Don't be alarmed

I am merely feathering a fresh new nest for my blog. Updates to come!

AHH! SNAKE!

AHH! SNAKE! - FGR Guerilla Art
Originally uploaded by KCrawfish03

I love this kinda silliness! A good reason to keep chalk on you at all times.

Inspiring look

miss vu • 03.19.09
Originally uploaded by miss vu

Been a while since I've posted one of these, no? Love love love this look!

Strong strong women

Antonia's Line is a charming Dutch film about Antonia and her family and friends. It starts with the day she decides to die "because she knows when enough is enough" and then goes back to tell her tale. The story is a great one - full of the intricacies of small town life where everyone's business is known.

I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil the tiniest bit of it. I give it a 9.

All message-y

The Cat Returns features the very cool and imaginative Kingdom of Cats. Unfortunately, it also features a message that it attempts to sledge hammer into you.

It's all about a girl who feels out of place. She does a good deed for a cat in trouble and ends up the unwilling recipient of lots of attention from the Kingdom of Cats. And through all her adventures, she's forced to learn how to have confidence in herself. They mention it so goddamn often that its impossible not to get the message.

For that reason - and that reason only, it only gets a 4 from me.

Yes yes

I have watched a whole ton of movies lately. I've had some days off and spare time. Other things were accomplished too, I promise. Craftiness, candle-making, house tidying, thrift shopping and whatnot.

Rachel Getting Married had me worried at first. I was sure it was going to be scene after scene of Kim, the troubled recovering alcoholic / attention seeking daughter, ruining the wedding of her sister Rachel.

At first, there was a lot of those moments, but as things went along the family dynamic got a lot more complex and subtle. I felt like I was watching a real family unit - full of affection and pain and conflict.

I also loved the wedding itself. The music of this film bowled me over. This one rates an 8.

Just wondering

Sunflowers!
Originally uploaded by ilina s

Is anyone else dreaming of flowers? Its that tme of year in Ohio when only the crocus are blooming. I can feel the promise of spring and I know that in a short time flowers will be just about everywhere, but I cannot wait.

I've been buying flowers every time I grocery shop. Sunday I lucked into a free bouquet from my husband's coworkers. Flowers make everything better.

French fluff

Priceless is a bit of fluffy French comedy featuring Audrey Tautou as a gold digger who inadvertently charms a common hotel employee. The story is cute and silly. Tautou is charming as always. This film more than any other though, made me a bit concerned for how insanely think she is though. Maybe its a French thing, but if she were one of my friends, I'd be keeping an eye on her.

I give it a 5. The two leads are pretty adorable.

Netflix suggests a lot of movies to me, but it rarely gets it as right as Sweet Land. The story of a mail order bride from Germany who moves to a Minnesota community at a time when mistrust for Germans is riding high.

The story is a romance told so sweetly and gently. I can recommend it enough. (And Lisa, if you don't add this to your queue immediately, you just don't know what's good for you).

The filming is beautiful. Every last character is well thought out. Watch it and thank me later.

A 9.5 out of 10 in my book.

Regrets

Inspired by this post over on The Bluestocking Society, I started contemplating books I'm a little embarassed to admit Ihave not read yet. We all have them, right? My biggies?

- Catcher in the Rye
- Anna Karenina

And that got me pondering movies that I'm sad to say I haven't watched. Those neglected films are:

- The Godfather (any of them)
- Gone With the Wind

So now that I've spilled my dirty secrets, what books or films have you missed that you are ashamed to admit?

Oh please

Dead Until Dark sucked it - and not just in a vampirey way. Its all about a waitress in Louisiana who gets tangled up with a vampire and has to deal with lots of people she knows being murdered. In this world vampires have recently come out to the world since the invention of synthetic blood makes them more socially acceptable. And there's a whol culture of "fangbangers" - vampire groupies. Sounds a bit interesting, right? Well dash those hopes right now.


The main character is dumb. The relationships are dull. The set-ups are frequently unbelievable. (Cause of course, I would drop my kids off to be babysat by a woman whose had a recent attempt on her life and is still obviously been marked to be killed. Sure!) Stupid stupid book! Only a 1 on my scale.

Inspiration

After watching You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the documentary about Howard Zinn, I am just thrumming with inspiration. The man as such a powerful message.

I love what he says about how no one is neutral. If you aren't participating and working for what's right, then you've sided with the wrong. Inertia is its own evil. We're all responsible for doing something.

Mr. Zinn is an amazing person, and this documentary was a nice push. I give it an 8.

