and suggests that he'll open up the doors from the back, and pay the automat after he gets paid. (nothing can go wrong with this plan!) She's cracking wise because that's how you do in this kind of movie. Note the girl in the booth behind them: Wikipedia tells me that she's there to give change.


you sure this is okay?


uh oh. There has been some unauthorized/accidental lever-pulling in the back. (and a pretty great cafeteria-style kitchen fight!)


word gets out that the food is free. (I love the revolving door and the turkey leg in his hand.)


chaos, hot dishes, fruit salad, cake everywhere. This is very early in the food fight. (chaos is slippery.)


The drink station -- you can barely see it, but there are slots for nickels just to the right of every spigot.


I don't think this is the usual employee exit.


Time to go! (poor Mary, she barely got to eat anything.)


The aftermath. She's still hungry, but I don't think I'm spoiling anything if I tell you it works out okay in the end.

all the rest have thirty one

august is so long! I know it's just as long as most other months of the year (apart from september, april, june, november and february), but this august has felt like it's 10000 days. Mostly this has been a good thing -- I've read a lot of books and had a second beach vacation (I'm very lucky) and other fun stuff. But I've also been having a weird period of physical malady with twists, sprains, compression bandages, face band-aids and spectacular arm bruises. What's up with that? I won't even try to explain the weird headache stuff since I think 20% of this blog is full of it already.

ANYWAY, between having fun and injuring myself, I've been having all these ideas. One of the latest is that I'm going to start going to the movies again -- I pretty much quit for a long time for many reasons (biggest reason = inertia), but decided that the time to resume is now. I want to vote with my dollars! I'm lucky because portland has lots of places to see movies, including a variety of second-run (cuz I'm slow) and art house theaters. Anyway, my very modest goal is to try and see at least one a month in the theater. More if I feel like it, but let's not get crazy. I also want to watch more movies at home, especially since it's so easy for me to pick them up at work. (fellow portlanders: the library has a really great collection of dvds.)

But like I said, I'm all full of ideas and short on implementation. (being full of implementation sounds like a painful medical condition. Maybe being full of implementation but not implementing is what's causing my month of casualty -- if I would actually DO any of the things I need to do, perhaps I would stop falling down and walking into things, etc.) I need to break this stuff down into actionable lists! Or something. I did make a list on a whiteboard (it has categories!), but it's still too broad; despite running around and being busy, I didn't get anything crossed off. I need to put Make Detailed List on a list and mark it #1. But that's a job for tomorrow, day #9997 of August. I'm hoping to cross at least 2 things off the list and avoid any new injuries. I think I can do it.

here's an 8 second campfire for you (from beach vacation 1: camping). I roasted marshmallows over this very fire without burning myself! (I did spill hot chocolate all over my lap, but you know, that's another story.)

kitchen sink news

weather: It sounds like some kind of crazy chime-ringing, oh-auntie-em house-moving, tree-shaking windstorm outside my window right now, but I think it's fake. I mean, it sounds like all those things, but since it's dark I can't really tell. Maybe there is localized huffing and puffing trying to blow my house down and it's as still and smooth as glass down the street! (maybe I should have taken drugs for this headache sooner, before I got to Weather Conspiracy on the brain chemistry dial.)

library: My favorite patrons this week have been, without question, 8-10 yr. old girls checking out their Nancy Drews and likewise. There have been a lot of them for some reason. They either have their library card READY TO GO on top of their neatly stacked pile of books, or they have their library card in their WALLET, which is obviously a point of "I practically have credit cards!" pre-tweener pride. (although a few of these girls have gotten ready to check out and the card is not where they were expecting it! This is so traumatizing to their library going book toting crime solving organized selves -- I always try to find something to do on the computer so that they can regain composure and remember that it is in their backpack pocket and not in their wallet after all.) Anyway, I like it when kids come up to the counter to check out their own stuff. Some weeks it's kids with manga or comic books, but this week it's been a lot of the titian-haired girl detective.

I have a lot of favorite patron types, now that I think of it. I'm also very fond of: 1) kids who are obviously dragging their non-reader parent or guardian there so they can get their weekly library fix. (and the guardian who brings them)
2) anyone who checks out an actual book with pages! (although I must note to non-reader parents or guardians and others that the library is not just for books. But books are awesome.)
3) I also love it when someone who hasn't used the library in years, or maybe ever, comes in and gets a card and CHECKS STUFF OUT. I mean, that's what we're there for!

Working the way I do at various branches all over town, I can tell you that anecdotally at least, people from every socioeconomic stripe use the library. Everyone makes the same excuses when stuff is late, too! The wording may change (I've heard "I was in jail" and "I was in europe" and "I was on tour" as reasons why something was desperately late), but the basic human reasoning remains the same: I don't think I should have to pay. People are funny!

