Loving the Dreamgirls December 28, 2006

Yesterday my mother and I went to see Dreamgirls. It was amazing. As I mentioned in my last post, I was not sure what to expect. Whatever I was expecting, the movie blew me away. To quote my mother, it was like a musical and like a movie. I know that sounds weird or maybe just plain dumb, but the singing was not crucial to the movie, it was crucial to their believability as a singing group. It was funny watching all the parallels the show made to real life people and the nods to the Jackson 5 were particularly funny. Overall it was a great movie and I can’t wait to see it again.

As expected Jennifer Hudson stole the entire movie. She was amazing and in my mind the lead of the movie. On one hand I get why Beyonce was marketed as the lead, she is more famous and plays the lead singer in the group, but in terms of performance and what the movie was about, it was all about Jennifer Hudson’s part. My father and I had an interesting conversation at dinner last night and he said he thought Beyonce was marketed as the lead because she was thin and pretty, just like in the movie. I sincerely hope that is not true, but am not naive enough to think there is no truth to that statement. I have taken solace in the fact that Jennifer Hudson should win the Golden Globe and Oscar for best supporting actress and nobody, not even Jennifer Hudson if she was nominated for best actress, could beat Helen Miren. That women was just born to play each and every British Queen.

Speaking of my father, this movie has delved him into the scary world of pop culture. First a note about my father he reads the New York Times and Wall Street Journal every day. He reads the Economist and New Republic every week. The only TV he watches are the financial programs at lunch when he talks to my grandfather (it is actually cute, they talk on the phone about the show that is on) and the shows on HBO and SHO. So it is save to say that he is clueless about pop culture. He goes to movies if one of the aforementioned publication says he should go. Well this movie has gotten so much good press, my father spent last night talking about Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. It was really funny, he was trying to explain to me that Beyonce was part of this group Destiny but she left it to do a solo career and she dates a guy named Jay who is apparently famous. Then he told me Jennifer Hudson was on this show where they sing and if they don’t do well they are kicked off, but she got kicked off for being too large (then he went on a rant about that). I am not sure his information on why Jennifer Hudson got kicked off Idol is correct (I don’t watch the show) but I think it says something that my 60 year old dad is now talking about this stuff because of this movie. It is definitely reaching a large group of people.

In conclusion, if you have not seen this movie, rush out and see it now. This is one you are going to want to see at least once on the big screen.

The last 4 days December 26, 2006

So I did in fact end up getting sick, which means I did not go with the family out of town. In a way it sucked, since I started feeling better on Sunday and then I was bored out of my mind. In a way it was good because my aunt and uncle celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. How do you acknowledge and not acknowledge Jesus at the same time? I know they really don’t celebrate Jewish holidays, they don’t belong to a synagogue, they don’t do Passover, and I’m sure they have no idea the religious significance of Hanukkah or how unimportant it is in the scope of Jewish religions. My mother says this makes it better. I somehow feel like it is worse. Also, they do both holidays to excess with gifts, all of which are obnoxiously expensive and often unneeded. They do this all in front of you, when they know we aren’t going to celebrate (but they wake us up to watch their teenage kids open all the presents, so we can ooh and ahh), and they don’t even bother to get any of us a cheap gift card or anything. So for those reasons I am glad I was not there.

So how did I spend my time (when I wasn’t sleeping, which admittedly was most of the time)?

First, I finished my second Jaywalker sock. They turned out really well and I am really happy. Then I started the arm warmer from Stitch and Bitch Nation. I am almost through the first one. I am not sure about it. I decided to use some cheap yarn I picked up at my LYS. I was going to use the yarn to make a hat for a student, but decided to use something else. Anyway, the yarn does not do the pattern on the top justice. I am glad I used it because it is my first real try with reading off a chart and doing cables, so it is a good yarn to experiment with. Also, I am not sure because I don’t know how I like the pattern. Not the tree on the top, but the actual structure. I will admit I just looked at pictures and picked the one I liked best, so I did not read the pattern before starting. Now I wonder. Most the other patterns I looked at, like the fetchings from Knitty, increase for the hand. These are like tubes with a thumb hole. I am not sure how they are going to fit. I am going to finish it tomorrow and then decide if I want to make the second one. I have some really cool Noro for the “real” ones. I may either edit the pattern or try the knitty fetchings and just extend the wrist part and also the hand part.