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Shake Loose

I picked up Shake Loose My Skin for a dose of poetry long overdue this winter. Unfortunately, this dosage must be someone else's. I didn't like it much. It all felt dated and just not it. I did enoy "The Blues" and "Set No. 1" from "Wounded in the House of a Friend", but the rest just didn't resonate with me. I only give this one a 2.

Again and again and again and again

How many times can a person make the same point in one book? Apparently over and over again until you want to scream. I already have an annoying acquaintance from work who does this sort of thing - I don't need a book to do it.

Nudge takes an interesting and valid point and drives it until the ground. I gave up halfway through it. Only a two in my book.

Update on Amy

I do believe we've found our pretty foster pup a terrific home. I'll know for sure this week, but she was smitten and the potential adopter equally so.

Aggravating

The boy and I watched the BBC film Tipping the Velvet over the weekend. Based on the Sarah Waters novel, I had high hopes for this after having watched their wonderful rendition of Fingersmith. They really fell down on the job on this one.

This movie is about a girl in the 1890's who leaves the safe world of her family's oyster house to the world of the stage and male impersonators and the dangerous world of London. It, of course, features Sarah Waters' usual lesbian romances. The story is a good one - or at least it was when I read it.

BBC films are usually done so lovely. This one was down by some ADD director who felt the need to use an insane number of camera tricks - flashbacks, lots of super fast cuts, and even more idiot effects. The narration annoyed me. The use of patently obvious visual queues was even worse. (Its easy to tell when one of the characters is feeling trapped, do we really need her to pose next to a bird in a cage?). They even changed the ending - same results but with an entirely different way of getting there. I felt misused by this film.

The one highlight was the costumes. They were fantastic. The rest of it was crap. I only give it a 2. (The book however is very very good).

Meet Amy

I've been wanting to be a foster home for pets for a long while now, and we finally did it. Meet Amy.

Amy is a five month old Jack Russell mix. She's a bit shy around people, but getting more confident by the day. She loves dogs and is practicing her manners around kitties. She's the snuggliest little pup - loves to be as close as possible. If you know anyone in Ohio looking for a fantastic little dog, send them my way!

Absolute terrification

Blindness is one hell of a nightmare inducer. Imagine if everyone went blind in an inexplicable epidemic. It would be one ugly scarey ride. Much like The Road but with no seeing.

I have terrible terrible vision and have nightmares about losing my contacts and glasses and having to muddle along, not recognizing people at a distance, not seeing the hole I'm about to stumble into. basically living a helpless helpless life.

In this book, everyone but one person loses their vision and can only see a bright whiteness. They first victims are stuffed inside an asylum to be quarantined and things get really really really bad in there. And the one lady isn't someone we envy cause when folks think you can't see them, they do some really awful things.

This is not a book for those with weak constitutions. There is unimaginable violence and serious filth. And grammar enthusiasts beware. The story runs along with little punctuation and no quotation marks. Normally I would hate that so much, but in this case it works. It seems to heighten the terror for me.

Its a really good book. I give it an 8.

(Apparently there's a movie version of this. Anyone seen it?)

Wedding Dress

Wedding Dress
Originally uploaded by Dailyville

Oh my. This is so lovely.

We watched Hellboy the other night. It's a super hero-ish movie, and super hero-ish movies have been on a sucky run in my book. Here's my breakdown of this one.

What was good:

- The Hellboy character kind of rocked. I liked all his kitties.

- The fish guy was different.

- The strong influence of the supernatural. This isn't a bunch of people made weird by toxic fumes or mad scientists. These creatures have history - demons and relics and such.

- The director. Del Toro is pretty damn good. He gets wickedly dark very well.

What wasn't good.

- Selma Blair. Her acting stunk to high heaven.

- The sword guy. I laughed a few times at his too perfect comic-y book skills.

- The Nazi angle seemed a bit pointless. Actually none of the villains were very memorable.

I give this on a 5. I'm sure I'll check out the sequel.

Chilling

You may wonder how anyone can make a film as dark as No Country for Old Men. I think if you check out the chilling movie Blood Simple, you can see the beginnings of some smart and creepy as hell film making. The hitman is nowhere near as pee-in-you-pants scary as Anton Chigurh, but that laugh freaked me the hell out. Frances McDormand is just a baby in this one. Its very very good. I give it 8 stars.

Pretty dishwater

I took this shot yesterday while washing up my mess from making a rainbow colored cake. Inspiration via The Morale Agency. More pictures soon!