Posted by barb on Aug 23, 2003 in
Movies 0/5 stars
(too bad I can’t assign negative numbers…)
I want those two hours of my life back.
I’m not sure where to start, since so much of this production was bad. The characters were incomprehensible, the script dull, and the plot incoherent. There was not one character that I liked, and like The Brotherhood of the Wolf, Andrew and I often looked at each other with puzzled looks, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.
Don’t bother. You’d be better off counting the hairs on your head for amusement.
Posted by barb on Aug 20, 2003 in
Books by Roald Dahl
This is one of a series of children’s books that I’ve bought over the past several weeks. A few of them I’ve read before, and just wanted to see how they stood up over time. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, however, I’ve never read.
This was the basis for Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory staring Gene Wilder. The elements of the movie were all there, but in some places the book elaborated more, and in others the movie did. Overall, a very fun read, even for an adult like me.
Posted by barb on Aug 19, 2003 in
Concerts We went to see the Indigo Girls at Wolf Trap this evening. As always, they put on a great concert. They played several new songs from an album that should be released in early 2004. I think both Andrew and I liked all of the new pieces they played, though in particular, I liked “One Perfect World” (or just Perfect World…the memory is not what it used to be).
Unfortunately, we were seated behind the World’s Most Annoying Girls (TM). Two of them didn’t show up until the third or fourth number, and then they just had to keep talking to each other during the entire concert. The one in front of me seemed to be attempting to increase her cross-section as much as humanly possible by constantly moving from one side to the other (not in time with music or anything, just kind of spastic). Andrew and I debated whether they were on drugs or just stupid. I voted for stupid.
Posted by barb on Aug 18, 2003 in
Books A diary of my former self
by Lori Gottlieb
Stick Figure is Gottlieb’s diary from when she was 11 years old, and anorexic. She started out sounding like a normal 11-year-old — questioning why women were so weird about eating. On one page of the women’s magazines her mom read was a new diet, and on the next page a recipe for a triple-chocolate layer cake. But, something seemed to snap, and she became the one who was diet-obsessed. Even though she was only 11-years old and 65 pounds, she put herself on a diet, so she could be the thinnest girl at school.
I think I’ve been interested in anorexia because my eating disorder has manifested itself as over-eating. I’ve always secretly wished that I could have gone in the direction of anorexia instead. I know that it’s no more healthy than over-eating, but at least then I would be thin. I know that’s twisted, and reading Stick Figure gave me a good picture into the mind of at least on anorexic. Their life is in no way better than mine, just messed up in a different way. Gottlieb even worried about getting calories from licking stamps or smelling food!
Posted by barb on Aug 17, 2003 in
Books by Sheri S. Tepper
Tepper is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors! This is the second book I’ve read by her, and it also has the high quality writing, story and character development as Singer From the Sea.
In this novel, it is three hundred years after the Earth has gone through a devastating war. The society that has arisen from the devastation consists of cities behind walls governed by women and garrisons filled with men to protect each city. When a boy turns five, his mother brings him to the garrison to be raised by his warrior father. He returns to his mother’s house twice a year during carnival. Then at age fifteen he must decide whether to stay with the garrison or to return to the city through the Women’s Gate (only warriors are allowed to use the Warrior’s Gate). The men who return become servitors, they study and live in a women’s house assisting with the work.
We follow Stavia, daughter of a councilwoman and later a councilwoman herself. The story is told through flashbacks to Stavia’s childhood and early adulthood, as she becomes smitten and later hurt by a warrior. Interwoven into all of this is the tension building in the garrison — the warrior’s unrest and desire to take over the women’s city.
Excellent book. I again look forward to my next Tepper book.
Posted by barb on Aug 15, 2003 in
Movies 3.5/5 stars
This is a somewhat depressing documentary following Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to mount a production of Don Quixote. He started with too little money and an impossible schedule. The actor’s were squeezing this job into their busy schedules, with little leeway on either side, and were taking a cut from their normal pay. Then, on the second day of filming, a rain storm ruins not only equipment but the landscape of the location. In addition, the actor playing Don Quixote is stricken with a prostate infection. Without a leading actor, and with the schedule already behind, the production dies.
