The good life

It is a beautiful, beautiful day in Alabama. At 4:38pm I've been to the bank, bought a new (giant, green) purse and two matching scarves, picked up 5 book by female authors for $17.95 at a used book store, listened to my Curtis Peoples cd while tooling about H'ville with the windows down, and eaten cheesecake for lunch while sitting outside in the sun. Proper amounts of sunscreen were applied for a 45min sit in the sun. Quite productive for first Saturday*.

I'm a little over half-way through Spin Sisters, and I'm going to try to power through it by Sunday because I'm not enjoying it that much and I want to move on. I'll post up the whys on UBC when I'm done.

In other news, I picked up some Wal*Mart bargain bin movies and among them was the Dead Like Me movie which I'd never seen. I loved the show (watched it earlier this year via Netflix) and had sort of forgotten that I meant to watch the movie. I'm glad I coughed up the $5.50 to buy it. Its quite good, I think the writing and directing did a super job pushing the plot and character development forward 5 years and still preserving the spirit of the show. There was definitely a heavier serving of emotion in the film, but it was basically a whole season's worth of emotion paired with maybe 2-3 episodes worth of reaping.

I did not like the new Daisy (played by Sarah Wynter). Aside from being way less pretty than original Daisy (Laura Harris) - which was partly her hair & makeup, she's prettier in life than she was in the film - she didn't have that same proper Southern belle arrogance that I loved in Daisy. Sure, Daisy was the kind of woman that slept her way to the top, but there was an amusing, old-fashioned romance to her affairs and an innocence to her. New Daisy just seemed slutty and gold-digging. And it ruined her chemistry with Mason. There was only one scene that resurrected Mason's devotion to Daisy and in the context of his film character it didn't really make sense.

The other thing that didn't make sense to me was the scene where the new boss, Cameron, kisses George. In the special features they mention that the kiss turned out way creepier and more menacing than how it was written, but even so it seems quite out of place. Other than causelessly referring to George as sweetheart (presumably as a counterpoint to the fatherly Rube calling her "Peanut") Cameron never has any relationship built with George, the scene with the kiss is essentially the second time Cameron and George interact. I don't know, it felt strange that it never got resolved. Cameron is chopped to bits by the next time George sees him.

Okay enough of this fantastically long post.

*First Saturday- Fridays for Abby now that she works four-tens. Thursday, as the last day of the work week, is the new Friday, hence her department's "7am Friday morning meeting" is held in the conference room at 7:05am every Thursday. Also, her boss has mandated that 7:05 is the new 7:00 because he is never late, but always shows up for 7:00am at 7:05. Anyway, if Thursday is Friday, Friday can't be Friday, but neither can it be Saturday because Saturday is still Saturday (what with the morning cartoons and preceding Sunday and everything) so Friday is now first-Saturday much in the enjoyable spirit of first breakfast and second breakfast for Hobbits. Sunday is still Sunday because everything is still closed until unreasonably late in afternoon here in the South.

Let's Go to the Cinema!!!

I had a big weekend, Movie-wise.

No Country for Old Men
Can I say brilliant? It's brilliant. It is just so outrageously good that I almost want to hate it. Which I'm sure many many people will. The Coen Brothers are so hard-core. The film is bloody (of course), gritty (naturally) and just terrifyingly evil. The use of silence is legendary. Javier Bardem is terrifying. He is just such a psychopathic maniac. Creeeeepy. Tommy Lee Jones is amazing as well. The writing for his character is fantastic. He has the most ridiculous colloquialisms and he delivers them beautifully.
The whole movie is sort of a mounting sense of dread, like you know from the start that some bad things are bound to happen, but as it goes on you realize that everything bad will happen and nothing good can possibly happen. Its like slowly losing hope. And the ending is so messed up (a la "The Sopranos").
In short, I loved it and will be running out to buy it in two weeks when it's released on DVD.

Romance & Cigarettes
I sort of got onto a theme. This was produced by the Coens. Written and Directed by John Turturro. It's a musical. Yeah. The cast is ridiculous-- James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mary-Louise Parker, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, and Bobby Cannavale. I'm not even bothering to make links it's so many.
This wasn't as awesome as I thought it could be. The songs are all pop numbers and the characters essentially lip-sync them since their singing can barely be heard over Tom Jones or Bruce Springsteen. This I think is the tragedy since most of these actors can really sing (oh, how I miss the days of the Rocky Horror Picture Show!) Other than that the movie is quite funny and very wrong. Its really dirty. Most of Kate Winslet's dialog may have come directly from porn. Still it was pretty fun to watch 4 crazy women turn on Gandolfini and him take to the streets singing about it.

