January Round-Up - 2009

Can't believe it's almost March. Nuts! Let me try to remember January...Oh yeah! I had a birthday then. That was fun.

Movies Seen: Eighteen, with one in a theater. That one was "Milk."

I thought I'd try, once again, to see more movies in a theater this year, so I designated Fridays as move theater night. I figured I could go to a movie directly after work, around 6, and still have the rest of the evening free to...watch other movies on DVD? I don't know. Well, I was able to do that for one week before life and work interfered once again.

I had wanted to see "Milk" at the Castro, of course, but it ended its run there before I could, and I assumed it wouldn't be coming back, so I saw it at the Embarcadero instead. (I was wrong, by the way. It came back to the Castro in February.) I liked the movie a lot, but I was a little disappointed in Sean Penn's performance, after reading nothing but praise about it. Granted, he is good. But if you watch footage of the real Harvey Milk, (and you can see plenty of it in "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk," which you can watch free on Hulu), Sean Penn doesn't really sound like him. I hate to say this, but Penn is really gaying up his voice, which I think is a real shame.

But aside from that, it's a really good movie, and I especially liked seeing San Francisco portrayed pretty accurately. (Of course, having lived here all my life I was able to spot anachronisms and other mistakes a mile away. But that actually kind of added to my enjoyment of the movie).

As for the rest, I saw a lot of films I enjoyed on DVD, among them "King Fu Panda," (very funny); "The Duchess," (a lot more entertaining that I thought it would be); "Hellboy II," (I liked it more than the first "Hellboy"); and "Ghost Town," (I really appreciate the fact that Ricky Gervais doesn't make out with anyone in the movie.) The most dissapointing was probably "Run Fatboy Run," which just wasn't very funny.

Books Read: Three. Two more Sookie Stackhouse books, ("Club Dead" and "Dead to the World") and "Chasing Lolita" by Graham Vickers, a nonfiction book about the fictional book "Lolita," and how, as the subtitle says, "Popular Culture Corrupted Nabokov's Little Girl All Over Again." Being that "Lolita" remains my favorite book, I love academic examinations of it, especially when they aren't too stuffy. And since the focus on this one is more pop culture-centric, I gobbled it up. (Although I have to disagree wholeheartedly with the author's opinion of Adrian Lyne's movie, which I think portrays Lolita in a way that has nothing to do with the Lolita of the book, and is actually pretty offensive.)

Fancy Dinners Out: Five. Since January featured two weeks of "Dine About Town" dining deals, I did my best to take advantage of it, eating prix fixe dinners at LarkCreek Steak, Le Club, Ruth's Chris, and the Grand Cafe. (The fifth dinner was my usual birthday dinner at La Traviata.) At all but Le Club, I had some kind of steak. The best was probably Ruth's Chris. I know their meat is probably not the healthiest choice when it comes to beef (their cows are corn-fed, not grass-fed; corn-fed beef also usually means more antibiotics) but the steaks come out on a plate of sizzling butter, so obviously you've kissed health goodbye the minute you enter the place. And the fillet I had was DAMN tasty.

Live Shows Seen: Zeee. Ro.

Shoes Bought: One pair, these flats from Target, bought to replace a previous, similar pair that were too small. Haven't had a chance to wear them yet as it's been too rainy and gloomy out for some madras shoes. Come on spring!