1. I had a rare weekend off, but spent the entire time working on Christmas presents. Which was fun. Just didn't get much done in the relaxing department, and this next week it seems like I'm working a lot. One day I get to shadow our wound/ostomy nurse around for the day, which should be totally cool. Gory details to follow.
2. We saw Golden Compass. Oh, how I wish the religious controversy were, you know, true. They spent a lot of money on special effects, but in trying to make the religious nuts happy (which they obviously didn't do) they stripped the book of any, you know, actual meaning. The biggest reason I enjoyed the books was it made me think, I just thought it was an interesting premise. With the movie, well, there is no need for thinking. They tried to go all Lord of the Rings epic, but left out the story. Also, Nicole Kidman's monkey should be beautiful like she is, not mangy scary. Beautiful scary. There are some inherent difficulties in telling the story I guess. I didn't really like the way they visualized her reading of what the compass was telling her, but I admit I can't think of a better solution. Daniel Craig and especially Nicole Kidman have extremely difficult characters to portray, and I thought they did a good job telling the current story as well as setting up their progression to come. The girl is good anyway. And you can't go wrong with Sam Elliot. The most interesting thing about the movie is that when we saw it Saturday afternoon, and at a big popular theatre, well over half the audience was comprised of small groups of men in their thirties. Who knew that was their audience? ::grin:: The best part is the song over the closing credits, if you go you must stay and listen. The girls name is Lyra, and the song goes something like this: "Lyra, Lyyyyyyyyy-ra, her soul walks besiiiiiii-de her", only they pronounce "her" like "ha" to make it rhyme. I would pay money to see Dionne Warwick sing it on the Oscars.
3. Last night we went to a reading of a new musical. It wasn't very good, but live theatre is rarely totally without merit, and it is a work-in-progress after all. It really makes you aware of how hard it is to write a musical. Before it started this guy walks in, and both David and I see him, and it is that glint of recognition where we know we know him but don't know why, and we are struggling with that impulse of whether or not we should wave and say hi, and then I realize - it is Eric Schaeffer, the artistic director of the Signature Theatre. We can be such nerds sometimes. But he really does look like his picture!
4. Do you think my fantasy of having an Obama/McCain race is at all possible? I'm tired of all the bickering and fighting, can you imagine how with those two we could actually debate the issues they disagree on instead of just the usual self-righteous mud-slinging? McCain has really disappointed me in the past, but I still think he is the best the Republicans have to offer in the way of hope. (I still like a lot of what Ron Paul stands for, but I'm reluctant to get totally on board with anyone that ideological.)
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OK, so it appears to me that you have settled on Obama. I am still wavering between the top three candidates, and will most likely make my decision the day of the primary. As for the Republican field I totally agree with you on the Mccain front. There was a time in the past where I would have voted for him.
ReplyDeleteI think that the scariest candidate by far is Huckabee. I can get past Romney's religon (not his stance on certain things though), but Huckabee is truly scary. If you have read anything about him recently you will see that beyond his profession before politics (Southern Baptist Minister) he stated that he felt (and still does) that AIDS patients should be quarentined. He truly is the scary candidate.
I've settled on Obama in the sense that I'm a hopeless optimist and I am attracted to a candidate of hope. However I fully realize that the choice of whom will really be our candidate is not really up to me, so I'm not spending a great deal of time really comparing all the candidates. DC doesn't vote until a week after "Super Tuesday" in mid-February. I will be very surprised if one of them hasn't completely broken out and has all of the momentum by then.
ReplyDeleteAlso I was just told that DC doesn't have a primary, we have a caucus. I don't really know what that means. Anyone?
And yes, Huckabee is scary, in the same way that the cute forest animals were the scariest of all the creatures in South Park's Imaginationland. He is affable and genial and tricks you into liking him and not noticing the dark side. Similar to our current president, only even more slick.
