Mansfield Park X 2

Managed to read the book and see the movie (2009). No matter which of the two you pick first the second will be a surprise because they’ve changed a lot from the book. If I had seen the movie first I would have expected the book to be better… not that the movie was good. They have changed big things like a no to yes, I hope I don’t give too much away here… The leading lady, Fanny Price is two different people. The movie is actually based not only on the book but also on Jane Austens letters which give Fanny a lot more spunk than she has in the book.

If you can only pick one way to experience Mansfield Park I would pick the movie simply because it’s faster to watch it than to read it.

On to Emma soon in my little Jane Austen experience and I loved that Sarah gave away a copy of “Pride and Prejudice” so I said I would steal that idea and I did. I have a spanking new copy of Emma (but I think someone sat on the package though…). All you need to do is to leave a comment and by the end of the month (or when there is more than one comment, which is more likely the case) I will pick a name and see who wins.

UPDATE: Due to Sarahs nice little promo the last day to sign up will be February 28 and Mars 1 I will pick a winner. And I hope it inspires more people to give away books.

Movies

I saw more than 209 movies in 2009 (since 1 June) some might say I have a problem but I would like to call it a hobby.

Worthy of your time: The acting in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is very impressive, you rarely see acting like that today. And Elizabeth Taylor is a gorgeous looking woman. I got a crush on her and she have a lot of fun costumes in Cleopatra but I found the movie a little too long and tedious for my liking, but if you want to look at some amazing costumes get some tea and popcorn and watch it.

I’m a sucker for Baz Luhrmann so I had no problem with Australia and it’s a pretty movie visually but I understand why some people hate it so it might not be for everyone.

I didn’t have any expectations what so ever when I sat down and watched “The Wrestler” but it was a pleasant surprise, Mickey Rourke is wonderful and there’s a rumor that Nicolas Cage was at one point supposed to have the leading role and man what suck fest it would have been so good that that didn’t work out.

Maybe it’s more for hardcore movie fans but Metropolis was wonderful, it felt very modern despite being a silent film from 1927. Beautiful but again, not for everyone.

Singin’ in the Rain, easy to like, fun and perfect for a rainy day. Makes you want to sing and dance. And if you like that you will probably like Gypsy too, which also makes you want to sing and dance but also take you clothes of so be careful.

Not sure if I got a director’s cut version or what but at times “Once upon a Time in the West” didn’t make sense but the first half is movie history and a must for everyone who’s interested in movies.

Loved “Rebel Without a Cause”, it was great and I have to get it on DVD. Wonderful movie and again it felt very modern, it could have been done yesterday. I do find it weird that no one has attempted to do a remake, I’m not saying they should (absolutely not) but with such a good story it is surprising that they haven’t, especially when you think about the remakes that have been done over the years.

“The Fall”, a movie I hadn’t heard anything about but after seeing a still from it I knew I had to see it, I like pretty movies and this movie wasn’t only pretty it was good too. Lee Pace was super cute, is he single? Anyway… I liked it and it’s a movie I can see over and over again.

Whenever something sticks out from the standard American movies I get happy. “This is England”, the opening scene and my first thought, “This would never been okayed by an American company”, there’s a charm here. I can’t really put my finger on what it was that I liked about it but I enjoyed it.

“Sunshine Cleaning”, charming and enjoyable. It feels like, if you liked “Little Miss Sunshine” you will like this movie too.

“A Very Long Engagement” isn’t as good as “Amelie” but it’s good and beautiful like usual when Jean-Pierre Jeunet is involved.

Books

Did some calculations and it turns out I’ve read 45 books in 2009 (!) which I find amazing since a few years ago I barely read at all. Some of them were young adult books and you can read one of those in a day but some of them were in English and that takes longer so I guess it evens out.

My "101 books in 1001 days" doesn't seem impossible which I thought it would be.

Best books 2009: I liked Oscar Wilde, his language is so colorful and fun. I also enjoyed Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” (I love Victorian times) and I’ll read more of him in the future. Gypsy Rose Lee was interesting too. Oh and I almost forgot “Pride and Prejudice” which I really enjoyed (everyone should read it).

In Swedish: 25
In English: 20

What happened to all the birds?

