Revenge of the Sunday

Hey everyone! Well Thomas and I finally got to see Revenge of the Sith last Saturday afternoon. Given that it opened Wednesday nite, I'd say we were extraordinarily patient. Friday night around 8 pm we realized we hadn't seen its predecessor, Attack of the Clones, in a few years and needed a refresher. We called around and not surprisingly all the dvds in town were checked out. So we hopped on our trusty steeds, White Lightning and Blue Streak, and peddled furiously to Target to arrive before closing time. We made it! To top it off Thomas pointed out the in-store Starbucks at Target and I got a huge latte to enjoy with the movie. This is shocking in two ways - first that he noticed a Starbucks before me, and second that he recommended the late nite latte. It was the best idea ever and by the time we got home I was absolutely giddy with anticipation. We immediately watched Clones and for the most part enjoyed it (Die Jar Jar, Die!). But you all know about that movie.

The next day we caught the matinee of Sith. We did get to see it on the big screen in Boulder and the theatre was full but luckily there was no line. Thanks to my UA movie card, Thomas even scored a free Coke. The highlight of the previews was saved for the end: The Chronicles of Narnia. And it was spectacular. The audience erupted in applause at the end of the preview - something I've never seen before, and I've been to a LOT of movies. I so cannot wait for December now! They showed Aslan, the lion and he is a real lion, I was afraid he'd be cartoony or something. I was so into these books around 5th grade that I named all my angel fish Aslan. The fish never lasted too long, but one suffered an extremely vicious death at the hands of my brother. This was during the time when I was determined to be a vet. I was also raising some of those tiny shrimp that came in my chemistry set. Creede first poisoned all my shrimp with some blue substance and then fed them to Aslan Three who I found hours later floating at the top of the bowl. It was a very dark day. I can't remember what spurred Creede to this level of revenge, but we've managed to get past it.

Anyway, next up was the opening music to Sith and the audience went nuts again. The big screen of the UA in Boulder is definitely the best place to see a movie like this because the crowd gets so into it. Sith starts out with a great chase scene and we were blown away by the cityscapes and special effects. They were amazing. Soon the movie shifts into the love story between a longer-haired Anakin and Padme. I know I'm in the minority, but the love story really worked for me. However, we quickly realize that Anakin's possessiveness towards Padme and his fear of losing her will lead to his turn to the dark side. The stars of the movie though were Ewan McGregor - he has the best delivery of Lucas's cheesy dialogue and he's the perfect precursor to Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan - and Yoda. Yoda rocks in this movie! He seems so much like a real character - he works more for me than Gollum in LOTR, even tho he's a puppet. On the downside, as Thomas noted you KNOW that Anakin is going to turn to Vader by the end of the movie, so knowing that takes away some of the shock value, but there's no way around it. The other problem I had was that his transformation from being conflicted to being EVIL happened like a snap of the fingers. I guess that dark side is some powerful stuff. All in all, if you're a fan of the Star Wars saga, you must see this movie, and please see it on the big screen. We even get a couple of scenes with a younger Chewbaca (still on the hairy side, that one) and a whole bunch of other wookies in Wookieland. And as the credits rolled the crowd clapped like crazy at the end.

The next film I'm anticipating is War of the Worlds. I made the mistake of recording Tom Cruise's appearance on Oprah this Monday. The weirdness cannot be described. If you aren't living under a rock, you know he's now madly in love with Katie Holmes (16 yrs his junior). His mad fervor over KH was downright bizarre. I'm serious - he was jumping on the couch, on the floor, yelling. He kept saying things like "I can't be cool, I can't be cool - I looooove this woman" and "She is my woman and I want the world to know it". It was mortifying. He is either totally insane or lying. And if he's lying, he should know better than to behave in such an incredulous fashion. Given his penchant for controlling every aspect of his life, I'm sure we'll never know the real story as poor Katie was probably forced into signing a billion page confidentiality agreement on their first meeting. Tom said he is talking marriage. We shall see.

