Keep on Keepin' On

I saw Harry Plopper Friday night. Brilliant! I think most of the adaptations of the novels to film have been very well done. I wasn't a fan of "Goblet of Fire" but that was also my least favourite out of the series.

Anyways, the set design was incredible and, holy golly!, Rupert Grint was outstanding.....angst, bitterness....incredible.

And I loved the cliff hanger ending. Voldemort, you evil bastard!

In other news, SB really wanted pizza for lunch on Saturday, so I picked up a take n' bake pie @ Hanaford. The cheese was plentiful, the toppings & sauce were total yum. THE CRUST WAS ABYSMAL!!!! Thick and mushy and did not crisp up at all in the oven. SB says he will never eat Hanaford pie again. Personally, I think if we tweak the temperature and cooking time, it might do the trick. SB says if we spend $9.99 on a pie, we should spend the money on a fresh pie from Marino's.

In late breaking news, Squeaky the cat, just sneezed on me. She's so damn cute that I can't stay mad at her.

Oh! Ah! Meh....

Saturday had so much promise, sadly it didn't end as wonderful as I had hoped.



Check out my new/old Doc's that came in the mail from Leslie.
She weeding out things she doesn't need and had read here that I was in the market for some thing to get my spark back. Epic win all around! Aren't they scrumptious?!

"Hey Sexybeast, let's go see Inception." "OK, Freckles, we should make a night of it."

Inception was soooooo awesome. It had all the right elements of intrigue, suspense & surrealness.

We went to our fave movie theatre, Bowtie Cinema. The seats are comfy, they use real butter on the popped corn & free sody pop refills. You can't beat that w/ a stick. Unless it's a pinata, then by all means beat away.

The plan was to get Indian food after Inception. We ran in the pouring rain to our local and tasty Indian establishment (Taj Mahal) only to find they fucking close at 9 pm on Saturdays. 9 PM ON A SATURDAY!? The fuck? By this time, we were sopping and I was bitchy from hunger. We ended up at Bombers. Not my first choice by any stretch of the imagination and I ended up w/ a cheese quesadilla, which they fucking forgot to put onion & jalapenos on. Yipee, toasted cheese for dinner. I much prefer Bombers as a lunch place or after drinking heavily, not before.

Hmm...OK things will be fun at our fave dive bar, The Grog Shoppe. Well, it turns out my bartender is no longer @ The Grog Shoppe. And the dude behind the bar did not want to be there & thought that a greyhound (vodka & grapefruit juice) should be compromised of 10% juice & 90% alcohol. Blech! I couldn't even choke it down. Sadly our night ended early.

However, SB did make up at plate of Trader Joe's pork gyoza when we came home. Nummy!

Are you Drinking the Drugs?

I had a pleasant surprise last Sunday. Whilst doing laundry, I watch a movie off my Netflix queue. It's my treat as I'm responsible for washing ALL of the dirty clothes and towels. In case yr all wondering, Sexybeast is in charge of cleaning ALL of the dirty dishes.

Anyways, for my laundry movie I watched "Adventureland". I thought this would be a dopey "Superbad" kind of lameass crapfest as most films w/ Ryan Reynalds are. Man, I hate that guy! I was wrong. It was good and poignant and sadly funny. Plus, my boy Martin Starr, of "Freaks and Geeks" fame, did a really great job as second banana Joel.

Basically, it tells the story of a recent college graduation having the worst summer of his life. He learns, he laughs, he loves. And Kristen Stewart is the love interest. Why does she always play morose characters? Seriously, that chick needs to learn how to smile.

Rent it today.

A Tale of 2 Kates

Originally at the beginning of this post, I was going to slap a cute photo of me in one of my fave shirts, (inspiration or plain ol' copying off of Amorous Rocker @ http://amorouschick.blogspot.com) but stupid interweb connection was being a dummyhead.

Anyways, through some strange coincidence I ended up watching 2 Kate Winslett movies on Monday and Tuesday last week. She is hands down my favourite 50 kinds of awesome actor. AND that's say alot as I've never even seen Titantic. The boat sinks, end of story. If you want the real Kate and not the Hollywood version, rent Heavenly Creatures. Insanely provocative and beautiful wild imagery.

Lets start w/ the meh. I watched "Revolutionary Road" 1st. This film was directed by Kate's husband Sam Mendes, of "American Beauty" fame (not to be confused w/ "American Booty"!), so I knew to expect bleak and lots of juxtapositions. The acting was intense and fantastic. Loved the sets and costume design, Kate looks awesome in pedal pushers. But the story itself left me feeling cold and wanting to pull a Sylvia Plath. Plot: the summer that a young couple in the 1950's decides it's time to re-evaluate their values and examine their crumbling marriage. It was unfulfilling. My disappointed ass is going to read the book. Perhaps I might feel better about the whole deal.

And now for the wow. "The Reader". I don't even have the words to describe my viewing experience. Plus I could get lost in Ralph Fiennes eyes forever. This movie hit me like a anvil! Plot: Ralph Fiennes reflects back on his affair as an 15 y/o boy w/ 30 something Kate in post WWII Germany. I watched Wednesday night w/ SexyBeast, he's a fan of Nazi history. And Kate Winslett's ass is soooooooo hot! I just wanted to give it a good long squeeze. I was completely captivated.

Insert snappy ending sentence here.

