May Movies June 13, 2009

This one’s coming at you a little late, but better than never, eh? May was another month that showed slackage on my part in watching movies. In a way, it’s a good thing, as it can be seen as showing that I have a life beyond movie love (not really true).

Star Trek (2009, dir. JJ Abrams)
Take the Lead (2006, dir. Liz Friedlander)
Be Cool (2005, dir. F. Gary Gray)
Son of Rambow (2007, dir. Garth Jennings)
Crazy Love (2007, dir. Dan Klores, Fisher Stevens)
Lymelife (2008, dir. Derick Martini)
The Babysitter’s Club (1995, dir. Melanie Mayron)

I shouldn’t even have admitted to the Babysitter’s Club. But. I was feeling nostalgic and it was on Netflix instant view. I did not enjoy it.

Crazy Love was also on the instant view. It’s a documentary and I’m guessing most effective if you have no idea about the story. I was shocked. And amused — in a disappointed, disgusted way.

Son of Rambow is delightful. Similar, in a very basic way, to Be Kind Rewind.

Star Trek is awesome! So much fun. I should have seen it more than once, I liked it so much. It’s not too late, of course, and I definitely plan to buy it when it hits DVD.

The rest were blah. Blah blah blah. Though I must admit I’m lying in the case of Take the Lead. I’m a sucker for an underdog story and it thoroughly won me over.

I promise to watch more movies in June. Additionally, I’m toying with the idea of setting a crazy challenge for myself next year. In 2010, I propose to watch and write about one movie every day. Which would also mean I’d start a movie exclusive blog for it. I’ll mull it over the next 6 months and see if it really is something I’m up for. Until next time, kids!

PS. I’m on Twitter now as well. Find me! My username is peeptart. Mention my blog and I’ll follow you.

Snacks! May 13, 2009

Hi, it’s me. Just sitting here eating my assorted bagged snacks. Don’t believe me?

Pictures prove everything.

Collection May 9, 2009

A few weeks ago, my friend Chris was showing B-town and I his photos from France. There was one of his lovely lady, Kate, taking a picture of some wall graffiti. Chris informed us that Kate has a whole collection of graffiti photos. I thought, “Man. Kate is so cool. I want a photo collection.” In the coming weeks, I mulled over copying the graffiti collection outright, a sign collection, a building collection, etc. I finally decided on bathrooms. There are numerous places in Portland which have neat, one-room, regular house-style bathrooms that are usually pretty unique to the establishment.

Here’s my (uninspiring) first photo, taken Thursday, April 30, at Stacatto Gelato:

You may not know, but it’s a bit tough to take a picture of such a small room. Maybe, with enough practice, I’ll become the awesomest bathroom photographer the world has ever seen! A girl can dream.

Let me draw your attention back to the above photo. Notice the cord above the toilet? And the two holes in the cabinet the cord leads to? That’s a video camera. (WTF?) Under regular bathroom use circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but because I was snapping pictures, instead of putting stuff in the toilet, I found myself staring dead into the center of the camera lens. It was not on. I don’t think there’s any sort of creep-o voyeurism going on here; my theory goes like this: because there’s such a large window in the bathroom, it makes it a vulnerable choice for break-ins. The camera is there, only turned on during off-hours, to capture the mugs of any poop thieves.

And. We’ll leave it at that. I considered asking, but … no.

Now, when I mention visiting locales, I can post an accompanying picture of the bathroom. You lucky reader, you. You’re welcome.

April Movies May 3, 2009

This wasn’t a very good month for the movie-watching skills of yours truly. Not only did I watch very few movies for the first time in April, but those I did watch were not stellar choices (not even close). Here’s the list:

Gigantic (2008, dir. Matt Aselton)
Heaven Can Wait (1978, dir. Warren Beatty, Buck Henry)
Victor/Victoria (1982, dir. Blake Edwards)
Hamlet 2 (2008, dir. Andrew Fleming)
Alien Trespass (2009, dir. R.W. Goodwin)
The Informers (2009, dir. Gregor Jordan)
An American in Paris (1951, dir. Vincente Minnelli)
Adventureland (2009, dir. Greg Mottola)
BMX Bandits (1983, dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith)

That’s it; a measley 9. I’ll just go straight down the list …

Gigantic. Quirky and cute, with odd, sometimes interesting, characters. But … I did not get this movie. What was with the hobo? Was he imaginary? I’m pretty sure he was imaginary, but why? I’m disappointed this part of the “story” did not conclude. Or I guess it did. Main male charater whose name I forget kills imaginary hobo, then says to people walking by, “You don’t understand. This has been going on for a long time.” At which point I realize hobo is nowhere in sight. He was either: well enough to run away; rolled at least 3 revolutions to reach some off-screen point; victim of an unexcusable continuity error; or imaginary. We didn’t get a chance to find out because he is never seen or mentioned again.

