More Recs, etc.

Jesus, I wish I got to update this thing as much as I would like to... but oh, well! We do what we can do!

So a couple weekends ago, I saw a review for I Sold My Soul on eBay, and the concept sounded so interesting, I actually went to Borders later in the day and picked it up. The basic premise is the author, Hemant Mehta, auctioned off the chance to send him to church, because he's really open-minded, and he wanted to see what he got out of it. Well, the auction raised $550, and every $10 bought someone a week, so the winning bidder and Mehta worked out an agreement, and he went to church for a year. He went to small churches, medium churches, big ones and megachurches, participated in the services and took notes of what worked and what didn't work. People hoping that he converted to Christianity might be disappointed, as Mehta remains an atheist at the conclusion of the book. But if you like honest discussion of the strong and weak points of religion from an outsider's eyes, and especially if you're looking for the big answers yourself, you'll probably really like this book. I did. A lot of the stuff that Mehta grapples with is stuff that I'm trying to work out as well. We have a lot of beliefs in common, with one difference: (well, not just one, but for the purpose of this point) I believe in God, and he doesn't. And you know what? That's not really that big a deal. Because the bottom line is we're both good people who want to do good things in the world and ultimately want to get as close to the truth as we can. Check out his website The Friendly Atheist for more on him.

Furthermore, I can't for the life of me figure out why I wasn't watching Arrested Development when it was on? I've been watching it with Jon since we started dating (actually a first date activity!) and it is seriously brilliant. Jason Bateman has been totally upgraded to TV boyfriend, and so has Michael Cera. It's to Will Arnett's credit as an actor that he hasn't been, as Gob is one of the funniest and most irritating characters I've seen. Get thee to Netflix and rent it if you haven't seen it!

Damn, what do I do on this thing besides recommend stuff? Bitch and moan, right. Well I don't actually have a bitch and moan in me at the moment, so this'll have to do.

HP Manic

Work is totally kicking my ass right now, so please forgive the lack of posting. It's not even that I don't have anything good to talk about right now! So first things first, the latest movie review

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I have to tell you, I was not super-excited about this movie until I saw it. I hadn't watched any of the trailers, and though Goblet of Fire was good, it wasn't that good. Frankly, Michael Gambon seriously turns me off as Dumbledore. I've had the debate several times where people say that if he'd tried to play it as Richard Harris did, he'd get accused of aping Richard Harris. Well, I get that, I guess, but the thing is, Richard Harris was the absolute physical manifestation of what my mind sees Dumbledore as. In the two movies he is in, he shouts exactly one time, when the cave troll is let into Hogwarts, and that's to get the students to be calm and quiet. Other than that, his voice constantly sounds like he's having a conversation with one person, even if he is speaking in front of everyone in the Great Hall. Harris's eyes sparkled in the exact way I've imagined Dumbledore's, and the quieter moments he had with Harry really gave off that sweet, grandfatherly vibe that I think is key to the character. Albus Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in the world, but he's also remarkably gentle, and has shown compassion to everyone, including Tom Riddle. Gambon is just so abrupt and harsh in comparison. In the Great Hall in Prisoner of Azkaban, his establishing scene at the opening banquet immediately turned me off. He sounded like was shouting immediately, and that's just not in character from the books. Yes, they're separate entities, but the character is who he is. My other big nits to pick is his absurd little wink near the end of PoA when he's telling Harry and Hermione to use the time-turner. It's so skeazy and not in character. It didn't come off right at all to me. And the last thing I'll bitch about was the Champion selecting scene in GoF. The way he shouted Harry's name, then ran up and grabbed him? No. Sorry, wrong number, not Dumbledore. So anyway, mostly because of that and the complete wussification of Ron Weasley, I wasn't the biggest fan of the last two movies.

Pleasant surprise, though, this was actually one of the best yet! So much stuff ended up working. Imelda Staunton could not have been a more perfect cast for Dolores Umbridge, nor could Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. They were both fabulous editions to the cast. Also, it was good to actually get to spend some time with the character of Sirius Black, since he really didn't have much at all to do in GoF. I think Gary Oldman really got it right with the warmth and penned up energy Sirius has in the book. It was really nice to get to see that character fleshed out in movie form. Rupert Grint, Dan Radcliffe, and Emma Watson were all really good as well. Ron was less of a wimp! Huzzah! Their interactions were really solid and probably the best I've seen them yet.

Some of the special effects were stunners, too. Sirius speaking from the fire place was SO much better than it was in GoF. If you recall, GoF has his face basically animated in the coal bed of the fire. OoTP has his head as a form in the flames, which is so much closer to what I saw in my head, and much more satisfying. Tonks's transformations were great fun, but she was barely in the movie, which is a bit of a bummer. The Veil also looked awesome. It was a little more ethereal than I think I had pictured it, but it really worked, I was quite impressed. The thestrals didn't really fit my mind's eye picture. They looked more like dinosaurs to me. But they still worked, overall, and the scene with Harry and Luna was a nice one. The Wizard Duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort looked a bit too much like a light saber fight for me at first, but it moved away from that, which was good.