Cooking lessons - I've had 2 more lessons since my last post and I've learned a ton! This included roasted chicken, roasted vegetables, poached pears, all about eggs - omelets, poached, etc., buttermilk biscuits, shortbread cooks, Compose Salads (i.e., Nicoise Salad, aka salad from the town of Nice, which is nothing like I expected - tuna, potato salad, anchovies and all sorts of other things), Oranges macerated in Grand Marnier and more! It's all good. So far I've tried out the roast chicken (took much longer to roast in our new oven for some reason and I butchered it when cutting it up), roast vegetables (zuccini, peppers, scallions, garlic, and my new favorite leeks) - these we will have often, buttermilk biscuits, and shortbread dipped in dark chocolate (Thomas's new fav). I also got to practice my new method of cooking omelets which involves flipping the omelet in the air. Thomas was extremely wary given our new kitchen, and I had to cajole him for about 10 minutes but he finally conceded. I flipped it and it had the perfect landing - right back in the pan! Thomas said it's the most impressed he's been with me since I turned the perfect cartwheel for him a couple of years ago. Now if I could only master that back flip.

I have my final lesson tonight, but I will definitely be making a return trip to the school to take some mini courses. It is absolutely wonderful and I can't recommend it more. I would NEVER have dared to try some of these dishes and now I know lots of tricks. This wkend we're going to Creede for the holiday and I'm going to try out my new skills on my parents and father-in-law. Everyone please send me good vibes and hope that it all works out.

In other news, our kitchen cabinets are finally done! I'm so happy to have this project over and the results are wonderful. It'll be at least a year before I have the strength to venture into another home improvement project. Check out the final pic's on Thomas's blog.

Finally, I'd like to say bon voyage to Cyd who's jetting off to London for a romantic weekend with Niels, who's in flight school in the south of England. Have a great trip and try to survive the exchange rate! Last time Cyd was in England it was over the 4th of July. She did her best to rub it in to all the Brits. From what I gather, they're still pretty bitter.

Next time, a wrap up of the Spring TV Season. We're watching the 2 hour Lost finale Friday nite and I'm dying with anticipation!

Happy Memorial Day to all!

-sunday

Don't Judge a Book by its Movie

Hey Everyone! The title of this post is actually my Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day. It's one of my favorites yet and probably strikes a chord with anyone who's been terribly disappointed by the movie version of their favorite book. This seems particularly relevant because I just read on Ebert's site that the planned movie version of Confederacy of Dunces has been cancelled. I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad about this. After being told for many years by my mother to read John Kennedy Toole's book, I finally did about five years ago and was instantly captivated. It has since remained a fixture in my top 5 books (top 3, actually). I put off reading the book, because I tend to favor those that have happier material. You're very unlikely to catch me reading Grapes of Wrath anytime soon, for example. The first few lines of Confederacy is what caused my delay:

"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs."

I read this and thought this guy, Ignatius J. Reilly, has to be a depressing character whom I have nothing in common with and no interest in reading about. Boy was I wrong. After reading the book, I now love those first few lines. Though I don't think I have too much actually in common with Ignatius, he strikes a chord somewhere in me. He's a member of my favorite category of fictional protagonists - the ones who passionately and obsessively follow an irrational cause - not a lost cause, a la Rhett Butler, but an irrational one. One that the viewer or reader knows is crazy, but that the character is too enamored with to see reason. Among this group you can find Ed Wood, Max Fischer, Don Quixote, and of course Ignatius. Anyway, tho I've never to my knowledge passionately pursued a perverse cause, I'm eternally intrigued by those that do.

So, back to the movie. Will Farrell was cast to play Ignatius. I'm not sure what to make of this. Both Thomas and I imagined Jack Black. In reading Ebert's column I saw that the struggle to make this book into a movie has been a long one (this is fitting as Toole never lived to see the book published - he committed suicide and then his mother cajoled Walker Percy into reading it and he championed it, resulting in a posthumous Pulitzer for Toole) . Back in the early 80's, a version was planned with John Belushi. This would have been intriguing to see. Farrell too, could be interesting. My fear is that they make it too broad of a comedy. Subtlety is definitely needed for this movie, tho Ignatius himself and many of the other characters are anything but subtle.