(Picture found here)

I used to fill the birdfeeder several times and their little table too. Especially when the ground is covered with snow and finding food is harder. I could sit there for hours watching all the birds swooping around but now… where are they? The peanuts are all there, haven’t seen a single bird there. Seen a few blue tit and great tit and that’s it, unless you count the magpies of course. There used to be so many birds, woodpecker in all sizes, Eurasian jay, nuthatch, finches… there were loads of birds and now there is nothing. I guess that’s what’s happen when you cut down a wooden area and remove their water supply, who could have thought right…

The only time I have to refill the table is after it’s been raided by the magpies or crows. I miss my little birds and the squirrel hasn’t been there a single time since the wood was cut down. The heron wasn’t spotted as often as before (could it be the apartment complex they build next to his lake? For some reason the people living there have the lake confused with a garbage bin…)

The wooden area across the street wasn’t that large but it’s evident now just how many animals thought of it as their home.

Cold!

Right now I’m happy my dog doesn’t want to go out. He only takes one walk in the morning and then he refuse to leave the house, which I don’t mind now when it’s -16,9C outside! My toes get cold just thinking about it. The last few weeks has been cold and we have plenty of snow, we had a white Christmas which was a very long time since I last experienced.

I think I have experience at least -28C in my life, perhaps a few times when I was young that it was -30C. What is the coldest weather you’ve ever experienced?

2010

I’ll try to come up with more realistic things than before, I am the master of postponing things, “Why do today what I can do tomorrow?” (Oh, right now I feel like murdering a few people on my block, slowly… They are sending off fireworks like crazy, it’s 23:27 and I want them to die! Have to check my baby… Poor thing, it hurts to see him like this, scared and drugged up like Courtney Love.)

1. Read at least one scripted per week
2. Control my anger, take a deep breath and count to ten when I get mad

To be continued…

Last Year’s New Years Resolutions

One by one
1. Go to the gyno and do a smear test or whatever it’s called (sounds like fun doesn’t it?) Check!
2. Get a haircut Check!
3. Buy a dress or a skirt. Oops…

Continuously
1. Keep a food diary to see what I need to add and remove from my “diet” Post it on the blog (and please yell at me when I’m not eating health) (Oops… doesn’t feel very necessary anymore)
2. Write X pages per X (have to figure out what amount of pages per day/week is reasonable) (Yes, I should have done this by now…)
3. Work on watching ALL 250 top movies on IMDB (some would call that a waste of time but…) (I’m doing well on this one but it takes time)
4. Get a pedicure (homemade, I’m pretty darn good) at least once a month. (started out good but…)

Projects
1. Finish one longer story (No!)
2. Finish a synopsis for a movie (No!)
3. Learn how to walk in heels (No!)
4. Learn how to do a decent manicure at home (No!)
5. Try to sew something, either finish the pants I have or make a simple dress (No!)
6. Try embroidery (No!)
7. Finish my brothers shirt and start knitting in the hats (that was last year’s new year’s resolution for Pete sake!) (No!)

All in all, I did not do well...

I hate New Years!

It’s hard to start the New Year being positive when New Year is such a rough day. Fireworks… It starts early, around Christmas and people don’t understand what it does to animals. My dog refuse to walk outside and is acting really weird for a long time since people will continue sending off fireworks for weeks after New Years.

My baby got stressed out around 4 o’clock and started scratching the walls and panting, and I could not get him to walk outside today, well at 10 in the morning but not after that which means I have to be prepared to take him out at any moment during the night when he has to go.

I also have to drug him every year to get him to calm down and I hate to do that but he’s panting like he ran a marathon in 40C heat and doing weird things like trying to knock the Christmas tree over.

If people only waited until midnight so that the torture didn’t went on all day at least, that would be a great relieve for my baby and I but no…

Next year I would love to rent a cabin in the middle of nowhere so I could enjoy New Years and just relax...

How to annoy your neighbors part five

Where I live you don’t need a permit to have chickens, it is advice that you ask your neighbors but… So maybe I should get a chicken coop, very cute and country-ish, especially with a rooster that crows at seven in the morning.

(Picture found here)

And they’ll give me eggs and fertilizer for the garden. I’ve also heard that chickens eat a lot of bad bugs in the garden such as ticks for example.

(Picture found here)

Oops, I did it again…

I got myself a Christmas present, books!

I just read Bill Brysons “Made in America” and I really liked it so I got another one of his books, “In a sunburned country” which is about Australia.

What else did I get…? More Australia, “The Explorers” by Tim Flannery.