I have lost track of where I was going here. oh, right. Hugh Jackman.

The Oscars: I liked it! I like Hugh Jackman a lot already -- he's so charming and talented and seemingly comfortable with himself. He's in a lot of bad movies, but I can't even hold that against him. (Yes, I have seen Van Helsing!) So, if you take Hugh Jackman, to whom I am already fondly disposed, and you set him up with an opening number that he pretend designed in his pretend garage out of fake pretend garage props? I'm pretty much helpless. The resulting opening number made me laugh a lot, but it wouldn't have worked if he wasn't giving it his all. I also liked the reconfigured stage and how the acting awards were distributed. By having previous winners say something specific about the nominees (my favorite: Shirley MacLaine to Anne Hathaway), it seemed more like actors celebrating their work and less of a "who has the best 'happy to be nominated' face" reality show. I know it was a little rough in spots, but I think doing it this way added continuity and a sense of community, which makes total sense for such a collaborative medium.

Lest you think that I am predisposed to love everything that crosses my line of vision, I have to say... (and I'm surprised to find the thought in my brain)... I think I'm getting Beyonce fatigue! I love her, but it seems like she's everywhere. Everywhere is too many places! She's gorgeous, but what the hell was up with her red carpet dress? It looked like a spandex bordello curtain. And she really needs to lay off At Last. I mean come on! I know she sang it in Cadillac Records and it was therefore fair game and maybe even relevant, but she JUST sang it at the inauguration, and Etta James is still drawing breath! Let Etta James have her song, Beyonce! You've got enough, you don't need that too.

Anyway, I certainly understand people who miss Billy Crystal, but I don't think the days of that kind of Oscar telecast are coming back. It's time to move forward. While this year's broadcast was far from perfect, I think it was a long step in the right direction. After it was over, I thought "I want to watch more movies!" which certainly hasn't been the case the past few years.

Here's the youtube of that opening number. I agree with Heather Havrilesky -- it was "a scrappy, bizarre masterpiece!"

a watcher scoffs at gravity

My Coraline movie experience: unhad, unknown, still a mystery, since it was SOLD OUT! Last night, and all 3 shows I'd be willing to go to today/tonight. So the new plan is to try some time during the week. I'm glad it's doing well, but dang! I wanted to see that movie already.

Dyeing Orange, an Oompa Loompa Story: No gloves = orange hands. Need I say more?

Ye Olde Tyme Televisionne: This afternoon was the quasi-monthly meeting of people with whom I watch Buffy. (we clearly need some kind clever name.) We're working our way through the entire series in order -- there are six of us, and all but one saw all or most of the series when it aired. One of us had never watched it, so we have a strict no-spoiler policy. (it's so funny -- there's always furious elbow jabbing, shushing, and laser-eyed looks if someone accidentally says something that might be interpreted as a spoiler, which is often more spoilery than whatever the innocently uttered comment was.) It's so fun to watch this way, and I'm not kidding!

Despite having seen all the episodes at least once, they still surprise me. Today was the day we watched Restless, which was the episode with the freaky First Slayer dream sequences that followed the official season 4 finale. This is one of my favorite episodes of the whole series!! It's trippy and funny and scary. It follows story logic AND dream logic (which are not traditionally compatible), yet is still true to each of the 4 main characters. It's so skillfully done! Each of their fears and strengths are on display. It was so visually beautiful, too. Sigh. Anyway, Giles (who was underutilized in season 4) has several stellar moments, including on the swingset with Spike ("Put your back into it -- a watcher scoffs at gravity!"), and his Exposition Song later on. Of course I also love Willow's Death of a Salesman anxiety dream, Xander's Apocalypse Now anxiety dream, Giles' She Doesn't Need Me anxiety dream, and Buffy's I Will Find You and Kick Your Ass, I Am My Own Person! dream. Oh, Buffy.

I love Buffy. I have loved other Joss Whedon shows, but I'm dreading Dollhouse. I will give it a fair chance; I hope I'm wrong with my misgivings -- but... I guess going from the strong but vulnerable Buffy Summers to the "I'll be whatever you want me to be because I'm programmed that way" Echo Nolastname doesn't seem like forward motion, you know? I know he plans to subvert the trope, but there is so much room for this to go spectacularly wrong. I love Eliza Dushku, I love Joss. I wish I felt better about this.

