30-second review - Chéri

Fabulous art direction - I wanted to wear every single one of Michelle Pfeiffer's outfits (and there were many) and the interiors were stunning. 

Other than that, a disappointment.  I expected better from Stephen Frears.  The editing was seriously awkward - some cuts between scenes seemed very strange, the more serious bits of dialogue were laughable, and for a 90 minute movie, it sure felt long.  Not at all up to par with The Queen or his other work.  Too bad...

You know...

... how sometimes you just have to take the blame for something even though it's not really your fault, because in certain circumstances, saying "it's not me, it's so-and-so" would just make you look worse than calmly saying, "my fault, sorry", and even though it's taking the high road, it still sucks ?

...how 98% percent of the time, you double-check that everything is just so, and the one time you don't , because you assume that other people do their jobs correctly, it all goes pear-shaped and you're told that you should verify instead of assuming ?

...how half your working day is spent doing what constitutes your job, and the other half is spent writing e-mails just to cover your ass so that you have things in writing just in case you have to justify something you've done, or haven't done ? And another portion of your time is spent reading e-mails written by other people who are just covering their asses ? (And yes, of course yet more time is spent faffing around on the internet, but I didn't blow off steam from time to time my head would implode.)

Anyway. All that.

Surprising

...how restful a short weekend away can be.   A one-hour train journey, one night in a different bed, a different city to stroll in, and I feel like I've been on holiday for a week.  Which is wonderful except that the Monday blues are all the more hard-hitting. 

Soul-destroying corporate whoredom, as I said to a friend last week.  Tongue in cheek, mostly.  Well, partly. 

Well, actually, let's face it, if I never had to work for another day again in my life it's not like I would miss the challenge, is it.  

OK, now I'm just blathering.  Enough. 

In breaking news today,...

..."A government-financed study finds eating red meat increases the likelihood of death"

As opposed to just being born, which also increases the likelihood of death to, oh, about 100% ?

OK, when you go to the actual article it specifies "early death", but the title of the RSS feed blurb didn't say that...

Anger Management

First words out of my mouth this morning (aimed at my computer, thankfully, not at a human being):

"No, I don't want to change my fucking password again. Fuck off!"

Closely followed by, "Oh for fuck's sake you've got to be fucking kidding me!"  once Outlook opened and I got my emails up on screen. 

Deep breaths, and more deep breaths.

30-second review: Pranzo di ferragosto

Charming and unpretentious film, about a middle-aged man living with his elderly mother, who ends up mamma-sitting for 3 other old ladies during a mid-August bank holiday. And that's all the plot there is. Nothing much happens. He cooks, the old ladies eat, and bicker amongst themselves, and sulk, and make up. No earth-shattering revelations about the women's pasts, no deep reflections on growing old, on time passing, on family and responsibilities. But there are looks exchanged, and quantities of white wine drunk, and a ride through Rome on a Vespa, and wrinkles galore, and how nice to hear Italian being spoken, and to see the summer sunlight, even if it is only on a movie screen.

That's not slime, that's radiance.

The text on the packaging says "(Insert name of fabulously overpriced product) intensely corrects all visible signs of aging and helps recreate the deep radiance of a visibly younger skin".

I apply in lieu of usual moisturizer and prance around S until he starts paying attention. 

-  Do I look radiantly youthful ?
-  You look slimy.

Oh.  Good thing it was only a free sample then.

Yes !

Isn't it great when you read something by an author you love that describes you perfectly ?

Case in point, Kate Atkinson in an August 2008 interview in The Times: “I was an only child and read a lot. You can be a happy adult - I am - not a happy child, or a happy child and not a happy adult. I think I was probably just too solitary.”

Twittering, twattering

Not sure whether it's a good idea to join Twitter. Is it just another webpage to update, in addition to the blog and Facebook ? What's the difference between Twittering and the FB update thingy ? Can I be witty and interesting in 160 characters or less ? Does anyone care ? Does it matter ?

