Dryden Is Home

Movies this weekend

I watched two movies this weekend. Both were adaptations of other media. I watched the Prarie Home Companion movie - a telling of the radio show. I also watched Everything is Illuminated - a telling of the 2001 novel by the same name.

I enjoyed both movies and I found that they were both much different than their original media. The film version of Everything is Illuminated cleared up a bunch of things I didn't totally understand about the book. The film version of Prarie Home Companion was a great way to see behind the scenes of events that never actually take place in the production of the radio show - however, the cast and their interaction was worth the lack of a strong plot. I recommend both movies after you have read and listened to the other forms of media.

Amelie

Sunday morning I woke up at 8am, I don't know why except that maybe it was because I'm rearranging my sleep schedule to get up early and my body doesn't know to sleep in on Sundays. I got out of bed and looked around the messy house and then migrated from the bed to the couch, grabbed the comforter and my laptop and put in the DVD for Amelie that I got a few weeks ago.

Have you seen this flick? It is magical! It is inspiring! It is the perfect movie for a long lazy Sunday. Since I had nothing else to do (or wasn't in great condition to do much of anything else), I watched the movie and then watched the first hour of the movie with the director talking over the movie. Then I ate lunch. Then I took some pictures of the mess of a house from the post-party. Then I watched the second hour of the movie with the director talking over the movie. Then I looked at most of the IMDB pages for the movie including reading reviews. Then I ate some more. Then I put in Disc 2 and watched all of the bonus features. All of them. Then it was 4pm so I decided to go outside and do some gardening. It was a wonderful lazy day.

Bill stopped by a little later and picked up his phone. I planted some more and ate some more and did a few other things around the house. I have this movie on DVD at my house. The person who gave it to me / let me borrow it lives far, far away and isn't expecting it back. So, if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Call or email and I'll pass it off to you next time I see you.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

I watched this feature length documentary again on Friday night. I watched it for the first time on Good Friday (in April) and I was so inspired that I dug up the 2006 garden space that night. My friend's S & N invited me over for dinner pre-movie and then we walked to the Henry St. John Building for the screening. They didn't advertise as such, but they only had the 60 minute PBS version of the movie, so a few of the memorable scenes were eliminated. The message was still intact. This showing was sponsored by a group called Guerrilla Griots, which apparently has this tagline about their organization, "WELCOME to the digital media arts center that embraces encourages energizes the voices of communities marginalized in mainstream media to eradicate low expectations + eliminate unhealthy behaviors by challenging the status quo via education and empowerment."

After seeing the movie again I started to look forward to getting back to the garden spaces to get more seeding completed. I really am looking forward to seeing if I get any output this year from the garden.

If you haven't seen this movie and you are into farming, gardening, organic food, you should get the DVD or video. Even if you aren't into any of those things, check out the movie for the humor and tragedy that is Farmer John.

An Inconvenient Truth

This June 30th Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" will be playing at Ithaca's Fall Creek Cinema. I will be there, mark that down!

From the website:

With 2005, the worst storm season ever experienced in America just behind us, it seems we may be reaching a tipping point - and Gore pulls no punches in explaining the dire situation. Interspersed with the bracing facts and future predictions is the story of Gore's personal journey: from an idealistic college student who first saw a massive environmental crisis looming; to a young Senator facing a harrowing family tragedy that altered his perspective, to the man who almost became President but instead returned to the most important cause of his life - convinced that there is still time to make a difference.

Gore seems like he is everywhere this month. First he was on the cover of Wired Magazine, promoting this movie of course. That gave Wired the great idea to gather a bunch of new articles about the latest green technology. Then last weekend he killed on the SNL opening, which you can see here. Is he going to run for president again? Does he have a chance? Some people seem to think so. Enough about all of that though, Gore says it best with this line from the movie (and trailer): "This is really not a political issue so much as a moral issue"

I found links to the movie for you:

Official Movie Site:

http://www.climatecrisis.net

Find a Theatre playing the movie:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/findatheater/

Pledge to see the movie on opening weekend in your city (I did!):

http://www.climatecrisis.net/seethetruth/

Calculate how much carbon dioxide your produce:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

(I produce 19,100 which is "Larger than Average," almost entirely because of the 20,000 miles I drive each year)

Finally, watch the trailer:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_classics/aninconvenienttruth/

The question for today, name the type of tree featured up-close in the picture above. Hint: It was a controversial tree here in Ithaca last year. Leave your guesses in the comments.

