Submarine

This past weekend I've seen my second favorite movie of the year - Submarine. This movie is the directorial debut of Richard Ellef Ayoade who played Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd (add that to your Netflix queue as well) and tells the story of Oliver Tate's (Craig Roberts) two missions in life - Keep your parents marriage from falling apart and be the perfect boyfriend to Jordana. Craig looks like a cross between a young John Lennon and Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. I see a long term movie career ahead for this lad (who btw, is a 21 yr old playing a 15 yr old). Alex Turner does a solo turn here by providing the sound track which really works.

This is not your Mother's coming of age story. I hate the term coming of age anyway. The movie takes place in Swansea in 1986, whose landscapes flucutate between foggy, curving coastline and industrial dump sites, which makes the perfect backdrop for this story. Kudos for the spot on cinematography. These thankfully ordinary looking kids have already figured out that your "friends" can throw you under the bus for their own entertainment at a moments notice. These kids really roll with the school yard punches. Oliver's parents haven't had sex in awhile, he has a really clever way of monitoring this, and he's quite concerned. To make matters worse, the new neighbor New Age Guru Graham, is an ex-lover of his mother. Oliver later learns that his marine biologist dad actually stole his mother away from Graham. His mother is showing way too much interest in attending Graham's psycho-babble seminars. Oliver takes it upon himself to try to mend the marriage and get Graham out of the picture. Oh, and he's got to balance being the perfect boyfriend as well.

This movie was just such a clever breath of fresh air. I loved it!

Hey Rabbit!

Egg trees are so colorful and wacky! I must lead a sheltered life: I didn't know plastic eggs came with ears.



Fionn Regan singing Hey Rabbit. Fionn is clearly the love child of Bob Dylan and Beck.

This was posted in the window of Magic Bus in Broad Ripple on Easter morning.

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belguim

I'm not sure what prompted me to watch this again, I saw it at the drive-in when I was a wee lass, but I did. IITIMBB is a terrible movie. Terrible, but like a three-headed baby, I couldn't tear my eyes away. A group of very predictable stereotypical Americans go on an 18 day tour of Europe via Whirlwind Tours - Charlie Cartwright (Ian McShane) is the very mod Brit tour guide. Charlie has a beauty in every city; drop dead beauties at that. Suzanne Pleshette (I did not know she had passed way) is Samantha Perkins, an American fashion executive who needs time to consider whether she should marry some guy named George. Honestly, I can't imagine spending money on a trip like this in real life.

Hokey smoky script aside, I must admit there were some hidden gems. I loved seeing all the 35mm SLR cameras. There were some cameo appearances by two of my fav actors from that time period Ben Gazzara (didn't know he died this year) and Robert Vaughn. Charlie's beauties proved a mystery to me - who in the world were these extraordinary looking women? Another thing to note - Suzanne P was almost never seen standing up - she was either sitting at a table or sitting on the bus. Charlie's beauties were always shown standing up - full body. I imagine that Suzanne was not quite as thin and leggy as these beauties, so we were never shown her full body. Her dresses were really bunchy in the waist and hung below the knee. That pretty face was her greatest asset.

Back to Charlie's beauties:
Elsa Martenelli
Catherine Spaak

Heart throb guys from popular television and music were represented too.

Luke Halpin who would later become famous for his sun bleached hair and deck shoes in Flipper.

Donovan makes an appearance in a youth hostel. He sings Lord of the Reedy River which is a classic psychedelic pop number. He wrote the title song, but he didn't sing it. Someone named J P Rags is given credit. Anyone think that's a fake name?

Last, but not least, a few words about Ian McShane. The guy really can act. He takes this throw away role and gives it his all. Everyone else seems to be going through the motions - let's get through this already. I really liked his Al Swearengen character in Deadwood. What a role!

