California Here I Come

I'm heading off to Southern California today for a family wedding, some Disneyland fun, some BFF time, and to reconnect with a long lost friend. I'm not originally from California, but I've spent a good 10 years of my life there, so it's always a nice, familiar, not here place to be. I'm taking my computer, so hopefully I'll be motivated enough to get a little writing time in for y'all. I mean, I better since I've been disappointing you so often lately with my blogging absences.

In honor of my trip, here's a list of a few things I like to do in California, because I know everyone is dying to know my every thought and desire.

1. Disneyland: People are always surprised when they find out that I'm a Disneyland fiend. I definitely have a dark(ish) streak running through my entire being that doesn't seem to mesh with the sugary sweetness that Disney can be.

2. Barnes and Noble: For some reason the only time I feel like going to Barnes and Noble is when I'm in California. It's inexplicable.

3. Tacos: Specifically Wahoo's Fish Tacos (chain) and Tito's Tacos in Culver City. So delicious, and they have Mountain Dew on tap.

4. Fabric: I will take almost any chance I get to shop for fabric in the fabric district in downtown L.A. It's about 3 blocks from FIDM where I went to school.

5. Porto's bakery in Burbank or Glendale. Guava cheese strudle. I could eat a dozen in one sitting with no regrets.

6. Trader Joe's. I know they have them other places, but not where I am. Full-fat yogurt's where it's at.

7. I know you expect me to say something about the weather and the beach, but I'm sorry to tell you that I'm pretty indifferent about the beach. But I do loves those ocean breezes...

See you on the flip side.

Whoopsies

I forgot to write a post last night. Maybe it's because I lost all sense of time somehow and started making cookies and doing laundry at 10:30 p.m. without realizing it was 10:30 p.m. Usually I'm getting ready for bed at that time, because somehow I still think that going to bed before midnight will help me sleep better. It never, ever does. But going to bed at 1 a.m. kind of makes my not sleeping seem worser.

The point: in lieu of writing one of my well thought out and thoroughly researched rants or sharing a pretty from my internet travels or otherwise schooling you on life, I'm giving you Trailer Wednesday! Because it's begun, people. The official hype-machine for Les Miserables the movie musical with Hugh Jackman, Russel Crow, and (sigh) Anne Hathaway. Sometimes I feel like Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson are collectively ruining my life. They are generally such clunky screen presences. But, based on this trailer, I have a spark of hope that this will be one of Hathaway's exceptions. 

The quality of this link is a little better. http://trailers. apple.com/trailers/universal/lesmiserables/

I have been familiar (memorized at a young age) with the music from Les Mis (as the kids call it) for about as long as I can remember, but I didn't actually see the show until two years ago when I was lucky enough to see it in London with my sister Sara. Despite a bit of sketchy talent (I'm looking at you Marius), I loved the show. I hope the movie can, in the very least, stand up to the stage performance.

I'm aslo shocked that my very conservative parents never stopped me from listening to the scandalous song "Lovely Ladies." Huh.

Trailer Tuesday: Argo & Beasts of the Southern Wild

I'm not a huge Ben Affleck fan, but the word on the street is that he's actually a decent director. Critics loved The Town, which I have yet to see, and now there is some good buzz around Affleck's new film, Argo. As the tagline says, Argo is a film "based on a declassified true story."  it's about the U.S. government trying to free and/or sneak out American hostages from Iran during the hostage crisis in 1979. The cast looks more than decent with Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Viktor Garber, to name a few. The movie itself looks pretty intense.

I randomly clicked on the trailer for Beasts of the Southern Wild and was pleasantly surprised. I've never heard of it, the actors in it, or the director, which isn't surprising since it debuted at Sundance. The movie is set in the wilds of the bayou and inside both the reality and imagination of a little girl called Hushpuppy. Through circumstance of an ailing father and a flood, Hushpuppy is forced to leave her home and search for her mother. Just based on the preview, it feels like a mix between Where the Wild Things Are and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Yawn Science!

I have a Tumblr account that I use for my own nefarious purposes. And by "nefarious" I mean that I creep around and tag things I like and occasionally reblog stuff so I can look at it later; I never post my own content. I could just pin the stuff, but I don't because of my own neuroses. (I'm not really promoting my Tumblr, because I don't think anyone would really be interested or care, but if you're curious: http://putthatinyourtumblr.tumblr.com/.)

