I have other things to say, but I don't want to forget the movies:

PONYO - mixed - John Lasseter wasted his time converting *this* for American audiences? Bah! (Bad endings make bad movies.) It's for 5-year-old Manga fans, not the SPIRITED AWAY crowd.

SHORTS - pro - It's not brilliant, sure, but it's enjoyable tween entertainment, much like SPY KIDS before it. Nothing remarkable in the premise, but execution is like live action Powerpuff Girls. Also, Helvetica Black is the best little goth child since Christina Ricci grew up and her theme song makes it worth the price of admission.

WORLD'S BEST DAD - PRO - Dark, dark comedy. Robin Williams can actually act, especially when Bobcat Goldthwait is behind the script and camera. Dirty, deep, lovely, embarrassing and watchable. This film shocked me. 1 - that I got through it with the minimum of flinching, 2 - that it was pitch perfect emotionally and looked beautiful doing it. I could even forgive seeing Robin Williams dork. Maybe.

PAPER HEART - mixed - This really should have been better. Instead, it was just... twee. The craftpunk puppet scenes were cute and the documentary bits were... sweet. But the staged Michael Cera stuff was just too uncomfortable and bad. Makes NAPOLEON DYNAMITE look like a romance epic.

AWFUL TRUTH - con - Nothing truthful. Lots awful. The romcom machine spit this one out. Like a sugar coated styrofoam peanut -- it's that satisfying. It's rare that you see a movie and think, "That's not a happy ending! They'll break up in a week!"

GI JOE: RISE OF THE BLAH BLAH - CON - Cross a 15 second Reserves recruiting commercial with a foley of breaking glass and a CGI demo tape. Jam full of mandatory Saturday morning references. Shake and serve on a pile of dog s%&#. JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS movie would have been better than this. Hate it more than the new STAR TREK. Hate it more than anything else I've seen in theaters in years.

DISTRICT 9 - PRO - It's about time there was a new sci-fi story, or any story for that matter. Someone vomited in the theater. They must have taken the alien blood and viscera as seriously as I took the alien emotions and acting. Also, Peter Jackson style fake alien blood. And the real Peter Jackson -- not this LOTR/KING KONG clone beast that stole his head and walked around overusing slow-mos and CGI.

SHERMAN'S MARCH - mixed - As enthralling as three hours of navel gazing documentary about why a whiny documentarian can't get laid in the south could be. A hour shorter and I may have liked it. If you miss Woody Allen and wish his films had more Southern history and less clever wordplay, this rambling, self important work has its good moments. I'm glad I saw it, I guess.

PATTON OSWALD: MY WEAKNESS IS MY STRENGTH - pro - If you like Patton Oswald, it's fine. If not, you won't watch it anyway. It would have been funnier if I hadn't seen him live doing the routine earlier, but I'd rather see him at Cobb's than on my Samsung any day.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER - con - I should like this film. The marketing says this is a quirky, lovable film full of quirky, lovable characters doing quirky, lovable things. But instead this is the story of a needy, whiny beta male and a woman that gets away with being cold and bitter because she's hot. The soundtrack is supposed to be all "cool" but instead is a snoozefest of things that claim they're indie but are so well known, they're tired, or from the crappy album of good artists. If you've ever seen "How I Met Your Mother", imagine that show, without Barney, Lily or Marshall and Cobie Smolders is not fun in the least bit. And Ted Mosby lives in LA. Yes, I'd rather watch the worst episode of How I Met Your Mothera than this film ever again. But I like that Smiths song that everyone likes, even if it was better on the PRETTY IN PINK soundtrack instead.

ORPHAN - pro - This is an awful film you will hate and it makes no sense. It's poorly written, stupid, and is a ripoff of JOSHUA, with the mom from JOSHUA playing the mom in the exact same role. But if you're a total Cinemax weirdo like me who can't get enough of stupid premise horror movies for some reason, this is worth not flipping past. But it's not even gory. It's just dumb. But the kind of dumb that I and no one else likes.

COLD SOULS - mixed - Yet more "quirk" cinema. This time, it wants to be BEING JOHN MALCOVICH crossed with MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. But instead it's a meandering film trying to both glorify and manipulate the perception of Paul Giamatti. But boring. The plot makes little sense and the moral is... bland like a beige cubicle wall. Also, much like in ORPHAN, if it's Russian, it's evil, capiche? No explanation needed. Russia = evil. I wanted so much to like this, and yet there was nothing but Mr. Giamatti to give you any emotional foothold whatsoever -- sadness, comedy, anything. I wish I had waited until video, and if I forgot it existed, well, no loss whatsoever to my psyche.