The best part to me was the training scenes for the DA. Those completely embodied to me what the book showed. Harry is a really good, really warm teacher, and the class is excited and eager to learn. The only omission I really missed was Harry seeing Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom at St. Mungo's. Seeing Mrs. L give the gum wrapper to Neville and to see Neville's reaction really changed that character for me. I actually really started to care for and about him as a main character at that point. The movie handled it fairly well, but I did miss the scene a lot.

Anyway, that's my two cents on that. The book comes out Saturday! And I have to go to a concert Saturday night! D'oh! Oh well. I'm sure I'll have more to say on that subject soon.

Reviews and Fall Throughs

So my trip to New York is being postponed. Our tickets to The Daily Show fell through, which was our primary reason for going. We're going to reschedule for another time when we can actually go to that. As much as I was looking forward to a vacation, I just gained back a weekend and 16 hours of vacation (I'm taking tomorrow off, anyway). Plus, it's more money I don't have to spend, which is also nice.

But screw that real life stuff, let's talk pop culture consumption!

Knocked Up

I loved The Forty Year-Old Virgin. It was one of the funniest, best performed movies I've seen in ages. So when I heard Judd Apatow had a new movie coming out starring Seth Rogen (Cal in TFYOV) I was pretty excited. The excellent thing is, the movie didn't at all disappoint! Rogen and Katherine Heigl actually worked great off of each other, and the supporting cast is hilarious. Judd Apatow doesn't necessarily "get" women as well as he does men, but he still does a great job overall. I feel like I had more to say about the movie, and I'm sure I'll think of it, but until my brain is working, that's a quick review. It's awesome, go see it.

Lamest post ever, but I'm too tired to care!

A Lovely Listy Book

Sometimes I suck with titles for these things.

So over the weekend I took the Amtrak up to Chicago and back. I spent four hours in Chicago and twelve hours total on trains. 8 hours up, 6 hours back. It sucked, sort of, but was also fun because I like trains and I got to read! It's been so long since I read for hours at a time. Generally I can only read for an hour or so at a time with stuff. (When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out, I will do nothing before I'm finished.) So Friday night I went to Borders to get a train read.

I got Five People Who Died During Sex: And 100 Other Terribly Tasteless Lists. Seriously, if you're traveling this summer and you like odd lists, pick it up. It was only $10 and it was so much fun! Here are some of the things I learned:

• Alfred Hitchcock suffered from ovophobia—fear of eggs.
• in 1930, Sears customers became enraged when the catalog was first printed on glossy, non-absorbent paper.
• I forget the country, but this one country let some American missionaries send a whole bunch of Bibles over, and they were having a toilet paper shortage so they processed the Bibles for toilet paper, and you could still read some of the names. (I know, it's horrible, but it's also funny.)
• James Garfield wouldn't have died when he got shot if people had just kept their grubby hands out of his wound. Ick!

It's very light reading and super fun if you like weird factoids. Highly recommend!

The News in Idol

Ah, Idol. Every week you give me new reasons to love and hate you. Some notes:

• Phil sounded not bad last night! He still looked like a cadaver, but he actually sang pretty well, which was a nice change. I don't dislike him so much as I... nothing him.
• Lakisha was really not great last night. I'm not as big a fan of hers as I am of Melinda, but she just didn't really hit it with "Jesus, Take the Wheel" last night, which is odd, because I pegged that as a homer for her. She should have gone with some Reba or Patsy Cline.
• Sanjaya... okay, first of all, is Bonnie Raitt even legitimately country? Because I don't usually hear that song on country stations. But we'll leave that aside. The dude's voice is just not strong enough. He's talent show at best, and he's not even the guy who would win the talent show, he's the guy who'd have a whole bunch of friends show up and then act all whiny and obnoxious when he lost to the Blake or the Melinda. He's going to live through tonight almost undoubtedly, and that makes me sad.
• Jordin is awesome and I am in love with her. Let me make that clear. But I'm not entirely sure what the lather was about last night. I really, really liked her, but she had a couple of clunker notes in there that I guess I didn't get passed. And she wasn't in the bottom three last week, so it's not like they were working on saving her. But whatever, because I love her and want to take her to Starbucks and so everyone should talk nice about her.
• Melinda was awesome. Melinda is always awesome. She sounded absolutely terrific, and though I was kind of harshed by Simon's "Stop acting surprised" bit, (although, how cute was he saying "Dude, I know.") the closeups on her reactions, the grin, the glow... she's frickin' awesome. LOVE.
• Chris Richardson is dead to me now. It wasn't the singing, because I actually liked it. Rascal Flatts tends to sound a bit nasally sometimes, so I got where he was coming from there. It also wasn't him getting snitty with Simon, although, dude? Don't you know he's the only one on the judge panel who knows jack? No, it was him getting snitty with his "nasal is a singing style" (granted, but there are few people who make it work) and THEN having the nerve to bring up the Virginia Tech tragedy. It would have been an entirely different thing if he had said something about appreciating Simon's critique, but he wanted to take the opportunity to send his love and prayers to the school. But he was a douchebag to Simon, he must have known it, and he either had already planned on saying something and decided to do it without really noticing it was no longer appropriate, or, and this is my problem, he knew he was a douchebag and thought he could pull that out of pocket to make up for his ass-hattery. Seriously, I don't care if the guy goes up and sings "Dick in a Box" next week, I'm done with him. People losing their sons, daughters, siblings, etc. cannot be compared in the same breath to Simon being mean to you.