Anyway, this is now a really long way to say, "I found this highly interesting video on Tumblr and I thought you might like it." The video is about the science of yawning. Basically it talks about why yawns are "contagious," and why there may be different reasons for yawning depending on what kind of animal you are. I only yawned like 15 times watching the video and twice while writing this post.

Enjoy.
http://exp.lore.com/post/23563690839/so-you-know-why-we-yawn-its-not-why-you

P.S. Stock photos of people yawing are ridiculously bad.

From RedBubble.com by loz788

Actor Highlight: Robert Loggia!

Robert Loggia has pretty much been working steadily since the mid-50s, but you probably don't remember him from much. You may know him as MacMillan (the boss) from Big with Tom Hanks, or as Angelo in Return to Me, but really his speciality seems to be "guest star" on TV shows from here to Timbuktu: Gunsmoke, Magnum P.I., The Bionic Woman, Kojak, Columbo, both renditions of Hawaii Five-0, and on and on for over 200 appearances.

This is the closest thing to a smile that I could find.

I'm enamored with his craggy Italian face, his white hair, and his gravely, gravely voice. I don't remember when I first started recognizing Robert Loggia, but I can pinpoint the day that he was endeared into my heart forever. It was the day that I saw him in an orange juice commercial in 1998. (You read that right.)

The ridiculous premise, the smart mouth little kid, the dumbest look ever on the mom's face, the saunter in the back door, it all adds up to a perfect delight. What little kid even knows who Robert Loggia is? My sister Anna and I quote this commercial to this day.

If you haven't seen Return to Me, I highly recommend it. The quartet of "old guys" is pure-dee gold,; then you've got your David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Bonnie Hunt, and James Belushi, and David Alan Grier making comedy magic; plus it's the last thing that Carroll O'Connor made before he died. In the video below skip to 19:45 and watch for about a minute to see a great Robert Loggia moment; he's in the  blue striped shirt. (Warning: there is one swear.)

Cologne the Smell, Not the City

The other day I was walking to our local college campus when I was attacked. By cologne. It was not an up close and personal confrontation, the offense came from at least 40 feet away. You would think that walking 40+ feet behind a young fellow would dissipate the odor of his Axe body spray to a tolerable level. Not so, dear friends, not so. In fact, I could no longer smell the whole season of spring around me, just cologne. The really scary part is that the odor was dissipated when I smelled it, so if I were talking to him face-to-face, I would have lit-er-ally died from his cologne directly punching my olafactories who would have then taken it out on my brain by punching its death center. Little known fact: all olafactories have a lot of anger and a score to settle with the brain.

I half remember once reading on the ol' reliable internet that a woman's sense of smell is at least twice as sensitive as a man's. (Real research not required.) This most likely means that a man puts on enough cologne so he can smell it, which ends up being an overpowering, stomach-turning smell to many women. In other words it's a giant turnoff. Are you listening men? Sometimes cologne repels rather than attracts women.

I am not against all cologne wearing per se, and I'm certainly all for bathing and deodorant, but if you think about it, it's a little strange how many manufactured odors we apply to ourselves: shampoo, soap, body wash, lotion, deodorant, hair product, perfume, aftershave, cologne. I don't know what this says about us as humans. Maybe it's a carryover from the times when bathing was considered unhealthy, so perfumes were used to cover the stink that would ensue. Maybe it's a way to raise ourselves above the unwashed masses, because we're afraid of being the unwashed masses. But do we really find ourselves so unacceptable that we even have to "improve" the way we smell to the nth degree?

The point is, men, that so many of you wear too much cologne. If you can smell it on yourself, it's probably too much. Do us all a favor and cut back a little. Or a lot. Or all the way. Ask a trusted female friend—probably one who has put you in the Friend Zone because you wear too much cologne—to help you figure out the non-criminal amount of cologne for you. And remember, some of us (and our allergies) don't want you to wear cologne, because we think you smell just great without it.

Trailer Tuesday Bonus: The Great Gatsby

I couldn't wait until next week to share this visually stunning trailer for The Great Gatsby. I will see it just for the costumes, but Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan are terrific actors, so I have high hopes for this adaptation and remake.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thegreatgatsby/

Trailer Tuesday: Safety Not Guaranteed & Hyde Park on Hudson

I gots a twofer here for you, and I think they both have potential.

