out of boredom

i did this last night...

the husband is out of town for the weekend, returning today.

HURTS - 4Play (Channel 4)

movie update

DVR / on demand / netflix streaming movies last weekend:

• heaven can wait: movie from my childhood, i was glad to see that it holds up pretty well. warren beatty is pulled to heaven sooner than planned, and just before playing in the super bowl; he finagles with mr jordan (james mason, playing god for real, this time) to let him get in a substitute body in order to play. in the meantime, he foils a murder plot (by the hilarious charles grodin and dyan cannon) against his substitute host, and falls in love with julie christie. cute. LOVE the theme from this one, written by david grusin. definitely a recommendation.

• dim sum funeral: i have no idea why i selected this, and it was terrible. terrible and awful. terrible and awful and horrible. no redeeming quality whatsoever. avoid at all costs.
  
  
• harold & kumar escape from guantanimo bay: had its funny moments, and didn't vary far from the first movie (what i remember of it, anyway). it's mostly stupid, of course, but that is sort of the point. a recommendation.
  
  
• rachel got married: so much talk about this when it came out, and deservedly so. for my taste, a little too much emphasis on the wedding itself (i mean, seriously, they must have had half an hour of the ceremony and reception). recovering addict stories are always (necessarily) uncomfortable, but as ugly as several characters' actions may have been, this telling was totally believable and engaging. definitely a recommendation.
  
  
• ciao: a little off-beat, but "nice" movie about two guys who have suddenly lost a friend and (potential) partner. i get what they were trying to convey with so many shots of the main character quietly staring into space, but there was too much of that. still, the connection between the three of them seemed real. as we watched the two survivors review a video left behind by mark, the deceased, the husband mentioned that mark didn't seem worth all the pain these two were going through because of him. the husband is right; the telling of mark's character should have matched the portrayal of him in that short scene. and, for the lead character's mostly wooden portrayal, his breakdown scene was well-timed, and really stood out. a sort-of recommendation.

i

i could spend an entire afternoon watching "match game" from the 1970's -- this i know, because i did so, yesterday

i'm 50

i'm rounder than i want / expected to be, but won't stop eating sugar

i have a memory of guy projectile vomiting off the curb outside a nightclub at closing time, as the "sidewalk sale" was gathering -- that lot of hungry fellas looking to see what's leftover at the end of a disco night

i may never suspend my quest for finding new music that sounds like old music

i think the adjective, "amazing", is used inappropriately for the most part


wouldn't it be good, nik kershaw

work stuff

work: one of those in-between days when you circle around, waiting on others to respond to your several requests that have been piling up.
 
makes one feel unproductive. some would be bothered by that.
 
i am not.

schmeligion

let's talk religion, shall we?

when one is put in the position of proclaiming that, "i don't believe in god", invariably the question comes back, "well then, what DO you believe in?"

i used to think this was an invalid question, that belief wasn't something to be supplemented if god-deficient...but i've come to rethink this...indeed, one does substitute god with something. but what?

my standard answer (it's surprising how many times i've been asked the question) has been "the common decency of humans". and i think i'm staying with that. i mean, i don't see that i avoid killing people because i'm afraid on an imaginary superhero sending me to the firey depths; rather, it's just something that i think will injure someone else, and i don't see as acceptable in our current version of society. same for lying, stealing, and coveting asses.

(graven images, i'm okay with.)

movie weekend

movie weekend:

• the grocer's son: the lead male's presence alone makes this movie entirely watchable, but it has many other appeals, as well. a french movie that centers around a young man's need to reconnect with his hometown past via customer service skills required for carrying out the family business during his father's illness. americans would say it's ironic that a french movie pushes the value of friendly customer service, but whutevs.
  
  dysfunctional family relationships abound, and a crush he has on his paris neighbor doesn't seem to stand a chance against his need to not-connect with others.
  
  gorgeous scenery -- one wishes that one could live in such a picturesque village, while still enjoying what the city has to offer, but that's probably unrealistic. fun characters in the collection of townies that lead boy needs to deal with. a series of ups and downs, but ending with that lesson learned. a recommendation.
  
  
• precious: finally! pretty compelling, great characters throughout. a few surprises here and there (particularly as it applies to the mom-character's level of hostility, and mariah carey's presence in general), but nothing detracted from the title character's journey. my only concern: why was the father character completely absent? i know that happens in real life, but movie-wise, he kinda got off the hook, there. a recommendation.
  
  
• gay | not gay: i've seen many short movie collections that are homo-centric, and generally speaking, the entries are pretty odd in their undeveloped characters and premature endings. are the gays so shallow, or can they not tell a story in 15 minutes or less? this collection, though, has an interesting premise: the interaction of a gay with a non-gay. a couple came off entirely "odd", but one was somewhat affecting, cowboy forever, from central america. i guess because it was done so much as a low-budget first-person documentary, with lots of non-actors, that this viewer kinda fell for the authenticity.
  
  float, from south africa, wasn't bad, though i always have issues with depictions of artists in movies (usually childish and not in touch with themselves), compounded here by an on-again, off-again OCD condition. and again, the ending wrapped up a little too quickly, a lot too easily. sort of a recommendation.
  
  
• mammoth:
intersecting story lines a la crash. slow-paced, but still engaging from start to finish (thank you, english-speaking gael garcia bernal). just a little disappointment on where gael's story goes, but not unexpected; michele williams seems like a real adult for the first time; the philippines angle got creepy...but again, not completely unexpected. potentially too much kid-trauma, but it doesn't really get horrible. i was even able to watch without averting my eyes, a rare occurrence. a recommendation.

anticipation

HURTS: most anticipated new band this year.



album in june. fingernails bitten down as far as they can be.

mentoring

i find it awesome that after all, adam still speaks highly of his mentor, malcolm mclaren.

"he gave me an education. and then he told me about the construction of pop music...he'd throw 5,000 ideas at you, and you'd catch three of them; but those three of them could change history. that's, to me, i took it."

via adam-ant.net

the quietus: adam ant interview

massive adam ant interview at the Quietus

"I just don't like fucking Mr Bono. (Does an Irish accent) 'Every time I click my fingers, an African dies.' Well, stop clicking your fucking fingers, then!"

The Quietus | Features | A Quietus Interview | A Wild Nobility: An Adam Ant Exclusive By Simon Price

Val Emmich - E.S.T.

i am so looking forward to hearing val emmich's new album...here's a sneak listen:



not sure how i first became aware of him, but this song is what brought me in:



i grew up in such a sheltered existence (intentionally so), till i was about 24, so it surprises me that young people can recognize, and then express feelings so eloquently.

i grew up in the wrong generation. i'm convinced of that. but that is not to say i'd want to do it all again. no thanks.

the losers

we went to see the losers today. it was spectacularly bad. not one original moment in the entire movie, and they committed the significant crime of making chris evans unattractive. (who even knew that was possible?)

don't see this movie.

BFA

we have this neighbor, on whom the husband has had a crush for the past year. i walked over to say hello several months ago, and reported to the husband that neighbor isn't as good looking as he thought...but the husband didn't want to believe this to be true.

we nicknamed the neighbor "ryan gosling", because that's who the husband thought he resembles.

last night, we passed by the neighbor at the neighborhood market, and for the first time, the husband learned the awful truth.

Echo and the Bunnymen - Seven Seas

a facebook friend reminded me...

Hockey - Song Away

this alien loves this song...and so should you. and yay for dance parties.