| Rethinking "The Prestige" |
Saturday 19 Jul 2008 @ 01:24 pm |
So, last night I watched The Prestige. I saw it in the theaters, bought the DVD and hadn't watched it since. That is really a film that becomes a different film the second time.
Then I decided to go read the IMDB trivia and FAQ for the film. Reading it totally blew my mind with the possibility that the film is even more complicated than I already knew it was.
( Spoilers for the Prestige beneath the cut )
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| Shabbat Shmooze ~ My son would have been like this...? |
Saturday 19 Jul 2008 @ 04:21 pm |
(I could see a son of mine being like this...
That is, if I hadn't just "settled for what I could get" and I had had enough self-esteem to eventually end up being married to a Jewish guy of my dreams)
BEST BAR
MITZVAH SPEECH
*EVAR!*
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Saturday 19 Jul 2008 @ 07:34 am |
Random Observation
I was getting my nails done when a young (mid-late twenties) girl came into the shop, and while she was waiting for a tech she occupied herself on her cell phone, presumably talking to her boyfriend, with whom she appeared to be arguing. Vehemently. It was clear from her end of the conversation that he was calling her names and whatnot, and I had two thoughts: 1) Why are you, a very attractive girl, putting up with that? and 2) Why on earth are you having this conversation right out in the open, in front of everyone?
Am I just too old? Is anyone else disturbed by this trend of the younger crowd to conduct themselves with so little dignity and self-respect, not to mention consideration for others? It wasn't even consideration so much because she wasn't being obnoxiously loud, but it's the lack of restraint and the sense of what is appropriate, seemly behavior in public. The private should remain so. A fight with one's boyfriend is private and should be carried out as such, without an audience. Shouldn't it? Again, maybe I'm just old and crotchety?
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| I know a few flisters have blogged about this already, but... |
Saturday 19 Jul 2008 @ 10:00 pm |
Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog is awesome and if you haven't watched it yet, you should. Quick, while you can still watch the episodes for free!
I went and saw The Dark Knight today, but I'll leave the review for my fandom review post tomorrow. Too tired to put things eloquently right now.
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The Presets- Talk Like That |
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| *crosses fingers* |
Saturday 19 Jul 2008 @ 02:31 am |
Dear Bad Horse,
Please admit me at once to the Evil League of Evil.
I have a PhD in...mild naughtiness.
Sincerely,
The Mad Lori
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| Stationery |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 08:33 pm |
You know we're firmly into the computer age when I can't think of where to buy good old-fashioned stationery. You know, to write a letter on?
I'm sending a letter with some pictures to my grandmother, who apparently does not always get my e-mails and pics passed on to her when I send them to my grandfather's e-mail address. I need stationery.
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| [title of blog entry] |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 08:15 pm |
This evening I sprayed off my patio. I can't even begin to describe how happy this made me.
When I was growing up, I always helped my mother plant the yearly flowers. I didn't exactly enjoy it. In fact, she usually had to threaten me with something awful to get me to do it. But the one part of it I loved was spraying off the sidewalks and patios when we were done to clean off the dirt and bits of flowers. I liked spraying them off after mowing too, to get rid of grass clippings. There's just something about it, making it all nice and clean and shiny with water.
I really wanted to spray off my patio, because a) it was dirty, b) sweeping just doesn't cut it and c) yay, spraying. One problem: no faucet outside. I knew that such a thing existed as an adapter to hook up a hose to one's kitchen faucet, and last night I found one and bought it, plus a hose and a small sprayer nozzle.
It got the job done, although the water pressure from a faucet isn't too thrilling, so it wasn't the high-powered jet of my youth. Got the patio clean, though, even if it took longer.
Geek stuff now.
No, I'm not going to see Dark Knight tonight. Yes, of course I want to see it. Yes, you're correct in recollecting that I have a super speshul attachment to Heath Ledger.
Maybe that's why I'm not all chompy. I can wait till next week. Or the next, even. I don't know. Normally I'd want to see a movie like this in a theater full of fans. This one? I don't know. I'm tempted to say that it's the Heath thing, that I'm loathe to see his final film and for there to be none more. I'm not sure that's it, though.