LOST: I'm still loving it! I think the smartest thing they ever did was give it an end date -- they were able to go WAY OUT THERE, but I don't think they're going to leave us hanging. Things are coming together. I'm also impressed with the way that the story is so different than it was in the first season, but the first season's stuff still (mostly) makes sense. We (and the Losties) had only partial understanding, which is not unlike life in general -- as understanding increases, things get more complicated. I enjoy the episodes with less Jack and Kate more than episodes with more Jack and Kate. Now that I think of it, Sawyer too. His Sarcasm In Need of a Shower routine is wearing a little thin with me. (I could change my mind.) Anyway, I love the time-travel aspect, I love that the show doesn't seem to be afraid of the crazy ideas. Those crazy ideas may not always work, but that they're willing to TRY means a lot to me. (doesn't that sound silly? But it's true! So many things are so careful, it's refreshing to watch something (especially on a major network!) that's a little reckless and willing to embrace big ideas. )

BONES: I enjoy this, but it seems more and more that they're just looking for excuses to put Bones and Booth in costumes/disguises. I generally enjoy it when they do (undercover at the carnival!), but I feel vaguely guilty about it. To me, this show has never really been about the procedural aspect of whatever body-droppin' criminal they're chasing; it's been about the team. However, they seem to be playing pretty fast and loose even with that (they have Bones in particular doing things that seem reaaally unlikely for someone of her established temperament, but people change, right? ha ha!). To be honest, I'm usually doing something else while this is on (reading the internet, crocheting, etc.) so perhaps I'm mistaken. I still love Sweets, even though he is their on staff Deus Ex Machina.

LIFE ON MARS: This is my favorite show this season!! (Pushing Daisies was my favorite, but it is sadly no more.) This is the show that I close my computer and just watch. I know that many fans of the original BBC show have not been won over by this remake, and I can understand that -- especially since I hear that the first several episodes were directly, almost word for word, from the original. (I haven't seen it yet, but will gladly watch it when dvds become available.) Once again, I like the time-travel stuff (and that it's as yet unexplained); I love that it's set in 1973 New York, which seems as wild as the frontier contrasted with set-in-the-present procedurals. It's got a rough and tumble energy that's lacking from a lot of other cop shows. I like all of the actors, I dunno... it just appeals to me on a lot of levels.

FRINGE: I mainly watch this not for Pacey (aka: Peter Bishop, although I Iike him) nor for Agent Dunham (she's got a great cop poker-face), nor for Daniels from the Wire (he should be in every show!), but for John Noble as Pacey's freaky, fragile, genius scientist dad, Walter Bishop.

BIG LOVE: This show is a weird one for me. I have to think about it a little bit before I can say much more. It is very irritating yet compelling -- I started watching and can't stop, but I can't really recommend it, either.

THE MENTALIST: I've only watched this a few times, but I love Simon Baker in it for a very simple reason: he smiles. He's not playing an idiot, he's a smart man with a complicated past, YET HE SMILES. This is so rare on TV! I think more men should smile on television, even when they're not in a sitcom, even when they have Secret Pain and a Troubled Past. I'm tired of all these grim-faced stoics.

On that note, I am tired in the completely prosaic sense and have to go to bed.

indeed we needn't, need we?

Gold Diggers of 1933 (Busby Berkeley/1933) -- I just watched this movie twice. Here are some reasons you might enjoy watching it, too:

1. GINGER ROGERS!! I love Ginger Rogers! She's funny, she's beautiful in a human way, and best of all she's a 12th degree black belt SASS MASTER. She's barely in this which is a shame, but when she's on the screen I don't care about anyone else. (plus, she's expert in pig latin!)

2. To answer the following questions: is Zac Efron the Dick Powell of the new millennium, or was Dick Powell the Zac Efron of 1933? Ruby Keeler looks kind of like Katie Holmes in this picture, right? RIGHT.

3. It's racy. So racy they even have John Waters in one of the accompanying documentaries. (He speaks about the huge production number Pettin' in the Park, but the movie is pretty suggestive outside the confines of that particular song as well.) It was made after the Hays Production Code was enacted, but right before they actually started enforcing it.

4. Inexplicable roller skating. Well, it's not exactly inexplicable -- it's roller skating as a form of commuting AND police transportation, right in the middle of the aforementioned highly suggestive song, Pettin' in the Park.

5. I love how the big Busby Berkeley dance numbers allegedly happen on a Broadway stage, yet they're often HUGE with a cast of 100's that could really only conceivably happen in a Hollywood sound stage or an airplane hangar. They do usually end with the flourish of a curtain coming down, but even so, that's a lot of disbelief you have to suspend. But they are so freaking bizarre and beautiful, I don't care at all!

6. The whole thing ends with a giant production number about forgotten men and the bread lines. This sounds strange and maybe it is a little strange to have this huge marching formation of homeless former soldiers at the end of a fairly raunchy sex comedy, but it was very topical and I think kind of risky at the time.

7. As Gold Digger movies go, I found this much more enjoyable than How to Marry a Millionaire. Joan Blondell is aces.

8. Billy Barty = creepiest roller skating baby EVER. (or maybe it's charming and my charmometer is broken.)

9. If you're looking to add to your list of comedies that deal with the Great Depression (My Man Godfrey, Sullivan's Travels), this is a good one. I don't think it's as good as either of those (both wonderful), but it has Busby Berkely production numbers including inexplicable roller skating and Ginger Rogers singing in pig latin. That counts for a lot in my book.

