Snow Day...I Wish
Hey everyone! So far fall has been nice, but today it feels like winter has arrived. We awoke to lots and lots of snow and it was still coming down outside when I left the house. This is our third snowstorm of the year already, but it was the first one that drove me into the the bowels of hell, i.e., the RTD. Yes, me and public transportation were one this morning. My experience with the bus is forever tainted because the only time I get near it is when the weather is bad. So that means every time I ride it it's LATE. This time, I waited 35 minutes. Not fun, but I eventually made it out of Boulder. I then walked to Starbucks, sought solace in a latte, and called Aida to pick me up and take me the rest of the way to work. So it basically took me 90 minutes to go 10 miles this morning. But I arrived safe and sound and I guess that's what it's all about.
In other news, I've seen a few flicks and one totally awesome concert. First, the concert. Cindy and Bob were in Boulder and got tickets to see an Australian band, The Cat Empire, at the Fox Theatre. We'd never heard of this band, but it's one of their son Max's favorites, so we wanted to give it a try. Best live music in forever! Cat Empire plays happy fusion music. One song sounded like it was from south of the border and the next sounded like a polka. All of it was awesome and the CU students were in ecstacy. There was a lot of moshing going on. The band was made up of several members, all of them insanely talented, particularly their trumpet player. Thanks to my formative years playing said instrument, I have a soft spot for trumpet players. And this one did not let me down. I now need to get all my new music recs from Max and Ian.
So movies. The best one easily was The Departed. I'm partial to anything done by Scorcese and starring DiCaprio so I knew this would be one for me. DiCaprio owns this movie. Yes, I know Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon are in it, but it's DiCaprio's movie. He outacts everyone hands down, making him The Best Actor of Our Generation. Yep, it's official. Jack plays psychotic Jack and he does it well but he really does play himself. Matt Damon is an actor I'm not too fond of, and luckily he plays an utterly unlikable character, so that worked for me here. All that being said, The Departed is not in the top tier of Scorcese films. It's not Age of Innocence, it's not Goodfellas and it's not The Aviator, but it's 100% worth seeing and DiCaprio should get a best actor nod out of it. The Departed is a dark movie though and for that reason alone it could never really be my favorite movie of the year. That honor still currently resides in the hands of Little Miss Sunshine.
Next up was Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. Another great movie that is a must see. I went in thinking this was going to be all about the battle of Iwo Jima. It is to some degree, but most of the movie centers around the repurcussions of the infamous pic taken of soldiers raising a flag there. This picture so inspired the American people that the government had the soldiers in the pic tour the country to raise money to finish the war. Performances were spot on, particularly that of Adam Beach playing Ira Hayes, an American Indian in the photo. I did have a bit of a problem with the execution of the film. Eastwood chose to tell it in a non-linear fashion so this meant tons of flashbacks. And the devices used to segue into these flashbacks tended to be pretty cheesy: lighting flash--->flashback! thunderous applause from a crowd--->flashback! camera flashes--->flashback! You get the picture. It also messed with the momentum of the battlescenes for me. And finally the original music by Clint Eastwood himself drove me nuts. The guy needs to learn to delegate. Still, I in no way want to discourage you from seeing this movie. Flags is a story that needed to be told and I was not bored for a second of it.
And to go back in time, a few weeks ago I saw one I'd really been looking forward to - Half Nelson. And no, this isn't a wrestling movie, except in the sense that the protagonist was wrestling with his soul. Get it. Yeah, that's how I felt during most of the movie. Starring one of my favs and one of the runner-ups to that Best Actor of Our Generation title, Ryan Gosling, HN told the story of a good-intentioned inner city school teacher who spends his evenings doing crack and sleeping around. Yep, it's the whole yin and yang thing. The story ups the ante when one of his students sees him shooting up crack in the girls bathroom after hours. Performances are indeed good, but the story meandered like crazy, was too obvious, at times too uncomfortable for me, and in the end went nowhere. This indie is one that really let me down. If you're a Gosling fan, check it on dvd when you're in the mood to sink one level lower in your current state of depression.
