So, do you know anyone who’ll see this Mel Gibson extravaganza? I probably won’t even watch it when it comes to TMN a year from now, for free. Especially after reading this, and I almost dropped my EW right into the recycling bin when I saw Gibson on the cover. I mean really? Shut up Mel Gibson. Shut up already.
Brushes With Greatness
Okay, so I’m going to do a six degrees of separation type post, which is not really exciting for anyone, but, well me:
1. Today Madhur Jaffrey is in our offices. She is lovely, delightful and kindly signed some books for me. I am dying to read her memoir Climbing the Mango Trees, which is now on my giant to-be-read pile toward the top right after I finish Before I Wake (am one subway ride away from being done) and after I read Consumption. Anyway, she was a supporting player in last year’s sweet Prime with Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenburg (whom I will always refer to as Jake! from my time recapping One Tree Hill for TWoP), which means I’m one degree from both of them, cool eh?
2. Yesterday, my stepmother was sworn in as the Councillor for Ward 10 in Mississauga. It was a very prestigious ceremony with Hazel McCallion, “Madame Mayor” herself in attendance, natch, which means I’m one degree from her as well. In her opening address she laid out her plans for her term: deconstructing the region of Peel, stopping the tax payouts to Toronto (never mind the whole idea that how many Mississauga residents use Toronto roads, Toronto highways, Toronto services while they’re at work, but whatever), and continuing to have the cleanest, crime-free city in Canada. You go Hazel; you’re a right-winged spitfire of a woman, and even if I don’t believe in your policy 100%, I certainly admire your honesty, dedication and servitude.
3. Also yesterday, my online book club had a chat with author Steven Hayward about his first novel, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke. It’s a great read, and my full review is to follow, but when asked if he had a hard time re-writing the novel in a different way (he changed it from first to third person), he said, “The re-write was easy, the write was hard.” And it made me heart the book (and its author) even more. It also gives me hope, because the write of any first draft is so difficult at least it’s good that once an editor or someone else sees the potential, the hard work of creating the characters and doing the first draft isn’t lost time.
4. I have an ARC of Gemma Townley’s latest book on my nightstand at this very moment. I bet you are ALL jealous. I have also completed Shopaholic and Baby and Forever in Blue from our spring lists, with full reviews to come once the books are on sale. After reading all three, plus seeing The Holiday, I might be surprised if I don’t grow even bigger boobs because of all the estrogen in my system.
TRH Movie – The Holiday
So I went to a preview screening of the girliest of all girlie movies The Holiday. I won’t post my full review because I have to write it still for Chart, but I will say the following: this is an unabashed chick flick, so if you go in thinking “I really need a dose of fantasy” than by all means, get thee to the theatre next weekend.
Full review tk.
TRH TV – Intelligence
Okay, you all know I’m obsessed with watching television. I’m convinced it’s because my mother never let us watch TV when we were small kids and so I grew up blissfully unaware of the truly addictive aspects of the little blue box. And all through university we didn’t have cable, and even up until I started living with my RRHB, I didn’t have cable. What did I need it for? I didn’t watch television.
Oh, what a fool I am.
Anyway, what I did watch was tonnes of the CBC. North of 60, Rita MacNeil, you name it, I watched it. And then, once I discovered the glorious joy of cable, I sort of left the CBC behind. I even (as she says in a hushed tone) stopped watching the news. Gasp!
But now, I’m getting older. I listen to Andy Barrie in the morning. I have the CBC on in the background most days at work and have come back into the fold with the new show that’s been on this season called Intelligence. Never a Da Vinci fan, I watched the short tv movie that the series is based on last year by accident (meaning I flipped the channel, answered the phone, and the show was on, and it was interesting enough to keep me watching until the end. I think too, the RRHB was away so we weren’t compromising in terms of the evening show tally).
The story of a third generation dope slinger turned millionaire, Intelligence follows Jimmy’s involvement with the RCMP’s special crime unit, both in terms of giving them information and being a suspect they’re looking to take down. Balancing out the crime with the punishment as we also get Mary, the head of said crime section, whose own agenda involves positioning herself for a sweet promotion over to CSIS (who, by the way, would never have their parking spots noted “parking for CSIS,” art directors please take note). It’s a fascinating little show, a bit Sopranos, a bit The Wire, a bit Can Con, but it kind of works. So much so it’s on a permanent tape-to-watch later status on my Faux-Vo.
