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June 11, 2007 - 1:21 PM

Has it Really Been a Month?

Let's see...I've worked 20 days straight. In the past 2 months, I've had 7 days off. I think my brain is a little soft right now.

Still, I have been able to see some movies with Liz in that time (but I've only been to one concert, and that was one that I was playing cello in), and I took care of Kyler and Richard's cats while they were in Germany for 10 days. But not much else is going on. Work, eat, sleep. Pretend to make plans to go to the gym, then just sit around and watch tv until I fall asleep. Slowly read the third Harry Potter book, do a few crossword puzzles, play with Wallaby, sleep.

I'm kinda dreading the end of this month, when I will no longer be working on this movie. What will I do with myself? Other than go see Transformers and pee my pants, then meet Liz's dad and pee my pants, then fly to Boston to meet Ella and we'll both pee our pants, then serve jury duty and pee my pants so that they don't call me.

And then figure out what my next job will be. Cue the peeing of the pants.
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We saw Ocean's 13 on Saturday night with Liz's friends. Like the other sequels we've seen this summer, I think this one suffered from bloat and excess. The first 30-45 minutes was spent expositioning the reasons for and the planning of the caper. With lots of voiceovers and time-jumping, it got real confusing real quick, and it didn't draw me in. What made it even more brain-fuzzing was the "lingo" they kept throwing at us during the set-up with the names of the various cons they were trying to pull piling up like a stack of things that piles up really quickly. Yes, it's a cool gag, and kinda funny, but stop beating us over the head with that "inside" talk.

Another thing that kept me at a bit of a distance, and this sounds a little trivial, I know, was that in the first movie, it felt like we were IN Vegas, and that everything was happening on location. With this movie, it felt like everything was happening on a set. Afterwards, Liz made a comment that she had heard that most of the movie was shot here in L.A., which made me think about the authenticity of the location shots.

Still, there was a lot of humor, which was good, and Brad Pitt and George Clooney continued to be exceedingly charming. I shall have to watch it again to figure out how all the pieces fall into place (and to figure out if the pieces that I thought didn't fit really DID fit). Also, anything with the Malloy brothers was hysterical and worth a second viewing.

What else have we seen? Spiderman 3 (looooong...it was decent at actually developing characters and letting them go on a journey, especially Harry Osborne, but it was still way too long and padded with fluff. Do we really need to see an emo-Peter and a singing Mary Jane [multiple times]? And can I point out how gorgeous Bryce Dallas Howard was as Gwen Stacy? Hi Liz! I think you're beautiful too!). Pirates 3 (even longer. And more confusing. It was like a jelly filled donut that was also filled with cream and custard and sprinkles and marshmallows and mustard and steak and copper and three babies and an Abrams tank and actual fruit. Waaay too much and not that satisfying). Blood Diamond (much like the director's work on Last Samurai, it switched back and forth between being realistic and being overly Hollywood, which didn't work for me. He shows the lives of the indigenous people in an honest way, I believe, that makes you feel for them; but then he brings in his white lead actors with their big, important stories, and gets all melodramatic with them and that ruins whatever emotion he has built with the locals. Stop beating me over the head with the tragic nobility of the lead actor, and beat me over the head with the tragic tragedy of the real lives of people in Sierra Leone or in rural Japan.)

Oh, two movies we watched that I did enjoy were The Host and Once. The Host is a Korean monster/action movie that is pretty freakin' hilarious. It's also got heart and soul and thrills and scares and some terrible effects. But it's worth a watch.

Once is a small Irish film that crosses music video with your typical indie relationship drama. Imagine "Before Sunrise" with scenes built around entire songs that the two leads write and perform together. It left me in the same head and heart space as Lost in Translation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did, although at a lesser magnitude...if the emotional resonance of those two movies was, like, 10, then this was somewhere around 7. Pirates 3 was around 1.2

The real strengths of the movie are the believability of the two leads and the music that they perform. The lyrics aren't the greatest, but the music is gorgeous and perfectly presented. And, I have to admit, I was geeking out during the scenes in the recording studio.

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Interestingly, these two movies are also proof that my mom is more hip than my brother, as she asked me a few weeks ago about them. She's in Massachussetts visiting Ella now, and she had wanted me to talk Soph into going to see those two movies with her. Telling Phil about them, I just got silence. Of course, my mom used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with me, and got into the West Wing after I brought the first season home on DVD. She even went to my first Sarah McLachlan concert with me when I was in high school and enjoyed it. Cool mom indeed.

Now Listening To : The Rocketeer soundtrack by James Horner
Random Thought : All my thoughts are used up.

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