rebecca_in_blue | Entries tagged with movies

Rebecca is actually cooking two dishes for Thanksgiving dinner this year (which may not seem like much but is a big step up from her usual zero). We're having a dinner at work tomorrow, and Sally lassoed me into making green bean casserole, which I love but have never made before. But there are only three ingredients, so I shouldn't be able to screw it up too badly, right? We'll see. And for Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house, I'll be making my delicious pecan pie muffins. Just as soon as I shell the rest of those pecans... I shelled some yesterday evening while watching The Philadelphia Story -- shelling pecans while watching a good movie is the best way to do it -- but I probably only got about one cup. I'm off both Thanksgiving and the day before, which is nice, but I have to go in early on Black Friday, and that'll probably suck balls.

I love our new couch! (Oh, and it only took nearly every male relative who lives in the state to move it in.) I fell asleep on it last night while watching the commentary track The Goonies. I used to live and breathe that thing while I was in France. Whenever I had any downtime, or whenever I was working on my lessons in my room, I'd always put on that movie with the commentary track, and I fell asleep to it... well, not every night, but pretty close. I could probably recite that whole track from memory.

Current Mood: need to vaccuum
Current Music: Sara watching Law & Order

Sara and I actually went bike riding together last Thursday. I veered into front of her, she fell off her bike, my chain popped off, and her earphones got tangled up in her spokes and ripped apart, but other than that, we had a really nice time. (I finally used up the film on my disposable camera, which I'd been meaning to do since I took Eva to the water park back in July. Now it'll probably take me another three months to remember to get it developed.) Anyway, it was good that we went bike riding that day, because I think it's rained every day since. Blargh.

It rained on and off all day yesterday, so I stayed inside and organized the hell out of my room. I had started to go crazy because I felt so cramped and had so little room for stuff. Turns out that I just never throw crap away. I cleaned all the crap out from under the bed (which took the entire length of my arm, from each side, and then some) and the bottom drawer of my dresser. I'm using this cigar box I found in the parking lot to store all the little things I keep on top of my dresser. It took me forever to get the smell out of it, but I finally did, and it's quite a nice box. It makes my dresser look so much neater. I compiled a box of stuff to take to Goodwill, but of course with all the rain, our street had turned into a river again, so I wasn't able to go. Maybe this weekend. I found a lot of pens while cleaning, and I want to get us a new pen cup.

I also called the benefits/insurance hotline for my job yesterday, because their open enrollment period is right now. The woman I spoke to was extremely nice and helpful, and if all goes well, I should have coverage starting December 1.

After seeing only two movies all summer (Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), I now want to see three. Where the Wild Things Are looks really cool and kinda weird, and Paranormal Activity looks scary as hell, especially for a big wimp like me. I don't think I want to see it unless I go with Sara, because she's almost never scared of these things. Zombieland seemed very juvenile at first, but everybody says that it's really funny. And of course, it has Abigail Breslin in it, and Little Miss Sunshine handles a firearm, bitches!

Current Mood: about to go to bed
Current Music: Stuck in a Moment, U2

Things I did today: washed Sable's beds, did my laundry, washed the dishes, gave Sable a bath, vacuumed, made the bed, folded Sara's clothes, and wrote out checks for the bills. So my weekend wasn't a complete waste after all, and now our apartment is sparkling clean! Sable was mad at me because he hates being clean, but I gave him some old pork and rice to make it up to him. Right now he's rolling around on his nice clean afghans.

Sable woke me up early this morning to take him on a walk, but it was so surprisingly cool and pleasant outside that I didn't mind. We walked almost two blocks, further than Sable's gone in a good while. But I was so tired from waking up early that I fell asleep on Grandma's couch when I went over this afternoon to eat spaghetti. I don't remember my dream, but I jolted awake from it ready to scream, "Don't hit the delete key!" Weird.

Sara and I watched High School Musical 2 on Disney last night. If you haven't seen those movies, you seriously should. They're so hilariously bad they're good, like that old Adam West Batman movie. Sara alternated between pointing at the screen and laughing or staring in transfixed horror. I just laughed. The downside is, she got one of the musical numbers stuck in her head and won't stop singing it!

