Under the Tuscan Sun

Yes, it's a chick flick.

But it's a GOOD chick flick.

It has sweepingly stunning scenery, joy, pain, laughter, a startling moment with a scorpion and another one with a snake, there is a baby, a failed marriage and a wonderful wedding, young love, old love, unrequited love, passion, and a Polish literary professor.

It is beautiful and touching.

It reminds you over and over that the most important thing is to never lose your childlike innocence.

They say that they built the train tracks between Vienna and Venice before there was a train that could make the trip because they knew that if they made the tracks, the train would come one day.

It's a lovely movie with enough pain to make it worth the viewing as well.

I particularly love the gentleman who played Senor Martini,Vincent Riotta, the Italian who is so wonderful to Frances(ca), the main character, played by Diane Lane. And this was the first thing I saw Sandra Oh in and she's just amazing as always.

Yes, it's a chick flick (but don't tell anyone that Michael likes it too).

-k

Secret World

I'm not a big fan of the live album. All too often, the balance between instruments, percussion, vocals, and audience aren't to my liking. All you get is a jumble of noise where you can't truly tell what the song was once upon a time.

There is a short short list of live albums that I really like. In fact, at this moment, there are only two:
Depeche Mode 101
Peter Gabriel's Secret World Live

Michael and I took a runaway weekend to Austin several weeks back and while he poked around Waterloo Records in Austin, I poked around too. I saw this one in the new arrivals section and thought, "I like Peter Gabriel. Michael loves Peter Gabriel. I don't like live albums, but if anyone could pull it off, it would be Peter."

Man oh man, some gut feelings pay off!

This two disc album contains virtually every Peter Gabriel song that I have ever passionately loved. Each live version is the perfect balance of the spontaneity of a live performance that blends audience enthusiasm their response with a rendition of the song that remains fairly true to the album version we already knew and loved.

It doesn't hurt that Paula Cole is his featured female voice and that her vocal quality is excellent for his writing and performance style.

This album came out in 1993, and it was Cole's first big professional break. She signed her own record deal shortly thereafter, and in 1997 she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Love it. Love him. Loved her in this context. It's a love fest.

-k

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: When I asked Katie if she wanted any graham crackers, she answered, "No I don't want damn crackers"! She didn't mean it, but I laughed hard for a moment nonetheless.

Watching right now

Watching right now: a series on the History channel that Deanna recommended for me. WOW.

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: kick your adorable little leg and say in a high pitched voice "sparta". Note, this only works if you are my daughter. If you are my teenaged son, and do it CONSTANTLY, it falls under the how to annoy me category.

Latest Aging Milestone

Latest Aging Milestone: Crisis happened at our local branch church and I was called upon as President of the Board to handle it, sign all the paperwork, and make some decisions. Wow. Cool, but slightly weird to think I'm in those kinds of positions now.

How to annoy me

How to annoy me: insist on this ninja kittie routine, including attacking my daughter. You can take me on, and the boys even deserve it for the way they sometimes play with you. But don't you DARE attack the Princess.

Stigmata

So going with a theme, we watched Stigmata starring Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne. You need to know going into this review that I am a HUGE Gabriel Byrne fan. Patricia is not my cup of tea, but she was perfect for this particular role.

Again, I'm going with the spoilers, so I'll start with a general review and warn you at the point that you need to stop reading if you don't want to learn something that takes away from the impact of the first time movie viewing process.

Stigmata is nominally the story of a woman named Frankie Paige, played by Arquette who begins to mysteriously experience the stigmata, the five marks that accompanied Christ's crucifixion, made all the more inexplicable by the fact that she's an atheist hairdresser who loves her wild lifestyle and has no interest, either positive or negative in the Catholic church. Woven into her story is the story of Andrew Kiernan, Byrne, a Catholic priest whose calling is to investigate and disprove phenomenon at the discretion of the Vatican.

It's a good story that is plausible. It's violent and there are extreme images. It would certainly offend a typical, faithful Catholic and should raise all sorts of interesting issues for anyone who cares to debate philosophical and metaphysical themes.

Okay, it's time to look away and stop reading because here come the spoilers.

There is a much deeper story going on here involving the old priest from the beginning of the movie and the discovery and translation of a mysterious gospel in aramaic, written before Jesus' death. As it turns out, there was a top secret project translating this discovered gospel that was called off suddenly when the translation was found to contain unacceptable statements that threaten the church's very existence and believed to be written by Jesus himself.

It's a profound movie with a profound message about the gospel of Jesus, which is founded on the concept that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us all and needs no physical expression. Both of the main leads do an exception job, as does Jonathan Pryce in the thankless role of the worst stereotype of the Catholic higher up who will do anything to conceal an unwelcome revelation, Enrico Colantoni as the stereotypical Catholic flunky, and Rade Sherbedgia as one of the translators of the discovered and hidden gospel. You will probably remember Enrico from his work in either TV's Just Shoot Me where he played a photographer, or from Galaxy Quest where he played the leader of the Thermians. Rade you would recognize from The Saint with Val Kilmer where he played the corrupt Russian Ivan Tretiak.