FUNNY PEOPLE - pro - Yes. I am not a fan of Judd Apatow. I found KNOCKED UP to be offensive, SUPERBAD to be bad. 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN was fine, but better as a TV show than a film in tone and pace. And I blame Paul Feig for the loveliness of "Freaks and Geeks". And I'm not a fan of Adam Sandler (besides being a positive meh towards 50 FIRST DATES). But for all its flaws, FUNNY PEOPLE is well paced, hits a fresh emotional note and does something fairly unique for the genre of "dramedy." Also, it seems to hate Adam Sandler as much as I do. The "newly thin" Seth Rogen looks just like Seth Rogen to me, but everyone reacts dramatically to him, so it must be something. I'm more sick of Jonah Hill's schtick than anyone could imagine, but luckily, they give him very little screen time, so I could get through it with a minimum of the desire to punch anyone in the face. The moral in convoluted, in a good way I think. I wouldn't rush out to ever see it again, but don't regret the full priced ticket.

And again my I Ching says, "Be.Here.Now."

But, but, but, Ancient Chinese Secret, Escapism is my Escape!

Back home, puppy wagging, tortoise still here, the house half painted (due to fog delays) and my head is still reeling from our long weekend in LA.

Before I forget something:
( Cool stuff in way too much detail. Hollywood Blvd., nostalgia, Santa Monica )

( Farmer's Market, Craig Ferguson, Phillip Glass at the Hollywood Bowl, Universal Studios, uWink, Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, etc. )

( Museum of Jurassic Technology, Fat Burger, Magic Castle )
THE ROOM.
( ..., because I'm still speechless )

The "style" of the decade isn't really determined until late in it, but we are halfway through '09, so it's about time. What will look dated, like a symbol of the aughts, in 2020? My guesses:

Autotune - Kayne West ruined it, but still it continues.

Cupcakes and bacon - like sushi to the '80s, these will continue, but not in the OMG! way.

Hipsters. This one's obvious, but like the preppies, the grunge folks before them, the hipsters will stay with us as a parody long after kids ask, "What they heck is emo?"

Vampires. This is the decade obsessed with vampires like no other. Drinking blood is the space race of the imagination.

The mojito. Yes, it's already out. But it was everywhere to the point of parody.

The term "McMansion". The logical extension of "McJob" from the Gen X era, Mc has finally lost its negative connotation as the country establishes things far more bougie than McDonalds. And there will be large, ugly, plastic houses but they will never be the equivalent of PF Changs in class ever again.

Low carb. Like the fat free on the Lemonheads candy box, low carb seem already dated.

American Idol. It's over. Really, really over. But like the Simpsons from the '90s, it'll keep dragging along for a while.

So. What did I miss?

UP - pro - Yes, yes. It's as cute and touching and blah blah blah as all that. I would have liked it too, if it weren't for all those "kids movie" touches in the middle.

SONG OF THE THIN MAN - mixed - Same formula, same dog, new kid, same repartee. It's fine, but it feels like the last of the series -- a tired drunk who has slightly worn out his welcome at the end of the party and is going through the motions to get to the door without revealing his embarrassment. It's still better than 9/10ths of the modern man/woman banter films I've seen, but compared to the first, it's a pale (thin) shadow.

