Why?
How come tri-cornered hats are so hot? I know they are NOW, what with Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom swashbuckling away, but I have always thought they were oddly appealing, even when I knew them only from Revolutionary War illustrations and "Amadeus," neither of which feature any hotties. So why do I keep hoping someone on Project Runway will bring back the knee-length knickers/tri-cornered hat look? *Sigh* I can only dream.
Movie Review Blitz
Did you know that I was the movie critic for my high school's newspaper? While I no longer have that flimsy excuse for the immense amount of time I spend watching movies, I do have a blog in which I can relive my days as a wannabe movie buff. Anyone who reads my brother's blog (see link to the right) can see that this runs in my family, and his end-of-year lists have given me the bug for lists of my own.
Being the unabashed nerd that I am, I recently created a typed list of movies I want to see (it is currently 2 pages long, 2 columns per page, with a mixture of old classic movies and newer ones that I just never got around to seeing) that I am working through at a steady pace, thanks to the fabulous DVD collection at my local library.
The good movies I have watched are: Midnight Cowboy (very sad), The Deer Hunter (very very sad), M*A*S*H (funny), Driving Miss Daisy (funny and poignant), To Kill A Mockingbird (could not live up to the book, but very good), and Broadcast News (funny and still very relevant).
The not-very-good movies I have watched are Being There (monotonous and ridiculous, but not ridiculous enough) and, just last night, Jarhead (which, despite its huge potential for political relevance AND the presence of an often shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal, failed to make an impact of the thoughtful or lustful variety).
2006 was not so great of a year for movies...of course, all the good movies come out right at the end of the year, OR they only play in a few theaters, so I have not seen The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth, or Children of Men, all of which look very much like my cup of tea. Without having seen those (or the majority of the award-whore type movies), my favorite movies of last year (in no particular order) were probably Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls, The Departed, Marie Antoinette, and A Prairie Home Companion. And, if I'm being perfectly honest, I should also include Borat, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Talladega Nights on that list...I said they were my favorite movies, not the best.
Any thoughts? Lists? Suggestions of old movies to watch?
Edit: I saw Children of Men, and it is stupendously fantastic.
Happy New Year!
Woooooo for 2007! And another opportunity to write a list as my blog entry. Those are always my favorite. Resolutions:
1. Update my blog more often than once a month.
2. Apply obsessive tendencies only to cello...not to fruitless endeavors that shall remain nameless.
3. I would like to get through the Sevcik Op. 2 no. 4 book...that might take more than a year, but I'll say that I'd like to do at least 2 bowings a week out of that book.
4. Practice my double stop scales, in high and low positions, every day...see what a good job I'm doing with #2 already?
5. Continue to be a devoted daughter, sister, friend, etc.
Wow, most boring resolutions ever. I guess I'm less than enthusiastic about resolutions, because they often are the worst kind of wish. Did you know there are different kinds of wishes? I think there are three kinds (yes, another list):
1. Harmless wishes that are really just for personal amusement. Examples include wishing Falkor was real, wishing it would rain Cherry Kool-Aid, wishing for a magical machine that would make any kind of food you want instantly.
2. Abstract wishes that don't really have any bearing on the immediate present. Such as wishing for world peace, wishing to one day have children, wishing to win the lottery.
3. The worst kind - wishing that things in your current life, that are in your immediate control, were different. Like wishing that you lived somewhere else, wishing you had a girlfriend or boyfriend when you don't, wishing you had a better job.
The third kind are horrible. If you wish for something, you basically are saying that it could only come true through some divine intervention, and that you could never do it on your own. If you do that, then it absolutely will NOT come true, because we all know that if you want something, you have to go get it for yourself. Not that it is that simple, but if you always just wish for something, you are ignoring the actual logistics of your life that are in the way. Or, you are ignoring some part of yourself that is causing the perceived problem, which means you're focusing on the symptom rather than the true cause.
I sometimes catch myself thinking that I would like to have gone away to school, or that I wish I weren't living with my parents. Then I remind myself of what my life would really be like for those things to be true. I would have massive student loan debt and other bills, meaning I would have to have a full-time job, meaning that I would have no time to practice, meaning that I would probably quit music. Whoa! Suddenly my current life is fantastic, in comparison to that scenario. And now I'm happy! Instead of wistfully wishing things were different.
So instead of making flowerly resolutions that I think will completely change my life, I'll stick with a list of mundane goals, just to keep me focused.
