More crappy movies…

“Gangs of New York” was long and blah. Cameron Diaz, don’t like her… Best in the movie…? I don’t know, Jim Broadbent maybe (I really like him). I just realized I have seen three movies with him lately, “Gang of New York”, “The gathering storm” and the new Indi.

Then I saw “Van Helsing”, what the hell…? Best in the movie, easy, Kate Beckinsales corset. I thought it was based on a comic book but apparently it’s not.

Movies left: 91
Days left: 981

Dream…

Road trip, I’m a cheerleader or something and a screw falls out of my retainer and we have to stop at this nasty creep old gas station where the owner films us when we pee. Does it mean anything? Doubt it.

Autumn must have item number 3

Number 3 on the list, rubber boots. These are sort of cute. Can’t walk in heels though but there are cute. The other pair without heel and lacing in the front that were cute too. Nice to know there are some options when it comes to boots.

Both from Tretorn

AUTUMN-MUST-HAVE-LIST

Autumn-must-have-list

1. A beret because they are so cute! I’ll probably look like a fool but hey… Maybe I can knit one?
2. A new coat, bought one last winter but two seams broke right away. Hate when that happens.
3. New rubber boots. Perhaps two pairs? One fancier pair and one for walking the dog. It could be nice to stay dry and not look like a hillbilly when I go places.
4. An umbrella, a black double domed one, like the one witches have. Oh and perhaps a red one too…
5. A rain coat, maybe two? (Same reason as number 3)
6. Cozy socks, mohair, cashmere or similar.
7. A nice throw.

It’s not even August yet but it feels like autumn…

Where is the summer at? This happened last year too, no summer… It’s not all that warm, not cold either but no summer heat and there’s something with the light that makes it feel like fall. I have to stack up on books and movies, and yarn and new recipes so I have things to do this fall.
Even though I usually get low when it’s fall, leaving yet another disappointing summer behind me and it’s starts to rain, the winds picks up and before you know it the sunsets at noon I think it’s my favorite time of the year. The colorful leaves, feeling cold and miserable and sit down and watch television with tea and apple-pie with a cozy blanket and slippers on. I like it when the wet leaves are caught in the wind and slapping your face, why? I don’t know… Guess because it’s okay to be gloomy that time of year, no one is questioning you if you are upset and/or down because most people are at that time.

I was just out with my dog, it looked like rain so I got my rubber boots on (even though there’s a hole in them but they are better than sneakers) but skipped the raincoat. It was probably just a small shower and it gets so warm with that thing on. I hadn’t gone far when it started to rain, a faint thunder behind me and my dog being stubborn decided what way to go, to the highest point. It was pouring down now, we were both soaked and the thunder right above us. It sounded like a whole mountain crumbling down and my dog doesn’t like that so we headed back and I was a little scared because we were so high up. We were walking and lighting cut our path, it was right in front of us, hissing and spitting and making all kind of noises, it was like stepping into a Poe story.

The rain beating down on us and rooftops, lovely sound, sure I was wet but it was warm. Have a feeling this fall is going to be a wet one so I need new rubber boots, a new raincoat and a cute umbrella (a black one like in my story).

(Nice picture from Wikipedia article about lightning)

The gathering storm

Again, pretty dull movie, eventless. “The gathering storm” (oh, good title though) is about Winston Churchill and takes place just before the war. It would be more fun if the movie started where it ended, just when England went to war with Germany. Good acting but there was very little for them to do.

Favorite… Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent

Movies left: 93
Days left: 985

Two more movies

Swedish movie “Tur och retur” felt like a “Parent trap” rip-off and a bad one, very predictable. Then I watched “Becoming Jane” and it felt like a cheaper version of “Pride and prejudge” (2005), never really appreciated Keira Knightley before but she is a better actor than that Anne chick, and Rosamund Pike is better than Anna Maxwell Martin (still can’t believe she won BAFTA best actress over Gillian Anderson in “Bleak House” Gillian was way better!). Dull and pretty eventless (like my life), better off watching “Pride and prejudge” one more time.

Best was Julie Waters, but I just started thinking of Brenda Blethyn… All the characters were so similar to P&P and maybe that was sort of the point, to understand where the stories and people in Janes books come from but it felt like they had all sat down and watched P&P and studied it and based every facial expression from it.