The strangest thing happened at work on Friday. In the middle of the day, for no apparent reason, I started shaking uncontrollably. I wasn't in a noticeable way, just little tremors in my arms and chest that I couldn't stop. I think my heart started beating faster too, but I'm still not sure if that was my imagination or not. It happened to start right before my lunch hour, so I tried to quell it by eating a really huge lunch. That did seem to make it stop; maybe because my body was so busy digesting that it was too tired to keep shaking.

I called my aunt on Friday and got news on my cousin's first week at private school. Since I was raised Catholic, I never considered how insanely weird the religion must seem if you've never been exposed to it. Eva didn't understand why all the other kids called the man in black father (surely they're not all one family?) or why he threw water on them (she glared at him when he threw it on her! Heh, she's awesome!) or why they all suddenly started mumbling. Really, I'm impressed she wasn't more freaked out than she was.

I am so glad that Back-to-School is over.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Sara singing I Don't Dance

Summer is on its way out now, though it's still plenty hot and will be for a good while. Our store hasn't quite reached the full-pitched insane fervor of Back-to-School, but we're getting there. I had a nasty encounter with this mom buying school supplies on Friday. The pinpad happened to have frozen that morning, in the middle of ringing up a $600 tech service. I had turned it away from the customers, but this woman reaches over, turns it around, and freaks out because she thinks we're charging her $600. I said something like, "Your total is blah-blah, that pinpad is broken, please don't touch it," and then she really hit the ceiling. She started complaining to everyone but me (her kids, my co-worker, the manager) about how I had "fussed at" her, and inbetween she glared at me, and I know she expected me to apologize. But I didn't say anything, so she said, "I hope you like your job," and left. What was that supposed to mean?

Yesterday evening I went to Grandma's house and pulled up most of her old brown tomato plants. Then we ate dinner and watched Elvis. I was supposed to go over today and pull up the rest of them, but I'm a lazy bitch. Instead I went to Mom's house and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Adam. I hadn't seen that movie since it was released. I think it's the best movie of the series so far. The us-versus-them mentality between the students and the ministry was well-done, and it made for a lot of action and excitement. HPB, by contrast, was more exposition, explaining about Voldemort's past and everything, which got a little boring. (But it's not the movie's fault; it usually falls to the second-to-last installment of a series to set things up for the big finale.) In OotP, you knew exactly who the bad guys were: Umbridge, the Ministry, Voldemort. But in HBP, things got murky, and the bad guys came down to the ever-ambiguous Snape, who may or may not be evil, and the Horcruxes, which are no more than inanimate objects.

On a closing note, Eva's birthday is at the end of the month. I'm planning to make her another YouTube video, but I'm not sure what song to use. I had been thinking about "Just a Little Girl," but now I wonder if it's not too bad-ass for a 12-year-old. Suggestions, please?

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Best Friend, Toy-Box

I finally made it to Goodwill today and bought myself two pairs of jeans. I had gotten down to only one good pair of jean pants, and I pretty much don't go out in anything but. The only problem is that they're terribly stiff, so I've been doing squats and stuff in them to break them in.

While at Goodwill, I also found two movies with child actresses: Miracle on 34th Street (1947), with Natalie Wood, and Miracle on 34th Street (1994), with Mara Wilson. The original is probably my all-time favorite Christmas movie. The remake I haven't seen in a long time, but from what I remember, it wasn't nearly as good. (But isn't that always the case with remakes?) It seemed to be more of dubbed-down kiddie movie, while the original was more of an adult drama. I plan to watch each on the actresses' upcoming birthdays: Natalie Wood would be 71 on July 20, and Mara Wilson will be 22 on July 24.

In similar news, OMG I've got to see this movie! Maybe it'll come to MovieBox.

( Elle Fanning in Phoebe in Wonderland )

I seem to have lost my sunglasses. I hate to buy a new pair (because I'm sure that as soon as I buy a new one, I'll find the pair I lost) but I'll just have to break down and do it, because bike-riding without sunglasses is brutal. I'm trying to wear white shirts only now when I go bike-riding. I had to ride to work early yesterday morning, and Tuesday is trash day in our part of town. Do you know what a bike ride on trash day smells like? Seriously? The Paris metro.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Queen Alice, Elle Fanning

I took a nap yesterday after the meeting, and damn, for some reason, taking naps in the middle of the day gives me the freakiest-ass dreams.

