Sunday, September 2, 2007

A Very Important List

1. Maybe writing is just lying.

2. I'm cutting out of my writing group again tonight.

3. I've started walking to the art museum to think. During the walk, you know, not at the museum. When we get to the museum, we turn around and go home. Map My Ride tells me it's 3.6 miles round trip. This is about as much as I can do with inappropriate shoes, a stroller, a dog, and another child on a bicycle. We've done it twice:

The thinking must be happening between reminding the boy to watch for driveways and reminding the dog to keep up. The girl doesn't need reminded of anything but she does need to be hydrated.

So far I've had two ideas, both unrelated to the novel. Two ideas in seven miles is a number I'm comfortable with. I'm not crowning myself Pope or anything but I'm satisfied.

4. "The Libertine" was like the opposite of "Shakespeare in Love." Like all opposite pairs, they have some things in common: 17th century London, playwrights, female actors, and a bunch of people scrabbling around in the street. Strangely, in the time between Elizabeth and Charles II, London got a lot dirtier and nastier. John Malkovich was the king with a prosthetic nose. It was almost possible to forget he was John Malkovich. I never forgot Johnny Depp was Johnny Depp but the remarkable thing was that during his performance I never even caught a sniff of Jack Sparrow, or Ichabod Crane, or Willy Wonka, or J.M. Barrie. He's a master.


5. "Deja Vu" was pretty dreadful. The movie requires such a radical suspension of disbelief that I needed a special crane and a permit from the city. On the other hand, it was nice to see that not every time travel movie ends with the lesson of time travel: "Travel to the past all you want, but if you try to stop something from happening, you'll end up causing it." Are you listening, Sandra Bullock?

6. "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Snakes on a Plane" both started out with someone getting their head beaten in. From there, the two movies diverged in pretty much every way possible.

7. Samantha Morton is not Samantha Mathis. Samantha Morton never played Princess Daisy in "Super Mario Brothers." Samantha Mathis did. Therefore, my shock that Samantha Mathis was playing the female lead in "The Libertine" was misplaced.

8. Chloe Sevigny was in "Zodiac" as a dull, smart girlfriend of Jake Gyllenhaal. I liked her in this role. Between this, that, Big Love, and the other thing, I am ready to forgive her for her slouchy, droopy-lidded performance in "The Last Days of Disco." It's been ten years. I'm over it.

9. We couldn't finish watching "Zodiac" because of all the one month later, six weeks later, three days later, two years later. We never found out what happened. Robert Downey Jr. is so awesome though. He is made of awesome.

10. Speaking of Robert Downey Jr., "Fur" was bad. Susannah says the crime was taking Arbus' asthetic fascination with freaks and sexualizing it. I agree, but felt that the biggest problem was Robert Downey Jr. with all that hair on him.

5 comments:

  1. I enjoyed reading your list and several other posts on your blog. You made me curious about movies and books I'd never intended to read or to see (Billy Bathgate? I couldn't. Hmm, but now I'll have to think about it.) I also wondered what you thought of Claire Danes in Stardust if you've seen it.

    But anyway, thanks you for your romantic post on lake belle.

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  2. We just saw Miss Potter on DVD and really liked that one--didn't seem to get much theater time though before it was gone.

    And we saw the Simpson movie :) I can't help it, they're just funny.

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  3. Lin, I have not seen Stardust yet. With two small children, we get out to see a movie about three times a year. The last one we saw was "300." I'm not sure if Stardust is worth spending one of our rare nights out to see. Do you think?

    Scribbit, I *TOTALLY* want to see Miss Potter, but I'm waiting until Dan goes out of town on business, because it seems like the kind of thing that would make him throw himself out the basement window, if you know what I mean.

    I'm guessing there aren't many swordfights or bombs or secret insights into the CIA.

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  4. No, I think if nights out are rare then Stardust may not be worth it. I liked it lots, but it was just fun--not life changing or deep or anything close to that.

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