I really enjoyed this film, moreso than I expected. I grabbed it on a lark to entertain me while home sick, and it stepped up to the job. I think my favorite performances were from Anjelica Huston, who was brilliantly focused and restrained, and Luke Wilson, who I'm sure I've seen more of, yet only remember from Legally Blonde. It took me probably half of the movie to truly be absorbed, but once I was, it was intense. I found the experience of the film strangely affecting, and I don't think it was the medicine I was on for my bronchitis. I suppose it is time for me to watch Rushmore.
Dear Members of the Band Called "Train,"
You suck. I was willing to forgive that "Meet Virginia" song for it's absurd tempo switches and cheesy lyrics, thinking that I'd never hear from you hacks again. But then, then, you had to put out "Drops of Jupiter," which inflicted phrases like "listens to Mozart while she does Tae Bo" and "can you imagine the best soy latte that you've ever had ... and me" on an unprepared, defenseless public. For that, I can not forgive you, but I was willing to forget you.
But, now, oh no, there's yet another lite rock number you've unleashed on us and yet another unfortunate turn of our language that you are responsible for, "And futbol teams are kissing Queens and losing sight of having dreams."
What shlock!
You make me want to listen to the Goo Goo Dolls, and that, TrainMen, is a victory of the darkest kind-.
Love,
Waking Slow
I finished Richard Rubin's Confederacy of Silence, the story of a 21-year-old New Yorker, who graduates from college, and when no other options present themselves, takes a job as a reporter for the newspaper in Greenwood, Mississippi. It's part memoir, part courtroom drama, and interesting throughout. I thought the book started off a little slowly; Rubin spent a lot of time on ambience and setting, and perhaps even a little too much time on himself in the first 150 pages or so. Somewhere around page 250, though, the whole enterprise built up a huge head of steam and carried me right through to the end. It ends up being a thoroughly depressing work, as it follows the trajectory and subsequent plummet of Handy Campbell, a young gentlemen we meet as a high school quarterback and leave as an accused murderer. If you like nonfiction (as I do, I am a nonfiction whore), I recommend this book, and I think that Rubin's next book, whatever he writes on, will be even better.
Rented Far From Heaven this evening. It was written and directed by Todd Haynes, who also directed Safe, which I saw last December and didn't like very much. In contrast with Safe, Far From Heaven is much better paced. Haynes has the film move in a gradual, methodical way that is fitting for the late 1950s setting. There are several moments of cinematography that are divine. Julianne Moore is, not surprisingly, wonderful, as are Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert, and after The Hours it was wonderful to see Moore portraying someone with more to say. An excellent film, although I think the pacing and lack of explosiveness may have had something to do with it not faring well at the Oscars.
I read Kate Chopin's The Awakening recently. I'm not sure how I made it through high school and college without reading it before. Featuring our hapless heroine Edna (the name of not one, but both, of my grandmothers), I found the novel occasionally frustrating, but ultimately fulfilling. I can't remember the last time I read a novel not set in the present day, or, at the very least, the modern era. In spite of my imagining Edna's New Orleans home to resemble the Belfort Mansion where the cast of the Real World New Orleans lived, I was whisked away to a different place and time, which was splendid.
This is a really neat little introduction to the life and art of Mark Rothko. I recommend it.
A view of Philadelphia's City Hall. Philly and the environs have stayed much the same since I moved last summer, except for the brand new football stadium that looms over South Philly, and the baseball stadium in progress nearby. It was marvelous to see old friends and catch up, and here's to hoping it won't be another nine months until we do it again!
Today I am off to Philadelphia for the first trip back since moving away in August. Needless to say, I'm thrilled. Philadelphia is a great city; it's not always the most warm and fuzzy, but it has tons to offer. Moreover, it's full of friends I'm dying to see. With any luck, I'll have some great pictures come next week...