The Girl

Hitchcock created some amazing films. He was also notoriously hard on actors, especially Tippi Hedren. The Girl looks at his relationship with an actress plucked from obscurity and sent back to it on his whim.

I loved the pacing of this movie. It doesn’t drag its feet at all but it was never rushed either. It took just enough time to do its tale justice. This drama does a better job of building tension than most scary movies I’ve seen. When portraying the five days of live bird attacks Hedren endured, I felt the tension and fear. They did a great job of creating empathy within the audience.

Julian Jarrold did an outstanding job mirroring Hithcock’s own movies here. It’s subtle but if you’re a fan of Hitchcock, you’ll recognize and appreciate what this adds to the story. Other echoes of Hitchcock are seen in Toby Jones’s portrayal of the director. Hitch is just as sinister as any of his villains. Jones found the balance between the vulnerable boy within the man without removing any of his darkness.

I’ve heard so much about Sienna Miller being a world class party girl than acting. It’s nice to know she has some real talent. I’m not sure how close the story is to fact but it definitely makes you wonder.

Current Music: I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift

Alphabet Challenge Round 25

Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between, I give you the final letter in the Alphabet Challenge! C is for Casual Vacancy, the much anticipated grown-up novel by J. K. Rowling. 

Rowling has created incredibly realistic characters. The quiet domestic desperation felt by these people reminds you so much of your friends and neighbors. One teen is a cutter, one father is abusive, one mother fantasizes about a boy band member to compensate for her unsatisfying marriage, and more than one adult acknowledges how few friends they really have. 

Because the characters were so close to life so was their drama which was equal parts compelling and depressing. You wanted to know their stories but those stories also broke your heart. It’s good when fiction reflects life but by Cthulhu’s madness could it be dismal.

The only time I couldn’t relate was with the small town politics and some of the character’s idea of their place in the world. Pagford is made out to be such a huge deal but I grew up between DC and Baltimore. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the small-town-big-deal mentality

I think Rowling is a great writer but I think some of her editors were afraid to tell her what to cut. This book needed to be tightened up and parsed down. I think her next work will be excellent so long as someone makes sure Rowling edits it down. 

A – American Virgin by Steven Seagle

B – The Bible Repairman by Tim Powers

C – The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling

D – Divergent by Veronica Roth

E – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

F – Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James

G – The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

H – How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

I – I Do But I Don’t by Kamy Wicoff

J – Jane Austen Made Me Do It by Laurel Ann Nattress

K – Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

L – A Little Night Magic by Lucy March

M – Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

N – Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow

O – One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

P – Partials by Dan Wells

Q – Q & A by Vikas Swarup

R – Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner

S – Songs of Love and Death edited by George R. R. Martin

T – The Tao of Dating by Ali Binazir

U – Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

V – Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies by Bruce Waldman et al

W – White Girl Problems by Babe Walker

X – XVI by Julia Karr

Y – Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison

Z – Zoo Story by Thomas French

Current Music: Cold as Stone by Lady Antebellum

Dog Gone

So Michael Vick has a dog. My first thought? I wonder how long until Jerry Sandusky can be a foster parent.

Comparing Vick to a child molester might be a little extreme. He’s not that bad. Hurricane Sandy wasn’t as bad as the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. Both are terrible, neither has a conscience, and you’re not rooting for either of them but one is worse than the other.

A lot of people I talked to don’t see the problem. They said that he’s changed and the dog is for his daughter. People can change but it’s rare and it’s never that quickly or that much.

I think he should be banned from ever getting a dog. At the very least, he should be banned from getting a dog or cat for several years. He should explain to his little girl that the family can’t get a dog because daddy used to help run a ring where they killed each other for sport.

Just because he’s good at his job doesn’t mean he’s changed as a person. I have every doubt that he has learned his lesson. I believe he is enough of an arrogant motherfucker to think he’s above the law and do something like that again. If he was capable of it before, he is capable of it now.

If you want to forgive him for what he did, that’s your call but saying he deserves to get a dog is not forgiving, it’s forgetting. Just because you forgave you’re junkie relative doesn’t mean you leave him alone with your medicine cabinet. Just because a child molester serves his time doesn’t mean you let him babysit. Just because Chris Brown did his classes doesn’t mean his anger issues are resolved. (He put a chair through a window at GMA. Such progress.)

I have learned through multiple experiences that people almost never change. If they do change, it’s because it benefits them. Since Vick got his career back and his supporters pretend this never happened, why does he have to change? Most of what he did reeks of sociopathy.

My philosophy: Just because you’re kind enough to forgive someone doesn’t mean you should be stupid enough to trust them.

Pondering Challenges

With the alphabet challenge drawing to a close (I’m working on C), I needed a new challenge for 2013. I was torn between two options:

Option 1) Read from Home I own so many books I’m out of places to keep them and I haven’t read most of them. The best solution is to only read what I own with the occasionally library loan. Any books I purchase or deliberately obtain for free (gifts don’t count) must be confessed on here. I could also stand to spend less money so that would be an added bonus.

