I decided to take a vacation day today, after spending yesterday driving back to Austin from greater New Orleans. It was one of my smarter ideas. I have done damn near nothing today except lounge around the house and listen to KGSR and reread Betsy and the Great World and snack on this and that and drink lots of hot tea. Oh, and I had a shower. Very productive of me.
Driving back home was more difficult than driving to New Orleans. I felt less well rested, and more bored, and I kept having to deal with glare from the sun in my eyes. I didn’t get home until 8:45 pm because I stopped in Baton Rouge to visit with Toni for a bit. I got to see the tree that killed Christmas, and the red-nosed cat, and I sat in the time machine, and Toni gave me some shrimp-and-corn soup, which we may have for dinner if I can figure out where to get some decent French bread in this town.
would everyone stop talking so I can think of a title? please?
Well, we were planning to drive to the North Shore today to visit my aunt and uncle and various assorted other relatives, but the Causeway is closed. The roads are too slick and maybe even icy. It’s been sleeting all morning, and you can see bits of ice pellets on the roof (in New Orleans, they call this snow). In short, this is as close to a white Christmas as you ever will see in the greater New Orleans area.
If it keeps up, we also will have to cancel plans for my sister and her boyfriend to drive over here tonight so we can see The Life Aquatic at Canal Place Cinema (note to boyfriend: yes, this is the theater where we saw Lost in Translation, although Sis’s boyfriend assures me that the audiences there are normally well-behaved). My brother and I might go see it at the movie theater in Clearview, assuming I can talk him out of wanting to take my dad to see Meet the Fockers.
I don’t really mind the change in plans too much. I get to sit here at a nice kitchen table and try to catch up on writing, although admittedly it is a little difficult when people are talking and channel-surfing and asking me if I know where the remote went or if that looks like Barry Bostwick or how much I like the choir singing on TV (well, it’s not actively offending me) and whether we should eat in the dining room away from the TV and if we can time it around some damn football game. Also, using the keyboard on the laptop irritates my arms because they have to rest on the edge of the laptop. Who came up with the bright idea of putting laptop keyboards close to the monitor edge instead of the other edge? It’s quite irritating.
Continue reading would everyone stop talking so I can think of a title? please?
updating from PJ’s, part one
Here I am at PJ’s in Clearview, my internet home away from home, taking a few minutes to write about what I’ve been doing.
The weather outside is not that frightful, people. It is maybe 40 degrees out there, and it was sleeting a bit this morning, but this is New Orleans and you would think we were heading for the blizzard of the century, the way people are carrying on. The older relatives may all be staying home from my parents’ Christmas Eve party tonight because it is too cold for them. And you should have heard the rest of my family fussing last night when we went out to dinner! I am starting to feel like the hearty cold-tolerant one, and if you know me … well, let’s just say that I wear sweaters to work all year and call anything above the Mason-Dixon line the Frozen Yankee Tundra.
movies this week: merry theatergoing
I’ll be in New Orleans in less than 24 hours, which is why I wrote about movies this week earlier than usual. So it would be particularly cool of me to tell you about the movies opening in New Orleans this week, and the special film events in that town, wouldn’t it?
But I haven’t lived near New Orleans for so long that I have no idea where to look for that information. Besides, most of you don’t care.
My sister wants us all to go to a movie on Christmas Day this year, because the family doesn’t seem to have very much planned, and her film-geek boyfriend would enjoy it. I agreed to see anything they like except Meet the Fockers, which her boyfriend wants to avoid too. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is probably watching the movie right now while he’s enjoying a Jette-free week in Austin. I’m actually hoping we can all see The Life Aquatic, since that’s a movie my boyfriend isn’t thrilled about seeing.
Alamo Downtown is closed on Dec. 24 and 25. The other Alamo theaters are open, though. Arbor at Great Hills appears to be premiering most of the new movies this week. But either you’re the kind of person for whom movies are the last thing on your mind this week, or you’re going to try to figure out how many movies you can see during the time off work. If you’re the latter, I am so envious of you. Enjoy.
pretty paper, charming movies
One of the tasks my mom usually gives me on Christmas Eve is wrapping any presents she hasn’t had time to finish. I also have had to wrap my own presents, because I usually fly there for Christmas and you can’t pack wrapped presents in your checked luggage.
(The airline personnel will unwrap them if you do. They have made this very clear. This is a practice that has been going on for years and years. I can’t blame anyone, and it does make sense, but it adds yet another level of stress at Christmas. I have to use my mom’s wrapping materials, I have to pack stuff that won’t break and can fit in a suitcase … but not this year, because I am driving! Hooray! This has been an official rant.)
I like to take all the wrapping materials and the gifts into a quiet room with a TV set. I can shut the door and forbid anyone from coming in, because I might well be wrapping their presents. (This doesn’t eliminate all the traffic, but it does cut it down significantly.)
The Ladykillers (2004)
The Ladykillers: 2004, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Seen on DVD (Dec. 16).
Sometimes I worry that I am losing my sense of humor and fun. Everyone loves Napoleon Dynamite but me. I ran a Google search on Buca di Beppo after writing the previous entry and yeah, everyone seems to think that it is a wonderfully fun place with decent food, except for me. I have tried to watch the TV shows “Arrested Development” and “Scrubs” and didn’t laugh. Am I turning into a humorless old grouch?
