"Mein Führer! I can walk!"
Now that I have your attention, some tidbits from recent life and fandom events:
* Though I would not have declined a War and Peace-length Book 7, I'm rather glad that Rowling quashed ("Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.") the "750-page" rumor. The "not close to finishing it" part is expected, as it is only September. As much as I would love to have the thing tomorrow, I want as much as she wants to give us. :)
* I went to roughly a bajillion movies this past weekend. Okay, four - but three in the same day. I saw Hollywoodland on Friday (review here, if you're interested :P). [ETA: Yay for Ben Affleck's "Best Actor" triumph at the Venice Film Festival for this movie!] I also did a marathon of Stanley Kubrick films at the local arthouse theater on Saturday. A Clockwork Orange was as wonderfully disturbing as I remembered, I saw Dr. Strangelove for the first time and giggled like mad at the reason they "learned to love the bomb" :D, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was SOOOO much more amazing on the big screen (but I was highly annoyed at the people who insisted on conducting "Sprach Zarathustra" and giggling at the first few minutes). 2001 is SUCH a deep and inpenetrable film that I could probably talk for days about it, but don't worry - I won't. ;)
* I had a busy night Friday night. We did a child care event at work, and in addition to manning the door for it and another event, I spent a good deal of time trying to get babies to stop crying. Crying babies - especially when they're really small and can't express in ANY way what you could do to make them stop - just break my heart. GAH!
* Five years ago today I was working in the cash office of KMart when the news hit about the terrorist attacks. I took frequent breaks to go back and watch the proceedings on the TV in the break room, and spent the entire evening in front of the television watching the clips of the planes hitting and the buildings falling over and over and over.
* Speaking of September 11th, tonight I'm going to be participating in a "Service of Remembrance and Hope," happening at my church and organized by the American Guild of Organists. We had a rehearsal Saturday morning and I got to do a LOT of sight reading (including a piece by Leonard Bernstein that's written in Hebrew). Our guest conductor is from NY and told us about taking a walk through Central Park on the morning of 9/11 and seeing limousines lined up on the street and people crowding around the vehicles' open doors, listening to the news. He hadn't even glanced downtown until someone pointed and he finally saw the smoke coming out of the still-standing towers. Gah, what a day.
* I read a very encouraging review of the new Bond film Casino Royale here, from someone who caught a test screening. I think he makes a great point about the decision to cast someone who didn't "look" like Bond, as well as the idea that Craig doesn't need to be The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet, because in Casino Royale even BOND isn't The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet. I'm getting so pumped for this movie I can hardly stand it. :D
* Wow! We've gotten more HP movie news in the past couple of weeks than we have in the last several months! We're getting the first set reports now, and endless pics of King's Cross are becoming what the endless pics of Magnolia Crescent were for PoA and the endless pics of Virginia Waters for GoF. This is all very well and good, of course, but ... trailer or some "real" pics, plz!
* Young Mr. Radcliffe is making it VERY difficult not to perv over him. Coo-coo-ca-choo.
* Though I would not have declined a War and Peace-length Book 7, I'm rather glad that Rowling quashed ("Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.") the "750-page" rumor. The "not close to finishing it" part is expected, as it is only September. As much as I would love to have the thing tomorrow, I want as much as she wants to give us. :)
* I went to roughly a bajillion movies this past weekend. Okay, four - but three in the same day. I saw Hollywoodland on Friday (review here, if you're interested :P). [ETA: Yay for Ben Affleck's "Best Actor" triumph at the Venice Film Festival for this movie!] I also did a marathon of Stanley Kubrick films at the local arthouse theater on Saturday. A Clockwork Orange was as wonderfully disturbing as I remembered, I saw Dr. Strangelove for the first time and giggled like mad at the reason they "learned to love the bomb" :D, and 2001: A Space Odyssey was SOOOO much more amazing on the big screen (but I was highly annoyed at the people who insisted on conducting "Sprach Zarathustra" and giggling at the first few minutes). 2001 is SUCH a deep and inpenetrable film that I could probably talk for days about it, but don't worry - I won't. ;)
* I had a busy night Friday night. We did a child care event at work, and in addition to manning the door for it and another event, I spent a good deal of time trying to get babies to stop crying. Crying babies - especially when they're really small and can't express in ANY way what you could do to make them stop - just break my heart. GAH!
* Five years ago today I was working in the cash office of KMart when the news hit about the terrorist attacks. I took frequent breaks to go back and watch the proceedings on the TV in the break room, and spent the entire evening in front of the television watching the clips of the planes hitting and the buildings falling over and over and over.
* Speaking of September 11th, tonight I'm going to be participating in a "Service of Remembrance and Hope," happening at my church and organized by the American Guild of Organists. We had a rehearsal Saturday morning and I got to do a LOT of sight reading (including a piece by Leonard Bernstein that's written in Hebrew). Our guest conductor is from NY and told us about taking a walk through Central Park on the morning of 9/11 and seeing limousines lined up on the street and people crowding around the vehicles' open doors, listening to the news. He hadn't even glanced downtown until someone pointed and he finally saw the smoke coming out of the still-standing towers. Gah, what a day.
* I read a very encouraging review of the new Bond film Casino Royale here, from someone who caught a test screening. I think he makes a great point about the decision to cast someone who didn't "look" like Bond, as well as the idea that Craig doesn't need to be The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet, because in Casino Royale even BOND isn't The-Bond-We-Know-and-Love yet. I'm getting so pumped for this movie I can hardly stand it. :D
* Wow! We've gotten more HP movie news in the past couple of weeks than we have in the last several months! We're getting the first set reports now, and endless pics of King's Cross are becoming what the endless pics of Magnolia Crescent were for PoA and the endless pics of Virginia Waters for GoF. This is all very well and good, of course, but ... trailer or some "real" pics, plz!
* Young Mr. Radcliffe is making it VERY difficult not to perv over him. Coo-coo-ca-choo.