I rather enjoy this one and I'm sure this one gets to stay in the collection, but it's not a light and fluffy movie, not for the faint of heart, nor for the devout Catholic who believes her church is perfect as it is, nor for a date or other romantic evening. Know what you are getting in for, and email me if you do see it. I'd love to talk further.

-k

The Devil's Tomb

WHAT a piece of SCHLOCK. There will be spoilers in my review but since I sincerely hope you never see this movie, don't let that stop you.

Now, for my specific reasons. It was clearly a B-grade movie which lured you in with a few A-grade actors, specifically Cuba Gooding Jr.,and Ron Perlman. Granted Ron can be hit or miss, and sadly this falls squarely into the miss category.

I can see why this looked like a hit on paper. It has all the elements. It has tension, soldiers of fortune, demons, a creepy sickness transmitted by violent vomiting of nasty sticky goop, and Ron Perlman. But it just didn't work. There were huge gaps in believability, extremely one dimensional and stereotypical characters, over-the-top gratuitous disgustingness, a few dismally bad actors ( I wanted Taryn Manning to die from the word go, so naturally she makes it most of the way through the movie), and one interesting plot element that I liked quite a bit as a concept.

There was a recurring series of flashbacks that didn't seem triggered by anything consistent and didn't seem to serve much of a purpose other than to annoy us and give Cuba a reason to look moody and troubled. Cuba, normally a gifted actor, phoned in his performance in this entire movie. Ron's role took place almost entirely in a series of monologues spoken to a camera that sounded like nonsensical ravings until put into the context of the movie. Then it just sucked.

It had potential. It showed how hard it is for everything to come together just right to make a good movie. In this case, bad casting on the part of a pivotal character, a lackluster performance from a leading actor, and a weak script made for a waste of several hours of my life.

Skip this one. Go to bed early if you must, but don't invest the viewing time.

-k

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: be Greg Behrendt.

I Just Fell in Love

with a stand-up comic who is also the author of that book "He's Just Not That Into You".

We've been watching Stand Up Comedy tonight, and as each show ended and another began Michael and I would briefly discuss what we liked or disliked about each comic. Some had good material but needed to work on their delivery. Some had material that was almost there, and we sent a little encouragement out through the universe to them. Several thought that they were much funnier than they were.

Then he came on.

I haven't seen Michael laugh that hard in a long time.

When Greg said that he was the guy who wrote the book, I thought he was kidding. But as his act went on, I googled him because I was online anyway and I was stunned to see that he IS that guy.

Now, he had my total attention, and I ADORE him. He's funny. He's honest. He's self-deprecating. He's really REALLY smart. He's likable. He has great delivery. I can't believe I haven't discovered this guy before.

So, although he isn't The List or anything (and his routine included a FANTASTIC bit about him and his wife playing "Free Pass" which is their version of the same thing), I certainly have a new favorite comic and I will welcome the opportunity to see any of his shows and may need to read the two books he's written now.

Greg Behrendt.

Love him!

-k

Ian's First School Pictures

They are everything I'd hoped for. They are magnificently awful. They capture him just as he looks as a kindergartner, with the squinted eyes and just his two front teeth showing in some awful, forced grimace of a psychotic beaver-like smile.

Part of me wants to have him get the retakes.

Most of me realizes that these are priceless.

He's a beautiful boy. I know that. Everyone who meets him knows that. We have loads of great candid shots of him looking like an angel, a gorgeous wicked terribly wonderful angel. These pictures capture a moment in time, and I think we should honor it.

And hold on to it... for some SERIOUS leverage in the future.

-k

Once Michael has gotten to see them, and if I have the heart, I will scan them and post one.

Latest Aging Milestone

Latest Aging Milestone: First school pictures today. Longer post to follow.

Latest Aging Milestone

Latest Aging Milestone: Aaaaaand Ian's back in a carseat. Texas passed a law about car seats requiring ALL children under age 8 to be in a booster. So, he's stuffed into one, a bit like a muffin topping over the pan. Honestly.

Reading right now

Reading right now: Re-reading the Harry Potter series. Starting Book Five again. Also Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Reading Vampirates, a young adult novel. And about to start Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, the new edition.

Interesting Quote

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
- Segal's Law

There's a LOT there to think about, really...

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: I think Katie is a little confused by the fact that I'm doing so much writing lately because today she kept asking me if I was going to get out my "knitting noodles".

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: Katie just climbed up onto a chair, pointed at the tape recorder on my counter, and said, "want to listen to June". My aunt and I exchange tapes and Katie wanted to do one right now! Too cool. Too cute.

How to annoy me

How to annoy me: pass TWO propositions that allow for more taxation of our property.

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: Katie is still at that age when a frozen milano cookie can cure just about whatever ails you. She was in the middle of a major screaming fit because Mean Mommie took a blue marker away. Then, just like that, it was Cookie Time, and she was happy again.

How to make me laugh

How to make me laugh: Katie listens to everything, repeats things, and always has her own little spin on them. Today she has wandered the house talking about "the triangle of destiny" from a Sesame St. episode.