The closest cemetery to our apartment is very small and very old. The graves there date back to the 1860's, and I doubt if there are any more recent than the 1920's. But unlike other old cemeteries in the city, this one hasn't been well-preserved. It's never mowed, so the grass is wild and very high in places. Lots of the graves are cracked or broken. It's on a corner in a residential neighborhood, but no one ever visits it, and driving past it, you probably wouldn't notice it's a cemtery at all, because the chain-link fence surrounding it is so overgrown that it's almost impossible to see through.

The only part of the fence that isn't overgrown is the gate. But Friday evening, I was riding past on my bike and saw that the gate too had become hidden under the ivy and weeds. It made me think of that TV show Life After People (which I've never seen but have heard good things about from Sally), about how the earth, if left to its own devices, will take back everything and eventually erase all signs of human life. It's like that was happening to this cemetery. It made me so mad, for some reason. I mean, there are about a hundred people buried in that cemetery, so some must still have descendants in the area. Why doesn't anybody ever come to visit it? Why doesn't anybody care? I went inside and started ripping up the weeds and tearing down the ivy until the gateway was clear again. I got a splinter in my hand that stung like a bitch. Then I came home and watched Ponette. I was in the mood for it.

When Sara wants me to shut up, she asks me a question about a child actress, because she knows I'll get quiet and think. Once she asked me who I thought was the best child actress of the 1990's. If you define best by how many people heard of you and how much money you made, the decade probably goes to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. But if you define best in terms of pure, raw talent, the decade goes to Victoire. Those who would give it to anybody else (say, Anna Paquin, who was a good actress of the decade) are those who haven't seen Ponette. I think what makes that film so powerful it's that it's so real. It's not scripted, the way virtually all other movies are. I think we've gotten so used to that that we don't even notice it anymore. But when have you ever heard anybody talk in real life the way people do in movies? And it's so personal. That's the other important thing about it. The way Ponette perceives the world is, on a deeper level, the way we all perceive the world, or used to. I don't think Victoire and Doillon can ever be praised highly enough for it.

Current Mood: impatient
Current Music: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, Hollie Steel

The new girl at work, the one I complained about in my last entry, is gone for good. I practically jumped for joy when my manager told me she was leaving. Words can't say how creepy she was or how uncomfortable she made me. She followed me around, told me all her personal business and asked me about mine (I never answered), and told other employees that we were best friends. The hell? I barely even knew her for a month. I am so glad she's gone.

I had an awesome day yesterday. There was a neighborhood-wide garage sale, and Sable and I walked around the blocks and looked at some of them. Then I rode my bike over to Grandma's house, brought her back the salsa I stole when she was in Alabama last week, and visited with a lot of relatives. Then Aunt Carla treated me and Athena to a movie (Star Trek) and pizza. I don't usually like popcorn movies, and I've never watched the original Star Trek (only TNG), but I enjoyed it. Spock was awesome! His rhythmic speech patterns and lack of emotions reminded me of Data.

Later that evening Athena came over to our apartment and we all watched Return to Oz, which she hadn't seen since she was a little kid. That's one movie I will never get tired of watching. Every time I see it, I'm amazed at how good it is and how good Fairuza Balk is in it. Especially the scenes in Kansas, before Dorothy goes back to Oz -- everything is so well-shot, and the scenes in the hospital are so suspenseful, and the way Fairuza moves her hands -- it's like poetry.

Today I had planned to go to the library and look up some obituaries for Find-a-Grave, but it's raining awfully hard right now and our street has turned into a dangerous river. I feel like Piglet when he was stranded in his treehouse during the flood. "Help, P-P-P-P-Piglet, me!"

Current Mood: high and dry
Current Music: Athena: "Have you looked outside? It's a river! And it's fast!"

