(M) Blood Diamond
Grade: A

I think this film was nominated for Best Picture. If so, it should have beat The Departed which was OK, but nowhere as good as this film. I was really impressed with this film and thought Leo did an amazing job. The advertisements did not look to favorable to me, especially his accent but I thought he did an awesome job. The story line of the diamond industry is a great story to get out to the public.



(M) The Beales of Grey Gardens
Grade: C

If you saw Grey Gardens, the documentary about two older women living in the Hamptons or somewhere like that then you may enjoy this additional movie about the two women. It's not as good as Grey Gardens but I laughed a number of times and there were things that were in this film that I wished had been in Grey Gardens.

(TV) North & South. (BBC, 2004) Grade: A

Thoughts: North & South is an adaptation of same titled novel by Elizabeth Gaskell about a young woman, Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and her move to northern town of Milton. The mini-series had great characters, amazing sets/costumes and strong acting. The romance between Margaret and Mr. Thornton (Richard Armitage) is wonderful and had me swooning (that’s right swooning). There are many comparisons between these two characters and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. I agree with some but in the end they are very different characters. I actually ended up buying the DVD because I was so in love with the series and Richard Armitage who plays Mr. Thornton.

TV Count: 5

The old me would have sent out death threats for lack of blogs and comments BUT the new me hopes all you guys are doing well. Hopefully you guys can drop by and say hello or something.

(TV) Stargate Atlantis – Season One. (Sci Fi Channel, 2004) Grade: B+

Thoughts: Pigern got Stargate Atlantis - Season Two through work and I decided to give this show a try by watching Season One. I must admit I was not totally impressed by the first couple of eps but by the end of Season One I was hooked. There is less character development/drama and more action/adventure than I like compared to say Battlestar Galactica; however overall it is a well done show. Apparently, there are some major casting changes in future seasons that I’m not looking forward to. Season Three starts this Friday but I have a long way to go to catch up.

On a side note, the SciFi channel is having a Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis marathon this week and next. If only I could just stay at home and watch.

TV Count: 4

New Wave asked me to blog for today, which led me to wonder where everyone else in the house went. Hello? ((echo))

(O) WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution @ MOCA Downtown L.A., March 14-July 16 Grade: B+
This exhibit doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it does explore a wide range of somewhat serious concerns: the sexuality of women, the male gaze (which still exists), the role of women in society, etc. It looks at the definitions of women as gender (defined by society) versus women as sex (defined by biology). The exhibit highlights for me were an original copy of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, who shot Andy Warhol in 1968; an Eleanor Antin photography piece, in which she disects the process of a sculptor; and the mattress room. Take a looksee if you get the chance.

HE is Risen.

(B) Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata, 1956) Grade: A
Kawabata is the first Japanese writer to receieve the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won for this novel. It’s a beautifully written book about geisha Komako who loves wealthy Shimamura, despite knowing her love will be fruitless and tragic. It explores the binds, however loose, that hold people together and what eventually unravels them. He himself was the object of her love; and yet the woman’s existence, her straining to live, came touching to him like naked skin. He pitied her, and he pitied himself.

Side note: After establishing himself as one of Japan’s most distinguished novelists, Kawabata killed himself with no note, leaving his suicide a mystery.

Happy Birthday FTC :)

Nothing much to say today. I was going to blog about why Sanjaya was still on American Idol but nah. There are over 285 news stories on the web about that.

Tomorrow is Good Friday and some offices are closed. I have to deal with international offices and it is crazy how much time they have off. In Norway, they had a half day on Wed. and Thurs, Friday AND Monday off. Most of the offices have Friday and Monday off ... I need to move to Europe.

I just want to say right now I am sorry for all my flooding of posts to this board, I am on Spring Break and have a lot of free time on my hands. Next week it will be back to maybe one a week.


(M) Syriana
Grade: A

This movie presents a bunch of discussion questions:
Does the US government sell arms to foreign nations that get used for improper purposes?
Does the oil industry engage in corrupt business practices for money?
Do people sell out their co-workers for profit?
Does the government turn its back on its agents in countries when things get ruff?
Do industries create fall men to be sacrificed before the public just to make their industry look good and then give them multi-million dollar golden parachutes for doing a couple years in jail?
Does the US government assassinate men who are in line to take control of their country who will run it at odds to American interests?
Are there citizens left in such poor living conditions due to their leaders being more concerned about profit than benefiting society that they turn to acts of “terrorism” against countries like America that are making sure the conditions of foreign countries stay low?

Syriana asks this and many more questions and according to the movie the answer to each question is ‘Yes’. True or not, it creates a film to get people talking about what’s going on in the world.



(M) Infamous
Grade: B

I have not seen Capote which got all the critical acclaim. I enjoyed this movie, there were aspects about it that I did not like at all, such as the set-designs and color schemes in the beginning of the movie and the “interview” aspects of the film were very annoying to me. Outside of all of that, the story was really interesting. I need to now watch Capote so I can do a compare and contrast between the two movies.