The Watchmen trailer was pretty damn righteous, though. I've read some of Watchmen. Not all. It's on the list.
Oh, and the next person to inform me that life as I know it will cease to exist and I will lose any and all pop-culture credibility I have if I don't watch Dr. Horrible like right the hell now gets a spork to the larynx. I'll get to it, all RIGHT?
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| The statistics are probably accurate |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 07:48 pm |
Hot news analysis from the UK's The WORD
Current Issue ~
Worrying news from America that we may be burning through
the planet's resources of teen stars at an unsustainable rate.
(Watch it twice: Once for the actual vid, the second time for the "newscrawl" at the bottom)
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| Funny sticker |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 05:54 pm |
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On the drive home today I was behind a little Mazda for a bit that had a sticker on it bearing the familiar pink ribbon associated with the fight against breast cancer, and instead of the usual subdued, serious slogan usually found on those things, it said "SAVE THE TA-TA'S". I laughed my ass off. Now that's a cause I can support! ROFL
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| Book reccie |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 03:19 pm |
Yay, I'm going to finish all my target documents for the week. Whew!
I'm reading a fascinating book right now. It's called Standing
Next to History by Joe Petro. Petro had a 23 year career in
the Secret Service during which he guarded Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald
Ford, Pope John Paul II, Dan Quayle and for four years, President
Reagan.
Petro is appealingly forthright, not holding back but exercising
discretion (he won't discuss what's inside the football, for example)
and relating interesting and often humorous stories about the people
he protected. He has a great deal of affection for both the Reagans,
who he describes as kind and generous, and none at all for Nixon, who
he said was an arrogant blowhard. Even so, he is diplomatic about
everyone.
The insight into the workings of the Service is fascinating, too,
although Petro is circumspect about certain details of their
procedures.
I was laughing out loud at one particular story. Before a
presidential visit to Moscow, he was on the far advance team, the
first of three that visits somewhere before the President does, and he
and the other people with him were staying in a Moscow hotel. One
night they decided to comb their rooms to find the listening devices
they knew the KGB had put there. they went over every inch and didn't
find anything, then one of them pulled up an area rug and found a
strange brass plate with a screw. A-ha! They unscrewed the
plate...at which point the chandelier in the room below crashed to the
floor.
Whoops.
The KGB bug thing isn't smoke, either. On a different visit when he
was protecting Nelson Rockefeller's wife, he checked into his room,
then left. When he returned, the phone was different...and there was
still plaster dust on the floor beneath the jack where they'd put the
bug in.
Anyway. It's interesting.
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| got zome sleep, had the most amazing dream |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 03:07 pm |
which I promptly forgot upon awakening. I only remember that it was fabulous. Damn. I hate it when that happens.
In related news, I finally got some sleep at 10.30am EST. The kids were awake and fed, and I spent some time playing cards with Chris, chatting with Nic, and watching Noah play his Age of Mythology game. I woke up about ten minutes ago. Now it's time to get ready to take them to Jan's mom's at four o'clock. Then The Dark Knight, and then back home to write more.
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| Slight irritation |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 01:57 pm |
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Picked up a copy of The New Yorker magazine in the Nashville airport, and saw the Obama cover everyone's gotten their panties in a wad about. Are you kidding me? Does an intelligent, rational person honestly look at that and think it's serious? You know, the fine art of satire really has faded away in today's pc, too-serious world. Poor Mark Twain would probably be lynched now.
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Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 01:44 pm |
My neighbor asked if I'd 'model' for him. I'd gone last weekend to get my nails done, came back to find a note on the door from him, asking me to call. I did, and he said he was working on a 'project' and wanted to know if he could take pictures of me. All clothed, and I would have some 'interesting' pics of myself afterwards. I was intrigued, but in the end I didn't go over there. Not because I was disturbed, because he's a nice guy and wouldn't have been so open about it - he knows Mickey, knew he was there, etc. - but because we'd just come back from FL and I was packing for my trip to Nashville. I just wasn't in the mood and felt like swimming instead. Like a jerk I didn't even call him back to tell him I wasn't coming, so now he probably thinks I'm nervous about him or something, which I'm not! I'm just a flake and was too lazy to call him back. I haven't seen him around since then but I'm not going to be able to avoid him forever. When I see him next I'll just have to apologize for being a flake, I guess. I don't take good pictures anyway, so hopefully he found someone more photogenic (not fishing for compliments there, btw. People tell me I look nice in pics but I just don't like the way I photograph). I should have just gone over there, though, to satisfy my curiousity! Now I want to know what the hell he was doing.
