In an interesting turn of events the other day, Sassafrass was thrown off track when she realized that she had been spending so much energy trying not to turn into her mother that she had inadvertently turned into her father!!
Oh, yes. It's true. I carry a lot of my German mother's neurotic tendencies; and with these, I try not to turn into the gigantic ball of emotion and stress that is my mother. I do a pretty good job at avoiding this; largely in part thanks to SO.
However, I've been working A LOT lately as Baby-Girl is still on tour; to make up for her absence, I've been pulling double shifts, for about two weeks.
The better part of Thursday morning was spent in a MAJOR argument with SO, basically boiling down to he had been treating me quite rudely because he was now expecting it as soon as I get home; that I would be so stressed out from my job and the double work of it and I wasn't properly separating my job stress from the peace of being at home; of coming home to a wonderful man who was cleaning the entire house, buying and prepping all the dinner so all I would have to do is throw it in a dish and cook; and basically taking care of everything I needed.
This? This is EXACTLY how my father acted (and still does) while I was growing up. He was rarely at home due to the difficult climb up the corporate ladder, and when he would finally come home, he would snap at my mother, my sister, and I.
To use a common southern term, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized that I had inadvertently turned into my dad. No shit. We were mid-argument, yelling at each other, saying terrible things, and out he bursts with, "Well, if you could just learn to separate your job from your home, then I could be nicer to you. Take thirty minutes, take an hour as soon as you get home. Do whatever the fuck you want to do, and when I get home, be in a better goddamned mood!!"
And that stopped me dead in my tracks. Shit. I've turned into my father. And given the choice between the two parental figures, I would most certainly choose to turn into my mother.
What woman ever thinks that she will utter that phrase?
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
I loved this book. LOVED it. This is a piece of young adult fiction that is pure joy to read. Of course, I think I fell in love with this book more for the main character's thought processes than for anything else. He reminded me of SO, of the way he acted and reacted to life when I first met him.
The book is written in a series of letters addressed to a man with no name, just "dear friend" and then a description of the day or the past couple of days--think of it as Dear God, It's Me Margret without all the Christian overtones; or girly problems; or young adult drama; and add in some drug use; also some underage sex/sexual encounters...okay, try not to think of it like that at all.
But I swear it's amazing! It's just a window of a year in one teen's life, of everything he's going through and what he's thinking about. Unfortunately, I was unable to relate to the main character, but what he said (wrote?) reminded me so much of some of my friends during that time.
It's an easy read that is well worth the time and money spent.
The book is written in a series of letters addressed to a man with no name, just "dear friend" and then a description of the day or the past couple of days--think of it as Dear God, It's Me Margret without all the Christian overtones; or girly problems; or young adult drama; and add in some drug use; also some underage sex/sexual encounters...okay, try not to think of it like that at all.
But I swear it's amazing! It's just a window of a year in one teen's life, of everything he's going through and what he's thinking about. Unfortunately, I was unable to relate to the main character, but what he said (wrote?) reminded me so much of some of my friends during that time.
It's an easy read that is well worth the time and money spent.
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Throughout the course of my school career, I thought I had read the majority of The Jungle; so when I picked it up at the library I just thought I'd be piecing together what I already knew (you know, disguesting meat-packing stories). But the back of the book tells how Sinclair wrote the book, not for the sociological effect it had on the meat packing industry, but as a good way to introduce people to and to promote his new obsession: socialism; obviously I'd not read most of this book.
Have you read The Colour Purple or Angela's Ashes? The Jungle is up to par with those books in terms of absolute depressedness. The story follows a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family as they come to America and find jobs and try to live in their new country. The book was written in 1906 and focus on the poor treatment of America's working class--the low labor force that moves the country.
I'm sure people of much softer heart than I probably fell to pieces over the plight of this family--yeah, it's sad, but c'mon they also made some pretty bad choices. The book was very well written, but it started to drag towards the end. And really, you don't see much of the pro-socialism part of it; it's just this super depressing book about how hard life is for them. It wasn't until (literally) the very end that Rudkus discovers socialism and becomes excited with how he's going to try and change the world with it.
It was a pretty good book, I can see why it is recommended reading for schools; if only because you are able to see how one man can change the way an entire nation thinks (read: views its meat). I don't see how it makes a point for socialism, just that it really sucks if you're poor. But it may be that I missed the point since I cannot bring myself to agree with socialist values.