Heaven Can Wait was okay.

Victor/Victoria. I really like this. At times it suffered slightly from some over-acting on the part of Julie Andrews, but that was rare. It’s a very good, very fun, romantic, underdog story set as a musical.

Hamlet 2. Is hilarious! It’s an easy movie to poo-poo because it looks so cheesy and idiotic, but it’s really a great comedy. It’s got some stellar jokes (my favorite being the whole Elizabeth Shue bit) and a lot of heart.

Alien Trespass. Bad.

The Informers. Oh god, it’s awful. I can’t believe this had a some-what wide theatrical release. Yeesh.

An American in Paris. Yeah. It’s good. It’s a musical so it’s charming. It’s Leslie Caron’s first movie and she’s adorable.

Adventureland. I liked it. It’s a college-age romantic comedy set in the 80’s. I think that’s brave since there are so many great teen romantic comedies that were made in the 80’s. This one stands up to those classics and provides something extra because the characters are a little older, a little more mature.

BMX Bandits. Pretty bad. I only saw it because it was playing at Clinton Street Theatre as part of a double feature and my friend wanted to go for his birthday. I didn’t stay for the second movie – RAD, so maybe I’ll have to check that one out in May. Nicole Kidman is in BMX Bandits, and boy have her acting chops come a long way.

That’s all. It’s so enticing to add “folks” to the end of that, but I’m holding myself back. Here’s to better movies to watch in May!

March Movies April 3, 2009

3 months in and I’m still going strong on the movies. Here are the ones I saw for the first time this month:

Annie Hall (1977, dir. Woody Allen)
Sunshine (2007, dir. Danny Boyle)
The Class (2008, dir Laurent Cantet)
Eagle vs Shark (2007, dir. Taika Cohen)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Nights of Cabiria (1957, dir. Frederico Fellini)
Duplicity (2009, dir. Tony Gilroy)
I Love You, Man (2009, dir. John Hamburg)
Marnie (1964, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Strangers on a Train (1951, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Sunshine Cleaning (2009, dir. Christine Jeffs)
Moonstruck (1987, dir. Norman Jewison)
A Scanner Darkly (2006, dir. Richard Linklater)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969, dir. Paul Mazursky)
Watchmen (2009, dir. Zack Snyder)
Paranoid Park (2007, dir. Gus Van Sant)
What Happens in Vegas (2008, dir. Tom Vaughan)
Bullitt (1968, dir. Peter Yates)

I really liked Nights of Cabiria. There’s this beautiful moment when the title character is on a stage as part of a hypnotist’s act (it reminded me of David Lynch [specifically Mulholland Drive], who I later read was inspired by Fellini’s work, so … do with that what you will). She was so beautiful and sweet and vulnerable and lovely during the moments she was hypnotized, I was sure men from the audience would be lining up to treat her special and love her forever afterward. There was one man waiting. This lady has seen some tough times and attracts shady shady men, but the audience doesn’t doubt this one because we too fell so in love with her during her time on stage. It’s a really good moment and totally succeeds in earning the viewer’s trust. Now you have to watch it to find out if that trust pays off or not. Oooh.

Eagle vs Shark. Now on my list of favorite movies, and pretty much the definition of charming. This movie suffers from a chronic comparison to Napolean Dynamite, and I think that’s unfair. I consider Napolean Dynamite an underdog story; Eagle vs Shark is a love story. Please don’t write it off as just another Napolean Dynamite.

Sunshine. I love Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire pushed him to the top of my list of favorite directors, but Sunshine was only okay. I do really like the dual role of the sun as both good and evil. On one hand it is vital to the survival of every living being on planet Earth; on the other it haunts and threatens the life and mission of the astronauts — makes for an interesting dichotomy and some good drama. I wavered between blah and thrilled enjoyment during the watching of this movie; in the end they balanced each other out to an over-all “just okay.”

I also really liked Paranoid Park, Sunshine Cleaning, The Class, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Bullitt.

I did not like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. I did not like A Scanner Darkly (I have a pattern of not enjoying Richard Linklater movies; it maybe time to stop trying). I did not like What Happens in Vegas (is there a more annoying actress on the planet than Cameran Diaz? In my defense, I only watched it because I was holed up in a hotel room with HBO during road trip weekend.)

And the rest I liked just fine. What movies have you seen lately?