Been into biographies lately so I got Marilyn Monroes “My Story”, Johnny Rottens “Rotten, No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” and Louis Brooks “Lulu in Hollywood”

Only two books were fiction, “Emma” by Jane Austen which I will give away and “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman.

I want a house with a view

Our new neighbors seem very surprised (and upset) about the fact that you can see in through a window just as well as you can look out of it. Surely they can’t be surprised that our house is there since it was there before they started building theirs. And why build the house with huge windows facing our house if they were going to be annoyed with the lack of privacy? They knew the house is occupied and have windows as well so seeing us can’t be so hard to imagine can it?

I personally get pissed off a lot now since I can see straight into their house from most part of ours. I have the curtains constantly shut in my bedroom which is really gloomy. It’s so irritating to look at these people walking around in their house and it’s not like I’m staring but it’s impossible not to see them when their house is lit and it’s dark outside. They come storming to shut the blinders when I’m in the kitchen; I think they believe I’m spying on them…

(What if this was your view when you looked out the window during breakfast. I know I would be a happier persons if it was my view.)

Reading Mansfield Park right now and I find it a little harder to follow than I did Pride and Prejudice, perhaps because I had seen P&P the movie and was a little more familiar with the story or maybe since MP is written after P&P Austen has excelled as a writer and makes it harder for me to follow due to my English not being good enough? Anyway… I like the part where they are talking about houses, Mr. Rushworth says, “The approach now, is one of the finest in the country.” You don’t think about approaches today do you? I wish people did.

“It would be too ridiculous for me to attempt any thing where I am now, with my little half acre.” Poor Mrs. Norris with only half an acre, it would be ridiculous to do anything with such little space. I’d KILL for half an acre!

And Lady Bertram says, “if I were you, I would have a very pretty shrubbery. One likes to get out into a shrubbery in fine weather.” I would love to have enough space for a shrubbery and walking in it, spring and fall sounds like an excellent time to take a stroll in the shrubbery doesn’t it? And maybe have a gazebo at the end (or in the middle) of it where you can enjoy a cup tea with some friends.

Fanny wants to see the avenue at Sotherton before it’s taken down (crazy fool, why take it down?). Imagine having an avenue leading up to the house; that would be some approach wouldn’t it?

“It is ill placed. It sands in one of the lowest spots of the park…” Location, location, location, everyone know it’s about location and yet they always build houses in bad places. “Oh, let’s blow this mountain to smithereens and build a house here. I know it’s barley any room for it and the only view will be of the neighbors kitchen but so what? Just build a huge brick wall around the place and it will be okay.”

I want to move and have a view, I want to have some space around the house for gardening and wildlife, I want to live close to nature and grow my own veggies. I also want to be able to take a long walk in nature, whether that’s my own yard or wilderness is less important. Enough place for my dog to run and to really stretch his legs. I don’t want to have walls around me to shut the neighbors out, I want an open area with enough distance to the neighbors for the both of us to feel relaxed and comfortable in our own backyards (now I’m not even comfortable inside my own house because of the lack of privacy) to do whatever we want.

Sid & Nancy

It’s London and the year is 1977, year of punk and Sex Pistols. I want to be impressed, I want to say that I was glued to the screen but I’m not impressed at all, even Gary managed to disappoint me at times.

(I like this shot)

Gary at the time is 28 and he’s playing 20 year old Sid Vicious, he’s good but not in every scene. Gary is the best thing in this movie and it’s fun to see him in the silly underwear. He apparently ended up in hospital because he lost too much weight when he prepared for the role.

(Nice little pants on a skinny Gary. Do you think that chick looks like she's 20?)

Courtney Love auditioned for the part as Nancy and I think she should have got it. I think she would have done a great job, she wouldn’t have to act that much, just pretend her name is Nancy; she’d be outstanding! She instead got the part of Gretchen and has like two three line and looks surprised most of the time (and is barely recognizable, she has had A LOT of surgery done, and her daughter Francis looks just like her).

(Courtney looking fresh as a daisy like usual)

Instead of Courtnet we have Chloe Webb as Nancy and who goes, “Ahhhhg” a lot. Nancy was only 20 when she died and Chloe is 30 but she looks at least 50. Her voice/accent is… At first I thought she was British and doing an awful American accent but apparently she’s an American.

(A nice shot of Chloe Webb)

Johnny Rotten wasn’t at all impressed with this movie, called it “the Peter Pan version” and I would too if I had such a lame actor portray me and the lip-sync is horrible.