Goya's Ghosts
Remember the theme I mentioned? This isn't the Coens, its Javier Bardem. He's a great villain. Very easy to hate. He co-stars with Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgard (Fransisco Goya). This too, was a horrifying film. Its set in Madrid during the Inquisition and at the beginning of the French Revolution which eventually spills into Spain. Bardem is an excessively zealous member of the Inquisition, and Natalie (a beautiful, young, rich model for Goya) gets thrown in jail and tortured early on. Bardem manages to not save Natalie, get her pregnant, and flee the church and the country, only to later return as one of Napoleon's stooges.
Natalie loses her mind in prison. The worst part of this movie is that they make her really ugly. Luckily, she also plays her own daughter, who is pretty. Also the torture and excessive raping is quite unpleasant. But as movies with really horrible stories go, this one is pretty good. Good cast, good story. It's just really intense, and well, depressing.

My goal is to get to the theater soon to see Atonement. Miranda's blog on UnimaginaryBC was very enticing.

The Nin9es

Kerry and I rented this movie, The Nines, last night. It was almost scary. It had an edge of horror.

IMDb.com says this about the plot:
A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.

I'll add that it involves Ryan Reynolds being a sort of schitzophrenic god trapped in his own videogame. Yeah? I thought it wasn't a bad movie, quite original (no small feat these days). Also, Ryan Reynolds takes his shirt off. His abs made me forget Brad Pitt's name. Seriously. The cast also includes Melissa McCarthy (Sookie of Gilmore Girls), Hope Davis (who Kerry thinks I should know, but I've never seen before. She's in About Schmidt and Proof), and David Denman (The Office's Roy). Recommend.

In other news.... The writer's strike is over!!!! Yay!!!! Last night I watched The Daily Show and Colbert Report and the hosts had scripts! There were words in the teleprompters! It was brrrrilliant. I'm so happy. You know what this means. New TV is coming back. Scrubs, The Office, effing Grey's Anatomy. I'm beyond thrilled. Other good news: it looks like the only show not coming back is Bionic Woman. Those writers deserve it. That show never would've gotten picked up if good shows were being written.

Glorious.

Vote Obama (unless you already have. in that case give cash.)

Barack-ing South Carolina

Needless to say, I'm happy. Barack rocked South Carolina hard core.

The best part is that Saturday night I was in this crappy bar in Greenville where a group of young Obamarama-ists were partying on after a long day of campaigning. I know this, not from talking to them (I'm unfriendly) but, from their t-shirts, stickers, practical walking shoes, exhausted faces, drunkenness, and their tireless shrieks of joy every single time Barack's face or polling numbers flashed across the screen on CNN--which was frequent.

So that was entertaining. Plus I was in G-Vegas with Melissa and JD & Jennifer and Josh & Ann and Kerry. A very quality group of bar mates.

Also, Sunday Melissa and I saw 27 Dresses. It was pretty romantic-comedy-tastic. Kathrine Heigl is always funnier than I expect her to be and James Marsden is totally hot. Plus there's a scene where the two dance on the bar singing "Benny and the Jets", one of my all-time favorite Elton John songs. Love it.

Coming up in life-- Weddings in Ashville, Super Bowl, papers about the influence of Ariel and Caliban in modern Mexican literature. Yeah. Be jealous.

Vote Obama.

Juno!

On Friday, Kerry and I went to see Juno. It was amazing. Hilarity. The only trouble was the other people in the theater. We went to a 5:40 show, kind of early, so we could get dinner after. So there were only, maybe, 8 or 10 other people in the theater. We were all spread out, scattered across the place. The movie is so funny, Kerry and I are cracking up, rolling on the floor, crying a little with the humor. The rest of the theater- silence. Crickets. Barely a chuckle. We found this akward, but there was no holding back so we continued to laugh our faces off.

Apparently, southerners don't find teen pregnancy that funny. Weird.

Anyway, go see this movie.

