Flags of Our Fathers; The World of Henry Orient

Monday, 16 July, 2007 at 12:32 am

I saw Flags of Our Fathers Sunday. (Talked Daddy into buying a boxset at Amoeba of FOF, Letters from Iwo Jima, and a third DVD, Heroes of … something.) I don’t really have much to say about it, just wanted to record that I saw it …

Am sort of regretting now that I didn’t start a movie list for this year. My thoughts, ‘what movies would I see this year?’ and ‘should I really put as much emphasis on movies that I do on books?’ Mreh.

I normally don’t watch war movies. Partly because they’re loud with all the explosions, but also because I don’t like to see what’s inside the human body when it’s cut up, and how the cut up person reacts to seeing what’s inside him. I’ve seen portions of Band of Brothers, not all of it, and parts of Saving Private Ryan (yes, I still have yet to see that movie). I guess I just don’t like seeing the results of a bunch of grunts (men?) with influence going at it. I’m too sensitive.

But anyway! I thought Flags of Our Fathers was good. I liked it. What else can I say? My knowledge of last century’s events suck. I don’t know anything about World War I, not much about World War II (outside of the concentration and internment camps), and don’t know much of anything of U.S. presidencies. Mum says it’s likely because I was homeschooled … but that she doesn’t know much about the World Wars either…. It’s only because of my dad the history nut that I know what I do know of recent history. But he gets annoyed when I ask too many questions, like I must be really ignorant or something. >.>

Anyway! So yeah, I had absolutely no clue that the picture taken was of the second flag, and that the first flag was taken down because of some stupid military person who wanted it as a souvenir. *twitch* That’s all I have to say about the plot.

I had no idea Doc was played played by Ryan Phillippe. O_o He just looked like some young kid to me. (Then again, I had trouble at the beginning keeping all the characters straight.) I finally figured it out around the time I saw Robert Patrick (X-Files!) and Jason Gray-Stanford (Disher! XD). Melanie Lynskey (Rose in Two and a Half Men) was also in the movie. Woo!

Also, Friday after Gypsy Mum had me watch The World of Henry Orient again, just to see if I’d like it this time, and yeah I did. Nice movie. Wasn’t much interested by the Henry Orient part. But ya gotta love Angela Lansbury. (I like The Harvey Girls, she plays someone completely different from Mrs. Potts. XD)

Gypsy, Aly & AJ

Friday, 13 July, 2007 at 5:27 pm

Yesterday Mum and I watched Gypsy ’cause Mum was looking for a movie for me to watch. I feel like, even though I couldn’t really watch the movie (VCR is getting old, and the VHS cassette is old), I really saw the movie this time. Rose’s manipulation, June’s frustration, Louise wanting to please Rose, and then the scene where Louise had to go on stage as Gypsy Rose Lee for the first time. Man, what an actor Natalie Wood is. XD I really need to see her other movies. (I’ve seen The Great Race, Gypsy of course, Splendor in the Grass, and Rebel Without a Cause.)

Mum told me that Gypsy Rose Lee came to the filming of the movie and cried when she saw Natalie Wood on stage, because she had the walk down perfect.

In other news, Mickey bought Aly & AJ’s album Insomniatic. (From Wal-Mart. Hulk smash!!) Wheee! It’s a great album. :D Whenever I listen to Potential Breakup Song today I get weepy. It’s just … so good. *wipes away tear*

won’t stop til I find

Wednesday, 11 July, 2007 at 1:07 am

Last night I spent almost three hours reading Jodi Picoult’s The Tenth Circle.

I like the book all right. I must, if I kept reading it and didn’t stop for hours. (Well, one drawback is that the chapters are so long … it’s a better incentive for me to stop reading if I see that I’ve read x number of chapters already … and it’s easier to stop at a new chapter … or maybe the last full paragraph on the first page of a new chapter … well how about the next paragraph going to the next page … *g*)

I don’t know. The main plotline doesn’t attract me much. It’s interesting, but is it rereadable? I bought the book because Borders had the first chapter online for preview, and the comic aspect of it interested me (Neil Gaiman was mentioned in the book XD; ). I don’t really like the daughter or the wife. I don’t dislike them, I just don’t really care about them much. I like Daniel though. I don’t know why. I will just have to continue reading it. :)

Bush and moral values

Thursday, 5 July, 2007 at 10:09 pm

When respondents were asked to pick the one issue that mattered most in choosing a president, “moral values” ranked first at 22 percent, surpassing the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).

Above from an old article I posted here November 2004 (Election Reinforces U.S. Religious Divide).

Those assembled [at “impeachment headquarters”] cited various Bush actions or policies, including “lies that led the U.S. into war.”

They also said that Bush-Cheney policies precipitated torture, illegal spying on American citizens, and the curtailment of privacy and civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

The latest irritant was the president’s decision to commute the prison sentence of former Cheney aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom a jury convicted of obstructing justice.

From an article in the L.A. Times today (A Place to Push Impeachment). But of course what’s in the first and second paragraphs aren’t immoral, those actions were meant to protect good God-fearing Christians from heathen-induced suffering.

And the third paragraph? Who really knows what’s going on there? It doesn’t impact most of Americans’ daily life, so of course it’s of no consequence. Just like Nixon being pardoned didn’t hurt anyone in the 70s.

Boogiepop Phantom

Monday, 2 July, 2007 at 11:35 pm

I finished watching Boogiepop Phantom … sometime during the summer. I got the series for Christmas … 2005, was it? Started watching spring 2006, might have watched an episode or two last summer, watched some more episodes this spring, and finished the series a week or two ago.

In the beginning the series confused me. It seemed to me it was just trying to make it seem all intricate and convoluted and it wasn’t really going anywhere. Like it was trying to be deep, but really it was just … pointless.

When the last DVD ended, I again thought, ‘What?’ It made no sense to me! I thought, well maybe I missed something, maybe watching the series in lumps over the course of a year wasn’t a good way to watch it (duh, I wouldn’t watch Serial Experiments Lain that way, unless I wanted to break my brain), maybe I should rewatch it.

There were some notes from … someone (director? producer?) involved with the English translation that were included on the last DVD, which I read initially … then skimmed. This guy (I assume the person is a male, I don’t think the name was female, but what do I know?) was just gushing over the series … how else can I put it? He thought it was the best series in recent years, he said there was so much depth to it, that some people wouldn’t get it, that people would have to look at it again, that it’s probably best seen on a weekly basis on tv.

So I thought, okay, I guess I did miss something, I guess I should rewatch the series before I dismiss it.

But, having just read the Wikipedia Boogiepop Phantom article, what I thought was the whole plotline in the series ended up being exactly what was outlined on Wikipedia! Well okay, the timeline was a lot more jumbled than I’d realized. But basically, yeah, the series really was all about what was in the series. I didn’t miss anything. Except for the backstory that was written in a book, which was lightly touched on in the series but not enough to actually say, yeah this is what happened.

The Wikipedia article says, “[the series] has also received criticism for not addressing certain areas of the back-story,[18]leaving the viewer ‘with more questions than answers’.” You got that right! >_< But I think I want to read the book now. :) Then I’ll have to rewatch the series. XD; Yeah. Just add that on to the two series I started but never finished (Escaflowne, got halfway through, and Fushigi Yuugi, stopped two tapes from the end of the first box set) and should really rewatch.