This Side of Lost

In which truth is spoken by a fictional character:

"It's an extraordinary thing about girls that they never know the points of the compass." - Eustace from C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair

Samantha and I went to Minnesota last weekend. It can best be summed up by that sentence. Other highlights:

• A delicious BLT for lunch on Friday at the Fourth Street Bakery in La Salle/Peru, IL. It had cream cheese in it.
• Two wonderful hosts in Andrew Ellingsen and Eric Hopkins. You guys are awesome.
• Hanging out with Peter and Kari Pearson on Friday afternoon, talking about children's books and things of that sort.
• A great dinner at Fhima's in St. Paul. Mmmm ribs.
• Breakfast at the Original Pancake House with four of the funniest people I know.
• Visiting a fantastic bookstore in Minneapolis called The Wild Rumpus. I've been there before, but not with Samantha, and I didn't remember a chicken wandering around the first time, either.
• Seeing my younger sister Alison graduate from high school. I saw her walking to her seat in her cap, gown and sunglasses and flashed back to her going to kindergarten. How time seems to fly...
• The Twins stomping the Yankees 9-3 with us and five other friends in attendance. I knew I'd have fun going to a game with friends, but a victory was above and beyond the call of duty. Sweet.
• Samantha's first visit (and my third or fourth) to Chino Latino, an "equatorial" restaurant in Uptown. I love the food there, and she really enjoyed it, which made me really happy, too.
• The A party at the Pearson's house. An art party being thrown in honor of a 10-foot tall red letter A being parked outside. I got to see even more of my friends than I was anticipating, along with strange and wonderful Play-doh creations by the party-goers.
• Seeing my good friend Jen on the way back through Madison.

It was a fun trip, needless to say. Now I need to do the homework I've been ignoring. Whee!

I've been wasting far too much time reading webcomics lately:

• Penny Arcade: Video game humor and so much more. No continuity needed to enjoy.
• Ctrl-Alt-Del: Video game humor with more characterization.
• Questionable Content: Basically a romantic comedy. The characters make fun of popular trends and talk about indie music a lot. Features female characters with proportions that might actually be humanly possible. Lots of continuity.
• Diesel Sweeties: I think the title of the page says it best: pixelated robot romance web comic. Continuity not really needed for enjoyment.

I'll prolly add these to my sidebar. Prolly. Prolly isn't a word.

1. Choose a band/artist that nobody else has chosen yet.
Storyhill

2. Answer ONLY using titles of their songs.
If I Could

3. Are you male or female:
Old Sea Captain

4. Describe yourself:
I am a Lover

5. How do some people feel about you/or have thoughts about you:
All I Need

6. How do you feel about yourself:
Holding On

7. Describe your ex boyfriend / girlfriend:
What Was Wrong

8. Describe current boyfriend / girlfriend / crush:
She Holds My Heart Out In the Wind

9. Describe where you want to be:
Back Home

10. Describe how you live:
Steady On

11. Describe how you love:
After Dark

12. What would you ask for if you had just one wish:
Spaces

13. Share a few words of Wisdom:
Let It All Go

14. Now say goodbye:
Gone Away

15. Now send it to everyone to see what their answers are (and back to me)!

Ah, yes, the first Scorsese film on the List (out of three, I think). Done in 1990, this one stars Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci as three up-and-coming mob guys from the 60's to the 80's.

Another seemingly violent and morally bankrupt film. We've been through a rough patch it seems, with this and two other movies we've seen so far for our little project. But this one was somehow less reprehensible than the others. I think it has to do with the fact that Scorsese is nonetheless telling a moral fable -- which Unforgiven and Pulp Fiction weren't really doing. Yes, the characters do some pretty terrible things, but it all catches up with them. And, in actuality, the only character who does truly reprehensible things (seemingly random acts of violence with no reason or remorse) is Pesci's character. DeNiro's character is ruthless and terrible too, but he has his reasons, however perverted.

Having said all that, it's a fascinating movie. If it is indeed based on a true story, I was continually amazed by the things that occur in the world these people inhabit -- the enormous amount of money being thrown around, the glamour, the way all the laws and rules seem to bend around these people, etc. I mean, it's a movie and movies are mostly fiction, but there seemed something at once utterly believable and astounding about this world. Perhaps it's the pedantic feeling that Liotta's doggedly "I'm just a normal guy" expression and acting lends to the whole thing. It's like, "Well, clearly this guy is just doing his thing, so this must be business as usual." And I guess it was to them. Weird.

The movie is of course meticulously constructed as well. The nearly three-hour running time goes by quickly. The soundtrack is true to each era the film passes through. Cinematography, editing, etc. etc. etc. I seem to say the same thing for each film we see. I really should pair each film we watch with a similar but much worse film with the same themes and genre from the same time period. Maybe then I'd really appreciate the way these films are crafted...

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)

Well, my summer vacation really starts now. My summer classes are over (not that they were really that tough) and all I've got to do is spend 15 hours a week at the Chemistry Library. And goof off in the sun. And read. And watch Twins games.

I've been doing plenty of that recently anyway. I watched the Twins lose painfully to the Giants Wednesday night. They don't always lose, though, don't get the wrong idea. And reading -- I just finished Eric Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, which was hilarious and heavily recommended to anyone who has a passing interest in pop culture (which is just about everyone). I've finished up through book 4 (The Silver Chair) in the Narnia series as well, and I've just started Spilling Clarence by Anne Ursu (who some of you may know as Batgirl).

What else is noteworthy of late...

