How Green Was My.... (Vomit)

Okay... so we had Oscar night again. This time the movie was 'How Green Was My Valley' We watched most of the movie and then the DVD froze and we were unable to finish it.

MAJOR ANNOYANCE... the title of the movie is 'How GREEN was my...' and the movie was in BLACK AND WHITE!!! There was color in the early 40's.. this movie came out AFTER Wizard of OZ and Gone With the Wind.,

First of all.. this movie should have been amazing! It was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck who was an old Hollywood super-producer who made a bazillion movies and won 3 Oscars! It was directed by John Ford who was a super director of the time who won 6 Oscars. It starred a young Roddy McDowell, Maureen O'hara, and Walter Pigeon. That being said... this movie was not good.

The coolest part thus far of our Oscar movie nights is that you can see films and film craft getting better and better as the years go by. After watching this movie it was like film craft had taken a giant step back. There was something fishy... why was this movie a success??

The movie centered around the Morgan family in South Wales. They live in a coal mining town and the father and 4 of 5 boys work in the mine as well. It is an honest job and they are proud of the work that they do. The story is told through the eyes of the youngest boy who is about 12. Tough times hit other towns in the area and miners come into the town willing to work for next to nothing so all of the miners get their pay slashed causing obvious strife and drama.

There is talk of a strike and talk amongst the workers of a union. The sons are hopping mad and they are pro-union which breaks their father's heart. He couldn't believe they had turned into Socialist trash. --side note: this was a book first where unions were a major theme... they really toned it down in the movie because they didn't want to stir up any unpleasantness. This movie came out in 1941.. WWII had started in Europe and the Socialist revolution in Russia was 30 years old so it would have been a hot button issue at the time which is kind of funny considering Russia was our ally in WWII-- Anyhoo... the socialist trash moves out and the strike ensues. Everyone gets all poor and bitchy because they are hungry and they can't buy stuff which sounds kind of dramatic, but it wasn't really. Nothing really happened in the movie. Oh yeah.. the daughter was all hot and bothered for the priest in the town. The BEST scene of the movie is when the priest comes home and she is waiting for him in the dark. This was Victorian times so her waiting in his home or even being alone with him was SUPER SCAN'LOUS!! She professes her love, he professes his but says that he won't marry her because he has to depend on donations to live and he won't have her be all poor and stuff. She kisses him (whore)and then leaves and marries some rich dude that everyone hates and she doesn't love. MUY DRAMATIC!! I joke, but it was actually a really great scene.. love unrequited or requited and denied is just tragic!!!

So... the DVD froze so I don't really know how the movie ends. From the chapter titles we found out that the daughter divorces her husband (the scandal continues!) and comes back to marry the priest, but he still won't marry her. The little boy goes to work in the mine and the father dies in a bid mine explosion. The end.

NOW... once we had watched what we could we watched a documentary about the movie and we were very glad that we did!!!

Darryl F. Zanuk originally wanted this to be a 4 hour epic in gorgeous technicolor in the style of GWTW. He planned on filming in Wales but a little thing called WWII broke out so he had to change plans. The movie was way scaled back and they shot in Malibu. Malibu is green-ish, but if you have spent any time there you realize that the rolling hills are mostly brown which is why they shot in black and white! One mystery solved! We also learned that it was a hit with the public because there was a general uneasiness in the country at the time. The bolsheviks had taken power in Russia, there was this guy Hitler causing all sorts of poo across the pond and one of our major political and financial allies (Britain) was getting the crap bombed out of them. There was a lot of uncertainty in the air: will we go to war? The theme of family togetherness really resonated with audiences at the time and the movie was a massive hit! Second mystery solved, though it is still a bit weird to me because some good friggin movies had already won't best picture so I know that Hollywood knew a good movie when they saw one.. oh well.

A fascinating bit of trivia that we learned from the documentary was that during filming of the movie, the director was actually holding secret trainings where he was training army photographers. Once we entered WWII John Ford enlisted and was a war photographer for the military. He actually filmed the Battle of Midway!! (google it.. pretty huge part of WWII) He used this film footage and made a documentary which won him one of his 6 oscars years later. =)

The best part of this was on Sunday when I went to my mom's house for dinner and told her about it. She instantly remembered that it was the first movie that she saw at the drive in theatre (she was 9!). She couldn't remember what it was about but she remembered there wasn't a speaker so it was incredibly difficult to hear.

I am excited that we are entering the era of movies that my folks probably saw when they were young!! =)

This post is probably boring, but deal with it. I can't be funny all of the time.

Fat Roll!!

You may think that this is going to be a bad/sad/depressing post based off of the title.. but it's not!!!

My whole life I have had two fat rolls that have plagued me that leave these unsightly creases in my skin. Even in the (brief) times that I have had actual muscle tone and some definition in my abs. I call these creases Topper and Smiley. Topper because he sits at the top of my gut area and Smiley because he cuts across the middle of my gut horizontally and looks like a fat, red smile when I stand up and my stomach unrolls.

In recent days, after gaining several several pounds (...I blame Jeremie!!), there had been a new addition to my fat roll crease family. I call him Inverted Seagull. Let me explain... when you were a kid did you ever draw birds that looked like the McDonalds arches that didn't arch so high? Think about that bird shape and then turn it upside down.... Inverted Seagull. Now place that shape under my supple man boobs and you get the idea of what fat is rolling. =(

So, shortly after Inverted Seagull showed up Smiley started to go away because my gut was sticking out more and more and it couldn't fold in on itself. It was sad. I missed Smiley. He had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember.