Safety Not Guaranteed is about some reporters that respond to a classified ad that asks for a time traveling companion. (No, not like Doctor Who.) I love the premise and the preview looks promising with all its bittersweet indy charm. Plus I particularly like some of the stars: Jake M. Johnson (my lovey Nick from New Girl), Aubrey Plaza (April from Parks and Rec), and Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars). 

This preview is the first time that I've heard of Hyde Park on Hudson, and I was delighted. Bill Murray plays FDR in a based-on-true-events film that depicts the first time ever a king of England visited the United States. This first trailer looks a little madcap-y, more like a movie that was made in 1939 than one that takes place in 1939. (Somehow Bringing Up Baby comes to mind.) But what do I know what presidential country life was like in 1939? Maybe everything was a little madcap and off-kilter. I think Murray will make an excellent FDR.

An Untimely Review of The Avengers

***Spoilers lurk below...and a little self-indulgence and nitpicking. Proceed with caution.***

I finally, finally, saw The Avengers. My parents saw it before I did, and they're officially non-cutting edge senior citizens. The truth is that I'm only about 4% cutting edge, 36% obsessed with vintage times gone by, 48% keeping my head above water, and 12% I have no idea what I'm doing. (Or is it 12% keeping my head above water and 48% I have no idea what I'm doing? It probably depends on the day.)

Now that I've completed that little heart to internet, here is my review, or more precisely, here are my observations, cheers, and jeers in list form. 

• Overall I highly enjoyed The Avengers and was sufficiently entertained. Director Joss Whedon is pretty much a genius in my opinion. 

• The action was well-tempered with hilarity. Even the cheesy jokes mostly worked. Side note: I tend to laugh alone in movie theaters. I don't know if I get more into the movie, if I'm "getting" a joke that isn't there, if I have a great sense of humor, or if I have a misplaced or terrible sense of humor. All I know is that it's a frequent occurrence that I'm the only one laughing.

• Although Samuel L. Jackson is known for his scarier characters, he has very sad eyes (or eye in the case of The Avengers). 

• I did not like Nick Fury's little sidekick Agent Hill. She was stiff and uninteresting. 

• What in the world was Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) wearing in her first scene? Hole-riddled cutoffs? It was an odd, trashy costume choice.

• Jeremy Renner did a great job playing a collected, unflinching Hawkeye. I wanted more. More! I'm sure I'll get more of the same when Renner plays the lead in the new Bourne movie.

• Shockingly Scarlett Johansson was great in the first half. (Black Widow's manipulative skills and her hand-to-hand combat were impressive.) But in the last half she lost steam, and her acting felt forced and clunky. It was especially hard to take her seriously when she's shooting her tiny pistolas during the epic battle of carnage; but that's hardly her fault. 

• I have loved Mark Ruffalo for a long while now. But seeing him in The Avengers (as the best Bruce Banner to date) with some grey hairs and being science-y and charming made me remember that I want him to have my babies. Side note: Did you notice that he has a facial twitch? I'm guessing is has something to do with the benign brain tumor he had removed in 2002.

• Thor grew on me in The Avengers, which I'm surprised yet pleased about. I hated the movie Thor.

• I love Tom Hiddleston's face as much as I love his character Loki. (Loki was practically the only good part of Thor.) 

• Is it me, or did the bad guy at the end look like a mix between Hell Boy and Red Skull from Captain America? Was it supposed to be Red Skull somehow? I'm just not willing to dive into comic lore to find out.

• I was delighted by Harry Dean Stanton's hilarious cameo. (He's the security guy that saw Banner fall from the sky.) He was the dad in Pretty in Pink, and he's in one of my favorite, super cheesy, Christmas movies, One Magic Christmas. 

• I think the waitress at the end will return sometime as Captain America's love interest. Side note: Her name is Ashley Johnson and she played Chrissy Seaver, the baby sister, in Growing Pains. And now my life has come full circle.