Everybody likes Boobies

So over the weekend, I read a really awesome book I picked up at the library. It’s called Stacked, and it’s all about breasts from an anthropological and cultural perspective. It’s really excellent, because it discusses how breasts might have evolved, how the bra has evolved, and what women and men think of them. The most interesting chapter might have been the last one, where the author discussed some transgender perspective on breasts and how they make someone feminine even more so than the possession of a vagina. It was quite interesting stuff, really! If you like non-fiction, definitely pick it up.

Couple of Letters, a little review for good measure

Dear Weather,

You know, I know I complained that we went straight from winter to summer, but I was not, in fact, requesting we slip back to winter. The Easter Bunny's going to freeze his little cottontail straight off.

Ptthhthbbbbbt.
Angie

Dear America,

Gina goes and Sanjaya stays? Well, this is the country that elected W twice.

Ptttttthbbbbbt.
Angie

Dear Crystal Light Iced Tea Water Thingies,

You are way yummier than I had anticipated you being. I'm really happy about that. Now, help me get rid of my fat ass.

Baby steps, right?
Angie

Blades of Glory Review

Went and saw this last Saturday with as passel of friends, and let me just say, this is a good movie to see with a passel of friends!

Given my superlative reviews as of late, this review may end up coming off as me not liking the movie. That's not it at all. It was very good. But it was dumb, and it was supposed to be dumb, so I can't really talk about the depth of John Heder's or Will Ferrell's "performances." They were both very funny, Heder endearingly so, Ferrell in the way he usually is. Jenna Fischer was delightful in her role as sister to the Evil Duo, played by Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. Frankly, I think they and Craig T. Nelson as the skating duo's coach were my favorite part. To be a villain in this kind of movie really means you get to munch the nearby scenery, and they took full advantage of it.

Honestly, it was a fun movie. It would have been more fun if Heder or Ferrell had actually been able to skate a bit more, but it was still good times, and I'm glad I saw it. Bottom line, catch it in a matinee, get a bag of popcorn, turn your brain off, and kill a couple of good hours on a Saturday. And bring your friends.

All I Do is Watch Movies and Shit (with Bonus Book List!)

Seriously, all I can do in here is write about movies I'm seeing and pop-culture I'm consuming. Honest to god, I do real things, like read books and talk about politics and care about the environment and shit, I swear. I just got out of a meeting about totally important international things that I'm not allowed to talk about yet, but will when I can because it's pretty awesome.

And yet yere I shall regurgitate more of my opinions on movies and stuff for you. Oh well!

Amadeus
Believe it or not, I've never seen this movie before. I guess it's not that big a stretch, but given how much I love music and movies it's kind of ridiculous. Anyway, I watched this DVD at my friend Jen's house last Friday and love!

First off, let's talk about Salieri, played by F. Murray Abraham. (Now I get the joke from Last Action Hero, and DO NOT JUDGE ME for seeing and liking that movie.) I could totally relate to the part of this man who knows just enough about music and composing to know that his work is nothing compared to Mozart's. He looks at Mozart's compositions, and he feels like God Himself is composing through Mozart. Being great at music is all Salieri ever wanted, what he promised to God that he would devote his life to, and here's this guy, this raunchy, crass, hilarious genius who has more talent in one of his slightly pink wigs than Salieri has in his entire being. Now, a normal plot would have Salieri jealous of Mozart, but he quickly goes beyond that, determining that God must have a personal vendetta against him, which He flaunts through Mozart. Abraham's playing a character that's HELLA unstable, and he's sympathetic and repellant at the same time, because I can see what a slippery slope it is between jealousy and out and out madness.

Tom Hulce plays Mozart. Can I just get it out of my system really quick that he kind of looks like Chad Lowe? Because it's been distracting me, but now that it's said I feel we can move on. I loved the way he played Mozart. He came off as so child-like to me. Really, he is just a large, precocious child. The gift that he has is as elementary as walking to him, which is why he doesn't seem to get it when continually insults Salieri. He has no concept of how hard it is for most people. Also, he comes across as someone who really just needs people to like him. He seems so insecure, probably because his father so disapproves of him, and particularly with Salieri, all his actions seem to cry out "Look Dad! Look what I can do! Did you see? Did you see me, Dad?" There's just this desperation to be recognized which is kind of mind-blowing considering the guy also has an ego the size of Montana. Hulce was really terrific in the role.

The movie all around is terrific, but there were a few scenes that I thought were particularly amazing, none more so than near the end, where Salieri is helping Mozart with his Requiem. Now, stop reading if you haven't seen and want to see it. Go on, we'll wait. Skip to the book list.

