I can't really help it, but these posts are often few and far between.
While in one post, I usually only cover the last few days of life, or the more prevalent thought on my mind, I wish I wrote more.
I can of course start with my weekend, and perhaps inspiration will take over and something worth a read will actually come out!
So here we are on Monday, and in an attempt to avoid starting a very repetitive and mind numbing project, I'm reading (and writing it seems) blogs.
This last weekend I went to go see two movies! I of course went to avoid the weather, but seeing as its November, the weather I’m talking about is completely different that the record breaking high temperatures I spoke of in my last entry. In a hope to avoid winter and all its rain, hail, sleet and snow, I agreed to go to Twilight: New Moon on Friday.
The movie was not as bad as I was expecting. I have never read the books, and so I wouldn’t even dream of speaking out against the story, but the acting (for the most part) was a happy surprise. While I still feel Kristen Stewart is the weak link in the acting, she does the best she can trying to portray all those emotions and feelings with facial expressions alone. The director obviously had to make a choice:
1) Copious amounts of voiceovers, or
2) “Kirsten! Give me more ‘confused’!! No, no!! I said confused, not constipated!! Oh okay, that’ll have to do!”
Robert Pattinson brought a maturity to the young cast, but seeing as he’s the oldest of the top three by 3 years (and at that age, 3 years is a big difference), and playing the oldest of the three (by more than 3 years) it’s not surprising that he was chosen for this role.
I had no complaints about his performance, even though the make-up department loves to make him look like he just drank a litre of cherry pop. Come’on boys and girls, let’s tone down that ‘Berry Burst’ lip gloss, and at least try and make him look tough. I know next to Taylor Lautner (who apparently couldn’t find a shirt to fit over his rippling muscles for the entire movie), Robert Pattinson looks like a skinny white English guy (which, let’s face it, he is), but aren’t we supposed to be rooting for the pale-skinned, berry lipped, broody, bloodsucker?
I left the theatre with a better understanding of the film and how it’s undoubtedly a ‘Cult Classic’, but I will reserve final judgement until I finally get around the reading the books.
For now, I’ll tell people (if they happen to ask, which surprisingly then actually have) I’m ‘Team Jacob’, but in my heart of hearts, I know I’m really ‘Team Taylor’. Lets face it, he may be 17, and admittedly born in the 90’s *Shudder* but under that 17 year olds face, he has the body of a ripped 25 years old, and I’m quite glad Chris Weitz identified his target audience, and directed the movie accordingly.
I may not entirely remember the whole story only 3 days later, the one thing that I will remember from my Twilight: New Moon viewing, is the moment they first showed Taylor Lautner without a shirt on. You could feel the estrogen level in the room suddenly spike and the women were all literally ‘swooning’, complete with soft ‘coos’ and longing signs. In this moment of ‘bliss’ (and still silence, I’ll also note) my friend, let’s call him Big Bad Red, could not contain his emotions either and let out the loudest and most boisterous laugh I have ever heard in a movie theatre. I’m quite sure it was because the theatre was so quite that is was so loud, but none-the-less, the whole room (well at least the men in the room) erupted into a frenzied laugh, which was of course quickly quashed by their female counter parts.
While that moment alone made my New Moon experience a success, I still give props to the movie for taking a teeny-bopper/fanatic/cult classic series, and at least getting it one step closer to acceptable movie series, complete with damsel in distress, hunky (albeit young) ‘other’ guy, bad boy with a heart of gold, and a ‘trying-not-to-be-nosey-but-worried-about-my-teenage-daughter’ Dad.
After the movie, Big Bad Red and I went for a drink at the bar by his house, and I indulged in a Gin Caesar. If you ever get the chance, I seriously suggest you try one. Caesars are of course amazing, there it no doubting that, but throw some Gin in, and life will look good again!
At the bar, I ran into a friend I haven’t seen for about 9 years, not since he ran away to
He finally came over and re-introduced himself, and I think I gave him the biggest hug I’ve given anyone in a long time! We were always really good friends in high school, but then two things happened:
1) We faced the dreaded fate that all high school students face, when they have a friend of the opposite sex. People either assumed we were dating or other girls were suddenly trying the ‘fight’ me for him, when in reality; he wasn’t mine to fight for, not in that sense anyway.
And:
2) If I remember correctly, he got into yet another fight with his mom, and it seemed to be the straw that broke the camels back and he was kicked out. I think I even offered him a room at the time, so he could stay in town, but instead he just disappeared. I heard through the grape vine that he had moved away, and I only found out a few years later where he had gone.
We drifted apart, and I always wondered, if we could have stayed friends? We were very different, and one of the only mutual friends we had ended up being one of those girls that tried to ‘take him away from me’ even though, again, we weren’t dating.
As it turns out now, he’s been home for 9 months, has a child, and is the Manager at a local Winners. While we didn’t get into details on Friday night, I’ve got his number and he has mine, and we have plans to meet up (perhaps for coffee or a drink) and shoot the proverbial shit. I’m looking forward to seeing him again, and I really want the skinny on the last 9 years of his life!
