Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

I'm bored to death at present, and I just saw a trailer for it, so I've decided to give Jerry Maguire another chance.  It's one of those movies that lots of people rave about and I just really didn't get what was so great.

I was watching Postcards From the Edge as part of my recent Shirley MacLaine binge.  I watched Terms of Endearment the other day, then that made me want to watch Steel Magnolias because it's so much better!  And then I watched The Apartment on YouTube.

I love The Apartment.  It's such a weird dark comedy, and Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon are both awesome in it.  It's unusually edgy for 1960 - some rather dirty jokes and a lot of references to sex and a surprising three curse words.  Not bad curse words, but surprisingly casual usage of them for such an old movie - usually you only hear "hell" in old movies when someone's saying something profound like "War is hell" or actually referring to hell as a place, but in The Apartment Baxter tells Fran "You've got to get the hell out of here!" which surprised me because it was so casual and unnecessary - I wonder how they got away with it.  I guess this was after the Hays Code and such (Hm, just looked it up and it wasn't - the Hays Code lasted till 68), but still...  I also like the technology you can see in The Apartment.  I haven't figured out what half the machines Baxter uses at work are, but his TV tuner fascinates me.  It's not exactly a remote control but a box connected to the TV by a cord (I think?) which has knobs that he uses to turn it on and off and change channels from across the room.  I'd never seen anything like it.  I didn't know they had that sort of thing in 1960.  Anyway, watching Steel Magnolias and The Apartment back to back and then trying to connect crotchety old Ouiser with adorable waifish Fran is amusing.  Shirley MacLaine definitely changed over the years, but is awesome at any age!

Anyway, so today I watched Postcards, which threatened to derail my Shirley binge into a Meryl binge - she's so pretty and awesome in that movie, especially singing "Checkin' Out" at the end! But then it had a trailer for Jerry Maguire so I randomly decided to give that another shot.  As Good As It Gets was the other trailer, which was also a film everyone but me loved - I just never could get to like Jack Nicholson's character at all in it.

But anyway.  I am so bored tonight.  Seems like all I do is watch movies lately.  I haven't been getting as many hours at work and when I'm home I'm bored, especially when my roommate's away (which is almost every weekend).

I would simply like to record that I have triumphed!  Terms of Endearment did not make me cry.  I bought it eons ago from the $5 bin at Walmart because $5 is almost always a good deal on a Shirley MacLaine movie, and never got around to watching it.  Partly because I'm seldom in the mood for a tearjerker and I'd always heard it was extremely tragic and everyone always cries their eyes out over it.

But I thought it was kind of blah.  I really liked Shirley's character, and her relationship with Jack Nicholson's character, but I didn't find it that sad.  The only thing that almost got to me was Emma's youngest son Teddy because he was so adorable and sweet and sad.  But then, this is me, who considers Steel Magnolias to be hilarious, while my mom and aunt have to leave the room because they're sobbing.

Anyway, Ebert seemed to like Endearment better than Steel Magnolias, but I definitely prefer Steel Magnolias.

And randomly, Debra Winger reminded me at times of Kristen Stewart (other than the fact that she could actually act, and speak in complete sentences without stammering like an idiot).  I guess it was the dark hair and the husky voice.

So, three movies in four days.  I've been doing nothing lately.  Just laying around or either working.  Monday night I watched North & South, the BBC miniseries of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel.  That got me in a costume drama mood, and people are always comparing Mr. Thornton and Mr. Darcy, so I went on to P&P, the BBC version.  I think they're about equally good, just very different.  N&S has a lot more depth and substance, while P&P has a lot more charm and wit and humor.  And while I adore Colin Firth, Richard Armitage is stiff competition...that voice!  Mmm....

Anyway, off to bed!

Argh, I was all set to watch The Sound of Music, which I've been looking forward to all day because I've been wanting to watch it for a while... when my darling cat came running in from the screened porch carrying a fairly large roach!

Here's a hint for you - don't bother with Black Flag brand roach spray!  It's cheaper than Raid for a reason.  This one still wasn't totally dead when I vacuumed it up after about 15 minutes of spraying it.  Kills on contact indeed.  I think it was finally incapacitated from drowning in the stuff rather than from being poisoned.  It would not die.

*shudder*

Now I am trying to impress upon the cat that if she finds roaches on the porch, for heaven's sake leave them there!  Or better yet, kill them out there.  Although I think the ones around here are mostly too big for her to kill.  Ugh. 

