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Angharad
Jan. 1st, 2010
01:28 am - Books I Read in 2009
Wicked Widow, Amanda Quick
The Third Circle, Amanda Quick
The Perfect Poison, Amanda Quick
No Choice But Seduction, Johanna Lindsey
A Rogue of My Own, Johanna Lindsey
By Love Undone, Suzanne Enoch
Taming Rafe, Suzanne Enoch
After the Kiss, Suzanne Enoch
Before the Scandal, Suzanne Enoch
Always A Scoundrel, Suzanne Enoch
The Care and Taming of a Rogue, Suzanne Enoch
To Rescue a Rogue, Jo Beverley
Led Astray by a Rake, Sara Bennett
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris
Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris
Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris
From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, L.J. Smith
The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle, L.J. Smith
Total = 26
I know I'll never equal 2008, during which I read 56 books, but, nevertheless, this year's tally makes me a little disappointed.
Apr. 17th, 2009
10:42 pm
Found this comment on Huff. Post, a shining example of the tunnel vision of the anti-abortion/anti-choice* movement:
"The morals involved are not negotiable. They are more important than any end result we can achieve.
Let me be clear. I would rather act in a moral way, and have more abortions, than act in an immoral way and have fewer abortions result."
*I call them that because they are not "pro-life"; that's just bullshit p.r. And I consider myself anti-abortion. I don't think abortion is a good thing, but I also think it should be legal. So I'm pro-choice/anti-abortion.
Apr. 2nd, 2009
01:43 pm
Saw the photos of the G-20 summit. Just some notes:
1) With his height, Obama should have been in the back row. But I guess considering his prominence, putting him in the middle row and off to the side was about as much as the organizers could do. Still, I felt bad for the guy behind him. (I couldn't recognize him. Not only was Obama's big smiling face blocking him, the picture was small.)
2) The wives picture was even more interesting to me. First of all, where were Joachim Sauer and Néstor Kirchner? Maybe putting them in there would have been too radical. But you know if Hillary had won the election, Bill would have been smack in the middle of that photo holding two thumbs up. (*Sigh* Still a little sad over what might have been. Too bad too many people in this country *cough*donutato_kun*cough* have CDD--Clinton Dysphoric Disorder--irrational antipathy to all things Clintonian.)
3) Again, Michelle, with her height, should have been in the back. But there she was standing in the center, like all the other wives just emanated out from her. About three wives seem to be standing on tiptoe to look over her shoulders.
4) Speaking of shoulders, I thought it was just a little weird to see Michelle (sleeveless, of course--with her arms, who wouldn't be?) next to Emine Erdogan, the wife of the Prime Minister of Turkey.
5) Finally, where was Carla Bruni? Did all the other wives get together and vote to keep her out of the picture? Were Svetlana Medvedev and Margarida Sousa Uva the most attractive women allowed in? I feel bad for that poor woman on the far left--in a dress that didn't fit while the photographer was using a wide-angle lens (which distorts the sides)?
Update: Just read that Bruni isn't attending the conference. Was she afraid she'd be shunned by the other wives?
Apr. 1st, 2009
03:35 pm - It's Official
Hollywood has run out of new ideas. They're now remaking Clash of the Titans.
Now, I like COTT, but without Harry Hamlin's rippling physique it wouldn't have been anything (Lord Olivier not withstanding).
Mar. 19th, 2009
12:28 am - A Film Recommendation
I wrote this nearly two years ago. (I have yet to complete my 2005 Oscar rant--damn you, Hustle & Flow, but if I ever get around to it, this movie with be on it in both the Picture and Actress sections.)
From 2007:
I don't think there's been another creative partnership in the history of cinema as fruitful as Merchant Ivory. Even Powell/Pressburger didn't last as long or create an oeuvre of such majesty.
Director James Ivory is carrying on, with City of Your Final Destination, written by frequent Merchant Ivory collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, but, without his partner of 45 years (producer Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005 before the release of The White Countess), it's hard to think it'll be the same.
The White Countess is not Merchant Ivory's masterpiece--that's Howards End. But the elegiac Countess, which tells the story of a blind, American diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) who opens a bar in Shanghai with the help of a dispossessed, Russian countess (Natasha Richardson) who has prostituted herself to support her dead husband's family, has the same deliberate pacing (that never seems slow), the same intelligence, the same ability to find the epic and the tragic in the smallest moments. And, most of all, it has the same visual beauty.
Here, the pastels of the English countryside have given way to the jeweled palette of pre-WWII Shanghai. Each frame is a painting, but not in the creepy, pretentious way of Road to Perdition. At the beginning of the film, a little girl looks at some kind of Chinese folk art where still paintings start to move. And that sets up the visual style of the film. One shot at the turning point in the film illustrates this particularly well. Matsuda, the Japanese "businessman" (Hiroyuki Sanada), stands motionless on a balcony overlooking Shanghai just before the Japanese invasion. The shot is dark, the colors drab. The camera pulls slightly back, almost infinitesimally, and the brilliant white of the overcast sky bursts in from the upper left. The canted angle makes the edge of the building a diagonal from the upper right to the lower left. The violent contrast hints at the physical violence to come and leaves Matsuda in ominous darkness.
