Things and stuff
Jul. 18th, 2009 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockThings I need to post about:
1) My mail seems to have gone missing. As in not going to my current address nor the house where I'd hoped to be living already. I shall have to make the time to stop by the post office and ask what has become of it.
2) Toured the house today with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aelfsciene, moonlightnrain and tersa. I figured I hadn't had the chance to do so before the last Escrow signing, so I'd do it now while I've got some time to kill before we sign again. Noticed a few small problems and realized that there is a rather large stain on the dining room carpet plus a butt load of picture hangers on nearly every wall. This does not please me. Also I'm going to have to repaint both bathrooms, probably the master bedroom, and kitchen as well. The pink bathroom first, though. OMG, yes. And the pink blinds. Just...well, everything pink needs to be purged from the house. And then the lace window treatments. Big time.
3) I treated myself to a falafel wrap for dinner tonight and OMG, yum! They drenched it in tahini, yogurt and hummus just the way I like it. I inhaled the entire thing in one sitting. But the coolest thing was on the way back I stopped to wash my car (which was filthy beyond the telling of it) and as I was spraying it down taiko drums started playing across the street at what was apparently a little Obon festival. God I love my little town.
4) Saw Half Blood Prince and I have to say I mean it wasn't bad, like the first two films, just not very good, which was a damn shame because the book was my favorite. First and foremost the editors need to be flogged, the cuts from scene to scene were just hideous. One particularly bad one involved characters discussing how Dumbledore had taken off and shortly there after you jarringly jump to Harry standing in his office with Dumbledore right across from him. I haven't seen editing this bad since Two Towers, and I hoped I never would again. The pacing was also horrendous, particularly in the early part of the film. The new scenes they just threw into the film added absolutely nothing, including the one and only appearance of Remus Lupin (btw was it just me or had his facial scars changed in movie six?).
I was hideously disappointed that we didn't get Luna announcing the Quidditch match which was, without question, the high point of the novel. But the thing that really pissed me off? Snape's entire, bitter rant in the final sequence between him and Harry was (and I shit you not about this) boiled down to "You dare use my own spell against me?" (which was fucking awesome, and if it had been left alone right there I'd have loved it deeply) and then walking up to Harry, glaring down at him, and spelling it all out, "Yes, I am the Half Blood Prince." At that point I actually moaned, "Seriously?" Unfortunately that scene was the culmination of the entire philosophy of this particular production. It seemed to boil down to, "Let's beat them senseless with plot points because they're obviously too dumb to pick up on this."
Now lest you think I outright hated the thing, I will say there were some high points. Namely Tom Felton was superb. Sure most of what he had to do was look suave and angsty, but he did it well and the director made excellent use of him. The subtlety of the depiction of his isolation and slow downward spiral were superb. When he breaks down in the bathroom it just breaks your heart. And even though I knew how things turned out I still actually found myself wishing this time it would turn out differently. Harry would find a way to not be a tosser and actually win Draco over, thus stopping the whole horrible outcome, and of course instead Harry blunders in and starts a fight that nearly gets Draco killed.
So yay Tom! Also the actress playing Lavender Brown just kicked ass. She up and walked off with every scene she appeared in. And did I love all the Ron adoration in this one? Why, yes, yes I did. Also I thought Slughorn was quite well done, he was just enough of a buffoon without turning the character into a complete clown. Luna was also adorable as usual, particularly in her party dress. And of course Alan Rickman just dominated what little he was given to do. The man can do more with the simple act of walking down a flight of stairs than lesser actors can with an entire sililoquy. And I can find absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to the Astronomy Tower sequence. I loved the changes they made there, particularly the moment when Snape arrives on the lower level with Harry and shushes him with a raised finger to his lips. There's this moment where Harry is very obviously relieved, you can almost see him thinking (for the first time, mind you), "Oh thank god Snape is here, he'll make this right." And the moment between Severus and Albus have their final exchange was damn near perfect, though it could leave no doubt in anyone's mind who was paying attention, as to what Albus meant when he said, "Severus, please."
5) How much do I love the free foreign language films on On Demand? I can't even say how much, especially when they include Bollywood flicks. So far I've seen "Singh is Kinng" and "Sarkar" (the Bollywood version of "The Godfather"). I'm now watching a French period film about a wild Spanish courtesan in 1830's Paris. Could I be happier? I'm not sure how.
6) Kage got her stitches out today! She was a perfect little trouper and was in great shape. The vet came out and announced, "I expect her to live to be at least 20." Aelf and I grinned like kids and assured him we'd do our best to see that that happened. She's been without her cone and happily grooming all day. She got some sunshine and is napping happily in her new bed.
