Wearin' Out the Eyeballs

While I griped about our airport issues yesterday, I will say that Emirates has more leg room, feeds you better and has loads of entertainment. On the flight home I saw

After that I saw

And finally I saw

I liked them all but think I liked Philomena the best. My eyeballs were exhausted but the time passed pretty well. I suppose this is binge movie watching. I really don't recommend it but if you have to sit in a confined space for a long time, it's not too bad.

What Am I Watching

Well in the am, when I come down to get my tea, I often stop and look at the little birds that come up onto our deck for bread crumbs or sips of liquid via the snow.  Later in the day, I can occasionally watch some of the brain damaged cardinals fling themselves at our glass doors. The doors have a reflective coating to reflect heat outwards and so the cardinals see themselves and either want to mate or kill 'that other bird'. They don't tell me what's on their minds.  For two years I've put up images of owls which is supposed to scare them and they ignore the images. Or maybe they have never seen a real owl round here. I sure haven't.

But other than these few birds, I've not watched a lot of telly lately.

Redbox had specials so he and I watched Captain Phillips. Very good especially for $1.27. The next day I had a free offer so I got Blue Jasmine. Woody was mean spirited here but again, it was free and Cate Blanchette did a great job.  So far, that's probably all I'll see of the nominees for Academy Awards unless Redbox comes through with another one or two.

I got two videos from the library. A Single Man with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.  Much more of a downer than I realized but a wonderful period piece of LA in the early 60s. Mr. and Mrs. Bridge I never watched so I can't comment on that one. I may get it back again.

I nearly had a conniption Super Bowl Sunday, when after watching the Super Bowl, I went over to PBS for the latest Downton  Abbey. Ack! I thought it would play twice that evening but no, it was Sherlock Holmes.  Scrambling to find PBS on Demand, the newest episode wasn't there yet on Sunday night. Fortunately for my sanity, it was available Monday.

I'm finishing up the final episode, of the final season of Treme. I'm still enjoying it now that I accept that 1/3 of the show at least is going to be music. There's a lot to be resolved in this last show...which I'm sure will not be resolved but left for me to 'write' the next episode as I'd have it.

Finally, I've seen so many of the Doc Martin shows at random, I plan to start the series from the git go and watch them in order.  Maybe a day or so of binge tv later this month.

I'm also watching Girls which is better now that they are maturing a bit. I might get sucked back into 24 and Sherlock Holmes is also on my list. If you have any suggestions of shows that can be watched On Demand (I cannot deal with commercials any more.) let me know what you're enjoying lately on the Tube, Netflix or Redbox.

AAM Monday - A Movie a Week

As my dh just got me the Apple TV box for my movie and tv show viewing, I think I will try to watch some movie classics during the summer. But how to pick is always a hard one for me.  In the end I often waffle so much in the evening and get onto some other piddly chores, I really only have time for a 45min tv show or so. I must say I have enjoyed watching a season of a series in a week or so that way, especially if the (sans commercials) airing time of an episode is something like 20 minutes. That's 2 episodes a night still getting me to bed in time to read and get enough sleep.

movie theater on a Holland American ship

I found two lists on line both at the PasteMagazine site. As I currently have Netflix streaming, I went for The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant.  Some I've seen, some I've never heard of and others don't tempt me right off the bat. But I'm open to trying them.  The other list that Paste had was for Hulu Plus. The 50 Best Movies on Hulu Plus. I've looked at Hulu (basic) in the past for some tv shows I wanted to see but mostly it seemed a pain once Hulu Plus came into existence. Scanning through the Plus overview today, I didn't think I needed another subscription service.  Well at least not with Hulu. If I run through my Netflix 50 Best, I may try a Hulu Plus trial to see a few of those out of the norm movies.

Then again, a subscription I've gone back and forth about getting is Acorn TV but I really need to be sure it will work via Apple TV. That would be another 30day trial sometime.  There are no real movies, per se, but good long tv series episodes of British TV.

Anyone have a favorite site for movie streaming?

AAM Monday Recent Media

Lately I've been watching DVDs as fast as I could since I decided that my Netflix account was going to be just the streaming option. Since I can get so many new ones at Redbox, I figured that it's the old or odd ones that would be better served with the streaming option. So, before I lost my DVD option I watched...well all the Harry Potter flicks! Now I'm trying to decide if I can coerce my dh to go to the theater to see the final movie, or...just go by myself. I think I know the answer to that one!
Recently, I've watched

This one was really funny in a subtle way and also gave a good portrait of life in East Germany pre the fall of The Wall. I do recommend it.

The next to last one in my final trio was one I found via YouTube. Never heard of it till then but just fell in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think you will too. It's a lot more than the bit of fluff you think it might be.

