Month: May 2014

Three sentence movie reviews: What’s Your Number

This is exactly the type of movie I want more of because it features: 1)realistic dialogue between women.*  2)Hilarious patter between the two romantic leads.** 3)An entirely stupid premise that I totally went for just because everything else was so perfect.***

Cost: free from library
Where watched.  At home.  By myself, and then two hours later, watched it again with Matt.****

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2011/whats_your_number_ver2.html

*probably because it was written BY women
**One of which is Chris Evans, who is easy on the eyes.
***Including the fact that it was set in Boston and almost no one had a Boston accent.  Because that accent is hard to do and it’s best if no one tries.
****Yes, I watched the same movie twice in one day.  Which I have never done before.  It felt rather wicked.

Sexism in Parade magazine part II

This comes from an article about two friends who met at the Naval Academy, died for their country and now rest side by side in Arlington Cemetery. All well and good (except for the senseless death, but that’s for another post).  But read the part that begins, “Travis even joined Brendan on some of his dates–
First of all, Mean Girls isn’t a girl movie.  It’s a movie about girl relationships that both females AND males can learn from.  Secondly, if you reverse this statement, “[Two girls] weren’t too cool to watch a boys’ movie” it doesn’t make sense.  Because girls are supposed to like what boys like and be grateful when boys “sink to their level” and deign to watch a movie that is centered on something other than *gasp* men.
Granted, the sexism this time comes from a quote, that is, not the writers of Parade Magazine themselves, but it’s stuff like this that should be called out.  So I’m doing it.

Three sentence movie reviews: The New Girl Season 1

I’m a Zooey Deschanel fan and even with that, I found the first few episodes were a little too much Deschanel for me.  However, by the Thanksgiving episode, they had hit their stride and this became a very amusing show.  I also appreciated it because I enjoyed watching it, but didn’t feel compelled to watch ALL of it in a short amount of time.*

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.  (The boyfriend got interested in the show too.)

poster from: http://www.amazon.com/New-Girl-Season-Zooey-Deschanel/dp/B0072KZ0Z6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404247319&sr=8-1&keywords=new+girl+season+1

*This sounds like a back handed compliment, but it’s a really good thing.  Trying to clear your schedule because you have no willpower and must watch multiple episodes in one setting is no fun.  Even if the shows in question (Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, Heroes Season 1, etc.) are very, very good.

Three sentence movie reviews: X-Men: Days of Future Past

A fan of X-Men movies in general,* I thought this was phenomenal, easily the best of the bunch.  While acting was good all around, I particularly found James McAvoy outstanding as the weepy, confused and mostly lost Charles Xavier.  The future/past setting worked for me and the only thing I was sorry about was the early exit of Evan Peters, who stole his scenes from much more experienced actors and also provided the cinema with the best use of a Jim Croce song in decades.

Cost:  $5.00
Where watched:  St. Johns Twin Cinema with Matt**

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/xmen_days_of_future_past_ver5.html

*I even suffered through that Wolverine Origin movie, which is more than I can say for the other resident of the house.
**A.k.a. the guy who isn’t enough of a fan to watch the Wolverine Origin movie.

Three sentence movie reviews: August Osage County

Women getting to dig their teeth into weighty dramatic material and really tear through it in the best way possible!  Yep, I was a fan of this movie!  I particularly loved how every time I thought Meryl Streep had done her dastardly worst to her family, she managed to top herself.

Cost:  free from library thanks to T. who lent it to me after she watched it.
Where watched: at home.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2013/august_osage_county.html

Great Aunt Betty’s memorial gathering.

Here’s Aunt Betty as a younger girl.

Here are the 15 Whitmore children and their parents.  My grandmother, Helen, is third from the left.
(Update!  According to my mother, this was a celebration for my grandmother’s 40th birthday. See her comment below.)  

I love the fact that she still had her War Ration Book (I’ve never seen one before,) but I love even more that she was 4 feet 11 inches and 98 pounds.  I looked up the house address too.  It’s still there.

When you have 15 children, it’s not hard for gatherings to get this big.  My copy is blurry, but I think that’s my grandfather George second from the right, standing next to my Great-Grandmother.  My grandma is in the first standing row, six (!) from the left.  She’s wearing a dark colored dress.

More of the 15.  Not so well composed, as some of them are hidden.

This is a really fabulous photo of Aunt Betty.

As is this.  That’s Aunt Joanne standing next to Aunt Betty. 
(Update!  The problem with having 14 great aunts and uncles is you might have trouble with their names.  Mom says this is Aunt Margaret, not Aunt Joanne.) 

This is a picture of my grandmother and grandfather I’ve never seen before. I particularly love my grandmother’s coat, which I’m willing to bet she made.

A Jantzen Swimsuit!

This is the shirt Aunt Betty is wearing in a really fun photo of (nearly) all the Whitmore girls.  I’ve looked at that picture for years as it’s in my Aunt’s kitchen, so it was funny to see the shirt neatly folded among the memorabilia.

Then I hit gold!  Aunt Betty’s autograph book.  This is from a friend of Aunt Betty’s and I laughed at the saying.

From Uncle Harold.

My grandfather!  I was surprised to see him in this book because it was from 1936 and I didn’t realize he was around then. My grandparents didn’t marry until 1941.

Auntie Bea

Aunt Mary.  (Who is amusingly wicked in her entry)

Aunt Lucretia.

Because Aunt Betty loved ice cream, there was an ice cream shop.

This is Uncle Jack, who was married to Aunt Lucretia (the one from the autograph book).

Aunt Virginia (married to Uncle Harold), Aunt Janet (who was stubbornly looking away from the camera) Aunt Joanne, Aunt Mary.
I waited around until Aunt Janet didn’t notice me taking the picture.

A nice poem about the Whitmore Family.

Postcards from Finland & Arlington, Virginia

This is from Katja who tells me she lives in a little city in the middle of nowhere, has two gorgeous children and a dog and loves her job as a photographer.

This is from regular commenter Sara, who tells me she say Bill Nye AND They Might Be Giants.  Also that there was a lot of DFTBA* merchandise on people, which does not surprise me at all.
*DFTBA means Don’t Forget To Be Awesome and is the rallying cry of Nerdfighters. Also see this post.