Love Maggie but she was barely in the movie…

Movies left: 94
Days left: 987

Next movie I watch better be good.

First I saw “Chain of fools” and what stuck was, A) Steve Zahn looks like Michel J Fox B) Orlando Jones is pretty funny and that was it. Then I watched “The Tailor of Panama” and the only thing was, this movie sucks… Pierce was cursing and being ridicules, Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t get any space at all and somehow Geoffrey was almost invisible.

Movies left: 96
Days left: 989

Lady Bird

Yesterday I could see that they were about to bloom so this morning when I woke up I was like a kid on Christmas and immediately looked out the window to see if they were in bloom, and they were! My “Lady Bird” (Papaver commutatum) is so cute, looks so fragile and delicate with the big flowers on the small stems. I wish I had more of these, next year I will.

Reading right now

"The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want" Maybe it’s the translation but at times it feels like this book is for kids and then there “advice” about sleeping around so maybe not. Feels like a book that could really mess a little girl up if she believed in it, there were plenty of times I thought, “Okay, that seems like a good way to get a reputation and/or get beaten up”. I’ll try not to buy stupid books in the future…

Trying to read Jane Austens “Sense and sensibility” right now but it is taking me forever, I have to re-read a sentence every now and then to make sure I got it right. Don’t like to read books in that weird old Swedish and I’m not a big fan of either Marianne or Elinor, I don’t think we would have been friends if I met them, I wouldn’t have been posh enough. Maybe I should get "Jane Austen for dummies" and maybe then I will enjoy it more?

Weird dream, again

No vampires this time though. Heidi was living at her old place and we had to walk through it to get to school, and we hurried so that we would beat everyone else (for some reason everyone at the entire school seemed to set off to school at the same time and from the same place). My mom’s old job was also there and since I had forgotten some sort of card we needed to pass somewhere we decided to sneak through my mom’s old job where I borrowed the phone, or answered it and forgot about it and had brought it with me to school.

When we got to school Heidi wanted to talk to the school nurse about her problems with alcohol and when she did that the school nurse decided it would be good if everyone had that conversation and it was like group therapy all of a sudden. I was listening but I can’t remember what was said and everyone was supposed to say something, I put my foot in my mouth and came off as a complete jackass and the more I tried to get out of it the worse it got, but luckily Marilyn Mason (!!!?) called me and asked if I wanted to watch a movie with him so I excused myself and left the room.

That dream can’t mean a thing now can it? What did Marilyn Manson do there? I don’t listen to him or anything, maybe he was on the radio? I tend to get affected by the radio when I sleep.

Dreams…

Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire (1897) Found the picture here

I have similar dreams most of the times. Chasing vampires (always in modern times), which usually backfires and I or someone I care about ends up in mortal danger. Every now and then I am a vampire but that doesn’t mean that other vampires like me, they still try to kill me. I’ve been in several wars, usually part of some kind of rebel force or underground movement, hunted by the law or some sort of conspiracy. I’m fighting battles that are doomed from the beginning, giant monsters that I can’t win over. To sum it up, “they” are always out to get me and they odds are against me.

Last night it started out with a party somewhere out in the woods (my dreams often take place in the woods), my friend Amanda was there and her friends that don’t like me, they were mean to me. This faded away and suddenly I was on the run. Someone was trying to catch me, some kind of conspiracy and I knew about it and had to be stopped. I fled with someone to the bus but when we got there “they” had killed the bus driver and we were trapped (time to get a driver’s license).

All my vampire dreams some would think I’m just one of those vampire freak, someone who watches Buffy but I’m not. Ever been into vampires and I didn’t watch Buffy. According to dreammoods.com “To dream that you are a vampire, signifies that you are sucking in the life energy of others for your own selfish benefit.” Yeah, that sounds like me… (it’s hard to use sarcasm in text) they also say about fighting vampires, “The vampires in your dream may suggest that you are feeling drained of your life energy and autonomy. In dreaming that you are fighting these vampires, is a literal depiction of your daily struggles with keeping things in order. You may be suffering from exhaustion or feeling overwhelmed in some aspect of your domestic or personal life which explains the tiredness you feel when you wake up.” Not sure you can say that vampire means this or that, I must mean different things for everyone, but this could be true.