I think it must have come up through the floorboards on the porch.   I suppose only 3 roaches in two and a half months in this apartment isn't too bad?  And I think one of them came in one of my roommate's boxes, so only 2 that were already here...

Now I'm all creepy-crawly and grossed out.

Hm.  LJ is lacking in suitable moods.  It doesn't have grossed out, horrified, or disgusted.  I suppose I'll use a custom mood.

My whole family, plus my mom's childhood friend who is visiting for the weekend, have just left to go to the beach for the day. I, meanwhile, am getting ready for work. Argh. My mom's friend, whom I like and would like to spend time with, is only here for the weekend and I am working every day. Fortunately only working evenings, but it still kind of ruins things. Especially since they're probably going out to eat at one of the really good restaurants at the beach.

Argh.

I am totally getting Zaxby's on the way to work. I am entitled to unhealthy fast food in return for having to work while they're all at the beach. Hmph.

And it's Harry Potter Day once again!

I have to work from 5-10, plus an hour's drive home (can't wait till I move to Columbia), but then me and my brother are going to a midnight showing!

I really wanted to reread the book, because I've only read it once or twice, and once was in a huge rush to find out what happened when it first came out. I can't ever remember who all those Gaunt people are and all the details about Slughorn and and Fenrir Greyback and stuff.

But I got stuck on GoF, possibly my least favorite book, and lost momentum with my re-reading. According to IMDb, though, the Gaunts were dropped anyway. Although weren't they kind of important? But whatever. The reviews sound pretty good and now I'm all fangirly and excited.

I hope they don't ruin the ending. I also hope they can make me care enough about Dumbledore to even care about the ending, because thus far I have hated Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, especially in GoF when he yelled at Harry after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire.

(This reminds me - I ought to go back and reread the journal I was keeping as I read HBP for the first time. I stopped every few chapters to record my reactions. There are lots of capital letters and exclamation marks and question marks and some very large "NOOOOO"s toward the end.)

I wonder if Dan's acting has improved any. I've never been particularly thrilled with him. Rupert, when he gets to do something besides stupid-sidekick-comic-relief stuff, and Emma are pretty good, but Dan's always been rather wooden. I don't hate him, but he's just kind of blah. He seems to have two main emotions - stoic and angry. However, since he's playing Angsty Teenager Harry now, perhaps those will serve him pretty well.

I remember how obsessed I used to be with HP. It's kind of faded over the years, but new movies and things still make me all fangirly!

So we just heard Sparkle, my cat, crying from down the hall. She doesn't make much noise at all unless something's wrong, so I went looking for her. The cries were coming from my brother's room, which she never goes in, so I figured maybe she was stuck in his closet or something. We searched all over his room, and were wondering if she'd maybe crawled inside his box springs - my other brother's box springs has a hole in the bottom cover and she occasionally hides inside it.

But then she meowed some more and finally we found her -- down inside the covered air vent in the floor.

It turned out that the cover had somehow been pried off the vent in my bedroom, and apparently she'd crawled down in that one. But how??? I mean, it's flush with the floor, so it would take some prying to get loose and out of the floor. We have had company - my aunt and uncle, two young cousins, and my aunt's childhood friend and her husband from Washington state...but I really don't think any of them would randomly mess with an air vent. Even the kids - for one thing, the vent in my room is on a very dusty part of the floor behind my bed where even I seldom go. For another, my cousins are veteran cat owners, obsessed with kitties, and very good at cat-proofing things (they've just gotten an indoor kitten) - so I'm fairly sure they'd realize the danger of Sparkle going in an open vent.

I'm contemplating whether it's possible that Bella, the puppy, did it (she's a very big puppy, probably close to 35 or 40 pounds now). I'm not sure if she'd have been able to do it or not. I really don't want to be like my dad who blames everything on the cat, but Bella does get into everything and I am biased against her because she has ruined several pairs of shoes and various other possessions. I don't have much patience with her, cute or not. My main concern was, if it was her, it could happen again.

So. Completely baffled. As my brother says, we need the Hardy Boys.

Started screencapping The Sting, which I just watched last night, but I have suddenly become overwhelmingly sleepy. First day at my not-really-new job today - I've started back at my old job in Columbia. Not the greatest job on earth, but I did rather like and am glad to be back.

I have two other sets of caps uploading now, and might cap Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, which I have from Netflix because I'm a dork and I love that movie (left over from my pre-teenage horse obsession). Hopefully I'll get the ones uploading now up tomorrow, but I don't know. I'll try to get them all up the near future, anyway.

So anyway, though it is unheard of for me to go to bed this early, I believe I shall. Good night!

