Missy | August 28, 2003
Casey Affleck writes on Gus Van Sant and Gerry. (Link thanks to greg.org.)
Josh calls 11′09″01 pretty’fucking”terrible, and he is the exact demographic the film attempts to embrace. You can read about the film at length over at Milk Plus. UPDATE: Jim Ridley has more here.
I just spent $73 on one ticket to see the Washington Ballet. While I enjoy sitting in the back row at movies, I generally spend the $$ for the best seats when I go to the ballet, because I insist on being able to see everything. The problem, of course, is that it generally means looking at trees and missing the forest. Are the balances wobbly? Are they closing their steps into perfect fifth positions? Can I hear the effort in their breathing? Hey man, we all need our moments of geek-out. This particular program apparently features Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, which I’m anxious to finally see, and even though it’d be better to see Ballet Frankfurt perform it, I’ll take the small American company version. That first weekend of October is busy: Grandaddy on Thursday, Built to Spill on Friday, the ballet on Saturday. UPDATE: Hoping to catch Topdog/Underdog before I leave for Toronto.
And speaking of movies, are all the good films showing in Toronto before I get there? It would appear as such. I would’ve liked to have caught The Company, or Good Bye, Dragon Inn, or The Fog of War, for example. Ah well; it’s my own fault. I’ll have to settle for chum like The Brown Bunny. (Actually, I’m going mostly to socialize for a weekend; if I see just one film at all, I’ll be satisfied, though this means that any credibility I ever had w/r/t film nerdness is probably lost.)
I’ll be out of town the next several days. See you next week.
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Missy | August 24, 2003
The New York Times previews K Street. It’s fact mixed with fiction (recall the scene in Traffic when Michael Douglas is at a Georgetown party with real-life politicos). The thing I found interesting (and as such I wonder how well it will come together) is that episodes are written & filmed a week before they air. The show starts September 14.
UPDATE:
Sex and the City: I think “little bitchy pinenut” is my new favorite backbite. Also, I never thought I’d again hear the word “herkie” used in conversation.
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Missy | August 21, 2003
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team won gold at worlds. And that’s with three people down (and only two alternates to fill the void). It’s on TV this weekend, which fits in nicely with my decision to ignore the phone and return to my hermit-like ways after the recent flurry of social activity. I’m feeling sleep-deprived (which is to say, I’m getting only 7 or 8 hours at most per night. You can tell me to shut up.)
UPDATE: Can someone explain this?
Thoughts on the competition: both the men’s & women’s teams are looking remarkably strong. I am so excited that I’m already crafting an Olympics party, which probably means Mihow & me sitting in front of my tv with drinks, which means I also have visions of furniture getting moved out of the way and bones getting broken when drunk 30-ish year olds try their own version of gymnastics.
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Missy | August 18, 2003
Late start today. Last night after Sex and the City I was online, thinking about something to say about the episode (nothing was coming to me), and Julian IM’d me from the Adams Morgan coffeehouse Tryst. After little-to-no armtwisting, I was out the door at 10:45 to meet him at hipster dive The Raven in Mt. Pleasant. We were there ’til they kicked us out at closing.
SatC: I know the Manolos-fetish is a running gag, but to use it as a vehicle to make digs at family life seemed pretty silly to me. Maybe this is because I’m not as anti-children as I once was, and, while being single offers a lot of freedom to do whatever the hell I want, singledom is not the fabulous lifestyle one imagines for an urban gal about town. I agreed with the ultimate goal of the episode: don’t judge people for the choices they make (which I’d amend to add, “unless said choices are self-destructive”), but it came off as very lopsided. That said, damn those were some awesome shoes. (In fact, I just recalled dreaming about shoes last night.) Also: Kristin Davis has been hilarious lately.