10. The clothes are fantastic.

I couldn't decide what youtube video to include since there are so many available! the trailer was tempting, but I decided you can't go wrong with Ginger.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Anoinette/ Sofia Coppola 2006

I liked this movie! I haven't read much about it, but I know from doing some googling for images that there was a really mixed reaction when it came out -- boos at Cannes, charges of excessive frivolity, shallowness, boo hoo princess (aimed equally at Coppola as Antoinette as far as I can tell), too like a music video, etc. etc. I acknowledge that there are legitimate reasons for disliking it (how generous I am to allow for people having their own opinions!), although the one I keep circling back to is "I was expecting something else." If you were hoping for Lost in Translation Goes Versailles, you might be disappointed (although this movie continues to examine the loneliness that was at the heart of LiT, it does not have Bill Murray singing karaoke or Scarlett in her underpants); if you were hoping for a gritty prequel to Les Miserables, no luck! The angry torch and pitchfork wielding mob is alluded to, but rarely seen. (I think you see all of it in the trailer.) I grudgingly allow that if you were hopping up and down for something somber, traditional, political, weighted with the lead cloak of 100% historical accuracy-- the presence of music by Bow Wow Wow or Siouxsie and the Banshees might strike you like the laughter of GWB strikes me. (UNBEARABLE.)

Don't get me wrong -- I love history, I love political intrigues and all that jazz. ("all that jazz": a term often used in historiography.) But I LOVE that Coppola didn't choose to tell this story in that way. Instead she focused on the girl/woman herself -- what would it have been like to be a political pawn (married to France to secure an alliance), have no personal privacy at all (30+ courtiers watching her give birth), to have access to great wealth, but have virtually no power or freedom? And perhaps most importantly in this story, to be a teenager on top of it all?! She paints Marie Antoinette as a high-spirited girl, which she was -- not a politician, not a barracuda, just a young clueless person trying to make the best of the circumstances she was born to.

I read someone out there on the intertubes refer to this movie as more of a tone poem than a biopic. This struck me as being an excellent description because so much of the mood of the film is conveyed in music and color. (it's funny! The trailer has basically all of the movie exposition, and it takes less than three minutes.)

ADAM ANT! ADAM ANT! ADAM ANT!

Perhaps here is where I should say that I am around the same age as Sofia Coppola and that we probably had the same picture of Adam Ant taped to our walls. A lot of the images and music combined hit me right in a culturally resonant spot I didn't even know existed. (much of the 80's was pretty embarrassing.)

Speaking of images, this film is lovely to look at. The color palette is bright and beautiful, the costumes are amazing, the furnishings... the fact that they're IN Versailles and make it look like a place where people are living (albeit opulently) rather than just a museum is no small feat. The lighting is beautiful as well -- I thought the "back to nature" section of the movie (Antoinette removed to the country with her daughter) with its simpler clothing and white/green palette was particularly gorgeous. And the food!! Oh my god! Don't watch it if you're hungry, because you'll be miserable. (me, and the people of France. I know, I know.)

I don't know why I waited so long to watch it. I was intrigued by the trailer when it was in the theater, but didn't get to it in time. The DVD finally passed through my hands at the library with no other holds on it, so I brought it home. It's something I'd been meaning to do, but I had this idea that I wasn't going to like it. (Here's the truth behind that "idea:" I know how this story ends! Madame Guillotine!) I am a wuss and tend to protect myself if I'm feeling vulnerable. Right now I'm a stressed out wuss who didn't want to be gut punched by my DVD player. I think I can say without giving too much away that Coppola found her way to an ending that was satisfying and felt right without being exploitative.

This was going to be part of a longer post about movies and other stuff I've been watching lately, but I got carried away by the Adam Ant of it all.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

I found this Caldecott Award winning illustrated children's novel to be delightful. The book is over 500 pages and heavy as a brick, but it's quality weight! Contained within its pages are orphans and automatons, magicians and mechanics, secrets and dreams -- also cinematic mysteries, a hungry boy, a curious girl and a cranky old man. A library! Monsieur, Madame, Méliès, the moon. (AUTOMATONS!)

The story is set in 1931 Paris; a city typed up and drawn out, replete with rooftops, clockworks, museums, attics, train stations, transitions, small mechanical parts and moments of truth. Flames, fire, films. The long arm of the law. Eyepatch! excitement, escape. Pickpocket lockpickers. Mouse, motivation, well meaning meddling minors.