However, now that I like it and am actually telling y’all to watch it, sure as it will eventually snow here in Toronto, the CBC will cancel the show and start airing something equally dismal like Air Farce in its place.
#64 – Everything Is Illuminated
Finally, after almost seven weeks, a pathetic showing on my part, I limped to the finish line and finished Everything Is Illuminated last night before going to bed. The good, the bad, and the ugly about the book is as follows:
1. The Good
Jonathan Safran Foer is a brilliant bloody writer. He has a wonderful gift for humour, for the absurd, and for a meta-self-referential-po-mo stylist, an ease with prose that seems so natural that it’s as refreshing to read as a swim in the lake on a hot July day.
2. The Bad
The disjointed narrative style, while cute, was very distracting. It took away from the fact that no aspect of the story actually get resolved. The novel bites around the story like a sandwich with the crusts cut off, and never really lets you in to the meat until the very end, and even then, it’s hard to figure out exactly what happened. But maybe that’s because it took me weeks to finish the novel and picking it up over a longer period of time makes it harder for me to put all the connections together.
3. The Ugly
I know it’s wrong of me, but I couldn’t help feeling like Sacha was Borat, or at least a version of that stereotypical character that comes across more caricature than anything else. And while I enjoyed his malapropisms, I felt the author used him more for comic relief and to show off than actually contributing to the story in any way.
Overall, I can see what all the spilled ink was about, but I wasn’t as blown away by this novel as the rest of the ladies in my bookclub, but I’m sure as hell happy with being able to add a new book to my 1001 Books score. And with Persuasion, that brings my total to 122. Whee!
TRH Movie – The History Boys
Last night Tara and I went to go see The History Boys. After having brunch with Sam, then going to my Restorative Yoga class and starting the housework, it was the perfect way to end the day.
Having not even heard of the Broadway play (shame on me) nor knowing anything about the film with the exception of having seen the trailer before Little Children, I’m glad to report I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a sharp, witty drama about a group of boys in their last year of school in England who are all vying for spots at university. And not just any school, but Cambridge and Oxford.
The boys have a wonderful relationship with a teacher, whom they dub “Hector”, played by Richard Griffiths, who teaches them not only about literature, but about the importance of learning in life. Hector’s place among the boys is challenged by the arrival of Mr. Irwin, hired by the headmaster to get the boys prepared for their admittance exams. The struggle between Hector’s old-fashioned methods of teaching and Irwin’s inspirational new way influences the boys in different ways.
A true coming of age tale that romanticizes the entire last year of school for the various different boys, the film celebrates the value of knowledge simply for the joy of learning. Like Wonder Boys, it’s a movie that doesn’t talk down to the audience, that throws in Thomas Hardy, Anne of Cleves and an odd French lesson taking place in a brothel and simply expects you to get it. Gladly, the crowd out last night was up for the challenge.
What To Do?
So I’m a band widow this weekend and can’t make up my mind about what to do. Reading would be a good place to start, I’m halfway through Before I Wake and really, really must finally finish Everything is Illuminated, and I need to do some grocery shopping and house cleaning, oh, and some laundry too. But what to do for fun? I’m up for suggestions…
Team Karen or Team Pam?
Looking for the perfect holiday “secret Santa” present? Yeah, I’d go for Team Karen just to piss off all of the obvious Team Pam supporters.
I’m all for Pam and Jim, OF COURSE, but a little love triangle never hurt anyone. Except maybe Lorelai because that sh*t’s been going on for eight seasons.
