Feel Good Inc.

I haven't listed my movie watching and book reading escapades from December and as I know that's a highlight of my little corner of the 'net, I better get to it.. I'll start with books because that will be easiest, as I read one friggin' book. I'm disgusted with myself, but my defense is that I had a shitload of knitting to get done, and the gym was closed the week after Christmas and I only went once the week before Christmas (I'm positive I had excellent reasons for not going).

BOOK

Absolute Friends by John Le Carré - 453 pages (I think) – It was classic Le Carré and although it took me forever to read it, it was no the fault of the book at all, I just had so much else going on. I HATED the ending, but not because it didn't fit or probably wouldn't happen, but because it sucked! The idea of the ending, not the book, if that makes sense. If you like spy type novels, do yourself a favor and check out his books.

MOVIES

As I did a lot of knitting, I did a lot of movie watching, but at the same time not as much as I could have as I got sucked into my Stargate SG-1 boxsets. You have no idea how proud of myself I am that I have NOT ordered Seasons 5-6 for myself.

12/6 – Anna Russell: Crown Princess of Musical Parody (N) – This is very early Anna Russell (1960s) and it's in black and white. It's amusing, but if you're going to watch just one Anna Russell concert/DVD, I'd go with the one I watched later in the month.

12/6 - The Italian Job (K) – I have nothing to say about this that I haven't said before as I've watched it a good dozen times. LOVE IT! Great fun, not overly intellectual or anything like that, but a good time always.

12/10 - American Graffiti (TCM) – Sadly, I had never seen this classic before, so I was glad to see TCM showing it (along with a bunch of other good movies) that particular Sunday. I think I avoided it for so long because I thought something bad happened in it (no clue why I thought this). It doesn't and I would watch it again.

12/10 - Charade (TCM) – We all know I love and adore Audrey Hepburn to say nothing of Cary Grant. This movie is often described as the best Hitchcock movie not made by Hitchcock and I'd say it's an accurate assessment. And we all know how much I love Hitch, so you know I'm going to say that you should all check this movie out, if you haven't seen it. Trivia bit: This is the movie that Julia Roberts and Richard Gere watch in "Pretty Woman."

12/10 - Kiss Me Deadly (TCM) – This was another of my "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book and I was lucky to find it on TCM. Definitely film noir in scope, but unlike "Scarlet Street" which I watched in November, I liked this one. And I really like watching movies on TCM because of the synopsis given at the beginning and the closing remarks after by either Robert Osborne or the younger dark-haired guy. I find the remarks helpful and enlightening.

12/15 - Singin' in the Rain (TCM) – Another movie from "1001 Movies…" I taped this from TCM as I had never seen it. I've heard it called the best musical ever, but I don't know that I would say that. I definitely liked it and would recommend it, if you haven't seen it. Another one I'd watch again.

12/23 - How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days (USA) – I was liking this movie right up until the part where they're at a fancy-do and each find out the other was playing them and then they proceed to act stupidly and embarrass each other and themselves. I hate that shit in movies. I don't know about you, but if I found out somebody had been playing a trick on me, I would have either confronted him about it or walked out. I would NOT get up on stage with Marvin Hamlisch, etc. Other than that, it was a cute romantic comedy, but because of that one scene, I can pretty well guarantee it won't be added to my collection.

12/24 - Anna Russell: The (First) Farewell Concert (N) – I had heard a number of Ms. Russell's skits on CBC Radio Two but wanted to get the full picture. She was a very funny woman (she died last summer). And if you have the least bit of musical interests in classical or operatic music, you'll love this. I have never listened to or seen Wagner's The Ring Cycle opera, but her take on it had me laughing out loud.

12/25 - Sabrina (K) – Again, Audrey Hepburn this time with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. The first time I saw this movie I was annoyed because I had not yet gotten over my Humphrey Bogart issues. Now, I have no idea what my problem was. I know there was a recent remake with Harrison Ford and somebody, but I can't be bothered to give it the time of day. I wasted my time with the "An Affair to Remember" remake with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening and was ticked at myself for being so stupid. There are enough movies to see out there w/o wasting my time on some stupid remake of a perfectly fabulous movie.