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| no rest for the wicked |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 06:18 am |
Well I was going to try to go to bed, and I did try, albeit unsuccessfully. I was in bed for a few minutes every time, and then an idea would hit. I'd go to write it down, and it would just begin a wave of thoughts and ideas. Then I'd be active another hour. The sun's mostly up outside now, and that means the kinderfolk will be up and about inside the hour.
Oy vey. I forgot what it was like to be up for hours while being creative and productive, not just up overthinking and/or worrying. It's a nice change of pace to be awake all this time and excited about a project.
Cool. There are deer in the yard, too. I can see them out there through the window along with the usual assortment of rabbits up by the top of the driveway. The neighborhood dogs haven't made their rounds yet. They usually drive away the wildlife. Oh well. It's a nice morning.
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| Meep |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 12:47 am |
More books.
Just finished New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. The sequal to Twilight, the new lemming movement of America. The main character is a whinny, manipulative and annyoingly melodramtic teenager in love with a vampire. Yet, I can't seem to stop reading the books.
Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer wasn't nearly as good as the previous book by him I read. It was like the author wanted so much to put in the Masons in that he wrapped a story around the notion, and it felt like he was trying too hard and it was ultimately pointless. Too many plotlines.
Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride. This book was a treasure of a story. 4 black soldiers get lost behind enemy lines in Italy during WWII. In the the town they huddle in as the Germans get closer is a story totally beautiful in what should sound cheezy and mushy, but is nothing but strange reality. I absolutely loved it.
I saw the movie Tell No One. It was really good.
I'm reading Nixonland, which besides the biography it sneaks in describing Nixon, its more about the politics of America from 1964 to 1968. Those voters who voted Johnson in '64 because thats the only thing that made any sense, while voting Nixon in '68 because its the only thing that made sense. And because the 60s are my ish, reading this dense book will take forever, but none the less its interesting.
Going to see Dark Knight tomorrow, because I'm like everyone else. I'm excited though.
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| I should've been asleep already, but... |
Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 02:13 am |
My work on Traveler has taken so many twists and turns in the two years I've been working on it. I hit dead ends or the dead ends hit me, and I'm off it for weeks or months. Then I get back to it, and each time it gets a better vibe as I work it. I have help in the form of my friend Indy. He's helped me bounce ideas around for a year with the project. In the past week Traveler's gone through another huge revamp, the last vestiges of how it began are gone. It began as a Doctor Who fan spin-off, and now it's more its own animal. It's to the point now it might actually be something I can take to SCETV for a production pitch. (I heard back from them today, by the way, and am of course jazzed about it.)
Wish me luck. Right now though, wish me sleep. I need it. I've been writing for four hours.
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Friday 18 Jul 2008 @ 12:08 am |
What's your name? Matt
When were you born? 1970
How tall are you? 6' 1"
What colour are your eyes? hazel
How many letters are in your middle name? 5
Do you have a significant other? no
How many truly close friends do you have? 6
What is your favourite colour? indigo
What is your favourite animal? tiger
What is your zodiac sign? metal dog
What is your favourite food? pasta
What is your favourite drink? water
Who is your cellphone carrier? Verizon
Do you text much? not too often
What book are you reading currently? Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint
Are you interested in anyone at the moment? Laetita Casta and Maura Tierney
Is anyone interested in you at the moment? If they are they're keeping it a secret.
Do you Myspace? yes
Do you Facebook? yes
What did you want to be when you were a kid? actor/writer/director/producer
What do you want to do now? actor/writer/director/producer
What do you do now? be Dad and going back to school for directing/producing
What is your favourite vegetable? 'taters
What is your favourite fruit? strawberry
Do you want to get married? I don't know you that well.