Selznick combines text and drawings with a few photographs here and there. The drawings don't so much illustrate text as operate as legitimate storytelling all on their own. Like a song in a well done musical, the drawings are trusted to move the story forward without merely rehashing what's been already said. I think this is especially effective with the action scenes. (in fact, I think there could have been a little less text, but I'm significantly older than the target audience, so maybe I'm just old and crazy.) There's a real cinematic quality of motion in the drawings -- lots of detail to get lost in if you chose to take your time or go back and look, but compelling action right up front to keep those pages turning. There's a fictional story here -- some mystery, adventure and bravery in the face of adversity -- but also a lot of historical information on some of the very earliest films ever made. (and a nice "credits" section in the back with places for further research and information.) I don't doubt that this book has inspired the imagination of many children (and adults!) -- is there anything better? In this age of YouTube it's especially easy to search out related footage.

Here are a couple that I found:

Méliès famous "Voyage to the Moon" -- this version has a soundtrack that includes narration (which I found helpful) -- some of them don't, some of them have other music (Kraftwerk?!) or other narration. There are a bazillion versions on youtube, as well as many other very charming Méliès short films.

Part one (getting ready to go to the moon):



Part two (actually getting to the moon and meeting those who live there):



and here's a FANTASTIC Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Méliès homage -- it's a video for the Smashing Pumpkins' song Tonight, Tonight. (I especially like it because there is a Victorian lady adventurer who thwaps things with her parasol.)

if only we had a wheelbarrow

Hello again. It seems to me that it has been a huge yawning chasm of time since I last posted -- echoing canyons of LONG TIME GONE. However, the calendar informs me it has been less than a week, so there's that. Thank god for calendars. (I guess.) You know what? Scratch that. I'm not going to thank god for a calendar. Thank god for seasonal stone fruit! YEAH! That's one I can get behind. I ate the most delicious peach today, a black apricot yesterday, and the plums are really good right now.

Speaking of nature's calendar -- I can tell that summer is starting to get restless. I always try to turn a blind eye, but after a certain point it's just embarrassing for both of us. I'm all hopeful in flip flops and a sleeveless top and she's all distracted and raining or blowing unusually cold wind. First it was the tiny half-formed acorns falling from the trees: half-formed, so I could talk my way around it --obviously some delinquent squirrel teenagers are vandalizing the tree! But now there are early trees getting yellow leaves (nooooo!!), larger acorns, the squirrels getting fat and sassy, spiders EVERYWHERE (don't ask), and of course the days getting shorter (sigh), and the moon has shifted. Let's face it -- summer's still here and having a pretty good time (although raining at the moment), but she's dreaming of Australia. I've tried begging, but it doesn't work. You get that stink of desperation and not only will summer stay away, but autumn will be saying "oh, god! do I have to?" and what you end up with is 5 months of nothing but rain.


this photo is of the actual screen with my actual camera.

BUT, speaking of summer and fun things to do -- Saturday night Bec, Martina and I went to Lents park to watch The Princess Bride as part of the Movies in the Park program the city is doing. I had to work during the day, but Martina arranged everything -- my sister and I just rolled up to a convenient parking spot and sat down on a provided lawn chair and blanket and ate a provided picnic. (Provisions by: Martina picnic provisions.) WOO! Not only did I get to visit a park I'd never been to before, but I also learned that Woody Guthrie lived in the Lents neighborhood when he was in the area writing songs for the Bonneville Power Administration. (26 songs in 30 days! so I doubt he was doing a lot of wandering around the neighborhood, but EVEN SO it's interesting.)

The Princess Bride holds up. It was very popular with the crowd (which ranged from pirates to republicans to stoners to goths to hippies to those dudes who work in offices, to families with very small children to teenaged boys covered in axe body spray (why, god, WHY?) to fencers to vegan strippers to the typical granola liberal. and their dogs) -- lots of people were quoting dialogue (I'll admit I found this moderately annoying, especially when they were ahead or behind the movie) -- the kids behind us were very concerned about the "monsters!" (R.O.U.S.'s), the biggest cheer came from "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die." (I suspect the pirates as they looked sort of bleary and bloodthirsty.) (not really bleary. They were mostly respectable suburban pirates, a confounding subspecies that deserves a post of its own.)

The weather was perfect. It's such a satisfying movie, but it's hard going, really hard going for everyone in the whole damned thing. I noticed especially quotes like "get used to disappointment," and "life is pain, Princess" and of course the glorious offhand lunacy of "if only we had a wheelbarrow." It's all just so perfect. P.S. I love Wallace Shawn as Vizzini.

The truth serum I took earlier today compels me to admit that I did fall asleep for about two minutes during the wedding, but woke up in time for lots of sword fights and running down castle corridors and inspired insults. It was a lovely venue and a fine way to revisit an old movie favorite.

how do you feel?

Other Beatle: How do you feel?

Ringo: With me hands, usually.