Waking up panicked on a Friday only to realize there's no work. Heading to iHop for pancakes. Getting rubber bark for the backyard. Scooping and flattening and prettying up where the weeds once stood. Cleaning the house. Mopping. Sweeping. Hitting the grocery store for old-fashioned casing-included hot dogs, sausages, and grilling things. Having Nikhila and Jeff over for barbecue. Seeing UP in 3D. Tucking the kid in bed. Chatting until we're all yawning. Waking up Saturday. Telling Kameya, "No, it's not Sunday." much to her disappointment that camp is still another day away. Going to McDonald's for breakfast and Trader Joe's to get apples, wine and other 4th goodies. Cruising up to the Marin County Fair. Watching a gopher/groundhog struggle to steal a caramel apple and drag it to his home under the Tilt-a-Whirl. Riding rides. Eating a corn dog. Snarking at the "green" county fair making loads of trash and booths of junk being sold. Heading home. Dave's grilling ribs and corn as I finish off my basil plant for thick homemade caprese and serve it with a German Riesling. Baking pie as Kameya reads me Maus (I've read it, but she hasn't. The Polish towns have words too big, but everything else she follows.) Dave playing Henry Hatsworth again as Kameya and I watch SONG OF THE THIN MAN and cuddle the dog, terrified of the fireworks. Climbing the play structure in the back to see the fireworks in Oakland, Brisbane, the ghetto. Chilled to the bone, we go inside for cocoa and apple pie, topped with vanilla ice cream. Sleeping, have dreams of vampires and monsters that I'm unable to keep at bay. Waking up lazy. Snacking a bit. Hanging around the house. Heading to Hiller Aviation Museum. Climb through a 747 cockpit. Mocking the deflating dirigible. Hitting Benihana on the bay on a whim. Clapping at the Latino chef cooking Japanese style as the Korean waitress tells us "Origato." Stopping for ice cream on the way home - closed by a minute, we can see you in there! Driving Dave's Volvo for the first time - rides like a dream rather than a boat - the memory seats remember me. Wasting time online and trying to put off thinking about work as long as possible, as lazy as possible, as much as possible as Kameya does the last of the packing to go to Girl Scout camp for an entire week away.

AWAY WE GO - PRO - Yes, yes. It's a hipster film. ( ... ) I could watch this movie 16 times, think it was a guilty pleasure every time and still get all the same warm fuzzy feelings from it every single time.

MOON - pro - It's a flat little sci-fi piece that turns into a gorgeous acting showcase ( ... ) I still can't figure out whether I'm amazed that it's gotten no attention or that it got made at all.

CITY LIGHTS - pro - Yes, yes, Charlie Chaplin classic. Shame on me for not having seen it until now.( ... ) I can't quite see it as the OMG classic it's supposed to be. And never could quite laugh at it, either. Perhaps I'm afflicted with no sense of humor of the pantomime variety.

SATANTANGO - ZZZ - It's a six-hour film and I couldn't even make it more than 10 minutes in without falling asleep. This is the kind of film art film lovers *love* and the kind of film that keeps me from being that kind of art film lover.

TILT - mixed - It's a competent documentary of pinball. ( ... ) So, yes, it seems a little skewed, a lot cheap but has such great potential. Kind of like Williams in 99.

WIZARD OF GORE - pro - There is very little good about the plot.( ... ) It was apparently created to be a showcase for The Suicide Girls. And how better to highlight them by making them get naked and then get completely gutted in horrific ways with good special effects by your favorite off-screen psycho (and mine) Crispen Hellion Glover.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY - mixed - Yes, it's a classic. But with all the terrific actors in this, there's almost zero romantic chemistry between them and none of the playfulness of BRINGING UP BABY. The ending, even, is downright confounding and a bit too conservative for my world view. I'll take THE THIN MAN instead any day.

FREAKS - pro - For the era and the shock value, this film holds up surprisingly well. Besides some awful, truly terrible siamese twin jokes, it's still a great film that, for being exploitative, is pretty amazing and entertaining, rather than gawking.

THE BROTHERS BLOOM - PRO - romantic, stylish, gorgeous, emotional, lovely, well written, '40s nostalgia costuming, Russian mobsters, explosions and quirky, flawed, unique characters. Not the best film of my life, not even as good as BRICK, but in my top 250, if not my top 100.

Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson - PRO - I can't remember the last time I cried at a book. Let alone a graphic novel. It's Robinson's worst book so far, but even his worst is better than many novelists. It goes by quick, but it's long enough as he sets a limited scope.

Tricked - Alex Robinson - PRO - Another long, BOX OFFICE POISON-like work, sprawling and beautiful. It's like SHORTCUTS in its structure, more mature that BOP, more film-like than most graphic novels, uses its medium beautifully, shows that Robinson has embraced that he's a writer, not just a story teller. There's a bit of the territory Robinson hit in BOP, but he's obviously reaching farther, creating characters more unlike himself, and I mean that in a good way, he's growing as a writer way. But it's still not as good as BOX OFFICE POISON. And the ending isn't as well resolved as either BOP or Too Cool... But I loved it and can't wait to read it again once the details have left my brain so I can enjoy it anew.

