kind of a chick flick weekend

Saturday, Tom, the Doctor/Senator/House guest, and I saw The Devil Wears Prada. It was pretty good. I think I would have liked it more if I were one iota interested in fashion. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were excellent but, well, they ARE Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci so...no surprise. Anne Hathaway was good, but I feel like her character made too many leaps believability-wise far too quickly. I don't think they developed her relationships with the minor characters outside of the fashion magazine well enough. I totally understand why they skimmed over that because Meryl Streep was really the whole movie but, like I said, I think Hathaway's character's depth and credibility suffered for it.

I'm sort of interested in reading the book to see how it compares and if any of those blanks are filled in.

Quotables:
"I'm sorry, do you have a pressing engagement? An ugly skirt convention perhaps?"
"Coat! Bag!"



Sunday night, Laura and I decided to reprise our 9:50 p.m. movie theater outing. Last week, it was Word Play, this week we decided to go a little less cerebral and saw John Tucker Must Die. Okay A LOT less cerebral. Where as last week we were the only two people in the theater, this week I predicted that there would be more people but that they would all be female. I was wrong. The theater was actually almost full and I would say ten percent male, a few were tweenage boys with their moms and the rest were dates.

We didn't go in with lofty expectations, we were looking for some mindless humor and in that respect, it delivered. We exited the theater saying, yeah...it was what it was. It had its moments. The female lead was pretty likeable, the John Tucker dude from Desperate Housewives was hunky, (but the guy who played his brother was hotter in my opinion) Jenny McCarthy was actually good as the mom, and it referenced Elvis Costello and Dave Eggers so that got some bonus points from me. Reminiscent of Can't Buy Me Love from "my day" in teen movies.

Quotables:
uh...I can't think of any...I'll update if I do (any ideas Laura?)

one eyed lucy

I took the girls into work today. The president declared it "picture day." I'm thinking my long-neck-geek-Kimmy-Gibbler-esque visage may be appearing somewhere on the product. Thankfully, so many people worked on the project so, if that is indeed the case, the image will be small.

So, it was very cool. They got to go into the sound booth and record their voices, play Pictionary on the white board, meet my co-workers and boss, and see their sharkinfested volcano island and happy park on a hill paintings up by my desk.

...uh, former desk. So not happy about this job ending. Bright side: I gained a lot of great "out of the classroom" experience, I think I improved my writing/editing skills, I met very nice, funny and extremely talented people, made some money, and learned I am capable of driving into the city and having a "big girl" job.

So, a while a go, Chris, one of the writers, brought in this puppet. It was homeless; he took pity, it was banned at his home, and it has hung out at work ever since. The girls took quite a liking to her, dubbed her One-Eyed Lucy (guess why), and Chris kindly bequeathed her to E and K. They were very excited.

Beginning the ride home, I was sad(yes the pigeons are still there)I suck at having things end (and being fired by the client via speakerphone didn't help). I just really cared about this project and liked it there so much, plus the uncertainty looming isn't something I'm coping with very well. While flipping through the radio stations, the girls said "StopStopStop" at "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart." A little while in, while changing lanes, I noticed One-Eyed Lucy in the rear view mirror. Emma had her lip-synching and doing the John-Travolta-Saturday-Night-Fever-Finger-Pointing disco move. It made me laugh and realize that maybe more time with these funny kids is just what I need.

k's first words this morning:

"Mom, something's stuck in my hair...again."

Last week it was a wad of gum she insists she spit out that had to be artfully snipped out of the ends of her hair when we discovered it during morning torture hair brushing. This morning it was a Band-Aid. Oh,don't get all skeeved out! It was one of those: Momeeeee-see-this-spot-on-my-arm-it-reeeeealy-hurts-(translation: I'm stalling cuz I don't want to go to bed)-Okay-honey-here's-a-Band-Aid-now-off-you-go Band-Aids. Well somehow during the night it migrated from the spot on her arm with the nonexistent wound to deep deep into the recesses of her crazy red curls.

Next time I lose the TiVo remote, you know where I'm looking.

job lead

Outstanding! I've always wanted to be a Naperville Bar Fly.

*sigh* The search continues.

q: how do you know you're a nerd?

a: You are one of only two people in the theater at a 9:50 p.m. showing of a documentary about crossword puzzles on a Sunday night.

