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Maia: "YES! You're finally sitting down. After a flipping HOUR of me following you around and meowing. Ahh, a nice warm human lap is the best place on a cold day. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."
Me: "My coffee's still in the kitchen..."
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Rarely as I make it to movies, this week set me fangirling over three.
First, I made plans to see The Hobbit with a group of friends. Yes, I'm terribly skeptical about it on numerous grounds, and I'll probably re-read the book beforehand in order to prepare myself to fume at Peter Jackson like a proper nerd. Or to sympathize with my fuming-proper-nerd friends, at least. But I'm sure I'll find some things to cheer for. Cinematography! Martin Freeman! Gandalf!
Of course, Les Miserables is coming out within days of The Hobbit, so I had to look that up again to check on things—and it purports to be one of the rare Hollywood offerings that could be worth the price of seeing it in the theater rather than waiting for it to turn up at Crazy Mike's or on Netflix. Besides, it was directed by Tom Hooper, who directed The King's Speech. Presumably everybody knew that but me... anyway, that movie looks unusually un-missable.
Lastly, I discovered yesterday that a trailer was just released for the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's The Host, which is coming in March and which I must see. If it's as good as the first three Twilight movies—I haven't brought myself to watch Breaking Dawn—I'll be satisfied.
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Oh, and while we're on Twilight, consider my heart officially warmed. H/T Arabella.
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Reader's link of the week: Anthony Daniels' remarkably self-aware essay on one book-lover's attempt to survive the apocalypse as bibliophilia—or book-publishing, at least—goes digital.
"Whether the book survives or not, I am firmly of the opinion that it ought to survive, and nothing will convince me otherwise. The heart has its beliefs that evidence knows not of."
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Writer's link of the week: Being unpublished is better than being badly published. Which is an oddly encouraging, if irrelevant, thing to remember when I'm stuck in all kinds of revision.
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Music of the week: I've often said that I think Palestrina's "O Bone Jesu" is possibly the most beautiful piece of art in existence. But Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" comes awfully close. Lou and I are singing it in an ensemble for a concert this weekend.
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Random amusement of the week: The Postmodern Essay Generator. It's a bit scary how close this comes to making sense. Or as much sense as a postmodern essay can make, anyway.
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Possibly owing to Murphy's Law, what with the concert coming right up, I've got a touch of a cold, which has sapped all motivation. Clean house? Whatever. Practice concert music? Meh. Get any real writing done? Why, when there's a whole internet full of mind-numbing available?
But I can procrastinate no longer. Even though Maia's being cuddly.
Happy weekend!
Add Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, to your film list, Jenna. It's supposed to be fantastic and every review I've read has raved. Not to be missed.
ReplyDelete--Arabella
Hmmmmm. That one made it under my radar. But I bet my in-laws would love it... might be a good family trip out or something. :)
DeletePopping in to mention, if you hadn't heard about it yet, the very awesome fact that the Les Mis movie which I, too, am really looking forward to (understatement, that), may be making a bit of cinematic history in that it is the first movie musical* where the vocal tracks were actually recorded live, on set, during real takes. More on this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVxfyBumtm4
ReplyDeleteAs one who performed in musicals as a kid into early adulthood, and who is still very much a musical junkie, this is incredibly exciting to me. Every trailer I see makes me cry--this story, as told through this musical, was so formative for me as a teenager.
Also, I too have heard great things about the Lincoln movie. I'm looking forward to the same film releases you are this year. :)
*A co-worker of mine who's very into film history replied when I told him this fact that, interestingly enough, when films first included sound, many of them were of the vaudville/old timey musical variety, and in fact the earliest of these kinds of films had the musical numbers recorded live on set as well. Very soon after that the filmmakers developed the technology to pre-record tracks and dub them over the shots, which is what we're used to now in movie musicals. So interesting that now it's gone full circle, where we have the technology to capture live soundtrack to great effect, if the Les Mis trailers are any indication.
Ooh, no, I didn't know any of that! That's fascinating. Les Mis is such a raw story that I think a little bit of a raw, live feel to the sound could work exceptionally well. And should go well with the cinematography. The photo stills I've seen have been so beautiful, as have the trailers.
DeleteI've heard the soundtrack for the musical, but believe it or not, I've never seen it acted out... have read the book and seen the Liam Neeson film, so I know the story, but not the musical. Anyway, I'm SO excited to finally see it. :)
Would love to hear what you think when you have seen it!
I'm singing Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus tomorrow at Mass, too :-D. Sacred polyphany makes me happy.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! It makes me happy, too. :)
DeleteThe needs of a cat outweigh the needs of Jenna or anyone else for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI understand, in theory. But it was COFFEE! :P
DeleteSince I did eventually get up, I suppose I can expect to have one of my plants dug up this week. Or maybe she'll be satisfied with the fact that my jade plant just died of lack of light... owing to the fact that she attacked it whenever I put it anywhere that it could live and prosper.
Your jade plant--is that the famously taped one you showed me? Oh, too bad--valiant effort!
ReplyDelete--Arabella
Ha, no. That one's still doing well. She cuddles up next to it and peers through its leaves like the jungle cat she believes herself to be, but she's not managed to dig it up or chew it to death yet.
DeleteThe jade, however, wanted to be in the window, and was forced to languish on a top shelf. I have an aloe plant that's slowly dying of the same problem. The thick cactus-like leaves of both jades and aloes are cat toys as far as Maia is concerned.
I need to rig something up before that aloe gives up the ghost entirely...