Have you read The Colour Purple or Angela's Ashes? The Jungle is up to par with those books in terms of absolute depressedness. The story follows a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, and his family as they come to America and find jobs and try to live in their new country. The book was written in 1906 and focus on the poor treatment of America's working class--the low labor force that moves the country.
I'm sure people of much softer heart than I probably fell to pieces over the plight of this family--yeah, it's sad, but c'mon they also made some pretty bad choices. The book was very well written, but it started to drag towards the end. And really, you don't see much of the pro-socialism part of it; it's just this super depressing book about how hard life is for them. It wasn't until (literally) the very end that Rudkus discovers socialism and becomes excited with how he's going to try and change the world with it.
It was a pretty good book, I can see why it is recommended reading for schools; if only because you are able to see how one man can change the way an entire nation thinks (read: views its meat). I don't see how it makes a point for socialism, just that it really sucks if you're poor. But it may be that I missed the point since I cannot bring myself to agree with socialist values.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
pregnant turtle-man
Normally when I dream, it's completely normal everyday stuff; the majority of the time I cannot even remember SO coming to bed, much less remember what my subconscious was doing while I was passed out. But last night I had a totally fucked up dream. Just so completely fucked up that I have to write it down so I'll be able to remember the bizarreness of it.
At no point was it scary for me, as strange as it's going to get, the feeling of the dream was never close to nightmarish, just "this is really really bizarre." Also of interest, I was never a participant of the dream; it was like a movie being played out in front of me and I just followed whatever character interested me the most.
It started as just a normal city scene, then there was an ambulance and sirens and someone was giving birth (this was probably the scariest part for me) and the view was dead-on full perspective, if you catch my drift. And after the birth was finished, the birth-er looked over the belly and it was A MAN. And a man that looked and sounded a whole lot like Dustin Hoffman. And he looked so pleased with himself and he asked where the child was and the nurses/doctors brought the child to him and pseudo-Dustin named the little boy Jamie.
Then it skips in the ways that dreams are wont to do, to several months down the line and also in that strange dream-timescape, Jamie is now around four or five years old and pseudo-Dustin is walking along and talking with a friend and the child is tagging along. The conversation is about the little boy and how people make fun of him because of how small he is for his age, and also because he is so small, he is in much greater danger due to the nuclear war that the world is currently involved (apparently). At this point pseudo-Dustin still looking relatively normal.
Then he says, "Oh, there's no need to worry about that; see, I've had the doctors continue to scrape my womb for safety. See?" And with that said, he reaches down and grabs each side of his not-so-much-a-vagina-as-it-is-a-large-oblong-slash-similar-too-those-old-plastic-change-holders-around-his-genital-region and pulls it open. As he is opening this hole, he seems to grow a bit, a little taller and quite a bit larger. And then he lays down on this super-convenient table that happens to be in the middle of the sidewalk and says, "See? Jamie? Come here for a moment and show David your safeplace." And the little boy walks over and climbs into this hold inside of pseudo-Dustin and sits down--just as if he had a treehouse or cave in the ground. And the pseudo-Dustin just stands up and the hole closes and he shrinks down a bit, but now he just looks slightly chubby, as if he's gained 50 pounds or, you know, had a four or five year old climb inside him to sit down.
And then the friend says, "Oh. Well, that was really smart of you to have them do that. Is it very painful?"
And pseudo-Dustin says, "No. Not at all. And, it doesn't even take very long. And any day that Jamie goes in for several hours I don't have to have the doctors scrape."
The dream continues for awhile and at some point there is a giant neon-blue bomb-explosion thingy and everyone is all panicy and fake-Dustin opens up his hole again and Jamie climbs inside and pseudo-Dustin goes running around trying to help everyone around him and at some point he gets hurt and has to go to the hospital tent (which really just looks like a giant piece of blue tarp stretched over some metal poles in a valley of mud) and the doctors have Jamie climb back out (also another full-on-view shot of that) so they can fix pseudo-Dustin and when they've finished Jamie climbs right back inside.
But that's pretty much it. Like I said, never was it ominous or scary or even creepy. I've always heard that emotion was a major tell in what a dream is supposed to signify but there was no real emotion to it; I just watched this whole thing, when I woke up I just kept thinking how strange that it was.
