cleolinda | Entries tagged with little miss sunshine

So, like I said, I did go to the MedHelp clinic early Friday morning. Since a discussion of health care broke out a couple of entries ago, here's how my visit went: ( Read more... )

( Catch-up linkspam )

The Blessing of the Pets in Madrid:

Please, Father, bless my retriever.

And my cat!

Can't I be blessed someplace warmer?

WHAT ABOUT US?

But I'm an atheist!

Current Mood: mmmspaghetti
Current Music: Chicane, "Love on the Run"

My Tibetan cuff bracelets that I bought for a penny each plus shipping from China, shut up came in this afternoon! I love them. Really, it was a pretty good day all around--I got in a swim, I ate real food, I got presents that I bought myself, shut up in the mail. Here's hoping tomorrow starts a trend.

theferrett and I discuss Little Miss Sunshine a bit.

Holy shit: "All the girls in the beauty pageant, except Abigail Breslin, were veterans of real beauty pageants. They looked the same and performed the same acts as they had in their real-life pageants." Source interview: "So for us the issue was, how are we going to present this pageant in a way that can be as neutral as possible. For the most part, anyone who’s never seen what really goes on there, they’re going to be shocked by it. It’s a pretty shocking little subculture. But our goal was to try to just present it authentically, to just get real girls who do what they really do – we didn’t tell them when to smile, we didn’t tell them how to stand, we didn’t tell them anything." Let's revisit that picture again, shall we? I am terrified now.

You've seen the LMS directors' work before; you just may not have known it.

la_sonnambula on John Mark Karr and his visions of movie stardom: "And the movie wouldn't be just a little indie nugget either, it would be a blockbuster raking in $1 billion. He also told professor Tracey, 'I'm not gay, damn it. I am attracted to female children.' And he wants to have a sex change and become a nanny in Europe." Sadly, it was when we got to the "one billion dollars" part that I, the movie freak, went, "Okay, now I know bitch crazy." Also, way to get your slime on the transgender community while you're at it, Buffalo Bill.

Rome, Venice fests feud over broken pact. FIGHT! FIGHT!

Venice opens with grim murder movie "Black Dahlia." As opposed to the cheerful, happy-go-lucky murder movies you see so often.

Film to show doomed love of Spanish matador Manolete. Remember the on-set pictures of Adrien Brody in a hot pink matador costume? I know, it was a long time ago. They're from this movie. It actually sounds pretty interesting.

It's not that fewer books are being challenged--it's that we're not hearing about it. Sigh.

theatre_angel: "I feel a little bad asking this, but: for your next linkspam, whenever that may be, could you possibly put up this, which is a link to NRDC's new video campaign for their efforts to protect the Arctic Refuge from Bush's oil drilling. Because when your mother tells you to pimp something, it's hard to say no."

The Vile Videos. "'12 Books in 120 Seconds,' the first in a series of three panic-stricken videos leading up to The End, has appeared at lemonysnicket.com. Narrated by the infamous Tim Curry, it threatens to expose you to everything the Baudelaire orphans have suffered so far, in less time than it takes to brush one’s teeth." First poster to comment that "they stole your idea zomg!" gets slapped with a wet noodle. Like, a really big one. Lasagna, maybe.

CBS magazine slims down Couric in photo. "Couric, 49, said she hadn't known about the digitally reworked version until she saw the issue. The former NBC Today show host told the Daily News, 'I liked the first picture better because there's more of me to love.'" Awww.

The brains behind writer's block: new views of the muse. So... hypomania/hypergrafia is in one lobe, and writer's block is in the other? And maybe someday they'll be able to treat block? That kind of blows my mind. Also, it should make you feel a lot less guilty about being blocked in the first place.

Awww, a pimp for the book.

These totally go with my Flaming Chicken of DOOOOOM icon. Mmm, chicken.

Clarification about (and apology for!) the Harlan Ellison thing. Let me repeat that: Ellison apologized! I should issue a clarification of my own--I had heard the "little fuck" story, but the context I heard it in was that it had been attributed to Ellison (specifically, in an elevator) as well as a few other people, much the way Marie Antoinette wasn't even the first person to get stuck with "Let them eat cake." In fact, I honestly don't think the "little fuck" thing happened to anyone, as it's a little too pat and perfect--it sounds like a really good punchline that someone came up with and tried to create an anecdote around. (Read that Snopes link, though, for a similar joke about Michael Dunn and Sophia Loren. There be lolz in them thar hills.)

