Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Shameless

Apparently they swiped it from the BBC, but Showtime gave me Dexter so I'll trust that their rendering of Shameless will be worth watching. Very United States of Tara with its dysfunctional, kids-as-parents plot line, but hey - who doesn't love a drunken, kooky William H. Macy...?

My wishlist:



The Double: A Petersburg Poem by Fyodor Dostoevsky [because I've tried and failed to read it for free online...there's something about page turning I just can't give up]. Juicy Couture Lovergirl eyeglasses [for the reading, of course]. American Eagle Fair Isle sweater [for to be warm whilst reading].

Happy Holidays!

The only Christmas card I received this year--from Ash.

I like #10: the Lord "a-leaping."




Rifle Paper Co.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

For English Lit Nerds Like Me.

I just love when my blog posts can [somewhat] unintentionally relate to each other in theme. After seeing Beauty and the Beast on stage the other night, Rach asked if I'd ever seen the French film version, La Belle et La Bete I responded with an enthusiastic "YES" and immediately had imagery running through my mind of Jean Cocteau's ethereal palace gardens and monstrous shadow lighting.

This then brought to mind the poster on Veronique's red bathroom wall in her little apartment in Paris - a place I once called home.



The next day I fortuitously came across this pic of an adorable literary clutch by Olympia Le Tan, carried around Paris during this year's fashion week [thus making me all the more nostalgic]...



...and searched to find that Le Tan's collection is more vast than a classics fiend such as myself could ever have dreamed or imagined.

[Never mind, of course, that they're $1450 a pop.]





And to wrap up my relative series of artistic and cultural interests, it just so happened that Natalie P. toted a Lolita (her first on-screen role) to the premiere of Black Swan, the latest film that I've seen and so been obsessed with since the release of its trailer two and a half months ago [review blog to come soon.]



Le Tan even has a cute kitty that reminds me of a street cat I know named Boots.
But this one's name is Fritz.

Look at that bow...this woman is great.



Oh Fritz.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Merry pre-Christmas from Grandma!

The other night my lovely Grandma Helen treated me to an excellent performance of Beauty and the Beast at the Coronado Theater downtown (she'd never seen it before and kept asking if the two ended up together, but I refused to give away the ending). Gaston sounded exactly like the original Disney version, costumes were a miasma of 18th century, Marie Antoinette-style frills and lace, and "Be Our Guest" was perfect. Belle even wore a bib with Sebastian on it throughout the scene! Disney's coreferentiality to The Little Mermaid - cute touch.



Grandma also bought me TWO early Christmas gifts, about which I am simply pleased as punch: a vintage baby blue cologne bottle that I've decided to use as a vase and a brass-finished plate necklace of a white swan gliding serenely across a lake.



Necklace by Grandmother's Buttons, how appropriate.



All in all it was a great night. We're buds.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our "Judicial" System.

I have two very depressing and familiar words for you...

JURY DUTY.



After evading my summons last July when scheduled to be in Orlando for three months I decided to report at 9 a.m. yesterday like a goodly citizen, only to spend a nine hour day listening to and eventually berated by a bunch of court room idiots. Now ok, I didn't want to be there. No one does. I didn't want to be picked. No one does. But I found myself becoming sincerely interested in the case and fervently listening to both the instructions of the judge and the attorneys' questioning of each potential juror, rather than sleep, daze, or read my book (like every single other juror waiting to be questioned.) The case was as follows, and since I left that room classier than anyone else in there, I'll leave names unmentioned:

DEX.

Only ONE episode left in the season!

Any predictions???

I think Deb knows........I think Deb's always known.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Novice thinking.

"If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy, I could've won."
Mumford & Sons "I Gave You All"

Well, in lieu of this lyric's very prominent relevance in my life, I have begun writing...finally. Not a ton, but enough. It's still 
hard for me to set my own goals when it comes to finishing an entire story (or even blog or book), but I've certainly been 
jotting things down more often, and I suppose, too, that it's more of an ongoing battle; must keep telling myself that as long as
I do a little bit here and there, just keep the juices flowing, then I won't completely lose creative drive. More importantly, the 
day to day processes of work and play will start pouring forth good material for coverage. However, I still only write for 
myself, and it dawned on me that writing on a team for a bigger audience (something I would love to do) could prove to be a challenging switch.

I read an interview between two young filmmaker friends - NYU grads Jody Lee Lipes and Lance Edmands - that touched on 
the creative process from a novice point of view. Most interesting to me was Lipes' discussion on how he maintained a certain 
amount of creative stamina when he had no money and was forced to commercialize his work against his will. For both Lipes 
and Edmands the biggest obstacle was and still is figuring out how to fulfill personal creative goals while still drawing audiences.

The Interview

LE: "When you're making a film it's a constant battle about what you want and what does the audience want."

JLL: "I definitely think that movies that push the boundaries of entertainment and storytelling can be great, but to me the 
ultimate goal is to make films that are unique, but that still have a mass appeal. The best creative minds can create a movie that 
everyone loves but still has its own voice. Even someone like Kubrick was always upset that more people didn't go to see his
movies...I think it's more about your personality. I have a sort of lofty theory that when you make movies you have to make 
strong decisions. I think most of the movies I like turn out better that way, rather than trying a thousand different things 
without a commitment to telling a story a certain way."


Make strong decisions and commit. 
Commit. Commit. Commit.

At least I'm getting a little better in this endeavor...