If You Can't Be an Athlete, Be an Athletic Supporter

Yesterday someone asked me what I had planned for the weekend.  I thought about it for a minute then answered something I very rarely get to say:  "Watching a whole lot of sports".  It's not that I don't like watching sports, so much as I just don't have the time.  My free time is extremely valuable to me, and taking three hours of a weekday evening to watch a hockey game on TV is simply not an appealing enough option.  

But a free live Kingston Frontenacs game on a Friday night in the Empire Life box?  That I can get behind!  I went last night with work colleagues, and though the evening could have gone either way a number of times, I'd say it ended up being an overall success on all counts.  Though I understand that the Fronts have been royally sucking this season, there was certainly no evidence of that last night.  They beat the London Knights (apparently one of the top teams in the league) 3-2 in what was an incredibly exciting game.  I even jumped out of my seat when the Fronts scored to win with only 4 seconds left in the game!

You see, until I married Steve I never really thought too much about hockey.  Despite the common belief that all Canadians grow up both playing and worshiping the game, it simply has never been part of my life.  My Dad (the primary watcher of sports in my house) preferred football, a habit that was to be honest something of a relief to me and my mom, as the season is much shorter and the games less frequent.  Likely due to my abnormal childhood, I have today come to prefer the game of football to that of hockey.  There's less cold, less ice, less showy fighting, better looking players (well, if you can get passed the shiny tights).  The fact that there are fewer games also makes it more exciting (i.e. as opposed to the Leafs playing the Sens for the eighteenth time this season...whoopdy-doo...).  I don't actually watch football all that much either, but the Superbowl is always exciting.  It's definitely the overall aesthetic of the game I find appealing - I don't really care who wins, but will be cheering for Arizona because it's hot there.

Which brings me to my absolute favourite sport...the only one I will go out of my way to watch: tennis.  Tennis has always been big deal for everyone in my family.  The fact that Steve also loves it was one of the things that originally brought us together (on our first date we watched the last Agassi-Sampras match in the 2002 US Open final).  The two finals for the Australian Open are also being held this weekend.  Actually, the women's has already taken place but I have not seen it yet, as it was on at 3:30 this morning.  We'll be watching when it's re-played at 8pm, and I pray to god I don't accidentally hear who wins before hand (I hope it's Safina, and am predicting she will win but only after Serena forfeits the game due to some sort of injury.  Of course she will only do this if Safina is winning to begin with).  The men's, a classic Federer-Nadal match, will be held at 3:30 tomorrow morning, and Steve and I are planning on getting up to watch it.  I'm predicting Nadal will win, but I hope I'm wrong.  I have SUCH a big crush on Federer.  He has such a graceful, classy way of playing the game and watching him makes me happy.

My Favourite Movies of 2008.....

....in no particular order.

The Oscar nominations came out last week.  As I enjoy movies perhaps more than I enjoy anything else in life (well, you know, within reason), this yearly announcement is kind of a big deal for me.  Last year I learned that non-blockbuster movies ARE released in Kingston (months late and only if they are nominated for an oscar, but it's a start) and have been reveling this abundance of good movies over the past few weeks.  Of course, however, there is almost always a sizable discrepancy between my personal favourites and those movies nominated for best picture.  The latter category reads as follows:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk

The Reader

Slumdog Millionaire

I have seen four of these movies (all but The Reader) and agree all are excellent films.  Here's my list, with commentary:

Vicky Christina Barcelona - I have a huge crush on Scarlett Johansson (have for some time).  I wouldn't go so far as to say that I like every movie she's in, nor would I say that she is the only reason I love this sultry, beautiful movie.  But she sure helps.

Grand Torino - See previous entry for review.

Frost/Nixon - You know, the one where Richard Nixon and Jack Frost team up to save Christmas?  (Ok I didn't come up with that.  But ten points for you if you know who did!).  Fantastic movie.  Come Oscar night I'll be rooting for either this one or.....

Milk - Another movie I have reviewed here.  I guess I'm really into recent history films this year.

Rachel Getting Married - Probably my favourite movie of the year all things considered.  I saw it again at the Screening Room and liked it even better the second time around.  It's such a cool, unique movie, and Anne Hatheway is superb.

