a broken lull.

Criterions announced for april:

286 Divorce Italian Style Pietro Germi, 1961 (2 discs)
287
288 F for Fake Orson Welles, 1975 (2 discs)

that's one gorgeous cover for Germi's Divorce Italian Style.

no sign of the Wajda set. it was taken off the march list a couple of weeks ago but it's been widely speculated that it would be coming out in april as well. ooh, what's this -- amazon.ca has it slated for april 5. nice surprise.
... and they're now back up on Criterion's website :)

#287 might be Mr. Arkadin (aka Confidential Report), also from Welles.

amazon.ca is quickly looking like the place to beat for Criterion pre-orders (i've been going to DVDPacific since last summer but this might look like the place i'll go for new releases) - they've already got both films up for pre-order for a cool $34.63 each. snap 'em up.

Posted by Anonymous | 3:10 PM |

here's some more Garbage - Bleed Like Me info this morning:

the first single will be Why Do You Love Me and it'll make it's North American debut Feb 22. incidentally, the video is being shot in LA today. Oil Factory is producing it but i couldn't find any info on the director. it could be Sophie again.

someone had the chance to see a Warner promo cd-r (what? Geffen's with Warner now?). an early tracklisting (with running time) made it's way to the internet.

:: check out the Garbage Fan Site tomorrow (aka subhuman.net) as they'll be getting a brand new look.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:36 AM |

our movie theater got Sideways and Million Dollar Baby -- in english !!!
i couldn't believe it.

so yesterday the ex and i went shopping. i found a nice North Face tuque but it was $40 so i left it there. we tried almost all of them on for a good 15-20 minutes but none looked too good on me; the ones that looked good on their own were either too small or made weird bumps on the top of my head. i'm gonna go get that one tomorrow, i think. $45 for a tuque that i'll wear for a few years and especially feel good in is not that much.

we passed by HMV. it's not my favorite store to shop in because they've mostly got a lot of overpriced cd's (indie labels mostly $26. no thanks) but it had been a long time since i last shopped or browsed for cd's in a store so i checked out their whole inventory. they have 2/$25 and 2/$30 sales going on but they got new discs in there. i picked up The Shins' Chutes Too Narrow and Jérôme Minière's Chez Herri Kopter for $25 (btw, both Shins albums were 2/$25, and 2/$30 for Pavement's deluxe edition of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain). they had a bunch of interesting discs on sale. the Snow Patrol album was gonna be my 2nd disc before i stumbled on Jérôme Minière's. anyone can convince me to go back and get the Snow Patrol disc? i also got Esthero's new ep, We R in need of a musical ReVoLuTIoN! (hopefully none of the tracks, except for the title track, will appear on the new album.) anyone got the O.G. Bitch single? it's got a bunch of remixes on there and i was wondering how that was. hey, according to Esthero's website, O.G. Bitch won't be appearing on the upcoming album anymore. so there's a disc i'll have to get. seeing all these new Esthero discs in store was exciting. i remember getting heavily into her (/them) back in 96-98. i was also listening to the album a lot on my discman while working back then. hmmm, good times.

OOH!
yesterday i finally got my 2nd DVDPacific package !!!
i couldn't believe it (there's lots of things i can't believe). there was a key waiting for me in my mailbox for the bigger boxes. the new edition of M and L'avventura were in there. finally. i was happy.

i spent the afternoon at my ex-roommate's, playing with the cat, taking a short walk (it was hella cold yesterday) and finishing up the second series of the The Office (which was devastatingly good -- especially the last episode).

update, 1:01 pm

today's a great day -- after yesterday's arrival of my cherished DVDPacific package, today i found my two missing Zip discs (along with a 3rd one that shipped tuesday) waiting for me in the mail. ah... nice feeling. this turned out to be a great week. these two packages were the two i was most worried about. the third one's the Saddle Creek/Bright Eyes order, which will work itself out. i'm not worried.