***So, how many kinds of fucked-up am I?
At no point was it scary for me, as strange as it's going to get, the feeling of the dream was never close to nightmarish, just "this is really really bizarre." Also of interest, I was never a participant of the dream; it was like a movie being played out in front of me and I just followed whatever character interested me the most.
It started as just a normal city scene, then there was an ambulance and sirens and someone was giving birth (this was probably the scariest part for me) and the view was dead-on full perspective, if you catch my drift. And after the birth was finished, the birth-er looked over the belly and it was A MAN. And a man that looked and sounded a whole lot like Dustin Hoffman. And he looked so pleased with himself and he asked where the child was and the nurses/doctors brought the child to him and pseudo-Dustin named the little boy Jamie.
Then it skips in the ways that dreams are wont to do, to several months down the line and also in that strange dream-timescape, Jamie is now around four or five years old and pseudo-Dustin is walking along and talking with a friend and the child is tagging along. The conversation is about the little boy and how people make fun of him because of how small he is for his age, and also because he is so small, he is in much greater danger due to the nuclear war that the world is currently involved (apparently). At this point pseudo-Dustin still looking relatively normal.
Then he says, "Oh, there's no need to worry about that; see, I've had the doctors continue to scrape my womb for safety. See?" And with that said, he reaches down and grabs each side of his not-so-much-a-vagina-as-it-is-a-large-oblong-slash-similar-too-those-old-plastic-change-holders-around-his-genital-region and pulls it open. As he is opening this hole, he seems to grow a bit, a little taller and quite a bit larger. And then he lays down on this super-convenient table that happens to be in the middle of the sidewalk and says, "See? Jamie? Come here for a moment and show David your safeplace." And the little boy walks over and climbs into this hold inside of pseudo-Dustin and sits down--just as if he had a treehouse or cave in the ground. And the pseudo-Dustin just stands up and the hole closes and he shrinks down a bit, but now he just looks slightly chubby, as if he's gained 50 pounds or, you know, had a four or five year old climb inside him to sit down.
And then the friend says, "Oh. Well, that was really smart of you to have them do that. Is it very painful?"
And pseudo-Dustin says, "No. Not at all. And, it doesn't even take very long. And any day that Jamie goes in for several hours I don't have to have the doctors scrape."
The dream continues for awhile and at some point there is a giant neon-blue bomb-explosion thingy and everyone is all panicy and fake-Dustin opens up his hole again and Jamie climbs inside and pseudo-Dustin goes running around trying to help everyone around him and at some point he gets hurt and has to go to the hospital tent (which really just looks like a giant piece of blue tarp stretched over some metal poles in a valley of mud) and the doctors have Jamie climb back out (also another full-on-view shot of that) so they can fix pseudo-Dustin and when they've finished Jamie climbs right back inside.
But that's pretty much it. Like I said, never was it ominous or scary or even creepy. I've always heard that emotion was a major tell in what a dream is supposed to signify but there was no real emotion to it; I just watched this whole thing, when I woke up I just kept thinking how strange that it was.
***So, how many kinds of fucked-up am I?
Friday, March 13, 2009
a home for Sassafrass???
Rock Star and I have been tossing around several ideas of places we'd like to live (we're thinking about moving within the next 7-12 months) and Savannah, GA is near the top of the list...it may have just been bumped to absolute number one.
There has been a lot of debate in my home lately about how bad the economy is currently and how we may not have the means for a major move; or even if we had the means, would we be able to find jobs after we moved?
Last night while watching an old favourite (Drowning Mona) I slipped into the Savannah craigslisting for rentals--and they are fucking cheap!! Seriously, WAY WAY cheaper than I expected to find in that lovely city. SO and I found so many gorgeous places that were several hundred dollars cheaper than we were expecting to pay. Then, just on a whim I skimmed through the job listings too--found one for a guitar instructer and several office jobs that I would be able to do with ease.
...could it be a sign?
A friend of ours has gone down for the weekend and he's going to be bringing up some papers and apartment listings and other such things that may be helpful to us.
There has been a lot of debate in my home lately about how bad the economy is currently and how we may not have the means for a major move; or even if we had the means, would we be able to find jobs after we moved?
Last night while watching an old favourite (Drowning Mona) I slipped into the Savannah craigslisting for rentals--and they are fucking cheap!! Seriously, WAY WAY cheaper than I expected to find in that lovely city. SO and I found so many gorgeous places that were several hundred dollars cheaper than we were expecting to pay. Then, just on a whim I skimmed through the job listings too--found one for a guitar instructer and several office jobs that I would be able to do with ease.