Said "you" is actually me or my sister Laura. We went to see Word Play last night. It was very good (with the disclaimer that I really enjoy both documentaries and crossword puzzles). It was cool but kind of strange being the only two people in the theater.

It is a very well done and interesting mix of interviews with puzzle masters, (oh yeah, I said puzzle masters)mainly Will Shortz, the long time New York Times and NPR puzzle editor and puzzle enthusiasts including Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart, and profiles of the "favorites" for the National Crossword Puzzle tournament, all culminating in the tournament which was actually quite a nail biter (if you're a crossword nerd, which we've established I am).

Along the lines of, "If you liked this film..."

I highly recommend these nerdy documentaries: Spellbound and Word Wars

Oh, and I must amend my answer to the question posed in the title of this post.

a:You are one of only two people in the theater at a 9:50 p.m. showing of a documentary about crossword puzzles on a Sunday night...and then you BLOG ABOUT IT!

clerks ii

We went to see Clerks II last night (thanks Laura!). I really liked it, but then again I like almost everything Kevin Smith does (yes, even Jersey Girl) The only thing I will never forgive him for is being a part of the abomination that is Doogal. My most loyal readers will recall how I feel about that "film". But I digress...cuz, well, that's what I do (see name of blog).

Clerks is one of those films I can watch over and over and that I often quote. It was made in '94- yikes, that's the year I got married. I remember renting it, loving it, and then going out and buying it. I loved the simplicity, the grittiness of it, the quirky characters, but especially the dialog and Kevin Smith's "take" on things.

One of the things I like a lot about Clerks II is that it has allowed time to have it's exact "way with" the characters. Ten years have gone by, and you get to see these exact characters (and the actors) after ten years of, you know, life; everyone's aged, everyone's gained weight(as have I and the rest of the audience who saw it first when they were in their early twenties). Randall is one of the funniest characters ever written. The way Kevin Smith captures the friendship between him and Dante is so well done, anyone who has ever truly had a best friend will totally get it. The new characters brought into this film are really good as well.

Yes, it's raunchy at times, yes the acting at some points is less than stellar, but it's well written, in that unique Kevin Smith kind of way, and totally has a heart and soul. It's hard to be objective, because I'm such a fan of the first movie and of Kevin Smith in general. But I'm not being paid to write a review and be objective. No, that's what Joel Siegel gets paid to do...or not do...what a goof


Anyway, I really liked it and I'm glad I got to see it opening weekend.

ME...no, not me...ME

Melissa Etheridge was at the Auditorium Theater tonight,in her first of three shows here. And, thanks to my brother Mike, I was there too! It was a great show, fourth time I've seen her, and the first since her bout with breast cancer. She sounded amazing as ever and played for two hours and forty minutes! Highlights:

*Her chatting with the crowd. She seems so down to earth and likes just talking about...anything. She'll go off on tangents, laugh at her self, have little conversations with fans in the crowd. Then she'll talk about life and love and give advice. Other topics of conversation were- global warming and biodiesel fuel, chemotherapy and how she considers her cancer a gift, teaching her daughter to spell Illinois...but not pronouncing the "s", and a running joke with one of the audience members who was a medalist in the discus at the Gaymes.

*Her band. She had a drummer, bass player and guitarist; all really talented...but the guitarist was phenomenal- like on fire, amazing player.

*Her voice. I just really like her voice and sometimes she just hits and holds these notes, and sounds incredible.

*Really good set list* (will post soon...cuz I'm nerdy like that)

*Impromptu segue into "Wild Thing." She was kinda ad libbing and did a few lyrics and the guitar player picked it up. She started cracking up and went over to him and they did a whole little interlude of it. Fun.

So, as always, great show. Thanks Mike :)

underpass pigeons

I'm most likely losing my job in a month. This makes me sad. I really like it there and it's just so reminiscent of losing my job last year when my school closed and beginning the Fall (which I hate anyway) with so much uncertainty. *sigh*

One thing I will not miss if I lose my job is my journey through one of the underpasses on 90/94 on my commute home. Since April, this particular underpass has been home to two pigeon carcasses. One decapitated, one, well...probably waiting to be decapitated. Traffic is always pretty horrible, so I have never breezed through this birdie catacomb. I've always inched through in the right lane, next to the ledge, next to the bodies, there's no way I can avoid seeing them.

