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Five Flicks

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

LOVED IT!

Excellent flick for fun-lovers and kids-at-heart. Punny jokes abound in this original story - some great voice talent by a variety of actors and creative animation and cinematography.

 

 

 

Law-Abiding Citizen

Liked it.

Not for the faint of heart. You'll find yourself rooting for Gerard Butler's character... so much so that the end may disappoint you. This movie featured fabulous momentum and talented actors... but ultimately, I expected more than what was delivered in its final moments.

Moon

LOVED IT.

This was a surprising love for me. While this is a sci-fi movie, it also plays out as a mystery. Your brain will be scrambling to try to figure out what is going on as you watch the plot unfold, and I doubt you'll be able to foresee a few twists!

 

 

 

Battle for Terra

Pass this one if you can.

Not as great as it could have been.

This Fern-Gully-type flick took FOREVER to get going and had some serious problems... the alien people seem to be able to float and fly when they want to, but they also experience near-fatal falls from mid-air. Too many other additional issues to get anywhere close to a thumbs up.

 

 

 

Zombieland

FABULOUS!

With a witty Fight Club-style narrative and accompanying graphics that give you insight into the main character's head, this zombie movie does not fail to please. I'm not a huge fan of scary movies, but this came movie came with a hefty serving of humor. It was more suspenseful than scary! A new classic in my books. :)

We've rented a few more that we'll probably watch at some point this week.

 

xxoo!

-h-

Sabbatical

Happy New Year! Yes, it's slightly belated... but still heartfelt!

I suppose I should wish you all Merry Christmas as well, since I haven't been online for a few weeks. I spent time during my sabbatical spending time with my hunny, my family and friends, I started some new projects and finished older ones, and just reenergized overall. Ahhhh... it feels SO good to start the new year with clear mind.

Ryan and I watched a bunch of movies over the last few weeks... including a ton of holiday flicks.

Recommended:

Four Christmases

Avatar

Paranormal Activity

Night at the Museum

The "new" Harry Potter

The Ugly Truth

Death at a Funeral

 

Mildly Entertaining:

Inglourious Basterds

9

 

I also baked a little - my Gran's shortbread (which was tasty in small bites), my sister's lemon sandwich cookies (with cream cheese frosting in the middle!!), and ready-to-bake frozen cookie dough. Needless to say, I've been opting for my stretch-jeans!!

So you can tell I've definitely been taking it easy and enjoying my time off. :)

((Oh! And on the wedding front... Ryan and I finally picked out an engagement ring and bands for me. I LOVE my ring! I'm also making arrangements to try on wedding dresses with my mum & sisters... YAY! Now we just have to narrow down a city and venue for this shindig! ))

 Ciao for now, flocky flock!

Hot diggity dog!

So, our first Halloween in the house was pretty fun!

We had a BUNCH of trick-or-treat'ers... I was really surprised! And there were some really cute costumes. My favorite costume of the evening was a very vibrant and colorful Rainbow Brite - a girl after my own heart!

 I ended up getting dressed up in a simple costume, since we were staying at home. I painted a large yellow circle on a white shirt, wore white shorts, devil horns and red eye makeup.

Can you guess what I went as? A DEVILED EGG!! :)

We also let Riley dress up for fifteen minutes or so. I took it off of him as soon as he started to sulk. But it was cute while it lasted!

 

 
 

After we turned out the porch lights and had a bite to eat, we settled in to watch The Orphan. It was... well... not as scary as I'd expected... and the acting was top notch! I ended up enjoying it, which is surprising for me - I'm usually not one for horror movies.

  

I hope you all had excellent Halloween weekends and enjoyed the "extra" hour!

 

xxoo!

-h-

The Last Beekeeper

I watched "The Last Beekeeper" on the Planet Green channel yesterday...

 

And I was absolutely mesmerized.

It's a documentary that follows several beekeepers in different parts of the nation as they try to figure out why so many of each of their colonies are randomly dying. 

