A Picture Show

Yesterday I went to AMC’s "Best Picture Showcase." Basically, for thirty bucks, you spend twelve hours at the theater, get to see all five Academy Award nominees, and get to enjoy endless free refills. It was a hell of a marathon (with twenty minute breaks between each film) but a good movie experience overall. Of course, by the end I was seriously fiending for anything that wasn’t salty, over-processed, and carbonated.

11:00 a.m. - Michael Clayton (Mmm, popcorn and diet coke for breakfast…)
Four stars
This is great movie despite the fairly typical lawyer-takes-on-big-bad-corporation plotline (à la Erin Brockovich or A Civil Action). The relationship between Michael and his son is one of the most interesting bits of the movie, doubly so because it is only about the two of them: there is no typical, annoyingly controlling mother involved.
The movie does turn a little too John Grisham-esque toward the end, but still good stuff.

Best Line: (To his son as he drops him off at elementary school) “Go teach those people something, will ya?”

1:20 p.m. - There Will Be Blood
Five stars
An absolutely remarkable film. Art. Daniel Day-Lewis is phenomenal – I mean really, wow. He plays an excellent character that manages to be a badass, a family man, and a snarky mofo all at once. It has a fascinating storyline that is not nearly as heavy as I was expecting. I did do a fair amount of wincing (that old-time oil drilling stuff was rough) but most of the dialogue is actually pretty amusing, if not outright funny.
And the score, my god, the score. It adds so much to this film. The music literally reached into my guts and pulled. I went out and bought the CD today and I was shocked (though I shouldn't be) and super impressed to realize Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead's lead guitar) was the composer. Loverly.

Best Line: “One night, I’m gonna come inside your house, wherever you’re sleeping, and I'm gonna cut your throat.”

4:20 p.m. - Atonement
Three stars
This is one of those powerful, sweeping love stories that everyone says are really great, but I never seem to be in the mood to watch. (I skipped The Notebook, The English Patient, et al.) This is a decent movie though; I'm generally glad I saw it. The first half is pretty fun: it is all whimsical and floaty and a little bit… um… naughty.
The second half is sort of dull. It is, however, worth watching this movie just to see the beautiful, uncut, five minute scene of the soldiers on the beach that mixes the horror of war with the whimsy of Ferris wheels and singing.

One small thing that just really got under my skin: I find it hard to believe that the main character would have exactly the same hair cut, which she wears in the exact same hairclip, from age ten to seventy. Did the director think we would not understand the passage of time or who the (only blonde) girl/women was without such an annoyingly clear indicator?

Best Line: “Bite it… You’ve got to bite it.”
There is one other line that is better, but it is never spoken (only written) and frankly, I would blush if I wrote it here for you.

7:00 p.m. - Juno
Five stars
One word about this movie: bitchin. It lives up to all the hype. Granted the dialogue is (rather awesomely) unrealistic but hey, it’s a movie, right – suspend reality for entertainment purposes. Oddly enough, this comedy was the only movie of the five that had me crying. (For those who don’t know me, all bravado aside, I am a softy at times.)
I bought this stellar soundtrack as well.

Best Line: “That little pink plus sign is so unholy.”

9:00 p.m. - No Country For Old Men
Two and ½ stars
This is a bloodbath of a bad movie. I didn’t have high hopes after DCM’s scathing book review, but I thought surely the movie would be better then the novel. No such luck. It has all sorts of potential in the beginning but quickly turns into a nonsensical mess. There isn’t much of a storyline so the shoot ‘um up scenes just trip over each other and don’t actually seem to serve much purpose at all (other than basic bloody action-type entertainment). Really, I could have skipped the middle hour of the movie and not have missed a beat of the tangled plot. The one saving grace: Tommy Lee Jones is entertaining.

Best Line: “Hell’s bells, they even shot the dog.”

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #27:
Do see an erupting volcano.
Don't use a flow-restricting shower head.

- lada will agree to disagree

T.I.L. (part II)

(A song lyric triggered this memory recently and I wanted to write it down before I lost it again forever. It is not a fun memory, but it is lada.)

"It Wears Me Out"

I am seventeen. I am standing outside a house that belongs to a friend of a friend. It is unusual that I am here; we have never spent time alone together in the past and I surprised him by coming over rather randomly. (I suppose, like any teenager, I was just bored and did not want to be alone.) But he is friendly enough, so Travis and I are now sitting outside his house, chatting and wasting time leaning against the hood of my car in the sunshine.

I see in the distance a young boy running down the street and as I watch, the child sees us and veers in our direction. Curious, I ask Travis if knows the boy; he does not. The boy runs right up to us wearing an oddly pained expression on his small face. He offers a shy hello and then he mumbles something about a sick dog, gesturing in the direction from which he came. He asks us if it is our dog. It isn't, but we are concerned and tell him to show us where it is. As we are following the child back up the street, it occurs to me that the roles in this situation are strangely reversed from your typical episode of Lassie.