(Beatle quotes approximate! Please recall that lame puns are 125% funnier with Liverpool accent, 200% funnier when said by a Beatle, and 500% funnier when said by Ringo.That's just the way it is.)

I thought today was going to be the kind of day where I would intersperse reading on the patio with crossing off items on my to-do list (first item: make list!) but it wasn't to be: I got called into work -- but it was okay! I was there just the right amount of time, it was air conditioned (hot today) and they called me, which is always nice.

ANYWAY. I have too many DVDs out from the library. The limit on DVDs* is 15 -- usually it's not a problem, but all these great foreign movies that I want to watch keep crossing my path at work. I drag them home, and they LANGUISH while I wait and wait until finally I can't renew them anymore, make myself sit down and watch them, and then think "why did I wait so long?!?" I do this all the time!! Anyway, I have to get moving on some of these because Lubitsch's The Love Parade is waiting for me and something has to go back. So tonight I watched Help! (which I realize is not in a foreign language, but shut up! it's hot outside and I can't read subtitles effectively when I have to get up every 10 minutes for a new popsicle, okay?) I will have more to say about this later, but it featured a Beatle song I hadn't heard/thought of in a long time. (crucial youtube video below:)



According to Wikipedia, this song was "John doing Dylan." I quite like it. And the video (from the movie) is classic. (Ignore Leo McKern with a gigantic styrofoam manhole cover on his head... if you can.) I love how they reinforce their Beatle (Boy Band) Personalities in this segment: Thinky Acoustic Dylan John in front of the library, shy but sly flirty George, cheeky flirty Paul, and of course RINGO in the bed cave with a tambourine! (I knew I wasn't the only one who kept a tambourine under my pillow!!) In mid-century modern news, I love the sideboard in the scene with the lawn-mowing hobo-hippie who plays the flute/clarinet/woodwind of some sort. (in fact, I think I've seen most of this furniture in the Design Within Reach catalog.)

Book News: I didn't have a chance to get very far (YET) due to the working today and all, but from the first 12 pages of Lynda Barry's What It Is (Powell's, library), I am already willing to call it one of the best books I've read all year. If you are interested in writing, visual art, or really creativity of any kind do yourself a favor and get your hands on this book right away. I bonded with it before I opened it (from the cover!) but I knew it was going to be great by the time I read this: " The thing I call 'my mind' seems to be kind of like a landlord that doesn't really know its tenants. (...) Who is playing that music? That song I said is 'stuck' in my head? Which apartment are they in?"

Other Summer Reading News: I have a TON of short stories arriving on my doorstep and already here. I guess I'd better get busy. I have also decided that I'm having an Ephronathon this summer. I don't know why, but it just popped into my head not that long ago that I've really enjoyed everything I've ever read by Nora Ephron, so maybe I should read MORE of it. yeah! Plus, I really enjoy saying "Ephronathon."

Okay. this was going to have more, but I will save it for another post.

*library limits for our system are as follows: total items: 150 (very generous!), 15 CDs, 15 DVDs. I think the limits on media used to be higher (or not at all) but people (ahem) were hoarding things. The limits keep stuff circulating, which is the whole point.

post-it quote

I'm doing laundry, which is exciting, I know, and not really worth mentioning all on its own, but I found a great quote in my pocket, so here I am! I'm always writing notes of things (titles of books, stuff I want to look up) and putting them in my pocket -- or on the days when I am sadly lacking a pocket, folding them up and putting them in my bra. (this is not ideal! paper is sharper than you'd think.) ANYWAY. Today's pocket cleaning netted this quote from Preston Sturges' Palm Beach Story. This is nerdy billionaire John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee) speaking to soon to be divorced Gerry (Claudette Colbert) about her (allegedly) no-good but very tall husband (Joel McCrae). It's delivered with such matter of fact resignation that it makes me laugh every time.

That's one of the tragedies of this life, that the men who are the most in need of beating up are always enormous.

she didn't hear the question!

"Not 'Anytime Annie'? Say, who could forget her? She only said 'no' once, and then she didn't hear the question!"

Ha ha! I just watched 42nd street, and I have to say my favorite character was Ginger Rogers as Anytime Annie. A monocle (!!!), a completely fake posh accent, a finely tuned bullshit detector, a smart mouth, a heart of gold -- what's not to love? I'm going to have to have a Ginger With No Fred film festival. (Fred's such an attention hog.) I would have much preferred to watch more of her and less of that strangely underwater performance by Ruby Keeler as the ingenue. (her timing was so weird and her performance so flattened it was almost like she was recovering from having been accidentally shot with a tranquilizer dart or having her lines simultaneously translated from Russian. I kept hoping that this reaction lag was somehow rooted in her character, but... no. ) Anyway -- Ginger Rogers stole the show whenever she was on the screen. This post at the Self-Styled Siren has considered and wonderful Anytime Annie details.