Talking about "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"...
Me: You know Elle Fanning was in that.
Adam: I guess. She didn't even have any lines.
Me: Yes, she did. I saw her part.
Adam: No, she didn't. They had Keira Knightley do her voice.
[pause]
Me: Keira Knightley?
Adam: [pissed] I don't know what her name is!
Me: You mean Cate Blanchett? Is that who you mean?
Adam: I said I don't know her name.
Me: They didn't have Cate Blanchett do her voice. They had them both record the lines, and then they combined her voice with Elle Fanning's.
Adam: Oh.
Me: You thought Cate Blanchett was Keira Knightley? That's a new one. I'll have to tell Sara that.
Adam: Yes, I'm sure you will. [sighs angrily]
Me: [laughing hysterically] Boy, you haven't changed a bit.

Current Mood: I have a headache!
Current Music: Amazing, Janelle

I was off today, and the weather was actually nice – a miracle, I know. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining. I gave Sable a bath and washed his bed, which he hated, and took him on a long walk, which he loved. He loves rolling around in warm sunny patches of grass, kicking his legs in the air; he could've done it for ten minutes solid today if I'd let him.

This afternoon Sara and I drove with the windows down to the cemetery I've been meaning to visit. We walked around, reading inscriptions, her looking at the names, me taking pictures. That cemetery is one of my favorites. It's so well-kept and always full of flowers.

When we got home, I went on bike ride and collected cans. I haven't done the latter in a while, so I got almost a full bag of cans before it got too chilly and Rebecca started wheezing. I rode my bike to Grandma's house and visited with her and Aunt Carla before heading home. I understand now how Sara when I was in France and the first thing Grandma always said when she saw her was, "How's Rebecca?" Now every time I see Grandma, we always have this exchange, word for word: Grandma: "Have you heard from Mom or Adam?" Me: "No, haven't heard from them."

This evening I watched The Secret of Roan Inish, which I bought earlier this week as part of a double DVD with Whale Rider. At first, I couldn't figure out why they were packaged together, since one was about Ireland and the other about New Zealand. But after watching Roan Inish (which, by the way, was very good, much better than I had expected) I see the similarity: they're both peaceful, atmospheric films about young girls who live with their grandparents and learn the legends of their families and their islands.

Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: Call Me Al, Paul Simon

I've kept lists of all the new books I've read for every year since 2003, and in 2008, I kept a list of all the new movies I saw as well. I had two movie-watching goals: to see as many classic old films as I could, and as many movies with notable young actress performances as I could. I did very well on the first goal (mostly thanks to the mediatheque in Villers-Cotterets) but not so well on the second.

The first list: Prepare to be impressed!

( All Movies of 2008 )

And for my own reference, I also wrote short reviews for some of the movies I saw with child actresses. Note: I will probably send this list to the owners of a child actress website I work with, and it might not be of interest to most people who reads this blog.

( Akeelah and the Bee )

( Atonement )

( Divorce His, Divorce Hers )

( Firestarter )

( Lawn Dogs )

( Leon )

( A Little Princess )

( Little Women )

( The Nativity Story )

( Nim's Island )

The original list (what I wanted to see and why I wanted to see it) is here.

Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: I Love You Too, Pete's Dragon

The weather for the past few days has been awful, very cold and rainy. When I walk Sable now, he runs outside, pees, runs back in, and goes straight to his bed. I was off from work today and meant to ride my bike to the library, but it's so cold and wet that I've been staying inside being lazy. I watched The Nativity Story, with Keisha Castle-Hughes (scratch one from my list of young actress films to watch).

On Sunday night, we trimmed our Christmas tree and watched It Happened One Night -- a very touching, funny old movie, classic without feeling dated. The tree I bought is small (4'6") and artificial, but that suites us since we don't have many ornaments. We've never had an artificial tree before; our mom had them when she was a kid and hated them, and she's also obsessed with the smell of pine. I also got a little miniature Christmas stocking for Sable. I'll try to put some pictures up soon.

Sara is celebrating her birthday this Friday. (She'll be 26! OMG, she's, like, so old!) Mom and Adam are supposed to be arriving from North Carolina sometime on Friday night. I don't know how long they'll be in town, but we're all supposed to exchange Christmas gifts while they're here, and I have yet to buy anything for either of them. I don't know when I'm going to; I'll be working a lot for the next few days, because one of my co-workers, who's also my distant cousin, just quit.