Sid & Nancy at imdb

Best thing in the movie: Gary, dressed in black… Hm, I think I’ll buy a lot of black clothes this winter.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

At first it was pretty funny, the first few pages I laughed and thought it was sort of cute but the it becomes more like bad fan fiction.

It doesn’t feel like Grahame-Smith is a Janiet, quite the opposite. It feels like he’s making fun of the whole story (and not in a good way) and changing a lot of the characters. Would Mr. Bennet sleep with prostitutes while in China? Of course not! Would Jane be capable of hitting Kitty and Lydia with wet bamboo? Hell no! Would Mrs. Gardner have a polish lover called Sylak? No she wouldn’t!

Silly silly silly… I have to read “Mansfield Park” now to remedy myself from this experience.

This is one of the reasons I’m not big on food

(picture by Anna Skoog and the to the right it says Divine salad, not so sure about that)

I found this recipe on a salad and it looked so yummy and sounded pretty darn yummy too so I had to wait a year so that there were fresh blackberries in the store, they were a little expensive but I want to follow the recipe so I got them, along with the arugula salad which you get in a tiny little bag with a big juicy price tag on it and Serrano ham was 14 slices for 60 SEK. And the figs costs way more than apples…When you spend some money you (at least me) expect that it will taste lovely but I’m not so sure.

The dressing is just like any other dressing, don’t like it, taste blah and the ham! Ew, smells like feet/cheese!

Haven’t eaten the actual salad yet so we’ll see but… I always get disappointed in the kitchen unless I’m making desserts.

Waiting for the first storm

(Photo by Deoradhain)

It’s time for the first fall storm, can’t wait. A few trees usually gets knocked down, unfortunately my neighbor cut all their trees down (illegally) so they can’t get squished under them (but maybe some other horrible things can happened to them?).

Upcoming movies

The Nines: Written and directed by John August, he’s written a few scripts for Tim Burton so I feel it’s my duty to see what he’s up to on his own. I don’t know much about the movie; I want to be surprised so I’ll keep it that way.

Disturbia: I saw the trailer and it looked like fun so… There are a few things in the trailer that I liked, I hope I wasn’t fooled. Not a fan of that Shia guy but, I’ll live through it I’m sure.

Oldboy: It’s on top 250 so I have to watch it but I think it looks interesting so hopefully it won’t be one of those movies were you suffer for a 120 minutes.

The Order

The Order: A young priest goes to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of his mentor and head of Order. As always when people go to Rome to investigate things within the church all hell breaks loose with a bunch of weird societies, demons and whatnot, you know the drill. There is no reason what so ever to see this movie unless you are a Heath fan and want to see all of his movies. There is no suspense, no nothing…

Best thing in the movie: Heath all dressed in black. Note to self, buy a new black coat this fall.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon The movie starts as a documentary where we get to follow Leslie Vernon who’s preparing himself to début as the new psycho killer in a world where the likes of Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are real people and events. The film crew with Taylor Gentry in the lead tags along Leslie in his daily life and the preparations for the event that will make him a legend.

Maybe Jason Voorhees brings a crossword with him to the bathroom, maybe he has dinner in front of the TV watching The Simpsons but we don’t want to see that, we want to see what he does best, chasing and killing people with his machete while wearing his stylish mask. But in this movie we get to see the mass murderer in the makings life and it is a sad life with cardio exercise and living with his pet turtles. He makes lame jokes with the film crew and it reminds me of a sad interview with Ron Jeremy (who also has a pet turtle) and his attempt to be a standup comedian except then I felt for poor Ron but here the actor is not good enough for me to feel any kind of pity for him.

The movie makes a sudden turn at the end, from lame comedy to what seems to be an attempt to be an action/horror but it’s impossible to take it serious when we know that the “monster” lives with his pet turtles Church and Zoe. More of one genre and less of the other would have been nice because the mixture of the two is a complete failure.

There are a few interesting events when there’s a hint of chemistry between Leslie and Taylor similar to that of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter but unfortunately they remain only hints and perhaps I was the only one that felt them. I liked the idea of the journalist getting to close to her subject and have a hard time to stay neutral but…

If you listen to the dialog and have seen at least one horror movie before I doubt there will be any surprises in this movie. Apparently it’s supposed to be a fun satire of the genre but I didn’t get it.