Then the final one I saw - and sniff sniff..it's on its way back because yesterday was the end of my 'old' subscription... was one that surprised me and also left me in tears. (full disclosure - I was once an federal Senate Immigration caseworker and interacted directly with the old INS) I still have mixed feelings about this movie. I still feel the disturbance from this film and what our country has become.

So...goodbye half of Netflix. It's been fun.

Popcorn Time

With my dh away fishing, it's been popcorn and movies for me round here. I am finishing up my summer marathon of the Harry Potter series. Last one seen was -

 

 A bit earlier in the week, I went 'to the movies' via Redbox and saw -

 

This one turned out to be a much better movie than I anticipated. I think trailers are designed to appeal to the bottom-feeders and I wonder if that really helps or hinders a movie's profits. Far be it from me to question the almighty $ seeking strategies of Hollywood however. Presumably they know what works for them.

Next, I thought I had the penultimate Harry Potter movie, #7 part 1, at the top of my Netflix queue.

Alas, I did not, tho I still think I did. In any case, there was one I had actually planned to delete from the queue that came up. Another surprise. "The Rag Nymph."

That photo has no bearing on the actual movie, but does give you an idea that 'love' in all its aspects is a feature. I have never read a Catherine Cookson book, and wondered why I had picked this movie at some point to add to my queue. Once I started watching it, I thought the young Millie had a strong resemblance  to an actress I had seen somewhere but I didn't remember who she was. As the movie is broken into the three parts of the original mini-series,  I left part 2 and 3 til the next day. Once I started to watch Part 2 I had my aha! moment. Honeysuckle Weeks, the beloved Sam in "Foyle's War". The young Millie was played by her sister Perdita Weeks and the two look quite a bit alike. I didn't make the connection when I saw that name.  In the end, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit even if it was dismaying to realize how human trafficking and child prostitution is nothing new.  

Finally tonight, I snagged this one as soon as I got the email from Redbox that it was available. As I had watched two movies in one 24hr period in July, I used my free bonus movie for this one. LOVED it! and it is one of the unusual movies to clock in under 2hrs. Exciting and fast fast moving.

Finally, after  my HP Deadly Hollow movie arrives, it will be time for me to actually go and spend the money in a movie theater. The Harry Potter summer series will be over, and I will be cancelling my Netflix most likely. But for the month of August, I'm going to do a lot more streaming and see if I want to continue just that. But the dvds? No, not with the availability of locations and films on Redbox.  I may even read more books when the weather turns colder and the fireplace is a part of my evenings. We'll see.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

Popcorn Time

Actually, there was no popcorn on the flight back from London, but BA did have some good flicks.  I had neglected to bring my own headsets for my Macbook but got a cheap set with a magazine at Heathrow. However when I saw the lineup of video/audio and the ease of switching channels, I stuck to the entertainment BA provided.

I first watched

This was perfect after the time in London and was funny along with being a good view of the identity struggles of so many Pakistani immigrant families. It's the kind of thing many of our own grandparents dealt with. Such a love-hate relationship with the country they left and the one that gave them shelter.

Later in the flight I decided to watch some eye-candy. Jason Stratham.

Really brutal but no nightmare worries as I was watching this in the late afternoon as I switched through time zones. Ben Foster was really chilling too, the kind of character you'd avoid making eye contact with on a bus or tube.

Since coming home, I've caught up with two Netflix dvds that sat for a while. Doesn't it always seem that as you're going away, you get that 'good' situation where the one you want isn't available so you end up getting your next-on-list AND the first choice when it comes in?  I finished up the British series

which I grew to like a lot for some great lines, tho watching the whole series straight through was a bit too much.We were actually in the bookshop that serves as the series model when in London, but didn't make the connection then. The other movie waiting for me was one by Majid Majidi. Fascinating Iranian film. Baran, the title and the name of the Afghan girl who poses as a boy to help support her family. The word also means rain. 

It was fascinating to me to see the images of southern Tehran, an area I was never able to visit in my short time there. Looking north towards the Alburz mountains was a view I had from my apartment but I left before the winter snows came. btw, the film was made in 2001 so it's hard to imagine life today for those Afghani in Iran. Another case of being torn between two countries.

Today? well no movies for me. Today is an all day chat at Designer Digitals  with many prizes to be given and a lot of fun to be had. If you're a digital scrapper, head on over and join in!

Is tonight a movie night for you?? I'd love to hear about your choices.

AAM Monday 2011 Movies

All about me, and some recent movies.

Usually I don't have a great deal of interest in the Oscars, and find that many of the movies don't call to me that much. Oddly enough, xh was a serious movie watcher, but I was jealous of the time he watched movies and didn't talk to me. Somehow I lost my own interest in movies.