1) My mail seems to have gone missing. As in not going to my current address nor the house where I'd hoped to be living already. I shall have to make the time to stop by the post office and ask what has become of it.
2) Toured the house today with
aelfsciene, moonlightnrain and tersa. I figured I hadn't had the chance to do so before the last Escrow signing, so I'd do it now while I've got some time to kill before we sign again. Noticed a few small problems and realized that there is a rather large stain on the dining room carpet plus a butt load of picture hangers on nearly every wall. This does not please me. Also I'm going to have to repaint both bathrooms, probably the master bedroom, and kitchen as well. The pink bathroom first, though. OMG, yes. And the pink blinds. Just...well, everything pink needs to be purged from the house. And then the lace window treatments. Big time.3) I treated myself to a falafel wrap for dinner tonight and OMG, yum! They drenched it in tahini, yogurt and hummus just the way I like it. I inhaled the entire thing in one sitting. But the coolest thing was on the way back I stopped to wash my car (which was filthy beyond the telling of it) and as I was spraying it down taiko drums started playing across the street at what was apparently a little Obon festival. God I love my little town.
4) Saw Half Blood Prince and I have to say I mean it wasn't bad, like the first two films, just not very good, which was a damn shame because the book was my favorite. First and foremost the editors need to be flogged, the cuts from scene to scene were just hideous. One particularly bad one involved characters discussing how Dumbledore had taken off and shortly there after you jarringly jump to Harry standing in his office with Dumbledore right across from him. I haven't seen editing this bad since Two Towers, and I hoped I never would again. The pacing was also horrendous, particularly in the early part of the film. The new scenes they just threw into the film added absolutely nothing, including the one and only appearance of Remus Lupin (btw was it just me or had his facial scars changed in movie six?).
I was hideously disappointed that we didn't get Luna announcing the Quidditch match which was, without question, the high point of the novel. But the thing that really pissed me off? Snape's entire, bitter rant in the final sequence between him and Harry was (and I shit you not about this) boiled down to "You dare use my own spell against me?" (which was fucking awesome, and if it had been left alone right there I'd have loved it deeply) and then walking up to Harry, glaring down at him, and spelling it all out, "Yes, I am the Half Blood Prince." At that point I actually moaned, "Seriously?" Unfortunately that scene was the culmination of the entire philosophy of this particular production. It seemed to boil down to, "Let's beat them senseless with plot points because they're obviously too dumb to pick up on this."
Now lest you think I outright hated the thing, I will say there were some high points. Namely Tom Felton was superb. Sure most of what he had to do was look suave and angsty, but he did it well and the director made excellent use of him. The subtlety of the depiction of his isolation and slow downward spiral were superb. When he breaks down in the bathroom it just breaks your heart. And even though I knew how things turned out I still actually found myself wishing this time it would turn out differently. Harry would find a way to not be a tosser and actually win Draco over, thus stopping the whole horrible outcome, and of course instead Harry blunders in and starts a fight that nearly gets Draco killed.
So yay Tom! Also the actress playing Lavender Brown just kicked ass. She up and walked off with every scene she appeared in. And did I love all the Ron adoration in this one? Why, yes, yes I did. Also I thought Slughorn was quite well done, he was just enough of a buffoon without turning the character into a complete clown. Luna was also adorable as usual, particularly in her party dress. And of course Alan Rickman just dominated what little he was given to do. The man can do more with the simple act of walking down a flight of stairs than lesser actors can with an entire sililoquy. And I can find absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to the Astronomy Tower sequence. I loved the changes they made there, particularly the moment when Snape arrives on the lower level with Harry and shushes him with a raised finger to his lips. There's this moment where Harry is very obviously relieved, you can almost see him thinking (for the first time, mind you), "Oh thank god Snape is here, he'll make this right." And the moment between Severus and Albus have their final exchange was damn near perfect, though it could leave no doubt in anyone's mind who was paying attention, as to what Albus meant when he said, "Severus, please."
5) How much do I love the free foreign language films on On Demand? I can't even say how much, especially when they include Bollywood flicks. So far I've seen "Singh is Kinng" and "Sarkar" (the Bollywood version of "The Godfather"). I'm now watching a French period film about a wild Spanish courtesan in 1830's Paris. Could I be happier? I'm not sure how.
6) Kage got her stitches out today! She was a perfect little trouper and was in great shape. The vet came out and announced, "I expect her to live to be at least 20." Aelf and I grinned like kids and assured him we'd do our best to see that that happened. She's been without her cone and happily grooming all day. She got some sunshine and is napping happily in her new bed.