I also watched a lot of tv. All I can say is thank god for HGTV and Law and Order: CI marathons. I also finally saw In Her Shoes. It was surprisingly good. I really had not liked the book, the movie stayed on my list, but never really moved up that list. Anyway, I found it on HBO and sat down to watch it. I don’t need to see it again, but if you are sick and bored, I recommend it as a good way to pass 2 plus hours.

I’m sure I did a few other things, but honestly most of the weekend was a fog of sickness.

Tomorrow I am going to see Dreamgirls with my mother. I never saw the Broadway musical, but I am looking forward to the movie. I am especially looking forward to the performance by Jennifer Hudson. I have heard she steals the movie. I am also looking forward to making fun of Beyonce’s performance. Maybe she will surprise me but I am not holding my breath.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the passing of two great men. First, James Brown. I never really got into his music, but I did get to see him live once, and it was one of the most amazing live performances I have ever seen. Second, Gerald Ford. He came to power in an awkward situation replacing Nixon. Was not elected by the people, but managed to get the nation back on track, which says a lot.

Criminals and Heroes December 22, 2006

I am now up to the Homecoming episode of Heroes. I am finally willing to admit that the show is worth all the hype. The characters I did not like I now do. It just took their powers getting fleshed out. I have 3 more episodes until I am caught up. I really want to just sit down and watch them tomorrow, but I might try to space them out so I don’t have too huge a gap until the show comes back.

This evening, realizing that I had absolutely nothing I wanted to watch on Tivo and that there was nothing worthwhile on TV, I decided to surf the movie channels on Directv. Let me admit here that I get them all. Every single movie channel. I watch the television shows on both HBO and Showtime but rarely watch anything else on them, unless my Tivo tapes it for me. Yes, I trust my Tivo to tell me what I want to watch. For the most part, the Tivo suggestions are right on and I never feel like I missed anything because I set season passes for the stuff I really want to see.

So I headed up to the 500s and started surfing. I found the movie Criminal starting right when I got to it. It has Diego Luna (of Y Tu Mama Tambien) and Maggie Gyllenhaal and the description looked interesting so I stopped to watch. I honestly don’t remember this movie ever being in theaters, but it was really entertaining. It had a nice little twist at the end which I did not see coming (and I am usually pretty good at predicting them–I ruined Fight Club for everyone when I guessed the twist about 15 minutes into the movie). So, if you are surfing your movie channels and see Criminal, I recommend stopping and checking it out.

While watching the movie and then two episodes of Law and Order Criminal Intent (it is just me or is one of the three law and orders on some cable channel every hour of the day?) I finished my first Jaywalker sock. It looks really good. No holes on the gussets where I picked up stitches. I am going to start the second one tomorrow. Now I have to decide if I am going to keep them for myself or give them to somebody. I never decide if my knitting is a gift until I see what it looks like. I am a total perfectionist and most of my friends and family think my knitting is just something to keep my OCD in check (you know, keep my hands busy) so I only give stuff if it is perfect. Otherwise I get all the comments that they could buy something in the store and I shouldn’t bother. It is only the stuff that looks as good or better than store stuff that doesn’t get the comments. While it sucks that they don’t appreciate my hobby (and yes it did start to keep my hands busy) I have no problem keeping the stuff for myself. I always knit stuff that I would be happy keeping for myself. Also, my kids love it when I knit stuff for them, so I try to make them stuff at tournaments. Right now, most on my team have hats and I have requests for fingerless gloves (gauntlets) and scarfs, so I am not lacking for projects or people who will appreciate them.