More prettiness at The Costumer's Guide--better Marie Antoinette Vogue scans, some Pirates 3 pics (okay, I think that really is Keira's stunt double), and the revelation that "Eragon is exactly like Episode IV with dragons." Well, that bodes well.

More stills from Little Miss Sunshine. And ( slight spoilers )

Christ on a cracker.

outinthestorm initially told me she'd heard this on the radio, and I actually asked her to go back and make sure it wasn't a joke. It sounded too outrageous not to be, you know? I figured I'd learned my lesson with passing joke-gossip like the "little fuck" story (see above) off as fact (whether I actually intended to or not). Well, she comes back with quotes and a link. In case you're scanning the article wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here it is: "Karr had made graphic claims in a series of emails about JonBenet's killing, describing sexual acts with her, her death and writing at one point that he envisioned Johnny Depp playing him in a movie about how he killed JonBenet." Two thoughts:

1. It ain't "I shot the president for love of Jodie Foster," but it's filed in the nonviolent category right behind it.

2. Oh, AS IF, Loserville McCreepysweat. That, and quite frankly, the last half hour of Little Miss Sunshine is the closest I ever want to get to seeing JonBenet portrayed on screen, and that was heeb-inducing enough.

More about my mental health, because I know you find it so very fascinating--I did quit caffeine two or three weeks ago, and cold turkey, too. In the up-and-down flux of medication adjustment, I didn't really notice any particular withdrawal, because I was too busy feeling crappy in general. So I had that going for me. The problem is, I have been stricken with a deep, abiding, psychological craving for the Dew ever since. It's not about the caffeine--it's about going downstairs at eleven in the morning and getting my little twelve-ounce bottle of yellow-green citrus happy. We needs it, precious. And the entire reason I quit was weight loss--Sister Girl had kicked soda a while back, and reported that after she'd been off it a solid month, the pounds really started to drop. In fact, we had all noticed that she had lost a good bit of weight, in a healthy way--weight she had gained mostly in a self-medicating snack-food funk over Asshole Ex-Boyfriend. So I thought, you know, I don't want to mess with my meds and try a new one and go on an actual diet, but quitting caffeine might be a good idea before I mess around with the rest of my brain chemistry, and really, it might be nice to have a few pounds drop off while I'm at it. I'm not expecting a huge difference, but I figured, you know, that might be a nice bonus while I'm going through a crappy adjustment period. Not to mention that messing with my dosages has alternately made me want to eat nothing and eat everything. I'm just saying, I figured it couldn't hurt.

Yeah. It's three weeks later, and I am still in the throes of this Proustian longing for my secret carbonated lovah. No, I don't want to replace it, thanks for asking. I don't want to drink a diet soda (which won't work anyway--where's the link for that study that says that the body doesn't recognize diet soda as "diet"?), a caffeine-free soda, or any other impostor you want to sell me. If it's not Mountain Dew--full stop--it's just colored water, people. I just want to remember all the hours we spent together, the Dew and I, writing the book parodies and pulling desperate all-nighters for class and running through sunlit fields together. I personally think it's no coincidence that "madeleine" and "Mountain Dew" have the same number of syllables.

(By the way--when did we stop calling it Remembrance of Things Past and switch to In Search of Lost Time? I mean, I understand that it's a better translation, but I missed that newsletter, apparently.)

Speaking of Proust, Little Miss Sunshine was so good. There are so many little things that are just so right--of course Uncle Frank is a Proust scholar. Of course Olive's song is both deeply inappropriate--appropriately inappropriate, if you will--and still manages to feature a message of acceptance in the chorus (I'm trying to be non-spoilery here). And the acting is uniformly good and real--you never feel like anyone's grandstanding for the audience, even though there are plenty of big emotional outbursts. The thing I ended up liking about it the most, though, was what amounted to a scathing critique of child pageants. The sad thing is, we all know they're kind of terrible; the JonBenet thing was ten years ago, and yet here it is right back in the news again right as this movie comes out, and all the movie has to do is put a normal little girl onstage next to these preening little sexified horrors and it knows that it doesn't even have to say anything else. Well, it says one more thing, which is that Olive's "shocking" dance is only the next logical step forward from those coy little ass-shaking, pedo-baiting routines.

Also, Steve Carell runs exactly like Tom Cruise. With the flat robot hands and everything. Priceless.

(I'm not saying it's a lock or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone came out of this movie with a supporting nomination of some kind. Everyone's talking about the movie; everyone--at the moment--loves it. My best guess is that it might be Alan Arkin, who plays a... unique character, let's say, and might find himself on the receiving end of a Let's Honor the Old-Timer campaign; or it might be Steve Carell, who plays just absolute raw despair in a very quiet but unmissable way, which in and of itself wouldn't be that extraordinary, except that my God, it's Steve Carell. Who knew he could pull out a performance like that?)

