Sex ... and the city... spoiled ... a bit

Ok, so I was a huge fan, you can even ask about my infamous Cosmopolitan's in their honor, but here is the trailer that unfortunately tells us everything we need to know about the movie:



But I will still go to the movies and watch it !

Busy Weekend

This weekend was crazy, between the carpet, IKEA, home depot and the holiday parties, I had barely any time to recharge my battery. I know that the urban legend says that I never ever stop and that I can go for hours at a time, but sometimes when all the activity starts to concentrate, I become tired. Well this weekend there was barely any time for that. I did manage to see 2 movies, both were a little disappointing, although one was much better than the other one.

On Friday I saw “Atonement” a story about a girl that commits a wrong and how that wrong affects her sister and her lover, and changes everyone’s life. The premise of the story is that a girl misunderstands an exchange between her sister and the ground keepers’ son, and accuses the boy of raping a girl This accusations sends the boy to jail and then to war (II W W) and to an estrangement from her sister and her family – this last was not very clear from the movie. The book got the Booker price I think, and it is a very good story. Very sad, but at the same time good, with compelling characters that are realistic and that at least impressed me very, very much. The ending of both the movie and the book is very dramatic, it takes the viewer/reader completely by surprise and it makes one ponder what was best.

The second movie, which I expected to love, was “The Golden Compass”. I read the book many, many years along and fell in love with the daemon concept and the complex story line that sets up this war between a little girl and the Magisterium (a stand in for the Catholic Church, or any form of organized and dogmatic religion). The book also explores truth and science and the triumph of the rational over the irrational, and in further books it explores more complex subjects such as the nature of God and the role we play in this universe as humans. One of the things that attracted me to the book was its use of fantasy and science in something that is more real than a Fantasy Novel, but not a crazy science fiction story. I had high hopes for the movie, well it was disappointing. Not only do they chop of the last two chapters, but in order to keep the story under 2 hours, it keeps bouncing here and there and never really explaining any of the details. I have to say that I enjoyed the creation of the world in which Lira lives and that at least when I try my hand at rereading the books it will make for a faster re read since I can put faces to the characters and buildings to the locations.

Regardless, I am still exhausted, and it is only Tuesday

Estrogen filled

This last weekend was full of it, it was Miss Adams Morgan. And as you know I do drag sometimes, so I had the dress, the belt, the handbag and everything, and Saturday, I ran around in the morning with the Rhody trying to get things at the last minute. After a quick nap not for me, but I showered and shaved, and had the Diplomat do my make up – which was flawless let me tell ya, flawless – we went off and got ready at the House of Drag, where the magic happens year after year.

The dress, the wig, the accessories all came together, and after 2 hours of primping, we went to the Hilton where we enjoyed a great night. As usual it is mostly about socializing and seeing and being seen than about the show or the contestants or what ever was happening on stage. I had a great time, Chantilly one of our leaders, gave a great show and was a hoot. Finally after 4 hours we decided to move to JR’s and then off to Annie’s for a traditional Miss Adams Morgan Bfast, at 1 am. It worked I was tired and so was the Argentine, so finally we left got the car and managed to get in bed at 3. I was weary and tired, and managed to fall asleep almost immediately.

Sunday, by accident mostly we saw “The Jane Austen’s Book Club”, a chick flick, about this 5 women and 1 man who read in 6 months all of Austen’s books, and in a clever plot twist, each book was reflected on what happened leading up to the meeting when the book club happened. The movie was fun, great one-liners and very cute, of course all the problems were resolved and in the end they all lived happily ever after. Which to me was its weakest point, I had assumed they would leave some conflicts unresolved or some hard situations they way they were, but even the Lesbian daughter shacks up with a doctor. I would give the movie a B, a solid B, it was entertaining and poignant, and it kinda makes me want to go read some of the other books I have not read from Austen, but at this rate with all the books I have I have not read, I am not sure that is going to happen. What to do after such a movie, we went to JR’s to say farewell to the Cowboy, who moved to Atlanta and was visiting. JR’s was uber packed, to the point where one could not move on inch. So I guess we got some testosterone too.

Snow and the Labyrinth

DC was covered in snow last night, well not covered, but we had some snow, which in this city translates to the city closes down, no one works and the stores run out of water, milk and toilet paper – because of course during snowstorms the need for toilet paper increases exponentially for some reason that evades natural logic or laws.

I am home, working on some documentation and will actually have to go to a meeting in resting at 2, which means I do have to drive, no I am not happy about this turn of events but what can I do, I am going to meet the VP of Services of my customer.