Still with me? Excellent. So Salieri has plotted to drive Mozart to compose the Requiem, and further, plans for Mozart to die and take credit for it as his tribute at the funeral. (How exactly Mozart is supposed to die is murky to Salieri, but he ends up having that taken care of for him, since Mozart basically drives himself into the ground.) Mozart is lying in his bed, racked with fever, but desperate for money and to finish his piece. He's too weak to write, and so Salieri sits at the end of the bed and takes dictation. Mozart is explaining exactly how he wants things to sound, from the chorus to the bassoons and strings. Salieri is just struggling to keep up, and Mozart keeps losing his patience with him. But Salieri's sitting there, writing out this music, and he knows it's genius, and he knows it's not his, but in that moment, he's too busy experiencing this composition coming together to focus on his hate for Mozart, and you can see him getting completely drunk from it, and it's just beautiful.

The whole cast does a great job, and I was especially fond of Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph and Elizabeth Berridge as Stanzi, but really, it's the interaction of Salieri and Mozart that I couldn't tear myself away from. If you haven't seen it yet, Netflix it, it's totally worth it and doesn't at all feel like three hours.

Books I have Lied About Reading
(Suggested by Doppelganger over at 50 Books)

The Grapes of Wrath
Man, we were supposed to read this in high school, and I just hated it. Steinbeck is super-depressing, he totally kills my soul. I read bits and pieces, but honestly, I mostly Cliffnotesed (or rather, Sparknotesed) it. And frankly, I don't think I'm missing that much.

Crime and Punishment
I couldn't get past the first page of this one. Seriously. I totally just read the Cliffnotes and read other people's discussions. Let me know if I missed something great, but I somehow doubt it. (I know, it's great literature, wankity-blah, but I just don't care.)

The Great Gatsby
I have read this now, but I did not actually read it the first time it was assigned to me, which was in high school. I should have just read it because it was really well-done, but Gatsby and Daisy just got on my nerves in high school.

The Reef, and The Age of Innocence
These were assigned in an Austen/Wharton class I took a few semesters ago. At the time, I didn't feel like I had time to read them, but they're on my to-do list now. I really did like The House of Mirth, even though it was a drag.

Emma
Another for the Austen/Wharton class. I'm reading it now, though, and I really like it, though it's kind of slow-going. Emma's kind of a hard character to like for most of the book, isn't she? It helps that I know Clueless was based on it, though, so I know she gets better. (Although Cher was always great.)

Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn
I was supposed to read these for a summer children's lit class and didn't. I feel like they're ones I'll get around to, but I'm not in a hurry for it.

I can't think of a clever/pithy way to end this, so... bye!

What I'm Doing when I'm Supposed to be Studying Math

I admit it: I’m a pop-culture whore. In the past five days, I have sampled no less than three pieces of visual entertainment that have delighted and entertained me. One was excellent, one was very good, and one was, while totally enjoyable, utterly crap. Allow me to elaborate:

The Twinkie: Tasty going down, but I’d prefer if no one else saw me consuming it, because it can’t be good for me.
The Twinkie of the week for me, indeed, probably my biggest Twinkie, is American Idol. Particularly now that I have Tifaux and can zap past the parts I don’t care about or the performers that I don’t like. (Bye Antonella!) But let’s face it: pretty much anyone with a modicum of singing ability fantasizes about this show. Of course, my self-esteem is low enough that I wouldn’t even expect to make it to Hollywood. My goal is simply to be able to hug Simon, because I adore him. Still, every week I watch it and as the women are singing, if I know the song and think I could sing it better, or at least as well, you can bet the next morning I’m singing it as I’m fixing breakfast. I can’t help it. If there were an Idol 12-step program I might consider it.

By far and away the best moment this week in Idol was Simon’s reaction to the delightful Melinda Doolittle. She tore the hell out of her song, and when it came to Simon to speak, he was grinning in the most delightful fashion and said, “You’re a little tiger! I thought we had a pussycat!” It was so warm and endearing, and Melinda was so obviously delighted by it I just wanted to kiss him. Speaking of kissing…

The Coldstone Creamery: Delicious, and readily accessible!
I LOVE House. Hugh Laurie is so delightfully cranky and funny, he warms my very toes. (If you haven’t seen Sense and Sensibility, rent it this weekend. It’s great, but he’s worth the price of admission.) The show can be a bit up and down with me from time to time, but I love the entire cast. However, this week was just great. House is playing the piano! With Dave Matthews! Who is actually a good actor in this! Seriously, Dave Matthews was charming and not at all overdone as the savant. And Red Foreman was his dad! IMDb informs me his name is really Kurtwood Smith, but come on, it’s Red Foreman. He was wonderful as well. Chase’s moment with House was a delight, Cuddy and her “Call the Make-a-Wish Foundation” line was hilarious and best of all, the House and Cameron smooch was HOT. And trust me, I’m not a giant fan of that connection, but I watched that scene no less than four times before coming to work yesterday. The kiss itself was great, but then when House figured out that Cameron was trying something, and his eyebrow arched straight off his head? Poetry. One of the best episodes I’ve seen yet.

The Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake: There are no words for how wonderful this is.
The non-date I went on this week was to see Pan’s Labyrinth. I was warned that it was extremely depressing, but I didn’t actually find that to be the case, because I was looking at it through the lens of “fairy tale”. Should someone stumble across this and not have seen it, I don’t want to give much away, but the movie is absolutely great. The cinematography is stunning, the whole artistry of the movie is just gorgeous. The story is simple, but lovely, and well-acted all around. I was a little nervous about seeing a subtitled movie in theaters for the first time, but it was a non-issue. Everything about the movie was terrific, highly recommend.

And there you have it! My week in pop-culture snacks!

The Queen: Review

I've been meaning to write up my opinion about this film since I saw it a month ago, and what with the Oscar and stuff, everyone on the planet has already seen it, but there were certain aspects about the movie that I really liked, so I'm going to write it anyway.

The Queen is about such a limited time frame that it really works. It only covers the death of Princess Diana and the week immediately after. The central conflict of the story is how the monarchy should respond to the Princess's death. It's a lot less cut and dry than most people probably anticipate it being, and that's for a lot of reasons, reasons that are touched on in the movie. For one, and it's hard to believe that this is one that's easy to forget: The Queen is the grandmother to two young boys who have just lost their mother, and she is obviously concerned about their well-being. She knows the media is going to be a circus, and she wants to protect the boys from that. Secondly, this is a woman who was raised and reigned during World War II, and those of us with grandparents from that era can attest to the fact that these were people who were taught to keep emotion to themselves. Public demonstrations of grief were thought to be disrespectful. Like it or not, stiff upper lip is almost genetic to this generation of people. And third of all, Diana's relationship with the Royal Family was incredibly complicated, and this was not entirely the fault of the Royals.

Don't get me wrong, I sympathize very much with Diana. It's one thing to think about being in the Royal Family, and it's quite another to actually be in it. I can imagine that the stress and strain on her was enormous. This must have been compounded by her struggles with depression and the constant media attention should she so much as want to go shopping. But whether deservedly or no, Diana caused the Monarchy a great deal of trouble by speaking out with her opinions, telling her stories, and presenting them in a light that, delicately put, was not flattering. And so the Queen was probably also struggling with those emotions as well.

All of that comes across in Helen Mirren's portrayal, stunningly so. She is at once strong and vulnerable, and to watch her struggle with the reactions of the media and of her subjects to not only Diana's death but to her response to it was really interesting and really gets you to think more about what that must have been like. She really did a superb job.

The supporting cast was also excellent. Michael Sheen was a great Tony Blair, and I liked the balance he was striving for between the derisive comments of his staff and the sympathy he obviously feels for the Queen. Although, I must say, the people around him, including his wife, seem harsher than I would hope they actually were. The best scene in the film is when he remarks on how quickly the public can turn on you, and the Queen assures him that he will have to deal with it in his own time. (Particularly poignant given Blair's involvement with the Iraq war and the country's reaction.) James Cromwell is always excellent, and it's also interesting to remember that the Queen is also a wife, and see the dynamic play out there. Alex Jennings made Prince Charles both sympathetic and sort of gross at different points. I hope the real Charles broke down when he heard the news. He frustrated me a great deal, though, by seeming to block his mother's entrance into the boys' room after he told them the news. If nothing else, it was good to see a different side of him, a sympathetic one at last. And Sylvia Syms was a hoot as the Queen Mother. Not always funny, but just such a dynamic character and presence, it was a delight to watch.

On a shallow note, every time they show the Queen doing something normal, like driving a hummer, I cracked up. "The Queen said 'walkies'!" I whispered with glee in the theater. Again, humanizing these people is what I think the movie is all about, and the cast and script of the movie did this admirably. If you're one of the few people who haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

The concert, FINALLY

I apparently suck at telling stories, given the length of time that it’s taken me thus far just to get to the concert. But onward, right?

So Suzy drops me off at my apartment, and it’s beginning to ice over, which is excellent since I need to drive myself downtown for the concert and not die, and I’m not at all confident in my abilities to do this. I called my dad to see if he would bring Shadow back over, and he said sure, but he didn’t have a key. I didn’t want to mess with convincing him that my mother did have a key, so I just told him I’d head over there. Meanwhile I’m trying to coordinate with three different people about meeting downtown for dinner and what time. Finally, my friend Leila had talked us all into going to this restaurant called Urban Elements, and I told my friend Stacy, from Valparaiso how to get there based on what Leila had told me, and also let Paul, another concert-goer as well.

