winter break in media
Since I suck at updating on a regular basis, and since a simple chronological account of what I've been upto since mid-December would be a little bit boring, I think that instead I'll just describe all the media I've consumed since I left Pittsburgh for NYC, and then NYC for Ithaca, and then Ithaca for Pittsburgh.
From El Greco to Picasso The Guggenheim's exhibition of Spanish artists. Unlike Russia! this one doesn't have any punctuation in the title. I found the focus on Picasso to be a little overbearing. Also the impression one walks away with is that he was a rip-off artist who copied old spanish masters in his own style whenever he was stuck for subject matter. Although I'm sure this wasn't the curators' intention. Some lovely Goya and Velazquez and Dali. Don Carlo I saw this on a Saturday matinée at the Metropolitan Opera. The playbill describes it as not one of Verdi's more accessible operas. It was five hours long. Some of them very beautiful. I found the bits about politics and religion quite compelling. The love story was a bit... operatic. Overall, I had a good time. News 12 Brooklyn: as local as local news gets All the news that's fit to... hey I'm tapin' a news segment here, asshole! Over the Hedge I like the squirrel Ice Age 2 I like the squirrel Pan's Labyrinth Fantastic. Best fairytale movie ever. Will give your kids nightmares for years. It helps if you tell your kids about the Spanish civil war beforehand. NYC Dept of Planning's Zoning Handbook We bought this for a holiday gift for my dad. I think he wept a little when we gave it to him. Everything you ever wanted to know about R4a and R3-2 and all that jazz. Carson Daly's rockin' New Years Eve We were supposed to do something fun, but instead tywysoges had a fever. So she had hallucinations and I watched this dreck. Frankly she had the better deal. For Your Consideration Harry Shearer was in this. So was Parker Posey. A bunch of stuff happened and we were supposed to laugh at the antics of those wacky Hollywood stereotypes. I'm still waiting for Guffman. The Fountain This movie made me lose a little bit of the respect I had for π since I assumed that the chaos theory was more the point rather than the mysticism. In light of The Fountain, I'm glad Aronofsky didn't get a chance to ruin Batman: Year One. Perfume Was I supposed to dislike the hero-villain? I'll have to read the book, I suppose. Also, Tykwer has a thing for redheads, Run Lola Run wasn't just a one time thing. The old ladies two rows behind me harrumphed about the sexy bits of this one. Silly old ladies should stay away from German directors. (Update: Dustin Hoffman puts on a bad DeNiro impersonation. Alan Rickman is god.)