Florida Recap

I got back last night from my trip to Florida. I left last Tuesday morning from Ithaca, drove to Binghamton for a meeting and then to Blackstone, Massachusetts (near Providence, RI) to my sister's and then grandmother's house. Wednesday my sister dropped my grandmother (Baba or Babca) off at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island (Providence Airport) and we traveled on an 8:30am flight to Fort Myers. It was probably about my 100th or 200th flight (who keeps track?) and it was my grandmother's first time on an airplane (she's 86!).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/tags/floridatrip/

All kinds of pictures are on the flickr pages, here's a few notes (I hope to add more later):

• We watched movies just about every night: Pirates of the Carribean, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Incredibles and King Kong
• My dad and my mom's cousin Frank and I went to the Devil Rays / Orioles game Monday night in Tampa
• I went boating three times
• I went fishing two of those three times
• I caught six fish (and tossed them back)
• We went to a Ukrainian Bazaar, Polish Deli and European Deli
• We (mom, dad and me) played three complete rounds of Disc Golf (frisbee golf)
• I wrote a couple business proposals
• I took about 700MB of pictures with my camera
• My mom and grandmother made about 140 perogies!
• I attended a BNI meeting in Venice, Florida
• I went for a bike ride

We had a busy and restful week and I look forward to returning next winter!

Quick Quick Oscar Pick

Best Picture: Crash

Best Actor: David Strathairn

Best Actress: Reese

Best S. Actor: Giamatti

Actress: Rachel

Director: Ang Lee

Writing-Screen: Good Night

Writing-Previous: Brokeback

Cinematog: Brokeback

Editing: Munich

Art Direct: King Kong

Costume: Geisha

Score: Brokeback

Song: Crash

Makeup: Narnia

Sound: Walk the line

Sounds Editing: King Kong

Visual: King Kong

Animated: Corpse

F.L.Film: Italy

Documentary: Enron

Doc, Short: Mushrooms

Short, Animated: Jasper Morello

Short, Live Action: Six Shooter

Movies Nominated that I saw: Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Cinderella Man, The Squid and the Whale, Star Wars III, Batman Begins. Yeah I saw just 6 of them, what does that say?

Dinner and a Movie

Saturday night and you get 10 minutes of blog, 10:18pm.

I just finished watching probably the best movie of 2005 - - "Cinderella Man." This movie had me shadow boxing in my kitchen, jumping up and down in my chair, eating at the edge of my seat, wondering why no one saw this movie (even with their money back guarantee). The only thing worst than that is knowing the Ron Howard and Russell Crowe weren't nominated for academy awards. Check out this movie, it had me wondering if it was safe for me to be alone on a Saturday night on the brink of winter depression fueled by cabin fever. There are some very sad moments when a weaker (or braver?) man would have burst out into completely unapologetic tears. I forget if that is a sign of internal strength or external weakness. The only witness would have been my grey cat, but even she was long gone during the boxing scenes.

You might note that even though I was home alone on a Saturday night, I wasn't eating re-warmed pizza or macaroni and cheese. I gots me a little creative with my root vegetable dinner and a side of left over perogies from the 2005 holidays. I sliced up two medium sized beets and two carrots and one small potato. I planned to "blanch" them in boiling water, but left them in a few extra minutes. They turned out cooked through, but not soft. I saved the hot beet and carrot (and potato) water and boiled five cabbage perogies for about 10 minutes. For a little topping for the beets, carrots and potato I created a lime/olive oil/garlic/corriander/cumin dressing that I lightly browned in a small frying pan. It made for a tasty combination. The perogies turned an orangeish pink color and I topped them with some sliced onions that had been simmering in a half a stick of butter for about 25 minutes. De-li-Cious!

I washed it all down with the first beer at home I've had in weeks. It was a Yuengling. You can see the computer with the DVD playing one of the many fight scenes of the movie. I was multi-tasking.

Ok, my ten minutes have just become 12. I am outta here. Come back on Sunday for a week's recap and new pictures on the flickr account. Ciao!

Coming, but not too soon

8 months and 19 days away...

