Netflix Picks

I have a new addition to my top 10+ movies of all time: C.R.A.Z.Y. It's in Québécois French with English subtitles. Put it on your queue right away!

And, um, it doesn't hurt that the main character is insanely hot:



Dexter season 2 is also great. I thought the series got off to a slow start, but the end of the first season was awesome and it's only getting better. And, incidentally, the main character in that show is hot as well:

Movie Recommendation

I just finished watching The Savages, and it was one of the most brilliantly written, directed, and acted films I have ever seen. There isn't too much I can say about it since it was more of a character-driven movie than a plot-driven one, but I highly recommend it and it received a rarely-awarded 5-star rating by me in Netflix.

Where Have I Been?

March was wondering this the other day; I can only assume it's because he's secretly hankering for more Idol Thoughts. May is usually my busiest month because that's when I come out of hibernation and there are always a lot of birthday dinners for myself and a couple of my friends who share May birthdays. This May has been no exception. As you all know, I've been having nervous breakdowns over cataloging since January. I handed in my final paper in the end of April, then headed off to Mooresville to see Rusty. Two weeks after that, Chris and I went for a long weekend in Washington, D.C. and then right after that, my first summer class started. My second summer class starts June 3; yes, they overlap. And the birthday dinners haven't even started yet! The first one is today, I'm still waiting to hear back from L. (If you're reading this, thanks for ignoring me!! :)) and another friend, there is a breakfast pending with some old co-workers, and an outing to see Sex in the City with a current co-worker coming up. That's a lot for someone who is as adept at sitting on her ass as I am.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. D.C. pics are forthcoming; I don't have too many because the weather was horrible. Steady rains and temperatures 25 degrees below normal sort of marred my big plans, but I had a good time nonetheless. I ended up getting an 88% in Cataloging. I'm usually not happy with a B in a class for which I did so much work, but that was hell and I had D at one point, so I can't complain about a B. Especially since he ripped my paper apart... It's also a little annoying that he considers an 89% an A, so I just missed it. But, as one of my co-workers told me (remember what I said about working with therapists?), I need to let go of the negativity and move on.

I had my first session of my first summer class this past weekend and it was the best class I've had so far. I adore the professor (and I think she really likes me) and only looked at my watch about 3 times, compared to 3,000 times in my other weekend classes. I'm actually considering switching the class I chose in the fall to have her again. On a side note, I just found out that someone else will be teaching cataloging next time it's offered. Arghh!!!!!!! If I had waited, perhaps I could have had a professor who doesn't have such an arbitrary grading system. Sorry; letting go of the negativity... I'm dreading having these two summer classes overlapping (the first one is three weekends and the second is online) because we have to do as much in 5 weeks as we would normally do in 4 months, but by July 3 I'll be 6 credits closer to graduating. By Christmas I'll have 7 out of 12 classes and all I'll have left to take is electives, so I can take things that actually interest me.

There aren't any Idol Thoughts for last week because I worked Tuesday night and my Ti-faux is still out of commission, so I taped it and only watched David Cook's performances. No surprises Wednesday night; Syesha should have gone weeks ago. The Office season finale was Thursday and it was great. Pathetically, I'm glad that I'll have my life back after Wednesday. I rarely watch TV in the summer, and I won't have time to until July anyway. I even bumped my Netflix subscription down to 2 at a time.

Work is still insanely busy, compounded by the fact that I've been off so many days in the past month. I'm off again on Monday, so next week will be crazy again, but I'm hoping that things will calm down after that. Obviously we're closed on Memorial Day, but there's a huge difference in the amount of work required when I'm off on a vacation day compared to a day we're closed. It hasn't helped that they were switching the servers, so our MIS has been down a lot and 95% of what I do requires the ability to use it. The only other thing on the work front is that we got new computers (our old ones were castoffs from the state, so they were probably about 10 years old).
Now it takes less than 2 minutes to open a new window and I have a flat-screen monitor so I have free space on my desk! Woot!

So, with everything that's going on, I'll be posting D. C. pics and Idol Thoughts next week and then probably won't be around too much till July unless something awesome or stupid happens. I expect it'll be the latter. I hope everyone has a good beginning of the summer!

