red hair and black leather

This trailer for Happy Feet has me crying from laughter.

standp, you'll probably love it for many of the same reasons I do.

Penguins! Tapdancing! Love.

Penguins are apparently the hot thing, because there's a surfing penguins movie coming out next year.

I need to go watch Madagascar again. "Hoover Dam! We're still in New York!"

Watched X-Men 2 last night. Fun. Logan remains a sexay woobie, and Jean Gray continues to be my girl (though with far more self-control than I ever had). We even have the bad taste in men in common! Whee! (Scott so needs to get over himself. Arrogant fuck.) (I may be bringing what I know of comic canon into that. I don't care.)

Sooooo looking forward to this weekend. 4 of us are going up to Calistoga and hanging out in hot tubs, shopping, whatever. It'll be nice.

Work is trying to kill me, but I am happier than I was 30 minutes ago, for I have nummy unagi and tempura to sustain me. Bless.

Zach started rehearsals for His Girl Friday at the Guthrie yesterday. Apparently Angela Bassett is quite wee, Courtney B. Vance is a funny, funny man, and Reginald Vel Johnson is just cool. Also, both Mr. Vel Johnson and John Guare will be coming to performances of Streetcar this weekend (there are rumblings of Other Stars appearing). Eeeeeeeee.


My plan for getting a head start on marathon training got derailed by the holiday weekend and The Miracle Of Womanhood. Feh. I'll happily take the blame for too much indulgence, but I dislike it when my body rebels on its own.


Watched Ocean's 12 last night. That was a fun little film. I think I liked it better than the first one, if only for the woman playing Linus' mom - Cherry Jones. Love her. Well, I also think that while the first one is very much a caper, this one had a few more twists of intricacies, and that made the movie more fun to follow.

We also saw The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy on Monday. Finally. I quite liked it, and I desperately covet a yarn Marvin.


Am still very thrilled about the Streetcar reviews. It's already translated into one gig for one of the actors, and will hopefully produce more. Fingers are crossed.


Another new icon. V. appropriate for today, I think.

I have two essays/posts in my head: How Musical Theater Ruined My Life, and A Gender-Swap Rumination. Hopefully I'll be able to get to both of them today, although it's not looking very hopeful.

We got a pretty good review for Measure For Measure. Yay! It is a problematic play, so I'm happy to see the basic themes are coming through loud and clear.

I watched Décalage horaire (Jet Lag) last night - a frothy little romantic comedy starring Jean Reno and Juliette Binoche. Not high art, but fun and French and pretty. I adore watching Mr. Reno work, and Ms. Binoche as luminous as ever.

Tuesday night, I saw Velvet Goldmine. V. pretty film. Since I'm not a big pop-culture history buff, a lot of the layers passed right by me. Yes, I know about the sexuality of a lot of the major players in the early 70s glam-rock scene, and I know about the shake-ups and renunciations and general shittiness that followed, but clearly not enough to get much more than "Soooooooo pretty" out of the movie. Also, I continue to think Christian Bale is one of the creepier guys out there, which should help with Batman Begins. There were, however, two moments in which I identified with his character so much that it hurt: in the beginning, when he's at the concert and so excited to see his idol, but he can't keep himself from observing others and Watching; and later on, when he sneaks out of his house in his new glam clothes and goes to the area where all the cool kids hang out all full of hope and newness, and he gets the once-over and a sneer from an Über-Cool girl. He doesn't belong, no matter how he tries, and no amount of clothes or music will allow him in, because his isolation, while partially externally imposed, is driven in a large way by his own sense of self or lack thereof. (Wow. Comma abuse for miles there. Sorry.) It also got me thinking about how I've tended to prefer the essential ideas of punk and grunge over goth and glam. Which is not to say I don't like goth and glam, but there are times when the artifice gets to be too much (yes, I know there are/were poseurs aplenty in punk and grunge and hard truths in goth and glam. I speak in generalities here).

Anyway. I think I shall have to buy a copy of Velvet Goldmine for myself, as it's one of those movies wherein I will want to watch just a specific scene on occasion. Yes.