You may have heard stories in the news in the last few years that have mentioned the unexplained decline in bee colonies over the last few years. The film documents how beekeepers and experts across the nation have been baffled by the unexplained deaths and are scrambling to figure out whether disease, parasites or maybe even stress are to blame for the hemorrhaging loss of their financial investments.

 

Apparently, the current "bread & butter" of beekeepers is not in harvesting honey - these days, beekeepers travel thousands of miles across the country with their hives to get paid for their bees to pollinate crops. Some crops, such as almonds, rely solely on bees... so more and more beekeepers have been forced to abandon the honey industry, which turns little profit, for the larger promise of pollination contracts.

 

If you have a chance to catch this flick, please give it a chance. It is surprisingly moving and inescapably captivating.

Feel Good Flicks

I don't really have a decent excuse as to why I didn't post last week. 

Well... except...

Our A/C broke and the company was trying to get us to pay beaucoup bucks to have it fixed when we haven't even been in the house a year yet.

And then the next day someone careened into our yard and took out our mailbox with their car. There were pieces of our mailbox, pieces of their car, and pieces of mail all over the yard.

And, finally, I had to keep bugging the tree company that was supposed to remove our tree branches and debris in June and ask them if they were ever going to show up. (Ahem... it's October for those of you who haven't noticed).

It was a super-awesome week.

So after dealing with a seemingly uncaring manager at the HVAC company, an uninterested police officer and seemingly apathetic neighbors and tree people, I kind of started losing faith in peeps, ya know?

Anyway... I usually turn to feel-good movies when I start having doubt in the level of compassion I had previously assumed exists in the human race.

Here are the flicks I watched.

Some of them helped to restore my faith. Others were a total waste of time.

See my reviews below.

City of Ember

So-so. Could have been great. Was just ok. The book probably rocks.

The Tale of Despereaux

**shudder**

THUMBS DOWN.

It was slow. Disjointed. Odd. Confusing.

Moviemakers pay attention: good actors don't necessarily make good voice actors.

I only hope the book was decent.

 

Monsters v. Aliens

Thumbs UP.

Loved it. And can I tell you a secret?

I heart Seth Rogan. That guy is awesome.

Slumdog Millionaire

Thumbs UP!

Excellent film.

Unique story.

Although dark at times... definitely a feel good flick!

 

Ok... I promise to be less of a blog-bot and more of an emotional human in my next post.

Promise.

xxoo

The Coraline Decision

Ryan + I watched Coraline this past weekend... and we both agreed it was an odd story... borderline bizarre... but we both ultimately decided that we loved it! And it's always nice to watch a film where you can't guess the ending from the get-go...

 

I highly recommend you pick up this beautifully crafted movie... especially if you're in the mood for something a little different.

My Two Cents on BL

Warning - Biggest Loser Spoiler Below... If you haven't watched this week, you may want to skip reading this post!!

Ok... So I completely crashed on my couch in the last half hour of BL last night. Was it the physical exertion of laying sod in my backyard for hours & hours yesterday? Or... perhaps the fact that I inhaled an entire Freschetta pizza on my own? Maybe it was that the first hour was a complete waste of my time. (They totally could have made this week's episode a one hour show.)

Whatever it was, I crashed HARD. So I fast-forwarded (that's hard to say) through the rest of the show on my DVR this morning.

I can't believe Filipe went home... SO SAD!! I loved the Tongans and their synchronized crazy-eyed foot-stompin' thigh-slappin' primal dances!! I'm really hoping one of them will win the "at home" contest... They're good peeps. Fo Sho.

Being the nerd that I am - I calculated everyone's percentage weight loss at week 17 (the show that aired this week). Here's the rundown from most to least:

Tara
From 294 to 169
42.52%

Mike
From 388 to 224
42.27%

Helen
From 257 to 154
40.08%

Ron
From 430 to 289
32.79%

I'm assuming next week will be a no-brainer - that America will have enough reasoning to avoid voting for the lying, wily, sneaky Ron.
My top pet peeve ever - LIARS.
Come on, America! Don't prove me wrong!!

That being said, I'm assuming (and kind of hoping more than anything) the Live Finale will be between Tara, Mike & Helen.