Checklist

· Spooky abandoned house
· Stoned teenagers
· Blonde virgin
· Cars that doesn’t start
· Creepy mask
· Things we’ve seen before

The best thing in the movie: Leslies mask and Zelda Rubinstein

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Didn’t get the story, or the other two short stories in the book. Now I’m afraid that the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s will be dull too. But the movie looks incredible stylish, it could be a spread in any fashion magazine. Very pretty indeed, and it looks better than the book so, I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Day Watch

Day Watch: Anton is back to fight more forces of darkness… Um I have to admit I didn’t completely follow what is going on. It’s not as good as the first one and by the end of it I’m not really sure what happened or what to think of it.

Because it’s Russian I don’t mind the silliness, I guess this is what it’s like for foreigners when they watch a movie like, “Let the right one in”, I can’t stand that movie but maybe others go, “But it’s Swedish so I don’t mind”’

It does feel refreshing something different from your typical American action film but it’s 140 minutes long!

Best thing in the movie: Svetlanas blue Muppet coat. Only Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous and Svetlana can get away with wearing something like that.

Next movies are…

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon The trailer is probably very misleading, in the beginning it’s a bit spooky with Zelda Rubinsteins (Tangina in Poltergiest) monolog and then it looks like a comedy all of a sudden and then back to horror, doubt it will be a scary film but I bet it’s scarier than Saw. Not only is Zelda in the movie, we also have Robert Englund aka Freddie Krueger and Angela Goethals who plays Kevins sister in Home Alone so I’ll expected her to go: “you're what the French call les incompetents” Oh, and there is one guy with the name Britain Spellings which I just think is funny enough to mention.



Day Watch: The sequel to Night Watch by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov who did Wanted (which I have to see one of these days because it looks like crap). The first movie ended sort of abruptly so I want closer in this one but… I might be disappointed.

The car thing in the trailer is ridicules (and not in a good way).

An American Haunting

A little scared as I’m about to put the disc in, keeping on light on and I’m watching it on the computer which is extra scary because you’re so close to the screen then. 87 minutes and go…

It begins with “based on a true story” so naturally that means that it is not. It’s 1817 and strange things are happening in the Bell family house in Red River Tennessee. Betsy the family’s precious daughter is suffering from violent nightmares.

It starts off as being very promising, I got scared. Angles, creepy noises, the wind through the trees and mist but it doesn’t last I’m afraid (well actually it’s a good thing since I’m off to bed). Turns cliché in the middle and by the end of the movie I’m no longer scared at all.

I like Donald and Sissy but you need more than good actors to make a good movie. The movie could not live up to my expectations, you’re better off to watch the trailer or the first 40-50 minutes of the movie.



The trailer is pretty misleading, it makes the movie look scary and I did feel it wasn’t the same story as the actual movie. The feeling I got when I watched the trailer was better than the movie and it’s not the first time I’ve been fooled by the trailer, and probably not the last.

Upcoming movie

An American Haunting, I don’t really like horror, A) I get scared and B) they are rarely good movies but Donald Sutherland is in it and it sets, partially in the 1800’s which is a time period I really like so. I just hope it’s not too scary…

Saw

People have been talking about these Saw movies and they’ve made five(!) of them so I thought it was time to see what the fuss was about, and I still don’t know.

Twenty minutes in and it feels more like forty, it’s going to be a long movie. At times it looks like an old 90’s video but without music. The setup with flashbacks makes the story less scary, well it’s not scary at all, I didn’t even feel the need to pick up feet up from the floor until was tired and lay down on the sofa.

They put a lot of focus on the “scary” details to make sure no one misses them which make them less scary and like I’m being treated like an idiot.

Maybe I have seen too many movies because there were no surprises in this one. A little like “The Village” where you quickly realize that things aren’t what they seem and they will try to make as many “unexpected” turns as they can to surprised us which makes it so much easier to figure out what is going to happened next.

The whole movie makes me thing of “The Shinning” and when the black guy rushes up to the house on a scoter (if I remember correctly) only to get an axe in the back minutes after entering the house.

Best thing in the movie: Danny Glover (mainly because I watched a lot of his movies growing up so I just like to see his face)

The Informant!

I don’t like Matt Damon, in fact I avoid him (I give him the cold shoulder every time I pass him in the street) but it looks like he can portrait an idiot pretty well so I might have to sit through one of his films yet again.

Steven Soderberghs new film The Informant! Is based on the book with the same name by Kurt Eichenwald and based on the trailer it looks like fun.