Month: February 2008

Best Pictures

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

From Keem and Kasia, here is the list of Best Pictures that I’ve seen:

1927/28: Wings
1928/29: The Broadway Melody
1929/30: All Quiet on the Western Front
1930/3: Cimarron
1931/32: Grand Hotel
1932/33: Cavalcade
1934: It Happened One Night
1936: The Great Ziegfeld
1937: The Life of Emile Zola
1938: You Can’t Take It with You
1939: Gone with the Wind
1940: Rebecca
1941: How Green Was My Valley
1942: Mrs. Miniver
1943: Casablanca
1944: Going My Way
1945: The Lost Weekend
1946: The Best Years of Our Lives
1947: Gentleman’s Agreement
1948: Hamlet
1949: All the King’s Men
1950: All about Eve
1951: An American in Paris
1952: The Greatest Show on Earth
1953: From Here to Eternity
1954: On the Waterfront
1955: Marty
1956: Around the World in 80 Days
1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958: Gigi
1959: Ben-Hur
1960: The Apartment
1961: West Side Story
1962: Lawrence of Arabia
1963: Tom Jones
1964: My Fair Lady
1965: The Sound of Music
1966: A Man for All Seasons
1967: In the Heat of the Night
1968: Oliver!
1969: Midnight Cowboy
1970: Patton
1971: The French Connection
1972: The Godfather
1973: The Sting
1974: The Godfather Part II
1975: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1976: Rocky
1977: Annie Hall
1978: The Deer Hunter
1979: Kramer vs. Kramer
1980: Ordinary People
1981: Chariots of Fire
1982: Gandhi
1983: Terms of Endearment
1984: Amadeus
1985: Out of Africa
1986: Platoon
1987: The Last Emperor
1988: Rain Man
1989: Driving Miss Daisy
1990: Dances With Wolves
1991: The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Unforgiven
1993: Schindler’s List
1994: Forrest Gump
1995: Braveheart
1996: The English Patient
1997: Titanic
1998: Shakespeare in Love
1999: American Beauty
2000: Gladiator
2001: A Beautiful Mind
2002: Chicago
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: Crash
2006: The Departed
2007: No Country for Old Men

Somewhat embarassing, I have to say. If I didn’t already have 458 movies in my Netflix queue, I’d be running over there to add a bunch of these. Speaking of which, did you know that Netflix tops out at 485 movies? I discovered that on Sunday.

Philly and Cheese

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We spent Presidents’ Day weekend in Philly – our first weekend away since moving here at the end of the summer.  I had never been, and Shane had only been there on a layover, so we were very excited about a new city! and also seeing several grad school friends.

Since we were more focused on hanging out than a strict site-seeing agenda, we spent a lot of time just wandering around.  Oh yeah, and eating.  Oh, the eating.

On Saturday, Karin took us to Reading Terminal, where we had apple dumplings, an awesome pretzel, and Karin bought three pounds of bacon from one of the Amish vendors.  All of the Amish stands reminded me of the Amana Colonies.    We met up with Kasey and Paul and then walked to Di Bruno’s, where we spent a great deal of time with the charming cheesemongers who insisted that everyone try a variety of things.  I would like them to be my neighborhood cheese men.

Karin’s awesome friend Rachel met up with us later, and we went on an ill-fated trek around to a variety of bars in search o of a place that could house the crew of library people that were supposed to be meeting us out.  We ended up at Plough and the Stars, where we shared a cheese plate and a mezze plate (that’s not the name, but that’s essentially what it was).  Most of Karin’s friends flaked for a variety of reasons, so we stuck around until the bar was oppressively full and I was exhausted, then Shane and I called it a night – but not before we all stopped to grab a slice on the way home.  Mmmm, cheap slices.

On Sunday we ate a good portion of Karin’s bacon, then went on a wandering tour of her neighborhood, passing by the Eastern State Penitentiary. We opted not to go in because Karin was creeped out, and because it was $9 each, but we did peek inside.  It’s very creepy and odd, and surrounded by what appears to otherwise be a normal neighborhood.  We grabbed coffee and a giant vegan moon pie at a cute coffeeshop across the street.

