Movies so far

An owl in flight:

Below are the movies I've seen so far in 2010. My reviews are brief because 1) I'm not a film critic 2) there are plenty of reviews available online and 3) I've provided links to reviews.

Broken Embraces: The latest Pedro Almodovar film and, I think, one of his best. I enjoyed the sensuality and intensity.

Up in the Air: Another movie I enjoyed. My mother didn't think it was funny at all but she doesn't and hasn't really ever worked outside the house and hasn't flown in an airplane in over 30 year. Much was lost on her. Of course, it wasn't all funny but the wee bit of tragedy really added some depth.

Three Monkeys: A foreign (Turkish) film that came with much recommendation - always a bad thing. Movies are inevitably not so good when someone really plays up the expectations. It certainly had intrigue and some excellent shots but maybe I'm too American or maybe I've seen too many fluffy American movies. It felt a bit too vague, a bit too sullen but sullenly inexplicable.

Sin Nombre: This is a tale of gang culture in Central America juxtaposed (and ultimately smushed together) with everyday folks trying to make it across the border into the US. The stories are compelling and the images stick with you.

Funny People: This Judd Apatow film is unlike 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked up, which is why I think I found some humor in it. It felt a bit more multi-faceted than some of his other efforts. I also appreciated the addition of Jason Schwartzman. I'm not saying it's great but I'm trying to get a bit more comedy into my film diet and this wasn't so bad.

Extract: I'm not a 100% on what I think of this one. It was pretty stupid but did have a few funny bits. That's all I have to say.

And today we saw The Book of Eli. This one is not good. Now maybe if they'd thrown in some zombies it would have redeemed the movie but no such luck. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic material and I purposely didn't watch the trailer so that I wouldn't get too much info before the movie (some trailers just give it all away). Not a good strategy in this case.

Ok, that's the movie story for mid January 2010.


A cat kicking a dog's ass:

Annora

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm drawn to whimsical art. I don't recall how I came across Annora Spence but I've had a small replica of one of her prints in my office for about five years. I mean it's clear that I'm drawn to animals and bicycles but the way she draws those items and how all the elements come together is...amusing.




She's an English artist that has apparently been influenced by traveling around Europe and in Asia.

Nothing

Hey, guess what's going on here that's interesting? That's right - nothing. Today was just a normal day, which isn't necessarily bad. It went like this:

• Wake up at 6:30 am
• Breakfast (homemade smoothie, dry toast, black tea, water) and internet (thank you bloggers)
• Shower and get ready stuff
• Walk to work and listen to Slate Spoiler Special podcast on "Up in the Air" No matter how smooth Clooney is or how candy-coated they say it is, I think it was a perfect movie for our times. It hit on many elements of our modern lives, modern technology, modern relationships and the good and bad consequences of it all. It was smooth but not completely devoid of depth or tragedy.
• Arrive at work and work...attend meeting and get peeved. Talk to co-worker and feel better. Continue to work.
• Leave work and go to gym. Swear never to visit Karyn's desk for mini 3 musketeers again (Don't miss the *awesome* recipes at the web site).
• Meet Sandy in the lobby. Catch the 20 bus.
• Get off at Marczyk's. Purchase spicy hummus, an avocado, smokey chipotle chips, baguette and red wine.
• Arrive home. Reheat chili. Eat chili with a Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout (provided by Tony E).
• Purchase animal photo from etsy - Sharon Montrose.
  
• Look at the interwebs until eyes bleed...
• brush, floss, do 5 minutes of crossword puzzle and then sleep.
  

There you have it. Genevieve's Monday.

Oh, here is a Sharon Montrose example (but not the one I got):

interesting creatures

This was making its way around the internet about a month or so ago and I bookmarked it to share with others. However, as time went by, I completely forgot about it but now that I've found it in my old email - here it is. An octopus was recently discovered using a coconut shell in some interesting ways. From National Geographic, "An octopus would dig up the two halves of a coconut shell, then use them as protective shielding when stopping in exposed areas or when resting in sediment."








There is another video and additional information on the National Geographic web site. Fascinating stuff. In another, not quite as interesting instance, an octopus became attached to a Mr. Potato Head.

Oh, on our recent trip to the southwest we discovered the "kissing bug" - luckily we didn't discover it first hand. These bugs are part of the assassin beetle family. Similar to mosquitoes they bite the skin (usually around the lips while the human is sleeping) while simultaneously injecting an anesthetic and an anti-coagulant. The bugs then poop and the poop usually enters the wound. This transmits a parasite to the victim.

The world is an amazing and scary place my friends.

Charming weekend

Friday

The weekend started with our annual holiday dinner with Lisa and Tony. We started at the Corridor 44 happy hour. The $4.00 champagne cocktails are just good enough to be worth the $4.00. Champagne is so much fun...We ate dinner at Venice Ristorante in LoDo. The food was so-so. If you want good Italian food in Denver I'd recommend somewhere else. It wasn't bad but, for the money, you could do better.