But I watched The Ladykillers this week and let me tell you, I laughed my ass off. That is some funny and weird movie. I liked it better than the original, which is an Ealing comedy and classic and so I am probably committing some sort of heresy, but I don’t care. (My review of the 1955 original is here.) The 2004 movie was routinely panned by critics, and no one went to see it, and it seems to be generally considered a flop. But I enjoyed it immensely.
restaurant hell: a dining event
On Friday night, my boyfriend Beau went to a holiday dinner party for the company where he currently works. I am a nice girlfriend, because I agreed to go to a restaurant that I have actively avoided since it opened in this town: Buca di Beppo.
When Buca di Beppo first appeared in Austin, I knew nothing about it except that the signs outside seemed a bit garish. Well, so are the signs at Chuy’s and I love to eat there. After some friends ate at the new restaurant, I found out the scoop.
Buca di Beppo is a national chain. The restaurant serves only “family-style” meals—most portions are meant to serve 4-6 people.
In other words, single diners are not welcome there.
movies this week: ’twas the week before Christmas
‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house, I went freaking bananas and tried not to stress out, while my boyfriend (who doesn’t celebrate Christmas) has been incredibly tolerant about it all. He’s just happy I’m not making Those Damned Calendars for gifts this year.
I am giving a couple of people DVDs for Christmas. I bought my baby brother The Forbidden Zone, because I know he doesn’t own that movie, since he doesn’t know much about it. Anything he wants on DVD, he usually runs out and gets for himself, so I either have to find an obscure movie or get him a nice film book. (Last year, I gave him an autographed copy of Profoundly Disturbing by Joe Bob Briggs.) I first saw this movie when I was his age and at LSU, so it seems like a very fitting present.
And I bought my married brother the first season of The Dukes of Hazzard on DVD, because he adored that TV show when he was little, and Amazon had the boxed set on sale so it was cheap enough to be a good semi-joke gift. As long as no one makes me watch it, I don’t care.
I still have to finish wrapping presents, buying ribbon and gift tags, picking up the odds and ends I’m using for my parents’ gift (a lot of coffee-related stuff), sending any last-minute Christmas cards, cleaning out my car, and packing for the trip next week.
I’m going to a Christmas party tomorrow afternoon, and on Sunday I hope to see Marcia Ball and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell at Armadillo Christmas Bazaar.
And in the middle of all this, there are movies opening this week. Who’s thinking about movies right now? Well, I kind of am (I got all excited to learn this week that Twentieth Century will finally be released on DVD in February) but I don’t know if I’ll have time to go to a theater. Which is too bad, because I’d like to see Sideways and Kinsey and a couple of other movies before they vanish from theaters. Although I don’t think Sideways will vanish anytime soon, because it’s starting to pick up national awards.
Anyway, if you’re fortunate enough to be completely unruffled by the holiday season, there are a few movies opening this week, and some nice special events too, seasonal and otherwise.
Continue reading movies this week: ’twas the week before Christmas
Random Ramblyng Perspicaciousness* About Weekend Plans
This is just a quickie to fulfill the Holidailies daily quota. Don’t want to fall under the horizontal line of Holidailies doom and gloom!
Tonight I made macaroni and cheese for dinner—out of the Kraft box, even—to go with the leftover chili as a kind of Build-Your-Own-Chili-Mac. Mmmmm. But I hope The Beau never learns what the expiration date on the box was, or he won’t eat a bite of the leftovers!!!
I have to make a to-do list of stuff I should be doing before this weekend, so I won’t forget:
- Research and write the Movies This Week entry, STAT!
- Remember to buy garbage bags later. You can never have enough!
- Get my final Christmas present shopping done for The Younger Niece, The Sister-in-Law, and the-child-of-a friend-who-is-throwing-a-Christmas-party-this-weekend that-Sweetiepantsbeausiebutt-and-I-are-attending.
- Figure out what to wear to the dinner party tomorrow night, which is a holiday party for my boyfriend Mr. Awesome’s office.
- Pick a new Netflix movie. I may bring Bad Santa home for my dad to watch. That movie totally rocks my world, but it’s not so much for everyone!
Have I hit 50 words yet? I don’t want to get in trouble with … er … me. Ha! Hopefully I can “write ahead” this weekend. Or is that cheating? Ooops!
*perspicaciousness (n.)—Acute discernment; shrewdness.
This entry is dedicated to The Usual Suspects, a group that has amply demonstrated their passion for various writing styles employed above. Enjoy.
Muriel’s Wedding (1993)
Muriel’s Wedding: 1993, dir. P.J. Hogan. Seen on DVD (Oct. 31).
Unfortunately, this movie caused a new agreement about DVD rentals to be established in our household, especially since I saw it not long after renting Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
The agreement: No more watching movies with ABBA in the soundtrack when my boyfriend is home. It shatters his poor delicate nerves. He has to play a lot of Warren Zevon and John Hiatt afterwards to recuperate.
Fortunately, I really liked Muriel’s Wedding even with the ABBA music. I am not the world’s biggest ABBA fan myself, but I felt the music was very appropriately used in this movie.
I am not the world’s biggest fan of “chick flicks,” either, and I didn’t even think of this movie as a chick flick until it was pointed out to me. (When I am queen of the universe, we will use the term “chick flick” to describe movies in which women kick some serious ass, and there will be many fine movies made in this particular genre. Movies where women sit around the table eating cheesecake until they bond and then start dancing to Motown hits will face my fiery wrath.) This was such a lovely little movie that I didn’t notice it’s chick-flick-ish-ness.