It was a pity, because what we saw of the vision Gilliam had for the Don Quixote story, it looked like it could be an incredible movie. Rumors are that he is still looking for money to resurrect the production, but for now it is the property of the insurance company.
Posted by barb on Aug 12, 2003 in
Books by Scott O’Dell
This is another book I had read as a kid, and when I saw it on the shelf at a local used bookstore, I couldn’t help myself. It was certainly just as good reading as an adult as when I was a child.
O’Dell tells the story of an Indian girl living alone on the Island of the Blue Dolphins for many years. She ends up alone because she jumped from the ship that came to carry her people to a nearby North American shore. Her brother had been left behind, and she didn’t want him to be alone. Unfortunately, a few days after the boat leaves, her brother is killed by wild dogs, leaving Karana alone. She continues to watch for the boat, but days turn into weeks and weeks turn into seasons.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is that it is based on the fact that there was an Indian girl living alone on an island in the Pacific from 1835 to 1853. Very little is known about her other than she did jump from a ship, despite attempts to restrain her, her brother was killed by wild dogs, and she was found with a dog living in a crude house and wearing a skirt of cormorant feathers.
Posted by barb on Aug 10, 2003 in
Books Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origin of the Universe
by John D. Barrow
The subtitle of this book is Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origin of the Universe — that’s a tall order for a book about Nothing!
Barrow starts by telling how zero came about — surprisingly not from the Greeks. From there we explore the history of the concept of Nothing. It’s amazing to thing that the concept of Nothing took a long time to come into being. The Greeks, for example, believed that a region had to have something in it to be a real concept. The Christians debated whether the concept of Nothing was Christian or not. On one side a region with nothing in it would also be without God, but He is everywhere. On the other side, if they decided that God couldn’t create a region with nothing in it, then they were limiting His powers.
From there Barrow moves on to more and more complex ideas until finally we learn about the quantum vacuum. Because of the uncertainty principle — the principle that states that we cannot know both a particle’s position and momentum simultaneously to high precision — there is no region that we can safely say is a vacuum. In addition, a vacuum will also have virtual particle pairs being created and destroyed constantly (as long as they are destroyed fast enough not to break the uncertainty principle. Finally, we learn about inflation theories and current ideas on cosmology.
I found Barrow’s style very easy to read, though I’ll confess to already being familiar with many of the inflation and cosmology he presents. I did start zoning out in a few of the later sections, but I may have just been tired.
Posted by barb on Aug 9, 2003 in
Books by Bel Kaufman
I actually read this book many years ago, when I was in junior high. My favorite teacher had mentioned it in class — I think as an example of a story told in a non-traditional way. Up the Down Staircase tells the story of a first-time teacher, Miss Barrett, and her first semester in a public high school. But rather than being told as a traditional narrative, the story is told through the many pieces of paper that cross Miss Barrett’s desk or end up in her wastebasket. These papers take the form of mimeos from the office, intraschool notes between teachers, written compositions from the students, notes left in the suggestion box, and letters written by Miss Barrett to her good friend in the suburbs.
While the novel was first published in 1964, it is striking how many of the complaints about the education system hold up today. Among the issues raised are too many students per teacher, kids dropping out and joining gangs or working to support their family, insufficient facilities, unreasonable demands’ on teachers’ time, and kids in school with knives. It seems that the only thing that has changed in the intervening 40 years is that school has become more violent.
Up the Down Staircase is an excellent book that really stands the test of time.
Posted by barb on Aug 9, 2003 in
Movies 3/5 stars
Actually, I wasn’t paying attention to the first 30 minutes or so of this movie, so I was generally confused through the rest of the movie. Fortunately Andrew had recently read Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, so he could tell me what was going on. It wasn’t bad, once you get past Antonio Bandares playing an Arab (with a strong, distinct spanish accent).