It’s SPRING! Spring spring spring spring SPRING! I am manic, what with the 70-degree temperatures and the green grass and the buds on the trees and and and !!!!!
It feels so good to be alive right now, I can’t even tell you. A co-worker mentioned the nice weather to me the other day in passing, just making polite conversation, and I was all, “Oh, I KNOW!?! Isn’t it wonderful?!? I’m so ecstatic!!! I love it so much!! I want to roll in the grass and frolic through the fields and hug a tree!! Let’s go!”
They backed away a little, understandably so.
I’ll be abusing my adjectives and exclamation points until at least June, when I finally settle into this beautiful lovely gorgeous magnificent superbly spectacular weather! You’ve been warned!
On a different note, as you may remember, T & I gave up our cable a while back, because we weren’t really using it. We decided to switch to a larger plan on Netflix and get our media fix there. However, there’s a slight problem… see, Tim has something like 60 movies in our queue, and I have a grand total of, uh, 2. That’s right, 2 movies that I actually want to see vs. 60 that I don’t because they’re really bad sci-fi. This is not good, people. I need your help!
What’s good in movies these days? I like documentaries (mostly for present-day subjects, not so much historical), indie films, creepy horror (not gory horror), good science fiction (note the part about “good”), comedies, etc. I’m not so much into action movies, but if it’s a must-see, throw it on the pile. I’m trying to avoid a whole summer of really bad B-movies, and given our track record with movies, I definitely need outside intervention to do so.
Documentaries that are good:
Wordplay (about crosswords)
Spellbound (about the National Spelling Bee)
Good indie films:
Good Bye, Lenin! (german language)
The Taste of Tea (Japanese language)
Linda Linda Linda (Japanese language)
… I kind of like foreign films a bit.)
Can’t help you on the movies. I draw a blank whenever confronted with the question “what to see”.
I can however, TOTALLY RELATE to the Spring Weather Mania! CHEERS!!!
These are movies I like off the top of my head:
True Romance (probably my favorite movie)
Secretary
No Country for Old Men
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Happiness
The Station Agent
Rushmore
Waiting for Guffman
Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
Boys Don’t Cry
Sexy Beast
Little Miss Sunshine
Love Actually
Anchorman
Documentaries:
Fog of War
Grizzly Man
Murderball
Born Into Brothels
Jesus Camp
Roger & Me
Outfoxed
American Movie
The F-Word ~ It’s almost a movie and a documentary in one. It takes place over a day in NYC during the 2004 Republican Convention, as a guy who runs an indie “pirate” radio station is walking down the streets of the city recording his last broadcast day after being shut down by the FCC for obscenity. I’ve seen it a few times on IFC; it’s awesome. (It is fictional, but because a lot of it is based on what was really going on at the time, it almost seems like a documentary, too. http://www.fwordfilm.com)
Away from Her ~ Very, very sad. Based on Alice Munroe’s short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain.
Slings and Arrows ~ TV series. I’ve seen only the first season so far (there are three seasons), but what I’ve seen is awesome. The main setting is the fictional New Burbridge Theatre while preparing for their annual theatre festival. A different Shakespearean play is the focus for every season (the one for S1 is “Hamlet”).
OK, I don’t know if you can get UK series but here are a couple you should try…
Doctor Who – the new one with David Tennant, it’s surprisingly good, back to the old “hide behind the sofa” days
Torchwood – an extension of the above (the title’s an anagram) a bit more gorey/grown up
Life on Mars – a detective is somehow taken back to the 1970’s, great music and cracking storylines
Ashes to Ashes – sequel to the above but set in the 80’s, you have to have watched the above to get some of this
Films
La vie en Rose – the life of Edith Piaf, great music, French with subtitles
Cyrano de Bergerac – another French film with subtitles but it makes me cry every time.
Everything is Illuminated – based on the novel, indie film, wonderful
The Reckoning – 14th century England, travelling theatre group, Paul Bettany – my fav actor
Delicatessen – weird but wonderful, view of the future French subtitles
Amelie – the film that made Audrey Tatou famous
French with subtitles
I hope you enjoy at least some of these
deepa mehta did a whole series of beautifully filmed movies about women’s lives in india. “Water” ,”Fire”, and “earth”. Wonderful to just see and poignantly told stories!
“Dead Like Me” 2 season series about being a grim reaper.
Series “Huff”
Love Song for Bobbie Long
but I have really ecelectic tastes.
Okay, you don’t have high-brow expectations, so… This is highly subjective (one person’s “good sci-fi” is the next person’s cheese) but here’s a few:
Action:
If you want strange, unpredictable, slightly disturbing action, you have to see “Pulp Fiction”. It stands in a category by itself.
Drama:
“The Other Sister”
A remarkable movie, starring Juliette Lewis, about a “delayed” young woman who… well… just watch it. You will laugh and cry and live and love.
Sci-Fi
The original “Alien” movie is a perfect blend of old fashioned horror and suspense… with small bits of gore. If you enjoy it, rent “Aliens”, but stop there. The rest bite.
The first “Matrix” movie was actually quite good. It made you think. Again, stop there. The sequels are silly.
For classic sci-fi, check out “Soylent Green”, “Videodrome” and the first “Planet of the Apes” (not the remake).
Documentaries
I recently watched “Sicko” by Michael Moore and enjoyed it tremendously – it grabbed me by the lapels and forced me to watch right to the end. It was panned by critics (mainly American ones) but he seems to be working with facts. And if he is, you Americans have got one messed up health care system.
I hear “Shark Water” is good.
Hope this helps!
I’m an absolute lunatic when it comes to spring 🙂 I’ll be that other crazy person you see tearing through town!
Oh and Wes Anderson’s, Darjeeling Limited is amazing 🙂
Caroline, I love love love this little girl in a cage… so cute. When I get some money I want it 🙂
ps. miss you and normal people 🙂
can’t wait for the stress to end.
me