...could it be a sign?
A friend of ours has gone down for the weekend and he's going to be bringing up some papers and apartment listings and other such things that may be helpful to us.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
delish Indian dinner with cookie desert
*************PLEASE FORGIVE THE FONT-SIZE ERRORS AS THE END OF THIS POST APPROACHES; IT TOOK SO LONG TO TYPE OUT THE RECIPIES THAT I CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO WORRY ABOUT THE MUDDLED FONT.*************
Oooh! Babe and I had some delicious foods the other night. For reasons unknown to man (or rather, known to me as it was because of my work schedule and family stuffs) we ended up eating Italian and Chinese all week last week; not that either of those are bad, but just not our first choice of favourite foods. So on our first night alone together in ten-ish days we decided to try a new recipe from our favourite genre of food: Indian. And man, was it good!!! It sounds a bit weird at first, but trust me, it's completely amazing. Also, although curry is in the title, there is no curry in the recipe...but still, here it is:
Chicken Curry with Sliced Apples
Ingredients (as usual, I measure by hand, so I'm sure I usually go over on the measurements):
Ingredients:
*2 tsp oil (I used canola)
*2 medium onions, diced (I used only one white onion as SO hates them)
*1 bay leaf
*2 cloves (probably 3 or 4 in my version)
*1in cinnamon stick (make sure you note, the inch part; I've made that mistake before)
*4 black peppercorns (b/c I'm cheap, I used a TON of rough-ground pepper)
*1 baby chicken cut into bits (nope, I only used about 5 tenders; we're not big on meat
around here plus we be broke-ass bitches)
*1 tsp garam masala (all my measurements are in my head, I'm sure I used WAY more than
called for in recipes)
*1tsp grated fresh root ginger (I'm quite sure mine was closer to a Tblspn)
*1tsp crushed garlic (being fiends of garlic, we usually double the amount)
*1tsp salt (kosher in my kitchen)
*1tsp chili powder
*1 Tbsp ground almonds (we only had in-shell, so we magic-bulleted those)
*2/3 cup natural yogurt (probably closer to a cup, mayhap even 1 1/2 cups)
*2 green apples, peeled, cored and roughly sliced (granny smith for me!)
*1 Tbsp chopped coriander (we LOVE this stuff, so we tear it up by hand and use lots)
*sliced almonds (toasted is best) and more coriander for garnish (as stated before, we only
had in-shell, and it's VERY difficult to slice an almond without proper equipment; we used more of our freshly ground--DO NOT DO THIS!! it only made certain bites grainy....trust me, spring the $1 or $2 for a bag of sliced almonds!!)
STEP ONE:
Heat the oil in a wok on medium or medium-high (I'm sure a similarly heavy pan would also suffice) and fry the onions with the bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon stick and the peppercorns for about 4 minutes or until onions are softened but not quite brown yet.
STEP TWO:
Add the chicken pieces to the onions and continue to stir-fry for at least another 3-5 minutes.
STEP THREE:
Turn the heat down to Low-Medium and add the garam masala, ginger, garlic, salt, chili powder, and ground almonds and cook; making sure to stir constantly for about 3-4 minutes.
STEP FOUR:
Pour in the yogurt and stir for a few more minutes (and if you're me, look at it and say, "Rock Star, I don't think this has enough liquid in it; what do you think?" To which he'll reply, "Looks fine to me, I don't think it's supposed to be super liquidy." And then you can say, "No. I don't like it. Let's add more yogurt.")
STEP FIVE:
Add the apples and coriander, cook for another 10-15 minutes (probably would be a good idea to cover it here, but we have no lid for either of our woks...donations are welcome to fix this dire problem).
STEP SIX:
Sprinkle garnishes (sliced almonds and more coriander; and if you're super paranoid like Rock Star is, triple-check the chicken to make sure it is thoroughly cooked) and serve (we used basmati rice, but I'm sure plain white rice would taste fine too...you know, if you don't know anything about flavour).
Enjoy your surprisingly delicious Indian chicken with apples dish!!
Now, I have a chocolate chip recipe all of my own; one I'm VERY proud of; one I did not think I would be able to surpass. Boy! Was I ever wrong!! And, man! It has never tasted so good being wrong!! These cookies are crisp around the edges and only slightly chewy in the middle (seeing as how I'm not much a fan of chewy cookies, that's perfect for me); they're similar to the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, but with less white sugar and almost twice as much brown sugar. I will add, I used mostly milk-chocolate chips and I would recommend using all semi-sweet or dark-chocolate chips as the dough itself is fairly sweet.