Well... this morning I woke up to take my morning poop (SORRY! It is necessary for the story!!!) and when I finished and stood up to the sink to wash my hands I looked in the mirror and for the first time... after months.... SMILEY CAME HOME!!!!!

I have never been so excited to see one of those damned creases from a fat roll in my life!!

16 pounds thus far and I have noticed a distinct reduction in my gut. Enough to make it fold in again!! AND... Inverted Seagull gets lighter by the day!!

Oscar Night!

Happened again this evening.

Place: Joey's house
In Attendance: Dave, Jeremie, Joey, Terre, Kathy, and Scotty. Well, sometimes Scotty.
Movie: Rebecca
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Lawrence Olivier and some girl with bad hair. There was also a creepy lady with a large mole on her chin and the guy who provides the voice for Sher Khan in The Jungle Book movie (thanks for that trivia Terre!!)



The movie was strange. We have been hearing about this movie from Joey for the past several Oscar nights and so I have been looking forward to this evening for sometime. The movie, however, wasn't exactly how Joey described it (a ghost story). It was almost a ghost story, but then it took a very strange turn and ended in a way that I didn't expect AT ALL.

At the end of the day I thought the movie was really quite good, but not until the end when a crazy vital piece of information was revealed. From that point on I was super-engrossed!!

You may be interested to know that Alfred Hitchcock NEVER won an Oscar. Well... they gave him an honorary piece of trash, but that isn't real. Just ask Lauren Bacall or Peter O'Toole. That kid of blows my mind. In all 3 cases. People are stupid though and Hollywood isn't exempt from that statement. In fact, they are the most dumbest! Think about it... Hitchcock, Bacall, O'Toole NEVER won an Oscar, but Hollywood gave Sandra Bullock an Oscar just because she didn't act a fool. Is that all it takes?



You can't see it in the picture but there is a LARGE mole (you know, like the ones you can't stop staring at) on the creepy chick on the right's face.



I had to include this picture 1) because Lawrence Olivier is adorable, and 2) because this movie had A LOT of scenes where someone was driving, and in one case walking, in front of screens.

Birthday!

So my birthday was last Saturday. We went to Oreganos and had deep dish pizza.

OMG.









OMG.











OMG.






It.was.good.


We were going to have a pazookie too, but I ate a cookie the day before at a going away party for one of my employees and I had a headache for 2 hours because I was so used to not eating sugar. I decided that that the pazookie would probably be a very bad idea.

Documentaries

I LOVE documentaries. I think that they are usually the best movies that come out every year because there is something about an expose that really gets my blood going and knowing that what you are watching is real somehow makes everything more immediate and dramatic. Jeremie and I have watched 3 just recently.

#1


OH MAN!! I think that everybody should watch this movie. I have to warn you... it is terrifying, grotesque, infuriating, and horribly tragic, but it is such an important movie that everyone needs to watch!! Plus, it sheds light on another way that special interests rule our country, but this example is much more immediate than others because it has a direct effect on the food that we eat EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

Watch this movie! DO IT!!! Though... do NOT watch it right before you eat. Jeremie and I did that and it was a big mistake!

#2


This movie is equally as shocking but in a very different way. There are certain animals that have a majestic quality or mystique surrounding them. Dolphins, killer whales, blue whales, horses, polar bears, seals, elephants, etc. There are a million others that I am sure that you can think of! This movie is about a town in Japan that herds dolphins from the ocean to sell to dolphin parks (like SEA WORLD!!). The ones that they don't sell to dolphin trainers.... THEY SLAUGHTER!!! Not only do they slaughter, but they say the meat is exotic whale meat as dolphin meat (being at the TOP of the food chain) is extremely high in mercury and not safe for consumption. There is a massive cover up from the Japanese government about this operation and the scariest part is this isn't the first incident like this in Japan.

See this movie!! It's a documentary, but there are parts that are more suspenseful than a big budget blockbuster! This movie isn't for the feint of heart though. It is graphic and it is shocking.

Like I said on facebook... killing a dolphin just seems like a one way ticket to hell kind of thing.

And finally... because we couldn't take another emotional roller-coaster...

#3


This movie was fascinating from beginning to end!!! It is about Anna Wintour the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine and the preparation and ensuing drama surrounding Vogue's September Issue which is anywhere from 650 - 800 pages yearly!! 800 pages for a magazine!!! Unreal.

I am sure that most of you have seen The Devil Wears Prada... That movie was based off of a book that was written by a former aide to Anna Wintour and when you watch The September Issue there is no doubt in the world!! Is the REAL Devil Wears Prada played out right before you eyes.

The most fascinating thing to me was the power that this one woman has. There is a scene where Wintour is meeting with heads of global department stores and they ask her to tell the designers to deliver their product more quickly and her response is "we are working on it." Spoken with the assurance that it will happen because she has said it. Just like Devil/Prada, designers show her their lines in hopes of being included on the pages of Vogue. This is a woman who truly dictates what people wear.

That being said there is a part in the movie where Wintour is talking about her siblings and the fact that they are "amused" by what she does. She has this pause where you see a million emotions play across her face and how hurt she is. The irony of that is she probably makes 50 times more than all of her siblings combined and wields more power than they could ever dream of. None of that matters though... she just wants her family to be proud of her.

SO..... GO WATCH A DOCUMENTARY!!! YOU WILL BE GLAD THAT YOU DID!!!