Zip discs i got today:

Garden State
Oz (The Complete First Season, Disc 1)
Homicide: Life on the Street (The Complete Seasons 1 & 2, Volume 1)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:34 AM |

Global is not airing 24 this season ???? that fucking sucks.
i wasn't aware of this because i've been watching them on Fox but the roommate just told me that. one of her boyfriend's coworkers is furiously trying to find someone to tape them for him. again - that fucking sucks. air your grievances to Global. they're taking the calls, apparently.

set your vcr's Degrassi/Kevin Smith fans, here are the airdates for the 3 episodes that will feature Kevin and Mewes:

CTV, 8:30 p.m. ET

Monday, Jan. 31 West End Girls
Monday, Feb. 7 Crying Over You Part 1
Monday, Feb. 14 Crying Over You Part 2

also tv-related: Paige Davis is leaving (being kicked out of?) Trading Spaces because they're going in a new hostless direction/format.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:07 AM |

i haven't written a proper post in a while now so here's an update on my life. there's not much newness this week. still seeing and talking to the ex, that's nothing new but it's still going on. i've been working since monday. i've got tomorrow off, which is always a pleasure. i've been getting in to work at 3 pm for a while now but yesterday my partner and i got great news -- we're getting an extra third man. and it's not a temporary thing, at least for the near future. it's a temporary/permanent job. we were getting way too much work thrown our way on a fucking daily basis that our relatively-new boss took action and created the new shift that would start at 5 pm. my partner's shift is also at 5. i asked our boss (who, incidentally, is a cool 26 years old :) if i could take that shift. she said sure, it was up to me. so starting tonight i'm going in at 5. and i love it. i was used to leaving at 11 pm. but going at 5 leaves your entire day open. so that's it. that's the big news for us this week :)

there's also the tiring business of me not receiving a couple of packages (from DVDPacific and Saddle Creek). maybe they were delayed in the mail - i fucking hope that's what happened and i'm gonna get them today. but it always ends in frustration as i come face to face with an empty mailbox. we'll see. maybe today. i'm waiting to get the DVDPacific package before ordering Stray Dog (The Criterion Collection), which i've been looking forward to buying for a while now and they just got it back in stock this week. keep your fingers crossed for me.

Posted by Anonymous | 9:37 AM |

24: Day 4
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

the Araz family storyline still leaves me cold (except for the mom; she's now turning back into a normal human being. i like where this is going), but i've turned around for the new Behrooz line.

what an exciting episode! shit. apart from the aforementioned 'middle eastern family' bullshit, i realized with last night's episode that i'm fully invested in this season of 24. finally! and it feels great to be back after the insipid third season. kudos to the writers for making me fully care once again.

Jon Cassar knows how to direct. the entire first act, with the bunker rescue, was pure adrenaline genius. Jack, with only ten minutes to spare, actually goes in the bunker against an impending missile strike, kills as many would-be terrorists, saves Secretary Heller and Audrey with 2 minutes left to spare. lol. Jack rocks. and congrats to the writers and Kiefer for making this believable.

and for once, i care more about one of Jack's girlfriends making it through the day so we can see her again in the next season. Kim fuckin' rocks (Raver, not the bastard child in crisis). btw, how the hell can they make me cry when Audrey pulls out the blade and is about to stick it in her kidnapper? how the hell do they do that?? it's not sad or devastating, but it was damn moving, i'll tell you that.

sour notes: how the hell does the DOD move a part as crucial as _ and a fuckin' mole. saving grace -- Aisha Tyler doesn't seem to be playing it crazy or as a lunatic. thank god for that.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:11 AM |

the Oscar nominations are out!!

i don't care much for them anymore as i've finally seen them for the marketing buzz they really are. but. the biggest fuckin' surprise for me is the nomination of Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace !!! fuck me, yeah! holy shit, this is good. it had so never occured to me that she could be nominated (i so don't care about awards anymore that i don't even know if she was nominated for a Golden Globe).

hell fuckin' yeah!!

... biggest what-the-fuck -- no nom for Fahrenheit 9/11 ... what????
Super Size Me, great. i fuckin' loved it and it had a huge impact on my life.
but none for the most important film of the year??

and, btw, Shark Tale? really?
do they absolutely have to have three nominees for this category?