A few of my Top 5 Books later made into Movies:

* Biggest disappointment: The Fountainhead - the book was my most influential and should be credited for helping me survive engineering school, but the movie is just not for me. It was made in the late 40's and the melodramatic soundtrack drives me mad, not to mention the casting. Patricia Neal, a fav of Rand's, did not work as the mercurial Dominique.
* 2nd Biggest disappointment: I Capture the Castle - this book was recommended to me by my friend Anjali. I read it when Thomas and I went to Maui and it captured me just as much as any ocean view with its first line: "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." The movie so did not do the same. Cassandra and her father were completely miscast, tho Rose Byrne who played Cassandra's sister, Rose (and was also Brad Pitt's love interest in Troy) did a great job. Thomas has not read the book, but liked the movie. My advice to those who've seen the movie or not, READ THE BOOK. The magic was not in the movie.
* All time biggest success: Gone With the Wind. A theme on this site, I know. But the book is my fav book and the movie is my fav movie. I LOVE both. Casting of the movie was providential and I believe Selznick and crew did a wonderful job with the script. When Cyd and I took our GWTW tour in Atlanta tho, our guide Catfish fervently disagreed and felt the movie was a huge disservice to Ms. Mitchell. Guess there's no accounting for taste;).

On the opposite end of things, I liked the Lord of the Rings movies soooooo much more than I liked the books. Thomas and I read each of the books just before the release of the movies (I actually didn't read the 3rd one and he maintains that the 3rd book is much better than the 3rd movie), so maybe I read them too late in life. The books are filled with descriptive passages of the journey (much over the hill we go kind of thing) and my inability to visualize made the books periodically tedius for me. The movies so exceeded any vision I could have had of the people, creatures, events and places in the books.

I do plan on seeing the movie version of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I didn't actually read the book, but listened to it on tape as I drove from Oklahoma to Colorado one year - it's a great one to listen to on a long road trip as it's so funny you're constantly laughing and therefore staying awake. I loved the experience, and am willing to risk the movie. We discussed this with Eddie and Larissa tho, who are huge fans of the book and read it at a younger age and they're not willing to risk having their imaginations spoiled. I can definitely understand this. I just wish I had the strength of will to do the same.

I was informed by Cyd that a childhood fav is coming out this December - none other than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. When I was a kid I was able to visualize and these books were cherished by my friends and me. The movie looks amazing as well and you can see a trailer here. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch is truly inspired casting. This gives me hope. If the movie meets expectations, I guess they're planning on following it up by the rest of the books in the series. Should definitely be a money maker.

Luckily we don't have to worry about any of this for bookless Revenge of the Sith. Don't know about you, but we're exercising patience and going to see it tomorrow as a matinee at Boulder's (and maybe Colorado's) largest screen - which luckily is a 5 minute walk away, so hopefully there'll be no long lines. I'll let you know what I think and give that cooking update.

-sunday

Movie Reviews - May 2005 (AKA My Anger at Kingdom)

Hey everyone! When I originally started this blog, I claimed there'd be lots of entertainment news published here (because there are so few places to get such news these days;). Instead, I've had little to say about movies, tv, moviestars and the like. I think it's been because there have been so few movies worth watching this year. My new goal is to post reviews monthly, primarily of those that tickle my fancy or generate my ire. The middling will likely be ignored. Following are some mini-reviews of a few I have seen lately:

• Upside of Anger - This drama stars Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, and Kerri Russell (finally the return of Felicity!) and is about how a mom and her daughters deal with life after being abandoned by the dad. Costner plays their next door neighbor who is shockingly a retired baseball player. My brother and I were trying to think last nite if this were the fourth or fifth time Costner played a baseball player. Luckily for the audience, it's what he plays best. And he does a great job in this movie. He is bested though by Allen who is hilarious and a revelation as the epitome of a woman scorned. For my money she's the best actress out there today....Meryl Streep who? That's how good she is. This movie is that rare treat that is engaging, funny, sad and moving all at once. It's also filled with great character roles and lots of subplots. It's probably too late for you to catch it in the theater, but make sure to rent it or netflix it. Rating: Nighttime movie
  
