it's not life that matters but the journey...

I really need to stop ordering bad movies from Netflix. Last night I watched (or should I say I tried to watch) the remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth . so you're asking, why on earth did I rent that silly mess? Good question... I can't even remember why I put it on my queue.
I guess the trailer made it look Jurassic park-like and fun... I didn't even get to the fun part, if there was any. I turned it off after about 40 minutes, after it started resembling the second Indiana Jones movie (and not a good resemblance). Brendan Fraser really needs to start making good movies again - he's starting to get typecast as the nerdy professor-action hero type after all the Mummy movies. In this movie he was so uninspired, and the actress playing the Icelandic guide was horribly annoying. and the special effects were just a joke. I felt like I was watching a movie made by a teenager!

I think it's really time to put my Netflix membership on hold. I just can't find anything worth renting anymore...

and speaking of movies, I'm not sure if I'll even watch the Academy Awards this year. (I think I might have said the same thing last year, and ended up watching only half of the awards then)... Honestly I don't care anymore, and that makes me so sad. I might watch simply to see Hugh Jackman as the host(*melt*), and to see the beautiful dresses and the gorgeous men. This is the second year that I haven't seen ANY of the movies up for best picture - and I only care about a few of them. I guess everyone's saying that Benjamin Button is good, but I am not interested. I'm not interested in The Reader. I might see Slumdog Millionaire once it's on DVD. And Frost/Nixon too. of course I really want to see Milk, but it won't win. It's so easy to predict the winners every year - it's all political after all. Ever since Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash a few years back, I just gave up on caring. It's so disappointing.

Hi everyone!

I'm posting from work. I can't believe I'm at work today. First, there's like hardly anyone in the building and the parking lot was empty. Second, I'm still snuffling and sniffling and can't breathe well. Why did I get this miserable cold that is lasting forever?? I thought I was over it this morning because I could finally breathe easily. But that lasted only until about 1 p.m. and now I'm all stuffed up again and have the major sinus headache. Looks like it will be another boring, house-bound weekend for me!

I've had so much free time being sick (or more like couch potato time) that pretty much all I've been doing is watching tv or movies. The highlight of the last couple days was discovering that I have a bunch of movie channels that I didn't realize Comcast was giving me. I don't know how long I will have them (or if I had them before and didn't even realize it), but I was just watching movies all day Wednesday and yesterday. I watched a really funny movie called "One Night at McCools" with Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon, John Goodman and Michael Douglas. I'd never even heard of this dark comedy about a femme fatale who has three men all vying for her affections - and she's toying with each of them for her own selfish reasons. Liv Tyler is perfectly sexy, and the other actors are all hilarious, especially Michael Douglas playing Bingo with his Elvis coif and sideburns. even if all you watch is the last 15 minutes of this movie and see Paul Reiser running around in leather S&M gear, it's worth it!

I also re-watched that old '80s classic "Ladyhawke" with Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer. I streamed it on Netflix. I had forgotten what a great action and romance movie that was, even though the soundtrack was miserably cheesy! Michelle Pfeiffer was so beautiful in that movie, and Rutger Hauer was so dashing and gorgeous. I like him so much better as a hero, not a villain, which he seems to play much more often.

Another of my netflix rentals recently was a Chinese movie called "The Promise." It stars a Japanese actor (speaking what sounds to me like perfect Mandarin) named Hiroyuki Sanada and a beautiful Chinese actress named Cecilia Chung. It's also an action/romance about a woman who makes a deal as an orphaned child that she can have beauty, riches and the admiration of every man, but she can never know true love. Any man she loves will leave her, and she can never be with the man she loves. The curse can be broken only if time runs backward and the dead come back to life. She is helped by a slave who comes from a strange land (where apparently people have mysterious powers). see the plot summary on imdb If you like fantasy/romance movies, you might like this one - even though the critics hated it. I thought it was entertaining.

anyway, I should finish up my work and go home and sleep off this pounding headache. thank goodness our weather is supposed to really warm up this weekend - up to 55 degrees tomorrow with pouring rain! Can you believe that in one week, we'll go from minus 5 to 55 degrees? crazy!! But at least the snow will melt - of course the consequence of that is the flood warnings! It's always something isn't it??