Posted by Anonymous | 9:36 AM |

Lost Boys of Sudan
Megan Mylan & Jon Shenk, 2003

8.0
the film goes along with Peter and Santino, two Sudanese refugees, as they live their first year in the United States as part of a government refugee program. although the main participants are fun, charming, and witty, the film remains a somewhat nice, conventional, if sometimes touching, documentary. it is fun to get immersed in (up to a certain extent) and live the north american experience through someone else's culture. the filmmakers stay out of the way of the subjects but i was never sure if they weren't immersed enough in their subjects' culture to show us everything they were going through. i felt cheated out of a lot of things Peter and Santino were probably experiencing. at best, the film is moving and has a quiet beauty running through the first half (mostly because of the quiet innocence of the two subjects). i'm glad i got to meet Peter and Santino and go along on some of their quest to educate themselves and work for some money, but ultimately, i didn't come out with a whole lot more than what i went in with.

btw, jon shenk is the one who directed the excellent The Beginning documentary about the making of Star Wars Episode I (which is on the film's dvd - please look it up if you haven't seen it already. it's the best making-of i've seen, period).

Posted by Anonymous | 11:26 PM |

Mean Girls
Mark Waters, 2004

7.5
i was expecting a bit more from this film. the reviews pretty much all agreed that this was more than just a teenage film. but my problem with it was that i rarely saw it as a whole film. it was more a succession of (variably successful) scenes to me. but the performances bring the film up a full notch or two. they were incredible. the casting was mind-boggingly perfect! almost every character was so full of life -- especially Rachel McAdams as queen bee Regina George (ha! a canadian! and not a 19 year-old actress either. that's refreshing). so fucking amazing. the other stellar standout, but this just seemed to come out of the personal charm and ease of the actor, was actor Daniel Franzese. your attention just turns to him whenever he's on-screen. (fuck! he's appearing in Spielberg's War of the Worlds next!! now that's power. he was in Bully? i guess i can remember him, yeah.) Lacy Chabert was also really good. btw, i'm not trying to find something good to say about the film, i was really blown away by the performances. it's not necessarily that they were complex and awfully nuanced characters (although they weren't one-dimensional, that's for sure), it's that everyone just fearlessly went all-out with their performances. that was refreshing. especially for something that could have easily been just another hack teenage films. i wasn't too caught up and invested in Lindsay and her friends' various adventures, but the performances were more than enough to keep my interest throughout.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:38 AM |

i just have to share. i like my job at the hospital because a) i'm working with a really good friend, and b) we get to go all over the hospital to respond to calls. so we come in contact with a lot of people (and it's a big hospital) and socialize a bit with the various staff. it's very loose and relaxed. i also have a few crushes on a few departments, see. girls i like (not girls i know, i just like them from afar :P). tonight i saw a girl i hadn't seen since last fall, if not last summer, and she was one of my main crushes. i'd always see her and we'd exchange hi's and nice smiles when we crossed paths. i'd almost forgotten about her. but then tonight i saw her for a few fleeting seconds as she walked by on the other side of a crowd while we were waiting for the elevator. and she was pregnant! she had a tummy :D i say that with a smile because, although i had/have a crush on her (she's beautiful) and i would normally feel a tiny tinge of jealousy and/or sadness about it, i'm actually happy for her. she almost zipped by, though. she saw me but i didn't have a chance to share this joy i had for her. anyway. just wanted to share the excitement a bit :P

thanks.
and goodnight :)

Posted by Anonymous | 11:30 PM |

during last night's Daily Show there was a quick ad mentioning Lewis Black would be making a stop with his Rules of Enragement Tour at the Montreal Spectrum sunday March 6! i like him but the ex-roommate goes freaking mental every time he's on the Daily Show. i thought i'd check out the tickets and maybe give her a surprise; maybe even drive down there without telling her what we were gonna see. but then i saw this -- $47.50 for a fuckin' ticket???! and that's before taxes and shit. you gotta be kidding me.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:17 AM |