• I'm pretty sure Agent Phil Coulson is still alive. Severely injured, but alive. There's a good chance I'm wrong, but I like to speculate, so humor me. 1) Fury vaguely says the paramedics "called it" instead of saying Coulson was dead; 2) Coulson said The Avengers needed a reason to unite, so faking his death (after almost dying) would be a plausible plan; 3) Fury dipped the Captain America cards in Coulson's blood, a super creepy thing to do if Coulson is really dead.

• I think Agent Coulson may have had the most pivotal line in the movie when he told Loki that he wouldn't win because it "wasn't in his nature." So gutting and telling of Loki's struggle.

• Speaking of Loki's struggle, I was a bit struck at the theme of sentimentality in the movie. It show's up several times, but the most obvious example is the difference between Thor and Loki. Thor sees sentimentality and compassion as a strength and uses it to reason with Loki; Loki sees sentimentality and compassion at as a weakness and uses it as a source of anger and imagined superiority. 

Cellphones and Mental Wellness

My current cellphone's touchscreen is all but dead (it works about 8% of the time). This means that I can see that someone in the universe sent me a text, but I will never be able to open it. It just sits there and taunts me. I also cannot access my contacts; I can only dial memorized phone numbers into my pull-out QWERTY keypad. And who memorizes numbers anymore unless you have a knack for memorizing numbers? Basically I can only call my parents, 911, or the last person who called me.

On June 5 it will be time for me to get a new cellphone. Sometimes I think I'm excited at the prospect, but panic ramping into terror quickly overwhelms any excitement that I imagined. Why, you ask? Because I do not understand the cellphone world in the least. I don't understand the tech jargon, why I should care about certain features or be upset about others, what entails a "good" plan or a "good phone," etc. The more I try to find phones and plans that I think I want, the more confused and overwhelmed I get. And before you ask, I try to educate myself, I do my homework, I read articles, I do my research, but instead of making my options clear it only compounds my confusion about cellphones and plans. And this gal weren't born yesterday.

On top of that, I think that the cellphone business is a crock. I understand paying the big bucks for new phone technology, but the companies can basically charge whatever monthly fees they want and lock you into ridiculously long contracts because we all "need" cellphones. The big names are making money hand-over-fist, meaning billions a year. Yes, I understand that this is how marketing and capitalism works, but it's still a crock...that I knowingly participate in for now.

Weirdly I'm reluctant and maybe even ashamed to admit my tech shortcomings to you. I hate feeling ignorant, especially after trying to un-ignorant myself. That, and in my experience, most people who are uber tech-savvy are condescending in their disbelief that you don't know what a 7G, houndstooth, 26GB, Saber Jolt, spinal implant powered by Android is and how it is revolutionizing the way companies market your favorite brand of toilet paper directly to you in your dreams. *Shock therapy upgrade available. (I guess that rant makes me the condescending one now? Meh.)

The point is I need help. And lots of it.

Here's what I need:
300-400 minutes per month
Unlimited or large amounts of texts
A decent enough phone
A rock-bottom phone bill

Here's what I want:
GPS, is that even an à la carte feature? (I have negative sense of direction.)
A small to medium amount of data, does data include GPS?
A high-quality phone

Obviously my needs list comes first, and I'm willing to sacrifice any or all my wants list to keep my bill as low as possible at this stage in my life. I'm currently with AT&T on a family plan that will no longer be available to me in June, and I'm willing to change companies. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, websites I can visit? Please refrain from telling me that something is "the best" without telling me why.

I will highly respect you if you can help me. It's a great reward, because my high regards are hard to come by these days.

Letters of Note with Steinbeck & Hitchcock

Have you seen the website Letters of Note? They publish and contextualize letters written by or to people who have some sort of claim to fame. Sometimes the old letters are surprisingly relevant, and often the letters are thought-provoking, funny, thoughtful, charming, or poignant. What's extra neat-o is the site often posts a picture of the original letter then transcribes the letter for easy reading.

I've always been intrigued by letters and how they can force people to sit and think about their lives and feelings. Whole relationships have been started or sustained through letters; Abigail and John Adams and C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham are the first two that come to mind. Not all letters ever written are poignant or of note, obviously, but when they are they seem a little more valuable than other forms of communication, because it's a patient process that involves dedication, time, and delayed gratification. Additionally they are a tangible reminder of things that are intangible. (FYI, I am a terrible letter writer.)