Review: Grand Torino

I went through a phase as a teenager where I watched about every Clint Eastwood movie available at our local Jumbo Video.  That's saying quite a bit too, as that Jumbo Video had by far the best selection of old movies I've ever seen (I was seriously disappointed when I moved away and discovered not all video stores are equipped with any movie you could ever want).  Unfortunately, the selection has gone dramatically downhill since DVDs took over, but I still have my memories.

Anyway, needless to say seeing Clint's new movie, Grand Torino, was an absolute must.  I actually saw it last weekend, but have been extremely preoccupied with various things this week and lacked the time and energy to do anything requiring extended concentration (yes, I know I'm lazy).  Despite my initial reluctance to write, however, I actually really enjoyed the movie.  It's very well done, and actually quite funny in parts.  Clint plays a curmudgeonly old man who doesn't take too kindly to the fact that his neighbourhood is being taken over by Asian immigrants.  His racism is diluted, though not eliminated, throughout the course of the movie, as he befriends Sue and Thao, his two young neighbours.  When the two youths become the target of a local gang, Clint takes it upon himself to show the punks who's boss.

True to the preview's claim, this movie is certainly "prime vintage Eastwood", featuring everything from Dirty Harry-esq attitude to Any Which Way But Loose-esq humour.  The film was undoubtedly written for Clint, and is driven almost entirely by the actor's image.  Perhaps this narrow focus is why it was overlooked for oscar nominations.  Whatever.  I think it's absolutely perfect the way it is.

"Life is Not a Popularity Contest"

These title words of wisdom were uttered to me countless times throughout my childhood, usually as justification for "standing up for my own beliefs" (i.e. those of my parents) or as cold comfort when I didn't get invited to some cool girl's birthday party.  This philosophy seemed counter-intuitive to my ten-year-old self, as it does today.  If life's not a popularity contest, how can some of its most stressful, important aspects (job competitions, the maximization of instances in which fun can be had, etc) be accounted for?  Being a nice person alone may allow you to develop meaningful relationships, and without downplaying the importance of good friends and significant others, kindness and meaningful relationships will very rarely get you the job you want or the social network you desire. Survival in the world outside of the places we turn to for comfort at the end of a long day revolves around popularity contests.  To deny that this is true simply naivety and/or wishful thinking.  In order to thrive in the world of work and large scale social events (especially work-related social events) one must hone a social savvy that when boiled down to its most basic elements involves temporarily morphing into the person your colleagues want you to be.  

There is no occupation that is more of a popularity contest than that of an elected official in a democratic country.  The entire idea behind a democracy is that politicians speak for their constituents by making decisions based on the will of the people.  Thus I found it rather odd when George W's farewell speech included the line (I paraphrase) "I made decisions based on I thought were best for the country, whether or not they were they were popular with the public".  Obviously the Bush administration in general is no stranger to unconstitutional policies and philosophies, but this phrase in particular struck me as not only unethical and unconstitutional, but also entirely incapable of succeeding in its intended purpose (which I assume was to somehow justify the trainwreck Bush's presidency has become).  

One might argue that Bush and his cronies were privy to information not available to the general public that forced them to make unpopular decisions.  If this is true, so be it, but why on earth would Bush want to draw attention to the secretive nature of his administration, whose lack of effective communication with the press was one of its most widly criticized blunders?  Furthermore, are we simply supposed to take his word for it that such measures as Iraq and torture at Guantanemo prevented further terrorist attacks on American soil?  If this is true, why not make the public aware of foiled plots so they are able to re-build their trust in you?  He's basically saying that Americans should be thankful and support him because no attacks happened after 911.  By that logic, Bush and FDR should be tied for the ranking of worst president ever, as the only two attacks on the US happened during their presidencies. 

Sigh... is it Tuesday yet?

Review: Milk

Milk is another movie I have wanted to see for quite some time, but alas it was not released in Kingston.  Luckily, my movie-starved little town is located almost smack dab in the middle of two large urban centres, making it possible to journey (this time to Ottawa) to theatres where the movies I want to see are playing.  Although the movie was not the main purpose of our weekend road trip, it did end up being one of the highlights.  I like biopics in general, but this one was particularly well done - and what a story they had to work with!  The film tells the story of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office.  He is assassinated by fellow city supervisor Dan White, who would infamously get off with a manslaughter conviction after arguing twinkies made him do it.  The movie didn't get into the trial, which I found disappointing.  (But I suppose a tell tale sign of a good movie is that it leaves you wanting more).