Who do I think will win the whole kit-n-kaboodle??

Well, no offense, Helen - but I don't think you've got enough left to lose (or enough competitive spirit) to beat big Mike or the unrelentless Tara. I award you a shiny Third Place Ribbon. You annoy the hell outta me, but you look awesome!

I'm afraid Tara will not push herself at home. Because, let's face it - that girl is a BORN competitor! She gets her energy by having other contestants physically surrounding her and getting her psyched up. Without those people around her at home, I'm worried she won't push as hard as she could.

And Mike? Mike is so DARN COCKY! I feel like he needs to be humbled to get rid of that 'tude!!

So even though I have concerns about Tara's abilities to carry everything out on her own... Tara's my girl. Who else kicks back their own vomit just to win a challenge? Good.... NIGHT! She's awesome.

My vote: Tara. Rock it out, chica!!

Can't wait for the finale!

Where, Oh Where, Has Helvetica Gone?

Chances are, unless you are a graphic designer or typographer, you may not give much, if any, attention to fonts that appear on signs, product packaging, logos, and everywhere else.

For some reason I've always had a certain fondness for fonts - nothing that requires serious therapy or anything, but enough to make me wonder sometimes if I made the wrong decision when I got my bachelor's degree in anthropology!!

So I was pretty excited last fall when a documentary covering the history and evolution of the Helvetica font (appropriately titled "Helvetica") was available to rent via iTunes.

(I know, I know... Nerd Alert!!)

 

Helvetica

 

Well, Ryan + I watched the little film during our house-hunting trip last fall, and after we got off the plane we kept pointing out the font to each other wherever it appeared... which was pretty much everywhere, because it is generally the standard font used for street signs.  Believe it or not, you see this font countless times each day. 

It also appears in numerous well-known (and probably even more lesser-known) brands, such as the following:

Crate & Barrel

Jeep

Staples

Nestle

Toyota

Post-It

Sears

Target

Microsoft

Skype

Harley Davidson

Kawasaki

Dole

and...

Motorola

(just to name a few!)

I was reminded of the film yesterday when a colleague mentioned he saw it on TV. Unfortunately it appears Helvetica is no longer an option in Microsoft's Office 2007 Suite.

*sniff sniff*

But, lucky me, I'm a "mac girl" and therefore have practically a million fonts at my disposal!

(I decided to go on a "font binge" today, downloading a bunch of fonts I found online... including some absolutely j'adorable handwritten fonts. If you're looking for some nice ones, I'd recommend Font Garden and 1001 Free Fonts - I have found some neat ones there. My all time favorite typographer, though, has got to be Chank Diesel. Dude - you rock.)

So the next time you're at B-Buster, or when you're updating your NetFlix movie list, check out the Helvetica documentary. You'll gain a new respect for typographers and graphic designers everywhere.

:)

Film Sampler Box

After receiving a bit of dreary news last week (regarding the delayed return of my better half from his deployment overseas), I became a bit of a hermit for a few days. (The weather this weekend has not helped matters - it has been raining cats & dogs for at least 3 days now! It's been enough to turn the sunniest of personalities into Eeyore's temporarily.)

So I decided to escape the gloomy cloud over my head by watching movies this weekend... And did I EVER!
Here was the weekend movie-marathon-lineup:

Friday Dinner
 Sideways
(with Paul Giamatti, whom is forever-talented)
 
Saturday Breakfast
There Will Be Blood and Religulous (with Bill Maher)
 
Saturday Brunch
Changeling
 
Sunday Breakfast
Horton Hears A Who
 
Sunday Lunch
The Other Boleyn Girl
 
 
Quite the selection of films, I know! A little drama, a little comedy, even a little animation to feed the spirit! I think it worked.
(For the record - my favorites were Sideways and Horton Hears a Who... especially that cute Horton fellow!!)

I also took the opportunity to organize some things in my studio - something I've been putting off for far too long now. It felt good to get it all sorted! Finally, I worked on some album art I'd promised to design for a friend last week.
 


A happy, happy Sunday evening to you all.
 
xxoo!