Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Sunday, January 3, 2010

ex-mas wrap up.


before christmas.

Before the actual holidays hit there was the usual smattering of pre-tinsel festivities. Two work parties (both mine, oddly enough) and a Christmas small dog playgroup that I took the Clarkster to. The dog park is often heavy on the big dogs and he is kind of "meh" on that. So he worked the room like Sinatra and I embarrassed him and myself by handing him over to a stranger in a fuzzy suit.

holly daze.

Christmas was with my folks this year. Having run through PTO days like they were burning a hole in my pocket (not that I regret it. I fucking love you San Diego, Williamsburg and New Hampshire), I had to work Christmas Eve. Matt took the day off and had the car ready by the time work was over. Four to five hours later, we ducked into Kingston for food and then headed to the countryside for an evening with my dad and stepmother.

Christmas Day had it's child-of-divorce schedule: wake up at dad's for breakfast and stockings, go to mom's for presents and dinner, then back to dad's for presents. We shook up the usual schedule by getting Dad and Gaelen out to a Christmas Day night movie: Sherlock Holmes.




It was brilliant. RDJ has raced up my list of favorite actors. Even the previews before the flick were promising. Hot Tub Time Machine, Tracey Morgan/Bruce Willis/Stiffler/Kevin Smith awesomness and the new Christopher Nolan mindfuck (with Leo DiCaprio and Ellen Page). However, this was my first exposure to Leap Year and as much as I enjoy Amy Adams; that looks like pure garbage.

Saturday was Christmas with the extended family on my dad's side. So after a winding trip through the back roads connecting the Hudson Valley with Connecticut, we were in the thick of family. I don't get to see that side of my family often, so each time's a treat.

Sunday we headed home. However, we made a point to stop at Sonic on the way out. Fun times.

sweet lootz.
I know that whole "Santa's always watching" is a boldface lie because I got way too many awesome presents. Clark and I scored a tunnel and weave poles for agility from my mom. Dad and Gaelen fed my anglophile DVD collection with the first season of The IT Crowd and Matt was just spectacularly amazing to me.

The big present(s) aren't ready for primetime blogging yet. They're part of a year long project that, if all goes well, will probably dominate my blogging from there on out. But aside from that, my N64-like, present meltdown came when I opened a box containing the import of The Mighty Boosh: Future Sailors Live Tour. Four DVDs, a card game and a Boosh belt buckle.

Oh, and one incredibly happy girl.

Future Sailors is beyond hilarious. The only bit I've really seen before is the Bob Fossil Dance Academy and that was live in SD at the Boosh secret show. I want to run away and join the Boosh, pls.

I am incredibly spoiled by British TV. Thank god for BBC America, Adult Swim and the internet. The only American stuff I regularly watch is on the premium channels (save for my guilty pleasure human trainwreck shows like Hoarders). The major networks could drop off the face of the planet and I wouldn't bat an eye.


Monday, October 29, 2007

i love you too, but I'm gonna mace you in the face!


Matt, Bill and I went to see the Darjeeling Limited yesterday (complete with Hotel Chevalier screening before the feature).

I adored it.

I'm a proven sucker for dysfunctional family flicks, that's already a given (I can watch Little Miss Sunshine to no end). That combined with Anderson's absolute love affair with color and composition -- I'm in heaven. It's gorgeous. I don't claim to be a film critic in any fashion, so I won't attempt to write my own synopsis. So to steal a bit from imdb.com:

"Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer, and a laminating machine. At this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins."

Aside from the visual attraction (both stylistic and Schwartzman), this Anderson film got to me more so than any of the others I've seen. I mentioned this to Matt after the movie, over baked potatoes at Wendy's and he seemed a bit surprised and asked why that was.

"I guess I get a story about carrying around your parent's baggage."

While it doesn't sound it, that is in no way depressing. It's therapeutic to see someone else go through it, even if it's just fictional. Maybe it'll take a train ride through India to patch up the all-too battered relationship between myself and my own sibling.

"I wonder if the three of us would've been friends in real life. Not as brothers, but as people." - Jack Whitman, The Darjeeling Limited

I wonder that too. But lately, it seems like the answer would be "no".