Trixie Delight

Such a great movie.

Moonrise Kingdom

Cannot. Wait.

Miss Representation

It isn't very often that I regret not having cable, but I am pretty sore about missing this documentary on OWN tonight. 


Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

Fear

Everybody on earth deals with fears--that's what little brains do.



No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life.
Samuel Goldwyn

The Last Picture Show

What's your favorite movie? My answer is always the same. The Last Picture Show. The writing and cinematography are beautiful. The cast is amazing. The movie haunts me. I highly recommend you watch it, if you haven't.

Walken Is The Bomb

Romance and Cigarettes is one of my favorite movies of all time. Walken is so great in it. The guy

Wrapping The Week

How can one stumble across a movie still like this and not want to see the movie? Well, the trailer for Congo Bill looks truly awful. But Cleo Moore (the blonde above) was a bombshell who starred as a bad girl in a number of low budget 1950s films. Hold Back Tomorrow looks especially racy. Moore made headlines with several publicity stunts, including a five minute kiss on live Chicago television in 1954. She has me thoroughly intrigued and my Netflix queue is loaded up with some Cleo.  Speaking of racy blonde bombshells...Meryl Streep? Who knew?

Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer swimming season. How trippy fantastic does the Happy Magic Water Park in Beijing look? Love.

This Charlie Brown Christmas spoof isn't really timely, but had us rolling over here. Our beloved designer friend Katy, was just over this week sharing work stories. 

Two more weeks until our Chicago trip. Woot! We'll spend most of this weekend in the country, visiting my parents and other family and swimming in the most awesome lake.

Summer is over...I just don't know what to do with myself.

Enjoy it, kittens!

Penelope

I had ruled Penelope Cruz out for so long because of her poor choice in men (Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey...seriously?) but now that she's been dating Javier Bardem, I find her more interesting. Actually, it was her work in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Broken Embraces, which we watched over the weekend, that won me over. Her resemblance to Audrey Hepburn is played up for a scene in the movie. Fun.

A Man Named Pearl

We watched the 2006 documentary A Man Named Pearl a couple of weeks ago and I've remembered something from it almost every day. I heart netflix.

Jeff Bridges

The Last Picture Show, with Jeff Bridges, is one of my all time favorite movies. I watch it a couple of times a year. And last weekend I watched The Big Lebowski, which I hadn't seen since it first came out on big screen. With his recent Golden Globe win for Crazy Heart, I have a strange new interest in seeing more of his films. And he's real sweet to his wife.

Happy New Year?

We saw the Pollack/deKooning/Abstract Expressionist exhibit at the art museum today. There were some real winners and a couple of duds--pieces that I didn't think fit well with the theme, but then I didn't do the audio tour and maybe it explained the connections. I'm not a fan of the audio tour. I think it makes the experience obnoxious for everyone else because it seems like people are watching art, like watching television. People seem more impolite when they are wearing headphones. The giant Gorky was incredible, as was the Frankenthaler.

We had an unmemorable trip to the Galleria afterwards. We have a gift certificate to Macy's that expires soon, so felt compelled to spend it. First we went to Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters. Going into Macy's after those two stores is like listening to a Paul Anka CD after the Flaming Lips. I couldn't find crap in Macy's and all three of us were getting tired (and one of us crabby--I won't say who) so we left.

For NYE dinner I made roast chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. Audrey was hard to put to sleep, so our dinner was pretty late. We watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which was frivolous fun. Then we tried to watch Night of the Iguana, but I konked out. It was not proving to be as good as I anticipated anyway. However there are these shirtless Mexican boys that follow Ava Gardner around playing maracas and smiling a lot for no reason. I want a shirtless entourage following me around all the time--only playing tambourines. If I win the lottery, this is on my list of obnoxious indulgences.

I watched Romance & Cigarettes today. I love that movie. It is nuts. Kate Winslet is awesome. I saw this last year two days before I went into the hospital for my c-section and laughed my huge pregnant ass off. There were like twelve people in the theater and I think Lindsey and I were the only ones really enjoying the movie. John Turturro wrote and directed.

I am desperate for some adult company and having a hard time arranging anything. I’m on that edge of the winter blues already—early this year. Crying comes easy. I feel like crap. Big surprise. I know I’ll make it through and I’m trying to line up activities and company. But blech. I just want to crawl in a closet some days.

Audrey had the most awesome bed head from her nap today. It was monumentally insane. See below.

Movie Maven

The one major outdoor activity I took advantage of over the weekend was the Festival of Nations at Tower Grove on Saturday. Great dancing and food. Seeing so many eager kids and parents excited, even in the 100+ heat was something. That night, did potluck at Tracy's (fresh pesto!) followed by a smokin' game of dice. My 4-day weekend happened to fall on the hottest weekend of the year so I stayed indoors most of the time, watching movies while doing mindless chores. (Ah, the joys of my new Netflix membership!) A few movie pointers:

• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, for cripes sakes. But I fell asleep both times I tried to watch it. Granted the first time was after 10:30pm and the second time was on a Sunday afternoon, which is hardly giving it a fair chance. There were a few magical moments, but most of those had to do with cinematography, rather than a real interest in the characters. It just didn't come together for me. (Rating: B)
• My Architect: Completely mesmerizing and fascinating biography of noted architect, Louis Kahn. Highly recommended. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Kahn. (Rating: A-)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: More enjoyable than I anticipated in spite of seeing it at a mega movie complex. Veruca's squirrel scenes were wicked fun. I liked the choreography of the oompah loompah scenes, but didn't like that the oompahs were all the same computer-animated figure. In fact, I think the film would have benefited from less computer-animation. The boat scene(s) were really weak, the boat uninspired. Depp's Wonka was too reminiscent of Edward Scissorhands. (Rating: B)
• American Beauty: I forgot how great this movie is. Refreshing dialogue and Kevin Spacey is fabulous, although his infatuation with the enormously foreheaded Angela truly creeps me out. Favorite scene: when Annette Benning falls into the Lester's shirts in the closet at the end. Every time I see a crappy plastic grocery bag flying in the wind or caught in a tree, I think of this film. (Rating: A-)
• Beyond the Sea: Awful. Just awful. Bobby Darin didn't deserve this kind of treatment. Hell, no one deserves this kind of treatment. Kevin Spacey got so in the way here. That whole "young Bobby" gimmick, puh-lease. Too corny. The dialogue is unbearable. (Rating: D-)

On the way from Netflix...The Incredibles and Office Space. I haven't seen either. But I won't be writing more reviews. I don't why I did it here.