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| I've been volunteering at the Toronto film festival over the past couple of weeks. The tasks range from fun (screen monitoring, which means you sit in on the movie and check for pirates) to mind-numbing (counting and stacking the torn ticket stubs after the audience has gone inside). I like it, though, and I think I'll do this again next year. Antidote and I also managed to catch a few films - the best being "Control" (the Ian Curtis biopic) and "Flashpoint" (a Hong Kong/China collaboration starring Donnie Yen as a ball-busting cop). Looove the Midnight Madness crowd.
I hope we can squeeze in one more on Saturday, but the only movie I want to see (a Japanese western - wheeee!!!) is already sold out, and I don't want to stand in the rush line for two hours.
Later! | | |
| Chore Wars
Might be useful if you live with a bunch of roommates...
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If you ever wondered how much retouching is done for a magazine cover, take a look at this dissection of the recent issue of Redbook with Faith Hill on the cover.
It's like a game of "Can you spot the differences?" - and they go way beyond smoothing out wrinkles or smudging out a mole. Her back loses the bump at the top, her arms shrink, her skin tone completely changes....no wonder women feel like they can't live up to the images they see in the media.
http://jezebel.com/gossip/photoshop-of-horrors/heres-our-winner-redbook-shatters-our-faith-in-well-not-publishing-but-maybe-god-278919.php | | |
| Antidote went out of town yesterday, so I watched two movies he wouldn't want to see: "Dreamgirls" and "The Family Stone." I liked them both - I didn't think Beyonce was as terrible as everyone said she was. Near the end of the movie, when she sings "Listen," she just looks and sounds incredible - I watched that scene twice and downloaded the song later. Jennifer Hudson impressed me, as did Eddie Murphy. Jamie Foxx, not so much. Towards the middle of the movie, when his character's music career starts to collapse, Murphy has this convincing world-weary, defeated look, while Foxx just puts on his mean face and wears it till the end of the film.
I really liked "The Family Stone"...love Rachel McAdams. The ending was pretty unrealistic, but the characters felt real and wonderful. It's fun to watch a Christmas movie in May.
I'm feeling the itch to write....that's what happens when I read a lot of fiction. Right now I'm finishing Melissa Bank's "The Wonder Spot." I really liked her first book, "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing," which felt deeper, more resonant and less chick-litty than "The Wonder Spot" -- about a woman's romantic misadventures -- but I'm enjoying it nevertheless. Next up on my reading list is "The Dissident" by Nell Freudenberger, another author whose first book (also a collection of short stories) I love. Also thinking about picking up Khaled Hosseini's new novel, but I think I'll wait till the library gets it. The library is my new best friend -- or a friend I once had but turned my back on and am becoming reacquainted with. Bonus: now she has a better CD collection!
Lately, maybe because I've been reading more novels, I've been seeing possibilities -- fragments, really -- floating around me that could fit into a story or book. Tiny observations here and there, dreamed-up bits of conversation. Not ready to set them to paper, but thinking about it. Tonight I'm going to watch "American Dreamz," the Hugh Grant/Mandy Moore spoof of "American Idol." | | |
| A website called Daily Lit sends brief installments of well-known classic books so you can read them every day in your email or on your PDA...I just signed up for "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne.
www.dailylit.com
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