Paris Andi Watson - mixed - It starts strong, using a movie pacing and framing. The art is good. The characters begin to be developed. And then, bam, it wraps up sloppy( ... ) I really wanted to love it and it let me down. Perhaps it will stupidly and unrealistically sweep me off my feet 7 months from now in NYC for no perceivable reason whatsoever. (sigh)

Leaving work. Getting the kid. Going for sushi. Falling asleep to THE MONSTER SQUAD. Sleeping in. Cleaning a bit. Enjoying the weather (amazing). Hiring a gardener to clean up the backyard. Cuddling. Wondering if they're still working (no noise from power tools). Cooking corned beef and waffle fries and fresh strawberry shortcake with local strawberries. Heading to DorkBot. Wandering amongst the "art. Chatting with a Tesla firmware engineer (geek cool). Driving home over the bay bridge (lovely). Getting a call from the landlord to be prepared to greet him in the morning (tense). Falling asleep to Negativeland DVD. Starting to get a reputation for falling asleep to movies in bed. Waking up early. Waiting for the landlord. Eating buns from Sheng Kee (custard and curry beef horns - yum). Cleaning up more, this time with mopping. Washing the car. Straightening the yard. Telling the dog to hush when the landlord arrives. Listening to the sounds of chainsaw and gas-powered hedge trimmer. Saying goodbye to the lovely, but very diseased, tree in the front. Saying hello to solstice sunlight streaming through the stained glass window no longer hidden by a big, diseased tree. Puttering around the house while Kameya and Dave go cruising. Greeting them as they return with a Father's day Carvel Fudgie the whale cake. Making burgers. Making sweet potato fries. Popping champagne and Martinelli's to pair with slices of Fudgie. Turning in to take a nap. Popping out of bed to meet a guest (Mr. Fortes). Serving up more Fudgie along with boxed sangria. Getting a free magic show (impressive). Reading Fortes' tarot cards. Discovering the kid has a fever. Making tea. Tucking the kid in bed. Playing video games. Saying goodbye to Fortes. Ordering a pizza. Surfing on the web. Posting to LJ. Preparing to say goodnight.

THE THIN MAN - PRO - Fast talking dames, dapper men in hats, witty reparte, murder, mayhem and an awesome dog actor. Ahh, the era when everyone drank constantly and being a gumshoe was second only to not having to work at all in glamor. Why can't we make films like they did in the '30s any more? I mean, besides HUDSUCKER PROXY.

DRAG ME TO HELL - PRO - I love you Sam Raimi. Please make more good wacky horror even if it has that boring-as-heck Justin Long in it. Corpses, possessions, evil gypsy curses, and yes, the foreclosure crisis. Please Sam Raimi, do more films like this. Don't go all Peter Jackson on us. (But you're welcome to make more films like THE HUDSUCKER PROXY as well. k? thnx.)

FAUST (1926) - pro - Sure, not all silent films are good. But when the devil looks like a wacky, fat Grandpa Al from "The Muensters", you know you're in for some fun. Sure, the plot rambles and shimmies all over the place, but visually, it's the original inspiration and/or basis of everything good a cinematographer has done so far in cinema.

DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN - CON - Sure, I actively dislike Adam Sandler already. But this? This was piss-poor awful. How completely unfunny can one film be? To be fair, I was cracking up and enjoying it quite a bit for the first 20 minutes or so. But just like the SNL sketches that foisted Sandler on us, the unsuspecting American public, they dragged the same joke out over and over and over and over again, beating a horse to f-ing death. Gross out humor is fine in some moods, but the same gross out joke over and over again seriously fails to be funny. Even if there's a Israeli/Palestinian "can't we all just get along" feel good message tacked onto it.

Like some sort of sweet car commercial, Dave keeps staring and smiling at our new old car, whom I've tentatively named Casanova - because he is smooth and cuddly, but with more than 100k miles, he's cheap and we may be destined for heartbreak.

Benchmarks != who we're copying directly

You never know what you'll write until ( you lose yourself in it. )

START DRECK, er, um, STAR TREK - con - Yeah, you and everyone else on the planet loved it and will now forgive J.J. Abrams for CLOVERFIELD. Loud, violent, boring. Every time there was a plot hole, I could imagine a gay screenwriter hushing me with, "Tsk! Time hole!" Feh. The new Spock and Kirk were boring. Simon Pegg is great, but missing two major attributes to be big, fat Scotty from Star Trek. Harold as Sulu was neither fruity nor high. And Checkov's Russian accent was neither as amusing nor as believable as the original. It doesn't stand on its own as a film and it's not nearly as fun as the original show. The films makers had a check list: "I'm giving her all she's got Captain." - check; "Damnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a physicist." - check; "dilithiam crystals" - check; Uhura topless without getting an R rating - check; Kirk making it with a green lady - check

"Crap, that only took 15 minutes of screen time total. What do we do now?"
"Oh, just blow stuff up really loudly, have Kirk get punched a lot, destroy a planet or two?"
"But what about continuity with the show and other films?
"Tsk! Time hole!"

