xmas tree, 2009

As I had hoped, the Mister’s visit was amazing. He arrived by nine-a.m. Tuesday morning; I was up and all jitters since about seven. We spent the day napping to bad tv, and the night doing the “nervous in the face of parents” dance. The night, like the rest of the week he spent, went perfectly. Highlights of the visit included:

• asian cuisine birthday dinner
• a tour of Ellicott city
• making faces at puppies in the window of a pet store
• leisurely lunching at double T diner
• mom’s spaghetti sauce
• decorating the christmas tree
• the miracle on 34th street
• shopping and dining and wandering in the city with C.
• andy griffith night with my parents
• long talks; long walks.

My grandfather was put into the hospital on Tuesday, his birthday, which put somewhat of a damper on the visit. He’s alright, but has hit a level of decline so to speak. It’s not like we’re counting down days, more like we’re reminded of mortality, fragility, the importance of keeping yourself healthy and strong and active.

miracle on 34th street, hampden, md

The city has never been so beautiful as when it’s edged in holiday lights. Walking the length of the Inner Harbor, the Constellation draped in white lights, bare trees tangled with them, our cheeks raw with winter chill… it was perfect. The best way to give an introduction to the city. Charm city, hon; full of winter charm.

He bought a Ravens jersey downtown, much to my delight. He’s gotten me into football, and I love watching it with him, even though he’s loyal to the team that betrayed Baltimore. Despite this, I’ve turned him into a Ravens fan (on the weeks they’re not playing his team), and he’s turned me into someone who doesn’t cringe at the mention of watching football. I’ll voluntarily turn it on, accompany the Mister to a sports bar on Sundays, eat wings and befriend strangers. A topic for a whole other post, the eventual embracing of this fandom. Suffice it to say he left town in his Flacco jersey. He looks better in purple, I think!

they once were cars

He left before the snow came to Baltimore; plus, he beat it’s arrival to his hometown by minutes. Our world is hushed in it now, blanketed in close to two feet. This is the most snow I’ve seen in ages, and I was pretty sad to see the storm taper off finally. I think that it’s always sad to see the snow stop, as irrational as it is to hope for a blizzard.

I’m not one of those who immediately complains about road conditions and cabin fever; it was nice to spend the day indoors with my family, or outside making snow angels with my brother. Maybe it’s selfish, though. I do feel bad for those who missed important flights, and I hate that some people might have missed lone chances to see loved ones. But the child in me loves to make snowballs, drink hot cocoa, and pray for snow days. To hope that each time I open the curtains I’ll see the comfort of fat snowflakes falling, piling silken over our neighborhood.

I am grateful for so many things:

• food and shelter and warmth in the face of a blizzard
• cats and a dog to cuddle with
• web cams and the mannerisms I miss most.
• the way schedules work out for a while longer so that the mister and I will continue to have about 12-14 days between visits.
• friends and family
• my grandfather’s recovery (please)
• the end of the decade (the party, the company)
• lazy weekends
• christmas carols that my mom refuses to stop playing

Un’ottima annata di Ridley Scott (USA 2006)
Ridley scott si cimenta in una commedia esistenziale ad ambientazione europea.
La formula non è esattamente originale, ma il film nel complesso non è male.
Max Skinner (Russell Crowe), uno spietato broker londinese di successo, deve tornare in Provenza per vendere una tenuta con vigneto in cui ha passato l’infanzia in compagnia dello zio (Albert Finney) che lo ha cresciuto dopo la morte dei genitori. Max riscoprirà i ritmi e i pregi della vita bucolica, l’affetto per lo zio appena deceduto e un amore dimenticato. Per trovarsi infine a dover scegliere su che tipo di vita possa renderlo appagato.
Ridley Scott è uno che sa quello che fa, ma probabilmente non è il regista adatto a questo genere di film. La sua regia meticolosa, la fotografia patinata da spot pubblicitario danno un tono lievemente artificiale al film e lo appesantiscono.
Un regista con uno stile più spontaneo, con una narrazione morbida e ironica sarebbe stato più adatto. Scott ci prova, è evidente, ma è imbrigliato dalla sua bravura e dal suo stile drammmatico. Le riprese a più camere, il montaggio veloce sono da thriller o film d’azione. Il risultato è che ci aspetta continuamente l’esplosione di una granata mentre protagonisti parlano o che un commando armato irrompa all’improvviso nella vigna. Anche la scelta di Crowe come protagonista non è esattamente felice. Non metto in dubbio le sue doti come attore drammatico, ma di certo non è molto simpatico. Per quanto in “Un’ottima annata” si sforzi di essere ironico, il personaggio non riesce quasi mai funzionare completamente. Discutibili anche alcune modifiche tipicamente hollywoodiane della storia rispetto al romanzo da cui è tratto il film. Nel romanzo, il protagonista arriva in provenza dopo aver perso il lavoro e il ritorno in Provenza gli da modo di cambiare vita, una specie di seconda possibilità. Nel film invece Max è un uomo di successo, ricco, spietato, con un sacco di donne che troverà a dover scegliere tra la ricchezza e la felicità. Tipico degli adattamenti USA evitare protagonisti che possano essere anche solo sospettati di essere dei “loser”.

