April Round-Up - 2010

Movies Seen: Ten, with five in a theater. Five! That's mainly because of the San Francisco International Film Festival, some of which I covered for the San Francisco Appeal. Those movies were (click links to read my coverage): "Gainsbourg (Je t'aime...mois non plus)," "Cairo Time," and "Get Low." I also attended a talk by Walter Murch.

The other two theater going experiences were "Hot Tub Time Machine," which I liked just fine, and a 1977 horror movie from Japan called "Hausu." THAT was insane. I had first heard about the movie via Rich Juzwiak's fourfour blog, and after reading that (I highly recommend you do, too), I knew I just had to see it. Luckily, it arrived in San Francisco for a one night showing at the Castro, and I'm glad I caught it there, because it was a lot of fun seeing it with a crowd. The collective "OMGWTF!!" reaction was a hoot. The minute this comes out on DVD, I am buying the hell out of it.

As for my DVD watching, none of those were really worth mentioning.

Books Read: Four. First was "The Likeness" by Tana French, a sequel to "In the Woods," which I read last year. Alas, I did not like this one as much as that one, mainly because the central premise is so absolutely preposterous that I just couldn't get over it. I kept hoping there would be a logical explanation, but--and I am trying not to be spoilery here, although this may count as one--there isn't. And that kind of tarnished the whole book for me...

I got Dave Eggers's "The Wild Things," which is basically Eggers's novelization of the movie version of "Where the Wild Things Are," as a Christmas present, and have to say, it's the best feeling book I've ever read, as it's covered in fake fur. I almost slept on it as a pillow. The book itself is OK. I waited to read it until after I had seen the movie, and it's pretty close to it, but of course goes deeper in Max's mind, and the personalities of the Wild Things. But the movie is probably better.

Another present, this time for my birthday, was A.J. Jacob's "The Guinea Pig Diaries." In his other books, ("The Know-It-All," and "The Year Of Living Biblically"), Jacobs spends a year undertaking respective "experiments," but in this one, he spends at most a few months doing such things as living according to George Washington's personal rules, outsourcing as much of his daily routine as possible to a team in India, and doing everything his wife tells him to. (And believe me, she earned that one.) His books are always fun, and this is probably a good introduction to his stuff to anyone interested in reading him.

And I finally read Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking," which took about two hours to finish, which is probably the same amount of time it would take to see her stage version of the book. I am not sure which would be funnier, though...

Fancy Dinners Out: One, at Town Hall. Mmmmmm....Town Hall. I had the fried chicken, but I envied my friend's smoked pork chop, and really should have gotten that. I now know to never pass up the chance to eat smoked pork.

Live Shows Seen: None, although I did go to WonderCon, which is always quite a show. And the aforementioned Film Festival stuff as well....

Shoes Bought: None, that I can remember. And if I have shoes I don't remember buying, that's probably a bad thing...Oh! I did buy a pair of slippers! I have a cat, so I always have to wear something on my feet in my apartment (because of litter, mainly, but also because of other surprises she leaves around the place), and I usually wear slip-ons. But I was getting so tired of litter getting into the slippers (nothing worse) that I decided to get some slippers that were snugger and offered more foot coverage. Thus: these Isotoners. No more litter slippers!