Carrying on, we walked by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where lots of people were making fools of themselves running up the steps like Rocky (as previously mentioned).  The line was way too long, so we just took pictures, saving our money for the much smaller Rodin Museum.  Karin said that in the summertime, she sometimes walks over to the museum’s courtyard for lunch – I’m very jealous.  Karin then took us on an in depth tour of Free Library, including the secret staff-only spots.  We got stickers and found our birth years in the display of Read posters in the children’s section.

After the library, we all piled into Rachel’s car and drove to South Philly, where we had dinner at Cantina Los Caballitos.  The blood orange margaritas were fantastic, and I had a pile of awesomeness made up of seitan and grilled veggies.  Kasey wasn’t feeling well, and we had all had enough to drink, so the night ended at Karin’s with cheese and Law & Order (of course) after a side trip to random outer parts of Philly.

Monday morning we had brunch at Sabrina’s (yum, but omg way too much food), then hit the road home.  A few other highlights of the weekend included playing laser mouse (and chamois hand) with Gloucester, talking library stuff and having a guy from Elsevier eavesdrop on our conversation, and an underaged hipster army.  We had a great time, and can’t wait to visit again soon!

2008 Oscar picks

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Yesterday Shane and I went to a Oscar film extravaganza – all five Best Pictures in a row – and even though we skipped out early, we managed to see all five nominated films BEFORE the Oscars. Pretty exciting, right? Anyway, since I won’t get to spend Oscar night with a crew of friends, here are my picks based solely on my opinion and no other research except discussing with Keem and Shane and consulting previous emails from Jimi. Get your Oscar ballot here, and check back as the evening progresses, as I’ll do my best to update with the winners and my comments.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
comments: I loved George Clooney in Michael Clayton, but I think DDL has this sewn up. Bottoms up for everyone if he (or anyone else) says “Bastard in a basket”.
winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, who gave a very nice speech, despite his questionable earrings.
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
comments: If Tommy Lee Jones were nominated for No Country, I would’ve voted for him. I also heart Tom Wilkinson, but Javier Bardem was kind of like the ultimate movie bad guy.
winner: JAVIER BARDEM. I can’t believe he didn’t win anything for The Sea Inside, though.
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
comments: I’ve heard the field is really strong, but I’ll be upset if Marion Cotillard doesn’t win. She was incredible in La Vie En Rose.
winner: Marion Cotillard, YAY. YAYAYAYAY.
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
comments: I’ve heard good things about Amy Ryan, and I like her in The Wire.
winner: Tilda Swinton, who I really like, but I don’t entirely know why she won.
Animated Feature: Ratatouille
comments: I would LOVE for Persepolis to win, but I have more faith in Pixar, and besides, Ratatouille was so good.
winner:Ratatouille, yay! Brad Bird is cute.
Art Direction: Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
comments: Really no idea on this one.
winner: Sweeney Todd
Cinematography: There Will Be Blood
comments: Jimi, don’t let me down here.
winner: There Will Be Blood, incredible.
Costume Design: Atonement
comments: It’s too easy to pick the costume drama, and I thought Atonement was exquisitely costumed.
winner: Elizabeth
Directing: Juno
comments: Really no idea on this one either, but I suspect they’ll reward Jason Reitman. If not, it’ll probably go to the Coens for No Country.
winner: the Coens! They’re funny and small.
Documentary Feature: pass
winner: Taxi to the Dark Side
Documentary Short: pass
winner: Freeheld. This whole announcing from Iraq business is weird.
Film Editing: There Will Be Blood
comments: Can someone tell me what makes good film editing? I can probably tell you what makes bad film editing, but I can’t say anything authoritative on the opposite.
winner: Bourne Ultimatum. Which Shane thought was terrible. Terrible editing, that is. This is live blogging. We’re going for recall, not precision.
Foreign Language Film: pass
winner The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Makeup: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
comments: I would love to see La Vie En Rose win, but Pirates was damned impressive as always.
winner: La Vie En Rose, omg!
Original Score: Atonement
comments: SB and I both really enjoyed the way music and sound was used in Atonement, although Keem would have appreciated the occasional carriage return.
winner: Atonement. Fantastic.
Original Song: “Falling Slowly” – Once
comments: I ❤ Glen Hansard.
winner:”Falling Slowly”. OMG OMG OMG OMG. Did you know that she’s NINETEEN?
Best Picture: Michael Clayton
comments: Of the five, I think this was the strongest film, though each of the others have stand-out elements. It could probably go any way, but I’ll be disappointed if Juno wins, even though I loved the movie.
winner: No Country for Old Men! God job, Coens!
Short Film – Animated: pass
winner: Peter & the Wolf
Short Film – Live Action: pass
winner: Le Mozart des pickpockets
Sound Editing: There Will Be Blood
comments: Stab in the dark here.
winner: Bourne Ultimatum. Shane’s vote: Ummm….Bourne? Shane wins.
Sound Mixing: No Country For Old Men
comments: Oooh, mixing!
winner: Bourne Ultimatum.
Visual Effects: Transformers
comments: This could also go any way. I thought I’d vote for Transformers, though, cos who doesn’t like giant cars?
winner: The Golden Compass. Animated polar bears. What’s not to like?
Adapted Screenplay: No Country For Old Men
comments: I may be a Cormac McCarthy hater, but I’m voting for No Country anyway. Bottoms up if Cormac McCarthy is actually at the ceremony.
winner: No Country for Old Men. Was that Cormac McCarthy? YES, yes it was. Bottoms up!
Original Screenplay: Juno
comments: If Juno wins, it will be well-deserved, and not just the “let’s give the quirky comedy something” type of win.
winner: Diablo Cody for Juno, also winning the award for the most embarrassing outfit and tattoo on the stage