The weekend as uneventful, saw Pan’s Labyrinth and loved it, it was a great movie. I know the Gay Canuck hated it, I liked it a lot. I understood all the violence and liked how he brought back fantasy and story telling as it was in the old days when stories were not sanitized by Disney. If you have not seen the movie, what you need to know is that it is a parable about how good actions might not win at the end of day but that by some karmic connection they are rewarded. Also it is a story of how fantasy can help us cope with the direst of circumstances, but that fantasy alone is not enough and that sometimes all the best intentions in the world will still not win the battle at the end of the day. Finally it is a beautifully crafted movie, that shows us a war where 1 million people died, and how tit broke down the social fabric that made a nation. I can talk about all this in the first person because my 4 grandparents fought and lost that Spanish Civil War and as a result I was born in Mexico City under circumstances that would have never happened in Spain. If you like fantasy, and have a good stomach - I do not, but I still went - go see this movie, you can always close your eyes when the blood starts to flow.

In knitting news I started what promised to be a pretty, pretty red scarf last night.

Marie Antoinette

I liked Marie Antoinette, yes I did. I liked the music, I liked the costumes, I liked the shoes and I liked the story. And before the Diplomat jumps at me, I have three words for him: High School Musical. There now quiet down peanut gallery.

The movie has a lot of good and a lot of bad, which I guess makes it controversial. The acting is terrible, but Kristen Dunst and Jason S (not sure what his last name is) are not good actors, and they tend to deliver flat lines and flat characters. It was hard watching that, but she is a pretty adorable girl in the same way Marie Antoinette was, she was a bit more aristocratic, at least from the portraits that exist. Versailles is beautiful; there are only a handful of palaces in the world that can show how absolute power reigned. It is a world within a world, a place where reality is not accepted. It is in fact rejected and a new reality was created out of marble, and limestone. The Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon are perfect examples.

But to get to my point, the thing that impressed me the most about the movie was the way Sofia Coppola tells the tale. I have to say that I read Steven Zweig biography of the late French queen, and not Antonia Fraser’s (the one the movie is based on) and I have always felt that no matter who had married Louis the XVI th, the outcome would have been the same. France had been ruled by the Bourbons with little regard to the middle and lower classes for centuries, and the American Revolution which was partly sponsored by France and the food shortages led to the peasant (I would severely question, this fact, it was mostly a revolution organized and lead by the bourgeoisie, who wanted to have more say in the country’s affairs) uprising that we now call the French Revolution. There was looting and many, many of the lower aristocrats were killed, and most of the high ranking aristocrats were able to flee the country and then returned after Robespierre’s Reign of Terror. It has always been my theory that any other European princess would have had the same fate, of course this is a game of what ifs that is not worth playing to far, but history time and time again comes full circle and we see how the individuals in power are puppets of currents that sweep the globe as much as they are makers of their and their people’s destinies.

That said, the movie shows us that world, so often romanticizes by novelists and play writes, and shows us if not exactly how it was and how people talked and acted a good insight into the ridiculous situations this people were thrown into. How could they not loose all contact with reality when they had to put on a show every morning, and when they would eat lunch and be a show for the rest of courtiers. Those were the themes that resounded with me from the movie and which made it an interesting and thoughtful exercise in movie making.

The good, the bad and the ugly

This week the big gay film festival is in town, well, more like the gays are at the Lincoln theater for gay movies. As usual I got a pass, so that I can see as many movies as I want, and not have to deal with the buying tickets, getting in late, and fighting the desire to watch movie, when you have a pass you just go in and watch, you pay, but the hassle diminish and because you have paid you tend to go more often. Anyway, even if you do not go, you feel good because you have given a donation to a decent gay organization – One in Ten.

The big problem with the festival is that the movies tend to be of three types: the good (very scarce), the bad (plentiful) and finally the ugly (depends on the country making the movie and your appreciation of the film in question). Sometimes there are movies that are good and ugly, or bad and ugly, and then there are the good and bad, which means they had some terrific parts and some horrible parts, and you can not make your mind weather the bad was bad enough to hate the movie, or just enough to make you appreciate the few scenes worth watching.

So far I have seen 5 movies and here is the score:

Shortbus – good and bad, I was not complete taken by it.

Boy Culture – bad, bad, bad

C.R.A.Z.Y – good, definitely good.

20 Centimeters – good and ugly, a good movie about a horrible situation, the director made no effort to pretty the reality at all, except for the musical numbers.

Mother Nature – good and bad, had some good looking people and a semi decent story line, but that was it, too crowded, too many subplots and twists and turns and distractions.

Finally last night I watch Divided Sky, it was a Mexican movie and I was not hopeful, but I was interested to see how gay life was portrayed in Mexico City with a Mexican crew and production team. This was a bad and ugly movie. Slow, and with very little dialogue, the story line was not rich enough to keep a 2 hr 15 minute feature running and the actors were not bad, but I never had any buy in, maybe I was never 18 and in love, but I never got it. They never talked! And then there was a narrator that would do voice-overs, where he would explain the emotions the characters felt. The music was not good, and the boys were not that attractive.

I was planning on boring you with reviews of all the movies, but I am completely uninspired today. I am still sick, but I came to work anyway. Today is the Project Rungay finale; I have my dress ready so lets see what everyone else comes up with, can.not.wait.