Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
Please excuse the lack of updates this week – it’s been a week!
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
Watching
Frances Ha
A funny, affecting, and understated little film. You find yourself, at first, borderline hating Frances and then finding the reasons why you dislike her so much is because she’s a mirror to your own self. Adored this. It’s everything Girls wants to be, but struggles to even coming close to it in its self-effacing and nuanced self.
Gangsta Granny
A kids movie, Gangsta Granny is the story of Ben, a bored boy a who is tired of his parents (played by Miranda Hart and David Walliams) obsession with ballroom dancing and who often leave him with his grandmother (played by Julia McKenzie aka Miss Marple) who has a great love of cabbage and knitting sweaters with cats on them. Until one day, Ben discovers there is more to granny that meets the eye. Is she perhaps the great jewel thief, The Black Cat? Joanna Lumley also stars as The Queen. Quite cute and fluffy, just perfect for these long dreary days.
Hidden Killers in the Home
After finishing up this two part series, I started Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines, and after the first episode of THAT, I did not want to leave the spot I was sitting in. Ever. Truly and totally. Hidden Killers in the Home is the perfect example of how documentary shows should be done: an entertaining presenter who knows their story, good pacing, and well thought out time of events. After watching this, how we’ve been able to live past the Edwardian age without decimating ourselves remains a mystery to me, but all the new tidbits of knowledge now secured from this series is going to be great for future trivia nights.
Banshee
Master thief and con who steals an identity? Check. Sassy transvestite with a love of bling who is also a master hacker? Check. Tortured love story? Check. Tortured religious expectations? Check. Amish gangsters? Check. Native American mafioso? Check. Banshee is an unexpected pleasure in our house — there is enough shit thrown on the wall that you would think would turn out to be a hot mess but instead you find is actually a rather compelling story about a group of unlikely people who sole goal is make it through to the next day.
Project Runway All-Stars The person who won was not who I wanted to win and for that I am sad. But I will say with the inclusion of Alyssa Milano as the host was fabulous, despite Zac Posen as a little too butch-queen in his pronouncements. Isaac Mizrahi may not have the Michael Kors zingers, but he is just as equally fabulous.
Justified
We started mainlining this show early last spring, watching all four seasons within weeks. Waiting for season 5 to happen has been TORTURE. But Boyd Crowder is back and I am ever so happy to have him on my TV screen. Rowr.
Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,
This week is the last week of my staycation (go team academia!), and in addition to working on my plans for kicking ass in 2013, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the web, by cleaning out my Pocket and Evernote stashes along with attempting at some organization of my gReader account. I ditched Delicious and signed up with Licorize to start a workflow for all of my projects, which also includes cleaning out old saved articles and sites.
When I posted the first CCC, the idea in my head was to have one post for links and another post for my reviews of the week (what I’m reading/listening/watching). Then I realized that was a stupid idea and I should just consolidate everything in one entry instead of two. Reading The Far Traveler (Amazon|Local Library|Goodreads)
By Nancy Marie Brown
Sometime in 2010, I started getting interested in medieval history in a very big way, which lead to my interest of Norse mythology (and other origin stories as well as fairytales), and of course, Vikings. There were two things that I loved the most about my recent trip to England: My Cambridge University library reader’s card and seeing the iconic Sutton Hoo helmet in person. (This also explains why I want to learn Anglo-Saxon.) I stumbled upon The Far Traveler when I read Brown’s Seven myths we wouldn’t have without Snorri Sturluson on Tor, Google stalked her, and had this immediately sent via interlibrary loan before the holidays.
This isn’t a straight biography, but a delicate weave of history, stories, ideas, and possibilities that surround Gudrid and her time, based on the various Norse sagas and archaeological fact. Finding bits of cloth at a Viking longhouse sends Brown into how the cloth is made, its purpose, and why it was made. The boats that have been found in digs gives way to how those boats were constructed, what they were used for, and how modern boat makers have constructed similar vessels to understand how the Vikings pillaged the seas as they did. You find yourself not only learning about the period, but also about current archaeological / historical tools and advancements, customs, society, explorations, food, religion and everything in between. Everything is connected in Brown’s world, which is glorious as it allows Brown’s peeling back of layers to make for a very entertaining as well as educational read. Watching Rise of the Guardians
One thing I’ve noticed about my taste as of late in movies is I’m more apt to watch if it is animated over if it is not. There are some exceptions (period pieces anyone?), but almost always I put seeing the cartoons over anything else. Pro tip: Don’t walk into a matinee showing with your 6’6 husband and no child in tow. We got murderous looks from parents and one snobby bitch who kept trying to shuffle seats about in our row. Overall? I loved it, and in many ways it reminded me of Up with its overly hokey positive message, but who cares! It’s hard to not like a movie where Sanata is a Russian iconoclast tattooed within an inch of his life. Borgia
This is NOT the Showtime series, which I rather like, but a French-German concoction staring the American actor John Doman, Rawls on The Wire, as Rodrigo Borgia. As I said on Twitter the other night, it’s all over the place. But strangely, despite the fact no one has an Roman or Italian accent, and there may be some fudging with the historical details, it’s strangely compelling. It was produced for Italian TV Hearing
Not much this week, sad to report. I’ve been working on the metadata on my mp3s for my AudioMusicBiographically podcast, which looks like will be up by the end of January. In the mornings, when we’re working out, I’ve been making sure to listen to Girl Talk station on Pandora. But a lot of the time, I’ve been working in silence. Links
The most epic rap battle of Middle-Earth is between Gollum and Smeagol, obviously
When Is A Porn Copycat Too Much For A Movie Studio?
