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| Various Random Stuff for Monday | | Date Created: May 02, 2005, 10:07 AM |
1) Saw Grande Ecole this weekend. Basically a french version of Maurice. It was confusing and overwrought. Perhaps that's the French way of doing things (though their fries are so simple and yummy, and I'm also a fan of their toast.) I rarely watch foreign films because I don't like reading movies. This one wasn't so bad because they used small words. The cast was cute enough (and the quite long Men's Water Polo shower scene is worth the rental price). But over all, the plot was too confusing for my little brain. Here is the entire plot in a nutshell. If you don't want to know what happens, skip down a bit to number 2.
Paul is obsessed with his roomate, Louis-Arnault. Paul's girlfriend Anges makes a bet with him about which of the two of them will seduce Louis-Arnault first. If Agnes wins, she will give up Louis-Arnault, but so must Paul. If Paul wins, he gets to keep Louis-Arnault. (So is Agnes testing Paul's love or her own?) Eventually, Agnes confronts Louis-Arnault (in his apartment so that both Paul, and Emeline, Louis-Arnault's girlfriend can hear) and she fails to seduce him, thus loosing. (But did she do this on purpose so that Paul could have him instead?) Louis-Arnault moves out. Paul tells Agnes a lie that he actually slept with Louis-Arnault weeks ago, but decided to give him up for her. And they all lived happily ever after.
Yes it's just as wacky as it sounds, and as complex -- actually worse, because I failed to mention the hottie painter guy that Paul's doing on the side.
2) Finished All American Boy by William Mann. This is a book about breaking cycles, resolving issues, forgiveness, and freedom. Compared to most things William Mann has written (which are usually not even good enough to be beach reads), this one isn't so bad. If you're looking for another silly party boy story from Mann, then this isn't it.
The plot: Wally Day, a failed actor, returns to his podunk hometown to care for his senile mother. While there, he revisits the events that led him to get his friend Alexander jailed on child molestation charges. In the meantime, he spends time trying to find his AWOL cousin, (whom his mother thinks she killed and buried in the back yard) and fending off the attentions of a 16 year old boy. This is one of those stories in which the flashbacks are almost more important than the present day story. Not bad, better than some of the things I've read recently.
3) Finished Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas. I guess this was actually made into a movie, but I can't see how. It's a short little book that pretty much defines "gritty reality." If you enjoy books that have no plot, you'll like this one. It's a book about Ari, a young unemployed Greek guy living in Australia, that's pretty much it. I suppose this is a book about how to have a man, and yet be a man.
4) If you missed the "GayWatch" clip on the Daily Show the other night, go see it. The explanation of the story can be found in the Wall Street Journal. I'd suggest you bookmark the Journal page, because we're going to be hearing this damn "statistic" forever now.
5) Yet another reason to switch to a Mac. I installed OS 10.4 (codenamed Tiger) on Friday. No problems at all. Startup is probably 2 or 3 times faster on my Powerbook than under 10.3.9 (this means that starting up my machine is probably 20 or 30 times faster than starting up an equivalent Windoze machine.) Safari, the Apple browser, is now faster than ever, works with every website I've tried so far, and is also faster than Camino or Firefox on my machine. Spotlight, which is the search application, allows you to search your harddrive for anything anywhere, including within text and PDF files, pictures, music, etc. Plus, the RSS reader in Safari now means I don't have to run NetNewsWire for my newsfeeds. The Dashboard feature is not quite as cool as Konfabulator because the widgets don't stay on your desktop. They have to be activated as an Expose feature. However, the trade off is that now I'm not running yet another application.
6) Hate yard work. Love how it looks when finished.
7) Bronchitis sucks for those that have it as well as those that don't.
8) Face it, CNN is just local news now. Wife "kidnapped" somewhere in Georgia? CNN will spend 4 days on it, then another couple days after she's "found." Cutting off your wife's life support? CNN is there! Stubbed your toe, got into a car accident, or cat up a tree? CNN will be there until the story is over (or until it turns out to be a hoax, whichever comes first.) Why does all this crap seem to happen in the south, anyway?
Look, I already get enough local news from my weekly local news paper. If I want to find out which Prized Sow won a Blue Ribbon at the Chelsea Fair, I'll read the Chelsea Standard. Apparently, the Chelsea Police busted some people for growing marijuana somewhere in the block behind my house. Frankly, that's much more interesting to me than some bitch who decides she doesn't want to get married because planning a wedding is too much stress. |
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