I’m not sure Greg’s actually ever SEEN Gigi before, and I was totally delighted that it came on TV. The comments he’s been making are HILARIOUS, he had no idea why I was SO EXCITED at the beginning when the old guy started to sing. Ahahahaa, as Steffi says, Honoré Lachaille is the most debonair of all the pedobears. xD

And then, this:

Greg: So, is this move Pride & Prejudice?
Me: No, cause Pride & Prejudice doesn’t have whores in it.
Greg: Sure it did,
Me: Well, Okay, so if you ignored the fact that Elizabeth has sisters…
Greg: Yes, if you’re assuming Elizabeth is independent from everything else.
Me: OKAY! Well if its JUST Lizzie & Darcy, and you pretend that they’re in France and there’s whores everywhere: Yes. This is Pride & Prejudice.

We’re so old, every story is always delineated as another… ^_^;;

Inkheart

(2008)
☆ 3/5 Leather Bound Books
⇒ Its a solid kid’s movie. Competent, has everything there, magic, mystery, and a little mayhem. Got a MASSIVE squee out of Jennifer Connelly’s cameo considering her role vs Paul Bettany’s, even though it was decidedly lack lustre. Great cast, who do exactly what their roles require of them but not much more. Not a lot more to say about it other than ’solid’ really. xD

Although, as an aside? I have to take a moment to say: EEEEE! VINTAGE BUTTONS ON HER LAPELS! LOVE! ♥

Mamma Mia!

(2008)
☆ 3.5/5 Ivy Wrapped Hanging Jars of Candle Light
⇒ I have a problem with musicals so getting over the non-stop Abba songs from start to finish and wishing for more dialogue and less ballad-iering was something I had to wrestle with the for the entire movie. That the majority of the cast had issues with singing & yet everyone was clearly having a massive ball, however, was endearing enough to carry it through. The story was as warm, gooey & adorable as anticipated, so all in all it delivers exactly what you expect, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Another aside? I think I’d've enjoyed ZOMBIE!Mamma Mia! infinitely more. ;)

District 9

(2009)
☆ 4/5 Squished Papiêr Maché Bowls
⇒ Incredibly good, but leaves you feeling incredibly ‘blah’ at the human race. Though is that really something that should be a but? Its narrative use of parallels to apartheid & human rights atrocities around the globe are firmly in the ’so good yet obvious, why has this not already been done!?’ pile. Leaves you squeamish, ashamed, bemused, angry, heartfelt, hopeless yet hopeful all at the same time – with enough explosions, mandibles & physics defying space ships to make it a real piece of exceptional Science Fiction.

Get Smart

(2008)
☆ 2/5 Swordfish Through Your Windscreen
⇒ Less shit than you expect.

2012

(2009)
☆ .5/5 Russian Oligarchs
⇒ Possibly even more crap than you would expect. But unfortunately not so crap that it’s awesome. Save yourself two and a half hours and a lot of brain cells and read this instead: 2012 in 15 minutes.

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

Jenji comes through with the linkie goodness goods once again! Though this clip feels a little long, I COVET this as it would make baking so much easier! xD And could you imagine all the awesome decorating control you would have?! MAN! Screw hover cars and jetpacks, I wish the future had included this.

We don’t want to listen to terrifying Country & Western all night (though a few choice tracks will be peppered in I’m sure) but its actually hard to come up with stuff that’s good and STILL party atmosphere! xD

We’ve got the Deadwood soundtrack, umpteen versions of These Boots Were Made for Walking, some other Nancy Sinatra, a little Tom Waits but… Honestly? We can’t really just have that on repeat all night. xD

SO! Does anyone have any suggestions? Songs with v. wild west lyrics? Music that sounds like its straight out of the era? I’d LOVE to hear them! I’ve probably got much much more than I think in my collection (I’m sure I’ve got Will Smith kicking around here ;)) but anything even for a memory jog would be epics!

Edit: I asked Greg if he was going to suggest something TERRIFYING (he’s very into death metal and post metal) but he took one look at the post and announced that I “..need the Young Guns Soundtrack!” and MY GOD he’s right. Also some Zeppelin that would work perfectly. YAY!

THANKS IN ADVANCE, ARMS CALLER ANSWERER TYPE PEOPLES! :D

Against her better judgement, Jenji linked me this piece of golden gold. SHINING GOLD, GOLD OF THE LAND OF COMMUNISM AND PANDAS!