The film is also one of the few films I know that use subjective sound. Subjective visuals (where the shot imitates the point of view of a character in the film) are common. But subjective sound is rare. It was used to great effect in I Want to Live where a journalist, who is hard of hearing, turns off his hearing aid after an execution and the viewer is left in complete silence. The use in The White Countess is subtler ("Subtle" being a common adjective in descriptions of Merchant Ivory's work.) As explosions are going off and people are shouting and rushing about, a child's cry distinguishes itself from the din, and the audience realizes they've entered the heightened aural sensitivity of a blind man. Lesser, more commercial filmmakers would take down the din and isolate the girl's cries, maybe even do a close-up on Fiennes's ear, just in case the audience didn't understand what was going on. But Merchant Ivory have always trusted the intelligence of their audience, assuming that the audience can follow wherever they want to take it.
I don't know if Ismail Merchant knew he was dying as they made The White Countess, but there's a moment near the end of the film that provides the epitaph for his and James Ivory's work together. The Japanese are coming in and the bombs exploding outside. Matsuda speaks to the main character and laments/celebrates the bar saying, "It meant much to me that for a small moment in our lives we were able to be friends and create something of beauty here together."
From 2009:
In focusing on the death of Ismail Merchant, I neglected to comment on how great Natasha Richardson was in the film, an unforgivable oversight. I never saw Richardson on the stage, where she was reportedly magnificent, and tended to view her as a kind of journeyman actress, the kind who can always be counted on to deliver a solid performance in a supporting role. In The White Countess, however, she admirably conjures up the glamor, mystique, and tragedy of a character who represents that fleeting moment of beauty that comes out of calamity, the aesthetic of tragedy. The White Countess is a movie that captures the moment of decadence (in the true sense of the word) before the world ends.
In memoriam: Natasha Richardson 1963-2009
Mar. 6th, 2009
11:47 am - Two of My Lols Made the Rolfrazzi voting page
http://roflrazzi.com/upcoming/page/4/
see more celeb pics
see more celeb pics
Yes, I've been very productive while I've been sick.
Mar. 1st, 2009
01:38 pm - Conservative Intellect
Rush Limbaugh apparently said this at a speech on Saturday:
"We [conservatives] love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble of the Constitution contains an inarguable truth, that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, freedom -- and the pursuit of happiness."
He might want to read those founding documents again. The preamble for the Constitution reads:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
On the other hand, the Declaration of Independence says:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
What shocks me is that no one is reporting this error. Maybe the people in the news media are just too ignorant to realize this mistake.
Feb. 22nd, 2009
11:07 pm - Notes on the Oscars
First of all, who thought the Oscars would be more appealing by turning it into the Circus O'Gay? The production numbers were some of the worst I've seen.
And the second only featured two songs that were originally from movies--most were Broadway songs that had been included in the film adaptations. It's not like there's a shortage of great movie songs.
They screwed up the death montage. Don't distract us with Queen Latifah and her vagina armpits (Seriously, Dana, get a dress that fits). Just show us the people and their work.
Was the comedy bit with Seth Rogan and James Franco supposed to be funny?
Finally, just show clips of the nominees' performances. The old winners talking directly to the nominees was just creepy.
Feb. 12th, 2009
10:23 pm
I didn't realize it, but my LOL made it to the LOL News and Politics voting page.
http://punditkitchen.com/upcoming/p
see more funny political pictures
Feb. 8th, 2009
10:20 pm - Top Rejected Slogans by the African Union Tourist Bureau
(I don't know what I was thinking when I made these up last night. And I'm not sure if I did make up the last one. I might have read it somewhere.)
Come rediscover Rwanda. Compared to Sudan, we’re not half bad.
Sudan: You’ve seen us on the news—now see us in person.
South Africa: Yes, all our women look like Charlize Theron.
If you loved Black Hawk Down and Pirates of the Caribbean, you’ll love Somalia!
Why stay in a hotel when you can buy it? In Zimbabwe, all our hotels sell for less than five dollars. For ten, you can have the country. (American dollars only, please.)
Kenya: Experience our Presidential tour in the homeland of the Obamas. All Obama, all the time. It’s Obamamania!
Infertile? Come to Malawi! It’s babies, babies, babies! We’re slashing prices. Infants now half-off! And toddlers we’re practically giving away! Buy now and pay no interest for 12 months. (Certain restrictions apply.)
Republic of the Congo—at least, we’re not the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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