One of my favorites is this letter that John Steinbeck wrote to his son on the subject of love. It is simple, honest, and realistic--none of that flowery mumbo-jumbo that feels fake.

I also really enjoyed this recent post of a letter to Alfred Hitchcock from an elementary school principal in Bodega Bay (where The Birds was filmed). You just never know what's going to change someone's life.

Trailer Tuesday: The Fall

Hey, everybody!

Hi, Martha!

I'm back!

Yay! We've been crying buckets and being mean to small children because we've missed you so dearly.

Tsk, tsk, naughty! But I'm back now, so you can be happy and good.

We will...try, now give us the goods!

Patience little ones and sit still, for it is story time.

Welcome to Trailer Tuesday. I go through phases where I can't stand to watch even the previews of blockbuster-type movies, let alone the movies themselves. I am not against blockbusters, in fact I often enjoy them, but I often need a healthy dose of "other" to temper the simple-plotted, explosion-riddled, action-packed blockbuster. Unfortunately the cusp of summer is the worst time to go through this phase, yet here I am.

So instead of a new movie preview,  I must tell you about a movie I saw recently that is one of the most incredible and visually stunning films I've had the privilege of consuming; it now resides in my top five faves of all time.

The Fall (2006) stars my darling Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day), and is the pet project of director Tarsem Singh. Singh mostly used his own money to finance the film so he could have as much control over his vision as possible, and the results are stunning. Apparently The Fall was filmed over 4 years and in 20 different countries. Additionally and incredibly, no CGI was used, which is hard to believe at times. Oddly enough, it was mostly jeered by critics, but the critics who loved it, loved it passionately.

Bare bones plot: Roy Walker (Lee Pace) is an injured stuntman recovering in the hospital in the 1920s. Another hospital patient, a precocious little girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), befriends Roy and he begins to tell her a story. We hear the words of the story from Roy, but we see the world of the story through Alexandria's imagination, and this ain't your normally depicted child's imagination. The visuals are incredibly rich, bold, and expansive; and the story is sweet, charming, funny, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, and intense.

On top of visual greatness and good story, the acting is excellent. Even I, the non child lover, fell in love with Alexandria. Singh filmed some of the scenes between Alexendria and Roy through holes in the walls or parting in a curtain so that the absence of cameras would allow more natural, spontaneous interactions. It worked beautifully.

With further ado, the trailer.

As of now The Fall is streaming on Netflix. Following are some stills from the movie that look dull an sad compared to the actual movie.

A Reward of Bears

Dear Friends,

Because you have been patiently waiting for a new titillating post, I'm rewarding you with an adorable picture of bears. I will again be posting regular titillation by Tuesday. Please wait with bated breath.

Best wishes,

Martha O.

Work Hold

Here's the deal. Blogging will be light for the next week or so. "For why?" you ask with desperate tears?

1) I'm working temporarily during the day at my old job sewing costumes at my local university while they need help.

2) I also just picked up some editing work that I'm doing on a rush basis and it will likely take most of my free time.

3) Last night I couldn't think of anything I wanted to write about that would fit into the small timeframe I had to write. Anything you want to hear about?

Of course I will try to find writing time to keep y'all fascinated, especially since I know the emotional balance of your lives now depends on my blog. In the meantime, here is an emotional boost for the times you come to my blog and there's nothing new to greet you. Bill Murray is wise.

Trailer Tuesday: Meh

I've watched a whole heap of trailers in the last little while, but I haven't seen anything that's really getting me jazzed. So instead I have two trailers for movies that I will likely see, but I'm not waiting with bated breath.

First, The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, and all the familiar faces from other Bourne movies. Renner plays assassin Arron Cross who was trained in the same program as Jason Bourne, and this is Cross' story--which of course includes loads of violence. This trailer is more of a teaser at this point (Rachel Weisz doesn't even make an appearance unless you count her voice), but it has potential. The makeup in the first bit looks amazing.