• Melinda and Melinda - This is Woody Allen's latest (at least in the States - more on that in a sec). It's set in NYC like the vast majority of his films and the difference for me was that I actually got to see it while visiting Cyd in NYC. This was truly a treat as Woody is the quintessentiall New York director. NYC is beautiful thru his camera lens. The movie starts out with a nod to My Dinner with Andre. Two playwrights discuss the following scenario: A woman shows up unexpectedly in the middle of a dinner party. The two debate whether it's a comedy or a tragedy. The movie jumps back and forth telling both sides as imagined by the playwrights (this is much less confusing than I'm making it seem). Each version is populated by different actors except for the protagonist, Melinda, played in both stories by Radha Mitchell (you may remember her from Pitch Black, Finding Neverland, or High Art). She is definitely one of my favorite younger actresses and it was a treat watching her play out both sides. Also in the movie is another of my favorite younger actresses - Chloe Sevigny. To me, she'll always be Alice in Last Days of Disco. The cast also includes Amanda Peet and Will Ferrell. Cyd and I both enjoyed the film but she thought Ferrell was distracting/disturbing/annoying in Allen's Manhattan. Rather than come to blows, we agreed to disagree. Earlier I wrote that Melinda was Allen's latest movie in the US. That's because his actual latest is currently showing at Cannes, and is supposedly the hit of the festival. It was filmed in London and is called Match Point. I eagerly await it. I hear he's looking to film his next movie in Spain, so I can only hope that he does not abandon New York completely. Rating: Matinee
  
• Sahara - If you read my earlier blog post, you know that such is my fondness for Matthew McConaughey that I traveled to Golden one day to view him and his trailor as he promoted Sahara. So of course, I had to go see it. It was a fairly enjoyable movie of the whole action/Indian Jones genre and included some imagined history of the lost ship of the Confederacy that made it interesting. Nevertheless, it didn't win me over. And in no way is it in my top 10 MM movies. The problem really was Matthew himself. They dyed his hair black and left him in the Mystic Tan machine for way too long (think Ross from that one Friends episode). These people are crazy for messing with his looks. His acting unfortunately was a bit over the to p as well. Penelope has never been a fav of mine and her role could have been played by anyone. As usual, Steve Zahn steals the movie as the funny sidekick. Rating: Rentable
  
• Kingdom of Heaven - This is one I was really looking forward to. I love these big budget epic kind of movies. But perhaps I was spoiled by the LOTR trilogy. Because Kingdom was horrible. It's 2.5 hrs long and I was terribly bored thru the first half. If I hadn't had a bottle of coffee with me I would surely have nodded off. It was also so unbelievable and stupid that I could not get over it. In 5 minutes Orlando "blooms" (couldn't resist) from an illiterate blacksmith into a brilliant soldier and strategist. Whatever. The movie spends so much time trying to play to all sides that it has no point of view and is just a mushy mess of special effects. The Siege of Helm's Deep was just sooooo much better than the Siege of Jerusalem! The whole time I was wishing elves would show up to save the day and my boredom. Plus there's only one girl in Kingdom - and she's only in it for about 5 minutes. I guess that's all it takes to establish a romantic relationship in Ridley Scott's world. Disclaimer - Thomas really enjoyed this one, so maybe it's a guy thing. Weird fact: Edward Norton played the leper king. You would never know it's him because his face is covered the whole time by a silver mask. What a waste of Ed Norton. His breakup with Salma must have caused more damage than I ever imagined. Rating: Must be paid to watch.

Rating System:
Nightime movie
Matinee
Rentable
TV
Must be paid to watch

The big movie news of the week is the final Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith! I really liked the 2nd one unlike most of the world, and I hear this one is great so I can't wait. To get you in the mood, check out Darth Vader's blog that Thomas showed to me.

In other news, I happily welcome my mom, Katie, to the blogworld. She's just getting started but be sure to check out her musings.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Born OK the first time.

Denver Bumpersticker of the Day: Gun Control: Good judgement and a clean shot.

Next time, an update on my culinary adventures.

-sunday

The Cook, The Thief, etc.