Work is okay. I'm slowly getting better at my sales pitches, and the manager I hate is becoming more tolerable.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: a far-off train whistle, the rain falling

Last night I finally watched the DVD of Citizen Kane that Ben lent me. The entire time I was watching it, I shelled pecans from the big bag that Grandma gave me. And in almost two hours – Citizen Kane’s running time, according to its page at IMDb – I managed to shell just over one cup of pecans. It’ll be slow going, but as along as I have good movies to watch, I don’t mind. Tomorrow I’m going to shell some more while watching Aunt Carolyn’s old copy of It Happened One Night. I’m doing very well on my goal to watch a lot of classic American films this year. (But my goal to watch films with notable child actress performances, not so much.)

Current Mood: yawn
Current Music: Independence Day, Martina McBride

Sara said to me before she left for work today, "You should post an entry in your LiveJournal all about how I'm the greatest sister ever." The reason? My birthday presents from Sara (finally) arrived in the mail today! Here's what she got me:

1) Shirley Temple's autobiograpy, Child Star.
2) Shirley's 1935 movie Curly Top.
3) Shirley's 1936 movie Dimples.

I didn't even ask for those last two, because I prefer to collect a specific edition of Shirley's films (namely, the colorized clamshell VHS edition released in the '90s), and I didn't expect anybody to get me the right kind. But she did!

This is what my collection looks like now!

Current Mood: squee!
Current Music: The Empire Strikes Back

We're still house-sitting. I can now play Auld Lang Syne, Thine Be the Glory, Winnie-the-Pooh, and a large part of Feed the Birds on my aunt and uncle's piano. (I play in one-handed style best described as "plinking" or "crappy.") Is it wrong that out of all the cool stuff in my aunt and uncle's house, the only thing I'm really tempted to steal is the albuterol inhaler I found in the bathroom? I've taken a few puffs on it while I've been here, since they have two cats, and the big black one, Izzy, is prone to lie on your chest when you're asleep, and having cats sleep on her is not good for Rebecca's asthma. Anyway, it was indescribably great to have real asthma medication again, rather than breathing myself out of attacks, which is what I've done since my albuterol ran out.

A French actress named Victoire Thivisol, whom most people have never heard of but whom I love, has just released her first movie in seven years! (She only had one tiny TV role between then and now.) As excited as I am that she's acting again, I'm also hella frustrated at the timing of this movie's release. Why couldn't it have come out three months ago, when I could have seen it in Paris? Who knows when I'll get to see it here. But I will see it. A list for future reference...

Films with notable child actress performances that Rebecca has seen in 2008: Atonement, Divorce His - Divorce Hers, Firestarter, (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,) A Little Princess, Little Women, Nim's Island, Paper Moon.

And speaking of movies, Sara and Adam convinced me to see The Dark Knight with them last week. Frankly, I was disappointed. I've never been a big fan of action, adventure, or comic book movies (the only exceptions are the first two X-Men movies, which I loved), but I've heard so much praise about this one that I expected to really be blown away. I mean, has anyone else seen those promos that say, "A lightning bolt is about to rip into summer movies!" and "The Dark Knight soars on the wings of imagination!"? I guess for me it was a victim of its own hype. It wouldn't have been as big if Heath Ledger hadn't died.

Oh yeah, and I've got a job interview on Monday morning for a job that I might actually have a chance of getting.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Breathe Again, Toni Braxton

It drizzled most of today, but I managed to catch a dry spell between the showers while I ran some errands on my bike. I must have been riding for too long, because my legs were so sore when I got back this evening. I applied for three more jobs today, although things on the job front have remained frustratingly the same. I should probably stop talking about that before I hurt somebody. I'm going to apply for another job tomorrow, one that I would really like, but I'm not getting my hopes up (not ever again, by the looks of it). But I do have something to look forward to: Sara and I are leaving on Saturday!

So I made this list of quotes from movies I like. You can identify the ones you recognize in comments. The person who gets the most wins ... uh, something.