*2 medium onions, diced (I used only one white onion as SO hates them)
*1 bay leaf
*2 cloves (probably 3 or 4 in my version)
*1in cinnamon stick (make sure you note, the inch part; I've made that mistake before)
*4 black peppercorns (b/c I'm cheap, I used a TON of rough-ground pepper)
*1 baby chicken cut into bits (nope, I only used about 5 tenders; we're not big on meat
around here plus we be broke-ass bitches)
*1 tsp garam masala (all my measurements are in my head, I'm sure I used WAY more than
called for in recipes)
*1tsp grated fresh root ginger (I'm quite sure mine was closer to a Tblspn)
*1tsp crushed garlic (being fiends of garlic, we usually double the amount)
*1tsp salt (kosher in my kitchen)
*1tsp chili powder
*1 Tbsp ground almonds (we only had in-shell, so we magic-bulleted those)
*2/3 cup natural yogurt (probably closer to a cup, mayhap even 1 1/2 cups)
*2 green apples, peeled, cored and roughly sliced (granny smith for me!)
*1 Tbsp chopped coriander (we LOVE this stuff, so we tear it up by hand and use lots)
*sliced almonds (toasted is best) and more coriander for garnish (as stated before, we only
had in-shell, and it's VERY difficult to slice an almond without proper equipment; we used more of our freshly ground--DO NOT DO THIS!! it only made certain bites grainy....trust me, spring the $1 or $2 for a bag of sliced almonds!!)
STEP ONE:
Heat the oil in a wok on medium or medium-high (I'm sure a similarly heavy pan would also suffice) and fry the onions with the bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon stick and the peppercorns for about 4 minutes or until onions are softened but not quite brown yet.
STEP TWO:
Add the chicken pieces to the onions and continue to stir-fry for at least another 3-5 minutes.
STEP THREE:
Turn the heat down to Low-Medium and add the garam masala, ginger, garlic, salt, chili powder, and ground almonds and cook; making sure to stir constantly for about 3-4 minutes.
STEP FOUR:
Pour in the yogurt and stir for a few more minutes (and if you're me, look at it and say, "Rock Star, I don't think this has enough liquid in it; what do you think?" To which he'll reply, "Looks fine to me, I don't think it's supposed to be super liquidy." And then you can say, "No. I don't like it. Let's add more yogurt.")
STEP FIVE:
Add the apples and coriander, cook for another 10-15 minutes (probably would be a good idea to cover it here, but we have no lid for either of our woks...donations are welcome to fix this dire problem).
STEP SIX:
Sprinkle garnishes (sliced almonds and more coriander; and if you're super paranoid like Rock Star is, triple-check the chicken to make sure it is thoroughly cooked) and serve (we used basmati rice, but I'm sure plain white rice would taste fine too...you know, if you don't know anything about flavour).
Enjoy your surprisingly delicious Indian chicken with apples dish!!
*******
And, if all that cooking and eating wasn't quite enough cooking and kitchen-time for you, after our two-ish mile walk (poor old Chubbies was just dying at the end!!) we decided to try a new chocolate-chip cookie recipe that I found on the SmittenKitchen blog--which, if you have a major desire to feel completely inadequate about your kitchen and/or time you spend cooking you can locate here (she calls them "crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies").
Now, I have a chocolate chip recipe all of my own; one I'm VERY proud of; one I did not think I would be able to surpass. Boy! Was I ever wrong!! And, man! It has never tasted so good being wrong!! These cookies are crisp around the edges and only slightly chewy in the middle (seeing as how I'm not much a fan of chewy cookies, that's perfect for me); they're similar to the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, but with less white sugar and almost twice as much brown sugar. I will add, I used mostly milk-chocolate chips and I would recommend using all semi-sweet or dark-chocolate chips as the dough itself is fairly sweet.
Best God-damned Chocolate chip cookies EVAH!!
*2 cups all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
*1 cup packed brown sugar
*1/2 cup white sugar
*1 tablespoon vanilla extract
*1 egg
*1 egg yolk
*2 cups chocolate chips
Grease your cookie sheet and preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (but let's be honest, I never really do either of these until I'm ready to put them into the oven--well, I'll preheat about half-way through)
STEP TWO:
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.
