Blog Abuse [2013 Edition]
I don't hate you, blog. I really don't!
This life. This year.
Every day I think "I need to post something." And then I never get around to it.
I have been in a little bit of a funk so far this year. It makes life dull and tedious. It also makes thinking about this blog a little difficult.
Do you, humble reader, really need to hear about me hanging around the house all the time and not going out much? Do you really need to hear about all the time I spend on the sofa staring at Netflix movies? Do you really need to hear that I have too much work to do?
It can be as tedious as it sounds.
Hopefully the newly arrived warmer weather will help improve my mood.
Also, the boyfriend is back from Michigan in a week or so for the summer.
And there is some new Pet Shop Boys coming ...
And the Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit ...
And "Avenue Q" in September/October.
Yet Another “I’m Alive” Post
Wow. Not one single post during the month of February!
I guess that tells you just how busy (day job/freelance work), distracted (apparently the mindset for my 41st year) and stressed out (car repairs/travel worries/pissing people off) I have been.
The year of monetary woes continues. When the Beetle got repaired from the ignition coil issues, the mechanic noticed what bad shape my timing belt was in. So that got replaced at a nice little price of $760. I traveled up to Michigan to visit the boyfriend and on the way back the entire front grill (even the fog lights!) of the Beetle got destroyed by a large piece of road debris outside Dayton, Ohio. For the last few weeks I have been dealing with insurance and trying to get the car fixed ($100 deductible). Add in buying more heating oil (plus the previous car repair and tooth pull) and I have had one expensive winter.
I know ... whine, whine, whine.
I would be less fussy if there had been more snow this winter! Maybe I need to move to Maine.
The theater has a fundraising campaign going to build a second stage and so my couple of months down time from extra work were non-existent this winter. I had a monster "Case for Support" brochure to do that took a lot of time to get right. Good thing is that the professional fundraiser said it's one of the best he has seen. So, it looks like I might get some more work off him for similar items. That will be good so I can continue funding my ever returning record obsession.
Alrighty. That's the updating update for those of you who are still hanging around. Hopefully I won't disappear for another month.
Combating Tooth Decay with Eye Candy
So, since I grossed everyone out with a picture of my nasty cavity ridden tooth ... here's some painted up Colby Keller to ease the pain. (This one's for Dave.)
I Lost Something
Just to gross everyone out ... here's a picture of the wisdom tooth that was yanked out of my head a week and a half ago. Check the size of that cavity!
Welcome to 2013
Hello everyone and welcome to 2013! It's started off being a wee crappy.
New Year's Eve was pretty fun (thanks to Mom for hosting). But I got too drunk and spent the next two days recovering. I guess that is one of the joys of getting much older.
I still have my wisdom teeth. Back before Christmas, at a routine cleaning, a massive cavity was discovered in one. Having it pulled was the best option ... which I get to endure this coming Thursday.
Monster Head X-Ray and Tooth Extraction: $364
Then this past Sunday, my car started acting up. Turns out one of the ignition coils had died meaning I was running three instead of four cylinders. Not good.
Parts and Labor: $205
Total So Far for 2013: $569 + 1 Hangover
Pretty “Misérables”
Today was the big day with the movie version of the musical "Les Misérables" hitting theaters ... and, in my humble opinion, it's a pretty miserable experience.
I place the blame firmly at the feet of the director, Tom Hooper. Material like "Les Misérables" doesn't need hand held camerawork. It's distracting. Also distracting is that for 80% of the movie the camera is shoved right in the actor's faces (see above example). Whole songs are filmed like this with the camera rarely cutting away and constantly bobbing, weaving and swinging as the actors move and perform. The only time this technique really works is for "I Dreamed a Dream" ... which isn't quite as show stopping as I thought it was going to be (because all the reviews have already beat it into the ground about how show stopping it is). Canted angles also litter the film for some reason and I would be hard pressed to tell you why. It really serves no purpose. Hooper also films the big group numbers very badly with "Master of the House" being the most notable mess (along with "Lovely Ladies" and "ABC Café/Red and Black"). When our young lovers finally meet, he won't even give us the satisfaction of showing them in the same frame, opting instead to cut back and forth between them in close up. Apparently, Hooper doesn't believe in wide shots.
Acting-wise, the film is merely okay. Hugh Jackman works fine for part of Valjean but is occasionally shrill and sometimes off pitch. I couldn't wait for him to stop singing "Bring Him Home." Russell Crow is totally out of place as Javert. His acting is fine ... but his singing is the real killer. I didn't particularly care for Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Cater as the Thénardiers. Maybe I would have like them better if they hadn't been played for such obvious, in-your-face, stupid comic relief. I think the characters are actually supposed to be pretty vile, not pretty funny. Anne Hathaway comes off best of the bunch ... but I suspect I was less impressed than I should have been with her because of built up expectations from pre-opening press.
I am sure my opinion will be in the minority. I suspect a lot of people of going to love it just for the mere fact that "Les Misérables" is finally on film ... and that's a shame. There's a good movie in there somewhere and the right director could have made it shine. Instead we get treated to an "in your face" film experience which comes off as very overdone.