Sertralini Dreams

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Since going on Sertraline last month, I have had extremely lucid dreams almost every night. Fortunately I have yet to dream about my cats being cooked in a sandwich – but they’re no less weird. In the last two weeks, some highlights have included:

  • Worrying about the link structure of our website changing when we go to a CMS, and so writing a note on my hand to remember to talk to David about redirects
  • Receiving mashed potatoes as a gift from my boss’s boss
  • Mint chocolate chip ice cream is now called ‘Chinese tea’ ice cream
  • A particularly inept candidate interviewed for an electronic resources-type job at the library (not necessarily mine). He previously worked at the library, and as part of his application packet had included something with citations, most of which were formatted incorrectly. A coworker pointed out that he didn’t cite the databases from which he retrieved the articles. OMG. The interview ended abruptly after he casually put his arm around me, and then everyone was uncomfortable.
  • Wandering around a festival or fun fair in a type of convention center, trying to figure out why a man was singing a Carla Bruni song.
  • I was engaged, and we called off the wedding, but somehow it got rescheduled and was going to happen at my grandparents’ house. I had just gotten back from a run and didn’t have time to get cleaned up and was going to call the thing off anyway, so I went downstairs in my sports bra and a skirt (I think) to explain to all of these people in black tie dress that a wedding was definitely not happening. Someone told me I did the right thing.

I have to say that if this is the main side effect of the medication, I’m totally cool with it.

Not Pretending to Be Rocky (unlike everyone else)

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Not Prentending to be Rocky (unlike everyone else)

We spent the weekend in Philly, visiting our dear friend Karin and her wonky cat Gloucester. Along the way we ate lots of good food, saw Kasey and Paul, met Rachel and lots of other library people, and saw a few of the Philly sights. Right now I’m so tired from travel and metadata that I can hardly see straight, but I will say that we definitely had fun, we definitely ate a lot of bacon, and we’ll definitely be going back to visit soon!

Today I felt like a real life librarian

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– I spontaneously helped someone at the desk and adequately answered all of her questions, though I had to flag someone down to find the specific thing (the school’s faculty/staff newsletter from this week) she requested.

– I attended a presentation on Open Access publishing and actually knew what Cathy was talking about.

– In class tonight, we talked about metasearching and federated searching, and I actually knew what we were talking about.

So that’s pretty cool.

WANT

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I don’t often covet the silly or expensive things that I see around on campus. I don’t care about the Prada bags or the sunglasses that probably cost more than my entire outfit.

Today, however, I find myself intensely longing for the brightly colored rain boots that the undergrads all seem to be wearing.