Crafts:
Not quite the frantic pace I had going, but I still managed to make a couple of birthday things. For my friend who likes Macintosh stuff, I did a Google search and ended up free-handing Susan Kare's happy and sad Macs:
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| So much better than the happy/sad theater masks. |
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| Ah, push it...push it real good! |
There were some good releases at the end of last year and the beginning of this one, so I kept taking advantage of that.
This Is 40 was, to me, freaking hysterical. I tend to like Paul Rudd in just about anything and this did not disappoint me. I know that if you haven't experienced some of the things in this movie, you probably won't like it, but trust me, at one time or another, you will experience at least one of these things. It's one of the things Judd Apatow does well...finding the humor, and the unbelievable insanity, in every day life. Not for everyone, but I really enjoyed it.
Zero Dark Thirty was a bit of a let down for me. I may have expected too much because I really liked Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Also, as it was a true event that I knew the outcome, I guess it wasn't terribly surprising. I still jumped and gasped a little, but I had no where near the same reaction that I had with Argo, where I also knew the ending, but was completely freaked out and taken in by the intensity of it all.
Gangster Squad was some cheesy, mobster fun. Within the first five minutes, there's a medieval killing that is clearly meant to set the tone for the level of violence we should expect. It was brutal, and extremely over the top, but the acting was good enough, that I just enjoyed it for what it was. I don't know much about Mickey Cohen, but I do enjoy a good mob movie and a movie about old Hollywood. It was a win for me.
I love fairy tales. And I love that even at my age, someone's take on a fairy tale can still surprise the crap out of me. Hansel and Gretel definitely had some twists on the basic story as we've heard it. It was action-packed and lots of fun. For you watchful parent-types, it's also full of f-bombs, which was completely unexpected and really unnecessary to the plot. But other than the swearing, it was fun.
Books:
Again, I bought stuff on the Kindle (hurrah for holiday gift cards!), but I'll just list them as I read them. I also got the two cookbooks Plenty and Jerusalem by Chef Ottolenghi, The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster, and I rebought my favorite book that I keep lending out and forgetting to replace, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
The books I read in January: Vlad by Carlos Fuentes, The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and Theodore and Woodrow: How Two American Presidents Destroyed Constitutional Freedom by Judge Andrew Napolitano.
I also started a couple that I just couldn't read: Rasputin's Bastards by David Nickle and The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South by Bruce Levine. I got more than a quarter through the Nickle book before I gave up...the plot was very convoluted and the characters, at least a far as I got, were never themselves...they were always someone else inside their heads with memories that made no sense. The civil war book started out fine, but as I read, it became less intriguing. More of a filibuster-style retelling instead historical accounts...quotes from people alive at the time. I don't know...I might try it again later, but I clearly was not in the mood.
Vlad was a different take on the more recent vampire tales. Instead of cuddly, sparkly vamps, it harkened back to the original blood-thirsty, stop at nothing, evil vamp. Basically, evil vampire gets new place to live, completely destroys an entire family, and leaves you with the sense that the whole town will be dead as soon as he's done having his dinner. Not very uplifting, and more than a little sick, but a quick and frightening read.
The Poe short stories are the same as always...comeupance for the plotters and schemers. Never a tale that goes out of style. I don't think I'd read The Cask of Amatillado before, but it was good. I've always liked the red death tale. His short stories don't change too much and are always cautionary in their own way.
Notorious Nineteen sends main character Stephanie Plum out to catch skips, to continue to be confused by her feelings for both Ranger and Morelli, and to have more cars blown up. Evanovich has this particular genre down cold. I like reading these books...they are completely silly and totally fun. I can't even remember too much of what happened. I know there was a wedding rehearsal (and a hideous bridesmaid dress) she attends as a bodyguard while helping Ranger and an old-folks home scam that she helps resolve to everyone's benefit. Basically, the same old thing with different background stories.
Gone Girl was decent. It's got a major twist, so I won't say much about the plot. I did catch on to it, but wasn't completely certain I was right, so it kept me reading. The ending wasn't nearly as fulfilling as I would've liked, but overall, an intriguing read. I can see why it's been on the best seller list for a while now.
I saw Napolitano on the Daily Show a while back. I was interested in what he was saying about Theodore and Woodrow, so I reserved the book at the library. His arguments are sound and his review of the laws that were ignored and broken are very interesting. This is definitely not what I learned about our ex-Presidents, and while I do take things with a grain of salt, I came away feeling that the Judge is probably one of the few clear-headed people working on Fox News. From a constitutional perspective, this book was pretty fascinating. Not an every day read, but if you've got some time, and don't mind getting kind of angry at how political events change things, check it out.
Alrighty, I feel that more Gossip Girl is calling, so to kind of quote Kristen Bell's narrative prowess, until next time, xoxo.