I'm such a Failure

My simple weekend goal of finishing a book is looking less and less likely. Reasons for this failure are as follows:

• Kerry.
  
• Heroes, the TV show Kerry talked me into watching on Friday. My Saturday afternoon I'd seen the entire season to date. Its somewhat addictive. Kerry knew it and he let me start anyway.
• Wings. Melissa, Dana, and I went to Wild Wings for dinner and ate a metric ton of spicy goodness. At my new weight of 467 lbs I am unable to fit through my door, and my book is trapped in my room, helpless and alone.
  
• Diane Keaton. Melissa and I went to see "Because I Said So". It was so funny and wrong. My favorite combination.
• Da Bears. Any hope of a last minute recovery tomorrow is shot.
  

So there you have it. What seems like a very nice weekend is actually a series of unfortunate events preventing me from finishing the very exciting Marie Antoinnette novel. Ugh! Curse my popularity and good taste in television, food, films and sports!!!

The 12 Days of Finals. My favorite time of year.

Hey friends-

The countdown has officially started: 13 days until I'm done for the semester, 22 days till Christmas, and 26 days until Cancun!!

All I have to worry about now is, 5 papers, 4 final exams, 3 french hens, 2 birthdays and 1 online writing portfolio. Oh, and that detail of Christmas shopping. But I don't really worry about shopping. Its more of a giddy anticipation. I miss the mall.

Speaking of my writing portfolio, I've just finished with getting everything online and organized. It still needs a bit of editing, but if you've ever wondered what exactly it is I do at college (besides being a triathlete in drinking, dancing and danger) you might take a look. The Hurricane Project is what has been sucking up a lot of my time this semester.

Not all my time, obviously, after all, last night Kerry and I went to a party at a prof's house and the night before ('twas Sean's birthday-happy birthday Sean) a bunch of us went to see the new Bond movie. New Bond is freakin' hot. It was the best Bond movie in recent memory I'd say. Me being an expert in Bond films and all.

Speaking of brilliant films, I hope you are all planning to tune into TNT tonight to see the second "Librarian" movie with Noah Wyle. Because he is so delicious and the movie ought to be so ridiculous.

Okay, enough for now. If you don't hear from me in a few days, I may be trapped under a mountain of books. Send help.
-Abby

Falling In Love

That's right. Cupid finally got me.

I'm in love.

With Clemson's football team. Stuckey? "Big Willy" Proctor? Gaines Adams? Jacoby? Spiller? James fricken Davis? Jad? I love them all. They are each so special in their own way. Tommy is even growing on me.

Perhaps you are confused because you didn't catch that Clemson beat Louisiana Tech today, 51-0. We just rock so hard sometimes.

This sudden outburst of affection may be partially attributed to my excellent mood (and not just the yuengling!). Today Melissa and I got manis and pedis (I'm orange down to my toenails!), I got a new sweater for $5, and we took care of some birthday shopping. I also got to hang out with Ash and Michael who are in town for the game, and Kerry and Jon which is always fun. Plus, The Cutting Edge was on TV today!!! Could life really improve??? Probably not.

Lovestruck-
Abby

Good Riddance Charlie.

Clemson won today 54-6. That's embarassing. I saw them score on a 92 yd punt return after fumbling. Florida Atlantic is awful. Plus we are awesome.

Abby went and watched the boys run down the hill, watched the first few plays from the hill, and then packed up and went home. Its too hot to stand all afternoon in the blazing sun.

What else awesome did I do today? Saw Snakes on a Plane. Brilliant. On a scale of 1-10 its a 12. It was so violent and funny, everything was ridiculous and "Dick" from High Fidelity was in it. I loved it all so much. And after Ryan and I listened to this album called "Venom" by the band Awesome Snakes. Altogether an awesomely snakey night.

Was that a Transformer?!?!

Oh, yeah it was.

So we (the fam, Miranda and Dove 2) go to see Pirates II, and there are a dozen previews. There is one that presents like an earth-shattering investigation into the Mars rover. Then it gets dramatic talking about the top-secret classified last images. I get all hopeful and start perking up with whispered chants for aliens. Miranda leans over and goes "Was that a transformer?". Then suddenly the title flashes accross the screen. The Transformers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My cup runneth over.

The movie was worth the $7 just to see Orlando's shirt ripped off and to see Kiera make out with Johnny. Delicious.

-Abby