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voxwomanWe got a letter at the old house today informing us (after 10 months) that a Certificate of Occupancy (CO in the local real estate lexicon) is only valid for 6 months. So we need to reinspect. I am very displeased about this. Not only is it an additional 50 dollars, it provides another opportunity for the City to screw us over and force us to do useless repairs. Hopefully, since we are still in compliance with the last inspection, this should go through easily enough. Unless, of course there is something the inspector can see now that the house is empty that he didn't notice before.
Call the Vet to confirm Trelane's drop-off time.Drop Trelane at the vet before 6PM. He goes in for adrenal surgery tomorrow morning. Poor little guy. But afterwards, he should be very good, and his final few years will be happier.Go to City hall to arrange a CO inspectionWed. 10AMPay the big Pile O' Bills for this month- Arrange an astrology luncheon for me and some coven sisters to discuss transits. This is supposed to be a lucky time for me this month.
- Find (or get new ones if I can't find the old ones) paint swatches from the kid's room so I can determine the correct fabric to buy for curtains and cushions. I am determined to finish the redecorating of A's room before school starts.
- Edit the book draft that's supposed to be coming my way today. The engineer is finally finished with it. That's the rumor at least.
- Clean a room in the house (got the kitchen squared away yesterday. It looks nice again)
Here are my thoughts on the rest of the DVDs we rented last week:
My Super Ex-Girlfriend: My husband had the right feeling about this film (but probably for very different reasons than I do). It's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. First off, I think there was just one time where I laughed out loud. and maybe 3 times where I smiled. This is a very Bad Sign for an Ivan Rietman film. It certainly wasn't "empowering" of women at all, and I get the feeling that it's actually quite misogynistic. Yes, there are needy codependent women out there (just as there are needy codependent men), and I've experienced a psycho ex-wife first hand for long enough to know that the sub-species exists, and it's No Joking Matter. But we are led to some "conclusions" by this film: women can't control themselves or their superpowers, hurting men is OK, and women on top during sex make the bed rock forward and back (I thought the female superior position provided a more up and down motion. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong), and it's OK to f*ck someone even if it's hurting them if the them is a guy. The few interesting points, where G-Girl is finally out on a date and all sorts of mayhem breaks out in the city, and she complains that she's "tired of taking care of everyone and can't I just have one night off?" strikes a sympathetic chord (especially those of us who are parents), but the rest of her behavior really gets you to sypmpathize with the nebbish boyfriend. And when he breaks up with her, he doesn't say "you're abusive and you've hurt me!" (I guess that's not really appropriate for a comedy?) But complains that she's needy and codependent and crazy. Which, actually, she is. And her woman scorned behavior is just stupid and over the top. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Because I Said So is another "chick flick" comedy that shows us How Not To Behave With Your Adult Daughters. Diane Keaton is even more annoying than I've ever seen her before, and if I were her daughter, I'd have moved to the opposite coast as soon as an opportunity provided itself, and managed a once-a-year pilgrimage home. Keaton's character is turning 60, and apparently hasn't experienced an orgasm. Ever. This apparently has caused her to be a bit "high-strung" and she sees her youngest daughter's lack of husband as something to be Dealt With because she doesn't want her to End Up Alone And Miserable Just Like She Is. This takes about 90 minutes for the characters to admit to each other. (Now I'm wondering if this isn't some horrid adaptation of a Jane Austen story). There's the plot device of the mother placing an ad on the Internet to find a suitor for her daughter, and the fellow who played the drummer in That Thing You Do is the chosen swain. He's cute, but controlling and just a bit weird (and you know he's got a closet full of leather toys that we won't see onscreen). During the interview of the potential husbands, a guitar player in the lounge has been observing this and becomes intrigued. This leads to some clever dialog and bantering, and you can see that this is the fellow who will Get the Girl. Of course, he has a conveniently single father who ends up with Keaton at the end of the movie. I'm just wondering how much familial angst could have been avoided if Keaton's sexually savvy daughters had just bought her an array of vibrators and taught the poor woman how to masturbate. Which I firmly believe an aging hippie like her would certainly know how to do. I didn't feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life with this film, and there were a lot of funny moments. Additionally, the rest of my family became involved with the story after about 20 minutes of hearing me either laughing or yelling stuff at the characters.