Prince Caspian

The next chapter in the Chronicles of Narnia (in publication order, at least) is coming out on May 16, 2008. Check out the trailer for Prince Caspian. I'm re-reading the books, but I'm going in chronological order, so Prince Caspian is number 4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a gorgeous, lush movie that I think was robbed for best cinematography at the Oscars, so I have high expectations for PC.

TV Stuff...and Snape

I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night, and I would totally let Snape do naughty things to me.



Curb Your Enthusiasm's fifth season begins on September 9. Unfortunately I don't have HBO, so I'll have to wait till the DVD comes out.

*small voice* I sort of want to watch Kid Nation. And I got a little misty eyed at the video on the site. What?! I had PMS!

YES!! American Gladiators is coming back! I used to watch that on Sunday afternoons. Ohh, maybe I should try out! It says a good candidate is "big, bad, and athletic with a personality that sizzles." That's definitely me. You MUST watch this video. I don't remember Malibu, but he is a tool.



Anchorwoman was canceled after 1 episode. HAHAHAHA Oh wait; it's being replaced by 'Til Death. Gotta love FOX.

Stuff

I can't wait for The Simpsons movie!! I don't know if I'll get to see it this weekend or not, but hopefully it'll be soon. I even put a Simpsons band-aid on the blister I got on my ankle when I went hiking wearing my shoes that are too small. It was about 15 years old and probably coated in bacteria which is probably the reason why I'm in excruciating pain every time I bend my ankle, but I had to keep with the theme.

Check out how much the Kwik-E-Mart 7-11s sold:

960,000 cans of Buzz Cola
1.1 million Squishees
880,400 Sprinklicious doughnuts
More than 3.4 million units of Simpsons swag

It's not surprising though. How can you resist a 3 for the price of 3 deal?

Speaking of my hiking, I think I might start running again. I ran a little bit on Sunday when I was out and it was fun. I couldn't run too far though, because I wasn't wearing a sports bra and I'm a little busty. It was like a scary, unsexy episode of Baywatch. I'll need to buy an MP3 player though; I can't run without music and I don't think bringing my Walkman along will do anything to increase my already hopelessly low coolness factor.

Check out this video of an entertainment reporter interviewing Holly Hunter. Awkward! Rusty, you probably shouldn't watch.

Shit! Why does YouTube randomly not let me embed videos sometimes?! Here's the link.

I started reading the first Harry Potter book. I'll let you know if it lives up to the hype.

Knocked Up Review

Knocked Up, directed and written by Judd Apatow of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Anchorman fame, returns with some of his "Freaks and Geeks" buddies to bring us this raunchily funny flick with a cast that makes playing six degrees of separation a hell of a lot easier. Ben, played perfectly by Seth Rogen, who deserves to be a leading man as much if not more than some people already in those roles, beds Alison (Katherine Heigl), a woman who would not look twice at him if it weren't for a booze-fueled celebration of a promotion. After the awkward morning after it seems that Ben and Alison will never cross paths again until a bout of morning sickness leads to a frenzied trip to the drug store for pregnancy tests.

In the ensuing months Apatow shows us the nuances of a couple trying to navigate a new relationship and do the right thing. Ben is a stoner who, with his buddies, is trying to make it big with a website that tells users at what point in a movie they can see their favorite starlet naked, although it seems that for them, the fun of finding the nudity takes precedence over launching the site. Alison is an up-and-coming career woman, recently promoted to a prestigious position at E!. Although they come from very different backgrounds they somehow find a way, after several bumps in the road, to come together for their unborn baby.

This movie is rated R for a reason. Drug use is rampant, the sex scenes are startlingly graphic for a comedy, and a part of the female anatomy is shown (twice!), but not in a way that Ben and his friends would appreciate. Knocked Up has a typical, predictable happy ending, but the audience finds itself happy for Ben and Alison instead of feeling cheated at being blind-sided by a typical Hollywood cliche. Mr. Apatow strikes the perfect balance: a movie with romance that isn't a diabetic coma-inducing chick flick; a movie with plenty of drugs, sex and shenanigans that doesn't go for American Pie-type cheap laughs.