If it was possible to love you more right now I would. The South Park reference sent me over the edge. Talk about the perfect analogy. I am going to use it. I will give you credit the first couple of times, but after that it's mine! :)
ReplyDeleteI hear you about Obama, and I think that I am leaning that way as well. I haven't completely decided, but that's where I am right now. That could change between now and the primary, but who knows. What is a caucus? Iowa has one too, and I just don't get it.
so i saw the Golden Compass too. i didn't know you had read any of his books. i like them generally, but i can't believe you didn't like the movie. yeah it was kinda retarded that everyone was saying that it was anti-christian and they never even mentioned any kind of church, but oh well i still enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletethe other thing is they did go all Lord of the Rings and told the story just how it was in the book! its so awesome to see a movie that actually resembles the book its based on (especially considering the last couple of tries hollywood has done, e.g. Harry Potter and Beowulf). robb, her monkey is her soul and she is beautiful, no doubt, but a cruel coniving woman, so it fits her character and the story that her monkey is ugly, duh! and if you've read the book, what story did they leave out? and you have to admit the polar bear fight was freaking fantastic, when the jaw came off and all the sound stopped i couldn't catch my gasp of amazement and enjoyment that they actually incorporated that scene (it was actually kinda embarrassing, the whole theater was quiet and i let out a very loud "Oh!" in the awesome kind of way!
Obama! You've got to be kidding! Well at least you won't be voting for the Bitch. But I will leave all political discussions to my hubby. I hope he has time to converse with you.
ReplyDeleteSo, I never read the books. And I've heard all the contraversy. In your opinion, can I take the kids to this movie? They are begging because of the commercials. I'll probably wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it first, but any advise would be appreciated.
...Obama. :rolling my eyes: He'd probably pick Richardson for his VP to get the hispanic vote as well. I hope you have your 72 hr packs ready and pray eveyday for this country! We are being invaded and taken over and soon we will have no rights and be fleeing for our lives! :cheers: Love ya bro!
Kyle, er, did you even read the Golden Compass books? The movie made huge changes. In the first five minutes alone they had invented a new character to be the one to try and kill Lyra's father. And the book, as I remember it, clearly describes the monkey as beautiful, just like the woman, beautiful on the outside and, well, complicated on the inside. (Do we ever really understand if she is evil or not? I never did.) The movie is gorgeous, but has none of the emotional power of LOTR. This movie didn't bomb because of the Christianists complaining about the religion that wasn't even there, it bombed because they cut out it's soul and gave us a pretty but empty movie. I wonder if they will even make the sequels? The end to the bear fight was admittedly good though, in my audience it got several gasps and then applause.
ReplyDeleteRhonda - you can totally take the kids. Without reading the books there is so much that you will never understand, but for what it is, I still think the kids would enjoy it. There is nothing objectionable in the movie.
And also Rhonda, I do hope to get into a debate with you and your hubby once the field narrows, because you clearly need some learnin'. It is Bush and, really, Cheney, who are taking away your rights faster than you can blink. But I'm curious, who is your favorite so far?
Did you even read the books robb? i'm seriously asking you, because there was a character that tried to poison Lyra's dad and she did burst out and stopped him drinking it, and he did tell her to stay in the closet and be very quiet, exactly the way they portrayed it in the movie. so you can't even really comment about changes in the movie can you because you obviously did not read (or at least comprehend) the book! the monkey was a pretty gold, but also mimicked her cruelness, and was really scary. what soul did they cut out? you have yet to give me some solid evidence that they destroyed the book. now if you are arguing that the book never had a really good story to begin with, that's a completely different argument.
ReplyDeleteKyle, you are right, there was a character who tried to poison Lyra's dad, but it wasn't some made up bad guy that works with Nicole Kidman, it was the Scholar that later gave Lyra the Golden Compass. That is exactly what I mean, that the movie cut out all the depth and mixed motives people had in the book and made it too much of a cartoon. In the books it is often unclear who is "good" and who is "bad", (like in LOTR) and with this movie only Mrs. Coulter retained that kind of depth.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the monkey is cruel, but cruel in the form of beauty is scarier (and more interesting) than ugly cruel, just like Mrs. Coulter herself.