Il film non è stato un fiasco ma non è andato benissimo, è costato 35 milioni di dollari e ne ha guadagnati 42 milioni.
Voto: 3 secchi di vomito

Marion Cotillard (born September 30, 1975) is a French actress, who has appeared in almost 40 film and television productions since 1993.

Born into an acting family, Cotillard started on the stage as a child and during her teens progressed from roles in television to cinema. By the end of the 1990s she had achieved notability as a French cinema actress in such films as Arnaud Desplechin’s My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) and Taxi (1998), and was seen by a wider audience in such films as Big Fish (2003), A Very Long Engagement (2004), for which she received a César Award for Best Supporting Actress, and A Good Year (2006).

Her portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie en rose (2007) brought international acclaim, and multiple awards including a BAFTA, a César Award, and a Golden Globe. With this film, she became the first actress to win an Academy Award for a French language performance.

Cotillard has expressed interest in environmental causes, and has served as a spokesperson for Greenpeace. She lives with her companion, actor/director Guillaume Canet.

More INFO

• Too long.
• Crackerjack sound design with gunshots that rattle your ribcage. Took some notes from SHANE I’d say.
• Can’t get enough of that Marion Cotillard. She’s talented, gorgeous and rivals Johnny in the ‘I’d watch you eat tomato soup on a Tuesday afternoon because your onscreen charisma is ridiculous’ department.  However, I wish someone had straightened out her accent in this flick. (PS – She’ll be burned into your brain after you watch her in LA VIE EN ROSE when she plays Edith Piaf from teenagehood to death. Skip her in A GOOD YEAR, a film that continues to baffle me in how boring and lazy it is despite its A-list roster.
• Wished PUBLIC ENEMES had been shot on film. And lit differently (and by ‘differently’ I mean ‘better’ but let’s not get into it).
• Surprise! Giovanni Ribsi, Channing Tatum (hello, GI Joe! Running around with a gun in this movie too!) and Stephen Dorff are excellently unrecognizable and totally enjoyable for it.
• Christian Bale. Serving his purpose with stoic deliveries and a successful accent. Beyond that, there’s not much to else I noted EXCEPT didn’t his butt look really big (like distractingly BIG) in that first scene?  I have yet to find directly referential photographic evidence of this hypothesis, but a quick google search recalled his ample booty in AMERICAN PYSCHO.

• Line that I’m a sucker for (even if it’s a mini-ripoff of Bull Durham):

John Dillinger: I like baseball, movies, good clothes, whiskey, fast cars… and you. What else you need to know?

• Favorite scene: Billie Frechette’s interrogation.
• I got a little emotional – no tears but my throat got tight – when:

Billie Frechette: They say you’re the man who shot him.
Charles Winstead: That’s right. One of ‘em.
Billie Frechette: So why are you coming to see me? To see the damage you done?
Charles Winstead: No. I came here because he asked me to. When he went down, he said somethin’. I put my ear next to his mouth, and what I think he said was this. He said, ‘Tell Billie for me: Bye bye, Blackbird.’

Conclusion: Rent it if you like Johnny, loud guns, men with loud guns, and men (including Johnny) glowering with loud guns.

Jo has some great new stuff up over at Libriscrowe! Pictured above is her latest creation, featuring close-ups of Cal McAffrey and Maximus. As usual, she’s done an outstanding job!

Also new is Chapter Five of “A Second Byline” featuring Terry Thorne and Alex Ross, part of the NanoCorp saga, written by Stacey.

And, as usual, Jo is featuring some wonderful new close-ups and creations. Here’s a list and some samples. Click on the links to see all of them.