Road Trip March 30, 2009

Happy Monday, everybody.

Last Monday saw me returning home from a road trip. My cousin, Brenna, and I decided to be total dorks and drive to Forks, WA to look at all the touristy Twilight themed stuff. It ended up being a great tour of the Olympic Penninsula and a bit of a trip down memory lane.

I’m originally from a small town near Aberdeen, called Montesano, WA. I grew up there and lived in the same house with my family until I was 21. During our road trip, I got to revisit lots of places I’d been to as a child. It’s nice to appreciate things again as an adult and I enjoyed taking in the beauty of the area I will always consider home.

We stopped to see the world’s largest Sitka Spruce at Lake Quinalt. My dad had a band when I was little and they used to play at Lake Quinalt. We would stay out there for the whole weekend when that happened. I recognized some things about the place, and could almost see the sailboats on the water that lived in my memory. The place seemed smaller than I remember.

We stopped at another big tree, the Big Cedar. This made us laugh — from the world’s largest Sitka Spruce to a big cedar. How vague. We really only stopped because we thought it was so funny, but it turned out to be a pretty cool tree. The trunk was fantastically gnarly and it was hollow inside.

We also stopped at Ruby Beach, just before the 101 turns inland from the coast. I’d never been to this beach before, but heard it mentioned many times as a great one. There was lots of driftwood collected at the bottom of the trail leading down to the beach, making quite the obstacle course, but we did it.

This was all on Saturday. We stayed that night in Port Angeles, then headed to Forks and La Push on Sunday morning. We got a list of the Twilight themed places and drove around taking pictures of it all. I got a bit burnt out on the picture taking thing after awhile, not really caring very much about it. We went into this shop called “Dazzled by Twilight” which sold all Twilight related things. Touristy souvenier heaven. I really don’t get the appeal of buying mass produced items that are meant to reflect my love or adoration for something or to serve as a sentitmental memento; I don’t get why autographs are so coveted. So I felt a little blah and weirded out about being in this shop. I did manage to play along a little though, and purchased a small magnet.

The next venture was my favorite. We decided to drive up to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery (the most NW point in Washington state), something I’d never done before. It was about an hour and a half drive along the very windy northern coast, then a 1/2 mile hike out to the Cape. It was a beautiful vantage point. I loved it!

I have this weird thing I can only describe as imaginary vertigo. Being in high places doesn’t affect or frighten me, but if I imagine myself somewhere high up, I immediately fall to the ground below. For instance, if I imagine walking out onto a balcony, the barrier immediately dissolves and I fall off. I know, it’s weird. I walked to the edge of a cliff on our hike to look down to the rocky waters below. For a split second, my mind warned me that if I leaned on that tree it would melt away and I’d plummet to my death. I then reminded myself that that’s only what happens in crazy imaginary vertigo land, tested the tree’s stability and was fine.

We spent the night again in Port Angeles, then left early Monday morning for the 4 1/2 hour drive back to Portland.

Successes March 29, 2009

I finally got the Netflix Instant Viewer to work on my computer again. Hooray! It worked about a year ago, then stopped. It wouldn’t play any movies, no matter how many times I re-installed. I downloaded it again on Thursday and it worked! I watched the first two season of 30 Rock, and am so glad that I did. I love it! Tina Fey is hilarious and adorable. I was never much of a fan of hers from anything else she’s done, so I’m delighted to have at last been won over. I want to be Liz Lemon’s best friend.

I finally downloaded iTunes on my computer. Last November, I won a free iPod Shuffle, and it’s been sitting on my desk, in its box ever since. I’ve been crossing back-and-forth between keeping it and using it or giving it away. I finally decided to keep it, so want to get some music to put on it. I haven’t downloaded anything yet. The vast selection of tunes is overwhelming; though I am disappointed that they don’t seem to have that one 5ive Style song I love but can never remember the name of. It’s got lyrics and might be a cover; I’ll have to ask my friend Casey.

I was looking through an old notebook yesterday and found, written in my hand, “Breanne is still laughing at her transformers joke.” Best guess is that I jotted this down sometime in November or December. I’m still laughing today! Back in September of ‘08, my friend Casey had just purchased some sort of recording equipment thing real cheap from a garage sale. He was showing it to me down in his basement studio. There were a few things wrong with it that he was confident he could fix or replace himself, or find someone else to repair for him. He mentioned that the transformer was the only part that worried him. That’s when the hilarious magic happened:

BREANNE: The transformer, is that something you can fix yourself?

CASEY: Oh no. I don’t mess with transformers. They’ll kill you.

A beat

BREANNE: Oh. I know, I’ve seen the movie.

