Category: All (-ish)
Three sentence movie reviews–Notting Hill.
I’ve seen this before, of course, and it is one of my favorite romantic comedies. Aside from the silly car driving at the end, everything is perfect about this film, especially the four seasons of long shot. I will also never forget my original viewing in the theater when the mentally challanged couple sitting next to me made out through the majority of the film.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1999/notting_hill.html
Three sentence movie reviews–Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
One of those movies I didn’t love or hate, but was happy to watch because it is so often referenced. In my mind, I confused the ending of Thelma and Lousie with the ending of this movie, so I had trouble matching what was going on on the screen vs. what I thought would happen. Also, this thought occurred: George Clooney and Brad Pitt are the Paul Newman and Robert Redford of the 2000’s.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1969/butch_cassidy_and_the_sundance_kid.html
Positive!
I’ve not been feeling well. It’s a busy time of year at school–although when is it not–and I’ve been feeling run down and my throat hurts. Strep is going around school. But I’ve googled all the symptoms and everything says that adults don’t get strep. Still, I’m not feeling well. I call the doctor and the nurse orders a strep test for me. At Nurse treatment, she tells me that while adults often get sore throats and infections, it most likely is not strep. I tell her I know. I walk the culture over to the lab and wait 30 minutes. I’ve got a limited amount of time because I have to take my Calculus final soon. The technician calls my name, “Patricia Collins?” I approach him. “Are you Patricia Collins?” he asks as he holds shut a pink piece of paper. I affirm that I am. He opens the paper to reveal that my test came back…
“Well, you’ve got it.” he assures me. Still feeling like I won the lottery (I was right! It was totally worth it to miss the December fire drill to get a strep test! I will soon feel better!) I make my way to the pharmacy, get the drugs required and run to catch my train making it to class just in time for my final.
Three sentence movie reviews–The Informant!
Before watching this movie, I thought the exclamation point in the title was really a little bit much. Having seen the movie I know that the exclamation point is just right. Theoretically an incredibly boring subject (price fixing in the lysine industry) this was one of the most interesting and funny movies I’ve seen all year, with excellent performances by Matt Damon, Melanie Lynskey–an incredibly underrated actress–and the soundtrack, yes the soundtrack was a star in of itself!
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2009/informant.html
Poem for November: Autumn, by Thomas Nashe
Autumn
Thomas Nashe
Autumn hath all the summer’s fruitful treasure ;
Gone is our sport, fled is poor Croydon’s pleasure.
Short days, sharp days, long nights come on apace,—
Ah, who shall hide us from the winter’s face?
Cold doth increase, the sickness will not cease,
And here we lie, God knows, with little ease.
From winter, plague, and pestilence, good Lord deliver us!
Trades cry, Woe worth that ever they were born.
The want of term is town and city’s harm ;
Close chambers we do want to keep us warm.
Long banished must we live from our friends ;
This low-built house will bring us to our ends.
From winter, plague, and pestilence, good Lord deliver us!
I’m not so much a fan of winter. I memorized this poem simply so I could declaim the last line in each stanza on particularly nasty days.
This was somewhat challenging to memorize, mostly because I wasn’t sure what some of the references were. Because I memorize while walking, I tended to forget to look up “Croydon” (now a commercial center south of London) and “Lambeth” (a district of South London) and see what they were. For difficult lines I tend to associate words with a picture in my mind. This is very hard to do when you don’t have any idea what the poet is talking about. And “want of term” what does that mean? Ah! I’ve just googled it and found a link with a website that tells me. It means “lack of an end” which makes sense now. It also helpfully decodes Croydon and Lambeth. Thanks, Poets Corner!
Books read in November
I only read three books this month! Three! I started a bunch over Thanksgiving, though and so December will have more books. Also, alas, the books I read weren’t very good this month.
Read
Little Earthquakes
Jennifer Weiner
This suffers a bit from some of the characters being just a bit too much. The control freak was just a bit too controlling, the mother-in-law from hell was just a bit too hellish, the depressed one was too depressed. It distracted from the story. Though I probably won’t remember much about this book in five years, the characterizations of early motherhood were nicely done and I enjoyed the humor sprinkled throughout the book.