I should go t-shirt shopping at Topshop

Cute tees, and I’m running out of clothes. I tend to wear things until they fall off… Don’t have a lot of money so if I could only buy one I would go with the Batgirl one.

Exorcist: The Beginng

Has Renny Harlin ever done a good movie? (Except for Christmas classic “Die Hard 2” but that’s not really a “good” movie, just a good old classic so it doesn’t count.) Watched “Exorcist: The Beginning” last night, just a movie with a lame scene where Isabella walks around in the dark with nothing but a towel. Is there like a rule or something that there has to be some sort of nudity in horror films?

I don’t know what makes “The Exorcist” scary but it’s one of the scariest films I have ever seen. Haven’t seen it for years and I have no plans of seeing it again. I got scared when I saw “Jaw” but I was seven so that’s understandable but “The Exorcist” still scares me. Just thinking of that late at night and I imagine my bed shaking. I’m glad this wasn’t anywhere near that because I was sitting all alone watching it with my terrace door open. The scariest thing was when my dog all of a sudden started barking and I dropped the remote in the floor and went searching for the batteries under the sofa.

No one can take Linda Blair and Max von Sydow a wonderful Fader Merrin, Stellan is fine but he’s no Max.

Apparently “The Exorcist” is based on a book… would I dare read it?

Movies left: 98

Days left: 995 (I suck at keeping track of things, I hope it's right...)

Poppies!!

I actually managed to fail with some of my poppies, guess I didn’t water them enough this spring? Some made it though and they are in bloom, love them! And I’ll get more and treat them better next season. (I'm collecting seeds if anyone wants some)

Love the color of this one. The mother looks like the one below, opium poppies (papaver somniferum) I found on a meadow around here. For some reason a few decided to be pink and I want more of them.

Frilly purple opium poppy

Corn poppy (papaver rhoeas) "Shirley double"

More corn poppy, same seed mix, "Shirely double" but not double

Not in bloom yet, Papaver commutatum "Ladybird"

Bad girl’s guide to getting what you want

Because it was cheap and sort of cute I bought Cameron Tuttles “Bad girl’s guide to getting what you want”. (I buy way too many books like that...) As I was flipping through I saw these lists of different bad girls and a Swedish name caught my eye and I thought, they she make the list? And then I looked closer and there were loads of Swedish names on it. Of course when it was printed in Swedish they added Swedes on it so that people could relate but… I don’t like things getting changed. Sure, it’s not a serious book but still. They have added some names they liked better and I guessed thought we here in Sweden would know who they were and removed some… Like poor Debbie Harry, why?!

Annoyed with all of these changes, irritated, what else have they changed? I want the original version. Guess it serves me right for buying silly books… UPDATE: Oh my, comparing the original with this one… “mug shot” has been translated to “passport picture”, guessing this Swedish version is for the kids…

Here are the lists

Bad girls making music
Billie Holiday
Janis Joplin
Josephine Baker
Tina Turner
Bessie Smith (Not on the Swedish list)
Lil’ Kim
Aretha Franklin
Bonnie Raitt (Not on the Swedish list)
Shania Twain
Eartha Kitt
Courtney Love
Joan Jett
Chaka Khan (Not on the Swedish list)
Deborah Harry (Not on the Swedish list!!!!!!)
Sheryl Crow
Melissa Etheridge (Not on the Swedish list)
Annie Lennox
The bad girl formerly known as Prince
Liz Phair (Not on the Swedish list)
Grace Slick (Not on the Swedish list)
Chrissy Hynde
Stevie Nicks
Queen Latifah

ADDED IN THE SWEDISH VERSION
Gwen Stefani
Robyn
Monica Zetterlund (which is okay with me, love that woman)
Nina Persson (The Cardigans)
Beyonce
Jennifer Lopez
Mary J Blige

Bad girls making movies
Marilyn Monroe
Miss Piggy
Raquel Welch
Pam Grier
Carrie Fisher
Barbra Stanwyck
Tallulah Bankhead
Drew Barrymore
Callie Khouri (Not on the Swedish list)
Judy Davis (Not on the Swedish list)
Marlene Dietrich
Mae West
Sharon Stone
Rita Hayworth
Jane Champion
Christina Ricci
Greta Garbo
Katherine Hepburn
Penny Marshall (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Tova Novotny (What?! Please… If they are going to add a Swede, what about Ingrid Bergman?)
Juliette Lewis
Sarah Jessica Parker

