Deathly Hollow

I saw the latest Harry Potter movie last night (opening day) and was highly entertained, although, thinking about it later, somewhat disappointed. If I don’t read the books in the months before I go, I can enjoy the movies generally, especially this one.

But if I do remember anything about the books while watching the films, I’m disappointed. That’s always how it is with books vs. movies, of course. With HP it’s especially tricky, I think, because of the way the books just build up your emotional investment. They’re so thick, and so many things happen, and each one has an effect on you . . . and by the end you’re turning pages as quickly as you can, laughing or crying or both. Because the movies have to leave so much out, you don’t get the investment, and the payoff can feel really disappointing.

Book 5 was a good example of that – I love HP and the Order of the Phoenix as a book. So much fun stuff, and the characters you love to hate: Rita Skeeter and the most odious of all HP villains, one Delores Umbridge. By the time Fred and George rebel completely and take off, you can completely understand why, because you would do the same thing; you feel their triumph, you feel that they struck a blow for freedom! But in the movie, so much is eliminated that by the time F&G do their thing, you can’t really muster a whole lot of excitement. Yes, they’re rebelling, but the feeling of triumph and comeuppance isn’t there.

And this kind of thing happens over and over in each movie (not to mention some rather lame choices that undermine the characters. Snape’s memories? Hello?). I suppose that’s what glances between characters and lighting and music are for – to help create the feelings that you can’t get otherwise.

But it still feels hollow to me.

More, please

I really think I should spend my life going away for the weekend. Granted the weekends must include temperatures near 80 and plenty of sunshine.

I spent this past weekend with friends and relations in a cabin on a creek in the country (to some, Lancaster is the country. To Lancastrians, not so much.) There was hiking, and biking, and canoeing, and a little dachshund running around, and also s'mores. I love roasting the absolutely perfect golden brown marshmallow, rotating it slowly, trying hard not to catch it on fire or char the top.

We also attempted to hold the completed s'more over the fire to melt the chocolate, which actually worked really well--if you have a 2-pronged stick to rest it on. The chocolate melts and tastes like Hershey's syrup. Note: this method is about 100 times messier than a regular s'more--and that's pretty messy.

Speaking of some more, I don't consider myself a particularly girly-girl, but the Lancaster Sephora opens on Friday and I am super-excited. No more trips to King of Prussia! More makeup! I love Sephora, I'm almost out of a bunch of my products, AND I want to find an exciting new exfoliant. And their email marketing team is pretty on top of things--today I got an email with a coupon letting me know exactly what day the store will open. So guess who will be at Sephora this Friday?! (Yes, me.)

Also bewildering this weekend. We were discussing the movie Back to the Future and HAD TO STOP AND EXPLAIN IT to some of the people we were with. I thought my friend was joking as he began: "it's this movie, from the 80s, about a kid . . . ." I almost laughed at how funny he was being, spelling it all out like that, and then I realized that he was serious, and she didn't know what he was talking about. My world was seriously shaken. Have people in 2008 really never heard of BttF?

And, exciting possibly: will the Democratic party finally have a nominee tomorrow? Fingers crossed.

Pop

There are two songs that always put me a good mood. 1) Katrina and the Waves “Walkin’ on Sunshine” –my favorite sing-along song and 2) Follow Through, by Gavin DeGraw. It’s actually playing right now, from a co-workers desk, and I just felt a burst of can-do-it spirit and creativity while sitting here at my desk . . . it’s totally because of that song. I think because I associate that song with walking home from my old job, on a day when I was feeling optimistic and everything was just great. It was probably September or October, and I don’t think it was sunny—in fact, I think it was starting to rain. But for whatever reason, life was good. Or maybe I am bipolar.

One thing I never mentioned here was seeing “Vantage Point” at the theater while in Florida. I’ve never seen a movie that I just FORGOT about faster than that thing. (That’s the movie that keeps showing “the President” getting shot from various vantage points of people in the crowd). Thing is, they keep rewinding it to show the same scene more than once—people in the theater began to audibly groan when they realized we’d have to see it again. And it’s just blah. Boring, ridiculous, tons of plot holes. I didn't care about any of the characters—and actively disliked ones that I was "supposed to" care about. I couldn’t stand Forrest Whitaker or that little girl he kept chasing around. She was eight years old and she couldn’t stay out of the middle of the busy, traffic-filled streets?