Also had a root canal yesterday. Le fucking whee. I discovered that 5 shots of Novocain will fuck me up right proper. I couldn't drive home promptly after the appointment and was forced to wander around a nearby Snyder's until I could get it together. They had no Easter candy and no St. Ives lotion. It was horrible, I tell you. Horrible! The endodontist was very nice. He is also my age, is quite funny and often plays drums with Pete Yorn in addition to being an endodontist. Way to make me feel unaccomplished, dude. The jaw joint (what's the name of it?) is massively sore today. 5 shots will do that to you.


That's about the end of it. Z & I will be seeing The Aviator tonight, so I'll have a Serious Movie to discuss soon. Now, I must go fetch a smoothie so I won't starve to death. Ciao.

My weekend was… fine. Good. Mostly uneventful, if cue-to-cue can be considered uneventful.

Friday, I worked out and then Z & I went to see the opening of Gremlin Theatre’s Wait Until Dark. It was good, the guy playing Roat was sufficiently creepy, and the set looked pretty damn cool. Z & I were both tired and spacey, so I guess we missed out on after-show partying. Oh, well.

Saturday, I did as close to nothing as I could let myself get away with. I worked out (5 miles, with the last 3 being hill work), I got my hair trimmed, we cleaned the apartment, I made oven-fried chicken and cornbread, and then we watched Ronin. I liked it up until the ending, which felt too pat. However, 2 hours of Jean Reno and Robert DeNiro being all slick-like is not unpleasant. J’adore Monsieur Reno. (Side note: I was mocking Frankenheimer during the ice skater sequence, wondering if he got someone as close to Katerina Witt as he could. Turns out it is actually Ms. Witt as the ice-skater. D'oh. I was fooled by the eyebrows.)

Sunday was cue to cue for Measure For Measure, which went surprisingly well. Z has added a 3-minute prologue in the club/brothel, which took about an hour to get down, but the rest of it clipped along. The time spent on the prologue was needed and not resented, but it is difficult to be grinding on a platform and then sprinting offstage for the better part of an hour (the sexysexy dancing is interrupted by a raid), not to mention the other two times I’m up in a cage, dancing. My quads are rather tired today. When we were done, Z & I schlepped home and passed out until he had to get and go to work (he owed a huge favor to the usual Sunday night manager). I stayed home and really didn’t do much of anything. Oh, yes. I re-dyed my hair, so now it is a bright burgundy (brighter on the roots, natch). I feel much better about it.

So, that was my weekend. My week will be consumed with Measure teach and previews, culminating in Friday night’s opening. If you’re in town, you might want to check out the show. It’s not the best of Shakespeare’s scripts, but there is some damn fine acting going on, and then there are the dancing girls. We’re very pretty.

"With Cat-Like Tread" - the song from Pirates of Penzance - is incredibly apt because the pirates can't be quiet to save their lives, and neither can our cats. Ahem. "Pussy-footing", indeed. It sounds like a herd of baby elephants has taken residence in here.

Also? Kevin Kline is damn hot as the Pirate King. Rrrrowwwr.




Also, your point would be?


Minerva McGonagall, Transfigurations.


Harry Potter Quiz: Which Hogwarts Professor Are You?
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Morning.

First of all, thank you to everyone who suggested foods for our Oscar party competition. We ended up doing pigs in a blanket with bay leaves, Vietnamese spring rolls, and sushi, all in a platter above bunches of dry ice. It was a lot of fun, and we won! Go Team Us! Of course, dodoheads that we are, we forgot to take a picture of said winning entry, but believe me when I say it looked fantastic. Also, the pigs in a blanket were GONE before the show even started. The one time I listen to the little voice that whispers "You're making too much food" (and Zach telling me that I'm making too much food), and the voice was wrong like a wrong thing. Oh, well.