(Honestly I had a mental blank about whether or not China was the land of shining sun or if that was Japan. So I asked Greg what China was the land of and THAT’S what he came up with. Oh. And bamboo. GREAT EXPORTS YOU GOT THERE, CHINA!)

But honestly the REAL gold is in the comments:

This TOTALLY inspires me, for my birthday this year, to have a marathon of this documentary series: AS A DRINKING GAME. Every time they say the word China you drink. Its ~educational~!

Oh, and CHINA!

But. A few hours ago, a resplendent Bec flew into our room all aglow and announced that, after wanting to watch it since she’d first heard about it, she’d just finished watching Julie & Julia that she thought it was LOVELY, that I’d especially enjoy ‘Julia’s’ … Well its hard to replicate on the page, let’s just go with her exuberant sound… ;) And if Greg didn’t mind did I want to watch it before I went to sleep.

Having been entranced by its concept when Bec first told me about the film months ago, I managed to persuade (and by persuade I mean flippantly ask if he’d mind in a casual manner with a kiss or two for good measure) Greg to let me watch it and carefully went to the lounge to take Bec up on her offer.

WELL! After thinking I’d watch it while doing some other things I was utterly taken by the first ten minutes, turned off everything, shut my computer and started it from the beginning to pay PROPER attention.

I loved EVERY SINGLE MOMENT! It was just, joyous, and fun, and INSPIRING! When I rate it for my darn movie challenge (this is the FIRST movie we’ve seen this month – SLACKERS!) I’ll be rating it out of butter. Delicious, glorious, sticks of butter. And I’m mentally ready to BURST FORTH into the kitchen and cook up a zillion storms and blog about them profusely.

Now if my damn body would just oblige me.

But I don’t care, next week while at Mum & Dad’s I’m planning on taking LIBERAL liberties with their stand mixer and get January & February’s Daring Baker’s challenges done and dusted. And hopefully DELICIOUSLY!

I saw my genius massage therapist, Mr Beaton, today and I’m going to see him again the Tuesday following our return anyway, so he can undo any punishment I’ve done to myself over that week. Which I’m sure wont be that much since my darling partner will be looming over me the whole time making hrrmmmmm faces and generally telling me to rest. WHICH I PROMISE TO HEED.

Mostly.

PS: FORMAL FIFTIES DRESSES WITH POCKETS! WHAT A TRIUMPH!! *adoration*

Last year in March a few friends and I attempted to start a 50 Movie Club in which we’d watch 50 movies and record them all to our journals. Unfortunately due to an EXPLOSION in life events I managed to post two films before that utterly died.

So this year, a reboot. 12 months, 12 movies per month (minimum), for 2010. That’s a lot of ones and twos. And I like it.

To try and not OVERWHELM myself or readers, I’m posting reviews four up. Cause its a tidy little number that fits into 12 nicely. That and I’m already sitting at 13 films… xD

RECOMMENDATIONS ARE WELCOME! Though we already have quite an impressive list, we’re always looking for more and I’m pretty much up for anything, though don’t kill me if I absolutely hate your favourite movie ^_^;;;

Life as a House

(2001)
☆ 3/5 Stapleguns
⇒ Much better and simultaneously much worse than I was expecting. The whole film reeks of “I am trying to get an Oscar, and I bet I will.” But that’s sometimes okay too. Hayden Christiansen’s niche role as ‘whiny confused emo kid’ is played out to the hilt, Kevin Kline pulls your heartstrings as you know he can. The rest of the cast is predictably endearing/mainstream quirky and as such are solid in their roles. One thing that irked me greatly though? WTF STAPLEGUNNING LIGHTS ONTO THE GORGEOUS TIMBER BEAMS?! AUUUUGH!! All that beautiful hardwood, ruined! ;_;

And Soon the Darkness

(1970)
☆ 2/5 Bicycle Spokes
⇒ Slow, ambling, but somehow intriguing. You don’t understand how the main women, Jane & Cathy, are even friends and a lot of the film/character motivations makes no sense at all. However, it does draw you in to the point where you do actually want to see the film out. One shakily delivered line in the movie fairly early on does give what one assumes to be the climactic twist away, but it doesn’t detract from the unlikely captivation. Definitely looking forward to see what the remake has to offer.
Image courtesy of Shadowplay