Other notable performances include a hilarious cameo by Ryan Seacrest, Leslie Mann as the raging bitch of a sister, and Paul Rudd as the hen-pecked husband longing for the type of life he could have had if he had not also become a father too soon; fans of "Freaks and Geeks" should keep an eye out for a cameo by Paul Feig as Fantasy Baseball Guy #1.

This and That

I'm getting increasingly excited for The Simpsons movie to come out on July 27. Their website has launched. Here's the trailer:

The Simpsons Movie - final trailer (fdb.blox.pl)
Uploaded by pietruch

As if I didn't want to go to London badly enough, Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Crook are going to be preforming Free Love Freeway at a concert for Princess Diana on July 1. Here's the clip from the show:



I had a pretty good weekend. I took Friday off and Rusty and I were supposed to go hiking, but I got hives from my meds again (including on the bottom of my feet), so that pretty much ruled out hiking and I had to make a doctor's appointment at 8 AM anyway. I'm all roided up and doing well; this round of hives wasn't one millionth as bad as the last time. I went to the Amish farmer's market with Rusty and her parents in the afternoon and then L., Rusty, and I saw Knocked Up and went out to dinner.

On Saturday we went to a baseball game. York decided it was a good idea to kick people out of their homes and waste taxpayer money to build a stadium; thus the York Revolution was born. We left around 11 PM at the end of the 10th inning and my dad turned on the radio in the car while they were in the bottom of the 12th. Apparently we scored one run to win it at the bottom of the 13th inning. It was a long game.

Sunday was a leisurely day spent reading and relaxing. I finished Keeping the House, the book I was sent for the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. It comes out July 10, and while I wouldn't necessarily pay the $25 list price for it, I would check it out at the library or a used book store. Here's my review:

Keeping the House, Ellen Baker's first novel, intricately weaves the stories of two families, the Mickelsons and the Magnusons, before allowing them to collide. The story takes place over a period of time from the late 19th century until 1950, spanning several generations. Baker has a knack for story-telling and her background in American Studies and as the curator of a World War II museum helps to add authenticity to the story.

When Byron and Dolly Magnuson move to a small town in the mid-west, Dolly has trouble adapting. She admires a grand but dilapidated house on a hill and hears stories from the town gossips about the Michelson family who once inhabited it. She secretly enters the house to fix it up, hoping that her husband will buy it for her, thus solving all of their problems, only to be discovered by one of the family members who gives her a more accurate, if not entirely truthful version of his family's story. It is said that the house puts a curse on one's love life, and Dolly finds her marriage unraveling in a self-fulfilling prophecy as other relationships did before hers.

Some of the characters in this novel are a little wooden, but this could be due in part to the expected submission of women of the time. The story becomes a little soap opera-esque at the end with everything wrapping up in a somewhat unrealistic manner; that said, this novel is a solid first effort by Ms. Baker.

That's pretty much it. I hope everyone had a good weekend. A photo journal of Rusty's and my trip to Centralia will hopefully be up soon!

Weekend Update and Other Stuff

Chris and I were cat-sitting for his dad from Friday the 18th till this past Saturday. His dad actually has 4 cats, but this one is a senile old geezer and has to take pills twice a day so we had him at our house. He constantly (including all throughout the night) makes this loud noise that sounds like a child yelling "ouch!" I've never wanted to hurt an animal before this one. The only thing that kept me from punting him across the room was the fact that he was old and feeble and I felt bad for him. To add insult to injury, the damn cat sneezed in my face one of the times I picked him up to give him some lovin' in the hopes that he would shut the fuck up. He also spilled some of his food on the floor which caused about 100 ants to come rushing into our kitchen. I know he can't help that, but he's the cause of it. Chris gets up late, so I took the cat home early Saturday morning and it was one of the happiest days of my life. I was so conditioned by him that when I came home from dropping him off, I cringed as I opened the door because he usually started making that horrendous noise the second you walked inside. I definitely enjoyed the silence.

This is me, several years ago, trying to bludgeon him to death because of his annoying noises. We used to call him Red Rum; he sounded just like the kid in The Shining. Now his noise is even more annoying, which I didn't think was possible.