A sign of spring - now could it please hurry up and get here already ?

30-second review - The Wrestler

Just give the man the Oscar already.

This film took all the elements of a cheesy underdog sports movie and turned them around into something that left me in an emotional stupor for the rest of the evening. 

For Rourke fans, this is a great interview on Charlie Rose. 

Just one of the many reasons why

...I love Pajiba so much. 

From their review of The International:  "At some point, the suspension of disbelief required by The International becomes equivalent to lynching a hippo with dental floss."

Of course I'll see it anyway, but forewarned is forearmed. I'm just in it for the eye candy.

And a happy Valentine's day to you, too!

Seen today:
A couple in front of a clothes shop window, woman ooh-ing and ah-ing over a skirt. Man with her says curtly "That style doesn't look good on fat people".
Think they're going to have sex tonight?

The 2-mn serious conversation in our household

- Honey, do we have a long term plan ?
- No.
- Oh.
- I was just thinking about that this morning, actually.
- About a long term plan ?
- Well, I thought about the fact that we don't have one.
- Oh? And?
- I didn't really come to any conclusions, though.
- Well that's fine. I never have long term plans, I was just wondering if you did.
- No.
- OK.

Flummoxed.

Well and truly flummoxed.  Where is my red wallet ?  Huh ? Huh ?  Where is it ? 

In other highly exciting news, the new DSLR has been upstaged by an even more recent new toy - we've switched over to Mac and we're not coming back. 

Which is great because everything just works, as all Mac users say - you turn it on and there it is.  Easy to use, intuitive commands in the various applications, fast, and yes, ridiculously good looking.  

Which is not so great because after resisting the iPod siren for years, I now have iPod/iPhone lust, and we need a new external hard disk for back-ups (you never know...) and this, and that, and everything else, so a major purchase is now being followed by smaller but not inconsequential purchases, and if I'm spending all my money on tech stuff I don't have any left over for shoes and handbags, and surely that's not right. 

New Year's resolutions

It's going to be hard to top last year's triumph of learning how to ride a bicycle.
So this year's resolutions, in no particular order, are:

•  keep a clean and tidy house so that I can consider having people drop in at short or no notice without having a panic attack. (Should be feasible, if S cooperates...)
• develop a better attitude about my job, or find a new one. (Attitude adjustment, meh. I'll try, though. New job, perhaps feasible but not ideal due to economic downturn)
• become a better photographer instead of just a snapshot taker (yeah, I can do that. And it will be fun)
• exercise, exercise, exercise. (So far so good: 3 yoga classes and 2 Pilates classes this week. Effects probably counteracted by having brownies, more brownies and nothing but brownies for dinner last night, but never mind)

Happy holidays !

 

Off to spend Christmas in England, then off to Auvergne for my birthday and New Year's. Two weeks vacation with my new toy - bliss.

My top photography tip of the day

 

If you've taken a picture that's blurry and out of focus and just not very good, in post-processing, blur it even more, turn it into black and white, and by virtue of the photo looking more "artistic", you may just manage to convince people that was exactly the effet you were aiming for.

Or perhaps not.

Should I be concerned ?

Used the computer after S. last night and couldn't help but notice that the most recent term in the Google search bar was "low frequency weapons".

Seeing that I had been out for the evening, I suppose I should be happy that he hadn't been searching for "hot lesbian nympho porn" or some such thing, but still. What an intriguing man he is.

30 second review: Pride & Glory

Disclaimer: I would happily sit in a darkened theater to watch Edward Norton read from a phone book for 2 hours.

Well scripted, well acted, well shot rather intelligent cop thriller. By "rather intelligent" I mean it's plot and character driven as opposed to special effects and car chase driven. So OK, some of it's a little déjà vu. (Good cop, bad cop! Ooh, they're from the same family! And family is really, really important, because look, here's a Christmas dinner scene with everyone gathered around a table, and the matriarch is saintly for putting up with those rowdy men of hers, and the kids are cute as a button!) . All in all though, well worth seeing.