Friday - went up to St. Cloud to run "Daisy". Came back, and Z & I went to a small house party. We did not stay long, as most of the attendees were younger than us and had decided to make it a party in the style of college parties. And by that, I do not mean toga, I mean pathetic attempts at porn. It was a "Cock Tail Party". Yeah. Not in the mood, and since I was asleep within 15 minutes of getting home, I clearly needed the rest. Zach just needed to get out of there.

Saturday - Got my next tattoo - Courage. He also redid my Chaos tat, as it hadn't healed very well. Ooof. I was not physically prepared to get two tattoos done, and it happened to be the first day of period, so I was very pain-sensitive. Also? It has been discovered that I am allergic to the tape they use to keep the bandage on. That was not fun at ALL.

But it's gorgeous and I love it and it will heal. Until then, ibuprofen is my friend.

Saturday night, I went up to St. Cloud again, gratefully sped out after our final performance, and went to a party over at Sally's (redwright). It was fun, there was a lot of fantastic food, and some very nice people. Zach and I left early for us, which has become a trend. This "getting older thing"? For the birds.

Sunday - Z & I slept & lolled about until it was time to assemble the food & go to the Oscar party. Where we won for food. As I mentioned. :) The Oscars? Meh. Wanted to lick Mr. Depp, adored the hobbits, loved Jennifer Garner's dress. S'about it.

Well, there was discussion of marriage and how we'd like to observe it and who we would include, etc. Which was nice.



I started to do the "what were you doing a year ago" meme, but quickly decided that I did not need to go back there. I think I'll skip the "year ago" meme for most of 2004. Maybe I'll pick it back up in October.

♥E_juliana and ♥Bigpenguin

Doing their best to adopt no rockin' children. Hope to share their hearts for the foreseeable future. Believe in attraction at first sight.

Orchestrated by ianiceboy

Zach and I have to create a movie-themed dish for our usual Oscar party. Our assigned movie? The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. I've not seen it, though I want to, and I know it's mostly archival war footage and McNamara talking.

So, what do we do? Dry ice? Cotton candy? I'd like to steer away from the dessert idea, as most people bring something dessert-y. I just don't know what else to bring.....

This is also a contest and we are, how do you say, hella competitive. So we want to kick ASS. Unfortunately, we're not sure how to do so.

Help!!!


Also, quiz!

Other than the last line, this is a good result....


Complete sincerity: You believe in being
straightforward with others, and you expect the
same from them. People would consider you a
good listener, and one who is calm and mostly
serious.


Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best? (You may find out your best trait)
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I still have this damned cough. It's starting to piss me off, because I'm leery of running with it, but I Need To Run. I'm getting very nasty about not being able to run. But when I can't even get through my weight routine or a yoga session without coughing, the idea of running (especially outside) just doesn't seem like a wise one. Grump.

Party planning continues apace. A local gourmet bakery is donating a ton of baguettes and other party breads. Sally, Z, and I go shopping for the majority of foods tonight.

Problem is, I'm not sure I want to go to this party. I'm in full-on hermit mode, not even going out to karaoke. Part of it is the sickness, part of it is not wanting to spend money that could go toward gifts, and part of it is sheer cussedness. I'm not feeling anti-season or anything, I'm just anti-socializing. The Humans have become scary again, and I don't want to cope. So why am I in love with one of the most classically extroverted people I know? He gets upset if he has to spend more than 2 days at home, I get upset if I don't get serious time at home (with him there). This didn't work so well last time around, so I'm verra curious to see how we'll work it this time.

Work stuff - we're still up in there. It's been admitted that the 1/1/04 deadline is, to put it mildly, ridiculous. They've given us no other details since the official announcement. It appears that there won't be any layoffs, but I'm still searching for a new job. I'm working (and being compensated) far below my potential, and I'm tired of it.

Still about a month behind in Angel. Must to organize tapes and watch.

Z is impressed at my fortitude in waiting to go see Return Of The King. I assumed that we wouldn't get around to it until Christmas Day, as is the tradition with our people. I might watch the two previous ones before that, but I only have the theatrical releases. I'm banking on a gift set type of deal when RotK EE is released next year, and then I can get all of them at one fell swoop. This may be a bad plan. We'll see.