STEP THREE:
Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
STEP FOUR:
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand. Drop cookie dough a tablespoon at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 2-3 inches apart.
STEP FIVE:
Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
ENJOY THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER CREATED!!!
(no joke, I cannot make these cookies often due to making all the other cookies I make feel very very bad about themselves)
(no joke, I cannot make these cookies often due to making all the other cookies I make feel very very bad about themselves)
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Watchmen
(movie poster from movie)The Rock Star and I went out with some of the old crowd last night to watch some friends of ours play a promotional show at Hot Topic for their new CD; (yes, it's cheesy as hell, they know it too, but its good money and they've gotten a 700-stores-wide distribution deal and need to promote; plus it shows off their natural ability rather than a lot of bands that really only sound good in shitty bars with a lot of electronics [HT shows are acoustic]).
And then we moved on to dinner at the mall food court--surprisingly DELICIOUS thanks to a brand new Greek restaurant that just opened (I met the owner: a Greek man who's been in America less than a year) and SO received a free piece of baklava as he "lost" with a slice of stale pizza; the owner felt pity on him for choosing the bad food. WAY better eating than I expected at a mall.
And then it was on to watch our movie. We had bought our tickets two days prior, we even planned eating at the mall so we would not have to rush eating and then get bad seats because we would end up behind the crowd--it was all totally useless. The theatre was near empty, it was opening weekend and there were MAYBE twenty people in the whole theatre--I need to check the stats tomorrow to see if the movie bombed or if its just my po-dunk little area of the world.
But the movie. God. I loved it. I thought it was two hours and forty minutes of comic-book-movie magic. When I heard they were making the movie, I had some major doubts. The book is so graphic; there's a lot of cussing and a lot of nudity and a whole lot of some very graphic violence (see a dog with it's head split open; see a woman being raped in the alleyway; see someone's skin melting because hot oil has been poured over it). And dense; the book is extremely dense. But I thought they pulled it off well.
It doesn't seem to really fit into the comic-movie genre however. Yes, there are costumes and superheros and such, but its so very dark and serious (things I associate with the reading of actual graphic novels, not so much their movie counterparts). The actors/actresses in it are relatively unknowns (especially for such a huge production) and they did very well. Whoever was in charge of casting did a WONDERFUL job. Everyone looked nearly exactly as I pictured them. Although I thought the major curve on Jacobi's ears was extremely distracting. Jon looked great, I was terribly afraid he'd come across as false. And I was glad to see that they mostly kept to his nakedness, it didn't pose as a distraction for me, but some of my friends complained about the abundance of blue penis in the movie, of course, they were both heterosexual males that have a gay phobia. The reason Jon (Dr. Manhattan) isn't wearing any clothes helps to show his separation from humanity, from humanity's bindings. The only major difference between the book and the movie is the way we got to the ending. The change they put at the end makes sense for the movie, without any of the revolving secondary characters that are in the book (the newspaper stand owner, the lesbian, the young man reading the comic, the pirate comic storyline--which they've turned the pirate comic into a small cartoon that's being released as promotion for the movie!!) you miss most of the storyline that encompasses the ending; and although the end result is still the same, I don't like laying the blame upon Jon.
Also the director, Zack Snyder of 300 fame, did the same sort of stop-slow-motion action sequences that made 300 so mind-blowing, but I didn't think they fit in very well here; also, made me wonder if that's the only way he knows how to shoot a fight scene.
Really, I'm sorry they had to make the edits they did, but they are totally understandable and you really aren't missing a lot of the main storyline--the only edit they should have worked out was with Bubastis, Adrien Veidt's genetically engineered cat. In the movie, one sees him killed after only having about three seconds contact with the large cat; and so missed out on the cruelness of Adrien because of it. My friends (none of which had read the book) were completely thrown off by the cat, and thought it was ridiculous; and without book-knowlege who could blame them? Bubastis should have been cut out entirely (or alternately added another 20+ minutes to the movie just so he can be explained).
But overall, I'm very pleased with the way the film turned out; I'm curious to see what others think, especially those that aren't familar with the graphic novel.
And then we moved on to dinner at the mall food court--surprisingly DELICIOUS thanks to a brand new Greek restaurant that just opened (I met the owner: a Greek man who's been in America less than a year) and SO received a free piece of baklava as he "lost" with a slice of stale pizza; the owner felt pity on him for choosing the bad food. WAY better eating than I expected at a mall.