(the fake accent reminds me of a guy I worked with a couple of weeks ago -- he was dressed like an extra in a Guy Ritchie movie and spoke (only to me!) with a fake english accent. He used his regular voice with patrons. Why do this? Is it because I'd never worked with him before and he thought I wouldn't notice? It's not even a very good fake english accent! It's so bizarre, but it made me laugh.)

Vague Enough?

I read a blog post a couple of weeks ago that I found profoundly affecting in a fun and affirming way (rather than an "oh, I guess I don't have it so bad after all" way). The thing is, I can't link to it -- it would be far too directly revealing! It was code red button pressing for me. It's the kind of thing that if I'd heard it aloud, would render me unconscious and I'd have to be revived via portable defibrillator or random lightning strikes. You can't count on either of those! Reading is so dangerous. It was a short piece; less than 150 words, but it was one of those lightbulb over the head moments. Eureka! Aside from making me dizzy (in a good way), it pulled back the curtain on a window I forgot was there, and I'm so happy it did! The view is lovely and not nearly as limited as I once supposed.


Letters Section:

dear ice cream,

it's not you, it's me. I have to stay away for my own sake. I'll call you when I can button my jeans again.

I miss you already,
me

p.s. will you tell frozen yogurt?

Back On Task:

Today is the day I intend to get a major storage issue taken care of. Woo hoo! Wish me luck. I have all the supplies I need, so I suppose what's next is to get off the internet and actually DO IT. I will be thinking about what other figures (beyond Anytime Annie, the Planter's Peanut and the Monopoly Man) wear monocles. I can't figure out how or why they were ever considered practical, but they DO make me laugh.

I would name that dog Archie Bunker

I saw a dog in the park today that looked just like Archie Bunker if Archie Bunker were a small white dog. (JUST LIKE HIM! I expected him to open his mouth and call me meathead.) Archie Bunker (the dog) reminds me of Paul Anka (the dog) from Gilmore Girls, which reminds me that I have seen The Return of Jezebel James by GG creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. I want to like it, but I can't quite get there.

First, the good: I like Parker Posey; I like Lauren Ambrose, even though it looks like she doesn't have any eyebrows; I like Diane Weist, even though her character seems (thus far) to be a sloppy outline of "neurotic mother who makes her daughters crazy in opposite ways." I thought that one of the best moments of the first two 1/2 hour episodes was the interaction between Sarah (Posey) and a random little girl in her office -- Sherman-Palladino writes believable (to me, anyway) smart little girls.

On the other hand: the laugh track has got to go. (OH MY GOD! Why are they still using these? If it's funny, I'll laugh all by myself, I promise!) I know a series has to hit the ground running these days, but other half-hour comedies have shown that there are ways to introduce characters and their quirks without bludgeoning the audience. (30 Rock, The Office, My Name is Earl for example.) I felt like they were wasting a lot of their very limited time belaboring some pretty obvious information. I think this show would work better if it were a one hour drama that is also funny, like say... Gilmore Girls.

In other news, I just checked my library hold list, and the new Lubtisch Musicals box set is in transit to me! I am so looking forward to Maurice Chevalier being dapper and dirty in what the link above refers to as "these elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the Hays morality code." Elegant and bawdy -- you don't see that in combination too much these days, at least that I'm aware of. Feel free to enlighten me.

Relatedly, this post at Bright Lights After Dark tackles the issue of the short guy's burden (particularly Charlie Ruggles) in "matters of pre-code l'amour."



And speaking of MUSICALS... Joss Whedon is apparently doing a limited internet series musical with Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion!!! Hooray! Here's a quote from Joss' post at Whedonesque:

"This much I will say: It's the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to. And I'm having the time of my life.

"DOCTOR HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG"

Neil Patrick Harris.....as Dr. Horrible
Nathan Fillion..........as Captain Hammer
Felicia Day.............as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon."

I can't wait!

you get it, you got it, you know it's good

I had the phrase you get it, you got it, you know it's good from The Beastie Boys stuck in my head all day yesterday. I think it's from Hello Nasty, but I'm not sure. Fun, but I haven't listened to them in ages -- why do they keep floating up to the surface of my mind? It's a December MYSTERY, is what it is. The sentiment is appropriate, however -- I'm finally rested up from my Long Week and everything looks better.

I have done zero decorating for Christmas! Today is the day, or else. (... or else something dire -- maybe no cookies.) Part of the problem is that I have been up to my eyeballs in Christmas junk at my far away sad crazy lady job since HALLOWEEN. Before Halloween! (She hates halloween! I told you she was crazy.) Between the weird It's Been Christmas For Three Months time-warp and the new library job-having, I am entirely time-discombobulated. I'm not stressed about it, though. It will all work out and I'm sure I'll be looking at colored lights in no time. (colored lights are my favorite. colored lights and cookies.)


