There is so much that I am thankful for. Jesus, family, friends (including the Girlie), health, stability, a job I enjoy, my church, music, and this time of year, among others. I’m glad to have you in my life, and I’m glad that blogging has kept us connected.
Blessings to you,
Danielle
As you can see from the subject I’ve been watching movies on cable. This is a good time of year for movies on cable, because it is when they finally release all of the movies that were up for Oscar’s and such. Here is my take on some of the movies that I’ve been watching.
Juno: VERY well written. Incredibly dialogue. However, I’m not exactly sure where all of the hype came from. I remember most of it being about the racey (racy?) topic of having a teen be pregnant, carry the pregnancy to term, and give birth. I thought it was good. But not one I’d watch again. This is my yardstick of sorts for how well I like a movie.
Atonement: Disappointing. I thought the plot was good up until he leaves and goes to war. Then it felt like it meandered a lot. However, it was interesting to see the depiction of war. And of course, being a fan of love stories, I didn’t like the ending. I _did_ however, get introduced to James McAvoy. Well, not technically, because he was also in Narnia as Mr. Tumnus, the faun. And I remember being impressed with him then. I’d watch the beginning of Atonement again, just to see him in it. Then I’d stop watching. I’m actually wanting to see Narnia again too, just to see him in it.
The Last King of Scotland: Interesting. Oddly enough, has James McAvoy in it. I wonder how he managed to do so many projects so quickly. Striking while the iron was hot? Very interesting story, but we got near the end and had to turn it off. I still don’t know how it ended. We assume badly (for him). If someone knows and can just tell me, I’d appreciate it.
Becoming Jane: Ah, now here was a diamond in the rough. I remember being fascinated with the idea of learning about Jane Austen’s life when it came out. The trailer is particularly enticing. And guess who is the male love interest?! James McAvoy! Now, this one I would watch again. And maybe again. Great dialogue. Great characters. Of course, I’m a sucker for period movies. And since I already roughly knew how it might end, I wasn’t disappointed.
I think I’m in lust with James McAvoy. He really is a good actor. I hope he continues to be cast in great movies.
There are about 3 other movies On Demand that I’m interested in. We’ll see if we can get our stupid On Demand working so that I can watch them. The weekends are usually my time to see movies. But for some reason, I haven’t found much that is good on TV on some of the weeknights this year, so movies during the week aren’t out of the question.
And of course, the new James Bond movie is out in theaters right now. We had planned on seeing it this weekend, but it had to be put off. And soon, Twilight comes out. Later, there is an interesting Tom Cruise movie where he is one of Hitler’s military people who tries to asassinate him (based on a true story).
Have you seen any good movies lately? Or do you know how The Last King of Scotland ends?
I finished the Twilight series of books by Stephenie Meyer’s a couple of weeks ago. This it the post I wanted to write that prompted my blog change when I couldn’t post.
This is the vampire series that has been on the NY Times bestseller lists. The first book is being made into a movie that is expected to debut on 11/21/08. The books are intended for teens, but like the Harry Potter series, I found them extraordinary, even if they were intended for a younger audience.
Here is the summary on Amazon for the first book, Twilight.
“Bella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.”
I would definitely agree with the “deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful” part of the description. All 4 books are extremely well done with driving plots. I find that Bella’s thinking and the dialogue between Edward and Bella is more at a college level than high school. So, it is more readable than a typical high school story. I highly recommend them to anyone in the mood for a love story with an action-packed twist. And, of course, you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief of anything supernatural. I know that these are the sorts of stories that some of my family and friends will probably enjoy too. I know Amber is reading them and my sister is too. My friend in CA was trying to buy them at Target last night, but was running into a situation where they were sold out.
The books are the main reason I hadn’t blogged much before my blog design change. I’d wanted to spend all of my free time reading them. I even suspended watching some of my favorite TV shows like Survivor and Dancing with the Stars in order to read them in the evenings. And I skipped looking at blogs over breakfast and read the books instead.
I got interested in these books, because two women at church, another vocalist and a flute plater, started talking about them at one of my music practices for the church band. Their daughters were reading them and they ended up reading them too. Then, I watched an interview on Ellen! which wasn’t very detailed, but was enough to pique my interest. I went to Target and bought the first book. Then after reading the first one for most of the day, I went back and bought the rest of the series. Note that reading these books was my treat on a fall break that we had. I worked on 2.5 of the 4 days off on lectures, etc. (the break entailed 2 days off from school and 2 weekend days ). So, it was a joy to set aside my work and read a wonderful book.
After finishing them, I was discussing them with one of the other girls in the band, our trumpet player, who had also read them. I found out about how there was a problem with someone in the publishing community leaking a draft of the first 1/3 of the next book that Stephenie Meyer will publish onto the internet. There was a rumor that she was so upset, that she wasn’t going to finish the book. In the process of looking up the rumor, I found Stephenie’s blog post about it on stepheniemeyer.com. And she included the pdf of the draft in the post. So, if you read the books and want to read about 1/3 to 1/4 of the next book, you can find it on her blog here. It is an amazing story. It retells the Twilight series of events from Edward’s perspective. It gave me so much more insight into Edward’s character. We also finally got to learn more about his family, which was a real treat.
AFTER you’ve finished reading the books, I highly recommend watching a series of interviews with her at Entertainment Weekly when her most recent book came out. For once, the questions were very in depth about specific parts of the books and not just the same old generic questions. If you go to that link, click the ‘Twilight’ (11/21) pt 1 (through 5) videos on the side bar. And work your way through all 5.
I hope you pick them up and read them. I don’t want to build up your expectations too much, because like Harry Potter, they might not be your cup of tea. However, you might pick up the book, read the flap and see what you think. Happy reading!