HOME - pro - A light, sweet family comedy takes a gut wrenching left turn ( ... ) something to see, for certain. I just don't know if I would honestly want to see it again.

There's no theme I can figure out, either in what I watch or what I like.

THE SPIRIT - CON - ( ... ) Never, ever, ever let Frank Miller near a director's chair again. Back to comics for you!

SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL - mixed - I wanted to like it more than I did. ( ... ) Guns, arm breaks, wacky guys with toupees, bank robberies, cute Japanese girls. It had all the elements of something decent. But somehow it didn't add up to anything memorable.

MILK - mixed - Yes. Great acting. Great period piece. Great message. But really, it did very little with its screen time( ... ) screw you Focus Features for using the anti 8 sentiment to sell tickets and get Oscars instead of using MILK to get people to really think about the implications of Prop 8 before they voted.

LA VACANCES de MONSIEUR HULOT - pro - A light, fluffy little French sketch comedy dragged out over 85 minutes. ( ... ) Are a few light titters worth a whole movie watching experience? Not sure, but it was pleasant enough viewing.

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - pro - Cliched '70s horror at its best ( ... ) It didn't make a ton of sense, sure, but it's the kind of grainy film with blow dried hair and axe wielding that's everything I love about the genre in the '70s.

THE INFORMERS - con - Subtle humor never works in a film--especially when the director isn't in on the joke. ( ... ) I don't hate it for the reasons critics hate it. But yeah, it simply isn't good.


SPECIAL(tm) - pro - A nice, little movie that's the best superhero film to come out in years.( ... ) A worth-renting sort of flick that I can't get too passionate about.

ANVIL - PRO - Best documentary since KING OF KONG. ( ... ) A frustratingly lovely film that really captures the essence of my favorite Joey Sayers shirt, "Never give up on your stupid, stupid dreams." Fun, emotional. I'm tempted to return to see it tomorrow when the band will be playing live at The Bridge theater. Not because I'm desperate for metal, but just to give the underdogs a show of support.

No matter how many times I hear his music, I can't believe that Jeff Hanson is actually a guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC7ICWiN6iw I wish "Losing a Year" were on YouTube. It's even more girlie -- if that's possible.

DOUBT - mixed - You can see the film's play roots, and the acting is superb. ( ... ) It could have been such a movie with a few tweaks to take it farther than its play roots, but it never does.

OBSERVE AND REPORT - pro - In an era when malls are rapidly becoming less relevant, we've become obsessed with the ennui of mall security. ( ... ) I don't know if I'd actually sit through it again, to be honest, but it was worth the matinee pricing and has some fantastic scenes that, while they don't add up to a good movie, strike fear in the hearts of mall goers.

ADVENTURELAND - mixed - Thank god that the Michael Cera factory keeps making new units, because how would coming-of-age comedies pull off the sensitive writer as a painfully neurotic, soft-spoken teen discovering himself without them? ( ... )Yes, carnie life sucks and is sleazy and no one actually wins a big-ass stuffed panda. Did the world need a whole cliched bittersweet rom-com to point that out?

Pardon me if I've rereviewed. I'm going from memory.

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN - mixed - meh. Too much race. Not enough Witch Mountain. The Rock does not a film make. The female kid lead is fine, I guess. It's not great for kids, boring for grownups. Yes, yes. The truth is out there and the government is covering stuff up.

RACHAEL GETTING MARRIED - con - I hate everyone in the film. I hate junkie self importance. I hate upper crust WASP PCism. I hate forcefed multiculturalism. Anne Hathaway does a fine job, so does Debra Winger, the other sister, the best man -- the acting is really good. I hate the camera work.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - pro - Yes, vampires have been done to death, but this was lovely and well done and something new in the genre. Also, Sweden without furni. (I don't know how to put umlauts over the u)

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - pro - a good, fast read. Gaiman is better at young adult fiction, where he has to force himself to focus and keep his metaphors clean. This retelling of The Jungle Book -- with almost too much accuracy -- is lovely and grim. Not a life changer or one I'd ever reread, but fun to read with and without Kameya.

TRANSFORMERS - CON - Did I already review this? I can't remember. But bah. I wipe my shoes with its flimsy everything. Die.

