Let's go to the movies!

So has anyone seen any good movies lately?

Appropriately, David & I went to go see two movies within the past week that had to do with pregnancy (how often does that happen, that there are two movies out at the same time about being pregnant?!), both of which were wonderful. Waitress, a Sundance Film Festival hit with Keri Russell as the star, was very well done, had a great message and was very touching. There was a lot of "food porn" as David calls it, because Keri's character bakes scrumptious gourmet pies to deal with her unwanted pregnancy and boorish husband. (To watch a preview trailer for this movie, click here and then click the yellow "Watch Trailer" button)

And before that, of course, we saw Knocked Up (definitely click the yellow "Watch Trailer" button when you visit that link!). I can only say that even if you have no interest in children (or having them) whatsoever, this movie will make you howl with laughter. It was absolutely sidesplitting - especially as an expectant mother. I laughed so hard I was initially worried about upsetting Peaches (nicknames for our baby depend on which article of produce s/he most represents the size of during any given week) but s/he seems to like and be soothed by motion and laughter - even my horn playing - , which is good. There were a few scenes which were so hysterical I had to catch my breath and actually got dizzy from laughing so hard. The only caution I would offer is that if you have a prudish sense of humor - if movies like South Park or Borat offend you, for example - you might be a bit in over your head. I also would not recommend drinking or eating anything unless you enjoy liquids flying out of your nose and the person next to you is well versed in the Heimlich. Uproarious!

I also cried like an idiot at the end of both movies when the baby was handed to the mother for the first time. What is happening to me!?!?

Over the past several months I've also slowly but surely used my Netflix account, which I still love. Sometimes I watch 2-3 movies in 2 weeks; sometimes it's over a month before I have time to sit down and watch anything. But it's always just 10 bucks a month for whatever I decide, no late fees. And the selection of movies on Netflix is unrivaled and I'm quite sure that I wouldn't find half the movies on my queue at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. Anyhoo, here are some of the ones I've watched with my ratings for them:

Fat Girl - a disturbing foreign film (in French with English subtitles) with a shocking commentary on girls' self esteem and body image issues. I thought this was a brilliant film, but it was extremely violent and quite unsettling. My rating: 3 stars.

Mysterious Skin - yet another disturbing one but still thought provoking and extremely interesting. Two young boys suffer the same childhood trauma and the movie tracks how they differently they each deal with it through their adolescence. Also quite violent, but very thought provoking. My rating: 3 stars.

Unfaithful - The classically hot Diane Lane/Richard Gere movie about a woman who has an affair, and how it destroys everyone involved. I thought the plot was set up particularly creatively because her marriage seemed quite healthy and she had a great life before she started the affair. My rating: 4 stars.

Aeon Flux - And now for something completely different! This was a futuristic post-apocalyptic vision of the 25th century. Based on MTV's animated adventure series of the same name, Charlize Theron stars as Aeon Flux, an assassin for a secret rebellious force against a totalitarian government. As a true Xena and Buffy fan, I love watching women kick ass, but I had a hard time getting into the whole Sci-Fi thing. This is mostly me though - I am not much of a fantasy or sci-fi kind of girl. My rating: 3 stars.

Next on my Netflix queue are four comedies (which I sure need, after the heavy hitters I've been watching!! Sheesh!): Beauty Shop, Imagine Me and You, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Wedding Crashers. I probably won't be able to fit them all in before I leave for Breckenridge, but I'm still looking forward to them.

So....have you seen any good movies lately? What do you recommend?

Gardens and books

Hello Junebugs! How is your summer going so far?

Our peonies have started to open; the fuschia ones just have buds, but the white ones have started to bloom in their snowy fragrant glory. Our vegetable garden (largely David's impetus, but I help out and enjoy it too) is planted with multiple varieties of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and zucchini already soaking up the sun.

The orchestra season is wrapping up. We've had quite the concert lineup recently - last week was Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and Corigliano's Piano Concerto with William Wolfram. That man is unbelievable. And I adored the Corigliano. Think Shostakovitchian orchestration with the lyricism of Samuel Barber, the percussion techniques of Joseph Schwantner, and the rhythmic complexity of Stravinsky, all in one thoroughly electric and stimulating piece. All of those composers are among my absolute favorites, so I was in my glory! But the concert, which also included Copland's Appalachian Spring (which, thankfully, I didn't have to play, since I'm definitely not a Copland fan), was really tiring.

This week, we have Doc Severinson's farewell week - the last concerts he will ever play before he retires - and all four concerts are sold out. I think they have been for a while. And then next week we have Mahler's 2nd Symphony, which I have never played onstage before (I did the offstage brass with Cinci a while ago, but it was only the last movement and I didn't even have to get dressed up, so I don't really count it as having played Mahler 2).

So keep your fingers crossed that I will survive through the end of the season.

So have you read any good books lately? If you liked Moby Dick and are in the mood for a wonderfully epic historical fiction, I can recommend Sena Jeter-Naslund's Ahab's Wife, a thoroughly researched escape into life in 1850's Nantucket through the eyes of Una, Captain Ahab's wife. It was so well-written, and I felt completely transported. It took a while to read, because the writing was so intricate and written in period dialect, but it was well worth it.

I also read the James Patterson mystery whodunnit thriller Mary Mary - which I also enjoyed but don't remember much about off the top of my head. (Fast-paced, action-packed adventures are often like that for me - fun at the time, but not especially memorable.)

I then explored a new author that Jen recommended for me. The brilliant young novelist's name is Zadie Smith, whose book White Teeth spans the British 1940's to present day and tracks the interrelationships of several intergenerational British immigrant familes and cultures - Jamaican Jehova's Witnesses, Bangladeshi Muslims, non-religious English. The ease with which Smith taps into and portrays each character so believably is truly stunning and made for a wonderful escape.

After that, the murder mystery genre was up again in the reading rotation. I had picked John Lescroart's The Hunt Club. It was published by Signet and was supposedly a New York Times Bestseller, which as I read it I found hard to justify. Not only was the story line plodding and often all dialogue/no action, but I had figured out who the murderer was halfway through - which made me impatient for the characters in the book to catch up with me. But what really steamed me was that I found several errors in spelling, grammar, and syntax as I read. And Signet is a reputable publishing house! It made me mad that I was wasting reading time on such a book. I will not buy this author again, because life is too short to read crappy books. The climax of the mystery was moderately entertaining, I'll admit, but I give it 2 stars, at best.

So now I'm reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, which is good so far; I will keep you posted. After that, I think I'll be in for a quality "chick lit" romp - like Jennifer Weiner's Little Earthquakes or Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger (she wrote The Devil Wears Prada).

So what are you reading lately? And how do your gardens grow? ;) Post comments and let me know....