2.05.2006

Did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?

It's been a big movie weekend here in Sad & British land. I had a bunch of films filling up my Tivo so it was time to get through them. I still have The Quiet American, Million Dollar Baby and American History X waiting for viewing, but those sad movies take a little more energy (or more wine) than I'm willing to invest right now. Here's what I have seen, though:
  • The Ladykillers - I love Tom Hanks in this movie but that's about it. After this and Intolerable Cruelty I'm beginning to wondering if the Coen brothers might be losing it.
  • Mean Girls - I loved it! People had been telling me for ages how good it was. It's like the perfect high school movie.
  • Cheaper By The Dozen - I watched the 2003 remake mostly so I could see fellow Okemos High School class of '95 alum Tom Welling. I never watch Smallville so I though I should see him act in something. Anyway, the whole movie was better than I expected (but I wasn't expecting much). Family comedies always make me sappy.
  • Grizzly Man - The Discovery channel premiered Werner Herzog's documentary about Timothy Treadwell this weekend. He was the dude who hung out in Alaska and then got eaten by a bear. One word - CRAZY! Treadwell was nuts. I kept trying to see his inner struggle that the movie tried to describe but I just couldn't get past what a weirdo he was.
  • Alice's Restaurant - My parents saw this movie on their first date in 1969 so when I saw it was going to be on TV, I had to fire up the old Tivo. It takes about an hour for the plot to get going and then the last half hour is spent documenting a hippie dystopia so there's not much time left for an actual movie. It's sort of a classic 60's movie with a fair amount of dirty hippie sex. Man, those hippies sure were dirty. It's nice they all live in Nevada County now where we can keep an eye on them.

I also listened to an album today. It was Billie Holiday's Greatest Hits by, you guessed it, Billie Holiday. I own some albums mostly because I consider them intrinsic to a basic musical education and this is one of them. Billie's not my favorite jazz era singer, that distinction belongs to Ella Fitzgerald. But her voice and the songs she made famous play such a role in all the music that follows that it's impossible to ignore. Listening to her is like taking a great books course in school. It's a great building block.

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