"Video Games Live" at the Fox Theater, Oakland - pro - Video game music in concert is a great concept, and The Fox is gorgeous. Guy plays Space Invaders live on stage by running back and forth. Kid plays Guitar Hero on expert in front of an entire audience. YouTube celebrity plays the Mario theme on a piano while blind folded. But honestly, I can't get all excited about the music from Sid Meyer's Civilization for too long. Because I suck.

"Cake" at the Fox Theater, Oakland - pro - I like Cake. I mean, who doesn't like Cake? But the TexMex sarcasm can't carry a live show that long, even with the banner from G.W. Bush (that reads "A safer world. A more hopeful America") and a plant giveaway of a California avocado bush. I knew all the songs kind of sounded the same going into the show. But being an old lady, I was reminded partway in.

"Music in 12 Parts" - Philip Glass, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco - pro - I'm not smart enough to like everything Dave likes, but I enjoyed the craft and skill and amazing power of performance. But, the amazement came in the grueling performance of it, but I'm a cretin and found the hard earned monotony monotonous. I'm sure if I was as familiar with the piece as Dave was, or with Philip Glass in general, I would have been enthralled, rather than just impressed but sleepy.

"The Bird and the Bee", The Independent, San Francisco - PRO - No matter how tired and drifty I am, an amazing live show can bring me back to life and have me hopping around. What a killer performance they put on - working their butts off to give us sweet pop tunes while wearing white underwear and see-through rainbow colored plastic dresses. Such a great live show. Makes everything--life, stress, the cost of living in San Francisco--worth it.

MISHIMA - pro - A very weak pro. It's a fine film. Nicely done for what it is. The story is compelling. But in general, it falls flat. I'd rather watch a documentary about it. Or read a Mishima book.

SUNRISE - PRO - Lovely silent film that's timeless and overwhelming and oddly romantic and beautiful. I don't tend to fall for silent film, but this was incredibly well done and personal for any era.

SEX DRIVE - mixed - Better than I expected, but I didn't expect much. Seth Green - yeah! Seth Green as an Amish car mechanic - um, OK. Great characters for a teen flick, not your typical genre tropes, but still all-in-all, the gross out sex humor humiliated lead wimpy male finds his machismo. Fine Saturday night fare.

CORALINE (in 3D) - PRO - I can't remember if I already reviewed this one or not, but since I went twice, bought the shirt, the toys and saw the exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum, it's pretty obvious, right? I don't think some of the scenes will work at all in 2D.

FUTURAMA: INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER - con - I fell asleep. Seriously. And I wasn't even that tired. I love Groening, but I think Bender and crew can't go beyond 30 minutes without losing serious steam. Also, an eco-friendly episode? Um, no. They're out of plots. Just stop ruining it with the made-for-DVD movies, please.

CHOKE - con - I like Sam Rockwell. I like the book. But what a freakin' mess. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the ending, but I disliked the ending of this more. It didn't hold together. It didn't capture the good bits. And, well, Sam Rockwell was just the wrong choice all around (although he did remind me far too much of Jeff Lovell in the role).

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE - mixed - Simon Pegg is good. Jeff Bridges is good. But the whole thing doesn't quite add up to a film. More like a series of embarrassing gags, the Mr. Bean for snarky people. The female lead is someone famous and the whole film is so forgettable that I've forgotten who she is. And I can't be arsed to look it up.

THE WRESTLER - PRO - Lovely, heartbreaking, painful, doomed. Mickey Rourke is amazing. And Aranofsky doesn't drown us in pretension or degradation like he has in previous films. Although he gets close. The fireman scene in both this and SEX DRIVE make me think I've missed something in the zeitgeist.

Dear intern or whomever who picks the interlude music for "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross,

I'd had a sh*tty day and there it was, another interview with someone telling us how f**cked Henry Paulsen has left the TARP, 1/3 of the money thrown away and what what.

And then "Tacobel Cannon" by Ratatat broke up the horrendousness and made everything beautiful and wonderful and amazing in the world, if just for 30 seconds for Ms. Gross to catch her breath.

Sure, the aging boomers and the hipsteristas may not appreciate you, Mr./Ms. NPR music picker, but me, I love you.

Sincerely, truly, and until you throw a Fallout Boy track in between the serious interview and the film review,

--Amanda

It's always good to have a birthday on a Saturday - none of the complications or logistical nightmares of trying to have fun and have deadlines on the same day.

( ... )