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Okay, do you all see why I’m obsessed with movies?

Monday, July 16th, 2007

Relevant to my posting about my brother’s list yesterday. I guess I’ll have to go through it with a fine tooth comb to add to the discussion.
My mom:

1. Gregory Peck, not Cary Grant, in Roman Holiday.
2. I don’t think it’s Stewart and Hepburn’s chemistry in Philadelphia Story that’s terrific…it’s Grant’s and Hepburn’s. (imho)
3. It isn’t Gable’s smugness that makes this a great romance…it’s his vulnerability and yearning…He doesn’t equal this performance until the Misfits.
4. I don’t think Jimmy Stewart’s character in Harvey is supposed to be in his 30s…he’s supposed to be a middle-aged alcoholic.
5. Stoolie.
6. Some might say that Jack Lemmon gave many terrific performances, not the least of which is the heart-rending alcoholic in The Days of Wine and Roses. Or the incredibly vulnerable young man in The Apartment…or the up-tight mess in The Odd Couple…or the guy whose name I don’t recall in Save the Tiger…or…
7. Another thing that makes both The Great Race and Around the World in 80 Days fun is the cameos…I like Sinatra in the Saloon….
8. Re: Once Upon a Time in the West: it’s an Italian movie-maker’s view of how the West was won, skewed with a late 1960s perspective. The West was already a myth even while it was being “won” (see: Wild Bill Hickock’s Wild West Show)
9. Catinflas is fab, but Passpartout is supposed to be French. They had to change the book a bit to make it fit the Mexican actor.
10. Madeline Kahn. Khan was a mongol.

[read on]

Ziggy played guitar

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Cairns is still hot. We’ve got crickets at night, and at my last hostel, someone was playing a good chunk of my summer music playlist: (under the boardwalk, lola, etc.)

I am currently very, very broke. Job hunting in Christchurch, and looking forward to earning a paycheck again. Luckily have a lot of reading to do this week, so I can keep my expenses down. Speaking of job hunting, I took a typing test – 53 words per minute with 93% accuracy. I think I’ll try again in a couple of days.

Box office round-up for the weekend: Harry Potter already grossed 330 million in 5 days. Shockingly, License to Wed dropped only 29%, so maybe John Krasinski might have a future in movies (more likely: some people will go see anything with Robin Williams, no matter how terrible). Captivity BOMBED with 1.5 mil (yay!), and Evan Almighty might be the first ever 100 million+ flop (its at 92 million currently). Then again, Harry Potter might drop off significantly next weekend: everyone will be inside reading the book. Speaking of which, Emily sent me this:

Tom Campbell, co-owner of the Regulator Bookshop, Durham, N.C., offered the following thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in his newsletter, The Regulator Irregular:

“This is the last Harry Potter book, and it will quite likely be the last time in any of our lifetimes that people will line up, in the middle of the night, all across the country, and all across the world, to buy a book. To ‘see what happens next’ in a story. The only other time this has ever happened, as far as I know, was with Charles Dickens more than 150 years ago when crowds waited on the quays in New York for the ship carrying the latest installment of The Old Curiosity Shop to dock, calling out to the passengers and crew, ‘Is Little Nell dead?'”

Yay for being a part of a cultural phenomenon. (It’ll apparently be 12 million copies as a first run in the US alone).

[read on]

Hermione flees to Cuba using a Befuddlement Draught

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
Checked out of my hostel this morning. After this I'm going to go check in at the YHA. Had brunch at the lilypad cafe, which is a funky, mostly veggie cafe. I had the Turkish brekkie, which was lotsa yummy ... [Continue reading this entry]

Draco is pregnant

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
Last night I went to a 2 hour talk by Reef teach. It basically is about the 7 most common families of fish on the reef, special animals you might get to see, tips on taking photos, and some safety pointers. Luckily, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Stephen Colbert; demigod

Thursday, July 12th, 2007
My plane was delayed over an hour and a half. I got to my hostel at 12:45 at night. Grrr... However, the hostel is cute (I might come back to it after Port Douglas, even if it is a bit more ... [Continue reading this entry]

Stupid Zebra

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
Went to Glebe yesterday. It was very cute, very Berkeley. I read for a bit in a Free Trade Coffee Shop and it was like being deposited back at the Motley (scripps coffee house). Very surreal. Exchanged books. At a couple ... [Continue reading this entry]

Seriously, EW, just hire me already

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Which British actors should appear in Harry Potter? In other words, how do we squeeze in the rest of the Gosford Park cast? (although I think Kristin Scott Thomas as Narcissa is an inspired idea - she constantly looks ... [Continue reading this entry]

Harry Potter

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Yeah - I was at the theater at 8:55 (9:30am showing). There was the usual collection of red and gold scarves, witches hats (I hope they took them off when the film started), and hogwarts robes and wands. I tried ... [Continue reading this entry]

Post 200!

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
How exciting is this? 200 blog posts. I'm not sure whether this is an achievement of having been traveling so long, or a reflection that even long-distance travel has trouble breaking my internet addictions. Either way; I went to the zoo today, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sydney wanderings

Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Got up early today. Ran some errands. Went to the art museum, where the coat check girl yelled at me for wanting to check my bag. So that sucked (I've found Sydney to be like Italy. The only qualification you ... [Continue reading this entry]