Anyway. Good times. Also, we heard at the concession counter that the Vestavia Rave will be getting The Illusionist "next week," which is to say, Friday--the nationwide release date.

Also, I just got an email newsletter from Lane Bryant: "V is for Versatility." Yeah, but if it doesn't come with matching daggers, I don't want to hear about it.

Linky-linky:

Harlan Ellison did whaaaaat? I mean, yes, I have heard the stories--including the "What would you say to a little fuck" story--but Harlan Ellison did whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Interesting things you find on flickr: "Cameras rolling on the second day of shooting in Redcar of the Working Title film Atonement, based on the Ian McEwan novel of the same name." And here I just clicked on it because the photo was gorgeous. In fact, there seems to be an entire pool for photos taken on the set of this one movie.

Heh. I'd forgotten ABC was going to do this: "Airing opposite the Emmys, a 7-10 p.m. offering of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl on ABC siphoned off an estimated 9.3 million viewers. The telecast, far from the run-of-the-mill rerun typically made available as award-show fodder, was seen as ABC's revenge for its top shows--Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives--being shut out of the glamour categories."

A new Antonia Fraser book, whee!

"Challenged" books drop to all-time low, yay!

The full story on the "Emily" billboards and blog.

Shit. I really am going to have to buy the new LOTR DVDs, aren't I?

And, finally, the new Halloween and LE blends are up at BPAL. I want the Dracula blends so bad. All of them. Even the ones I know won't work on me at all. Shit. (What? I have a Dracula thing. Like, specifically the book, not just an emo vampire fetish or something.) Seriously, that job I applied for better come through soon. Although, ironically? The university is a scent-free working environment. Yeah, I'll be over here with Mr. Bemis shaking my fist at the sky--call it "Money Enough at Last."

So I have finally talked to my doctor, and I am going to be on three! three! three! medications for the time being--the same Zoloft, a little less Wellbutrin, and tiny increments of Lamictal that we're going to ramp up over the next eight weeks so I don't get Teh Fatal Rash Oh Noes. And if I get Teh Sub-Fatal Rash Zomg, which may or may not involve a tightening of the throat and shortness of breath as well, I need to go to the emergency room and get a shot of Benadryl, because it basically is or is like an allergic reaction, much the way you might have one to peanuts or penicillin or bee stings or morons (I have those a lot).

Meanwhile, your ration of cute for the week.

Aaaaaaand the Ramsey-Karr DNA doesn't match. Shine on, you crazy dicksmack. Shine on, in your THAI PRISON.

"Good evening, you godless sodomites." "I could have lost to Wolverine! He has claws!" My mother, who was watching to cheer on Jack Bauer, is now very fond of some "Jon Colbert" person she keeps talking about.

ladyvoldything: Tom Cruise Wins "Ernie Award" For Sexism.

Ann Coulter runs out of bullshit.

Ron's Quidditch scenes might be cut from OotP film (see also "Weasley is our king," "the loudest fannish wail since... whatever pissed them off in the last movie").

Jim Broadbent to play Judge Turpin in 'Sweeney Todd'? Ooo! Casting is so exciting. Seriously, the casting of anything. I love that quicksand period where you get to watch (from a very distant vantage point) movies, particularly the ones with larger casts, take shape. Like the way that Nicole Kidman's White Witch would have been very different from Tilda Swinton's, and so on. It's like you get a peek into alternate universes for a moment.

(If you dig this kind of thing, you absolutely have to read this book. It cracks my shit up so hard--they'll end a chapter completely straight-faced with something like, "And then, a rising new starlet was chosen to star in Sleepless in Seattle: Demi Moore," and you'll have to go on to the next chapter. It's brilliant. Hell, just look at the title: if I recall correctly, the speaker of that line was Burt Reynolds, and the role was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.)

tecno_fairy, this one's for you. Even though I don't think any of the outfits you made are in there, unless you also worked on Pintel and Ragetti. It's still fab.

A fall movie preview. Seriously, did The Illusionist come out already and I just missed it? Did it just not come to Birmingham? Was I just too depressed to notice? (Winnah!)

Going to see Little Miss Sunshine tonight, assuming that I don't find anything else to be allergic to in the next three hours. Also, I finally got around to watching Inside Man this weekend, and it was really, really good. Fie on not seeing things in the theater.