Moon

(2009)
☆ 4.5/5 Post-It Notes
⇒ NOT EVEN REMOTELY SIMILAR/HOLY CRAP NOTHING EVEN RESEMBLING THE TRAILER/WTH..! But! Gorgeously acted, beautifully set, wonderfully full of ’show, not tell’ this tale plays out simply, cleanly and still psychologically – just not in the ‘edge of your seat’ thriller sense of the word. Though the plot is predictable, it stills feels fresh and never detracts from the message, concepts and your very real emotional response. Sam Rockwell is a hero, and Kevin Spacey renews our faith in Robotic Assistants. IN YOUR FACE, HAL! Gerty forever ;)
Image courtesy of New York Magazine

Trilogia: To livadi pou dakryzei (Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow)

(2004)
☆ 2/5 Non Sequiturs
⇒ This movie is depressing and then its depressing and then its depressing. Or at least, its trying to be. Unfortunately the director/writer, Theodoros Angelopoulos, attempts to be much smarter and deeper than he really is at the cost of the viewer being able to identify or even empathise with any of the characters. Instead you get apparently profound knitting, or a tree fruiting the corpses of dead sheep. Having to constantly be aware that you’re watching a movie so that you can work out the time shifts or that there has even been a passage of time detracts too from your immersion in the moods the filmmaker is so desperately trying to evoke. The moral of the tale? Not that every film needs a moral… ‘War sucks, no one ever knows whats going on and just when you think you may have hope or that someone is back from the dead, they’re dead anyway.’
Image courtesy of Mostra

But, in terms of CURRENT TV, I’m going with the three shows I most care/fangirl about. Though, bear in mind I’m not including shows like Top Gear, Grand Designs or ANYTHING River Cottage. Cause otherwise this list would be six. Which I guess it is now. Huh.

ANYWAY, so about those “three” tv shows… *whistles* In no apparent order:
Castle: I LOVE AND ADORE NATHAN FILLION! But he’s not the be all and end all of my love for this show. The banter is brilliant, the character development is king and every single cast member is a valuable part of the ’squee’ experience. Its not hard hitting, it has its serious moments but its not serious – though even through the jokes the crimes themselves are never treated as pure figments of fun. But goddamn, this show IS pure entertainment, and entertainment at its finest. ♥

True Blood: NOMMY. VAMPIRES. ARE. NOMMY! Season two, when Eric walks into his dungeon with foils in his hair & a green hairdressing cape on, annoyed and ready to rip a redneck limb from limb? THAT is some awesome viewing right there. From the little touches like newspaper headlines touting Angelina’s new adopted vampire baby, to the brilliance of bad-ass vamps comparing their top scores in Wii Golf? True Blood is one satisfying thirst quencher. ♥

Supernatural: I’ve been a Jensen Ackles fan since I was fifteen. That’s nearly HALF my entire life. xD Hell, I even religiously watched Days of Our Lives when he was in it just for him. So its no surprise that I’m a MASSIVE fan of SN. But, as with Castle, its not because I’m a gooey-eyed fan-girl that I love this show. Though, that’s clearly part of it, its that when this show is bad its very very bad, but when this show is good? ITS AWESOME.

PS: You may have noticed that this challenge hasn’t been very ‘everyday’ by me. I’ve just come to the conclusion that its not possible, and so I’m posting them as I have time/opportunity. I guess that makes it more of a 30 Post Challenge, but as long as its done in a timely manner, WHO CARES, AMIRITE!? :D

Screen caps from: deadwoodstage, sky-angel22 & castletvshow

Blu Dot Real Good Experiment from Real Good Chair on Vimeo.

When we opened our SoHo store in 2008, we were introduced to the resourceful culture of “curb-mining”: the act of finding furniture and art on the street. Now that a year has passed, we decided to conduct a curb-mining experiment of our own to celebrate our one-year anniversary in New York.

On November 4-5, 25 Real Good Chairs were dropped around NYC, free for the take. Many were GPS-enabled. Watch the film to see what happened.

Directed by Andrew Zuchero
Produced by Supermarche
Concept by mono
Technology by Tellart

Ahahaha! I’m off re-posting things my friends have posted again, but this is just TOO glorious to not! Love the editing, the concept, the CHAIR! And man every single one of the INCOs seem to be seriously awesome people.

I’d so love to see just how ’sit-able’ that chair is…