Bad girls scoring points
Serena and Venus Williams
Mia Hamm (Not on the Swedish list)
Florence Griffith Joyner (Not on the Swedish list, most defiantly because of the steroid controversy)
Martina Navratilova
Lisa Leslie (Not on the Swedish list)
Brandi Chastain (Not on the Swedish list)
Michelle Akers (Not on the Swedish list)
Laila Ali (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDEN ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Kajsa Bergqvist
Therese Alshammar
Anja Pärson
Annika Sörenstam (Defiantly earned her place on the list)
Hanna Ljungberg
Victoria Svensson

Bad girls making history
Eve
Joan of Arc
Harriet Tubman (Not on the Swedish list)
Amelia Earhart
Eva Perón
Anne Boleyn (Not on the Swedish list)
Rosa Parks
Annie Oakley (Not on the Swedish list)
Queen Elizabeth I
Angela Davis
Wilma Rudolph (Not on the Swedish list)
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Madeleine Albright
Marie Curie
Jane Goodall
Margaret Sanger
Rosie the Riveter
Martha Graham (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Fredrika Bremer
Mother Teresa
Bridget of Sweden
Lady Diana
Anna Lindh

Bad girls making literature
Jane Austen
Anaïs Nin
Toni Morrison
George Sand
Dorothy Parker
Edit Wharton
Audre Lorde (Not on the Swedish list)
Colette (Not on the Swedish list)
Joan Didion (Not on the Swedish list)
Susan Sontag
The Brontë sisters
Maya Angelou (Not on the Swedish list)
Grace Paley (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDEN ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Astrid Lindgren (Yes! Hello, she’s the creator of Pippi Longstocking for F sake!)
Kerstin Thorwall
Linda Skugge
Liza Marklund (urk!)

Then they have removed the art category completely in the Swedish version and have “girls with power” instead, I’m not surprised.
Cristina Stenbeck
Anna Bråkenhielm
Stina Dabrowski (why not)
Princess Victoria

Bad girls making us laugh
Lucille Ball
Glida Radner (Not on the Swedish list)
Sandra Bernhard (Not on the Swedish list)
Lily Tomlin (Not on the Swedish list!)
Rosanne Barr
Holly Golightly (Not on the Swedish list)
Rosie O’Donnell
Phyllis Diller (Not on the Swedish list)
Ellen Degeneres
Oprah Winfrey (I wouldn’t say she makes me laugh, I would have put her on the “So bad they need only one name”)
Lisa Kudrow
Teri Garr (Not on the Swedish list)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Not on the Swedish list!!)
Bridget Jones

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Annika Lantz
Suzanne Reuter
Babben Larsson
Tiffany Persson (Love her!)
Anna-Lena Brundin
Ulla Skog

Bad girls that make men weep
Scarlett O’Hara
Catwoman (!!)
Elizabeth Taylor
Heather Locklear
Gloria Steinem

Bad girls so bad they need only one name
Eve (Not on the Swedish list)
Madonna
Thelma & Louise
Xena (Not on the Swedish list)
Cleopatra
Eloise (Not on the Swedish list)
Charo (Not on the Swedish list)
Colette (Not on the Swedish list)
Lucy “peanuts” (Not on the Swedish list)
Ling

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH ONE
Pink (ew)
Pippi (Yeah!)
Grynet
Nikita (Hell yeah)
Patsy and Edina (Yes! I mean, cheers!)

I never said I would write a masterpiece

Just that I would write and I have 61 days left to write and a really crappy first draft so I can touch it up and finish it. Practice makes perfect and you have to start somewhere so what if I don’t write something great? At least I’m writing and I’m finishing what I started and that’s the important thing to me right now, not quitting, not giving up.