Russell in New York close-ups

Russell at the State of Play premiere in London close-ups

Ed Hoffman close-ups from Body of Lies

Cal McCaffrey close-ups from State of Play

Max Skinner close-ups from A Good Year

And last, but definitely not least, a lovely new section of the Ships of Master and Commander.

It’s all a beautiful feast for the eyes, so go have a look!

When I was seventeen, my friend Lisa and I spent hours discussing twenty-seven.  We loved imagining the lives we would have in ten years’ time.  When we were twenty-seven, we thought, we’d have some things figured out, we’d be the best version of ourselves.  

I suspected that at twenty-seven I’d be living in Charleston, South Carolina, working as a curator at an art museum, married to my intellectual family-man husband (who I’d married at twenty-five), and pregnant with our first child–a girl.  We’d go to parties–gallery openings–and drink champagne with our young artsy friends.  We’d live in the city but by the beach, in the carriage house behind an old sprawling southern mansion.  We’d sit on the porch and drink mint juleps (not that I knew what a mint julep was).

Today is my last official day of my twenty-seventh year, and I think the close of such a momentous year deserves a moment of reflection.  Twenty-seven was the year of powder skiing, and noticing creases that don’t quite go away when I stop smiling, and setting up a home in what my sister calls “the love nest.” It’s not quite what I envisioned for myself.  At seventeen, having lived my whole life in one small town in southwestern Virginia, I could hardly imagine a life outside the American South, much less outside the country.  And perhaps you noticed that alcohol as status symbol plays a major role in my fantasies, though who drinks a mint julep I don’t know (my one attempt at making some went terribly awry when, in the absence of simple syrup, we tried to sweeten it with maple syrup–it goes without saying this did not take place in the South).  Now I’m a beer girl, something my seventeen year old self might find a little disenchanting.  And I’m no where near ready to start a family, though to keep things in perspective, you should know that in southwestern Virginia twenty-seven is pretty late in the procreation game.  At seventeen I’d never tasted tofu or seen Thai food, but, to perpetuate certain Appalachian stereotypes, I had been driving a tractor for at least six years.

Still, I don’t think I’d look like a stranger to my seventeen year old self.  I was ready to get out of my home town and I think she’d be pleased to know how far I’ve taken it.  And even though I’m not a curator, a writer-slash-professor is a pretty great runner-up.  My rock climbing and sushi eating habits, however, would’ve seemed awfully bold to her.  

Mainly, though, I think she’d be a little worried to hear how un-adult twenty-seven can feel at times.  As Lisa wrote in an e-mail last year, “I thought I would be more tied down or closer to having it figured out or a least closer to looking like an adult.”  Seventeen year old Mandy would be unimpressed by my craigslist futon (we all know twenty-seven year olds invest in proper sofas) and  the fact that I still wear my scruffy yellow Chucks.  But despite the charms of the fantasy, I don’t think I’d fit into the life she imagined for me.  This life is richer than her fantasy, full of experiences (salmon sashimi, for example) that are beyond the borders of her map.  Justin says I see too many limits, that I make arbitrary rules about what I can’t do (like ride my bike in the rain or climb 5.11 or ski in -15C), but I prefer to think of it as easing into a world that was once beyond my conception. I eat more chocolate chip cookies and make more mistakes than I did at seventeen.  I’m no longer afraid of A minuses, but that’s an easy thing to say when you’re the one with the pen in your hand.  In one way, though, twenty-seven has been what I expected: I feel at home in the life I’ve made for myself. Fantasizing about that feeling, about a life I fit into, was what made the whole exercise so appealing in the first place.  I don’t know what I imagined I’d become after twenty-seven, but, starting tomorrow, I’m looking forward to finding out.

(twenty-seven year old’s shoes)

(in the city but by the beach–on a different coast)

We all know that Russell has done great work with Ridley Scott(American Gangster, A Good Year, Gladiator), Ron Howard(Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind), James Mangold(3:10 To Yuma), Peter Weir(Master&Commander), Michael Mann(The Insider), and every other director with whom he’s worked. Now, is there a direct with whom you’d like to see him work that he hasn’t before?

Let us know which director below you’d like to see him team up with, or give us another idea if you don’t see yours listed!

On Friday I blogged about a poster that Hollywood.com was displaying as the “State of Play” movie poster. It featured a picture of Russell as Max Skinner from “A Good Year”. While doing some of my usual digging around the internet for Russell news, I came across this poster on Italian site Sentieri Selvaggi. Now, this is more like it! At least here there’s actually a picture of Russell as Cal McCaffrey!