What in heaven's name is so extraordinary about folding a napkin?
Do you think your father's a lunatic? Wasting my time on a lot of silly inventions?
I'll just continue to tell her that her mother is in the bathtub.
My dear, since Eve picked the apple, no woman has ever been taken entirely unawares.
I'm madly in love with you, and it's not because of your brains or your personality.
Maybe he thought he'd be coming to my funeral instead of my birthday.
It won't be the cough that carries me off, but the coffin they carry me off in.
A bathroom's a bathroom. You don't live in it!
Dinner's at five-thirty. You can eat blind-folded!
Maybe he wandered right along the river and found a dry crossing, one you didn't know about.
Whistles are for dogs and cats and other animals, but not for children and definitely not for me.
You've got tigers and elephants in India, but have you not got skipping ropes?
We gladly feast on those who would consume us.
Ain't we got all the luck, selling whiskey to a sherriff's brother?
My father always used to say that if we ever had the kind of money you have, we'd have steak and ice cream three times every day!
She's flying with her magic mirror.
I used to pretend that she was you, when you were a little girl, before the war and poverty had done things to you.
I swallowed a bug!
What do they call you? Wheels?
She'll stay where she is, and you'll die in the lion pit!

Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: Johanna, Johnny Depp

Our cat, Mary Andromeda, had two kittens last month -- Gertrude (black) and Edith Piaf (black and white) -- and they're still too feral to let us touch them, although I've been Edith Piaf has let me get pretty close to her. But for some strange reason, they both ran into the house the other night. We managed to catch Edith Piaf in the dining room and let her back outside. Gertrude somehow got all the way to our room, and when we finally caught her, she scratched and hissed and practically jumped out of my hands. They were both scared to death, and I'm sure the experience has traumatized them for life. Adam was off somewhere when it happened (probably wandering outside at night, which is his favorite hobby), and when he got back I told him he'd missed all the excitement.

I just finished reading The Seer of Shadows, by Avi, who writes pretty great young adult historical fiction. It's meant to be scary, and I'm a wuss, so it was certainly enough to creep me out at 2 am. To distract myself from it, I started reading Jessi and the Dance School Phantom instead and stayed up till 4 am. Which wasn't the best decision, because I had to get up at 10 yesterday for a job interview. But in spite of my sleep deprivation, I like to think the interview went well. I would really like the job, but from what I could tell, there are a lot of applicants. The people who interviewed me said they'll be making a decision within two weeks.

Sara and I rented movies last night: X-Men 3 (which we watched only to see if it was as bad as we remembered, and it was), Cloverfield (which we're going to watch tonight), and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella from 1965. We laughed until we cried.

Sara is off from work tomorrow, so I'm hoping we'll get over to see JC & Company.

Current Mood: suddenly depressed
Current Music: Summer of '69, Bryan Adams

In the hurry I was in posting that last entry, I forgot to mention another un-funny Chinese Sara Momet (it goes a long way in explaining the comments she made about Tibet). Friday morning during breakfast, we were talking about how the French think every damn thing is their right, not their privilege, and if you try to take it away from them, they'll have another revolution and chop off your head. Anyway, Sarah was saying that one of her students got into a big argument with the Chinese professor because he insisted that not doing his homework was his right, and one point she said, "In China, you don't have a lot of rights. The government officers have rights, but I think you don't have any rights."

We watched The Sound of Music together Saturday night. I think I can simply never get tired of that movie, no matter how many times I watch it. And every time I watch it, I always remember how much Dad hated it and said it made him root for the Nazis. Anyway, Marlene brought an interesting perspective to it; she thought that the movie somewhat idolized Austria at the expense of demonizing Germany ("Some of us prefer Austrian voices raised in song to ugly German threats," etc.) when Hitler himself was Austrian, not German. She also said that Baroness Schraeder should have said adieu or something other than Auf Wiedersehen when she left Captain von Trapp, because apparently Auf Wiedersehen means "until we meet again" (as does au revoir) and doesn't have much finality to it. And she explained what the heck schitnzel with noodle is.

