If you are wondering about where all my posts went... Please see the first post in this thread.

Thanks

-Val

Last night we watched one of the most unusual films I have seen in a long time - Synecdoche, New York.

Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the same person who did Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, (among others) this movie was much admired by Roger Ebert.  But the film wasn't universally acclaimed by any means - in fact it was subject to a slate of highly polarised reviews with some major critics calling it "incomprehensible, pretentious, depressing, or self-indulgent."  But it is also listed on over 100 "best film of 2008" lists with 20 of them giving it the #1 spot. 

It has been compared very favourably with Federico Fellini's masterpiece 8 1/2.  Like Inception it is very difficult to describe (without writing a veritable tome) but more useful perhaps is citing a few films that it reminds me of in theme, tone and look. 

For me I think it is most like any other Kaufman movie (you have to be drawn into a very special universe where things aren't always the way they seem in real life) in tone.  It is really hard in one of his movies to tell where imagination stops and reality takes hold.  Things are always shifting - the characters, the locations, the physical world... everything.  Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation

I think if you liked Birdman, Grand Budapest Hotel, Barton Fink or Inception you can be comfortable with Synecdoche, New York. 

It also reminds me of Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal in that it is a movie about creating art (movies, plays, canvases) which is about re-creating the life around us but done with a sense of the artist's purpose.  This movie is self-referentiaing like Full Frontal.  The lines are often blurred between what you are watching and what the characters are suppose to be experienceing.  It can be hard to understand where the "movie/play" part ends and the world of the characters take over.  In this one, you have to constantly ask yourself - Is this the character's world and truth, o

The other night I made curried lamb shanks with chickpeas and potatoes.  Very yummy and I am a hard sell on anything with curry in it (I have had some bad experiences eating curry chicken). 

But it was completely all right and the curry spice and lamb went really well.  This was my first time cooking lamb shanks and it turned out pretty well.  The dish is slow cooked (I used my Dutch oven but it probably would be ideal in an actual slow cooker pot as well) for 3 and half hours in the oven and on the stove top. 

Tonight we are having pan seared duck breasts and the left over curried veggies from the lamb dish.  I love duck but it is harder to buy than chicken here in our part of Canada.  You can find it easier than you could in the past but still it only comes into the main grocery stores about once a month or so.

I have cooked whole duck before, as well as making duck confit (a really, really long process!!) but my favourite is just single duck breasts done medium rare in a cast itron skillet and finished off in the oven. 

-Val

Here's an article from the Telegraph about a new effort in letter writing from the Letters Live folks...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/12036204/Benedict-Cumberbatch-Dear-Santa-I-never-did-get-that-lightsaber.html

And here is the first page of the handwritten letter done by Ben...


Further more here it is in full (translate from the handwriting for easier reading)...


So articulate, so passionate, so thoughtful, so beautifully compassionate... so Benedict!

-Val

Well, we had something interesting happen to us tonight.  We went on a road trip to see our local hockey team in action in a little town called St. Marys and when we got there the team manager called us over and told Dan that there was a film crew from Vancouver working for ABC/Disney Channel working on a segment of a reality show about some American cheerleaders - one of whom was a girlfriend of one of our players!  So the crew was sent out to film this girl visiting her boyfriend in action at one of his hockey games.  I think the name of the show was something like "They're Going to the World's" (but don't quote me on this because I don't watch reality TV).   

After the game was all over and Dan went down to do his interviews with the coach and players (he is the media liason for the team - and team historian) and they were doing some more filming.  They got some of the other players involved in the segment too.  Dan said it was all very scripted - every line was pre-written for both the girlfriend and the player. 

But all the boys were very excited - we won the game, so everyone was in good spirits!  Even though all this filming held up the team bus for a very long time. 

Any way it was something really different.  Has anyone ever heard of this show?  I think Dan said it would be on the ABC Sparks channel and on the Disney Channel???  They were also going by the title "Cheer, Cheer" if that helps.

-Val

Well, I got the same reply (except I didn't tell them who I voted for) this morning. 

I did check back and indeed my vote had been registered - so all seems well.  I hope this huge response was because of all the BC fans out there voting for him!     That would be nice.

-Val

I certainly hope this "glitch" doesn't affect his voting totals.  I will check again to see if my vote was registered for him.  I wonder how many other folks voted and never checked back to see if it was registering as a counted vote, thinking that it was a given that it would be counted?  If mine hasnt registered by tomorrow I will email them as well. 

-Val

Did anyone else find something wonky about the voting? 

After I filled in my email and postal code I voted and when I checked back all the categories I voted for registered EXCEPT Ben for best actor!  I just looked like I hadn't voted for anyone in that category (but all the others showed that I couldn't vote again).  I tried voting again for him and when I checked back again it showed up like I hadn't voted for anyone.  No matter how many time I voted it wouldn't register as a vote.

Has anyone else checked back to see if their vote for him "stuck" and was registered?



-Val

Those pictures of him waving at the "crowds" from the "balcony" really made me giggle.

I think he was channeling the "royal wave" there!  OMFG!  Too much!  I love the look on his face.

-Val

Gosh what a movie it was! 

Besides be a totally thrilling story of man against nature, it also touched on the theme of man's hubris (almost in a Victor Frankenstein way) as well.  The story is all the more powerful by being told in a reserved fashion through the eyes of the stoic Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller.  The very British "stiff upper lip" approach to disaster is very evident throughout and makes total sense seeing how the UK was still suffering the repercussions of having gone through WWI and WWII.  Actually four clips from the Nazi propaganda film Titanic (1943) were utilised in A Night to Remember ironically. 

Just a note: A very young David McCallum (who went on to star in Man From U.N.C.L.E.) played a a wonderfully empathetic role as the youthful Junior wireless Officier on board the Titanic.  I have seen him in a couple of his eariler roles (Violent Playground and Robbery Under Arms - both from 1957) but here he did so much with such a small role.  My favourite film role of his was the part he took in The Great Escape and a close second was his role in Billy Budd (which I have only seen once and would really love to see again).

Television: McCallum playing Illya Kuryakin is wonderful of course but I love just as much his portrayal of Simon from the TV series Colditz.  I'm not really fond of his work in NCIS - his part is just poorly written IMO. 

As well, did you know that Sean Connery had an uncredited role in A Night to Remember?

Gosh all this talk about the film makes me want to view it again!

-Val