After I took him home I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up the Lexapro script that I had dropped off on Wednesday. I was informed that my insurance is refusing to pay for it and that the pharmacy had called my doctor's office. So why the fuck didn't anyone call me? I've been taking samples for a month, and my next doctor's appointment isn't until next Thursday. I'll run out of meds tomorrow. Nice. Hopefully I won't go through any withdraw. I wanted to take something different anyway. Lexapro just made me not give a shit about anything, which is better than being depressed all the time, but not as good as being happy.

After my pharmacy fiasco I came home and cleaned the house and then sat around sweating because it was about 88 and I'm too cheap to turn the AC on. That night I watched An Inconvenient Truth and felt bitter about the fact that Al Gore "lost" the election and the fact that people like my grandma weren't happy with Bush's first term but voted for him a second time because she felt he should be there to finish what he started.

On Sunday morning I went over to my parents' house and my dad and I washed and waxed my car, which was the atmosphere's signal to rain Sunday evening. I had my dad over in the evening for a cook-out because my mom is in Cincinnati visiting her sister.

Yesterday I went to Target to get the rest of L.'s birthday present and my dad's Father's Day golf balls. He gets golf balls for every occasion from me because I have no idea what else to get him. After that I came home and didn't do jack shit besides make dinner for the rest of the day, and it was awesome.

I've been trying to call the Giant Center box office to get tickets to see the Bears play game 2 of the Calder Cup finals this Saturday night, but I can't get through. I guess everyone else has the same idea. Hopefully this won't make a difference in how they play.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! Please remember all the people who have given their lives to serve our country.

Potpourri

I've been out of the groove for the past week or so and am now just getting back in. Hopefully I'll be a little better at updating LG&E.

L. and I had tons of fun at Rusty's place. We crammed a lot into our four days in Mooresville! On Saturday we visited Lowe's Motor Speedway and took a tour. While we were checking out the track some people were out doing laps on it, and you really get a rush of adrenaline when they drive by where you're standing. I can see why Rusty likes it! In the evening we went to Rusty's church and then out for dinner. We went back to her place and I crashed since I had been up since 4:30 that morning.

On Sunday we bought tickets for a luxury home tour. Most of the homes were awesome, but one in particular was the most incredible house I've ever been in. It was $3.2 million, although in York it would cost twice that. The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is a big plate of glass (etched with grapes, no less) in the floor that looks down into the wine cellar. That's the point when I knew this wasn't a typical York County McMansion. The house boasted a walk-in beer cave (it's exactly what it sounds like), a hot tub with a lowered edge that allowed water to cascade into the pool below, and a fireplace and big-screen TV in the master bathroom above the jacuzzi tub. I don't know about you all, but I would be afraid that the TV would fall off the wall and into the tub, electrocuting me. The sinks in all the bathrooms were gorgeous and one of the bathrooms had pebbles inlaid in the floor which looked nice but hurt my feet. The kitchen, of course, was awesome and it had one of those faucets on the wall behind the stovetop that you can use to fill pots. The attention to detail in this house was incredible. I must say, however, that the decor was HIDEOUS!! Apparently you can't buy taste.

That night we had dinner at Chili's (no, I didn't get Awesome Blossom with extra awesome) with Rusty's friend Vanessa. She's British and I could listen to her read the phone book. We headed over to Sonic where I got a chocolate malt which is my favorite sweet food after tiramisu. When we got home from that we sat outside and shot the shit for a couple hours and learned that L. is a quarter Jewish, which Rusty and I think is cool, but she doesn't. If I had to belong to a religion, it would be Judaism. I'd want to be a ethnic Jew though, not just a convert. I definitely have the guilt part down and I love the Old Testament God; he was such a bastard.

On Monday we went to a race shop where they work on the cars that are used in NASCAR. It was much cleaner and quieter than my garage, and they probably don't forget to put the oil cap back on when they change the oil like mine did. After checking that out, we drove to Charlotte, which is the cleanest, nicest city I've even visited. It seems like everything is more well cared for south of the Mason-Dixon line. I loved the tree-lined freeways and the flowers planted in the median down there. Up here our median is usually a concrete barrier. If we have grass in the median it's covered in trash. Flowers? Forget about it. I don't know how they would have the manpower to take care of things though, considering we have more roads per square mile than any other state and you can tell because they're crap. If you were driving down I-83 with your eyes closed you'd be able tell when you crossed the Maryland line because the bumpiness stops. Anyway, I digress. Back to Charlotte. We checked out the Panthers' stadium and even though football is probably the last sport I would ever want to watch, even after curling, it was sort of cool to see the field. I was amazed at how small it was (that's what she said!).