And then it was on to watch our movie. We had bought our tickets two days prior, we even planned eating at the mall so we would not have to rush eating and then get bad seats because we would end up behind the crowd--it was all totally useless. The theatre was near empty, it was opening weekend and there were MAYBE twenty people in the whole theatre--I need to check the stats tomorrow to see if the movie bombed or if its just my po-dunk little area of the world.
But the movie. God. I loved it. I thought it was two hours and forty minutes of comic-book-movie magic. When I heard they were making the movie, I had some major doubts. The book is so graphic; there's a lot of cussing and a lot of nudity and a whole lot of some very graphic violence (see a dog with it's head split open; see a woman being raped in the alleyway; see someone's skin melting because hot oil has been poured over it). And dense; the book is extremely dense. But I thought they pulled it off well.
It doesn't seem to really fit into the comic-movie genre however. Yes, there are costumes and superheros and such, but its so very dark and serious (things I associate with the reading of actual graphic novels, not so much their movie counterparts). The actors/actresses in it are relatively unknowns (especially for such a huge production) and they did very well. Whoever was in charge of casting did a WONDERFUL job. Everyone looked nearly exactly as I pictured them. Although I thought the major curve on Jacobi's ears was extremely distracting. Jon looked great, I was terribly afraid he'd come across as false. And I was glad to see that they mostly kept to his nakedness, it didn't pose as a distraction for me, but some of my friends complained about the abundance of blue penis in the movie, of course, they were both heterosexual males that have a gay phobia. The reason Jon (Dr. Manhattan) isn't wearing any clothes helps to show his separation from humanity, from humanity's bindings. The only major difference between the book and the movie is the way we got to the ending. The change they put at the end makes sense for the movie, without any of the revolving secondary characters that are in the book (the newspaper stand owner, the lesbian, the young man reading the comic, the pirate comic storyline--which they've turned the pirate comic into a small cartoon that's being released as promotion for the movie!!) you miss most of the storyline that encompasses the ending; and although the end result is still the same, I don't like laying the blame upon Jon.
Also the director, Zack Snyder of 300 fame, did the same sort of stop-slow-motion action sequences that made 300 so mind-blowing, but I didn't think they fit in very well here; also, made me wonder if that's the only way he knows how to shoot a fight scene.
Really, I'm sorry they had to make the edits they did, but they are totally understandable and you really aren't missing a lot of the main storyline--the only edit they should have worked out was with Bubastis, Adrien Veidt's genetically engineered cat. In the movie, one sees him killed after only having about three seconds contact with the large cat; and so missed out on the cruelness of Adrien because of it. My friends (none of which had read the book) were completely thrown off by the cat, and thought it was ridiculous; and without book-knowlege who could blame them? Bubastis should have been cut out entirely (or alternately added another 20+ minutes to the movie just so he can be explained).
But overall, I'm very pleased with the way the film turned out; I'm curious to see what others think, especially those that aren't familar with the graphic novel.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
home alone...
Whenever SO goes away for a tour, I’m prepared. I’m aware I’m going to be alone for awhile.
But this past weekend, he went away to SEE a show, not play one…and, I don’t know. Somehow its different.
Last night, I was all about being alone, planned my special ME time and such and a friend of mine called and wanted some company so he came by and hung around for several hours. It was nice, we haven’t been able to spend alone time in awhile, usually just a 5-9 people gatherings, but there remained a part of me that kept saying, “fucking go home…this wasn’t in my plan.”
So I planned on being alone tonight, but my friend’s show got cancelled so they came back from tour early and wanted something to do for their Saturday night…well, just call ole Sassy. So my house filled up with some more tired rock stars and we hung around and chatted all night—and it really was great fun. But because they drove nine hours last night after their last show for their short play-excursion, everyone just left at once.
And, suddenly, after acclimating myself to being around a group of friends, I’ve been left alone.
And part of me wants to tell them, “No, wait. Come back. Stay a bit longer.”
And a much larger part of me says, “Finally. Time to catch back up on me.”
And the very core of me, the part I don’t want to admit silently cries out, “Where is my Other?”
Oooh, getting a wee bit too sad around here for me.
I do believe I’ll pick up some Tucker Max, a glass of Chianti, and take myself a nice hot bath...
warm nights to you.
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