CNN International says that Democratic party officials are encouraging Clinton to withdraw now before she and Obama tear the party apart and hand the election to the Republicans. Four more years of Republican rule is exactly what I'm afraid of (aren't we all?), so I wish Clinton would, but I seriously doubt it's going to happen. McCain is doing uncomfortably well in the CNN polls, I think because he's been careful about distancing himself from Shrub (as Dad used to call him). No matter who the next president is -- and by the way, the school teachers have been asking me, because for some reason they think I know for sure, which I find funny -- a big part of me will be very glad to see the last of Shrub.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Breathe, Anna Nalick

On Thursday afternoon I had a really horrible class. So horrible that when the bell finally rang and the students filed out the door, I said, "Get out, get out! I never want to see your faces again!" (Of course they couldn't understand me. I wouldn't have said it if they could have). On Thursday night, Heather cooked a traditional Korean dinner for all of us, which was very nice.

Sometime in the a.m. of yesterday morning, I woke up with a terrible cramp in my right leg (the kind of cramp that goes by a ridiculous name that I refuse to use because it has nothing to do with horses or men named Charlie). My leg is still sore.

Yesterday afternoon I took the train to Crépy-en-Valois to visit the cemetary, which was really nice. It was built into the side of a hill, so it had multiple levels; I started at the bottom of the hill, where the most recent graves were, and worked my way up to the oldest graves at the top, so it was like I was walking back in time. I managed to take a few pictures for findagrave.com before the weather got so bad that I had to leave. At one point the wind blew my umbrella handle against my face so hard that my lip started bleeding. I really am so sick of the weather here. I'm from Louisiana, so I don't mind rain, but I do mind cold rain. And I can't wait for good weather to go to a cemetary (or anywhere else), because if I waited for good weather, I would probably never set foot outside the school.

Anyway, I stayed up until about two a.m. this morning watching Paper Moon. It wasn't on my list of notable films with child actress performances to see in 2008, but it should have been. I absolutely loved it. Sometimes a talented child actress is the only thing worth watching in a terrible movie (Anna Paquin in The Piano is a good example), but this was not the case here. The movie and the whole cast were excellent, and Tatum O'Neal really deserved the Oscar she received for her performance, even though she won for Best Supporting Actress when she was the lead actress in the movie.

I had to type this post in a hurry, because I'm about to go downstairs and watch The Sound of Music with the other assistants. A link to my YouTube channel is below for those of you who requested it:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lastsafeplace

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Fame, Irene Cara

A post of odds and ends...

Last night I had a dream about The Merchant of Venice (it involved Shylock and Jessica, their relationship has always fascinated me). I did some reading up on it today and found out there's a theater in Paris that's performing it this Friday. I don't know if I'll be able to get tickets, but since I don't have any classes Friday afternoon, I'm going to try to go see it. I absolutely love The Merchant of Venice; I think it is Shakespeare's best work and also (unfortunately) one of his most under-appreciated.

I have recently learned how to cook a steak haché, and I'm hella proud of myself for it.

I never did post what I thought of Atonement, so I'll do so now (no spoilers) ... As much as I love child actresses, sometimes they just don't live up to the hype. Abigail Breslin is a good example. Yes, she was excellent in Little Miss Sunshine, but was she Oscar-level excellent? No. (Sorry, Abigail.) But this was not the case with 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan, whose role got her nominated for Best Supporting Actress (the same category Abigail was nominated in, as well as child actresses Anna Paquin, Tatum O'Neal, and Mary Badham). Keira Knightley and James McAvoy might be all over the posters, but I think Saoirse's character was the deepest and the most important. She exuded innocence, as well as a confidence and self-assurance that reminded me of Rachel Hurd-Wood in Peter Pan. She also come off as the most refreshing and unassuming actor in a film that sometimes got too full of itself. The five-minute steadycam shot of Dunkirk Beach seemed to exist more to get the audience to say, "Wow, what a great shot!" than for any other reason. And one more thing that got on my nerves was that the characters often spoke really, really fast. The first prize goes to Keira Knightley for her line Yourealizethat'sprobablythemostvaluablethingweown! A close second is the exchange between Saoirse and Juno Temple: Isupposeyou'regoingtobeArabella - Wellnotnecessarily - InthatcasedoyoumindifIplayher?

Here's the real reason not to vote for McCain. You think Laura Bush is bad? Well, she is, but Sarah and I have recently decided that John McCain's wife Cindy McCain (he's 71, she's 53) happens to look just like the devil. I will now pimp some icons.