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Missy | August 16, 2003
G.J. and I went out last night, first to 30 Degrees Lounge for wine, then downtown to Andale for dinner & sangria, then to Jaleo for more sangria, then to Zaytinya to check out the scene (we promptly left, due in part to the fact we were full of sangria and decided to call it a night.) At Jaleo we snapped this pic, which should go out on our holiday cards or something. He’s still sporting his bleached out hair from Jesus Christ Superstar. I had to photoshop out some of the glare, because let’s just say it’s been a steamy several days here in DC. Thank goodness our power didn’t go out. (Jeff told me about his BF’s mother, a Jewish New Yorker who was in the middle of her weekly wash & set when their power went out. I’m sure there’s a Yiddish word to describe that pandemonium–I should call Jeff and find out, since he’s always tossing Yiddish words & phrases around. Also, I wore that obnoxious dress in the photo to work yesterday. Hello stares! It falls all the way down past mid-calf. I love it.)
I’ve begun making headway in my major closet-cleaning project. I’m showing no mercy towards clothing that hasn’t been worn in the past year (so as to capture all seasons). This means I may finally part with my oxblood Docs that are so broken in they’re like slippers, with perfectly scuffed toes. But the reality is, I haven’t worn them in at least five years and there’s a crack in one sole, making wearing them in wet weather impossible. I do not, however, think I’m going to be able to part with my way-too-big, way-too-faded Jawbox t-shirt.
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Missy | August 13, 2003
I did not grow up a flake. The me of then would probably have a meltdown at the me of now. I’m not a slouch at work, or when it comes to my dance studies (though even that habit waxes and wanes), but when it comes to everything else, I’m sorta unreliable. Specifically, there was a time, see, when I couldn’t stop gushing about my September trip to Toronto for the film festival. I made hotel reservations well in advance. Then I waited around for various reasons, and now it’s too late to order advance passes. It looks like my beau (he, a fellow loather of the Cremaster output) will be there, with press accreditation, so he’ll be on assignment pretty much the whole time. So then I was thinking, screw it, I’m not going. But if I play my cards right, I can be there the last weekend only to hang out with him once he files his writings (whether or not I go to any movies is another story, as incredulous as that may seem) and to see some other cats who I know will be in attendance.
So. (Complete subject change.) In the meantime I’ve big plans to redo my closet. Today I carried as much loose change that I could comfortably carry in containers in my backback to a coinstar machine, then promptly spent most of it at Bed, Bath & Beyond. This is not the point of this part of my story. The point of this part of my story is this: as I was walking back down U Street from the metro (which I do most every day, but normally unaware of pretty much everything), I couldn’t help but notice the relatively recent transformation of U Street in the 1500 NW block. An art gallery, funky clothing shops, etc. On the corner of 15th, in an old townhouse that I swear once looked to be a bombed out building, looks like a soon-to-be opened coffee house. Its name….get ready for it…..is Love Cafe. It is right across the street from, naturally, Cake Love. So to answer that perennial question from that terrible song by the Black Eyed Peas that refuses to leave my head, the love is clearly right here on U Street.
UPDATE: Upon further inspection, the Love Cafe is owned by the Cake Love people.
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Missy | August 11, 2003
Sex and the City:
Nice to see the series return to pure comedy the past couple of episodes. The wordplay between Carrie and Stanford was CRACKING ME UP. And Charlotte’s spazzing out was damn funny. The trapeze metaphor was, however, dumb dumb dumb.
How was your weekend? Mine was busy, and I fell into a dead-person sleep Saturday night and last night until my alarm screamed at me to get the hell up. Mihow and I sat on her roof Friday night after I indulged in Freaky Friday and she in pottery class. (Oh, and note to Mihow: you know that eyesore of a light over the downtown sky that’s been driving us crazy? WaPo is on it.) I saw Metro DC Dances at Carter Barron on Saturday (when I also got over my bus complex). Yesterday I met up with college friends–whom I haven’t seen in about 9 years–and their impossibly adorable baby and we did a mini walking tour of the Mall area. And then last night I went to see Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary again, this time with fellow film nerd and new blogger Victor.
