Novel Eye

And then I went back to Proust. One of the great things about this apartment is the little porch. We share it with the other half of the house, but we've never seen them out there and it's really only large enough for a few chairs, but it's still perfect. I rushed home the Friday before last--put some pickles and cheese on a plate (having a salt craving apparently), set up the folding lounger I bought for this reason, the umbrella I got on sale from Pier 1 years ago and can finally use and read. Bliss--well, until the big raindrops came down--and I was only a few pages from the end of a section--spent a moment trying to decide if I could finish the section and had to decide that I couldn't. Oddly enough, in the book the narrator was describing being so moved by nature on his walks that he felt that he needed to find the space to put down in words a description of his feelings, but always, by the time he got home other things would intrude and the moment would be lost...

Since Wanted came out this week, it seemed like the time to write my belated article on Nightwatch , Daywatch , Twilightwatch . I was trying to find the post I thought I'd written on seeing Nightwatch , but couldn't find it. Maybe I didn't write it down... At any rate, we watched Daywatch recently and it was directed by Timur Bekmambetov who directed the new Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy vehicle--Wanted. Nightwatch and Daywatch are the two highest grossing films EVER in Russia. That's why Timur got to helm an Angie project--but more on that later. After watching Daywatch I felt the need to go and read the entire trilogy (although there is a 4 th coming out in English translation in one week) in a mad marathon of about 4 days. I enjoyed the books very much--great humor, fascinating story line. I also enjoyed the movies very much--great visuals, quirky humor, fascinating story line. They are not, however, great adaptations of the books. That is, they are not ...

I fell in love with Peter O'Toole when I was 10 and he was 49. He was Flavius Silva in Masada and he had already had some rough decades in the bottle behind him. But with my already developed Biseinen sensors, I knew that he was or had once been exquisitely beautiful. Already something of an obsessive, I saw every film I could find that I was allowed to see, good, bad or mediocre. From the near perfect Lawrence of Arabia and Becket, to the fluff of How to Steal a Million to the perfectly dreadful Goodbye Mr. Chips (the musical!). Much was off limits to me and I would wait years to see the cult classics like The Ruling Class or What's New Pussycat. It's hard to describe how stunning he is in Lawrence and the pictures I can find do not do the action justice. Tan, tall and blonde --not my usual MO, but he looks like sculpture in that film. Noel Coward allegedly said, "If he were any prettier in that film, he'd be Florence of Arabia." In glorious technicolor his...

I have fallen into the trap of the internet . That what one writes is not the same as a private journal or a letter to a close friend. It is public. And if you write something unkind about someone, thoughtlessly or deliberately--chances are that person will see it. My aunt and uncle recently read my blog which was very kind of them, but they found a line that I had written in November of last year where I said that they were deaf and right-wing. They are not deaf, although they are hard of hearing, but they are both sharp and relatively active, and they have written to tell me that they are not right-wing. They have revealed mixed and nuanced views on a variety of topics, but I had never taken the time to have those conversations with them. I have been guilty of making the kind of broad generalization that I would not want made about myself and I am genuinely sorry. I have asked them not to tell my mother about some of my posts--to view these posts as the same as a private conversatio...

You may note that I have changed the background for my Avatar--because she at least gets to travel in the Tardis even if I never will. You really can't imagine how much it thrills me that Meez added the Tardis as a background. In the full animation I run into the box and it takes off through the Vortex! I'm even more excited than when I realized there were Hogwarts robes (well, not called Hogwarts--they skate a thin line {is that a mixed metaphor?}) or an FMA arm. Doctor Who is such an important piece of my life--it's part of why/how my husband and I are together.

I was off from half day on Wednesday to today. It wasn't enough--especially with my poor husband sick and a variety of apts . that had to be taken care of, interviews, vet apt., dentist apt. But I did do some things--though never as much as one would like. Two things I did finally take care of. I retrieved a box of props from the woman I did the one woman show with and I framed my father's flag. The flag thing wasn't something I was dreading--the proverbial, "Now, he's finally gone," thing. I know he's gone. I've known for 10 years, thank you. I just couldn't decide which flag box to get. There were one's with room for the medals and some with rooms for the pictures and some more expensive, less expensive, etc. I finally got just the triangle--on sale. It's not the best quality, but it's better than being in a cardboard box. The pictures I have of him receiving the Bronze Star Medal wouldn't have fit in the other frames, and I don...

And I have begun, rebegun "Remembrance of Things Past," (ou "A la recherche du temps perdu.") I started it in high school and had to return it to the library (like I thought I could read it in a month). Started it when I was taking time from college, but the edition that I had was falling apart so carrying it was difficult. I threw out the set when we moved and resolved to buy a new one. I love Proust. That's my problem. I want to sit and ponder each sentence for awhile. I always said I would take some vacation and just read him, but when is that going to happen??? So I have begun it again. A few pages each night or lunch, pencil in hand. A few posts ago I documented my bruise. Now, the point of that wasn't really because I think all of you, my dear readers needed to know my intimate details, but to get myself writing again. At work I have to strip writing down to simple, short sentences. I get caught up in the grammar and whether idiots can understand it. ...

Which is an easy thing to do now that the regular TV season is over: The Matador--Pierce Brosnan both fulfills and surpasses Bond El Orfanato --a little heavy handed at times, and a little obvious, but at the core, it is the two all too human accidents that will shake you, far beyond the supernatural. The Golden Compass--I think I've written about Pullman before. It was very pretty--may need to refresh myself on the books. Day Watch--the sequel to the very interesting and visually stunning Night Watch, deserves a larger post Fido--Billy Connolly gives an Oscar worth performance with grunts and baring of teeth. Keep your own Zombie as a pet. Great fun, plus Carrie Ann Moss, mmm ... Sweeney Todd--a pretty film of a mediocre musical. Helena lacked the chops, but Johnny Depp really does look like Hyde when he sings.

Gave the dog a haircut: Guinness before Guinness after

Yes, went to see Duran Duran last Wednesday. My husband, alas, could not go as he came down with a terrible cold and so pretty much missed all of his vacation. In the grand scheme of things it's a very, very, very small tragedy, but like a papercut it seemed quite agonizing to both of us. The first we have not seen together since we met. It was good, though not great. The crowd was smaller than the last time they played the same venue--perhaps because that was a Friday and this was a Wednesday. The opening act was rather like a mediocre Killers or The Bravery. There was no big screen--such a standard of concerts now. The best bit was towards the middle when they came down--the five, four original and one new--to the center of the stage and did a stripped down, remixed medley of "Last Chance on the Stairway," and "All She Wants Is," plus some extra bits. Red Carpet Massacre and L'Arc's Kiss came out within a week of each other last year, and I disliked ...

This is a pin I bought at the Duran Duran concert last week. It's a dagger dripping blood through a heart. The banner says RCM for Red Carpet Massacre. This is the emblem from L'Arc ~en~Ciel's concert tour towards the end of last year--the Are You Ready? 2007 tour--with a flaming arrow through a heart and a banner.

http://www.directcreative.com/blog/2008/02/15/the-dunning-kruger-effect-and-the-secret-for-coping-with-the-incompetents-around-you/ I've often encountered it, but I'm also afraid that I might be perpetrating it. I do remember a friend saying to me in high school though, "You're always afraid that you're wrong and you're the person who's most often right." I cling to that.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/

when a link on a cutting edge site doesn't work? Like if a web company's site has glitches? http://directcreative.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs Since I'm looking for work, I thought I'd subscribe to the RSS --and this is what I got: http://directcreative.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs-rss?sb=1& sbo =1 f(O.0)