Pan's Labyrinth is not an easy film to watch. And a lot of the images of torture and cruelty are still haunting me, 3 days later. If you haven't seen it, it's in Spanish with English subtitles. Reading the subtitles prevents you from following the visual elements easily. The story is about a girl who is living during the Spanish Civil War in 1944. Her mother has remarried a commander of some outpost and is one of Franco's minions. She is carrying her son. There is some allusion that the commander had her husband killed so he could possess this woman, but we don't know for sure. The daughter likes to read fairy tales, and from the opening shot, you know that the story doesn't end well for her, as she is laying on the ground bleeding to death. She finds a world of wonder in the forest near where she is living, and she discovers she is a princess of an underground realm, and her father has been waiting for her. She must pass three tests before the portal is opened and she can return. I found the fantasy world to be Catholic allegory. It's beautifully done. The scenes in the real world are horrific, however, and I regret watching it, as it will stay with me for a long time.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend: My husband had the right feeling about this film (but probably for very different reasons than I do). It's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. First off, I think there was just one time where I laughed out loud. and maybe 3 times where I smiled. This is a very Bad Sign for an Ivan Rietman film. It certainly wasn't "empowering" of women at all, and I get the feeling that it's actually quite misogynistic. Yes, there are needy codependent women out there (just as there are needy codependent men), and I've experienced a psycho ex-wife first hand for long enough to know that the sub-species exists, and it's No Joking Matter. But we are led to some "conclusions" by this film: women can't control themselves or their superpowers, hurting men is OK, and women on top during sex make the bed rock forward and back (I thought the female superior position provided a more up and down motion. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong), and it's OK to f*ck someone even if it's hurting them if the them is a guy. The few interesting points, where G-Girl is finally out on a date and all sorts of mayhem breaks out in the city, and she complains that she's "tired of taking care of everyone and can't I just have one night off?" strikes a sympathetic chord (especially those of us who are parents), but the rest of her behavior really gets you to sypmpathize with the nebbish boyfriend. And when he breaks up with her, he doesn't say "you're abusive and you've hurt me!" (I guess that's not really appropriate for a comedy?) But complains that she's needy and codependent and crazy. Which, actually, she is. And her woman scorned behavior is just stupid and over the top. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Because I Said So is another "chick flick" comedy that shows us How Not To Behave With Your Adult Daughters. Diane Keaton is even more annoying than I've ever seen her before, and if I were her daughter, I'd have moved to the opposite coast as soon as an opportunity provided itself, and managed a once-a-year pilgrimage home. Keaton's character is turning 60, and apparently hasn't experienced an orgasm. Ever. This apparently has caused her to be a bit "high-strung" and she sees her youngest daughter's lack of husband as something to be Dealt With because she doesn't want her to End Up Alone And Miserable Just Like She Is. This takes about 90 minutes for the characters to admit to each other. (Now I'm wondering if this isn't some horrid adaptation of a Jane Austen story). There's the plot device of the mother placing an ad on the Internet to find a suitor for her daughter, and the fellow who played the drummer in That Thing You Do is the chosen swain. He's cute, but controlling and just a bit weird (and you know he's got a closet full of leather toys that we won't see onscreen). During the interview of the potential husbands, a guitar player in the lounge has been observing this and becomes intrigued. This leads to some clever dialog and bantering, and you can see that this is the fellow who will Get the Girl. Of course, he has a conveniently single father who ends up with Keaton at the end of the movie. I'm just wondering how much familial angst could have been avoided if Keaton's sexually savvy daughters had just bought her an array of vibrators and taught the poor woman how to masturbate. Which I firmly believe an aging hippie like her would certainly know how to do. I didn't feel like I wasted 2 hours of my life with this film, and there were a lot of funny moments. Additionally, the rest of my family became involved with the story after about 20 minutes of hearing me either laughing or yelling stuff at the characters.
Pan's Labyrinth is not an easy film to watch. And a lot of the images of torture and cruelty are still haunting me, 3 days later. If you haven't seen it, it's in Spanish with English subtitles. Reading the subtitles prevents you from following the visual elements easily. The story is about a girl who is living during the Spanish Civil War in 1944. Her mother has remarried a commander of some outpost and is one of Franco's minions. She is carrying her son. There is some allusion that the commander had her husband killed so he could possess this woman, but we don't know for sure. The daughter likes to read fairy tales, and from the opening shot, you know that the story doesn't end well for her, as she is laying on the ground bleeding to death. She finds a world of wonder in the forest near where she is living, and she discovers she is a princess of an underground realm, and her father has been waiting for her. She must pass three tests before the portal is opened and she can return. I found the fantasy world to be Catholic allegory. It's beautifully done. The scenes in the real world are horrific, however, and I regret watching it, as it will stay with me for a long time.
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Date: 2007-08-13 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-13 02:05 pm (UTC)Reviews
Date: 2007-08-13 05:02 pm (UTC)I bought - YES, BOUGHT - "The Aristocrats". The 'comedy' movie where 100+ comedians tell the same 'joke', the dirtiest joke in the world.
It's also the least funny joke.
I mean it, It made NO sense, and even when the best and brightest were telling it, there was no smile as a result. I mean, if Carlin can't make the joke funny, it is a failure as a joke.
The joke : A guy goes to a talent agent and explains his show : {insert horrible vile stuff here, like pooping, incest, rape, etc}, and then we stand and bow, and the crowd goes wild!!!
Agent: So, what do you call yourselves?
Dude : The Aristocrats.
{insert hilarious canned laughter...}
IDGI, There is NO funny there. And since each comedian used different nasty stuff for the filler, you get to hear a LOT of incredibly vile stuff. Followed by that crap of a punchline. Sheesh.
We watched 15 min and shelved it. Decided that the Roast of Flavor Flav was better.
Re: Reviews
Date: 2007-08-13 06:12 pm (UTC)I can't believe they were marketing PL to kids. It's rated R, isn't it? It's like marketing Night and Fog (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/) to kids. (although I was 13 or 14 when I saw N&F - but it was in Jewish school, and we were learning about the Holocaust, and I also read Night by Eli Wiesel around the same time).
Re: Reviews
Date: 2007-08-13 06:58 pm (UTC)http://www.apple.com/trailers/picturehouse/panslabyrinth/
I saw it as a movie akin to "Labyrinth", with the same sort of mix between live and puppetry, and the clips and website help that along.
Nowhere does it warn of violence and darkness, I even heard one ad hype it as being in the style of "Dark Crystal", "Mirrormask", and "Labyrinth". I have all three of those, and until I read the spoilers on some websites, I thought it was comparable.
Re: Reviews
Date: 2007-08-13 07:05 pm (UTC)And, honestly, Mirrormask isn't what I'd call a children's film, either. I wouldn't let a kid under 12 or so watch that. (I also wouldn't let a kid under 8 watch Time Bandits, but that's because the parents explode at the end for no good reason and with no resolution - that's really disturbing for young kids)