When I had called my dad about the dog, my mom had sounded pissy. So as I went into the apartment, leashed up the dog and whispered to my dad that my mom was pissed at me, and what had I done? He kept saying that she was just pissed at him, not at me, but I didn’t believe him, since she sounded so shitty with me. She came into the living room and was really bitchy and yelled about how she would not have people talking about her in her house. I was like, “I just was trying to figure out if you were pissed at me.” She yelled, “Well I am now!’ So I headed into her room, and said “You sounded angry, so I was trying to see if Dad knew what I had done.” She proceeded to tell me that my dad had told her about the money he had paid me in December. My dad had gotten a check from his boss to cover his cell phone bill for a full year, which he passed to me without telling my mom, knowing that my mother would want it. So when she started on him over the weekend about how he needed to pay for the cell phone. So he blurted out, “I did pay her, I got a check in December and I cashed it and gave it to her.” So my mom decided to “catch him in the lie” by asking me. “Did your dad give you money for the phone in December?” she asked. I told her yes immediately, because he had. “Cash or check?” she asked. Keep in mind that this was three months ago, I’ve slept since then, and, oh yeah, I don’t spend every waking moment thinking about it. So I said check. She told me he said it was cash. I replied, “He’s right, it was cash.” Of course, then my mom assumed I was lying. “No, it was cash. He got a check from his boss in his name, so he cashed it at the grocery store and gave me the money.” So my mom started going off about how she couldn’t believe I didn’t respect her enough that I would like in her goddamn face, etcetera. I tried to assure her that I was not lying, but the response I got was thus: “You could swear on Nicky’s grave (that would be my dead sister, by the way. She died of cancer before I was born.) and I still wouldn’t believe you.” My response was “Fine, but I’m telling you the truth.” There was more melodramatics, but not much more, because I needed to head out or I wouldn’t make dinner. So I dropped the dog at home and braved the trek downtown, which SUCKED. Leila and I agreed to drop our cars at the parking garage on the campus where we both go to school and work, and have Paul drive us to the restaurant for dinner. Of course, we agreed that after I’d gotten to the restaurant and parked, but whatever, carpooling good.

When we walked in, there were Stacy and her boyfriend Dan on the couch, but we didn’t see Mookie right away. That’s because he was shoved back in a corner with his friend, John, who joined us for dinner. Dinner was a riotous affair. We were all making jokes and bantering about, it was super fun. I ordered a BLT, which was BRILLIANT. It had so much bacon on it. It made me incredibly happy. They also have hot cookies and delectable chocolate desserts, mine was like a super-dense brownie. I needed the milk I ordered. Poor Leila, she hates milk, so she kept eyeing my glass and saying “Cow excretion” with a shudder. It was excellent.

The ice had finally stopped, but it was replaced with a positively miserable rain. But we refused to have our spirits dampened! Driving and driving and driving led no avail to a decent parking space, so Paul, being the saint that he is, dropped Leila right in front of the Murat. Of course, we immediately found out that you had to go in through the back entrance. CURSES! So I called Paul on the cell phone, and got him to come drive us around before parking. Seriously, we’re not prima donna bitches, we were just cold and not wanting to spend the concert soaked.

Leila and I met up with Mookie inside, and as we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, we played a game called “Why are these people here?” Guster is an amazing band, and more power to the people who love their music. But there were so many teenie boppers there! Since when do teenie boppers like good music? And frat boys! We just didn’t understand!

The opening act didn’t sound all that promising, so we decided to wait in the lobby for it to end and keep playing our game and chat. Fortunately, they weren’t on that much longer and the actual Guster performance was well worth the wait.

Musical Highlights included:
“Demons”—Man, that song kicks ass, and it’s better live.
“Manifest Destiny”—Such a great tune
“The Airport Song”—That’s right, hurl ping pong balls at the band!
The drummer. If you don’t know Guster, the drummer is the biggest badass in all the land. He plays the drums most of the time with his bare hands. And this is rock music, people. So he’s playing the high hat and the set like that. So awesome. We’ve decided he should death match it with the one-armed drummer from Def Leppard.
The final encore was the drummer singing “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes. I really don’t like this song in the real world. However. Guster kicked it’s ass. Because the drummer is a drummer for a reason, and he can’t really sing. But it was still super fun and just a great energy to end the show.

Band Awesomeness Highlights Included:
The band being stoked about the lighters, cell phones and glow sticks being used in the audience. As soon as he said “glow stick” the guy in the audience launched it onstage, where it hung like a beacon the rest of the night.
The intro to “So Long.” Ryan was like “We only play this song a couple times a tour. So I had to look up the lyrics to the song online, so nobody better be fucking with me.” AWESOME.
Guster rocks because they always explain the encore process. “Okay, so the lights are going to go out, and you’ll all clap. And then we’ll come back out and do some more songs.” HEE!

People Highlights Included:
The frat boys. They were pretty dumb.
The drunk girl in front of us. She must have been all of 19 years old, and I’m pretty sure she drank her weight in Bud Light. We were pretending to be documentarians, all “Note how the female clings to the waste of the male in an attempt to remain upright.” The chick eventually ended up on the floor, and her friends were all just still watching the show. Security came over, all like, “She’s a fire hazard.” Seriously? Of course she is, and she might also be dead! Go security! Her girlfriends must actually like her because they were giving her their hoodies and stuff to wear outside so she wouldn’t die in her tube top. Two guys were actually just holding her like a basket outside. It was hysterical.