“‘Watching one of these [unboxing] videos is ‘similar to an experience you’d have in a strip club. It’s stuff that you’re lusting over – you can’t have it, but you want it.’'”
The physics of Guinness are as fascinating as they are delicious
Beyoncé isn’t Beyoncé because she reads comments on the Internet. Beyoncé is in Ibiza, wearing a stomach necklace, walking hand in hand with her hot boyfriend. She’s going on the yacht and having a mimosa. She’s not reading shitty comments about herself on the Internet, and we shouldn’t either.
I never claim to be a connoisseur of film. I just know what I like. Run Lola Run? Love it. Happenstance? Awsome. Sliding Doors? Great. (btw, i realise the last three movies have the same context, but that was a coinky dink). I’d like to think that I understand most major films and what the ‘point being’. That I can discern between a good film and a bad film. Like Showgirls. It is a great film — if you go into it knowing it’s what it’s about. Yes but it is terrible, but it’s so terrible it’s good! Like Evil Dead is so terrible that it’s good. So why the fuck do people keep saying if you don’t enjoy a film that ‘is deep’ this somehow makes you stupid? That you are better off watching Dude, Where’s My Car?.
Like Thin Red Line. It’s crap. I don’t care what anyone says about symbolism and foreshadowing, it’s crap. It was poorly edited, the script was choppy and I spent the whole 3 hours wishing I could watch paint dry. Gladiator is another one. Didn’t like it, didn’t get “it”. What the fuck was Robin Williams thinking about in One Hour Photo? I mean, fuck, Death to Smoochy was a MUCH better film (and had better imagery and symbolism etc). But yet OHP got better ratings than DTS, and DTS apparently was a “bomb” (at least according to Premier Magazine).
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?
Well, tonight Chris, one of Jeff’s roommates, suggested that we go see 25th Hour. Of course the boys wouldn’t DREAM of seeing a chick flick with me (though Jeff did want to go see Gangs of New York with me, but there were no more showings), even though Jeff claims that by hanging out with me his chances of picking up women double because women assume that if one girl wants someone that they will want them too and also apparently that because i’m his sister and deem him cool enough to hang out with, this makes him a better person. Right. Follow? So anyway, Chris gives the synopsis and I’m thinking he’s talking about Life of David Gale by his synopsis and I did want to see this and it has Kate Winslet in it (mmmmmm).
Haha. I was wrong. Oh. So. Wrong.
What the fuck is up with Spike Lee? I mean, what the fuck. The context of the movie seemed plausible but oh jesus, WHY DOES HE ALWAYS GOTTA DIG at everything racial. There is this half moment where Edward Norton (mmmm Edward Norton) is in the bathroom and his image is just ragging on every race left and right. Like out of no where. And ALL THE GRATUITOUS showing of post-9/11 bullshit. Yah, move on okay. MOVE THE FUCK ON. Yah it was terrible and it was awful and people died but people DIE EVERYDAY and it may not be violent or filled with anger or rage or hate but they still do die. Where are their memorials? I mean, fuck. C’mon on now. Where the fuck is your patriotism?
Okay, I’m going left of center here — the thing with Lee is that he takes the ideas of his past films and he reinvents them for a newer generation. This was like watching Jungle Fever and Do the Right Thing mixed together with the imagery of post-9/11 thrown in. The thing that killed me is that it had a GREAT cast: Edward Norton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Anna Paquin playing a tart. Major props for Norton going from neo-nazi to a angry white ikea boy to a clown to a drug dealer in NYC. There were a lot of unnecessary moments in the film that for continuity could have been left out and there seemed to be mix messages, like Lee had this one idea and then scooted over to another idea and just kept doing this back and forth. The movie is crap. There was maybe one or two good scenes in the 2.5 hour flick.
Don’t believe the hype. Lee has made some stinkers (like Girl 6). Just because Lee directed it doesn’t mean it’s good and trust me, it IS okay to dislike a movie that everyone hypes up, it doesn’t make you any less stupid or less of an intellectual.
Save your money and see something else. ANYTHING else.
the end.
x0x0x0x
lisa and in other news
having no neighbors downstairs lasted approximately 12 hours.
we found out today via jen that new neighbors were already moving in. pauls talking about meeting them and indulging them into warez, pron and lan parties.
also, i finally got around to updating my CD list. i want to thank everyone (a tonne of people) who sent me CDs for my birthday. the funny thing (hahahah. hehehee. hohohoho.) is that since i’ve been adding any old cds to my list as i hear about them, for the most part, i have no idea who half these people are that i now proudly own. no matter. i’m thisclose to finally breaking the 300 barrier for my collection. we also spent the night watching 16 candles, St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. What i need explained to me is: why do they have dvds of 16 candles and the breakfast club but NOT pretty in pink? there is no justice in this world.
The Far Traveler (
Rise of the Guardians