All made by me.

One day at lunch I was sitting next to one of the teachers (he taught science, I think) and he asked me where he was from. I ended up telling him a little bit about the French history of Louisiana, and his reaction was great when I told him that my grandmother's first language is Cajun French. "You mean, she's never studied French? And she's never been to France? But she speaks French?"

The other day I poured Sarah a drink in the cafeteria, and when she said "Thank you," I replied with the Chinese word for "You're welcome." She taught me this word a few months ago, and I guess she thought I had forgotten it, because she was so surprised that she exclaimed "Wow!" and almost dropped her fork. The look on her face was absolutely priceless.

And for no reason...
I like pickled onion, I like piccalilli
Picked cabbage is all right
With a bit of cold meat on a Sunday night
I can go tomato, but what I do prefer
Is a little bit of cucum, I come, you come
A little bit of cucumber
I will never get tired of that song.

Current Mood: hope I can stay awake in class
Current Music: eery silence

Nathalie usually takes us shopping every Wednesday, but during vacation we have to fend for ourselves. I had forgotten how difficult it is to go grocery shopping without a car. Today I had to seriously prioritize my list; I could only buy what I needed immediately (goat cheese pizza) and what wasn’t heavy (goat cheese).

Heather returned from her trip to

Switzerland

yesterday, bringing with her lots of incredible pictures, some tasty Swiss chocolate, and an abrupt end to the nice weather. That last one isn’t her fault of course, but as soon as she returned, it got foggy and very cold, the complete opposite of the warm, sunny weather we’ve had since last Friday. Tonight Heather, Marlene, Sarah, and I all watched The Two Towers in the kitchen, which was a lot of fun. We are all fans of Lord of the Rings, but the key difference is that Heather and I watch them largely to make sarcastic comments, while Marlene treats them like the serious epic films they are. She was genuinely mad when we made jokes that Legolas was in love with Aragorn. “Why do you keep saying these things about Legolas? You know they were just good friends!” And that made Heather and me laugh so hard we almost collapsed.

I have finally located the address of the Paris theater where Peter Pan made its French premiere in 1908. The original building still exists, but it has been a movie cinema since the 1920s. I am hoping to go to Paris next week and see a movie there – how awesome would that be? I would also like to visit the hotel where JM Barrie stayed during his visits to Paris, but I think that no longer exists.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Friday I'm in Love, The Cure

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rebecca_in_blue

March 2013

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Page Summary

Rebecca misses the sound of the air conditioner.
But she'll regret seeing it after she's scared sleepless for a week.
The gayest man on earth would call High School Musical over-the-top!
Rebecca finally washed Sable's beds!
Rebecca's having Christmas in July!
Rebecca needs more pens to put between her toes.
The rain rain rain came down down down, so Rebecca started bailing.
Oh, these happy family reunions.
Bike-riding regularly is the secret to happiness.
The first two lists for 2008.
Oh, I gave him a black eye and had to tie him to a tree.
Rebecca got paid today!
Rebecca is way too excited about this.
If Rebecca could ever really breathe again, breathe again...
One day to go!
Dammit, why do some nights suck?
The weather was actually nice today!
Posting in a hurry...
I can go tomato, but what I do prefer...
What did Rebecca eat for dinner? Goat cheese pizza.

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Entries tagged with movies

Rebecca misses the sound of the air conditioner.

But she'll regret seeing it after she's scared sleepless for a week.

The gayest man on earth would call High School Musical over-the-top!

Rebecca finally washed Sable's beds!

Rebecca's having Christmas in July!

Rebecca needs more pens to put between her toes.

The rain rain rain came down down down, so Rebecca started bailing.

Oh, these happy family reunions.

Bike-riding regularly is the secret to happiness.

The first two lists for 2008.

Oh, I gave him a black eye and had to tie him to a tree.

Rebecca got paid today!

Rebecca is way too excited about this.

If Rebecca could ever really breathe again, breathe again...

One day to go!

Dammit, why do some nights suck?

The weather was actually nice today!

Posting in a hurry...

I can go tomato, but what I do prefer...

What did Rebecca eat for dinner? Goat cheese pizza.