  I always knew Sean Penn was a well respected actor, but to be honest I had not seen any of his movies since I was a young child.  He does an amazing job playing such an animated, fascinating character - certainly a performance more than worthy of an oscar nomination.  James Franco is also very good as Milk's boyfriend.  The one gripe I have with this movie probably has more to do with the script than with the acting itself:  the movie doesn't really explore Harvey Milk's character as much as it could have.  In parts I felt like I was watching a basic account of someone's life, as opposed to an in-depth look at the character himself.  Even the framing narrative, which features Milk speaking into a tape recorder telling his own story, feels more than anything like an account of the facts.  This could have been an opportunity to delve more into his character.  Overall this isn't such a big deal, though.  The movie is still excellent and I learned a lot.

 Watching this movie also brought back memories of my trip to San Fran last spring, and who can't use some warm memories of California in the dead of a Canadian winter?

Review: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

When I first picked up The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, I was for whatever reason anticipating light-hearted, candy-coated chick lit.  Not the fairy tale-esq, almost insufferable sort found in Sophie Kinsella novels, but something more along the lines of Marian Keyes:  an engaging story about a thirty-something female with an interesting (but not too perfect) career and social life.  Instead, I found myself reading a serious literary novel about a woman, Pippa, who marries a successful editor and book publisher thirty years her senior in order to escape a life plagued by addiction and poverty.  When she is fifty and he eighty, Pippa and Herb (her husband) move into a retirement community, in which Pippa understandably feels rather out of place.  The story shifts about a third of the way through to a first person narrative in which Pippa tells of her troubled background, and then back to the novel's present for the final third.

I read this book rather quickly, as I found myself addicted to its eeriness.  Not eerie in the Stephen King way, but in the psychological way. There are certain troubling aspects of this novel (e.g. an exploration of mother-daughter relationships involving hints of latent incestuous desire) that you feel you can relate to on some primal level but are not totally comfortable with the idea that you can, in fact, relate to them.  I found it fitting when I learned that Rebecca Miller is the daughter of Arthur Miller (and wife of Daniel Day Lewis), as the novel reminded me a lot of a 20th century American play: daringly honest, not afraid to make the reader come face to face with the most unconventional, seemingly grotesque aspects of reality.  The very idea of Pippa sleeping with this 80-year-old man (my grandpa is that age, for goodness' sake!) made me want to vomit.  This concept is taken to another level entirely at the very end of the novel, but I'll leave that for you to experience yourself if you choose to read the book.  I highly recommend that you do.

Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The next movie I saw over the holidays was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  I had been intrigued by this movie ever since I heard it was coming out, and was both surprised and not surprised at how much I ended up liking it.  Surprised because I don't generally like Brad Pitt (as an actor...of course I've always loved to look at him), and not surprised because the plot really is an interesting concept.  The film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I have not read the it, but intend to do so as soon as possible.

Benjamin Button is born an old man, and gets progressively younger looking as he literally ages.  The story centres around his relationship with a Daisy, a childhood friend who turns into a lover.  Inevitably, their love is thwarted, but not destroyed, by their reverse aging processes.  The story does an excellent job of pulling viewers in and making them genuinely interested in what happens to the characters.  There's a lot of Forrest Gump-style cheese but hey, I like Forrest Gump.  (Although I could have done without the one cheese-tacular tear-jerking montage at the end.  It jerked my tears all right but was altogether far too close to the end of the movie.  I had to walk out of the theatre with tears in my eyes.  That hasn't happened since The Notebook!).  

Now to my favourite thing about this movie:  Cate Blanchett.  The woman deserves her own paragraph.  I believed her as Elizabeth I, as Katharine Hepburn, as a young, confused art teacher, as a traveling American heiress...  I feel like I'm forgetting some really important roles...insert your favourite Cate Blanchett character here.  Anyway, she's equally brilliant in this film, and so beautiful too.  She plays a dancer, and by the end of the movie I had resolved to be more graceful and pixie-like in everything I do.  So far it hasn't worked out very well, but I'm working on it.  The next time you see me, I will appear to be floating, believe you me.