Option 2) 42 Book Challenge A few years back, I attempted to read 42 books in a year each for a specific category. My social life picked up so that I couldn’t complete it. I also had categories that sounded good at the time but ended up just feeling burdensome. It stopped being fun and started being work.

I love the idea of reading from home since I need to get to know my collection again. There’s also books I’ve been dying to reread but have put off because I was doing other challenges. 

If I stick with option 2, I wonder if reading from home and posting random reviews will be enough. It would be nice to read without pressure but if the book is doing its job, I shouldn’t feel pressured.

Current Music: I Will Wait by Mumford and Sons

Burn Out

If anyone tells you dating burn out is not a thing, they are totally lying.

Back in July I had a first date one night followed by a second date the next night with a different guy. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep those details straight? Which one has a dog and which one has a sister. Fortunately neither guy lasted very long or I’d have started messing up those details.

A month later I met someone at a sci-fi convention. We dated for about six weeks and things were going very well until he got a temporary second job and disappeared. It started with the Single in the Shire incident followed by a whole lot of nothing. If he was too busy to call or text, I was too busy to wait around.

I had a first date lined up with a guy I met on-line who grew up in Ireland and moved here. Accents are sexy. Texting a girl you’ve never met good morning every day before your date isn’t. Not two hours after out date he texted me again asking how things looked. Another hour went by before he asked “Not good?” Yeah, definitely not looking good Velcro.

I had one other first date and one other guy ask me out. Both are friends of friends and seem like nice guys but I was just ‘meh’ about the whole thing. What will get you to a second date is if I care if I see you again. They were nice but I could take it or leave it. As for The Vanishing Act, put pennies on its eyes because what we had is stone dead.

It’s a predicament to have but if I’m not that into anybody, aren’t I better off not leading them on? It’s not fair for me to date a guy who seems to like me because I’m bored and could use a free dinner. After such a busy fall, I’m feeling a little burnt out on dating. Since very few relationships start around major holidays, I think I'm safe until January.

Current Music: When Your Mind’s Made Up by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Say Yes to the Alternative

I was goofing around on Etsy earlier and I’ve heard so many things about what great wedding stuff they have. I’m extremely single but I wanted to see what everyone was talking about. If a girl is going to poke around on the web for wedding crap, what is the first place she’s going to look? The dress.

Etsy gave you different options but I clicked on ‘Alternative Dresses’ first. Lords of Kobol is there some crazy stuff out there. Seeing all of the outrageous color and designs makes the white ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ stuff look really boring now.

This one kicked boring white to the curb and embraced embellishments. Another dress from the same people fell in love with color. They had some standard white fair but their nontraditional stuff was amazing. They’re semi-close to where I live so jotting that down if part of hell freezes over and this happens to me.

One retailer had steampunk fashion some of which was pretty and some of which was weird. I got a big kick out of a pirate dress from Australia. If I ever go hardcore theme, I’m getting that sort of mess custom made.

Some stuff was closer to tradition but had personality. A lot of retailers had shorter dresses and eco friendly dresses.

I have a hard time buying shoes and skirts on-line so I don’t think I’d leave something this important to ‘Add to Cart’ but it can expose you to new ideas and reveal new retailers. They also had some awesome stuff in rings…

Current Music: Game of Thrones Main Title by Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens

Alphabet Challenge Round 24

B is for The Bible Repairman, a collection of stories by Tim Powers. This was an intriguing collection. All of the stories had very different characters and kinds of magic but Powers kept things consistent with how he told the story. I liked that the magic in them wasn’t always the same. I think the twin story was my favorite.

My big complaint is that, save for the last tale, this was a very California-centric collection. As a born and bred east coaster, I felt like I was missing something because I barely know California. Whether that’s true or not, your reader shouldn’t feel alienated. It took away from my enjoyment of the work. I liked the stories but I didn’t love them and that was before it was all about the west coast. I’d give it a 2.5 or 3 out of 5.

A - American Virgin by Steven Seagle

B - The Bible Repairman by Tim Powers

C

D - Divergent by Veronica Roth

E - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

F - Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham

H - How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

I - I Do But I Don't by Kamy Wicoff

J - Jane Austen Made Me Do It edited by Laurel Ann Nattress

K - Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

L - A Little Night Magic by Lucy March

M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen

N - Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow

O - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

P - Partials by Dan Wells

Q - Q & A by Vikas Swarup

R - Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner

S - Songs of Love and Death edited by George R. R. Martin

T - The Tao of Dating by Ali Binazir

U - Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

V - Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies by Bruce Waldman et al

W - White Girl Problems by Babe Walker

X - XVI by Julia Karr

Y - Yoga Bitch by Suzanne Morrison

Z - Zoo Story by Thomas French

Current Music: Breathe by Two Steps from Hell