How do you feel about one-night stands? They happen.
What is your favourite soda? ginger ale
What is your favourite candy? Trident gum
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"16 Lovers" by Caged Baby |
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| Mmm. Jason Statham. |
Thursday 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:42 pm |
In case anyone's interested, here is the first preview I wrote for that Best Freelance Job Ever website.
Death Race
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| More about art |
Thursday 17 Jul 2008 @ 11:04 pm |
*sigh* Here I go, recreating the long, involved art-related post I wrote yesterday that got eaten.
My current spate of art-collecting was prompted by the bare-ass walls of my bedroom. That wasn't a surprise. What WAS a surprise to me was how strongly I'm suddenly gravitating towards folk art and primitives. I've been thinking about why that is. I've always liked the folk-art aesthetic but I've never really collected it before now. I suppose a big part of it is that it's readily and inexpensively available, and it enables me to have original, one-of-a-kind artwork on my walls without paying an arm and a leg for it.
I've got a bit of a collection going by an artist named Tamara Ryan. Here's one that I already have.
Her paintings run strongly on this theme. All of them feature trees in the foreground, with her stylized round leaves. Some are winter scenes, some aren't. Many of them have these cute owls in the trees. There was one that had sheep on a hillside that I really wanted but missed the end of the auction for. The paintings aren't large, and I think the most expensive one I bought was $20.
Now, when I first started looking at folk art paintings, I asked myself what's the difference between primitive art and just bad art. Well, I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that there's definitely a difference. I was in an antique/junk shop last week and I saw a ton of homemade, amateur art...all of it just bad. Not folk art. Not primitive. Just bad. Tamara's paintings aren't like that. They have a childlike quality, but they aren't childish. They have a style to them, an intent. Maybe that's the difference, I don't know. But I know that it's an immediately apparent difference when you look at the paintings whether they're primitive, or just bad.
It doesn't help that the terminology has gotten muddled. Historically, "folk art" was artistry in objects that weren't intended to be pieces of art, like handmade weathervanes or the carvings on a handmade door. That definition has expanded to include what used to just be called "primitive," in other words art by people without art training. Then there's "outsider art" which originally meant art done by people in insane asylums (no, really) and has kind of expanded into the folk art/primitives arena as well, although outsider art tends to be edgier and done by people really on the fringes, like homeless people.
Okay, so related topic.
Remember those tacky-awesome vintage needlepoints I got at the Sunbury Crafts & Antiques Fair? I find myself wanting to acquire MORE tacky needlepoint.
It's no secret that I enjoy things that have a certain kitsch factor. In my primary living spaces, like the living room, front hall, bedroom, etc, I like to display tasteful, attractive art. But I think it would be really super fun to have a large collection of kitschy vintage needlepoints hung salon-style in a secondary space, like a stairwell. I was surprised by how much I liked how the needlepoints looked up on the wall, especially when they were grouped. Grouping them kind of removes the implication that I think they're good. If I hung them alone, that'd put over the message that I'm being serious hanging this tacky fruit-basket needlepoint. But hanging them together makes it about the genre, not the individual pieces, and lets me hang them...ironically? Does that make sense?
Anyway. It's really easy to find these old needlepoints, but not quite as easy to find the RIGHT ones. IT's a delicate process. There's a balance to be struck with their taste level. See, they can't be too nice and tasteful, but neither can they be too hideous and awful. It's a narrow band of taste between legitimately nice and vomitous where you find the awesome-tacky-kitschy. I don't want any with people in them. No Precious Moments, please. Nothing country, no samplers or teddy bears. I'm finding myself mostly choosing landscapes, farm scenes, that kind of thing.
OF the ones I'm watching at the moment, I think this one's probably my favorite:
Mmmmmm, tacky. Wool embroidery. Want.
Y'all probably think I'm nuts. That's okay.
The art I've gotten for the bedroom is arriving now. Soon I'll be able to hang it. I've had some (I hope) great ideas for creative ways to hang and display that I will attempt to implement this weekend. Pics to come if they work out.
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