(M) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Grade: B

My interest in viewing this movie was due to the fact that it is played out during the reign of Mao. Two well-to-do boys have been sent away to be re-educated in the hillside. Upon arrival some of their possessions are destroyed and a violin is almost destroyed until one of the boys plays a song by Mozart but he has to rename the song to ‘Mozart thinking of Mao’. What really comes across is the ignorance of the people during re-education. Mao really must have wanted an ignorant servant class. What happens is the two boys take a liking to one of the girls and the boys are able to get their hands on some banned books and through it they read to the girl and teach her to read and the impact of the books changes her future. Part of the focus of the film does deal with how something as simple as a book can drastically alter the course of one’s life. My complaint is that out-of-nowhere the movie jumps twenty years into the future and then wraps everything up in ten or fifteen minutes which bothered me.


(M) The Double Life of Veronique
Grade: B+/A-

I don’t really know how to grade this film because I didn’t know it was going to be so deep. I finished the movie and was like, what the hell just happened???? So of course I went and did the next logical thing, I went out today and bought the Criterion Collection of the film so I can re-watch and then re-watch it again with commentary and then watch all the extras. Most people see something they like and buy it, I seem to see something that confuses me and delve into it without abandon, I’m a marketing persons nightmare. So, perhaps I’ll give this a proper review after I re-watch the film a few times. In-sight to the movie provided here.


(G) Ratatat / 120 Days
Grade: B+

I love me some Ratatat. This was my third time seeing them and I enjoyed it. The show was at the Fonda which is a nice looking venue with a great rooftop view of Hollywood Blvd. But it’s really hard to see the stage and I’m 5’11” and the person I was with is 5’6” and she couldn’t see anything until we went to the side of the building where we could finally see. Okay so, at the last concert I went to two “confused” lesbians were making out and rolling on the ground and stuff. This time I had these three guys next to me who were sharing a girl. They basically were all up on her, grinding on her, and basically just passing her around between them like a piece of meat. I don’t know what’s going on these days when I go to concerts but I question what I will see next.

Side Note: There’s an article in this week’s Newsweek magazine where atheist Sam Harris and Pastor Rick Warren debate the existence of God. I have yet to read it but I just wanted to let people know in case they wanted to check it out.

New Wave and I were bored tonight, so we decided to use her Free Bowling coupons. And I actually met my goal of 100! I bowled 114 for the first game. Even better, I tied with New Wave, who was really upset. Hee hee. So we bowled a second game and I bowled 120! Even better! And New Wave bowled 116. Excellent! I don’t think bowling is all that fun, but beating New Wave sure is! Hee hee. Fun!

Some YouTube fun:


Interesting....

Disturbing ...

For Cup and Darth ...

So far April is off to a shite start:
- Yesterday I bowled an 87 for my league. I have no idea what was going on but I was sucking. How did I go from 193 to 87??!! Come on.

- 24 is getting dull and much like what this article says ... I'm only watching out of duty.


- No BSG until 2008. I'm not use to watching nothing on Sunday.

and the BIGGEST disappointment ....


- Robert Smith is going crazy. I mean seriously are the Cure so hard up for cash that Fat Bob needs to do this!!??!! It was one thing with Korn but now this. (sigh) It is getting harder and harder to say I'm a Cure fan :( When I read this I threw up, then cried.

(M) Of Human Bondage
Grade: C

This was the 1934 version of this film, apparently the oldest of the three versions. This movie was under an hour and a half which is fine by me but to take such a classic novel and turn it into a film that doesn't even hit the hour and a half mark is fair warning it's gonna be a very condensed version of the novel. You basically get the idea that's being conveyed but it is such a surface level experience that I feel it to be a long commercial for a book you may want to read. To sum it up, man falls for woman who is a bitch, gets with woman, she leaves him, he meets somebody else but then leaves her when the original girl comes back into his life. That girl leaves him yet again and he meets another girl and then has to choose which girl to be with. He chooses new girl and the first love dies.


Side note:
I've been listening to Peaches all day and I simply LOVE her.

(B) Bee Season (Myla Goldberg, 2001) Grade: B
The main reason I read this is because of The Decemberists’ track “Song for Myla Goldberg.” I figured if Colin Meloy enjoyed it, I would. Well, it took me an incredibly long amount of time to finish the book, mainly because I didn’t care for the characters all that much. Goldberg has an admirable writing style, but that was the only aspect of Bee Season that I enjoyed.

(B) Factotum (Charles Bukowski, 1975)
Grade: B+
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Ham on Rye but found it enjoyable nonetheless. I’m feeling kind of aimless in the monotony of my life and it’s comforting to have Bukowski communicate that in words. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?