I'm just stealing stuff all over the place tonight - I saw this list of AFI's top ten in ten categories in pnksaph's post.

( here's my list )

Greetings - I hope all of you who celebrated Easter had a wonderful day full of bunnies and chocolate. I didn't get any chocolate easter bunnies, but I did get a wonderful e-card from dawnie1970 - thanks!!!!

I thought I'd do a proper post today. It's been so long since I have written anything really resembling an update, and I've so much to write about. This may turn out to be a very random, very long-winded post, so bear with me.

Friday, the Chicago area was hit with a wonderful "welcome to Spring" mini (and very slushy, wet) snowstorm. I say mini because it dumped and dumped for hours from early Friday until early Saturday, probably a good 3-5 inches where I live and work; but almost all of the snow had melted by late Saturday afternoon. Saturday was gloriously sunny and even, dare I say, warm (well, not warm for you folks in warmer climates like Florida and California, but warm for us here in the midwest). Today was very nice too. But to back up a bit, on Thursday, the day before our glorious storm, and just in time for colder temps, the heater on my car decided that it wouldn't work properly - it only worked when I put it on the highest setting. So Friday morning I dragged my grouchy self out of bed at 6 a.m. and drove through the heavily falling snow to my mechanic's - they were supposed to be open at 7:30, but the guys were both late. Bad traffic I guess. They arrived at 7:45, and thankfully got the part, and I was on my way to work by 9 a.m - with a working heater - yay! The snow fell and fell all day, and work was boring and slow; I stopped on the way home for Indian food and red wine, and had a nice night watching Hot Fuzz and sleeping early.

oh and by the way, Hot Fuzz is quite a funny movie - not as perfectly clever and hilarious as Shawn of the Dead , the other venture by the same directing and acting team, but still entertaining. I was a bit surprised when it totally changed it's direction midway through and became a complete bloodbath (with some quite comically gruesome decapitations too); it started out so humble and quiet, and then ended with quite a bang. I wish I could watch it again because I missed quite a bit of dialogue (those darn British accents - LOL), and it did have some very laugh out loud scenes that I want to see again. I'm looking forward to Simon Pegg in his new movie (directed by David Schwimmer of Friends), called Run Fatboy Run - and I just read that Simon Pegg is going to play Scotty in the Star Trek movie! Boy that's going to be quite the cast, with Zachary Quinto playing Spock and Eric Bana (who cares what he plays, we can just look at him, which is just FINE), and Winona Ryder, and even Leonard Nimoy!

But I digressed - I did warn you that my post would be random like this.
anyway, after the snowstorm, things settled down. And this is what it looked like at our apartment complex on Saturday morning

( before the snow melted )

Pretty huh?

oh but it's not so pretty after it melts and leaves black slush and piles of dirty snow around which you need to walk to get to your car. fun stuff. when is summer coming?

okay what else is going on...

( cut for life stuff )

I've been watching lots of movies lately and not writing about them. I watched David Lynch's Inland Empire about a month ago and was going to write about it so that galactic_jack could help me to interpret it's meanings. But I got so busy and distracted that I never did write about it. I'm so lazy! I still plan to write about it though - and I want to write my feelings about No Country for Old Men, Rendition, Reign Over Me, and The Simpson's Movie , all of which I enjoyed to some extent. Anyone interested in movie reviews, tune in tomorrow (if I'm that organized)...

Finally I have some music recommendations: Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (which I know is quite old by now) is amazing!! and Herbie Hancock's tribute to Joni Mitchell "The River: The Joni Letters" is a work of art. Great stuff.

well that's about it. I've got to go and call my sister, do my assignment, and sleep.