12/25 - Cars (YS) – I was torn about seeing this movie. On the one hand, Paul Newman does one of the voices. On the other, it's about NASCAR and since I hate and despise NASCAR and the amount of press its boring as bloody hell races get, I was disinclined to see it, to say nothing of the fact that they named the lead character after Steve McQueen who had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with NASCAR. He raced in real race cars in real races. But the YS brought it to Christmas Day at the OS's house and in the end, Paul Newman won me over and I watched it. And I'm ashamed to admit that I liked it. I can still say, however, that I've never Days of Thunder and won't.

12/30 - The Flight of the Navigator (ABC Family) – I first saw this movie around the time it originally came out, but then it seemed to disappear and I began to wonder if I had imagined it. I found it on Netflix a couple of year ago and re-watched it and still loved it. When I saw it was on, I couldn't resist watching it again. And I'll probably watch it every time it's on. I don't know why this movie appeals to me so much, but I think it's an under-rated kid's film.

12/31 - The Ugly American (N) – Based on the book of the same name, I did not like this movie. Not because it was a bad movie, but because it was too accurate. I had put this in my Netflix queue after reading All Souls Day by Bill Morris because it was mentioned quite prominently in the book and I was interested to see how it compared to Mr. Morris' description. He also mentioned the book The Quiet American which was made into a movie in 2002. I started to watch it after I finished The Ugly American but found that I was in the mood for something a titch more light-hearted, so that one is still waiting for me. The ending of the movie, The Ugly American, was an improvement over the rest of the movie, but it's not one I'd watch again, not because it was bad, but because it made me feel horrible.

12/31 - The Muppet Movie (93%) (K) – I told you I needed something light-hearted after The Ugly American and Kermit got the nod. I love this movie, I have always loved this and will always love this movie. If you don't, I don't want to hear about it, because then I'd have to think less of you. ;-)

Next on my list of things to tell you all about are my kick-ass Christmas gifts.

The first one is my Black iPod Nano. This was my Christmas gift from my brother as well as Christmas and birthday from my mother. Of course, if I had done my own research I would have figured out that I really wanted the Shuffle for exercising and then gotten a big regular iPod which could probably hold all of my music, but I let my brother do it all. I'm going to have to get an iPod holder to attach to something for when I exercise. At any rate, it's what I asked for and everybody tells me that 2000 songs if a lot. And I hope it helps me keep my body moving when exercising. I find I walk faster when walking to something like The Sister of Mercy, so I hope it translates to the elliptical machine. I finished downloading all of my pop/rock CDs (except Tori Amos and REM) last night, so tonight I hope to figure out how to make up an Exercise Playlist and download it. Wish me luck.

Next up is this book from Zahi Hawass. The really kick-ass part of it? It's autographed. Unfortunately, he was busy when my aunt asked him to sign it, so it doesn't say "To Kathleen" but it still completely rocks. She also got me an Ancient Egyptian pop-up calendar which is hanging in my living room. I hope to get off my ass sometime soon and lure Ursamajor up the stairs to help me re-arrange my apt. and perhaps hang a picture or two. This is pertinent because I got some very cool Egyptian papyri I need to hang as well.

The third and last of the totally kick-ass gifts had me in tears. We all know how I am. One of the most fabulous person in the world had my name in the Friends Christmas Gift Exchange and he outdid himself. He found a hat from the 2003 Lausitzring CART/Champ Car race where Alex Zanardi finished the 13 laps of the race he didn't finish in 2001 because of a hideous accident where he lost his legs. I have posted the pics of it at my flickr.com account. As soon as I got home from the Gift Exchange last Monday, I took the pics and sent them to HRH. Her pronouncement was "Very cool.!" If I have a job come March, I will have the coolest hat at the Vegas race.

And last but not least, Smed is offering Holiday Mix CDs if I say why I want it. Apparently "Smed rules" is not a sufficient enough example of my writing, so some of you might want to tune out now. Just for your own sake.

Basically, the reason I want to the double Smed's Own Holiday CD Mix is because I've seen the playlists of both of them and they pretty much kick all other Holiday CD mixes' asses. I base this just on the titles since I don't know a good number of the songs (or hell, the bands), but I enjoy Smed's CDs because he makes me broaden my horizons by including old stuff I don't know, new stuff from bands I've never even heard of and because he included Band-Aid (which I have on my Midge Ure CD) and Ministry (which I also have), but it makes me comfortable in the rest of his musical choices (Steve Miller Band be damned – not literally – but because he loves the Steve Miller Band and I hate the Steve Miller Band, particularly that hideous song he included on the first mixed CD he sent me).

I'm not sure if that's a good enough essay to grant me more CDs, but it's all I have right now.