When I was divorced, I did go back to going to the movies on occasion with friends or on a date, but on my own wasn't a lot of fun, and  money mattered. I'm really not sure what came first - Netflix or my 2nd marriage. This dh really didn't have the patience for movies, and only compromised when we got a sofabed for the living room, and we would watch in 'bed' or at least start to watch. Many a time he fell asleep and I watched the rest of the movie on my own. It was a valiant attempt!

Now with Netflix and Redbox, I can get all the movies I want, and he is happy to sit in the other room, reading on his iPad, and I can watch a movie. Once in a while, I'll find one I think he'll enjoy and though he starts of somewhat begrudgingly he mostly stays till the end.

So this year? Well, I have happily enjoyed most of these. Only The Squid and the Whale got an Eh.  Asterisks denote my favorites.

• The Social Network *
• The Fighter *
• Inception *
• Hereafter
• Love and Other Drugs
• The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo *
• The Girl who played with Fire
• Made in Dagenham *
• The Ghost Writer
• The Squid and the Whale
• The Lives of Others *
• Leaves of Grass
• The Recruit
• Hi Fidelity
• Donnie Brasco
• The Score *
• Taking Chance
• Michael Collins
• Outsourced
• Jarhead
• The Cake Eaters

The King's Speech? Yes, this is the ONE he wanted to see, but I convinced him that he really didn't want a $40 movie date with me. Redbox, I love your prices! We both enjoyed it with home popped popcorn! It was a perfect movie to get us in the mood for a London trip.

6 days in June

6 days alone.

Well, not quite alone since I have Sebastian (the Siamese) who needs thyroid medication twice a day, feeding in periodic intervals during the day, and litter box emptying. But alone without my dh. He has taken a trip to Madison WI, a place I thoroughly enjoy but having gone on a short trip with him recently, I needed my alone time.


I have learned that while a natural extrovert, I am also seriously in need of time on my own in regular intervals. I'm an only child and I often forget how that time alone has really shaped me. More and more I also believe that a good bit of my need for interaction with other people is filled by the various social media and other net communities that are part of my life. Now that I am retired, I relish the time home in my own house. I need time alone in my own house, and bless his generous heart, my dh gets this now. We had those conversations in our early marriage that included the phrase "This isn't about you, it's about me!" It isn't that I want him gone, it's that I want to be alone. I need to be alone.



What do I do? Well, I've learned not to spend serious time cleaning because he never notices. Any cleaning that is done has to be a clean out project that I have either been avoiding or putting off because it would interfere with our daily life. If it's just me, I can cope a lot more easily with messes that don't get finished. (btw, this does not imply that my dh minds any mess. Far from it... but he wants his meals, and he wants them when the clock strikes.)


I also rarely cook, until just before he gets back so there is something ready and waiting. I often eat a lot of popcorn because I also watch a lot of movies. This week I saw "It's Complicated" , "Avatar", "Crazy Heart", 4 episodes of "House" season 1, and 6 episodes of "Mad Men" season 3. I also finished two Shutterfly books and got them printed! Whee!!! I gathered a big bag of clothes and some other housewares for the local charity shop, and also did some needed housekeeping on the computers. Pretty much I stayed home unless I had to go out. All in all, I had a great time!

Video Week

One of the things I tend to do when I have the house to myself for a couple of days is to have a Video week. I'm not much on tv shows but I do like my movies. Now that I have my big tv, we hooked the old laptop up to it, and Netflix on demand and me are getting pretty close.

This week I saw The Color of Paradise, an Iranian film that has some breathtaking footage of northern Iran. I never had a chance to travel in Iran in my short time living there so this also gave me my first sight of the Caspian sea. Various Farsi words came back to me, and the shots of Tehran were nostalgic. Almost a fairytale movie.


I caught most of The Cure on HBO and again a movie I where I enjoyed the scenery a lot - from St. Cloud MN down the Mississippi. Adolescent boys always get me.


Finally, one I'd been waiting to watch from Netflix was another Edward Norton film. There is never enough Ed Norton for me. The boy certainly does dark well, and this is a Spike Lee NYC post 9/11 movie. 25th hour. The whole spectrum of the city in 24+hrs.


Pass the popcorn, I'm on a movie roll.

Thi is...my favorite film

Thanks to Hokey for this week's theme. First one that comes to mind is one that I've seen about 3 times...but consider the length - 227 minutes.




But then there was this one that got me pants-wetting laughing. (One of my sons worked in the convenience center round the corner and he got those ...Gotta come in and cover calls. )



Lately, I've love this series but have yet to see the last one. I'll rewatch #1 and 2 first.



Ok film buffs, check out the list over at ThreeButtons. It's also on that button that says This Is over on the right. You can have your own private festival du cinema today if you like.