(In case you can't tell, am feeling a little loopy right now.  Have taken some Nyquil to try and fight off this awful cold that has kept me from writing these past few days, and it's started to kick in....

Review: The Hour I First Believed

When I was about fifteen, I read and fell in love with Wally Lamb's first two books, She's Come Undone and I Know this Much is True.  For almost a decade, I heard rumors that he was working on a third book and waited as patiently as possible for it to come out.  I can't honestly say I enjoyed The Hour I First Believed as much as I remember enjoying Lamb's other books, but I'm still glad I read it.  It's over 700 pages and I finished it without once feeling like I was forcing myself to sit down and read it, and that certainly says something.  

The Hour I First Believed tells of a middle aged teacher named Caelum Quirk who teaches English at Columbine High School at the time of the infamous shootings.  Although Caelum does not witness the shootings, his wife, Maureen, (also employed by Columbine as the school nurse) does.  Much of the novel revolves around the consequences of Maureen's post-traumatic stress.  This is by far one of most ambitious novels I've ever read.  Lamb attempts to tackle a wide variety of themes, from the importance of family history, to faith and religion, to the significance of (more often than not futile?) quests for social justice, to what it means to be an American in 2008.  While the first half of the book focuses largely on the events at Columbine, there are also subplots involving Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, etc.  Characters who have been scarred by modern current events and family crises are paralleled with those who lived through traumatic events of the past (mostly the civil war and its surrounding issues).  As Caelum comes to understand the true meaning of family - in terms of ancestry, friendship, and other close relationships - he learns to deal with his emotions in a mature manner and eventually embrace faith.

I don't generally have much tolerance for overly self-important books, and The Hour I First Believed definitely tries to say too much.  There are so many little sub-plots that could probably have been eliminated, but I think I understand why Lamb thought them necessary.  The book is very well crafted, and everything fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.  Taking out these sections would not have affected the plot all that much, but would have muddled up the novel's almost too clean presentation of certain symbols and their corresponding ideas.  

Review: Valkyrie

So, the first movie I saw this holiday season was Valkyrie...you know, the one where Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh try to kill Hitler?  The part of me that adores historical thrillers was very excited when I first heard this movie was coming out, but the side of me that longs to succumb to the Tom-Cruise-is-a-nut-job belief encouraged by the media and...well...I guess Tom himself was admittedly rather scornful.  All in all, however, I wasn't disappointed.  Will this movie win best picture at the Oscars?  No, probably not.  But it is certainly informative and entertaining.  And there's something to be said for that.  

Tom Cruise is one of those people who is so famous it's impossible to see him as anyone other than himself.  Unfortunately, he's not a strong enough actor to fully overcome this obstacle.  However, the movie is rather mission impossible-esq, which makes him more than tolerable in the role (what mission could be more impossible than killing Hitler, over-turning the Third Reich, and making peace with the allies in the course of a few hours?).  He's not a terrible actor by any stretch.  And the overt, almost self-conscious costuming also helps.  I'm not about to look it up, but I'm assuming the real life Stauffenberg did actually wear an eye patch (otherwise that would just be pathetic).

*SPOILER ALERT*

You will probably not enjoy this movie if you, like my father and several of our friends, dislike watching movies when you know going in how the story ends.  For the record, Hitler wins. 

Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Day and for the first time in many years I am not prohibitively hung over.  It's quite a wonderful feeling, actually, and I look forward to getting much accomplished.  Already this morning I made brunch for Steve and myself (mimosas, of course, along with this fabulous recipe for cream cheese, yogurt and berry-stuffed French toast given to me by one of my favourite people.  It wasn't quite as good as when Helene makes it, but pretty good for a first try if I do say so myself).

For the past week I have also been on holidays more often than I've been at work, which has afforded me more time than usual to read, cook, and watch movies.  As a result, there is much to write about, and since my New Year's resolution is to *try* and write one entry per day, I think I'm off to a pretty good start.  First, though, I would like to extend a word of thanks to you, dear reader.  I really have no idea how many people actually read this thing, but if you are reading this, know that it is the dream of you that not only inspires me to continue writing, but also keeps alive my hope of someday making a career of it.  

So thank you.  And happy New Year.