So my dad is currently stuck on the side of the road somewhere south of Fayetteville, NC, with 3 Berkshire pigs in somewhat makeshift trailer.

And his cell phone is dead. So this is wonderful.

Some of my uncle's employees, who are no doubt thrilled, are on their way to get him, but in the meantime we have no news. We also don't know precisely where he is, other than somewhere near a gas station at exit 41 on I-95, where he accidentally put gasoline in my uncle's diesel truck.

So he can't go find a phone, since he can't leave his pigs. IF he's on 95, maybe someone will observe a man in a truck with pigs has broken down and will call the police? We're not really worried (well, I am, because I worry about everything), but we do need to know where he is and he probably would like some food, seeing as he's been wherever he is since 7:40-ish.

My family always has the weirdest drama.

My family has decided we should start calling flash drives "information goblets," which is what my dad called one today when he couldn't think of the name. He does this all the time - uses completely random, entirely unrelated words when he can't of the right one. He once called a watermelon a lawnmower, and a plate of sliced tomatoes, umbrellas. This causes much hilarity and many inside jokes.

Off to have dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Maybe more later.

What exactly did that line mean and why is it so famous?

I finally watched Dirty Dancing, which I'd never seen before. Yes, I know it's a classic, especially of the cheesy fluffy chick flick category, which is my specialty, so it's positively tragic I hadn't seen it.

And of course, I loved it! I'd have maybe preferred if the 80s-ish music hadn't kept interfering with the 60s vibe, but I loved it anyway!

A nice fluffy romantic movie, exactly the kind I like! And with very hot Patrick Swayze! Man, I don't think I've ever seen a Patrick Swayze movie, come to think of it, but wow! The dancing was great and the whole movie was very sexy!

But that "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" line - I don't get it. Why is it famous? Having heard the line a million times with no context, I always imagined maybe somebody was threatening Baby, you know - had her cornered? But in context, it doesn't really seem to make sense. Presumably no one forced Baby to sit in the corner. I guess maybe he meant she shouldn't be ignored, hence the ensuing dance with her? I still don't really get the line, nor see why it's famous.

But other than my puzzlement about that line, it was awesome. The sort of movie that leaves you happy, which is the kind I like!

Which, incidentally, is part of why I didn't care for the apparently much-acclaimed Once. I was gypped! All the hype, including the Netflix envelope, went on about the romance - and then the ending was most disappointing. Not sad, but not happily ever after. Yes, I know I'm a baby, but real life is depressing enough. I'll take happy endings in my movies, please!

Once was just a bit too gritty, too slow, too indie, if that makes any sense. There wasn't enough dialog (montages again), too many long disjointed handheld camera bits, etc. The music was not my type, and the film was just too lowkey and blah. It was difficult to stay awake. It wasn't awful. I rather liked the characters, especially the fact that they weren't gorgeous actors, but actually looked like regular people (although I confess, given the choice I'll take super-hot Patrick Swayze over ordinary people any day).

So I liked the characters, but the "falling in love" that IMDb's plot description mentioned seemed more like "gradually growing somewhat fond of each other." There didn't seem to be much chemistry between them although I believe I heard they were together in real life? The music was all so blah (to me, bearing in mind that I have very weird taste in music and am an avid bluegrass fan) that I can't remember any of it at all. No real romance, no action, no suspense - it seemed like nothing happened. Overall: meh.

Anyway, got to get up earlyish to go look at apartments in Columbia with Rachelle. I am quite excited to be independent (ish) again! Next movie up should be Lost In Austen, from Netflix. Might be a while though, due to my YouTube Friends marathon. I'm almost done with season 7 (Monica & Chandler's wedding is coming up!), which is further than I've gotten in any TV show except As Time Goes By, which doesn't count because there's like 10 episodes per season. I'm madly obsessed with Friends, especially Chandler :) More on that later!

My LJ has been overhauled! I've gone through and retagged everything so the tagging more or less makes sense. I've fixed the icon posts, as the tables I'd originally used didn't work in the new layout. Screencap posts now have the gallery graphics from my site instead of tiny previews. I have a lovely new P&P mood theme - I must make an effort to use a bigger variety of moods instead of "cheerful" all the time.

So anyway, it should now be easier to find screencaps, as they are all tagged. I don't have enough icons to bother with classifying them much, so they're not tagged by specific movie or subject, really. The "squee" tag applies to rather fangirly posts, LOL, mostly to do with Walk the Line.

