Hey Y'all

I am in Louisiana counting down the hours to the UConn vs. LSU game. UGH it is killing me. What a great precursor to the final 4. I am anxious and want 6pm to be here already! Anyway, had fun in New Orleans - no I didn't show the girls although asked! We had a great dinner at Commander's House. BBQ white shrimp over brie whipped grits. Best meal in a very long time. I almost pulled a Meg Ryan in the restuarant- no not the bizare ordering but the oohhing and aahing - except it wasn't going to be fake. That food was out of this world.

I feel remiss - I haven't written in a while and the truth is that I haven't seen, watched or done much worth blogging about. Sure there were little instances that I thought - wow that is bloggable but the only ones I remember are: A student blowing her back out from attempting disco inferno on dance dance revolution extreme; RiRi getting a tattoo and NOT breathing throughout; leon running down the list of WOMEN he would sleep with; forcing staff to lysol and purell down because of the stomach flu.

I did watch the american idol men in the first week of the final 24. Paula was not uncharacteristically stoned and incomprehensible. Randy was Randy and Simon was annoying. I still hate Ryan. The boys were ok. Lots of gay young boys which is cool with me. I love David and hope he gets far. Those pipes are amazing. I didn't watch the girls. The friggin writers strike has made for dull tv viewing. Well that and the fact that jdog and I keep finding other things to do.

On this trip I have finished 2 books, on my third right now. I finally got myself through Ann Rice's Mummy. Good book - long but good. Character development good, great scenery description. I have no idea if she was accurate regarding ancient Egypt but it sounded like it was true to the movie Mummy seriesn. :) Sometimes it felt formulaic - that is, ancient mummy or vampire comes to life or into the picture, falls in love with mere mortal, cannot imagine life without mere mortal, makes mere mortal immortal love slave. pretty much that is it but this time ancient egypt and not Louisiana.

I watched one episode of Women's Murder Club with a very thin Angie Harmon and 3 other women. Basically the club is made up of an Investigator with the San Fran PD, a prosecutor, a medican examiner and a writer for local paper. The show was ok - intriguing. Anyway, turns out its based on a book series by James Patterson. So, I check it out. Patterson left my favorite cop, Alex Cross (see Along Came a Spider, Cross, Double Cross, London Bridge, Kiss the Girls et al) - well actually I should say branched from Alex and created a new series re: the Women's Murder Club some time ago. I was leary to jump on because I liked Alex Cross and there are few men who can write from the female perspective. Anyway, I was in the Traveler's resturant - you've probably seen it if you travel 84 its up near Ashford and says something like Food and Books. Anyway, if you go there and eat you can get 3 free books. So, I pick up 1st to Die which is book one of this series. I just finished it - cried of course. This is why I like Patterson - easy read, good story, likeable characters, a murder, a twist, a love interest who eventually dies. Of course that's his formula. But I like it. Unlike Rice who sometimes takes too long to get there and is pretty verbose, Patterson just bangs it out. Worth the read and I will actually continue reading the series but after the thousand other books I have piled on every available surface of the shelves.

I started Stephen King's new one and then because it was at my disposal also started No Country for Old Men - yes like the movie. Which brings me to my next subject...Remember when I used to make sure I saw all the academy award nominated films? Yeah, me too. No more! I didn't even watch - gasp! - because I had only, up through Saturday, seen Juno and Sweeny Todd. How pathetic is that??? Have I really lost my movie whoredness? If so, yesterday brought it back.

For the first time in about 4 years I did a movie triple play with Eric. Yes, triple play. And mysteriously enough we paid for all three movies. We agreed going in to see two movies nominated for awards (he had seen No Country for Old men and I Juno so those were immediately off the list). We started with There will be Blood.

TWBB stars Daniel Day Lewis and the dude that played Lara Croft's nemesis in the first Tomb Raider. Daniel Plainview is an oil man - starts by digging his own and then develops pulleys and drills, and finally has an entire operation - the crew, lumber, drill stuff. He is a self made oil man. He inherits a kid from a guy that dies on one of his early discoveries and raises the kid on his own. The movie tracks Daniel, and his kid HW, through the years. There is more music than dialogue which is troubling and annoying at times. But the movie really is about - at least from my perspective - what can potentially happen to someone who is motivated by greed, money, power, competition and add into the mix someone who freaks when he is "made a fool of." At least what happened to Daniel (Murder Abandonment Murder) and Eli (crazy minister). Since I didnt see the other nominations I cannot tell you if DDL should have won in my opinion. The movie was just ok in my book - I would not have nominated it but given that it was a historical piece with some crazy characters and DDL was back there is no suprise that the academy nominated this and dissed Hairspray and Transformers!

Be Kind Rewind - this was not as you can imagine, nominated but it was a good (after eric decided that the new york times review was better than taking my suggestion to see the movie) intermisso. The movie was great. Jack Black and Mos Def play these average guys trying to find their way in the world. Best friends - Mos is the responsible one and works for Danny Glover who is trying to keep an historical building and his business - a vhs renting, memorbelia place from the hands of the big city developers. The movie is about relationships to individuals, the history of a small town, the lies we tell ourselves and others to make life more bearable, and the relationships we have with people in our posse and people in our community. Jack gets blasted while trying to sabotage a power plane (the power plant he lives near) and becomes magnetized. He goes into the store Danny has temporarily left to the management of Mos. All vhs tapes become erased. Since Mos wants to show Danny (who is a surrogate dad) that he is loveable, responsible, good enough, he must somehow save the business. They decide to remake the movies (Swede them. Sweded, its called. Like Sweden? Sweden isnt' a verb its a country). Well the Sweded moves take off and the whole community starts buying. Not enough to stop developers so they decide to make a movie with the whole community. GREAT! Worth watching. No need to see it on the big screen unless you want to support this heartwarming film.

Persepholis. This started as a book which was illustrated sort of like a cartoon novel but black and white mostly. So they made it into a movie. It is about a girl growing up in Iran in the early 80s, how the war(s) impacted her. Feminism, freedom, civil rights, independence, etc. are all intertwined within the film. Of course having read the book I knew that it was sort of depressing but did put the war and the relationship between US, Iran and Iraq into some perspective. Not worth seeing in film version. get the book if you are so intrigued. Not sure why it was nominated at all - but thinking it was political and basically not much oscar worthy animated shows came out this year.

So, it was a great movie trip. I have netflixed EVERYTHING else and once I return (unwatched) the movies I have at home, I'll be able to report whether the academy got it right. My goal is to be better next year!