After dinner we stopped at the Cruise Room (in the Oxford Hotel) and, finally, at the Corner Office (they stayed at The Curtis Hotel). We actually all got a bit more food at the Corner Office. The Szechuan fries were pretty good if you are a few sheets to the wind. Needless to say, after all of these stops we were feeling pretty...tired. This is Lisa and Tony at the Cruise Room.

No pictures from Venice and only a Szechuan fry picture from the Corner Office. There is this feather xmas tree picture from the Oxford Hotel lobby:

Saturday

Went to lunch and a movie with friends. We saw Precious, which some of you may know is the uplifting film of the season. The movie was pretty intense, especially if you've never been exposed to abuse.





The film was an extreme scenario but is still at least a sliver of what many abused children have experienced.

Afterward, we did domestic duties (laundry and so on) and then stared at each other trying to figure out what to do with ourselves and the thoughts rattling in our heads from the afternoon. We decided to go the the Bebel Gilberto concert at the Ogden Theater, which is pretty close to where we live. I had heard the songs of the Brazilian talent on various compilations and from friends but the show was fantastic and far exceeded expectations. She is such a good stage artist to say nothing of her singing and energy. Infectious in a very sensual way. This isn't the best video but does show some of her stage presence.





Sunday

I create some wine charms! A friend had a wine charm party and provided beads and materials with which to create whatever we could come up with. She also provided mojitos, margaritas and martinis. Good time! I created the wine charms below which were much better than I thought I could do. I made three of this kind:



and four of this kind (different words):

Now I'm home and it's snowing but satisfied with the weekend.

my skillz

Aside from solving problems with Excel and organizing my closets, I can also bake and knit. Although I am not claiming to do any of these things successfully. This past holiday weekend I tried a new cookie recipe - Cinnamon-Ginger Cookies. We ate them all that night. I recommend this - the recipe that is, not eating all of them in one sitting with only one other person.



I also spent about 90 minutes trying out various knitting patterns for this spare yarn I have in an attempt to put it to good use (besides sitting in a storage bin in the closet). This is what the temporary working space looked like:

I have several other projects going but have grown a bit bored of them...maybe those projects will be lucky enough to be featured in a future blah post.

If only I had a maternal instinct, I'd be all set with my knitting and cookie skillz.

Three Movie Weekend

Hi Folks, G here, reporting live from 306. This holiday weekend we went out to three movies. This is abnormal.

Wednesday, November 25:

1. Fantastic Mr. Fox: The latest Wes Anderson film, his first animated film and his first main stream (non-indie) release. I give it 4 stars. Aside from the horrible previews for bland kid movies, I enjoyed it, but then, I haven't seen a Wes Anderson movie I didn't like. Wes Anderson's attention to detail is something I appreciate. The movie is based on the Roald Dahl story of the same title. I'll let the preview speak for itself.




2. (same night - we got two free passes after the theater had a few blunders during the Fantastic Mr. Fox) 2012: By any standards this is not a "good" movie but it is worth seeing in the theater. There are so many ridiculous things in this movie that I found myself chuckling at the parts I don't think I was supposed to be chuckling at. Three stars and, though ridiculous, a fun movie.





Sunday, November 29:

3. The Road: I read the Cormac McCarthy book (by the same name) about a year or so ago and could not put it down - the fastest I've ever read a book. I have to admit part of the haste was the fear - it is a frightening film. The movie does right by the book mostly and I give it 4 1/2 stars.





Other than movies we ate and ran a bit and walked here and there and read books and listened to music as well as podcasts. A very mellow and fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.

I am thankful.

H - this is for you.

Look closely at the photo below (taken in September 2000) - "Quinn's Pet Hamsters" are awesome. This was hanging in the basement of the church where Sandy's sister got married.


I am a real sunshine (ha).

Good day!

Guess who cooked!

I did! I made two new recipes this weekend, which is two more recipes than I made this whole month! Don't quite know what motivated me.

I made Ginger-Lemon Pinwheel Cookies which are a serious pain in the ass to make. You're really making two different cookie recipes at the same time and then combining. Something went awry with the molasses dough. They look interesting (I would have loved looking at them in my high school years) but are a bit hard. I don't recommend the recipe unless you have a lot of time on your hands and enjoy frustration.



The second recipe was a Breakfast Tortilla, which, surprisingly, is a Cooking Light recipe. I say it's surprising because of the amount of fat and cholesterol in it but I guess you're supposed to eat it in moderation...This is a hard task because it was tasty. The end product is here:


I made if for a knitting get together and it looked much nicer on the table with the other treats:


This is the real money shot though - a yuppie's dream :) - some Darjeeling tea, quiche, fresh strawberries and breakfast tortilla. It was so tasty and satisfying.


I think I probably gained weight today.

utube

More evidence of my exciting life: I found some funny shit on youtube. Yeah, I know I'm not alone but I mean LOL kind of funny, which is rare for me. Sure, I chuckle quite a bit and think to myself "that's funny" often but don't regularly laugh out loud at things. That said, I laughed at this:




This guy has several other short films of equally funny stuff but the astronaut one is my favorite. A runner up is the snail:



Stay tuned - more useless stuff coming your way soon! right here!