the heart attacks I'm convinced I have every morning upon waking
My subconscious went all emo on me last night, and I had a very bad dream. At the beginning of it, I was reminding everyone about my big, important dinner that they had to come to at 6 pm. I reminded my whole family, and a bunch of friends. So I get all tarted up and go sit at this huge table in the restaurant (I had arrived a tad early to make sure the reservation was right, etc). It was quite a formal-looking establishment, and I sat there and waited. I sat there so long that the waiter brought a huge group of people over to sit at the table where I was sitting! The nerve, I thought! But then I looked at my watch, and it read 9 pm. I had waited over three hours for my friends and family and they had all forgotten my poor little dinner. The worst part, of course, was that I woke up grumpy. Très triste!
In other news, today the ophthalmologist concluded that I have become slightly more nearsighted in the last couple years (I'm -5.00 in both eyes, along with astigmatism in both as well...). This may or may not require new glasses: we'll see. Lenses are so expensive. :(
I keep cycling through Netflix queue, and most recently I had Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. Very good, actually, though I still think Ikiru and Seven Samurai best it by a little. You know, when I heard it was the Kurosawa Macbeth, I thought there'd be a really cool swordfight/duel at the end, since MacDuff and Macbeth square off in the play. But I guess Kurosawa didn't like MacDuff and scrapped him as a character. Don't get me wrong, I still loved the end of Throne of Blood, and it's cool how they choreographed the arrows, I just thought it'd be closer. Though really, Ran wasn't exactly King Lear, either, so I don't know why I thought that. Still a well-filmed and satisfying adaptation, regardless.
I also saw After the Wedding since it was nominated at the Academy Awards this year... I don't really put much stock in the Oscars aside from the Foreign Film category, in which they did manage to nominate Water last year (and it should've won, too). So anyway, After the Wedding was a bit too melodramatic for me, and even seemed to end a little too cleanly (even though there was an attempt at the end to complicate matters, it's evident that things would stay the way they were). Not bad, just mostly about issues within one family. It at least managed a good amount of realism (very little hokey dialogue!) for those more awkward family situations, though, and I liked that very much.
In other news, today the ophthalmologist concluded that I have become slightly more nearsighted in the last couple years (I'm -5.00 in both eyes, along with astigmatism in both as well...). This may or may not require new glasses: we'll see. Lenses are so expensive. :(
I keep cycling through Netflix queue, and most recently I had Kurosawa's Throne of Blood. Very good, actually, though I still think Ikiru and Seven Samurai best it by a little. You know, when I heard it was the Kurosawa Macbeth, I thought there'd be a really cool swordfight/duel at the end, since MacDuff and Macbeth square off in the play. But I guess Kurosawa didn't like MacDuff and scrapped him as a character. Don't get me wrong, I still loved the end of Throne of Blood, and it's cool how they choreographed the arrows, I just thought it'd be closer. Though really, Ran wasn't exactly King Lear, either, so I don't know why I thought that. Still a well-filmed and satisfying adaptation, regardless.
I also saw After the Wedding since it was nominated at the Academy Awards this year... I don't really put much stock in the Oscars aside from the Foreign Film category, in which they did manage to nominate Water last year (and it should've won, too). So anyway, After the Wedding was a bit too melodramatic for me, and even seemed to end a little too cleanly (even though there was an attempt at the end to complicate matters, it's evident that things would stay the way they were). Not bad, just mostly about issues within one family. It at least managed a good amount of realism (very little hokey dialogue!) for those more awkward family situations, though, and I liked that very much.