Hey everyone! I don't know if anyone would even bother to read this site anymore it's been so long I've written. Needless to say, my total body makeover is on hold. I'll go into that in a subsequent blog, but I do advise that anyone embarking upon this program refrain from taking trips to NYC or getting sick. Both resulted in huge obstacles for yours truly.

Since I last posted I have begun taking cooking lessons - a gift from my parents and in-laws for my anniversary and they are much appreciated. My lessons are at the Culinary School of the Rockies which is conveniently located in Boulder. It's a full-on chef school as well as a school for amateurs. I am two weeks into it and I have learned a ton and have really enjoyed it. There are 12 students in the class and we meet for 5 hours once a week. Each week we are broken into teams of 4. The first week I was very lucky: I had one experienced cook (a Boulder mom), one clueless girl from Denver named Yoko, and one kind of mean guy, and then there was me. Our chef is Dan Witherspoon and he is awesome - a great teacher, and really funny. He kind of reminds me of Bill Murray. He talked about all the things we would do, then demonstrated everything and then we all practiced.

The first lesson involved knife skills which are much needed by me. We ended up making a provencal vegetable soup with pesto (basically a ton of vegetables all cut up to be the same size with a really yummy tomato and pinenut pesto mixed in to make it hearty), salad with vinagrette, blanched broccoli, rice (the real thing, not boil in the bag), lambchops sauteed in clarified butter with a lemon-parsley compound butter on top, and bananas foster (my fav dessert which only takes 5 minutes to make and involves fire). This is pretty funny as the fire part resulted in a flashback for me of a long ago Thanksgiving where a distant cousin, Michelle, taught me how to "safely" light a bed on fire with a can of hairspray and a lighter. All why my parents were downstairs knoshing on turkey (sorry Mom and Daddy). Not sure where Michelle is now. Hopefully her career as an arsonist somehow got diverted. Anyway, I successfully made all of the above (except the soup) for Thomas Monday nite and the only disasters were a broken glass, a new stove coated in sautee splatter, and gummy rice (which we still both liked).

I had my second lesson this Thursday. I was less fortuitous in my team - it comprised June, an old lady who was an assistant at the school and a potential alzheimer's patient; Wyatt, a wannabe chef with a case of the shakes; and Jim, the resident comic (luckily for me) who's taking the class with his wife. June and Wyatt turned out to be total stress cases. Wyatt drove June to tears over the stuffed mushrooms and at that point Jim and I started surreptitiously gulping the cooking wine. Shockingly, our dinner turned out great. We made stuffed mushrooms (a lot of work), salad with a different vinnagrette, grilled salmon and halibut with a basic beurre blanc sauce (basically a reduced butter, white wine, vinegar, and shallot sauce that is utterly decadent), parsnip puree (I'd never had parsnips but they're quite yummy and sweet - a root vegetable like potatoes), grilled vegetables, and carmel custard. I now know how to make a carmel sauce in about ten minutes that you just want to guzzle. No showy dessert is required...v dangerous.

Anyway, cooking school rocks. If I didn't have a real job all day (and I was a zillionaire), I would just take lessons like this all the time. It is well worth it.

In other news, I finally finished knitting Thomas's scarf (now that winter's over, tho he makes a show of wearing it around the house regardless of weather) and a more decorative one for my mom for mother's day. I liked the way it turned out so much that I'm going to make another one for myself in the same yarn. Hopefully pics will be posted soon. I will use the excuse of tech difficulties, tho mental difficulties play a part as well. It's finals season here in Boulder (CU) and I swear the stress seeps into the whole city. We're all on edge. But graduation and summer are just around the corner. I even spent an hour in the hammock this week. Much needed after last wkend's epic snowstorm which has knocked out my phone.

More on everything (including an update on our mammoth kitchen redesign) in the next entry. And I'd like to wish an early Happy Anniversary to my parents. It's 40 years as of tomorrow. Quite an accomplishment in any day and age. They are a true inspiration to me and I'm extremely lucky to have them.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Yo Soy El Army.

Borrowed Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Eddie): Enslave Tibet!

-sunday

p.s. Hey everyone, checkout Thomas's latest blog entry for some pics of Plan B.