• Saw Samantha's uncle Rich with the Indianapolis Men's Chorus for the final show of their 15th anniversary season. If anyone back in MN is familiar with the Twin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, these group is probably similar. It was a fun show. They sang Chesnakov's Salvation is Created -- I can't complain.
• Been rollerblading a lot. Samantha is getting really good. Although we both fell for the first time this summer -- she'll have a nice bruise on her bum, and I skinned my knee pretty good. Ouch. Bring back that Camp Wapo first aid mantra -- wash it out, hydrogen peroxide, Band-Aid...
• Tomorrow we're headed out to Lake Lemon to do some canoeing and have a picnic with Paul Betty and his girlfriend Maria. I haven't been canoeing since... well, since Wapo, I think. Wow, two Bible camp references in one post.
• My hair is almost long enough to pull back. I'm giving it another month or so before I try it on any regular basis.
• Samantha and I are trying to plan a trip to Georgia in the beginning of August. Do I know anyone in Georgia I should visit? Steve, how far are you from Atlanta and/or Savannah? Where will you be around August 13-15?
• Movies we are planning on seeing soon (besides the next one on the AFI list): Cinderella Man, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins.
• Oh, for those of you in Bloomington -- never go to Noodle Town, the Chinese place next to Asuka out by Borders. It is horrific.

Speaking of food, it's time to go some grocery planning/shopping. Yay for free time and the opportunity to cook more. Peace, all.

Billy Wilder's 1960 film stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray in a comedy/drama about an office worker who lends out his apartment key to his superiors for their romantic trysts in order to curry their favor, and a pair of such subjects that he gets tangled up with.

My first Wilder film, and a great introduction. I was surprised by the immediate frankness that he deals with the subject of extramarital dalliances. He does not dance around the subject anymore than he has to (considering it's 1960), and although he does have to, it is always clear what is being discussed. The "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" stuff is ever present, but always realistic.

Lemmon and MacLaine are spot-on, all the time. Lemmon is a busybody, a poor schmuck, a lonely romantic and a hero with a heart of gold all at once. MacLaine's eloquent-but-understated expressions perfectly portray fragile beauty. Their interplay is witty, tentative, and tender -- very much at odds with the crass, corrupt business world they seem to live in.

Wilder walks the fine line between a dark comedy and an ironic tragedy very well. This could so easy be overwrought, painfully didactic and just plain sad, but Wilder knows how to keep these sensitive situations funny -- not funny "ha ha," but funny "my goodness what a strange and unfortunate case."

Very, very good. I'm excited for the rest of Wilder's films. (I think he has more in here than Scorsese -- take that, Marty!)

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)

July 15th is:

a) my birthday
b) the day before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released
c) the Ides of July
d) all of the above

If you guessed d, you're correct. I will be turning 25 soon. If you are of the gift-giving persuasion (and I know you are), you may be interested in perusing my new, improved wishlist. Now with things that you can't get on Amazon!

Samantha and I will most likely be celebrating this day at an event in the Chicago area. Apparently Chicago is the hub of all things Harry Potter, because there are not one, but two large events in honor of the book's release. I'm not sure how much y'all out there know about such things, but I could use some advice as to which one we should attend.

And yes, it is kosher to call it the Ides of July. The Internet told me so. And everything on the Internet is true.

• Things are moving along in the internship planning. I've got one of the bigwig librarians at DePauw sweet talking me, and I'm also in touch with the science librarian at Butler. They are both at liberal arts schools with science libraries and only about 60 miles away from Bloomington. Hopefully one of these will pan out.
• We saw Batman Begins on Saturday. It was sweet. Acting was completely over the top awesome -- Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy and Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader himself all turning in stellar performances. Go see this movie.
• I got a letter from the IRS a couple weeks ago claiming that I owed them $28,543. Everybody now, 1, 2, 3... WTF?! It appears to have stemmed from someone out there dropping a decimal point. I'm trying to get this cleared up... more news as events warrant.
• We went out to a lakehouse outside Columbus, IN, last night (thanks to Samantha's friendship with a bunch of people at The Village Deli restaurant, her place of employment). It was a gorgeous afternoon and evening, filled with boating, swimming, tasty ribs, alcohol and lovely ladies in bikinis (Samantha included :] ). As I was cruising across the lake at 50+ mph and Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone was blasting on the boat's stereo, I thought, "Life is good."

And so it is. Too bad grad school doesn't last forever...

George Stevens directs this 1951 adaption of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Montgomery Clift plays the handsome-but-aimless nephew of a rich industrialist who gets involved in a love triangle with a sophisticated socialite (Elizabeth Taylor) and a dowdy factory worker (Shelley Winters), with tragic results.

What a strange film. I wasn't sure what to expect out of this one, as I came into it having not read anything about it. From the trailer and the first half-hour, it seemed like some sort of pulp romance -- Cllift and Winters toying around at the door to her apartment, Clift and Taylor making doe-eyes at each other... Samantha and I were cracking jokes at the sappy situations. I just about lost it at Taylor's infamous "Tell mama... tell mama all" line.

But after that point, when the plot starts unfolding in earnest, we got a lot quieter, and the jokes we were cracking got a lot darker, and eventually I just found myself saying "Oh my God" and "you've got to be kidding me." Clift's character takes some unexpected but strangely unsurprising turns and the movie quickly turns to tragedy and courtroom drama. The characters and events become complex and the moral fibre of the movie becomes hard to discern.

The film honestly surprised me, which is a first so far in our little trip through movie history. And it kept our attention rock solid through to the bitter end. When I think about such nebulous praise as "great cinematography," I am reminded that such things are less noticeable outright than they are in the details, like the fact that some of the extraordinary shots (the radio on the dock with the boats going by in the background) hold your attention really well.

A good film -- made us think. That's all you can really ask for.

Note: This is also our first film with costume design by Edith Head, made somewhat more famous by the They Might Be Giants song "She Thinks She's Edith Head." At least five more films on this list have her hands in them. TMBG has taught me all sorts of trivia over the years...

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)