Anyway, don’t waste your time or money. We discussed the movie for about 2 minutes in the car headed home and then I completely forgot I’d even seen it. Most movies I see I at least think about a few times the next day. This one? Not once. It’s earns my award for “most forgettable movie ever.”

Score! (update)

Look what was waiting for me on my desk today!


the next 36 spare hours of my life

And look what I won in the Oscar drawing at Blockbuster!


Candy and a giant popcorn tub

Score!

My co-worker actually has all 4 seasons of The Wire! I don't have to spend any money on ANY of them, and I can watch them all immediately instead of buying them or waiting for them to show up at stupid Blockbuster. (I finished Season 1 Friday night by watching 7 episodes in a row).

Speaking of Blockbuster, I entered a drawing to pick the winners of major categories at the Oscars. I definitely got Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress wrong, but I think I did well on the other ones. I wonder if I'll win anything?

Everyone knows it's windy

Random Sunday night adventure to York tonight to see The Princess Bride on the big screen. As a Lancastrian, I have an innate prejudice against the White Rose City. Rumor has it that the average IQ drops 50 points once you cross the Susquehanna. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy an evening in an old-timey theater, with an organ (!!) playing things like The Carpenters "On Top of the World" or "Georgie Girl" before the movie starts and then disappearing back into the floor as the film begins.

Princess Bride is such a great movie--"I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!" "You've just made one of the classic blunders: the first--never get involved in a land war in Asia. But the second! Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" "Stop rhyming-I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?" "Life is pain, highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something." I think of that one at work all the time. But the battle of wits is my favorite part. I'm always saying "it's down to you and it's down to me." Well, whenever it's relevant, which is rare.

Before the movie we went to Memphis Blues, which is a yummy ribs/BBQ place. Tons of beef! It was delish.

The whole trip was FREEZING, though. The wind is blowing like 50 mph here. This afternoon I was running errands and it was like an obstacle course on the road--Coke bins from a nearby gas station, trash cans, tree branches--everything was out and blowing around. And tonight/tomorrow is going to be the coldest of the year so far. It's bitter. Right now I'm under the covers and I don't want to go anywhere.

Juno how it is

I saw Juno yesterday, and I LOVED it. I'd heard all the criticisms going in: that it's just another "quirky" indie movie, that Juno is an unlikeable character and it feels like we're forced to care, and that the dialogue is contrived and ridiculous. So I was prepared not to like it totally. But I did.

It was another quirky indie movie, that is true, but I'm not sure why we should then write it off. The dialogue argument is just stupid. Yes, you can find it annoying, but there are tons of movies with stilted, contrived, or "unrealistic" dialogue. Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, even those old movies where the leads just flirt in the most witty of ways have contrived dialogue. And Juno was completely likeable to ME; she was clearly doing that whole "too cool to have feelings" thing that all teenagers do to some extent, and if you can't see that, well, you're not particularly emotionally intelligent.

Part of the reason I did like it so much, though, was because no one had hyped it to me beforehand. I heard lots about Little Miss Sunshine before I saw it, and so, even though I did like it, I didn't really get why people were so over-the-top in love with it.

Joy and I had a thing a couple of years ago where we liked to say that the key to a good relationship was "low expectations." We would tell this to people and they'd look at us funny and argue that maybe we meant "realistic expectations." But either way, it's the same thing. Don't go in expecting things that can't possibly be delivered, and maybe you'll be surprised and pleased in the end.

So, all that to say, you probably won't like Juno. Keep telling yourself that.

Cloverfield II: All text, all the time

Today one of the pop culture blogs I read had an item about the Cloverfield II movie that’s apparently in the works. One of the posters commented that “to maintain the theme of technological commentary, Cloverfield 2 will be presented entirely as a series of text messages.” And then another poster took it upon himself to illustrate:

omg, wr r u?
r u ded?!!
monstr et mom!!11
rofl
jk

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There were also plenty of new names suggested. The best:

Over and Over: Crimson and Cloverfield
Clover vs. Field: Requiem
Cloverfield 2: Barbaro's Return
Cloverfield: The (American) Empire Strikes Back

If you want to read the whole thread, it lives here.