The Wedding Crashers

Vince "I'm the same Trent character in every damn movie" Vaughn completely carried this movie. I wonder if the other Wilson brother would have made this movie a little better or if it was just Owen's charachter that I did find to be all that funny.

Here's the quick plot - Two guys (Vaughn and Wilson) crash weddings all summer during "wedding season". When they crash the eat, drink, dance, almost always talk to the bride and groom together, never ever get caught and from the looks of the movie, never leave a wedding alone - or wake up alone the next day for that matter. Half way through the movie they crash the wedding of the Secretary of the Treasury's  (Christopher Walken) oldest daughter and the rest of the movie follows them through the wedding weekend as each of them tries to pursue one of the remaining two daughters.

I suppose its possible that the reason I laughed at Vaughn's lines and winced (or just yawned) at Wilson's lines was because Vaughn's character is who we want to be, while Wilson's character is who we are. Vaughn is witty, outgoing, a trouble maker, a guy who knows when to cut his losses, tall, clever, and has a normal looking nose. Wilson frets, is neurotic, goes after an impossible girl, sulks, gets depressed, acts dopey, lies himself into trouble and has the most un-hollywood of noses.

I saw this six days after it was released into the theatres (July 15th/July 20th) which probably the closest I've seen a move to the premiere in years. Of course I did see it in Keane, NH during the day with my buddy Phil, so the cost was much lower and the crowd was much smaller (I think there were seven of us in the 12:05 showing).

For a real good laugh, go to the French version of the movie's official site (http://www.serialnoceurs.com/) and watch the trailer for the movie in french. I don't know if it is funny because I've already seen the movie or not, but if it isn't funny now, go see the movie and come back and watch it if you want one more laugh out of this flick.

Oh, I have to mention - Rachel McAdams is unbelieveably sweet to look at. She was brunette in the movie but from the online pictures from the premiere party she's become blonde. Thumbs up for her being brunette. It the words of a former roommate, "yeah, she is very pretty."

I also have to mention Isla Fisher - the younger acting party girl daughter. Phil might have said she's an "All-American girl."

As I snooped around the Internet Movie Database (yeah I know you've been there too - imdb.com), I found out that Ms. McAdams is four days older than me and Ms. Fisher is eight months older than me.

Wow! Older women at weddings rock! (Though I just found out that Isla Fisher is engaged to Ali G.! Yuk - Ali G. fans in the house? Let me know.)

I am going to a wedding the last weekend in September and another the first weekend in October. I won't be crashing but I will bring some visine.

I should wrap this post up, its kinda taken on a life of its own. On a comedy scale I give this movie a handful of stars.

Crash

I went and saw Crash this evening. It was a great great film. First of all, it takes place in Los Angeles, which after about an hour of the film makes me thing that L.A. is a dirty and dispicable place. Its a place where noone in their right mind would really want to live. Everything is about drugs and money and danger and crime. A little later in the film I wanted to thank whoever was responsible for making basically the anti-Magnolia. Magnolia was another composite film that takes place over just two short days in Los Angeles, culminating with thousands of frogs falling from the sky - which tied everything together - but unfortunately made absolutely no sense. Luckily, in Crash there is no Frogs moment (there is a snow moment at the very end that does nothing to tie the characters together).

I think the thing I liked the most about Crash is that there are no minor characters. Everyone is involved in the telling of the story of how racism and ignorance and intergrity make relationships between people of different backgrounds so difficult. We don't know other people so we feel like they are out to hurt us, out to cheat us, out to rob us, out to kill us, out to steal from us, out to lie to us.

I feel like this movie helps to make another minor shift in how people relate to each other. Will it be the solution to all of our race related problems, most definitely not. Will it help a few people make a minor shift - sure. Is that minor shift good? Is it important? Absolutely.

Unlike Short Cuts, another ensemble cast L.A. based movie (this time tied together with an earthquake), Crash actually focuses on a problem - the problem of racism and lets the watcher see the different angles of each case.

The cinematography and editing was also excellent. I especially like how the scenes within the D.A.'s office space was done with long angular halls of justice and light and shadows. I also enjoyed how many of the scenes came together through the opening and closing of doors.

I give this movie a handful of stars. Check it out if you can. It is playing at Fall Creek Cinema in Ithaca.