24: Day 4

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

i like Kim Raver and her Audrey character. she's not annoying or as pointless as most of the previous abducted women have been over the years. i'm pulling for her and her gutsy father. (it'll take a rather surprising rescue -never doubt that it could happen, though- to save these two but -- Audrey did recognize the only white guy on the terrorists' team. that should be put to use sometime in the near future. if she escapes. if she doesn't, it was a good moment. the writers have been great so far this season about using things incidentally instead of using every single momentglance/chance meetings as if the world depended on it. the Curtis/Marianne storyline is the best example. i was fearing the worst but so far it's turning out real well for the show.)

the episode ended rather suddenly - i was sure we'd actually see which decision Jack took, but no. we know he'll most likely go in, but then again, maybe not. he could surprise us. he has changed a bit.

i loved how i was pulling for Kalil when he was checked out by the police. the writers know how to do this - twist things around so you're pulling for the opposite action of what we're used to root for.

i love how i'm also pulling for the usually annoying geeks, ie. Chloe and Edgar, this season. these kinds of characters are written so much better than in previous seasons. go Edgar.

btw, i'm still not feeling the whole Araz family thing.
(something the ex pointed out to me -- where the hell is Debbie's car? as far as i know she pulled up in front of the house, right where her mom pulled over 20 minutes later.)

but it's the only sour note this season.
i'm slowly but seriously getting hooked back in by the show. and i couldn't be happier about it.

Posted by Anonymous | 5:11 PM |

i might have found my new roommate!!! i was so excited. this one guy i'd thought of when the roommate first told me she would be moving out was living with his girlfriend. i think they've been going out for a few years so it was out of the question. but last week at the party he asked me if i was looking for a roommate because it was looking like he and his girlfriend would be splitting up at the end of their lease. i said yes but he mentioned next july. it was a bit too far away. but then i started to think about it and got all excited. but i never saw him again. dammit. but sunday night he dropped by work to get some papers and i asked him if he was serious about moving out. he said sure, asked how much i was paying. i totaled it all up ... and it was only 15$ above the price he was looking for and said it was no problem!! i can't believe it. he'll have to come take a look at it again just to make sure but it looks like this could be it. he even picked out a room and wanted an extra room to serve as a computer room :) and he doesn't have one appliance, and i have all of 'em. this feels perfect for us :) i'm excited. i wouldn't have to move out and i'd get a cool roommate who i get along with really well.

i haven't been following Scrubs for a few weeks now because they've apparently moved it from their 8:30 timeslot so instead i've been taping the last half hour of The Biggest Loser, it seems. tonight is a good time to fall back into place, though, because it's the episode with Colin Farrell (unless, like i said, he's already appeared in one but i missed it). the picture they got up on the page alone is worth the excitement. NBC, 9 pm. the site also says the show airs at 9:30 now but they mention the new time being 9:00 for this particular episode. but it looks like they've officially switched it to 9:00 for the season (until they find a new timeslot to screw us with, that is).

yesterday i (finally) received the first of two packages from DVDPacific - two Criterion double-disc editions: Kurosawa's Ikiru and Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game.

ps. i haven't watched last night's 24 just yet. i'll post my comment later on today, i think.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:57 AM |

Tokyo Olympiad
Kon Ichikawa, 1965 ; The Criterion Collection

6.5
for those who care, i slept on this film. it might've had something grander to say in its last two hours -- most probably, as it is interested in the human aspect of the event -- but the first one was just setting up the olympics, its participants and the various events (hmm, maybe i'll check it out some more, maybe this huge revelatory moment waiting around the corner that'll change my perspective of the film. i'll update if that happens). i'm not hatin' on it but it just didn't make its points fast enough for me last night.

update, 11:51 am

nope. i just watched some more footage of the film, i even skipped to the very end to see if there was some emotional or touching conclusion, but no. the film just didn't do anything for me, there was nothing new to it. it is an admirable film but it didn't involve me as much as i would've like to have been. i turned on the Peter Cowie commentary to see if he'd have something that would interest me, and he did, for a few scenes. the man is prepared. insightful and detailed info on the history of the Olympics. apart from that the film was a bust for me. too bad.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:32 AM |

what the hell is this curious oddity???
never heard of it before.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:31 AM |

today i did what i hadn't done in a while -- go to the used record stores downtown. i managed to find some interesting albums:

Ciara - Goodies
The Black Heart Procession - 2
Jermaine Dupri - instructions
Fabolous - Ghetto Fabolous
Jay-Z - Vol.2... Hard Knock Life
Noreaga - Melvin Flynt - Da Hustler

i immediately snatched up the Black Heart Procession disc as soon as i saw it. how often will that happen? the guy at the counter was surprised it had gone off his shelves that quickly :) the rest i got mostly because of the early Neptunes productions (and Jay-Z for, well, Jay-Z).

i just received a bunch of movies from Zip this week. i'm off today so tonight i'm planning on watching Tokyo Olympiad from The Criterion Collection. a three-hour documentary about the olympics. i'm not even an olympics fan but this one sounded special. it should be fun.

Posted by Anonymous | 5:59 PM |

24: Day 4

9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

lmfao. i saw Jack taking what looked like a ski mask out of the back of his truck, so i pretty much knew what was coming, but seeing him leaning back against the wall and putting the mask on before he went was just priceless. best moment yet, imo :)

i liked how they're writing Chloe this season. it seems they got a hold on her character where they're building on last season's horrible mistakes. and i felt for her. but the scene in the bathroom was unnecessary as we pretty much were with her when Andrew was being hit. it wasn't annoying but i thought it was redundant and kinda undermined the good writing they'd achieved up to that point.

i wasn't sure about the addition of Aisha Tyler, whom i loved but then i totally fell out of love with at some point last year from seeing her in interviews and disposable award shows, but she did a great job here.

and i sure hope Driscoll gets some depth added to her (and not some lame sympathy push by kidnapping her or holding a family member hostage) because up until now she's been the one-dimensional cold bitch boss. she softened up a bit in this episode but i'd like the writers to add a little more depth and complexity their characters.

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Jack takes hostages in the corner store. brilliant move. and some stellar acting from Kiefer (but why oh why do the writers insist on making him yell out 'stop!' and 'move!' every other sentence? at some point it stops being menacing and authoritative). but Jack rocks.

i love that Chloe has taken in Edgar on her little missions for Jack. too bad she got caught, though. just when it looked like Marianne was gonna join undercover Edgar in their helping Jack out, Jack gets caught by the police. but i still have a feeling those two, with Edgar still clean from the whole clandestine Chloe thing, will get their chance to help out Jack pretty soon. and i, for one, can't wait for that to happen. i didn't like how Marianne was just another stock female character someone slept with so the workplace was stressful (and you had to look out for moles or a gun in the back of your head) but this is looking like it might be going in a fairly interesting direction.

btw, am i the only one who never got on the whole Araz family crisis? fuck me, that one's too far-fetched, or rather, the writers didn't do a good enough job of laying the ground work, to care or even take that situation seriously at all. big disappointment. bye bye, Debbie.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:14 PM |

24: Day 4
7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

here we go again :)

to tell you the truth, i wasn't that impressed or compelled by the season premiere. of course this is just the intro and trying to figure out what's going on is all part of the fun. i guess it's been a while since we last had to adjust to a season premiere so i gotta get back into. i didn't see too many missteps in the first two episodes, which is a good sign, and the story is moving along slowly enough to not repeat the mistakes of the first act of Season Three which was all over the place and lost credibility with the thousands of misleading events. the episodes did have a couple of really good scenes that had me either gasping (Jack learning about the kidnapping, and the rocket attack on Audrey and Heller), being touched (Jack telling Audrey their relationship was big deal to him and him later on telling Audrey he was also falling in love with her), or getting excited (what i've come to think of, as of last night, as Jack's Theme starting to play when he got his first big Jack idea/moment).

the premiere seems promising, then. and although i didn't like the casting of Audrey, having seen her work a bit more in last night's episodes i'm now confident she's the right one to work with Jack. can't wait to see where this is going. btw, the casting of William Devane was perfect. i haven't seen him in too many things but he's just right for this job. i love his face. (although, his character was responsible for the only real misstep of the night - when he threw his tie at the bad guy.)

oh, speaking of which -- i kinda get a bit nervous when right off the bat they put middle eastern folks as the bad guys. especially the family thing. of course this is just the beginning and we've yet to see how things will work out and why, but i couldn't shake the bad feeling about typecasting them like this. granted, the kidnappers' reasons were more than welcome in light of last season's vague/pc motivations regarding the US policies (which seemed even weaker compared to Season Two's extraordinarily uncanny storylines dealing with war mongering).