Second, is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Yes, you read that right. This film builds supernatural lore around the quirks and oddities associated with Mr. Lincoln. I have some excitement about this movie, but I also have this deep, niggling distain, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think, like the rest of the world, I'm simply over-saturated with vampires, even though I give no attention to them unless I'm watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Special bonus: Alan Tudyk is in the film! You may know him as Wash from Firefly. Oh, how I adore Wash, and Alan Tudyk by association.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't believe that I've gotten this far in life without reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; it has been one of those literary "aha" moments for me. It's an exquisite coming of age story that is deftly told with care and love. Author Betty Smith conjures huge amounts of detail without making the prose dense or laborious. More than almost any other book I have read, I easily pictured each character's face, gait, and mannerisms, just as easily as I pictured the streets, buildings, and storefronts in turn of the century Brooklyn--all without realizing that I was reading "descriptions." 

Smith's deftness led me to care about the characters in ways that I've hardly cared about fictional characters before. I'm generally not a maternal person, but I cared about Francie, the protagonist, in maternal ways. I constantly wanted to reach out and physically and emotionally guard Francie as she traversed the paths of poverty, discrimination, ignorance, family, relationships, and so many kinds of love. I wanted to shake other characters and scream, "There is brilliance and potential greatness in the girl you're overlooking!" Of course, if I could do that, Francie would never have traveled the difficult paths that allowed her to arrive on the cusp of realizing her greatness.

This is a permanent collection book.

View all my reviews

Humans of New York

I stumbled upon the lovely blog Humans of New York (HONY) a couple of weeks ago and I am addicted. HONY is the project of photographer Brandon Stanton that he started after he stopped being a stock trader. Stanton approaches people in the streets of New York that he finds interesting and asks for their photograph. In the process he asks them simple, conversational questions, and often comes away with answers that may be complicated, funny, sweet, fascinating, or poignant. What he produces is what he describes as "A photographic census of New York. One street portrait at a time." 

I love projects like this because a) I love to people watch, b) I'm not extroverted enough to approach strangers in this way, and c) I feel that in a small way I'm learning things about different walks of life in a thoughtful, well-crafted way. 

On his Tumblr he posts a single shot that may or may not include a caption of some sort. And on his blog he posts more photos and often writes stories about the people or public events that he photographs. I truly hope that you enjoy what you find here, because it is beautiful. *Update May 22, 2012: He's also on Pinterest.

“Everyone’s gonna love you.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’ve got aura.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely.”

“I’m a special victims prosecutor.”
“What does that mean?”
“I represent children, the elderly, and rape victims.”

This guy was huge, mohawked, and tattooed.
A real intimidating character— then he smiled.

A Bone to Pick with Denim Capris

This plea goes out to all women who wear denim: For the love of all that is good and decent in this world, please, PLEASE, stop wearing denim capris! My arguments are as follows:

1) I've rarely seen a pair of denim capris look flattering on anyone; they look like ill-proportioned jeans. See examples below.

2) If you are hot in jeans, you will be hot in denim capris. Exposing an extra foot of flesh on each leg while still swathed in heavy, tightly woven denim will not do much to cool you down.

3) Denim capris strike me as a very "mom" wardrobe choice, and not in a good way.

4) An especially odd practice is rolling up regular length jeans to become capris. It is a terrible idea. You're not fooling anyone. The giant cuffs look heavy and clunky around your calf, which happens to be the thickest part of your lower leg, which is made to look thicker with the fatty cuff wrapped around it. And generally speaking, capris tend to "cut" the leg, meaning they make the leg look shorter by cutting the visual continuity of the leg. 

But if capris are a wardrobe staple, remember that capris also come in an array of other summer-appropriate fabrics. And don't forget your other summer options: loose pants, walking shorts, skirts, and nudity*.

 

 

*To avoid arrest for indecent exposure, use the nudity option only when and where appropriate. 

Trailer Tuesday: Hide Away & The Dark Knight Rises

Today I bring you Hide Away starring Josh Lucas. This movie looks haunting and sad. I mean, it may not even have a happy ending, people. But I've always liked Josh Lucas and I've also always liked sail boats--at least in theory since I've never been on one. Sailboats hold this lonesome magic for me, meaning they encompass a romantic notion of a place to be alone with the benefit of wind in my hair and the smell of the ocean. At least something like that. I ain't no good at talking romantical-like. I'm not sure what any of my uncharacteristic romantic notions have to do with this trailer, but I hope you see something you like.

This just in, the new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises! It's looking good, except for the part that I didn't know Anne Hathaway is playing Catwoman. Hopefully the awesome of the movie in general will outstrip any clunkyness she'll inevitably display.