I gave (and still continue to give) myself a big pat on the back for that one. It’s funny, right?

Long Time, No Blog March 24, 2009

Sorry about the lack. It’ll happen from time to time, so you’ll have to get over it. I’ve been sort of anti-computer-at-home lately. Seriously, I sit at one all day at work, I can only take so much.

I have most of this week off (working only Friday). Despite the economy, I’ve still got my job (hooray!), but, because of the economy, we are required to take lots of vacation during imposed shut-down days (22 in total). I’m an optimist most of the time and think things will get better — and maybe even are already creeping that way. This is just gut-feeling talk, though; I’ve no hard data to back up my words. My place of employment also cut out the service that waters the indoor plants, as a money saving measure. An email circulated two weeks ago announcing the “adopt a plant” program. Individuals or groups can adopt any indoor plant and then they are responsible for watering it. I adopted one for our group. I hope we don’t kill it.

I went to Barnes and Noble today and bought the following:

A map of Ireland. No, I’m not cool enough to be planning a trip to Ireland (I wish), it’s for something geeky. James, B-town and I started a geography club! We’re determined to learn all the countries and their capitals, but James and I want to learn even more. We accidentally had our first meeting last night. I had just returned from a road trip and brought my pictures of Cape Flattery to show B-town. We got to wondering what the definition of a cape was, so did a little research, educating ourselves on the differences between capes, peninsulas, promontories, headlands, coves, bays, gulfs. We are pros now. Then James and I decided it would be lots of fun to each pick a country, write to the country’s tourism bureau or government, research the country, then do a presentation on the country at our next club meeting, which will be once per month. I chose Ireland; James chose the Ivory Coast; B-town didn’t want to play. I’m sure I’ll be able to change his mind with my totally awesome presentation on Ireland next month, though. I’ve also probably started an unintentional map collection.

GQ magazine. Robert Pattinson is on the cover and there’s a nice article about him inside. I read it last night at the House of Rambo. James is a subscriber; I busted that thing open before he even got home to look at it himself. Anyway, I’m not sure why, but I’m totally fascinated by this dude. This insta-fame thing he’s going through intrigues me. How does a person handle it? He doesn’t seem stereotypical to me; I don’t think he’ll crack. It’s not a car-crash kind of gawkery, I want to see him move beyond this success to a more manageable, artistically fulfilling level of success. I think he can do it and enjoy following him along the way. Plus he’s super handsome, and Meaghan, B-town and I joke that he’s my secret husband (I promise, we’re not 13).

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. A book. Subtitled: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. So, I’ll probably read that this week. I was looking for Bonk by Mary Roach (my favorite science writer), but did not find it on the shelves in paperback. It was there in hardcover, but hardcover books just aren’t my thing — trade paperback is my format of choice.

I haven’t read anything yet this year. I’ve been too busy watching movies. Did I already mention that I’m keeping track on a calendar of all the movies I watch for the first time this year? Well, I have indeed been doing so. Here’s the list so far:

JANUARY
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967, dir. Roman Polanski)
Let the Right One In (2008, dir. Tomas Alfredson) — LOVE
Valley of the Dolls (1967, dir. Mark Robson)
The Wicker Man (1973, dir. Robin Hardy)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyl (1960, dir. Terence Fisher)
Gran Torino (2008, dir. Clint Eastwood)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008, dir. Bharat Nalluri)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970, dir. Russ Meyer) — LOVE
The Magnificent Seven (1960, dir. John Sturges) — LOVE LOVE
High Plains Drifter (1973, dir. Clint Eastwood)
Magnificent Obesession (1954, dir. Douglas Sirk)
Seven Samurai (1954, dir. Akira Kurosawa)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974, dir. Sidney Lumet)
Rififi (1955, dir. Jules Dassin)

FEBRUARY
The Wrestler (2008, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Shampoo (1975, dir. Hal Ashby)
Bend it Like Beckham (2002, dir. Gurinder Chadha)
Westworld (1973, dir. Michael Crichton) — BLAH
Rachel Getting Married (2008, dir. Jonathan Demme)
Forbidden Zone (1980, dir. Richard Elfman) — HATE
Waltz with Bashir (2008, dir. Ari Folman) — LOVE
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972, dir. Werner Herzog)
Diner (1982, dir. Barry Levinson)
The Threepenny Opera (1931, dir. G.W. Pabst)
Don’t Look Now (1973, dir. Nicolas Roeg) — LOVE
The Last of Sheila (1973, dir. Herbert Ross)
Coraline (2009, dir. Henry Selick) — LOVE
All that Heaven Allows (1955, dir. Douglas Sirk)
Written on the Wind (1956, dir. Douglas Sirk)
Imitation of Life (1959, dir. Douglas Sirk) — LOVE
The Lost Weekend (1945, dir. Billy Wilder) — LOVE

I plan to watch hundreds, and will post about it monthly going forward. Anyone reading, please feel free to suggest movies. I love suggestions.