Chocolat

I didn’t know the movie was based on a book, maybe I should read it… Johnny Depp was more tempting then the chocolate they were making. The movie was pretty unexciting but it wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Favorite was Judi Dench

Movies left: 99
Days left: 996

Les Amants du Flore

The movie was pretty dull, life story movies are rarely good. The actors were pretty good though. It's was about Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre, I didn't know anything about them before the movie and now I know where they are Buried. The best thing about the movie was the hairdos and the atmosphere. My favorite was Lolo.

Movies left: 100
Days left: 1000

New Challenge

101 movies in 1001 days. That seems like it’s plausible. Starts today, July 5 2008 and ends… um…2011 April 2, I think…

Indiana Jones

Where to begin… this is one of the worse movies I seen in a long time. I just sat there squirming and going, “What is this?” and it was so lame that I knew everything that was going to happen, then you know it’s a bad movie when you figure everything out within five minutes. Sucked so bad!! If you haven’t seen it, don’t. You won’t miss a thing, watch a good movie instead… Why do they make movies like these? (Because of the money) I can’t understand how anyone can like this. What was up with the chipmunks? Surviving a nuclear blast by climbing into a fridge? Everything became dust except for the fridge, he’s one lucky fellow that Dr. Jones.
Ctrl A for spoiler. I missed Marcus and Sallah…

Oops

I’ve totally forgotten all about writing. I haven’t been in on How to write a novel in 100 or less days in like… a week, I suck so bad! Seriously, tomorrow I will focus on my writing, on my story. I have to figure the plot out properly; right now it’s not working. I like my heroine and the “hero”, not sure he’s a hero but anyway… I liked the task for day 29 and I think everyone should give it ago, try to be as honest as you can (dare). I have to find out exactly what it is in the plot that isn’t working.

But maybe it’s not working because it’s all crap? It’s a possibility… I just looked at it and I just don’t like it. I think I have to toss the plot and come up with a whole new one, same some of the elements but a new story in the same environment with the same people. The people don’t fit the story… Well I guess it’s the people that don’t fit the story and not the other way around. Feel so stuck and unsure on what to do. When do you know to drops something and start something else?

What would Jane think?

Jane Austen Book Club, didn’t like it… Who was the narrator? That was basically what kept me going, who is telling this story? Maybe I’ll know in the end but no… Just felt like glimpse in pretty ordinary lives. At the end of my book there were questions to consider, perhaps someone hoped that this would be a book people gathered in someone’s living room to discus and wanted to help out and have the questions already made up in the end of the book? (Who wrote these questions? The publisher?) I did like that idea, I like to get some questions and think about the book a little bit more.

The best thing in the entire book was the mentioning of Jet Li at page 195, Jet Li rules

Imaginary Tea Party…

If you had a tea party for five and could invite whoever you want, dead or alive, fictional or real life person who would it be? I’m think Sherlock Holmes and the lovely Ms Marple, I’m sure they would get along and it would probably be fun to listen in on their conversation. I guess Dr Watson could come along as well but then there are two empty seats left. I would invite Fred and George Weasley but I don’t think they would like that sort of thing, sitting still, talking and having tea isn’t their style. Maybe I’m in some sort of crime fighting mood because Poirot seems like a delight to have at a tea party. Last seat at the table… Indiana Jones wouldn’t like it, neither would James Bond. Oh, I think I’ll invite Sir Ian McKellen, or Vincent Price… Hm, I think I’ll go with Ian, he seems more easy going than Vincent.

Interesting, all my guests but one is fictional, what does that say about me?

Only problem is, all of these people seem very smart, well-spoken and have interesting ideas about all sorts of things and then there in the middle, me!?

Geraldine McEwan as Ms Jane Marple

The fabulous Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr Watson

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot

Ian Mckellen

Famous Tea Parties

People don’t have tea parties anymore do they? I have never been invited to a tea party and I have never ever heard of anyone that has. Never heard of anything like that, getting invited for coffee sure but that’s not a tea party. Why not? Sound like fun. People have tex mex parties, plain old dinners, sex and the city evenings but no tea parties? Strange…

Boston Tea Party, not an actually tea party but still… Why destroy all that tea? I would have taken it and have an actually tea party, that would have been nice, invite EVERYONE and have tea and talk about it instead.

A Mad Tea Party, illustration by Arthur Rackham… Poor Alice looks so bored… Not a very good host is he. I love the hare in that picture, big black eyes, looks stoned doesn't he?