YEAH YEAH YEAH

So I had the great honour and privilege of seeing the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's in concert on Saturday night. HOLY FUCK!!!! So amazing. Unbelievable beyond description. I want to be Karen O. Her voice was magnificent. And she looked dead sexy in her leather outfit. It was perfect.

Except they played the one song I actually despise, "Modern Romance", it's plodding and blah. Heh heh, during "Maps", some drunk fucker douchebag kept reeling back, nearly crushing my work wife. "Hey buddy! Could you move or something? I really like this song." He slobbered all over her, "No! Get in front of me! Get in front of me! No! Get in front of me!" At which point, SexyBeast intervened. He had no idea what was going on, he just assumed Drunken Asshole was hitting on my work wife. "LEAVE HER ALONE! YR REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF!" Sexybeast had fury in his eyes..... and fists. Drunken Asshole decided to make amends w/ SexyBeast and shook his hand, to which SexyBeast replied "I have no idea what yr talking about."

They played at a most excellent venue, Northern Lights in Clifton Park. It's located in the suburbs of Saratoga county at a strip mall, next to a church. Good times, esp during the metal shows! I saw Moby perform there w/ Wicked Messenger (http://13stepsunder.blogspot.com) 10 years ago on Aug 3rd. And 10 years later there's still no ventilation and the seating still sucks even though they expanded. But it's a really great place to see live music.

The opening act was a Lady Gaga wannabe, Amanda somebodyorother. Meh to the nth degree.

And her Nautical Nuns.....

One day at the office, my work wife and I were stuck doing paperwork ALL day, no client appointments or home visits, nothing but bureaucratic bullshit for the entire day. I noticed Wifey had her ear buds in but no ipod shuffle. What gives?

Then one of the single greatest things happened, Wifey introduced me to Pandora Radio. Free streaming radio on-line. But what makes Pandora so unique is the user can plug in a song or an artist that they adore and Pandora not only plays said artist but it spins off music it thinks you would like as well.

There is a thumbs up/ thumbs down button that allows the user to rate the selection. If you give it a thumbs down, Pandora will stop playing the offensive piece of shit and states "We are sorry. We will never play this song again." There's even option to ban artists! And of course, if yr really digging something, you can bookmark the song &/or the artist. Which how I got entranced by Andrew Bird.

Wifey has aprox 7 stations going right now. I have 4, Stereolab, Vampire Weekend, Kimya Dawson and The Clash. A very eclectic range of musical styles and that's the charm of me.

And what you, my loyal readers, don't know is I'm listening to Pandora right now! Pretty sneaky, sis.

The Good, the Bad and the Snowy

Last month SexyBeast and I watched Fargo. SexyBeast had never seen it! And I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that film. Frances McDormand was definitely deserving of the Best Actress Oscar that year. And what I picked up this time was use of the negative space. The frigid Minnesotan winter, the expanse of the countryside. Desolate somber back drop to a hilarious and incredibly violent movie. The scene where Peter Stormere ruthlessly murders 3 people on the cold lonely road was hauntingly beautiful. When I see a really great movie, I never want it to end. Then I think of a million great scenarios for "sequel".

Conversely, the next evening we watched X-Files: I Want to Believe. Loved the title, loved the trailer. This was garbage and I'm really glad I never spent the money to see it at the theatre. There was nothing eerie, thought provoking or shocking about any of it. I don't know, there was a lot missing. The story felt half assed and worst of all David Duchovny shaved off his skanky sexy beard 1/4 way through the movie. Much as the snow and cold were characters in Fargo, as was in X-Files. Except like everything else in this piece of shit, this character was badly drawn and under developed.

SexyBeast now has many other Cohen brothers movies on his queue.

Gimme a Pabst and a Shot of Whiskey

Gran Turino opened to nation wide release this weekend and SexyBeast and I took in a matinee this past Sunday.

Normally, I am not a huge Eastwood fan but rumours abound that this is his last movie ever. Plus, we just watched The Eiger Sanction last month and I was thoroughly intrigued about Gran Turino since it's been garnering such great reviews.

This film did not disappoint. Eastwood was as surly and grizzled as ever! He had some great lines, though I did flinch at the excessive use of racial slurs he muttered every two minutes. It was a seemingly simple story of a man in the twilight of his life. But as w/ Eastwood's Oscar award winning film Million Dollar Baby, there is so much more lurking beneath. It was a compelling story of life and death and morality.

The only drawback was Eastwood's face. Christ, the man looks like a road map!

Now, get thee to the theatre....

It's Scary 'Cause it's True

I am a huge huge fan of dystopian literature. It appeals to my pessimistic nature, sometimes I prefer to see the big grey cloud instead of the happy silver lining.

Children of Men fast became one of my top 10 movies ever. Clive Owen is superb and don't get me started on Julianne Moore 'cause this post would never end. The basic plot is man the species has become extinct and England is totalitarian government. The stark visuals are unbelievable. And there's a hat trick; director Alfonso Cuaron wanted an animal every scene, watch for it.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the awesome film was based on a novel by P.D. James. The book is different from the film but it's an amazing story. Ms. James (I'm being formal 'cause I don't know her first name) is a challenging writer, though the story takes place some years in the future, the writing feels Victorian almost. My fave scene in the novel happens when all the middle aged ladies with time on their hands from not being able to fuss over grandchildren, start treating china dolls like babies. One tweed clad woman comes up to the other and takes the doll and smashes it against the wall. Greatness, indeed.

Boyfriend liked the movie because there is a chick holding her severed arm.