So that was the concert! Good times. Next installment: Parent douchebaggery! Then I can return to normal posting about nothing.

Saturday Day

Okay, so concert-ward. Better late than never, right? Damn, I'm slow, though.

I’ve been looking forward to Guster playing at the Murat for weeks, and Saturday was finally the day. But before that I had made plans to head down to Bloomington with my friend Suzy to this Catholic retreat place for Mass and food. No problem, we were supposed to be back by 3, and then I was going to meet up with my friends around 5:30 for food and concert fun. In theory, of course. In practice, this is what went down:

Suzy fixed us this delicious breakfast. There was a loud rap on my apartment door around 8:45. I’m thinking, “Barry, your mom can walk to the damn hospital.” But no! It was a dozen red roses and a card! So I’m all “I got flow—that’s not my name.” Kara had gotten flowers, from our friend and co-worker Sami, who had suddenly decided he was entirely smitten with her. Well first, we were all plotzing for Kara, because really, how cute is that? But second, because I am a shallow and small person, I said, “Wait, did a woman who is not me just get flowers at my apartment?” Fortunately, my friends all laughed at me and pointed out that they did give me lovely dishes and stuff the night before, so I tried to reel in my smallness. I still contend that it was slightly bullshit.

So I decided to take Shadow over to my parent’s house for the day since I was going to be out most of it. Of course, while I was over there, my father mentioned something ass-y my mother had said, and I ranted about that and got myself worked up into a royal snit. Post-snit, I saw the girls off besides Suzy, and we headed B-town-ward and talked theology and whatnot. It was really nice. So was the Mass. It was more old-school than anything I was used to, but still really cool. I don’t know. There are aspects of Catholicism that rock, and others that do not. We’ll see.

On the way back, we stopped at a diner called Lennie’s, and I had a sandwich that had to have been inspired by God Himself. (Catherine, if you read this, please try to visualize, as I do not yet have a digital camera!) Picture a pile of roast beef, mixed with bits of crumbled bacon, slices of tomatoes, sweet marinated red onions and melted mozzarella cheese on store-made, fresh baked bread. Also, picture it being the size of your face, because it is. It’s a marvel and a joy and oh, so delicious. Also delicious was the cucumber slaw, very tart and refreshing. SO GOOD. After that, Suzy stopped at this Thai place to get some to-go for her dinner. She just couldn’t make the trip and skip it.

Well, we didn’t get back by 3. It was more like, oh, 4:30, and I had forgotten my cell phone at home. I had four messages and seven missed calls. Did you ever notice that on the days you forget your cell phone you become popular? This is what seems to happen to me.

Coming up in adventures of weekend-dom: A great concert! Crappy weather! And the afore-mentioned rotten parents! Stay tuned!

In Defense of Marcel

I admit it, I am reality TV's bitch. In particular, I seem to get roped into the Bravo! network shows. Project Runway is easily one of my favorite shows, though I could have done with a lot less meanness and bullshit drama (Jeffrey and Keith, I'm looking at you). Now, while Top Chef is not as entertaining to me, it’s still a really good show, and I really enjoy watching it. But this season has been absolutely dreadful. The drama had very little to do with the competition, and the competitors just seem to be douche bags.

I get that it's a competition, and I don't necessarily expect everyone to love each other and be friends, particularly if different people have grating personalities. Tiffani last season is a good example: as a person, I couldn't stand her, but she was a good chef and that was largely what made her good TV. Sure, Dave couldn't stop crying, and Stephen was obnoxious with his sommelier crap, but still, that was all competition, and it frankly made for a good show.

When this season started, I was looking for Marcel to be this season's Stephen: probably quite talented as a cook, but an obnoxious git. But unless the editors aren't giving him a fair edit because he ultimately wins, he hasn't been that bad. Yes, he is a gigantic dork; his rapping on the roof is as much evidence of that as his bouffant hairdo. But what strikes me as so odd is that everyone else is constantly bitching about how irritating he is, and last night Elia went so far as to say he "cheated" in previous challenges, and we have seen absolutely zero evidence of that. Okay, his personality may be grating in person, but let's take a look at what he's being accused of:

1. Being disrespectful in the kitchen: Okay, when? Because what we have been consistently shown is that he tries almost without fail to be extremely respectful in the kitchen. He offered to help Betty more than once even though Betty was a complete ass to him. He asked repeatedly for people to keep the refrigerator door closed, which affected them all and was very inconsiderate of who was not doing it. And every team challenge it seemed, Marcel seemed to take whatever course was left over instead of being a bitch and fighting over it. On the other hand, we've got Ilan, who yelled at Marcel for "snapping" at Betty when Marcel really didn't, and the rest of the chefs all refusing to help him until he had apologized. We've got Ilan blatantly insulting Marcel by trying to foam Italian dressing in one of the quickfire challenges just to mock him. And all of the chefs seemed to insist on shunning and bitching about Marcel, both to his face and behind his back.
2. Cheating: This is such crap. Prove it. Show one instance in which Marcel cheated. Did he accidentally "steal" a case of lychee? No. Did he alter his recipe in the dietetic challenge? No (Betty). He didn't even take a discount he was most likely entitled to because he didn't know if it was allowed. So, sorry, I'm not biting. There were cameras up your ass at all times. You're telling me you can't find one instance of him doing something underhanded? Oh, he moved your pot Elia? When your burner wasn't even on? After he announced he was moving it? How awful for you. Suck it the hell up.
3. He's irritating: Granted. His personality could very easily come off as irritating. Anyone that you live with is irritating at least some of the time. I didn't see them treating Betty like shit, and she was irritating. Mikey could be horribly irritating, and everyone loved him. All it ended up looking like was "the cool kids" picking on the kid they decided was the enemy. And the funny thing is if they hadn't done it, I probably wouldn't be rooting for Marcel, because he does have personality ticks that bug, and (far more importantly) his food isn't necessarily the first in line I'd like to taste. But that doesn't give these people the right to try and smear him through the mud, physically assault him (Cliff), slam him on personal things and generally be giant dicks.

It'll be interesting to see if we find out stuff in the inevitable reunion special that shines some light on why Marcel was so reviled. I seriously doubt these people can find a way to justify their deplorable behavior, but I have to believe something was going on that we weren't being shown. In any case, when TC3 starts airing, I seriously hope the drama comes on the side or not at all.

Musical Note

Scrubs was a musical episode last night. Why are musical episodes always better? Granted, Scrubs is a stellar show, and I wouldn't miss it no matter what, but as a musical? Even funnier. It was like that episode of Buffy, "Once More with Feeling." I have never seen another episode of Buffy in my life, but that one was really good. (A friend loaned me the first season. I really need to get around to watching it.) Or the episode of Project Runway where Santino sang his "It's Just Fashion" song, or the Daniel Franco song. Or the time on America's Next Top Model where the whole panel burst into song, which was also awesome. Singing just seems to improve things.

All by way of saying if you didn't watch Scrubs last night, see if you can find it on YouTube. It was hilarious, in particular the song about pooing, and the "Guy Love" duet. Solid gold.

Review: Stranger Than Fiction

When I saw that Will Ferrell was doing a movie with Emma Thompson that was pretty much structured around literary allusions, here was my verbatim response: "Oh God, please don't let it suck." I really wanted it to be good. It's not that I don't like Will Ferrell, because I do. But his movies tend to be a bit much. It's that Jim Carrey sweet-jeebus-calm-down vibe that's great... in small doses and when you're in the right mood, and the premise of the movie sounded so witty that I really wanted it to be good. And I adore Emma Thompson, so I was desperately not wanting Will Ferrell to ruin a movie with her in it. (Granted, Junior wasn't really a winner, but it was the early nineties, Thompson was charming in it (and I really didn't know who she was yet), and Schwarzenegger was "acting" instead of "governing," so that was nice.)

Fortunately, I can say without impunity that this movie was really good, even better than expected. For an English major/giant nerd such as myself, all of the literary in-jokes were a total turn-on. (Case in point: Ferrell keeping track of events in his life to try and determine if he is in a comedy or a tragedy.) The writing was witty and warm, and the plot, though not completely unpredictable, was well-structured and moved well.

As for the performances, they were great all-around. Ferrell was very likable, and toned down in a way that reminded me of Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another excellent flick. He let the situation and two of the other characters be the zaniness and focused on building a character that was easy to root for and believe in. Maggie Gyllenhall was absolutely adorable; her character radiated vivacity and wit and a very believable kindness and charm. She's already a very beautiful woman, and the way she played her character only seemed to magnify that. I was falling in love with her, for pity's sake. And the chemistry between her and Ferrell was very easy to buy into. There are two moments in particular, one involving flour and one involving a piece of advice, that just made me root for the two of them so much. It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

As for the secondary characters, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, they were such enhancements for the film. Hoffman plays a helpful, eccentric English professor. He's such a dynamic lead, but he's so darn fun as these crazy side characters, like he was in I Heart Huckabees. Emma Thompson plays the author of Will Ferrell's book, and is a more sarcastic, harder character than she usually plays, and she is a delight. The little crush that she and Hoffman's characters have on each other is completely delightful as well.

The only off-note for me was Queen Latifah's role as Thompson's assistant. Something seems to be missing there, specifically her overall point in the film. I get it, she's the person who's supposed to be helping spur the book along, but there just didn't seem to be any real point to her presence. Which sucks, because I love Queen Latifah and I think she adds a lot to things (see also: Last Holiday, a movie that for all intents and purposes should have been rote and trite but was actually extremely entertaining) and it didn't seem to be there in this film. I'm wondering if there was more of a subplot with her that got edited out, and I hope that if there was it shows up on the DVD.

In any case, Stranger Than Fiction totally did not disappoint. Engaging plot, charming actors with good performances and a movie that treats the audience like it has a brain made the movie a really good experience for me.