Today, in Cereal January 21, 2009

You’ll be happy to know, blogworld, that I have made a considerable dent in my cereal. Turns out I don’t like Golden Grahams as much as I did as a child. Crispix, though, are. the. bomb. I’m also making good progress on the milk, however not as quickly as I’d like. It was milk-a-plenty for dinner tonight: a bowl of Crispix and a blueberry smoothie (yum — even with the 2 day old coffee I added).

I haven’t been writing or doing much else because I’ve been too busy watching movies. Gobs and gobs. Tonight it’s going to be High Plains Drifter. Last night was Valley of the Dolls, which made me suspicious that a movie I’d seen part of around 6th grade (which I remember being called “The Patty Duke Story” in which Patty Duke played herself) was actually Valley of the Dolls. After a quick internet search, I discovered they are not the same movie. Patty Duke really did play herself in a made-for-TV biopic called Call Me Anna. In my defense, both movies have similar drugged up Patty Duke hospital scenes, plus I doubted my memory could be real for the following reasoning — “Who plays themself in their own biopic?” Turns out, Patty Duke is just that cool. Go Patty! I mean Anna.

A New Year January 7, 2009

Happy New Year, Blogland.

The new year is my favorite “holiday.” I love the celebration of it, the starting anew, the plans, the staying up until midnight and exclaiming the blessing at the top of your voice outside. Not a lot of shouting for me this year: I got into bed at 11:45 PM, December 31st, and promptly began to drift off into slumber, drowzily managing to hear the shouts of others when the hour hit, then out to dream away the night.

New Year’s Day found me at The House of Rambo, co-hosting a friendly breakfast potluck. There was so much food! The motto: Spend the first day of the new year with the friends you want around for all your years. It was a success and hopefully a new tradition.

I’m giving up scowling this year.

So far in 2009, I have done the following:

I bought cereal! I have not purchased a box of cereal for at least 2 years. I bought a bunch of milk for my contribution to breakfast (sausage gravy). I didn’t use as much as I thought I would, so now I’ve a surplus. I decided cereal would be the best way to use it up, so off to the cereal aisle I went. Holy wow! What a delightful venture! It was like seeing old friends. I was not alone in the aisle, so I did my best to contain my glee, though had others not been present I would have been skipping and giggling, and yes, most probably talking to the boxes. I lingered over Honey Smacks (nee Sugar Smacks) for awhile. I wanted it so badly for the silly reason that it’s the best named cereal on the market, but just thinking about the sugar content gave me a belly-ache. In the end, I came away with one box each of Golden Grahams and Crispix. Five days later and I still have yet to eat any of it … Oops. Goal for this weekend.

I watched Hot Fuzz! What a great, funny, smart, action-packed movie. I love it so much and cannot believe I missed out on seeing it in the theater (especially since I’m a fan of Shaun of the Dead as well). Very lame of me, indeed. I watched it three times on Sunday. Is that even lamer?

It was very windy this morning. I stepped to the curb, away from the safe wall of my building and was hit by a gust of the stuff. All my concentration in that instant went to making sure both of my feet stayed planted on the ground. If I had been doing a fancy leap or twirl off the curb (per usual), the wind would have surely blown me across the street, it was that strong.

My boss is getting married on Saturday! I am going, with nothing yet to wear or gift. Hmm. I should get on that. Goal for Friday. Her stress level has been high this week, it’s been obvious; yesterday, she was very short with me (pun intended — you would maybe laugh and most certainly roll your eyes if you knew that she’s only about 5′1″). Our age difference is at least 20 years. This, combined with just our basic personalities I think, gives us a rather mother/daughter dynamic. She can be a bit doting sometimes (when I’m sick) and she nags me a lot (frustrating!). But it’s mostly a good working relationship; I’m very happy for her and even not dreading the whole wedding ceremony part of things.

I think that’s all caught up now. It’s coffee, donuts, and a movie for me now. Such a tremendously exciting life I lead …

Oh. Right. One more thing: last night I drafted a life plan for myself. It’s not for sharing — though I will tell Meaghan (jealous?), and it’s multi-faceted, but rest assured, friends, phase 1 is now in full effect.

And I’m totally failing at the no scowling thing (yes, already).