The Elements of Style
Wendy Wasserstein
Oh, how I detested this book. This was disappointing, as I enjoy Wasserstein’s plays, and was hoping that this book would recapture some of that magic. It didn’t. Stuffed full of entirely unlikeable, incredibly wealthy Manhattenites, who attempt to navigate their very privileged lives in a post-9/11 world. I could care less about them, their “problems” and their entirely vapid hopes. I only finished reading this novel because it was the only thing in the house and it was slightly more exciting than the back of soup cans. Not recommended.
Revive: How to overcome fatigue naturally
Jill Thomas
I attempt to combat my seemingly unending fatigue by reading this book and another one. This was the far superior version. Not surprisingly, I need to eat more vegetables and fruit as well as up my fiber intake in general and recommit to regular exercise. The inexplicable red font was a bit distracting, but other than that, the quiet helpful and succinct tone of this manual was just what the Naturopath ordered.
Started but did not finish
Honey in the Horn
H.L. Davis
Oh, how I want to be the type of reader who actually reads classic literature. This isn’t even very old. My Grandmother was in her 20’s when this won the Pulitzer Prize. It’s set in frontier Oregon, the narrative is a strong one. I just couldn’t force my lazy reading self to keep on keeping on. Alas. If you are made of sterner stuff than me, enjoy.
The Exhaustion Cure: up your energy from low to go in 21 days.
Laura Stack
This did not speak to me as much as Jill Thomas’ Revive, though people not familiar with Naturopathy might be more comfortable with it. Includes quizzes, but also a lot of product placement, which I ultimately found distracting.
Lapham Rising: a novel
Roger Rosenblatt
There’s good quirky (Wonderboys) and then there is a bit too quirky. This fits into the latter category. The sculpture of the ex-wife sitting at the kitchen table; the bazillionare’s mansion being built across the street with a device that air conditions the entire property; the skinny-dipping Realtor; the dog that actually speaks? It was just too much.
Three sentence movie reviews–The Sting
The long-setup-for-big-swindle is a favorite movie sub-genre of mine (see: Oceans 11, 12, 13, The Italian Job, etc.). This was fun and engrossing with just the right amount of tension. The stars are easy on the eyes, too.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1973/sting.html
Three sentence movie reviews–Lilies of the Field.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1963/lilies_of_the_field.html
Letter in response to article “Miserly Manor”
Since I’m not really making time to write for this blog, you can read this response I wrote to the article “Miserly Manor” by Dylan Rivera, published on 11/27/09
The original article is here (for a time, I would imagine.)
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/11/misery_manor_offers_super_effi.html
Dear Mr. Rivera,
Two phrases stuck out in your article about the so-called “green” house built by Scott Lewis.The first:“The current house has a dining room and living room separated from the kitchen and family room—extra space that isn’t necessary.”However, earlier in the article the house’s size is given at “nearly 4,000 square feet” which sounds to me like a tremendous amount of extra space not really necessary for a family of five.
The second phrase: “Lewis demolished a small mid century house from the site.” Both of these statements gloss over the troublesome American obsession with destroying (instead of retrofitting, or remodeling) what is already there and putting a much larger home in its place. I would argue that building a house that gives each person in the family 800 square feet (a size that, once upon a time, was not an unusual size for a home for a whole family, not one individual in the family) is not a green practice. Small houses are easier to heat, take fewer resources to furnish and probably strengthen family ties by increasing proximity. Could Lewis have retrofitted the existing house in such a manner? We will never know.
The vast majority of your readers will not have an opportunity to build a 4,000 square foot house, green or no. Scott Lewis felt his previous house was a source of “inner turmoil” because it didn’t use materials that are local or energy efficient. I believe that His uber-expensive, super efficient house is just a super efficient McMansion, and doesn’t really fit his green aesthetic.
Sincerely,
Patricia Collins