Saturday, September 25, 2004
Panned
Oh dear.... Tonight's movie choice, Vanity Fair, is attracting some pretty nasty reviews, along with the good ones. You can view 20-odd reviews of any movie at a glance by clicking Metacritic's film page. You'll have my review tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's a sampling of the pans. Meow-scratch!Boston Globe: "She has been made lovable -- and a Vanity Fair with a lovable Becky Sharp has no reason to exist. It's as if Shakespeare had put Hamlet on Prozac: What's the point? "
Salon.com "Scene by scene and moment to moment, it's a woeful misreading of the book."
NYT: "In mixing satire and romance, the movie proves once again that the two are about as compatible as lemon juice and heavy cream."
New York: "The effect is a bit like watching "Gone With the Wind" with a dumpling substituting for Scarlett O’Hara. "
Rolling Stone: "In an effort to blend Thackeray and "Sex and the City," Vanity Fair ends up nowhere. "
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G'mrng.
I'm up, caffeinated, and ready to sally forth. Interesting posts await you this weekend, probably starting later today, after I: stroll. exercise. work. repeat. I'm seeing "Vanity Fair" tonight with my friend Pat.Restaurants with a red-state, red-meat world view: : - )
Cartoon follows...
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Friday, September 24, 2004
Deep Blue Sea
My pal Christi sent this inviting postcard from Cozumel a few weeks back. Her comments follow... "Cozumel ... Really a beautiful place to visit, especially for divers and snorkellers - there's a huge variety of beautiful fish, including those angelfish on the card! Also turtles (large!), manta rays, etc. Those calm blue Gulf waters make for all kinds of great water sports, even just old-fashioned sunning and swimming. The are a few reminders of the Mayans and/or native cultures, including a small structure called El Caracol at the tip of the island. It incorporates conch shells into its walls so that when hurricane winds blow up from the Gulf the conch shells wail, warning the islanders of upcoming storms. Maybe they should build some of those in Florida?" Thanks, Christi. I am weeks behind in my sleep. Must rest this weekend. And listen to 40 songs by Ani Difranco, who is, among other things, my favorite CEO. : - )
French Fry Day follows cartoons / Apres les desseins suivra vendredi français
Salut, les garçons! Quelle semaine. J'suis a bout de forçes, faut dormir longtemps c'weekend. De bonnes nouvelles - ma soeur peut quitter l'asile geriatrique qu'elle a supporté pendant 3 semaines et rentrer chez soi attendre la chirurgie. Elle en est bien contente. L'infection s'en va peu a peu, apres ça on pourra l'operer. Quoi encore? Jeudi j'ai eu un rendez-vous avec ce mec que j'ai connu sur AOL, on a bu un verre au restau thailandais du coin, mais il ne m'interessait pas du tout. Faut prendre beaucoup de verres avec des grenouilles pour trouver un prince, je suppose. Christi m'a envoyé une jolie carte postale de Cozumel, ou elle est allé passer 10 jours. Elle a fait du snorkelling pour voir les poisson rouges. Ensuite, des ruines maya. Grosses bises de NY. - Aaronthis entry's permalink
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Memories Of Chair-Man Mao
This is Mao's country house, now a museum. Y'all drop by anytime you're in Wuhan, China... : - ) We didn't expect to be there, either, but rather floating down the lovely, atmospheric Yangtze river.. But heavy flooding docked our boat, and we had to travel by bus through the farms of Hubei province to Wuhan, the provincial capital. Hubei means 'north of the lake', and Hunan, 'south of the lake.' I freaked my Mom out a little by slipping under the velvet rope in the conference hall of Mao's vacation home (pictured below.) Nothing happened, of course. Which means it's safer than NY's High Line. : - ) The cool and charming lady in the chairman's chair is Liz Allcott, with whose family my Mom and I toured China in August 2002. Liz hails from Oregon, and, being 19, was able to confirm to me that hip hop has indeed replaced rock as the primary music of young people of today : - )
Cartoons!
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Great news! They're letting my sister out of the nursing home! She can await surgery in the comfort of her own living room... for which she wasn't ready today, still too infected. they will evaluate again next week. this entry's permalink
Go South, Young Man...
Dialogue Of The Day:Burt Lancaster: "Why did you bolt your cabin door last night?"
Eva Bartok: "If you knew it was bolted, you must have tried it. If you tried it, you know why it was bolted." : - )
Ridiculous Invention Of The Day:
Musical Baby Diaper Alarm. Three women from France marketed this to moms in 1985. It's a padded electronic napkin that goes inside a baby's daper. When it gets wet, it plays "When The Saints Go Marching In..."
Pictured left: Pastel façade from Miami, snapped by my friend David. Pretty, huh? Below is his day view. One more reason to tolerate category 4 hurricanes.. : -)
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Tuesday, September 21, 2004
"And the colors are gonna beones that you've never seen
so say goodbye to green...
'cause here it comes in incredible yellow,
and edible orange...
and you can just get on down
to the feel good hit of the fall..."
- !!!, "Feel Good Hit Of The Fall", 2002
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(Reach Up For The) Sunrise
Sleepy. Yesterday sped by quickly. Feeling more energized at work. I am slowly watching Dogville, the 3-hour allegorical movie Lars Von Trier shot on a bare soundstage last year, with a highly talented cast in fine form. I'm bracing myself for Von Trier's usual emotional punch in the stomach, but so far, so excellent. At right, some painting I downloaded from God knows where. : - )
humor, Maestro, please...
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Monday, September 20, 2004
Quote of the Day:
"Humor is emotional chaos observed in tranquility" - James Thurber (actually he said 'remembered' but I think 'observed' is more on target)
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"Humor is emotional chaos observed in tranquility" - James Thurber (actually he said 'remembered' but I think 'observed' is more on target)
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Take Me To The River...
Don't bathe me in these waters : - ) But how prettily they shimmered yesterday under the resplendent pre-autumnal sun. I took my bad self to Hudson River Park, Greenwich Village section, to a long pier, with a lawn and benches, jutting a hundred feet over the river and ringed by chrome railing (see picture below). From the far end, I could see, gleaming in the distance: the towers of Jersey City, lady Liberty, and the Verrazano bridge, which has the thankless task of uniting Brooklyn and Staten Island. Later, I thought I saw a friend there, sleeping shirtless on the grass, peaceful, oblivious to the pigeons pecking at his torn jeans. Turned out later that I was mistaken.
A nice, quiet, very musical weekend (my new Nomad Jukebox kicks major hind quarters! what an improvement! goodbye to you, Archos.) A sunny weekend, a social weekend, a reflective weekend. Summer's last. The 6:50pm sunset drove that home, as shadows covered the canyons of Manhattan around five-ish and the wind blew cooler.
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Sunday, September 19, 2004
Park Slope has the architectural charm of yesteryear with Manhattan-like eateries and shopperies. : - ) 'Twas the scene last night of a lovely dinner with Bart (pictured left) and Ashley, as I visited their expansive, high-ceiling new apartment, quite a step up from Bart's cage-like studio near W 4th St. Bart is also switching jobs, leaving Staten Island's Arts & Sciences and starting at the Hudson River Museum. Goodbye Ferry, Hello MetroNorth.Ashley works at the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn Museum. I should go to their evening beer garden exhibit, Fridays this month only.
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It's beautiful today - NYC is drenched in sun. And out I go into the 65F crisp autumnal air...
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