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Missy | August 8, 2003
The best part of today was not that I had a relaxing yet productive day at work, nor was it that I saw Freaky Friday (which I loved, but more on that in a minute). It was for two other reasons. First, when I got to the theater, I was in line to buy a $36 soda, and a woman around my mom’s age got in line after me after ushering a frail-looking man with a wheeled walker toting an oxygen tank over by the theater door. I think she caught me watching them, because she said, “That’s my father. He’s 91 years old, and he said he hadn’t been to a movie theater in about 40 years, and when he saw the trailer for Freaky Friday on tv last week, he said it looked like a really fun movie. So I thought, I’m going to take him to see it!” I surmised (perhaps incorrectly) that maybe he lives in a nursing home, and amidst all the kids running around, he looked slightly confused, but at the same time totally jazzed to be there. I swear I almost cried.
The second thing is that I received a voicemail from an old roommate from college who has very recently moved here with her husband (also a friend from college) and their baby. I had a bit of an unfortunate falling out with them way back, and we’ve recently been in touch, and I’m meeting up with them on Sunday. When I called her back, hearing her voice was such a strange yet joyous feeling. I’m pretty jazzed, too.
Now for the movie! That Lindsay Lohan is a talented girl, even if my exposure to her is totally Disney-fied. Let’s hope that she finds work outside of M. Mouse. She plays the switcheroo with complete assurance. And Jamie Lee Curtis adapts to the physical demands of playing a teenager with fun abandon. That little guy playing the young brother…I think I found him so amusing because he is like a little old man (which is prefect casting, since his character is required to play off of the grandfather) complete with an almost receding hairline, I swear.
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Missy | August 7, 2003
I am a geriatric. Why? Because I brought a heating pad with me to work. I’m sitting on it at this very moment.
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Missy | August 3, 2003
Sex and the City:
Why did I feel like I was watching an episode of SatC: The College Years. Right? I was cringing at that confrontation between Carrie & Berger’s friends, even though, technically, she was saying the right things. The whole thing smelled of 22 year olds. (No offense intended to my 22 year old readers, who are undoubtedly mature.) But it was so over-the-top that I’m guessing that was the point. You know, the immature things we girls resort to when we get dumped, etc. (And for those keeping track, yes I posted this immediately after the episode was over. I’ve got Empire Falls to devour before my other obsession comes on, the trainwreck that is Project Greenlight.)
One other thing: I know SJP has had the whole baby/ body change thing going on, but when has the back-part of a bra showing in backless dresses become an acceptable thing?
Other HBO stuff: Soderbergh’s & Clooney’s K Street begins its 10-episode run mid-September. (!!!)
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Missy | August 2, 2003
Thanks to Virginia Postrel for this NYT link to Hal Varian’s Economic Scene assessment of the so-called terrorism futures market. If nothing else, it shows that one shouldn’t be so trusting of the face-value of the stories breaking in the media. But we already knew that, didn’t we? And as Jane Galt, Dave Tepper, and I’m sure others have pointed out, what is insurance if not a market to hedge against the risk of accidents & tragedy? (Also, if you are asking, “Who is Hal Varian, and why should I care?”: In addition to being a NYT columnist, he is the author of widely-used intermediate and graduate level microeconomic textbooks and is a professor at UC Berkeley.)
UPDATE: Lots more at EconLog.
Watching: Billy Wilder’s classic Double Indemnity. Also, the National Gallery of Art is showing pre-code Warner Bros. films in 35mm all month long.
UPDATE: A fun piece on University of Chicago economist and JPE editor Steven Levitt, from this week’s New York Times Magazine. (Okay, so I realize “fun” is a relative term.) I think this may be my favorite quote: “He represents something that everyone thinks they will be when they go to grad school in econ, but usually they have the creative spark bored out of them by endless math — namely, a kind of intellectual detective trying to figure stuff out.”
UPDATE #2: Is it just me or is this weekend’s NYT crossword especially difficult? I am totally cheating my way through it. (Josh, I’m sure, has it already solved, along with the Cryptic puzzle.)
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