I've realized, reading back through my journal, that I should post more. Even if no one else reads it, I find it interesting to remember things I'd forgotten about from several years ago...

Wow. Jake Gyllenhaal is filming a movie (which looks really weird) a few blocks away from my apartment building. How awesome is that?

He's been seen at Strom, the university gym, late at night. I've gone there about 5 times in my 3 years here, but I think now would be an excellent time to go again, LOL...

I'm still at a loss as to why they film movies here. Kevin Bacon and John Goodman were around last year filming Death Sentence. Columbia is quite possibly one of the ugliest, most generic, personality-less cities I have ever seen. It's a bigger version of my ugly, generic, personality-less hometown. There are very few tall buildings, even downtown, and no skyline to speak of. Just shabby, half-empty strip malls and ancient, empty buildings.

Beaufort or Charleston, I can see as filming locations--they have some character and appeal. Columbia is rundown, shabby, dirty, and generally dull. The downtown areas where they're filming, around the State House, are full of homeless people. I have no idea why you'd film a movie here.

It's the weirdest thing. There's this cat who hangs around the entrance to our building. Twice he's followed us to our room and darted inside, then proceeded to inspect the whole thing. I don't know if he used to live in our apartment or what, but he seems to regard it as his territory. He's cute, but I have no idea if he has fleas or anything so I never let him stay very long, though I feel bad kicking him out. He isn't declawed, either, as he proved today by sharpening his claws on the living room chair...

Life's been a bit crazy lately. Finished my finals. The two classes I'm most worried (but still not very) about haven't posted grades yet of course. Went to the Merle concert Tuesday; was awesome, review coming soon. Me and Amanda (2nd_date), my best friend and roommate, moved from our dorm to our very own apartment (pix soon perhaps), where my cousin and other friend will be joining us once the school year starts. So craziness. G2G for the moment, more later.

Um, hi. It's been a while. I'm not dead! I've just been a bit distracted. Sadly, I was not distracted by distracted by studying for finals, which are next week. I can't actually remember what exactly I was distracted by. Went out of town for the weekend (and reconfirmed how much better North Carolina is than South Carolina)...played a lot of KoL...went to class (occasionally)...

On the bright side, I made 5 icons tonight for my icons100 challenge. Only 6 more themed and...49 artist's choice ones. Hm.

On the even brighter side, I'm going to see Merle Haggard at the Township Auditorium on the 2nd of May! I've been hugely into classic country lately, having branched from Johnny Cash to Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and Faron Young, among others. The main problem with this is that a large majority of the artists are dead. Especially the ones I'd have killed to see live, like Johnny & June, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, etc. So since Merle was conveniently coming to Columbia and was someone other than Willie Nelson (who is the only classic country person who ever seems to come), I figured I'd see him before he dies or quits touring (like the Statler Brothers, whom I'd also kill to see). My parents are convinced that I will be raped and killed going by myself, but I'm not that worried. I'll take my pepper spray, for heaven's sake. I do, however, anticipate being the only person under 40 there.

So...I think I'll go watch a movie now. Maybe I'll re-re-screencap WTL. I *wanted* to watch Skylark, the sequel to Sarah, Plain & Tall, which I love and watched last night, but unfortunately we only have it on video (a thoroughly useless format) and the VCR ate it. So now I can't watch any videos since Skylark is stuck the VCR. *sigh* Outdated technology.

I think my Effexor withdrawal is a bit better. My Walk the Line withdrawal, unfortunately, is not. I want to see it again now. I'm definitely buying it. I found it for less than $15 online. It's weird, I can hardly even explain why I like it so much, but I'm like pining to see it again!

I have become obsessed with Walk the Line and Johnny Cash in general. I watched it 4 times over the weekend before I had to return it. I downloaded some Johnny Cash/Johnny & June songs and was a bit disappointed to find that Reese makes a much better June than June herself does. By which I mean she sings better. In my opinion. Joaquin & Johnny are so close it's hard to tell them apart! I really wish Joaquin & Reese had recorded a full version of "Time's A Wastin'." It's dreadfully catchy and I don't really like June & Carl Smith's version. Did she ever record a version with Johnny?

Oh, the misery of Effexor withdrawal (still). Right now I have this dreadful shaky feeling in my stomach like really bad butterflies. It makes me want to tense up instinctively and then my muscles get sore. And my head is flashing still. And my back hurts, although I think that's more because of the horrible mattress the school gave me and me being generally old and decrepit.