Hollywood.com is displaying this as the “State of Play” movie poster. Now, I don’t recognize the picture of Ben Affleck, but that’s definitely a picture of Russell from the 2006 film “A Good Year” directed by Ridley Scott. Definitely looks nothing like Cal McCaffrey! So maybe this is some mock-up by Hollywood.com?

A los Reyes, que madrugaron este año. Francamente espléndidos con los que habíamos comprado más cupones para la hulla exprés. Ojalá todos tengan a la vista un buen año para descubrir, y que den con los mejores hallazgos; pero sobre todo para crecer… por cuenta propia y con los suyos. Feliz Día de Reyes.

Queda oficialmente cerrada la etapa de mayor blandurrería (si existiera tal palabra) ¡Lástima!

Sinopse: Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) é um investidor inglês sem muitos escrúpulos que vive somente para ganhar cada vez mais dinheiro. Quando seu tio Henry (Albert Finney), seu parente mais próximo, morre, ele herda sua vinícola na França. Quando viaja ao local para ajustar detalhes a fim de vendê-lo, Max acaba passando uma temporada no local, deixando-se seduzir pelo inebriante clima francês.

» Soundtrack:

01. Harry Nilsson – How Can I Be Sure Of You
02. Makali – Il Faut Du Temps Au Temps
03. Charles Trenet – Je Chante
04. Josephine Baker – Breezin’ Along With The Breeze
05. Harry Nilsson – Jump Into The Fire
06. Edmundo Ros – The Wedding Samba
07. Delaney & Bonnie – Never Ending Song Od Love
08. Patti Page – Old Cape Cod
09. Jean Sablon – J’Attendrai
10. Harry Nilsson – Gotta Get Up
11. Tino Rossi – Le Chant Du Gardian
12. Richard Anthony – Itsy Bitsy Petit Bikini
13. Max-A-Million
14. Le Coin Perdu
15. Wisdom

Download Soundtrack

Click to watch the Body of Lies trailer at Zuguide.com

Even though they’re both working for the CIA, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe find themselves at odds in their upcoming film Body of Lies. While DiCaprio is out risking his neck trying to infiltrate a major terrorist network in Jordan, Crowe, his superior, is safely out of harm’s way, taking credit for all the hard work. And, to make matters worse, besides being a manipulative, power-hungry bastard, Crowe is a fat tub (he reportedly gained 63 pounds for the role). I imagine that going into Body of Lies, Crowe lobbied pretty hard to convince director Ridley Scott, whom he’s working with for the fourth time (Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster), that his character needed to be on the large side to be a convincing jerk. Even though I don’t see this as a Raging Bull type situation and believe Crowe mostly wanted to stuff his face for six months, I have to admit that Crowe’s distended belly and bad wig make the idea of an even confrontation with DiCaprio a little more believable — because, even with his fancy handgun, there’s no way Romeo could take out Maximus in his prime.

The Body of Lies trailer begins with Crowe talking about the realities of a global war, while satellite images and wide-angle shots of an unnamed Middle Eastern city are shown. We then see a special forces unit moving into position just before a man sets of a bomb with a cell phone in a busy shopping area. Shifting to Washington, D.C., Crowe offers a bleak warning about the end our way of life, while, elsewhere, DiCaprio calls out Crowe for being worthless without the work he does on the ground. After a quick shot of a car bomb exploding, the trailer transitions to DiCaprio preparing for a mission and then engaging in a gun battle while hanging from the side of an SUV. In the next scene, we see the CIA tracking DiCaprio with a satellite, as Crowe sits on a sailboat docked next to his house and shovels cereal into his mouth.  In the remainder of the trailer, we’re introduced to Mark Strong, the shady head of Jordan’s covert operations, and watch as DiCaprio’s cover is blown and Crowe does nothing to help him, setting up a final confrontation. My favorite part of the trailer comes when Crowe’s wife finds him talking on the phone outside his home at 6am and Crowe, who’s wearing a bathrobe, explains that he’s “saving civilization.” Body of Lies opens October 10, 2008. Check out the Body of Lies trailer at Zuguide.com.

A Good Year is a 2006 international romantic comedy film produced and directed by Ridley Scott. Filmed in France and Britain, it featured a cast of British, French, New Zealand and Australian actors.

A Good Year (2006)

Director : Ridley Scott
Writers (WGA): Marc Klein, Peter Mayle
Release Date : 10 November 2006 (USA)
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Romance
U.S. Box Office : $7,458,269

A Good Year (2006) English Movie [Free Direct Download]