We see the beautiful black Labrador, lying on its side in the road. His fur is matted and bloody. He does not move as we approach, though he is still very much alive. He is whining in pain - banged up, hit by a car, left for dead. I draw near to him cautiously: weary of an injured animal but still feeling the instinct to reach out and give comfort. I sit next to him but do not extend my hand.

The young boy tells us that he has to go home - I think he is mostly just frightened. Travis is on his cell phone, desperately arguing with the operator for information about whom we should call for help. The operator cannot seem to be able to find the number to animal control.

I pet the dog. I am afraid to touch him because he is badly cut and scraped and must have internal injuries and I do not want to hurt him more. I gently rub the thin patch of glossy black fur between his eyes. He looks at me and blinks slowly with each stroke. I begin to cry.

Travis is pacing, cursing. He wants to fix the problem but he cannot. Animal control is saying that they will come by later, but we know later is too late. No one is coming to help.

The dog just stares at us. He is dying. I tell him that he is not alone, that I am so sorry, that the pain will stop soon. I do not say these things out loud; I try to convey them to him with my eyes as he stares at me and I hope he understands. He blinks again but I do not know what he is trying to say to me in response.

Blood begins to trickle out of his mouth. Travis and I are distraught. He is sitting next to me and we are trying to ease the dog with gentle touches. We are both speaking out loud now, babbling useless platitudes: it will be okay, just keep hanging on, don’t stop breathing.

And the dog dies. I feel ill. I am angry and frustrated but hoping I made passing easier for the poor creature. My heart hurts. I do not want to think about the family who loves this dog. The body is now just a body and I do not want to look at its emptiness. I walk away and leave it for animal control to come and collect at their leisure.

We walk back to Travis’s house. We are emotional but do not know what to say to one another - we are not close, he is only a friend of a friend, so it is an awkward moment. We mutter goodbyes and I get into my car. I make a three-point turn so I do not have to drive past the body on my way out of his neighborhood. I am crying all the way home.

I have never seen birth, but I have seen death.

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #26:
Do go bungee jumping.
Don't disparage Nixon more than necessary.

- lada doesn't like crying cause it only gets her wet

Rock and Roll

A complete list of all the shows I have attended (or as many as I can recall):

Athenaeum
Barenaked Ladies
Beck
Cake
Chicago
Eric Clapton
Sheryl Crow
Dido
Bob Dylan
Drive By Truckers
Ben Folds (x4)
The Hives
Jude
KC & the Sunshine Band
Phil Lesh
Local H
Mannheim Steamroller
Maroon 5
Matchbox Twenty (x2)
Matisyahu
Dave Matthews
John Mayer (x2)
Paul McCartney (x2)
Medeski, Martin & Wood
Moby (x2)
Alanis Morissette
‘N Sync
Phish
Radiohead
Remy Zero
Semisonic (x2)
Sister Hazel
Smashing Pumpkins (x2)
Spacehog
Third Eye Blind
Tonic
Travis
The Village People
Violent Femmes
Rufus Wainwright
Weezer
Widespread Panic
Wilco
Wolf Parade
311 (x 8)

UPDATES
Spoon - 4/13/08
Eisley - 4/21/08

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #25:
Do capture the moment in an award-winning photo.
Don't listen to prognosticators.

- how does lada afford her rock and roll lifestyle

For the Grown and Sexy Crowd

Can it get any better than an adults-only skate party with alcohol?
No, it cannot!
Here is a picture of Karen and I couple skating. Granted we were probably cuter when we were eight and six, but this time we had beer, so...

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #24:
Do see a space shuttle launch.
Don't lock yourself out.

- lada can limbo lower

I Need a Drink

I got a venti hot tea from Starbucks this morning: black currant. As I took my first sip, the cup crumbled and I dumped the entire thing all over my car - soaking my pants and scalding the hell out of my thigh in the process. Unfortunately, I had just spent two hours in the car driving to work in Charleston and I couldn't quite run home to dry off, change, or apply aloe vera.

I was in pain, dripping wet, and still thirsty. I stopped at a gas station to get a (chilled) beverage, pulled a Cherry Coke from the refrigerator and promptly dropped it. The cap flew off and the entire bottle exploded, covering me and half the gas station in the fizzy mess.

I was in pain, dripping wet, sticky, smelling of various fruits, and still thirsty.

And grumpy.

Will someone pass me the vodka (and a straw)?

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #23:
Do get arrested.
Don't cook spaghetti al dente.

- lada is dehydrated

Good People

I heart my car. She is a sweet little Corolla: black, manual drive, with illegally tinted windows. Though we have been through a lot together (almost sinking in a lake, Heather learning how to drive a stick, etc.) I only recently settled on a name for her, “Good People.”

Well, the dear girl hit the big 100,000 mark recently (I think she was 12 when I got her back in December 2003). That is a lot of rock and roll miles in four short years. It was a special moment for us when the dial hit that milestone - I pulled over and poured out a 40 oz. in remembrance of all the cars I have loved and wrecked in the past.

Here’s to the next 100,000 miles.

101 Things to do (or don't) before you die - #22:
Do go up in a hot air balloon.
Don't fear the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

- lada is a wolf but she likes to wear sheep's clothing