On Tuesday we went to Rusty's school and got to meet her class. I would have like to have more time with them, but unfortunately they had a boring-ass orientation for 6th grade. I wish those little bastards luck; 6th grade was the worst year of my life. I couldn't be around 10- and 11-year-olds all day; they would drive me up the wall! Most of them were cute though. After school we headed straight to the airport, where security went through my bag of dirty underwear, and started our less than one hour journey home. It's pretty amazing that sometimes it takes me longer to drive to work than it took us to fly to Charlotte.

I can't forget the most important part of our trip! We ate a lot of good, fattening food, and I ingested more sugar in four days in sweet tea form than I ingest in a year at home. I majorly need to detox!

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I almost got pulled over this morning going more than 90. I was passing some dumbass on the right. Luckily I knew to look for cops in this particular spot and as soon as I saw the top of those lights I slammed on the brakes. The dumbass was in the passing lane going about 75 which should have gotten him pulled over for A. speeding and B. driving in the left lane without intending to pass someone, but of course he didn't. There's no justice in the world.

I should probably be more cognizant of how I drive. I watched Murderball yesterday, and while those men are amazing, I would rather die than be paralyzed. I don't have the strength, physically or mentally, to deal with that. It's really disconcerting that one moment can change the course of your life forever. I almost cried at the end when the rugby team was explaining the game to the wounded vets. Damn PMS!

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Speaking of wounded vets, Laura Bush said on the Today Show that concerning the war in Iraq, no one is suffering more than she and George. What. The. Fuck?!?!?!?! I'm sorry, but haven't 3,300 American soldiers died? Haven't over 20,000 Americans been injured? What about Iraqis who have died? Here's what this source says about total deaths (US and non-US) from the war: "Counting all civilians, military, contractors, insurgents, and non-Iraqi civilians, at least 70,000; to as many as 655,000+ total excess deaths due to the war (second Lancet survey of mortality)." Hey, Mrs. Bush. How about sending your daughters to Iraq, having one of them die and one lose her legs, and then you can tell the American public that your suffering is worse than theirs. Furthermore, there has been little to no outcry about this. I first read it in a little blurb in our paper. When John Kerry "insulted" (one of my feet is in the camp that he was trying to insult Bush but didn't get it out quite right) the troops it was plastered all over every media outlet.

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I'm going back to my psychiatrist this Thursday. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but about a year and a half ago I went and was put on Wellbutrin. I was happy for the first time in ages, had no desire to smoke, and had no appetite (I know that's not a good side effect, but I was fine with it.). Life was good. But life's not allowed to be good, so my body decided to give me hives that made me want to kill myself. I had them in my throat, on the bottom of my feet, my thighs were one big, red welt; it was horrible. My doctor asked me if I wanted to try something else, but at the time I didn't because I was afraid of having another reaction. For some reason I've been in a pretty bad depression since about the beginning of this year, so I decided I should try meds again. I know it's the easy way out, but it's not like I haven't tried therapy and self-talk and all that other stuff. Therapy doesn't help me. My insight is good and I don't need to be told obvious things. I know that if I hate my job I should get a new one or if I'm unhappy about my weight I should eat better and exercise more. I don't need to pay to be told those things. I have a couple minor situational things going on and I'm hoping this will help me deal with them better. I've been in a really dark place for the past couple of months. That sounds a lot more melodramatic than it is, but I'm tired of being on the verge of tears all the time, having no motivation to do even the things I like, and feeling like I want to die.

Easter

Good Friday

Graphic content

Maundy Thursday

Does anyone know what a jaded, faded, faded, jaded, jaded mandarin is?

Fun fact: Peter (Paul Thomas) went on to be a porn star making and directing hundreds of movies. Highlights of his filmography include Pizza Girls, We Deliver; Caught from Behind 2: the Sequel; Stiff Competition; Fantasex Island; Oral Majority; Furburgers; and Erotic Explosions 5.