On Saturday I woke up at noon, and while it was glorious, I also felt like I’d wasted half my day off. Oh, how my feelings about sleeping-in have changed. I used to love it, and would stay asleep as long as I possibly could. Now I feel like there’s so much to do, and so many things to finish, I don’t have the luxury of sleeping in. I like this new predicament though, I like being busy, and I enjoy finishing projects, so sleeping in (for the most part) is now a thing of the past.
I got up at noon, took a shower and then worked on my dress until 5:30 (which I’m busily trying to finish for my Work Christmas Party on the 10th), and then Red Breasted Bird (a.k.a. My Brothers’ Friends’ Wife, whose name bears an unmistakable resemblance to that of a Red Breasted Bird) came over and we made our way to the movie theatre (again), for my second film of the weekend. This time I packed along a few delicious mandarin oranges, one of my all time favourite fruits (self contained, easy to peel and eat, and of course bio-degradable), and settled in for a look at “The Blind Side”, the true story of Michael Oher, Offensive Tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. The movie follows Michael’s young life (from the age of about 15 to 18), “a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.” (Description care of IMDB)
Quinton Aaron, who plays Michael, does a fantastic job, and you really feel through out the course of the movie, the actor is coming out of his shell along with the character. He really comes into his own, acting opposite the likes of Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, and I was more then impressed with his development throughout the film!
As for Sandra Bullock, I can almost hear the Oscar buzz already, and while we still have to wait for a few more movies to come out, I’m confident that her performance in this film will be in the top running. If I can say nothing else for the character, and how she played it, it’s that it was believable, and in the end, that’s really all I can ask of my movies and their characters. I think that’s all anyone should ask. I really believe that Leigh Anne Tuohy started helping Michael because she though she could help change his life, but (to pull a line from the movie) Michael changed her life.
I left the theatre thoroughly satisfied with my $12 (or so) spent, and I would defiantly recommend this movie to friends. While I don’t necessarily suggest it for the theatres, (because, I really only suggest shoot-‘em-ups, car chases, and explosions for the big screen), I think it’s defiantly worth a rental when it comes out on DVD, I think I might even buy it!
Watching all of these movies and their previews (sometimes my favourite part), and of course looking up all the details on my favourite website, IMDB, I came across plenty of other movies I really want to see!
I’m really looking forward to seeing ‘Brothers’, staring Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire. From the looks of the previews, it looks like all three of these actors are delivering a stellar performance! While the story line does revolve around a soldier dying (or at least everyone thinks he dies), and I’m not entirely comfortable with that idea, it seems the story evolves much beyond that original plot twist and develops more into a psychological drama, citing the tensions and comforts between brothers (of course), wives and husbands, widows and in-laws, and children, their parents, and the adults that influence their lives.
Another preview I saw twice this weekend was for “The Lovely Bones”. It looks great as well, with a delicate balance between fantasy and the reality left behind after someone you love dies. I have never read the book, although I’ve always meant to. I was once in a book club with my Aunt and I actually left the group right before they read The Lovely Bones. I’ll have to add it to my list, and hopefully I get to it before the movie comes out on January 15, 2010.
Saturday came and went a lot faster than expected, and I was suddenly faced with Sunday, my last day off before work, and I really wanted to finish up my dress, if only so I could get onto my next project.
I have number of fabrics lined up, just waiting to be cut and sewn into something beautiful! I have about 5 different fabrics expecting to be turned into work blouses, I have two summer weight fabrics from IKEA, which were supposed to be turned into summer skirts, but are still sitting, and I have some Thai silk in an amazing jewel toned magenta, just begging to be made into a vest!
First though, my dress! I’m making a dark forest green cocktail dress, in the same Thai silk (it was on sale!), and I’m basing it off of McCalls 5382, even though with the amount of adjusting and changes I have added to the pattern , I doubt I could even say it’s the same dress! I added 2 inches on the horizontal, an extra dart on the side panel pieces, 2” at the bottom, up to nothing at the top, and cut the centre panels opposite to the grain. I just pray this dress looks good at the end of this, and not like a dog’s breakfast!
I’m almost finished and after the work I put in on Sunday (until Brother and Brothers Girlfriend showed up) I think I’ll be done by midweek!
My weekend ended with a family dinner, and the roast was quite delicious! Mom recently purchased half a side of organic beef, and this was my first taste of it. It was really good, and thank God, because we have an entire freezer full of it!
Dinner went fine, and I made plans with Brothers Girlfriend to go see New Moon (again, this time with a girl) next Friday. Brothers Roommate came over after he finally got across the border. He ran the Seattle Half-Marathon yesterday, and obviously was in need of some meat and Potatoes! Mom and I were of course more than happy to oblige! I think my favourite part was his girly teal t-shirt. While it was of course of the highest quality as far as running shirts go, the colour reminded me more of my friends bridesmaid dresses, then a manly running shirt. Suffice to say it suited Brothers Roommate to a T! He left early (for some much needed stretching and sleep) Brother and Brothers Girlfriend stayed even after I went to sleep.
Well, here I am, at 3 on Monday, and I managed to almost completely avoid that mind numbing project! Alas, it needs to be done by Wednesday, and it will no doubt now take up the rest of my day.
Wish me luck, and I will try and update (to my non-audience) soon!
PS. While I tend to keep the identity of those in my life out of this blog, some of the names are getting a bit too much, and I'm looking to change a few of them. If I do I will try to make the change clear, and obvious to avoid confusion.