And now, a list! Here's some of the stuff I've been watching --

This Film Is Not Yet Rated: oh, this is a good one to watch if your blood pressure is too low or if you need a little extra shot of outrage to get you through the day. I found it to be resonant with some of the issues of mega-conglomerate studio control that have been coming up during the writer's strike. (once again I am amazed at what a freaking MIRACLE it is that good movies ever get made at all -- when you think of all the places it can go wrong, of all the people that are involved in such hugely collaborative enterprise -- and that's just in the making-it process, not even mentioning all the places it can go wrong after it has already been created!)

This film is a documentary looking into the inner workings of the MPAA -- the movie ratings board. The members are SECRET their screenings are SECRET and their rules are BIZARRE and smothered in SECRET SAUCE. The filmmaker launches an investigation to uncover some of the whys and wherefores. The official line is that rating films is voluntary and a service for parents to help decide which films are appropriate for their children. This sounds so reasonable, but the truth is that the MPAA is the only game in town, they undergo virtually no review themselves (since it's a voluntary rating rather than a government rating), and if your film is given the dreaded NC-17 you are in the position of either trying to re-cut to get an R (which may not work), or just face that many theaters won't show your movie because they don't show NC-17 or unrated films. You can appeal, but the appeal process sounds like going up against the Spanish Inquisition or the Illuminati.

Watching this confirmed my suspicion that in the United States violence is rated on a far more lenient scale than sex. Some sex is okay (especially if you are on your way to blow some shit up or crash some cars or shoot some people or are a heterosexual man obsessed with apple pie), but once it gets to the realm of pubic hair or female orgasm, forget about it. The filmmaker talked with John Waters (who was delightfully frank as always), Wayne Kramer and Maria Bello, Atom Egoyan (surprisingly hilarious), Kevin Smith, Kimberly Peirce and many others. Director Kramer and actress Bello had some interesting insight since in their film it was to her naked body the MPAA objected, but I think they undercut their argument by saying "our movie sex was okay because these characters were in love," which, hey -- great for them, but it obscures the larger point -- the standards for ratings are purely subjective and based on criteria that appear to have been pulled directly from Jack Valenti's ass. Anyway. It was thought provoking.

Dirty Sexy Money: I finally saw the first episode (I came on board during the second or third episode) and I love this show! It fills the season 1-2 of The OC shaped hole in my heart. (I know some people love Gossip Girl for this particular void, but I couldn't get into it.) The cast of Dirty Sexy Money is excellent and they've got enough stuff going on that it's not just samestorysamestorysamestory like Grey's Anatomy was getting to be for me (although I heard that it's been getting better... is it true?). It's not like The Wire or anything, but I find it very entertaining and prefer not to miss it.


Pushing Daisies: I still love this so much! Olive is so great -- they all are, but she is filled with great lately. She's angry, heartsick and scheming, yet also generous (it's an effort), helpful (ditto) and scheming (because she just can't help herself). This is the show I will miss the most when they run out of episodes, which I think they just did. Sigh. Paul Reubens as Oscar Vibenius, olfactory expert who happens to live in the sewer and wear goggles for some reason? fantastic! Chuck's wardrobe still makes me green with envy, none of them are perfect and they all act like jerks from time to time... it's just so fun. They've got a lot of plates spinning at once, but I think that's how they keep any one element from overwhelming. Yeah, it's a big old candy-colored fairy tale or romance or quirky drama, but it's also an honest to god procedural! They solve crimes! bake pies! have Hitchcock homages! And somehow there is still time for synchronized swimming, knitting and beekeeping. It's funny and weird yet truly dark around the edges. I heart you, Bryan Fuller. This is by far my favorite show this season.

Bones: Aw, Bones! I like this show a lot. In fact, this list is inspiring me to try this crazy thing where I only watch shows I enjoy. Anyway -- they are always reasonably clever with the mystery every episode, but what keeps me watching is the interpersonal chemistry. They've got a great team and I like to see them working together. I like new-guy Sweets (the psychiatrist) because he was that little tiny kid from Freaks and Geeks, now hugely tall. I love that Ryan O'Neal is recurring as Brennan's jailbird dad. I'm enjoying how they are spooling out the Brennan and Booth relationship. They're friends and colleagues who respect each other, but there's that physical chemistry bubbling up all around. I appreciate that they're trying to vent some of that energy with the recent mistletoe adventure, but I found it kind of ... contrived. (because a character who suddenly had the power to grant the one thing that Brennan wanted (a family jail-christmas for her jailbird brother) was feeling "puckish" and insisted that they kiss?? Really??) They wanted to have their five steamboat cake and eat it too -- which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I did. I just felt cheap.

and now I'm off to unearth the christmas lights. Happy Sunday!