i also liked how Jack came back into the fold. unlike the little teaser we had with the Season Three set, it didn't feel rushed or like, 'oh, god, here they go again.' no, this time it came from Jack (who looks more at peace than ever) and somehow it felt fresh and new. the kidnappings had nothing weak like the lame attempts to care for Kim. i was into it this time. btw, i couldn't figure out why they kept Chloe on but they seemed to have found a way to write her character now. she's still angry and pissed off about everything but Jack's reaction to her not having changed a bit (although she got things right with Driscoll) was fun. we like her now. she's still weird but she's not the laughing stock anymore.

i guess it was a good season premiere. although they didn't hit it out of the park (yet), they've gotten me back on board. let's see if they can get the ball rolling now and keep a nice pace for a while.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:33 AM |

24: Day 4
it starts tonight, people -- 8-10 pm.

so last night's party... wow. i'm not gonna go in detail because i'm so hungry, we're waiting for the pizza to arrive (gonna watch 24 with the ex. i think she'll get into it) so my body's suffering right now. but i will say this -- it was so much more than anyone could've expected from our last minute arrangements. amazing party. very happy about the outcome (except for one uninvited guest (whom we all know from work) who did coke a few times in my bathroom. but even that did not take too much away from what a blast it all was).

that's all i'm gonna say. have a good evening and you all come back tomorrow for the 24 marathon (part 1) reaction.

Posted by Anonymous | 5:45 PM |

it's been 3 days since i last posted? days move quickly, don't they? i've been busy working and trying to catch on loads of lost sleep. i think i managed my first 8-hour night of the week last night. feels good. we had a bunch of really snowy days. i like the white outside. tomorrow's the big party. apparently people are coming. sheesh. tomorrow's gonna be a busy day -- clean up the entire apartment, do laundry, and get some groceries.

2005 is upon us so we finally have some incredibly thrilling music coming our way. here are the ones i'm most looking forward to right now (in chronological/excitement order):

Jan 18 2005 :: indie-wise, Magnolia Electric Co's Trials & Errors

Jan 25 2005 :: the one that got me all excited this morning is Martha Wainwright's Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole ep. i'm so happy somebody finally signed her up! i'm definitely getting this. anyone notice her (and father Loudon) in The Aviator? next up is Jimmy Chamberlain's The Jimmy Chamberlain Complex with Life Begins Again. very excited about this as he's my favorite drummer and Billy also helped out on a song or two, which never hurts in my eyes. Bright Eyes releases I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. i have an important question - anyone from Canada ever order from Saddle Creek? are they customs friendly? i'd love to pre-order these two discs. the rest are just standard music-lover stuff: Low with The Great Destroyer, Mercury Rev with The Secret Migration, and Buck65's This Here Is Buck65.

Feb 22 2005 :: Tori Amos and The Beekeeper.

March 1 2005 :: Doves' Some Cities. anyone ever track down their two-disc best of? i've been hating myself for the past year because i didn't snatch it up when i had the chance.

March 22 2005 :: Queens of the Stone Age with Lullabies to Paralyze and a long-ass guestlist that includes my girl Shirley. Prefuse 73 also gets guest help on Surrounded by Silence. Wu-Tang is ridiculously represented on the disc (including RZA and GZA). Moby finally releases a new disc, Hotel. hopefully this includes the 2nd techno disc. New Order are always good, this time it's Waiting for the Sirens Call.

April 12 2005 :: i can't wait for Garbage's new album, Bleed Like Me. guest spots galore (including Marilyn Manson, Dave Grohl, Dust Brother John King).