I keep thinking that someday, they'll be gone...that IDOT or some such agency will have come along and taken them off to a little aviary cemetery or crematorium. They are about five feet from one another, and I often wonder if they knew one another. (I have resisted the urge to name them) As weeks turned into months, I morbidly began to try to see if any decomposition had occurred. Amazingly...none is apparent.

As you, my faithful readers may have noticed, I like to put pictures at the top of my posts. I refrained from doing so for your sake, because if you Google Image "dead pigeon" you actually get images of said key words. And I didn't want to do that to you. This is not a happy post. Sorry. But, hey, if you look at the title really fast it looks like "underpants pigeons"...that's sorta funny.

evil takeover

DENVER - The "CBS Evening News" isn't going to become "Entertainment Tonight." That's a promise from anchor-in-waiting Katie Couric.

"We'll do changes slowly," Couric said Thursday as she wrapped up another day in her six-city tour to talk with viewers. "We're not going to suddenly have something that doesn't resemble a newscast overall, but I think we'll have a newscast that evolves over time."

EVIL KATIE COURIC VOICE ala MR. BURNS: yes, yes slowly evolving like an undetected surreptitious lobotomy performed nightly where sliver by sliver their sense of what is newsworthy will be removed without them noticing....eeeexxxxceeeelent.

super?

I wanted to like Superman Returns so much more than I did. I felt it was edited poorly, I guess. It dragged a lot. I felt they dropped the ball with a few different aspects of the plot and characters that could have made it better.

I really liked the guy Brandon Routh, who played Superman. I thought he did a good job, I totally bought that he was the character. I have always liked Kevin Spacey a lot, and I thought he did a great/evil Lex, but I don't think they used him enough. Parker Posey was great as Kitty as well. Kate Bosworth missed the mark for me as Lois Lane, she was just so blah to me. I know she was supposed to have lost some of her "spunk" due to Superman leaving her and faking her way through another relationship and having a kid, but, I don't know, again, just, blah...flat...lacking.
The little kid was cute and a pretty good actor, but again, just not used enough, they could have done so much more with him.

I get that they are wanting to start another Superman franchise with many many sequels, and they don't want to use it all up on the first film, but I felt they didn't give enough here, I was expecting more.

bee mine

Just as I was about to leave for work, we heard K crying and screaming incoherently from outside. This is not an uncommon thing to hear. It could have been because she didn't get her favorite swing, or E didn't want to play what she wanted to play, or... the list could go on for pages. Suffice it to say that she has a flash temper if things don't go her way, and the resulting fit of red distorted faced arm-crossing, foot-stomping rage is as disturbing as it is annoying. We are working on it, but lately it's just been ridiculous. Anyway, back to the crying and incoherent shrieking. I was just about ready to lose my temper and yell at her about her outbursts when I heard through the crying, "I hurt myself...and I don't know HOW!!!"

She was looking at her leg... and I knew right away...bee sting!



The poor thing. When I told her that's what it was, I might as well have said shark bite judging by the look on her face. She was freaked. We calmed her down, and put an icepack on it.

I had to leave, but all the way to work, I was so worried. All of a sudden I was like I should have given her Benadryl! What if she's allergic? I'm not one of those "nervous moms" but I started to feel all this anxiety about it. When I called home and asked how she was T was like, "Well okay if you ignore the fact that she can't see because it swelled up all the way over her eyes...ha ha!" Yeah, he's a funny one. But still I was feeling this unrealistic anxiety about it all day. When I got home I was like, "K, how are you? How's your bee sting?" She replied "Huh? Oh, fine, I forgot all about my bee sting"

random unrelated thoughts...with links!

K is pretty good at Jenga.

E figured out how to determine how old The United States is, and then accurately did the math.

J mastered climbing up the ladder and sliding down the slide.

I have this song from the Wicked soundtrack stuck in my head and I can't get it out because the girls keep singing it. (Its hysterical and disturbing to see them staring defiantly at each other singing "loathing...Unadulterated loathing...")

I was very disheartened to hear the first notes of "Salisbury Hill"
and then look up to see that it was a commercial for Cingular Wireless.

We watched the shuttle take off, it was really cool. The girls were really interested in it, especially E. Hey, we actually saw "rocket's red glare" today. My sister remembered that movie Space Camp and Es all psyched to see it. I never realized Joaquin Phoenix was the kid in that.