Oh, and other TV news? I had an episode of 30 Rock on the Faux–Vo to catch the last few minutes of The Office while I was in Vancouver last week and I ended up watching it. I was doing the absolutely crazy go through the taped shows and watch them in alphabetical order on Wednesday night after pilates. I started with 30 Rock, ended up on Coronation Street, then Grey’s Anatomy, but I skipped a couple in between. Okay, back on topic. 30 Rock, you know, it’s totally funny. Tracy Morgan is good, and Alec Baldwin truly kills. There was this whole meta-thing about him being a broadcast head playing himself in a sketch but he couldn’t act. And the ham-bone Baldwin pretending not to act all while acting bit? Hilarious.
But the best part of both Studio 60 and 30 Rock? Other than their numerically challenged titles, they’re both kind of about writers, and I really like writers.
TRH Movie – Fast Food Nation
While in Vancouver last week, we ended up going to see a preview screening for Richard Linklater’s new film Fast Food Nation. Based on Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book of the same name, Fast Food Nation weaves three very different stories together to examine the food industry in America. The first thread finds fast food chain Mickey’s marketing executive Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear) who is charged with finding out why there’s fecal matter in the meat they’re serving in their Big One burgers. While he’s investigating, he meets the young Amber (Ashley Johnson) who is working at a Mickey’s in small-town Colorado. Her story, that of innocence to social action, forms the second storyline in the film. The last thread, that of immigrant Mexican workers working at an abattoir in the same Colorado town where Amber lives, is perhaps the most poignant. Wilmer Valderrama (That 70s Show) and Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace) play young lovers who escape the poverty of their homeland to work awful jobs in the meat processing plant / slaughterhouse.
It’s a full-on indie movie, complete with pretty poor art direction (please, please could someone attach the laptop in the Mickey’s exec’s office to some power outlet or at least an internet cord to make it somewhat realistic?) and that slow, sprawling narrative style that fits both the storylines and the subject matter. The film is well written and well acted, with standout performances by just about all in the cast, but I’d have to say that Bobby Canavale, who I think is one of the most underrated gems out there as the stupendously arrogant plant supervisor, and Catalina Sandino Moreno as an immigrant working for a better life, give particularly poignant performances.
Linklater saves the most gruesome bits for the end, which I don’t want to spoil by going into too much detail about, but to say that I think anyone who eats meat should see this movie. Not to be preachy and/or all high and mighty, but knowing where your food comes from and how it comes to your table should be mandatory for anyone who eats a burger at a fast food joint. All in all, I don’t think this film will do gangbusters at the box office, but it’s an important film, not only because of its message but also to show the studios that you don’t have to spend millions to capture the essence of a good picture, that all it takes is a good cast, a solid script and a bit of heart. It’s not the best movie I’ve seen all year but it’s certainly a memorable one.
#63 – Persuasion
Thank goodness the reader’s block is over. I didn’t know what to do with myself not being able to blog about the books that I’ve read because I hadn’t actually finished a book in about five weeks. The dry spell is over! Over my two plane rides (to Vancouver and back again) I managed to finish Jane Austen’s Persuasion, the inaugural choice of our newly formed 1001 Books To Read Before You Die club at work.
Persuasion is yet another classic that reminds me that I can’t believe I haven’t enjoyed the talents of Jane Austen in my life before now. It’s the story of Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, a vain, pompous, yet totally harmless man, who finds herself marginalized by her family, left out in the cold by love, and saddled with the fact that she’s morally superior to many of her relations. Anne overcomes her trials (of course) and eventually finds happiness. The persuasion part of the novel comes in many forms: Anne’s betrayal of her heart when she refuses the proposal of Captain Wentworth on the bidding of her great friend and mother stand-in, Lady Russell; Wentworth’s upwardly mobile abilities regarding his own social standing throughout the novel; and Anne’s in-between position in terms of her meddling, hypochondriac sister and her many other frustrating relations.
The most shocking aspect to reading Jane Austen at this point in my life is how she crafted completely and utterly addictive books, and Persuasion is no exception. It’s an early 19th-century page turner, and I’m not really why that surprises me, but it really does.
Plus, the more of Austen I read, the more I find that she’s so responsible for many of the tropes and/or plot devices that we find in modern-day chicklit novels, the charming cad, the mistaken affection and/or personality assumptions, the awkward parental units, the unsatisfying love lives, and then I feel dumb that it’s taken me this long to get with the, ahem, program.