Next up for me: Marie Antoinette, Running with Scissors and Borat. And since I have tomorrow off (yippee!), I plan to take in one of these.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: May the forest bewitch you.
-sunday
In other news, I've seen a few flicks and one totally awesome concert. First, the concert. Cindy and Bob were in Boulder and got tickets to see an Australian band, The Cat Empire, at the Fox Theatre. We'd never heard of this band, but it's one of their son Max's favorites, so we wanted to give it a try. Best live music in forever! Cat Empire plays happy fusion music. One song sounded like it was from south of the border and the next sounded like a polka. All of it was awesome and the CU students were in ecstacy. There was a lot of moshing going on. The band was made up of several members, all of them insanely talented, particularly their trumpet player. Thanks to my formative years playing said instrument, I have a soft spot for trumpet players. And this one did not let me down. I now need to get all my new music recs from Max and Ian.
So movies. The best one easily was The Departed. I'm partial to anything done by Scorcese and starring DiCaprio so I knew this would be one for me. DiCaprio owns this movie. Yes, I know Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon are in it, but it's DiCaprio's movie. He outacts everyone hands down, making him The Best Actor of Our Generation. Yep, it's official. Jack plays psychotic Jack and he does it well but he really does play himself. Matt Damon is an actor I'm not too fond of, and luckily he plays an utterly unlikable character, so that worked for me here. All that being said, The Departed is not in the top tier of Scorcese films. It's not Age of Innocence, it's not Goodfellas and it's not The Aviator, but it's 100% worth seeing and DiCaprio should get a best actor nod out of it. The Departed is a dark movie though and for that reason alone it could never really be my favorite movie of the year. That honor still currently resides in the hands of Little Miss Sunshine.
Next up was Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. Another great movie that is a must see. I went in thinking this was going to be all about the battle of Iwo Jima. It is to some degree, but most of the movie centers around the repurcussions of the infamous pic taken of soldiers raising a flag there. This picture so inspired the American people that the government had the soldiers in the pic tour the country to raise money to finish the war. Performances were spot on, particularly that of Adam Beach playing Ira Hayes, an American Indian in the photo. I did have a bit of a problem with the execution of the film. Eastwood chose to tell it in a non-linear fashion so this meant tons of flashbacks. And the devices used to segue into these flashbacks tended to be pretty cheesy: lighting flash--->flashback! thunderous applause from a crowd--->flashback! camera flashes--->flashback! You get the picture. It also messed with the momentum of the battlescenes for me. And finally the original music by Clint Eastwood himself drove me nuts. The guy needs to learn to delegate. Still, I in no way want to discourage you from seeing this movie. Flags is a story that needed to be told and I was not bored for a second of it.
And to go back in time, a few weeks ago I saw one I'd really been looking forward to - Half Nelson. And no, this isn't a wrestling movie, except in the sense that the protagonist was wrestling with his soul. Get it. Yeah, that's how I felt during most of the movie. Starring one of my favs and one of the runner-ups to that Best Actor of Our Generation title, Ryan Gosling, HN told the story of a good-intentioned inner city school teacher who spends his evenings doing crack and sleeping around. Yep, it's the whole yin and yang thing. The story ups the ante when one of his students sees him shooting up crack in the girls bathroom after hours. Performances are indeed good, but the story meandered like crazy, was too obvious, at times too uncomfortable for me, and in the end went nowhere. This indie is one that really let me down. If you're a Gosling fan, check it on dvd when you're in the mood to sink one level lower in your current state of depression.
Next up for me: Marie Antoinette, Running with Scissors and Borat. And since I have tomorrow off (yippee!), I plan to take in one of these.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: May the forest bewitch you.
-sunday
posted by Sunday at
1:29 PM
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