I feel like I should post more often - it's just that I don't feel like I've much to say that I haven't already said. Not much is happening these day really. I have sort of started my job search again, which is stressful and depressing. I hate job hunting because it just makes me feel so inferior. sometimes I wish I would have just stuck with teaching - by now I might have had enough experience to get an actual full time job. But who knows... we are always faced with decisions in life, and sometimes perhaps we make a wrong decision, or choose a path or direction that isn't right. What then do we do? Do we regret it and ultimately give up hope, or do we just try to learn from it? Whenever I look for a job, or try a new career path (like I'm doing with the paralegal thing), it makes me feel like I'm under a microscope - and perhaps I don't like seeing myself the way others do. Does that make sense? Probably not - I'm probably just rambling... Anyway, I do need to really focus on finding a job - not just for more money, but for my own mental and physical health. I go to work and I get headaches. That can't be good.

Luckily for the next few weeks I do have more free time - before school begins on January 23rd. I started a new knitting project (a muffler to match my cute green hat) - i'm not sure if I'm happy with it though - the color scheme I chose looks somewhat like an easter basket! I'm reading "The Golden Compass" - though I haven't gotten very far because I'm always too tired when I sit to read. Last night, for example, I was going to read but I fell asleep by 10 p.m. how boring is my life?! I've watched a couple movies lately: Next and Fracture .

( cut for mini movie reviews )

One more thing - if you remember, I mentioned that my cat was sick a couple weeks ago - he couldn't poop. He's doing much better, no thanks to that stupid vet who took my money but didn't even help my cat. That vet never even suggested that my cat might have been throwing up because he was constipated - instead he took x-rays which didn't show anything. Of course not! And he never suggested anything for the cat's diet to help the situation. My husband and I have nursed Leo with simple enemas, lots of water, and a diet of more canned food and less dry. But also I bought some native american herbal medicine from an online site called Native Remedies (the pet site is Pet Alive), it's like metamucil for cats. it's helped so far! I'm not going back to that vet again - and I'm considering writing a letter of complaint to that office.

It's getting late so off I go. I hope everyone's new year is going great so far!

I've been meaning to do this for a long time. Here's a list of the movies that I've watched in the last couple of months. Boy time has really flown, and some of these I watched almost two months ago!!

I've split my list up into movies I watched for the first time, and those that I "revisited" either on DVD or on TV. I've also added a mini-review and a rating (1-5 stars) and a recommendation (to view or not to view).

First time views:

300 ***** must see

( my thoughts )

Conversations with Other Women **** worth the watch

( my thoughts )

The U.S. vs. John Lennon ***** Must see documentary

( my thoughts )

Blades of Glory ***1/2 worth watching (if you're a fan of Will Ferrell)


( my short thoughts )

Hideous Kinky **** worth watching for Kate Winslet

( my thoughts )

High Art **1/2 not worth watching

( my thoughts )

Finally some thoughts on movies that I revisited because I love them:

The Fight Club - I've seen this movie so many times, but for some reason never tire of it. It's just a brilliant movie, my favorite of Brad Pitt's roles, and another of my favorite roles of Helena Bonham Carter. And Edward Norton - enough said! oh and it contains one of my favorite ever movie lines: "the things that you own end up owning you."

The Station Agent - I caught this again the other day on The Independent film channel. Such a joyful movie to watch, so low-key, with great photography and wonderful acting by Peter Dinklage and Patricia Clarkson, and a cameo by the adorable Michelle Williams. This is a must-see movie if you haven't yet.

The Mighty - this is such an emotional, but uplifting movie with Sharon Stone and one of the Culkin boys (not Macauley) about friendship and triumph of good over evil. Great movie to watch - and have a tissue box handy!!

Night of the Living Dead , the 1990 remake by George Romero - this is the one with the very cool king of horror, the "Candyman" himself, Tony Todd. I am ashamed to admit I never watched the original Night of the Living Dead, mostly because I don't want to watch it in B&W. This remake is tense, well-acted, and shocking. A great movie to watch, as I did, for Halloween.

