April Round-Up

April? It's almost June, for pete's sake. I've almost forgotten what I did this month, how am I supposed to remember April?

But I'm gonna give it a try.

Movies Seen: Thirteen, with one in the theater, that one being "Grindhouse." (Although I suppose that one can be considered two, right?) Just as I feared, Tarantino's "Death Proof" was almost unbearably boring for its first 40 minutes or so, and almost every word that came out of those women's mouths made me cringe and roll my eyes. I did enjoy the car stunts and chases, but I just didn't think they were any better than anything that's been done before. A lot has been written about the movie and a lot of theories thrown out there about just what he was trying to do or say with the flick, but my favorite theory is that the two parts of the movie are in fact in reverse order, and that the events of the first half of the film are Stunt Man Mike's revenge for what happens in the second half of the film. For anyone who has seen the film twice, a question: does he have the facial scar in the second half of the movie?

As for April's DVD picks, I'd say the film I enjoyed most was "Notes on a Scandal." It was just a perfect little bit of character study; creepy, funny, sad, and most importantly, entertaining. I went into it thinking I'd be bored to death, and found myself engrossed for every minute. (It helps that the movie is only about 90 minutes long.)

Books Read: Six, but only one was truly memorable, and that was Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." Don't let the fact that Oprah picked it for her book club disway you from reading it. It was truly one of the best things I've ever read. It's devastating, and hopeful, truly horrifying without being the least bit graphic, and does so much with minimum language. It's not a book you should speed read through; you can miss entire plot points by skipping a single sentence. Which is kind of odd coming from an author like McCarthy. The other books I've read of his--"All the Pretty Horses" and "Blood Meridian"--(well, half of "Blood Meridian," that's as a far as I could get) are incredibly dense and...wordy. Rumor has it a movie version of "The Road" is in the works, and that has me worried. While it's a great story, so much of its power lies in its subtlety, and subtlety isn't something Hollywood gets right very often. So take my advice, do NOT wait for the movie with this one.

Fancy Dinners Out: Two. One was mentioned here. The other was at Nopa, and while the food was good, the service was...weird. I went with my friend Rachel, and she had promised to bring back one of their famous Sticky Toffee Pudding desserts to her husband who was staying home with the baby. But when we asked for one to go, the waiter told us they don't do orders to go. Wah? He said their food is designed to be eaten right away, and it would ruin the integrity of the food to have it to go. WTF? Were that actually turning down money because they didn't want to put something in box? We contemplated just ordering an extra pudding, taking a tiny bite, and asking them to wrap up the leftovers, but we knew at this point the waiter would know exactly what we were doing, so we decided to pose that scenario to him. He said while he couldn't prevent us from doing that, he still insisted the dessert wouldn't travel well. So we didn't get one to go. For the record, that Sticky Toffee Pudding WAS incredibly delicious, but I still think it could have withstood a ten minute cab ride home.

Live Shows Seen: Does a taping of the Conan O'Brien Show count as a live show?

Shoes Bought: One pair--an 80 dollar pair of tennis shoes (sneakers, to those on the east coast) that a podiatrist told me I needed to buy because my feet are "too flexible" and my other tennis shoes were giving me peroneal tendonitis. This was the explanation for the horrible cramping pain I was getting occasionally in my left foot. So I got the shoes, and they did wonders for the pain in that foot. Only problem is, now my RIGHT foot has begun to hurt.

Waa...waa...waa.