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Comments? Your movie reviews? I would love to hear from you! lauralu@mac.com
I ordered my first $0.99 song from the iTunes Music store this weekend - "Joints and Jam" by the Black Eyed Peas. It is a song I had downloaded from somewhere a while ago but I had misplaced the file. I wanted to put it on a CD I am making for my nephew Graeme. Since the original download probably had a low bitrate anyway I decided to do the right thing and buy it. It was easy and almost painless - turns out they charge tax so the total came to $1.05.
Some more movie reviews
Mysterious Object at Noon
Ok, the idea of this movie from Thailand intrigued me. Start a story and
have a bunch of people continue it and intersperse people acting it out.
Well, my feeling is that the director sort of did what he set out to do
but mostly he just turned the camera on and took footage. The movie was
slow, confusing, boring, not particularly pretty and shot in black and white.
The best part was actually at the end (I can't believe we watched it until the
end) when a bunch of school kids continued the story. It was not what they
said but their interaction with each other standing and squirming very close
together under a microphone. Many did not want to say anything but they
definitely wanted to be there.
Haibane Renmei Japanese Anime series about teenagers living in a walled village. They aren't totally human though. They have wings and halos but are not angels and so far none have flown. The story is a bit sad as it unfolds but the friendships amongst the Haibane is strong and sweet and the animation is also lovely.
Some more movie reviews
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald
Japanese film about a late night radio show. A housewife wins a contest and
gets to write the script. The prima donna star of the show decides she wants
to change her name and the location of the story. Other actors want to
make changes now too. The script then becomes chockfull of discrepancies and
they are about to go live on the air in minutes. And the room where the
sound effects CDs are kept is locked and no one has a key so improvisation is
necessary. Cute, funny and ultimately heartwarming.
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl Fun Japanese Yakuza (gangster) movie. A family of gangsters and several sets of henchmen are all looking for a gangster who ran away with some money. Nice film style, great bad guys (most with a unique fashion sense), violent but funny.
Love Actually This is an ambitious movie. There is a huge cast and many story lines each involving romance, some happy, some sad, some interrelated. Some of the story lines are predictable, some sappy, some totally implausible, some annoying, some just odd. Several held my interest. Overall it is a nice movie. Oh, and Hugh Grant is in it.
Ice Cream Report
Chocolate (***) not totally sucessful. The flavor was very good, very rich but the consistency was like chalk. Mmmmm, chocolate chalk.
Here are two more of Joe's pictures. One at home, the other at his work.
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Some more movie reviews
2 Weeks Notice: I will see about anything Hugh Grant is in and this was no exception. It was fairly
mediocre and the scene involving the Sandra Bullock character having to go
to the bathroom really bad, a traffic jam and an RV a couple of vehicles back
was fairly lame. Their business relationship was well thought out but their
romantic relationship was uninspired. I'll watch About a Boy and While You Were Sleeping a few more times to make up for this one.
Ice Cream Report
Cinnamon (****) another great one! Joe says it tastes like snickerdoodle cookies.
He gives it 4 stars with a circle and a snap.
Here are some recent pictures from Joe's walks around the neighborhood.
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| Guest Neighborhood Photo by Gail and Chris | |
Some more movie reviews
Chinese Chocolate A group of Chinese immigrants in Canada whose lives intersect. There is a fair amount of adultery and manipulation. It was OK - it just wasn't particularly interesting.
Ice Cream Report
Vanilla (****) excellent! We can't seem to make a bad ice cream, well, except
for that green tea fiasco.
One year I bottled on the day the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite returned to earth in a guided crash into the Pacific Ocean. This was a project I used to work on so I made a label commemorating this event. I gave all the scientists and other programmers a bottle. I got rave reviews on the label and the beer.
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One batch's label was inspired by a dream. I dreamt my first boss at NASA Goddard (someone I admire but have trouble understanding due to his thick Indian accent) told me to name it Shepherd's Pearl. I had no idea what Shepherd's Pearl or the dream meant but I did what he said. No picture or image was in the dream so Joe suggested I put a picture of my boss's daughter on the label. I had attended her Hindu dance performance years before and still had the program with her picture.
Last year I did a beer for the White Trash Cookoff. There were two labels - Carolina Cooter Ale and Beaver Beer.
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Last weekend we took a shopping trip to Rockville and stopped for lunch at Baja Fresh which serves the greatest burritos this side of Chicago. We sat near the window to people watch. There was a sign with a balloon hanging off it just outside the storefront and we noticed that there was a certain group of boys, I'd say age 1-5, who were extremely attracted to this balloon. Some of the little girls would eye it but not many played with it. One little boy stopped as his mother walked on and spent a fair amount of time joyously hitting the balloon up in the air. Mom eventually came back to get him and I took this shot just before he left.
Ice Cream Report
Coffee and Coffee/Hazelnut (****) excellent! My father wanted to use the leftover soaked beans to make something like bread. I told him he was a nut job.
Rhubarb (****) - This recipe needs a bit more work because the ice cream was not as flavorful as it should be. I made a syrup from the leftover juice and the syrup poured over the ice cream kicked up the rating to 4 stars.
Here they are in action. Actually this location would not allow me to sleep (not allowed!). We place them on opposite ends of the room at night.
Some more movie reviews
Roger Dodger This movie
was good in the acting department but the situations seemed weak.
Campbell Scott plays a successful business man but an unsuccessful
womanizer, probably because of his caustic pickup lines. His 16
year old nephew appears for a surprise visit and asks his advice
in "scoring". What follows is a sleazy night with the nephew having
to make moral decisions that he was not at all prepared to make.
The ending scene which was so different in style and mood seemed
totally out of place and unnecessary.
Earth Indian art film (not Bollywood) chronicling the life of a group of friends of mixed religions (Sikh, Muslim, Hindu) during the end of British rule and the subsequent division of land in that region. It was a good film but not a happy one.
The parents are coming up this week. Gotta clean..
Ice Cream Report
Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch (****). I do not really like sweet
candy/cookie ice cream but this was quite good.