Well that's it for my list of films. I have been watching the Independent film channel a lot lately as there are some great films on there. Otherwise, I've been watching the sixth season of "Smallville" and am very disappointed. Lana has become a female version of Lex. Clark lost his luster, and I don't like the relationship between Lois and Oliver (aka the Green Arrow bandit). I've heard lots of people say they didn't watch anymore after Jonathan Kent was gone from the show. I stuck with it though. When is the show going to end, by the way?

If you want to list your recent movie views, I would love to see them!! have a great Sunday everyone!!

again, I'm looking for some movie recommendations to add to my DVD queue on Netflix. My queue already has tons of movies on it, but none seem to be what I want to watch right now. After watching Pan's Labyrinth , and after watching Terry Gilliam's Brazil again last night, which I hadn't seen for many years, I need something that is equally as stimulating, equally as good.

So has anyone seen anything, old or new, foreign or indie or Hollywood made that you think is worth my time?

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Mine is a bit sluggish, as for some reason I have very little energy to do anything. maybe it's the humidity, maybe it's some dormant bug that won't leave my system, or just boredom.
I just hope that I can get some energy back by the time I go to work tomorrow - I have a feeling that work will be crazy.

I'm tired. work is so unbelievably busy right now. Today I was pulled in so many different directions that I nearly lost it. I had such a headache. M and I are both so busy with our jobs, but I guess the good thing is that we are earning. which is great since we are spending so darn much. I can't wait until we can start saving... for what, I don't know, but there are many many possibilities for the future...

meanwhile, I absolutely love my apartment. except for the occasionally noisy neighbors downstairs, there are very few things to complain about. we have a couple of pictures on the wall now and I plan to buy some of those shadow boxes (thanks to the suggestion by phantomsgyrl) and more pictures later. it's amazing what a difference it makes with even two pictures! also, we bought a better tv stand which holds more DVD's and looks nicer. and finally, it seems we might be getting a used sofa bed from someone moving back to Japan. I didn't really want a used sofa, but it's only $50 and we can buy a nice cover for it.

Here's my MOVIE RECAP from the last few weeks: I watched "Walk the Line" again a couple nights ago and loved it just as much as the first time. Reese and Joaquin are both so fantastic, and the music always moves me.

And we recently watched the 1975 sci-fi/action/dark comedy called "Death Race 2000" with David Carradine and Sly Stallone. if you haven't seen it, here's the tagline and plot summary from Imdb: "In The Year 2000 Hit And Run Driving Is No Longer A Felony. It's The National Sport!"
Plot Summary: A champion of a brutal cross-country car race of the future where pedestrians are run down for points... So that's about it. a car race in which the racers get points for killing innocent bystanders. The number of points depends on the age of the victims. It's very sick, but it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and the violence is the key to the plot. Stallone and Carradine are rivals, and are both out of their element; in other words, they are both better actors then the acting required for this film. Stallone's character is memorable because he's pissed off the entire time. and Carradine's character is called "Frankenstein" because he's supposedly lost so many limbs from racing. there are two or three female racers too, one of them an actress who was in some of Andy Warhol's films. The film is produced by Roger Corman, which might give you an idea of the quality. Death Race is one of those extremely campy movies in which the blood looks like catsup (or ketchup depending on where you live), and in which the acting is stiff and forced. and it's hilarious! if you like campy, over the top movies with gratuitous hit and run violence, then you might like it. if you are easily offended, and are unable to laugh at the ridiculous plot, then avoid it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I also watched "Memoirs of a Geisha." It took me about three sittings since I started watching it in my old apartment and finished it here. I knew I would be slightly disappointed, because I had an aversion to the whole idea of a movie set in Japan, with mostly Chinese actresses, speaking English. Aesthetically it was stunning, from the cinematography to the costumes and sets. and of course the acting was very good. But otherwise, the plot was dull, and I lost interest about halfway through. I just stuck with it to see how it ended. maybe I should have read the book.

I've got a huge list of movies on netflix that I'm looking forward to seeing, so maybe there will be more movie news later.

and before I go, here's the "4 things" meme stolen from dawnie1970. ( under the cut )