Posted by Anonymous | 1:40 PM |

The Aviator
Martin Scorsese, 2004

7.0
i wanted to love this film. i love Martin Scorsese. i really do. and he's the reason i wanted to see the film in theaters. but it didn't really do anything for me. maybe it's because i haven't immersed myself in the Hughes/old Hollywood era. i know actors and the big players but that's it. so, because of that, the film felt like a checklist of events rather than an emotional journey. i was so out of it. i knew what was coming so i could brace myself for what was coming (here's where he'll go mad, here's where he's a genius, here's where's he going up against the man, etc). it felt dry. but, like i said, it's probably because i was on the outside looking in. but. that being said. there are a few great scenes and performances, starting with Leonardo. i've always been a Leo fan. people seem fazed by his Teen Beat-type coverage but i've always loved him as an actor. and he does a fantastic job making us forget Leo DiCaprio. he really does. then there's Cate Blanchett. wow. although it means close to nothing, i really hope she at least gets a nod for her work in this with the Oscars. i've only seen Hepburn in a couple of movies so i can't completely judge her portrayal that way, but as a full-bodied character she does a superb job. she was charming, breezy, and heartbreaking. and she can do it on a dime too. i was impressed. Scorsese never does a bad film, and this ain't one either. although a bit on the slow side for me it features some outstanding, gut-wrenching and stunning scenes. glad i saw it in a theater but i won't be revisiting it anytime soon.

Posted by Anonymous | 6:57 PM |

i never thought i'd see the day when mymusic would ship the two remaining items on my order (Xiu Xiu's Fabulous Muscles and Panda Bear's Young Prayer -- both sadly unavailable at the time, they'd been put on backorder for an excruciatingly unknown amount of time) ... i just received an email telling me the two cd's shipped today :) thank you, mymusic. i'm excited and expecting them tomorrow.

Posted by Anonymous | 6:37 PM |

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Collector's Edition) (2 discs) is coming out tomorrow !! i only heard about this a couple of weeks ago and thought it was just eventually gonna come out. this is cool. i'll finally be able to see this film.

i worked yesterday, my only work day in my 6-days off run. still got two more days off. yay. when i have days off i like to just sit back and watch movies in the comfort of my own home. the roommate spent saturday and sunday night with me. we're (still okay. just friends). i started showing her the beginning of Shaun of the Dead but we ended up watching the whole thing saturday night :) today we watched Le trou, Jacques Becker's excellent prison escape film (Criterion are prepping two of his films for release later this month). i watched it friday night and loved it. told her about it and she ended up wanting to see it too.

tonight i should be watching Criterion's two-disc set for Cassavetes' Faces.

a friend/coworker of mine got the idea to have a party during the holidays for all of us. i told him we could do it at my place i had it to myself so we wouldn't be bothering anybody else. last week he asked me when we could do it. so the date is set for saturday. the thing is, though, he's not working much these days so he's not there to set it up. we started talking about it to various people last week but this week we have to get something together. i also got a cool idea -- i wanna ask the people who'll be coming to bring me a couple of cd's from their collection. i was gonna do that anyway, but the idea is this -- i'll burn random songs off all the albums on a couple of cd's and play them at the party as the background music. this way my cd's won't be hogging the cd player all night (not that i don't like my cd collection, i do, but i don't wanna be pushing my tastes on people all night) and different styles will keep popping up, and because of the random nature of the process, we'll be able to laugh at everyone :) of course this won't be the end-all-be-all of the night, the booze and the talking will be, but this will keep things nice and lively. just an idea i had today that i thought could be cool.

still not regretting - i'm actually loving - my harman/kardon purchase.

Paz Vega, who recently got a lot of favorable press for her turn in the horribly-titled Spanglish, was the lead in Lucía y el sexo (Sex and Lucia) !! i know she's a star in Spain but i never thought i'd seen her before (i haven't seen the film yet, only the trailer and the cover art). it's a small world, i guess, is what i'm trying to say.

Courtney's writing with Billy again (or the other way around, really). this is good news. i always love it when Billy writes, by himself or with anyone else. like everyone else, i've honestly stopped caring about Courtney for the past couple of years but i can safely say she's piqued my interest.

Garbage - Bleed Like Me has an official street date now -- April 12th for North America / April 11th for the rest of the world.

Posted by Anonymous | 4:50 PM |

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Posted by Anonymous | 11:11 AM |

HAPPY NEW YEAR.
make some resolutions, it's fun.

Posted by Anonymous | 1:23 AM |