And finally, here's an ice cream I have no desire to eat.

Happy 4th!

short geeky review

I should be working as well as cleaning out my basement as well as entertaining my kids, so this post will not be as longwinded and dorky as a DMB concert post from me would normally be. But I did want to get down the gist of it and the set list for future reference.

It was a great show. We were there early so we got to see Dave come out and introduce his opening act. I love that he does that. He just casually wanders out, the sparse crowd goes nuts and he's low key and funny and introduces the band.

So, they brought out a lot of great older stuff including "Seek Up" and "Pay For What You Get" which were great to see live. The new songs sounded really good, I especially like "Break Free." Our seats were very close but way off to the side. Luckily, the way the stage was set up, we had a great view. We could only see the front of the drum kit, so we couldn't see Carter 'cept on the screens. The band seemed to be really happy and enjoying themselves. I liked the addition of Rashawn Ross, a trumpet player touring with them this year. Poor Dave kept shaking out his left arm like it was hurting him though. Very few raindrops, which was good because we were so far off to the side that if it poured we would have gotten wet. The crowd around us was fun. I was very happy, lots of smiling and dancing.

When they finished we trudged up the hill to see the encore from up there so we could get out more quickly. It was a FOUR song encore! And it included "Crush" which is my absolute favorite song. It was definitely one of the best shows I've seen. Here's the setlist.

One Sweet World *
When The World Ends *
Hunger For The Great Light *
What Would You Say
Rhyme & Reason *
Seek Up *
Grey Street *
Pay For What You Get
So Much To Say *
Too Much *
Jimi Thing *
Crash Into Me
kill The King *
Where Are You Going
Break Free *
Louisiana Bayou *
__________________

Sister [Dave Solo]
Cant Stop
Crush *
Ants Marching *

Okay, must go edit, clean, and play.

warning: dorkiness alert

DMB. Alpine. Tonight.

I can't contain myself. I just downloaded the five new songs that they have been playing this tour so that I can listen to them on the way there. They sound really good from the quick listen I did. I hope they do a few tonight. Last tour was really good, but I am so excited about today. Dave always says how Alpine is one of his favorite venues, and they tend to bring out interesting stuff there. They have been teasing the song "Last Stop" which hasn't been played since 2003 and is such an amazing song, but especially if it's live. I think I may be a off one way or the other, but I believe this is around my 15th show. Seeing them live is just one of my favorite things to do

My sincere hope is that it doesn't pour. Rain at Alpine is the WORST because you're just parking in the middle of a field, there's always huge puddles everywhere, there are so many steep hills, and mix all that together with all the high/drunk people and it's icky. However, the forecast calls for scattered strong thunderstorms, so I don't think we can avoid it. Maybe I can do some sort of anti-rain dance.

At any rate, rain or no rain, I'm in the best mood because... I'm going... and on top of that we have tickets for September too so...yea!

Click

So, we saw Click last week. I really liked it. I it was panned in several reviews that I read, but I think that Adams Sandler gets a bad rap.

Disclaimer: With the exception of Little Nicky I've genuinely liked all of his movies. Despite the juvenile gross out humor present in much of his work (some of it I roll my eyes at, some of it I'm crying with laughter at) he has this underlying genuine sweetness about him and his comic timing is so great. He has proven his diversity. Punch-Drunk Love is such a good film. This, however, is the movie that Tom thinks I'm whacked out for liking so much because it's so dark, and my brother-in-law chastises me for recommending to him because Sandler's character was so messed up and depressing-he claims I owe him two hours of his life back. But I digress, (that's what I do here...it's the NAME of the blog!)My point is I think he is misunderstood and pigeon-holed as just a goof, but he has a lot of talent.

So Click is what I'm calling a modern It's a Wonderful Life. Now I don't want a lot of angry e-mails from all of my readers shouting "Blasphemy!" I'm not saying it's as good as IWL, that is truly one of the best movies ever. I'm saying the theme is the same. And I think they did a really good job of presenting modern day impediments to truly appreciating one's life. The special effects were fun, Sandler was hysterical, Kate Beckinsale was beautiful and gave a really good performance, the kids were super cute, and Christopher Walken did an amazing Christopher Walken impression. I don't want to spill out any spoilers for the two or three people who read this, so I'll just say I recommend it and that I won't be able to shop at Bed Bath and Beyond without thinking about it.