Laura's Online Journal
Comments? Your movie reviews? I would love to hear from you! lauralu@mac.com
Enough about you, let's talk about me....
October 31, 2005
Banished Ballet GarbSo one of my ballet teachers told me I could not wear one of my shirts to class anymore. I had to agree with her. It was a man's white with thin black stripes polo type shirt that I had ripped the collar off of and had washed so many times that it was very soft and comfortable and somewhat flattering. I have had it since the summer Elvis died. And it wasn't new when I got it. I found it in the lost and found bin at the pool where I was lifeguarding. So by the time my teacher told me that I should retire the shirt it had plenty holes and tears. I used it the following weekend as a rag for our painting project. She now thinks it's funny every week when I ask for her ballet garb seal of approval.
This past Saturday I went to Dana's rehearsal for the new dance piece he is working on. It was cool because the composer, costume designer, someone who is considering doing the set design and some other friends were there. I was there because Dana asked me to put together some images that will be projected during the dance. It was fun to be part of the creative process. And it was nice to see the dancers. Some of them I had not talked to since we were all in Latvia. I took some pictures.
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| The dancers warm up before rehearsal | |
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| Dana talks to us while his dancers go over a section of the dance. | |
October 25, 2005
It's fall!It's finally cool here. We had a nice brisk bicycle ride yesterday morning in 50 degree weather. And I did not fall this week. Last week we took a small detour down a gravel driveway to look at an interesting house and as I was turning my bike to go back I fell. This is the third fall in the last couple of years and none was while I was moving. They were just ungraceful falls as gravity shifts in a direction I do not expect.
I made a little movie of Graeme's trip to DC this past summer. We went to a Lego convention and the Visionary art museum where Graeme played with a very large chess set.
Some more movie/DVD reviews
Bad Santa
A story
that was half vulgar, half nice about a miserable drunk and his
friend who get jobs as Santa and his elf at department stores at Christmas time
and then rob the store before they skip town. The drunk befriends a loser
kid, a relationship that is pretty predictable and mostly uninteresting. There were one or two sweet parts. I liked the relationship between the drunk and
his fellow con man much better.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I thought this movie was very well done. Kate Winslet plays a
woman who is not happy in her relationship so she goes to a doctor who
promises to remove her memories of her boyfriend. When the boyfriend, played
by Jim Carrey, hears that she has done this he decides to do it himself. Only
he changes his mind in the middle of the procedure and tries to hide his
memories from those who are trying to erase them. It is a bit of a puzzle
with time shifting back and forth and I did not follow it all but I really
enjoyed it. I figure if I went back and watched it again and paid attention to
her hair color and roots I could put together a timeline.
Sordid Lives
This
seemed like an amateur video of an amateur play. It was a story of a dead
grandmother, her married lover and his angry wife, her sister who picks a
bad time to quit smoking, her bickering daughters, a grandson coming out of
the closet, her transvestite son in an insane asylum and a country singer
played by Olivia Newton-John. It was painful in parts. The characters were
mostly cliches with the exception of the transvestite, named Brother Boy, who
was interesting and well acted.
October 12, 2005
New TV Season ReviewHere is my take on the new shows that we have watched:
- My Name Is Earl: From the commercials it was hard to tell if this was going to be funny or just mean and stupid but I am happy to report that after three episodes I like this show a lot. Earl learns about karma from an unlikely source (Carson Daly) and decides he needs to turn his life around so he makes a list of all the people he ever bullied or stole from or conned. Each week he picks one person on the list and tries to make things right. The stories are not totally predictable and there is a sweetness to it that I did not expect. And it stars that guy from the Rubberband Man Office Max commercials.
- Invasion: This was pushed as a "companion show" to Lost. It involves the aftermath of a hurricane and a possible alien invasion. It's OK but even if it had a Naveen Andrews lookalike it would be nowhere near as good as Lost.
- Threshold: It involves a possible alien invasion. There was way too much of the lead character running around in her frilly night gown.
- Surface: It involves a possible new species wreaking terror in bodies of water around the world or maybe it's just an alien invasion. It's OK.
- Prison Break: This show is about a man who goes to jail to help his brother, who he believes was framed for a murder, escape. It is well done but it is a bit too violent for my taste.
- And I am very glad Arrested Development and The Office, shows that are not getting the ratings they should, were renewed.
- And I continue to enjoy Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
This week's pics: A picture from Dana and Aaron's patio and wall unit fill-in progress:
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October 3, 2005
New storage spaceSo last week we had our new wall unit installed. It really looks nice and we're having fun filling it with all our stuff although we are taking the opportunity to do some serious purging. I don't need that Vanity Fair magazine with Melanie Griffith on the cover that I got at an airport in 1985 or that old badly dubbed Jackie Chan film on VHS tape.
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