I've always had a thing for the way Europeans hold cups, silver ware, bottles, etc. It's a very sexy way of holding these very ordinary items. They have this touch that Americans just don't have. The Charlie character does the same thing throughout this movie. Just watch how Charlie effortlessly twirls the fondue fork during the Fondue Fling scenes. Check out this picture of Charlie pouring coffee in a cup for Samantha. Purrrrrrrr........

Spring Has Sprung In My Sink

My mom bought me the flamingos above for Christmas last year. They have metal feathers that curl at the end giving them this wacky textured look.

I have a thing for moss. This photo was taken near Bacon Swap. These days it's more of a large open water area near a nursing home rather than a swamp. My neighbors tell me that back in the day, when folks were doing construction for the nursing home, large pieces of construction equipment would sink a bit into the bog during the night.

I pass this beautiful verdis green drain cover when I stroll through my neighborhood. I'm sure the folks in the house nearby wondered what the heck I was doing taking of picture of drain cover on the corner.

A couple of blocks away from me is an adorable but empty Cape Code style house. I could so live there. On the back side there's a fish pond surrounded by a rock garden. I decided to peek in the other day and saw Master Frog hanging out.

Yes, I know, you should never post pictures of your dirty dishes on the web, but I just could not help it this time. Passing through the kitchen the other day this pile reminded me of spring.

Photos from the 'hood via iPhone

Spring came a bit too early this year. I took some photos during a couple of walks through my neighborhood (and the 'hoods nearby) this past week. I'm glad I did; it got so warm that most of the tulip trees have lost their flowers. The petals are beautiful in their decay.

I sometimes pass by this massive tree that looks like something out of Sherwood Forest. I believe it is probably the largest tree for many surrounding blocks. I left items in the photo - lamp post, fire hydrant, house to help gauge the size of this Tree Guy.

I love the rusted texture of this horse tie out. Did you ever want to know how to tie a bank robber knot? The wind becomes too much at the end of the video.

I have a few photos from the neighborhood next to mine - Forest Hills. No one ever names a neighborhood Dump Site Lawn or Out House Hills.

Finally, a pic of some tiny seedlings coming up in one of my flower boxes hanging off of the garage.
Spring is so cute!

Colossus: The Forbin Project and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Cult Movie Night @ Gary's last night. Obvious technology tee-hees aside, the acting in these 2 flicks is pretty darn good. The down side, though of ToP123 - No back story on the bad guys. In today's reality show, post Pulp Fiction world, we want to get to know our bad guys. We want that Jules and Vincent banter; we want to know those personality quirks that make us care about them. We want to know what pushed the ToP123 guys to over the edge to take a subway car hostage. What were they pre-heist meetings like? Did they fight over the assigned color names? Did someone say no to the mustache disguise idea? How did they get together in the first place?

This was also my first attempt at Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt brownies. They were quite moist, but they could definitely use a bit more sea salt (since that was the goal). I was lickin' the bowl for sure. I'm glad there were a few left to take back home as I really hadn't had my fill. I didn't take pix while I was making them, but here's a pix of the ones I brought home. Note the piece of popcorn on the left (from one of the snack bags someone brought). Also note - first pix from new iPhone 4S.


It was Saint Patrick's Day in Broad Ripple for sure. You gotta love all the out door parties and folks walking around wearin' the green.

Moebius - RIP

Like a lot of folks, I had an after school paper route as a kid. My grandmother didn't raise a fool; you have to work if you want to have anything. After depositing the Friday evening weekly paper subscription collections at the bank, we were allowed to purchase one magazine at the Ewing Drugstore (pictured on the right - red car parked in front). It was here that I had discovered Heavy Metal magazine. I can remember walking to the left side of the store, across that squeaky wooden floor to the magazine area. Ahh...the thrill when a new issue came out! The artwork and story lines from these European artists was just what the doctor ordered. I lived vicariously through these stories. I just learned this morning that Jean Giraud - Moebius, one of my fav Heavy Metal artists, had passed away on March 10. His line work was sublime.

I remember reading this comic over and over and over.