I really want to watch Walk the Line again right now. It's probably a good thing I can't because then I'd get sick of it. I want to watch it and force everyone else to watch it and like it so I'll have someone to enthuse with. Unfortunately Amanda's not interested so I'm forced to spam my LJ about it. I think it's too much for my romantic nature. Somehow I find it even more romantic than really dramatic romances like PotO or even P&P because it's so simple and real and it really (mostly) happened. Although it doesn't make me cry, surprisingly.

I want to either look for icons/wallpaper or make some, but my stomach is bothering me too much and I want to curl up and...do something. I dunno. First I want to see how cheap I can find Walk the Line online. *sigh*

So I just watched Walk the Line again. Ostensibly to cap it but mostly because I wanted to see it again. Someone's already done like 4000 HD caps at cap_it so there wasn't really much point, but I'll post them anyway later. My school DSL is faster at uploading caps than my Direcway satellite at home, so I'll wait till I'm back there.

It really is a good movie and for some reason I really really like although I've never been a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix or Johnny Cash. I love the romance and the great music and good acting (Reese Witherspoon is such a good actress). I really want to watch it again now, even though I've just watched it twice and I need to watch Elizabethtown.

I have this sort of Good Movie Syndrome where when I watch a really good movie, I want to watch it again IMMEDIATELY.

I think I might watch it once more tomorrow since it's a two day rental and then take Elizabethtown to school with me, since it's a week rental. I love Blockbuster's no late fees thing!

Still feeling like crap from quitting my Effexor, but from reading a bunch of message boards my withdrawal isn't half bad compared to some people. I just hope it doesn't last much longer.

Just saw Walk the Line. Awesome film! You probably get the impression from the few reviews I've done that I think more or less everything is an awesome film, but...there are some I don't like. Memento for instance. So there.

Anyhow. I had never seen Joaquin Phoenix before, but he was awesome. Reese Witherspoon was phenomenal too, but I really don't see why she won so many more awards than he did. For me it was easier to see him as really being Johnny Cash, since I'm less familiar with him. I've seen Reese in so many things that I still kind of saw her as Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter.

While I'm familiar with Johnny Cash's big hits (especially since we got this wonderful new country legends radio station in Columbia, which I love!), I don't really know much about his life. From my impression of his life and personality, though, Joaquin was dead on (probably a good thing he doesn't go by Leaf anymore. It'd be hard to take him seriously).

I usually have little patience for drug-rehab type stories, but at the moment I have the utmost sympathy for poor Johnny after June and her parents drove his dealer away at gunpoint (one of my favorite minor scenes, as I can easily see it really having happened). My current sympathy is due to the fact that I'm switching antidepressants and getting off my Effexor, and am currently rather miserable.

I don't think Dr. King was familiar enough with the side effects and such. Most people I've heard of weaned themselves off really gradually and still had trouble. He just put me on a half-dose for a week and then off altogether, with the result that I'm having electric flashes in my head, weird dreams and interrupted sleep, and (a new development this evening) shaking uncontrollably. So now I feel like a junkie.

But back to the review. I thought it told the story well, without glossing over the bad parts and trying to make Johnny look good all the time. My favorite parts were his early tour and the later Folsom Prison show, when he was clean and sober and you really saw what a strong personality he had. I also loved how June stood by him during his recovery from drug addiction and his proposal to June, being the hopeless romantic that I am.

As a final completely random note, Joaquin Phoenix in this role often reminded me in appearance of Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music.

Now I want to buy either this movie or a Johnny Cash CD, along with Pride & Prejudice, Bride & Prejudice, the Bride & Prejudice soundtrack, and Goblet of Fire. And I don't even have a job at the moment, having quit my hateful job at Fred's. I'm holding off for a bit since my depression's been bad lately and I tend to go to pieces under stress, of which school alone provides plenty.

As an example of school-related stress, they totally screwed up our housing assignment for next year. Amanda and Rachelle and I had asked to room together in the Quads, but they put me and Amanda in Bates West with a party girl and chain smoker and put Rachelle on the waiting list. So now after a hectic and stressful search for somewhere for the three of us to live (made more stressful by both of them having somewhat unrealistic criteria - must be on campus, have individual rooms, and be under $400 each a month), we've applied at Whaley's Mill apartments. I don't really care where we live or if we have individual rooms. I don't really care if we have hall bathrooms - I put up with it all last year and to me it's just part of college.

So. Going to bed with my Ambien now.

I just installed my new Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse thing. It CAME with a AA battery. No sooner have I plugged it in than it is telling me that the battery is low. Honestly, is Microsoft so pathetic that they include half-dead batteries with their products???