I Don't Want Your Blood Money!

This is Rusty's favorite. We're both in love with this movie and I have good memories of the two of us watching and singing. Well, she was singing and I was "singing."

A Special Treat

This doesn't fit in chronologically, but since it's one of my favorites (and also Dim's), and there isn't another song for today, I decided to post it.

My Temple Should Be a House of Prayer

That voice gives me chills.

Palm Sunday

In honor of my yearly tradition of watching Jesus Christ, Superstar, I'll be posting clips all week.

Raves

I do enough ranting on this blog, so here are some raves.

I watched Taxi Driver this weekend and was left wondering why the hell I waited so long to see it. The movie was gritty and raw, and I can't think of any movie that I've seen that is a better character study that this one. Released in 1976, it was nominated for and/or won several awards, most notably the Golden Palm at Cannes and Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Score. Travis Bickle, played without flaw by Robert DeNiro, is a cab driver disgusted by his surroundings. Throughout the whole movie, Travis moves closer and closer to the edge of sanity. We get glimpses into his past; all the straws that are piling up on the camel's back, but we are never told the whole story. He tells Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) that she's just like all the others when she refuses to see him again after an ill-advised second date at a porn house, but we don't know what what "the others" did to hurt Travis. He writes to his parents that he still can't give them his address, but we don't know how long Travis has been living in his filthy closed-sized apartment, hiding from the world with only his delusions that he works for the government and that he alone has the power to clean up the streets and right all of society's wrongs to keep him company.

"Now I see this clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. There never has been a choice for me."

The viewer can feel Travis's discomfort and angst, which is a direct result of Scorsese's masterful directing and DeNiro's brilliant performance. The tension builds and builds until one hot summer night when Travis can't take it any longer. The ending is ambiguous enough that a first-time viewer like myself can't be sure if it's real or a fantasy, although I'm sure there are many who are more well-versed who have their theories and opinions. Also worth mentioning are excellent performances by Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, and surprisingly, Jodie Foster, whom I have always considered to be wooden.


Another good movie I saw recently was Sherrybaby. This movie is the story of Sherry (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a young woman who is trying to get her life back on track upon being released from prison after serving three years. I admire Gyllenhaal because she's willing to take on roles that aren't going to launch her into "superstardom," i.e. playing the lead in a formulaic romantic comedy like Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan. Sherry teeters between going back to her former life and trying to live as a decent member of society. Her journey finds her reuniting with her daughter; relapsing; mouthing off to her parole officer; using sex to overcome low self-esteem; and dealing with a cast of characters including her sexually abusive father, an aggressive tenant at her halfway house, and the manipulative director of her program. We watch her try to move from a life of instant gratification, whether it be shooting up or offering sexual favors in exchange for a job, to a more adult life where it takes time for things to fall into place. This movie can at times be uncomfortable, but so is life.


Finally, I leave you with a video that Chris sent me of Ricky Gervais interviewing Larry David. I'm surprised the universe didn't implode with two comedic geniuses in one room.

Ricky Gervais meets Larry David
Uploaded by deep

Catching Up With Old Friends

I'm so excited! 49 Up was just released on DVD yesterday and should be waiting for me in my mailbox when I get home from work today. This is the 7th in a series of DVDs examining the lives of a group of people from different socio-economic backgrounds since age 7. I highly recommend this series. They can become a little repetitive watching them back-to-back as I did (after all, they were made to have 7 years in between!) but they are probably some of the best DVDs I'm received from Netflix. The voyeur in me loves watching everyone's ups and downs but I don't know what I'll do now that I have to wait 7 more years.

Brokeback Mountain

I watched Brokeback Mountain the other week and was wondering if anyone else had seen it. Did I miss something? I thought it was incredibly slow and boring (and no, I'm not one of those people who watches action flicks) and I didn't give a rat's rectum about the relationship because I didn't care about Ennis or Jack as people. They did nothing to make me like them. I also felt no sadness whatsoever when (it's been long enough that this isn't a spoiler) Jack died. Am I just a cold, heartless bitch or did other people feel this way too?